Chapter Text
Bass made his way to the side of the wheel. He folded his arms and looked out over the waters of Lake Michigan. "Can I tell you something, Brother?"
Miles was still looking forward. "Sure."
"You are really starting to creep people out." He shrugged. "I mean, we get to Chicago and you go into zombie-mode, commandeer a boat and just head out into Lake Michigan muttering about needing to be somewhere. It's a bit creepy."
Miles kept piloting the boat. "Can't explain it, Bass. I just need to be somewhere."
"Yeah, that's what you keep saying. But why?"
His brow furrowed. "I don't know. I just know that I do."
"See? That's creepy." Bass pushed away and looked out over the waters. "Where are we going, Brother?"
"I don't know." Miles shook his head, frustration evident on his face. "I just know that there's somewhere I'm supposed to be and it's out in this lake."
"Okay. I'll back you. You know that, Brother. Let's find where you're supposed to be."
They cut through the waters in the boat Miles had commandeered, an old fishing boat retrofitted to steam power and called the Water Beetle. He'd homed in on it without hesitation and the boat's owner apparently paid to keep it always stocked and ready to go. Baker and Monroe stayed with Miles while the small group of men they'd brought for security helped themselves to the provisions below.
Miles began turning the boat with practiced ease. Bass turned to look out back over the waters. "What is it?"
"Stone reefs. Just under the water." Miles didn't explain who he knew this, he just piloted the boat around them. The island came into view, the mists off the lake water caressing the shoreline.
"Well, look at that. There is something out here."
Miles pulled the boat up to a small dock that had been built. Jeremy called up the men while Bass jumped over the side to tie them up. "What is this place, Miles?"
The men departed first, weapons out and eyes scouting for danger. Bass, Jeremy and Miles came off the boat. The moment they stepped off the dock and onto the island proper, the feeling changed. Everyone got real nervous. Everyone but Miles, who stepped forward.
There was a loud drag-thump sound moving through the trees. Everyone tensed. Again, everyone but Miles. He continued to walk forward as the trees shook and something massive, something that looked like a giant made of stone and with eyes glowing from a face that could not be clearly scene, came into view. Miles walked right towards it.
Bass' fingers tightened on the trigger of his weapon. "Miles? Back away from that thing!"
Miles didn't appear to hear. He just looked at the thing. When he spoke, his voice carried over the grounds. "Alfred."
The thing inclined its head. It's own voice sounded like a massive rock slide. "Warden."
And Miles collapsed to the ground.
~***~
The soldiers opened fire on the thing. Or at least they tried. Their weapons were pulled from their hands and slammed into the soil of the island. "Cease your actions."
Bass moved forward, falling to his knees beside Miles. His brother was shaking, seizing. "What did you do to him?"
"The lies are unraveling. His mind is becoming his own again. He is waking." The thing, Alfred, turned away. "There is shelter. Bring him."
Bass swallowed. The seizure had stopped and Miles was unconscious. "Jeremy, get his legs." together they carried him up the hill after the massive creature to what looked like a cottage connected to the ruins of a light house. The thing, Alfred, was nowhere to be seen, but the cottage door was open and a fire was already burning in the hearth. there was a bed against one wall and they put Miles onto it.
The men secured the perimeter outside as Bass and Jeremy puzzled over things. "what the fuck was that thing, Sir?"
"No idea. And why did it call Miles 'Warden'? For that matter, how does Miles know it?" Bass checked his brother, pressing his fingers against his neck and finding a strong pulse there.
"He okay?"
"Other than being out cold, looks like. C'mon, Miles. Open your eyes, Brother."
"Sir! That thing's back! Got someone with him!"
Bass reached for his side arm, but it was still pinned to the dirt by the docks. He nodded for Jeremy to take up a position by the door as he went towards the drag-thump sound. The thing was back, and there was someone with it. An achingly beautiful woman with white hair and wearing a simple, graceful dress embellished with what looked like opals. She halted when she saw Bass.
"Please, let me pass."
"I need a name, first."
Her expression was pensive, worried. "Molly. I'm here to help."
"And I'm to trust that, why?"
The pensive expression melted to irritation. She rolled her eyes. "Look, I know him well enough to know he'd be pissed to wake up to learn I've clobbered the lot of you just to get to him, so don't make me do it. Alfred says his head's been fucked with, and that's always been my thing. And I don't have much time. I'm only being allowed enough time to assess the situation before our boss shows up."
Bass pondered it. His brother was still unconscious and he didn't know why. He stepped aside and let her in. The thing walked off again.
Molly knelt down beside the bed. "Oh, Harry."
"His name is Miles."
"His name is Harry Dresden, and he's been missing since the lights went out." She paused and turned to look at him. She took in his uniform, then Jeremy's. "Miles? As in Miles Matheson?"
"Yeah, that Miles."
The woman rolled her eyes with a bitter laugh. "Wonderful. He's been hidden in plain sight all this time. I knew we should have been keeping a closer eye on you idiots."
She turned back to lean over Miles, her fingers going through his wild hair. "Bad, very bad. Good work, whoever did this."
Bass dared to step closer. "What do you mean?"
"Someone's built an entire new identity over the real one. It's rich. Detailed. Goes all the way back to childhood. Looks like they constructed an entire family. He'd have been a sucker for that."
Bass felt a growing sense of unease. "Listen, Lady, I don't know what you think you know, but I've known this man my entire life.:
She looked back at him. "Have you? Are you certain of that? Think back, to when the lights went out. Think hard on it."
He didn't want to. Something niggled at the edges of his mind and started to build like a pressure behind his eyes. "We were on our way back to base after getting some beers." The pressure behind his eyes twinged again. "I was sexting this chick I met at the bar and Miles' brother called him."
"What was his brother's name?"
Bass frowned. "Ben." There was a sharp pain that shot through his head. He winced. Jeremy stepped forward.
"Sir, you okay?"
Molly took a careful breath, watching him. "Go back to the bar. What were you doing?"
"Me and Miles were having some beers. Chatting up some cute coeds." He winced again. He could see the bar in his head, but something was wrong. There was no Miles. There were other men from his squad. "Miles wasn't there."
"You're right. Miles wasn't there. What happened at the bar?"
Bass frowned. "The lights went out." That wasn't right. It couldn't be right. He had known for fifteen years that he and Miles had been on the road when the power went out. "I was there with my squad when the lights went out. Planes started falling out of the sky. People were panicking. We settled the situation, escorted everyone home before heading back to base."
He sat down in a nearby chair. His head was pounding. Jeremy pulled his sword, leveling it at the woman. "What are you doing to him?"
"Nothing. I'm just helping him see through the lies. Someone else did this to him, but it's not as complex as what's been done to Harry. That's why he's still conscious while Harry's out of it." Bass heard her step closer. "Keep going. What happened?"
"We got to base. It was locked down. Our CO was talking to Miles." He stopped. "No, not Miles. It was Miles but it wasn't Miles. He said his name was..." He couldn't say the name. He couldn't say it.
"Describe him."
Bass swallowed through the pain. "Tall, well over six and a half feet. Long leather coat. Carrying a walking staff of some kind. The Major, he said he was some kind of civilian consultant. That my squad was to gear up and go with him. Only he didn't want to take us. Said it was too dangerous. We'd get killed."
"That sounds like him. Now, try again. What was the man's name?"
Pain shot through Bass' skull like a knife of ice. "Dresden!" He shouted the name. "Harry Dresden!"
A lifetime of memories and childhood mayhem started to unravel. It was no longer him and Miles playing soldier, but Bass and two other boys. Birthdays without Miles. It wasn't Miles who had stopped him from eating his gun that night in the graveyard, but an officer also home from the holidays. His CO had called him up and told him the story. The weathered Colonel had hunted him down and talked him out of it, then drove him to the nearest VA hospital for observation. Miles had never been to war with him.
The pain began to recede and Bass looked at the unconscious man on the bed. He got up, aware he was shaking. "There were.... things that night. Nightmares that were taking advantage of the chaos. We followed Dresden, we backed him, but he was right We didn't need to be there. He spent more time trying to keep up alive than fighting them. My whole squad... lost them all. Just me and him. That's all that was left. Then whoever was behind the monsters, he called it a 'Warlock', made a final move."
The woman, Molly, stiffened. "A warlock. What happened with the warlock?"
"I was out of Ammo. Dresden, Id never seen shit like that. One moment he's throwing around fire, the next wind, next thing I knew he was throwing up walls of ice. I couldn't see the other person, but I knew it was a woman. Kept saying it wasn't personal between taunting him Asking him if he was there was a warden or there on behalf of Winter."
"Both, actually, but that's not important." Molly swallowed. "I take it the warlock won."
Bass frowned. "Yeah. Our CO should have listened. He'd probably have taken her down if he hadn't spent so much time trying to keep us alive He fell, right in front of me. Had a monster of a handgun in his coat. I pulled him behind me, took the gun and faced her down. But she said something and I was locked into place. She just walked up to me, looked at me and said 'You'll do nicely'."
Cold eyes. Cold expression. The kind of woman you know it a total bitch on sight.
"Do you know her name?"
The voice was new. Beautiful. Feminine. And painful. Molly shot to her feet, her head bowed respectfully. "My Queen."
Standing in the doorway was a woman that made Molly look almost common. Her hair was pure white and captured up by bejeweled combs sparkling with opals, dark sapphires and amethysts. Her gown was elegant, regal, and seemed to change colors in an iridescent rainbow of matching colors. Her lips were beautiful and the color of frozen berries and as she walked into the cottage towards Bass he felt the urge to fall to his knees before and swear his eternal loyalty to her.
"Tell me, Mortal General, do you have a name for this creature who dared to take my knight from me?"
Bass swallowed. "We know her as Rachel Matheson."