"Ugh, mana is the worst!" Greg groaned, sitting by the side helplessly while his friends cast spells to open a hole in the floor so they could reach the transmutation chamber. He couldn't do anything where magic was involved! His smoke became absolutely useless, and if a barrier could just be punched through, it wouldn't be much of a barrier, now would it? It meant anyone who could cast a simple barrier would be able to trap him, and he'd have no way to fight back! He needed to become a mage. Fast.

It didn't take long before they'd made a large hole into the transmutation chamber, revealing a small town in the middle, surrounded by hills and fields. "Dude…" Victor muttered.

"What? It's a big room! I had to fill it with something." Greg protested.

"I thought you said you only made four families." Casey pointed out, raising an eyebrow at him.

Greg shrugged. "Well, yeah, but… you can't make a town with just four families! You need teachers, bakers, shop owners, farmers, ranchers, a sheriff, a tavern, a doctor-"

"Okay, sure, but… who did you fill the town with?" Tessa interrupted him with a sigh.

"Uh… ferals? They're pretty much all I had left, right? I didn't make them real though, that would have been a waste of resources. They just give the town flavor, you know?" Greg explained.

"Greg… these children. They're babies, right?" Tessa asked.

"Actually, they still haven't been born yet… any day though, hopefully!" Greg answered, grinning and raising crossed fingers.

"So… you're just pretending to be an entire town by yourself?!?" She continued.

Greg sighed. "Look, it is well established that I don't handle boredom well! This is far from the weirdest thing I've done while I've been trapped in here. You don't even want to know what I got up to during the first few months."

Tessa hesitated, before letting out a sigh. "Right. Extenuating circumstances. Least of our worries at the moment." She muttered, shaking her head.

Greg chuckled, waving his hand and making most of the town turn to smoke, returning to him, leaving only eight people standing in the center of the room. Greg created a makeshift lift for them, slowly pulling them up and out. Two almost identical groups faced each other as the smoke clones stepped off the platform of the lift.

"I was not prepared for this." Brittany groaned, covering her face with her hands.

"Should we tell Meredith?" Jake asked hesitantly.

"I wish no one had told me!" Casey shuddered. "One of the benefits of being a lesbian is that I don't have to worry about kids! Particularly not the unholy spawn of me and Victor!" She glared at Greg. "Why did you put us together?"

Greg shrugged. "I dunno. Brittany and Carlos kinda made sense as a couple, then Jake and Meredith seemed right, so that just left the two of you to be together. Victor doesn't seem like he'd ever settle down, and you're obviously a lesbian, so you were kind of the odd ones out."

"Ha!" Carlos laughed. "You know Victor and Brittany are dating, right?"

Greg blinked. "No shit, really?" He turned to Victor. "No more casual sex?"

"Nope. I've gone professional." Victor winked at him, before grunting as Brittany elbowed him in the side.

"Outstanding." Greg muttered, before shaking his head. "Anyways, this is all kind of a moot point. I was planning on raising these kids myself either way, so none of you have to be involved at all. I did the deed, I'll handle the consequences."

They all shared looks, before turning back to Greg. "Yeah, there's no fucking way we're letting that happen." Casey commented.

"Eh?" Greg grunted in confusion.

"Greg, we're not letting you raise our children all on your own!" Tessa exclaimed. "I'm sure you could handle it, but you used our DNA to make these kids and we want to be involved. Yes, it's weird, and definitely not what I expected to be dealing with when I woke up this morning, but… it is what it is." She finished with a sigh.

The rest of the group nodded in agreement. Despite the weirdness of how it came about, the idea of raising these kids almost felt like a refreshing island of normalcy in the sea of surrealism they'd been dealing with ever since the aliens had taken them. Learning how to use magic felt like a dream, the war felt distant and impersonal, but raising children was a struggle that everyone dealt with. It felt real.

"So… we do tell Meredith, right?" Jake asked again after a moment.

Tessa sighed. "Yes, we tell Meredith."

*

"So these aliens…" Greg began as they headed back towards the center of the ship/city. "Do they actually have a name for their race or something? Feels kinda weird just calling them aliens all the time."

"No, they don't. In their eyes, everyone is either a mage, or not a mage. Transformation spells are actually pretty basic, so the difference between species is pretty much irrelevant to them. Even the forms they used weren't their original forms, just the forms they chose to be appealing to us, while still remaining distinct from us." Tessa explained.

"Huh… that's actually kinda neat." Greg muttered appreciatively. "You know, if they weren't genocidal against everyone who couldn't do that."

Victor laughed. "Right? It's like they were this close to being the ideal society, and then they hit the bit overflow and became Nazis."

"Like freaking Gandhi nuking all my shit." Greg muttered, shaking his head. "Ah, I miss video games!"

"Dude, right?!?" Victor agreed.

"Neeerds!" Casey mocked them.

"And damn proud of it too." Greg nodded firmly, sharing a fist bump with Victor as he smiled happily. He had missed this. Missed interactions where everything wasn't scripted by him, like acting out a poorly written play!

"It's almost scary how quickly you two go back to normal." Brittany commented, shaking her head.

"What are we supposed to do? Act all awkward around each other for no reason?" Victor scoffed. "It isn't like we're going to suddenly forget how to be friends."

"Right?" Greg agreed. "Honestly, I was thinking I was going to have to try to make friends with aliens. So nice to just have you guys back."

"Wait… the same aliens you thought killed all of humanity?" Jake asked incredulously.

Greg shrugged. "Not necessarily, but I wasn't exactly against it either. Obviously there would need to be some reforms, some people might need to be removed, but I'm not going to write off an entire race without at least giving them a chance. I'm not a genocidal maniac, even if they are."

Victor snorted. "You were just bored and desperate for people to talk to, weren't you?"

Greg coughed awkwardly. "That may have been a factor, yes, but my point still stands!"

Victor snickered. "See, this is why I love this guy. He can figure out how to justify doing pretty much anything!"

"I prefer to think I'm just good at determining what the optimal action to take is." Greg replied, chuckling himself.

"Yes, because you totally chose to go out every night and kill ferals because it was the perfect solution." Victor retorted, rolling his eyes.

"It was the best option for me to take." Greg countered.

"Because?" Victor asked leadingly, rolling his hand to encourage Greg to continue.

"Because killing is easy and I had nowhere to actually keep people safe?" Greg continued, raising an eyebrow at him. "I mean, what else could I have done?"

Victor shrugged. "Hey, I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying you had ulterior motives."

Greg paused. "Okay, that's fair."

"Do I even want to know what these ulterior motives were?" Tessa groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"It's cause he enjoyed it!" Debbie provided happily, grabbing Greg's arm and patting it. "It's okay, I know you only let yourself enjoy it cause they deserved it."

Greg gave her a weird look. When had she… he paused. He supposed there was that first night he'd brought her around… but he'd barely even fought anyone that night! Though… he had gotten a little frustrated with her because she kept bringing him to people who didn't deserve to die… Suddenly Tessa pulled on his other arm, yanking him away from Debbie and glaring at her. "Debbie, I swear, if you keep this up I will melt you!" She growled. Debbie rolled her eyes, shooting Greg a wink before she stepped away.

"Okay…" Greg muttered, not sure what all that was about. "Anyway, what are we going to do about them?" He asked, gesturing to the four pregnant women following them. He'd dissolved the guys, since they didn't need to exist anymore, at least not for real, but the girls needed a place to live, at least until the babies were born.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"You'll stay with me." Tessa replied in a firm tone. "My place has more than enough space for all of you."

"But does it have enough space to keep all of us entertained?" Greg asked. "I know they don't look like it, but they're all still me… If you just leave them alone, they're going to get into trouble."

"You mean you're going to get in trouble." Tessa muttered, rolling her eyes. "Don't worry, keeping you busy won't be a problem. The aliens are very good at rewarding people they value, and I was valued."

"Which, in retrospect, feels a little… dirty." Jake interjected. "Sucking up to the people who killed half our species…"

"We weren't sucking up to them!" Tessa retorted vehemently. "We were getting stronger for ourselves. The fact the aliens valued that was incidental."

"I guess, but it still doesn't feel all that great." Jake muttered, his expression twisting. "We've done everything the aliens wanted, and even now… you heard the Commander! The Demon Empire is coming! We have to fight them! And now… now we don't even have the aliens' support! No new spells, no new enchanting techniques, no new alchemy recipes… we have to do everything ourselves! Even if we know what they did… we're all alone, on an alien planet, besieged by enemies on all sides. Enemies which outclass us in every way possible! At best, we can get the aliens to ignore us, and the Demon Empire won't dedicate too many resources to destroying us, letting us eke out some sort of existence for a while, but the moment either side decides they don't want to tolerate us any more… we're finished." He sighed in defeat.

"So… what, you want to rejoin the aliens? Just forget that they just straight up murdered everyone who wasn't useful to them?" Carlos asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"No!" Jake immediately protested, shaking his head, before pausing. "Or… maybe? I- I don't know. It's just… look, we're all low-level grunts in the eyes of the Mage Republic and the Demon Empire. We don't matter. I don't know what the Demon Empire has, but if the Mage Republic sends just a couple hundred tier six Mages at us, we're done. And that isn't even hard! It's just pointless, because the Demon Empire will get us first. They can just leave us here to fight, which we have to do if we want to survive, and then when the Demon Empire eventually overruns us like they inevitably will, they'll just send more expendable troops at them. Sure, they're giving up on any of us who could have been real talents, but those talents would have been used against them anyway, so it actually benefits them. Nothing we can do can hurt them, and everything we have to do helps them."

"Couldn't we just, you know, take this ship and fly away?" Greg offered tentatively. That's how they'd gotten here, right? Why not go back to Earth or something?

Jake shook his head. "The ship requires at least a tier seven mage to fly it, so even if we knew how, we don't have the power to actually do it. Plus, we'd need enough mana to actually reach wherever we want to go, and the mana cells are already drained from the journey here! So even if we had a tier seven mage, we'd need to wait months before the mana cells charged themselves enough for us to get anywhere! It'll take years before they're fully charged. And even if we could, do you really think the Mage Republic would just let us leave?"

"Okay, so, ship's a no go, gotcha." Greg nodded, frowning. He hadn't realized telling everyone the truth would screw them over like this. Of course, he hadn't known the aliens had dropped them in the middle of a war, so it was understandable, but still. "We could try talking to the Demon Empire? I mean, the Mage Republic says they kill anyone who can use mana, but maybe they were lying? Plus, even if they do, I'll be the one who goes, so there's no actual risk. If there's one thing we've confirmed, it's that I pretty much can't be killed."

"Greg, you are one of the last people I'd send to negotiate with a foreign power." Tessa replied. "Just before Victor. People listened to you on Earth because you had power. Here… you don't and your negotiation skills are shit."

"Fair, but the first thing we're worried about isn't negotiation, but figuring out where we stand." Greg retorted. "Once we know whether negotiation is possible, we can send someone else in, but while we're just testing the waters, I'm expendable. I'm like the drone you send out before you send the real team."

"Yeah, he has a point there." Carlos commented. "No way I'm going to just go up to a random army from the Demon Empire and try talking to them. I like living too much."

"Which is why we send the guy who can't actually die!" Greg agreed. "Hell, I'll go right now!"

"And what if they do kill anyone who can wield mana?" Jake asked with a frown. "What then?"

"Then we're just right back to where we started, right?" Greg shrugged. "We're pretty much screwed no matter what we do." He paused. "Well, you guys are. I'm kinda stuck dealing with these guys. Which, I suppose, is its own version of being screwed…"

Tessa let out a weary sigh. "We'll deal with everything as it comes. If we need to fight, we'll fight. If we need to talk, we'll talk. If we need to run… we'll try. For now, we need to finish setting up the defenses and scouting the surroundings. We'll give everyone a few more hours to adjust, then… It's back to work. At least for our brigade."

*

"This place is nice!" Greg commented, impressed as he looked around Tessa's apartment. She had an entire floor, with several rooms for her to use however she wished.

Tessa nodded. "The four of you can set up here." She gestured to a suite of rooms for the pregnant women. "If you get bored, there are games in that room over there. Pool, darts, ping pong… the aliens helped us remake a bunch of the more simple games, as well as showing us a few of theirs."

"So pretty much what we had back in the safe zone?" Greg asked. "What about books?"

Tessa hesitated. "They- they don't have books."

Greg froze. "They don't have books?!?"

"They never needed them. Information can be transmitted and stored using spells, which allows them to transmit information instantly. Books would be a step back from that." Tessa explained.

"But- but they still have fiction, right?" Greg asked hopefully.

"They do but… we- we aren't allowed to access it. They wanted us to focus on training, though… Now that I think about it, the fiction would probably reveal their hate of anything that can't use mana, which would reveal what they'd done to everyone else…" Tessa frowned as she considered the implications for a moment, before shaking her head. "It isn't important right now. Come with me." She ordered, pulling Greg after her. The moment they turned the corner, Tessa whirled around, pinning Greg to the wall and wrapping her arms around him, pulling him in for a long, passionate kiss. "I missed you. So much!" She whispered in a low whisper that almost sounded like a whimper as she pulled away.

"I missed you too." Greg muttered softly, pulling her close as he rested his forehead against hers. Tessa pulled him into a nearby bedroom, stripping off her clothes, slowly at first, and then quickly as Greg's own clothes turned to smoke. They had some lost time to make up for.

*

"Holy fuck!" Tessa gasped breathlessly. "That was- that was-" She let out a satisfied moan as she pulled Greg into a cuddle. "You got better!" She paused, her eyes narrowing at him. "How did you get better?" She asked, a dangerous edge to her tone.

Greg rolled his eyes. "There are literally four pregnant women in the other room. How do you think I got better?"

Tessa paused, slowly connecting all the dots, before flushing brightly. "Oh."

Greg smirked. "Honestly, I might know your body better than you do at this point."

Tessa immediately began to shake her head, her flush deepening. "Nope, nope, no! Too weird!" She exclaimed. "I don't even want to think about what you got up to in there!" She shuddered.

Greg sighed. "No, you really don't… I got a little… a lot insane for a bit there." Tessa grimaced. "But… none of it compares to actually being with you." Greg continued. "I would trade all the weird, kinky sex in the world just to cuddle with you." He added, pulling her closer.

"I can't tell whether that's disgusting or romantic." Tessa muttered, frowning.

"Can't it be both?" Greg asked, grinning slightly.

Tessa shook her head, smiling as she leaned in to kiss him, before letting out a groan as she pulled away. "Ugh, I have to get back to work." She pouted pitifully.

"Oh yeah, what's up with that? You're a Colonel?" Greg asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"The aliens base command hierarchy on power." Tessa muttered bitterly. "I thought you were in a special class, so I worked hard so that I wouldn't be too far behind you when we finally arrived. I ended up doing pretty well, not the best obviously, but I'm one of the stronger people around, so I was given command of a brigade. But it's so much stress! I have twenty-five hundred people under me! People I need to make sure are supplied, fed, housed, properly trained, everything! I decide where they go, what they do, how they do it… I just- I just wanted to find you! I didn't want all this responsibility!"

Greg blinked. "Well, if the aliens are no longer here, why not let someone else do it?"

Tessa sighed. "Because now it's my responsibility. They're my people. I'm not going go let someone else fuck everything up for them."

"You rock." Greg smiled, pulling her close and giving her another kiss as she flushed brightly.

Tessa curled up closer to him. "You're not so bad yourself. Even if you do have a few… eccentricities."

"By which you mean I'm weird as fuck." Greg chuckled.

"Well I was trying to be polite about it." Tessa grumbled. "But yes. Still, usually it's a good kind of weird."

"Usually?" Greg asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Greg, you created a copy of me and got her pregnant." Tessa stated flatly.

Greg blinked. "Okay, fair. But! There were extenuating circumstances!"

"I'm aware, which is why I'm simply annoyed, not pissed." Tessa replied, rolling her eyes. "It'd just be nice if I could leave you alone without worrying about what you're going to end up doing."

Greg sighed. "Yeah…"

The two lay there in silence for a moment, before Tessa let out another groan. "Okay, now I have to go."

"Right, let's go." Greg nodded, smoke billowing around him, cleaning everything up and putting clothes on both of them.

Tessa blinked. "Now that is convenient."

"Right?" Greg grinned. "Perk of all that alone time is it gave me a lot of time to practice."