Althyr looked up from his book to find he had a new visitor. His study certainly had been busy lately; not only did he have an overeager young trainee and a visit from his good friend Coyote, but now someone else was here.

It took Althyr a moment to recognize his visitor. She was Human, but a version of Human that Althyr hadn’t seen in quite some time. Human looked as She had two or three Incarnates back, so … three or four hundred years? Human Incarnated easily, so there were seldom gaps, but Her Incarnates didn’t usually last very long. The current one had to be getting old; he’d held the position for a good two hundred years, so far.

Her current Incarnate was not welcome in Althyr’s presence, not that He would choose to be. As Althyr remembered, the Incarnate whose form Human was using had not been so arrogant.

“Human? Why are you here?”

Human smiled broadly, but she seemed tense. “A warning for you. I do not have long; my Incarnate sleeps but he will wake soon. My Incarnate hates those who are not quite human more than those who are not human at all.”

Althyr nodded. He knew that much about the current Incarnate of Human; it was one of the many reasons Althyr didn’t spend time near him. He considered intelligence in anything nonhuman to be reason enough for hate.

Althyr absently noted that Human wasn’t saying her Incarnate’s name. He’d follow her lead on that; some Incarnates eventually learned the trick of hearing their Name, after all.

The first time they met, Althyr had considered eating the Incarnate. He’d decided that he would taste bad; bile was a poor seasoning. Perhaps that had been a mistake; for any of the Beast-Gods to act against their Incarnate was a tremendous step. It meant that a great number of their Beasts must feel differently than the Incarnate.

No wonder she seemed tense.

Althyr still wasn’t certain why she was warning him. “I am not particularly near human.”

Human shook Her head. “No, but the one of Mine you took recently is, and my Incarnate hates him. He hates him for defecting to you, turning other humans against Humanity, and for something else, something that seems smaller and yet has angered him more.”

“One of yours I took recently? I haven’t-” Althyr stopped. Human was already gone.

Althyr knew where His people were; there had been only a handful of young born recently, and none had risen from the other species, much less from Humanity. Yet Human had seemed so certain. Had he missed something?

It had to be Serenity. Althyr knew when he’d hatched, of course, but he was far too young for as well-spoken and knowledgeable as he seemed; the easiest way to explain that was if he wasn’t as young as he should be for when he hatched.

Humans who became dragons didn’t usually hatch, but they also didn’t usually come over at a low Tier; it took a long, long time for a Path to help someone turn a draconic bloodline into becoming a true dragon, and Serenity was definitely a full dragon. Yes; he was an anomaly. Althyr was glad Serenity was a dragon now. Anomalies were worth watching.

He’d have to remember to pass the warning along.

Althyr wondered if Human had warned him because she cared for the target of her Incarnate’s ire or because she hated her Incarnate. She’d certainly chosen to present herself as his opposite, so it was more likely the second option.

----------------------------------------

Three days after the portal test and two days after his trip to what Serenity now knew was the Origin Point, Baxter led Serenity across the small airport to the terminal.

“I hope that you will fly with me again. You are good company.” Baxter nodded politely at Serenity and turned to leave.

“Thanks, Baxter. It was a good flight.” Serenity looked across the terminal and saw Janice waiting in the distance. Serenity knew she’d be there, but somehow it was still a surprise to see her waiting for him instead of her father.

“No luggage?” Janice greeted Serenity with a smile and a question.

Serenity shook his head. He actually did have luggage, but he’d picked it up in his chimera shape before shifting to human to travel; it wasn’t much anyway. “I have everything. So you were able to straighten everything out with Rissa?”

Janice nodded as she led him out of the building. “Yep! She was fun to bargain with. I’ve been talking to a Dr. Mattingly while you were on the plane; she says they’ll have the prototype here by morning. Something about flight availability but she wouldn’t say more than that.”

“I offered to bring it, but they turned me down.” Serenity grinned. “I wasn’t surprised; they seemed pretty possessive of it. It’s just as well; I’m still trying to figure out how to duplicate the effect myself.”

“What does it do? She wouldn’t say. Oh - it’s the dark blue sedan, that one.” Janice opened the door of the car she’d indicated.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Serenity waited until they were both in and the doors were closed to answer. “It’s a portal detector. Experimental, but so far it works.”

Janice looked over at Serenity for a moment before starting the car. “That’s why you’re here then. In DC. You’re planning to fight the kangaroos.”

“Sterath,” Serenity corrected her. “They’re called the Sterath, and they’re not a small challenge at all. I want to defeat them before they manage to get any more into the area. But that means I have to be able to find them.”

Janice nodded before she changed the subject. “Your parents offered me a guest room. I don’t want to put you out?”

Serenity grinned again. “I visit often enough that I still have some stuff in my old room; there’s another room they have set up for guests. These days it’s mostly used as a staging area but there’s still a bed.” He lost his smile as he thought about the state of the guest room the last time he’d seen it, completely full of boxes. He wasn’t sure what was in them; it hadn’t come up. “You might be more comfortable in a hotel.”

Janice shook her head. “Near you is better, in case you need something. I’ll sleep on a couch if that’s necessary; I’ve done that more than once. I won’t be in Rissa’s way?”

Rissa wouldn’t arrive until the following day, after spending a couple days getting Jacob settled in with their father in New York City.

“She’ll be with me.” Serenity didn’t doubt that she’d want to be with him; he badly wanted to see her as well.

----------------------------------------

The following morning found Serenity not in the back of a pickup but standing next to a small government-owned van. Unlike so many stories, it was white, boxy, and old.

More importantly, it already contained the portal-detector, along with a set of “portable power stations” to power the equipment for the day without a generator.

“I’m still not sure why you’re here.” Allen Ridge - Doctor Allen Ridge as Serenity had recently been informed - glared at Serenity. “You aren’t necessary to operate the equipment; you don’t know anything about it.”

Why couldn’t it have been Morwen that was assigned to this? Serenity could work with Morwen. Doctor Ridge seemed intent on making things as difficult as possible.

“Think of me as security. I’m here in case we see any Sterath. I’m also hoping to get a good read on this portal’s location coordinates to-”

“You’re a charlatan, trading on your Daddy’s position.” Dr. Ridge interrupted Serenity.

Serenity knew the scientist was trying to piss him off. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean Serenity wasn’t angry; if anything, it made it worse. Rage ran through Serenity’s mind. How dare this man say that his father would abuse his position?

Serenity didn’t think twice before turning to face him squarely. “How dare you,” Serenity growled. “Insult me all you want but leave my father out of it.”

Serenity glared at the asshole who insulted his father. He didn’t realize when his stare slid past anger into an ability he hadn’t used before.

Gaze of the Origin.

Dr. Allen Ridge met Serenity’s enraged glare for a moment, then wilted and stumbled backwards, but his eyes didn’t leave Serenity’s. “What are you? You’re - you’re a monster!”

The words woke bad memories in Serenity’s mind and snapped him out of his anger enough to realize he’d pushed too far. He broke the staring contest with the scientist and looked at the floor. Serenity’s voice was nearly inaudible as he spoke. “No. Don’t call me that either.”

It felt like he had a lump in his throat blocking his voice, but Serenity knew it was simply emotion. If emotion could ever be called simple. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, forcing himself to unclench his fists. He didn’t remember clenching them. He forced himself to relax as much as he could before he opened his eyes and looked at Dr. Ridge. His voice was nearly back to normal. “Don’t insult my family. Just don’t.”

Behind Serenity, someone cleared her throat ostentatiously. “You both ready to head out?”

Serenity turned to see Rachel standing a few steps back. He’d never caught her last name, but he was willing to bet she also had a doctorate.

She also had the keys to the van, and right that moment that was the important thing.

----------------------------------------

Four hours later, they were on their second sweep through the area where a kangaroo bounced over a police officer’s car (or something like that; Serenity had seen half a dozen different versions and all they agreed on was that there was a kangaroo and a police car) when Dr Ridge started swearing at the equipment.

Rachel pulled to the side of the road and turned towards the back. “What’s wrong?”

“Damn thing is reporting a signal, but it’s clearly a glitch. Can’t get it to go away.” Dr. Ridge’s attention was on the laptop.

“Why is it clearly a glitch?” Serenity hoped they’d find the Sterath portal today; actually defeating them wouldn’t be that simple, but it was a start.

“Two reasons. First, we’d have found it on the first trip through here; I still say there was no reason to go back over an area we covered.” Dr. Ridge might not have called Serenity a charlatan again, but he’d disagreed with every position Serenity took - even if it was one that he’d originally suggested, like redoing part of the original grid. “Second, the pattern’s all wrong. I’ve looked at all the data we’ve captured, and it’s all steady and consistent. This is just a mess.”

Rachel slipped out of the driver’s seat, between the two chairs, and carefully stepped over the antenna on the floor. “Interference? We haven’t characterized the vehicle-”

“No, dammit. I know what that would look like. See?” Dr. Ridge spun the laptop so that it faced Rachel.

Serenity watched the pair of scientists silently. He knew he couldn’t say anything without setting Dr. Ridge off, but he also knew he’d be ignored as long as he didn’t say anything.

“I see what you mean. It can’t be far, but it’s almost like there are multiple portals there. That can’t be right. Anyway, we’ll-” Rachel stopped. “What did you do? It’s gone.”

Dr. Ridge shook his head. “Nothing. I guess the glitch cleared up on its own.”

“Which direction was it in?” Serenity had arrived at a completely different conclusion than Dr. Ridge had. Portals weren’t permanent, after all.

“Mm, north-north-west from here.” Rachel turned back to Serenity. “We’ll mark it on the map as an anomalous reading.”