"No." I said bluntly. I stared across the room at Bethy, who had come up with a last minute 'plan' to hide our entry into the snowglobe for the attack.

"But it's FOOLPROOF!" She yelled in frustration. "Look how convincing it is." She gestured manically to…what could generously be described as a hooded cloak made of Wendigo skin with antlers on top.

It was not convincing. It was way too long, had no limbs, and was weirdly stiff in places. There were little bits of meat still clinging to it in random spots too, like she'd skinned it herself and didn't know how to do it well. "Bethy. No." I said with a sigh. "We don't even NEED them. I'm going to stealth us in again. Why do we need disguises?"

"Because that's BORING!" She wailed, throwing up her hands in despair. "We keep being all sneaky and boring all the time! It's going to skew all of our points into Perception, and I have SO MANY points in Perception already."

I paused. That was…actually kind of a good point. I'd been thinking about how to win fights and minimize losses, which was a good way to run a war, but not as good of a way to run an Ascendant war. That said, Bethy was taking that stance from a position of overwhelming strength. We were still going to be heavily outnumbered, two to one once we sprung the popsicles. It wasn't a risk I was willing to take in these conditions.

Surprisingly, when I explained that, Bethy nodded absently. "Yeah, that's fair. Daddy says that you have to consider how squishy your thralls are. Not that you guys are thralls, but daddy doesn't have a lot of weak friends, so it's kinda the same, right?"

"Sure." I said, not at all qualified to comment on the thought processes of millennia old Vampires who fought gods for fun. "Anyway, we're heading out soon, can you go gather up the others and get them ready? Stealth is easier when it's just you."

She agreed and happily headed off to find our hundred and fifty strong army of Ascendants. A hundred would be joining me in the initial siege, while fifty would be heading off to enter the cold storage and spring our reinforcements.

Since Zagan and Eye of Revelation were necessities for entering and freeing them, Callie would be leading the second team. Bethy, Mel, Chelsea, and Gabe would be with her, while Abel and I led our ground forces in a decapitation strike to take out Madigan and Travis. We were expecting lots of resistance and some tricks, hence the split, but I'd stacked Callie's team as high as I could with badasses to offset their lower numbers and I'd have to trust that was enough.

Speaking of my wife, she slipped out of the shadows next to me. "Is she gone?" She asked warily.

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you and Bethy fighting or something?" I hadn't thought they were on bad terms, Bethy was a hard person to dislike for more than a few minutes, and only then when she did something thoughtless.

She cleared her throat. "Not exactly. I lost a bet to her and I have to let her be my stylist for the next week. There was discussion about neon green fabrics and leg warmers. I'm hiding until after the battle, when it won't matter what I wear."

"I think she was messing with you." I laughed. "She isn't usually the neon green type…" I paused. "Although her disguise during the siege was bright orange. Maybe she's experimenting with niche color palettes. Probably safer not to risk it."

She grinned, leaning up to kiss my mask. "See, this is why I married you. You're such an enabler."

"I thought you married me because I'm handsome and charming and an inch taller than Benny." I said in a faux shocked voice. "It's just because I let you get away with shenanigans? I am shocked, shocked I tell you."

"You're also a pretty decent cook." She said seriously. "Had to lock that down before you took your culinary skills on the road and hooked some five faction floozy."

I grinned, pulling up my mask and leaning down to give her a peck on the lips. "I haven't seen another girl since the first day I met you face to face." I said with a soft smile. "And I'll never see another one besides you. So be careful out there, ok? If you need power you take it, no hesitation. Mornax should keep you safe."

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She put a hand on my cheek tenderly. "I'll be fine. I'll have an army backing me. Plus your powers. Plus MY powers. Plus all the contingency wishes that we managed to cobble together from you and Nat the last three days."

"Those should help." I admitted. "Though some of them are pretty niche. Escape wishes and a bit of luck nudging will be the most overtly useful. Don't take it as an excuse not to pay attention." Celine had paid us in D-rank chits (I was up to 45), for our fallback wishes, and they should help us out of any REAL crazy traps Travis tried.

Trying to think of every possible freak trump card had been an exercise in annoying headaches, but we'd spread our bets pretty evenly and it should be enough.

Travis…Travis was going to be a problem. He was smart and nasty and vicious. I'd be the one fighting him, and I wasn't sure if he'd stack the deck hard to make sure I was outnumbered or try to ensure he could fight me alone. Killing me in front of Zeke and mom might not be the sacrifice he wanted, but it would be a hell of a blow to morale on his way out.

It didn't matter. He was a dead man. He'd done far too much to be allowed to walk away. I knew exactly how to counter him, and no matter how many bullshit tricks he pulled, he wasn't going to see it coming. I'd specifically crafted my last two forms for this fight, and the synergy would nullify his one big advantage perfectly.

We heard someone coming, so Callie pulled me into a tight hug and I readjusted my mask to cover my face. It turned out not to be super necessary, because it was Bethy, but still. Safety first.

To my surprise, she wasn't alone. I'd expected everyone to be in her Domain, but my sister was with her, flanked by two winged forms. She was ALSO holding a very familiar shape I hadn't seen in ages. "Is that Chalk?" I asked in confusion. "Has your rabbit been here the whole time? Where the hell were you keeping it?"

She scratched the monstrous asshole behind his floppy ears. "Oh, Bethy was watching him. She keeps him in her Domain and lets him play with her cats."

"Poptarts and Donuts just LOVE Chalk!" The vampire said enthusiastically. "They play this funny game where they run away from him real fast. It's so cute seeing the little guy hop off after them. They really need the exercise."

I said a silent prayer for the cats, but chose to move past what I believe was a PROFOUND mischaracterization of their relationship. "What's with the powwow?" I asked. "And why are Holly and Serah here. They should be going with Callie."

"Nope." Said my sister firmly. "I'm going with Callie, as is Bethy, as is Gabe. You need SOMEONE besides Abel to have your back. The girls will be your bodyguards."

Serah nodded mechanically. "Yes. You will simply need to…bear with it."

I stared at her for a second, then turned to Chelsea. "So I take it Jessie is going with me too? Because that sounded like a pun attempt. If so, I want Benny with you."

"This isn't some kind of trading card game." Protested my wife from beside me. When I shot her a dismayed look she shrugged. "I think you're not being safe. You're sending our heaviest hitters with me. I'm not letting you just randomly sub out whoever you want."

"Benny and Celine." I said mutinously. "And if you say no I include Abel."

She growled up at me. "Insufferable moron. Fine. IF you take the girls as backup, AND Abel, I'll take Benny and Celine. Jessie and Randall will be with you. Having a healer is more important for the larger force anyway. And Randall is well practiced at killing Wendigos."

Laughing, I reached down to hug her. "Fine." I said as I pulled back. "But only because I think it's cute when you worry."

"It's not." She said in annoyance. "I should know, because you make me do it all the fucking time. If you get injured because you took a stupid risk I'm going make you visit every city on Valen for political meet and greets…and I'll DRIVE."

I flinched in horror, and she smirked at me, then turned and sauntered over to Bethy, who flexed her Domain enough to let her through.

The angels both nodded seriously, since everyone was in the Domain waiting to stage the attack, and then my sister followed them in, only stopping to give me a hug. Which left just me and Bethy.

The vampire was beaming, excited to be heading into the action, despite her earlier complaints. I sighed, then gestured for her to go ahead, and the two of us left the volcano, taking a nearby shuttle that had been left out for just such an occasion to the edge of the snowglobe. When we landed, Bethy was practically bouncing in excitement.

"This will be so fun!" She squealed happily. "We're gonna sneak right up on them, and be like 'rargh, time to die' and they'll be like 'oh no it's Bethy!' and I'll be like 'bow before me snack boys', and they won't even see you about to whack them with a stick!"

"I thought you were anti stealth?" I said with amusement. "Starting to come around to sneaking in and ambushing them?"

She shrugged. "Well it's just to start. Your plans always end up being big knock down fights. Plus, chances are good you'll blow up some kind of building. I'm just sad I have to leave and go thaw out those lame icicles instead of seeing you beat the bad guy."

"Honestly…me too." I said with a shrug. "I'd feel better if you were there."

She looked at me with big starry eyes. "Oh my god, I KNEW it! We're besties! Benny is going to be so jealous. You totally traded up."

I laughed, then turned and offered to let her climb on my back. "I'll be sure to tell him he's been replaced. Now let's go." I paused. "And can you…can you keep an eye out for Callie?" I whispered, invoking my Bael stealth to cover the question, hopefully preventing my wife from hearing.

She gave a solemn nod. "Bodyguard Bethy is on the case." She said seriously. The effect was somewhat ruined when I looked over my shoulder and saw that she'd somehow pulled a pair of sunglasses from somewhere and put them on, her blank face made even more serious with the big dark shades.

I couldn't help it, I cracked up. Bethy always knew how to lighten a mood. She climbed on my back, and with a joyful cry telling me to 'giddyup', I covered us both with Bael and set off into the snowglobe.

As I entered, I felt things slow down. Time in here was distorted, and there was no way to dispel that without breaking the globe, which it was too soon for. Luckily our enemies were just as slowed down. We would be perfectly fine to engage. I felt myself tense in anticipation. This was so close to being over. Just one more fight to win and the planet would be saved. No pressure, right?