“Thank you all for coming here today,” Father Gonzalez said in front of the pulpit. 

In the front row, Amy on her side, Nicole nodded. Cass and Matt were to their left, Debbi and Heather to their right, Gabriel a row behind. 

“What’s going on, Father?” Nicole asked. “I remember you wanted to talk to us about this last week, but time just got away from us.”

“Yes, since I know you and Amy are going out of town for a few days, I wanted to do this before that happened,” Father Gonzalez said. “We’re just going to wait a few more moments-”

“Thank you for waiting,” Bishop Roberts said as he slowly padded in from the back. “Father, if you don’t mind-”

“Certainly,” Father Gonzalez said as he stepped away from the microphone-enhanced podium. 

“The reason we’ve assembled you all is to tell you that there are going to be some changes around here,” the Bishop said. “I’m… Being promoted. In light of this team, our team, fending off Winona’s attack, I am being made Archbishop of Boston.”

“Oh my goodness, that’s amazing!” Nicole said, clapping her hands together rapidly. 

“Yeah, seriously, it’s fantastic,” Cass said. She stood up while she said it, beaming at the soon to be Archbishop. “Congratulations, Cardinal.”

They all applauded, slowly standing and joining Cass in her ovation. 

“In turn,” Father Gonzalez said, “I’m being promoted to Bishop, and head of this team.”

“Woohoo!” Nicole said, pumping her fists into the air. 

“Thank you,” Father… No, no, Bishop Gonzalez said. “That does leave one thing up in the air, however: a new priest is being sent to serve as head of Saint Joseph’s. This man, Father Samuel Bianco, will be arriving here on Monday.”

“Okay,” Debbi said. “And what does that mean for us? How much does he know?”

“He knows about the team, and your identities,” Bishop… Cardinal Roberts said. “That said… Nicole, he does not know your secret. I haven’t told anyone. He also doesn’t know about Iris, or about you, Gabriel. Nor is he aware of any of the romantic relationships between you girls.”

Nicole drew a deep breath through her nose, held it in her chest, and released it. “Okay. So how do we play this? Debbi, what do you think?”

“Who any of us are dating isn’t any of this man’s concern,” Debbi said. “But at the same time, it might not be that difficult for him to figure it out. Especially with you and Amy living together. And as for you and Gabriel… Correct me if I’m wrong here, but neither of you have gotten your names legally changed yet, right?”

“Yeah,” Nicole and Gabriel said simultaneously. 

“Then it probably won’t take more than some simple digging to unearth that intel,” Debbi said. “Look, there are openly queer professors at our Jesuit College. A lot of them have spouses.”

“Yeah, because of the legal shit-show that would result in them firing someone for that,” Heather pointed out. “They might not have the same reaction to us, given that we don’t work for the university, we work for the Archdiocese directly.”

“Which I, as the new head of, will be able to continually ensure,” Cardinal Roberts said. 

“But what’s to stop the new guy from going over your head and straight to Rome?” Heather asked. 

“Ideally, deference to my authority and wisdom, as well as that of Bishop Gonzalez and Sister Quinn.”

Nicole turned her head to both sides, scanning the room. “Where is Sister Quinn, anyway? Feel like I haven’t seen her in a few weeks.”

“She’s been… Away on personal business,” Father Gonzalez said. “She asked me not to tell any of you about it so that she can do so herself upon her return in early December.”

“Ah, gotcha,” Nicole said. She ran a hand through her hair. “I wish I knew what to feel about all this.”

“Yeah, same,” Gabriel said. 

“Yeahhhhhhh,” Amy, Debbi, and Heather said all at once. 

“Perhaps some time to think is in order,” Father Gonzalez said. “I won’t be going anywhere, after all. We can discuss this in private on Sunday, before Father Bianco arrives.”

“That sounds like a good plan,” Debbi said. 

Nicole felt it was a good plan as well. She just wished she didn’t have an awful lump in her stomach that got bigger and bigger the more she thought about it.

***

“Is it just me, or is everyone acting incredibly weird today?” Iris asked. 

She and Mark walked down the hallway, still a solid thirty minutes before class started, amidst a crowd of students busy picking each other up and tossing each other into trash cans. “What makes you say that?” Mark asked. 

Ahead of them, a tiny little slip of a freshman boy decked the varsity hockey captain, a two-hundred-and-twenty-pound giant of a twelfth grader. “Stuff like that, mostly,” Iris said. “I know it’s the day before vacation and people are antsy, but this is a little much.”

Down the hall to the left, a ring of girls were engaged in an impromptu wrestling match, seemingly attempting to rip each other’s hair out by the roots. “Should we do something?” Mark said. 

“Yes, definitely. Only problem is I have no idea where to even start,” Then she saw that bitch Morgan pinning Monica up against a locker. “Actually, wait, I know exactly where to start,” Iris said, eyes narrowing in on the redhead, grinding her teeth. She clomped her ugly shoes forward loudly and angrily. This bitch, this fucking bitch had the gall to bully her little sister after getting saved by Iris- unbelievable. 

“Is shame,” Mark said. 

“What is?” Iris asked. 

“Her face is so pretty, but her soul is so ugly,” Mark said. 

“You think she’s pretty?” Iris side-eyed him. “Prettier than me?”

“I said pretty, not beautiful, Beautiful.”

Iris snort-laughed. “Smooth-talker. And she’s very pretty- there I said it.” 

She meant it- her attraction to women hadn’t magically evaporated after kissing Mark. Some tiny, irrational part of her brain had been terrified that would happen, that a part of her identity she’d been so sure about would just shrivel up from disuse, but… No, no she still ogled the pretty girls in her school just fine, and her dumb fucking crush on Nicole’s teammate Cass hadn’t gone anywhere either, even though Iris had a boyfriend now. Even if that word was taking some serious getting used to, especially since she’d made it clear she didn’t want any PDA from Mark until after she came out at school. 

As for when that would be… One step at a time. 

Iris slammed her fist against the locker adjacent to the one Monica was pinned against. 

“What’s going on here?” Iris death-glared at Morgan. Ben and Cameron and Jacob and Evan all flanked her. 

“Oh, Moni and I were just having a friendly little conversation,” Morgan smiled. 

“Uh-huh. Sure you were.” Iris grabbed her sister’s wrist and began pulling her away, only for Evan and Jacob to rip her hands away. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Morgan here was just having a friendly little conversation with Monica,” Evan said, practically giggling as he did so. 

“Since when do you fokkers even talk to thees girl?” Mark said. “Just last week you were saying how much of a stupid slut she was.”

“That was before we all became best friends,” Morgan said with a chipper smile. 

Iris concentrated on Monica- she wasn’t saying anything, but her posture was stiff and her face was heavy with panic. “Monica. Come on. Let’s go.”

Monica nodded and tried to move, but Ben and Cameron put themselves between the two sisters. “Stop interrupting, bitch.”

Dr. Rylance walked by, behemoth bags under her eyes as she dragged her designer shoes over the linoleum floor. Iris wasn’t crazy about this option, but she didn’t see another one. “Dr. Rylance! Dr. Rylance, please help us! These people have my sister pinned against the wall-”

Iris’ words followed Dr. Rylance down the hall as she continually and blatantly ignored everything happening around her. 

“Wow. Some people really are just zombies before their morning caffeine hit, huh?” Morgan said. 

A spark of White Light escaped Iris’ index finger. She clenched her fists. “Don’t make me escalate this, Morgan.”

“Mmmm, yeah we wouldn’t want that,” Morgan said, tapping her nose with her finger. She leaned in towards Iris and whispered, “Eh, Iris?”

Iris’ eyes bulged and her arms went limp and her fists came unballed. 

Morgan gave Iris a gentle pat on the cheek and a wink, then grabbed Ben’s hand and pranced away with him. Her gaggle of Iris’ former friends walked away with her, leaving Iris there sputtering alongside her sister and her boyfriend. 

“Something is seriously wrong here,” Mark whispered. 

“I know,” Iris said, groping for breath, attempting to force her heart-rate to go lower. “And before the end of the day, we’re finding out what.”

Iris turned and found Monica sliding against the locker down onto the floor. She buried her face in her hands and began to sob. Iris sat down next to her, Mark on the opposite side. She put a hand on her sister’s shoulder as she cried, as casual bursts of violence and cruelty punctuated the hall every few feet. 

This was going to be a long day. 

***

Matt stood in front of the warehouse where they’d confronted Lyle, the warehouse where he’d first met Cass. His hands were shoved into the pockets of his jean jacket, fingers twitching as he breathed in the sight of it all. He still hadn’t gone to the alley where Pete, Jack, and Tony had died, still hadn’t gone back to his destroyed former place of employment and residence. This was the closest he could manage- standing in front of somewhere he’d once lived, that he’d failed to defend. 

The vacant lot surrounding the warehouse was as gray as the November sky overhead. The air was calm and cool and crisp, while disparate and unorganized noises from the surrounding city gradually worked their way over. 

One sound slowly drew closer. 

Closer. 

Closer-

Matt pivoted a hundred and eighty degrees, but found nothing behind him. 

When he turned back around, however, Gabriel was there. “Hi!”

“Ah!” Matt screamed, jumping backwards. 

“Hey, hey, whoa there!” Gabriel said, palms flat and outstretched. “Sorry about that, little buddy- didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Well ya’ did, asshole!” Matt shouted. 

“Okay, okay, sorry, sorry,” Gabriel said. He wore a yellow North Face jacket and blue jeans, his shaggy black hair tied back, a pair of goggles over his eyes and his walking stick/sword tucked under his arm. “You got good reflexes, though- must come in clutch in a brawl!” 

Slowly gathering his breath, Matt answered, “Yeah, it does.”

“Your brother teach you how to fight?” Gabriel said. 

“Not really,” Matt said. “I’m mostly self-taught.”

“Yeahhh, that makes sense.”

“In what regard?”

“I had to teach Mike most of what he knows,” Gabriel laughed. 

“Yeah?” Matt said. “And what exactly did you teach him?”

Gabriel grinned. “Want me to show you?”

Matt checked his phone for the time- he had two hours before he was due at the Donahue house for Thanksgiving. If he got to Cass’ dorm in the next ninety minutes he’d have plenty of time to fly to Hull with her. And more than that…

More than that, he wanted to be useful. Effective. He didn’t want people he cared about dying because he was a failure of a man, unable to protect his family. 

Matt smirked. “Is there a fee for this lesson?”

“Nah, first one’s on the house.”

“Good. I’m broke,” Matt said. 

“Yeah, you look it.”

“What does that mean?” Matt glared. 

And with a single fluid motion, the tip of Gabriel’s rapier was poking against Matt’s chest. “That you’re easily distracted,” Gabriel said. “Lesson one- as tempting as it is to banter with your opponents, it throws you off your game. You should only indulge in that on your terms, as a means of drawing their attention away from your actions. Never banter back if your enemy initiates it.”

Matt’s brow furrowed. His teeth grinded. Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit. On reflex, he transformed, his cobalt chainmail replacing his coat and covering everything below his neck. He grabbed the rapier with his armored hand and shoved it out of the way, then lunged at Gabriel with his spare first. 

Gabriel side-stepped him, giving Matt ample room to steal the exterior sheath of Gabriel’s cane. Matt brandished it, funneled light into it. It transformed into a chainsaw, resplendent with Holy aura. 

“Flashy, ridiculous, I like it,” Gabriel said, walking in circles around Matt, dragging the tip of his blade over the cement ground and leaving thin trails of scratches behind. “But impractical. Not every problem is a nail, Matt; you’re not always going to need a hammer.”

Matt cringed. “I- I know. It just happens automatically at this point, it-”

Then, with a burst of golden light, Gabriel was charging at him once more with his rapier. Matt revved his chainsaw and caught the side of the sword on his blade, deflecting it. 

Gabriel smirked. “Lesson two- work with what you’ve got. Even if it’s impractical.”

Matt lunged with his chainsaw, and Gabriel side-stepped him as his rapier shifted into a broadsword. Matt’s eyes went wide as he blocked a furious flurry of blows. “How did you do that?”

“Saw it in my mind’s eye, and made it real through Faith,” Gabriel said. “Be careful of this, though: shifting something into a weapon takes energy, and the more times you shift it during a fight, the faster you’ll burn out. Same with the initial change- you can turn anything into a weapon, but turning a pen into a katana takes a lot of energy.”

“A katana, huh?” Matt smirked. He pictured the weapon, one of the single most objectively awesome blades ever forged by human hands, and slowly, the chainsaw reshaped itself into a thin, flat, long sword. 

Within an instant, Gabriel’s sword had become a katana as well. “Have at thee!” he cried as he charged Matt. 

Matt screamed as they sparred, and blade-song filled the cold air. 

***

“You got everything?” Nicole asked, poking her head into Amy’s room. 

“Almost done,” Amy said. She folded her least-slutty dress and put it in her duffle bag. Had to make a good impression if she wanted Nicole’s mom to like her. Her dad, Amy was less concerned about; he seemed to like Amy just fine. Mrs. Nygaard, though… Well, she would be calling her Mrs. Nygaard rather than Sarah for a reason. She double-checked her bag: four changes of clothes, her makeup kit, a few volumes of Fantastic Four comics, laptop, chargers… Basically everything. She zipped up her yellow duffel bag and said, “Okay, I’m ready.”

Nicole stepped into her room and put her arms around Amy, then pressed her lips against hers. Amy melted into her, wanting to freeze this moment in time and never leave it. 

Alas. 

They made their way downstairs and into Amy’s VW bug and drove away together, heading north. Traffic was nightmarishly gridlocked, so Amy put on a Brandi Carlisle album through her aux chord. 

“I still can’t believe you didn’t realize you liked girls until this year despite being a fan of, like, the gayest possible country singer,” Nicole smirked. 

Amy snorted as they sat stationary in front of the freeway entrance. “Yeah, honestly, I don’t even know what to make of that one. If it helps, I didn’t know she was gay.”

“Fair enough, but still, it’s pretty funny,” Nicole said. 

“It is. ‘There were no signs’ my ass.”

“Exactly.”

“You’re one to talk, though- didn’t you once tell me you gave a report on Christine Jorgenson for a history project?” Amy said, raising an eyebrow. 

“Oh gosh, I did,” Nicole said with a sigh. “Hhhh this is gonna be weird. It’s my first time visiting home since… well, ya know.”

“Yeah, I know,” Amy said. She reached over and squeezed Nicole’s knee, and flashed her a gentle smile. “How do you feel?”

“Like I need to do this,” Nicole said. “For my sake, for Iris’ sake, for… Everyone’s, really.”

“Good,” Amy said as she turned onto the freeway. “Do you want to go to the church you went to growing up while we’re there?”

“I… I don’t know,” Nicole gulped. “I’d really like to. But I don’t… I don’t know welcomed I’ll be there. How welcomed we’ll be, if we go in there holding hands, if we kiss during the Lord’ Peace. I’d really like to think that they’d be as accepting as everyone at St. Joseph’s, but… I’m not so naive as to think there’s no difference between a chapel on a Jesuit University campus in a major city and… Well…”

“Redneckville?” Amy said as she merged into the fast lane. Which was, of course, blocked up by traffic. 

Nicole winced. “I mean, I wouldn’t say it like that, but sure-”

Amy cringed internally. “Okay, that was a bit harsh-”

“Yeah, a little bit,” Nicole said. “Because if that’s what it is, then what am I?”

“I’m sorry,” Amy said. “I didn’t think… I didn’t think. I’m sorry.”

Nicole smiled sadly. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. Honestly, it’s New Hampshire- everything is pretty redneck. Not nearly as much as where my parents’ grew up, though.”

“New Castle, right?” Amy said. 

“Yeah,” Nicole said. “My dad talks about that place like he misses it sometimes, but honestly… I’m really glad I didn’t have to grow up there. Going back there, the way I am now, with you… It would be dangerous.”

“It’ll be okay, babe,” Amy said. “I’m here for you. I won’t leave your side this whole trip, if you don’t want me to.”

Nicole smiled. “I’d like that.”

“Good,” Amy said, her heart overflowing with warm and vibrant affection. That smile- that smile made her melt every time she saw it. And the sensation, that feeling of the universe clicking into place and everything making perfect, beautiful sense when she was around Nicole… It was getting stronger and stronger every day. She and Nicole had been together a few weeks now- nearly a month- but it felt longer. Their relationship was becoming the best part of her life, the thing that brought her gallons and gallons of happiness every day. 

Amy thought back, and wondered when the last time she’d felt this way was. The answer tumbled out of the back of her mind: Safa. And Safa… Safa had been the first person she’d said ‘I love you’ to. 

She wasn’t there yet. She’d been down the road of saying those words too early, before they were true, when they were still easily confused with the infatuated high of the honeymoon phase of a new relationship. 

But she wouldn’t mind if things were heading that way. She wouldn’t mind one bit.    

***

The vision came to Cass while she packed for the long-weekend trip, slamming into her like an aluminum baseball bat to the gut. She fell to her knees inside the disarrayed mess of her dorm room, and screamed silently as it poured into her:

A town in flames, smoke strangling the sun as Hell rose up from the depths, led by a behemoth cyclops with cloven claws on his hands, possessed masses with black eyes cackling as they cut up the bodies of their victims and salted the land they called home. Iris kneeled over Monica’s body, a gaping cavern in her chest. Iris was frozen, her eyes glassed over, blood drenching her every inch. Behind her, Nicole and Amy fought back a horde of hellspawn, a losing battle against a brutal tide of damnation. Dragons soared overhead, breathing fire across Manchester and searing flesh off of bone and leaving only white ash atop of the skeletons. 

The wizened woman, who spoke to her in all her visions, appeared before Cass, and screamed at the top of her smokey lungs: “BEWARE THE LONE DRAGONSLAYER! WITH HIM COMES YOUR DOOM!”

And then it shattered, and Cass was back in her dorm hyperventilating. That… That was an intense one. Extra intense. She grabbed her phone off the nightstand, bringing up the team’s group chat. 

The hideous stench of brimstone filled her room, and Cass pivoted to find a plume of purple smoke manifesting into an unfamiliar shape. 

“Hello, Cassandra,” Astra said. She brandished a Hellfire short-sword, and with her free hand she waved. “And good-bye, Cassandra.”

Cass transformed. 

A wave of Hellfire rushed towards her. 

***

Iris shook her leg furiously as she waited for class to end. Almost two-thirty. Almost two-thirty. Just fifteen more minutes, and then she could… Could… 

Honestly, she had no idea what she was going to do. But she had to do something- the school was a boiling pot of petty violence and random cruelty, and none of the teachers were reacting to any of it. 

“Stop shaking your leg, Mr. Nygaard!” her history teacher, Mr. Schnauzer, bellowed at her while angrily grinding a piece of chalk against the blackboard. “It’s incredibly obnoxious! And you’re distracting the other students!”

Irritation bubbled up inside Iris. This had been happening all day- people just snapping at her, at everyone, over the most minor shit. It was ridiculous, and it was… It was… “Hypocritical.”

“What was that!?” Schnauzer screeched, spit spraying out his mouth. 

Iris bunched her fists, the flame of rage burning brighter and hotter. “I said that’s hypocritical- how is my shaking my leg more distracting that Tina blatantly texting right next to me!” Iris gestured to her left, and Tina, a rotund girl with a permanent sneer covered by ten pounds of makeup, shot her a middle finger. “Or Freddie playing Fortnite, for God’s sake!” she gestured to her right.

“Fuck off, Nygaard!” Freddie spat, adjusting his headphones beneath his hoody, his shaggy black hair covering his eyes. Iris errantly wondering how he could even see the game he was playing.

“It’s different with them, you little idiot,” Mr. Schnauzer snarled. 

Iris twitched, and she stood up, eyes peeled wide. “And why’s that?”

“Do you really wanna know?” Schnauzer said. “Do you really wanna know why?”

“Yeah, I fucking do!” Iris screamed, her anger overtaking her. A small part of her, a pure and clean piece of her heart, railed against it, and her nose registered the scent of brimstone as she realized what was happening. Oh, Holy Hannah!

“Because you’re nothing but white trash, Nygaard! You and your whole fucking family! That’s all you’ve ever been and it’s all you ever will be! YOU HAVE NO PLACE HERE!”

Black smoked rushed from under the door and shot towards Mr. Schnauzer. He gagged as it went down his throat, and he threw his head back and screamed. He looked at the class, his eyes blackened, and he laughed. “Finally. I was wondering how much longer it would take for one of you to break.”

“What the fuck?” Tina said. 

“Everyone get behind me,” Iris said. 

“Why should we listen to you, bitch?” Burt, a supremely punchable young man with bleach-blonde hair and a chronically popped collar. “You’re just jumped-up trash from a family of faggots-”

Another plume of black smoke rushed forward and sunk into Burt, and his eyes blackened just as much. 

The door kicked open, and Morgan and Evan and Jacob all stood on the other side, flanked by hellhounds, black eyes clearly possessed. “They’re not gonna listen to you. Nobody will.”

Then everyone screamed, but over it, Iris could clearly hear the sound of dragon wings ripping apart the sky overhead.