A/N: Yes we are back! Be sure to check out Zoicytes Shadow’s Deviant Art page. She has pictures of Aquarella and Alistair.

Chapter 45

Into The Frying Pan

Aym left the attic to find a place elsewhere to sleep. The bed Courage was now using with Alistair hardly fit both of them. They were all so tired by the time Alistair finished his story that he hadn’t even bothered Courage to talk about his own past. Courage was grateful he didn’t because despite the cramped space he had with his lover he fell fast asleep.

The next morning came by fast. Courage had left to meet everyone downstairs while Alistair remained in the attic. He seemed to be trying to figure something out but what he would not even say to Courage.

Downstairs they ate breakfast as Farrah argued with parallel Muriel (who clearly has Eustace’s personality) to let the group stay. Parallel Eustace seemed happy enough to have guests to cook for and was taking Farrah’s side on the matter. Meanwhile Angelus and Owen were still talking quietly about what should be done about Pan who was becoming ever more corrupted down in the basement.

After breakfast Courage found himself wandering around outside the farm. He literally had no clue were they were going next. They had nothing to go on and this parallel place wasn’t so dangerous other then the usual events that occurred in Nowhere. Weren’t they supposed to land someplace out of The Creator’s reach?

He was surprised to find his parallel counterpart spying on him from the window. Of all the people Courbeca seemed to be most suspicious of him. Maybe because he reminded her so much of herself?

“Well I’m officially stumped .” Owen grumbled as Courage entered the house again.

“There isn’t the usual amount of weird stuff occurring in Neverwhere as usual...except for you guys of course. This usually is a bad omen when nothing happens for awhile...” Farrah said.

“I can sense something out of place in this dimension but it is faint and I can hardly pick up on it.” Aym also said.

“I bet that’s what we need to go for. Something out of place in a dimension certainly sounds like something our bad guy may cause.” Owen said softly.

“But that’s the thing.” Said Angelus. “It’s faint so we can’t trace it.”

“You can feel it too?”

“Of course...”

“So just what do you all plan to do then?” Farrah asked.

“Don’t know yet.” Angelus replied.

“You need to hurry though.”

“Why?”

“The Aym of this world is beginning to stir...”

Courage gasped at that prospect. He glanced over at Courbeca who was once again spying in on there conversation knowing fully well she would soon be going through what he had minus the parasite...if they managed to stop this new force. And Alistair’s parallel self...annoying as she is she would be sobering up soon enough...

He almost didn’t think the Aym thing could happen in this place but it clearly was. There must be many, many parallel Nowhere’s and maybe this Aym thing happens in most...maybe not in others.

Feeling sick about the news he made his way up into the attic wishing he could tell at least parallel Alistair what was going to happen to her even if she probably wouldn’t listen but for the most part he wanted to find out why Alistair seemed to be content hiding up in the attic.

He found that Alistair had completely moved his parallel self off the desk and onto the floor. Alistair himself was on the bed looking very puzzled and off in his own little world.

“What’s going on here Al?” Courage asked crossing his arms.

Alistair nearly jumped and looked up. “I think I know what we need to do next.”

“Really? How?” Courage found himself more and more confused.

“I can sense that Aym is growing in my parallel’s soul and I have this feeling that our enemy is working with this worlds Aym. I believe the followers of this world will soon be coming for my parallel self if things work out the same in this world as it did in ours.”

“What are you getting at Al?” He was starting to get a bad feeling about this.

“I’m just going to tell you out straight because I know you’ll disagree with me. I plan to take the place of my counterpart and have them take me instead that way I can get to our enemy. The fools will mistake my demon powers as Aym himself and take me without question.”

“A-are you nuts!” Courage found himself crying out. “You’ll just go face that thing that made the parasite all on your own? I can’t let you put yourself in danger like that!”

Alistair stood up looking angry for the first time since...

“You got any better ideas twit?”

Courage let his eyes wander to the floor. If there was one person he couldn’t stand up to it was Alistair...

“Your calling me twit again...knock it off.”

There was a long silence then Alistair sighed. “If we don’t do this we may never get to the enemy not before the parasite eats everyone we care about.”

“But...but I-I don’t want you to get hurt again. You shouldn’t have to go through this a second time.”

“Courage, you know I’m much more powerful then I was. I can easily defend myself this time and I don’t have Aym in our soul neither. If...anything does go wrong you’ll know it. You can still feel what I feel right?”

“Of course...”

“So if anything does go wrong you’ll know then you guys can coming running.”

Courage said nothing knowing that Alistair was right. If they didn’t do this they may never find the monster that ruined everything for them.

“Well?” He finally asked.

“Now we just wait every night until the followers show up.”

Courage sighed and reluctantly agreed.

The plan was quickly explained downstairs to everyone else. Courage wasn’t the only one who thought this was foolish but in the end Alistair was right. They had no choice.

Unfortunately even though they were prepared for Aym’s followers to show up nearly a week went by with utterly nothing out of the ordinary happening. It was only through Farrah that they were allowed to remain on the farm and it was honestly boring to sit around all day waiting for night to come then spend all night worrying to death. The only good thing coming out of this was that this was the first time ever Courage had time to spend with Alistair on the farm. They would spend hours walking around Neverwhere just talking and it was funny how much they agreed on something despite having hated each other for nearly as long as they had known each other.

Then they’d sit on the roof of the farm house and watch the sun go down sometimes talking but most the time not. They would just sit there and enjoy each others presence and Courage couldn’t help but smile knowing that if everything worked out every day would soon be just like this but he also got a sick feeling knowing that if they failed...

Courage could tell just by looking in Alistair’s eyes he was filling the void that Aym had created in Alistair’s heart. He was filling the void that Alan, MS, and Alistair’s other brothers had left as well. He wasn’t alone anymore and he had nothing left to be bitter or cynical about. He was still ‘him’ of course with his sarcasm and joking personality but he was certainly a better person now and Courage couldn’t have been any happier to help make him that way.

Nights quickly evolved into terror. He’d hold Alistair tightly knowing that soon he’d be taken away from him and he’d find himself fearing every sound the house made. Alistair would often try to comfort him but he’d still find himself up all night fearing the worse. In the end neither of them slept well.

“You need to get some sleep Courage.” Alistair spoke. It was officially a week since they first decided on this plan.

Courage only sighed in response.

“Don’t make me start singing again. I know how much you hate that.”

He playfully hid under the covers.

Alistair yawned. “Well do what you want but I’m tired and going to sleep.”

As always it was nearly impossible to lay in that small bed together but they managed to pull it off only because Courage was so small even for a human. Courage sat up doing nothing as he watched Alistair slowly drift off to sleep.

Over the past week Courage had a few more bleeding outbreaks merely over being so worried about Alistair and so Alistair had attacked him several times as well trying to heal Courage of his spiritual wounds with his demon powers. On every occasion Courage had to unclothe himself so very cut could be healed and it was almost funny how Alistair seemed to handle his nakedness like a doctor. Courage was of course used to being naked being a dog and all but as a human he often felt exposed but not around Alistair of course. This had indeed proved to him though that what Alistair had said was indeed true, he was not sexually attracted to him at all. Courage doubted he had feelings for males or females he only had feelings for just him. If they had not gotten together Alistair may have never fallen in love at all. How strange A.I.’s work. Maybe they just grow attached to one person regardless of gender or the urge to mate. After all look at Owen...

After his latest bleed attack they had gone out to the town of Neverwhere with Farrah who had bought him some new supposedly ‘stylish’ clothing giving up the gown Alistair had magic upped for him. Of course Courage wasn’t going to forget such a gift of kindness and had ripped off a good size piece of the gown and wrapped it around his arm as a remembrance.

He was just beginning to doze off shortly after Alistair had fallen asleep when he felt something awful being to surge through him. His palm which still had the scarred but fading Aym symbol began to burn. Alistair suddenly jolted awake looking frightened as though he was reliving a bad memory...and he was...

“T-they’re coming...” Was all Alistair managed to mumble and every fear they had the first night Aym’s followers had come to take Alistair away had resurface. It was like an unfading nightmare.

“Al...Al?” Courage felt like a helpless child.

“Quickly! Get down and act like your sleeping!” Alistair commanded then he got up and took his place. His emerald screen flared brightly in the dark room but could never hold the vibrance of his human eyes.

Courage found himself breathing hard under the covers nearly breaking down in tears simply because this felt ‘just’ like the night the followers took Alistair away into pure hell and he was letting it all happen again.

Then the first difference occurred. They did not come in through the window like in his world but they teleported in with the distinct sound of it. He glanced over at them and there were two lower level followers like last time but there was also...

Instead of Katz he found Shirley only she was not a she. Shirley did look like Shirley cloths wise but he was clearly male and he was wearing big dorky glasses that made him look hardly threatening.

He glanced over at the computer on the floor then the one on the desk. “They’re both here like he said they would. Grab them both and lets get the heck out of here.”

The followers did but then one turned and looked over at Courage. “What do we do about him Sherman?” He asked.

Sherman stepped forward producing a dagger from under his robes. The covers were pulled away and Courage felt the dagger against his throat.

“Hmmm...” Sherman grumbled grabbing Courage’s hand and forcing it upright. He gazed at the symbol for a few moments. Courage thought it would end up like the first time...the symbol saving his butt but then...

Sherman slid the dagger across his throat...

Courage sat up coughing and sputtering as blood began to spill everywhere and block his airway. Then...it all began to clear up and he remembered all too suddenly that he was already dead. He glanced up but found the followers gone...and both computers too.

Alistair couldn’t believe it...he had thought he’d trick the enemy but the enemy had tricked them. So...the true enemy knows they are here in this dimension. Alistair found himself a bit glad since his parallel self would be taken to some ritual spot while he would probably be taken to the true enemy...hopefully.

His female counterpart was transported elsewhere while he and Sherman were left in a small cave underground but he could sense many tunnels leading to many more caves in this huge place. He could also feel the evil force here...the one they had all been looking for.

Sherman looked very worried for some reason he finally turned to him with a painful glance of pure fear.

“What’s a matter short stuff?” Alistair said to the parallel Shirley while morphing back into his human state.

Sherman panicked, he honestly didn’t know Alistair could change forms at will. “Gah! Get back!” He screamed firing a bolt of lighting.

Alistair easily dodged this by transforming into a fly and he begun to spiral around the hoping to find away to the true darkness. He did not want to deal with this wimp Sherman.

“Don’t you dare run away!” Sherman yelled catching him in mid air.

He quickly changed into a chipmunk flipping Sherman the bird and slipping out of his hands. Now Sherman was chasing after him trying to crush him with his foot. What was this lunatic trying to do? Didn’t they want him alive?

“Ohhh!” He whined. “I don’t know what they were thinking when they put me up for this job!”

Sick of being chased down Alistair morphed again...this time into his dragon form. He leered down at Sherman with a very toothy grin as all color in the nerd’s face vanished.

“Oh no, oh no!” He screamed. As a last resort he began to chant a spell. “Binding forces! Return this monster to it’s truest form!”

Magic converged around him crushing him right back into computer form.

“Not so tough now!” Sherman laughed.

Too bad it would be Alistair who had the last laugh. Taking hold of his demon powers he began to telepathically throw Sherman around the room right into walls.

“Just who...” Smash “Do you think...” Smash “You are...” Smash “To think...” Smash “I am helpless...” Smash “In this form...” Smash “I will..” Smash “NEVER” Smash “BE” Smash “WEAK” Smash “AGAIN!” Smash, smash, smash.

Half knocked out, Sherman’s magic no longer had hold on him so he returned to human form. He walked up to Sherman sneering with triumph.

“I hope you learned your lesson...”

His victory was short lived...

He couldn’t even scream as a painful blast hit him from behind by another’s magic. He fell forward feeling some of his demon powers being drained. The attack had not been meant to kill him at all but take a bit of himself and his demon side too...

“Yes...but Sherman does makes a good diversion.” A cold voice said. Even colder then Aym’s...

He was so weak with so much of his demon power gone he could hardly turn around much less remain in human form. He caught a glimpse of a creature like silhouette...it felt like Courage...it felt just like Courage.

Then there was an explosion as the shadow rased a hand and above them a black dimension opened and terrible screams like nothing he ever heard before filled the cave...

End Chapter