Sarah spent much of the rest of the day making battle preparations with Leah, Justin, and the witches. She explained the use of the talismans, and they decided how the different camps would be split, and where they would manifest within the former city of New York. It was decided that Leah would start out with the small contingent that would be meeting Dark Sarah's troops in the agreed-upon battleground as a diversionary tactic, then one of the witches would arrive to transport them all to New York to complete the battle.

Leah and Justin explained their plan to enchant the weapons so that they might turn the enemy to stone—at least until everything went back to normal. The witches discussed how this would be possible, finally coming upon a spell in which relatively easily attainable ingredients could be sprinkled over the weapons while making an incantation. From there, the weapons should work, as long as the user of the weapon touched the enemy with the instrument while saying a couple of words. They discussed other appropriate enchantments to weapons, including a request by the guinea pigs to be able to crotchét at lightning speed. The witches tried to understand the usefulness of this request to no avail; eventually they just gave into the pleading of the pigs and did the work necessary to enchant their large needles.

Marlena and Sage worked with Leah to acquire the necessary ingredients for the stone spell. A helicopter arrived a couple of hours later with some jars of tinctures and bags of sand acquired from stone polishing businesses. The bags contained the remnants of sand and other bits of semi-precious stones. The three watched as a handful of humans, guinea pigs, and mice went to work at mixing the ingredients for use on a nearby pile of weapons.

Leah turned to Marlena after it was clear everyone had what they needed. "Do you really think this is going to work?"

Marlena nodded. "It should." She held the book that contained the spell aloft. "It's a relatively simple spell."

"How will we know that everyone will turn back after… knock on wood… this whole ordeal is over?"

"I've added a provision for that in the spell. It's been isolated to only work within the city limits, and only for our troops... If an enemy gets ahold of it, it won't work. After we enchant the weapons, then all we have left to do is to take a map of the city and draw the boundaries and make the final enchantment. We should be able to burn the map when we are done and end the effects."

It took the remainder of the evening, but the group finished the weapon enchantments in good time, in time for the meeting of all the camps.

Sarah amassed the troops within the well-worn dust-pit that had formed in the center of all the camps thanks to weeks of foot traffic. Using magic, she amplified her voice to reach everyone in the audience. The air was tense with the expectation of the oncoming battle.

"I know your fear, your uncertainty at what lies ahead. But we are going to make it out of this, together. We are going to take back our worlds, and we are going to be stronger for it."

She smiled, her form glowing. "You, my friends, are a force of good to be reckoned with. I know you're ready."

A sort of calm washed over the crowd, a feeling that all things would be resolved in due time.

##

Jeremiah stepped away from Jareth for a moment. He had been keeping "half an eye" (so to speak) on the goings-on Aboveground. Something nagged at him, an irksome interruption to this long-planned reveal and hopeful destruction of Jareth's will. He looked away for a moment and peered in on the distraction. An upsetting scene revealed itself to him: Ingeborg under attack by shadow creatures.

He looked on Jareth a last time as the man left the house to indulge in a stupid whim to pick flowers for his lost love, then phased into Ingeborg's reality, where she was being besieged by demon shadows on the rooftop of Sarah's palace.

"Get away from me, you morons! I'm on your side!"

Their glowing eyes were the only details appearing within the massive form they had created by merging their shapes. They huddled around her menacingly, oozing in and out of each other and around her feet and head. She tried many times to fly away, only to be blocked. "Damn you all, let me go!"

Jeremiah appeared within the circle, in front of Ingeborg, and put out his hands for them to stop. His expression was one of great annoyance. "Brothers, leave her! She is mine, I instruct you to step back and find other prey!"

They seemed to consider his words a moment, pausing and pulsating, until deciding to ignore him and continue their slow creep forward.

Jeremiah began to feel a bit of panic. It was unusual for fellow shadows to disregard their brethren, and they should have been able to sense Jeremiah as their co-conspirator.

He decided to shrug off his human face, revealing the full scope of his demon form to them. He spread his wings protectively in front of the large catlike beast and could feel the tickle of her large whiskers against the leathery surface of his wings. "Go away!" he demanded.

They seemed hungrier than ever. "Just destroy them, Crouch!" Ingeborg shouted in fright.

In his demon form he could more easily hear their words, their intoxicating murmurs of darkness and despair. "Eat it all. Darkness is purity. It is ours."

Jeremiah's eyes glowed red. He understood their message all too well. There had been a time when he had resisted the nature of his own blood, but time had taught him that the words of his blood had been right all along. There was no point in this world or any other, in the mess, the confusion, the muddy colors and differences, striations of the disgusting essence of life that had been poorly conceived. He had clung to the worlds by a few threads provided by his mortal form. "Come with us, Crouch. Eat the beast. Eat this world. We don't need it. No colors. No light."

Ingeborg's face showed greater worry as she observed Jeremiah's intoxication by the darkness that had swallowed so many others on this plane. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, and she sensed that he was seeing her with a sort of hunger that had absolutely nothing to do with desire or love.

One of the shadows perched on Jeremiah's shoulder, then another. Soon they were swarming him, chanting, "Eat. Eat." The power of the swarm began to overtake him. Straggling thoughts about plans and stories began to dissipate, sweeping away all his frenzied fae connections to divining meaning, to finding a purpose. His purpose was consumption, the simple desire to eat and erase, to throb in the darkness in oneness with the black.

He turned and faced Ingeborg. She switched her tail nervously, thinking she might have tried to hit him and snap him out of it if she weren't so afraid of touching the other shadows. Her mother had warned her about falling in love with a demon.

"Crouch! Snap out of it! You remember who I am!"

He stepped forward without acknowledgement, the shadows cheering him on.

There were few places remaining on his body that the shadows hadn't consumed. His chest was just barely exposed, a small enough area for her to shove him with the end of her tail. Since the shadows that had stood behind him were now crowded on top of him, she hoped that one good shove would give her an opening.

She coiled her tail and used all her strength to shove him. As expected, he flew backward, scattering enough shadows for her to dart through the opening, bucking and weaving to avoid touching their essence and being absorbed.

Flapping her wings lightly, she rose in the air to keep her mobility and increase her chances of escape if they were to try to crowd her again. Jeremiah laid on the roof of the building, still in the form of a demon, but somewhat dazed by the assault. She waited for the last shadow to crawl off of him before sweeping down and grabbing his tail with her paw. She couldn't imagine abandoning him, despite his unpremeditated betrayal.

As she raced over the city, she shook him wildly in hopes of snapping him out of his stupor. "Crouch! You fool!"

It didn't take him long to recover, and when he pried from her grip and flew in front of her, the hungry look on his face hadn't left. Her fear truly rose at that sight, as Jeremiah was much stronger than she was, and she had only barely escaped earlier because of her surprise attack.

"Listen, you moron, you love me. This is insane!" Her voice quavered with a mixture of disgust and pleading.

Away from the shadows, which had decided to find other pursuits in the streets below, Jeremiah finally began to show some lucidity. He landed on a nearby roof, and Ingeborg hovered above to make sure he had truly broken free of the spell.

"It's alright, Inge. I'm… I'm myself."

She landed in front of him, and he once again cast the glamour that allowed him to be seen as human. She walked closer to him tentatively, concern still in her expression. It quickly melted as she thwacked him with her paw. He fell to the ground, looking up at her indignantly. "You silly cow! You—"

"No, I don't think so! You won't talk to me that way." She sighed and curled her wing in protectively. "I knew you were losing it," she said quietly. "I just didn't know how bad it was."

"I'm not sure what's happened." He got up and put a hand on her snout. "I'm sorry, Inge, I will make it up to you."

She summed him up a few moments before answering. "There's no need. Hop on."

He kissed her on the nose then climbed into the harness on her back. She quickly lifted off, flying away from the castle and toward Central Park.

Jeremiah rested awhile atop her back, trying to gather his wits about him and recuperate from the experience. It had been a long time since he had succumbed so fully to his demon self. But, then again, it was very rare that other shadows were around him in a corporeal dimension, and in such numbers. As resistant as he often was to their simple ways, it was hard to ignore the voice of his brethren.

Ingeborg seemed very disturbed by the experience, but he knew in time she'd forgive him, as she did all his transgressions.

Before he had time to properly gather himself, a shimmering rift opened in the air before them. It was something he had not seen often, because it was something Ingeborg hated to do.

Opening portals always took a lot of her energy, and there was no need since there were very few worlds that Jeremiah did not naturally have access to, so usually Ingeborg was happy to leave that work to him.

"Igneborg? Where…?"

His question was soon answered. He looked down and saw the characteristic swamps of her own land from her own world—a world he had once been trapped in, leading to his befriending her and falling in love with her (or more accurately, trying to eat her and being forgiven thanks to her longsuffering, which led to his begrudging love for her.) Their courtship, borne out of his forced time on the planet, had lasted a handful of years before she finally revealed to him her power of opening the portals. After calming down from his curses to her, he asked why she had kept it to herself. She had merely smirked and said, "Because you deserved it."

"Inge. No. Don't do this."

Ingeborg sighed deeply. "I can't trust you, Crouch. Not that I ever could, but… this is bad news."

"Look, Inge, you really don't need to leave me here. I will stay away from the shadows, I can even assure you the world won't be completely dissolved, so you don't need to fear—"

"No, Crouch. You can't stay away from what you are."

She flew over a swamp and tilted enough to cause him to slip out of the harness. He held onto the reigns tightly, beginning to shift his form to recover through flight. Before he had a chance, she shook him off entirely, leaving him to fall the fifty feet to the swamp water, where he landed with a splash.

"I'm sorry, Love, you deserved this."

Just as his demon head popped above the water, he could catch a glimpse of her tail disappearing through the portal as it sealed itself.

##

The portal talismans had been distributed—one each for Sarah, Sage, Ashley, Brenda, and Ling. Marlena had one as well, but had been grouped with Leah and Justin's battalion in Pennsylvania, where they were expecting to confront the dark queen's army in a few hours, or more accurately, to avoid confronting them. Intelligence had revealed that the queen's troops were on their way to the grounds, and that she also had a similar ruse planned to surprise Leah's other forces at the Henson Company. However, what she didn't know was that all aid had been evacuated to the campground for final preparation, and that they were planning to hit her before she had a chance to put her own plan in action.

The three witches and Sage had each been grouped with a force to each, to appear within the city limits. Once the forces in Pennsylvania had fully achieved their bluff, they would join them in New York, leaving the arriving forces hanging. There was no doubt the queen would be able to move her troops, but it would likely drain her in the process, and give them a further advantage.

Marlena sat in the camp's tent at the battleground with a map of New York City spread before her. She sprinkled some of the dust that they had enchanted the weapons with in a line around the city limits, giving a little leeway for ranks to spread out. Controlling the spell area seemed best. Magic was running rampant as it was, and she didn't want to add more to the chaos than was necessary.

She began the incantation. Midway through, John the guinea pig came charging through, with a huge mouse in his grips. Both were in full chain mail and kilts. The two wrestled loudly, distracting her in the middle of her casting.

"Eat my steel, Billy McGee!" John shouted. "I've had enough of yer impertinence!"

Billy pinched his ear, which was enough of a distraction for him to get to the top and pin the pig down. "Your steel? Jesus, John, it's a giant knitting needle."

They tussled near the map, and Marlena gingerly moved it out of the way. "Um, guys, I'm kinda in the middle of something."

"And I'm in the middle of showin' this rat a thing or two about honor!"

She wasn't quite sure how they were pinning each other down with their tiny hands, but they were managing it somehow. It reminded her of the two pet hamsters she owned a few years ago. They always had a habit of scrambling over each other to get to a fresh water bottle. Billy even seemed to stick his tongue out a bit the way they did when tapping the ball at the end of the metal tip to get the water out. She would have found it cute under other circumstances.

"When you've seen two rodents in kilts wrestle, you've seen it all," she muttered, trying to find a clear space on another table at which to set up her map.

"You're just jealous that my chain mail is better than yours!" Billy shouted, pinning John's arm to the ground.

The guinea pig let out a pitiful squeak. "That hurt!" He pushed Billy hard, who fell against Marlena's new table, almost moving the dust in the process.

"Okay, guys, that's it! Out of here! I'm casting an important spell, and I've almost forgotten where I left off! Shoo!"

The two got up and sulked their way out the door, punching each other in the arm with each step. "You just wait, there will be only one before all is said and done," John said, dropping his usual Scottish accent.

Marlena sighed, then looked at her map. "Where was I again?"

##

The battalions were spaced out evenly across the plains, a small group at the head of each.

Sarah, Vindar, Isabelle, and Granen stood at the forefront of the first group. Granen gave a rousing speech and final fighting tips.

Sage and Mandelbrot banded together, Ludo and Hoggle in tow (no one could stand the idea of being forced to fight beside Eberon).

Ling was assisted by Benedick and Eepwot, with Eberon tagging quietly along. Albert and Wonggu stood to the side, spending the time chatting in their native tongue.

Brenda led a small battalion alongside the bossy Rygel and hungry Rattlebeak. Ambrosius sat at Brenda's site, as she had a fondness for canines and had acquired a bag of dog treats that adequately distracted him from his nervousness over the bustling activity.

Ashley had bonded with Pepe, Damion, and a number of the Muppets, and she sat at the head of that camp, singing inappropriate camp songs to pass the time.

##

Sarah nodded to Vindar, Isabelle, and Granen, who crowded around her expectantly. "I think it's time."

They stood in anticipation as she held the talisman aloft. A portal spiraled before them, growing in size. The other groups saw the activity in the distance, and their resident magicians took their own places.

Within moments all five portals were open in a neat row across the plains. The leaders motioned. Soon each battalion was following in formation, marching through the light and to their final destination.

War.