Chapter Text
"We can't just leave her here, Hurley, there's monsters in the streets-"
"Oh, and a battle wagon is totally a safe place for a child. I'm not saying we leave her in the open, we just gotta-"
They'd been arguing for minutes now. Mavis, still gripping both of their hands, sighs.
"We won't take her to battle, just to Neverwinter-"
"Excuse me?"
They both whip their heads downward, focusing on Mavis (who was still missing her glasses and couldn't focus on them, really) as she spoke.
"My dad is probably gonna be in Neverwinter, or at least nearby because that's where the action's going on, and I think I should go with you so I can see him when this is all over."
There were a lot of things Mavis thought she needed to see her dad about. The first one was probably just a really long hug.
"Your dad isn't here with you?" Sloane ask, kneeling down to both Mavis and Hurley's level.
Mavis just grins. "No. He's probably on the moon."
Hurley jolts. "Does he work for the Bureau? We've got some... friends... up there."
"Yeah, he does," Mavis agrees. "Can you bring me along? I'll hang back once we get to Neverwinter, but I think I wanna be there when this all ends."
Sloane looks at Hurley, wooden lips pouting. Hurley just sighs, slumping further as she runs a hand through her leafy hair. "Yeah, fine, kid. What's your name?"
"Mavis. And you're Hurley and Sloane?"
"Got it in one, kid." Hurley says as Sloane slings Mavis up onto her back, and Mavis holds on for dear life as they are suddenly moving very, very fast. The street buckles and breaks as roots stretch and they practically run across them at speeds, frankly, terrifying.
And then they stop in an instant, in front of a dive bar that Mavis can see several odd looking groups cowering inside. Hurley busts down the door with a solid kick and stands triumphant as the multitude of battle wagon racers' jaws drop.
"'Sup, Chucklefucks? Remember us?"
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Sloane literally creates a new battle wagon out of nothing. When Mavis asks how, she shrugs, the motion creating a wooden creak that makes her wince. "It's the finale, Mavis, I think we all get a little bit of inexplicable magic."
Hurley has been rounding up the other racers, gathering them here on the edge of the city. They seem in awe of her, as if one badass ghost had just kicked in their door and ordered a full battalion of dedicated adrenaline junkies.
On second thought, that was exactly what had happened.
"Everybody, load up! We're moving out!" Hurley's yell is met with a cheer and Mavis finds herself bundled into the new wagon, nestled between the (surprisingly warm?) bodies of the dryads who had saved her life. There's a moment where every wagon seems to rev at once, a deafening roar cascading and echoing through Goldcliff's streets behind them.
And then they're off. A line of battle wagons, kicking up dust as they race towards Neverwinter.
"It won't take too long to get there," Hurley says. Maybe an hour or two. How'd you get this to look like my old one?"
"You mean the one you drove off a cliff."
"To save your ass, idiot."
"She made it with magic," Mavis interrupts. "Why'd you drive the old one off a cliff?"
Sloane grumbles. "I may have been using one of the grand relics everybody just remembered."
"Sloane, babe, you were being manipulated by the Gaia Sash, being literally consumed by a tower of vines that were trying to kill me and my friends." Hurley leans back, but her hands are clenched around the fantasy steering wheel, wooden knuckles somehow losing their color to turn white. "I drove off the cliff so I could reach her and try to save her."
"Oh." Mavis drops it. The ride is silent but for the sound of her own breathing. "Do you guys even need to breathe?"
"...Technically?"
"We're made out of tree. We don't have lungs."
"Trees still need oxygen."
"We've got leaves for hair, babe."
"I can breathe," Sloane says, and she takes an exaggerated gulp of air, ballooning out her cheeks.
Hurley reaches over Mavis' head and gives one cheek a hard poke, and the air rushes out.
"Ouch."
"You're made of wood, that didn't hurt you."
"It hurt my feelings."
Mavis settles in.
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They're about an hour in when Sloane asks, "So, what does your dad do in the Bureau of Balance?"
"Oh." Mavis laughs nervously. "You guys actually, um, you actually know him. Well, the whole world does, really, now, so. My dad is Merle Highchurch."
There is a moment of stunned silence, and then Sloane is lunging for wheel as Hurley doubles over with laughter that seems too big to be coming from such a small body.
"Your-" wheeze -"your dad-" shaking shoulders- "is Merle?"
Mavis can't help but clench her jaw and her fists. Maybe he was weird and not exactly the best dad, but-
"Hey, hey, none of that kiddo," Hurley is still practically gasping for breath as Sloane drives for her. "Didn't mean to offend ya. I just- never even pictured Merle being a dad. Ever. Magnus maybe. But Merle- that's really coming from fantasy left field."
"Who were you in Goldcliff with then?" Sloane asks as Hurley retakes the wheel.
Mouth drying suddenly, Mavis looks down. "My mom and step-brother. We were all running toward the trust, but I fell and I lost my glasses and I lost them and-" Her eyes prick with tears but she wills them away, digging her nails into her palms. "They either made it into the trust and I'll find them once this is over, or they didn't and it doesn't matter anyway."
"Hold on," Sloane says, and then she's gone.
"What." Mavis says in reply to the now empty air.
They hit a bump and Mavis' eyes close for the smallest second and then she's back, looking as if she'd never moved.
"What?" She says again.
"We travel along our tree," Sloane explains. "I made this wagon out of our tree. But I just went back to the tree in Goldcliff and slipped into the trust- roots in the foundations- and I yelled for Mavis' family and they found me pretty quick."
She can't help the relieved slump. "Thank the gods."
"We got maybe ten minutes," Hurley says. "Where are you hiding once we reach Neverwinter?"
"I've got a friend who doesn't live to far from the gates. If she's not-"
Her voice cuts off. There's an unspoken understanding that not everyone she knows might have survived whatever assault has been going on.
"Second choice?" Sloane prompts gently.
"There's a temple of Istus maybe a block away from the gate."
"Good girl," Hurley praises, ruffling her hair. "Can you find it even without glasses?"
"It's pretty big," Mavis replies dryly. "I'll be careful not to stumble on the step."
Sloane giggles.
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They come to a screeching halt outside Neverwinter where an army seems to be amassing in front of the gates. On the horizon, a growing storm of inky figures looms. Sloane kisses her forehead, Hurley cups her face, and then she is running through the crowd, deft for her lack of both sight and height.
And then she runs smack dab into someone her size.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," he says, and he's definitely younger than her, and- familiar sounding? She watches his figure do the oh so familiar routine of sticking his glasses back on his face and-
"Mavis?" He seems shocked. Mavis is pretty shocked too. She still doesn't recognize his voice, or his blur. "Didn't you wear glasses?"
"They got trampled," She tries. He- she thinks he's nodding, really quick, sharp, small nods.
"Are you nearsighted?" He asks, and she nods and there's a flare of brightness and then he's pressing glasses onto her face, and she's face to face with...
"Angus McDonald?"
She remembers him and his voice now, the kid who'd spent the day with her and her dad and Mookie here in Neverwinter almost a month ago. The glasses aren't quite her prescription, but they work.
"That's me!" He chirps, then frowns. "I thought your family was on vacation?"
"Yes- how'd you know that?"
"I'm a detective, remember?" And she does. "But, uh, your dad didn't go on his usual visit to see you guys last week and I asked him."
"I... caught a ride." Mavis says carefully, but it's no use. The only vehicles nearby are the battle wagons. His eyes immediately hone in on them.
"Is- are your family okay, Mavis?" His eyes are huge and worried. He seems so much older than he should but he's really barely older than Mookie.
"They are. We just got separated."
Their conversation is cut off by a female voice ringing out over the crowd. Mavis can't see the lady but Angus focuses dramatically on her words. About halfway through the speech, he nudges her. "That's Lup."
That's Lup? Oh, Oh. That's Lup, her father's... friend? Work associate? Fellow alien?
"Weird." She answers back.
And then she realizes she's still standing in the middle of an army.
"I have to go," she suddenly feels panic in her chest. "I need to go hide, I can't fight."
Angus frowns, furrows his brows. "I cast prestidigitation to make those glasses, they won't last that far away from me- or more than an hour, really."
She blinks. "Hey, you're younger than me, shouldn't you be hiding too?"
"No!" He retorts a little too fast. "Taako's been teaching me magic, and I've got my crossbow besides. I'm well trained and I don't need to be treated like a kid!"
Mavis holds her hands up in peace. "No, that's fine. It's just- you are a kid. Even if you can take care of yourself, maybe don't be out here near the frontline? Pick a safer vantage point where you aren't in the middle of the fighting?"
He considers, then grins. "I need to fight, you need to hide. But you can't get too far from me without the glasses disappearing."
Mavis is almost put off by his excitement. "What's your solution, boy genius?"
He grabs her arm- she notices for the first time the bureau of balance bracer lodged around his wrist. "I'm going to break us into the gateway's watchtower and we're gonna make our stand on top."
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In the end, the door is already unlocked. They hurry up the stairs- "I'd kill for an elevator," Angus pouts, - "It's like , three floors, Angus." -and then they're standing above the battlefield. The Hunger's army is so close, the leading giant barely ten footfalls from the bright red cloak leading their side, and even as she watches, Lup extends an arm and blasts it with crackling red energy, and it roars. The rest of their enemy takes that as it's queue to start the last advance and theirs a mighty clash as the two sides meet in the middle. The giant falls to one knee under Lup's onslaught, but it's not out. Angus next to her readies his crossbow and lets loose a bolt, striking a hunger form on the ground. There is nothing Mavis can do but watch.
No. She thinks of her father, probably fighting here somewhere. This hundred year fight that has pursued him endlessly. She thinks of him, and she prays to Pan.
Let me help, she thinks, and a voice insider her whispers, answers, stretch out your hand.
She does.
Her first Sacred Flame is weak, barely enough damage to hurt the beast she'd targeted, but it distracts it enough for a woman down below to run it through with a broom handle spear, and it dissipates into ashes.
And that is the battle. Angus beside her, shooting bolt after bolt and the occasional spell, and Pan urging her again and again to let this magic flow through her as she incinerates hunger creature after hunger creature. She doesn't even notice when the judge disappears.
It is only when every enemy disintegrates at once that she lowers her arms and looks upward to see a ship- the Starblaster, her father's ship, he's on that ship- break from the sky and start its descent.
Angus grabs her arm again and practically drags her, both of their feet stumbling in their haste as the whole crowd presses in but they press harder, and they finally make it to the ship and then Angus is rushing Taako and Magnus and Lucretia is stepping off the ship with Davenport, and where's her dad-
"Mavis?"
She whirls around, straight into his arms, and she doesn't really think she's hugged her dad since he's left them but she is pouring everything she can into it now and he's holding her just as tight, mumbling thanks and exultation into her hair.