Chapter Fourteen: Bedfellows

 Chapter Fourteen: Bedfellows

            With the unified efforts of three Gladiators of Gallifrey, the Louisianan townsfolk were saved from the threat of Cthulhu, albeit at the loss of their world. Now refugees from their place and time in the multiverse, much of them slept in the three conjoined TARDISes that skated along the infinite dimensional corridor, along with the companions of the three Gladiators.

            Maureen stood alone in the console room of her portion of the TARDIS, adorned in her old Hogwarts school uniform. “You still wear that silly thing, even when you aren’t really a student,” a judgmental voice criticized her. She turned to see Draco Malfoy entering the room.

            Despite his snooty demeanor, he was in quite the state of shock from the previous events that had transpired. “How’re you holding up?” Maureen asked him.

            “Like you care,” Draco scoffed.

            “I do, kiddo. Whether you choose to believe it or not.”

            Seeing that her concern was genuine, Draco dropped the “tough guy” act and opened up to her. “I thought I was finally back home…but that turned out to be a lie…and now the only home I had is gone.” He then regressed back into that typical Malfoy crustiness and hissed, “I’m sure it makes you happy to see me so pitiful and useless for once.”

            “On the contrary…I don’t enjoy seeing you like this, Draco. You’ve suffered enough pain and loss.”

            Draco appreciated her kindness, more than she knew. It helped him to open up a little more to her. “I cannot believe my mother and father allied themselves with Voldemort.”

            “A decision they’re probably regretting now, after he left them to die,” Maureen chastised.

            “We owe our lives to you and your friends,” Draco humbly admitted. “Those two other versions of you – Si and Alicia – were only willing to save us for my sake. What I don’t understand is why you care so much for me, after all that I’ve done?”

            “I hold no ill-will towards you because of your actions or your family name. Don’t get me wrong, you are a huge pain… but even Dumbledore saw a good man in you, and so do I.”

            Hearing Dumbledore’s name from her mouth, Draco lamented, “Hogwarts…I would love to go back there, especially after the truth about my parents…but we can’t, can we?”

            Maureen hesitated to tell him something that she wanted to, ever since they bumped into each other at the party. Before she had the chance, Billy Batson rushed into the console room and alerted, “Samuel can’t sleep.”

            Draco smirked. “That makes two of us.”

            Following on Billy’s alert, Maureen briefly rested a comforting hand on Draco’s shoulder and urged him along her way out, “Try to get some rest, kiddo.” Draco could only acknowledge her recommendation with a nod. After Maureen and Batson departed from the console room, he sat alone on the console platform, mulling over the conflict within him.

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           In the bedroom Billy shared with Samuel and Ben (the latter of whom was sound asleep), Maureen found the former lying in his bed while clutching the teddy bear that was gifted to him by Alicia. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?” she asked him.

            “He can’t talk, remember?” Billy reminded her.

            “Yeah, I haven’t forgotten,” Maureen said. “Doesn’t mean I can’t communicate with him telepathically.”

            Impressed, Billy inquired, “So…what’s wrong with him?”

            “The poor thing’s scared Cthulhu will get him just like he got Bubba Joe,” Maureen divulged before she eased little Samuel’s fears by reassuring him, “I won’t let Cthulhu get you, sweetie…because Cthulhu is afraid of me.” This brought a satisfied smile to Samuel’s face.

            For extra measure, Maureen stayed lying next to him in bed, until he fell asleep.

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            The next morning, or what constituted as a morning in the Infinite DC, Lucas passed the TARDIS wardrobe room while trying to find his way around the massive Gallifreyan ship, uncertain if he was even in the same one or one of the other two. At the open doorway, he spotted Alicia. Seizing an opportunity, he stepped into the wardrobe room, just as Alicia turned to leave, only to stop as soon as she saw Lucas standing at the door. “You scared me!” she gasped.

            “Sorry,” the timid Lucas said. “I got lost.”

            “Oh,” Alicia muttered understandingly. “No prob. I’ll help you get back on track.”

            She intended to leave the wardrobe room on that note, but Lucas suddenly asked, “Do you know me?”

            Alicia frowned, focusing on his face. “You’re…Lucas, right?”

            “Yeah, but…that’s not what I mean,” Lucas clarified. “Do you share Si’s memories, since you and her are the same?”

            “Well…since she’s my future and I’m her past, only she can remember things that occur in the present time – not me. No offense, but why does this matter to you, Lucas?”

            Lucas didn’t rightly know himself. “I just…I feel like I can talk to you more than I can with Si, since…you know…”

            “I’m black?” Alicia knowingly grinned, her hands on her hips.

            “N-No! I mean…yes? Maybe?”

            Amused, Alicia told Lucas, “You’re free to ask me whatever you want that you can’t ask Si, and I’ll try my best to answer.”

            Accepting her invitation, Lucas started by asking, “Is this the first time you were a black person?”

            “Nope. I was African American once before – I was also a man at the time.”

            Lucas thought he was prepared for any revelations she would give in answering his questions, but that one factoid momentarily caught him off guard. Once he was able to stable himself, he continued, “Was it a hard adjustment?”

            “I only remember it being more of a challenge to be in certain places where I journeyed, depending on the place and era,” Alicia recalled.

            “Penz mentioned you dealt with some pretty messed up stuff in 1929. How’re you feeling after all of that?”

            Alicia heavily sighed, still visibly shaken by the events. “I’ll be alright…but thanks for asking.”

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            Much later in the Doctor’s console room, the group meeting began.

            Most of the core figures in the ongoing Cthulhu investigation were gathered: the three Gladiators, Skeeta, the Hawkins residents, Ben Tennyson, Newt Scamander, the Malfoys, Billy Batson, Ruth Wilder, Debbie Eagan, Jake Pentecost, and the Doctor.

            Even Hellboy fully recovered, having missed out on the whole adventure in 1929.

            Penz was the last one to arrive – much to the annoyance of Skeeta.

            Si began the proceedings with a plan for the Louisiana refugees: “We’re taking them to a realm where the Black Wall Street massacre never happened in 1921. They can look forward to decades of province and greater financial success for African American people than in any other reality.”

            “However, before we can do that, we have to deal with the threat Cthulhu still poses to the multiverse,” Alicia stated.

            “For that, we settled on making our final stand…at Hogwarts,” Maureen said.

            “Impossible!” Lucius cried out. “The school was destroyed by that creature that invaded our world!”

            “Just the foundation suffered Dalek Vec’s attack, Lucius,” Maureen told him. “The people have survived.”

            This update surprised the Malfoys.

            “Even Potter survived?” Draco asked. Maureen noticed how he didn’t say Harry’s name with the same loathing that he usually had. This time, it sounded more hopeful.

            “Harry was the one who was responsible for Hogwarts’ survival,” Maureen disclosed to Draco, although he wasn’t too surprised by that bit of information, based on Harry’s reputation.

            Getting back to their plan, Alicia said, “Si, the Doctor, and I will go to Jake’s world – at the Pacific Rim – to gather some Jaegers that’ll help in the fight, in addition to our special friend.”

            Jake, knowing who Alicia was referring to, giddily acknowledged, “Oh, man! This is gonna be good!”

            “I’ve already gotten to work on pylons that’ll create a field to lock Cthulhu in place long enough to send him into an inescapable pocket universe,” Skeeta informed. “But they’ll have to be positioned underwater, so as not to draw suspicion.”

            “We’ll buy you time, Pop,” Maureen guaranteed. “We’ll have all the wizards and witches of Hogwarts in this as well.”

            The plan seemed flawless to the group.

            Unfortunately, Max was disturbed by one thing: “What about Billy?”

            “What about me?” Billy Batson asked in confusion.

            “No, not you,” Max clarified. “I’m talking about my brother, Billy Hargrove. Si told me that she saw him with those freaks in that manor. We need to get him away from them!”

            “We will, Max,” Lucas told her. “If there’s anybody you can trust in any time and place in the universe to rescue your brother, it’s the Gladiator of Gallifrey.”