Stronger Together chapter 94 (Patreon)

We made it back to the house around noon. The time difference in  faerie made it pretty much impossible to estimate what time we would be  in so we decided to surprise everyone. We stopped as we stepped out of  the car, staring up at the gorgeous Suburban house we all shared, huge  smiles on our faces. Even Cinder looked a bit excited to be home. Harry  gave us all hugs and made us promise to bring Yang over for a lesson the  next day so he could check her progress. He was planning to work with  her alone when he had time in the next few weeks to make sure she was up  to snuff.

Before  we could even turn back though a piercing squeal split the air  "BESTIE!" We all turned as a blurring form slammed into Kara. Morgan had  been on the phone with the Kyrptonian almost as much as Inari had and  they were actually incredibly close. Sadly Kara had been spending all  her time back at the house with Inari and Morgan had been feeling left  out. Seeing her bestie home the vampire had been out the door faster  than anyone could blink and was squeezing the tiny blonde for all she  was worth.

Yang  came barreling out to dog pile onto the blonde but quickly stepped back  because it was so crowded. She came over gave me and Barb each a  squeeze telling us how much she missed us and promising to catch us up  on her training. She mentioned wanting a spar and I couldn't wait for a  chance to show off everything I'd been working on. I still had to do my  Klurkor exercises for the day, but I'd just do them before bed and sleep  in the bath again. Kara said it was impossible to drown in nutrient  fluid unless you'd drained it first and you would definitely wake up if  you started choking on water so it was fine.

Sam  came out the door behind her at a more sedate pace stepping up to give  Cinder a quick squeeze and a smile. Inari was right behind her and  glomped onto Kara, ignoring her cousin and just hugging them both. Kara  giggled "You both saw me like a few days ago! It is nice to feel wanted  though. How has everything been the last couple days? Everyone been ok?"  She said everyone but we all knew she meant Inari. Since she'd had to  stay up in Colorado while we did all the prep for the final fight she  had been beside herself worrying about her girlfriend. Knowing Inari's  dad was still around had her seriously spooked.

I  honestly suspect she might have gone down and smote the bastard or  dropped a building on him if he wasn't Inari's father. But sociopathic  monster or not killing your girlfriends dad was a bad move in a serious  relationship. Kara had been beside herself and if not for Raven making  sure to update us on our nightly calls I dont think she'd have lasted  the month up there even with her daily commutes in the beginning. Morgan  was the one who answered smiling her giant smile "No way! It's been so  boring actually Raven is so strict and even tells me when to go to bed. I  missed you so bad we have to go out and have some fun!"

I  grinned at the enthusiastic short stack and her off the wall behavior,  but at the mention of my girlfriend I spun around to search for her. She  was standing behind me when I turned, smiling softly as I swept her up  in my arms and squeezed her against me. Feeling her warm softness as I  hugged her I laid a firm kiss on those plump purple lips of hers. She  moaned and leaned into the kiss before breaking it off with a sqeak at  the sound of a slap. I looked behind her and saw Barb shaking out her  hand "Hey, don't bogart the girlfriend, I want a kiss too."

I  laughed and dropped her, and she turned to pull Barb into an equally  passionate kiss. I rolled my eyes at the redhead "If I was as petty as  you I would time your hello kiss and cut you off after the amount of  time you ended mine, but since I'm such a compassionate and caring  boyfriend I'll just wait here." They kissed for another minute or so. I  cleared my throat, checking my watch in an obvious manner "Yup. Just sit  here and wait for you guys to finish. I have the patience of a saint." I  sat there for another minute before finally losing that patience and  snatching Raven from Barb throwing her over my shoulder.

Barb  gave a squawk of indignation as i bolted for the house "Hey, what  happened to the patience of a saint? Get back here it's my turn." I  heard her barreling after me and heard Raven giggling at our games and I  couldn't help but smile. It felt damn good to be home. I barreled  through the door to my room and threw Raven and the bed jumping on after  her and curling against her as I felt the familiar smell and feeling of  being next to her in our bed. Barb didn't bother saying a word she just  hopped in after as shoving herself between the two of us and snuggling  in as we both laughed.

My  bed felt warm and soft and smelled of Raven and the forest on mine and  Barb's clothes and I just sat there smiling as we all cuddled, thrilled  to be with my girls at home again. I didn't want to leave this bed for  the next year, I knew we had other things to do, but this whole past  month while amazing and fun was without a doubt also one filled with  loneliness as I missed Raven. I knew Barb felt the exact same way and  didn't hold it against me and it was nice to bond over how much we cared  for her and each other, snuggling and even having sex after our nightly  calls with our girl.

Raven  seemed to enjoy the cuddling just as much, but even her legendary  stoicism couldn't keep her from commenting on the obvious. "So, not to  kill the mood here, but care to tell me why one of your arms appears to  be made of living metal now? Because I feel like I would have noticed  that before, not to mention the stuff is emitting magical energy so  dense I could probably swim it. I've never seen a material like this  before, what is it and why is it one of your limbs now?" I blinked, not  even having remembered the damn arm. It was almost unnatural how quickly  I got used to it, but I guess it was tied to my soul kind of so it made  sense.

I  exhaled loudly as we climbed out of bed. "That is actually a fairly long  story, and not one I want to tell twice. Let's get everyone together in  the dining room so we only have to tell it once, we kind of rushed past  the others anyway, guess we were a bit excited to see our girl." Barb  pouted and groaned into the mattress but finally climbed out of bed  pecking Raven on the lips as she dragged herself away from the remains  of the cuddle puddle. Raven smiled us both, laying back on her elbows  looking up at us softly as if trying to save this moment in her brain  forever.

We  all piled into the kitchen to wait for the others. The great thing about  living with a Kryptonian is you never need to shout to call a house  meeting, you can just mention it out loud and she can hear it. Sure  enough, Kara brought everyone else with her into the kitchen. Morgan  bounced happily into her seat "So Kare-bear said you guys needed us  inside? Are we going to hear about your crazy adventures?" She pouted  cutely "Nobody would tell us what was going on while you were gone." I  noted her use of Kara's nick name but I just put it down to Morgan being  Morgan.

It  surprised me no one had filled them in on the broad strokes of things  but upon careful consideration I actually kind of got it. Morgan was  reckless at the best of times. If someone told her about a black court  next nearby and that they were following her "bestie" who knew what she  would do. She might just charge off into the dark and hunt them down  herself. Waiting for us to get back made the most sense because Kara was  the only person around capable of actually containing Morgan with the  exception of possibly Raven.

I  decided the smart call was just to go over everything. Tell them the  whole trip and anyone who knew what was happening already would just  hear it twice. So that was what I did. I started with the Canotila and  our trip there, I mentioned the meeting with Tara, the Pawapicts, the  older wizards and their tutoring. I mentioned Tera West and the vampires  and the thralls and the Skinwalker, and I showed them all my arm,  watching their eyes go wide as they stared at the beautifully shining  metal.

Everyone  just kind of stared in shock as we recounted the final battle, staring  at my arm in wonder as we talked about the massive construct and the  power it held and the changes my hand had undergone. I even showed them  the ring I'd made with that small amount of the stuff.

 Yang had picked  the thing up and weighed it in her hand, biting down on the powerful  metal. "This stuff would make an amazing mechashift weapon if we could  get enough of it. Granted based on what you said we would need a massive  amount of energy but I could make molds of the parts and have you shape  them for me. I've been wanting to get you guys weapons for ages but  with no dust alloys making them is prohibitive."

I  hadn't even considered that one. RWBY weapons were amazing, and if we  could get our hands on some we would all be much stronger for it. It  would definitely be something to look into not to mention adapting the  scroll batteries with the stuff to maybe create something more mass  producible. Granted only I could make godsteel but still this might be  the answer to our problems. Everyone seemed a bit lost for words as they  all took in the enormity of everything that had happened. I'd been  expecting some shock so i just waited it out while they all processed.

To  the surprise of exactly no one Morgan was the first to break the  silence. "Well then what should we do now? Like if the Black Court is in  town trying to blot out the sun I say we have to stop them. This ass  looks stunning regardless of coloration but sometimes a girl likes to  tan. I'm against that shit. We have to stop them, any ideas what this  vamp was going on about? What this Iron Crown is?" She sounded more  serious than I could ever remember hearing her, stoic almost, at least  for her.

I  shook my head sadly. "Nope. No clue, which is a big problem but I know  someone else who might. I'm going to check in with a source and Harry  will do the same and we're going to figure out what this thing is. No  one wants to live in permanent midnight ruled over by a bunch of crazy  vampires and their mindless thralls. I can't imagine the damage those  bastards could do picking off society from the shadows in a pitch black  world." Naturally the source I mentioned was Bob and we were checking in  with him when I brought Yang and Barb over for training tomorrow.  Hopefully he knew what was what. This entire plan needed to be stopped.