As on other occasions, the jump was as quick as the blink of an eye.
In an instant, Woe and Pup went from being in the hangar of a secret organization in another universe turned into a makeshift battlefield to finding themselves back in the reception area of the Addams Mansion, facing the stairs and with Grandmama standing there in front of them expectantly.
Eudora Addams could see immediately that something had gone terribly wrong. To the old witch it had barely been about ten seconds since the group had left. For only the variant of her granddaughter they had reunited with on their first jump and one more of those they had met three months before had returned, but there was no sign of anyone else…
The old woman approached the two girls, resting her hands on their shoulders.
"Mis pequeñas calamidades," she said, "What has happened?"
The first response she received was Pup exclaiming "Grandmama!" and hugging her with a death grip, while Woe merely looked down with a worried frown.
Minutes later, the three of them were at the kitchen table.
Grandmama had set before the two Wednesdays a couple of bowls filled with something that looked like bubbling mashed meat in which something seemed to move and squeak whenever it was impaled by a fork. The two young women told their story, interspersed. How they first traveled to Woe's dimension and recruited her along with Saint-Clair, managing to give a Shadow Hyde the slip at the last moment. Then they talked about the jump into Agent A's universe, the strangeness of the place and how everything soon went awry with the irruption of The Bright One.
"We underestimated them or got complacent," Woe said, "Honestly, I thought we'd have more time to find more allies and be able to set up a trap, but the enemy jumped in head on and without regard and their irruption was devastating."
"Capable of interdimensional travel, able to absorb magic, generate energy projections, telekinesis... It's grotesque stuff and I'd applaud it if I wasn't endangering my family," Eudora said, as she served another helping of screaming meat to the girls, "Normally magic users specialize in one or two things, diversifying so much usually leads to a loss of power in each of the paths of study due to lack of specialization. What you have described is outside the rules, though I should have anticipated it by now."
"We can't just stand idly by," Woe insisted, raising her hand where she was still wearing the ring, "Am I wrong in thinking that with this I can return to that dimension with hardly any time spent there?"
"Yes, but I wouldn't recommend it if the enemy is still present," the old witch said, "But on the other hand it's your best chance to find out what has become of the others."
"Theo and Dora had rings and they're not here," mused Pup, who had barely tasted the food, "Miss Enid isn't here either. With the rings they could have arrived about the same time we did but neither of them have turned up."
A grim silence fell over the place. Now, grim silences were usually a welcome thing in the Addams residence, but there was an uncomfortable bitterness in this one.
Eudora Addams frowned, "I don't like this situation. I don't like it at all. Wait here and replenish your strength, I'm going to my room to gather some things that might be useful," the witch said, "I'll call the rest of the family, it won't hurt to have extra hands."
With Grandmama absent, silence once again enveloped the room. After a brief moment, it was Woe who spoke.
"You've barely tasted the food," she said.
Pup gave a small gasp, snapping out of the thoughts that had her engrossed. She looked at Woe and then at her bowl. Indeed, she had barely touched the food, and the second extra ration was piled on top of the first in a battle for dominance.
"I'm not hungry," she said.
"That's understandable, I understand," Woe said, "You're worried about your beast."
Pup turned her head suddenly, looking at Woe with an irate look that startled the younger Addams, "Taylor's not mine! She's her own person!" she exclaimed, immediately widening her eyes in alarm at her own reaction.
"I'm...I'm sorry Woe," Pup said, "It's nerves. And all that business about her being a Hyde and me being her Mistress is... She's nobody's slave."
"Mmm," Woe said, nodding, "But you know very well that when I called her yours that's not what I meant, right?"
Pup's cheeks flushed slightly as she frowned, "She... I care about her. Very much. But... How do I know that whatever she feels for me is real and not a compulsion because of that bond that ties her to me? How can I live with myself if one word from me means she'll surrender all her will?"
"It doesn't sound so different than what's between mother and father. Or between…"
"No. It's not the same," Pup insisted, "Father and mother would kill for each other. They would commit atrocities for each other. Father would do anything mother ordered him to do, without hesitation. And vice versa. And I'm sure the same is true with Wednesday and Enid, or with you and…"
"Yes," declared Woe, matter-of-factly. There was no need to add more.
Pup nodded in response before continuing, "But at the end of the day, they are still themselves. And you are still yourselves. It's a decision out of love, but it's a decision. But one misspoken word from me and Taylor can't decide. One involuntary command on my part and Taylor could stop being Taylor. I know Wednesday insisted that's not the case, that only a direct order from me could affect her, but I can't help but worry anyway…"
"Well give her a clear command," Woe said, "Command her to always think for herself and make her own decisions when it comes to her feelings regardless of anything else you say."
"Uh... I'm not sure that's how that works," Pup replied.
"Whatever the case... it's a dilemma you won't be able to solve until you reunite," Woe continued.
"True," replied Pup, swallowing saliva, crestfallen again.
Woe sighed, "This kind of conversation is not my forte, but...", cautiously, and not without some uncomfortable stiffness, she began to gently pat Pup's head, "We'll find them, all of them. It'll be all right," she said, in an absolutely monochord tone of voice.
"I know. And thank you," Pup replied, "We'll rescue them and I'll make sure that piece of garbage in armor becomes dinner for my scorpion nest."
"I'll help you chop them up into pieces," Woe said, with a small murderous smile on her face and a gleam in her eye that promised pain and purifying fire. But her expression suddenly froze into one of alarm and tension as she set her sights on something behind Pup's back. Woe stood up, grabbing the knife from the table as if it were a weapon.
Pup turned, also rising so quickly that the chair she was in fell to the floor. A few feet behind her, near the door that joined the kitchen to the living room, an interdimensional portal was forming in the air. A circular distortion opening a hole in reality with a soft reddish, or pinkish glow.
And soon, the silhouette of a human figure became visible, crossing the threshold.
And the only remaining sound was a sigh of surprise escaping Pup's lips.
§§§
For Dora, Theo, Taylor and Saint-Clair, the leap was not like a blink of an eye. It was like a push.
For a second, Dora felt as if she was floating. In that brief fraction of time her brain had time to wonder if this sensation was the same as the one astronauts experienced in zero gravity. A thought so fleeting that it vanished immediately forgotten as the young lycanthrope noticed gravity pulling at her, causing her to fall to the ground with a groan.
"Ooof!"
Dora growled, more like a wolf than a person and sat down on the ground. She noticed the damp grass and dirt under her hands and could see that she was not in the Addams Mansion of Wednesday's dimension. Next to her, Saint-Clair was already standing, still in her feline form and seemingly unharmed, trying to discern what was in the distance. It was nighttime and a thick fog surrounded them, making everything invisible from about ten or fifteen feet away. The only visibility they had they owed to their keen senses and an intense full moon that provided a ghostly light.
Dora heard a faint whimper on her other side and looked back. Theo was there, kneeling before an unconscious Taylor, covering the naked Hyde with his coat as he tried to look away. Dora felt an immense relief wash over her. At least they hadn't materialized high above the ground, or inside a mountain, or sectioned into parts or merged with each other.
"Theo!" the lycanthrope exclaimed, sitting up and advancing to her brother to lift him up in a hug, "Are you okay, did you break something?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Theo replied, "But I still need to breathe, Dora."
Another whimper escaped Taylor's lips. Dora let go of her brother and knelt down next to the Hyde, "Tay-tay?" she asked.
"She has some serious burns and is still partially unconscious," Theo explained, "But her pulse is strong and she's breathing normally. I think we can move her, albeit carefully."
Saint-Clair reached over, emitting a sound akin to a low purr and picked up the unconscious Hyde, still wrapped in Theo's coat, with surprising gentleness. The werecat looked at the twins, waiting for directions. Dora shrugged her shoulders.
"Don't look at me, I have no idea where we've ended up, maybe I should... Oh, shit."
Dora had raised her hand to find that the ring had become a blackened, brittle piece of metal. She touched it gently and the jewel began to crumble into dust.
"Fuck, no..." the she-wolf muttered in a strangled voice.
"Well, you ain't seen nothing yet," Theo said, raising his right hand. His interdimensional ring was slightly more unscathed but equally partially charred, "It's still solid, but I wouldn't trust this thing to work right."
"How the hell...? But it was my ring that…"
"I can only assume that the excess energy discharge enveloped us all and affected this one as well," Theo said, frustrated.
"Well, what a bullshit convenience!" exclaimed Dora.
Saint-Clair cocked her head to one side, emitting an inquisitive mewl.
"Yes, wherever we are, I think we're stuck here," Theo replied, rubbing his arms to combat the cold, "But I suggest that if we're going to panic and fall into despair we do it somewhere warmer."
"Give me a minute and...," Dora said, starting to sniff, "Mmm, it's distorted, but there's a familiar scent around here somewhere nearby."
The lycanthrope began to move forward, totally absorbed by the scent she seemed to have found. Theo and Saint-Clair exchanged a glance before starting to follow her. They barely advanced about twenty paces when a shadow became visible in the mist.
"What the hell is that?" asked Theo.
The answer was prompt. As soon as they approached they could see that it was a grotesque, misshapen statue of a two-headed individual crowning a stone slab that...
"It's a tombstone!" exclaimed Dora.
"Are we in a cemetery?"
"Not just any cemetery, look!" said the she-wolf, pointing to the text inscribed on the old marble.
FAUNUS & CRISANTO ADDAMS
1912-1979.
THEY WERE FOREVER A MUTUAL TEETHING PAIN TO EACH OTHER
"We're in an Addams graveyard!" exclaimed Dora.
"Well, that's good news," said Theo, emitting a sigh of relief. Saint-Clair meowed in agreement.
"Funny, not many people would take that as good news," a new voice interrupted.
The three newcomers immediately stood back to back, facing in all directions and on guard.
"Oh, nice maneuver!" said the voice. It was a female voice, young, "But you needn't worry, I didn't even know you were here."
A figure emerged from the fog. A young girl, a teenager, wearing a sober dark blue dress stained with traces of wet earth. Her face was pale, her eyes black, and her dark hair was pulled back in two familiar pigtails. She held in her hands, resting it on her shoulders, a shovel to which she seemed to have been putting to recent use.
"I was just playing a round of Wake the Dead with my brother and a friend," explained what was no doubt the local Wednesday Addams, "I wasn't expecting to find visitors hanging around our cemetery," she said, smiling at them.
Saint-Clair snorted nervously. Dora and Theo exchanged a glance.
The smile had not been reassuring at all.
It had been like that of a shark.
§§§
Wednesday Addams did not open her eyes when she regained consciousness.
She did not change her breathing, did not move a muscle. She did nothing that would give away in any way that she had awakened, merely sharpening her hearing, smell and touch. She noticed that she was sitting on what seemed to be a chair... no, an armchair. Comfortable. Insultingly comfortable. The room she was in must have been well lit because she could perceive the clarity of the light flooding everything around her. There was something aseptic in the atmosphere that reminded her of a hospital without patients. The air seemed clean and pure in an almost artificial way.
She felt... good, which was strange. She could sense no pain in her body, nothing to indicate the combat she had fought or the damage she had sustained. No bruises, no broken ribs. She didn't even feel any fatigue.
How long has it been?, she thought.
"I know you're awake," The Bright One's voice said, breaking the silence, "And it's only been a couple of hours."
Wednesday opened her eyes.
The room she was in was white, totally white. So white that it was hard to discern the separation between ceiling, floor and walls, giving a false sense of infinity to the place. Wednesday was seated on a brown armchair, in front of a long and elegant dining table carved in dark wood, although totally devoid of plates, cutlery or ornamentation of any kind. The Bright One was there, standing with their arms folded, partially resting on the table, watching her. Their armor was once again pristine and untouched. No dirt, no blood, no claw marks.
Wednesday merely stared at the armored figure with a look that might have killed someone more impressionable.
"Relax, I'm not a telepath," The Bright One said, "I just gathered that you were probably thinking that."
Wednesday didn't answer, she merely glared at her enemy.
The Bright One returned the stare, unfazed.
"I see. The silent treatment. And here I thought you were going to start bombarding me with questions. Just know this is a privilege, I haven't done this with any of your other variants. They all went straight to the cells."
Wednesday remained unresponsive.
The Bright One stood up, separating themselves from the table as they snapped one of their fingers.
"Unless that's your plan! Not saying a word to goad me into verbosity. Clever, very clever, Weds."
The Addams' gaze grew colder.
"Oh, those eyes. Looking at me like you wish you could tear my skin to shreds right now... It's too bad the runes carved into that chair keep you from getting up unless I let you," The Brigh One said. They sighed, slowly moving forward until they stood in front of Wednesday. With another snap of fingers a chair appeared out of nowhere, this one plain and metal. The Bright One sat down in front of Wednesday. "You don't like me calling you Weds, certainly. Only she can call you that, am I wrong?"
And once again, silence. And a murderous look.
A minute passed, maybe two, in which no one else spoke or moved a muscle. Finally, The Bright One broke the silence again.
"You know who I am, don't you?" they asked, softly.
Wednesday didn't answer.
"Of course you know, you're not an idiot."
She continued to stare unblinkingly, wishing flames would escape her eyes to set the armored monster in front of her ablaze.
"You suspect it, to say the least."
She ignored the unpleasant feeling that was beginning to form in her stomach. A feeling that settled before her blackout in the hangar.
Weds.
They shouldn't call her Weds.
Finally, Wednesday spoke up.
"I don't care who you are," she said, "It doesn't change anything."
The Bright One nodded.
"Oh, of course. But let me formally introduce myself anyway."
The armored figure brought their hands to their head and gripped their helmet. There was a faint hiss, like pressurized air seeping out, and with a smooth motion, the helmet rotated an inch before being lifted and separated from the head it covered. The Bright One did not do this slowly, or ceremoniously. They simply extracted their helmet, in the same way a motorist would after abandoning his vehicle.
She set it down on the table, and turned to look at Wednesday with her own eyes.
Blue eyes, in a familiar face despite being already marked by maturity, the first wrinkles of age, and a once short golden hair now turned to a silvery white. A familiarity that Wednesday found grotesque and disconcerting. For those blue eyes were cold and dead with no warmth other than that of a feverish obsession.
The Bright One, Enid Sinclair, smiled.
A smile Wednesday had seen countless times but now frozen as if it were more of a grimace, a parody of itself. And yet, sincere and joyful. A monstrous dichotomy that intensified as she greeted Wednesday with cordiality and a voice that in other circumstances The Addams would have treasured.
"Howdy roomie."
NOTES
This chapter was supposed to be shorter, dammit 😂
Woe and Pup are safe, along with Grandmama Addams in Wednesday's universe... but it looks like there are surprises coming for them.
The twins, our favorite Greek werecat and our friendly neighbor Hyde have an encounter with a certain familiar shark.
And Wednesday confirms the identity of our adversary.
Oh, and whatever happened to our Enid, you ask? Be patient.
Also, a translation:
Mis pequeñas calamidades (spanish): My little calamities.
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