I woke up to the sound of a click-flick-flicking of a Zippo lighter. My head felt like it had been smashed and put back together by a very angry four-year-old. I was sitting in a chair of some kind. It would have been comfortable, but for the fact that, one, my head was throbbing where the psycho girl had left boot marks. Fact two was made evident when I groaned and tried to put my poor noggin in my hands, I couldn't. My arms were bound behind my back with handcuffs – so much for the Mantle. I was groggily trying to fumble my fingers around when that hair-raising voice spoke.

"Ohhh good, you're awake!" The voice was tinny and scratchy, like it came from a speaker that was too close to me. Somehow that was even more unnerving. I dared to open my eyes and was rewarded with a lance of pain as harsh light flooded through them directly into my protesting brain. "I was beginning to worry Neo had been too rough with you." The blurry room came into focus after I blinked a few times.

"You know me, hard-headed as they come." As retorts go, it wasn't my best. Then again, neither was I at the moment. The room I was in looked like an old vault of some kind. The walls were covered in those lock-boxes that needed two keys to open. Apart from the chair I sat in and a couple of floodlights, the room held nothing else. Well, except me. The wall in front of me looked newer, and had a heavy glass picture window set in it. Roman Torchwick stood on the other side of it, and was idly leaning on his cane. Behind him a row of monitors showed different angles of the fight I'd apparently just been dragged away from. Murphy and Yang were still duking it out with Itsy, which seemed to be dragging one of its legs and moving sluggishly.

"That's right, Harry Dresden. It cost a lot to have this conversation, so pay attention." I turned my glare back to him. It wasn't the first time I'd been captured so a bad guy could yammer at me. I doubted this would be any more productive, but I wasn't going anywhere. I decided to take a page out of Fix's book.

"You wanna talk? Fine, talk." He nodded and I leaned back into the chair.

"Straight to the point – I like it." He tapped his cane on the ground and seemed to consider where to begin. "I've heard quite a lot about you, wizard. If half the rats in this city are to be believed, you're a towering inferno of death and destruction." I stared at him. Butters had tried to explain that to me when I was doing my ghost impersonation. I hadn't realized that was how some people saw me. It was not a flattering thought to have. "On the other hand, if what the other half have to say about you is true, this is probably a wasted conversation. Still, everyone says you at least listen, so I'm going to lay it out for you." I suppose he had a point. I'd been on the short end of the nobody's-listening-to-me stick enough times that I gave everyone a chance if they at least tried to talk. I mean, it was probably a waste of time with this… guy, but I wasn't exactly going anywhere.

"I'm sure Blondie's told you all about our little pocket of Hell. I spent most of my life on the wrong side of things - whatever it took to survive, I did it. Make a little money, have some fun, sure, but at the end of the day, it was always about choices that kept us alive." I hoped he wasn't going to be that villain who told me his whole terrible life's story. That would just be sad.

"Yeah? How'd that work out for you?"

He lifted his hand and drummed the claws against his mask. "This is where my choices have led me. I'm still alive, and my new look certainly has… benefits. I made a deal, something I hear you know a bit about."

I scowled. Something told me that he hadn't sacrificed his humanity to save anyone but himself. "What's your point?" I growled.

"My point, Mr. Dresden, is that I've let my choices be dictated by others, and I've tried both sides of the good versus bad coin. I had to make a hefty bargain to stay in the land of the living, but everyone runs out of luck eventually. It's all 'bullshit', as you say. I was about ready to throw in the towel, hang up my hat so to speak… until yesterday."

I looked at him in disbelief, "So monster farming was your first thought? I gotta tell you, Roman, that sounds pretty cliché."

Torchwick smirked, "An apt description if ever I heard one! Listen, Dresden, those 'innocent people'? Monsters, all of them. Each one had some nasty dirt on them; all I did was bring what was inside to the surface. Believe me, I was doing you people a favor."

I stared at him hard. Was he actually trying to sell the vigilante angle? "When I first came here, I knew I stumbled into a real shitshow. I can smell the evil in your world, courtesy of Genesis, and let me say, this Earth is full of evils worse than me." Well, there was no denying that. I'd sure as hell seen my fair share of it, and it only seemed like things were getting worse as the world spun on.

"So, what? You're the punisher then, cleansing the world of evil wherever you go?" I laughed, "Sorry if I don't take you at your word."

Roman shook his head and waggled his free hand back and forth.

"Don't put words in my mouth, Dresden; this isn't about cleaning up your dreary little city to make it more bearable for me to stay in. That's not going to happen." But it already had. What was he getting at? "Part of the deal was for me to find resources here to use back home. But again, that's one of those decisions someone else made. Now that your girls have opened up the door, I've got a better idea. Thing is, I'm a little low on manpower. Which is where you come in."" Here it comes…

"What could you possibly need me for?"

"What's that old Earth saying? Better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven? The Grimm on Remnant are being corrupted, if you can imagine such a thing. I want to take control." I couldn't help it. I laughed in his face.

"You people are all the same. You want to 'talk', but in the end it's always a sales pitch. Join up, step aside, get this, do that. What do I look like to you, a goddamn magical vending machine?" I was so overwhelmed with incredulity that my vision was dimming at the edges.

"Are you suggesting that you could be paid for your help? If so, I can certainly understand that." I laughed weakly this time. He just didn't get it.

"No, I can't be bought." The corners of his mouth turned down in an exaggerated frown.

"That's a shame, really. We could have accomplished so much together." I'd finished exploring what I could with my hands, and nothing useful was in reach – even my shield bracelet was gone. I tried to pull in the energy for a spell, probably my last. The fight on the monitors looked like it was coming to a close. Murphy was hacking at Itsy's neck while Yang kept it from batting Karrin aside. At that moment, the girl who'd beat me like a red-headed stepchild came into view. She paused and gave me a sunny smile as if she hadn't just given me a concussion, then reached out to tug on his sleeve. He looked around at her with a grin.

"Ah, Neo, is it done?" She gave him an altogether different kind of smile than the one I'd gotten, and she nodded enthusiastically. "Excellent!" He patted her on the shoulder and turned back to me, and then strode forward. "Well, it looks like your friends will be along any minute now, so I'll leave you with one last thought. Salem isn't like anything you've ever faced before, and she's the one controlling the Grimm. If she has her way, she won't stop with Remnant. Imagine that little sports event you just left times a hundred thousand or more, here on Earth. You would be much better off with me on your side than leaving me to fend for myself". He reached inside his jacket and brought out a device that looked like Yang's scroll. He set it in the frame, leaned up against the glass. "When you get to Remnant, call us if you change your mind." He reached below the frame and pushed something. A timer replaced the camera views of the factory, counting down from five minutes. "I wouldn't stick around here too long, if I were you, though."

"Wait, that's it? You're just going to let us go?" Neo stepped forward and swung my shield bracelet around a couple of times before dropping it on the frame, next to the scroll.

"I tried to tell you there was more to this than you thought. Think it over. You're sitting on the key, by the way." He turned and linked arms with Neo, then sauntered off as I stared in open-mouthed shock. I jumped in surprise as part of the wall next to the window hissed emitted a loud clank, swinging open partway. I shook my aching head and squirmed to feel around for the key, which was exactly where he'd said. It took me a moment to get free, and I stood up cautiously as I rubbed my wrists. My brain kicked in and hands reached up to my neck. I felt a wide band of metal mesh but couldn't get my fingers underneath it. Screw it; I didn't need the Mantle to run away. I went to the wall and heaved the door open.

I paused at the window long enough to snatch up my bracelet and the scroll, both of which I shoved in a pocket of my duster. It didn't take me long to puzzle out which way to go and I stumbled my way up a flight of stairs. The came up to a small room with an open doorway, and I came out and found myself staring directly into the business end of a P-90. Karrin lowered it in shock, and Yang drew up beside her, holding my staff and blasting rod.

"Harry! What happened? We were-"

"No time! Get this damned thing off my neck – we need to haul ass out of here." She frowned, but reached up and dug her smaller fingers between the band and my windpipe, nearly choking me in the process. When she had a good grip on it, she concentrated and gave a tug. It came apart with a weird tearing sound and she stepped back. The Mantle slipped back into me with frosty reassurance, and I pulled enough into me to clear my head.

"Boom?" She asked.

"Yeah, we've got about two minutes." I grabbed each of them by an arm and spun them around. I then gave them both an urgent shove and shouted, "Run!" We all took off like a shot and emerged from the short hallway, back into the factory room. Yang led us around the pit and made a beeline for the entrance. She and Karrin both started to outpace me, so I pulled more Winter and used it to catch up. If we weren't running for our lives, I'd have made a race of it. We got outside and when they slowed, I shoved them again.

"Keep going!" I had no idea what sort of explosion to expect. Knowing Roman it would probably be big and flashy. I dug out my shield bracelet and slapped it on my wrist while Karrin veered away and shouted a warning into her radio. We skidded to a halt behind her car and she rejoined us. I put a half dome shield around us and hoped that whatever had been planned, I'd have enough energy to hold it back. We watched the building as my mental countdown estimated the time left.

"Ten seconds." Those seconds came and went. Five more passed before anyone spoke.

"Well, that was anticli-" Karrin started, but then there were dozens of small flashes in three lines across the face of the factory, followed by a loud crump. The building collapsed in on itself in a thunderous peal of screaming metal and a plume of dust. When the din dropped into silence, Karrin looked at me with her serious eyes.

"Harry?" I winced.

"Yes, Karrin?" I hunched my shoulders.

"What do you have against buildings?"

"Yeah, Harry, they're the bomb!" Yang said with a grin. "Eh? Ehh?" Karrin looked like she didn't want to laugh, but she did anyway.

"I am so not drunk enough for this job."

A/N - Welcome back gang! I've got a couple of bits for you this time. First and foremost, I want to thank each and every one of you who comes to read my little story, and to those that leave me reviews or send me pm's. I also have a few numbers for those of you curious about that sort of thing - since I published this a year ago, it's received over 33k visitors (spread across 41 countries!) and 41k views! And though technically I didn't cross the 40k word count boundary until chapter 17 (these author notes don't count), this is still the single longest running piece of fiction I've written. It makes me immensely happy to see that so many people have enjoyed it, and as Act I comes to a close, I look forward to carrying on the tale and providing more entertainment.

I would like to give special thanks to LydiaRogue and Rapidfyre for their many edits, suggestions, and discussions - Thanks Guys! :)

The second piece of information I have to share is that I've solidified plans to take my skills and apply them to an original piece of fiction. I have a P atr e on page ready to go once the first chapter of Artificial Outlaw is ready to post, which should be finished by the end of the month. If you add a slash and my username to the end of the website address, you can find me there. The page is blank for now, but it's already prepped and just waiting to be turned on. (and if you want to follow me on twtter, I'll be using both in tandem).

I want to again stress that I will never do this with any of the fanfiction I write - I will keep updating them here for as long as there is an interest.