CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN


No one would know what it feels like to see the world through Philip's eyes, save one...his oldest enemy. The Storm Harvester lays dormant and waiting within the government research scientist Doctor Mordechai Isaac Fitzsimons. Since they recovered Fitzsimons from Afghanistan after he planted himself near the base in Kabul, he informed the government of what happened at the caves and how Philip Dresden was still alive and to blame for the ambush; making him an enemy of the state.

When Philip was hiding in Chinatown, as Jack Hanover, Dr. Fitzsimons was busy testing himself and the new power of the Harvester within him. He traveled back to Afghanistan for a term to help recover what remains were left from the cave battle. It was there that he made his first breakthrough with his work testing the Storm Harvester. When they searched for the fallen American soldiers, not much was recovered. Dr. Fitzsimons was the only one to find a somewhat whole corpse. He injected a serum he created from his own blood into Faulkner and took the dead sniper back to Washington.

A couple of days later Faulkner's blood began to warm throughout his veins, and his skin started regaining color. In the following weeks his heartbeat returned and pumped blue blood to his lungs and brain. Faulkner spent the next month in a coma, when he awoke it was the same day DarkFlood was first on the news for saving people in a New York City apartment building fire. Fitzsimons trained Faulkner to regain his physical strength. The Storm Harvester was not possessing the resurrected sniper like it was in Dr. Fitzsimons, but his speed and agility rapidly improved more than ever before. Soon his strength and mental capacity advanced only enough to plateau at an above-average level.

Faulkner was the perfect soldier; and the ultimate weapon against Philip Dresden.

Unfortunately for Dr. Fitzsimons after he ordered the execution of Sarah Dresden, and watched DarkFlood vow to avenge his dead wife, he knew he would need more than just Faulkner. Fitzsimons recruited just like Philip did, but where Philip was specific in his choices, Fitzsimons farmed an army of soldiers into what Faulkner was with a similar serum.

Weeks later, Dr. Fitzsimons returned to the United States from the Great Wall after his latest encounter with Philip and knew a legion of soldiers would still not be enough. This would take everything he had. So he carefully put together a multilayer plan that would set into motion the demise of DarkFlood. Fitzsimons first contacted a shadowed man hidden even from DarkFlood's visions. Fitzsimons explained to him what he was doing, and what he was meant for. What the shadowed man did not reveal is that he already knew what he was doing there.

He was a dark agent of fate, forgotten by time itself.

And that is exactly what the sinister scientist did, forget about him... Fitzsimons was able to simultaneously infiltrate the White House and go on a scouting trip to find his alpha squad and begin his assault on Philip. First Fitzsimons would attack the country, then he would hit New York City, after that the rest should take care of itself, for the city will turn on DarkFlood like a plague and devour itself in the process. His plan was almost perfect, only one variable remained...Philip.

* * *

Wall Street, New York

The skyscrapers in the city were emptied, all except the executive floors. A sweeping epidemic has gripped the business elite; transforming them one in the same. They huddled around their offices and chanted, going mad with power. The fax and printer paper burned in the savage fire as they gathered metal and plastic beside it. They broke chairs and desks, emptied their wallets and took off their watches. With the chant they boiled the pile down and stole the golden flame from the fire. The metal and plastic was turned to pure gold.

One man, one among them all stood up and did not go for the gold. It was still burning hot and as they went for it, he pulled it back upon him. He filtered the gold through their deaths and consumed the luminous force that was extracted.

"Many will call themselves it," Fitzsimons walked out, "But only one will truly turn gold to immortality. "

"What am I?"

"You're the Alchemist."

* * *

"Well..." Yvonne could not wait any longer, "Are you going to do it or not?"

Oliver smiled with his hand around the throat of a random person, he tears out his throat and lets his body fall dead to the floor. Oliver and Yvonne close their eyes and moan, she comes over and kisses Ollie to get some more of the energy released after his kill. A police officer sees them on the street. "STOP!" he yells.

Ollie runs over to a parked car, his feet cracking the road every step he takes, while Yvonne opens her eyes with pink fire emitting from them. The fire spills out of her head and follows her jet black hair down her shoulder. When the translucent flame gets to her hand it comes together and intensifies, creating a sword.

The cop pulls out his gun and yells again, "Stop or I'll shoot!"

Ollie picks the car up with his bare hands and the cop opens fire. Yvonne jumps in the way and slices apart the bullets with her kinetic sword. Ollie throws the car over her and pulverizes the cop into the road with it. Fitzsimons walks out of the building with the Alchemist. "This is who I was telling you about-" he says.

"The immortal three..." someone interrupts.

"Who's there?" Fitzsimons arms himself with static lightning bouncing back and forth in his palms.

An alleyway trashcan rattles and the Hatter back-flips into the streetlight, "I'm the one who shows you how to find him..."

CHAPTER FORTY SIX


Ripped into the fray, Philip Dresden knew what he must do...sacrifice the fight for humanity's soul in order to save the world. The Two Suns prophecy was a travesty wrapped in a simple trajectory: first a second sun appeared in the sky, next mankind evolves into a super race, and finally the Two Suns would both go out...killing the entire world. Philip was outside of all this looking in, he was the only one capable of doing something to prevent the end of the world. Except it would not take something from Philip, it would take everything.

He still had some time before that day would come. And in this time, Philip would train his successors and hope they had what it would take to stop temptation and corruption from triumphing over humanity. When townies can move buildings with their minds, when children become living reincarnations of some of their most beloved video games and comic books, when corporate executives can turn inanimate objects to gold, when the common man is faster than a speeding bullet; when anything is possible people lose themselves in the excess.


Moses' Apartment, New York


Philip woke up in the middle of the night, got out of bed, and left his room. He walked down the hallway in the dark. He could hear the television and Jason snoring in the living room. It was a full house, even with Lazarus taking Dr. Randolph in at his apartment. Philip walked across the long floor, passing the doors to the other bedrooms. On his way to the bathroom the doors shivered. Philip stopped.

He got close to the reverberating doorknobs to examine them when they shattered splinters of wood and shrapnel at him. The wind picks up the mess and funnels it out of the way. The walls have been breached by the phantom-snatched doors and wiped in utter blackness. The floor blended with the shadow canvas, and Philip focused on the stars withdrawing what little light there was from the darkness. Philip reaches out and touches the newborn stars. They activate and shoot across the wall back down the hallway toward the living room.

The light from the television snaps Philip out of it and he can see the doors and the hallway again. He hears the comforts of the network broadcasting early morning news while he strolls to the bathroom,"...That's right Dave, mysterious reports of entire species disappearing all over the world..." But Philip was too busy trying to rationalize what he saw as nothing more than a dream to really listen to the outlandish news report. Before he opens the bathroom door he realizes the sound from the TV news was gone and replaced by static.

The static reflects off the wall in front of him and he lets go of the door to the bathroom. He is pulled down the hallway and turns around to face the vacant way. Instead of the rest of the apartment, Philip is being pulled towards the stars in space. The closer he gets to them, the bigger the stars get. It is not until he is right beside them that he can tell they are living planets and are unwillingly being pulled along with him. How can this be happening? Philip looks over at the planets, they're...orbiting...around him. Philip stands up in his DarkFlood gear.

The great orbs give him gravity.

DarkFlood can see the oncoming storm. He flies into it and carries the city on his back. Chains and whips claw at him in the fury of the celestial cloud. DarkFlood breaks through it and releases the city on the rock. It floats away to safety, but Philip is pulled on...

He loses control again as the planets collide all around him. He closes his eyes and grinds the remnants of the dead orbs to dust. It forms around him in sharp rings; condensed stone constantly in motion. The rings lift him up and buckle him wildly down the tractor. Philip charges the rings and throws them down the current to light up his path.

The rings explode in the space cascade, revealing the black hole. It is Betelgeuse, the fallen star. The super nova that is still lighting up the Earth's sky with a photograph of itself long after it has collapsed. Philip plummets into the black hole. Before he wakes up his DarkFlood gear burns off in a blue effervescent light.

Philip is still in his bed. It was just a dream, but to him it was real. His visions were so consistent it felt as though he never dreamed anymore, but just witnessed the future. Maybe that's what it would take? What if Philip just saw the answer to stopping the sun from going out? If he clogs the black hole, perhaps that will stop the ripple affect from reaching Earth's solar system.

It was a long shot, but up until now Philip had nothing else, no prior theory. Philip got out of bed and began putting his DarkFlood gear on. For the first time since he began this crusade, Philip saw the end of the line for DarkFlood. The day was coming when Philip Dresden would be purged of all his humanity, all in the name of Earth's salvation.