LABOR PAINS

  Everything bleeds differently when it's your own blood at stake.

  Dresden's quantum abilities manifest in our underground sanctuary's training room. Again. Reality hiccups as he exists in three places simultaneously, each version throwing punches that ignore physics entirely. My strings dance between his attacks, more from muscle memory than actual speed these days.

  "Better," I say, watching him phase through a lightning-wrapped string that would have taken his head off. "But you're still thinking linear. Reality isn't a straight line."

  He grins - all his mother's danger wrapped in my capacity for violence. "Like this?"

  The air shatters. Dresden splits into five quantum states, each one attacking from angles that shouldn't exist. His fist connects with my jaw from an angle that splits reality open. Blood tastes like copper and pride. My strings react automatically, wrapping around him in a web of electric death. But he's already somewhere else. Some when else. Some how else.

  "Got you, old man," he laughs, reforming behind me. Twelve years old and already making reality his plaything.

  I turn, trying to hide my smile. "You sure about that?"

  My strings, wrapped in the last remnants of Maelstrom's stolen power, catch him mid-quantum shift. Lightning arcs between black threads. For a moment, all five versions of Dresden exist in the same space, each one wearing an identical expression of surprise.

  Reality snaps back. Dresden crashes to the floor, all five versions collapsing into one bloody heap.

  "Ow," he groans from the floor. "That's cheating."

  "No such thing as cheating in a real fight." I help him up, noting how reality warps slightly around him. Even at rest, he makes physics nervous. "Your enemies won't play fair."

  "Like the twins?" His voice carries edge. He's heard the stories. Seen the scars.

  Before I can answer, Scarlett's scream echoes through our bunker. Not pain - something worse. Dresden's quantum field flares instinctively. My strings taste copper and possibility.

  We find her in the living area, doubled over. Eight months pregnant and her probability field's going haywire. Reality ripples around her like heat waves off hot asphalt.

  "The baby," she gasps, power making her form shift through quantum states. "Something's wrong."

  I remember Dresden's birth. The way it nearly killed her. The way her powers never quite recovered. This pregnancy's been worse - each trimester making her probability manipulation more unstable.

  Dresden moves to help his mother, but I grab his arm. My strings taste something ancient in the air. Something wrong.

  "Get back-" I start to say.

  The attack comes from everywhere.

  Reality tears open like wet paper. Time parts like a curtain. The twins step through, temporal power making existence cry. Behind them, their new Fellowship brings abilities that tear holes in reality's fabric.

  "Hello, puppet master," Lark says, perfect suit pristine as always. "Family reunion time."

  Nyx stands beside his brother, no more black blood, no more temporal damage. Just pure, clean power thrumming through him like a second heartbeat. His eyes fix on Dresden. "So this is what you've been hiding."

  The fight starts like they always do - with reality having a seizure.

  Ajax, now evolved beyond his liquid metal form, becomes living mercury mixed with quantum uncertainty. The bone witch's calcium constructs exist in multiple dimensions simultaneously. Their light wielder splits into a trinity of nuclear fury.

  My strings explode outward, but they feel weak. Distant. Like trying to hold smoke with chopsticks. Years of playing father instead of power thief have taken their toll.

  Dresden proves he's learned his lessons well.

  He splits into seven quantum states, each one attacking with power that makes physics write letters of resignation. His fist connects with Ajax's liquid metal jaw from three different dimensions at once. The impact sends ripples through reality itself.

  Nyx's temporal bubble shatters like glass, blood spraying from his nose. His eyes lock on Dresden, recognition and fear mixing into something ugly. "You bred a weapon."

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  Scarlett laughs between contractions, the sound wet with blood. Her probability field rips holes in the air. "We bred your extinction."

  The bone witch moves like a nightmare, her calcium constructs growing more complex with each passing second. Bone spears erupt from quantum space, trying to pin Dresden down. He exists everywhere and nowhere, each version of him leaving trails of broken physics in his wake.

  I pour everything into my strings. Lightning arcs between black threads as I engage the twins directly. They move as one, their combined temporal power making my stolen abilities feel like party tricks.

  "You've gotten slow," Lark taunts, aging my attack to dust before it can touch him. "Domestic life made you weak."

  Nyx follows up with a temporal blast that carries the weight of centuries. Pain becomes my universe as time tries to age me to dust. But pain? Pain's just weakness leaving the body.

  Dresden sees me fall. All seven versions of him scream in quantum harmony. The sound makes reality forget how to exist properly.

  What happens next rewrites everything we thought we knew about power.

  Dresden's quantum field explodes outward. Not like before - this is something new. Something ancient. Something that makes even the twins pause.

  He exists in every possible state simultaneously. Each version of him wielding different powers, different abilities, each one more savage than the last. Some throw lightning that burns through temporal barriers. Others twist space into bleeding knots. A few touch reality and leave nothing but void behind.

  "Now that's interesting," Lark says, actually taking a step back. "Brother?"

  Nyx nods, understanding passing between them. "Take the mother. Kill the rest."

  Their Fellowship moves as one. Ajax becomes a tsunami of liquid metal and quantum uncertainty. The bone witch turns air itself into a forest of calcium thorns. Their light wielder goes supernova.

  But Dresden...

  Dresden shows them what true power looks like.

  Each version of him manifests different abilities. Some stolen, some evolved, some that shouldn't exist at all. He fights like every lesson I ever taught him combined with power born instead of taken.

  His fist, existing in nine dimensions simultaneously, connects with Ajax's liquid metal form. The impact doesn't just hurt Ajax - it erases the very concept of his existence. Mercury becomes memory becomes nothing.

  The bone witch tries to cage him in quantum calcium. Dresden splits into more versions than reality can count, each one breaking her constructs in different ways. Some age the bone to dust. Others turn it into light. A few simply make it forget how to exist.

  "Enough," Lark snarls. The twins combine their power, temporal energy making existence scream.

  Everything stops. Not like before - deeper. Absolute. The kind of temporal freeze that made Chronos himself pause.

  But Dresden...

  Dresden just laughs. The sound echoes through frozen time like broken glass through empty halls.

  "You still don't understand," all versions of him say simultaneously. "Time is just another quantum state."

  He moves through their temporal lock like it isn't there. Each version of him attacking from angles that reality gave up trying to describe. The twins' perfect temporal manipulation shatters under quantum assault.

  But we've forgotten something important.

  Scarlett screams. Not battle rage - pure agony. Her probability field fluctuates wildly as labor contractions hit. Reality ripples around her like waves in a pond made of broken physics.

  The twins see their chance.

  While Dresden's focused on their Fellowship, they make their move. Temporal power combines with evolved abilities. A cage of frozen time and quantum uncertainty wraps around Scarlett.

  "No!" Dresden's scream exists in every possible reality simultaneously. The sound makes existence itself flinch.

  But he's twelve. Still learning. Still bound by love and fear and the need to protect. His quantum field flickers as emotion overwhelms training.

  The twins press their advantage. Time and space bend around them as they tear a hole in reality itself. Their Fellowship retreats through the portal, taking Scarlett with them.

  "Mom!" Dresden's quantum states collapse into a single point of grief and rage. He moves to follow, but I grab him. Hold him back with strings that feel weaker every second.

  "Let me go!" he struggles, power making reality hiccup. "They're taking her!"

  "And they'll kill you if you follow," I say, though each word tastes like ash. Like failure. "We need to be smart about this."

  The twins pause at their portal's edge. Lark's perfect suit now shows tears from Dresden's assault. Nyx actually looks afraid.

  "The child she carries," Lark says, temporal power making his voice echo. "It's the key to everything. The one who can truly access the spaces between spaces."

  "You can't stop what's coming," Nyx adds, actually looking sorry. "The Unweaving is just the beginning."

  They step through their portal. Reality seals behind them like a scar healing wrong.

  Dresden collapses in my arms, quantum field flickering with grief and rage. The power that just rewrote our understanding of ability now feels small. Child-like. Lost.

  "We'll get her back," I promise, holding my son while reality remembers how to exist properly. "We'll make them pay."

  He looks up at me with eyes that see too much. That exist in too many quantum states simultaneously. "How? You felt it. Your powers are weak now. And they're stronger than ever."

  I smile, all teeth and bad intentions. "Then it's time for me to remember who I used to be."

  After all, every puppet master knows the most dangerous strings...

  Are the ones your enemy doesn't see until it's too late.

  The game's changing. Rules breaking down. The twins think they've won.

  But they've forgotten something important.

  Sometimes the most dangerous monster...

  Is a father with nothing left to lose.