On a grey silver world, filled with technology and steel, in a room high above, a man stands trapped behind a barrier while a woman looks on in concern.

“Oooo…I fucked up.” The man said reaching out touching the barrier then flinching back. “Yup. I definitely fucked up.”

On the other side was the woman looking into the cage, “Come on we need to go.”

“I think I'm stuck.’ The man said chagrined.

“Your messing with me.” The woman saw the concern on the man’s face, “Please tell me you are messing with me.”

“I am not.” The man was walking around his cage probing looking for a way out.

“How?” The woman didn’t even understand how this was possible. ‘How could they cut him off even from the in-between?’

The man looked back to her, “Remember the sock wards?

The woman looked over the cage again, “You're in a fairy trap?” Then not being able to help herself, “Are you sure you're not a fairy?”

“Yes.” The man said annoyed, “Shit. Shit shit.” The panic in the man's voice was freaking the woman out.

“Please try to calm down. Panic won’t help.”

“I would if this wasn't bad.” The man replied then froze, “You need to get out of here.”

The woman’s head swiveled around the room looking for something about to fall on her.

“They’re coming.”

“Shit!” The woman bolted jumping into the between as the door slid open, to reveal a military man and a small child with silver disks floating around him.

The man composed himself looking at the 2 people, “Hello.”

“Hello again.” The child says with an eager smile.

“Hello.” The military man says, looking annoyed he had to be there.

“So...” The man looked the child up and down trying to figure out what they wanted, “You caught me, and that's probably not a good thing.”

“It is for us.” The child said wryly.

The man shook his head, “Not really.”

“We have a few questions for you,” The military man said trying to move things along.

“Ok shoot.” The military guy reached for his gun as the man shouted, “Not literally! God learn a turn of phrase man.”

“He's just a bit on edge, he recently learned this world isn't the only one, and that a lot of children are actually old mages.” The child chuckled.

“Yeah, that would put someone on edge.”

“We have questions.”

“You already said that.” The man chided.

“What are you?”

“A delivery man.” The man was not feeling like giving his captors any excess info.

“No what is your species.” The child clarified.

“Delivery man.” The man smiled showing teeth.

“Species not occupation.” The military man demanded.

He repeated, “Delivery Man.”

The military man reached for his gun again, as the child realized, “That's your species.”

“Closest I can figure.”

“You don't know what you are?” The child asked skeptically.

“Let me in there, I'll get him to talk.” The military guy said with a wicked grin.

The child looked to be thinking it over before replying, “I'm pretty sure you wouldn't survive.”

The man smiled knowing the ward was keeping him in but did not keep normal people out. The military guy could easily just walk in if he wanted to.

“For now I will assume it's true.” The child said.

“It is.”

They moved one to a new question, “How do you travel between worlds.”

“I go through the chaos in the between.”

“The between?”

“Gonna be honest here, it’s hard to explain.” The man said trying not to stumble in his explanation, “Think this world's higher plane. Like a place at a different frequency.”

“Like a multiverse.” The military man chimes.

“Yes exactly!”The man says excitedly.

The two look surprised at the military man. The man thought he had been brought in to play dumb cop or something, turns out he was pretty sharp.

“I know some things, and I read the briefings. They've been theorizing since you kids showed up.” He said defending himself.

“Ok.” The child turned back to the man, “How do we harness this power?”

“You use magic and spells.”

“We know that, but how do we tap directly into the between?”

The man looked horrified at the idea, “You don't, if you did that you would go beyond the power of a god, and probably explode.”

“Probably? That sounds like there is a chance I wouldn't.”

“I was talking about your planet, not you. You would definitely one hundred percent die.” The man said seriously before asking his own question, “I have a question for you.

The child looked on intrigued, “Ok”

“How'd you figure this out?” The man said gesturing out to his cage.

This made the child chuckle, “A few of the mages noticed you bouncing off the fae wards before you made the deal.”

“Ah.” The man tried to remember all the mages wards he hit, “Though none of them took the deal.”

“One or Two did.”

“Fuck.”

The two continued to interrogate the man for the next couple of hours. Every answer, creating more questions for them.

——

In a place in the between, right outside a cage holding a man paces a woman talking to herself.

“How am I going to get him out?” The woman looked through the between at the cage, “Would that trap work on me?” After trying to think for a while she screamed in frustration. “Aaaaggggg !!!I don't know!”

Running hands through her hair she let out a long breath, “Should I go to the god? No, he’s barely even here right now. He probably doesn't have any power to help.” Letting out another cry yelling, “What can I do?”

The woman paced back and forth in the between trying to figure out how to get the man out. When a different thought occurred, ‘What happens if he can't deliver?’ Her eyes widened, ‘Worlds die. People stolen. Creating a domino effect, hurting worlds in unpredictable ways.’

“Can I do it? Can I deliver heroes?” The woman looked toward the truck uncertain, “Yes I can, but fuck that. He still hasn't shown me how to close tares in the between.”

The woman let out a growl before finally, an idea hit her, ‘Maybe it will be like those strings.’

The girl stopped her pacing and sat down. She began to let her powers drift through the world, looking for the connections to the wards holding the man at bay. This all was while the man was being interrogated.

She felt her power hit the barrier and bounce off. ‘Looks like I would get trapped.’

The woman let her power flow entirely over the barrier looking for a way to free the man.

‘It's a big cube, they even warded the floor and ceiling.’ The woman began to switch her way of thinking. ‘Wait where is the physical location of the spell?’ The woman reached out and around trying to find the source of the ward itself

“What the fuck?”

The woman found the source, 6 rods of titanium hidden inside the walls. Something inside the rods was giving off an incredible amount of power, feeding into the barrier.

“Is that uranium?”

——

It was late at night, in a high-security building when a woman could be found with a pickaxe and a chain. The woman had found a spot where a rod was housed keeping a man imprisoned. She was here, taking a risk leaving the between, to remove the rod.

She was cautious setting up her own silence ward, and an illusion to fool the camera before she ever left the other side. But inside the ward was loud, as the woman worked for hours slamming the pick against the concrete wall, eventually uncovering the rod. Seeing the rod gave her energy as she hit harder digging enough space to wrap a chain around the rod.

She had just finished wrapping the chain around the rod when a child entered the room.

The child frowned, “I don't remember you”

“I didn't make the deal.” The woman said locking the chain in place and ran. She ran to the truck she just pulled from the between as six silver disks shot right by her head.

The woman ducked just barely reaching the cabin without getting hit. She slammed her foot on the pedal as the child shot disk after disk at her shattering the windshield and embedding in the woman's flesh.

Thankfully, the child was just trying to stop her not kill her, as the disks flew into her arms and legs, missing any vital organs. The truck shot forward ripping the rod out of the wall, as well as most of the room behind it. The truck flew through the room disappearing through a rift that opened taking the truck and woman with it.

The child kept shooting disks at nothing, before turning towards the room the man was imprisoned his face going pale, as he tried to block the hole. The man didn’t give him time as he jumped through. Just as the disks reached the wall.

“See ya”

The man disappeared, just like the truck.

The child screamed in frustration.

——

Somewhere in the between, a man and a woman sit in the cabin of a truck, breathing heavy.

“Nice work.” The man said.

“Thanks.” The woman said her voice sounding wet.

The man took in the bloody state of the woman, “You ok?”

She gave him an annoyed look, “That hurt.”

“Would imagine, why didn't you just make a shield?”

“You haven't shown me how.”

The man thought back to her lesson, realizing she was right, “I guess battle magic is now on the lesson plan.”

“Yay?”

The man became serious, “I've been lax, especially when I learned they could block me. I need to figure out how they did that.”

“Good. Don't want to have to do it again.” The woman commented.

“Don't worry whatever they did won't work on me again. The man said sounding completely sure of himself.

“Good.” The woman winced, “How do I heal again?”

“It will happen on its own.” He commented.

“How do I speed it up?” The woman just wanted the pain to go away.

“Will it.”

“What?”

“Just will it. Know you are whole, and you will be.”

The woman knew what he said made no sense but she had learned long ago that even when something sounded impossible it wasn’t. The woman willed herself to be perfectly fine, and she was, “Ok...Wow, that was easy.”

The woman missed the man's sad smile.