The Alteration

?FtC?

"We shouldn't have trusted you... This is vital information you withheld from us. And why?"

Randy tapped his foot under his desk, far out of the toppat's view "Information has killed people in the past... At the time it wasn't necessary."

"It was." Elsa was already upset with Astrid literally jumping onto the chopper into unknown and dangerous territory, now after they lost communication with them she was in an even worse mood. The CCC contacting her again, to tell that they've lost connection as well and finally revealing who was waiting at the Wall for her friends and family did not help. "Dagur is a dangerous individual on his own and you're telling me now he has demonic powers? And that this was not necessary information?"

"They will be informed by our team when they meet. Dagur does not have any advantage on them."

"He has a demon with reality altering powers on his side!" Elsa slammed her hands on the desk so hard the camera shook and a thin layer of ice started to spread from her fingers.

"And yet neither he nor Drago have ever attacked your airship. At least not in the timeline we're living in.", the head of the CCC tried to appear calm, despite the woman's yelling and his own concerns "Dagur doesn't have the demon on his side. The demon isn't a tool to him, it's the other way around. If he or Drago have ever attacked you, the outcome wasn't to the demon's liking."

"... And what does that mean for everyone at the Wall?"

"...", he looked over at the whiteboard with the names of everyone involved in the mission "... If a cat likes to play with its prey, the mouse always has a chance to escape. And if two cats are fighting for the same mouse, the chances are better."

Elsa looked down at the desk and shook her head "That does not make it any safer."

"You were never safe. Thinking that is foolish.", she stayed silent and he continued "Your way of living is already unsafe, but the cult makes everything a lot worse... I can assure you that you aren't the only one worrying for your family's safety. Half of your clan was wiped out, most of the CCC was too. Openly working against them now puts everyone at an even bigger risk..." He looked over at the three names at the very bottom of the list. "And your fiancée isn't the only one running rouge..."

"... We'll be there in a few hours."

"You know them better than I do. Will they stay put till then?"

Elsa took a deep breath "With Dagur in there? No. Astrid will want to get them out as fast as possible."

Randy dragged a hand through his hair. He had no one left to send to the Wall at this point... "If... As soon as we can reestablish communication I will connect you directly to our team there. Then you can coordinate how to provide backup. In the ideal case, they won't need it."

"How probable is the 'ideal case'?"

"... I don't like to do the numbers on that. It's quite disheartening."

Of course, now that there were several people wanting to talk to the entities, neither Terrence nor Alteration were talking.

But the group believed him when he told them about his discussions with them and Terrence's plan. If it could be called a plan.

What Henry told them matched most of the CCC's assumptions they had about Alteration. That Terrence was there was a little bit of a shock to Ann and Henry at first, but they eventually chalked it up to the same thing Henry did with all of them.

'He's not the same as our Terrence'.

Through that he now knew that this universe's version of the toppat leader was a part of the CCC too. Part of him was curious about what 'his' Terrence thought about that, but it was apparently not shocking enough to cause him to talk to Henry again.