Epilogue
In the end it didn't take Mana and the others very long to find the exact ritual that the killer intended to perform once they had put everything together. And once they figured that out it didn't take very long for her to figure out how to sever the connection between the killer and his victims. What did take a while was getting everyone at the office and then tracking down someone who could actually perform the spell because neither Mana, Theseus, or Percival could since their magic didn't manifest in that way.
Once that was done it was pretty simple to figure out that the killer was Eric Wenceslaus since the only other building in the center of the pentagram was the elementary school. And with all of that information it was a simple matter of busting in and rescuing Anakin and Newt. It was not so simple for Eric. When Mana and the others burst in instead of just surrendering he decided to fight back and he died. Though that was probably for the best. The police did not have the capacity to hold a Sith in jail, and Mana did not want to risk Eric breaking out or the Sith breaking him out and then going after Anakin.
She had vowed that she would never let the Jedi or the Sith hurt Anakin again and she had already failed once and wasn't about to let it happen again. Once everything was all said and done Tierney and Tina went back to their side of town. And once Mana, Percival, and Theseus burned down the house and made it look like arson, since he did have all of those candles lit it wasn’t too put there, and the. They, along with Newt and Anakin went back to Mana's house where Padmé was waiting for them with the twins.
"Theseus, you lied to me." Newt said after they had all eaten dinner together. Theseus had wrapped a blanket around Newt, despite his protests, and Percival had wrapped his arms around Newt. Anakin was in a similar position with Mana and Padmé.
"What? I didn't lie about anything." Theseus said calmly. But on the inside he was freaking out. What if Newt knew about mobs?
"Yes you did." Newt insisted with a pout.
"Newt, I have no idea what you are talking about." Theseus said.
"Cults!" Newt exclaimed. "Cults are real! And you never told me!"
"Oh," Theseus nearly sighed in relief but he managed to hold it in. If he did that now Newt might get even more suspicious. "I'm sorry Newt. Cults are real. I just never wanted to talk about it, none of us did. We didn't want to bring up any bad memories for Anakin, or Padmé."
Anakin, Padmé, and Mana glared slightly at Theseus for using Anakin's trauma as an excuse to lie to his brother about mobs. Theseus shrank back which Newt noticed, what he didn't notice was Mana, Anakin, and Padmé's glare. Which of course gave Newt the entirely wrong idea. "It's ok Theseus. I forgive you. You were just trying to protect me."
"Anyway," Percival said, steering the conversation away from mobs and cults. "I never would have thought that Eric was the killer."
"Well, his first name was Norman." Mana shrugged.
"Yeah," Padmé nodded. "I can see why he went by his middle name. Norman just screams serial killer."
After that Theseus, Percival, and Newt only stayed for a little bit longer before they left. And then it was just Mana, Anakin, and Padmé sitting in the living room.
"What do you say to some quality cuddling time?" Mana suggested.
"I would love that." Padmé sighed happily.
"I want to be in the middle!" Anakin exclaimed.
"Of course," Mana smiled softly. "Come on." And with that the three of them stood up and made their way up to bed.