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Sixteen

Flight

Leon and I stood there, holding hands, looking at Agnes and wondering what to do with her. I didn't want her around me ever again. I hadn't wanted her to die, and I still believed somewhere in that huge frame was a woman who genuinely wanted to do good. But gods damn it all, looking at her made me nauseous.

I finally walked up to her and said, "How do we get the others out?"

"Out?" she asked, sitting cross-legged and staring at the darkness above. We heard the faint sounds of screams drift down from above. Scrofus screams. I tried not to feel too good about it. Agnes turned to me with vacant eyes. "No getting out. We're trapped by the desert."

I rolled my eyes. "I'll figure out the desert when we get to it. I need to know how to get out, first. There's gotta be a way out of the Spike."

Agnes shrugged. "Sure. Visitor's entrance. But you won't get to it. It's locked with machines even we don't completely understand, but as long as you have one of the implants it will let you through. If you don't, you get zapped, even if somebody with one of the implants is with you." She raised her left hand, and there was the faintest trace of a scar I'd never noticed before. Under it was a raised circle of furry skin less than a quarter inch in diameter. "Big zap. Say 'goodnight.' You'll probably have to kill the guards to get their implants," she said conversationally. "Just tear 'em out and hold 'em, should be good enough. If you can kill the guards. They're tougher than they look, and the ones in the Spike are the best of the best." She shrugged, then returned to staring up the hole.

Now it was Leon's turn to roll his eyes. "Yeah, I met your 'best of the best.' Not really impressed. Come on, Nollie. Let her rot down here."

I shook my head, then moved up to Agnes and slapped her as hard as I could. Turned out to be pretty hard, because she toppled to the floor looking concussed. I shoved down my guilt and hunkered next to her. "Listen to me. You are going to survive and get out of here. You are going to go back to civilization, and you are going to spend the rest of your fucking waking years trying to make up for what you've done. You will never, ever succeed, but you are going to try your damnedest anyway. And do you know why?"

She looked up at me, a little spacey, but cogent enough to look afraid of me.

"Because," I replied, "somewhere in all the heinous evil you've cocooned yourself in, somewhere in that putrid slop of murdering baby dragons and killing Kiba for your gods-cursed experiment for your gods-cursed Republic, there is a good woman who wants to help people, who wants to atone for what she's done. You're going to drag that woman to the light--kicking and fucking screaming if you have to--and you're going to be that woman again. And you're going to do it because you love me, and I'm telling you to do it."

Agnes looked ready to cry again. I couldn't help myself--I leaned down and kissed her once. I didn't put any passion behind it, but I tried to at least put in compassion. It wasn't easy--I think I hated her now, but whatever that not-love-but-similar emotion was, I still felt that too. I didn't understand how that was possible, and I hated not understanding almost as much as I hated her. But I couldn't stop myself from feeling what I felt when I looked at her. She was beautiful to me, and strong, and sexy, and as much as I wanted none of those things to be true anymore, they still were.

I pulled away from her and held her face in my hands. "Do you understand, Mender?"

She nodded slowly. "I'm so sorry, Nola--"

I cut her off by getting up and walking away. I didn't want to hear how sorry she was. I wanted her to make everything she'd done untrue, make Kiba alive again, make Val alive again, make Korrix's hatchlings alive again, and the others she and the Warden had murdered. I moved slowly and deliberately toward my brother, forcing myself not to break out into a run in an effort to get away from Agnes faster. Leon looked like he wanted to cry. "I dunno how you can do that," he whispered. "How you can be so good in the face of... that. I would have killed her."

I kissed his cheek. "I know, and nobody'd blame you. I dunno if I did the right thing, but... I did what I had to." I took his hand and led him out. "Come on. We've got friends to save."

* * *

I knew the guards would be on the elevator, so I led us back to the ladder shaft. The climb was long and arduous, taking the better part of half an hour--this basement lab was a heck of a long way underground, easily hundreds of feet. The opening of the Maw had been little more than a circle the size of my thumb in Korrix's cell. I didn't know what that amounted to exactly, but it was a big freaking number of feet.

When we reached the inky blackness at the top of the ladder, we inched along the wall to avoid the pit and dropped to the floor just past the broken light bulb, collapsing into each other and resting our aching arms. Even Leon's metal arm hurt--a "phantom pain," he said, though the soreness in his right shoulder blade was real enough. I rubbed it as I snuggled against him, grateful for the momentary pause. His nose twitched against my ear as I reached around and caressed his back through his shirt.

"We do not have time for what I want to do to you," he muttered breathily, nipping my ear. I gasped and squirmed a little.

"You sure? I could use some protein." I nuzzled my hip against his crotch, and he grabbed my waist and pushed himself against me, dry-humping. "Mm," I mumbled, wrapping my legs around his and gyrating slowly. Gods, even through clothes he felt so damn good.

With a sigh, I finally gathered the willpower to push him away. He grunted irritably. "Much as I could use the distraction, we still need to rescue the others. Rika first." At the mention of his mate, Leon nodded guiltily and adjusted his waistband. I kissed him on the neck and slowly got to my feet. "If we survive this, I promise I am going to drink every last drop of jizz you have in you," I said, offering my hand. His ears spasmed wildly as he accepted the help up.

"Deal," he coughed. "Come on."

He led the way after that, slipping through the rows of circuit breakers and down to the generators. We noted the hallway was empty beyond, until it reached the T intersection a short way down, where two Scrofa stood staring absently at the narrow path between the huge, roaring machines. Leon and I ducked out of their line of sight, and I glanced at him. There was no way he'd hear me over the roar, so I just mouthed, What now?

He frowned, then closed his eyes and dipped his head.

It happened again, that horrid, skewed sense that there was more than one Leon. There were two Leons rushing down the narrow path at the guards, both of them dying on the ends of Scrofus halberds. Then there were six of him, ducking and bouncing off the walls and sweeping legs, each of them meeting a new and exciting sticky end. Then there were fifty Leons, then seventy, then two hundred, then oh gods my freaking brain--

Then it was over, and Leon stared at me with wild, bloodshot eyes. "Wait here," he said. "Lift me when I hit the wall." He waited until I nodded, even though I wasn't entirely sure what he meant, then rushed the guards. Their halberds came down on his head, but he wasn't there anymore--he was to the right, running up the wall. I reached out to the tight little orb hidden in his gut and lifted it gently, and Leon ran completely sideways. The guards stared in stunned awe before Leon kicked off the wall and brought his huge foot across both their faces. I added just a little extra heft by manipulating the gravity around his foot, making it heavier. Both their necks snapped to the side and they fell in a heap.

I helped Leon land in a light, easy tumble across their unmoving bodies, then sagged as the dizziness hit me again. It wasn't as bad this time, though. I think maybe that food bar had been loaded with a lot of sugar, so I had some to spare. I edged out of the generator area and stood over the guards. I plucked up one of the halberds, considered the axe-head at the end, and then slammed it sideways against the metal floor as hard as I could. The axe-head snapped off with a staccato crack, and I hefted the long stick that was left, considering its weight. Yeah, I liked that much better.

"Ready," I said, and we moved along the corridor toward the eastern cells. They were less likely to actually harbor anyone, but they were closer. Might as well look.

I had to assume someone was being held there, because the cluster of six cells was guarded by four Scrofa. I pulled my head back around the corner and puffed out a breath, holding up four fingers on my paw. Leon closed his eyes. "Shit," he whispered.

"We could circle back, try the other cells," I muttered. "Maybe less guarded. Get whoever's in there first, maybe have a number advantage."

Leon snorted quietly. "Or maybe waste twenty minutes to find nobody there, or worse, even more guards." He shook his head. "We can do this, but... it's not going to be pretty for you."

I blinked. "Me?" I whispered. "Why?"

"I can feel how my Sight fucks you up. You can't fight while I'm using it, not effectively anyway. But that means you'll have to use your... uh, gravity... thing. And it looked like it drained you pretty bad last time."

I shrugged. "Not as bad as the first two times."

He raised his eyebrows inquisitively. "Later," I whispered.

I wondered if I could take them out myself. The dizzy spell wouldn't hit until the adrenaline came down, so I could probably get at least two, maybe three, if I focused. I started mapping out, and then the weirdest damn thing happened.

I saw _myself_rush down the hallway, dozens--no, a hundred times, murdered in horrid ways over and over. The sight made me woozy. Then I saw one of me, bouncing, bobbing, cracking one skull then another, whipping the broken halberd haft like a staff, sweeping another Scrofus's feet. Before she reached the fourth Scrofa, my world twisted, and then the visions were gone.

Had I just used my brother's Gift...? Holy crap.

Leon had just enough time to mutter, "Fuck, did you just--?" before I launched myself around the corner.

The Scrofa turned and lunged at me with the spiked tip on their polearms with practiced precision, but I was ready for them. I could only deflect two of the four halberds with my "staff," so I warped the gravity around the other two halberds' axe-heads so they suddenly weighed a ton each. Instead of jabbing out, they slammed harmlessly into the metal floor, each leaving a shallow divot. The other two spikes, I swept out of the way with a single motion. So far, according to plan.

I bobbed out of the way of the two now-unarmed Scrofa as one lowered his tusks and swiped at me and the other tried to grab me with his big, meaty hands. I tipped the staff down and smacked his booted foot, and he hopped off it with a yowl of pain. Without looking, I recalled the next step in the sequence and swept the staff around and up, catching one of the armed Scrofa under the chin as he tried to slip in and chop my arm off while I wasn't looking. He gagged as something in his trachea collapsed, then he followed suit.

I swept the remaining leg out from under the one hopping around and he went down, landing on the overweight axe-head of one of the two super-heavy halberds and impaling himself through the spleen. I saw yellow bile pour out his back along with copious amounts of blood, and he writhed helplessly as he gasped his last breaths.

I shouldn't have stopped to stare, because the other two Scrofa were still around. The armed one swung down on my head with an overhand chop, and I yelped and raised a hand toward it as if that would do absolutely freaking anything to save me. Suddenly the air between my hand and the axe rippled, and the whole halberd launched backwards and out of the Scrofus's hands, leaving him looking absolutely bewildered. I took the opportunity to plant a hard jab into his solar plexus, and he folded inward and slumped to the floor.

Shit. What was the next step?

Before I could recall, Leon barreled past me and rammed his shoulder into the remaining Scrofus's midsection, driving all the breath out of him and taking him to the ground. The Scrofus kneed him in the stomach hard, and all the fight went out of Leon with a soft "whuhff" as he rolled over. The guard scrambled at a pouch strapped to his belt and pulled out a whistle, bringing it to his lips and puffing in a breath. He didn't get to use it, because my staff came down on his face hard enough to snap the wood in two. The force of the blow caved in the entire right side of his skull, and he lay on the ground twitching and convulsing. I spat on him.

Leon stumbled to his feet, still gasping for air. "What the Hells was that?" I asked. "You're like half their size. What were you expecting to do there? Drive him into the wall? I think he only fell down because he felt sorry for you." Leon, still unable to breathe, could make no comeback, so he just flipped me off. I ignored it and kissed his cheek. "Let's open some cells."

I dug around on the guards until I found a circle of keys, then went about opening every door. Just our luck, everyone except Rika was down here. Tanya ran into my arms and clung to me. "I thought we were all dead," she whispered into my fur.

"Not yet," I said, squeezing her gently. "The flying halberd. That you?" Tanya nodded, and I swear she looked proud for once. I kissed her nose. "Where's Rika?"

Tanya shook her head. "I don't know."

I looked over to see Leon open a cell and Patrice stumbled out into his arms and, to my utter surprise, kissed my brother passionately. "Thank you," he sobbed. Poor, sweet Patrice. Definitely not a fighter. Leon took it in stride, kissing him back with a grin and holding him for a few minutes.

After a while, I cleared my throat and pulled away from Tanya. Leon did the same with Patrice. "We need to find Rika," I said. "One more block of cells to check. Leon's already been up to the suite, so we know she's not up there." I stopped, then looked down at the dead and unconscious guards. "Oh, yeah. One other thing."

Opening up the guards to get their discs was... less than clean. The halberds no longer weighed a ton each, so I picked them up and used their axe heads to carve open the backs of each one's hand and yank out the little black circle embedded within. I handed them out to everyone. "Need one more for Rika and then we're good," I said, wiping my bloodstained hands on the guards' white tunics.

I took two steps down the hall and collapsed.

"Nollie!" Leon was next to me in a heartbeat, holding me up in a sitting position as the room spun. "What happened?"

"Cost of doing business," I murmured blearily. "Need sugar."

He blinked. "Sugar?"

"For muh blood," I slurred. His face went fuzzy, then refocused. "Love yoo." I patted his face.

He shook his head. "Cripes, Nollie," he whispered, checking my eyes. "You are really out of it. Sugar for your blood? What--"

"Blood sugar," Patrice said patiently. "She means her blood sugar is low."

I winked at him. That eye went fuzzy while the other stayed clear. Woops. I turned to my brother. "Got sugar?" I reached for his pants.

Leon awkwardly pulled his waist away from my reach. "Not funny, Nollie. Come on, I'll help you. Maybe we can find some food stores along the way." He slipped my arm around his neck and hefted me up. I immediately whimpered as the room spun hard and my legs almost gave out. He held me aloft, and Patrice took up my other arm to help. Draped over two cute boys. Dream come true. Mrrr.

I threw up.

"Like clockwork," Leon drawled as I spat out the last of my stomach contents.

"Fuck you," I grumbled.

"She's even cute when she pukes," Patrice snarked. "Totally unfair."

"Girls get all the luck," Leon agreed. Tanya swatted the back of his head as she passed him, leading the way down the hall. I did my best to walk in step with the boys, but gods, it was hard. My legs felt like gelatin and every movement made the dizziness worse. "Tanya," he said quietly as he half-carried me, "any chance you can use your telekinesis?" I'd told him about the extract on our way up from the sub-level.

Tanya shook her head. "I've been trying, but it only comes back to me sporadically. I'm scared. What if they broke my connection to my Gifts?"

"Bad piggies," I said irritably. "Bad Agnes."

Leon ignored me. "I'm sure it'll come back, Tanya. Don't worry. It already came back once, you'll have it back in no time." He turned to his co-carrier. "How about you?"

Patrice nodded. "Yeah, a bit. It takes a strong emotion to set it off right now, though. I only heard the thoughts of the guards you fought when they died. It's... not a great feeling." He shuddered. "But I can concentrate and maybe pick up nearby surface thoughts."

"Get on it," Leon said. "Looks like when I use the Sight, it fucks with Nollie's perceptions. Means I can't use my Gift and have her fight at the same time. Gods know what it would do to her in this condition."

I felt my vision start to tunnel. Panic clutched my chest. I couldn't pass out now. We had to go, to find Rika. I'd be dead weight. "Leon," I sobbed. "I-I can't... can't see..."

"Hang on, sis," he said. He was trying hard to keep the panic out of his own voice, but I heard it clear as day. It was the last sound I heard before I blacked out.

* * *

Light. Oblong shapes taking up my vision. Shadows from forms hovering over me.

Sounds of heavy breathing. Panting. Moaning.

Something thick in my mouth. Two somethings.

A familiar taste filling my throat. Swallow, Nola, swallow.

Thick, bittersweet, delicious. Lap it up.

Darkness again.

* * *

I returned to consciousness to a strange but definitely not unwelcome sight: Patrice on his knees with my brother's cock in his mouth. I didn't even notice our new surroundings, I was so engaged with the scene. I slowly took in the rest of the world as I watched my brother thrust his hips into the Lupus's waiting muzzle.

Soft, warm fur behind me. That would be Tanya. My head was in her lap, which felt awfully hot. Not surprising, given what was happening. The room around us was small and cramped, lined with shelves of cleaning supplies that looked ancient. Come to think of it, who cleaned the Spike? I'd never seen a janitor before, and the Scrofa sure as Hells didn't clean. One of life's mysteries, I guessed.

Leon glanced up and saw me staring at him in bleary-eyed confusion. His shoulders slumped in disappointment and he tapped Patrice on the shoulder. "It's okay, you can stop. She's awake now."

"What is going on?" I murmured, astounded.

Patrice pulled his drooling muzzle away from my brother's member and glanced sheepishly at me. "Well, we didn't have any sugar, so we thought--"

"Jizz?" I said blandly. "You fed me jizz?"

Patrice and Leon cleared their throats and looked away.

"It was nice to watch," Tanya said flatly.

"Mm," I said. We still needed to find Rika, but... damn, that looked good. Patrice! Taking a cock! I never thought I'd see it happen. "I mean, I do still feel a little weak. One more load couldn't hurt."

Bless his heart, Patrice actually looked excited. He shoved my brother back in his mouth and slurped away. Leon looked at me in shock, but he certainly didn't stop the proceedings. Tanya's hands rubbed up and down the front of my shirt. I longed for the day when I'd get back to living clothing-free twenty-four hours a day. Thankfully the top wasn't much, and I was able to lift it over my tits so Tanya's soft paws had full access.

I slipped a hand down my pants and rubbed my clit, watching Patrice gag on Leon's rod. Agnes must have been onto something with the fast healing, because my pussy already felt less sore than it had even a few hours ago. It made my rubbing actually feel good. Half of the pleasure was from the sheer sense of relief that I'd recover from what she did to me.

Patrice gagged again, tears streaming into his fur as my brother shoved his cock deeper down his throat. It was such a filthy noise, I started leaking heavily. I marveled at how any of us were able to find any libido in the middle of a breakout, but here we were. I blamed the stress, though I guess I should have blamed the hormones. I soaked the back of my skirt as I dribbled wetness down my labia. Tanya brought one finger to my mouth, and I sucked it gently, silently mimicking Patrice's mouth on my brother's cock.

Leon whimpered and thrust his hips against the Lupus's muzzle, then grabbed his ears and rammed him against his dick and held him there, tight ass cheeks twitching as he unloaded into Patrice's mouth. I could see Patrice trying his damnedest not to swallow, though I could tell he wanted to. I rubbed harder, and felt an orgasm building, but Tanya grabbed my wrist and pulled it away from my pussy. I growled dangerously.

"No," she said. "You need to conserve your energy."

"Unfair," I whimpered.

"Life is unfair," Tanya said. Truer words were never spoken. The brat.

Patrice brought his treasure over to me, and I opened my mouth wide. He kissed me, shoving my brother's load into my mouth. I gulped it down readily, and sucked his tongue clean to boot. When he finally pulled away, I growled, "More."

Leon shook his head as he pulled his pants back over his still-bobbing member. "No time. Sorry sis. I promise I'll take care of you the second we're out of this hellhole."

Patrice's ears flushed and flicked in embarrassment. I guess there was no pretending, now. "You better," I said huskily. "I want all of you inside me." Okay, that was honestly more to get a reaction out of Patrice than anything else--not that I minded the idea in the least. Patrice didn't disappoint, staring slack-jawed at me while his erection threatened to tear right out of his pants. I reached down and grabbed the bulge, maybe a little harder than I'd intended because he gave a quiet yelp. "I want this, too. I could always use more sugar." I tugged on it, forcing him to lean forward, and kissed him passionately.

"Okay, okay," Leon said, pulling us apart and helping me slowly to my feet. "The whole idea was to get your blood-sugar up, not start an orgy. How do you feel now?"

"Still really dizzy," I said. "I don't think there's all that much sugar in cum, bro. Sorry."

Leon sighed. "Well, at least it was fun. Alright, we'll keep an eye out for food stores. Can you walk, at least?"

I tested my legs. They were less wobbly than before, but still weak. I shook my head. "A little, but I still need help."

Tanya draped my arm around her. "I've got her. I'm useless in a fight without my Gifts or a rifle, anyway."

I blinked. "Rifle?" Where had I seen that before...?

Right. In the engineering book. I shook my head. Didn't matter. There were no rifles here. "Makes two of us, I guess," I grumbled. I wasn't a fan of letting the boys do all the work, but there wasn't much to be done about it right now. Tanya nuzzled my face reassuringly with her cold nose as we wandered down the halls.

We finally reached the elevator, then banked left and hurried down, past the turn to go to Agnes's lab, and reached the main set of cells. There was no one there. Not a single Scrofus guarded the doors, all of which stood cracked open. Leon and I stared at each other. "But," he mumbled, on the verge of tears, "where is she?"

I took his hand and squeezed it. "We'll find her. We're not leaving without her."

Patrice swallowed, as if he wasn't sure he agreed, but he closed his eyes and nodded. "All of us or none," he said. "All of us or none." He repeated it like a mantra. Tanya just stroked my back reassuringly. That was all I needed to know that she was on board.

"But where?" Leon repeated, looking so lost and small I wanted to weep.

I considered the blueprints I'd seen. I hadn't seen a visitor's entrance on the schematics for the ground floor, or the sub-level, and I hadn't paid much attention to the schematics for the other floors. "Come on, back to Agnes's lab." Tanya turned us around and we headed that way.

We reached the lab and Tanya helped me up to the exam bed where the blueprints for the Spike were still laid out. Patrice sniffed the air. "Why does it smell like semen in here?"

I worked very, very hard to ignore him as I looked over the schematics. "Agnes dragged these out so we could figure out where Leon had gone to," I explained as I looked them over. I gave the ground floor a second glance, and sure enough, there was no area marked as a "visitor's entrance"--nothing that looked like any kind of exit, in fact. The second, third, and fourth floors had nothing either, just more small rooms that seemed to be cells. That made me groan--were we going to have to check all these? We didn't have time! We had to find Rika and get out of here before the Warden learned how many of his guards were dead. He might hurt Rika if--

I stopped, slapped my forehead. "Of freaking course," I whispered, and flipped the blueprints over. The paper stuck slightly to the bed and I had to peel it off, cringing. Gods, I couldn't escape the reminder of what I'd done earlier today. (Yesterday? What day was it?) My vagina still throbbed a little.

I pointed at the schematics for the top floor. "Look! There's the suite, pointing northwest. Down here's the Warden's suite. There's a door in the outer wall. That must be how people get in."

Leon shook his head. "Why would they put the only entrance on the top floor? How do you get up there to get in? More importantly, how do we get down?"

I shrugged. "Dunno. Another elevator maybe? It makes sense, if you think about it. A single elevator is easy to control. Even if somebody gets to it that you don't want in, you just cut the power and they're stuck. My only question is, where do prisoners get into the Pit?"

"You don't remember?" Tanya asked quizzically.

"We were babies when we came in," Leon replied.

"There's a sub-level," Patrice said. "Whole mess of elevators and corridors and locked gates you have to go through, then they bring you up the elevator and through the doors of the Spike into the Pit." That made sense, I supposed. I'd only ever seen newcomers enter the Pit through the Spike.

"Ah. Well, there you go. That doesn't help us, though. We're definitely taking the visitor's entrance."

"Okay," Patrice said. "I get it. But how does that help us find Rika?"

"Because," I said as patiently as possible, "she's with the Warden."

Leon's face fell. "H-how do you know?"

"Where else would he put her except by his side? Reggie's a depraved fuck, but he's not stupid. He knows all he has to do to make you comply is threaten her."

Leon's breath hitched, and I squeezed his hand. "This is good news! It means she's alive. We have to get to the Warden's suite and save her, then we'll already be right at the exit! This is kind of ideal, actually."

"Yes," Tanya said, "except for the fact that we still have to rescue Rika somehow and the Warden will probably have about a dozen guards with him, if not more."

"Not helping!" Leon cried.

"Wait," Patrice muttered. "Who the fuck is 'Reggie'?"

* * *

The elevator ride was silent and anxious, the four of us pressed together in the cramped space as the ancient box trundled loudly up the shaft. I'd found another of those weird food bars after digging through Agnes's cabinets. I silently thanked her for her apparent habit of stashing snacks, because I was now standing under my own power. Leon stood next to me, gripping my hand tightly and staring ahead with wide eyes. I was scared, too, but not as much as he was. I squeezed a little to reassure him, but he didn't respond. I stared back down at my feet.

Finally the box came to a shuddering stop and the doors slid open to an empty hall. Reggie had pulled the remaining guards to his suite, I didn't doubt. I wondered if the guards in the Pit had any idea what was happening inside, or if Korrix had even left any of them alive. I hoped she hadn't hurt any prisoners. I knew, logically, that plenty of them were bad people that deserved to be in prison. But I also knew I'd rather they went free than a single wrongly imprisoned person suffered.

We stepped out of the box and turned right, heading around the curving corridor with a view into the Yard far below. It looked empty, now. Desolate. As if it had been abandoned for years. Gods willing, it would be abandoned forever once we were out of here. Up ahead, a massive set of oak double doors waited for us.

I stopped outside the doors and swallowed. According to the schematics, the Warden's office was a huge room just inside the doors, with his personal quarters to the right and the Visitor's Entrance to the left. We just needed to kill Reggie and his guards. Somehow.

I turned to Leon. "You up to taking a few thousand strolls?"

He sighed. "I hate doing it. I feel like I lose something every time. But I'm scared if we just barge in there without a plan, he'll kill her outright. Gimme a sec." He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, there was something in his presence that had changed. I couldn't say what, exactly, but I instinctively knew he was using his Sight.

Then he split, and a dozen Leons strolled out of his body and headed to the door, throwing them open and rushing inside.

The Warden's office was massive, almost the size of the entire suite we'd been living in for the last few months. It was mostly square, but with a curved outer wall, roughly forty feet by forty feet. To the right, a sleek black coffee table of some unknown metal was surrounded by six fat, comfy chairs overstuffed with material for maximum softness, all bound in black leather. To the left, some kind of conference table made of solid oak stood, with no chairs at all. Maps and papers were strewn around it, but I couldn't tell from Leon's visions what the papers were about. A massive desk of some dark wood stood with a high-backed chair behind it and two uncomfortable-looking metal chairs in front of it.

And standing in front of those, surrounded by twenty Scrofa, stood Warden Reginald, one thick paw wrapped around Rika's throat. She struggled against his grip as uselessly as fighting stone. His grip was just enough that she could breathe, but not loose enough that she could breathe well. As soon as Leon entered the room, he squeezed, and a loud crack reverberated around the big room as Rika's neck shattered from the pressure.

Every time. Over and over. A symphony of shattered spines. It sounded almost exactly like when Kiba died. I tried to scream but gagged on my own horror.

Dozens of Leons, hundreds, poured through the doors, over and over, and no matter what happened, Rika died. Every time. There was no way to stop it. She was going to die. There was nothing we could do.

Except, maybe...

I forced myself to tap into that horrible, reality-twisting power in my sibling, and I felt myself split. My split walked up to the doors, and instead of rushing through, she knocked. What I saw next shocked me to my absolute core and tore me out of my brother's power.

He stopped Seeing and stared at me. "What was that?" he asked incredulously.

"Salvation," I whispered in a shaky voice. "And..." How could I tell him? How could I articulate what I'd seen? What if telling him changed it? I stared at him. "Do you trust me?"

He frowned, but he nodded vigorously. I kissed him. "Then just... follow my lead. Don't make any aggressive movements."

He looked like he wanted to throw up. "Okay."

I took a shaky step forward, lifted my hand, and knocked on the door.

"Come in," the Warden called. "Nice and slow."

We opened the door and stepped into the room. Rika stopped squirming when she saw us and burst into tears. I looked away guiltily. If I'd advocated for her to stay by my side, maybe she wouldn't be in this mess. Probably not--the Warden would have taken her as collateral regardless, I was pretty sure--but... maybe. That was the power of regret. Logic didn't really factor in.

"Hey Reggie," I said coolly as I stepped into the room.

The fat Lupus glared at me. "Impudent to the last. I'd kill you all now if you didn't mean so much to Geist, but don't take that to mean I can't hurt you. I know how...attached you are to this little bitch." He shook Rika for good measure, and she yelped. "I've been keeping an eye on you for a very long time, by her orders. I knew the otter had started training you. I should have put a stop to it. Look at the damage you've done! Do you have any idea how hard these fucking things are to breed?" He jerked his free thumb toward one of the Scrofa. She stared forward coldly, not reacting to the oddity of his words, just pointing her halberd at us from thirty feet away.

"Breed...?" Patrice asked, brow furrowed. "They're... they're slaves too?"

"You're not slaves!" Reggie shouted defensively. "You're prisoners! You're here because you fucking deserve to be here! By law!"

"We were children," Leon growled. "Babies. What law did we break??"

I put a hand on his wrist. "Okay," I said. "Everybody take it down a notch. I'm not here to argue semantics. I'm here for Rika. Give her back to us and we won't convince Geist to slaughter you and your precious guards. From what I've gathered, she's definitely able to do that."

Reggie sneered. "Ha! I doubt it. She's good with that weapon of hers, but not _that_good. She might get through half my guards before she gets cut to ribbons. No, her power is a little more subtle than that. And I'm not worried about _that_coming at me."

Dammit! Without knowing what Captain Geist had on him, I couldn't get more information. But I remembered my vision--I wasn't here for information, I was here to stall for time. I glanced at the door to the left, the door to the Visitor's Entrance. Soon, we'd be walking through there. We had to be. So far, everything was going as I'd Seen it. We just had to--

Leon's metal hand clenched hard enough that I heard the M-steel creak. "Let her go, you fat fuck. You can kill her, but that won't save you from me."

The Lupus squeezed Rika's neck, just a little. She gagged and choked as her airway constricted. Leon looked bug-eyed, ready to launch himself. This wasn't how the vision had gone--I had to get it back on track or Rika was dead.

"Leon," I growled warningly. "You promised."

He looked at me like I'd bitten him. I stared into his eyes, my gaze following the lines of the three thin scars across his right eye that I'd given him almost ten years ago. Partly I felt guilty when I looked at them, but mostly it reminded me how much we loved each other, because we could forgive each other for the horrible scars we made. "Please trust me."

Leon closed his eyes and unclenched his metal fist. "Okay." He opened them again and turned back to Reggie. "What do you want?"

Reggie glared. "I want you to not have destroyed six years' worth of setup and funding. I want you to not have set loose my greatest asset in the Pit. I want you to undo everything you've done, you little prick!"

"I can't do that," Leon said. "What can I do to get Rika back now?"

Reggie snarled, but finally eased his grip on her neck. Rika gasped out a breath. "The only thing you can do is march your asses back to your cells and pray I don't throw you all into the Maw in the morning."

Tanya said, "That is not happening."

He lifted Rika off the ground and held her up threateningly. Her little feet kicked and dangled uselessly as her little claws scratched against his iron grip. "Then say goodbye to your friend."

Come on, I thought frantically. Any second now, come on! COME ON DAMMIT--

The door to the Visitor's Entrance burst open, a female Lepid stepped in, and the flintlock pistol in her hand erupted.

The bullet went straight into Reggie's left eye socket as he turned to face her, but it went in at an odd angle and burst out the side of his head, missing his brain by less than an inch. It was, however, satisfyingly gruesome, and made him drop Rika as he clutched his ruined eye and screamed bloody murder.

"How dare you threaten my babies?!" she shrieked. She holstered the pistol, drew a cutlass from her belt, and leaped at the nearest Scrofus.

The next minute or so was absolute chaos. Two other Anthropa stepped through the door, dressed in similar loose garb to the Lepid woman: baggy trousers laced down with sashes of vibrant colors, and loose-flowing blouses held down to their torsos by tight vests of bright red. One, a Simian, held a quiver in his prehensile tail and a bow in his hands, firing arrow after arrow with deadly precision at the rushing guards. The other, a Minoan man easily half a foot taller than Agnes, bellowed as he lowered his sharp horns and charged into their numbers, scattering Scrofa and their halberds as he plowed past them. The Lepid woman deflected two halberds at once with her cutlass and went to work. "Leon! Nola!" she called. "Get your friend and get going, now!"

Leon stared at me in confusion. "What...?"

I took a deep breath. "Look at her, Leon. What do you see?"

Leon looked at Captain Geist. He saw the brightly-colored clothing, the flintlock at her hip--and her solid gray fur and stiff, upright ears. Only her eyes were different. "I... I don't understand," he whimpered.

I did, though. I knew it as soon as I'd Seen her enter with Leon's Gift. "It's Mom, Leon. She's our real mom. Not Tofa."

Leon almost fainted. I shook him. "Not the time, bro. Get Rika and let's go!"

The three pirates--I couldn't imagine them being anything but, with those outfits--battled ferociously to cover our escape. Leon rushed to Rika, who was on her hands and knees, coughing and rubbing her throat. He ducked under a halberd swing, grabbed her by the waist, and ran to the visitor's entrance. "Nola!" Geist called. "Who needs a key?" I pointed at Rika. Without a word of acknowledgement, she swiped at a Scrofus. His hand separated from his body in a spray of blood, and he fell clutching the stump. Geist swiped again and opened his throat, then plucked up the hand and tossed it to me. I caught it as I ran for the door. Patrice looked dumbfounded at Captain Geist, like he'd seen a ghost, but Tanya just grabbed his hand and dragged him to the exit.

The room beyond was spacious, with small metal archways splitting the room in two. The air in the archways rippled as we approached clutching our tiny discs. There was a dangerous crackle in the air, but it was basically impossible to pass to the other side of the room without going through it. Through the shimmer, I saw a pair of huge double doors standing open, leading into a large elevator car. Beyond it, endless desert sky.

The fighting continued behind us. There was nowhere else to go. I swallowed hard, tried and failed not to whimper in fear, and stepped through the rippling air under the archways.

I came out the other side unscathed. I breathed a sigh of relief. Behind me, Leon passed through, hand in hand with Rika. He and I stopped to stare at the open doorway just twenty feet from us. There was freedom out there. There was a life without prison walls or slave labor or Warden Reginald. There was a life. I was fucking terrified.

Leon squeezed my hand. When I turned to him, his face was a mirror of my own anxieties. I kissed him, squeezed his hand back, and took a step. Then another, and another. Before I knew it, I was standing in the elevator box, bigger than the one inside the Spike, with glass windows for walls. We piled in and turned to wait for our rescuers.

Captain Geist followed her two subordinates into the Visitor's Entrance, fending off two Scrofa as she went. She dipped her cutlass down to pin one's halberd, then kicked him in the belly with enough ferocity that the Scrofus wheezed plaintively and collapsed. She ducked under a swipe from the other and slammed the door in her face. "Go!" she screamed. "Now!"

Her two crewmen bolted through the archways, and Geist followed suit immediately after. They dove into the elevator box, and I punched the single button in the wall. The doors remained open as the remaining Scrofus shouldered her way through the door, uttering a squeal of rage. She hefted her halberd and launched it like a freaking javelin. The doors finally began to slide closed just as the halberd passed through.

The spike at its tip drove straight into Captain Geist's shoulder, and she cried out in pain as the doors slid back open. The Minoan unceremoniously yanked the halberd out and tossed it back through the doors as the Scrofus rushed us. Without missing a beat, Geist pulled her flintlock out with her off-hand and shoved it at the Simian. "Load!" she snapped, her right arm dangling uselessly. He dipped a hand into a pouch on her hip, drawing out a small capped horn and a pellet the size of a fingernail.

The Scrofus had to squeeze through the shimmering archway, her shoulders were so broad, and she pulled out a dagger from her belt as she moved toward us. The doors still hadn't closed again. Gods, why were they taking so long??

The Simian uncapped the horn, filled the barrel of the flintlock with some grayish-black powder, and dropped the pellet in. He pulled a thin rod with a poofy tip off her belt and shoved it in and out of the barrel a few times. The Scrofus put a hand on the door frame. Patrice and Tanya backed up to the clear walls of the elevator, as Rika, Leon and I settled into a fighting stance. The Minoan, oddly, just crossed his arms and watched.

The Simian shoved the pistol back in his captain's hands, just as the Scrofus raised the dagger to plunge it in our mother's eye socket. Whip-fast, she put the end right under the Scrofus's chin and pulled the trigger. The sound of a thunderclap shattered my hearing and the top of the guard's head vanished in a gruesome spray of blood, skull fragments, and gray matter.

The Minoan gave the corpse a disdainful shove, and she collapsed outside the elevator. The doors slid shut with a pleasant ding.

We lurched downward in the ringing silence, covered in the guard's blood, as the Titan Sands slowly trundled upward to meet us.