Daisy was fairly certain she was going to die -- not that she had any idea at all of what that meant, except it was big and bad and scary as fuck -- and she wasn't thinking about how to fix things, or what Artie was going to do. She was thinking about Veti. 

What. The. [i]Fuck.[/i]

She had been able to feel the tension building behind her. As she siphoned off God Wolf's spirit, the dead came fast and heavy, drawn like flies to a display of power that was alarming at the very least. Useful for most. Dangerous for anyone who so much as touched her. And while the wight seemed more or less competent, she wasn't dumb enough to think he could hold off all of them by himself forever. 

And it was by himself. Because she understood it now, far too late. She should have seen it the moment he stepped back through the gate and into Veti's arms. She should have been suspicious -- how had he found them at all? -- but Veti had looked so goddamn [i]happy[/i] and Daisy had been too busy sulking to notice anything strange. 

Well, now she noticed. She could feel his gaze heavy on her back, and while she didn't dare turn around, she was sure to keep half her attention on him. If he attacked...

And then he did. In almost the same moment God Wolf was gone, as Daisy was turning to tell them both it was time to get the hell out of dodge, he was lunging and she was turning and staring there, blank faced, some idiot deer in the proverbial headlights, thinking about what she'd have to say to Veti if any of them made it back. 

"Sorry, I had to kill your boyfriend again. But this time, he was being difficult. Honest." 

Yeah, that'd go over well. 

And then the wight said maybe the only thing anyone could have said to draw her attention away from the horde of dead now insistent on dragging her away. 

Weirder than that, she didn't even know what he'd said. It was some other language, a series of phlegmy syllables and hard consonants she only half understood. That wasn't what bothered her. What bothered her was the weird sense of deja vu it awoke in her. 

Blue eyes flicked to the wight's face, confused. Stunned. 

"What did you say?"

Thad reached her before she ever got an answer. And then, seeing the wight's plan, she swore under her breath, ducking to the right, dragging both of them down. Daisy felt cold water close over her head for the first time in a long, long time. and if she had a heart at all, it was beating wildly against the inside of her rib cage. 

Thad was beneath her, and then on top of her, and then beneath her again, and then she was up, stumbling away, coughing, choking, as the water around them swirled at the center of a growing horde. 

And worst was still to come. God Wolf, she had no doubt, would be [i]pissed[/i]. 

They needed to be gone, and now. Daisy knew she had neither the time, nor the energy, to get them back across the other side. Veti was going to be hurting for a little while longer either way, but it was that, or deal with none of them returning at all. 

"Thad, stop it!" she half shouted in a not-at-all authoritative voice. "Don't fucking make me leave you here. Whatever you're hearing, whatever they're telling you, they're [i]wrong[/i]. They're [i]lying[/i]." Two of the horde broke off, splashing at her through the water. She tensed, gritted her teeth, swept them aside with a touch of the Scythe. She was shivering. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. 

"They're [i]dead[/i], dude! You got out -- you think they don't want to fuck your shit?" As she spoke, she edged slowly closer to the wight, no real plan in her head, except that she needed to get to higher ground, somewhere she had the power again. 

Suddenly, there was a blast of cold, enough to knock half the dead off their feet, into the water, carried away into the gray mist. The water at their feet frosted into ice around their ankles. 

God Wolf had arrived. 

Daisy felt her spine lock into painful rigidity. The decay wrapped around her torso and arms burned with cold. Swearing, she drove the butt of the Scythe into the ground at her feet. At once, a wall of water surged up around herself and the wight and Thad, the dead around them momentarily thrown off. It bought them mere seconds, and Daisy was already trembling with the effort, eyes focused on Thad, cautious, careful. 

"I can't hold these walls long," she grunted through clenched teeth. "If we get trapped here with God Wolf, the others won't be able to do shit for us. I am your [i]only[/i] chance to crossover again." The towers of water behind him trembled meaningfully, the spectres on the other side now gaining in strength and number. "You think you're dead? They can still kill you. Don't make me bring down the walls. Trust me -- Death is much, much worse than dying."