---

Town Hall.

---

"I told you why, idiot," The mayor hissed at Billy, trying anything to get him to shut up. "I can see the bigger picture, not the smaller details like this, or this." He groaned as he looked down and saw blood seeping through his bandages.

"Besides, I can see; I just can't do anything about it," The Mayor said. "Same with all the fucked up shit I've had to turn a blind eye to." He shook his head. He listened to Penny's speech, his face completely flat. Not changing even in the slightest, before he popped a grin.

"Right, I can't blame you for trying," The Mayor said, as he stood up, "But do you know you can't kill it?"

"We keep getting told that," Sharon flatly said. "But there has to be something we could do to stop it."

"There is," The Mayor said as he wandered over to a wall with a massive painting on it. He gently placed his hand on one corner before he turned back towards them. "Do you know about the five seals?"

"No." Lynette said,

"When those bastards from the other universe came in to make the thing our problem..." The mayor, with one hand, threw the painting to the ground and tore the wallpaper off... revealing a tiny hidden door with a lock. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a key which he promptly stuck inside before he turned it inside. The mayor reached inside and pulled out a transparent sheet of glass... with various lines painted on it. He presented it to the group.

"They locked it behind five seals of magic of some kind, I don't know," The Mayor started off, "It should have trapped the thing in there for all eternity, but something damaged one of the seals..." The mayor drifted off as he found his seat, and still held the glass map.

"... And woke it up, I heard it had something to do with John Reid and his wife." When the Mayor said this Sharon immediately tensed up.

"Was it December of last year?" Sharon asked, clenching her fists. Fighting back tears as Lynette looked at Sharon's disposition.

"Yeah, why?" The Mayor asked.

"... That was when the bastard killed my mother!" Sharon shouted at the top of her lungs as she finally let the tears out. Lynette placed a hand on her shoulder and said some reassuring words to her that was inaudible to the rest of the group. Sharon said something back.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but that's really not important right now." The Mayor said as Britney and Lynette had to try their best to stop Sharon from lunging at her. "Whatever happened that day... it woke the Glutton up - and damaged the seals - I heard that it was alright since the Glutton wasn't doing anything but something made it act. Something made it decide to act. It's pointless, but maybe if you try to repair the seals you can keep it in there... the thing gets out one way or another, though."

He presented the glass to them, as he said, "You all need to go to the library, and get the map of the mines from there because it's... less than accurate. But with this you can find out where all the Seals up and repair them. Maybe you can defy fate. But hurry up and take this..." He presented this to the group

He somberly sighed as his next sentence was shocking,

"... Because in the next minute or so, I am going to die."

---

Library.

---

”Did that last thing you show us actually happen? Who was the hidden person?” She grinned. ”Or did you just lie to us? Are you even capable of lying?”

The Speaker merely blankly looked at Rita, for what seemed like minutes despite being only a few seconds passing. "... So you're saying you can't see who it is?"

The Speaker didn't break eye contact with Rita for the duration, "I showed you what happened, you should see who it is. It's a member of your group-" The Speaker's mouth moved but suddenly all sound cut out from their ears, they couldn't even hear their own heartbeat. "It is the Child, the false God. When you were asleep, he planted many blanks of information in your head to cover up his own failures and lies. If he didn't, you would be able to see."

The Speaker sighed as they began to slowly fade away into orange ambers and flames, "But, it seems merely speaking isn't enough to get you to realize this isn't the natural order of things." They shook their head.

"However, ask the Child, next time they come to communicate with you, and you will have your answer," The Speaker was almost completely gone before they left the group with one message. "After all..."

"... The truth belongs to whoever seeks it."

"... What an asshole." Jordan hissed before she shook her head.

"I don't know guys, maybe we shoul-" Kimberly tried to say.

"No." Justin quickly cut her off. "Don't play into his mind games, the second we do, we won."

"But, it won't hurt to ask the Child," Jordan said.

"Right now, we wasted en-" Justin said before he heard cackling not too far away and shook his head. "Rien, get the map, we're getting out of here now!"

---

Library
_{@Ruler Inc@Atrophy}

---

“My god, this is a bunch of bullshit,” Rien muttered under their breath after all the visions from the speakers and old that he said. If you seek the truth, you will have all the answers you are looking for. Yeah right as if that was how it worked at all. Rien didn’t believe them one bit - then again, they weren’t sure they trusted the child either. It was hard to trust these higher beings.

Though the child had saved them at least once. But that could’ve been for selfish gain.

Tuyen was zoning in and out, constant cackling in her ears. At this point she’d realised that it was probably a hallucination caused by the shadow. No one else seemed to be reacting to it like she was. She tried to take breaths to concentrate on what was being said.

She realised Rita stepped forward after the first question was out of the other girl’s mouth. Just in case she moved to stand beside her, blocking her left hand from the view from others. She doubted that the speaker would, or could, do anything against her but she stuck there just in case it took offence to Rita using her abstraction on him.

“I don’t trust him,” Tuyen shook her head as he disappeared. “He sounded like he explained things, but he really didn’t.”

“I agree with Jordan - that doesn’t mean the child was telling us the truth either,” Rien pointed out, before giving a nod to Justin. “I’m on it.”

“Yes, let’s leave,” Tuyen said quietly, voice shaking as she tensed out the now louder cackling. She moved closer to Rita, but in a way that kind of moved both of them towards the way out.

Rien pulled the small hammer they’d been drawing out of the paper, taking only a few hits to break the glass and grab the map. They only got a few glass shards on their hand, it was fine - and mostly because they were rushing to get it out. That cackling was not pleasant or something they wanted to stick around for.

“Got it,” Rien rolled up the map as they spoke, keeping a tight grip on it, more than ready to leave.

---

_{@Ruler Inc@Fernstone@Ciaran}
Town Hall

---

Penny huffed as the Mayor told Sharon that her mother’s murder wasn’t important. All things considered, he wasn’t wrong, but even Penny had enough social grace to never say something like that. She stared at the glass sheet the Mayor held out to the group and prayed it was shatterproof. At least they didn’t need to go to the library—assuming the others grabbed the map. She tried to reach out to Justin telepathically: We found something useful here and are heading back. There is a map in the library. Did you find it?

"... Because in the next minute or so, I am going to die."

“From your injury?” asked Penny. “Or…” She looked down at his gun and frowned. None of them had anyway of really helping the Mayor, and if it was that then patching up his wound wouldn’t be what he needed anyway. She sighed and called out to the group. “We need to head back. Here, Min,” she handed him the glass map, “You seem like the least likely to drop this. Britney, Lynette, if you could help Paige. Billy, stop dicking around. Caelea, take point. I’ll be right behind everyone.”

“I know you don’t believe me,” said Penny, turning back to the Mayor. “But I am going to stop this thing. Maybe it’ll eventually get out, but it won’t be while I’m alive. So thank you. Really.” She smiled softly. “That might sound totally empty but if you actually knew me at all you would’ve realized how difficult it is for me to say that. Is there anything else you’d want to get off of your chest before, well…”

---

Library

---

Rita frowned. The Speaker’s answers had not satisfied her itch but instead created even more questions. It seemed like the obvious thing to believe was that the Speaker was full of shit and that nobody in their group would betray them, yet Rita had her doubts. Britney lied to them every single second she could. Billy had tried to use her like a canary in a mine. Sharon practically committed manslaughter. Not everybody in their group was a good person.

Hell, did she really know any of these people well enough to trust them? She liked Tuyen and Rien, but she didn’t really know them. They were just all stuck in a horrible situation together She respected Penny, but the girl was so gung-ho about destroying the Glutton that it was at least plausible that she might’ve made a secret deal with the Child. Rita felt her pulse quicken, and it had already been going fast. She tried shaking the thought from her head. She had spent the night in Penny’s room, and the girl never made any move to try and steal her abstraction.

“Yeah, let’s leave.” She felt Tuyen near her as another burst of far-off cackling filled the air.

“Yeah…” said Rita, following along with the group, her mind elsewhere.

---

Town Hall.

---

The mayor exhaled.

"It's pointless," He started, "Not just because the thing gets out regardless of what you all do; but because it's already in your-"

An arrow cut through the air at lightning speeds, so fast that nobody had time to react. The mayor's final words were cut painfully short when an arrow hit him square in the eye and he fell forward. Lynette let out a shriek as she whipped around to see a bright purple portal and a large group of people walking out of it. They were all wearing intricate robes similar to those in the portals. The person in front was wielding a dagger, while the rest were using medieval weaponry. She looked at the group head on as Britney narrowed her eyes as she hissed.

"Amethyst..." Britney's abstraction activated immediately and thick vines had already dropped from her hands and quickly traveled throughout the room. She can't keep them alive for long, but she has an idea. "Guys, whatever you do; don't let her get in your head!"

The woman muttered a few words in a different language that was completely identifiable - it seemed to be a mish-mash of different languages. Before she chuckled as she said, "Oh, forgot we were in Shimmer. Ha. But, hello my name is Amethyst, and these are my men and women - the Watchers... I'll be quick since we are short on time..."

Amethyst shook her head, "... You all should be the ones that should be worried about this traitor." The purple-robed lady said as she lifted her dagger at Britney. "I bet, by now, she has given you a thousand speeches filled with lives and drivel - all to manipulate you towards her goals."

"Shut up!" Britney shouted as the vines took the shape of thick drills all aiming towards the group. However, one of the members wielding a sword wearing a bright red robe swung his sword outwards and created a wall of flames that forced Britney to stop in her tracks. She had to cut her loses and separate the burning parts of her vines from the rest before the fire spreads. However, the wall of flames vanished.

The boy in the robe lifted his hood and it revealed a fair featured Asian male, "Allow lady Amethyst to speak!"

"How I know this? I've been working with this girl since we were both young! She comes from a long line of power-hungry schemers and manipulators."

"And you aren't? Glint is full of them!" Britney said.

"Typical Alhudaybi girl," Amethyst said, "She has probably manipulated you all into thinking that I was the enemy? That the Watchers were going to kill you all and take your abstractions? Silly, she was supposed to arrange a meeting between the two of us so we can make a plan to kill the Glutton... isn't that right, Sharon?"

The spotlight was on the Reid girl, who was quiet the whole time as she was turning into her bugs... There are people at both exits. She noted to herself, she didn't want to give up this card just yet. Especially since the group still had one exit they didn't cover. "... That is correct." Sharon merely looked at Britney.

"I would say you're doing a lot of good to redeem your bloodline, but you are still following her, oh well, "Amethyst shook her head. "It's neither here nor there, because I implore you, at the bottom of my heart - to leave this traitor."

Britney shot a finger at the Watcher, "If I didn't betray them we all would have been dead by then."

"Correction; if you didn't betray us, none of this would have happened." Amethyst smugly said as she lowered her weapon. "Because, as you may have been informed; John Reid was the most powerful being in the town, so powerful in fact that even the Glutton was afraid of him."

Sharon was intrigued, and she was probably listening to Amethyst the most intently of them all.

"However, this bastard, in an attempt to get that power killed him and woke it up!" Amethyst screamed at the top of her lungs and Sharon was dead silent. "She didn't even get his power! She couldn't handle it! This is all her fault!"

"Wait, what?" Sharon asked with a raised eyebrow, "How did his death wake it up!? That... I... that doesn't make any sense!"

"But it's what happened!" Amethyst said, "Think about the timing!"

Lynette was taken aback... she didn't know John Reid, but she heard from Kimberly and Jordan that Britney disappeared for a bit while at the camp. Right before Reese went on his rampage at the camp. It did add up in her head, but she needed to see the full story. Right now, she was wondering what was going through either of their heads.

"... I didn't kill him!" Britney said, "I'm speaking from the heart, I didn't kill him!"

"Then what were you doing, Alhudaybi?" Amethyst asked. "... I'm not even going to give you a chance to tell one more lie..." She said.

"You all, make your choice and make it now! We have a plan to stop the Glutton, what will I have to do to make you all trust me?"

---

Library.

---

"Alright let's-" Justin tried to hurry the group out before they heard yelps from both Tuyen and Rita. Justin only caught a glimpse of a glowing white being moving at the corners of his eyes but he quickly looked around.

"... Well, look what we got here, boys!" A loud male voice shouted from the top of the bookshelves and when they looked up they saw some sort of otherworldly creature. It was a largely white, spiny, being that had a ghostly ethereal look to it. It was humanoid with long limbs and massive hands with enormous claws at the end that was holding Tuyen and Rita up by their necks. The creature had a long goat-skull for a head with sharp deer-like antlers at the top of their heads. He had a resemblance to the creature in their very first recollection... and he was grinning just like the other one. "Delivery!" He laughed.

"You bastard!" Justin shouted as he erupted in a cloud of flames.

"Take this bitch, I'm in the mood for Chinese tonight!" The Wendigo said as he tossed Rita at the group, he pointed his claws at Tuyen and attempted to drive them into her stomach...

"No!" Jordan screamed as a wave of white light erupted from her and wrapped itself around everything as it came to a stop. The Wendigo was frozen mid-stab as Tuyen was probably terrified... Jordan let out pants as her heart was racing. The Wendigo was still holding Tuyen, and there was only one thing she could think of doing. She pointed at the bookshelf it was standing on as she shouted, "Justin! Break it! Hurry!"

His Soul-Self went on autopilot as it turned into a phoenix that flew through the bookshelf and broke it in half. The Wendigo was still mid-air, but as time resumed it fell from the sky and landed on the remains of the bookshelf - while Tuyen landed where ever.

The Soul-Self fired a barrage of flames at the Wendigo to make sure the bastard stays down but he suddenly jumped upwards yelling, "YOU ALL ARE PISSIN' ME OFF!" He swiped at the Soul-Self and sent it flying out of the window... in which another Wendigo jumped through the window. But then another creature broke in through another window and many began to leap down from the upper floors.

Surely enough Justin realized that this was one fight the group couldn't win. The Soul Self returned to Justin as it cut a path through the Wendigos to the nearest window as Kimberly helped Jordan haul ass out of there.

"RUN!"

---

Town Hall
_{@Ruler Inc@Atrophy}

---

My god, this was just getting messier and messier. Caelea looked away from the dead body of the mayor. Still she listened intently as the woman who called herself Amethyst, one of the watchers Britney had told them about, went on. There was a lot of back and forth arguing that she honestly couldn’t care less about.

Honestly, she didn’t believe this woman. How was she meant to believe someone who’d just stepped out of a fucking portal and shot someone who was about to give them some important information.

“Alright, look,” Caelea spoke up, shrugging one shoulder. “I’ll be the first person to admit that I don’t really trust Britney and, honestly, I hate her guts. But, I trust you even less. You waltzed in here and straight up killed someone. You look like you’re from the fucking middle ages. I don’t see any reason to believe you.”

They glanced at Britney before continuing. “And whatever, she may have fucked up, but there’s no way someone lies that well for so long. So no, I don’t trust you.”

While she talked Cael casually looked around, trying to figure a way. She could probably get past the people at the doors if she really needed to - her abstraction made it pretty easy to flip over people’s heads. She’d probably only get stabbed a little. The others on the other hand? Probably not.

It was probably a bad idea to disagree with a bunch of armed and probably experienced people, but for once she actually felt vaguely on Britney’s side (also she just didn’t like being told what to do).

---

Library
_{@Ruler Inc@Atrophy}

---

Panic ripped through Tuyen as a white creature grabbed her, her breathing speeding up and eyes widening. She was going to die, she was going to die, she was going to die. She couldn’t even close her eyes as it went to drive its claws into her stomach.

It was all a blur as white light erupted from Jordan, the book shelf was destroyed and Tuyen was dropped. She lay winded on the floor, side hurting from the fall. In a delayed reaction to save her life (and for self preservation) her shadow materialised itself, growing into a ten foot shadowy version of the Wendigo.

This served to panic Tuyen more, but also jerked her into action as she pushed herself off the floor and did exactly what was shouted to do.

Her shadow was being far from helpful, doing the opposite of self preservation and actively trying to attack every Wendigo that was close enough for it to reach. It’s attacks were powerful enough to knock them out of the way but each time they got a little closer to Tuyen, and it’s swings were a little too erratic. Mentally begging it to stop wasn’t working.

Ignoring the pain in her side and the ghost of the pain she would’ve felt if the Wendigo had stabbed her, Tuyen slowed down slight - so she was behind the others. She didn’t want her shadow to hit someone (accidentally or otherwise) and she didn’t know how to stop it doing whatever it wanted to.

Rien shoved the map into one of their (thankfully large) coat pockets, holding the tiny hammer tight as if it might help in this situation. They were all too quick to run towards the window because by god were they not staying here.

“How are we going to stop the following us out?” Rien shouted to the others, mostly directing the question to Justin. “We can’t ice the door back up.”

---

_{@Ruler Inc@Fernstone}
Town Hall

---

Penny was bossing them around again. It wasn’t like Billy was going to refuse to listen to her, but it still felt weird taking orders from his younger sister. He sighed deeply and stopped pretending to look through the archives. He had almost made it out from behind the shelves when he caught a glimpse of some purple tear in their world ripping open. Immediately, he ducked down behind a thick stack of boxes as a bunch of robed people carrying staves and swords emerged. To Billy they looked like they had just accidentally been teleported from a Ren faire, although one of them headshotting the Mayor made it quite clear that they weren’t just a bunch of nerds.

Penny locked eyes with her brother as she turned to face the Watchers. She tried as best as she could to not shake, although it wasn’t out of fear. She was furious. She blinked and her abstraction clicked on, a grimace forming on her face as the tiniest movements bombarded her with an overload of information. If she had only powered through the crippling migraines she might’ve had the reaction time necessary to spot the arrow and blast it away before it had murdered the Mayor. Her nails bit into her palms. If only the Mayor hadn’t been so goddamn cryptic and warned them that they were about to be invaded. If only the Watchers weren’t an organization that exclusively accepted assholes. Which one of them fired the arrow? She’d love to seem them try that with her.

No, no, no, no. A fight was a bad idea. Penny released a held breath and with that vented some of her anger as Amethyst and Britney began to bicker back and forth. She listened and picked apart their argument in her mind. Britney came from a long-line of power hungry schemers? Yeah, most rich people were jerks. Point Amethyst. Britney prevented them from meeting the Watchers, but they would likely been dead if they did? Well, the Mayor was there with his damn eye shot out and their little gang was still standing, although not without casualties. Penny called that a draw.

The argument started to become increasingly about pointing fingers at who wronged who. Penny couldn’t help but feel mildly embarrassed—she could’ve seen her old self doing this exact same thing. John Reid was so powerful that the Glutton killed him, yet Britney was somehow able to kill him? Stupid. Hell, even if Britney had killed John Reid he had murdered a ton of people. Point Britney. She couldn’t absorb his abstractions and that somehow woke up the Glutton? Come on. That was grasping at straws. Point Britney. Also, the assholes from Glint were why the Glutton was trapped in their mountain anyway, so wasn’t pinning everything on Britney just another attempt at dodging responsibility? Point Britney.

“Alright, look,” said Caelea. “I’ll be the first person to admit that I don’t really trust Britney and, honestly, I hate her guts. But, I trust you even less. You waltzed in here and straight up killed someone. You look like you’re from the fucking middle ages. I don’t see any reason to believe you. And whatever, she may have fucked up, but there’s no way someone lies that well for so long. So no, I don’t trust you”

Point Caelea.

“I’ve heard enough,” said Penny. Her voice was calm but strained, as if she was trying to keep herself from joining the shouting match. “You make some compelling points, Amethyst. My name is Penny, and these are my people. The...Campers.” Penny scrunched up her face at the sound of that name. Why had they never come up with a mysterious name for their group? “I’d love to sit down one day and explain to you how on, uh, Shimmer we generally don’t open up a parley by shooting someone in the fucking face with an arrow since it tends to make everyone just a little tense. Unfortunately, we actually have to go reseal the Glutton back inside of its cave, so…”

'Lynette, shit, I hope this works. You got those glyphs in place if this goes bad, right? I’m a shit negotiator,' said Penny telepathically, hoping that her old friend would be able to get the message.

“So, Amethyst,” continued Penny, her controlled speech slipping as a mix of desperation and amusement broke through. “Why don’t we just call a temporary truce until after this whole Glutton thing is handled and then we can hold a trail or something? Seriously, I’d love to hear everything after our world is no longer on the “most likely to be devoured” list. You can even feel free to tag along. Come see the civil war destroying our town, maybe toss us a portal or two so we can avoid the snow, heck, punch out an avatar of destruction with us and I’ll even give you the key to the city since you guys killed the person who normally does that,” she said, her words falling flat.

“Otherwise, just…” Penny flicked the back of her palms at the Watchers, as if to shoo them back into their portal. “Ya know, get bent.”

---

_{@Ruler Inc@Fernstone}
Library

---

One second Rita was hurrying out of the library along side of her friend and then the next second she was—Oh my fucking god what is that. She screamed as the long-clawed monster pierced her collar and hoisted her up off of the floor. The overwhelming amount of fear was beaten back only by the utter feeling of helplessness as the monster wrapped it’s claws around her neck. She was going to die. She was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it. Rita grabbed at its claw. No way. No way. She had to live. She needed to know the truth. She had to, she had to, she—for a brief second Rita actually thought she had struggled hard enough to escape the wendigo. Then it just threw her.

Rita hit the ground hard, although thankfully she heard nothing snap. As she tried to pull herself out of her daze, she felt the heat from Justin’s Soul-Self, heard the book shelf crash down, and listened as the wendigo screamed in frustration. Rita began to pick herself up, pain racing through her body as she struggled to her feet. There was a crash, and then another crash. Thuds from above. Somebody yelled run, but she didn’t need to be told to do that. Justin’s phoenix was back, and it served as a beacon of safety as it carved a path for them out of the library.

Rien shouted about how even once they got outside, they wouldn’t be able to keep those things inside. That was a problem for someone who wasn’t running for her fucking life to worry about. If they were able to make it to the school there was the chance that the others would already be back and could help Justin fight them off. Who had picked these groups anyway? Her face tightened in pain; her side hurt bad. She ignored it. She cast a look over her shoulder to find Tuyen and Tuyen’s shadow tossing wendigos like they were ragdolls. Maybe their group wasn’t as helpless as Rita had first thought, but still. No time for thinking. Only time for running.

---

Town Hall.

---

"In the name of the Knights of Luminscience, I've eliminated a traitor," Amethyst replied to both Caelea and Penny rather casually. "Harold betrayed the Knights and the Watchers when he broke the truce and told the Blind of secrets that they were never meant to know." Amethyst hung her head low.

"However, that is irrelevant," She replied, as she figured, the group didn't trust her. They were too blinded by Britney's lies to see the truth. Which was unfortunate, but she had a plan for this nonetheless. She craned her head towards Caelea first and foremost. "... I believed you've never seen anyone as cunning as her, then." She chuckled.

'Lynette, shit, I hope this works. You got those glyphs in place if this goes bad, right? I’m a shit negotiator.' Lynette heard the message in her head suddenly, and then she remembered the plan. She could probably kill the whole lot of them if she got them in the right place at the right time... but she didn't want to kill anybody. But, she could easily slow them down if she had to.

'Everything's good, keep going.' Lynette answered.

"But, I'd love to arrange an alliance with you all," Amethyst said with a smile, "But, the traitor here has disobeyed a direct order far too many times and schemed behind-"

"... Like your order to lead all my friends to their death!?"

"Don't project your schemes on me, corrupted - but I want you all to do something first," Amethyst lowered her dagger as she pointed towards Harold's dead body. On his wrist, his sigil was glowing a bright blue color and was seemingly projected off his wrist. It was floating in the air as everyone looked on. "I know she informed you all of your ability to take abstractions from each other."

She brought up the subject that the group was uncomfortably pushing away. "We need every edge we can against the Glutton, and I want you to take his abstraction," Amethyst started before she focused on Penny. "I feel it'd do you the best... merely touch it, concentrate on it, and it's yous... But I should warn you that you'll also inherit his memories."

"Penny, don't do it..." Britney tried to plead with her. "I'll-"

"No, she gets it, it has been decided by the Order of the Watchers," Amethyst snickered before she turned her attention to Penny. "Come now, unless you want someone else to have it - then we shall decide the terms out our alliance and then dispose of the other traitor."

---

Hauling ass from the Library.

---

The group ran out into the snow and Jordan looked over her shoulder and realized that the Wendigoes were much faster than they were in the snow. Shit. Shit. Shit. What the fuck were they going to do to get out of this one?

"We don't!" Justin shouted back at Rien. While it wasn't very reassuring, Justin had a plan. It wasn't a super good plan, but running from ghosts until the group gets tired didn't sound much better. "Everyone pick a direction and run in it!" Justin yelled at the top of his lungs as he turned around to see the massive horde of Wendigoes coming towards them. They were pouring out of the library and Justin sighed. While they were victims of circumstance; Justin got stuck with the least combat compatible people... there was nothing wrong with that.

Justin was going to make sure they all get out safe and sound. Even if it meant he got hurt... Justin wasn't ready to die. Not while her death was still unavenged. Justin stared them down, he didn't know how the Soul Self worked, but he was hoping that it would do what he wanted it to do. Just this one. He had no idea how it worked but it seemed to do what he unconsciously wants to do.

Well, he unconsciously wants the thing to keep them alive. Justin sighed as he noticed the Soul Self returning and the horde of Wendigoes getting even closer. He didn't know where the group went but he was hoping that they followed his orders and ran off somewhere.

He took in a deep breath.

"I don't know what you are or what you want, but just this once..."[/i] Justin silently pleaded with his guardian.

"... Please."

The Phoenix returned in a glorious display above him in a wreath of flames and the light and heat it emitted could be seen from miles away. The Wendigoes stopped in their tracks as the Soul-Self opened it's maw and spun around Justin fast as it could, spraying fire from its mouth. It burned the Wendigoes and forced them to run away... but the real goal was to cover the group's tracks. The snow was melted into water near-instantly, and there was not a footprint or a trace.

Soon there was enough fire that Justin was engulfed in a huge orb of flames that spread to the surrounding buildings...

... It would suck if they could track from more than just sight.

---

"Did anyone see him?" Kimberly said as she poked through the blinds of how they took refuge in. All she could see was the snowfall being too thick to see through. She could see the flames of the burning buildings in the distance and was amazed that Justin was able to set it on fire in this snow.

"Get away from the blinds!" Jordan whispered to her in a hushed tone. "Before they see us."

Kimberly did as told and looked around. They were set up in the living room which seemed to be abandoned in a rush... there was rotting half-eaten food on the table, and stuff all over the place as if the family realized there was something wrong and ran out. But after that, the place seemed to be untouched - but again, that thing was mind-controlling people left and right, and anyone stupid enough to loot was probably taken out by something else. Kimberly shook her head as she took a seat.

"If Justin made it," Jordan said, "He's probably going back to Grand Ridge... If he didn't, well..." She shook her head. It was sad losing another member of the group, but that was more proof of how grave the situation had become. He died so they could get away and that was more than what Jordan could offer right now.

Kimberly sighed as she took a seat. "Okay, um, so, we're gonna take a rest here and then we should get back to Grand Ridge as fast as possible." While the group wasn't keen on splitting up three ways; a few members of their group had decided to stay in Grand Ridge to keep watch. They were Zoey, Nathan, Cyrus, and Charlie, and she was confident the place would be in one piece... well, they were just as likely to be wiped out as anyone else here.

Kimberly looked around, before her gaze rested on Rien, "We should definitely look around, but Rien, do you still have the map?"

---

_{@Ruler Inc@Fernstone}
Town Hall

---

“I need a second,” said Penny with a huff.

Jesus Christ, I don’t know what to do, thought Penny. This must’ve been the kind of pressure Britney had been feeling for who knows how long. She gave Britney a somber look. They’d been friends, then enemies, and now...well, rivals wasn’t the right word for it. Survivors, maybe, willing to put apart their bullshit differences to make it through this whole messed up situation. It frustrated Penny that Amethyst didn’t have that same mindset. She was so adamant on her ideas that it was easy to default to hating the woman. Plus, her smirking face didn’t help.

Penny looked down at the Mayor’s wrist, the blue of his sigil reflecting in her eyes. She couldn’t deny the fact that the idea of taking it was intriguing. He was dead. He had no use for it anymore. It could be useful—both the power to see the future, and to have his memories. So little was clear to Penny. It’d be nice to have some clarity. It could help them. It could save them. And maybe, deep, deep down, she wanted more power. They were weak. They needed it.

Yet, the Mayor’s words haunted her. He kept saying how he could do nothing about the future that he saw. Penny assumed he had just given up hope and what he really meant was that he wouldn’t do anything, but what if he literally could not doing anything? Like how her own gave her migraines, what if his abstraction had some weird rule, some weird drawback that prevented him from acting? It’d take her out of the game, and they couldn’t win with any less players. The others needed her as much as she needed them. It was risky. It could be a trap. She could turn into another Reese.

Fuck this. I hate this. I hate this. I should’ve gone to the library.

Penny truly thought an alliance was necessary. Every step of the way they had lost people, and the fights weren’t getting any less desperate. She didn’t trust Amethyst, but she couldn’t just keep pushing others away. If they found a way to work together, then maybe they could find a way to come to a compromise to save Britney—Penny wasn’t going to let her get executed like the Mayor. If everything that Britney had said about Amethyst was true, well, then they could deal with them after the Glutton. On second thought, if everything was true then the Watcher wouldn’t wait until their Glutton problem was over. Penny stared at the blood pooling on the Mayor’s lap. She looked at Amethyst, and then at Britney. Any decision she made felt like she was cutting her own throat.

So why drag it out any longer? Well, to try and get a message through, obviously.

Caelea, Penny sent out, Lynette has glyphs near the door. If they try to hurt anyone, I need you to help me force them to it.

“I made up my mind. Guess it’s time to stop pushing people away,” said Penny with a sigh. She turned to Britney and smiled sadly as she reached her hand towards the Mayor’s sigil. Then, with her hand a few inches over the sigil, she stopped and pulled away. She let out a little ashamed chuckle and squinted at Amethyst, “You know, I don’t think I deserve this one. We didn’t finish the job, so why should any of us take it? Plus, I’m pretty terrible at concentrating. Why don’t you show me how to do it, Amethyst? I’ll get the next one.”

---

Library
_{@Ruler Inc@Atrophy}

---

Tuyen was exhausted, and had curled herself up on the sofa in the living room they’d take refuge in. It had taken a while for her shadow to go back to its normal state once she’d started running, even when the immediate danger was gone it had taken great pleasure in remaining in the physical world. There were quite a few dents in buildings from it just going ham at punching whatever it could. It seemed to take great joy in the way the damage made Tuyen flinch.

Thankfully it had gone back to normal before she’d properly met up with the others (or it might’ve attacked one of them). Now it was just there, taunting her with thoughts of how everyone could die. How those things might find them again and forcing her to constantly hear their laughter.

She really hoped Justin made it out – he was a good friend, one of the few she really trusted. Probably technically still her boyfriend, not that that mattered anymore. They hadn’t exactly talked properly in a long time. And anyway, it had been more of a close friendship the whole time.

Not that any of that was important right now.

“Yup, I do,” Rien nodded to Kimberley, pulling the map out from where they’d had it protected under their jacket. Good thing too, or the snowfall would’ve destroyed it. “As much as I was running for my life, I wasn’t going to lose what they came for.”

They stood up and cleared some space on the table to put the map down on it.

“Gotta say, though, map reading was never something I was good at.”

---

Town Hall.

---

Amethyst just laughed.

"Stop stalling," Amethyst said, as she shook her head. "You don't want his power... and if I could have taken it I wouldn't need agents such as John Reid." She looked around the room before her eyes landed on Min. She smiled as she turned towards him.

Britney was trying to form a plan of hers. Because Amethyst wasn't going to stop until she was dead and she knew it. So that meant that they had to drive off the Watchers or kill them. Which was hard... as she considered some of the family, but some of them were so indoctrinated by the Watchers and the League that they would throw friendships away at the drop of a dime. That plan involved getting the Mayor's abstraction, while she was hesitant to the idea of inheriting another person's power as it took one taste to lose it-

"You," Amethyst started, "Take his light, we don't have the time."

"Why can't you take it?" Lynette stood in front of Min... and while she found him annoying, there was something very wrong here. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Our Light is different, Britney should have informed you," Amethyst started, "Those from Glint cannot inherit abilities from those from Shimmer. And neither can the opposite occur. Unless he is my light-brother... which he isn't."

Goro's sword had flames falling off of it, as he said, "We must stay on task, Amethyst," Goro said as he pointed the sword at Britney. "We must kill her first and foremost."

"Hold on, Goro," Amethyst raised a hand, "The Mayor knows something they should know, and the only way they can see it, unfiltered is through a recollection."

She smiled.

"So," She said, "Take it already, your leader is a coward."

---

Hauling ass from the Library.

---

Kimberly smiled... which she wondered how forced it was. But, she wasn't in the mind to overthink these kinds of things. She placed a hand on Rien's shoulder, "It's okay." Rien placed the map down on the table and Kimberly stood over it to analyze it, Jordan had joined her among the others and they all examined it.

"... And I don't have a clue what any of this means." Kimberly admitted.

"You and me both, sis," Jordan added on.

It was an old rag that had a bunch of lines on it... They found it hard to decipher where they were even supposed to go to kill the Glutton or whatever plan that Penny had. Jordan shook her head, then she pointed at one tunnel that begun at a hill, "This looks like an entrance." Then her finger drifted to the other side. "So does this."

"We should at least wait until we get to Brit-" Kimberly said before they were cut off by a loud thump on the roof. It was hard enough that it sent chunks of the ceiling down and immediately they went silent. They heard some chatter that was definitely from the Wendigoes... Good thing they run their mouths. Jordan thought to herself.

"Sssh!" Kimberly said.

"... That fucker got away!" One was heard shouting.

"Fuck him!" Another one said. "Just find the rest! I can sense they're nearby!"

Then he leaped off. Which made Kimberly sigh in relief... but feel dread. "They know where we are here...." Kimberly trailed off.

"I say we pick a direction, then run in it," Jordan said.

"We need to get back to Grand Ridge... we'll have a better chance of fighting them off as a group."

"... If they haven't already been eaten."

"Don't say that..." Kimberly said. "But, we need to leave here now."

---

_{@Ruler Inc@Fernstone}
Near the Library

---

Rita was busy destroying what remained of her fingernails to calm her nerves. She at the table to give herself some space from the others, although it unfortunately left her closer to the stench of the rotting dinner. Kimberly asked about Justin. Rita hadn’t seen him since he turned the snowstorm into a firestorm to drive the Wendigos away. Hell, she felt like she hadn’t seen anything until she was inside of this house, at this table, studying a spoiled plate of Kraft macaroni and cheese. Before this, she’d just felt things: the cold, fear, weakness, and the literal pain in her ass from after being thrown by the Wendigo.

Rita looked over at Tuyen. She had seen Tuyen’s shadow fight before, but that was when she was under the impression that Tuyen had been controlling it. Back at the hospital she said it was sentient, but Rita had always figured that meant it was some kind of quirky sidekick by the way Tuyen had brushed it off. From what bits she had caught in the library it appeared much more intense than before. Gleefully destructive. Dangerous, even. There was a shadow of unease over Tuyen’s face, and Rita wasn’t sure it was only from her concern about Justin. Even if it just is, thought Rita as she stepped away from the table while the others began to pour over the map.

“Hey. Um,” said Rita as she joined Tuyen on the sofa. She didn’t know how to continue. It’d feel lame to tell her that Justin was alive or that everything would be okay considering Rita didn’t believe either of those two things. She mulled over things for another second or two, and then just pulled in Tuyen for a hug. Rita was one for touching other people ever, and her hug showed that. It was poorly executed, definitely awkward, and thankfully short. She pulled away. “I’m glad you made it.”

There was a loud thunk from above before Tuyen had a chance to answer, and Rita tensed as the voices of Wendigos carried throughout the house. It sounded like Justin was alive, which was great, but they had given up hunting him and were now looking for them. As the Wendigos jumped off the roof, the others began to come up with a plan of action. Rita agreed that getting back to Grand Ridge before trying to fight them was their best chance of survival, but just running like crazy had only worked when they had Justin covering them.

“Wait,” said Rita. She looked down to avoid triggering her abstraction. “Grand Ridge isn’t too far, but we, uh, we won’t make it if they spot us right away. Sorry, this might be a dumb idea. Rien, could you draw something that can be used as a distraction to draw their attention inside after we start running for it? Like an...like an alarm clock or a firecracker or something. Just anything to buy us an extra minute.”

---

Town Hall
_{@Ruler Inc@Atrophy@Ciaran}

---

Caelea was on edge the whole time. She disliked the way this Amethyst person was talking and how much they seemed to think killing Britney was right. Sure she may have thought of it a few times when she’d really hated Britney but it had never been serious. God, traitor or not that didn’t mean she had to die. Seems they were medieval both in dress and ways.

Got it, I’ll be ready, she thought back at Penny, hoping it would get through.

Min wasn’t sure what to make of everything. He certainly wasn’t on the side of killing members of their group, they needed everyone to win this. But he wasn’t against allying with Amethyst. Really, he didn’t understand why Penny refused to take the abstraction of the Mayor. How could it harm her in any way? If anything it would just give them another edge. They desperately needed that.

He raised an eyebrow as Amethyst told him to take it. Now, Min wasn’t a big fan of being ordered about. But he was being given the opportunity to get the abstraction… and he’d been curious what that would be like ever since Britney had told them it was possible.

He wanted to know what it was like and how the other abstraction felt.

“I’ll take it,” Min spoke up, stepping around Lynette to get to the body of the Mayor. He wrinkled his nose slightly. Not exactly a pleasant sight. “Someone should.”

Before anyone could argue against it or stop him, Min bent down and placed his hand on the Mayor’s sigil – concentrating on it like Amethyst had told Penny to.

---

Library
_{@Ruler Inc@Atrophy}

---

So lost in her own thoughts, it took a moment for Tuyen to realise that Rita had joined her in the sofa. Then the other girl hugged her, awkwardly. Tuyen stiffened a bit first before quickly relaxing. She also wasn’t one for frequent physical contact but it was nice for a short moment. It helped quiet her thoughts just a little bit.

To shut up the constant doubt that anyone here would even give her a second thought, and that they’d all be happy if she were to die.

A thank you was on her lips when she was cut of by the thud on the roof, literally flinching as the Wendigos started talking. Fuck, there was no way they were getting away from this. She was exhausted and fairly certain that her shadow wasn’t going to jump to her rescue again. Not that it had wanted to the last time anyway. She didn’t even want it to become physical again. Everytime there was a fear that it would damage something, someone, important.

Rien almost cursed under their breath at the loud thump on roof, instantly snatching up the map and putting it back in their coat (thank god for ski jackets and their pockets on the inside). At least they didn’t know exactly where they were but, well, it wasn’t exactly a good situation. Sooner or later they’d be found.

“Yeah, I think I can,” Rien nodded at Rita’s idea. It was a good one, better for them to do whatever they could to get away. “I’ll do an alarm clock, since a firecracker requires something to light it… which I don’t have.”

They grabbed their sketchbook and started drawing. Doing an alarm clock from memory was harder than expected, but they managed to draw one of the kind with the two bells on the top and pulled it out of their drawing. It was small but seemed like it should work.

“Let’s hope this is functional.”

---

Town Hall.

---

... And the sigil on Harold's arm disappeared - faded away into nothing - and at the same time, it reappeared on Min's arm. Amethyst smiled while Britney got an odd feeling in her chest as something that she was trying to avoid was about to come true.

"Now, you have his abstraction... and not just that; his memories," Amethyst started, "He was hiding many things from the Watchers - and the town - so it could prove helpful." Everything was going according to plan, even if it didn't seem obvious. By inheriting the memories of Harold; they'll see the truth that Britney tried to hide... which means even if she survives, she won't survive for long.

"But, that's for another time," Amethyst shrugged as her attention landed on Britney. She twirled the dagger around in her hands. "Before we get started; we must leave with what we came for..."

Goro's sword exploded into flames.

"... And it's the traitor's head."

Goro swung his sword directly at Britney's neck, but Amethyst was never the subtle type, and she knew who her favorite pet was. She already had a net of vines and wooden roots coming out of her hands, and when Goro made his triumphant swing, his arm with parried by Britney. Completely stopped dead in his tracks as her vines and roots were growing into his fingers.

Lynette was honestly surprised by the fighting that broke out and, on near reflex, tried to use her glyphs - but she remembered what Penny said. However, Sharon was quicker to act when she grabbed a chair and tried to chuck it at Goro. Tried in the sense that an arrow came out of nowhere that exploded into a portal...

... which sent the chair flying directly into her head. She was immediately knocked on her ass, but fortunately, it was just a simple office chair. Meanwhile, Britney was restraining Goro who was trying with all of his strength to cut her into bits with his flaming sword. An intricate display of floating symbols appeared and set the roots and vines ablaze and Britney started getting worried. She received a kick to the stomach that knocked the wind out of her breath and sent her stumbling back. She mustered all of her wills when she got back up and saw Goro charging at her with his blade.

"DEATH TO THE TRAITOR!" He screamed his war crimes.

Meanwhile Amethyst was hanging back, talking to her Watchers in a foreign language. The Obott twins jumped into their portals and ended up far back from the group with their arrows primed. As the others pushed in, Amethyst raised a hand into the air as she said.

"If any of you defend her, you will be joining her," Amethyst said, "Today the Lightbrighter will be sated!"

Before she ran in to join the fray.

---

Hauling ass from the Library.

---

"Good idea."

Kimberly was so determined to get out of here that she didn't realize that running out there would be completely stupid. However, they need to hurry up. She wasn't sure if they could save Justin, but they could save themselves if they play their cards right. Grand Ridge was about five minutes away if they head the right direction - but Kimberly lived here all her life, and Farmer Hill isn't hard to navigate, fortunately. Rien made the alarm clock, and Kimberly nodded her head.

"Set it to three minutes," Kimberly commanded, "We gotta go." Given that the house was pretty small, as the back door was right there. They should have more than enough time to get out of here. The group quickly began moving, to the back door, and they were right on out by the time it went off. Kimberly could see the lights off the Wendigoes flying towards the house.

By the time they figured out what had happened the group was long gone. It was a long walk back to Grand Ridge, the weather didn't make getting around easy. But, Jordan was the most unnerved during the whole thing... she felt something. Looking around, she saw a black wolf with red eyes creeping in her peripheral. She knew exactly what it was... Was she the only person that noticed it? She had hoped not. She was hoping that the Hound was just a figment of her imagination, that camp driving her crazy. But what did she have to do with wolves? Her favorite animals were cats.

They caught Grand Ridge in their eyes, and Kimberly felt a sigh of relief. Surely they'd be able to hide in Grand Ridge until they came up with a plan of some sort.

"... I FOUND THEM!" One of the Wendigoes bellowed from the rooftops. "LET'S EAT!"

"Fuck!" Jordan shouted.

"Into Grand Ridge!" Kimberly said as she charged in, "Board it up, we'll think of something!"

---

_{@Ruler Inc@Fernstone}
Town Hall

---

Penny sucked in a frown. She had been stalling. If Britney had revealed to them that Shimmer and Glint couldn’t exchange abstractions then she had long forgotten about it. She had been more fixated on how people from Shimmer used their abstractions through items. Her plan to draw Amethyst away from the other Watchers and within range of disarming her from her dagger hadn’t played out. That was fine. What wasn’t fine was how hungry Goro and the other seemed to see Britney dead. Penny had hoped for a peaceful resolution, but if cooperation meant sacrificing Britney then it was not even close to an option. It was looking like their contingency plan was the only one they could follow.

Hey Billy, when I say go throw whatever you can at me then look down, she sent to her brother, who was still cowering within the stacks of boxes and files.

She just needed to move a little forward to get into position. Thankfully, Amethyst had just called her a coward.

“Says the—” Penny didn’t even start to walk forward when Min said that he’d take the Mayor’s abstraction. She whipped around, “Wait!”

Too late. The sigil jumped to Min, and Goro jumped at Britney.

“Shit! Go! Stop them!” barked Penny as she kicked something by her feet towards Billy. If they could push them back towards Lynette’s trap then they stood a chance. Penny took a big step forward to intercept the crate of binders he had chucked her way. Not the greatest caliber of ammunition she could have asked for, but it was something. Penny sent papers scattering as she blasted the entire crate at Goro as he charged at Britney with a war cry. She hoped that it’d knock him off of his balance, or at least force him to defend himself. She didn’t have a chance to see if it had even hit before shifting her focus to the others.

"Today the Lightbrighter will be sated!" shouted Amethyst as she ran towards them.

“Oh my god, shut the fuck up!” yelled Penny. As much as she wanted to jump in there and kick Amethyst’s ass, the Obott twins and their arrows were her bigger concern. Penny fired off whatever papers were still dancing through the air followed by a salvo of loose change towards the twins. She didn’t even have time to aim at them; it was to taunt them. If they shot them at someone outside of her radius there was no way in hell she could protect them. However, if they shot them at her then it’d be no sweat to return them to sender. More than anything, she just hoped that they could push the Watchers into range of Lynette’s glyphs and quickly at that. She’d been using her abstraction since the Watchers had shown up, and already her head was starting to hurt.

---

Near the Library

---

Rita followed Kimberly and Jordan out the back of the house. The sheer amount of relief that they weren’t instantly torn to shreds by a Wendigo made the intensity of the cold almost bearable for the Texan, although she still solemnly swore that this winter would be her last one way or the other. The sound of the alarm dinged through the air, but the raid of creatures on their former haven was drowned out by the whistle of the wind. After what felt like forever, but was surely no more than a handful of minutes, their school cut through the whiteout. Of course, as it was with their luck, that was when a Wendigo spotted them. It screamed over the storm, and Rita could see dark figures shifting through the snowfall.

Kimberly shouted at them to run to Grand Ridge. It was a waste of breath; Rita was already running despite her body basically balancing upon the border of its breaking point. She was terrified that she was going to trip as she darted up the snow-covered stairs to the academy. She could just imagine herself getting killed at the very same spot she’d almost gotten beaten to a pulp by Claire a few months ago. All this, because she wanted to get away from home. Jerks and bullies were nothing when they were compared to abominations and killers. However, her feet did not fail her and she was one of the first in through the front door. One from the group that had stayed behind gave her a weird look. In their defense, she did look manic.

“We’re being chased!” shouted Rita, holding the door open for the others to get in. Kimberly’s idea to barricade themselves in was the only option they had, although they couldn’t do it in the lobby. Too open. Too many ways in. “Get away from the windows!”

---

Town Hall

---

Billy was jealous that Min got the abstraction. He didn’t understand why his sister hadn’t just taken it. Future sight seemed pretty cool. Way better than his abstraction, which was to seemingly not exist. Otherwise, he was just thinking of a way to get out of here. Maybe he could sneak away while they were all talking—that Amethyst chick talked almost as much as Penny or Britney did—but that whole plan had been cocked up when the fighting started. Penny had asked for him to throw something at her and he did, but the whole look down part didn’t make any sense whatsoever. He had looked down. All he saw was the crummy retro carpeting that had scratched up his knees.

Then, as he watched Sharon get knocked down, he saw what Penny had kicked over to him. It was the Mayor’s six shooter. God Bless America, the only country where dangerous guns were so common and plentiful that they were casually ignored by just about everybody—including assholes from another dimension. Penny’s pass had been a little short. It was maybe five feet from Billy, which meant it was about five feet closer to danger. While he hated the idea of exposing himself, he also hated the idea of not having the gun in his hand. With his nearly nonexistent abstraction, it was a bit of an equalizer.

Screw it, right?

He scrambled out from behind the shelf, grabbed the revolver, and fired off four shots towards the Watchers. He was barely even aiming and within a second he was behind the shelf again. That was more than enough bravery for Billy today. Time to think of an exit strategy.

---

Town Hall.

---

Britney was happy that the group was willing to fight for her. She didn't want to waste time thinking about why, when Goro, their best fighter was about to tear her apart. Worst of all, the rest of the Watchers which consisted of around eight other people were attacking them. She found it weird because there should be more Watchers.

Still, if they took out Goro and the Obott twins the Watchers weren't that huge of a threat but she shouldn't get ahead of herself. Billy grabbed the mayor's gun and unloaded on the group, one bullet hit Goro but Britney wasn't satisfied with a bullet whirling by her head. "Watch where you're pointing that!" She sounded a bit unappreciative of Billy's efforts. But, she would rather not have a bullet in her - unlike Goro. The bullet hit him in the shoulder and that was enough for their tug of war to go in their favor. She launched him forward and he fell backward and she was more than content with piercing his skull with a wooden spear.

But a wave of water hit her right in the gut that felt worse than someone punching her and sent her right on her ass. Looking up, it was an Asian girl wearing a red robe with a spear, her entire spear was covered in intricate symbols. She stepped over him as she began twirling her spear above her head as the room began to fill with rain. It quickly formed a tornado of water around them acting as a makeshift shield for the two - but fortunately, that took Goro and this other female out of the mix. One other Watcher was hit with the bullet but the rest had missed.

Meanwhile Amethyst had changed priorities from Britney to Penny; her attempts to block the Obotts were a serious concern for when the group needed to escape. Especially since Goro was injured and she needed to get Goro over to Cindy. Of course, that was easy for her. Amethyst's dagger started glowing with intricate symbols as she focused on Penny.

In the eyes of the group, absolutely nothing had happened

From Penny's eyes, however, Watchers were appearing out of her sight and rushing her from all directions. But, they always seemed to be coming from the directions that'd put her group in her line of fire. She grinned. This was the punishment fit for a traitor and if she was going to drag her friends down, then that was their choice. Their plan needed the Awakened alive, however.

Amethyst raised her hand into the air, as she spoke in a language that the support group didn't understand. However, her Watchers understood clearly and nodded their heads.

Before Amethyst went back to the Obott twins, her plan was cemented.

---

Grand Ridge.

---

The library group charged into a very confused Zoey Gray.

"... What?" Zoey asked with a raised eyebrow... before a Wendigo came crashing through one of the lobby windows and roared. Zoey, having never seen something like this in her life, pissed herself embarrassingly enough. Fortunately, that wasn't obvious given that she was being covered in electricity with her abstraction glowing. This magic shit was brand new to Zoey, but she was going to make the most of it. She pointed a hand at the Wendigo and fired a stream of electricity that cackled loudly as it sent the Wendigo right back where it came from...

... Then more came.

"Shit!" Zoey said as she was shooting a nonstop torrent of electricity at them. "Hope ya'll gotta plan- where's Justin?!"

"Dunno!" Kimberly said as she ran with Jordan in tow to somewhere. The rest of the group that had stayed behind to defend had come out to fight the Wendigo swarm. They needed to get somewhere defensible... but given that Grand Ridge is already being swarmed by them from all angles, that was going to be hard. There was only one option.

"Screw barricading!" Kimberly shouted as she grabbed a chair and smacked a Wendigo with it hard as she could. "We gotta fight!"

"That's the spirit," Zoey said as she was still shooting lightning everywhere. The group was surrounded and had to fight here and now. However, one of their defenders, Charlie Moore, was using a baseball bat that she had found infused by her abstraction. Swinging left and right taking out Wendigoes... until one got the drop on her and she found herself impaled through the stomach.

She let out a yell as Jordan's eyes landed on her and her heart started racing... that was when the white pulse came out of her and time came to a stop. Every Wendigo was frozen in mid-air - but she couldn't avert her eyes from Charlie. Other Awakened were immune to the effects of the time freezing... so she was left to bleed to death on the Wendigos claws and eventually fell forward. Dead. Jordan felt partially responsible for the death of Charlie... but she couldn't help but notice the fact that her sigil on her neck was glowing.

"We got one minute!" Kimberly said, remembering how long Jordan's time skips usually last. "We need to get out of here!"

... Meanwhile, a pure black wolf with red eyes could be seen in the distance. Watching them.

---

Town Hall

---

Penny was keeping the twins at bay, an array of pens fanned between one hand while the other head a fistful of change. The deafening ring of a gun told her that Billy had finally taken some initiative. She had no time to even give out a supportive whoop as a bullet hit Goro and another watcher, for she caught the glow of Amethyst’s dagger out of her periphery. She braced for something nasty to come at her through a portal, but she hadn’t anticipated what happened next as Watcher reinforcements began to swarm her. How many of these assholes were there?

She took a few hops back to give her some distance to fire off a salvo of junk, but they had fanned themselves out in a way that perfectly lined themselves up with her crew. One bad shot and she’d risk taking one of them out. Penny wasn’t like Billy, who was perfectly content with blindly firing off some shots. She growled in frustration as her eyes darted back and forth between the new foes, unwilling to take a shot before she was certain she wouldn’t hit an ally.

Billy, in the meantime, was creeping on all fours along the ground to look for a better hiding spot and, ideally, an emergency exit. He had made it to a resource desk when he looked back at the chaos and saw his sister whipping around in a panic as Amethyst began issuing orders in a foreign language. Why wasn’t Penny targeting their obvious leader? Hell, why wasn’t she doing anything at all? He huddled behind the desk, gun gripped in his hand, and sent her a message.

Penny, do something!

“I fucking can’t!” she shouted, dodging away from nothing.

“Shit,” he muttered under his breath. He didn’t know what was happening to her, but he couldn’t actually dip out while his sister was in trouble. Continuously cursing, Billy stood up from the desk and rushed towards Penny, fully intending to grab her by the arm and pull her away. However, from Penny’s view, it looked as if Billy was charging one of her assailants. Was he nuts? It was too dangerous for him to try and tackle one of them.

---

Grand Ridge

---

Rita jumped as Zoey sent one of the Wendigos through the window it had crashed through only for more to appear in its place. These things were way too fast, and as much as she didn’t want to Kimberly was right about them having to fight. Rita cursed under her breath, looked for an improvised weapon, and took a queue from Kimberly as she grabbed a chair. With all of her might she tossed it at the closest Wendigo; it glanced harmlessly off of the back of its legs. She actually let out a single ha at the sight of her own pathetic attempt. The Wendigo turned to face her, and that was when a swing from Charlie’s bat cracked across its skull and sent it flailing to the ground.

“Yes!” shouted Rita, moments before a Wendigo got revenge on Charlie and split their stomach.

Rita felt hers turn. Jordan cast up a bubble, but it was too late. The bat clattered to the ground, and Charlie expelled their dying breath. The glow of their sigil caught Rita’s eye. The situation was life or death. There wasn’t even a bit of doubt in Rita’s mind as she reached out like in the recollection the Speaker had shown them and touched the sigil. In a second, it was gone. Memories that weren’t hers flooded her mind. She really hoped what she was about to do next worked. Rita reached down and grabbed the bloodsoaked bat. She reeled back, the new sigil on the nape of her neck burned, and she took one step forward as she made a giant, infused, home run swing at the head of the Wendigo that had killed Charlie.

The bat cracked against its skull and splintered into several pieces.

”Oh motherFUCKER! ”yelled Rita, perhaps louder than anyone had ever heard the girl in her life. She kept part of the broken bat as Kimberly called for them to retreat, joining the group as they made to make their escape from the infested lobby.

---

Town Hall
_{@Ruler Inc@Atrophy@Ciaran}

---

“Oh fuck this,” Caelea was pissed off when the fighting started and still was as it had progressed. She’d had to hold back a bit, worried her blasts of air would hurt someone else, and had mostly concentrated on keeping the less powerful guys away from Penny and Britney.

Min, on the other hand, had taken cover behind a shelf. His abstraction was useless for battle – both new and old. How he even used the new one he didn’t know. Easier to figure out when it wasn’t a battle.

Caelea was concerned when Penny suddenly stopped fighting, dodging what seemed to be invisible threats in the aftermath of some magic bullshit from Amethyst. Whatever she was saying in a different language couldn’t be good either. At this rate they weren’t going to make it out easily.

She remembered Penny’s plan to get them into Lynette’s glyphs but, without Penny she doubted she had a chance of doing that. Fuck it. There was no way she could take on Amethyst by herself but she could try pushing them over.

Frowning, with honestly no idea how to do this, she used air to propel herself towards the twins, hoping she’d make it before Amethyst – before blasting the two of them with a strong gust.

---

Library
_{@Ruler Inc@Atrophy}

---

Fighting for their lives was becoming the new norm. Rien being useless in the fight was also something that had never changed, even as they managed to hit a wendigo square in the face with the small hammer they’d drawn. They didn’t even have time to draw anything else. A gun would be useful, but they just couldn’t risk it right now. So they copied Kimberley in grabbing a chair.

Tuyen had also grabbed a chair, though her lack of strength made her rather pathetic. Her shadow was staying obtusely incorporeal. She was drained and was so tempted to just give in. But no, she didn’t want to die at the hands of one of those creatures. She wanted to live, deep down somewhere.

Time froze and so did Tuyen, eyes fixed on Charlie. She just felt numb to it all now, bile no longer rising in her throat. She’d seen it all before. Then Rita took Charlie’s abstraction and tried to use it? Everything was going to fast for Tuyen to pay attention to, but she joined the others in escaping.

Rien took the opportunity of the time freeze to start sketching, shouting to the others as they escaped the lobby. “Does anyone here know how to use a gun?”

---

Grand Ridge Academy.

---

Time rolled back in as quickly as it disappeared. The group was hauling ass, and while unfortunate, Charlie's death was a sufficient distraction for most of the Wendigos. The others were still trying to figure out where the hell they went and how in the hell they disappeared. Kimberly had nary a clue as to where they would retreat to, only that they were going to retreat. Worst of all, they had to carry both Jordan... part of her thought it'd be easier just to leave her.

After all, the situation is dire enough... but Kimberly wasn't about to let anyone else die. They ran out the back door of the academy frantically and were out on the streets of Farmer Hill. Kimberly's heart sank when she heard the shout,

"I found them!" One Wendigo shouted.

"Surround them!"

And that was what they did, the group was worn out and couldn't run any faster and the Wendigoes surrounded them in the streets. Covering every exit they had, forming a near-perfect circle around them in merely a few seconds - it felt like. The group had no choice but to hunker down.

"You're fucked now!" One of the Wendigos shouted.

"TIME TO FEAST!" They all began to charge, converge on their prey... before they all felt a very dark presence.

Nothingness.

They looked around, going from ravenous hunger to pure fear. Before they looked in the distance and saw a black fog closing in.

"Is that...?" One said.

"It is!"

"Run!"

That was when every single Wendigo cleared the area fast as they could, using every exit they had. Many of them climbed on top of the buildings and jumped from roof to roof until they were all gone. They were obscured by the snowstorm and Zoey wiped some sweat away.

"Don't get comfy just yet...." Jordan hissed.

"Yeah, you know why the little fish flee...?" Kimberly trailed off as she stood up tall and strong. "... Because there's a shark."

The being that was stalking them was not a literal shark. However, a being quickly erupted from the black smoke. A being that made Jordan tense up in fear. A giant black wolf with glowing red eyes ran down the street towards them, leaving behind a fading after image as it charged them at speeds they couldn't hope to outrun. It leaps up into the air and landed not too far away from the group and stood tall and menacing, the size of an elephant.

Jordan was shivering in fear as she took steps back, her heart was going so fast that it felt like it was about to stop. The beast stood there staring at them blankly, it was surrounded by a black fog that seemed to form skulls that disappeared after a few moments.

It was none other than the Hound, the beast that tormented Jordan in her dreams.

"Hello," The Hound said as it lied down, with his head up at full attention. Whenever it spoke its mouth did not seem to move. "Do not be alarmed, I come in peace."

"GO AWAY!" Jordan screamed at the top of her lungs out of pure fear, not wanting to play party to a single one of this... apparition's lies. A wave of white light erupted from her being that froze time instantly...

"... That's not going to work against me," Merely to demonstrate, the Hound stood straight up. "I am a being with powers above abstractions... and thus I am impervious to them."

However, Zoey wasn't letting her guard down for a second. Her arms were coated in electricity the whole time as she said, "Why don't I get a good feeling from you?"

"As I am the Agent of Death," The Hound started, "As a living being, you are aversed to my existence. However, it is not you who should be afraid."

The Hound turned his attention to the group and only two people seemed to stick out.

"Jordan Nichols, and Madeline Levine, in Shimmer's darkest hour," The Hound started. "It is time for me to collect. And I am not leaving without one of you."

"What... who are you?" Kimberly said. "What do you want from them??"

"The Child never informed you, did they?" The Hound inquired as he walked around the group. "I know they informed you on how the universe functions and what gives you that spark of life... but did they tell you that you have to give it back?"

Kimberly shook her head.

"The light gives you life, you live and collect all of these experiences, then you die and return it to the God force... and when you do, your memories are added to it and that is how the Godforce grows and it will be how the Child will rebuild the multiverse if this all blows over...."

The Hound looked up at the sky as if it was staring up at the Godforce, before he continued, "However, everyone has a clock that determines the time and day they finally die... it isn't exactly perfect I'd say." He looked at the group and suddenly an hourglass made out of white light appeared inside of them. Strangely enough, they did not have any sand inside of them.

"With the appearance of the Glutton, it has thrown the whole system out of balance and thus... there are people who live when they are meant to die. Alternatively, in the case of Jordan Nichols, they die when someone else is meant to live."

Jordan gulped.

"Now that you know this, I will make you an offer," The Hound said, "The Glutton is a disruption to the beautiful cycle of life and death. A balance I promised to maintain, no matter the cost. It is in my best interests to destroy that abomination... however, I have been created with a purpose... a design I cannot go outside of, unfortunately..."

The Hound stopped circling the group and then faced them.

"... If you give me Madeline Levine and Jordan Nichols, I will assist you in destroying the Glutton. And Jordan Nichols knows what I told her would happen if she were to give herself up."

Jordan was terrified... but at the same time, she was considering it. Madison Brown was her greatest regret, and she loved the girl with all of her heart. Was she that selfish to stop her from living her life in exchange for her own? She killed her after all. However, Jordan knew better than to trust the Hound.

---

Town Hall.

---

Just getting Penny out of their hair for a second was enough for the Obott twins to get Goro out of the line of fire. They fired an arrow the second the water bender's storm ended, and a portal appeared underneath Goro's feet. He was teleported away from the fight, upstairs in fact. Where two Watchers approached him - one with a green cloak and another with a black cloak. The Watcher in the green cloak knelt down over him as she lifted up her hood, revealing her mixed facial features. The face of an Indian woman from the Gurjatari region but the skin and hair of an African. On her right hand, she had a bracelet made out of glass that was surrounded by intricate symbols and soon the bullet wound that Goro had sustained had disappeared in green light.

"Thank you, Cindy." He said as he gripped his sword and used it to get up to his feet. "Now..."

"Goro...." Cindy said as she looked off to the side, "Are we really going to kill Britney like this?"

"She betrayed us, Cindy," Goro had fully stood straight up as he turned the sword on Cindy. "If you play your cards right, your part of the family will not be punished like hers." He turned away from her as he ran down the stairs.

Cindy looked off to the side, she felt like this course of action was incredibly misguided. It was in everyone's best interests to eliminate the Glutton... she merely looked up as she realized that Goro was gone. She waited here, as Amethyst ordered.

The battle in the archives was raging on. As Amethyst planned, the girl that they had elected as the leader was freaking out and that gave the Obott twins some breathing room. Part of Amethyst wanted to stab her and kill her here and there, but after Britney was dead they could maybe negotiate things.

Lynette had also taken cover as Min did, in fact, she wasn't too far away from them. Fortunately, she had plenty of room to draw this glyph, and she had plenty of finger paint. She knew that they were close to the earth as they got, so that's what she drew. What she didn't realize was that Sharon was watching her, also taking cover. But, from the look on her face, it was like she was contemplating something as she watched. She didn't know how big this had to be, but she was going to make big as possible.

Britney was creating a wooden barrier... but she felt herself getting weaker and weaker. Shit. The wheat-colored light had created a massive round wall that blocked the Obotts from view. She turned towards Penny as she was about to warn her... However, nobody was expecting Caelea to rocket herself right towards the Obott twins. It was so crazy and suicidal that it distracted Amethyst's spell and all the illusion Watchers had disappeared from her mind.

Caelea jetted past Amethyst and immediately she panicked. They were her most valuable asset, and regardless of what happens, she had to make sure they survive. The dagger in her hand was covered in floating symbols as Caelea's vision was filled with Obott twins running around in all directions. She couldn't tell where they were... all while creeping up behind her with her dagger primed to stab her.

Britney peaked from behind cover and saw Goro running towards the Obott twins too. She had to be quick, and she sent out a mental message.

Guys, Amethyst can make you see illusions - don't believe everything you see. But we gotta help Caelea, they're gonna kill her!

Unfortunately, she was too tired and her abstraction wasn't fast enough to do anything. Then there was that mysterious water bending girl in between them. She stood in the middle of the room as she spun her staff around and with one mighty swing she had summoned a dome of water that spun around herself... but Britney wondered what was her plan.

I'm going to make us an exit, just buy me some time. Lynette sent the message out. She was just about done, but if she had to, she would save Caelea. She trusted them, however.

---

Grand Ridge

---

“This is Montana. Doesn’t everybody know how to use a gun?” shouted Rita as the group retreated back out into the snowy streets. If Rien had a chance to finish their drawing, it was too late: time had started again and the Wendigos had them surrounded once more. Rita looked down at her broken bat. There wasn’t much she could do with it, and she didn’t fully understand how Charlie’s abstraction worked. She thought she just had to wish something got better and it would, but clearly that had done absolutely nothing. Tears welled at the edge of her eyes. This all seemed so hopeless.

And then, as quickly as they had appeared the Wendigos vanished, running away from a bigger threat. Rita recoiled as the Hound appeared from the snow. She kept the bat clutched close to her chest as the beast circled them and growled out an ultimatum: it’d help fight the Glutton if they gave it Jordan and Madeline.

“What,” said Rita, flatly. “None of us would even consider that!”

---

Town Hall

---

“Billy, wait!” shouted Penny as her brother rushed towards her. She had fully anticipated him to stop on contact with one of the Watchers, but he just phased through them at the exact same time as Amethyst called off her illusions. Breaths later, and a message from Britney got through that Amethyst could create illusions. Penny cursed under her breath. She had thought the woman was controlling the portals.

“We need to get out of here,” said Billy as he grabbed her by the shoulder.

“Not until we save Britney,” said Penny as she shrugged him off. Caelea had blasted herself towards the twins, and Penny had to admire the brass balls on the girl. It had gotten Amethyst to turn her back on Penny, and that was all she needed. However, before she could take down their leader, they had to deal with the wave machine in the middle of the room. She turned to Billy and pointed at the woman, “I don’t care what you do, but stop that bitch.”

Billy watched as his sister took off towards their backlines. This was insane, but he couldn’t let the water manipulator drown her with a big wave. He leveled the gun and fired two shaky shots at the water bender. He pushed the trigger one more time and heard a deafening click and, in desperation, he chucked the revolver as hard as he could at the woman. He didn’t even know if a bullet had hit her, but he hoped it had bought his sister time to do whatever stupid thing she was trying to accomplish.

Penny intended to disarm Amethyst. The woman had turned her back on them to take down Caelea, and Penny wasn’t about to let that girl get gutted for her bravery. As long as Billy handled the woman in the middle of the room, Penny was certain she’d have enough time to get within range of Amethyst. She drew closer and lifted her hand up as she dipped beyond Britney’s barrier, directing a repulsion towards Amethyst’s dagger. If it worked as intended, the blade would rip itself from Amethyst’s grip and hurtle towards one of the Obott twins. As she used her abstraction, Penny caught sight of Goro rushing back into the fray. They seemed close enough.

“Caelea, fall back!” screamed Penny, her voice strained. “Lynette! Do it!”