Rana

“Zero”

The world erupted in a storm of heat and sound. A gut-punch of a shockwave slammed the vault shut with a resounding clang. Rana’s stomach lurched. Their metal box plummeted through the collapsing Facility with a jolting false stop at each floor until a final screeching crash.

Seconds passed as the last sounds of destruction faded. Rana waited. “Check yourself before merrily hopping off,” her brother’s voice chided in memory.

She cataloged her body parts and checked every bone, muscle, and tendon for breakage, tears, and sprains. Without her Toadstones, Rana’s regeneration dropped from immediate to the bare minimum of paranormal. Aggravating an unnoticed injury could put her out of action at the worst moment. Taking her time, Rana sat up.

The vault had torn open at some point and vomited debris on them. A flickering light emanating from a nearby mound of wreckage illuminated their pocket of air at the bottom of rubble mountain.

“Is that you, Paul? Are you alright?” Lea said as she massaged her temples and tiny spheres circled her head.

:I’m okay,: Paul sent.

By levitating bits of debris and tossing them aside with the gravitational pull of her orbs, Lea dug out Paul—safe in his candlestick form. The Libra girl sighed with relief and asked, “Who among us yet remains in fighting condition?”

“Here,” Cassie said, dusting herself off. Her ears twitched, and Cassie’s attention fled the room, Listening.

“I’m alright!” Wendi dislodged the wreckage burying her and stood. She looked left and right. “But where’s Kenta and Daniel?”

Rana rose and started digging. She lifted and tossed aside concrete chunks to find Kenta safe in a bundle of hair but pinned by loose rebar. His frizzled mane suffered from severe heat damage, burned to meager body length… not as fire-proof as he’d thought.

He stirred as she unearthed him, “…Don’t need your help.” Hair coiled and feebly pushed against the rubble.

She said nothing as she freed him one piece at a time. Kenta’s injuries amounted to a few scrapes. The damage to his pride was far more severe. He dusted himself off as best he could and walked away on his own two feet.

Rana resumed searching for Daniel. She rifled through jagged steel and broken concrete. Finally, the pain in her hand became more than a distraction—the fingers stopped working as she felt something inside tear. She braved a look.

Dammit.

Her right hand, with which she’d thrown Daniel, had third-degree burns. A couple of fourth-degree burns showed the white of bone. There must’ve been a few flecks of Daniel’s blood on his robes. She’d been too busy ignoring the pain to notice the extent of the damage.

So stupid.

She’d done that pointless mental exercise to prevent something like this. Not paying enough attention. Without her Toadstones, healing this damage would take four hours.

Four hours without her right hand.

So very stupid.

“Neglect yourself, and you’ve failed before you began.” I know, brother. I’ve failed again.

She looked around.

Lea searched the other side of the room. Paul sat in humanoid form, exhausted. Kenta shielded his face with a hand, breathing hard. Cassie Listened for external threats in a trance. Wendi lingered on the sidelines, wringing her massive hands like she didn’t want to get in the way. Rana camouflaged her wound to avoid unwanted offers of help.

Help?—As in, ‘Asking for help’?

Dammit. So stupid!

They had not one, but two Clairs. Someone has to keep their head on straight or people will start dying. Concentrate.

She gave Paul a private sending, :Where’s Daniel?:

:Oh!: Paul flinched when he realized what she meant and pointed to a corner, Uh… Right there. Sorry.:

No problem, Paul. He’s probably fine. Just stripped of his power, weak as a newborn, buried under tons of rubble, and you forgot to use your Clair ability. No big deal. She didn’t send that. Hurting Paul’s feelings would be like kicking a puppy.

Rana told Wendi to dig and directed the Caprid’s work. Her heart stopped when they found Daniel bloody and still. Please don’t be dead. Rana watched Wendi remove the slabs on his arms and legs. Luckily, a quick check confirmed neither his head nor chest was crushed. He breathed with difficulty, unconscious.

The tension winding Rana’s gut into a tight knot released. They were seven again.

“Lea, Daniel needs the healing coin,” Wendi called.

Lea attended them at once and held Raphael’s Token over the boy. A pulsing aura extended from the coin in ethereal veins as Lea concentrated on the sleeper. Daniel soon stabilized, and Lea cut the flow to conserve her magic. He wouldn’t be waking soon. He’d be useless and in pain, if he did.

The frog girl wanted to spray Daniel with slime to dilute his blood before he melted himself a hole to the center of the planet. However, her vision blurred with discomfort from contemplating such a tax on her reserves. Overextending one’s magic courted disaster. Not to mention Rana’s unique peril. Better not to burden the others with what she risked.

Feeling useless, Rana watched Wendi tenderly wipe away the corrosive blood. Despite the agony of touching the substance, the Caprid girl had no fear. Her body’s toughness and regeneration matched Daniel’s Ruin magic.

Removing the worst of the grime revealed a sweet expression on Daniel’s face. After all the horror stories she’d heard about them, Rana never imagined the first Angel of Ruin she met would be this cute.

With a shake of her head, Rana dismissed the thought. Focus. She couldn’t be distracted with lives on the line.

“With everyone accounted for,” Lea said, “Our functioning members have decreased to four.”

“Don’t count me out,” Kenta told her, his tone offended. Lea didn’t change the number or contradict him. That would waste time and breath with both limited here underground.

Rana privately sent to Lea, :I’m a last resort. I can fight, but my Toadstones are depleted.:

:An inopportune time to lose one of our greater assets. Are we down to three...?: Would three be enough? Then Lea spoke, “In any case, we need a path to the surface. Wendi, please recall you are the best equipped to deal with this problem.”

:Have Paul help find the safest route,: Rana sent to Lea.

:Yes, four it is!: Lea smiled as she sent her reply, :Though his power is expended, his Clair ability is like a sixth sense—seventh if you count mage sight.: Then aloud, “Paul, your assistance in locating the safest route would be most appreciated.”

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Paul at her side, Wendi burrowed upward, scooping great handfuls of rubble from a tear in the room’s metal casing.

“Shouldn’t we rest up for a few hours while they think we’re dead?” Cassie stopped Listening to speak with them. Ah, she’s been spying for us. Good thinking.

Lea frowned. “I do not require enhanced hearing to know the ‘clean-up crew’ will arrive within the hour. Delaying allows them time to organize. No, we proceed according to the plan—disrupt their communications and escape posthaste.” Lea hadn’t mentioned the possibly imminent collapse of the ceiling so as not to scare the others.

Regardless, it would take Wendi minutes to finish the tunnel.

Kenta agreed, “I’m in favor as long as we don’t call it an ‘escape.’ It’s not like we wanted to stay… We’re not running away, we’re leaving.”

She waited for the others to become distracted with the digging project before confronting Lea. :I know I’m not your boss, but you said we were friends. Friends tell each other when they screw up. It was a dangerous thing you did—giving Daniel a Command. You could have Broken him.:

:When I sent him to save Wendi?: Lea sent. :I was not controlling him, of course. I merely provoked his true feelings to action—with a touch more urgency than is customary, perhaps. And besides, ‘A leader knows how to delegate.’:

A good leader considers how their orders affect people. Rana didn’t send that. Lea knew what she’d done. Sending it would hurt her feelings and make her defensive.

:You are right,: Lea sighed after a few moments. :I was not thinking far enough ahead. I thought my phrasing was careful but, of course, she would be upset when she awoke… though I had not anticipated her seeing Daniel as an acceptable target. That does not bode well for the future.:

:Wendi’s not in a good head-space by any stretch.:

:Yet another difficulty to be dealt with after our successful escape.:

Rana understood the sentiment but doubted the Wendigo would respond as happily to being ‘dealt with’ as Lea imagined. She glanced at the tunnel’s progress. Paul pointed to unstable ceiling segments for Wendi to reinforce with support beams as they went. Good on him.

Too soon, they reached fresh air and grouped at the exit.

Cassie chuckled and said, “Let’s jam!” She then began to sing or scream—a difference too subtle for Rana to determine—in a range only she could hear, and delicate equipment could detect.

Lea led the way, stringing black beads ahead of the group. When they emerged into daylight she formed a perimeter of wrecking balls around the opening to hide behind. The shooting began immediately.

“Of all the underhanded tactics—we’re surrounded!” Kenta said as bullets collected on the outside of the ring as if glued in place.

“It’s no tactic,” Rana evaluated, “We came up in the middle of a squad.” Another rookie mistake.

Paul gave them a bright side. “At least they can’t tell anyone we’re here because of the jamming. No reinforcements.”

Right, except for anyone in earshot. Rana didn’t say that either.

“We cannot depart until the shooting ceases,” Lea said. Most of them were vulnerable at the moment.

Kenta proposed a plan, “If Lea, Wendi, and I go we can attack them all at once!”

“No, such a course is unnecessarily dangerous.” Lea approached the edge of a sphere. After a moment of preparation, she cupped her hands to yell over the top, “We’re only children!” Rana felt Lea push the majority of her power into her ability—the true words ringing with sincerity, voice torn by real fear, were impossible to ignore.

Fully three-quarters of the soldiers lowered their guns. These soldiers with children, cousins, nieces, and nephews, or knew their friends’ kids, imagined holding a gun to the child they knew best. These soldiers with a strong moral compass had distracted themselves by focusing on their orders or outer appearances. These soldiers’ attention inexorably came to face the obvious truth. They were shooting at children.

Those who continued shooting didn’t know or like kids, were those without ethics, sociopaths, or the exceptionally strong-willed.

Rana directed Wendi, cradling the unconscious Daniel in one hand, to gently remove the ring on his finger. Wendi managed the feat with impressive dexterity, then passed Daniel’s ring to Rana. She accepted it with gratitude to Persephone, who’d had the foresight to make her son wear a Portal Ring when all the other kids his age had been forbidden one.

Meanwhile, Lea yelled again with the remainder of her strength. “Please, help!” she said with the same feelings and intensity as before, now laced with desperation.

The frog girl shivered and gritted her teeth. She focused on the fact Lea stood safe behind cover to stop herself from jumping directly into the line of fire. The others seemed dangerously close to doing the same. Daniel stirred in his sleep.

Fortunately, they all resisted their desires to be her hero. As Lea’s friends, they were highly susceptible to a cry for help.

Lea seriously walked the edge of what was safe to say. Her spell had all the punch of a Command, but the ‘please’ made it a request and ‘help’ left it open-ended. People followed the path of least resistance and, thankfully, none of them were Broken by Lea’s recklessness.

As things stood, all those soldiers who responded to her first spell turned on their allies. They wouldn’t kill comrades unless Commanded, but they would wrestle to the ground and disarm the immune. Wild shooting continued for uncomfortable seconds, the tally of injuries unknown, and then ceased.

“Now would be a good time, Cassandra,” Lea said, leaning on a sphere for support.

The bat girl laughed with self-assurance. “It’s time for my solo. Wendi, toss me.” Wendi lowered a palm, and Cassie stepped into it. Like a catapult, Wendi launched her high. She opened her arms wide and caught the wind with her twelve-foot wingspan. The last Rana saw of her face was a wide grin and eager eyes. Cassandra swung her arms in a hard downstroke with a faint pulse of aura to ascend skyward far faster than by muscle strength alone.

Rana tossed the ring to Kenta, who caught it one-handed.

Lea followed the exchange. “Do you know how to use it?”

“Don’t insult me.” Kenta activated its magic, and the ring’s aura shone. After a second of charging, the ring levitated in place, then left a glinting streak as it flew away.

While Lea’s eyes followed the ring, Rana took the Libra’s right hand with her left.

Lea looked down at her hand in confusion and then up at Rana in horror. “No, no, no! You shouldn’t be touching me! I can’t—cannot control how my ability affects the people I touch… I could Break you on accident with one poorly thought out wor—” she clamped her mouth shut with a free hand.

:You should’ve expected this,: Rana sent, :It’s the only way.:

Lea lowered her head, :I was going to follow along floating on my Caramboles…:

:You’re too slow to keep up with her. You know that.:

:I’m going to mess this up.: Lea trembled with fear.

:You’re my best friend.: Rana squeezed her hand. :You can’t Command me to do anything I wouldn’t do for you anyways.:

:Thanks, Rana.:

She nodded, :Transform.:

Lea’s body shifted states and, in a second, Rana held the neck of a balance scale. Lea’s marbles arranged themselves in two triangular pyramids, one on each plate, balancing the scales. Rana lost sight in her left eye as Lea took control, the sensation of a blind eye moving in her socket especially weird.

Rana lived and breathed ‘weird.’ Lea’s mind stayed at arm’s length, which meant they weren’t sharing senses, control, or their abilities. Good, since, in this form and incapable of speech, Lea couldn’t use her ability on anyone else.

Looking up with one eye, Rana noted, “Here she comes.” She locked gazes with Wendi and tilted her head to Kenta, “Toss him.”

“That wasn’t part of the plan!” Before he could escape, Wendi grabbed him by the waist and flung him into the air. One giant hand transferred Kenta to another as an even larger claw snatched him out of the sky. Wendi held her free hand overhead while Rana leaped a vertical ten feet.

Cassandra the bat came gliding in low with a thirty-foot wingspan and an aerodynamic, fur-covered body. Eyes intelligent as ever gazed from a completely animalistic face. Cassie’s second claw clasped Wendi’s hand to yank the devil girl and her passenger, Daniel, off the ground.

The bat’s shoulder slammed into Rana’s diaphragm at the top of her jump, impact knocking the breath from her lungs. With her right hand busted and her left full, she would have fallen off by herself… so she smiled as Lea’s eight black orbs pushed her into deep fur where she could grip the bat with her legs.

Cassandra beat her wings, muscles pumping strong beneath fur, and the seven soared.

Helicopters and jets flew overhead, but Cassie evaded with uncanny ability—their formations scattered by ongoing radio jamming. In seconds, they crested the rim of the crater.

Rana felt the wind in her hair as if for the first time. She beheld the whole of the Facility, and the single room where she’d spent three years of her life. Such a small place, sitting in such a tiny corner of the enormous hole cut into the ground three years ago. On that day.

The view from above would give clarity to all but the most shortsighted individuals. She knew the universe held places of incredible beauty and beings of incomprehensible power: beasts and guardians and mages and monsters and demons and gods, even Progenitors.

And she didn’t care. Even from up here, they were too distant in every sense of the word for Rana to wrap her head around. But she didn’t care.

The nerves in her skin healed with excruciating pain. She didn’t care. Pain, Damage, Humiliation, Revenge, Freedom, Happiness, Sadness, Good, and Evil. None of these things mattered compared to one thing. Keep them alive.

She’d stay out of the way of the others’ plans. It didn’t matter to her where they went. She couldn’t change their minds, and she would not leave them. She’d make sure they hid, make sure they ran from a fight, and make sure they fought dirty if they had to.

Like her brother had said, “Keep them alive. Be Valuable. As long as you survive, things can get better.”

As those warm words returned to her, they were inevitably echoed by the darker words of that Other.

> Hide yourself.

>

> You are weak. You are alone. You aren’t worth loving. Don’t let them see the real you.

>

> Hide yourself.

She tried to ignore what It said that day and focus on the familiar words. Rana would fight this constant struggle, to remember one and forget the other, as long as she could.