And all of a sudden I was back to reality. What had I been thinking? What? I’d just... I really said ‘You want to dance?’ Had I thought that sounded cool or something? The glaive trembled in my hands. My body locked up again. Right. This body. This stupid body!

“Vespa. Vespa. What am I supposed to do?”

“If you are going to let your Imago drive you like that, just let it.” Oh. She was bitter. I suppose I had just thrown us into needless danger. Well, this stupid body had. But it wasn’t all useless. On instinct, my eyes scanned the room, not even needing to turn my head. My parents’ bed lay against one wall, with dressers and bedside tables beside. Heidi knelt beside the bedside table, still exhausted from her forced transformation. She wouldn’t be of much help. There was one door to the hall, with Ecto standing by it. A second door lay off to my left: the master bathroom. And of course, there were pigeons. Pigeons everywhere. They were on the bed and on the windows behind me, sitting on the dressers and perched on his shoulders.

“Well, Quinn? What’s wrong?” he asked.

I stumbled forward, since forward was all this body wanted to let me do. Clawed feet found purchase on the wooden floors. I thrust my blade ahead, unsteady. Some of the pigeons collided with it, shattering against the blade but deflecting the edge away from his body. I pulled back and tried to slash across. This time, he stepped aside. For every bird that fell, more flew in to take their place.

“It is pointless to attack them now,” said Vespa. “Ignore the Echo. Focus on him.”

My mind began to clear. My compound visor let me see in all directions at once. My sense of touch was excellent, too, with even the slightest air currents making my body tingle with their passing. I felt the low echo of every footstep on the ground. I steadied my blade and stepped forward again, laser-focused on the Demon that stood before me.

I lunged again. This time, he stepped aside, the blade sticking in the wall where his torso had been just moments ago. I pulled it out and thrust again and again. He avoided each time, occasionally sending one of the pigeons to disrupt my attacks. My feet settled into the rhythm; my body moved on its own. My Imago knew what it wanted: where to strike, where to bend and weave to chase him through the cluttered room. I still had little to no idea how he fought nor what to watch out for. I only had to trust this body knew what to do.

“Watch out,” said Vespa.

Her voice snapped me out of a trance. The tip of my stinger was inches from Heidi’s kneeling body. In the altercation, Ecto had let go of her, though she was still in no shape to help. She looked up calmly, or as calmly as she could while still gasping for air. Her body was cloaked in the tattered membrane of her chrysalis, reforming her Imago piecemeal over her raw skin. She tried to stand, legs shuddering, but ultimately giving out beneath her, her shell shattering again with a sickening crunch. “Quinn,” she muttered between breaths, “Your Imago’s acting up? Don’t get too carried away. If it has to fight, let it fight for a bit, but be alert. He’s just toying with you for now, but if anything changes... Well, there’s always plan B.”

He hadn’t even been attacking. Indeed, Ecto still stood calmly, some birds circling him as others waited on his shoulders. “I’m over here,” he taunted.

My body surged forward, swinging my stinger in a wide arc. To cut off any path of escape. How did I know that? Step by step, I forced him into the corner, behind my mom’s dresser. This was so easy. Trapped, I could grab his wrists with one pair of arms and force him down, locking him into position so that he couldn’t escape. Visions flashed through my mind. Killing him. Killing... others? Faces, alien faces in countless shapes and sizes, throats cut, staining the blade red and green and blue. This... that’s what this body was for. What it had been used for.

But before I could grab his hands, he flipped my grip, grabbing the wrists of my second pair of arms, twisting them back, cracking the exoskeleton open. I didn’t feel much pain, only dull numbness as nerve endings disconnected. The visions dissipated. I felt my mind waking up as if from a dream.

Though this Imago was greater than him in stature, he still had the upper hand in strength. By far, it seemed. With one hand, he pushed me away from him. With the other, he gave me an open-palm strike that knocked me back.

He wasn’t human. It was as if he was made of stone.

I steadied myself and prepared to slash, but a wall of bodies hit me from the side. An unending stream of Echoes slammed into me full-force, shoving me towards the wall. I tried to press against them, to move out of the swarm, but they were heavy as rock. My hands were immobilized; my stinger was useless between crushed fingers and wrists. My Imago’s instincts kicked in. Resisting was futile. Sustained effort would only tire me out. I needed to push through in once sharp burst if I wanted to get out.

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I let them force me against the wall, propping my legs up against the plaster and gripping the handle of my glaive tightly. I closed my eyes, focusing on the sensations of my carapace, counting the collisions of bodies pressing in all around. There would be an opportunity. They pressed and prodded with their beaks and claws and wings, though against my shell, such attacks posed no physical threat to me. Just an annoyance.

Now.

I sprung off the wall with all my might. The pigeons knocked aside, I had one moment of clarity to make the strike. Time slowed to a crawl. Where was he? Compound eyes scanned the whole room in an instant. He was behind the bathroom door. I twisted my body, swung my arm, but I knew the handle wasn’t long enough. I had to reach just a little further.

The handle left my fingertips and flew across the room. I hit the opposite wall hard and collapsed next to Heidi. I looked for where my blade had gone. It had hit the wall and missed his body, but something gleamed wet and red on the blade. Success! Seemingly satisfied, my Imago released the tension I hadn’t noticed building up inside. I felt free to move on my own again, like a huge weight had been lifted off my arms and legs. Had I not been free before?

“Ah,” he said, cradling the hairline scratch on the back of his hand. The skin around the cut began to blister and swell. This weapon was poisoned? “Oh my. It seems this little wasp has a sting, then. I guess that’s enough playing around.” He waved his other hand, and the pigeons swirled around him, restoring their numbers before surging towards us. They swarmed all about, pecking and clawing and trying to crush us with their sheer numbers.

I tried to shield Heidi from the onslaught, crouching over her with my Imago’s hardened shell to protect her from the sharp beaks and talons. I felt myself being pressed closer and closer to her.

Her breaths had settled. The chrysalis around her body reformed, first the mask-like helmet, then the rest, arms and legs reforming with a coppery sheen. “Of course it comes back now,” she muttered. “Quinn, you certainly... you’ve got a crazy Imago.” She chuckled. “Very impressive.”

I said. “You seem awfully calm, considering the situation.”

“I’m not worried. And neither should you.”

Glass shattered. The pigeons scattered instantly, letting us break free as they returned to Ecto’s side. The Demon seemed as surprised as I was, though Heidi only smiled with satisfaction, knowing who it eyes. All our eyes were trained on the window.

An Imago stood amidst the shards of broken glass. Her body was black with highlights in gleaming golden-bronze. Her head was golden, with an astronaut’s visor for eyes; her four arms ended in hands tipped with bladed talons. Trailing behind her back were four huge, glassy wings that beat in alternating cadence, marked with black circles and swirling patterns.

It was Angelina. “I had a feeling this would happen, Heidi,” she said. “Well? Let’s go. It’s time to get you out of here.”