She glanced at June. “I—” Her voice stopped, abruptly. What do I want?

“I won’t stop you. You’re free to do as you wish. But if you do go back, from that moment onward, you become our mortal enemy.”

Arelia hesitated. “Do I have to decide now?”

June crossed her arms. “If you can’t, go back. If you don’t have the conviction to stand here and fight for this block, don’t. Don’t throw away your future for a cause you don’t believe in.”

“That’s… not very convincing,” Arelia said, frowning.

“It’s not meant to be. Trust me, kid. This isn’t a decision you come back from.”

Arelia turned to the horizon. Her gaze settled on the gap where the building had been, then beyond, on a beautiful, new skyscraper. Edges sharp as cut crystal, crowned by a gold and white façade, it slashed an angle against the sky. Words rattled in her heart. Did you beg him for this? His mocking smile. She didn’t understand, but she had to.

“I have to go back. I need to know why Father chose me. After all this time, why acknowledge me now?”

June smiled. She reached out. Arelia flinched.

Her big hand patted Arelia’s back. “I understand. But listen, kiddo. He might not have the answer you need to hear.”

Arelia nodded. “Even so.”

She stepped away from June. Airfoils sprung from her shoulder blades, flames flickered from her mid back, and she blasted into the sky. June watched her go, then shook her head and descended the fire escape after Sasha.

He was waiting at the bottom. At the sight of her alone, he wrinkled his nose. “What happened to taking her hostage?”

June sighed. “If you love them, let them go, you know? Sometimes, you gotta set someone free to get ahold of them.”

“You love her?” he asked, confused.

“Yeah, figured you wouldn’t get it.” She shook her head and pushed open the rusty metal door.

The door swung open to reveal Tooly, hands on her hips, blocking the way in. “You gonna explain what that explosion was about?”

“Uh… that building that fell down? I know, right?” June bluffed.

Tooly narrowed her eyes.

Sweat dripped down June’s back. “You know. It happened. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“Uh huh. So why’s the kid telling me about Torre’s daughter? And where is she?”

Distant banging caught June’s ear. She frowned and peered over Tooly’s shoulder. “What’s that?”

Tooly grimaced. “I’d say don’t distract me, but that’s why I’m here. That’s the police. Who noticed the goddamned explosion over my roof. In other words, get the fuck out before you get us all arrested.”

“Tulip Perrer! Open the door!”

“I’m coming! It’s a big damn building!” She turned back to them. Through clenched teeth, she hissed, “Go. Now.”

June put her hands up. “Going, I’m going.”

“If I get arrested, I’m confessing.” Tooly slammed the door shut in her face.

Sasha glanced at June. She shook her head. “Nothing we can do. Let’s go back to my place. We’ll get cleaned up, get some clean clothes, and we can go from there.”

They snuck out the back alley, away from the police cars at the front door, and down the back streets. June moved confidently, familiar with the route.

The apartment building itself was quieter than usual. No one stood on their balconies or sat at the bench outside the front door. No kids ran around or screamed from on high. There were no knots of friends, no passerby, no buzz and hum of televisions from inside apartments. Distantly, a fire alarm rang, plaintive, unheeded. Strung from the wires above, laundry drifted in the wind, ghostlike.

June furrowed her brows and unholstered her shotgun. “Something’s not right. Stick close.”

Sasha nodded, head already on a swivel. His fingers twitched, but the daggers remained hidden.

Up the stairs. Every shift and groan of the aged metal sounded loud to her ears. Wind whistled between the railing and the wall, eerie amidst the unusual silence. Her footsteps echoed down the well, a little too loud. Sasha paced silently at her side, somehow muffling his metal feet against the metal steps.

Wait, where did he leave his shoes? She shot his feet a glare.

He caught her look and smirked, then shrugged.

They reached their level. Windows stood dark. Chairs stood empty. A door hung open, wobbling with the wind.

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June counted the doors and tightened her grip. That’s mine. She nodded to Sasha. Hang back, kid.

Sasha nodded back and rushed ahead, swift as shadow.

She chased after him, annoyed. Wait, dammit!

He pressed his back to the wall by her door and peeked around the corner. She followed his lead.

Her apartment had been trashed. Cabinets drooped off the walls. Drawers, ripped from their rails, were strewn across the floor, contents spilling wildly. Pots and pans, plates and cups littered the floor. Her table was overturned, everything from her table splayed across the floor. The television, shattered, laid on its face. Food and clothes mingled with the rest of her worldly possessions on the floor.

“Shit,” June muttered.

“Clear,” Sasha said. He stepped away from the wall and toward the apartment.

June followed, a beat later. She nudged one of the drawers with her shotgun as she passed and peeked underneath. A mess of spices, some burst from their containers, greeted her. Disappointed, she let it drop. “They really did a number on the apartment.”

“Were they looking for something?” Sasha asked, half to himself.

“Yeah, me. The Regis Group must’ve figured out where I live. Bet they trashed my apartment when they couldn’t find me.”

Sasha furrowed his brows, confused. After a moment, clarity shone in his eyes, and he nodded, muttering, “The Regis Group.”

“Who else?” She glanced around the room and sighed. “Let’s grab some clothes and essentials and get out of here. Stay vigilant. They might be back at any moment.”

Obediently, Sasha nodded. He took off into the room, kicking his way through the junk on the floor.

June stood in the doorway. For the second time, she had to leave it all behind. Everything she owned. All of her possessions. They were cheap, this time. Nothing too sentimental. Nothing she couldn’t replace, again. It was fine. She’d leave them behind, find a new apartment, buy them a second time. She was only losing money.

Her chest shuddered. She took a deep breath. It rattled out, uneven. I’m losing everything. Again. How many times?

Sasha looked up, a pile of clothes tucked under his arm. “Why are you standing there? Didn’t you say they might be back?”

She forced a smile and coughed out a laugh. “Right, right.”

Ten minutes later, everything she owned was confined to a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. Guns jostled at the bottom, heavy, mixed into clothes and necessities. Her only electronic, her comms tablet, sat in her pocket. Everything else had been smashed or stolen. One or two cans of food sat on top, just in case. June gave one last look at the remainders strewn across the floor, now no more than trash. The life she’d built, even if it turned out to be momentary. Her next-door neighbors. The mysterious thumping and the loud music she couldn’t stand. Gone. As if it had never been at all.

She closed her eyes and shut the door.

“Where’d everyone else go?” Sasha wondered.

“They probably…” June paused mid-sentence. Where did they go? It was common to scatter when the gangs came looking for something, but that would only be her neighbors, not the entire apartment. No one had come back, either. It was still lifeless.

The apartment lurched under her. She fell toward the railing and barely grabbed the handrail before she fell off the building. Earthquake? “Sasha, get down!”

A giant demolition harness stomped slowly around the corner. The ground shook with each step. Clawed hands large enough to grab out an entire floor reached out for the building and tore off another segment, tiny camera head level with them on the sixth floor.

What? But the apartment wasn’t marked for destruction!

She staggered forward half a step, not from the building this time, but from small hands on her back. June turned back, dazed, and found Sasha glaring at her.

“Move!” Sasha snapped. He pushed her from behind, harder this time.

June snapped back to reality as a chunk of concrete bounced down their building from a few stories up. She tightened her grip on her bag and sprinted for the stairs, bounding from one landing to the next. Her metal leg compensated for some of the extra weight and spread the shock evenly through her hip into her body. She grabbed the railing and spun around another turn as the demolition harness reached for the stairwell.

Sasha ran beside her, smaller backpack bouncing over his shoulders. He almost looked like a kid late for school, if she ignored his ruined clothes and the building falling apart around them. Despite the tension, she grinned. Irritated, Sasha shot her a glare.

Sunlight shone off metal to her right. She spun, grin vanishing. A claw hurtled directly at them.

There was no time to think. She grabbed Sasha and threw them both in a desperate dive down the stairs. The claw smashed through the wall. Concrete and metal shards flew. June landed on her shoulder, ducked, and rolled with the blow.

She staggered to a stand, putting Sasha on his feet. “Run, run, run!”

Under them, the stairs shuddered as the demolition harness separated them from the stairwell. The metal let out a tortured scream as the harness tore them apart. Beneath June’s feet, screws popped and slats rattled loose. She ran faster, chasing Sasha down the stairs.

The stairs began to tilt. Slowly, they fell away from the apartment building.

June lurched sideways. Sasha slammed into her. Their legs clattered together, metal painfully smacking into metal. She grabbed him by the hand and pushed off the wall, hurrying downwards. Two more flights. One.

The stairs fell. June hunkered against the wall, Sasha held close, and braced for impact. For once, he didn’t fight her, but hunkered next to her, protecting her from the right as she protected him from the left.

Metal crashed against asphalt. June slammed against the wall and then up into the air. Dazed, she laid there for a second. Bolts and nuts rained down on her. A block of metal the size of her head hurtled at her. She braced herself, arms over her head.

A small hand deflected it away from her. Sasha climbed to his feet and looked around, then scurried away. June slowly crawled up, a hand to her head. Her entire side ached like one big bruise. Light shone through a gap in the stairwell wall above her. June squinted. Is it big enough? She grabbed onto the edge and pulled herself up. Her arms burned fiercely, aching from the unfamiliar motion. Damn, I need to do more pullups.

Hooking a leg over the edge, she pushed herself through the gap. Halfway through, her hips caught. She cursed, tensed her butt, shifted one hip through at a time, and wiggled through. Need to cut down the calories, too.

“Shit, that was nuts,” she grumbled.

Sasha hopped through the hole and knelt on the far side of the wall. Nearby, the demolition harness shuffled closer. He watched, body tense. “Hurry.”

She kicked her legs through and climbed out. “Go, go, go!”

Like ants from a shoe, they fled from the demolition harness. Behind them, clawed hands gripped the building’s façade and pulled. The entire front wall of the building sagged free, balconies and all. It hung for a moment, then crashed to the earth. All the apartments inside were revealed to the world, laid out neatly despite the lack of the wall, little compartments in the dollhouse the demolition harness was destroying. So many were in disarray, thrown around by the demolition or combed through as their inhabitants fled, but some were still neat, perfect snapshots of a life, a family, a home.

The demolition harness stepped forward and began to tear them down. Belongings tumbled. Walls crashed down.

She turned around and ran after Sasha. There was nothing she could do. Not anymore.