"Give me one reason why I should not slit your throat where you stand," Jack said, the tip of his blade digging into Soran's throat.

"Jack, no," I said. "It won't kill him. I think we should have Tem eradicate him entirely."

"Fry him?" Tem said perking up. "I can help! I am happy to help."

"He could be useful to us...he's in resistance colors...maybe we dump him in front of the fortress armors and let two of our problems sort each other out," said AEGIS.

There was a gunshot, which made me jump, and then four more. Tower was wrestling a firearm out of Moon's hands, their size differential making him look like he was taking a toy from a child. "The fuck is wrong with you?" he shouted at her.

"He should die!" she screamed back at him, startling me with her intensity and volume. And...not being completely bored and quiet sounding.

"What--" Rito was shifting uneasily and looking at us all like we'd all just gone crazy. "W-what's going on!? Why are you all being like this all the sudden?"

"Miss, are you stupid?" I asked.

"Um...may-maybe. But you all seemed...so nice before. Um, except her, maybe," she glanced at Moon as though afraid of making any more overt gesture at the girl struggling in Tower's huge mitts like a straightjacket.

"Don't fret," Soran said. "We have history. But that's all behind us now, isn't it, P-Force?"

"I don't know why you'd assume that," I said. "Last time we met, Tem wasn't here, Jack was on your side, and Deej. Seems to me like this time the only person who might not want you dead is Tower. Should I call Karu over and we can have a proper vote of what to do with you?"

"Fry him," Tem whispered.

"Very good, Tem." I patted her head affectionately and she shot me a heartfelt smile.

"Um, I don't want him dead," Rito said.

"Yeah, we don't even know or care who you are," AEGIS said dismissively.

"Oh…"

"Well, I don't want him dead either," Steffie said.

There was a moment of silence.

"I'm pretty sure I heard that wrong?" I said, giving her another chance.

Steffie sighed and then rolled her wheelchair up to where Jack was holding Soran. "I went through this whole thing too, when I found out it was him, believe me. But when I learned what the XPCA was doing to people, and saw the number of people he was saving...and worked alongside him these past few weeks...I think he deserves a second chance."

"You're kidding," Jack said, smiling.

"Not even, honey. Look down there at that mess," she said, turning herself around to face the battlefield. There were dozens in red, being pursued now, fighting a moving, losing battle against the redeveloped, the XPCA, while having to flee the fortress armors which advanced menacingly and fired constantly.

"Every one of those in red, he saved," she said. "Every one of them learned the truth firsthand, almost fell victim to it, and were pulled out by the skin of their teeth by this man. Every one of them saw something in him worth following, worth putting their lives on the line for, even now, worth dying for."

"Worth running for, looks more like," Tower said.

"Tower, are you down there fighting Exhumans and XPCA to save innocents right now?" Steffie asked stiffly.

"Uh, no."

"Then shut up. Those are people down there, Tower."

"Sorry."

"When Soran saved me, I was worried I was going to be his plaything again, bait for you guys, or another power for him to steal. Instead...he's hardly shown an interest in me, let me help by scheduling and running administrative things, and we saved even more lives together. And he hasn't taken a single one."

"Sure, sounds great," I said, crossing my arms. "Suspiciously great. Like, why'd he have to use you for his needs instead of anyone else? Or if you're in charge of administration, why is he making you come out here, to where there's no administration which needs doing...and where there just so happen to be a bunch of your old friends who need persuading that he's not such a bad guy?"

"Because...I'm here to tell you he isn't?"

"And if he's smart enough to bring you out to convince us, he's smart enough to only show you his good side," AEGIS concluded.

"He's an evil person," Moon said, wrigging in Tower's hands but otherwise seeming to have her composure back. "We know it. So why listen to him? Everything he says is lies."

"I don't get it," Steffie said with a shake of her blue head. "How can you hate him for killing people, or trying to, but not be willing to accept him for saving people?"

"Because on the whole, if someone is killing people and saving people, he's still killing people, Steffie. And the people he's saving, he probably has his own reasons for...like killing more people," I said.

"They're not listening to me. What am I supposed to say?" Steffie asked him.

He just smiled and shook his head. "I think you said all you needed."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, advancing on him. I was surprised when Rito stepped between us.

"P-p-please don't!" she squeaked. "I don't...don't know what you think he did to you...but...he saved me!"

I just stared at her.

"Rito, do you have any combat powers?" I asked. She shook her head violently enough to make her blonde ponytail whip around. "Then why would you even think about standing in my way?"

"B-b-because...h-he saved...saved my life!" she stammered, her voice threatening to cross into high frequencies past the range of human hearing.

"You don't understand what he's put us through, what horrible things he's already done. What he's done to us, to my friends, to me." I clenched and unclenched my fist and it burned with ice. "To Mage."

"And y-y-you don't know...w-what...what he's done...for me!" she yelled back.

I lit up my swords. "Move, Rito."

"No!" she shouted, determination, maybe desperation in her voice, even as she shook on the spot, even as she looked like she might be ready to piss herself staring us down.

It was kind of heartbreaking, but I also knew that anything she felt for him was probably just the end result of careful manipulation. Twice now, he'd carefully orchestrated events to manipulate things to his ends, and I had no intention of finding out his endgame.

Rito was a head shorter than me, and despite being reasonably athletic for her small frame and stature, she wasn't going to beat me if push came to shove, even without powers. I could just drop her on her ass and have Tem wrap up Soran once and for all.

So I was a little surprise when suddenly I was facing down two girls. Rito, and my half-broken girlfriend.

"Athan, don't," she said. Rito looked like she was about to collapse and cry and hug AEGIS all at once.

"What? Why not? This is Soran. This is Dipshit. You do remember him?"

"I do. But I'm not saying stop for him. I'm saying it for her. Look at her, Athan."

I did look at her, which seemed to annoy AEGIS more than it should, considering she told me to.

"She's a stupid kid in over her head who's being used."

AEGIS mouth twitched. "Even if that were it, that doesn't make her feelings any less real, and it won't make her pain any less real if you kill her savior right in front of her, Athan."

"Why would I care about that? If she's dumb enough to fall for his shit, she should be ready to deal with it when someone comes for him."

The sudden, furious intensity with which AEGIS suddenly began bearing down on me educated me immediately as to the mistake of uttering those words.

"Oh, so if a girl falls for a guy because he saved her, that's all just a mistake now? It's fine if she gets hurt? She deserves it, because she was stupid enough to fall for him?"

I stammered out corrections and addendums but AEGIS just yelled over all of them, chasing me backwards with a jabbing finger on her one arm stabbing me in the chest like a rapier.

"Or maybe you think it's only fine when they fall for you and all other girls should get treated like shit, is that it? Because that's a pretty narrow view of women, Athan, and reflects pretty shittily on the one who thinks that."

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"No, I--"

"You what, Athan? Think maybe we should kill her too for having the gall to fall in love? Or maybe that would just be what she deserves, huh? For doing something so stupid? Loving a dangerous idiot? You think that's a punishable offense now? If it's such a damn crime, why don't you just spare her the heartbreak and kill her first, you damn fucking hypocrite."

My back was against a rock now, and AEGIS showed little interest in stopping her pursuit, which very much threatened to crush me.

"Um," I heard a voice, and AEGIS whipped around to glare down the interruption.

"What?" AEGIS snapped.

"I um," Rito said "I don't...actually...have a thing for Soran. But he did save my life!"

AEGIS looked at me like somehow that, too, was my fault before she let me down with a final warning jab.

"Projecting much?" Tower laughed. He stopped laughing when AEGIS appeared right in his face. "I meant, uh, yes ma'am."

"You're damn fucking right yes ma'am," she grumbled. She let him off and the look on his face was reminiscent to the one on Rito's when she was finished staring me down.

"Okay, what then, now?" I asked, trying to steer the conversation...anywhere else, desperately. "If we are to respect the girl's feelings, of course."

"I actually did come here for a reason other than being immediately ambushed," Soran said with a small smile. "I wanted to show you something which I think will be necessary for you to see.

"So, a trap, basically," I said. "I am allowed to be critical of Soran still, right?" AEGIS glared at me. "I'm serious!"

"Yes. You can be critical of Soran," she said.

"You really do have no faith. You realize, again, when you turned your backs on Rito, I could have had her drop you anywhere? Right under the foot of the fortress armor, say?"

"Anywhere I've been before," Rito confirmed. I looked at her with amazement. Why would you ever tell your enemies a huge limitation on your powers like that? If Soran was shrewd and manipulative, this girl was the opposite.

I mean, the obvious answer was that she was stupid, but based on what I think I was supposed to learn from AEGIS' outburst, the answer was that she wasn't actually an enemy here. For some reason -- the obvious answer being their mutual feelings of being saved by someone, but I wasn't going to assume anything right now -- AEGIS believed this girl.

But even if she was totally innocent, Soran could still be using her. Hell, he might have saved her just so that he'd have her to tug on AEGIS' heartstrings. It was a damn mess.

Even so...my girlfriend was a lot scarier than he was right now. So I guess we'd hear him out at least.

"Okay...then show us," I said.

"It's not here," he said with a smirk.

"Well that's just shit planning. Why don't you go get it and we'll wait."

"It's not the type of thing I bring to you, it's the type of thing you go and see. Again, I could have had--"

"--had Rito just whisk us away there before, but you didn't, because you're so honest."

"I'm glad you finally see that," he said, and then jerked silent as Jack increased the pressure of the knifepoint.

"Jack, don't," Steffie said.

"My dear, this man made off with you and left all of us in a state of disarray and confusion looking for you."

"I joined him voluntarily. He showed me the XPCA is rotten and we needed to stop it, and I could actually do something to help. Jack, I adore you and treasure you, but there's never anything I can do to help anyone. I used to have the shop at least, but now even that's gone, and all I did was sit in this damn chair and wait for you to call so I could be mad at you. With the resistance, we were saving people. It was meaningful."

"You could have joined the P-Force. I would have vouched for you," he smiled.

She laughed, unexpectedly, and doubly-odd since their conversation was being held over a man at knifepoint. "I'm not that useful. Just give him a chance."

He seemed to waver indecisively as I could only imagine what thoughts went through his mind.

"Remember Mage," Moon said. It was the right words to push the knife back with renewed vigil.

"I would love to believe you, but I must defer to my strike lead," Jack said. "Too often lately, this man has threatened to divide the P-Force, and that is not something I think any of us could stand. If a decision is to be made, it must be made together, I think."

"I respect that," said Tower. "I don't think any of us are willing to fight or die over a difference of opinion on this guy."

"I would," Moon said from his arms.

"Yeah, well, you're a crazy bitch," he said. "You tried to bite me to get your gun back. Children should not have guns."

"Well then, mister strike lead," AEGIS said turning to me. "What'll it be?"

I looked at her and blinked stupidly. "Do I have a choice?"

"You have plenty of choices."

"You just told me I can't have him killed."

"Right. So do consider Rito's feelings, and you still have plenty of choices."

My brain raced but I really didn't see all that many choices here. AEGIS kind of had me pinned in a very awkward corner, and I dunno if she was just being coy, or obnoxious, or she honestly didn't see what she was pushing me into.

Freaking girls, man.

"I guess we see what he wants us to see," I said. "But let me bring in Karu."

I was curious, honestly. If nothing else, if Soran completely destroyed us, at least I'd have the satisfaction of seeing his plan come to fruition and have one (possibly excruciatingly painful) moment of satisfaction where I could go, oh, that's what he was planning. On the whole, not worth it, but still, a plus, if I was to be forced into this anyway by my wonderful but neurotic girlfriend.

Karu landed after I signaled her with some lightning shot in the air like a flare, seemingly completely nonplussed by the number of people in the group or their current configuration.

"Then um, everyone turn around please," Rito said. After I gave Karu the briefest of primers, we all shuffled in place to face away. I noticed Jack still held Soran at knifepoint, which gave me a little reassurance.

Gradually I realized we weren't where we used to be. It wasn't like Jack's power at all, which seemed to jerk you from place to place...Rito's ride was much more enjoyable in that you were somewhere else as though you were there all along. We just sort of...were here now. No bang or flash or anything.

"Huh," Jack said, succinctly echoing my thoughts.

Where we were though was still a mystery. It was dark, damp, felt kind of stuffy and cramped, a concrete room only dimly lit, and only barely big enough to hold our entire group, with a ceiling that made Tower stoop or he'd just barely brush the top of his short 'fro against it. There were a few wide doors leading to similarly dingy concrete rooms and hallways.

"We are under the city, deeper than the service tunnels by far," Karu said looking around and fiddling with her visor.

"Welcome to resistance HQ," Soran said. "Normally we are a tad more hospitable, everybody is currently out on business. If you could come this way?" he gestured towards a door, which everyone shuffled through. On the other side was another room, seemingly identical, though I noticed a thick metal door between the two with a reinforced plastic window.

Jack brought Soran in first, and they stood at the front of the room waiting, and then I realized Moon hadn't budged, still standing the the last room. She wasn't shooting anyone, so I guess Tower took her gun and let her go at long last, but really, the girl was impossible.

I was distracted looking at Moon for a moment that I didn't notice Soran and Jack struggling. Soran had his hand on Jack's face and Jack was trying to push the knife in without success. In the instant it took me to take in the scene, I saw that there was a thin layer of ice coating Soran's neck, cracking at the force of Jack's blade, but not letting it through.

As one, we moved, all of us acting instantly, a dozen ways to kill focused on the man.

But as we got there, an instant before I put swords through Soran's face, Jack went limp in his arms and then Soran simply disappeared, dropping Jack with a thud.

"SORAN!" I screamed at his absence.

The metal door slammed shut and locked with the sound of grinding metal. "Yes?" he answered through the clear plastic window.

"You goddamn son of a bitch!" I screamed at him. He shook his head and held a hand to his ear like he couldn't hear me, even though I'd heard him clear as day. He turned and advanced on Moon, who seemed rooted to the spot.

Moon did not react how I'd thought she might have. I watched, helpless as I banged on the door, but she just stood there calmly, pulling something out of her pocket and putting it in her mouth. Tower pushed me aside and began slamming into the door with all his weight, but it didn't budge. He couldn't create force from nothing, only modify it or redirect it. We needed...we needed someone who had a lot of force.

"Tower, magnify one of AEGIS' kicks," I said. "Hurry."

I looked out the glass but was horrified by the changed scene. He was holding Moon from behind as she struggled weakly, one hand in her mouth as he extracted something and threw it on the ground. In another moment, she'd gone slack too, but from his powers or hers, I couldn't be certain.

A shadow of her appeared on his back and pummeled him with his own fists, passing through him like he wasn't even there. The shadow screamed and cried as he just sat there, holding her body, draining her powers, looking at an old-timey watch while he did, like he had places to be.

AEGIS kicked Tower as hard as she could and sent him flying into the door with a whip crack, but it was only dented. We had Steffie, but if she went off, she'd kill us all in here.

"Move, please," Tem said, and we all did. Her hair was whipping around in an invisible wind and light was suffusing from her body. Her silvery-blue eyes were focused in a way I wasn't sure I'd ever seen. She took a deep breath and the air around her grew heavy and wavered.

I closed my eyes and covered my ears. Even through that, I was blind and deaf for what felt like a minute after the monumental surge of energy rushed past us, making my skin tingle and my hairs stand on end.

But I didn't have time for seeing or hearing. I stumbled through the newly-vaporized hole in the wall, still glowing red-hot, and blinked stupidly, looking for the other two in the room. I made out dim shadows and struck at them with my powers, only to find I wasn't anywhere close enough yet.

"Well, my time is up," I heard Soran say like he was talking to me from underwater. Or like I was underwater. I was really messed up. "I'll send Rito for you in a few minutes." He...touched the body again, and the purple limp corpse on his back disappeared, and then a moment later, before I could cut him, he disappeared as well.

I stumbled my way to Moon and held her in my arms. Not again. Not like this. I pressed my face against her still-warm body and felt a sob forcing itself through me. I squeezed her hand in mine...I should...be doing CPR or something. Anything. But I didn't know the first step to treat having your soul ripped out of your body.

Long seconds of unbearable thoughts and a painful surge of guilt crawled by before AEGIS bodily flipped me over with her leg without a word. I glared at her until I noticed my vision was purple and distorted. It took me a minute to figure out what I was seeing, but I realized it was Moon's shadow, of me, hanging off of me, and still unconscious.

It took me another minute for my mind to put meaning to that. If she was here, she still had her powers. If she still had them, Soran hadn't taken them from her, which meant...which meant she wasn't dead, he hadn't had time to finish the job! She wasn't dead! She was just unconscious!

I felt life and excitement surging through me again, feeling like my heart was going to break from the sudden emotions I'd flung it through, as I crept on Moon and shook her violently. "Wake up! Wake up! Come on!" I shouted at her body. "I know you're alive, goddamnit."

I shook her for minutes, my arms getting numb before there was any reaction.

"Um, excuse me," I heard my voice say and looked up at a very tired-looking ghost of myself. "I need to be in my body for it to wake up."

"Moon, you're alive, you beautiful fucking woman!" I shouted and tried to hug her, passing right through her. "After all that planning, after everything he did to set this up, he fumbled at the last yard! He didn't steal your powers!"

"No," Moon said, "he didn't." She looked down at the apparition of her hands, as though deep in thought. "I think his plan succeeded however."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, he did exactly what he said he was going to. He showed me something."