Three days after I had lunch with Karu, In the middle of the night, AEGIS broke into my room with a crash, screaming at me, the pixels on her face exaggerated with worry.

"The XPCA is coming!" she yelled, dragging me out of bed.

Troops were on their way to surround the building and force my surrender. Her cameras had picked up recon teams evacuating the neighbors, and spent only a few frantic minutes hacking into their ops servers to confirm.

I was hardly awake but the adrenaline pounding through me as she sputtered out explanations made me feel unnaturally tense. Even as my mind jolted into focus, my body wanted to throw up.

The screaming had brought everyone else in the house to my room. Lia, bleary-eyed and miserable looking, said nothing, but merely locked herself around my side and held me. Chiho spent a minute standing there uselessly, but soon began picking up every article in my room and shoving it into a bag.

"Leave the uniform and sidearm and stuff. Athan, take your XPCA ID out of your wallet. They've all got tracking chips in them," AEGIS said.

"Can I run?" I asked them. "I can't start over again."

"We're coming with you, idiot," AEGIS informed me.

"No. They only want me, right? I'm not dragging you into this."

Lia glared at me but said nothing. Her grip on my side tightened.

"Look, I love you too Lia, and that's why I'm not dragging you into this. Fighting is suicide. If you guys are going to put yourselves on the line, I'd rather just turn myself in."

"Oh. Mygod," AEGIS said. "It's like you've learned nothing in the last three months."

"This isn't a battlefield, we don't have a legion of robots to hide behind, and as far as combatants go, it's just me and maybe AEGIS. Does that thing have any combat potential?"

"Y-yes," AEGIS lied.

"Right. So not a fucking chance we can beat them, and all it'd do is get all of you killed. So I'm running. Alone. It's all I can do for everyone. You guys have to stay safe."

It was amazing how fast my opinion could one-eighty when the alternative was other people dying...though I guess that wasn't amazing at all. Rather, kind of extremely normal. Still, I'd gone from doubtful to utterly convinced that running was the best plan.

But how? If they were already evacuating people, they had recon in the area, which meant any move I made, they'd definitely catch. The only way past them would be...Tem, maybe?

I guess she was a combatant too, I'd forgotten. But one I never wanted to unleash.

She sat there silent and still and invisible as she had this whole time, waiting with absolute faith in me. I wanted her to stay safe with the others...If I needed her, she'd do anything for me, which was all the more reason not to take advantage of her. But on the other hand, I'd heard from the others that if I left her behind, she refused to eat and had even been hospitalized for it.

I pushed the morality of it away and just focused on the next few minutes. If I didn't survive those, Tem would go nuclear, and that would either be it for her, or for everyone else.

"Lia how good are your optics?" I asked her.

She shrugged.

"Can you get them?"

She shuffled off and came back a few moments later with her mask. I put it on and flipped through the spectra, looking at Tem.

As I feared, she was invisible to light only. Motion, nightvision, and all sorts of enhanced and predictive scans, she slipped by without problem. But she shone bright as day under thermal. I couldn't use her to sneak us past the recon.

I racked my brain. Jack or Rito could extract me, but Jack was based elsewhere and was fast, but not that fast. Rito was…

I had no idea where Rito was, but giving the others I knew a quick think-over, I couldn't come up with any better options. Maybe Trish's girl...could never remember her name...she could throw me through hyperspace or whatever, which was a lot like teleportation. I even considered that Soran's cryosis could mask Tem and me in thermal, but I had no intention of ever letting him freeze me again.

I dialed Rito's number and prayed she picked up.

"Hi, you've reached 'Rito's Handjobs by Mail. We have a special on a quickie, with same-day delivery! How can I--"

"Saga, shut up for a second."

"Nice to hear you too. Haven't--"

"Seriously. The XPCA is coming for me. I need Rito, and I need her now."

I heard her let out a short breath and then nothing. Everyone was staring at me, I realized, waiting.

And then someone tapped on my shoulder and I turned around, surprised to see Rito there, in fluffy pink pajamas.

"Enjoy your handjob," Saga said over the line. "Seriously Athan, if you want me to mess those fuckers up…"

"No...I appreciate the offer. But I don't want anyone in trouble, and a Code-X event would bring the whole XPCA in."

"I thought you'd say so," she sighed. "God fucking dammit," she swore in her hushed, diminutive voice. "I should have known. All I wanted to do was do something nice for you. We just got here and...fucking damn it all."

"Gotta run Saga."

"Yeah. Sorry. I'll throw myself a pity party. You stay safe, or I'm gonna make every single person in black in the country insert their head into their own ass until they suffocate. Serious threat."

"Thanks," I said and hung up, not sure why I was thanking her for that. I grabbed my bag and went to Rito who looked very asleep on her feet.

"Whaaatzup?" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

"Take me anywhere but here," I told her. "Please."

"Pay?" she asked, and held out her other hand.

Lia stomped forward and spitefully jammed a chit into her hand with enough force to make Rito stumble for a second. When she checked the chit, she gaped and stared at all of us with alarm.

"I'll...take...a tenth of this," she said.

Lia jammed her finger into Rito's chest and growled like a feral beast. "Keep him safe."

"Bring Tem too, please," I said. "Tem, come out if you would."

"Oh, Tem but not me?" AEGIS bitched. "Seriously Athan?"

"I'm sorry AEGIS. I don't want to either, but I can't leave her."

"But you can leave me?"

At that moment, as AEGIS raised her voice and her arms, we heard an explosion in the vicinity of the front door, and everyone turned to look.

It was hard to make out because of how dark it was, which was weird because everywhere else in the room had been so bright. I glanced around and realized, no, everything was dark, everywhere. In fact…

...I wasn't even in the bedroom anymore. Rito and Tem were standing behind me, and Tem gave me an almost frantic grin when she realized she hadn't been left behind.

"Weird the lights are totes broken," Rito said, flipping a switch a few times.

"Probably my lightning surge last time we were here," I said, realizing we were in Rito's favorite basement. "Tem, lights please?"

"Y-yes!" she squealed, and the whole basement around us suffused with calm light.

Rito took advantage of the new illumination to check and re-check and re-re-check the chit in her hand, looking at it in disbelief.

"It's half a million credits," she volunteered unnecessarily.

"Good for you," I said, looking around for an exit. I knew Lia well enough that she didn't like putting more than half a million c's on a single chit. If she lost it, she could always have it claimed and transferred, that wasn't a problem. But more that it was easier to keep under the radar if it was in smaller accounts, apparently. So she'd just handed Rito the fattest chit she had. For me.

"I was like, asleep five minutes ago," she said. "And then like, boom, money. I didn't plan on this." Why was she still talking?

There seemed to be a hatch above us but someone had nailed a board over it from down here it seemed. Maybe Rito taking precautions to make sure nobody else found her secret space. Good to know she had some measure of intelligence in some capacity? But the pink pajamas really wasn't doing her any favors.

Of course then she'd gone and blown it by leaving the Defiant in here. Not much of a secret hideout if a bunch of people who had already once attacked you knew where it is, and possibly live around there now.

In my frustration, I jammed swords through the bar of wood and watched with grim satisfaction as it blackened and scorched away. It burned so hot and fast that everything outside of my blade barely had time to singe. I put my swords away and shoved the hatch open, emerging into some kind of supply closet, as Tem filled the area with light.

Paint and easels and paper and brushes...and more, all neatly stacked and lined up on shelves in the spacious closet. Smelled like paint, strong enough to think staying in here might give me a headache. I'd been lucky not to ignite any errant fumes, I realized.

"Mrs. Murdo keeps it like, totes clean in here," Rito explained as I helped her and Tem out. "So don't like, touch anything or she'll really notice."

"Yeah, I've got a hard time not grabbing cans and brushes whenever I see 'em," I said with a roll of my eyes. "Rito, why'd you bring us here?"

"Uh, why not? This is my safe place."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Not anymore, you left the Defiant here, remember?"

"Well yeah, but they weren't just gonna stay in the basement that whole time."

I let out a patient breath. "I meant, they know about it now. It's not a secret anymore."

"Oh," she said, frowning as she thought for a second. "Blah. I'm such a dummy. Sorry."

"Well you saved me, so that's what's important but...jeez. Don't you think things through before you do them?"

"Of course! I mean. Like, I wish I did. Sorry. I guess not."

"...did you seriously just blurt out the wrong answer to me asking if you think things through?"

She gave me a small smile. "Sorry, everyone says I'm a real dummy. I don't mean to. I just like, do things without thinking sometimes."

"Yeah, I see that." I tried the door and found it locked. The door was metal too.

"Please don't," Rito said.

"Don't what?"

"Don't burn down all the doors. This was my school, y'know?"

"I wasn't going to. With all the chemicals and paper and shit in this closet, I'd probably set us all on fire if I tried melting a metal door anyway."

"Oh. Sorry, was that dumb again?"

"Eh," I shrugged. "Let's go back down, the Defiant must have found a way out somehow."

As we followed the footprints under the school and it became apparent that we weren't all going to die in the immediate now, my mind began to wander again, trying to put tonight's events in the greater picture.

Foremost, why the fuck was the XPCA coming after me? I hadn't done anything. I hadn't even thought about doing anything. I was trying to be a good lapdog and help the XPCA survive the mess I'd thrown them into, trying to figure out where things stood with the Defiant, cooperating with XPCA Intelligence, and even going so far as to bite back my snark during my constant, pointless interrogations.

So why?

The footprints led to a hole in the ceiling which had been boarded up, roughly hacked with an axe. I could tell it was an axe used because there was another one just sitting here still, a crazy thing with a pole for a handle and a blade a couple feet long. It was so long and cumbersome that the head was stuck in the ceiling and the base in the floor next to a roughly-dug pit. It seemed an eminently impractical tool for tackling the ceiling, and I had to wonder how many hours someone spent with that piece of crap.

"Not this way either," I sighed. And then I blinked and turned around and realized Rito was still there with me, following me around in her pink pajamas.

"You're Rito," I said.

"Uh, yeah."

"Why don't you just move us outside?"

"Oh, right. Sorry. I've been thinking about the money and stuff. My bad."

I couldn't even blame her for this one, since I was equally distracted. I pulled my attention away from her and shifted it onto the tips of the trees around us, black needles reaching into the sky like they wanted to touch the moon.

Man it was disorienting how she did that. It felt insidious, like it was deliberately confusing my brain for a second in order to make us jump. Why did Exhuman powers have to be so obtuse?

"So...about the money," she started again. "Lia said to keep you safe. Does that mean like, I'm supposed to like, bodyguard you? I'm not a bodyguard."

"I don't know. You took her money. I just wanted out of there."

"Is it okay though? Like, this is more money than the Defiant ever gave me. With this I might...might even have enough. I should earn it, right?"

"Look, Rito," I said, turning towards her and watching her flinch as she almost walked into me, stopping only inches apart.

"D-don't get any ideas!" she said.

"What?"

"Just...because I owe you now. And the moonlight."

I squinted at her wondering if I could see where she was dropped on her head as a baby.

"As I was saying," I continued. "You do whatever you want for the money. I don't really care. But I do need you to stop talking about it for a while, because I'm trying to figure out more important things, like why the XPCA is after me, and what I can do from here."

My mobile pinged, and I glanced at it to see a message from AEGIS.

> xpca sweeping the whole block

> told them you ran off

> seems like we’re fine so far no arrests only wanted you

> that intel officer is here

> have fun in canada send a postcard

> love you lots stay safe be good

I'm glad I had my mobile at least. It meant even if I had to be away from everyone while we got this sorted, it wouldn't be like before. Lia had gotten me a particular model and done some shit to it to make it encrypted and untraceable, and if there were any chance it could be used to find me, I'm sure the girls would have told me to leave it with the rest of my XPCA-issued gear.

The line about Canada was just too obvious for the XPCA to fall for, which meant it was intended for me. My first thought was she was hinting I should go to Canada...which made no sense, they'd found me there once already. But then I started thinking about what a transparent lie that was and realized...it was for me, but the XPCA would still see it. The entire message was written with the intent of the XPCA seeing it, but not giving them anything. So what it meant was a warning? The messages still went through the 'net, and they might not know where I send them from, but could still read them.

But what was most interesting to me was the mention of Micaiah, my new friend from Intel. There was absolutely no reason for him to be on an Exhuman kill squad, which meant that force hadn't been there with the purpose of wiping me out...but rather, what? More questioning? In that case, why bring a force, and why the midnight raid?

It didn't make any sense. I was missing something big, I knew it, and until I could get that, I was fumbling blind here.

I shivered from the cold humid air, feeling my clothes already damp and clinging to me in a way which made the night cut right through them. I could ponder this after we were inside somewhere.

I was about to look up nearby places on my phone but paused with my finger over the screen. If they could track my messages, could they track my searches? If I searched for hotels near me, would they get a map right to me?

AEGIS had seen fit to warn me first thing, so I wasn't taking any chances. I wasn't nearly enough of a tech geek to know the ins and outs of what an encrypted mobile meant.

"Let me borrow your mobile," I asked Rito, and she held it out for me after a puzzled second.

It was...something. An older model, to put it nicely. I hoped she got it for free. I'd say 'at least she personalized it a little', but the truth was, the faded case and the dangling charm of a cat, so old its coloration had worn off, leaving only a stumpy white blob, well, they did little to improve the mobile's appeal.

Holding it in my hands, I was about to open it when I realized...this wasn't even an encrypted device. It was basically a freaking homing beacon. I looked down and saw with some relief it still thought it was in...Los Angeles, apparently, the ancient piece of junk it was, but the second it sorted itself out and connected here…

I sent a jolt through it and then dropped it when it exploded in a plume of smoke.

"My...my mobile!" she wailed. "Why did you do that?"

"They can track it."

"But...but my mobile! You said you were just gonna like, borrow it!"

"Sorry...you can afford a new one now though, right? Look, I'm just trying to keep us safe."

"Chariot is right. He is keeping us s-s-safe," Tem insisted.

"Is there anywhere we can stay nearby?" I asked Rito, who was fussing over the ruins of her phone and trying to salvage her charm from it. I felt a twinge of guilt at how thoughtlessly I'd destroyed it...but it did have to be done. Right?

She looked at me with mild panic. "Um. Are you gonna keep blowing things up?"

"No."

"Okay. Well...my...my mom still lives here. We can crash there?"

"Isn't there like a hotel or something?"

She stopped to think. "Sorry. This might be dumb but, couldn't they track your spending here if you got a hotel?"

I blinked at her. She was absolutely right. How'd she manage that?

"Sorry, that was dumb I guess," she apologized when I said nothing.

"No, you're right. Let's...let's stay with your mom for a day at least, until we figure out what's going on. They don't know I'm with you...no reason for them to check places connected to you just yet."

"O...okay." I turned to go, but she stood on the spot, shifting uneasily. Being so emotive and small, she really did remind me of a younger Lia, despite being older by far.

"Look, if you're going to stick with me, I appreciate it, I can use the help and certainly your powers, but you're gonna have to learn to just spit things out. I don't want to drag everything out of you every time there's a problem."

"Right. Sorry. It's just...there's a problem."

"So I surmised. Care to elaborate?"

"Yes," she said, and then said nothing.

I waited a minute. "Do...you know what elaborate means?"

"I do! I'm sorry. Look, it's just like, really awkward, okay?" She was walking and seemingly starting and stopping repeatedly, but without the ever actually starting part, just kind of impotently making gestures and being way too frantic for my taste.

"Just freaking say it, my God. And let's walk while we talk."

As we headed to her mom's house, Rito told me some things that had me wondering about her sanity, so utterly unrelated to the situation at hand did they appear to be. She told me about a guy named Byrna she met in middle school, and how they dated for a while, but it turned out that he only dated Rito because Rito's best friend Pacci had shot him down, and so they broke up, but got back together for the big dance that year because neither of them had anyone to go with.

And then in high school, she met another guy, Soma, and she was convinced he was the one because they both really liked art, and he showed her a lot of new music she liked, and still liked to this day but couldn't really listen to anymore without thinking of him, which pissed her off because it turned out he was a really pushy jerk that kept wanting to do things with her and then dropped her the second she put her foot down.

And then Freshman year of art school, she was determined to start over, and was in a big hurry to lose her virginity, after what happened with Soma and--

I stopped her before I killed one of us, halting us on a dark street, the end of her story dropping us into a blissful silence punctuated only by the barking of a small dog. Surely this tale, stretching into twenty minutes already, had a point. There had to be, or else my sanity, whatever was left of it, was going to shatter.

"Oh yeah, I had a point, sorry," she said. "My point was, after all that, Mom said no more guys allowed over, unless we're super serious. No bringing over flings, one-night-stands, man-whores or losers, she said."

"I'm none of those things."

"But you're not like, a serious boyfriend either."

"So...it'll be fine?" I asked.

"Dunno. Should be. I just...maybe…"

"Remember what I said about spitting it out?"

"Sorry, yeah. I just think...it might be easier...if you pretend to be my boyfriend."

I looked at her blankly. "You're kidding."

"Why would I kid about that? That's not even funny. I don't want to either, but Lia told me to make sure you're safe, and Mom made it super-clear though, after the fourth time. So I think...that's the way it's gotta be."

I heaved an enormous sigh. If I wasn't already trying to figure out ten other things right now, I'd be doing everything in my power to find some way out of this clustertruck driving right at me, but as it was, I was tired, I was cold, my arm was beginning to act up again, which meant I had some small odds of just disemboweling Tem again if I had flashbacks, and I really, really just wanted to figure some shit out and stop worrying about where I was fucking standing.

And that dog was still barking. Where the heck were his owners?

"Fine. If she asks, we'll go with that."

"Oh she will. And it looks like she's coming now, Burpee woke her up."

"Burpee?" I asked, looking around and seeing a new light on in the house adjacent. "The dog? That's yours?"

But I didn't have time to ask any more, as the door next to us opened up and a woman who looked like a taller, older version of Rito stood framed in the golden light from within. She had the same large eyes and broad smile, a matching blonde ponytail, and even a pink robe to go with Rito's pajamas.

After a minute of hugging and indecipherable keening which could be heard and understood only by women and dogs, they separated and Rito's mom turned to me.

"And who is this?"

"Hi, I'm Athan."

"You're Rito's boyfriend?"

"Yep!" Rito said enthusiastically. Her mother turned on her.

"And are you two serious?"

"Super serious," Rito nodded with the same aplomb.

"Well then come on in and welcome home. We can catch up on everything in the morning. For now, I'll make you two a bed and then I'm out. Had a late shift last night."

I'd fallen in behind them but found myself frozen at her words.

"Something wrong with your boyfriend?" Mama Rito asked.

"Nah," Rito said. "Just...just...just being Athan! Come on, sweetie, let's go to bed, you're very tired," she said, and pulled me into her room with an innocent, cheery smile.

'A bed', she'd said. And as I was dragged into Rito's room and her mother busied herself making up the bed, I just stood there, staring at how small it was. We'd be practically sleeping on top of each other.

"Sleep well kids, see you in the morning" Mama Rito said and closed the door behind her, leaving me staring still.

"So...should I sleep on the floor or something?" I asked, looking around.

Rito rolled her eyes and climbed into bed, scooting all the way into the wall. "Mom will know if you did. Just grow up and sleep like an adult, 'kay? I intend to do exactly what your sister told me."

"Sure. Just two adults sleeping together," I said, pulling off my shoes and still giving the bed concerned looks. "Sleeping together for money. Nothing wrong with that."

"I'm tired. Just sleep," she complained. "And don't even think about getting any ideas."

"Wouldn't dream of it," I said, shaking my head.