Miss Avocet and Riya stood in the bridge of the Augustus with Abe's map of the loops. "You just made this one earlier in my year?" Riya asked.

Miss Avocet nodded. "Abe found a clipping of four Wights by my loop so I had to change my loop entrance. The only way to do that is to create another loop."

"Reset is the 4:30. ... Your children?" she asked.

Miss Avocet's face couldn't get more depressed. She shook her head. "All gone."

Riya put her hand on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry. Now, I know you don't want your loop without your children, but could you reset it to give us some extra time?" She glanced around at the ghosts around her.

Miss Avocet nodded. "But I'll need to be in my home to rotate the sundial."

Riya dropped her arms, laughing hysterically. "Sundial?" she repeated. Taking a breath, she sobered to continue plotting.

*

When they ported, Victor threw down the stairs.

Riya rubbed her temple. "Can you please conserve my strength?" she requested. She and Miss Avocet walked down the stairs and Miss Avocet pointed to the end of the empty dock.

"There's a ride right there in 2016. That's the entrance."

"So we just walk down the dock?" Riya asked.

"No. We stand there. Otherwise, you'd walk right through it."

Riya gave Miss Avocet an appraising look. "That's very clever."

Miss Avocet stood just a bit taller, straightening her blouse. "Thank you!" She gently took Riya's arm, leading her to the exact spot.

Riya felt the wobbly feeling in her stomach and noise erupted around them. She covered her ears and Miss Avocet led her out. "That was dreadful," she commented.

"Hence how I was sure no Wight would go in there."

Riya decided to make a pit stop at a store and stock up on weapons. Thankfully, the shoplifting was done by the Annie and Abe so Riya and Miss Avocet were just seen browsing, chatting, then leaving. After a quick canvas, the two women met up inside, in a booth.

"All the doors to the cellar are locked," Riya reported. "The only way to reach the Ymbrynes a through there." She pointed to where the only door was.

"That's backstage," Miss Avocet explained. "My children often enjoyed playing around her. How many Hollows can you see?" she asked.

Riya peered over the front of the booth. "Four. It's good news," she added.

"I think you and I have a very different definition of good news."

"It means they'll all be cornered downstairs. And they haven't started the experiment so we're not too late."

"Barron will be here soon and we can begin," a chubby dude said. Apparently, he was the stand-in leader. Once the Wights started going downstairs, only a single Hollow stood guard.

Riya lifted the crossbow Annie had swiped and leveled it at the center of the Hollow's outline. She pulled the trigger and the Hollow flopped down. She winced at the loud sound. A skinny man walked out and Riya reloaded the crossbow. She stood straight, pointing it at him. "Mr. Barron's dead. And you're next." She pulled the trigger and he caught the damn arrow an inch from his chest. She jumped down, ducking behind an elephant statute.

The man laughed. "You think you can stand in my way? You, Riya, content to age and die as if you had not the gift of peculiarity, at all? I am a higher being. I hold a secret to eternal life," he ranted. So he knew her, but she didn't know him.

"Ymbrynes aren't immortal. They age. They die. As all things do," Riya added.

"As Annie did?" the man asked, poking at her soft spot. There was suddenly a cracking sound and Riya turned around to see Victor's spectre holding the Wight's neck.

"That's quite enough of that," he declared, dropping the body.

Miss Avocet flew down to her, shifting back right in front of Riya. "Don't ever make a jump like that again," she ordered.

"I had to get closer," was her explanation. She looked at his body. "Not that it did any good."

"Yes. What was that?" Miss Avocet asked.

"Victor." With that, Riya marched back stage. Miss Avocet got in front of her and they'd only just made it just through the doorway before Riya stopped. She put a hand on Miss Avocet's arm. When she faced her, Riya opened the door just beside them. A purple line flowed between Miss Avocet and the two children hiding in the closet. Upon the sight of them, the connection turned blue.

Miss Avocet gasped. "Erin! Connor!" that was probably the only time she called them by their first names. And she hugged them.

"Miss Avocet!" The children were still proper, though. "We-we," the boy started stammering, "heard that Ms. Bunting was taken and we thought that you were to so we-"

"Came to help," Miss Avocet finished. "Well, this is no place for children," she decided. She turned to Riya, looking regretful.

"Go!" Riya prompted. "Get them to your home!" She glanced behind herself. "I have backup."

"Alexander and Tilly are back Home," the small girl reported. "When the Wights came, we four hid."

When Miss Avocet took her two children from the tower, Riya and her ghosts marched on. The Wights and Hollows swarmed her. After firing once, she had to throw the crossbow to the side because she couldn't reload in time. She pulled out two knives Abe had grabbed for her. When she started fighting the Wights and Hollows, she blocked most of it out. The chubby Wight ran and Abe chased him. And the woman Wight followed him too to force him to come back. Victor took out two Wights before Riya had finished off her first. Some peculiars Riya didn't recognize helped too. The 'battle' lasted under 5 minutes.

So, as the room was cleared of all things living, Riya locked the door then ran to the big cage in the middle of the room. She fiddled with the bars manually. Hearing chopping behind her, Riya's heart sped up and she finally saw the tech-lock. Quickly figuring out how to unlock it, she pressed the button. She stepped back in front of the cage. "Find your children. Create new loops," she said, as if it even needed saying.

The Edwards woman poked her head in the hole she'd created. "So, Riya, I see you've inherited your grandfather's peculiarity. You're just as annoying as he was." Reaching inside the hole, she unlocked the door.

Riya backed closer to the cage, as if she were protecting it, though she only need to buy time. She could hear the birds behind her getting restless, ready to attack the bitch.

"Speaking of Abe, if you should see him in the afterlife, give him my regards." She held up the vintage athame she'd used to cut open the door, approaching Riya.

Riya bolted to the side, opening the cage doors. She looked for the crossbow. When she saw it, she determined it was too far away so she tucked one of her knifes into her back pocket. She didn't want anymore blood on her hands. She was filthy with it. "You've lost the Ymbrynes. You've lost everything!" Riya yelled at her. "It is time to give up."

The woman held up the athame. She looked like she was about to kill Riya.

But an opportunity presented itself. "Riya?" Miss Avocet called, walking toward the room. "Riya? Riya?"

The woman grinned at Riya, throwing the athame away and sliding her hand into Riya's. Her features slowly molded into Riya's.

"Let go of me," they were yelling in unison, yanking their hands away from each other when Miss Avocet walked in.

Riya was so in awe by the transformation that it took her a moment to look to the door. She stepped toward the Ymbryne. "Miss Avocet!" She saw the healthy amount of doubt in the woman's eyes and jumped to yelp, "Wait, that's not me. It's the Wight."

"Don't listen to him. She's the Wight," the transformed Wight said.

"I'm Riya. That's the Wight!" Riya insisted, yanking at the hands to get them apart.

Miss Avocet picked up the crossbow and pointed it at the both of them. "Well neither of you move till we sort this out," she hissed, confused but unwilling to shoot anything but the last Wight standing.

The Wight stepped forward. "Listen to me. I'm Riya. I grew up in Florida and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I thought nothing would ever change because I couldn't live on my own without trying to stop the voices."

Miss Avocet bought it and turned the crossbow on Riya.

"Wait! Jake told Barron all of this. She was our psychiatrist. He must have told his Wight buddies!" Riya insisted.

"Please. You just shoot her so she'll let me go," the Wight begged, playing on Miss Avocet's need to help this particular peculiar.

Riya saw a glob of black behind the Wight. "Wait. I can prove that I'm me. Because I am not ordinary. And I'm not crazy. Well, maybe a little, but that's not a bad thing. I can do something that no one else can. I can see the monsters' auras. I can see their soul."

The Wight turned around as she felt something slither around her neck. It lifted her up and the shock made it lose its focus so whatever power was keeping their hands together failed. "Wait, it's me!" Miss Edwards yelled as the Hollow stuck it's tentacles in her eyes.

It drew them out and Riya yelled, "Miss Avocet!"

Said Ymbryne tossed the crossbow to Riya.

She caught it and was so relieved that Miss Avocet put an arrow in it when she and the Wight were arguing. She let the arrow loose and it landed in the Hollow's eye.

*

"You could stay," Miss Avocet offered, a brown bunting on her shoulder.

Riya smiled regretfully then shook her head. "I think we both know there's only one Ymbryne I'd stay with."

Miss Avocet watched her regretfully before nodding. "Well, it's almost time for reset." She led her children inside the tower, leading to wherever her home was. Her arms remained around her smallest wards' shoulders.

Riya walked away from the direction Miss Avocet and her children would be headed. She sat on the pier and let time catch up with her. The world around her went through the night, the snow faded, then it was back to the moment after reset. Riya hopped a train and bought a plane ticket with the last of her money she'd tucked into her purse.

*

The tired looking brunette ran up to a white home in Florida. Annie met her I the steps. They shared a hug since, as far Annie knew, they hadn't seen each other in years. "Mała Wizja," she greeted in her native tongue.

Riya was inside, telling the whole tale. "And then I said goodbye to Miss Avocet and stepped outside the range of her reset. I was so scared that you wouldn't be here. I'd never see you again. You-you. Corporeal you," Riya struggled to explain.

"I am safe," Annie vowed.

"But you will not remain so," Riya sighed. Yes, she'd told Annie everything. Because she knew Annie would not attempt to change the timeline.

Annie stood up, walking over to her desk. She pulled out a small chest similar to the ones Jake and Riya used to store their peculiar photos. She handed it to Riya who noted all the foreign money. "Go to her. You can find your way back to 1943," Annie was sure.

"The nearest loop - time wise - to Miss Peregrine's is over a year behind. If I wait a few months here, I could follow Jake and Franklin and myself when they go to Cairnholm! Then, I just wait a week and go inside the loop."

Emma sat beside Jake in the sitting room, watching Horace's update on Riya. They were doing movie time early that night due to all the changes in their schedule for that day. Riya had only just left, in fact. When she heard Riya's plan to just stay then follow her brother and father, she scoffed. "That's a stupid plan!" she exclaimed.

"Well, I rather liked it," Riya's voice said from behind Miss Peregrine.

The Ymbryne jumped and turned to face the woman. She had her hands clasped behind her, a gaping hole in the clothes of her thin bicep. "You're injured," she noticed.

Riya shrugged. "I ran into Mr Barron's traveling companion. Who is dead, by the way. So... I think that makes Hollows extinct."

"Now, there's only one thing left to deal with," Alma mentioned.

Riya rolled her eyes. "Franklin will still be on the island tomorrow." She suddenly grabbed Alma's collar and pulled her in for a fiery first kiss, ignoring the cheers from the children.