[OP: "Shots"--Imagine Dragons]

Jinu nearly had a heart attack almost a soon as they saw it.

"Gwi-Ma!" he gasped. "No! How could he have broken through so soon?"

"It's not really that soon..." Morph said. "It's been days."

"Days isn't that long after they sealed the Honmoon like that!" Jinu looked panicked. "How could he break through that easily?"

"I hate to say it, but the girls have been arguing a lot about this problem," Morph said. "What if that's why? They were united, but they're divided again."

"But at least they're being honest about it this time," Raven said. "That can't be nearly the same thing as breaking up."

"No, but, again, it's not golden, so maybe there are problems," Morph said. "In fact, there's gotta be other reasons it can tear... I think sometimes he just starts things up."

"Aren't we ignoring the real reason the Honmoon would be weaker here?" Raven pointed at the Saja Boys. "They're still connected to Gwi-Ma. Clearly he's going to find it easier to break through it around them."

"But we don't suck out people's souls," Romance said, as if that made it better.

"But it follows you around. What about the bathhouse?" Raven said sternly.

"Nevermind that, we need to find girls right now," Morph said. "If they're not getting attacked, then someone else is, and we need to stop it. They saw that, no doubt, but we don't know if they found Mira before that. If she's alone, it could be that was all Gwi-Ma was waiting for."

"Her phone is on--" Raven remembered. "The tracking app..."

"Oh...yes, duh." Morph took out his phone and opened the app. "Why didn't the other two try that?"

"They just wanted to talk to her in person." Raven could guess it at once.

She was a woman. She figured that a man probably would have just tried to focus on Mira being missing rather than worry about the emotional problem at the same time.

"Good news, if I'm reading this right, they aren't that far away," Morph said. "Bad news, two of the little dots are not with the other, so they haven't found her yet."

"If demons attack Mira alone, can she fight them off?" Jinu asked.

"Mira is pretty strong. I think she could hold her own," Morph said. "If the tear was just a minute or so ago, we need to go find her now."

"But hang on," Raven said. "Demons are shape-shifters... We can't just assume if we see one, we'll know at once."

"The patterns always show up though," Jinu said. "They can't hide them forever."

"I guess look for anything off?" Morph said. "Maybe all of you should wait here though."

"If you leave them, they'll just run away," Jinu said. "Though, it is risky to drag them along."

"Fine, but follow us at a distance." Raven frowned. "And Jinu, you keep an eye on them."

"I would be more useless than you would now," he said. "I'm just a human now. I could probably just get picked off."

"He's right," Morph said. "I'll escort them. You and him go find Mira. We'll just follow you at a distance, and if you see anyone, yell and we'll come closer."

Raven didn't have time to come up with a better plan than this, so she nodded and took off, shifting into a more athletic form to speed herself up.

Jinu followed with far less grace, but he didn't want to be near the other 4 if they were drawing the demons right to them.

But no demons popped out to attack Morph.

Morph was hoping that Mira wouldn't be the target here if Gwi-Ma sent demons after anyone.

* * *

Mira had actually only been walking to cool herself off and had turned back to rejoin them a while ago when she got interrupted by some fans.

Of course, she stopped to talk to them, signed a few things, etc.

When she finally got away, she realized it had been quite a while, and the others might start to think she wasn't coming back.

She could have just pulled out her phone and let them know, but she was still mad... On the other hand, it might be dumb not to at least message them.

She had taken out her phone to try after all when someone had said, "Isn't that Mira from Huntrix?"

She had to make a dash for it down a different street and try to fade into the crowd before she ended up surrounded with more fans.

She finally lost them and then had to get her bearings.

She had forgotten to text the others after she'd been walking back towards the street for a few minutes and realized they hadn't texted her either.

"Crud." She took out her phone again.

That was the moment she suddenly saw a red ripple.

Up till then, they had all had theories that Gwi-Ma was still active...but they had thought he would be faint for a long time...

Seeing that, it was like a punch to the stomach.

Mira just stared at it till it faded away.

Then she heard yelling.

"Mira!" It was Zoey's voice, and then Rumi's.

Mira ran toward the noise, pulling out her weapon as she went.

Around a corner she saw both of them, and at least 6 demons were surrounding them.

Mira lost no time slicing through 3 of them in one strike.

More of them crawled out of a hole in the ground though...

She kicked one aside.

Then she noticed that the other two weren't doing anything.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked.

Zoey and Rumi smirked, and their eyes glowed yellow.

Mira paused.

"Demons..." She realized she'd been tricked.

The two of them shifted to their true forms, which were nothing that special, but they hissed at her for good measure.

Mira glared at both of them, but she knew she was currently outnumbered.

Still, nothing she couldn't handle on her own...if no more appeared... However, that wasn't guaranteed.

She needed to get backup.

She moved to get some distance and to try to jump on the buildings so she could get away.

One of the demons crawled up the wall and slashed at her from above.

She dodged it, but that escape route was probably out.

She vaulted herself over more of them and then cut them down.

More came...

How were so many coming? The tear shouldn't have been that big...right?

How was it possible there was such a big one when they'd made a new Honmoon?

She dashed around the corner instead.

Then she saw the Saja Boys all standing there. Wicked smirks.

She stopped short.

One of the ones behind her took the chance to pounce.

Mira had to move fast to kick it away, but the other ones surrounded her and began to press her back.

She kept swinging until finally she could use her sonic wave attack and dissolve them all at the same time.

But doing it alone took a lot of energy, so she knew she needed to get away from the hole before more of them crawled out of it.

She raced away again.

* * *

In the meantime, Rumi and Zoey had gone the wrong way.

When they thought to check the phone tracking app, Mira had moved again, so they raced back the other direction, and they saw the red ripple.

They headed for it, but before they found Mira, they saw some demons sneaking after a few civilians and had to take care of them first.

"Mira is by herself," Zoey voiced the thought.

"I know," Rumi said. "Maybe the others went after her, but we can't take that chance. We have to find her."

"Gwi-Ma waited till we split up on purpose," Zoey said, worried.

"How could we be that stupid?" Rumi cried.

* * *

Raven and Jinu had even worse luck.

When they rounded the corner to the spot where the hole was, Mira had fled the scene already, but more demons had crawled out of the hole.

Jinu jumped back, scared.

Raven fired her blaster at them and disintegrated them all in two shots.

"That weapon is not fair," Jinu noted.

"That's the point of it," Raven said. "But there's no way Mira was not near here." She checked the phone. "She's not far. I think she's around one of the corners."

She headed to the nearest one.

Jinu followed but reluctantly.

He had no idea what he'd do here if there was more trouble, but he didn't want to be left alone either.

Raven spotted Mira in the next street over and ran up to her.

"What happened?" she demanded.

Mira looked at her in confusion. "I don't know what happened. There were all these demons...  They went that way. We need to kill them now before it's too late."  She pointed.

Raven sighed. "If we have to."

Mira ran that way.

They followed her around another corner.

But Jinu suddenly frowned.

"Raven, hang on," he said, grabbing her arm.

"What?" Raven paused irritatedly.

"That's not Mira," Jinu said. "See the way she's running? It's not natural."

Raven had been focused on Mira's warning about demons, but now she scrutinized her. Her movements were a little too...jerky and unnaturally bendy for a human being.

Now that she thought about it, the vocal tone had been a little too confused-sounding for Mira...not when she was in the middle of a fight.

"How embarrassing." Raven slapped her forehead. "Falling for such a cheap trick as that."

"Usually they're not that good at imitating people, but...it could be the one I used," Jinu said, guiltily. "It would be better at it."

"Well, you must feel stupid right now," Raven didn't help by saying. "Better kill that one."

She went after it again.

The demon Mira only realized they'd not fallen for it when it turned and saw that she was pointing her gun at it.

"Where is the real Mira?" Raven asked. "Answer now or you're dead."

The demon hissed, and then it shifted into its real shape.

Jinu was right--it was the same one he'd used.

He didn't like seeing it now and backed up.

Then it looked towards him, and, with a wicked smile, it jumped around Raven and sprang at him.

Raven was caught off guard by this sudden counter attack.

Jinu yelped, very macho-like, and tried to dodge, but of course he wasn't nearly as fast as he'd been before, since he was human now.

The demon knocked him over and started to open its mouth like it was going to eat him.

Raven shot it before it got the chance.

It turned into smoke.

Jinu sat up, shakily.

"That...it was...going to eat me..." he stammered.

"I guess you look like you taste good now," she said, holding out her hand. "Get up... There's more of them where that came from. And we don't know where Mira actually is, but she was close, so if that thing intercepted us, it was because they are attacking her right now."

Jinu was impressed by her keen battle prowess. 

Morph and the Saja Boys found them right then.

"I heard you shoot," Morph said. "So there was trouble."

"We just saw a Mira look-alike," Raven said. "Jinu's old friend, actually."

"You mean the one from the Awards?" Romance said. "That one's still alive?"

"The girls never killed it," Jinu said.

"That must have been awkward," Abby said helpfully.

"It almost ate me," Jinu said.

"Huh...so they want to eat you now?" Baby said. "Weird."

But he didn't seem that concerned by it.

"Could it have though?" Morph said.

"It was going to try. Whether it could or not, I wasn't going to find out." Raven raised her gun. "But come on--Mira is in trouble already."

They both ran, following the tracker.

The Sajas followed them. They had no wish to stick around and see if the other demons would attack them as well as Jinu--or if they'd get dragged back to Gwi-Ma.

But strange that it hadn't happened already, actually, if he'd managed to break through.

Jinu realized that as they were running.

"None of you are getting taken back to him..." he said.

They slowed.

"Hey, yeah," Abby said. "Well, that's weird."

"Is it because we're close to the two mutants?" Jinu wondered.

Thinking they should stay close then, they sped up.

More demons had come down the rooftops overhead and swooped at Raven and Morph.

Morph cut them down easily enough with his hand blades, and Raven shot another.

"I've had it with this." She was mad. "The girls need to get over here and fix the hole."

"Maybe we could fix it too?" Morph said. "If we knew how we did that before..."

"I'm not in the mood for singing," Raven scoffed. "And there is no time--there are more of them."

Another creature ran around the corner.

Raven cocked her gun to shoot it--and paused because it was Mira.

Mira stopped short and stared at her.

Having a gun, even if it's a light gun made out of spiritual energy, pointed at your face, is a staggering experience.

Raven stared at her, not sure if it was the real Mira or not.

Then she reflected that, if it was, the gun wouldn't hurt her anyway and started to pull back.

"Wait," Abby said, "that's not a demon."

"How do you know?" Raven said.

"She'd be running if she was," Abby said.

Raven figured that was true.

She lowered the gun. "Mira?"

"Is that the real you?" Mira asked, sounding shaken up but still fierce.

"Would a demon have that gun?" Morph asked.

"I don't know... It could." Mira frowned.

"You want me to prove it?" Raven said. "You have polar bear pajamas that look like someone stitched a stuffed animal on the front of a jumper."

Mira glared at her. "They're cute!"

Then she crossed her arms. "Okay, clearly you're the real Raven..."

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" Morph asked.

"Huh?" Mira blinked. Then, "The real Morph, all right. Well, that's fine then." Then she noticed the Saja Boys. "You!"

"Us?" Romance gestured at himself as if he had no idea why she was mad.

Mira lunged at them, with her weapon ready.

"Whoa, wait!" Morph somehow grabbed the shaft before she could run Abby through.

Abby put his hands up, like he was confused also.

"Mira, calm down," Jinu said. "No one here is attacking you."

"I saw them before!" Mira tried to twist out of Morph's grasp--but Morph reinforced his muscles so she couldn't do it that easily. "I saw them with the other demons!"

"What's going on?" Rumi and Zoey careened around the other corner, weapons ready. "Mira, you're okay? Oh thank goodness!"

"We thought you were getting attacked," Zoey said. "We saw the red."

"I was," Mira said. "But I got away...at least I started to... I just had a gun pointed at my face. And these guys were part of it."

"Mira, they were with us the whole time," Morph said. "I swear to you. I never left them for a minute. They didn't do this."

Mira frowned. "Sure they aren't the fakes?"

"They'd have had to switch them out," Jinu said. "It's not instantaneous, you know... Whatever you saw, that had to be the fakes. Gwi-Ma must have sent more... That's odd, he doesn't copy other...servants of his."

"That we know of." Rumi frowned. "So how bad was the attack?"

"There were a lot of them," Mira said, not very appeased. "Too many for so soon."

"We think maybe the Saja Boys are drawing them somehow," Morph said. "But not on purpose. Honest, they really didn't do anything, Mira. We really were just talking when it happened--and not about anything bad... We were making progress..." he stopped. "Oh...that's why."

"What? No way," Zoey said. "Did we miss something?"

"Just a little," Morph said. "Gwi-Ma clearly doesn't want them to get any further out of his reach."

"Even if the others were fakes, they're still on my list," Mira insisted.

"Mira, it would be the easiest thing in the world to make you blame them for this," Raven said. "Don't you find it a little too convenient? Gwi-Ma doesn't want you to figure out any other way to steal his minions. That's why he did this. And to find you three again, also. I doubt he thought that would kill you, but if he could make you think they were tricking you this whole time, mission accomplished...and he nearly made me shoot you in the face also."

"Yeah, about that--" Mira turned to her. "What the heck was that?!"

"One of them imitated you also," Jinu said. "Sorry about that..."

"About what?" Mira said.

She'd forgotten that Rumi had alluded to this, since she'd missed the entire part where their doubles had been onstage, and Rumi hadn't wanted to talk about it, for obvious reasons.

Jinu realized his mistake. "Uh, well..."

"Wait, was it that one you had before?" Rumi interjected.

"It was, but don't worry, Raven shot it, so it won't be back," Jinu said.

"Wait, you had a demon that copied Mira?" Zoey said.

"Not just her, you too," Baby said unhelpfully. "He had to teach them what to do though. Demons aren't that good at impersonating people, especially hunters."

"What? Why, you weasel!" Mira looked at Jinu. 

"So that's what happened." Zoey looked ill. "That's what you meant," to Rumi. "Oh, Rumi...I'm so sorry, what did they do to you?"

"I knew it wasn't real," Rumi said. "I realized it wasn't you once I got offstage."

"You copied us to humiliate her, didn't you?" Mira looked at Jinu.

"Uh..." Jinu said.

Mira punched him.

No one could say he didn't deserve it, but they all still flinched.

"Mira, stop!" Rumi took her arm. "It's too late to care about it now."

Jinu rubbed his face. He'd fallen to the ground. Mira hit hard. Harder than Raven had, even.

(Raven didn't use her full strength anyway.)

"Look, I'm sorry," he said. "At the time, I was too afraid of Gwi-Ma to disobey him, but, it was wrong..."

"Apology not accepted." Mira was far more angry than even Rumi had expected. "How could I ever forgive that? You scumbag."

"Mira, stop it!" Rumi said.

"Why are you defending him?" Mira turned to her. "That's despicable..."

"It's no different than the other things he did," Morph said. "And if you compare it to getting people killed, not even as serious."

"Not as serious?!" Mira said. "You--all of you--stay away from me! I'm done!"

She backed up.

"No." Raven grabbed her by her arm. "Whatever you feel, if we split up now, Gwi-Ma is waiting for us. We need to close that hole first. Your duty is to do that--you're still a hunter."

Mira looked like she wanted to hit her next, but Raven had her weak point there.

"Fine." She yanked out of her grasp. "Let's just fix it. There's probably still more of them around."

"Not sure we could...sing right now..." Zoey said.

"We'll help," Morph offered. "We can, remember? Just show us where the hole is."

Mira pointed. "That way."

They found it quickly.

Zoey saw a few more demons crawling out, but she knifed them easily.

The whole attack had seemed more aimed to upset them than to really steal souls. They didn't notice any causalities at all.

The mood was still somber after that, though.

Even the Saja Boys were subdued. They could tell Mira had not been kidding about being fed up.

Rumi knew they needed to find some way to make her feel better. However...what exactly were they supposed to tell her?

"I know she's upset that Gwi-Ma is back," she said to Zoey and Raven and Morph. "But...it's not the boys' fault. It's more like he purposely wanted us to turn on each other...and why? I mean, why frame the Saja Boys, if...if he could still reach their minds?"

Jinu was thinking the same thing.

"So none of you heard him tell you anything?" he asked them. "He just ignored you but sent other demons to try to frame you."

"That's gratitude for you, isn't it?" Abby said. "It's not like it's our fault the plan failed."

"Maybe he wanted Huntrix to kill us," Romance said, "since we failed, and it seems like he can't call us back himself."

"Yeah, getting them to punish us for him would be easiest," Baby agreed. 

Jinu knew Gwi-Ma was petty enough for that.

And...the other demon had tried to eat him.

He could almost see Gwi-Ma saying he'd get his soul one way if he wouldn't another... The thought made him shudder.

He didn't know what happened if Gwi-Ma ate your soul. Would you still be one with him? Jinu felt he'd rather just die for real than experience that again. One day out of it, and it already felt like a horrible nightmare he'd finally woken up from.

"So do you actually want to try to get free of him now?" he said. "He seems to have decided you're not worth his time."

"That would be more motivation to do it," Romance said. "Except that it doesn't sound as if that would really work. We're not totally stupid, you know. We got that you only got free because you chose something other than Gwi-Ma."

"Oh...so you were listening," Jinu said.

"Here and there." Abby shrugged. "It's still kind of hazy, but we did see that part ourselves."

"I keep thinking about what Morph asked us," Mystery said. "Why do we even dislike Huntrix? It seems like it makes no sense, if you look at what Gwi-Ma wants to do to us versus them trying to help."

"Oh, don't get soft," Baby scoffed. "They're doing it for themselves. They're just worried that we'll beat them if he uses us again, since they all almost died last time."

"That's not true." Jinu was getting tired of him. "And don't you feel at all bad for that? You nearly got the world destroyed."

"It was more your idea than ours," Baby said. "Why should I care? It's not like the world helps me if it's not destroyed."

"If you could live in it again, it would help," Jinu said.

Baby stared straight ahead.

"Still, it won't work," Romance said.

"There might be a way," Jinu said.

"Better thing to ask: why do you care?" Abby frowned. "You never cared about us. You just used us. Same as everyone else. Did you ever think we were humans?"

"I didn't honestly know." Jinu looked guilty. "You're right...I was using you. I mean, I didn't know it mattered, but I would have anyway... I guess I feel sorry for you now? Since I didn't know I was making it worse for us all, not just me. I'm not saying that we're actually friends, but...I mean...shouldn't I want to help if I got helped?"

"So one day of living ,and you're some altruist?" Baby scoffed at him. "Please. Gwi-Ma always said you never do anything that doesn't serve yourself. I bet you knew what would happen. You chose them because it got you out of it, and you're just doing this so they trust you."

That was a cruel thing to say, but Jinu was worried enough about his own state of mind to at least wonder if he was right.

The other Saja Boys also thought Baby might be right. It was easier for them to think Jinu would do this than to think anyone would really change their nature.

"It won't matter," Romance said after a pause. "Mira won't allow us to come back after that."

Mira was not talking, but she kept shooting them wary looks.

"She really hates demons," Abby noted.

"Do you blame her?" Jinu said. "We all almost killed her and her friends...and her...mentors, I guess. Or whatever they are."

"I don't blame her for hating us," Romance said. 

"Me neither," Abby agreed.

Mystery shook his head.

"But it does make it harder to trust her," Abby summed it up. "She will turn on us as soon as she can, clearly... She didn't need a lot of encouragement from Gwi-Ma."

"That trick was not really fair," Jinu protested. "You guys didn't act very friendly, and you've been so spaced out, how easy would it have been for it to be real? You need to see where she's coming from. All of them. They only just learned that some of us aren't fully demons. That's a lot to take in... I didn't know that was how it worked either. So...try to see it their way."

"What good does it do us to do that?" Romance said.

"Can you do it just because it would be better to?" Jinu said.

But then he saw how hypocritical that sounded for him to say.

And the looks they gave him said they saw it too.

Funny, they had no trouble understanding hostility... Guess that had always been true.

"Hey." Rumi walked up to them. "I think we need to talk about what to say... Mira is not happy, but I think that shook all of us up. Gwi-Ma is back, and so soon... Um...are you guys okay?"

She wasn't sure what else to ask them.

"What do you mean by that?" Romance got defensive at once. "Are we being controlled by Gwi-Ma, is that what you meant?"

"What? No...I just meant...uh, that was scary for all of you also."

"Just a little," Abby said. "In that, Gwi-Ma clearly wants us to die... Well, it's strange that he can't call us back to his realm."

"Is that true?" Rumi asked Jinu.

"To be honest, Rumi, I have no idea why he hasn't done it already. Maybe the Honmoon is stopping him...but if he got the other ones through, that might not be true..." Jinu was lost. "Maybe...it's that they were around you the whole time? You guys seem to ward off the effects.  When I got close to you, I didn't disappear against my will."

Rumi looked surprised.

"Oh, did she not know that?" Abby said. "I thought everyone knew that."

"No, we didn't know at all," Rumi said. "We never talk to demons anyway...and the only one I tried with other than you, it just tried to eat me."

"The other ones have no impulse control," Romance said.

"But you can't eat people," Rumi said.

"Nope." They shook their heads.

"Didn't we say that before?" Baby said testily.

"I know, it's just that I have a hard time understanding it..." Rumi said. "Sorry...uh...so...but that means it should be okay if you stay around us... If we're the only reason Gwi-Ma isn't taking you back, then...we kind of have to do it. The tower seems to be pretty well protected... I just can't see what else we can do. But would he kill you for sure if he called you back?"

"It's that or he'll use them again," Jinu said. "Which is worse?"

"One is worse for us," Rumi said. "But both are bad for you 4."

"Good luck trying to convince Mira to let us go back." Romance was not optimistic at all.

"Mira is not unreasonable. She'll have to see it's the only way," Rumi said, but she wasn't sure.

She went up to Mira. "Mira...we can't keep wandering around like this. We have to decide what to do."

"Then you know what we should do," Mira said darkly. "We can't trust them."

"Yeah, but if we let them out of our sight, Gwi-Ma will call them back," Rumi said. "And then they die."

"So?" Mira frowned.

"Mira!" Rumi was getting exasperated. "You can't really want that... What about helping them?"

"That was all your idea, Rumi. I don't see why we need to help them." Mira frowned. "And it could get us all killed."

"But...the other option is that Gwi-Ma could use them again," Rumi said. "Is that what we want?"

Mira hesitated. "How likely is that?"

"I think they would choose it over getting destroyed, so...and if he knows what we've been saying to them...he could use that against us too," Rumi said. "Right?"

"So, what? We just let monsters who are still being influenced by him live in our house?" Mira glared. "That's better?"

"We need to not fight about it," Rumi said. "But no one else wants to send them away. We all are too worried about it...so...what's it going to be?"

That ultimatum was the wrong thing to give Mira.

"Fine, do what you want!" she said angrily. "My opinion clearly doesn't matter here, does it? I only nearly got shot because of the demon's tricks."

"You went off alone," Rumi retaliated, though she shouldn't have. "If you hadn't done that, it wouldn't have happened."

"So it's my fault!" Mira was madder.

"No...I'm not saying that." Rumi regretted her words. "Just that...I mean, we have to be careful right now. It won't happen again if we all stick together."

Raven, watching this exchange from the back, sighed and walked up to them.

"What do you want?" Mira wasn't in the mood for her criticism either.

"I'm not exactly a peacemaker, so don't expect that," Raven said. "But you two have to stop this. Gwi-Ma is back... That's our main problem right now, not each other...but we always knew he would be back."

"Yeah, and we don't even get one month off," Mira said.

"Tough," Raven said. "But that's the reality. Complaining about it won't fix it."

Mira stared at her and then looked down. "Fine. But it's still stupid to let them live with us."

"'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,'" Raven quoted. "We settled already that letting them leave is just going to mean we won't know what happens. They could die, but what if they don't? You want to keep everyone safe? Then keep them safe. Unless you're afraid that you might start sympathizing with them if they keep hanging around."

"What?" Mira looked insulted. "I would never."

"So you're completely immune, and only Rumi and Zoey can feel that way?" Raven said. "Even Morph and I sympathize with them a little, but you're utterly immovable?"

"I could be," Mira said.

"Well, if you say so, then that's all the more reason for you to keep an eye on things," Raven said. "If you're so sure you're not going to be softened, then someone has to make sure the rest of us aren't letting our guards down. I don't see that being a problem for me, but as you don't trust me either, I guess, you can watch us all."

"I think you're just trying to manipulate me into agreeing to it." Mira was not as naive as Rumi had been when Raven tried to trick her.

Raven really almost would respect it, if it wasn't getting on her nerves.

"Mira, come on." Rumi clearly didn't even see that Raven was actually doing this. "She's not doing that. She's just making a good point."

"I'll handle this." Raven held up her hand at Rumi. "Walk away."

Rumi was shocked at how rude that was. But, not being used to it, she would either get offended or just comply.

She chose to comply.

She walked away.

"Don't talk to her like that." Mira wasn't so willing.

"Did you want her to hear this?" Raven put a hand on her hip. "All right, what do you want, Mira?"

"What do I want?" Mira wasn't ready for the question.

"You're fighting this so hard, so what do you suggest we do instead?" Raven said, with her tone implying that she knew Mira didn't really have an idea. "Does it occur to you that killing them was probably what Gwi-Ma expected you to do? So if you had, he got what he wanted...and, short of killing them, how else do you suggest keeping them in check except by watching them?"

"You make it sound so easy." Mira fell back on complaining, since she had no better idea.

"It's not the end of the world."

Then she realized that was a poor choice of words.

Mira looked at her in disbelief. "And if it was?"

Raven folded her arms. "Well, might as well face it head on."

That lack of sympathy was not winning her any points either.

But Mira realized she was probably losing this argument one way or another.

"Err..." She gave a frustrated sigh. "Whatever."

Raven took that as her agreeing.