[OP: "Dare You to Move"--Switchfoot]

The change in landscape threw Raven and Morph off, of course, and then small projectiles also came flying at them.

Morph blocked with his arms, turning into a shield.

"Okay...this is new," he said.

"I think Jinu is right that there's an intelligent mind behind this attack." Raven kept a hold of Romance with one hand. "Our cover is probably blown... But if he's doing this to distract us..." She ducked. "I think he's trying to take him back now."

She was right.

Rumi tried to get to them, and something rose out of the ground and blocked her way.

It just looked like a rock, or maybe it was a monster of some kind, but it didn't move any more than to rise up, so she wasn't sure.

She wasn't sure if it was real or not, but when she touched it, it felt solid.

"That's also new," Zoey said, ready to follow her. 

"Okay, this is seriously freaking me out." Mira wasn't used to this kind of unpredictability in demon fights.

"There's no way they can keep doing stuff like this without running out of juice." Jinu was incredulous. "Whatever is doing this...they must be nearly out of power, I'm sure of it. They can't just say in the human realm... It has to be time to take Romance now, or they wouldn't have risked it."

"Just hope you're right, Demon Expert," Mira said.

"Don't call me that." Jinu didn't like that at all.

Rumi ran around the obstacle instead of trying to destroy it.

Zoey followed her, and Mira went the other way just in case.

The boys followed them hesitantly, not sure if staying behind was any better of an idea, though Baby was still walking slower.

 The large object suddenly exploded itself into pieces and started falling down on them.

"This is weird." Mystery put his hands over his head and ducked.

"Hey, Rumi!" Zoey cried. "Watch out!"

She threw a knife and knocked one of the pieces aside, and it hit a car instead.

It didn't dent it though...as if the objects really were just an illusion...

"Oh...maybe it wasn't real--" Zoey began to say, and one of the rock shards hit her in the head and knocked her over.

"Zoey!" Mira stopped short and bent over her.

Rumi didn't see what happened, since she was heading for Raven and Morph, but she heard Mira and paused and turned, confused.

The demons must have been waiting for them to be distracted because that was when the tear finally appeared.

But it wasn't random, but more like the one that had appeared before, trying to take all 3 boys back. It looked more contained, like a doorway right down into hell, instead of just a tear in the  Honmoon.

There was almost a magnetic pull to it. Raven found she suddenly had a much harder time keeping Romance from walking that way.

"No you don't." She dug her heels in and reinforced her muscles. "Gwi-Ma...you don't get to just take him now."

"Oh, but he wants to go." She suddenly heard the voice in her head, boring into her brain.

She didn't think it was an audible voice this time, but it was so loud, it might as well have been.

"I've shown him what he really is again,"  Gwi-Ma's voice went on, like a drill. "This is where he belongs... The human world reject him, like it rejected you. Why do you fight the truth? Why do you deny what you are also? Stop trying to achieve the impossible..."

Raven didn't let go, which showed some growth on her part in resisting Gwi-Ma's voice.

But she was so distracted that she didn't see the demons that were coming out of the doorway in front of them now, ready to drag them into it.

Morph slashed them aside, but he didn't think they could handle this and defend Romance at the same time.

"Raven, get him away. I'll hold them off," he said.

Then he saw that Raven's eyes were staring straight ahead.

"Raven?" he said. "Oh, not again, please, not again... Raven, snap out of it! He's just a voice!"

Raven heard Morph like she was hearing something through cotton. Gwi-Ma's voice was filling her head instead.

But she still had some other willpower left.

While this was happening, Mira was trying to get Zoey up.

"Zoey, talk to me," she said.

"I'm okay," Zoey said dizzily. "Just felt a lot more real than I thought, you know?... Why are there two of you? Mira, is that a demon copying you?"

"There's only one of me, Zoey!" Mira said in a tone that was half hysterical and half worried.

"She hit her head for real." Rumi was worried. She stood over them holding her sword out, trying to deflect.

"Hey, where did the objects go?" Mira noticed that they weren't getting hit anymore.

"I..."  Rumi stopped, as she saw that demons were crawling out of the whole and charging them at a much faster pace than expected.

She sliced through one quickly. "I think we found the trap, Mira."

"No kidding." Mira picked Zoey up, looping her arm over her shoulder.

"I'm okay, Mira," Zoey said. "I can stand up on my own." She pulled the arm away. "See? Totally fine."

She tried to step forward and swayed as the world spun. "Uh oh..."

The landscape was shifting back to the original parking lot.

"Their power is fading," Jinu, ever helpful, announced loudly. "This is the end of the attack."

"Of course it is, you idiot," Baby said, pointing at Romance. "Because the attack is almost unnecessary now!"

They all saw that Romance was moving towards the tear, and Raven was apparently frozen in some silent struggle.

She seemed to be resisting still, but she wasn't dodging the demons, and Morph was close to getting overwhelmed by the demons that just kept appearing.

"We have to get to Romance," Abby said.

"No!" Jinu grabbed his arm before he could run that way. "We can't fight them that close. We'd just get sucked in. We'd make things worse! The girls are the ones who can resist Gwi-Ma like that..."

"They're distracted," Baby said sharply.

"We need to do something." Abby looked and seeing some rocks in one of the planters of the parking lot. He snatched one up and raced toward the girls.

Mystery followed him after a moment's hesitation.

Baby didn't.

Jinu started to move, but then he saw something on the roof.

It was....human shaped but had the dark skin and patterns and glowing eyes of demon.

He knew it was one of the...former humans...

Or still human, really...

He stared up at it.

It looked at him and then glared.

Jinu thought he recognized it...sort of.

"What are you looking at?" Baby looked up also.

The demoniac disappeared from sight with the poof of smoke that meant it was returning to Gwi-Ma's realm.

"I...think I knew that one," Jinu said.

"The demon?" Baby asked.

"That was an ex-human one." Jinu looked at him, spooked. "I guess I was right... I've seen it before."

"You were in that realm for 4 centuries, so you've seen most of them." Baby was not impressed. "Did it make an impression?"

"No, not anything I remember. I just know that face... I guess it hung around the same parts of the realm more often." Jinu didn't know how intentional that was.

"We already knew one of them had to be helping Gwi-Ma right now," Baby said. "So what?"

"Nothing, it's just that it was glaring at me like it personally didn't like me..." Jinu said.

"Yeah, it probably doesn't, since you started this." Baby was not one to sugarcoat anything. "I bet the entire demon realm hates you for ruining their chances to come to the human realm and do what they want and also taking us with you. You're their number one enemy, next to the hunters."

"Wow...thanks." Jinu turned back to the fight, but things had changed in that brief moment of being distracted.

* * *

Mira and Rumi tried to keep the demons away from Zoey, who tried to throw a knife and missed by several inches, since her vision was still funny.

She nearly hit Rumi with it instead.

"Zoey, don't try to fight right now," Rumi said quickly. "Hold still, all right? Or get behind us."

"Sure, which one of you?" Zoey asked, weakly.

"We've never gotten concussed before in a fight," Mira said strangely.

"Nothing makes sense right now, Mira!" Rumi was losing her calm the longer this fight went on.

It wasn't that the demons were so very hard to beat--they were going down easily enough--but this fight has been so weird that Rumi felt almost nauseous from it.

Morph was still holding his own--barely.

Raven, struggling against the voice, had finally managed to move back a few mores steps, dragging Romance with her, but he was like a block of ice now. He wasn't trying to move or even bend at all to make it easier for her to pull him away.

Raven waved a hand in front of his eyes.

"What are you hearing anyway?" she wondered.

"Would you like to know?" Gwi-Ma's voice was in her ear again. "I can show you."

Gwi-Ma wouldn't have shown Raven anything if it would have helped her, so it was no surprise that the wave of despair she felt almost made her legs buckle under her.

"They left you..." The voice sounded like Romance's, but it wasn't his at the same time, which was the mark of Gwi-Ma's insecurity exploitation. "No one will ever be there for you. You will always be alone...unless you're with me... You're not good for them anyway. You just make everything worse... They're better off without you."

Raven wouldn't have thought that Romance's fears would be so close to her own, based on his dramatic personality, but this was almost enough to set her off too.

"STOP it!" She put her hands over her ears and let go of him.

She realized her mistake as he stumbled toward the doorway again.

Thinking fast, she dove to the ground and grabbed his leg so that she yanked him off balance, and he fell on his face, which was not great, but at least he wasn't walking now.

Though he struggled to get up.

"I'm trying to save you, you idiot!" Raven struggled to keep her grip. The voice was still in her ears, but she tried to focus only on what she could actually see, not what she could hear.

She inhaled and thought... If there was ever a time to test her limits in this world, now was it.

She focused on her mutation.

Expanding her molecules...

She'd done a bird before, but now she was trying something bigger.

Her form changed and shifted into something about the size of a small elephant or a bear...but it's shape was more reptilian.

"Did...did I just hallucinate that, or did Raven just shift into a dragon?" Rumi almost stopped fighting to ask.

Mira was gawking at it for a second before a demon nearly took her off her feet and she had to block it instead.

She knocked it away and pulled at Zoey to move her out of the way. "Rumi, we have to get Zoey away from this area."

"How when we can't--?" Rumi started to answer.

One of the demons suddenly went down near them. It had been hit by a rock.

"Oh, wow, I didn't miss." Abby was astonished he'd made that shot.

Mystery dropped another rock on the demon in a way that looked more as if he just freaked out than he really had any plan of attack, but it pinned the nasty creature to the ground at least.

Mira blinked before she jabbed her Gok-do through it, and it vanished.

Rumi sliced through a few more. More just kept coming.

"Zoey isn't okay," Mira said very quickly to the guys. "She got hit in the head."

"Again?" Mystery was confused.

"Yes...again," Mira said. "But it did something this time. She's seeing double."

"So she sees two of us right now?" Abby looked at Zoey. "Wow, you're lucky."

"Ha..." Zoey laughed oddly. "That's kinda funny, Abby... I do see two of you."

"This isn't the time for this!" Mira was in no mood for jokes.

"Okay, okay." Abby held up his hands. "There's a lot of demons around right now."

Mira swung through another one. "You don't say."

"Jinu thinks that this attack is almost over," Mystery said helpfully.

"Oh, great." Mira slashed another one. "Look...take Zoey away from this spot."

She wouldn't normally have relied on them to do this, but she and Rumi were hardly even enough to handle this many demons; they couldn't watch Zoey at the same time.

Thankfully, the boys didn't argue with her.

"Okay." Abby took Zoey by her arm. "Zoey, just follow the 12 pack, okay?"

"Twelve pack?"  Mystery said in confusion.

"Normally I have a 6 pack, but she's seeing double," Abby said. "What? I'm trying to get her to focus."

"Can you not?" Mira wasn't even looking now, but you could feel her glaring.

"I don't think Zoey likes you," Mystery told Abby.

"Is this the time to be jealous? Want to help me lead her away before we get hit?" Abby said, as one of the demons was close, but Rumi jumped and stabbed it before it could jump on them.

Mystery took Zoey's other arm, and she giggled weirdly. "Wow, this is just like a movie."

"Sure it is." Abby decided to just humor her right now. "We want to get you away from the big, scary, bloodthirsty demons and over to the nice, helpless guys."

 He meant Jinu and Baby.

Baby had taken cover behind one of the cars, which was wimpy, but he wasn't sure what he could do to help.

"Zoey, can you hand me one of your knives?" Mystery asked her.

"Sure." Zoey might not have done this if she wasn't concussed, but she took out a knife and gave it to Mystery without hesitation.

"What're you doing?" Abby didn't know about Mystery having sharp objects.

One of the demons lurched away from Mira just before she could stab it and started towards them, too fast.

Mystery threw the knife at it and actually hit it, and it disappeared.

"Huh..." Abby was impressed. "Wow...where did you learn to aim knives?"

"I think I used to play darts a lot by myself," Mystery said. "I guess knives must be similar enough to that. The weight, the distribution of it--"

"I didn't want to know that badly." Abby quickened his pace. 

They met Jinu halfway across the parking lot.

"What is wrong with Zoey?" Jinu asked.

"She got conked in the head," Abby said. "This time it did something to her. She's outta the fight."

"Want more knives?" Zoey offered.

"Honestly, maybe we should just take them." Abby reasoned that this was smarter. 

Zoey took out 6 and held them out.

"Uh...thanks." Jinu took two of them. "But I can't throw this."

"If one gets close, just slice it," Abby said. "Mystery apparently has hidden talents I didn't know about... When did you play darts?"

"I had a board in my room," Mystery said.

"Oh, I never went in there. Always thought it was like a den of solitude or something," Abby reflected.

"It was," Mystery said.

"Okay, it's great that you two are remembering stuff, but Romance is still in trouble," Jinu said. "Raven just turned into a dragon!"

"That is so cool," Abby said.

Raven had kept a better grip on Romance, since she'd increased her body density enough to outweigh him, and Rumi and Mira, no longer distracted by Zoey, were backing up Morph now.

And Gwi-Ma was running out of energy, clearly... The tide was slowing.

"I'm going over there just in case," Jinu decided. "Watch Zoey, okay?"

He ran back towards them.

"Sure, he's the captain now," Abby said. "This is stupid. Why didn't we get weapons?"

"I'm sure Mira and Rumi would rather us make sure nothing happens to Zoey." Mystery was probably right about that.

"Well, watch her then." Abby took Zoey's other hand and put it on Mystery's shoulder. "She likes you more anyway."

"Uh..." Mystery seemed suddenly flustered. "But..."

"Hey, I feel kind of dizzy..." Zoey announced. "Or is the ground just moving...?"

She stumbled.

Mystery struggled to support her more and looked at Abby helplessly.

"You're doing fine." Abby nodded. "Just keep steady."

"Abby, you're so obvious," Baby called from his hiding spot.

"I'm not the one hiding behind a sedan right now," Abby shot back.

"At least I didn't take a calling card from a demon!" Baby retorted.

"For once," Abby repeated.

"That's not how it works," Baby said.

"Well, you're--" Abby began.

"Stop it!" Mystery said loudly.

They both stopped.

"Now is not the time to argue!" Mystery sounded close to panic. "We have an injured Hunter, again, and Romance is in trouble, and you two are fighting. This is just like before. Stop it..."

"Okay, okay, calm down," Abby said hastily. "We won't fight anymore. We're just as worried about Romance as you are, but, like Jinu said, if we rush in without a plan, they'll try to take us again."

He shuddered as he pictured what could happen if he got close to Gwi-Ma's voice again.

"Jinu is the one who said it, but he still went closer," Baby said. "What a hypocrite."

"Love makes guys do stupid things," Abby acknowledged.

"Makes you act like an idiot around Mira," Baby said.

"That's not what it's like," Abby said testily. "And what's your excuse for it?"

"I act how I want, doesn't matter who's around," Baby said, and he sounded sincere.

"You're fighting again," Mystery said.

"No, we're not," Abby denied it. "Focus on Zoey, Mystery. She seems to need help."

Zoey was wobbling again.

But she patted Mystery on the head. "You know, your hair is really soft, like a dog..."

"Is she really concussed, or is she using that as an excuse to feel him?" Baby asked Abby.

"I have no idea, but she's a genius if it's the second one," Abby said.

"No, that's assault," Baby said.

[On record, I don't think touching someone's hair is assault...but...rude, I guess?]

* * *

Raven slashed a demon away with her claws.

There were only a few left now.

"You are so hot right now!" Morph was starry eyed.

"Morph, focus," Mira said. She stabbed another one. "Why isn't the dang doorway closing yet?"

"Just a little longer." Rumi was panting. "It can't last..."

She was right--the demons stopped coming a few seconds later.

The doorway finally closed after that...but all of them felt exhausted, as they'd  just been about to give out themselves.

"I...don't know if...alone we could have...outlasted that attack." Rumi glanced at Mira with some fear.

Mira didn't know either.

"To be fair--" Morph was panting also. "--Romance slowed us down... Without him, maybe--"

"Shut up," Raven said, more harshly than they expected--and in dragon form, her voice was even harsher.

But she knew what Romance had heard and didn't think they should echo it.

"Uh...Raven?" Rumi was confused. "Are you okay?"

Raven reverted to her usual form, and then she fell to her knees.

Maintaining a form that differed from her size was exhausting for her also, much harder than for Morph.

"Since when could you do a dragon?" Mira asked.

"I couldn't usually...but our powers have expanded...remember?" Raven was still short. "I think we explained that to you. Why don't you remember the simplest of--"

"Raven," Morph interrupted her. "You don't mean that."

Raven frowned but then thought better of biting Mira's head off.

"Well, anyway," she huffed. "That was too close...again."

"Can we agree the idea of going towards the problem was a bad one?" Mira said.

"Sorry..." Rumi said. "Was it my idea?"

"Yours, Jinu's, or someone else's, but it wasn't mine." Mira was sure of this. [I think it was actually Raven's.]

"Well, Mira, we'll know for next time," Morph said.

"This isn't a joke, Morph!" Mira began to get mad at him also. "Zoey got hurt! They used new attacks we haven't seen before. This isn't a game! Things are getting worse and worse the longer this drag on, and we don't know why that is. Three out of four of them are free--why isn't it getting better?"

"Isn't it a faulty assumption that it would get better because of that?" Raven propped herself up more on her arms. "It sounds like it would, but perhaps only the power over the boys decreases, not Gwi-Ma's influence in this realm. I don't know how the spiritual principle works enough to know...but A doesn't always follow B or C after that."

"Don't math me," Mira said. "If you don't know the answer, then write to your mentor again and ask her. I'm tired of this."

"Mira..." Rumi shook her head. "I know, I know you're upset because of Zoey, but yelling at them isn't going to help anything. They were protecting Romance. It's not their fault."

Mira looked like she wanted to keep yelling, but she pressed her lips together as if to force herself to stop.

"He's still not back." Morph examined Romance with concern. "Nothing is working. We'd better get him back to the tower. At least we can avoid civilians then."

He pulled Romance up and started walking him away.

The parking lot wasn't that damaged from the fight, since the flying debris had been...illusions? Or temporary summonings, whatever they were.

Jinu had been thinking of joining the fight, but they had ended it before he got close enough, so now he was just watching them.

"I'm sorry..." he said. "I've never seen them like that..."

"Things have changed," Rumi said soberly. "But I think it's my fault instead."

"How?" Mira asked blandly.

"The new Honmoon," Rumi said, "it's not Golden... Maybe it was weaker after all. Maybe we were wrong to think it was stronger than before. And that's my fault."

"It does seem weaker," Morph said.

Raven shot him a look.

"But that doesn't mean it had anything to do with you," Morph said. "I'm sure there's another explanation for it."

"That's not convincing, Morph," Rumi said with a faint smile that wasn't a real smile. "But, can't do anything about it right now. Let's just get back to the tower, like you said. Maybe we can wake Romance up if he's away from Gwi-Ma long enough. The trance can't possibly last forever, right?"

"It's unlikely it could last that long without anything to draw him to..." Jinu hoped this was true.

The other guys and Zoey were waiting for them by the curb.

"Nice trick with the dragon, Raven," Abby approved.

"Thanks," she said flatly. "I'll be sure to use it in the future."

"I mean, I wouldn't mind that," Morph said.

"Morph, that's just weird." Mira was in no mood to listen to this. "What are you? Some kind of scaly?"

"I'm not sure what you just called me, Mira, but I think it was bad." Morph was affronted.

"It was." Baby was smirking. "I'm impressed, Mira. That was way more hurtful than I expected."

"What? Shut up, you little freak." Mira glared at him.

"Hey, if you're going to bully people, at least own it." Baby didn't let up. "First Abby and now Morph. Who's next?"

"You can be next," Mira said.

"Oh, scary. What you gonna do? Shove me in a locker?" Baby hit that nerve without knowing it.

Mira took a step towards him, and Rumi held her back.

"Mira, let it go," she said. "He's just being annoying."

Mira looked away from him. "How is Zoey?"

"Uh..." Mystery was supporting Zoey, who looked like she was half asleep. "I'm not sure how this is."

"She shouldn't be going to sleep if she's concussed." Morph looked at her more closely. "Where did it hit her?"

"I didn't see it that well," Mira said.

"I think it's here..." Zoey tapped the side of her head, but her hair would hide it.

Morph felt around. "Well, there's a bump all right. We might want to get her checked out, since we're already at the hospital... The attack is over for now. The rest of you can go. No way Gwi-Ma can attack again so soon after that."

"He's probably right--that costs attack energy," Jinu said. "One consolation is, at least if he's not devouring any souls because you keep stopping him, his power can't be that much more, so he can't do that much."

"That could explain why he's only attacking us these days," Rumi said. "Normally, they show in other places so we have to stop them. But that's not been going on at all."

"If his power is limited, it stands to reason that he would save his attack power for you," Raven said. "He takes you out, he gets everyone else anyway. And he's claimed a few lives along the way, even if we've mostly prevented it."

"I don't like to think about that either," Rumi said. "It always happened, but that it's trying to get to us deliberately this time makes me feel more responsible for it."

"Well, don't beat yourself up," Morph said. "Evil people are going to attack no matter what. Can't be everywhere at once."

"But if the Honmoon was working properly, he wouldn't be able to take anyone," Rumi said.

"That Honmoon is just unrealistic," Raven sniffed. "Normally, nothing can completely stop such attacks."

"Stop saying it's unrealistic," Mira said.

"Stop claiming that you have security because of some magic soul barrier," Raven replied.

"Both of you stop fighting," Morph said, more firmly than they expected. "You should try to get along more, and taking out your stress on each other won't make you feel better. Do you really think it's going to help?"

They went quiet.

"Morph is the man now," Abby said. "Well, someone has to be the mature one."

"I'll take Zoey back to the ER, I guess," Rumi said. "And call Bobby, since, he's got our insurance paperwork."

"You're don't carry that with you?" Raven said.

"Raven, could you please, for once, just lay off...?" Rumi said, sounding weary.

Raven went quiet again.

"We'll take Romance back then," Morph said. "Poor guy... Must have been terrible for him."

* * *

In fact, Raven told them what she'd heard while they were on their way back to tower. It was a short drive at least; traffic was better now.

"Horrible things to hear." Abby was quiet incensed at Gwi-Ma. "What a pathetic way to lie."

"I didn't know that you could hear anyone else's fears also," Mystery remarked.

"I think it was a special little treat for me." Raven leaned on her hands and scowled. "Well, I could relate to it also. Perhaps that's why. A dual attack."

"I guess he was efficient," Morph said. "So, from what you said, the demon copied this girl he used to date, but it triggered his memories... His deal must be tied to this then...but why would Gwi-Ma give us the answer?"

"Because he thinks Romance will never be able to break it," Raven said. "He thought if he reminded him why he made it at all, he would give in again. A calculated risk perhaps, but it almost worked...or has it worked? Can we pull him out of that state? He may not want to keep pursuing this anymore."

"He can't give up now," Jinu said. "He was so close..."

"We can't let him do that," Abby agreed.

"You cannot stop it if he doesn't want it," Raven said. "Well, now we know why he's been the last to get free. Such a painful memory, he would avoid it."

"They're all painful," Jinu said. He looked at Abby. "What happened to you? You were doing fine, and then the demon got to you also. You must have had something open you up... Mira...did she say something to you?"

"Mira always says something hurtful," Baby said.

"You can tell us," Morph told Abby. "I promise we won't judge Mira too harshly, if that's what you're worried about, but if she was hurtful, she needs to take accountability for it at the same time. All of us agreed to try to be fair to each other."

"Do we need to discuss that?" Abby was suddenly wary, for him. "I don't want to repeat anything. Anyway, I'm sure it wasn't really intentional, but things are just...they're different."

"Different in what way?" Jinu said.

"I forgot that Huntrix still sees us as former enemies," Abby said. "And that affect things... Maybe for a short time, I thought we all were becoming friends, but that's ridiculous, right? We can't be friends... Well, maybe you can, Jinu. Rumi has a different take on things, but not the rest of us. There was no reason to be anyway, right? We're only doing this to benefit ourselves, to get free. Selfish motives don't bring people closer together."

"That doesn't sound like you at all," Morph said.

"Yes, that sounds more like something I would say," Raven said. "And not your words, I'm guessing... Mira said it."

Abby's silence said more than if he'd admitted to her saying it.

"And you wonder why I don't like her." Baby frowned.

"You say just as harsh things as her," Jinu reminded him.

"Yeah, and I was a demon-iac." Baby tacked on the ending as an afterthought.

"Trust issues are not something only demoniacs can have," Raven said. "Ah, Mira." She sighed. "Still holding onto the same ideas, I see... Well, one month is not enough time to change a worldview entirely."

"Mira has struggled with change," Morph said. "She told us that. And she's had a hard time accepting that things aren't the way Celine taught them. I think sometimes she still says stuff like that because she thinks it's what she's supposed to say or think. Deep down, she's not really so much different than Rumi and Zoey. She accepted our weirdness, after all. A really judgmental person wouldn't have done that. I think we should not take what she said too seriously."

"You're letting her off the hook," Baby said. "I still think she causes problems."

"Maybe she doesn't know how to not say things that way," Raven said.

"You're defending her now?" Baby said. "Like she doesn't annoy you as well?"

"We're not attacking Mira anymore," Raven said. "Some of us actually care about our promises, Baby, if you don't mind."

Baby raised an eyebrow and then frowned at the floor.

"Yes, we promised," Morph said. "We'll give her a chance to explain herself and not assume she caused a problem. We're not making the same mistake we made last week, and we nearly lost a Hunter that time."

"This time it was Zoey," Mystery noted. "All of them are taking hits on our account."

"Shine warned us to watch Zoey," Raven said. "She knew Gwi-Ma would attack her next. Let's hope this is small and will go away quickly. Zoey seems connected to the Honmoon just fine, so she should heal faster than Mira did."

"But how did Shine know that they'd attack Zoey next?" Jinu asked. "She's not even here."

"Gwi-Ma is predictable," Morph said. "Shine has been fighting demons and curses and the devil since she was a teenager, just like the girls have, only with a lot more knowledge of it, since I'm guessing she had a much better teacher than Celine. One thing is confusing, though--I thought the attacks had to be based on some internal problem, not just a physical one. Zoey has been okay with Mira and Rumi both and with all of you, and even us. What could he attack her on?"

"Or it could just be physcial," Raven said. "We should stop assuming we know the answer to that. It could have been an accident also."

"Do you think it was an accident?" Mystery said. "Because she got hit in the lobby also, though that was by pieces of the ceiling...but the demons still attacked from the vents first."

"Oh, that is strange." Morph hadn't noticed that before. "I wonder why..."

* * *

Zoey was scanned, and the doctor told Mira and Rumi that there was no serious damage, so she could go back to normal once the swelling went down.

They told her to rest and stay off her feet.

And if she started having other symptoms, they should bring her back to get medication.

Potential side effects were confusion, vomiting, and dizziness.

They hoped none of those appeared.

The double vision should go away also with enough rest.

"This has been the worst day." Mira was emotionally drained after that wait.