Victor's portal from the void opened in front of Dante's quarters. Red pipes in the ceiling, third door on the right before the hallway came to a dead end. He stared in confusion at the door--the portal here hadn't been slippery or inexact. This hallway formed a solid, accurate landing pad from the void, completely unsquished by the vacuum of space. Victor frowned in bafflement.

"Awesome, we didn't end up in space!" Squirrel Girl glanced around. "...Where are we?"

Victor stared at the door, and the ceiling pipes. This was definitely Dante's door.

"Victor?"

He shook his head. "This way," he jogged down the hall, sword balanced on his shoulder. The stairs wouldn't be guarded, with the inhumans down in the training rooms. Said training rooms, on the other hand...how many guards would they face there?

"The stairs will go down a floor, then end with doorways on the left and right," he informed Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl, running behind him. "Left is toward the starboard side, where the escape pods are. The training rooms are on the right."

"Got it," Ms. Marvel said. "If we get separated, retreat back here?"

"As a last resort, yes," Victor agreed.

The stairway stood clear of guards, and Victor took the steps two at a time, slowing out of a run. The walls echoed with his footsteps.

"These are the most confusing stairs I've ever seen," Squirrel Girl muttered, running on all fours past him, tail swishing. She dashed through the archway to the right. "Why don't you just have a single stairwell?"

"Each section of the ship has a single staircase branching off one or both of the main stairwells," Victor told her disappearing form. "It's easier to defend."

"If more confusing means easier to defend, then yes!" her voice echoed, an entire stair landing below them.

"Squirrel Girl, wait up!" Ms. Marvel shouted, keeping pace with Victor as they jogged through the port-side archway.

"Aaah!" Squirrel Girl exclaimed, simultaneous with a staticy ray blast flashing the stairwell red.

"Squirrel Girl!" Ms. Marvel yelped, legs stretching and carrying her faster down the steps.

Victor broke into a sprint after her. He couldn't teleport precisely in this ship, and the stairwell was too bright to form any substantial shield from the shadows. But at least he'd brought the sword.

"Eat this!" Squirrel Girl's voice echoed, followed by another red flash.

Victor turned a corner, gripping the cold railing to save himself from tripping down the stairs. On the landing below, Squirrel Girl tossed aside a silver ray gun, a reptilian-scaled guard in golden armor sprawled in the corner. Ms. Marvel shrunk to regular size, hopping off the final steps and squeezing Squirrel Girl in an arm-wrapping hug. Victor plodded down to them and sighed at the rise and fall of the guard's chest, the charred circle on the elongated helmet.

"Those ray guns are scary," Squirrel Girl informed Victor, extracting herself from Ms. Marvel's stretchy arms. "I shot him and he flew five feet into the wall."

"That's partially the armor," Victor muttered, edging the guard closer to the stairs. He crouched, taking the helmet off and twisting it around to hide the charred circle. "It redistributes the force that otherwise might kill you."

He stood to find Squirrel Girl's mouth in a perfect O. "Oops," she mouthed. "I wasn't trying to do that."

"Come on," Victor led them through the arch marked with a yellow "4," slowly walking up the stairs to the fourth level. "Training rooms are up here."

He crept up the stairs quietly, even though he wasn't expecting guards nearby--if the stairs had been defended, they would've heard Squirrel Girl's battle with the reptilian soldier and come running by now.

The stairs ended in a thin door, which Victor slid open the barest crack, peering into the training hall. Wide doorways lined the walls, each blocked by golden-armored soldiers, holding ray guns or spears or swords. He leaned to the side so the others could peer through.

"What's the plan now?" Ms. Marvel hissed.

"Us two will fight off the guards posted at the doors," Victor whispered. "Squirrel Girl, get the doors open. Tell everyone what's going on."

"Great," Ms. Marvel shoved open the door, fists growing in size. "Hi-yaaaaaa!" she roared. Victor darted after her, sword held at guard. "We're freeing these prisoners!" Ms. Marvel yelled, punching a kree soldier in the stomach, sending them flying.

Victor swung his sword into the helmet of a kree soldier and regretted his decision to fight off the guards. A flicker of recognition, then confusion and betrayal passed over the kree's wide eyes before he dropped unconscious. Prickling with shame, Victor ducked an incoming spear and slashed upwards with his sword. Golden spear clanged against silver-blue blade, rattling Victor's arms. He roared, sweeping the guard's legs from under him.

"Traitor," the guard hissed. Victor kicked him in the temple. Grinding his teeth together, Victor shook his shoulders to rid them of an uncomfortable pressure. Did all the guards here know him?

He ran past an already unconscious guard, wincing. She was the one he'd bribed not to tell anyone he was speaking to Dante. He silently thanked Ms. Marvel for dealing with her.

"You're free now!" Squirrel Girl shouted behind him. "We're going to take down Hala!"

Victor pummeled a reptilian-faced guard who gaped toothily in Squirrel Girl's direction. At the end of a trail of unconscious figures, Ms. Marvel dodged and twisted from wild red bolts, and Victor picked up a golden spear, hurling it at the guard with the ray gun. It clanged into the guard's helmet and she toppled to the floor.

"You're free now!" Squirrel Girl shouted again, followed by lukewarm applause and vicious howling. "Oop, you're bad! Get her!"

Victor didn't glance backward. He kicked and swung through the last few guards, stares of betrayal reddening his cheeks. "You--" the last one managed through pointy teeth before Victor's blade hammered against their dull blue helmet. They flopped over.

"That's all of them," Ms. Marvel panted, hopping over a prone figure.

He lowered the sword and nodded tightly.

"Thanks for uh, taking that last guard," she added.

"No problem," he motioned to the strewn guards. "Pretty sure we're actually even."

"Nut face!" Squirrel Girl yelled, followed by an explosion.

"Seems like not everyone's happy at being liberated," Ms. Marvel muttered.

"Told you," Victor trudged back down the hall, sidestepping unconscious guards.

A blast of fire blinded him, heat searing into his breastplate and catapulting him across the floor. He grunted, back colliding with a wall. He groaned.

"You'll pay, you lousy--" another blast of fire, aimed for Victor.

"Leave him alone!" Ms. Marvel shouted, a fist launching across the hallway. Victor reached for the shadows to summon a shield, fingers grasping at bare light. A jet of orange flames radiated brightly, soaring towards him. Wildly, Victor summoned the void and sunk through, accidentally carrying half the bodies in the hall with him, narrowly ducking the flames.

"Vict--" Ms. Marvel's voice cut out. Victor floated in the purple-black emptiness, sword cool in his fingers. He slipped across space, dragging at least ten motionless figures behind him. He homed in on the one solid square of ground within the elastic motions of the spaceship and outer space.

He dropped through the portal, plummeting from the ceiling. Unconscious guards fell too. And then Dante, rolling across the bright hall. Victor blinked in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" Dante growled, hopping to his feet, fire glowing from his palms and licking up the black sleeves. Victor charged and tackled him, extinguishing the flames from his fingertips--but both of them tripped over a kree guard and tumbled, rolling to the metal floor where Dante pinned Victor to the ground.

"I came back to free you," Victor hissed, wrestling to free his arms. His sword had clattered away. "With some friends. You're welcome."

Dante opened his mouth. Shut it again. "What?"

"I came back to free you," Victor repeated.

Dante's eyebrows furrowed, and he opened his mouth again, and then shut it. He released Victor's arms and pushed himself from the ground. "What?"

"Your jumpsuit looks fancy," Victor sat up and rubbed his wrists.

Dante glanced down, brushing the red fire insignia across his chest. "Yeah. Made it in my spare time from the foul liquid they give us to drink," he blinked at Victor. "What? You came back to free us? I don't get it."

"At least you're not trying to blast me anymore," Victor muttered, rubbing the back of his head. He winced.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to hit your head--I mean, actually, you deserve it. I'm not sorry. Why are you freeing us? I don't get--"

"You changed my mind," Victor slowly rose to his feet. "I'm done lying to myself about..." he vaguely motioned to the doors lining the spotless walls and cringed. "What this is."

Dante blinked and scowled.

"What's that for?" Victor asked.

"This doesn't make up for abducting me in the first place or chasing me for weeks. Or maybe it does because you're undoing it," Dante scowled deeper. "Why are you so confusing, Victor? One moment you just want to talk, and then you're hammering me into a wall, and then you just want to talk again but then you break my knee, and now you're here to let me go?"

Victor hesitated. "But maybe sorry is a start?"

"What's that mean?"

"I...I," he swallowed. "I'm already throwing literally everything else away, so I'll just say it," he took a deep breath. "You told me I was beautiful once," Victor's cheeks flamed. "So I thought I'd return the favor. I think you're beautiful, Dante, and you turned my whole world upside down and made me decide to do probably the most stupid thing I've ever done..." he glanced aside, words suddenly escaping him. He bent over and grabbed a golden spear from the floor and turned away. "Yeah. I need to go--help. And stuff."

He jogged off, shoulders prickling and cheeks burning in the silence of littered kree soldiers.

"When did I say you were beautiful?" Dante called after him.

Victor froze, glancing over his shoulder. "Down in the medbay. When I brought you here."

Silence.

Victor shook his head and kept jogging, spearhead bumping over the floor. He took the stairs by threes, wincing at rattling explosions and echoing battlecries.

"Wait!" Dante's voice shouted after him.

Victor froze again. "What?"

"Wait up," Dante jogged after him. "I'm coming to help you."

Victor shook his shoulders out. "Great. Um." He tried to suppress the burning in his cheeks, unsuccessfully. "G-great," he ran away down the stairs.