"Imparter, time," Aerin whispered. Her Imparter blinked. 3:05 A.M. She was sitting in the dark in an empty room in the tree house, her things next to her. She had woken up enough times to realize sleep wasn't going to happen tonight. An Incandescent, a gadget that functioned much like a lantern, provided some soft light, enough for her to rest and still be awake.

Aerin folded tiny strands of hair over each other, her fingers moving methodically across one of the braids she was weaving into her hair. She pinched it with her fingertips and used her right hand to pick up a few small rings, which she slid onto the braid before continuing the pattern for another couple inches. Then it was another metal decoration.

She didn't normally do this with her hair, but everything lately was stressing her out and this soothed her, even though it was the middle of the night and she should probably be sleeping. She doubted she was the only one up. Most of the girls in the squad had some sort of sleeping problems. Aerin had had a bad dream and her reflexes woke her up because of the imagined danger. She saw Calla's tree shrivel to ash, she saw oozing gashes across Faelyn's back from torture, saw the Moonlark with a knife in her head, saw the goblin capital destroyed and burning.

The others kicked bags or aimed at targets when they needed to clear their minds. Aerin was more peaceful in that way.

She finished a braid and pulled a notebook off of the stack of them that sat to her left. She flipped it open to a half-filled page of notes. It was brainstorming time.

Tortured humans with the aim of isolating their ruthlessness. Why did that require torturing? What kinds of chemicals were involved? Aerin opened a pocket in the void and plucked a pen out of the air, writing those questions down. All thoughts were important, even if they seemed trivial.

Now, the goblin capital was also going to be attacked. They didn't have a when, a who, or a how, but they at least knew what and why. Aerin could work with that.

She sat back. These two had to be connected. She was convinced of it. So she needed to look at the bigger picture.

"What do they want?" she murmured to herself. That was, and always had been, the big question. The leaders of the Black Swan just saw the Neverseen as the villains. When did they stop to try and justify the Neverseen's actions and understand them? Aerin didn't think they could ever be a step ahead if they didn't understand their reasons for doing things. And the Neverseen certainly never did anything without a reason.

Think about who they are. Misfits. Outcasts. Elves deemed "unfit for society" and ogres with violent tempers. So then their motives would be either to bring themselves back into a society that changed to cater to them, or destroy the existing one and create a new one. It was very likely the latter.

Aerin scribbled all this down, not wanting to forget anything. Once the goblins were weak... the Council would be weak... and they could be overthrown by a rapidly growing rebel group.

Now it was time to look at the Black Swan's motives. Aerin flipped to another page. Most of it was scribbled out theories for the identities of Black Swan members, some was information about their history that she'd learned, and one section labeled Mission just said "Work with Council to improve." Improve what? Project Moonlark had been all about raising a better breed of elf, one that understood the ways of humans. Did Forkle intend for humans and elves to live in harmony together again? Was that possible at all?

This was making her brain hurt.

"Couldn't sleep either?" Faelyn's voice startled Aerin, and she spun around, conjuring a throwing star on instinct. She exhaled.

"Sorry."

Faelyn shrugged, coming to sit next to her. "We all have fabulous reflexes, don't apologize."

Faelyn always slept with just a bra on, no shirt, and seeing the jagged scars across her back made Aerin internally shudder. The day they'd gotten Faelyn back... that wasn't a good day.

After finding out she had been kidnapped, the Collective dispatched two adults to go retrieve her before anything bad happened.

They never came back.

The girls begged for Forkle to let some of them go, and he finally relented to Avilyn and Lyra, sending them off with trackers to monitor their every move. When they finally found the hideout Faelyn had been kept in, everything was completely blasted to bits. Faelyn hadn't needed to be rescued. She destroyed the hideout herself.

But not before breaking, and not before being tortured for days. Lyra and Avilyn found Faelyn with burns on her neck, gashes on her back and severe nerve damage from an electrocution tool they'd used called the Deadvolt. When she came back to the Black Swan, she'd been angry. She'd exploded on everyone, screaming at Forkle and demanding that everyone lock everything up and evacuate because she'd given so many secrets away. The following weeks were spent with Livvy until Faelyn could function normally again. The Black Swan had to shut down several hideouts and Faelyn had never been quite the same, never trusted herself enough with anything. It took her a while to start acting normal again.

Now, a year later, Faelyn pretended that it had never happened. She was closed off, but only as closed off as she'd always been. She was a pain in the neck, but only because she wanted to be, not because she was insecure. No, she was significantly stronger than she'd been before. To be fair, she'd been fifteen. Aerin didn't think any of the defense team gave themselves enough credit for how young they were. Their youngest member was thirteen and their oldest was nineteen. Most of them weren't even old enough for the elite levels at Foxfire.

War forced families to separate and alliances to form, and it forced kids to grow up.

In reality, the elven world was probably not prepared for a war.

"Can I see your notes?" Faelyn asked softly. She was so much nicer than usual at 3 a.m. Aerin handed her the book and she flipped through it, squinting at Aerin's handwriting. "The Neverseen want to fundamentally change our world," she said finally after a long pause.

"They want the Council gone, Foxfire gone, focus on abilities gone, ability restrictions gone, Exilium gone, matchmaking gone, and humans in captivity. Most of all, they want elves to rule the world, Aerin."

Aerin started twisting some of her hair into another braid. "Don't we already sort of act like we do that?"

Faelyn nodded, her lips pressed together grimly. "It's arrogance. That was the whole point of Project Moonlark. One day everyone will see that humans need our help and are good enough to deserve it."

Aerin's brow furrowed. "You've never seemed like the human apologist type."

"I'm not. But some of them are good, Aerin. Most of them are. They live their lives different from us because their lifespans are so ridiculously small. They create chaos because it's all they know. Maybe they deserve peace too." Faelyn sighed. "Or maybe I'm just tired."

"Maybe..." said Aerin. But she thought about it.

❤︎

"Okay, everyone," Aeyva said, clapping her hands together and looking around at the defense team. "We're traveling again today. Where do you all think we should go?"

"We could split up again," Adalea suggested.

"San Diego?" Kayleey offered.

"I think San Diego is a good place to start," said Aeyva with a thoughtful frown. "Can someone go get Sophie and her friends? I don't know how they're not up yet, the sun came up already."

Cloud bounced up and down and waved her hand in the air. "Me me me! I'll do it!" She dashed off to the opposite tree house.

"Good to know Cloud is in a good mood today," Phoenix muttered. "What's the status on those fancy guns?"

Aeyva twirled a ringlet around her finger. "We have a few but they don't have anything in them."

"Shoot, those would be nice to have," said Avilyn, crossing her arms.

Cloud bounded across the bridge to the right tree house and kicked the door open. Three of Sophie's crew were sleeping in beds in the first room she entered. "Morning, suckers!" she called cheerily. "Get up, we have work to do."

Sophie jolted up and blinked at Cloud, not registering what was going on. "Is something wrong, are we under attack?"

The goblin man was already awake and on his feet in an instant, weapons at the ready. Dex didn't even wake up.

"Nope!" said Cloud. "It's time to go! Get changed and get out of here! We're going to San Diego!" Sophie's eyes went wide at the mention of San Diego, and she clambered out of bed without question, digging in her bag for a change of clothes. Cloud hopped into the next room with just as big of a smile on her face.

"Shade boy! Hoodie girl! Everybody is leaving! Up, up!" The Shade boy and hoodie girl did not look happy to be woken at the crack of dawn. They needed to toughen up a little. Aeyva's girls always woke up the second the sun appeared on the horizon. Some girls even woke up earlier. Force of habit.

Glimmer groaned and pulled the covers over her head. "I won't be bossed around by some random Swan member with ridiculous hair."

"You let that guy boss you around," Cloud pointed out, pointing to Tam, who was picking up his bag and glaring at her.

Glimmer opened her mouth, closed it, and got out of bed.

"Question. How come you still wear that cloak?"

She shrugged. "Always been trained to hide my appearance at all times. And it's not like all of you make me feel particularly safe."

Cloud made a that's fair face. "Okie dokie, looks like my job here is done. See you all in like two minutes!"

She disappeared, and Tam wrinkled his nose. "It is too early for that much energy. What are these assassin chicks on?"

"Beats me," said Glimmer.

"I don't trust them."

Glimmer rolled her eyes. "Obviously. Trust isn't necessary. We're working together for maybe a few days. You volunteered for this, so get over yourself."

Tam swapped the previous day's dirty tunic for a new one, his back turned to her. "Whatever. I'll just feel a lot better once I get a reading of all of them."

Glimmer pulled her hood tighter over her head and headed out of the room, waving for him to follow. "You do that, Silver."

Tam sighed and they both left. Sophie and Dex had changed their clothes completely. Sandor held a somewhat intimidating sword at his side.

Sophie looked around at everyone, looking a bit nervous. "Are you sure none of you guys want to go home?" she asked.

Dex shook his head, pushed her outside and started down the staircase. Glimmer smirked.

Aeyva looked relieved when they showed up. "Okay, good. I was worried about time."

"Time? We went ice skating the other day for literally no reason," said Phoenix, furrowing her brow.

Cloud grinned. Aeyva glared.

"Anyways, we all need to-" She was interrupted by the loud buzzing of an Imparter. She frowned and dug it out of her pants pocket. "Shoot, it's Forkle."

The color drained out of Sophie's face. "Oh no."

"Just don't answer it," suggested Celine with a shrug. Aeyva turned her Imparter off and shot the girls wary looks. A few moments later, Kayleey's started buzzing.

"Forget it, I'll just go inside," she said. She went back into the tree house and everyone crowded by the door to hear what was going on.

"How is everything going?"

"Clues but nothing particularly definitive. Is everything okay?"

"Is the Moonlark with you?"

A pause.

"No. Why?"

"She and a few others in our order are gone, including a potentially dangerous ex-Neverseen member. I'm sure they'll be looking for Mr. Sencen. If they're with you, you need to tell me."

"Mr. Forkle, I have no reason to lie to you. I've never even met the Moonlark."

There was an audible sigh. "All right. Proceed with the mission."

The call ended with a soft click and Kayleey came back out. "Easy," she said, putting her Imparter back in her bag.

Aeyva narrowed her eyes. Was it too easy? She'd noticed recently that Kayleey was exceptionally good at lying.

Sophie raised her eyebrows. "Wow. 'Proceed with the mission'? What are you guys, CIA?"

"What?" Kayleey blinked blankly.

"I think it's a human thing." dex shrugged.

Lyana raised her hand. "I know what it means!"

Aeyva clapped. "Come on, everyone, time is wasting!"

This was going to be one massive light leap.

Lyra watched as everyone pulled out crystals and got ready, the only person who didn't look delighted to be going was Kayleey, which was odd, when you consider the fact she had chosen the place they were going.

"Alrighty, we all got it, link hands, we're going," Aeyva called.

Everyone linked hands together, Lyra was surprised when she found herself next to Avilyn. No, she scolded herself, that was not a sweet tingly feeling, ugh, just get this over with.

Soon they were landing, everyone was extremely graceful, if you didn't count that Sophie almost fell on her face. "This...isn't San Diego," Sophie said with a frown, squinting at their mostly empty surroundings. They were all standing in the middle of the left lane on the road. A few lonely cars drove by.

"The coordinates must have been off," Aeyva sighed. "Thanks, Forkle. Looks like we're walking, girls."

Lyra couldn't help but notice the horror on Kayleey's face. What in the world was with that girl?

Sophie looked anxious, not wanting to waste any more time. "This'll go faster if we split up and cover more ground. I know my way around the city anyways."

Avilyn nodded. "Not a problem. We'll hail you if anything happens." Adalea tossed something hard and metal to Sophie, who barely caught it.

Sophie looked up, a question in her eyes.

"It's kind of like a reverse Obscurer," Adalea explained. "Helps you find things you might not catch at first glance. Trust me, it's helpful."

Sophie pocketed it. "Thanks," she said, sounding somewhat surprised at the help. "Okay, guys, let's go. Maybe we'll find a bus or something." She directed Tam, Glimmer, Dex, and Sandor across the road and they followed her. The defense team watched them disappear.

"Something tells me they're gonna get hella lost," said Celine dryly.

Lyra had to agree. "Telepaths, you had better start tracking human thoughts. This is going to be a long walk."

Everyone collectively sighed.

❤︎

Kayleey stumbled, pressing her fingers to her forehead. The heat was getting to her, sinking into her red hair and burning her pale skin. She had long ago fallen back, no one bothered to look, they didn't feel what she did, for them it was just a hot day.

"Cece," she said weakly, but Celine didn't look back, she was too far away to hear Kayleey's scratchy whisper. The farthest fallen was Phoenix, and she was admiring the buildings. Kayleey sped up, it didn't matter that her legs felt like noodles or that someone might make fun of her; she needed a break from walking, and she needed it now or she would collapse. Kayleey reached out and grabbed Phoenix's arm.

Phoenix spun around, frowning, but her confusion quickly turned to worry at Kayleey's face. Everyone else was way ahead but Kayleey couldn't walk much farther.

"I need- a break-" Kayleey wanted to punch herself for how weak she sounded, but it did the trick. Alarmed, Phoenix reached out to help Kayleey just as she collapsed, her knees giving out on her completely.

"HOLY- GUYS, HELP!" Phoenix yelled to the others.

"It's okay, I'm just too h-hot," Kayleey mumbled. No one had turned around at Phoenix's call.

"GUYS." Phoenix's voice was more panicked than before. "CELINE, KAYLEEY COLLAPSED!" She cradled Kayleey in her arms, sinking to the ground. Everyone finally spun around. Surprisingly, Lyra was the first one there, even if she had been leading at the front, everyone else stood behind her, looking panicked.

"What happened?" Lyra demanded, making Phoenix flinch.

"I really don't know. She just reached out and grabbed my arm, she was so red-faced it made me a little worried, then she said she needed a break or something and then she just kind of gave out." Phoenix's breath sped up and Kayleey couldn't help but feel lightly comforted as she ran her hand through Kayleey's mess of soft waves.

Her breath was coming in shallow pants, her abilities were battling for control over her veins. Clearly one of them was winning. "I'm too hot, I need water or- I don't know." Kayleey opened her eyes. "It's too hot..." She felt like crying, but that was stupid, she was already showing immense amounts of weakness. She had never even touched most of these girls for fear of letting her abilities show, and now they were hovering over her in worry, not to mention the fact that a gut-churning sensation of nausea was spreading through her like raging fire, or flowing water- or hey, what about a mix of both? "Move, I'm going to vomit-" Kayleey had barely finished the sentence before she leaned over and emptied her whole stomach.

Within seconds Avilyn was kneeling beside her, warm fingers checking her temperature. "Kayleey, hold on, okay?" Her face was clouded with worry as she turned to Lyra. "Get your fingers on her, NOW! Cloud, go get ice,if you run fast enough you can find a rode store close by. It's way too hot for Lyra to be able to keep ice on her." She directed.

Lyra glared at Avilyn, as if saying that she was perfectly capable, but she was still at Kayleey's side before she could protest. Her icy fingers under Kayleey's neck, Cloud was already running off at full speed, her face telling how serious this was.

"Please stop," Kayleey said, trying to take Lyra's fingers off her. She didn't understand how much she hated being touched.

"Kayleey, this is for you, you need this." Lyra held her hand, rubbing light circles, and than another wave of pain hit, there was no point in not crying, it was a lost cause. Harsh sobs hit Kayleey like a sucker punch.

"Please... s-stop-" Kayleey pushed them all away and curled up on the gravel; nothing could stop the way she cried, she didn't care that they were watching, the tears made water stronger, the heat made fire stronger. And then it was burning, pure white burning, she couldn't see, couldn't move, there was nothing outside of the pain.

Damn, why couldn't she just have been a Telepath?

Phoenix watched as Kayleey cried, then all of a sudden, she stopped. The silence was nice for the few moments that it lasted, and then it shattered. Phoenix had never heard someone scream as loud as Kayleey did then- her whole body shook, her arms thrashed and then she got out words- "STOP, MAKE IT STOP!" Her screams echoed in the empty air. If they had reached San Diego already, Phoenix didn't want to imagine what a scene this would have made. No one approached Kayleey; what in the world were they thinking? Phoenix ran forward, she cradled Kayleey in her arms again, it took only seconds for her to stop, she looked up at Phoenix with a tear-stained face, and their eyes locked for a moment before her's rolled back into her head and she finally passed out.

❤︎

Thirty minutes.

That was how long Phoenix sat holding up Kayleey, waiting for Cloud to come back.

"HERE!" Cloud skidded to a stop, about six ice packs in her arms. Where she found them, no one knew. Faelyn didn't understand why Lyra couldn't just, you know, make ice, but apparently it was too hot out for her to do anything major. Actually, it was so hot that it was starting to seem weird.

Phoenix quickly took them, placing them on Kayleey's neck and arms, then going back to rubbing her leg. Faelyn didn't think she noticed she did it, but Phoenix had never even lifted a hand off of Kayleey that whole time, her eyes stayed locked on the girl's soft face, it was almost sweet, almost, but Faelyn didn't do sweet.

"C'mon Kays, wake up, tell us what's going on," Phoenix mumbled, her face unreadable; not even an Empath could have guessed what she was thinking. Faelyn narrowed her eyes. Phoenix was really emotional lately.

"Her finger twitched!" Avilyn said, running over and kneeling down.

"Shut up about my finger twitching, who the hell is holding me?" Her tone was light, but Kayleey's eyes were already open and flashing stink eyes in every direction.

Phoenix ran a hand through Kayleey's hair for at least the sixth time, which Faelyn added to her mental list of suspicious things about their relationship. "Sorry, I didn't know you would be mad, I was worried, you started screaming." Kayleey's face turned soft, but only to Phoenix.

"Thanks, Nix," she said lightly, and she turned back to everyone else.

"What happened?" Cloud asked, her eyes wide.

Kayleey's face went hard again, not wanting to be prodded. "I just got too hot.There's nothing more to it."

"That's exactly what I would say if there was more to it," Cloud pointed out.

"Kayleey, if there's something going on you need to tell us," Lyra snapped.

Kayleey forced herself to a standing position, ignoring Phoenix trying to help. "Obviously I don't know why it happened, Lyra. I'm sure it's not that big of a deal, I'm just not used to the climate." Even as she said that, the words were dissolved as she slumped back onto Phoenix's lap and leaned her head into her shoulder.

"We need to go," Cloud said, tugging nervously at her sleeves, "unless Kayleey wants to-"

"I'm fine, damn, lets just go," Kayleey growled. "And if any of you mention this again, well... whatever, just please don't. I'm totally fine." The others exchanged unconvinced glances. Gently Kayleey turned to Phoenix.

"Are you sure?" Phoenix asked, Faelyn expected Kayleey to lash out, after all, she had just warned not to ask.

"I'm positive, Nix, it's totally fine." Kayleey purred before leaning over to whisper something into Phoenix's ear, a little closer than she needed to be, her lips brushing Phoenix's ear lightly. If Faelyn had been drinking something, well, it definitely would have been spat out.

Phoenix's heart almost stopped as Kayleey whispered to her, her voice soft and sweet. "Just wait, I will talk to you later- like way later." Her lips were so soft, but it only lasted a few seconds before she stood up, the blood draining from her face. She winced and it quickly rushed back. Phoenix blinked. What had just happened?

❤︎

"Sandor, adjust your grandma scarf," Sophie hissed as quietly as possible. Glimmer snickered. Sandor adjusted his headscarf to better cover his face, glaring the entire time.

Sure, the world's ugliest grandma costume wasn't the best, but it was the only one Sophie had ever been able to come up with. They were all crowded in the back of a taxi making its way towards the familiar city.

Her old home.

"I don't think the kid is in San Diego," Glimmer said, tapping her feet on the car floor. "What would even motivate him to come here?"

Sophie mumbled something inaudible, looking away.

"What?"

"It's where I grew up," she said, louder. She met Glimmer's eyes hesitantly. Glimmer looked like she really wanted to laugh, but thankfully she didn't.

Dex was fiddling with the gadget Adalea had given them, removing the back with a small screwdriver to get a good look at the inside. "This thing kinda looks like Tinker's work," he murmured, "but it has this crude modification on it. Tinker doesn't do amateur stuff like that."

"Well, stop messing with it. We're probably going to need it," said Sophie.

The taxi finally skidded to a stop and Dex shoved some cash into the driver's outstretched hand before they all got out. He'd had to rob a gas station ATM, but he didn't feel too bad about it since it was just human money, which was basically worthless compared to lusters.

"Well, Sophie, you're the San Diego expert." Tam gave her a sidelong glance. "Where to first?"

"We could try the zoo," Sophie suggested. "He's an animal guy, he might have been interested."

"Isn't that, like, one of the biggest zoos in the United States?" Dex looked incredulous.

"Yep," Sophie sighed.

"So how do you propose we find Mr. Sencen there?" Sandor squeaked.

"I know!" Glimmer perked up. "Let's break in after hours! Then we can scan stuff for DNA, without having to worry about big crowds."

"That... just might be stupid enough to work!" Dex grinned like a madman.

"Hey Blondie, could you try to, you know, do all of your Telepath mumbo jumbo and see if he's anywhere around here?" Glimmer cracked her knuckles one by one.

Sophie's eyes lit up. "Yeah, good idea." She stopped walking and closed her eyes, stretching her concentration out as far as she could. Mentally, she shouted Keefe's name.

She felt a flicker of- of something... she couldn't tell if it was Keefe or not, but she transmitted his name a couple times. KEEFE! Keefe, are you there? Then-

Gone. As fast as it had come.

She groaned. "It never works anymore. I don't know what he's doing to block me, but it's working." Suddenly, Sophie's pocket vibrated. She reached down. "It's Avilyn." Her brows knit together. "What's up- oh my God what's going on?" Sophie took it the sounds of shouts and weapons clashing in the background, coupled with the bloody slash on the other girl's forehead.

"No time to explain, but we need backup. Soon. I'm sending you the coordinates now." Then she hung up.

"Dang it!" Glimmer stomped her foot into the ground dramatically. "Can I not have one peaceful afternoon?"

❤︎

Keefe clicked into the computer at the library and selected the internet browser. He didn't really know how to use the internet, but he had to try if he wanted more information on that man who had died in London. He typed Ethan Wright death London into the search bar of something called "Google" and scrolled through the results.

Suddenly, a voice pounded at his brain. KEEFE! Keefe, are you there?

Aw, crap. Why did she have to do this at the most inconvenient times? "Foster, you gorgeous pain in the neck, leave me alone," he muttered to himself. He dug through the bag he'd brought with him and pulled out a circlet, snapped it onto his forehead, moved some of his hair in front of it, and then covered it up completely with a baseball cap. It took a moment for Sophie's mental voice to fade away.

He didn't understand why she couldn't just stop trying to track him.

Keefe shook away all thoughts of Sophie and clicked on an article covering the deaths of Ethan Wright and his daughter. He knew Gisela had set it up, but something just else felt fishy about it. He had the intuition that he was going to find something... hit by a bus, blah blah blah... tragic accident, whatever... his daughter...

"What in the name of all things sparkly...?" Keefe leaned closer to the computer screen. Was he reading this correctly?

He sat back, fingering the front of his hat.

"Things just got a lot more complicated, Mom."

Although assumed dead, the body of his daughter, Eleanor Wright, was never found.

❤︎

Ah, ogre attacks. Everybody's favorite.

"HAIL THE MOONLARK!" Aeyva shouted.

"WE CAN HANDLE THINGS ON OUR OWN, AEYVA!" Avilyn argued, whirling around and jabbing her sword through an ogre. Lyra somersaulted over her, slicing off the head of another ogre about to attack her from behind. There seemed to be a whole army of them.

"I'M WITH AVI ON THIS ONE!" She agreed.

Aeyva groaned loudly, swiveling to avoid getting stabbed by an ogre. "WILL YOU JUST DO AS I SAY?" she yelled. "HAIL THE MOONLARK NOW!"

Avilyn grumbled something about always being bossed around, and vanished into the void, reappearing on the sidelines, where it was safe. Lyra could see her mouth moving, and rolling her eyes to something Sophie said.

For the first time, Lyra noticed the way Avilyn's snow white hair fell around her shoulders, and how her indigo blue eyes that were so dark they were almost black, still managed to glitter.

Butterflies fluttered in Lyra's stomach, and she couldn't manage to peel her eyes away from Avilyn.

Suddenly, someone grunted from behind Lyra. She whirled around, to find an ogre in her face, with a jagged sword plunging down on her.

Caught off guard, Lyra fumbled for her weapon, only to find it a few meters away, out of her reach.

When did I drop my knife? She thought, panicked.

The sword neared her face, and Lyra instinctively raised her hands up to her face to block it (like that was going to do anything).

Just as she was about to be killed, a silver sword clanged between them. Someone pushed Lyra over and out of harm's reach, and she tumbled down, rolling aside.

A flash of white hair whipped past her face, and Lyra grinned.

The ogre grunted again, and blood splattered everywhere.

Avilyn pulled her right sword out from the ogre, and wiped it on the grass, brandishing her other sword.

Lyra looked up.

"Next time watch out who's behind you, idiot." Her lips brushed Lyra's ear, and she disappeared through the void again.

❤︎

In the end, Aeyva regretted making Avilyn hail Sophie. When they arrived, ready for a full on war on a battlefield, instead, they arrived in a storm of blood and bodies. And of course, the first thing they did was definitely take out the ogres left. Just kidding. They panicked.

Panicking sent everyone into a frenzy, and only made things more chaotic.

Dex threw a cube, and it exploded on Lyra who tried to cut it in half, thinking that it was an explosive- which it was, but just slightly modified, compared to the ones the defence team usually practiced with.

As he rushed over to help Avilyn take her to the side, an ogre tripped him over, and sent a sword clanging down on him.

Fortunately, Aerin managed to conjure the ogre away in time.

Unfortunately, the effort made her pass out from exhaustion.

Meanwhile, Avilyn effortlessly carried Lyra to the side, where Celine, who had a two-centimeter-deep cut running down her leg and was sent aside by Aeyva, looked after her.

Avilyn rushed back to get Aerin.

Dex scrambled back up, red-faced and embarrassed, and tried to do something else useful, by jabbing at an ogre with Celine's sword.

He did a pretty impressive job, and cut through one of the ogre's burly arms, while Kayleey took care of the rest.

Though she had just been sick, she still cut off the ogres head, finishing the job.

Sophie took down an ogre by inflicting, but her being her clumsy self, stumbled into Lyana who was borrowing Adalea's power. Together, the two girls drowned an ogre, and Adalea just managed to throw the bubble of water with the ogre in it into a bush before they lost control and toppled over, Sophie on top of them.

Tam and Glimmer did a pretty good job, using light and shadow to kill the ogres, until Glimmer accidently sent a sphere of light in the wrong color clashing into Tam's shadows. Sparks burst and flew up everywhere, and Faelyn charged to the rescue, using shadowflux to dissolve the sparks.

But as she was doing that, a dagger flew through the air. Faelyn swerved just in time, but it still grazed her arm, making her cry out.

Avilyn hurried over, and Aeyva shouted at her, but Faelyn gritted her teeth, shaking her head. Blood dripped down her arm, as she stumbled to Cloud who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, eyes trained on the movement of the battle, using her ability to take down enemies without fighting at all.

With a flick of her wrist, an ogre launched itself into a puddle of shadowflux Faelyn created. The puddle swallowed the ogre like a black hole.

Sandor skewered a few ogres on his sword, but he and the rest of Sophie's crew were all surprised that they only needed two of the defense girls working together to match his strength. He grumbled something under his breath in Goblinese, and flushed pink. The defense team had a lot more training than he had expected.

A few meters away, Phoenix twirled her fingers, and lightning dropped from the sky, splitting in two and electrifying two ogres at once. She pulled out a sword, and stabbed both the ogres again, just to make sure that they were dead. In the midst of battle, she was numb to the empathy she normally felt.

Aeyva finally managed to drive her dagger into the ogre she'd been fighting, and she waited until the ogre crumbled to the ground to yank her bloody weapon out.

The last ogre leapt out from behind Celine, and she limped, drawing her knife. But she didn't need to. A golden arrow pierced the sky, whizzing through the air, and sprouting from the ogre's heart.

Lyana lowered her bow.

The girls grinned at each other.

Cloud whooped, lifting her arms above her head to clap. "Good game, y'all!"

Sophie and her crew gaped at them in horror. Kayleey cracked a smile at their expressions, and returned Phoenix's fist bump. Everyone crowded together.

"Let's go!" Aeyva shouted, smiling from ear to ear.

Sophie interrupted their celebration. "'Good game'? 'Let's go'? That was a battle! A real battle! Lots of us got injured- and a ton of ogres are dead- and- and you're just calling this a game? Are you guys INSANE?"

Cloud grinned stupidly, shrugging and pushing herself to a standing position. "Maybe we are," she answered.

Sophie's crew stared at them, dumbstruck.

"All done!" Avilyn announced.

Empty bottles lay around, but Celine's leg had been bandaged, Lyra's skin only slightly red with no signs that it had ever been burned, and she and Aerin were already lying on cots that Avilyn had conjured. Avilyn worked quickly.

"You're alright?" Faelyn checked, studying Celine's leg. Celine nodded. "Hey Avi, can I have some lushberry juice?" Avilyn stared at her weirdly. Everyone laughed.

Avilyn rolled her eyes. "Fine." She conjured a bottle, and everyone else crowded around her, until everyone had a bottle.

"Over here, Faelyn," Avilyn said. She checked her arm, making her drink an elixir, and bandaged it. Lyra and Aerin had been woken up by the commotion, and now they were laughing too, both looking a lot better.

Sophie couldn't believe this. "Can I just- can I just stop this for a second? How are you all so used to this?"

Celine took a big gulp of juice and wiped her mouth with the part of her sleeve that wasn't bloody. "Look. You know how the Neverseen recruited the ogres to do most of their combat and dirty work?"

She nodded unsurely.

"That's us. For the Black Swan. We're all so mentally unstable already that we can handle guilt pretty well. We've been training for years. We know what we're doing. This is just another average day of work for us."

Dex looked like he was going to puke. "What about, like, mind breaking and stuff?"

Lyra's brow furrowed. "I think Addy's mind almost broke once," she said.

"But we didn't let that happen," Aeyva said pointedly, looking around at everyone, "because we're a team. And we look out for each other."

Glimmer scratched her chin, one hand on her hip, thinking. "You know, I remember you guys. I didn't do much fighting with the Black Swan in person, but I heard complaining about you a lot." Tam raised an eyebrow like this was new information. He wasn't with the Neverseen for very long. "Yeah, Trix hated you. Called you 'a bunch of little girls in costumes acting like wannabe superheroes'." She smirked a little. "I don't think you're half bad."

"Honestly, our job is pretty cool overall," Faelyn admitted. "Or it was. Now we're just, like, the Keefe Sencen Protection Program or something." Some of the other girls grinned and elbowed each other. She wasn't wrong.

"That whole thing was insanity," Sophie said, tugging at her eyelashes. "And it's normal for you. Wow. How does Forkle have a bunch of teenagers doing this?"

Phoenix laughed. "In case you haven't figured it out, Forkle's no angel. He has us doing this 'cause we get the job done. We all work for him voluntarily. Plus-" she glanced around at some of the other girls- "a lot of us were rescued by the Black Swan from bad situations. This is our escape." Most of the team nodded. Sandor grunted.

"That's no excuse for sending you all on these kinds of assignments. You should be protected. You're children."

Celine pointed to Cloud. "That one's an adult. Bam. Just destroyed your whole argument."

He did not look the least bit convinced. "Does she supervise you or do you supervise her?"

Cloud actually laughed. "No comment," she said.

"There were a lot of abilities going on during that battle," said Tam, glancing at everyone. "What do all of you guys do again?"

Celine raised her hand. "Guster and a Telepath."

Adalea frowned. "I always forget you're a Telepath."

She snorted. "That's 'cause being a Telepath is useless." Kayleey glared at her. "Sorry! No offense to the Telepaths present." Kayleey kept glaring and she held up her hands in surrender. "I take it back, I take it back, okay?"

"I'm a, ah, Polyglot and Descryer," Aeyva said, looking up from cleaning off weapons with a rag.

Aerin waved her hand in the air. "Empath slash Conjurer!" she piped up.

"I'm a mix of both of those two," Avilyn said, gesturing vaguely toward Aerin and Aeyva. "Polyglot and a Conjurer." Sophie's jaw was dropping further by the second.

"You're the Hydrokinetic, right?" Dex asked Adalea.

"Yeah, but I'm also a Vanisher," she added.

"What about you?" Tam asked, nodding to Faelyn. He hadn't interacted with her much yet.

"Same as you, man," she answered while scraping guts off her boots. Phoenix, who was next to her, recoiled. "And Phoenix is a Charger and an Empath, Lyra is a Froster, Kayleey is a Telepath plus possibly something she's not telling us- "

"Oh my gosh, you guys, you've got to stop saying that I have a second ability," Kayleey groaned with an eye roll. "I'm a Telepath. That's it."

"Empaths can smell lies, Kay," Faelyn answered, jerking a thumb towards Phoenix, who was shaking her head. "Phoenix thinks you're full of gulon crap."

Dex happened to be standing by Cloud. "What are you?"

"Hmm?" She glanced at him with wide eyes. "Oh. I'm an elf."

Dex chuckled. "No, I mean, what's your ability? Weren't you just sitting on the ground the whole battle?"

Cloud stared at him blankly with an expression that was far too innocent for someone on this weird murder team. "I don't know. Weren't you just screwing things up the whole battle?"

Dex did a double take. "What?"

Aeyva came up behind them, handing Cloud a clean dagger. "She's just messing with you. She's a Mesmer."

"Oh, shoot." Dex's eyes widened and he took a couple steps back. Aeyva squinted at him.

"You know that doesn't do anything, right?" she said.

Lyana tried to explain her mimicking ability to Sophie, who was completely baffled by it. "So, like, you could take my enhancing or inflicting if you wanted to?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't take it away from you. I just sort of copy it. That's why we call it Mimicking."

Her eyebrows knit together. "So wait. That's not one of the abilities they teach you about in Ability Detecting class. Are you the only one or something?"

Lyana nodded. She hated talking about it but this was the Moonlark. "It wasn't exactly a fun process to get it. One of the Black Swan's genetic experimentation things that went semi-right," she explained. "When I was really little, I manifested as a Beguiler way early and developed really bad lung problems. My parents took me to a healer, which happened to be Livvy, and the treatment she used on me was experimental, since elves don't really see the kinds of issues I had." She smiled grimly.

Sophie was about to ask more questions, but Aeyva loudly cleared her throat. "Attention! All this bonding time is great, but we should get going now, as everyone's healed. This isn't exactly the middle of nowhere, so we should leave before someone comes across us and sees a bunch of teenagers partying in black combat clothes."

They all nodded their agreement, and Cloud whooped again, before she got serious and started helping Avilyn pack.

In seconds, they were ready.

"Alright, let's move-" Aeyva started.

"Not so fast." A voice grunted.

They turned to find an especially burly ogre, with orange studs on his ears.

Avilyn's eyes widened as she saw him, and she stifled her gasp. The ogre's eyes immediately found Avilyn's, and he chuckled. "Surprised to see me?" Every head in the group turned to her.

"What?" Cloud asked. Lyana had her extremely confused face on.

"What is it?" Lyra asked softly.

Avilyn shook her head, as if refusing to believe that the ogre was there. It took her a few moments to answer. "He- he was the ogre that I worked for in Ravagog before the Moonlark rescued me," she managed.

Everyone gasped. Especially Sophie and Tam. "You- you- you're the girl that we rescued from Ravagog?!" Sophie exclaimed.

Avilyn turned to her. "Did you not realise earlier?" she asked, voice shaky.

Tam shook his head. "I thought you looked familiar, but didn't you say that your name was Delaney?"

"You didn't actually expect me to tell you guys my real name right? Especially after working as a slave for ogres for more than 3 months. At that time, everyone was my enemy. I couldn't trust anyone. Even though they rescued me from that swamp."

Sophie frowned. "But your hair was black. Photographic memory, girl."

Suddenly, Glimmer stumbled. Her head underneath her hood turned to Avilyn. Their eyes connected, and Glimmer seemed to make a realisation.

Glimmer opened her mouth to say something, but Avilyn shot her a glare so cold that it shut her up.

Cloud rolled her eyes. "In case y'all haven't realised, we have an OGRE standing in front of us right now!"

They turned back to the main problem.

❤︎

"Well well well," the ogre grinned toothily. "It's good to see you again Delaney. Though from that exchange I take it you were lying to me about your name?"

"You can't really expect me to trust the creature to whom I was enslaved, now can you?" Avilyn shot back, trying to sound casual. All the same, even she could hear the slight edge of fear in her voice. That... thing... had done stuff to her. Stuff she would never relive for the world.

"Oh, come on pretty thing, I'm the most trustworthy ogre you'll ever meet."

"Then I shudder to think what the rest of your kind is like." Tam stepped up beside Avilyn and gave her a reassuring nod.

"Okay, y'all," Faelyn yelled from the back of the crowd. "I know that we all know that killing this guy is inevitable, so can we please get started already?"

"That sounds like an amazing plan," Cloud said, sitting down and closing her eyes. "Are you guys ready? 'Cause I have control of him, he can't move. Avi, I know what he did to you. Do you want to do the honors?"

The ogre's eyes went wide with true terror as he realized he really couldn't move.

"I would love to," Avilyn said through gritted teeth. She pulled a long, lethal knife from the void, and stalked towards the ogre, her knuckles white with rage. The only thing going through her head that moment was I can never let him do to another girl what he did to me.

"You," she pressed the tip of one of her knives to the underside of his chin, "Deserve much, much worse than death." She drove her blade deep into his throat. "Luckily, I'm merciful."

And the body of the burly ogre fell, dead before he hit the ground.

❤︎❤︎❤︎

Yo yo yo, it's your favorite fan club! This chapter was long, but hopefully you learned a lot. Do you think our ever-elusive reckless blond elf will be found soon? What is the Neverseen up to and why won't Kayleey tell anyone what's going on? Discuss your theories in the comments!

If CG did more writing and less meme making, we would probably get things done a lot faster, but here are some memes to brighten your day.

See you in the next chapter!

~ The Hunkyhair Fan Club