"Zoh!" He rushed toward Zoe at the head of the procession.
The siblings collided in a crushing hug, and despite everything—the exhaustion, the hunger gnawing at her insides, the bone-deep weariness—Eden felt a flicker of relief at the sight. They'd made it through another nightmare experience, and injuries aside, they hadn't taken any major losses. If anything, they'd only grown from the experience.
Behind them, Pablo was the last to step through the portal. The moment his feet touched the asphalt, the portal to the dungeon realm collapsed in on itself. In an instant, the black oval compressed inward like a dying star, shrinking to a pinpoint, then vanishing with a sound like reality hiccupping. The pressure wave made Eden's ears pop.
"Whoa," Rowan breathed. His eyes were glassy, and he was leaning heavily on Eden's shoulder.
It's like he's in shock, Eden observed to herself before making a mental note to ask Delta more about the results of aetheric drain. All this time, she'd always been—for obvious reasons—most worried about physical injuries taking one of them out. If depleted power could incapacitate them in the midst of a fight, then Eden thought she might have to adjust her planned power selections.
Having watched the portal collapse, Pablo stood motionless for a moment, Razor in his tight grip, green blood dried on his hands and forearms. That Iron Mind detachment wrapped around him like armor. His expression was perfectly neutral—no relief, no exhaustion, nothing.
That's not healthy, Eden thought, not for the first time. Pablo's affinity let him function through just about anything, but it also made it easy for him to forget that he—and by extension the rest of the team—was still human.
Warren and Zoe broke their hug, and his gaze swept across the team. Eden watched as his expression of jovial relief melted into concern as he processed their ragged state. Their street clothes were torn to shreds. Everyone was splattered with filth and gore. None of them was still actively bleeding, but only because wounds had scabbed or scarred over already. Still supporting Rowan, Eden was shaking, the Aetheric Renewal Tonic backlash hunger making her feel like she'd run a marathon on an empty stomach.
"Warren," Pablo broke the silence, his voice flat and emotionless. "Nice of you to join us."
Oh no, Eden winced. That tone. That's not going to help.
"Hey, Pabs. You're welcome, by the way, for dealing with these two beasties you left behind." Warren gestured to the dissolving corpses. His voice had that brash, dismissive edge Eden recognized from the times Warren had been called out by any authority figure growing up.
Pablo's stoic glower didn't so much as flicker. "We didn't forget anything. Delta was tracking them. He—"
"Yeah, he was tracking them alright." Warren scoffed. "Stuck in his cave, he couldn’t do much about the Napa PD out looking for wild animals that would have gotten mutilated."
A blink of surprise broke through Pablo's emotional barriers for just an instant. "I didn't—"
"Fortunately, yours truly helped lizardlips come up with a plan to divert the cops until I could get here and burninate the threat."
"We responded to the immediate crisis that we knew about. We could have included you in the plan if you'd bothered to answer your phone. Or your HUD messages. Delta tried to reach you multiple times."
This is going all wrong, Eden thought desperately. She could see it spiraling, could see Warren's defenses going up and Pablo's Iron Mind making him push harder instead of backing off.
"I had an emergency of my own," Warren said. "I was saving people. You know, like we're supposed to be doing?"
"Oh goodness," Delta's voice crackled from the speaker on Warren's phone, tucked in his pocket. "I suppose now is as good a time as any to mention that Paladin Warren encountered something quite strange. While investigating the disappearance of several individuals, he fought off a Corrupted entity known colloquially as the Winter Medusa in—"
"Delta, not helping!" Eden interjected, but the damage was done.
Pablo went perfectly still. When he spoke again, his voice was dangerously quiet. "You were out playing hero again? And you took on a Corrupted without backup?"
"I handled it," Warren said defensively.
"You handled it?" Now, there was heat bleeding through Pablo's detachment. "After what we talked about? After the Embarcadero? You went right back to playing solo vigilante?"
"This was different!" Warren's voice rose. "She's been kidnapping people for weeks! Seven victims, Pablo. Seven! Was I supposed to just let it keep happening?"
"You were supposed to come to us!" Pablo's Iron Mind was cracking now, anger cracking his calm. "You were supposed to tell your team so we could handle it together!"
"Like you would have listened!" Warren shot back. "You made it pretty damn clear after the Embarcadero that you wanted us to sit on the sidelines and be good little soldiers!"
"That's not what I—"
"Isn't it?" Warren's fire flared around him. "You told me to stop taking risks. To stop acting without permission. To stop being reckless. Well, guess what, Pablo? Sometimes being a hero means taking risks!"
"Being a hero means staying alive!" Pablo shouted, his composure finally shattering. "It means not getting yourself killed because you were too stubborn to ask for help!"
"Pabs, just give him a chance to explain." Sasha reached out to rest her hand on Pablo’s upper-arm.
Pablo glanced over at Sasha, his expression shifting minutely to one of surprise.
"He's got a point, Sash," Zoe cut in. "Warren's been going rogue. How long has this been going on? Weeks? Months?"
"Stay out of this, Zoh," Warren warned.
"I'm already in it. We all are," Zoe snapped. "We're a team. That word has to mean something, or what are we even doing here?"
"Don't lecture me about teamwork!" Warren rounded on her. "Where was the team when I was tracking a serial kidnapper? Where was the coordination when people were disappearing, and nobody else seemed to give a damn?"
"We didn't know!" Zoe’s fists clenched at her side. "You never told us! You went off alone like you always do!"
"Because every time I try to do something, Pablo shuts me down!" Warren's voice cracked. "I'm sick of asking permission to be a Paladin!"
"Warren, that's not fair…" Sasha began, but her voice was uncertain. She looked at Warren and Pablo, clearly torn.
"Isn't it?" Warren turned to his sister. "Tell me honestly, Zoh. When was the last time he let us do anything to actually help people? When was the last time my ideas weren't 'too risky' or 'poorly thought out'?"
"We’ve got to look at the bigger picture." Zoe glared at her brother. "We’ve got to have each other’s backs."
"I still showed up! I dealt with the Raptor-Hounds! On top of that, I've been out there protecting people while you all played tactical exercises with Delta!"
"Training that saved our lives tonight!" Zoe shouted. "Training that meant we were ready when a dungeon boss tried to tear us apart! Where were you when we needed you, Warren? Where were you when Eden was fighting alone? When Sam was being vivisected?"
Warren flinched at that. "I didn't know—"
"Because you didn't answer your phone!" Pablo's voice cut through like a knife. "Because you were too busy playing Batman to respond to your team!"
"I was saving people!" Warren's flames flared brighter. "I stopped the Winter Medusa from taking another victim.”
"And she got away!" Pablo shot back. "So now we have an injured, angry Corrupted loose in the city with no idea where she is or when she'll strike again! Is that your idea of a win?"
"At least I tried! At least I didn't sit around waiting for the perfect plan!"
"Plans keep people alive!" Pablo was fully shouting now, Iron Mind completely shattered. "Because going off half-cocked will get us killed! Because—"
He stopped abruptly, his face going pale. Eden knew what he was thinking. What they were all thinking.
Mark.
Warren's expression shifted, anger mixing with hurt. "Say it, Pablo. Go ahead and say it."
"Warren—"
The parking lot went silent except for the sound of distant traffic.
"Knowledge is power," Pablo said quietly, his voice raw. "We stumbled through the nightmare at the lake, Mark died because I didn’t know what was going on, let us make shit choices, and a bad plan. The rest of us just got lucky. I'm not losing anyone else. I can't."
"So you'd rather lock us all down?" Warren's voice was softer now, but still hurt. "Keep us safe by keeping us from doing anything?"
"I'd rather keep us alive until we’re actually ready."
"I'd rather live like a Paladin than die like a coward!"
Eden felt her own patience finally snap. The hunger was like a living thing inside her, eating her from the inside out. Her body was screaming for food, for rest, for something other than standing in a parking lot watching her friends destroy each other.
"Okay, everyone just—" Eden began.
“What did you just say?” Pablo demanded.
"You heard me! I’ve been doing something productive for the last month!" Warren snapped. “Sorry, I didn’t listen to our vaunted talon leader!”
"This isn't about who’s in charge. This is about you being part of a team."
"Then maybe I—"
"Warren—" Zoe reached for her brother's arm.
"No!" He pulled away. "I'm sick of this! Sick of—"
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Eden could see it all spiraling out of control. Words were about to be uttered that might not permanently fracture them as a group, but that would tear open wounds new and old. It was the sort of thing that happened in any group that had been close as long as they had. While they might bounce back from it, the strife would weaken their bonds for days, weeks, or months to come and would leave scars behind. Under other circumstances, she might have let it all play out. Sometimes, that was the only way to clear the air, but they didn’t have time for the fight, the healing, or any of it.
Ignoring the sting of channeling power through her overworked system, Eden sent a pulse of her will through Tidal. In response, a spontaneous torrential downpour suitable for a tropical monsoon crashed down over them.
"That's enough!" Eden shouted over the downpour.
Every eye in the parking lot turned to fix on her.
"Eden, what the—" Zoe began after swiping her suddenly sodden hair clear of her eyes.
"Shut up. All of you." Even as the words left her mouth, the rain began to slacken. "It's my turn."
Eden paused to lick her lips as the last of the rain continued to fall, rinsing away a fraction of the gore and grime from the night's misadventures. With a more deliberate trickle of her power, she coaxed the water soaking their clothes to drain away along with the rest of the water, already nearly overwhelming the parking lot's storm drains.
"We're all hurt," Eden said, meeting each of their gazes in turn. "We're exhausted. We're running on fumes. You all—" she gestured nebulously at the argument "—can keep shouting at each other, but can we please do it over a couple gallons of coffee and a Moons Over My Hammy? Because I'd really prefer not to pass out in this damn parking lot."
Beside her, Rowan made a small noise of agreement. Or possibly he was just about to fall over. Hard to tell.
Sam, standing apart from the group with his unsettling yellow eyes taking them in, spoke for the first time since exiting the dungeon. "I could... I could really use some food. And maybe someone to explain what the hell is going on."
The fight drained out of her friends along with the last of Eden's conjured water. They weren't exactly cleanly washed, but they also no longer looked like they'd just stepped out of a horror movie. Pablo looked at Razor in his hand like he'd forgotten he was holding it, then dismissed the blade to his Inventory. Without the metal's emotional buffer, exhaustion and a flood of conflicting emotions crashed over his features.
"I could eat four entire Grand Slams," Sasha said quietly.
Pablo nodded, not looking at Warren. "We eat. We talk. We figure this out."
"Yeah. Alright." Warren's fire died out, leaving him looking smaller somehow. Younger.
"Wonderful." Eden plastered on a bright smile that felt like it might crack her face. "But first, we're all changing. Because I refuse to walk into a Denny's looking like an extra from a zombie movie."
She gestured at their destroyed clothing—torn, scorched, stained with blood, both red and green. "Go bags, people. Now."
There was a round of nods, and the feuding Paladins moved toward their vehicles. Eden mentally thanked past-them for having the foresight to start keeping spare clothes on hand.
Moving to his battered pickup, Pablo pulled a duffel from behind his truck's seat. From it, he produced a pack of wet wipes, which he tossed to Sasha, who immediately started cleaning the lingering alien grime from her arms. Eden retrieved her own bag from her Prius—jeans, a clean t-shirt, and a hoodie. Basic, comfortable, and most importantly, intact. She ducked behind the car’s open door to change, wincing as her battered body protested the movement.
Having pulled her go-bag from her Inventory, Zoe began changing on the other side of Eden’s car, pulling on fresh leggings and a sweater. Warren grabbed a clean shirt from his own bag, turning his back to the group as he changed.
"You guys are way too prepared for this. I don't have anything," Rowan said quietly, looking down at his torn and filthy clothes—the same ones he'd been wearing when he was kidnapped on his way to his date.
"I got you," Pablo called over and began pulling additional clothes from his own Inventory. "Might be a little baggy on you."
Rowan limped over to accept the offered graphic t-shirt and well-worn jeans. Looking around shyly for an instant before hobbling over to his own car and climbing into the backseat to change.
Sam stood awkwardly by the dumpsters, those yellow eyes reflecting the parking lot lights. "I don't...I don't have anything either."
"Hold on." Warren produced a pair of swim trunks and a hoodie from his own dimensional storage. "Beach trip last month. It's not much, but—"
"It's fine," Sam said, taking them. "Better than..." He gestured at his ruined work scrubs.
They changed in relative silence, the raging argument temporarily forgotten in the practical need to look marginally presentable. They each took a turn with Pablo’s wet wipes, scrubbing lingering gore from his hands and arms. Five minutes later, they looked almost human. Pablo and Sasha were still glowing faintly from tonic backlash, and most of them were still sporting visible injuries, but at least they weren't covered in monster viscera anymore.
"Better," Eden declared. "Now let's eat before I collapse."
***
The parking lot was a loosely organized chaos as everyone sorted themselves into vehicles. Pablo's pickup truck sat in the back corner where he'd left it, what felt like a lifetime ago. Sasha climbed into the passenger seat without a word, dismissing Bedrock to her Inventory as she settled in. While the rest of them had finished cleaning up, Warren had brought around his—Mark’s—Jeep for the rest of the battered group to cram themselves into.
Pulling out onto the night-shrouded streets, the truck's cab was quiet for the first few minutes. Pablo focused on driving, hands steady on the wheel despite the bone-deep exhaustion threatening to pull him under. His Iron Mind had mostly released him when he dismissed Razor. There was a bunch of metal in his truck, but even so, emotions and physical sensations were flooding back to him in waves he wasn't quite ready to process.
"You okay?" Sasha asked in a gentle murmur, her orange backlash glow finally starting to fade.
“I could have used your support back there.”
Sasha’s cheeks puffed out as she blew out a long breath.
“Pablano, I’m gonna paraphrase a personal icon of mine,” Sasha spoke in a soft rasp, using the little nickname she’d developed for him only after they’d started dating. “You get my support when I either agree with what you’re saying, or I don’t care about what you’re saying.”
“Isn’t that sweet.” Pablo rolled his eyes.
“I was never going to be a demure Yes-Girl. If I disagree with you—especially when you’re being Robo-Pablo—I’m going to say so. Just like I did after the Embarcadero happened. I told you I thought we should be getting more active.”
“We’ve got a bigger mission than that. We’ve got an entire planet to protect. Even before tonight, we knew that the Corruption was lurking out there. We're supposed to be figuring out how to prepare Earth to integrate with the Nexus without setting off an apocalypse, and we aren’t ready for any of it.”
“You aren’t wrong about any of that, but you can’t expect us to blindly agree. We’re more the kids from Stranger Things than some Starfleet crew.”
“Warren didn’t just disagree with me. He went off on his own and put all of us at risk.”
"Fair point." Sasha leaned back against the headrest. "That wasn’t his best move."
"Understatement of the year."
They drove in silence for another block before Pablo went on. If he was being entirely honest with himself, he knew she was more than a little right. In his desire to keep them all safe, it was possible he’d been overly conservative. If not for Warren, they might not have ever learned that the Corruption was up to something in the city. He’d had Delta scanning the internet for evidence of Corruption activity, but clearly the alien AI had missed something.
"I should have handled things better. Iron Mind doesn't exactly make for great people skills. I'm supposed to be the leader. Supposed to keep us together, not—"
"You're not a dictator." Sasha's voice was firm. "You're not responsible for every choice we make. Warren made his own choices, we’ll hear what he has to say, and we’ll deal with the consequences together."
Pablo was quiet as he chewed that over.
"But," Sasha continued, her tone softening, "you need to find a way to patch things up with him. Really patch them up, not just table it until the next crisis. This isn’t about Warren being a messy roommate anymore."
"I know."
"Do you?" She turned to look at him fully. "Because Weird Shit is coming at us again, Pabs. Certified, Grade-A, Capital-W, Capital-S, Weird Shit. We can't afford to be fractured right now."
"I know," Pablo said again, and this time he meant it. "I'll talk to him. Really talk. After we've all slept and eaten and stopped glowing like nuclear waste."
"Good.”
Stopped at a red light, the streets were nearly empty at this hour, Pablo's fingers drummed on the steering wheel, and he felt it again. That bass note of power thrumming through him. The same sensation he'd felt in the dungeon when he'd held the core, when he'd crystallized that thought: I am the shield.
"Speaking of weird shit," Pablo said slowly. "Something happened. In the dungeon. While I was extracting the core."
"Yeah? Besides the part where you went full alien autopsy?"
"Besides that." Pablo frowned, trying to find the words. "I felt...something. Like power unlocking. It was just for a moment, but—"
The light turned green. Pablo drove, but his mind was elsewhere. In the span of an eyeblink, he pulled up his Status Screen to check it. The interface materialized in his vision, familiar categories and numbers displaying his current stats. At the top, where it had always read Rank: Paladin Squire, it now said: Rank: Paladin Knight
"What the hell?" Pablo breathed.
"What is it?"
"I..." Jumping in and out of the screen so that he could speak, Pablo scrolled through the interface. "My Rank changed. I'm not a squire anymore. I'm a Paladin Knight."
"Since when?” Sasha’s eyes lost focus for a blink. “Mine’s the same.”
"I’m guessing since the dungeon." Pablo kept reading. There—a new entry in his powers list:
THE KNIGHT'S BOON
Having sworn your Knight's Declaration and defined your purpose as a Paladin, you have unlocked the next tier of your capabilities.
+2 to all Ability scores.
+1 rank to all Movement speeds.
Elemental Refinement: A +1 bonus to your Elemental Affinity rank.
Elemental Embodiment Unlocked: Status Rank 0
Access to the Knight tier powers.
"We need to call Delta," he said, pulling out his phone.
The line barely rang before Delta picked up. “Ah-hoy-hoy!”
“Delta, we need to talk.”
“Well, hello to you as well."
“Sorry. Hi, Delta. How are you?” Pablo rolled his eyes.
“I’m on the edge of my proverbial seat over here! I need a full—”
“We’ll tell you all about the dungeon later. Would you just listen?”
“Ugh! Fine!”
Quickly and succinctly as he could manage. Pablo explained what he had experienced and what he was seeing on his Status Screen as they finished the drive to the restaurant.
"Extraordinary," Delta murmured. "And entirely unexpected. I hadn't planned to introduce the advancement process for at least another six months."
"Advancement?" Sasha asked.
"Of course. Did you think you'd remain Squires forever? The Paladin ranks follow a specific progression: Squire, Knight, Champion, Exemplar, and finally Lord. As you know, the Paladins of Power were built to function on a universal scale. As a result, advancements are earned and awarded through the Nexus itself and not through organizational bureaucracy. Each rank requires meeting certain criteria—power thresholds, combat experience, and most importantly, a personal revelation that defines your purpose."
Pablo and Sasha exchanged glances.
"A personal revelation," Pablo repeated. "The power description made it sound like another Oath."
"More or less. Though at this stage, it's more commonly called a Knight's Declaration. It's a crystallization of your identity as a Paladin—who you are, what you stand for, what role you fulfill. For some, it comes through meditation and reflection. For others, through moments of crisis or clarity in the field."
"I am the shield," Pablo said quietly. "That's what I thought. That's what felt true."
"I’ve heard worse Declarations," Delta said.
“So glad you approve.” Pablo rolled his eyes.
"So, aside from the boon, what else does advancing to Knight mean?" Sasha asked.
"Ah. Yes. Well." Delta paused. "I've prepared a comprehensive twenty-seven-slide presentation on the advancement system, including detailed breakdowns of each rank's benefits, requirements, and—"
"Delta," Pablo cut in as gently as he could manage. "Abbreviated version. We're about to walk into Denny's, and I need to know if this is going to affect anything immediately."
"Fine, fine. The abbreviated version: Knights gain enhanced base attributes across the board—you're stronger, faster, tougher than you were as a Squire. Your power pool expands, allowing access to more advanced techniques. And most significantly, you gain access to your first Embodiment ability."
"Embodiment?"
"A transformation state where you temporarily take on aspects of your element. For you, that would mean becoming living metal—or partially so. Increased durability, metal manipulation from within, and immunity to certain attacks. It's quite powerful, but aetherically taxing to maintain. We'll need to train you extensively before you attempt it."
"It would’ve been nice for you to mention this sooner," Pablo said.
"I was waiting for the appropriate time!" Delta's voice carried a hint of defensiveness. "You've all been Squires for barely four months. I’ve had basic foundational material to cover—combat tactics, power synergies, dungeon mechanics, Corrupted entities, threat assessment, and team coordination. The advancement system was scheduled for Month Six, after you'd all achieved greater baseline competency."
"And you have a PowerPoint deck ready," Sasha said.
"Of course. That's what responsible training protocols look like, and my research said that PowerPoints were a common human format for disseminating information. Would you prefer a comic book?"
"We need to go," Pablo said. "The team's waiting. But Delta—am I the only one? Did anyone else advance?"
"Checking now." A pause. "No. You're the only Knight currently. The others are all still Squires.”
“Alright, we’re—”
"We'll discuss all of this and more when you bring the core to me," Delta said. "Along with approximately 73 other urgent matters that have accumulated—”
“We’ll call you back once we get inside.” Pablo hung up the call before relentless AI could drag out the call any further.
Pablo and Sasha sat in the truck for a silent moment, processing.
"Knight," Sasha said finally. "My boyfriend's moving up in the world."
"Your boyfriend still has alien blood under his fingernails and desperately needs a double-cheeseburger," Pablo said, but he couldn't quite keep the small note of pride from his voice.
“Hopefully, that isn’t all you need desperately.” Sasha leaned over the truck’s center console, seized hold of the front of his shirt, and dragged his lips to hers.
Pablo’s head spun from more than just hunger and exhaustion. He returned the kiss for just a moment, allowing himself to get lost in the sublime exhilaration that Sasha never failed to bring out in him. When it ended, the truck’s windows had begun steaming u,p and both of them were breathing heavily.
“Maybe we could just stay here a moment longer?” Pablo breathed.
“Tempting.” Sasha smiled while biting down on her lower lip. Then both of their stomachs rumbled at a demanding volume, and they both burst out laughing.
“Damn, metabolism.”
"Come on," Sasha said, releasing him and reaching to open her door. "Let's go make sure Warren and the others haven't murdered each other while we were having our moment."