The rest of the day passed quickly. Lunch and dinner were catered to the lounge. No other big speeches or performances were made. The place hummed with the camaraderie of a group of people all soon to be risking their lives. The energy was electric. Kisses were stolen and laps sat on as people made the moves they wanted to make before shit hit the fan. A few pairs left together to do what they needed to do in private. Grace had gotten her claws into Ernest, one of Terry’s pack. She danced around him and moved his hands to feel her body. He looked completely unsure of how he ended up there, but wasn’t going to question it.

  In between meals, Lauren mostly sat around watching and nursing a ginger beer. Adam’s taste for the damn things was infectious. It left her lips tingling and her breath spicy. Thalia ranged a bit, but Lucy never left her side. She kept her head down and watched Lauren with ponderous, sad eyes.

  Lauren kept replaying her childhood in her head. She searched for a memory that couldn’t be fabricated. Something Dr. Smythe couldn’t fake. No solid evidence came to mind.

  At one point, she saw Thalia talking to Annabelle, who had been sitting alone. Thalia looked like she was explaining something, her hands tucked into her back pockets. Annabelle peeled her face off the tabletop and said something in reply. Thalia left with her arms crossed and eyebrows knit.

  Night fell. Orders came in to someone that it was time to meet in the gym for finishing preparations. The class gathered up and filed out.

  On the bleachers, students sat in their three teams: home, city, and strike. Their instructors again went over the role of each. Strike team were those students who could take a punch and give one back. Prism, NeoKnight, Ogre, and their general cadre. American Angel and Ranger Wild also. City team was for mobility and responding to potential crises. Bendabelle, Marionette, Silvermist, Watchdog, and a few others. Part of their role was also making it look like a normal patrol night, so as not to potentially tip off the New Lords. Home team was for the defensive players. Lucy would benefit most from staying on school grounds and using the surrounding vegetation to make defenses. Haint would let loose her horde of tiny terrors. Marcellus, aka Architect, could make constructs of golden light. Campus would be well defended, and that wasn’t including Galaxy Girl flying overhead to provide flex support.

  Lauren sat on the outskirts of home team, knees drawn close as Coach Dixon and Ms. Almstead explained the game plan. They went over routes into the Warrens, what to look for and what to avoid. Valley Girl would again be leading the way.

  “The engineers are going to need time to study the device and dismantle it,” Coach Dixon explained. “You need to give them that time. We have reason to believe that the New Lords will be distracted, but we don’t know for how long. They might swarm you. The priority is defending the point until the mission is complete, then extracting.”

  Vinny raised his hand, not waiting for Coach to call on him. “Why can’t Galaxy Girl just go in and smash it? I mean, it’s not alive, right?”

  Coach was getting sick of interrupting questions. Before he could snap, Ms. Almstead held out a placating hand to him and stepped forward to answer. “Destroying the machine might be a last resort, but often weapons of mass destruction have some sort of backup protocol to unleash what they can when they’re under threat. We’d like this operation to be surgical, given that it’s underneath a major population center.”

  “Are you gonna come help?” Megumi asked. “You’re a superhero, aren’t you?”

  The room looked at her, many of them clearly wondering the same question but not being bold enough to ask it.

  Ms. Almstead wore a smile full of regret. “I wish I could. I would be leading the charge. Unfortunately, my powers started causing me to have severe seizures. Every activation could be fatal to me. That’s why I transitioned to teaching. I should have told you all sooner.”

  “Oh.” Megumi looked uncomfortable at having asked.

  Coach Dixon clapped his metal and flesh hands. “Stand up and come down in your teams. We’re gonna go through finishing checks. If you aren’t wearing your costume, now’s the time to put it on. We move out in an hour.”

  Everyone rose. Lauren stayed planted for a moment longer. Lucy and Anika both looked back at her. They were both on home team. She thought of the idea of staying with them. Staying safe here on campus, embracing the ones she cared about who she knew were real. These people mattered. This place mattered.

  And she would do her part to protect it. To do that, she couldn’t stay here tonight. She had to do what she felt was right. Follow her own path. Not what others told her to do. She’d distract the villains, win her fight, and make Lilith tell her what she knew. She’d make it back, and be out of the way long enough for the important work to be done. No one would be hurt tonight because of her. She could weather whatever Lilith had to throw at her. This was her path.

  She thought about that first trip into town with the girls. Snapping at Lucy for wanting to save the world. She could see now how pleasant her friend’s dream was. It wasn’t something to get killed for. It was something to live for. Maybe she should try living for something like that. She may have apologized for saying it, but Lucy was right when she said everything Lauren had done here so far was for herself. All she knew was survival. So far her life raft through all this had been her search for Rachel. Now it was sunk. But she couldn’t just give up. She had come this far, and now she needed to finish saving herself. Then, maybe, she could start thinking about some higher ideals.

  Headmaster Knapp had been standing unobtrusively off to the side. Her attention now hooked Lauren. She wanted a conversation. Lauren stood, alone, and walked over.

  The headmaster’s face was soft and kind to Lauren as she came to her. She had on a classy black turtleneck underneath her outer coat. Her hair and makeup were freshly done, ringlets around her face, and her glasses looking polished.

  “Hello Lauren,” Knapp greeted. She tilted her head. “So much has happened in the last few days, and we haven’t had a chance to debrief.”

  So much was an understatement. The last time they had talked was Knapp dropping her veiled suggestion for Lauren to rebel and go rescue Mara. Did she suspect something was up with Dodds, and wanted to upset the balance? No other BASTION liaison had been assigned since then, that Lauren could see. Being used like that would make Lauren upset, even if the suggestion was good. She rolled her eyes internally, letting it go.

  “If you’re here to stop me going alone, you can forget it,” Lauren said. “I handled rescuing Mara. I handled Dodds. I can handle this.”

  “You did,” Knapp agreed. “You really took the initiative. I was proud to see how you stepped up and led to do what you felt was right. Dodds wouldn’t have been rooted out without your quick thinking and bravery, and we wouldn’t know about this city-destroying weapon. I wish we’d had the time this week to celebrate you.”

  “I was just doing what you suggested,” Lauren said.

  Knapp looked doubtful. She tapped a finger on her chin. “Mm, I don’t believe I suggested anything. I think I said some platitude to bolster you, then left you to your own devices.”

  “I—” Lauren caught herself, trying to remember what the headmaster had actually said. Hadn’t she made some remark that Lauren should disobey commands?

  Knapp’s eyes twinkled with knowing mischief.

  “How do you do that?” Lauren asked. “You knew I wanted to go after her. You gave me a push to do it without even doing anything.”

  “It’s my job to understand these things,” Knapp said. She bent slightly and looked Lauren in directly in the eye. “And you are not as hopeless as you think you are. Director Weiss can see it too.”

  “So… you’re not going to try to talk me out of going?” Lauren checked.

  “I figure better men than me have tried and failed,” Knapp said, standing straight again. She adjusted her glasses. For some reason Lauren could very clearly imagine the headmaster at her age. She had that quality of being the kind of person who knew who they were early on and grew up to become a refined version of it. “The Director believes in your mission. You don’t seem suicidal to me. You think you have a way out of what you’re getting yourself into?”

  Lauren’s one assurance was Lilith’s deal. Win, and she’d give Lauren whatever information she could. Come to think of it, that didn’t actually come with any guarantee Lauren would be allowed to leave. But Lilith seemed to play by her rules as intended. And she liked Lauren as a playmate. Maybe it was misplaced, but Lauren held a belief that she’d be allowed to leave the arena if she won. That is, if the mission to destroy the earthquake maker didn’t upset things. She didn’t bring it up.

  “I have a way out.”

  Knapp nodded. “Well, in any case, take this.”

  She handed Lauren a device smaller than her thumb, a small red button in its center.

  “What is this?”

  “A transmitter,” Knapp said. “Press it, we’ll lock onto your location. I’ll send Galaxy Girl to scoop you out of trouble. Keep it somewhere secure. We’re all making it out tonight. No one left behind. After this, we’re going to start hitting the New Lords and their master. Once the city’s safe, we’ll debrief you on all you have on them.”

  Lauren closed her hand around the device. She treasured the lifeline more than she could express to Knapp. “Thank you.”

  The headmaster nodded. “Safe travels tonight. I hope you’re able to find what you seek. I always have. This place is changing you. And you’re changing it. And I think both are for the better. I hope we’ll have you here for a while yet.” Lauren was a bit choked up. Knapp turned her around and gave her a gentle push, not making her say the last word. “We’ll have a nice long talk once you’re back. We’ll get it all off your chest, whatever you want to talk about. You’re up. Knock ‘em dead.”

  Lauren let her feet lead her away from the headmaster, towards Dixon waiting by the exterior doors to lead her to the Rosewell Express. She was ten feet away from the door when she heard her name called.

  “Lauren!”

  She turned. Lucy stood at the front of all thirty-five students. All eyes were on her. Lucy waved. “Good luck on your mission!”

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  The other students waved and called out to her.

  “Good luck!”

  “Stay safe Lauren!”

  “Come back safe!”

  “Good luck!”

  “Kick ass!”

  “See you soon!”

  Lauren’s heart skipped a beat. She almost looked over her shoulder to see who they were all wishing well. Her?

  She raised her arm and waved back. Too stunned to speak. The abyss inside her closed just a little.

  “Your mouth is hanging open,” Dixon told her as she passed him on her way out.

  They walked together across campus. The early winter sun had already fled past the ocean. Lauren hardly felt the chill.

  “Remember what I told you,” Dixon said a step behind her. “Take your hits. There’s no shame in it. You just need to outlast her. That’s what you’re good at. Don’t even try to stab her at the end, for all it matters. Just activate the transmitter, and you’ll be scooped up. Give it as long as you got, and the other teams will handle the rest.”

  Lauren was barely listening. They were halfway across campus, passing the dorms. She looked down at her clothes. She wore tight-fitting athletic clothing in preparation for the fight. She had another idea.

  “I need a minute.”

  “Lauren! We’re on a schedule!” Dixon barked. But Lauren was already running for her dorm.

  Ten minutes later, the Rosewell Express was speeding into downtown. Lauren was the only passenger. She was now dressed in her costume. The red, white, and black of the stretchy material shined off the metal around her. She still felt kind of ridiculous wearing it. But now, also kind of proud. The rest of the train ride, she played the waving and well-wishes for her over and over in her head. Her classmates were no longer just the people she lived and studied with. She hadn’t even realized until now how entrenched she had become with them. They were so easy to exist around in her day to day life. She was proud to be a Rosewell student, she realized.

  Maybe there was a future where she could one day let go of her false memories, and make some new happy ones. But not while Dr. Smythe still roamed free.

  The Express came to a stop. The doors opened. Alone, but feeling less alone than she had started the day, Lauren exited and climbed the steps.

  In the cold and dark night, she pulled her jacket close to the thin material of her costume as she wandered in the direction of where she remembered coming out of the sewers. Her route and destination weren’t exact. She figured she’d be able to get close enough for them to find her again. Her boots clomped through puddles in potholes. Finally, she found a sewer grate near the International District. She hefted it up and went down into the darkness.

  In the absence of light, it didn’t take long for her eyes to adjust. Her vision became blurry and gray, but enough to see by. She wandered through dank, dripping tunnels. She quickly grew impatient. The New Lords could probably see her already. She decided to start singing, to annoy them and to maximize the attention on her. The other students would be heading into town by now. The words came out of her tunelessly and echoed through the space.

  I’m here wandering around

  Around around around

  Waiting for a bunch of pussies

  Hiding in the shadows

  I showed up for my fight

  And they’re too chickenshit to face me

  Cause they know they’re gonna lose

  Cause they’re fucking losers

  She belted out a few more verses. She got so caught up in her singing she almost missed Maudlin standing in front of her. She came to a stop.

  The girl stood there in her cloak and mask, silently as ever. Lauren could almost picture her eyebrow raised in a look of unamusement. On whatever that happened to look like on Maudlin’s face.

  “Yeah, I’m having fun,” Lauren answered the question she imagined the New Lord silently asking.

  Maudlin turned on her heel and began leading. As they walked, Lauren tried not to act like anything was out of place. Sounds echoed down the long tunnels. Were they the sounds of the strike team infiltrating? Just how stealthy could they be versus the New Lords monitoring system? These weren’t questions Lauren should have been concerning herself with. Much smarter people had been pondering them for days. There was a plan in place. She had to remember that. She had her place. Time to see how effective she’d be as a smokescreen.

  Maudlin opened a hidden section of wall with some gesture. They walked into a dry, square tunnel sloping down. Maybe the same one Brain Drain had led her out of. She wondered if he was still alive.

  The last time she had followed Maudlin down, she hadn’t known what she was getting herself into. It was a rash, stupid decision, one fueled by desperation. Even knowing how it turned out, she wasn’t sure she’d do it again instead of going directly back to campus. Now she knew what to expect, but that didn’t make it feel much better. Again, she pictured her friends to bolster herself.

  She heard the ruckus long before the arena came into view. She could almost feel it vibrating through the tunnel. Voices, maybe over a hundred, all overlapping until they became one constant noise. It sounded more packed than her first visit to Lilith’s dome. A lot more packed.

  Light came from an opening ahead. She got the sense they were entering from a much lower angle than the first time. Lauren braced for what waited ahead.

  She was dazzled entering. Her eyes, having gotten used to pitch black, needed more than a second to adjust. In that time, the noise of the crowd overwhelmed her. They had entered into the thick of it. She could hear shouts of people close on either side of her. She blinked until her vision became clear.

  Fuck.

  Lauren had entered into a sea of bodies. The arena was more than packed. Every single seat was filled. More spectators sat on and hung from the scaffolding encircling above. People packed into the nooks honeycombing around the seating, craning to see past each other.

  Hundreds. Lauren was surrounded by hundreds.

  She surveyed the room while trying not to break out into a panic. This wasn’t just New Lords. Sure, she saw plenty of them in the ranks. Mostly crammed into front-row seating. She recognized them from the museum fight. Other teens in costumes she didn’t recognize were clearly part of the class too. But that hardly accounted for a fraction of the audience. There were more in costume. Adults of varying ages. Supervillains. Real, honest-to-fuck supervillains. Metal masks, cloth masks, tight costumes, spiked costumes, beast men, mutated freaks, lab coats, blobs, burns, slashes, wicked smiles and hungry stares. Holy fuck.

  The rest of the audience were uncostumed teens and adults. Some surrounded certain costumed audience members. Henchmen, they must have been. Gangs, goons, followers.

  Did BASTION know there were so many costumed villains in Pacific City? She hadn’t heard anything about something of this size at the school. For months, they had mostly been dealing with unpowered gangs and a few street villains. This was enough villainy in one large room to take over the city, even with Rosewell there. This was a goddamn army. Where had they all come from?

  Her hand reflexively closed around the transmitter in her pocket. She wanted to be home now. But she breathed, and remembered she was here for one fight. Focus on the one fight. Win the one fight, and she’d walk out of here. If not, Vivian would come down and save her, no matter how many villains got in the way.

  “Lauren!”

  She looked around for source of the voice. It loudened to fill the space over all the overlapping sound. Hard to pin down. But she saw her. Lilith. Her throne had been moved forward to rest among the seats across the arena. The pale warlock stood. The hundreds of voices took the cue to hush. All eyes went to her.

  Lights dimmed as a spotlight fixed on Lilith. She wore a dark, glitzy showgirl’s outfit. A corset pushed her chest up. Her arms and legs were laced with black netting. Though she was a hundred meters away, Lauren could see her smile and her acidic green eyes. The rest of the room seemed to disappear as they stared at each other.

  On tall heels, Lilith strutted dramatically down a few steps.

  “Just when I was afraid you’d gotten cold feet. Just when I thought I had gathered all these rogues here for nothing!” Lilith posed, one wrist touching her forehead. Her voice carried like it was on a microphone. Might have just been magic. “But there you appear at our darkest hour! Our salvation from boredom, right on time! Ladies and gentlemen, let’s give it up for our fresh meat of the evening!”

  Lilith led a mocking clap that thundered through the hollow. Lauren walked down the steps, the crowd in front of her parting just enough to let her continue. She ignored dozens of leers from faces pressing in too close. She focused on walking straight ahead. She made it to the outer ring of the arena. The clapping died down as she hauled herself over onto the dirt.

  The lights came up enough for the fight to have dim, dramatic lighting, allowing everyone to see. Lauren turned slowly, giving the audience a good look at her. This was part of the show. Let Lilith talk as much as she wanted to. Lauren’s friends were doing their work. This was Lauren’s part.

  Lilith continued her soliloquy. “A week ago, I invited this girl you see before you to come by for a fight. I told her, and you all know I keep my word, if she were to win, I’d give her her heart’s desire. And do you know what she wanted? Reunion! Reunion. Isn’t that sweet.” Lilith clutched her hands over her heart, touched. The audience jeered down at Lauren. “I’m a miracle worker, folks! A dream realizer! So I moved heaven and earth for Lauren here. I have a very special prize if she wins. Something I think she’s really been looking forward to.”

  That perked her attention. Lauren scanned the audience, looking for her. Looking for the face of her captor. Was she here? Could she really be here, in this sea of other villains? Or did Lilith simply have her location? Her knees threatened to buckle. Was this ending tonight? Why was she suddenly afraid of seeing the doctor? She was stronger now. So much stronger than she had been. Stay focused. Win and find out.

  “But first! Lauren must win. And though she had a scrappy upbringing, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Do you want to know why?”

  The crowd yelled. Lilith took that as an affirmative.

  “Because! Lauren here is Rosewell scum.”

  Threats, curses, and taunts were hurled down at her. She took the abuse, feigning disinterest. Every minute they wasted was another minute Rosewell was winning.

  “Those BASTION bastards sitting on high think they can rule over us again. And they’re using these little teenagers as their pawns. Didn’t they learn their fucking lesson on Invasion Day? The Age of the Superhero is over!”

  Wild, raging cheers drowned out Lauren’s thoughts. She breathed in and out. In and out.

  “First, Lauren here is going to die, alone, in the dark. And then we’re going to march up that mountain and come for all of her friends.”

  In and out.

  “We’ll parade them through the streets.”

  I’m in control.

  “And then we’ll slit their throats in the city center for all to see. How does that sound?”

  They cheered for that. Oh, how they cheered.

  Lauren made a decision as they did. Quietly, to herself, not a decision anyone else would be able to notice. She wasn’t going to take her hits. She wasn’t going to call for Galaxy Girl. She was going to break Usagi in front of all this scum and claim her prize. And if any one of them had a motherfucking problem with that, she’d break them too. Because Lauren had friends now. And no one threatened her friends.

  Lilith ceded attention. All eyes went to Lauren.

  “Well, Lauren?” Lilith prompted. “Ready to fight?”

  Lauren held the moment. She looked up one way, then the other. She took her jacket off, set in on the arena floor. She cracked her knuckles.

  “I’ve been ready, but you never were very good at shutting the fuck up.”

  Lilith’s demeaning smile turned into a snarl. Lauren smirked knowing she had struck a nerve. Lauren kept up the energy. She raised her arms.

  “WHERE’S MY FUCKING VICTIM?”

  Hundreds of bodies leaned forward in interest, ready to see what Lauren was made of.

  “Usagi,” Lilith called.

  Lilith’s champion leaped from the stands. She sailed twenty feet through the air, above people’s heads, and landed in the dirt across from Lauren. The crowd roared with her appearance.

  Usagi was dressed much like she had been when she and Lauren had first met: simple laced sneakers, loose pants, and a bulletproof vest her only top. And of course, her white rabbit mask that covered everything but her lips and chin.

  Lauren studied her opponent, now with a trained eye. Every inch of her was lean. Pure killer. She cracked her head one way, then the other. Her traps flexed taught like steel cables. She lowered herself until her knees were level with her chest. She rested her forearms on them and rolled her knuckles, both hands freshly wrapped for barehanded boxing. Black lenses stared at Lauren from her sharp mockery of a rabbit’s face. A few locks of short dark hair dyed pink at the ends spilled between her mask’s ears.

  After a few moments she stood and walked to meet Lauren in the center of the arena. They faced each other two feet apart. Even standing in place, Usagi bounced on her heels. She used the few inches she had over Lauren to leer down at her.

  “You should have stayed down that night,” Usagi said. The words weren’t to feed the audience. This was only loud enough for the two of them. “You should have crawled back into the fucking gutter you came from. I don’t care if you can heal. I’m gonna stomp your fucking head in. Do you hear me? You’re gonna die tonight. I’m gonna kill your friends too. But them, I’m gonna do it slow.”

  Lauren stared at her. Usagi scoffed.

  “Nothing to say? Too afraid?”

  Lauren leaned in. Quietly, she asked, “Do you remember the first words you said to me?”

  Usagi sneered. “Nah. You’re just not that important.”

  Lauren nodded. “That’s okay. Maybe I’ll remember in a minute.”

  Usagi shook her head as she took a step back. “Fucking freak.”

  Lauren settled into a fighting stance. She coated her knuckles with bone. The thing inside her. The parasite. It knew what was coming. Lauren opened the door for it. Wide open. She didn’t make a mental leash. She didn’t hold anything back.

  Here’s what you wanted. Now be useful.