Rae was one of the last people to come through the portal.

The 35-year-old brunette walked through the open gate like she owned the floor, which, in a way, she sort of did. Considering that there were two teams of 6 people that answered to her, she was very much the person with the most power. The fourth team was largely untested, with most of their experience coming from attacking the corpses of monsters and eating Demonic Essences until they hit level eleven.

Frederica walked up to the younger woman. Her frantic, rushed pace conveyed the urgency of their situation.

"There's natural light." Rae glanced up at the ceiling. While there wasn't a sun, there was a nice blue sky illuminating the floor.

"Higher ceilings too." Frederica pointed at where the barrier ended in the sky. She danced from foot to foot, anxiety rolling off her. "You took a while."

"I had to make sure the pyre ceremony finished and the second floor crew had their orders for how to process things while we're down here." Rae ran her fingers along the wall on the right side of the portal. "Interesting concept…" She looked at the older woman. "Patrick make this?"

"We needed a way to make sure Derek can't get down here and level while we're in there." Frederica pointed at the barrier to 21D, then looked back at the Healer. "We can't have people we can't trust leveling."

"I agree." Rae stepped through the opening and glanced at the man operating the gate. "Aren't you a level one?"

The man nodded and stood up straighter. "Mister Patrick told me that I'm on the short list to be leveled!"

"We'll see." Rae walked away from the gate. She pointed at the barrier. "Only three wide?" She smiled. "That makes things easier."

"Not easy enough." Frederica motioned at the two groups gathering around the skeletons of structures between the portal and the column for level 22. "Your people have been waiting for you to get here before they'll get in place."

The other woman turned to Penelope. "What are you doing?"

Penelope swallowed. "We've got a rundown of the monsters in this column as well as a plan for how we're going to enter the square." She glanced over at Frederica. "Frederica is going to lead the team of Patrick, Caleb, Riva, Circe, and me from the middle."

"No." Rae shook her head as she walked towards her people.

"No?" Frederica stomped after her. "The middle part is the most dangerous so the team with the most experience should be the ones to lead the charge!" She pointed at 21D. "They have walls and fortifications they can hide behind as well as HEALERS!"

"I'm not going to split my people up." Rae pointed to her left. "You can take that side and support the main team from the middle."

"Since when do you think you're the one in CHARGE?" Frederica fumed.

"Since you made a deal with a killer and got half your team killed, then didn't have the decency to stick around to see them buried." Rae spun on her heel, pointing a gloved finger at Frederica's face. "You made a big speech about us needing to honor the fallen on the last floor, but let a couple days pass and you run off and leave me to stand up in front of all the scared level ones who want to know what we're doing to protect them and why we aren't going after the killers who are hiding on the surface." She dusted off her hands. "You wanted me to be the bad guy who had to tell them that we didn't have the manpower to bring killers to justice." She shook her head. "You didn't want the responsibility of the leader, so now you can fall in line behind the person who had to step up because you couldn't."

Frederica held the other woman's glare for a few moments while a small crowd gathered around the pair, watching the transfer of power. More people moved behind Rae than behind Frederica. The older woman's shoulders slumped as she noticed that.

"Fine." Frederica lowered her head, ending the staring contest.

"I didn't want it to be this way, but you can't lead when the people don't respect you." Rae shook her head. "I'm really sorry about Oakley; maybe it's for the best that you take some time away from leading and focus on yourself."

"Whatever." Frederica slapped away the new leader's hand. "I don't want your sympathy."

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"Doesn't matter if you want it or not." Rae took a deep breath as she surveyed the gathering crowd. "People died and it's up to us to make sure that doesn't happen again." She straightened up. "If we could afford to let you take the time to grieve, we would, but since we can't, someone else needs to lead for a while until you get your head back on straight." Rae looked over the former leader. "Are you going to be able to fight?"

"I can kill monsters just fine." Frederica scoffed, then turned to walk away.

"One other thing!" Rae raised her voice. "My team will take the middle slot, which makes us the lead team. Since we'll have the most important spot, we'll need the best gear, so everything we got off of the boss on the last floor goes to my team as well as first pick of all the gear that drops down here."

Frederica slowly turned around, tugging on the shoulder of her leather armor. "You want my gear too?"

"I'm not going to make you give up what you've already earned." Rae shook her head. "But anything new that drops will have to be passed over by the other two teams first."

"That's not good."

Why? Penelope focused on the voice in her head. If they're taking all the risk, then they should have on the best gear.

"Because they aren't the best people for the job!" Jeru pointed at the brown-haired Healer. "You need to be on the forward team so you can make adjustments based on what you learn! The way they're doing things now, if you learn about an ambush, there's no way for you to compensate for it without blowing your cover!"

I'm sure we'll manage. Penelope walked away as Raelyn talked to her people.

"You HAVE to be part of the leadership!" Jeru fumed as he appeared in front of her. "I've seen a lot of different strategies, but the one constant between the winning ones was that they were all at least part of the leadership team, with the most successful ones being the leaders themselves!"

Well, that's never going to happen! Penelope growled at him. I don't want to be responsible for a bunch of people's lives! We already saw that I'm not good at it, so why can't I just stay in the background and help out along the way where I can and let someone else who actually wants to lead be the boss?

"Because life doesn't work that way." Jeru sighed, then pointed at Raelyn. "Look, those who reach for power always do so with an agenda. For Rae, it's her way of protecting herself and getting revenge on those who would misuse their power in ways that don't benefit her."

You act like she's some mob boss or something. Penelope quipped. She doesn't have it in her.

"I've been around for almost two thousand years and got to see what most of these people are capable of, given the right circumstances, and trust me, she's not only capable of it, but she's on the path to becoming that." The blue Elf groaned. "In fact, now that she has power, the only way she's going to give it up is once she's dead."

So what, you want me to kill her?

"No, but you're going to have to restart and convince Frederica to stick around for the funeral." Jeru pointed at the barrier. "This first square is going to be a nightmare and if you're not in the middle, leading the charge, lots of people are going to die."

Memories of what happened right after the last save point flashed in front of her face. Penelope winced as she remembered the execution and Derek's words.

Maybe it won't be that bad? Penelope banished the memories as she focused on the present.

"I've watched enough of the first fights on floors to know that without foreknowledge, there's going to be casualties." Jeru sighed. "And when the Looper isn't part of the lead team, there's LOTs of casualties." He pointed at Fae Anna and Allis. "Can either of them do even HALF of what you can with spells?"

Penelope had watched the pair fight enough to know the answer to that question. Neither of them had mastered accurately hitting targets with their spells. Sure, the two women could hit what they aimed at well enough to miss an ally, but they couldn't hit smaller targets consistently. Also, neither of them had even begun to work on shaping their spells into other things. The reality was that while the pair could overwhelm a target, Penelope could solo things that the two of them wouldn't be able to fight together.

Can't I just hope?

"Hope in one hand—"

Penelope pushed his voice out of her mind before he could finish the statement and focused on the younger woman walking up to her.

"Come on!" Circe grumbled as she pointed at the southern wall. "Rae wants us in position."

Penelope glanced over at the two groups that were putting on their gear as well as the looted stuff from the last fight. Considering none of them had participated in the fight, it felt wrong that they got to wear the loot, but there was nothing she could do about that right now. She turned and followed after Circe as the usually bubbly woman sulked towards their starting point on the far left side.

I hope you're wrong.

Jeru's voice was filled with regret. "Me too."

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