That ticking clock had returned. I could hear it in the back of my mind through the entire drive over to the arena. My leg bounced anxiously as I fought to resist the urge to ask the driver to go faster for a fourth time. The first three had probably been fine, since my parents would've thought it was odd if I didn't try to get our driver to pick up the pace. Especially considering where we were going. But four times might just make them start wondering about things. And I definitely couldn't follow the wild impulse to jump right into the driver's seat, push the guy aside, and get us there faster on my own. Even if I was like, practically a licensed driver already.

All of which meant I sat in the back of the SUV we were using, staring out the window at all the other cars. Honestly, there were probably a lot of them who were also on their way to the arena. Which just led me to have to resist the urge to stick my head out the window and scream at all of them to stay the hell away from that place. Yeah, that might tip my parents off about things too.

So no, I just had to sit quietly and force myself to pretend everything was just hunky-dory just so my parents wouldn't get suspicious about things. Sure, I had been doing just that for the past several days (and basically been doing similar things for a few months if you got right down to it), but I was even more anxious right now. This was it. No more waiting. I was about to face down one of the worst, most dangerous, most evil and unpredictable Fells in the entire world.

More than that, I was about to very intentionally piss her off. I was basically going to dare her to go kill people I cared about, while hoping that the other incredibly dangerous and evil Fell we were working with had actually done what she promised. Because the only way that Paige and the other three would survive longer than three seconds would be if fucking Amanda Sanvers could be trusted. Well, okay, we had Wren checking her work. That was the only reason I was even willing to go this far in the first place. But still, absolutely anything could go wrong with this.

Unfortunately, there was no sense in second (or at this point, eight hundred and fifty seventh) guessing the situation. This was what we were doing. Between the teleport shield, the Ten Towers people and their allies just waiting to ambush that bitch, my own friends waiting in the second teleport spot to deal with whatever extra problem inevitably popped up as soon as the others were sent there, and the rings Deck had been working on fixing, there were a lot of ways this could all go wrong.

More to the point, there were a lot of factors I could barely affect, if at all, and that made me even more anxious. I didn't feel great about depending on other people to do so much.

At least Simon helped by being a bit of a distraction, since he used the drive there to tease me about wanting to see the awards in person when we could just watch all of them online, claiming nothing interesting happened during these things. I, in turn, reminded my brother that it was his last chance to try using Bailey as a prop to help him get a date with one of the contestants. And that just led to us making a bet about whether he'd walk away from the ceremony with any of their contact details. I was barely paying attention by then, honestly, but it helped pass the time.

And then we were there. We were at the arena. There was this big fancy buffet thing. Actually, there were at least two of those. One was a public buffet taking up a fair amount of the front concourse. They'd removed most of the for-profit concession stands and just had a free buffet. This was all supposed to be about a celebration, not making more money. Still, there were a lot of signs loudly advertising which local restaurants had donated food for this whole thing, so they got something out of it. From what I'd seen, those restaurants would get a big boost in business.

Then there was the other buffet, the special, even more elaborate one sitting in our private box. Because having the public buffet wasn't enough, every VIP box had their own huge, even better buffet catered by fancier restaurants. At least anything we didn't eat would go to a local shelter.

Once again, as we had throughout these games, Izzy and I made a show of being around the rest of the family for awhile before going off to watch from somewhere closer. In the back of my mind, I wondered just what I would've done if Mom had decided we all needed to stay together and watch the award presentations as a family. Honestly, having an argument about it and going off on my own probably would've been the best chance I had. Which would've led to needing to ditch my phone, apologize to my parents afterward, and-- yeah, it would've been a whole thing.

Fortunately, the only thing either of them said about it was for the two of us to stay together. So yeah, we were just going to be instantly disobeying the one thing they asked us to do, but hey.

I was just going to toss that onto the list of all the ways I would be a complete disappointment to my parents once all the secrets came out. For now, I couldn't worry about it.

Izzy and I took a few seconds to say our goodbyes for the moment and wish each other luck. She would be changing into her costume before joining up with That-A-Way, and their job would be to try to get as many civilians as possible the hell out of the arena if the whole thing went wrong immediately.

Finally, I was alone. The award ceremony would be starting in about twenty minutes, so a lot of people were still arriving. Both the audience and the participants. Sitting on top of one of the utility buildings surrounding the arena, I could watch all those civilians filing into the place to find their seats one last time. Or I could turn slightly and watch the park in the distance, where I could just sort of barely make out a bit of the building where the tunnel entrance was. It was too far away and through too much foliage to actually see the costumed Touched heading in, but I knew they were there. I could close my eyes and picture all those people I'd competed with, and against, through these events. And then I could picture Casura killing them, taking their blood to harvest their powers, or just controlling them with the rings if our sabotage didn't actually work.

The point was, I had so many happy and cheerful thoughts running through my head right then. I was just positively bursting with optimism. I had to resist the urge to start texting everyone to check in. Sure, we didn't know that Casura was paying that much attention to what I was doing, but there was no sense taking that risk. If anything went wrong on their end, I would know soon.

Speaking of which, my phone buzzed while I was still talking myself down from sending any messages. When it happened, I froze. It was a text. This was it, the moment of truth. Well, one of several moments of truth, anyway. If it was an ad from a taco place, that would mean things were on schedule. They weren't quite ready yet (and wouldn't be until right up to the moment of truth), but they were far enough along to assume they'd be ready in time, and that I should be prepared to do my thing. On the other hand, if it was from a burger joint, it would mean I should be ready to stall somehow. And if it was a chicken ad, we were completely boned.

Trying not to let my hand shake too much as I tugged my phone out to glance at it with as much forced casualness as I could manage, I took in the ad. Or rather, tried to. In the end, I had to read it three or four times before what I was looking at actually sank in. Gordo's Fiesta Palace. Fiesta. Mexican food. Tacos. It was an ad for tacos. We were good. Or as good as we could be, so far. Everything was on track, which meant… which meant it was time. I felt my poor stomach flip over and twist itself inside out, even as I shoved my phone away and stood up. This was it.

I was already in costume, naturally. So, pushing aside all my worries, all my anxiety and terror, I waved and made a few random cheerful comments to the crowd that had noticed me. After thanking them for the support, I took off and did a quick lap that way, going from roof to roof through the entire parking lot. Every time I stopped somewhere, I went up to one of the electrical boxes, or an air conditioning unit, or even just a random bit of the wall and acted like I was doing something. None of it was real, of course. It was nothing but smoke and mirrors. I was just putting on a show in case Casura actually was watching. I wanted her to think that whatever plan I had come up with had something to do with all that nonsense. Watch this hand with the bright, shiny object in it, Ms. Evil Bitch, not the one that was fiddling around behind my back.

After wasting a couple minutes like that, I made my way over to the park to go in through the tunnel. There were still about half a dozen other Touched lined up there, all of whom wanted to talk to me about the games. Which just wasn't fair at all. God, I wanted to warn them about what was about to happen. If this all went wrong, if we fucked up and Casura took them because we'd screwed up fixing the rings somehow, or just… anything, if anything bad happened to these people, I would never forgive myself. It really didn't matter that I couldn't warn them without Casura finding out. I'd still feel like shit. Which wasn't exactly helping me calm down and focus.

Somehow, I got through all that without breaking down and screaming at everyone to run away as fast as they could. Which, even if I hadn't actually said that I wanted them to run because Casura was around, might have raised a question or two. I just kept my mouth shut, telling myself once again that the best way to protect everyone was to stick to the plan. We could make this work. Please let it work.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Doing my level best to seem like any nerves in my body language were just because of how awed I was to be included in this event, I passed congratulations back and forth, joked a bit, reminisced, and just tried not to start screaming in terror and frustration. Together, we all made our way in through the tunnel to join an even larger group in a room the size of my school's gym.

On the way, I managed to get even more bad news. In that case, it came as Deck managed to get my attention and pull me into a small side room briefly while everyone else was getting sorted out. He was still dressed up as a janitor, informing me that he'd only been able to fix about three-quarters of the rings in the time he had before they were taken away. So there went the easy solution to all this, of course. I still had to make sure nobody put those rings on. Especially Safeguard, since I was willing to bet my parents' entire fortune that Casura would somehow manage to make absolutely sure he was given a ring that worked. No, I didn't know how she'd even be aware that there were rings that didn't, but still. She'd manage it somehow.

Deck apologized profusely, making it clear that he did everything he could to fix the rings, but he thought it'd make things worse if he did anything suspicious when they started collecting them before he finished. Silencing the voice in my head, I told him he was right, thanked him for all of that, and went back out to the main room before anyone could even notice I wasn't around.

It was a complete sea of costumes of all colors and types. This wasn't just all the people who were winning rings today. This was everyone who had competed. Or at least, all the ones who were still here and hadn't had to go back to their own towns yet. There were a lot of people with powers. All of whom were going to be either killed or put under Casura's control if I fucked up.

Some of the organizers came out, including Nqobile, to explain how we were all going to go out on the field, who would go first, where to stand, and so on. I distracted myself from glaring at the woman too much by looking for Safeguard. It only took me a minute or so to spot the guy. His costume made him look sort of like a fully suited-up firefighter, except the coat was dark blue and gold. And instead of one of those gas mask things, his face was covered by a featureless gold plate. I'd seen an interview with him where he said he wanted people to be able to project any details they wanted onto the person under the suit and mask, so they'd feel safer with him.

Or maybe her. Or them. I'd heard some wild stories about Touched who disguised their gender.

The point was, I saw Safeguard. He was here, which crossed out my hail mary, not a chance in hell wish that maybe he wouldn't even show up. But on the other hand, I had no idea what that evil bitch would do if her plan was accidentally ruined that easily. She was always unpredictable, to put it mildly. And if something like that happened, she might… well, she might just lash out.

The good news was that my stomach wasn't rolling anymore. Unfortunately, I was pretty sure it had just exhausted itself from all the rolling it had been doing since the moment I woke up. I felt numb, like this wasn't real, like I was still in bed dreaming. Any second now I was going to wake up and realize I had to go through breakfast, the trip here, and then all of this again. Wouldn't that be a fun Sisyphean way to spend the rest of my life? Just wake up, spend hours agonizing over what was going to happen once the award ceremony started, then go through it all again.

But no, there was no Groundhog's Day effect here. Once the people in charge finished talking, we were on our way out to the field. I felt a confusing rush of relief that quickly dampened as soon as I realized what this meant. There were just a few minutes left before this would all come to a head. One way or another, we would either stop Casura and save Paige and the others… or we would fail. Oh look, my stomach had managed to gain enough energy to flip over again. Yay.

It took everything I had not to be sick in my helmet as we walked through that tunnel to the field. The sound of the crowd roaring with approval as more and more Touched appeared just kept reminding me of how much danger they were in too. This wasn't just about the superpowered people that Casura might take over or kill. If she got pissed and started lashing out here, they would be right in the line of fire. And the fact that my best chance of avoiding that was to make her so angry she wanted to go right back and kill my friends to punish me really didn't help at all.

Before I knew it, we were out on the field. My feet managed to carry me where I was supposed to go without any actual conscious input from me. Which was good, because the truth was, I barely remembered how feet actually worked by that point. I was so terrified, so sick, so damn--

"Isn't this great?" It was Liqueguy, standing nearby as he gave me a double thumbs up. "I guess it could be a bit overwhelming though." He added that while glancing up at the packed stands.

"You have no idea," I muttered under my breath before shaking my head when he gave me a curious look. Yeah, that would be just the way to set this whole thing off, by making him just suspicious enough to call for help or something right before we were actually ready. Which just made me check the corner of my visor for the go message that would be displayed as soon as the coded text came through my phone, but it wasn't there yet. God, they needed to hurry. I had no idea just how long it would take before all these people started putting those rings on, but it couldn't be far off. Please, please, let them get all that set up in time. Hurry, guys. I knew they had to be careful about getting that teleport shield device in place to make sure Casura didn't notice anything, but knowing that didn't make me any less anxious. Actually, it was worse. I just kept imagining all the horrific ways this whole thing could blow up in our faces. And that just made me keep remembering the… the massacre back in that building. Hyperkey and her gang, all of them were just dead now. They'd been tortured and murdered just because they had known me. Not even that, they barely had an interaction with me, and they had paid for it.

Oh good, now I was angry. That would help with the whole fear thing. I needed to nurture that. Get mad, get pissed off. Then maybe I could get through the next few minutes without curling into a fetal position to cry for awhile. Just let that anger, that righteous rage, take over for a bit.

The way the field was set up for this, all the Touched competitors who hadn't won a ring were lined up along the sides, right up by the stands. Then they had a three-tiered platform taking up most of the field, with stairs in the center leading all the way to the top. The bit that was closest to the ground, just about five feet up, was for the people getting sapphire rings. About fifteen feet up from that was the second platform for the people getting emerald rings. And then twenty feet over that, a solid forty feet up, was the platform for everyone who was supposed to get a ruby ring. Which included Safeguard, of course. And me. We were so close I could've touched him.

I was seriously considering just seeing how far I could get by grabbing the guy and paint leaping us out of there when the phone in my pocket buzzed. And there it was. A bright blue smiley face symbol appeared in the bottom corner of my helmet visor. The shield was in place, and they were ready. Well, I couldn't say any of us were ready for what was about to happen, but at the very least, the shield was in place. And just in time, considering the welcoming speeches were just winding down. There were assistants already on their way up the stairs with fancy trays holding those damn rings.

Seeing a couple of the Touched on the lower platforms already reaching for the rings as their names and accomplishments were called out (and displayed on the jumbotron), I knew I couldn't hesitate anymore. This was it, no more waiting, no more practice, no more planning. And most of all, no more holding in all the things I'd wanted to scream out loud for the past few days.

Honestly, it took me another second to move. It was like my body couldn't believe it was actually time. I had to mentally kick myself at the sight of those first Touched down there starting to put the rings on. With a grunt, I shoved myself forward, hand rising. Before anyone realized what I was doing, my red paint was already hitting all three of those first rings, and I yanked them to myself. At the same time, I used green-blue paint to launch myself up to the hovering platform where Nqobile and several VIPs were. With one hand holding those few rings as the cries of confusion started to go up, I grabbed the microphone out of Nqobile's hand and shouted into it.

"Stop! Just stop, stop now! Nobody put the rings on, drop them! Drop them right now, don't touch them! Casura! Casura changed the rings, they'll let her control anyone who puts them on!"

Yeah, there was probably a better, safer, less terrifying way for me to have said all that. But I had to make a spectacle of myself. I had to do it right then, without any gentle buildup or anything, because the second I'd said anything about it, Casura would've been warned. The only choice I'd had was to rip the bandaid off just like that.

It worked. People were shouting, contestants throwing the rings away like they were on fire, while the audience over in the stands were all jumping to their feet. Everyone on this VIP platform was shouting at me. It was pandemonium.

And through all of that, my attention was drawn to a single figure right at the top of the stands, away from everyone else. A figure I instantly recognized. And it wasn't Casura.

It was Flea, in costume. Wait… wait, what? How--

A red gem. There was a red gem right in the middle of her forehead, like it was meant to be seen, like Casura wanted me to see and realize. Jennica, Trove. It was one of her gems, the one that let her puppet people. She was helping Casu--wait, no, that was stupid. She was… Casura was using her power. She'd taken Jennica's blood somehow, and had her powers.

Casura was controlling Irelyn. She wasn't even fucking here. She'd sent Irelyn in her place and was puppeting her, probably from right back in the same place the others were.

Casura wasn't here. But she was absolutely watching this. Which meant she was about to teleport Irelyn right back to her. And when she did that, the teleport shield would kick in. Irelyn would be the one teleported out to where all the Ten Towers people were waiting. Meanwhile, everyone in that building, including Casura herself, would be sent right to where my team was.

And then she would kill all of them.

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