The other world was stiller than she remembered.

Alex came through just behind the others. They were already looking north. She nodded to them, and they set off together through the fields.

As they traveled, it almost seemed like the world was holding its breath. She couldn't sense Liliana's malicious gaze yet, but Alex was sure it wouldn't take long. They moved through the fields at a steady pace, but Alex didn't press them hard. Her team was already fatigued from the previous fights, and from the Surveys earlier. The last thing she needed was to have them exhausted now.

No Shifters or patrols stumbled across them as they moved. She saw occasional clues as to why as they walked. Occasional swaths of farmland had been leveled by massive bodies crashing to earth. Other spots were covered in the crystal remnants left behind by dead Grue. Clearly, Rabbit had already been busy taking care of any complications. Just because the woman was evil didn't mean she and the Grue were friends.

They reached the farm perhaps ten minutes after leaving the portal. It wasn't a mystery where Rabbit and Warner were. After all, a trio of Shifters was doing their level best to kill them.

The massive Grue had not been having the best time of it. All three were bleeding heavily. The flying version was struggling to get airborne again after an obvious crash, and the burrowing Shifter was scrabbling weakly in the dirt. Only the shell-and-scorpion Shifter was still standing, and even it was wavering on its feet. Arrows had punched straight through its armor, and one already stood out from a ruined eye.

Rabbit herself was just watching the beasts from the porch of the ruined farmhouse, with the kind of idle interest a cat might examine a mouse. When the still-standing Shifter started to gurgle and choke, preparing to unleash its venom, she tilted her head to the side. She studied it for a moment. Something like a laugh passed her lips, and then she raised her bow.

There were three sonic blasts, as if a jet had passed by at speed. The flying Shifter went stiff and still, collapsing on its side. Its burrowing companion was thrown onto its back, where it flailed weakly at the air before relaxing into death. As for the third, it reeled back with one of its legs stiff and unmoving, an arrow buried deep in its shoulder.

Then it growled in defiance and turned its head to spray death at her.

It stopped, as if frozen in time. Alex's breath caught. Rabbit hadn't even made a gesture. What kind of power did this woman have?

Rabbit took a step down off the porch, idly fitting another arrow to her bow. "What did I tell you, Warner? It was amusing to see them think they had a chance, wasn't it?"

Alex looked from the B rank to the porch and found Warner there. He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead, and his hands had been tied together, but he wasn't dead yet.

The CEO shook his head. "Look, Naylor, I don't know what they told you, but—"

"But nothing, Warner." Rabbit paused in front of the frozen Shifter, looking up at it with an almost proprietary gaze. "You screwed up. You pay the price. It's what the company wants."

"I've been loyal!" Warner's protest sounded just as desperate as he looked. "Everything they've wanted me to do, everything they needed, I—"

Rabbit looked back at him. "Doesn't matter. You don't matter, Warner. You never did." She turned back to the Shifter, walking around it. "You followed orders, sure, but as of now, you've made a big mess. That's why they had me here. To clean it up."

Warner shook his head. "There's no way those accidents were all my fault. You aren't able to prove that."

"Oh?" Rabbit peered around the back of the Shifter at him, her eyebrows raised. "Do I detect a hint of guilt? What exactly were you up to, Warner?"

He glared back at her, and she laughed. "It doesn't matter, you know. Either way, you're going to take the fall for the company, and then I'll move on to the next big thing. Royal Purple is finished, and so are you."

This time, Warner did speak. Some of his fear fell away, enough to reveal a bubbling kind of anger. "You're insane. All of you are. You can't imagine you'll get away with this."

"Ah, there we go. Bravado." Rabbit smiled. "Everyone always wondered if you had any in you, Warner. A lot of people thought you were just spineless. I mean, staying with the same company that got your brother killed? Playing along like a good little boy for the bosses? I guess I'll be able to tell everyone that—"

She paused. "Oops, one second."

The Shifter came out of its frozen state. It began to lean forward to unleash its breath and stopped, baffled by Rabbit's absence. Its confusion lasted until Rabbit shot it from behind. It dropped like a sack of rocks, and burned, along with its companions. Rabbit shrugged and started walking back to the porch.

"They just aren't any challenge, you know. The next really interesting thing isn't going to show up for another thirty minutes, probably. So boring."

Warner glared at her. "Sorry my murder isn't fun enough for you, psychopath."

She stopped, her expression falling away. "You know, there's a game I could like. You need to be alive, to draw in those irritating gophers. We'll kill two birds with one stone that way." Then she smiled. "Alive, but not unharmed. I wonder where I could shoot you, and how many times, before you need a healing potion to stay breathing. Shall we find out?"

Rabbit started to bring her bow back up, and Alex looked at her friends. They couldn't afford to let Warner die, and backup wasn't going to come in time. They had to move.

They nodded at her, and Alex turned back to the scene. Rabbit was still looking at Warner, who had cringed back against the front of the farmhouse as if trying to make himself a smaller target. It was time.

Alex left cover at a full sprint, closing on the B rank in just moments. She could sense Sam coming in right behind her. Joanna and Clara were already fanning out to the sides, their weapons and hands glowing with magic.

Ahead, Warner's eyes went wide as he saw them. Rabbit, looking up at him, frowned. She glanced backwards.

Alex didn't even wait to see the bow come around. She hid as much of herself behind the shield as she could and accelerated. The Storm filled her, and she channeled the wind to divide the air in front of her, hoping to deflect any shots that came her way. Everything in her peripheral vision became something of a blur as she took two more strides.

The impact staggered her. It twisted her shield out to the side, nearly ripping it from her grip. Exposed, Alex barely managed to take her next step before a second shot glanced off the side of her helmet, just barely missing a direct hit.

She was thrown to the side, her head ringing. Alex rolled, trying to get her shield back up, and looked up in time to see Sam lunge at the woman. She danced back, and Sam froze in place, trapped just like the Shifter had been. As Rabbit began to bring her bow up, Alex shouted, trying to hold her attention.

Then a blast of flame made Rabbit dodge aside, her eyes widening as the heat crisped a strand of her hair. She turned to aim at Joanna, but the Adept channeled a burst of ice to shield herself. The glittering fragments made Joanna flinch away as the arrow shattered her protection, but she still shot another fireball at the B rank.

Rabbit was still dodging that when a crossbow bolt struck at her feet. Suddenly thorns and vines burst from under her, and she snarled in frustration as Clara's magic nearly tripped her. A second crossbow bolt struck her square in the chest, but it bounced off of her armor. She pivoted to aim at Clara, murder in her eyes.

Alex grasped for her magic, sending a bolt of lightning to strike at her bow. Rabbit jerked out of the way, still retreating, and her shot only grazed Clara instead of killing her. Then Alex was there, darting through the tangle of plants to catch up to the B rank and reach close quarters.

Rabbit shot her at point blank range, but the arrow just shattered on the boss of Alex's shield. Running through the glittering fragments, Alex raised her axe to strike.

The next moment, Rabbit was gone, and Alex was striking at the empty air. She stumbled, feeling a terrible moment of dislocation as she searched for her enemy.

She saw Rabbit a few strides away, still firing arrows at the others. Joanna was on one knee, clutching a bloody hole in her shoulder; Clara was right next to her, her Healing Aura slowly sealing the wound as she continued to pour shot after shot at Rabbit. Sam was right in front of the B rank, stabbing time after time in a flurry of strikes.

The B rank was still darting backwards, her face locked in concentration. She dodged another crossbow bolt, ducked an expertly timed thrust, and froze Sam. Her next move was to take a pair of shots at Clara, but her arrows shattered another wall of ice that Joanna had channeled. One of them hit Clara in the leg anyway, but the Acolyte just started healing that wound, too.

Rabbit's triumphant expression fell the moment Alex struck her with a fist full of air. She slid backwards, right into another of Clara's bramble patches. The thorns and underbrush ripped at her boots, and she stumbled, just enough that Alex nearly reached her. She caught sight of a flash of panic on the B rank's expression and tried to lunge in closer.

It was as if a trio of battering rams had slammed into her shield, one after another. Alex was knocked off balance, her boots sliding on the ground as she came down.

Then an arrow caught her square in the leg, and she went down on her face as her feet flew out from under her.

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She rolled, calling on the Storm to spin above her. Another arrow struck her in the shoulder, diverted from the back of her neck, and Alex screamed as it nearly pinned her to the ground. When she looked up, she saw the hunger in Rabbit's eyes as the woman leaned in, her fingers already moving on the bow.

Flame roared into the B rank's chest a heartbeat later, nearly lighting her eyebrows ablaze. Rabbit shrieked and pivoted, freezing Joanna in place, even as another stream of fire burst forward. She sent a spiteful shot in the Adept's direction, but a thicket of vines sprouted in front of Joanna to shelter her.

Healing tore through Alex's body a moment later as Clara reached her. The Acolyte shot another bolt at the B rank, who stepped to the side with an expression full of rage and derision. "Who do you think you are? You're D ranks, you're weak, you're—"

"Right behind you."

Rabbit spun at incredible speed; she was already moving to dodge an incoming thrust, and her hands were already working the bow to pull off a countershot. The problem for her was the fact that Sam hadn't tried to hit her. Instead, he'd swung his spear in a flat arc to deflect her bow—while his offhand was extended directly towards her face.

The B rank screamed as Sam's mental attack went home, and as she staggered, Alex scrambled up off the ground. She saw Rabbit shove Sam's spear aside and pull her bow back up into position. The wind answered her call, and her next stride took her screaming across the distance between them, her axe raised to strike.

Rabbit flinched as she saw Alex coming. It was only that motion that saved Sam's life. The arrow punched through his stomach instead of his heart, and even as he went down, he still had his hand pointed at his target. Alex reached Rabbit less than a heartbeat later, as the B rank began to twist around to face her.

This time, however, she wasn't fast enough. Alex put all of her strength and skill into a flat swing, one that didn't quite reach the B rank's torso—but struck her bow, right at its center.

Alex bared her teeth in victory as the weapon snapped in two. Rabbit took a half-second to stare at the shining wreckage in shock and rage, which gave Alex more than enough time to slam the edge of her shield straight into Rabbit's face.

She felt bone and cartilage crunch, and Rabbit dropped her weapon to clutch at her face in a wordless scream. Alex saw Rabbit start to thrust a hand out and darted to the side as magic flooded the area where she'd been. With a spin of her own, she put another brutal swing into Rabbit's gut. The axe crunched into the armor there, and Rabbit folded up around the blow.

Then Alex felt Rabbit's hand wrap around her arm, and in a blink, the B rank was gone. She staggered forward a bit before spinning to find the B rank literally frozen on the ground. Ice coated her boots, and spikes of it had thrust up and into Rabbit's legs. As she turned and ran towards her, she saw Joanna frozen a short distance away, a victorious look on the Adept's face.

Alex felt a similar flicker of triumph as she shield-checked the still struggling B rank with every ounce of her strength. Ice shattered as she slammed Rabbit halfway across the cleared portion of the field. Rabbit skipped across the ground and slammed into the steps for the farmhouse, shattering them.

The cloud of splinters and dust were still settling when the B rank shot up out of the wreckage. Warner shouted in surprise as Rabbit reached him; a knife that Alex hadn't seen was suddenly in her hand. She put Warner in front of her and snarled at Alex, laying the point along the CEO's neck. "Back. Back or he dies now."

Alex stopped at the foot of the ruined stairs. She looked up at the B rank and shifted her grip on her axe. As she moved, she began to gather her magic around her, as much as she could handle. "Let him go, Rabbit. It's over."

Rabbit choked for a moment on the blood flowing from her broken nose. She spat it on the wooden floor, where it burst into a small flare of yellow flame. "Not even close, gopher. Backup's already on its way."

Alex felt her eyes narrow, but before she could respond, she heard Joanna's feet behind her. Rabbit had let the time freeze drop. "Alex?"

"I've got her." Alex didn't take her eyes off the woman. "Sam?"

Clara answered. "He'll be okay. I got to him in time."

Alex felt a bit of her tension ease. She glanced at Joanna. "She said something about reinforcements."

Joanna grimaced. "We heard that groan while you were frozen. The kind that means a B rank came through the portal."

Hope flared in Alex's chest, but Rabbit laughed. She sneered down at Alex through a mask of her own blood. "That's right. You struggled against one B rank, but two? You're dead, little gopher. None of you are getting out alive."

Alex opened her mouth to respond, hoping to draw things out and buy some time. Then she heard it. Something she'd been waiting for.

It was another groan. One a lot softer than the last one, but one she recognized just the same. Which meant there were two other B ranks in the area.

Rabbit had started to frown, but before she could say anything Alex gathered all the power of the Storm around her—and shot a bolt of lightning straight up into the sky.

The blast was strong enough to raise the hairs on her neck, but it didn't do much of anything else. A crack of expanding air rolled through the grey sky, but she might as well have unleashed a rather loud firecracker. For a moment, Rabbit stared at her.

Then she burst out laughing, blood still dribbling off her chin and burst into pops of brilliant flame. "What, is that supposed to scare me? All you did is bring them here faster."

Alex shrugged. She glanced back at the fields surrounding the farm and hoped she hadn't just doomed them all. In any case, there was nothing she could do without risking Warner being killed. She glanced back to see Sam getting helped to his feet. Joanna was limping from a wound Alex didn't remember her taking, and Clara looked like she was getting to the end of her healing. Even she wasn't feeling so well; the wounds Clara had partially healed were still aching and burning.

She shook off the feeling of impending doom and looked back at Rabbit. The B rank didn't look like she was going anywhere, at least. "Keep an eye out. We have trouble incoming."

Sam snorted. He looked pale, but he seemed to be healing fast. "As if we ever don't." She nodded, and they all settled in to wait.

It didn't take long.

There were eight of them, walking through the grain field to the south. Alex's heart sank as she saw them come, but she still shifted her position to the right, lining up to face them with her friends. They quickly formed a rough triangle, with Rabbit and Warner at the tip. Alex stayed close; if things got rough, she wanted to be able to charge Rabbit as fast as she could.

Laser was leading the C ranks. The rest of her team was with her, smiling as they came to a stop, along with four more C ranks she recognized as members of Poet's team. She hadn't worked with them, just seen them in the cafeteria, but it was enough to know that even just one of those two teams could easily slaughter her and her friends, wounded and worn out as they were now.

The C ranks had obviously come to the same conclusion. They spread out in a half circle, weapons in their hands and grins on their faces. Laser looked over the situation, and her lips quirked as she saw Rabbit holding Warner hostage. "Well, how the mighty have fallen."

Rabbit coughed. "Shove it, Laser."

"Sure." The other B rank snorted to herself. "I thought we'd find the gophers here, but I didn't expect you to be up a tree like this. Aren't you supposed to be the boss' solution to the messes around here? Where's your bow?"

Rabbit glared daggers at her supposed ally. "It'll repair itself soon enough. Just kill them and be done with it."

Laser shrugged. "I will, I will. As soon as the fireworks start. Wouldn't want to show up on the PAD tonight, even if the readings might get a little garbled." She put the tip of her sword into the dirt and studied Alex. "Too bad about you, Valkyrie. You and your buddies might have made a good resource, if you didn't piss so many people off."

Alex shrugged. She wasn't about to tell them that there would be no horde yet. Better to let them waste their time waiting for it. "You don't need to do this, Laser."

The B rank nodded agreeably. "True, but this way pays a lot better." She looked at Rabbit. "Right?"

Rabbit spat blood on the boards, letting another flame burn. She gave Alex a look that said she was willing to start things a little early, if she could.

One of the C ranks, a man nicknamed Salt, shifted on his feet. "Maybe we should just do it now. She might be trying to wait for Grue to come."

Another one, a woman named Ping, laughed. "As if the Grue are going to come attack a pair of B ranks. There's a reason we planned on them breaking through the horde together."

In the distance, a Shifter started to howl. It cut off partway through. The sound didn't fade away or change.

It just stopped.

Salt glanced behind him, as if alarmed. "See? The Shifters are already smelling things. How long before they come here?"

Laser rolled her eyes. "There's worse than Shifters out here, idiot, but Rabbit and I could handle them if they scare you." Then she leered at her fellow B rank. "Or am I wrong, Rabbit? That knife doesn't look too dangerous."

Rabbit snarled at her, twitching the knife. "If you want, I can show you how many times I can stick someone in a second. You can even volunteer, Laser."

There was a round of chuckles, and Laser snorted. "I'll pass, thanks." Then she sighed. "What is Jester doing? He should have started by now."

"He's not going to. There's not going to be a horde." Alex felt her friends go stiff beside her as she spoke, but her eyes were on something to the south. Something closing fast. "We destroyed your device before we got here. No more Anchor Points for you."

The first sign of distress appeared on Laser's face. Her eyes went to Warner, as if looking for confirmation. Then she snarled. "You really are a pest, Valkyrie."

"Stop calling her that. She's just a gopher who dreams to be something more." Poet, the other team leader, stepped forward. The mace on his shoulder looked heavy enough to crush a car. "If there's no reason to wait anymore, let's just finish it and be done. The company can just scrub the PAD data and say it got scrambled."

Alex shook her head. "That's not going to work either."

Rabbit laughed, blood bubbling out of her broken nose. "It worked for the Crimson Blade. It'll work for you and that rat over there."

Warner went still, and Laser rolled her eyes. "Don't brag, Rabbit. Grue got the Blade. You know that."

"Shows what you know. I was there." Rabbit laughed again, looking back at Alex. "Only five more alive aside from me who were—and if it worked for her, it'll work for you."

Alex filed that number away for safekeeping. Her eyes were watching that distant shape, still on approach. "You're wrong, Rabbit."

The B rank snarled at her. "Oh, am I?"

Laser shrugged. "Can't blame her for not believing you, Rabbit, considering where you are."

Alex felt herself begin to grin. "I believe her, actually. She's just got the facts wrong." She smiled wider. "There are six, not five."

Her friends were starting to catch on, now. Clara's eyes were wide and lit with magic for a moment before she turned off her Lifesight. Joanna lifted her sword a little higher. Sam broke into a grin as well, his eyes on the Surveyors. Alex looked back and tried to judge the timing.

Laser and her friends had shifted a little, as if expecting something more. Then Laser sighed. "All right, this has been fun, but we're done here. Valkyrie, if you give up now, I might be persuaded to let you live. Maybe you can even try and take her place." There was absolutely no sincerity in her voice, but Alex hadn't expected any.

Alex shook her head. There was a bow wave out in the grain, like ripples caused by a speedboat. It wouldn't be long now. "I'll do you one better, Laser. If all of you drop your weapons and lay down with your hands on your head, I think I can promise that you'll live."

Rabbit gave a bark of laughter. "Really?"

"Sorry, not you. You're pretty dead, actually." Alex looked back at the others. "You have… ten seconds."

Chuckles and sneers ran through the Surveyors. Poet stepped forward, his mace rising. "Come on, Laser, let's end this."

He looked back at her, and she made a dismissive gesture. Alex spoke up one last time as he and a handful of others started to move forward. "Last chance. I mean it."

Poet smirked at her. "Sure, you do." He stepped forward, magic beginning to gather around his massive weapon. Alex was fairly sure it would have obliterated her, shield or no shield, in a single hit. There wouldn't have even been anything left to heal.

Not that it mattered.

The C rank took another step forward—and stopped. A glittering, glowing sword had punched straight through the middle of his chest.

Behind him, there was an armored figure that hadn't been there a heartbeat before. They had their head bowed, and their feet were half-buried in the grooves the boots had gouged when they landed after their lunge. The armor had seen better days; the metal still showed burns and gouges, especially around the ruined, twisted remains that covered where its right shoulder should have met its right arm and the mangled mess of one side of its visor.

For less than a heartbeat, the tableau remained frozen as if in ice. Then the crack of a broken sound barrier rolled over the farm, as the figure pulled its sword free from Poet's back. The Surveyor dropped his mace and fell to his knees, tilting his head forward to stare at the bleeding hole in his chest.

Muriel met Alex's eyes across the intervening distance and smiled. "One."

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