Ilana had always liked Illinois better from the ground. Everything was closer, more intimate, more recognizable and tangible. Her house was different from the other houses, and her street was wider and had more trees than the other streets, and the sidewalks and parks were friendlier when she could touch them with her feet and smell the grass and mud and watch squirrels dive for food in the trash cans. When she walked through Sherman, every door had someone behind it, a life of comings and goings; every person she passed had a face, and a name somewhere, and a place to go back to.

But she was several thousand feet over the ground, soaring over the city in her Corus armor with arms outstretched, and Sherman looked like an angular grey stain spilled across the snowed-over landscape. Ilana wanted to pick at it and scratch it off, blot it from the fabric, make it all disappear and the land would be fresh and white again. The sky was a lonely place to be. She wasn't sure where she was going, so she flew along the coast of the lake, hearing little but the soft whir of the armor, and chose south.

"Ilana? Why did you turn on your armor? Did something happen? I waited for you two in the parking lot for quite some time…"

Octus' voice came through the comm warm and clear as Ilana left Sherman and flew giant curving zigzags over the highway, gracefully banking each turn.

"Sorry, Octus. I just need some alone time. I'll be fine, don't worry," she said, diving low and making a wide swoop around a tall copse of snow-covered trees.

"Oh. Is Lance with you?"

"No, I don't know where he is, " Ilana said, flying towards a small partially frozen lake. She dropped a hand onto the surface of the water, skimming the lake and sending up two white wings of icy water. Octus didn't respond and Ilana soared upwards again; up, up over the treetops, hundreds of yards over the surface of the Earth, and climbing steadily. He was probably calling Lance. She didn't particularly care where he'd gone.

Fifteen minutes later, Octus radioed in again. "I believe there's a proper Earth term for how Lance is behaving," he said, and she detected a small hint of self-satisfaction at his mastery of Earth slang.

"Let's hear it."

"He's being what they call a 'a total dick.'"

Ilana giggled in spite of herself.

"Also, I have obtained a bag of marshmallows for you… and Kimmy said she's totally down for girl-talk if you want. I don't know how it's different from normal talk, but I think it has something to do with chocolate," said Octus scientifically.

"Tell her thanks. I'll be home for dinner." And with that, Ilana rose to just under the cloud cover and soared southward.

An hour later and she hadn't been interrupted again. There were cars down below, darting along the highway like ants, colorless and undead, and the snow cover was slowly thinning and disappearing. The distance was refreshing in a strange, cold way.

Ilana dropped below the canopy of a blackened winter forest, tracing a creek through the woods, watching the dulled golden reflection of her Corus armor on the water. She was so far south that the snow was gone, and the area seemed familiar; the creek broke off into larger ponds and streambeds, and there were dark, damp groves tucked in the banks and between the trees. It was the swamp where the Muculox had turned her into that thing so many months ago. If she was right, and if G3 hadn't taken it, the tadpole ship would still be there, nose in the dirt.

The trees parted and Ilana felt a grim satisfaction. The ship was there, poking out of the earth like a giant cracked bubble. The hole where Lance had impaled the Muculox through the shield was full of mud, and the Spear construct had vanished. She landed on the ground with a soft thump and peered into the ship, tentatively, not knowing why her curiosity was getting the better of her, nor why she had run to the place where that gross thing had turned her into something else.

Ilana almost retched inside the Corus armor and stumbled away from the ship, gagging uncontrollably. The Muculox was there, all right, leering at her through its semi-rotted and dried-out face, its transparent membrane shriveled to its skull. The local wildlife must have found it unappetizing. She couldn't blame them - the thing was disgusting. She had almost been that thing. Ilana shuddered, and pointedly ignoring the four empty eye sockets, crawled into the dark cockpit.

God, the Muculox had pretty much killed her and she'd lived. The hollowed eyes drew her in, like wells, cool and dark and bottomless. The Mutraddi had killed people on Earth, because she was there. But who was still alive on Galaluna? Her father? Hobbes? Anyone? With a furious motion she swept snow off the command console, turned to the Muculox corpse, and with a brief burst of laser-guided rage, blew it up.

The ship began to hum and vibrate, feebly, but surely. Ilana's knees went weak and she dropped into the chair, brushing the rest of the mud off the console lit up, scripts filling the screens, numbers and maps and comms –

A Galalunan textbook sprang to mind: Muculoxic ships organically interface with their environments, and 'hibernate' rather than power down. The ship was alive. The ship's last entered coordinates were Galaluna. The ship, without its engines, was useless.

But, she realized with a sudden thrill, the comm was not. Ilana reached her hands to her neck and, with a soft pop, took her helmet off.

Half an hour later, the Corus armor began beeping frantically and Octus' voice came fuzzy through the comm.

"Ilana, the space rift opened. It landed downtown, meet us there as fast as you can!"

"I'll be right there, Octus," she said, shoving her helmet back on and leaping out of the cockpit. She took off into the charcoal-grey sky and sped northward towards Sherman, a small, warm hope stealing into her breast. It had nothing to do with opening space rifts.

~ break ~

Ilana alighted gracefully into the plaza in front of Sherman City Hall.

The plaza was full of bright urban lights and completely devoid of people. There was a massive splatter of rubble that used to be the front entrance of the Andrews Tower and a deep, gash-like furrow in the street, exposing pipes and utility lines. Sherman City Hall was riddled with hundreds of holes, each hole marked by a small black scorch mark. Lance must've tried to shoot it, but… it had been moving too fast… She opened her comm.

"Octus? …Lance? I'm here, where are you?"

A few seconds of silence, and - Lance slammed to the street in front of her, crunching the asphalt under his Manus armor, gold light sliding off the purple armor. Even over the comm, Ilana could hear him breathing heavily. She thought about saying something, really quick, feeling uncomfortably warm underneath her armor -

"It's in the metro tunnel… or the sewers… we need to kill the fucker," he spluttered bluntly, and dove down the semi-exploded metro station staircase on the corner of the street. Ilana sprinted and then flew after him, down into the darkened metro station. She could deal with her anger later.

"What kind of creature is it?" she yelled, as they skimmed the walls of pitch-black metro tunnels.

"It's an Apessian scorpion… I've seen big ones tear through Manus armors. And they're venomous. Octus and I can deal with it," he said shortly, feet dropping to a station platform in a huge, vaulted metro cavern. Ilana opened her mouth to complain as she scanned the cavern, full of rubble like the plaza, and saw Octus –

CRACK. The scorpion smacked Octus into the wall with a vicious slap of its claw and shrieked, jabbing at the wall with both claws as Octus dodged it. Each jab gouged a new hole into the wall, sending bursts of concrete onto the station platforms.

Ilana felt an inescapable sense of revulsion – its slightly furred blackish carapace was translucent under the pale lights, and its tail almost pulsed with tension and power – and its jaws, hideous, slavering, dripping jaws full of strange teeth, and tiny gleaming eyes and segmented body and all those creeping, jerking legs – she could almost feel those little legs crawling up her skin, light, sharp, sticking – ugh.

Lance ejected a sword from his armory, swung it, and leapt forward, kicking back a plume of smoke; the sword flashed high over his head and the scorpion tail shot into him, slapping him down and sending the sword skittering and clattering against the metro rails. The scorpion shrieked again and scuttled around to Ilana – she shot it with a Corus beam; it barely seared the carapace, and its tail darted and missed as she jumped away –

"Out of the way!" Lance shouted, as a Cronus chain popped out of his armory. He threw the chain at the tail, making his mark; the chain wrapped around the tail once, twice, three times – and the scorpion cut the chain in two with an irate snap of its claw. Octus zapped it with an energy beam. It squealed angrily, giving off a strong burnt smell, and grabbed Octus in its claw, trying to stab him with its tail but Octus merely dematerialized – it struck Octus' Eye and he sparked; Lance fired a gauntlet rocket into the scorpion's face and Octus thudded to the ground, fizzling.

"That was a terrible idea," he said faintly.

"Initiate Ti – !" Lane began.

"Terminate," Ilana cut in, skating to Octus and pulling him out of the scorpion's reach. Lance grunted irately and fired another rocket. The scorpion quailed against the explosive hit and screamed menacingly, a shrill, piercing sound that stung their ears.

"Initiate Tita – "

"Terminate! Terminate! We can't do it here, we'd cave the metro station and there are people over us!" Ilana cried, as the scorpion shivered dust off its back, its tail curling backwards.

"Do you have a better idea? It's going to kill us!" Lance yelled back, diving towards the sword as the scorpion turned and snapped at him. It was too fast for the three of them and their weapons weren't enough. Ilana stared at it, her mind blank, her heart pumping wildly. It was low to the floor, sitting on its eight jointed legs, nasty, revolting creature – and reared up slightly, showing a fleshy yellowish underbelly –

Ilana tore across the platforms, over the tracks, to Lance, as the scorpion opened its claws. She wrenched the sword from his hand, jumped, and back-flipped off the Manus armor's chest, sending Lance crashing into the wall behind as the scorpion thrust forward with both of its claws – and it pinned Lance to the wall, one claw on his outstretched arm, the other across his waist – its tail coiled back, ready to strike –

And Ilana had the sword.

~ break ~

Dear lord what monster of a fanfic have I created, this thing is an unwieldy beast and it went through 4 drafts before i could finally tolerate it

And yes, I have indeed characterized Ilana as a girl who'd steal a person's weapon and kick them into a wall, leaving them relatively vulnerable to giant vicious scorpions with armor-piercing tails. But for real, she shot up G3 in Fortress of Deception, no problem! With explosions! And you know those explosions weren't Y-7.

Anyway, let me know what you thought, commentary is always sincerely appreciated. Next chapter: Righteous girl power is the best kind of power and Lance is kind of vindicated