Nooooo stuff today! You know what that means! It means I'm gonna make this chapter real long and detailed, hopefully to make up for me being gone for a week! And for Chapter Nine, which I think kinda sucked lol- it had a point, though, as you'll see here. Anyway, if you liked it, yayz! I luv you. If you didn't, I get where you're coming from, I know.

Rambling… Rambling… Chapter Ten!

10- The world jumps back into focus suddenly. Once it was all black- it seems like forever, almost, but no… No, that was just yesterday, right? Shopping and crap? Remember that? And Nine and John and Adam and Sam all playing around, not trying to kill each other for various stupid reasons? Remember that? Remember how nobody was a traitor, they just wanted to get along?

Remember how we were getting creative? That whole TK thing? Why'd I call it TK, anyway? Remember all the people? Bustling around, perfectly oblivious to all our problems and all the threats to their lifestyle? All of them on their own business, all that? Not really…

Remember our perfect little loft? And that shoe store that… I don't remember. I can hardly picture the loft anymore, and… no…

I see Mario Kart once more, but the scene is almost transparent now, fading into the back of my mind. Wait… I look around. What was I thinking about again? Something about New York. About… Nine and John getting along… I chuckle at the thought, however bitterly. Yeah. The day those two get along is the day we win the war.

Yesterday. That's what I was thinking about. Why would I want to think about that? Nothing good happened there. A lot of mistakes, infighting, escaping from the Barn, that was good. Getting threatened by random street guys, bad. Throwing up at the McDonalds, good.

Beating the living shit out of John? Bad. Tossing everyone around like they were nothing? Bad. Remember that Sarah you were thinking about? That one that was so happy and called you chick? Who calls each other chick, anyway? She hates you, Mar! Sure, you saved her from death- being thrown forcefully into a hard brick building, then dropping three stories to the hard ground- but only because you did it to her in the first place! And John… she loves him!

How could you do that! Nine's always been so annoying with his irritating rants about John being evil, and he did try to kill him yesterday, throwing discarded bricks so fast at his mangled body that they burst into little explosions on the surface of the concrete… Then Six tried to escape in the truck, and Nine jumped aboard, stole the wheel and tried to throw John out the window? That's what Six said he did.

John said it was almost as if Nine was like an older brother to him- annoying, but lovable, sure. He told us about their fight on the roof, but this took it too far. Yeah, about them playing Mario Kart together, peacefully? Nope.

Oh, and the look on Nine's face when he came back from blowing up the five nearest gas stations, and finding Adam sitting there staring up at us blankly? He was on Adam so fast, it was within the tenth of a second, and even less when the knife went straight through Adam's forehead and burrowed in his brain.

What happened next? It's all kind of a blur. I remember John charging Nine, throwing him off while I run up to Adam faster than lightning and start to fix his head. He's fine in the end. But needless to say, he didn't bunk with Nine.

Nobody bunked with Nine, actually. I look around the Podunk little Motel room we've got here- sharing a bed with me is Six, who's still asleep, even as I stand up and hop lightly out, setting the covers back down noiselessly as I do so.

The clock on the little wooden bedside table between the two queen beds reads 4:12. Wow. No wonder she's still asleep, or Nine in the other bed, taking up all the space. That might be a reason no one bunked with him, too… Just maybe. That and the fact that he's now assaulted pretty much everyone in our party.

I've assaulted more, though.

I tried explaining it to John, and he says that it's all cool, that he's not gonna sneak in here and slit my throat in my sleep for what I did, but I can tell that it's just him being kind and thoughtful about me and… Yeah, I'm a big girl. I can think about it. He's being kind about me and Eight. I know that's why he's gentle, even though I'm really not.

What was my dream world like? It was perfect… we all got along… We had no problems in the world… We had just settled down and stayed there. Last night we traveled well into the night to get as far away from that place as possible, pretty much driving all afternoon and not stopping when the sun went down. Malcolm's the only one that explicitly said that they'd be on the battle scene, ripping the memories out of witnesses by the end of the day, and they'd have tracked us and know where we were. So we had to get away.

That's how we're here. Camped out, not in an expensive SoHo loft space, but a dumpy Hampton Inn in Alexandria, Virginia. And as soon as dawn breaks, we'll be on the move again, and in who-knows-what town by sunset.

It gets tiring, you know? I've been on the run for, what, a few days? What about what everyone else went through? Being yanked out of fake lives every few months to get moving because there may or may not be a Mog in a thousand mile radius?

Eh. I don't want to think about it anymore. I jump in the shower and take a short, quick one, then change back into my old clothes, which probably ruins the point, because they still smell like woods and smoke. I've been wearing the same things for a week, haven't I? Why can't we just be left alone? Why can't we just go derp off for a month in New York, training and gaining new legacies, actually getting ready? Yeah, that week and a half in Chicago doesn't count.

I squeak open the door as quietly as I can muster, and still wince as it makes what is probably the loudest sound I've ever heard in my entire life. Six stirs, Nine doesn't. Fine. I just shut the door quickly on my way out, not really caring if they wake up. They'll see the time and jump right back to sleep. I should've, and I'm really tired, but I don't want to sleep. Will I see a perfect, tantalizing world again? One I'll never have as long as I live? It's not the nightmares like Ella had, and it's a stupid excuse to go downstairs and whatever, but, I dunno.

Ella. That's the one thing that the others have been pretty vague on. All John'll say is that the Mogs captured her in the battle in Chicago- nothing more. I already knew that Eight was gone, and after my week in complete isolation- or as near as I'll hopefully ever get- I'm all cried out. Over everything. But this dark world got just a little darker when I learned that Ella wasn't one of the people I threw violently into the side of a building.

Huh. Surprisingly, I feel both comforted and disturbed by that fact. I wonder why.

I push the elevator button to go down, all the way to the bottom floor. By that, I mean down two floors. We got you a penthouse, Nine… Be happy…

Breakfast doesn't actually start getting served down here until, like, five o'clock, I think. It's on that billboard out front, and we chose this place specifically because it offered the earliest breakfast, so we could set out as soon as possible. All that doesn't mean I'm sure, though. Maybe it's four thirty… Yeah, I hope it's that. I'm tired, and also hungry. I could go for a bagel or something. Not too hot, not to cold. Just Goldilocks.

Huh. Goldilocks. I heard that story many times rom Adelina as a kid, but it just doesn't have the same ring to it. It sounds… foreign. I guess that's because it is. I've been trying to learn to, like, think in English, instead of Spanish, but it's a hard transition. It's not encerrada dorada. It's just Goldilocks.

The breakfast place is just an extension of the lobby, in all its pale whiteness. No paint. White walls, white tile floors- not even wallpaper. The restaurant has this pretty purple flower wallpaper, though. It lightens the mood. A little.

John and Adam are sitting there at one of the brightly colored wooden tables, crouched over something that's lighting their faces up. As the elevator closes shut, John's head perks up and sees me. He stands up, and so does Adam, their faces darkening. "Hey, uh, Marina," John stutters. "Whatcha up to?"

Adam stays silent, but he steps towards me, and I notice that he's got the same grey wolf at his side as yesterday, plus… his head looks blurry. Somehow. I dunno.

I start toward them, and see that the thing that was lighting them up is the tablet. Good. I didn't destroy that, at least. "Hey, guys."

I see it before it can register- Adam's face is blurred because shapes keep passing in front of it, kinda fast. Never in front of his eyes, just, like, orbiting his head… Those are horseflies! Shit!

Too late. Before I can move, one of them breaks off and charges me, and I back up quickly toward the door. "What! Why! What the hell, Adam? What's with the horseflies!"

His face is moving up and down really fast, and… wait. He's laughing! They're both laughing! "Guys! Do something! What's with the horsefly!"

Before it can get too close, it suddenly morphs, turning into a golden retriever on the floor as I watch. Its hair is tangled and dirty, but it's still beautiful. It charges me more, coming up as if it's trying to tackle me and licks me hand feverishly.

"Not funny, guys!" Yeah, I completely forgot about Adam's story about rescuing the chimaera. I guess I was kind of skeptical, I mean, one- A mog helping us in the first place? And two- to help us so much as to give us a key in winning the war? I lighten up a little, though. C'mon- who wouldn't calm down and relax when there's a golden retriever in the room? That or go berserk, because they've got so much energy, see? "What's her name?"

"What'd we name that one?" Adam asks John.

"Tycho," he says back. "Yeah, we've been brainstorming names for all of them. What do you think, Marina?" He walks up to me and pats Tycho on the head as he does so, showing me a list.

Alex

Burgundy

Curiosity

Deeohgee

Barre

Tycho

Sand

Earth

Gally

Newton

I nod in my approval. "Seems good. Just… Deeohgee? What kind of name is that?"

John snickers to himself, then holds out his hands and writes a D-O-G on the paper. "Oh."

"Yeah, we're not gonna use that one. It seems to.. disrespectful, you know? For vicious beasts, they should have good, respectful names, right?"

"Bernie Kosar?" I say, cocking an eyebrow, and he laughs.

"He's a football player!"

"My point," we both start laughing at this, and I glance over at Adam, who's still over there with his horseflies and wolf. The Chimeara have seemed to stuck to him mostly, and I guess it's because they know him best or something. He's only had them for a week or so, though, barely longer than they knew John. I guess there's something… warm about Adam. And cold at the same time. I mean, Mog, right?

"Anyway, Adam, wanna show her the herd?" He looks back over to him.

He stands up. "Uh, yeah, sure," he walks over and stands by us, making a triangle.

"Kay guys, wanna show yourselves?" John talks to the animals, and they all buzz around Adam's head once more before flying off and landing on the floor, turning into four more dogs. I don't know breeds, but I'm pretty sure one's a great dane, and we have all three types of labs. There's only the black ones, the yellow ones, and the chocolate ones, right? Whatever. Those are the dogs that now sit on the floor.

John points to the Chocolate one. "That's Newton," then to the Yellow one, "Earth," Then to the black one, "Alex," and finally to the great dane. "And this is Burgundy."

"Ha-ha. You mean Ron Burgundy?" We watched the Anchorman back in Chicago one night, before we met Five. That's probably where he pulled the name from.

"Actually, no. Remember, they have to be respectful names? Burgundy is actually a kingdom in medieval France," He pauses for a minute, "It's also Ron Burgundy's last name."

I raise my fist into the air, success! "I knew it!"

"So, yeah. That, and, we've been tracking Five. He's close, actually, if you wanna see," I nod, and he leads me and Adam back to the table, where the tablet sits idly. There's four pulsing blue dots in northern Virginia and a fifth… in the middle of Maryland? No… No, that's Washington DC! Five's in freaking Washington! The capitol!

"Uhhh, what?"

"The government and the Mogs are in cahoots, remember? It doesn't actually surprise me, that much," John concedes. I guess he's right. And what Adam talked about there being a kind of Mog village there, yeah. That makes sense.

Something else catches my eye. A sixth blue dot. Sitting, unmoving. In. West. Virginia. Ella. "No."

John realizes where I'm looking, but doesn't say anything. Adam moves away, back over to where the herd is now bouncing around playfully, probably waking up everyone else in the building.

It's all quiet. The sound of the dogs is gone, of the AC running, that familiar hum that seems to be in the background anywhere. I think about Sam, the scars on his wrists. About Six and Nine, seeing their Cepans cut up and tortured there. It got so bad that Nine killed Sandor so that he wouldn't have to endure any more. What about Ella…

I wipe my eyes, my arm feeling wet with tears. I didn't even realize I was crying. Guess I'm not all cried out, huh. John just pats me on the back, muttering "It's okay. It's all going to be okay in the end."

What if it isn't? Our chances are looking better by the day, but, just think how close we were to annihilation in Florida! And New Mexico! We always thought it would be so easy after we found each other… that it'd be over and we could go home. Well, it turns out that some things aren't that simple, huh. We actually have to fight the war, now, instead of just run from it. Pretend it doesn't exist. Adelina.

I can't blame her for that, no. It's not her fault. It's the people, all those disrespectful people. Remind we why we're saving them, again?

I look up. Mostly because the dogs all start growling at once. Standing at the elevator door is a figure- Nine. He stalks out and comes face to face with Adam, towering over him by a full head. They don't speak, and Nine brushes past him, probably intentionally hitting his shoulder, and the herd, coming up to us. "So when's breakfast?"

John's eyes wander up to the clock on the wall. "Looks like half an hour, about exactly," I see that the clock says 4:30. Yup. It is five o'clock. Just my luck. Hey, at least you're not dead or tortured.

"Thanks, Don John," Nine sneers, then his eyes fall on me. I try to wipe the tears away as fast as possible, but it doesn't go over so well. "Johnny, what'd you and your Mog friend do to her!"

He stomps over and drapes a protective arm over my shoulder. For some reason I don't shrug it off, even though I should. It feels warm and comforting. From Nine. Yeah, that's confusing.

"She saw where Ella is," Is all John says, and then he's gone, over by Adam playing with the herd. Dogs. D-O-G's. Whatever.

Nine looks at the tablet, and he just nods. "Coulda expected that…"

That's when I shrug him off. "Really! That's all you got!" All the dogs', plus wolf's, ears jump up and look at me.

"What're you looking at!" Nine shouts at them. "Nothing to see here!" They all go back to what they were doing, although John's eyes linger on us for a little while before he returns.

"And, yeah. They captured Ella, where else would they take her? They're gonna get as much information out of her as they can, before they…"

"Oh, just say it," I mutter bitterly. "They're going to kill her. Slowly, like they were doing with Sam. That green liquid…," a shiver shoots up my spine, and suddenly it's way colder in here. The clock on the wall is no longer visible from the frost, and all the chimaera morph into something with heavy fur- a lot trying the wolf on for size. Not Dust's wolf, still, more fur.

I breathe in and out, slowly, my breath visible in clouds floating in front of me. Nine rubs his arms with his hands fast, Adam visibly shivers. I can see it from here. John just stands there, though. The benefits of being resistant to temperature. "What's happening?"

Nine shivers his way forward, standing up straight to talk. "She must've forgot to tell you. Marina developed a new legacy. She can control ice,"

John's eyes light up. "Fire and ice, baby!" Even I can't help but laugh. Yeah, Fire and Ice.

"I can't really control it yet, though. It just sort of happens, like, when I get emotional and that."

"Yeah, yeah, same thing with my Lumen. When I first got it, my hands would light up whenever I got stressed or angry. You just gotta learn to control it, Marina."

"Yeah, I know. That's… kinda the problem…," I trail off.

"C'mon, just breathe, Marina. Just, think happy thoughts," He tries.

Breathe. In and out. In and out. Without realizing it, I closed my eyes, and when I open them the clock is fine again. There's pools of water on the floor, which John is quick to dry up by shining his palms on it. It, like, boils away, but it's still gone.

I look back and stare at the pale blue dot in West Virginia. Then, trying to get away from it, I switch to the view that shows us the ships. Ella's is still in Egypt, but… our ship has changed. It's not in New Mexico anymore, it's way north, somewhere in, like, Colorado. Wait… is it moving? Yeah! The green triangle shape is moving, crawling slowly eastward. Hah! They must've hauled it out of the wreckage of the base and are, like, shipping it off to some other Mog Base.

I drag Nine over and show it to him. "Haha! Cool!" Is all he says, although he picks up the tablet and switches it back and forth between Garde View and Ship View a few times. "Yeah, it's definitely coming this way. Maybe they'll dump it in West Virginia, too. Then we could kill two birds with one stone," he muses. "Metaphorically, of course," He says, turning to me. "I'm not saying we actually, you know, kill her."

Well I wasn't thinking about that. Why was Nine?

The elevator dings for, like, the billionth time, and this time when it opens there's a whole party in there. I guess Six finally woke up, or somebody woke her, and Sam and Malcolm and Sarah all spill out, too. John pulls Sarah into a warm embrace and Six pets Alex on the back for a second before walking over to me and Nine. "What's up?"

"Take a look," I spout grimly, handing her the tablet. Her amused face- probably at the moving ship- quickly fades when she sees where Ella is. "No… I'm so sorry, Marina."

She pulls me into a hug, and her body is warm around me. I never realized I was so cold… The same shiver from earlier shoots down to the small of my back again. "God, Marina, you're so cold!"

I rub my arms quickly like they do in movies. "I know, right."

We turn off the tablet and set it on the table, then scoot two more tables over too it, creating one giant one. We're ready and waiting as the lobby attendant walks in the front door and sees us all waiting. He rushes around, plopping down bagels and muffins and apples and stuff. We all combined probably gobble up their whole supply, and for a second I feel a little ashamed that we're depriving all the other customers. Then I bite into my bagel, and it passes.

Nobody talks. We just eat in silence. It's so hard to keep track of who can't stand each other nowadays, but everyone seems, content. That's the word. Content with our present, and content on what's to come.