Penumbra woke before the sun was visible. A golden-grey light was humming through the forest, and the night's mist made the air cold and hard to breathe in. She never enjoyed these kinds of mornings when she was alive, but she had been deprived of such weather in the Beneath, and she now appreciated it, to some degree. At the moment, she was wrapped up in Monsanto's arms, though she couldn't exactly remember how she got there. She had a vague sense that it was her own fault, as she had crawled towards him in the middle of the night . . . because of the cold, of course. Now, as the low temperature took on a humid quality, she wished he would move his chest a little to cover her arm, but she didn't want to wake him, and it was an odd request anyway.

Speaking of odd requests, he had previously mentioned a desire to leave his name behind. She hadn't told him yet, but over the past few days, she'd been thinking up a new one. So far, she hadn't settled on anything solid, but she wanted to ask him for his input. At the same time, she didn't really feel like bringing it up, because it might make her look stupid for one reason or another. Maybe she was past that point already. Her fingers were laced through his.

"Are you awake?"

He did not reply. She elbowed him gently, and he groaned.

"Are you awake?" she repeated.

"I am. Are you ready to go?"

"Yes. Were you serious about wanting a new name?"

"What?"

"A new name. You said you don't like your current one."

He yawned and stretched out his arms, letting go of her hand in the process.

"It's not that I don't like it. I'm just ashamed of what I did, and my name reminds me. Changing it won't undo that."

"But would you like to?"

"Like to what?"

"Change it."

He rubbed his eyes.

"Sure, sure. That would be nice. Do you have any ideas?"

"Nothing good."

He gave a crooked smile.

"I know for a fact that you're lying. Tell me what you're thinking."

She shook her head.

"You'll laugh."

He nudged her gently.

"Just tell me. If your ideas are stupid, I promise to forget them."

She opened her mouth, but before she could utter a single syllable, the ground gave a jolt, and she was flung forward. Monsanto, too, fell over, but in a swift motion, he rolled upright, shaking as the earth trembled beneath his feet.

"Something's wrong."

Penumbra pulled herself upright, hanging onto his arm.

"It's catching up to us! That's impossible! We had enough time-"

She shrieked as the ground began to crumble away.

***TLS***

"STEGOCERATOPS! STEGOCERATOPS! AFTER HER!"

Having solved the skeleton's riddle, Lowery, Karen, and Claire stumbled through the clock, and Prince Owen followed. King Wu had been absent recently, which struck Claire as odd, but he was summoned by the shrieking skeleton, and promptly smashed the clock, blocking off the exit. The only way out was through the lair of the beast that lay sleeping under the castle.

***TLS***

Monsanto was a faster runner than his companion. He tugged on her arm, trying desperately to increase her velocity, but he only managed to make her stumble. Still, he could not bear to let go. He dragged her through a crumbling tunnel that would allow them to cross a mountain range, and bits of stone tumbled down from the walls around them. The forest in which they had spent the night no longer existed, and soon, the passage would go with it. The echo of larger boulders crashing to the floor was terrifying, but the light ahead kept them going. Just when it seemed like they would make it through the cavern, a rock fell where their hands were joined, separating them forcefully. A wall of debris piled up between the two bodies. Monsanto was knocked backwards by a stalactite, and the grimy floor scraped his shoulder. Through his coughing (brought on by a shower of dust), he called out to the woman on the other side of the wall.

"PENUMBRA! PENUMBRA! PENNY!"

There was a fearful whimper.

"Help!"

He ran up to the wall, fumbling around to search for a way through.

"Are you hurt?"

"N-no. I can't see. I'm stuck."

"Are you pinned down?"

"No, but I'm trapped from both sides."

He climbed up towards the ceiling.

"There has to be a way out of here. Can you move around at all?"

"Yes. I have room . . . I think. It's very dark."

The pocket she was trapped in was, in fact, quite small. She barely had enough room to spread her arms. It was starting to remind her of something . . .

"Can you get me out?" she croaked.

"I think so. I just have to dig. The tremors have stopped, so we should have enough time to get you out safely. Stand back. I don't want anything to fall on you."

She heard him moving loose rocks around. This brought her relief, but as she got a better sense of her surroundings, she started to feel uneasy.

"Monsanto . . ."

"What is it?"

"I don't like this."

"It's not exactly my idea of a good time, either."

She started to shrink away into the corner.

"Please hurry."

"I'm doing the best I can. Be patient."

She closed her eyes and started to shake.

"Monsanto . . ."

"What?"

"I . . . I don't know. Just keep talking."

"I need to focus."

She fell on her side, burying her face in her knees.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god . . ."

"What's wrong?"

She withheld her reply, because tears were welling up in her eyes. Noticing this silence, Monsanto stopped digging and pressed his ear against the wall.

"Are you okay?"

She gave an affirmative whimper. He nodded and backed away.

"I need leverage. Wait here. I'll find a way to get you out."

She took a frantic breath, but forced herself to stay quiet. After a few seconds, however, she couldn't help herself.

"Don't go!" she blurted, "Look, I didn't want to admit it, but this is really starting to scare me. I'm afraid. I'm afraid."

There was no reply. She glared at the wall with contempt.

"Shut up! I'm not a coward. They used to lock me in a place like this while my mother was away. If that had happened to you, you'd be just as frightened right now!"

She hiccupped and wrapped her arms around her knees.

"They'd leave me in the dark for hours and hours, and I couldn't even sleep, because the floor was covered in bent nails. Every day, there came a point when the silence would break me. I wondered if the soldiers were ever coming back. I wondered if they'd leave me to die in there. And then . . ."

She shut her eyes tight.

". . . and then I wondered if any of it was real at all. That silence was so different from the warmth of my home, the sound of my mother's voice . . . sunlight . . . I forgot about everything good in the world. As far as I was concerned, none of it had ever existed, because the darkness seemed like it would last forever. The room was reality, and life was a dream. No matter how many times they let me out, I never anticipated the end during the next round. To me, the darkness was Hell, and it would last forever."

She imagined her friend sitting on the other side of the wall, listening to her story. He was no doubt struggling to figure out what she was getting at. A flicker of hope came to life in her chest. She opened her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry. I'm being vague again. I'm okay, though. I'm okay. This cave is nothing like the darkness, because I know you're on the other side of that wall, waiting for me."

She stood up with shaky knees.

"You may be wondering why I'm telling you all of this. It's not because I'm afraid, not really. The truth is, I've been living in that same darkness for years. I escaped the camps alone, with no one to turn to for guidance. Then, I was isolated in the Beneath, and when the worlds became one, that didn't change. The only time I stopped being alone was when I met you. I think that's why I let you tag along. I mean, we've only known each other for a few days, and we're not even that close, but all this time, I've been dying to tell you what happened to me, just so that someone can know . . ."

She pressed her forehead against the piled-up rocks.

"God, I don't know what I'm saying. I'm just trying to make you understand. Maybe it's impossible . . . maybe it's pointless . . ."

She let herself sink to the ground again.

"That's okay. I've made a decision. I don't want to be alone anymore. I want someone to stand with me, to understand what I'm trying to accomplish. I want someone to listen . . ."

She sniffled, then wiped her nose on her sleeve.

"I'm going to start crying now. I don't even care. I just want you to hear what I have to say."

She took a shaky breath.

"Back when I was a child, the person I loved most in the world was my mother. She was always there for me. We were inseparable. Even when we were taken away to that awful place, my mother convinced the wardens to let us stay together. Every night, she'd return to our bunker with bruises on her hindquarters. I asked her what was going on, and she said that they'd let me stay with her another day, and that was all that mattered. She'd ask me how I was feeling, and I never told her about the room they locked me in, because they said bad things would happen if I did."

She gulped.

"All I wanted was to escape with my mother. I was so close, so close to accomplishing that goal. Three bullets later, she slipped from a log and fell into the river. Just a few more steps, and she would have made it across the canyon and into the forest. Ever since that night, I've been going over the same scenario in my head, wondering if there was a way she could have been saved. I still don't have an answer. And . . . that's something no child should ever have to think about. I don't know who to blame: the dictator, his followers, humans in general . . . myself . . . In the end, I believe the blame is shared by many people, and they should all be punished in some way. This includes me. Until very recently, I was ready to suffer in the Beneath, but only after the other criminals had been brought to justice. That's why I have no issue with resorting to drastic measures. I'm a bad person, and I will do bad things to bad people so that we can all suffer for our crimes. I'm flattered that you think I'm only a victim, but the truth is . . . I'm just as bad as the others. I've accepted the darkness in me, but you have to understand that what you're doing is putting me in a very tough position. See, you're essentially a good person, and I'm not. I'll end up in the Beneath regardless of what happens from now on, but you have a choice. That's why I was thrilled to hear you say that you'd like to kill Claire for me. It's not because I want your help. If you can be as bad of a person as I am, then you won't have to leave when the worlds split apart. I desperately want you to be a bad person, because if you are, we can be together forever."

Silence. Penumbra lifted her head, then looked down again.

"I guess that makes me pretty selfish, right?"

When she heard the sound of footsteps, she panicked.

"Wait! Don't go! Let me explain . . ."

The sound was getting louder, oddly enough. He was not running away.

"I'm back!"

Penumbra's eyes went wide.

"What? . . ."

"I found a branch to help me with the digging. Are you doing okay in there?"

She gulped.

"How long have you been gone?"

"Ever since I said I was- Wait, you thought I was still here?"

Penumbra's jaw dropped.

"I . . . No, I didn't. I was just . . . um . . . Look, can you start digging?"

"Sure thing."

She could hear him slamming the wood into wide cracks, rocking it back and forth to weaken the supports. Her heart fluttered.

"Monsanto . . ."

"Yeah?" he panted.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me. It's nothing, really."

She started digging on her side to speed up his task. Her arms moved with a hopeful desperation.

"Seriously: thank you. Not just for freeing me, but for everything. I've really come to enjoy your company."

"Me too. Do you see any light?"

She smiled.

"A little. Keep going."

His pole suddenly pierced the wall, missing her by an inch. Even so, she did not back down. She pulled away the chunks of stone more fiercely than before. Her heart was glowing.

"I'm so glad I let you come along. I don't know what I would have done without you."

"Without me, you wouldn't be trapped in the first place."

"That's not true," she insisted, "Listen, when I get out, I have something to tell you."

"Me too. I've been thinking about it for a while."

"You have?"

"Yes. You should tell me what you have to say first, because whatever it is, my confession is going to overshadow it, I guarantee."

Penumbra smiled and bit her lip.

"I don't think so. We might very well be thinking about the same thing."

"Somehow, I doubt it."

She grinned as light began to pour into the cave.

"Don't be afraid. It's not easy for me, either, but we have to be honest with each other."

"Okay. We're almost there."

Sure enough, the wall began to crumble. Penumbra crawled through it as it did, wasting no time. Monsanto dropped his stick to pull her through. He helped her down, and when she landed in his arms, she placed her hands on his cheeks and gave him a kiss. Just as she was mentally polishing the content of her next statement, he grabbed her by the upper arms and pushed her away.

"What are you doing?" he whispered.

"I . . . Well, it should be obvious. Did I misread something?"

"We can't do this."

"Why not?"

"You're a stegoceratops."

Her face fell. She looked down in embarrassment.

"I thought that wouldn't matter to you . . ."

"It doesn't. I mean- Not in that- It's not like- You're misunderstanding me."

She gave him a perplexed look. He broke their shared gaze and wandered away, speaking just loud enough so that she could hear him. His voice was dull in the cold air.

"I wanted to tell you, but I was afraid you'd . . . I mean, in all likelihood . . ."

He turned around to face her once more.

"No matter how you choose to react to this news, I'll understand. I won't try to change your mind."

He took a deep breath.

"I worked in the camps. I wasn't in charge of any of the slaughterhouses or execution chambers, but I assisted in the genocide. I'm sorry for withholding this information. Do as you will."

Penumbra stared at him, then her eyes turned downwards, flicking back and forth as she processed this revelation. After a while, her face grew calm, and she walked up to him slowly.

"I've decided on your name."

He blinked.

"You . . . Did you hear what I said?"

"Yes, but that was a long time ago, and you've helped me this far. Besides, I get the feeling that you didn't know what you were doing, and everything you've told me since we met indicates that you wish to be a friend to my people."

He batted his eyes.

"But I-"

Before he could finish, she grabbed his hand and led him away from the cave.

"It's okay. You're staying with me. We should pick up the pace if we're going to make it to the castle before this place crumbles into a million pieces. Your name is Corona, by the way."

Dumbfounded, he let her lead him across a wide field, not knowing that she was secretly pleased that he was just as rotten as she was.