As calm as I may or may not have managed to outwardly appear to my teammates (and brand new boyfriend), I was in truth very little more than a big bundle of nervous energy when we started the van to head for the volcano. Rajan sent me reassuring glances each time our eyes met, but I didn't think he could tell just how nervous I was… Or just how little the glances helped.

Still, it was a small comfort to know I had the confidence of my teammates, and of Cooper.

When we eventually got as close to the volcano as we could without being spotted, Rajan stepped out of the van with me. After ensuring we wouldn't be seen unless the other two came out the back of the van, he pulled me against him and kissed me again.

"Relax," He uttered, simply holding me after he pulled his lips away, "You'll be fine."

I knew there was a chance he was wrong, but statistically there was about an equal chance that he was right. Just in case, I pulled him into another kiss. It hardly did anything to calm me down, but it was, again, a small comfort. I'd take what I could get.

"You'll be fine," He repeated, when we pulled away from each other.

I smiled, just a bit, and likely wouldn't have noticed I did it if he hadn't smiled back. "Sure, sure."

He patted my head, half-teasingly, and said, "Good Ringtail."

I snorted and rolled my eyes, and he climbed back into the van without either of us saying anything else. I stood there a brief moment, retracing my route a few more times to be sure I had it down, since I'd left my map in the van and there wasn't anything that would get me out of the van again if I stepped back in to get it. As soon as I was sure, I turned toward the volcano and started off toward my most likely entrance point.

Waiting there a second, I thought about all the confidence the others had in me, and Rajan's unshaken insistence I would be fine.

I decided, ultimately, that I wouldn't make a liar out of them and took a very deep breath before dropping down onto the catwalk in the volcano.

The instant temperature change just about did me in, making me dizzy and leaving me stumbling against the rock wall to steady myself while I panted for breath in the heat. I'd known it was going to be hot―volcanos were, after all, sort of known for that―, but I hadn't expected the reality of it. It likely would have been hellish even without all the extra fur, but as it was I would just have to deal and pray that this weirdo at least had air conditioning in his weird volcano fortress.

Once I had my wits about me again, I slunk toward my entrance.

Looking up at the lone window on this side of the building, I prepared to begin scaling the wall to get to it. Cooper chose about that exact moment to make her presence known again.

"Hey, Caldicot." She said, voice oddly soft, "Can I steal your attention for just a sec?"

"Sure," I uttered back to her, mindful of not being too loud but seeing little point in not speaking to her out loud.

"I just wanted to say thank you," She admitted after a brief moment, "Not many people would just take my place without complaint like this. I appreciate it." And after another brief pause, she spoke again, quieter and almost hesitant, "But… If you do want to back out… If you want to go home… I can do that. I would happily do that for you."

At that moment, I had the briefest memory of the lady in white, and her telling me that I would lose everything I had before if I chose to stay in Cooper's place.

And it scared me, because as I've mentioned I was worried about what little I'd already forgotten about my life before this. But, ultimately… Well.

This was something I couldn't pass up. My life had been fine, sure, and I missed my two friends and my parents and my grandma and grandpa and abuelo and abuela, but I'd always wanted to go on an adventure. I'd always wanted to be something more than just Sophie Caldicot. Someone who was important and who could do great things.

This gave me that, and on top of that?

Cooper couldn't do this. She'd made that abundantly clear to me.

And at this point, even if I wouldn't do it just because she couldn't, I would do it because I should. Backing out now would be as good as signing a death warrant on all the people I'd met and come to love here.

And also?

I had a boyfriend now, so there was that.

I knew Cooper was serious about the offer, but nonetheless after only a brief moment to consider it, I shook my head and knew she could see it. "I'm not leaving. For a lot of reasons, but… Well. You know what they are."

She was quiet, but her voice was fond and a little louder when she said, "I'll hold onto your memories for you, okay?"

I found myself smiling a little as I hopped up and began scaling the wall, "While I'm flattered by the sentiment, I don't think there's much that I'm fond enough of to want you to have to hold onto for very long."

"Then I'll hold onto the ones you are fond enough of." She said, giving me the image of her shrugging, smiling.

And thus, the conversation was over. I hauled myself up to the window that would be serving as my entrance and checked around it for alarms the best I could from outside. Once satisfied, I popped it open and dropped in.

And everything went to hell at about that moment.

This was not, I'll say, because of an alarm, a guard, or even a guest appearance from the bossman himself.

It was because, when I landed and rolled and found myself again somewhat floored by the temperature change…

Sophie Cooper appeared next to me.

Both of us stared at each other, for the first moment or two. She seemed equally as startled as I was, and the way she blinked and shook herself seemed like she might be trying to will herself away. And yet she remained, right there in front of me.

She gave me an alarmed, confused look, and I gave it back to her while shrugging and shaking my head insistently. I didn't know any more about how or why she was here than she did.

And, given both of us knew better than to start in on talking again now that we were in the target's stronghold, we had no other ways to display our confusion.

When my mind caught up with me, I knew we would need to do something if we didn't want her to be discovered by the others. Her suddenly troubled expression told me she was thinking the same thing… And that she wasn't having any more luck than I was with figuring out how to hide her.

I shook my head again, motioning to her as I picked myself up―we could figure it out on the way to the control room, I decided.

So we took off in that direction, synced in a way only two people who have been sharing a headspace for quite some time can be. Both of us were more confused than we had words to describe, sure, but neither of us was willing to let it get in the way of the mission.

Not to mention, both of us were extremely happy with how easy it was to communicate without a word―blending into the shadows, stopping each other with only a look, moving more like one person than two… One would have thought that we'd been doing this together for decades, and yet it was the first time we'd ever actually seen each other in person.

It was convenient.

The control room, regrettably, housed our way out of the awkward explanation of Sophie Cooper.

Sitting in the chair in front of the controls, smiling and prim, was the very stranger who I'd seen fleeing from the Orphanage back when it went down. This time he wore his cloak-hood down around his shoulders rather than obscuring his face, and as soon as I saw his face I did not like it.

He had amber eyes that, though I hate to phrase it this way, seemed to burn. His fur was reddish orange, lips pulled up into a grin and exposing perfectly white teeth with very sharp incisors, and he was tall. Even sitting he seemed to tower over both of us, and would have towered over even Rajan, most likely. Uncharacteristic of a fox, but… Well.

That was clearly what he was.

"Welcome, dear Sophies." He said, rather smug-sounding as he cocked his head, "I'm afraid you've fallen right into my trap."

As he said it, the door we'd come in through slammed shut and I heard the locking mechanism slam into place. It made both of us jump, hair on end, and I nearly started snarling right then and there. As it was I ground my teeth.

"Who are you?" Cooper demanded, not looking quite as shaken as I felt, and certainly not as angry.

"I am Keaton." He said, unbothered, "Do enjoy your stay."

And he vanished into a puff of smoke much like he had that day at the orphanage.

I ground my teeth harder, struggling not to start coughing.

"Well, at least he was decent enough to give an answer," Said Cooper, after the smoke had cleared. She seemed unimpressed, mostly.

"Yeah, sure." I said, flatly, "Decent is the word I'd use."

She didn't question the reply, but did lift her brows at the tone.

"My ego just got kicked in the nads." I chose to explain, still flat as I moved past her to look at the controls, "I hate getting outsmarted."

She seemed to consider that before sort of shrug-nodding her understanding.

Examining the controls, I grumbled to myself as I found a button that would likely open the door back up. I really hoped it wasn't that easy―and it sort of was, sort of wasn't, because when I pressed the button I heard a door unlock and slide open, but checking showed it wasn't the one that we'd come in through. It was a different one.

Cooper and I shared a look, and she headed for it.

"I'll check it out. Don't let it lock me in."

I nodded and watched her head on through.

Keaton, if that was really his name, appeared silently―no smoke cloud this time―beside me at about that moment. I regret to say I didn't notice.

But I suppose, to my credit, at least I didn't scream or jump when he spoke in order to announce his presence.

"It must be incredibly convenient to be two people at once." He said, though his tone told me he knew that wasn't at all the case. That we weren't the same person.

I did wince, slightly, at his voice, but otherwise did my best not to appear startled. "Sometimes." I said, trying not to grit my teeth too hard, "Usually it's pretty annoying."

He nodded, as if that made all the sense in the world, and said, "I sense I've insulted you somehow."

He almost sounded curious, and that made me wrinkle my nose immediately.

"I don't take kindly to being outwitted or trapped." I said, flicking a glance at him but mostly keeping my eye on the controls so I could keep him from locking Sophie in that hallway, "I do that to other people, not the other way around."

He nodded again, chuckling as he said, "Well you're being awfully kind to me, in that case."

"Only because you'll teleport away if I try to punch you in your stupid, smug face."

"A fair point."

Cooper's voice sounded in my head, then, "It leads to some kind of throne room… But I'm smarter than I look, so I'm not going in there."

Thanks for the update, I thought back at her.

Then, seeing Keaton seemed quite distracted watching the door―likely not wanting to get caught unawares by Cooper―, I decided I wasn't going to miss my chance… So I hauled off and punched him right in his stupid smug face.

Did it hurt my fist as much as it probably hurt his face? Sure.

But did it feel good?

Oh, yeah.

Still reeling, he stumbled back a bit, and I vaulted over the chair to get behind him, using the edge of the control desk to get some air so I could kick him in the back of the head. If I could keep him disoriented, I'd be able to fight him much easier. I wasn't the tank of the group, after all, and facing him head on would probably result in him flattening me into the metal flooring of his base.

He turned to retaliate, flinging a rather pitiful and sloppy punch at me, and I used what I'd learned from my dad (and from Henry, Rudy, and Rajan, later) to catch his fist and use the momentum and my own body weight to pull him on past me, knee him where it hurt, and fling him back the way he'd come from.

He seemed uncoordinated, like he didn't fight much. It was possible I'd only caught him off-guard and he was actually a good fighter, but… Eh. I didn't really care. I was good at fighting, and thing was?

Inertia is a real bitch when someone like me's around to use it against you, as I just proved to him.

He squeaked when I kneed him, and stumbled into the wall I'd tossed him at right as Cooper re-entered the room. She seemed awful amused as Keaton pulled away from the wall, and only grinned at him as he processed she was there before she gave him a nice uppercut. It connected with a solid thump, and he stumbled away, back in my direction.

I managed, giggling, to corndog him before he teleported away.

That proved too much for Cooper, who cracked immediately and had to lay down on the floor she was laughing so hard. I let her laugh, mostly.

"Really?" I asked, after a moment, anyway, "You're R-O-T-F-L-O-L-ing here? Of all places?"

This just made her laugh harder as she nodded, so, rolling my eyes but overall not feeling all that upset, I decided to wait until she was done… Which took a couple of minutes.

"A corndog?" She asked me, when she was laughing a little less, "A corndog? In a serious fight?" She managed to get up, still laughing, "You just made me entire existence, Caldicot."

I rolled my eyes again, "You're welcome. Now make sure that door doesn't close―I'm gonna see if he went to that throne room."

She nodded, heading to the controls, but she was still snickering and shaking her head from time to time when I left.

A couple of moments of walking led me to the throne room, and as I'd expected Keaton sat on the throne there, nursing his clearly aching face. He didn't seem to notice me as he sent a guard up my way, but the realization he was sending someone to take care of us had instinct kicking in.

I found myself almost immediately on the ceiling, waiting for the guard to pass beneath me so that I could continue watching Keaton. It slipped my mind, in the moment, that Cooper was in the control room some ways behind me. But surely, I thought when the fact crossed my mind, she could handle herself against one guard?

As I watched Keaton, I found myself clinging to the doorframe while the fortress shook. Keaton's eyes flicked to the ceiling, and at last he looked shaken and concerned.

The tremors ceased after a moment, but I was keenly aware of someone coming up beside me.

"I say we skip town, Caldicot," She said, voice strained, "Like, now."

With the way the place had been shaking, I didn't want to be here unless it was necessary. And it was clear that bringing the others in was out of the question―the guy had been expecting us. We needed to regroup and come up with a better plan.

So I nodded, and the two of us dropped onto the main floor, right in plain view of Keaton, and booked it in the general direction of the front doors. He got up as if to chase us, but given both of us were thieves and knew how to turn invisible even after being seen, we weren't in any immediate danger from him… Or anyone else for that matter.

We got to the front doors without so much as another tremor or running into any danger, and we paused there. We had yet to think of any way to explain Cooper's existence or presence. I grimaced just thinking about it.

After a second, she puffed out a breath and stepped out the door, seeming to decide she'd come up with something on the fly.

… Only to disappear as soon as she'd left the threshold.

"Huh." She said, confused, back in my head, "Must have been something unique to the building."