Rei woke up to a silent, empty ranger station.

She mentally chided herself for not setting an alarm clock. Granted, she didn't do that in the past few days either, but if she was so determined to talk to everyone else before their departure, she'd have remembered such a small, but vital thing.

Part of her wondered if she was just running away from the problems again. The rest of her just wanted to go back to sleep.

The radio started beeping, when Rei had dragged herself halfway across the living room on her way to the kitchen. The noise chased away her drowsiness with the effectiveness of a pack of rabid Fenrirs, and she bolted for the table, almost tripping over her own loose pajamas.

It wasn't a pre-recorded message. No, someone was calling, and it wasn't 'Red Storm'. The frequency was different.

Rei stared at the instructions plastered right next to the radio, just to check that she hadn't remembered anything wrongly, before pressing the receive button. "H-Hello?"

"Who are you? Did you see my flare gun shots? Where are you right now—" The child-like voice was cut off by sharp static noises. "Darn, what is even wrong with this giant dummy radio?!"

"I'm Rei! I-I'm, um, a few miles away from Sim City, staying in this ranger station!"

"Wait, you are with C-Sha, right? She called me a while ago! No wonder the frequency's still in here!"

"Yes, but—"

"Tell her Blanny chased that chain-wielding CPU into a cave! Her sound attack caused an avalanche, and I'm in my robot now, buried under who knows how many feet of snow!" A pause, "No, tell everyone to come and help, we—are—at—"

Before Rei could say anything, the voice slowed to a crawl and fizzled out. Too stunned to move, she stayed just long enough for the signals to make a brief return.

"She set us up, how did I miss—" More static noises, "A natural—trap—"

This time, the radio went off for real, and didn't come back. Only then did Rei recognize the speaker's voice.

Without thinking, she grabbed a spare jacket lying on the nearby chair, and charged out of the door. The razor-sharp chill reminded her that she was still in her pajamas and slippers, and had absolutely no idea where C-Sha and her companions were, but her panic was urging her to do something, no matter how stupid it was—

The clouds above briefly parted, allowing sunlight to come through the gaps.

That was when Rei saw the toppled trees, the giant crater in the ground, and stretches of charred earth. Even from a distance away, the aftermath of a battle was unmistakable.

How? How in the world did she manage to sleep through that?!

Rei sneezed. Step by step, she retreated back towards the cabin, only stopping to pick up the jacket for a few times after she dropped it; her motions had only gotten more clumsy, now that her fingers were numb from the cold.

She sat down on the floor, the moment she entered the building. No, more like collapsed.

While she was still rubbing her palms together, screaming at herself internally to think of a way to help and stop freaking out, the radio started beeping again.

"This is 'Red Storm'. After reporting my previous sighting of one of the two suspects, I've decided to investigate the canyon that appeared to be their hiding spot. The coordinate is 52W, 78N. Please notify the base camp and all available patrol parties nearby. I will not be able to make further updates during my descent. Out."

Putting her radio back onto her belt, she took a deep breath, and started tying the ropes around the climbing picks. She couldn't take her backpack with her, but she was still wearing a back holster, and in the best case scenario, the flash bang grenades would give her enough time to deploy her rifle.

Climbing down a volcanic crater for wilderness survival training. She never thought she would use what she learned in an even more unpleasant environment.

For one, there wasn't sweeping, bone-chilling wind on the island of Leanbox. Or ice. Or the possibility of having to drag someone back up with her in this weather.

"Think, think, think," she muttered, as she stared at the blue chains on the door. That didn't serve as a good substitute for actual thinking, for she had been saying this word over and over again, ever since she was trapped in here, and still hadn't come up with a workable idea.

At least she knew these chains couldn't be severed with a glass shard now. Despite gaining a few new cuts on her fingers. Ouch.

Finally, she sat down, back slumped against the wall. Maybe she was going at this wrong, and just needed a new perspective?

"If I were a smart person, and someone had chained the door of my cell shut..."

Oh. Who was she kidding. If she was a smart person, she wouldn't have been locked up in this underground dungeon in the first place.

"Now, now, that's just quitter talk," she shook her head, "Let's change the question format. If Gertie or Blizz was in my position..."

They'd annihilate the door like a piece of paper. With giant orange energy beams and gravity power. Or ice magic and psionic blades. Because intelligence was just a bonus to the most overpowered individuals on the entire continent, and life wasn't fair.

"If their powers were somehow bugged out, and no longer work properly..."

One of them could still whip out a trusty crowbar. The other wouldn't even need a tool to break the bars, because of the freakish strength that came with her monster blood. Unfortunately, she neither had the habit of hiding a tool on herself nor the raw strength, even with the enhancement of her power—

Wait.

She glanced towards her right wrist, still missing the familiar bracer.

Weapon and gadget summons. Every other crystal holder could do that, couldn't they? No, she might have done it too, back down there in the well, and even though she wasn't in a life-threatening situation (not immediately, at least), maybe Brøø's "baby's first guide to weapons in the Living Books Dimension" still applied in the real world...

She closed her eyes, mustered up all her concentration, and whispered, "Crowbar."

Unsurprisingly, her palm remained empty. It wasn't hers, after all, even though a simple metal bar should've been a lot easier to imagine than her blade. Maybe it needed to be something she had used in the past?

"Screwdriver."

Nothing, again. The memory of pain must've destroyed any fondness she had for that tool. Guess it was time to stop beating around the bushes, and go straight to the real thing.

"Blade."

Ah well. She wasn't expecting success on the first try. Maybe she needed to stop saying it out loud.

Bracer AND blade.

...

Bracer AND blade. Stay stay stay.

...

Bracer AND blade please work please work please work!

...

"Well, I tried..." Finally, she groaned, and put a hand to her forehead.

It seemed like repetition was not the key to success, even in her mind. Perhaps she was focusing on the wrong thing? Perhaps the physical form of the weapon didn't matter, only her intent to do something with it?

She stood back up, imagined the bracer again, and raised her arm, eyes closed. This time, she was holding it against the chains, watching the thinnest link break apart with one slice. For a second, she thought this must be the one, because of how vivid the image was. Until she opened her eyes, and the chains were still whole and unbroken.

Clearly, there needed to be an extra push, something like the sheer panic of being strangled by a shadow person. Strong emotions, that had to be it, right?

She had to really want to use a sharp object on something. Or someone.

After another minute of squeezing her eyes shut, she was greeted by the familiar, and disappointing sight of thin air. This one hit particularly hard—if her desire to repeatedly stab Elizabeth in the face wasn't strong enough, then she really didn't know how strong the emotions had to be.

Give up. You got yourself into this mess because you didn't know when to give up. Even if you succeeded, were you really expecting to saw through magical metal with that fragile blade?

"I mean, yeah," she sat down again and huddled up against the wall, still staring at her right arm, "But at least I'd have something to work with."

...A gimmicky, impractical thing that wasn't even particularly effective at stabbing people.

Clancy was probably right in that she should just stick with a gun, the PC Continent natives' go-to tool when it came to problem solving. But no, she wanted something with more personality, and it had brought her nothing but misery, in perfect accordance with her personality.

It was about time she ditched that childish fantasy. Yeah, maybe that was the real lesson! She didn't need to obsess over some lost weapon if it would do her no favor getting out of here, and should spend her time on more productive matters, like...yelling for help! Search for secret passages!

Great. Now she was starting to count the most obviously futile options as "productive". That alone made her want to cry.

Indeed, her blade was of limited use, just like her person. But she made it, goddammit, she drew the blueprint and put the parts together. Even though the main inspiration came from that funny antique toy her "guardians" gave to her, in an futile attempt to imitate the ancients.

She took the props of their crazy social experiment and remade it into something cooler. Something that was wholly hers.

And for once, she'd want that willpower to take a tangible form. If nothing, at least it served as a good reminder of the life and people that was still waiting for her, out of this place.

The person who kept fishing her out of her messes, despite her many complaints and objections. The person who thought she was cool and looked up to her, even though that might no longer be the case. Now that the mindfucks and pain and signs of impending doom were gone, she couldn't stop missing them. Missing them so darn much that it hurt.

How she wished she could be the hero they deserved. Make them proud.

The tears wouldn't stop coming after that. It was pathetic, but after the last few days, she felt like she had earned the rights to be very, very homesick and scared out of her mind. It wasn't like anyone was there to see it.

She buried her face in her arms, feeling the cold metal and leather pressing against her cheeks—

Her eyes snapped open when she realized what that sensation meant.

It wasn't quite what she imagined. The patterns on the heavily decorated surface was still there, but the bracer looked like a golden hologram, and not the hyper-realistic types made by specialists. After averting her gaze and making sure it wouldn't go away, she pressed down on the switch, and a similarly translucent blade shot out.

"I did it." Her whisper soon became a yell, as she bolted up from the ground, and pointed the blade towards the door, "I did it! Heck yeah! Take that, chains! You won't trap me in here much longer—!"

Only then did she realize that the chains were gone without a trace. Her arm grinded to an awkward halt in midair. Right at that moment, as if making an intentional mockery of her efforts, the door creaked open on its own.

"...Or you could just disappear on your own. Without a sound. And make me look like a complete moron for not noticing it," she mumbled. "Wow, that was anticlimactic."

She hadn't seen Verdna, ever since she got locked in that room. As she wandered around the corridors, the ghost remained missing. The thought that something might have happened to her put a real damper on her excitement, but on the bright side, if Lynka was coming for her next, at least she had the means to put up a fight now.

Before she knew it, she ended up in the central hall again. The collapsed floor around the corner was a sharp blob of darkness at the edge of her vision, and even when she walked over and peeked down, there was only the faintest outline of fallen debris at the bottom.

With some extra caution and the usage of her power, she could definitely make a jump. Go down there, try to stop the very ominous ritual Lynka was attempting, and probably get her ass handed to her in the process.

But, once she made the leap, she might not be able to climb back up. After taking a few deep breaths, she started pacing around the hole.

No, she was letting the excitement of a small success get to her head. Hadn't she learned anything from last time?

Or maybe she was just being unnecessarily hesitant. If she stayed in that room, when this place came crashing down, she would be completely helpless. So why not take the plunge, while she still had the chance? Make the best effort she could at saving herself and Verdna?

She just needed to get the drop on Lynka before she could fight back. If their first and only fight was any indications, Lynka wasn't exactly a formidable fighter in human form—

A low whistle came from behind her. She turned backwards, blade extended. It was from inside a passage, the one where the wind was coming from. And it didn't sound like Ryll.

Step by step, she tiptoed towards that direction, until she was no longer inside the central hall. As she entered the dark corridor, she saw the beam of a flashlight, mounted atop a rifle. Then, the red hair and tactical vest.

Clancy still had her rifle out, as she ran over and pulled her into her arms, and the flash grenades on her belt jabbed against her ribs uncomfortably. But they were together again, which was all that mattered, gosh, she must look like such a mess right now—

In typical Clancy fashion, the hug only lasted for a few seconds, before she was grabbed and pulled into the nearest empty room.

"I'm—"

"Leave the apology for a later time." A pause, "There's a long climb ahead. Does she know of your escape?"

She shook her head. "She's been shutting herself in the lower levels for awhile now. Along with Verdna. That's the ghost lady they caught, in case you didn't know—"

"Good. Let's get out of here."

"Wait!" She drew her hands back, just as Clancy reached out to grab her again. "What about the ghost?"

Clancy gave her a look. Normally, that should be a good clue to stop talking, and just listen to her instructions. But she didn't.

"I'm not hallucinating! She's bound to this amulet, and they threw it down a well! It's right there in that big hall," she pointed towards the direction she came from, "Give me five minutes, I'll climb down and grab that amulet, and then we can bail out!"

Clancy shook her head. This time, the grab was much more forceful, and before she could struggle, she was pulled into the corridor.

"You aren't just gonna leave her there, are you? Sooner or later, that...freaky ritual thing would bring the whole place down!"

"Another reason why we are leaving. Quick."

"What?" She wasn't even keeping her voice low anymore, as she stared at Clancy. "You are okay with trapping her in this place forever? Yeah, she's dead and all, but that's just cold! And...not right!"

There was a real anger in Clancy's eyes now, as her grip got a lot tighter. "You don't get to tell me what's right, after everything you've been up to for the past week."

"Okay, I get it, this whole hostage situation is my fault, but that's still no reason to—"

"Do you understand what you are risking right now?" Clancy interrupted her. "Not just your own life, though you are all too happy to put it in grave danger without a thought."

"But—"

"There's only one hour of evacuation time, between the triggering of a Resonance warning alarm and the actual disaster. That's all the time you'd be giving to everyone who lived within the coverage radius of the tower, if you died on another continent without their knowledge. Think about the people who couldn't get inside an Ash Pod teleporter in time. The elderly folks. The wheelchair-bound. The severely ill."

She flinched, and it wasn't because of the cold.

"If you can't put your immature desire to play heroes aside, and think about the actual people whose safety you are responsible for, plus the few who care about you more than anything," Clancy took a deep breath, "Then perhaps Viven had a point. You are an irresponsible idiot that should be barred permanently from duty. That's what she was currently proposing to the Capitoline Council, just so you know."

She didn't fight back when Clancy put a hand over her shoulder, and started hurrying towards the collapsed wall at the end of the corridor. Honestly, she was just too stunned to do anything, but once the shock faded away, she realized how right these words sounded. Which only made it hurt more sharply.

Clancy was straight to the point, as always. She could risk her life saving one (dead) person, and, failing that, drag hundreds and thousands of others down with her. No, she had already come dangerously close to that, driven by the same reckless impulses, and that...wasn't heroic, was it? That was just selfish.

It was about time. To do the right thing for once. The truly sensible, responsible thing, even though every inch of her body was screaming in protest, and there was an awful, crushing weight in her chest, getting heavier and heavier as they approached the only exit—

A tremor. The entire structure shook. Clancy shoved her to the ground, shielding her with her body. From the corner of her eyes, she saw dark blue tendrils of energy, crawling along the walls and ceilings, swallowing up all the solid surfaces in their paths—

Dust. Explosion. Bright golden light.

The ground below crumbled apart, but she didn't fall. Gravity seemed to disappear, along with the rest of the physical world. Like a leaf floating above a pond of rippling water, when the dark blue energy waves came again, her senses were gone, together with the person she was holding onto.

She was on her own now, drifting towards a massive vortex of light and shadows, overwhelmed by sheer confusion and terror—

And then,

there were,

nothing.