I initially planned to get this one out last week, but a snowstorm blew through my area and my normal editing time was replaced by shoveling. So inconsiderate. Better late than never though. It's not like Resistance has an upload schedule.

Ruby ran her eyes over the list she was given once more before giving Shen a confused look. "Are you sure you want me to go looking for these things?"

"You might be the best engineer on this ship," Shen stated without any inflection. "You're the best one suited for this."

"Well, yeah, but I'm likely not going to be using these things. In my experience, it's better for the people who are actually working with the tools and scrap materials."

Shen sighed. "I used to be that person, but…" she raised her bionic arm. "The Commander's not letting me off the ship anymore, especially not the black market. Another thing, you can actually fight."

"These guys really that dangerous?"

"It's a black market. While some of the people in the ones we've stopped at before are former military, law enforcement, or turned their lives around before the invasion, some are still criminals. We don't know what a lot of people have done, and until the war is over, we don't really care what they do."

Ruby gave a concerned hum. "I've personally raided seven black markets on two worlds. There's quite a few people that we should be worried about and not many that we don't have to." She sighed this time. "But these people know how and where to get stuff. As long as they don't rat us out to ADVENT, I suppose we don't have to take them out."

"My dad's thoughts too." Shen looked at her own notes on her computer and nodded. "That's everything. If I think of anything else while you're out, I'll text you. You should be in local range."

"Got it." Ruby turned toward Engineering's exit but paused when she saw the SPARK. "When's that thing going to be combat ready?"

"Within the week if you can get the parts I need." Shen crossed her arms and looked the robot up and down. "Once the new armor and weapon are forged, it should be one heck of a deadly combat platform, like the old MEC troopers that XCOM had in the initial invasion." She winced. "Without the MELD."

"You know, I know an AI that would love to use that thing."

Shen shook her head. "As much as I'd prefer him over Julian, there's no chance the Commander will let the Avenger's pilot out in the field. Halcyon flies this thing so much better than Bradford."

"My auditory sensors are active, you know," a man's voice came from the SPARK.

Ruby's jaw dropped as she stared at Shen. "You put the maniac AI that shot your arm off into that thing?"

"I can still hear you…" Julian sounded exasperated.

"I was able to program most of that out of him." She shrugged. "He'll work for us and won't try to kill any of us. That, I can promise." Julian sighed again.

"Well… if that ever changes, we've got options." Ruby shook her head. "I should get to the Skyranger. Don't want to keep Central waiting." She walked out of Engineering, looking over the list as she went. If this was Remnant, it wouldn't be too difficult to procure these things, even without the Riders' connections. Maybe it still wouldn't be in the cities, but out in the middle of nowhere with no supply chain, where the heck were they expected to get circuit boards, chemicals, and sensitive machines?

For once when she reached the hangar, she didn't worry about armoring up. They weren't supposed to be going into combat, after all. She still kept íss Bláto on her though. She had a few ideas on how to shield Crescent Rose from plasma fire, but she didn't have the machines necessary to melt down and cast the alien's alloy with that kind of precision. Maybe she could find something in the Black Market for herself.

Ruby stepped onto the Skyranger and blinked in surprise to see she wasn't alone. Nalia and Dahlia also sat in the crew compartment. "You two on supply runs too?"

"I am." Dahlia raised a hand. "I'm best qualified to get Invidia what she needs and to get things Romero needs to build a mind replacer for our dragons and a portal to another world, mainly to get all of us back to our places."

"Really?" Ruby straightened. "She can do that?"

"She has an idea, but she also had a lot more power to work with, and all the materials her people could put together. There could be 'friends' on the other side after all." Dahlia put a bit of a sarcastic emphasis on the last sentence. She looked at her own tablet and grimaced. "But that stuff's more your territory. I haven't heard of most of this stuff. Med tech, I've got. But all this other junk…" She cocked her head at Ruby. "Speaking of that, why haven't you worked on that yourself? You built the first device to Detect connecting and Open to Other Realities." Nalia winced. Ruby stared blankly at her. "The tech solution to the between worlds spell? The DOOR?"

Ruby scoffed, then paused as she put the letters together in her head. "Did the other me really call it DOOR?"

Dahlia shrugged. "I think it was Yang's doing. But somewhere along the line, the 'C' got dropped from the acronym."

"In the end, I don't really care what it's called! I hate the fact that the tech exists!" Ruby sat down next to Nalia and crossed her arms.

"Wait, what?" Dahlia blinked a mile a minute. "You… built it."

"I don't know what the other me was thinking. Unless the Alagaësia you know is a lot more technologically developed than the one I know, it's only going to lead to problems."

"Atlas used it to intimidate the Broddring Kingdom," Nalia agreed. "Magic is nice, but there are few skilled users. Few could take out unwarded armies like the Riders, and normal sets of wards can't protect against Dust. If that tech falls into the wrong hands, there could be irreparable damage to Alagaësia." She blinked at Ruby. "Did you bust a meth lab in Aberon?"

"No, but there was a crack house in Narda." Ruby shifted in her seat. "But for all we know, that stuff probably came on the few ships we let bring in Remmartian goods. Things would be a lot worse if the cartels found the… DOOR." She gave Dahlia a pointed look at the last word. "That's not even mentioning the technological infection. It's already bad." She sighed. "I don't want Alagaësia to turn into Vacuo."

Dahlia dipped her head. "I suppose you don't have any threats that affect both worlds?"

"Not a single one. Of course, if there is another Galbatorix level threat in Alagaësia, we'd do whatever's necessary to defend them."

"That'll do it." Dahlia shook her head. "I guess it's just been a fact for us that all these worlds are connected. If we didn't have that, we'd likely be in the same situation as you." She snorted. "Though Aaron always raised a stink about new things coming to Alagaësia. He was probably the person most skeptical of the interdimensional world alliance peace treaty I know."

"Protective of his homeland?"

"Just a little bit. He definitely doesn't like Remmartian things taking the place of things he knows. Somethings, granted, he's right about. Others… Well, get off my lawn."

"I can see it," Nalia said. "I take it he's not the only one."

"Not even close." Dahlia shook her head. "Six different worlds are working together plus a group of individuals from a seventh… and somehow there are humans on almost all of them who speak Vytalian before they met each other… There's going to be some friction. I'm just glad the Dragon Riders operate in all six worlds to help keep the peace."

A moment of realization appeared in Dahlia's eyes. "That reminds me, do not tell Yang this but, there is a world out there full of spiders bigger than a fully grown Arachnii. And no, the you in my world didn't use the DOOR to connect to it. It was just a freak accident that happened years earlier. Around a month before the forty-first Vytal festival tournament."

The door to the armory opened and three people stepped through, Firebrand without her helmet, Central, and Greg Harmon. It had been a while since Ruby last saw Bobcat for a significant amount of time, different active shifts and all that. Also, both Greg and Bradford had rifles on their backs. It looked like everyone going into the black market was armed, so this one likely wasn't one of those that confiscated weapons at the door.

Firebrand shot a Look at Ruby. "The gun?"

Ruby shrugged. "I'll look, but you and I both know Central and the Commander can overrule me."

"She already made her position clear on that to the Commander and me." Bradford sat down across from Ruby. "It depends on the price. It's a good idea. We once lost Mox because we couldn't put out enough fire on the Assassin. We can't let that happen again."

"Could be useful on the Lost too." Greg took another seat. "Get low enough, a .50 can do some damage. Depending on the city, spray and pray might do as much damage, if not more."

"And that depends on the buildings." Firebrand stepped into the cockpit. "I'm not flying down alleys for you nutcases to up your kill count. Strap in if you haven't. I'm lifting off once the elevator gets us topside." Ruby was pressed down into her seat as the elevator pushed the Skyranger up. The transport's engines spun up as they rose. As soon as the lift locked in place, the engines kicked up and the Skyranger flew off.

"Anything we should know about this place?" Nalia asked.

Bradford looked at the three from Remnant. "From what I've heard, you three are in the business of busting them, not frequenting them?" They all nodded. "Aside from the obvious, watch your six and keep your mouth shut, the biggest thing is everything is overpriced. They know it, and they know that we know it. There's always barter to it." He sighed. "And every market we've been to is different. Prices, selection, trustworthiness, and so on. It doesn't matter which part of the world." He sat back and crossed his arms. "I just hope my part of the States kept a little bit of their hospitality."

The rest of the flight passed without issue. Probably helped that it wasn't even fifteen minutes. The Skyranger touched down and the ramp opened, no lights changing on the inside. Ruby freed herself from her restraints and stepped out into the fresh air.

Firebrand set them down about halfway up a mountain. Trees lined the sides of this one, and every one to the north and south. The tree cover continued to the land beyond only broken up by lakes, roads, and a few small towns. There might have been a small city far in the distance but even her bionic eye couldn't focus that far away. A flock of birds flew overhead in V-formation. Ruby took in a deep breath of cool mountain air and sighed in contentment. This was a view even a dwarf would like, if they got over the height.

Nalia hummed as she slithered up beside Ruby. "This view feels familiar," she said.

"Almost like back home," Ruby nodded. "Just put a city and an ocean out there."

"Hey, focus up you two," Dahlia called. She didn't sound too worried though. Ruby and Nalia turned their heads around. Bradford and Greg walked toward a shack by a hole in the mountain, likely an old mine. Dahlia stood at the foot of the ramp, fists on her hips and an amused smile on her face. "You two can go on a romantic date later."

Ruby and Nalia glanced at each other, then approached the doctor. "You ever make that joke in front of the crew, you'll lose your mouth privileges."

Dahlia smirked. "Whatever you do, I can heal."

Nalia cocked her head. "I could bleed on you."

"If you ever make that joke," Dahlia pointed aggressively at Nalia, "I'll personally and literally throw you in the brig."

"Good luck with that." Nalia elbowed Dahlia as she passed. The three of them quickly walked to catch up with Greg and Bradford. Greg gave them an annoyed look before shaking his head.

The group stopped in front of the shack and Bradford knocked at the door. A slit at eye level opened up. "Roll Tide," Bradford said. The slit closed and things clicked on the other side.

"Roll Tide?" Greg asked.

Bradford shook his head. "Their idea. No one would expect a Vols fan to use that as a password, especially here." Ruby, Dahlia, and Nalia all exchanged confused looks.

The door opened revealing someone in a hood behind the counter. The man raised his head and smiled. Ruby stiffened and her blood boiled. She could never forget that face, no matter how hard she tried.

Granite O'Donnell opened his arms in welcome. "Long live the-"

"You!" Ruby shot forward and punched the bastard with her natural hand. Before he could stumble back, she grabbed the back of O'Donnell's head with her bionic and slammed the kidnapper's face into the stone countertop, fracturing it. Without letting go, Ruby yanked the criminal over what was left of the counter and threw him into a wall of firearms. The Aura filled Grimm fell face first to the concrete floor with debris falling around him. The force of the impact dented the wall's scrap metal reinforcement. Ruby jumped on top of her tormentor and pinned his head to the ground with her bionic arm. "Don't you fucking move, you son of a bitch!"

"Sergeant Rose! Stand down!" Central ordered.

Weapons clicked behind Ruby. "With all due respect, sir," Dahlia started, her voice icy, "not a chance in hell."

"Call your woman off, Bradford!" another voice demanded. "Call her off or I'll-" A small motor revved, one of Dahlia's weapons. "Whoa! That's a chainsaw."

"Bonesaw," Dahlia corrected in the same icy tone.

Nalia hissed. "Very kind of you to welcome us to your arrest."

O'Donnell laughed, making Ruby's boiling blood curdle. "Good you see you again, dog." Ruby glared at the back of the bastard's head. This was the man who kidnapped and tortured her baby girl. This was the man who… kidnapped her, who tortured… her. The one she and Angel still had nightmares about. The one… who…

Ruby gritted her teeth and pulled her bionic arm back enough to shift it into its gun mode. It clicked into place and she held the barrel to the back of the kidnapper's head. "Careful," she warned as if she was talking to a child. "If I get scared enough, I might accidentally pull the trigger. We wouldn't want that now, would we?" The effect of O'Donnell's Semblance vanished. Only Ruby's natural anger remained.

"Get off him, Rose," Greg warned.

"XCOM has no say in this," Nalia growled. "This is a Remnant issue. Arguably a Rider issue. This man has-" She made a noise somewhere between a growl, hiss, and a roar. Ruby jerked her head toward the Bio Viper. Paper couldn't fit between Nalia's pupils. Every bit of her body stood tense. Even her spikes looked taller and sharper. This was maybe a step below how Ruby's Nalia looked after Aaron was killed. "No. Jail'ss too eassy. A bullet'ss too eassy." She dropped her weapon and grabbed a piece of broken stone. Her eyes narrowed to only a bit wider than her pupils. "That thing hass done the unforgivable." She held the jagged stone to her left forearm. "Open itssss mouth."

Dahlia made an uncertain hum. "If you're going for slow and painful, that might not be the best option. I have a few ideas that could make it worse."

"Stand down! All of you!" Bradford yelled. "That's a direct order! We need every contact we can get. This market is-"

"You don't get it, do you?" Ruby glared lasers at Bradford. "This piece of work kidnapped and tortured me, my daughter, and I don't know how many others. I get that some people can be redeemed. I've met a few people with sketchy histories on the Avenger that have turned things around." She returned her stone melting gaze to the kidnapper. "This monster isn't one of those. He doesn't do it just to discourage resistance. He does it for fun. Judging by Nalia's reaction, this one's done a lot worse than even the one I helped blow up." Ruby returned her glare to Bradford. "If this is the kind of person you need to win the war, what comes after won't be worth fighting for. If this is the people XCOM uses for allies, XCOM needs an immediate change in leadership."

The shack fell silent. Ruby didn't think she even heard breathing. A dull, plastic spoon could cut the tension in the room. Bradford's eyes never left Ruby's and his face gave no indication. Neither Dahlia or Nalia said anything, but Dahlia had a hand hovering over her remaining weapon and Nalia leaned a little too much to her left. The coup was ready if necessary.

Bradford finally shifted and turned his head to Greg. "Bobcat, take this man into custody."

"Sir?" Greg did a double take. "Take him into custody?" He gestured with a hand holding a laser pistol. "She attacked him!"

"And apparently you didn't hear what she said. She's right. There are people in this world that we should not work with, no matter how desperate we are. Now, I believe I gave you an order."

Greg scowled as he slammed his pistol back into its holster. He reached into one of his pants' pouches and pulled out a few zip ties. He glanced at Ruby as he approached. "Hold him down, will ya?"

Ruby growled at the back of O'Donnell's head. "Do anything I don't like, you get double tapped."

"Sure, I will." O'Donnell sounded way too cocky. He moved his wrists together beneath the one pinning him. Ruby's scowl deepened. This was too easy. Still, she got off her former kidnapper, keeping her gun arm centered on his head. Greg stepped forward and zip-tied O'Donnell's hands together.

The soldier hauled the slaver to his feet. "Get moving," Greg growled. At least he sounded just as mad at O'Donnell as he did at Ruby. As he passed, O'Donnell gave Ruby a satisfied smirk. Either he was insane, or he had something planned. More likely both.

Ruby shifted her bionic arm back into a hand and picked up Nalia's rifle. As she handed the weapon back, she looked deep into the Bio Viper's eyes. The pure hatred in there almost matched Ruby's. After a second or two, Nalia nodded. She took the rifle and followed Greg and the prisoner out of the building. She'd do what needed to be done.

"Now," Bradford turned to the remaining black marketeer, "I believe we have business to discuss."

The man finally took his eyes off the bonesaw gun pointed at him to give Bradford an incredulous stare. "Are you kidding? After what just happened?"

"Considering the kind of man that person was, I'd say we just did the world a favor." He gestured for Dahlia to lower her weapon. She did so and diverted her attention to the door. "About those prices…"

While Bradford 'negotiated,' Ruby walked around the shack. The weapons in here just looked like normal, civilian model weapons. No laser or anything else exotic, with the exception of a few grenade and rocket launchers. Still, even XCOM's normal ballistic weapons had more of a kick than these things. The good stuff must have been in the mine.

Just as she was about to round the counter to return to Dahlia's side, she noticed a metal box sealed with a simple padlock, the only thing in the shack with such protection. Since it felt more than a little out of place in the shack, Ruby gripped the lock and ripped it off. The door swung open… revealing C4 linked to a radio receiver. A red light blinked on the radio.

"Get out of here!" Ruby yelled. She jumped over the counter and shoved Dahlia out the door. "It's gonna blow!" She turned back to get Bradford out of there only to see him pushing the remaining salesman out the building. A second later, the counter erupted in debris and fire. Something latched onto Ruby's shirt and yanked her to the ground. A heavy weight landed on top of her. It took her a few seconds to realize it was Dahlia.

"Sorry, boss." Dahlia rolled off Ruby and grabbed her weapons. "No Aura, no wards, no armor, you might as well be naked."

"That's not going to happen again." Ruby pushed herself into a sitting position and grabbed her compacted weapon. Only two walls of the shack remained standing, but even those looked like a breath would knock them over.

Gunshots reached Ruby's ears. She whipped around toward it and expanded Íss Bláto to rifle form. Greg was down and Nalia sprayed her rifle at the running kidnapper. Only a few of her ballistic shots hit. Ruby scowled hard and lined up her scope on her target's chest. She fired and the laser shot plunged straight into O'Donnell's chest, maybe an inch away from his heart. The explosion must have knocked the sights off, or XCOM's lasers just didn't like long distance. Still, O'Donnell dropped like a fat Ursa. It should still have been a killing shot, just not as quick as one through the heart. Good. Let him suffer.

"What the hell was that?" Bradford demanded of the salesman. "Did you know about that?"

"He tried to kill me too, remember?" the marketeer threw his arms out. "I'm as in the dark as you!"

"Avenger to Patron," the Commander's voice said in Ruby's ear, "we've intercepted a transmission from the black market. They've notified ADVENT of our position. Get in the air, now!"

"We may have a problem with that, Avenger," Firebrand said. "My baby took some shrapnel in the explosion."

Ruby keyed her earpiece. "On my way." She pushed herself off the ground, compacted her weapon, and jogged to the Skyranger. Due to the positioning, only half of the transport was hit with shrapnel. The metal on the engines appeared to be purely cosmetic, with the exception of what looked like a gun barrel jammed into the exhaust nozzle. Ruby ripped that out and looked through the hole. Thankfully the metal embedded itself behind all the sensitive machinery. The Skyranger might pull to the left a bit, but it would fly.

The fuselage of the ship might as well have been untouched. The left side aileron, however, had a jagged piece of metal jammed into it. "Found the problem." Ruby reached up and tried to pull it out with her bionic arm. The metal surrounding it moved with it. From the sound and feel, that was only coming out with the aileron. If she had another limb or bionic, magic, or Yang, it wouldn't be a problem.

Ruby jumped up onto the wing and opened a panel, revealing the aileron's main motor. At least that appeared intact. She needed to increase the power. The mechanic pulled open another panel and brought her bionic hand in front of her face. Several of her fingers inverted to reveal various precision tools. Man, I love this thing. She set to work, rewiring the Skyranger's insides and diverting some hydraulic fluid from the engine to the aileron. It would slow engine rotation, but from the feel of the flights before, Firebrand didn't use them much in flight navigation.

As soon as Ruby thought her adjustments were enough, she slapped the roof of the Skyranger. "Try your ailerons now." She returned her attention to the part in mention. With an ear piercing shriek, the aileron moved as fast as it would have without the jagged metal in there.

"It's not green, but it's responding well," Firebrand said. "Thanks, Shadeslayer."

"You got it." Ruby dropped from the wing and glanced at the exploded shack and the mine. Everyone else on the mission came running with stuff on their backs and in their hands. "We're actually buying stuff in all this?"

"Giving it away, actually," the black marketeer said. "Better you guys get this stuff than ADVENT."

"Glad to hear not every person here is a scumbag."

The man scowled at Ruby. "Hey! I was a marine before all this. I can't fight like you anymore, but I'm still doing my part."

"Fair enough." Ruby walked up the Skyranger's ramp and stood in the doorway to the cockpit. The rest of the squad piled in, dumping their haul on the floor.

The self-proclaimed former marine stepped out again. "They'll be looking for you," Bradford told him.

"I've survived this long, I can do it again." The marine gave Bradford a quick salute. "Give 'em hell, XCOM." He ran off into the woods without another word.

"Damn, crazy marine…" Greg shook his head. "Semper Fi." He dumped his load as well then sat down and secured himself. Everyone else took a seat, but from the way everything was piled on everything else, Ruby would have to brace.

She pressed her bionic against the ceiling and floor and looked over her shoulder. "We're as good as we're going to get!"

"Hang on and cover your ears!" Firebrand called. This is going to be a rough one." The ramp closed and the engines spun up. Ruby glared at the rear door as it sealed. She would have loved to put a few more rounds into O'Donnell, but with ADVENT coming, she didn't have the time to do it right.

As the Skyranger shot into the sky, the junk pile slid back and slammed against the ramp. The left side of the transport shrieked with every little movement. Ruby clamped her teeth together as she fought the forces of the takeoff. She'd stood on Cerise' when she jumped off the ground a few times, but this was so much more intense.

When the transport finally leveled out, the shrieking stopped. Ruby let go and looked up. Her bionic hand left an imprint in the steel. She looked around the rest of the crew compartment. Their haul was even more scattered than before, some of it on people's laps. They all shoved the material back onto the floor. "I don't suppose anyone had the time to put a few more holes in that bastard?" Ruby asked.

"I sssshould have bled on it when I had the chancccce," Nalia hissed, her long 's's returning. Her fists were balled. "That thing didn't desssserrrrve to live as long assss it did." Green smoke puffed out of her mouth.

"Whoa, whoa!" Dahlia grabbed Nalia's right arm. "That stuff's not smoke. Don't let that out in here." Nalia closed her mouth and her hissing increased.

"What did this particular version do?' Ruby asked.

"Not here." Nalia shook her head. "Not now." Ruby already knew it was bad. Her own experiences said as much. Nalia's rage hadn't gone down a degree. Without being in her head, Ruby had no idea how bad it really was. She wasn't even sure if she'd be able to see anything besides the anger.

Ruby took her gaze off the Bio Viper and stared down at the loot pile. At least they got a good haul with all the alien alloys, weapon parts, and a… PCS chip? That's what they were called, right? But the big thing lay at the bottom of the pile in the form of an old, beat up, .50 caliber machine gun. With that as a base, even the Commander had to see the sense in making it laser capable. Now Firebrand would stop hounding Ruby every time they saw each other.

Besides the shrieking every time the Skyranger had to course correct and the ever shifting loot pile, the rest of the flight was less exciting than the quick shopping trip. Instead of flying down to meet the Avenger on the ground, Ruby saw through the cockpit the ship rise to meet them. The landing gear hit the elevator and the engines spun down.

The Skyranger's ramp lowered, letting some of the junk pile fall out. Shen and a few of her assistants stood on the other side. Nalia stood up and glared at Ruby, though none of the hate was directed at her. "Our barrack. Now." She slithered over the pile and toward the ship. Dahlia followed close behind.

Ruby waited until everyone else in the crew compartment disembarked before following. She glanced at Shen as she passed. "I don't know how much of your stuff we got. Had to leave in a hurry." She didn't wait for a response. She just kept walking. But as she walked, she felt herself… calming. Her thoughts cleared just a little bit. She didn't know why. Even the pain of not feeling Cerise lessened. Still, it wasn't by much. She went from wanting to let Nalia bleed on O'Donnell to emptying a drum magazine into his face.

When she reached her barrack, everyone else from a version of Remnant was already there. Yang's eyes glowed red and steam rose from her hair. Dahlia and Invidia shared a look like they were trying to figure out the best way to perform a vivisection. Summer was pure, cold, calm, rage. Orchid whipped her head toward Ruby, both deep hate and overwhelming compassion in her eyes. Her tongue shot out toward Ruby-

-only for Nalia to reach out and grab it. "No. No one can be happy about thissss," Nalia hissed. "No one can even be okay. Everyone needs to be furrrrioussss!" She let go of Orchid's tongue and it reeled back to its owner's mouth. The Psi Viper glared at the Bio Viper and growled low in her throat.

"So, you all know?" Ruby closed the door behind her.

"Nalia told us as soon as you were in range." Yang locked eyes with Ruby. "Are you sure you got that bastard?"

"I got a kill shot." Ruby sat on her bed. Yang immediately sat by her side and hooked one of her arms through Ruby's. The younger sister shot a weak glare at the older, but she really didn't mind. Yang was her hero ever since that day in the North Sanus Mountains. When it came to this, she could do no wrong. "Not a quick one, but he should…" She clenched her eyes and clamped her teeth. "Damn it! Laser cauterization!"

"I can't imagine ADVENT will let him live," Invidia said.

"That thing issss a cockrrrroach," Nalia hissed. "It would have ssssurrrrvived even if you ussssed a Dusssst rrrround or one of XCOM'ssss bulletssss." Some of her words slurred together.

"What did this version do anyway?" Ruby asked. "The one I know was terrible but you're giving me the impression this one is worse."

Nalia took a sharp breath in and gave Ruby an uncertain look. "Arrrre you ssssurrrre?"

That didn't bode well. "In case we run into any of his victims, we need to know how to help them… and if we run into him again, we need to know how to end him."

Nalia winced and looked at everyone else in the room. They all stared expectantly at her. The Bio Viper took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "From what I have heard, it did everything the ones you know did." She spoke slow, careful pronunciation of all words. "Everything and more. I'd say on a similar level to the Vacuan drug cartels. Torture not just for silence or punishment, but for fun. Finger nails, hand drills, pliers, car batteries… then what they do to females. Everything it did to you, it did much worse to Angel." She hissed again and locked eyes with Ruby. "It pushed all those memories to the front of its mind. It bragged about it. It took pleasure in knowing I knew." Nalia huffed. "That's probably why I didn't know about the bomb."

Everyone in the room muttered curses under their breaths, everyone but Ruby. Yang gripped her sister's arm tighter, but Ruby had no urge to lean into her sister. The calm feeling she had in the halls completely took over. Her breath came normal. She barely felt Cerise' absence. Her thoughts were clear for the first time in months. She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath and let it out slow. Her eyes opened and she looked around the room. Dahlia and Invidia shifted under her gaze. "Next time we run into him, we don't ask questions." She spoke like she was adding to a grocery list. "We won't accept surrender. Next time we see him, he dies. If at all possible, he's my kill. I'm sure I have some pent up frustrations to take out on him." Her mom shifted on her feet, but didn't say anything.

Ruby stood up and out of Yang's loose embrace. "I've got to go shoot some things." She walked out of her barrack. No one tried to stop her. It had been a while since she had pure range time. She knew exactly what she'd imagine while shooting.

I know, I said before the Nevermores are done. That is still true and I am sticking by it. No more kidnapping, no more torture, none of that stuff I completely overdid before.

And now, sports reactions: Bengals vs Rams. Who'd have thunk it that the Bungles would be going to the big one? From one of the worst in the league to one of the top two. It give me hope for the Vikings... please get a decent head coach... on the opposite side of the spectrum, the Bison got another one! We're running out of places to put these rings! GO BIS9N!