"Run, hurry!" Claire shouted. The armband was full of orders, counter orders.

"Shadowdancer, close the portal now, and portal yourself out!" that was Alexandria.

Claire closed it. If Leviathan got loose in the Bay, all would die, long before the heroes gathered here could fight.

She closed it, and the wail of the people, thousands, on the wrong side, was the sound of the dammed.

Claire ob21eyed the first part of the order.

Not the second. She clutched her staff, poured her will, her determination into it, and a blazing pillar of purple light rose up over her small form.

And then, out of the storm, out of the rain, the demon appeared.

"You're not getting past me!" Claire screamed, her words torn away by the wind.

"Shelter 15 lost, major subsidence in the downtown area, hold for casualties, evacuate central medical point…" Dragon's voice.

But Claire didn't care. Leviathan moved, faster than anything its size should. Jim was too far back to get to her. She was alone, between all those people and the monster.

And thick ropes of purple light exploded from the ground, wrapping around the beast, pulling it back. For a moment, Claire had a sense that it was surprised, that this was something that had never happened to it before. There were fissures in its skin, a green glow seeming to eat into it.

Merlin.

And now her bonds did the same, eating away at it, as she poured her power into them.

Then bolts of energy started to fall down around it, as a figure in a dark uniform slammed into the monster, hard enough to blast the rain away for a moment.

Legend and Alexandria.

I've got you, I've—fuck! Leviathan did… something. It moved too fast for her to see, but the water under the ground just seemed to explode, sending rocks and fragments of concrete at her like fragments from a bomb. Claire screamed as a chunk glanced her head, her helmet ringing like a gong, even as a larger one hit her in the belly. Others were peppering the crowd, people falling, injured, dead, the mass of people running from side to side, on one side, the inescapable water, on the other side the demon that was coming for them. Some of them were holding their cell phones, for what reason Claire didn't understand. Maybe they wanted a record of their death, for someone to see.

Claire rolled to her feet, her side hurting like crazy. It felt like she'd broken a rib.

Maybe she had. But she wasn't out of the fight. Claire screamed and sent forth a bolt of power, greater than any she'd summoned before at Leviathan, a thought running through her mind.

All these I place,

By God's almighty help and grace,

Between myself and the powers of darkness.

A fragment of a poem, she'd read it first in a children's novel, only later finding out it had come from a true saying.

Except now she was the thing between the people and darkness. And that meant she really needed some almighty help and grace.

Leviathan was being pushed back, the purple fire spraying over his form, magic eating away at his skin. But not quickly. Not quickly enough.

What's he made of?

But then the beast was hit from behind by other figures. Someone conjured bolts of glowing green fire, another shot it with rockets, even as Alexandria and Legend continued to pummel the monster.

But it was focusing on her. Claire could see the glare from its asymmetric eyes. She could feel its determination, its desire…

And then it dodged to the right, and moved forward.

Claire threw up a shield, putting everything into it, a broad semi-circle protecting the people behind her.

The shield held against Leviathan… But then his water echo hit, and the shield shattered. Claire's scream was lost in the torrent as she went flying back, rolling and smashing into every rock in the way. She barely held on to the staff.

But Leviathan was there, moving forward. There were only a few feet between Claire and the people behind her. Parents trying to shield their children from the sight of their death, arms around them. People praying. People standing, faces blank. A few people actually throwing rocks at the Endbringer.

Nowhere to run. But then, there never had been, had there?

Claire tasted the blood from her split lip. Limped forward, one step, two steps.

Raised her staff and called the power she had remaining to it.

Tell my family I love them…

Jim had been there to hear that. Now, nobody would. It was okay.

They knew she loved them. And she knew they loved her.

Leviathan charged, ignoring Alexandria, ignoring Legend, coming for her. Claire screamed out defiance, putting all of her will into the bolts of energy, no time for spells, just will, but it wasn't enough and she—

A golden beam of light sliced into Leviathan's body and the Endbringer looked up, before leaping away, faster than it had come for her, seeking to avoid the beam of light and the figure that was wielding it.

Scion, descending through the clouds like the Savior on the last day. Leviathan was retreating.

But Scion just stared after it as more and more heroes attacked the Endbringer.

What is he waiting for? Nobody had ever talked to Scion, not since the beginning.

"Maybe he doesn't know…" Claire looked up. She could post-cog him, like she had with Morganna. Like Merlin had been teaching her to do. If she could reach in, figure out how to talk to him…

They could win. There was nothing more powerful than Scion.

Claire reached out… she could feel…

Wait-no, that's not—

And then she was just sucked into something, her staff falling from her nerveless hands.

A world. Full of strange beings, consuming, devouring, growing. Reproducing. More and more and more. Other worlds, them flooding forth into the universe. Seeking to fill the universe.

Two shapes, impossibly huge, spiraling through space.

A world, not earth. Not anything like earth. Two stars, moons, a proud species, reptilian, raising up temples and looking to the sky and wondering…

And then powers. Claire saw a warrior warping the battlefield, like Vista did. Others raised up strange technologies. Conflict, battle, city-state against city-state. And more and more powers.

Managed. Controlled. A silver reptilian and a golden one, the mightiest heroes of the world. Trusted by all.

Fools.

They were tools of the creatures. The powers came from them. Everything came from them.

Conflict, battle, other powers regenerating the world, keeping it from destruction…

And then…

Death. The life torn from all. Claire frantically tried to pull away, shield herself from the surprise and horror. There was no help, no word, as everyone just fell, reaching out, their last moments so… confused.

The test was over. The gold and silver forms stood on a world of the dead… And then…

It burned.

Every world burned. She could see it through Scion's eyes. World after world, endless, too many to count, too many dead to imagine, devoured in fire, their deaths being used to fling the monsters, not creatures, not beings, but monsters, inhuman monsters into space, seeking out their next victims. They felt nothing of sorrow for what they had done. Just a dim satisfaction felt over the screams of the dead.

Another world appeared. It was evaluated. A decision was made.

"No…" Claire whimpered. She couldn't hear anything over the roaring in her ears. She couldn't look away.

Because she'd seen the continents on that world before. Earth. The monsters considered.

Then:

DESTINATION

AGREEMENT

And they would bring death nothing but death and everyone was just their toys and there was nothing to do, Missy, Armsmaster, everyone little puppets dancing on strings and they would scream and then they would die, die, DIE, DIE… And everyone else would die, every world every place, nobody would live they would just—

Ken Wilson wasn't a brave man. He'd been crying non-stop, holding his little boy, the moment of hope that they'd get out, banished when the portal had vanished. Then that little slip of a girl had held off Leviathan, but he knew it wouldn't last. Not all the heroes in the world could stop Leviathan when he had his eye on something. They'd die, and she'd die because she was foolish enough to try and protect them, instead of saving herself.

He wasn't a brave man, but if he was to die, he didn't want another little girl added to the tally.

But then Scion came. And Leviathan fled. But the girl…

Ken Wilson wasn't a brave man. He knew that.

And that was why, when she started screaming, when he ran forward, struggling with her, keeping her from gouging her own eyes out…

He gave thanks to God and all his angels that he had no idea what she had seen.

She was still screaming hysterically, her voice raw, blood flowing from her mouth, when the big troll guy made it to them, forging through the water, growling at everyone around them as he took her into his arms and cradled her, desperately asking her what was wrong.

But he got no answer.

The English Translation of Patrick's Rune is from A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeleine L'Engle.