One moment, Riley was running with Uncle Jack, the next she, and some of her spiderbots just… fell.

Fell into a void, full of tumbling rocks and… was that a couch?

Riley had prepared for being thrown into the air, and so she flipped over, carbon-nanotube reinforced bones and muscles easily taking the impact. The spiderbots gathered around her.

But Sibbie wasn't here, and neither was Uncle Jack.

"Your Shadowdancer," Riley called. "You'd better let me go, or Uncle Jack will be—"

"Jack's dead, or will be soon," a voice said.

Above her. She looked up, seeing the girl on the stone, glowing purple light rising around her. Riley signaled, and one of her spiderbots took a tremendous leap for her—

And she made a gesture and two stones slammed together, crushing her bot.

What would Uncle Jack do? I have to get her closer. Even if Riley hadn't been prepared, she still had her darts and the poison she could breath out, not to mention her spiders.

"If you think Uncle Jack can be killed by your boyfriend—"

"I don't think. I know. By the way, wasn't it strange, how he was surprised?"

Yes. Uncle Jack was never surprised… but he knew how to keep heroes talking. And this one wanted to talk.

"I bet you know why." Riley said. Keep her talking. And Riley was curious.

"Oh I do." The figure took a leap, ending up on another stone. "I hate this place. I shouldn't, it's mine, but… bad memories. Maybe that's why I brought you here. Merlin has decided it's time for me to take another mantle. Sometimes wizards have to be judge, jury… and executioner."

"How did you surprise Jack!" There were some stones underneath the girl, and she could send her spiderbots there, and maybe she wouldn't—Fiddlesticks! The girl took another jump. Why wouldn't she stay still! Riley didn't do this. Crawler, or Sibbie, or even Jack were better.

"Because I know about parahuman powers. I know more than you know, by far. I know where they came from, and where they will go… I know their purpose."

"You're lying!"

"Am I, Riley?"

Riley spun around firing her sparks at the glowing figure behind her. They passed through it, the illusion vanishing.

She can do illusions to? That was cheating! She was a cheater!

"I read the police files of the crime scene. Jack talked to you, didn't he? And no matter how scared you were, he made sense…and when you left, it made even more sense, because he was your friend!"

"Stop talking about Uncle Jack!" She sent the spiderbots jumping from rock to rock. She had to find out where the real girl was. Then she'd deal with her.

"Broadcast. That was the name of his shard." Now the voice was coming from all around her. "Communication. Jack's power let him get into the heads of parahumans. Find out what they wanted, what they needed. How to influence them…but subtly. How to find out what Riley Grace Davis needed so very desperately."

"I'm not Riley Grace Davis!" Her spiderbots were going berserk, even as one was grabbed in cables of purple energy and torn asunder.

"You're not? What's your name?"

"Bonesaw!"

"No, that's the name Jack gave you and he's dead. That's why Jack was surprised. That's why Jim has killed Jack by now. Jack didn't have his power feeding him cheat's… Because we're not parahumans. But you… you're a good girl, Riley Grace Davis, because that was the last time you were happy, and Jack used that. He stole what didn't belong to him…"

The voice was getting angry, loud, the floating stones rumbling.

Memories were rising, Mommy, Daddy, Muffins. She'd had those thoughts before, but always Uncle Jack was there with his gentle—no, mocking—smile, talking to her, making her remember who her real—her kidnappers—family was. She shook her head.

Shadowdancer had some kind of bioweapon or maybe she was a Master. She was making Riley confused. That meant that Jack wasn't dead. Riley could get back to him and save him and they'd get a new family!

And then she heard someone land behind her. Riley spun around and her spiderbots jumped from where they were. The girl didn't do anything, only her eyes visible over her breather unit.

Oh phooey! I'll have to take that off of her!

"Your shard is the Chirurgeon, builder, healer, butcher." She tilted her head. "I've decided. But if you want to know more, catch me."

She turned and jumped to another stone, and Riley called her spiderbot to her, the robot forming around her as an exoskeleton as she pursued the girl. That dirty, nasty girl.

Oh, she'd learn everything that girl had to know! She'd take it out of her brain, and make her dance and sing and scr—

And then they hit a large, flat rock. Shadowdancer turned around and the moment Riley hit, there were flares of purple light, sigils coming to life in the ground. Her body froze. The spiderbot froze, and then Shadowdancer stood up, and slammed her staff to the ground.

"Murderer. Child. Victim." Her voice rolled out over the empty space, and for some reason, Riley couldn't call her other bots to her. They were frozen.

"I bind you! By your Name I bind you.

"Riley Grace Davis I bind you.

"Be held here, until your Judgment or World's End!"

Riley looked down at her feet, purple crystals rising up over them, growing over her. She was going numb for some reason her internal systems couldn't understand.

"Wait!" Riley asked. "How do you know about our passengers!"

"I spoke to the source," Shadowdancer said, and her face was cold and still, as the light played over it.

"He—help me, Uncle Jack!" Riley said, but before she could say anything else, the crystals rose over her face and then she knew nothing more.

Claire looked at the frozen child. The robots were also frozen, purple crystals emerging from their forms. That had been the reason for the hide and seek—to give Claire enough time to work the sorcery.

She walked up to the crystal, the frozen form of Riley in it. Claire put her hand out, touching the crystal.

"I'll keep you here for now," Claire said. She sighed. Morganna had tried to trap her here, and now she had trapped this poor girl. But Jack had put his claws into Riley very deeply indeed. Certainly Claire had no idea how to cure her, and they couldn't risk it with Scion still in the future.

If we win, I'll give you to people who can cure you, hopefully. Until now, you'll be safe.

It was time to go back to Jim.

Jim stared at the corpse of Jack Slash. In front of him, the Fairy Queen nodded to Merlin.

"You are a tolerable companion, though I may yet kill you. But the gifts were well thought of."

"You may find the purpose I intend to put these gifts to even more interesting…"

"Indeed?" the blond inclined her head. "I look forward to it." She turned to Jim. "Your duties have been concluded, though I may speak to you later."

"Just…" Jim sighed. "Not at school, Your Majesty? I don't think the teachers can take much more."

"As you say. And yet, you have provided me a gift. That one was an unworthy wielder of his fey, dreaming petty dreams. I am inclined to be generous…"

Jim thought. "Do you need the body?"

"Nay."

"I'll take it."

"Really?" Merlin said. "I hadn't thought you had taken to collecting trophies, even if many trolls do."

"It's not that," Jim said. "Those people… they were crying and pleading and we don't even know everything Jack did to them. They deserve to know that… He's gone."

"Indeed." Merlin inclined his head. "It will also go far to destroy his legacy. I approve."

"Thanks," Jim said. "Is… he safe?" The Fairy Queen looked down and then another ghost appeared, this one carrying ghostly tools. A light flickered over the body.

"Yes. He is now safe."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. Door."

Jim had appeared out of anyone's sight, but when he came around the corner to where the paramedics were working on the injured, along with Amelia working to save the most heavily damaged, silence spread out from him. Jim had Jack by the scruff of his neck, blood dripping from the great wound Eclipse had made.

"Jack is dead!" Jim called out. "I know it won't make up for your losses. For your pain or your loved ones who have died." He took a breath. "Nothing can make up for your suffering… But this is is the last time!" He tossed the body down in front of him, where it sprawled, Jack's expression frozen in shock. "The Slaughterhouse Nine are no more, never to rise again!"

From a corner of the square, where Amelia had made her sit down after she'd purged her of any poisons from Mannequin's weapons, Vicky swore.

"What is it?" Miss Militia asked.

"Have you ever heard Jim whine? 'Oh, I know people like me, but I want to go out and eat without giving autographs! I'd like to be a little more obscure!' If he says one thing about that today, I'm going to suggest he doesn't pull stuff like this!"

"It's helped with the victims," Miss Militia pointed out.

"Sure. I know. But it's not going to keep me from mocking him if he whines." Vicky folded her arms, a satisfied expression on her face.