Saving Karina was harder. Not because she was better protected-if anything, getting to her and subduing her owners was much easier.

It was more difficult because of what they found.

Chained, like Keith. Naked, like Keith. But scarred like Yuri.

No, no, no. She's just a kid.

Karina wasn't kept drugged. She was wide awake the entire time, watching the three strange men approach her cage. She wasn't kept in a side room, carefully contained; Karina's cage lived up to the name, a metal cube of bars suspended from the ceiling. Her eyes were huge and terrified, and she made little whimpering noises around the gag, trying to scoot to the other side of the cage.

"Ivan."

"Y-yeah?"

"Where did you put her owner again?"

"Um...why?"

"Just tell me."

"Kotetsu..."

"Tell me." They'd taken Karina when she was fourteen. Fourteen. Had he let it happen? They'd taken her from his house in a midnight raid. He'd spent a week in jail, the penalty lightened because the NEXT was under eighteen. The government was not cruel, they assured him. They understood the natural impulse to protect the young.

No one had protected Karina.

Keith was the first to approach the cage. He held out his hand, palm-up, as if dealing with a frightened animal. "Karina," he said gently, "do you remember me? I'll tell you again, if you don't. My name is Keith. This is Kotetsu and Ivan. Do you remember us?"

There was no reaction from the girl except more whimpering.

Keith unlatched the hinges of the cage door, careful not to make any sudden moves. "Karina," he said, still speaking in that calm voice that said nothing could possibly be wrong, "I'm going to take off your gag now. We have the keys to your chains, and we want to take them off you. I swear on my life, I will only touch you to release you."

Kotetsu's anger still surged, but he tamped it down. It wouldn't do Karina any good. It would only scare her more, if such a thing were possible. Good thing Keith's here. I'd have charged in head-first, and she'd probably be more afraid of me than her owner. I used to know this stuff, I'm sure I did.

Karina said nothing, even after her gag was removed, nor would she move to the opening in the cage. Keith had to reach through the bars to unlock her chains. "I can't reach your collar from here," he said. "Can you come to the opening?"

She obeyed as if he'd snapped a whip, scrabbling to do as he said, lowering her head over the edge of the cage.

A movement at the corner of his eye showed Kotetsu that Ivan, face green-gray, had run from the room. Kotetsu couldn't blame him. He wanted to run away, too.

Keith lowered the key into the lock of her collar.

"Wait!" Memory suddenly flashed in Kotetsu's mind. "Keith-"

The second the collar fell to the floor, Karina came alive. She screamed wordless rage, and the room filled with blades of ice. The floor frosted in a heartbeat, and Kotetsu's feet shot out from under him. The fall winded him, and he fought not to activate his powers. Less than an hour until Yuri's execution. I have to save them until I need them.

It's going to be hard to save him if you're dead, another part of him pointed out. Karina was hurling icicle daggers with massive force; Kotetsu saw several of them embedded inches into the wall.

He expected at least one of them to slice him open, but none did. Is she under control after all? Does she know who I am?

"Are you all right, Kotetsu?" Keith asked, giving him a hand to his feet.

Belatedly, Kotetsu realized that the reason none of the icicles had hit him was that they were being rebuffed by a gentle dervish, swirling around Keith. He just happened to be in the eye.

"What do we do?"

Keith shook his head. "I won't use my power against her. No matter what."

"I wasn't telling you to," Kotetsu snapped. "Damn, I should have remembered. We always used to take precautions before removing the collars. Even Yuri tried to flame me."

"Kotetsu!" Ivan's voice was urgent, but not panicked, coming from the next room. "You've got to come outside! There's rioters everywhere!"

Just then, Karina collapsed. Kotetsu ran through the wind barrier, blinking against the swirl of dust and ice that tried to choke him, and caught her as she fell. He laid her down gently, checking her vitals as best he could without touching her too much. He grabbed a throw from the back of an expensive-looking couch and tucked it around her as if she were his daughter. "She's unconscious, but her pulse is strong," he reported. To be honest it was too fast, maybe a little too light, but there was no time to go into that.

The plan wasn't working out exactly how he'd thought it would. He'd intended to rescue his friends, who just happened to be two of the most powerful NEXT he'd ever met, and then use this ragtag band of friends to stop Yuri from being killed.

But Keith was having enough trouble staying upright in his current state, and Karina needed time to rest, to heal, to recover, if that was even possible. Don't think like that. Of course it's possible. She'll be fine. We've rescued NEXT in worse states than this before.

Something crashed through one of the windows, shattering the glass pane. Everyone ducked instinctively, but the window wasn't at an angle facing them. As soon as it was gone, Kotetsu heard shouting outside, car alarms, more glass breaking, and the unmistakable crackling of flames. He looked down at the unconscious girl in his arms, and made a decision. "Right. First things first, we've got to get her out of here. Let's go."

They left through a side door, about ten seconds before rioters turned over a car just in front of the house and set it on fire. Kotetsu could feel Karina's scars through the thin blanket, and somehow couldn't bring himself to care about her owner's luxury car.

The big digital clock standing at the corner flashed 8:35pm. Twenty-five minutes. Time is running out, and I don't dare use my powers now.

"Kotetsu? I can take her. I know you have a lot to do tonight, and I don't think I'll be much help," Keith said, self-deprecating without self-pity.

Kotetsu started to hand Karina off, but Keith's arms buckled. "Sorry! I'm sorry! I thought I could-"

"It's not your fault. I should have realized." Pay attention, Kotetsu. He had trouble with a spoon earlier, remember?

A police whistle sounded from close by, and Kotetsu ducked quickly into an alley. He couldn't remember the city ever being this noisy, filled with shouting and crashing and (he flinched to hear) the odd gunshot. "Come on," he muttered. "I remember a Safe House down this way."

The street was a straight shot to City Hall; Kotetsu could barely make out the figures on the steps from such a distance. If I used my powers, I could see-no, I'll need them later. Even without his powers, he could see a small army in uniform, and up higher-did he catch a glimpse of pale hair? Surely not. Kaede told him about the bag they'd put over Yuri's head.

People were flooding the streets, so close to the city center. Some were just in it for the vandalism, the senseless violence. He saw many of them knock over trash cans, set cars on fire, scrawl dirty words on the walls. Some of them had guns.

"Are they pro-NEXT?" Ivan whispered. "Or against?"

"No idea. Maybe just opportunists."

Store windows shattered; looters helped themselves to TVs, furniture, expensive communicators. One man ran by holding a leash in his hand, dragging a young boy by his collar. As Kotetsu watched, a group of women wearing "Garsen for Mayor" T-shirts chased him, yelling something about theft.

Kotetsu hefted Karina higher in his arms, starting to feel the ache. They hadn't starved her like Keith, though she was too small to weigh much. He wove through half-remembered alleys, taking comfort in Keith and Ivan's footsteps behind. Finally he emerged on a main street. A woman above was throwing kitchen appliances, pots and pans, small items of furniture out of her window. People from every window in the large apartment complex were screaming. Ivan gripped his upper arm, white-knuckled, and pointed.

That was when he saw the children dying.