AN: HERE ARE my prompt fills 1-10 of Angstober, all to do with Rain and Rahlin and co! Relevant warnings are beneath the prompts.

1 "Honorbound" Acid Rain Team Satisfaction

"Do you know-" My voice catches, and my throat is thick. My inhale whistles through my nostrils, and I swallow. "Do you get what just happened?"

Rain's brows push inward. She sits on the floor and crosses her legs. The Satellite concrete beneath our feet is weathered from the years but still retains the blackened scars from Zero Reverse. She says, "We won another area like you wanted. Why are you so sad?"

When I close my eyes, their eyelids shiver. "Rain..."

The Sector E gang's hideout is far behind us, but I still hear the screams, still see the blood running in my mind's eye. They had a trap set for us on our way out after we beat them, the damn cowards. She used her monsters to break us free, but...

No. It's impossible for him to have survived that.

"Kalin?" she squeaked.

I stare at the space between my feet. An honorable leader would stick to his integrity and tell the truth. He'd be harsh and make sure no more tragedies would occur, and he'd be honest about her status as Sector Security's most wanted.

I kneel and place a hand on her head with a small smile. "You did great. Just, from now on, please try not to go so hard with the powers?"

Her blank expression molds into a smile mirroring my own. "I can. I can do that for you."

2 "Anxiety" Clear Skies Post Canon

The darkness is all-encompassing and as suffocating as deep space. A weight slumps the mattress beside me. My breaths quicken. My heart races. Hands slide over me and clamp over my mouth and I can't breathe can't see can't-

I awake gasping for air. I hug the comforter and curl in on myself. The touch of the sheets, the hum of the air conditioning, and pressing my finger to my criminal mark ground me in reality.

Strips of pink light fall upon the floor beneath the blinds. My shaky feet touch the cool floor. A chill wracks me as I follow the sounds of sizzling and scent of melting butter into the kitchen.

Kalin aims a spatula at a broken omelet with a lot of brown on it. When he spots me, he shuts off the stove and all but throws the spatula onto the counter. "Heyyy! You, uh, early for you to be up."

"It looks yummy."

"You're lying."

I wipe my eyes with my knuckles. "I had a nightmare."

He's filling the electric kettle with water in the next instant. "How about that chamomile and dragonfruit mix you're crazy about?"

"Sounds... really nice."

While the water boils, he pulls a chair away from the kitchen table. I sit on his lap and curl up against him. He rests his chin on my head and holds me. I listen to his heartbeat, fast then slow, the rhythm underlying the song of my soul. The water bubbles furiously but there we remain, still and silent in the dawn.

3 "A Dangerous Gamble" prior to Under the Apple Tree beginning

The stairs to the white pavilion reflected blinding sunshine. She shielded her eyes as she climbed then stood in the shadowy center. Three ice-coated dragons towered over her. She lay her hand on the hilt of the Orichalcos Sword of Sealing driven into Hermos's paw. Timaeus and Critias looked on in frozen silence.

"I've been offered an interesting deal," she said. "I can go back to the other world. I'll take your cards and find the humans needed. He said Purity, Serenity, and Conviction."

She lay on her back and spread out her arms. "Can it be possible? A pure human? Sounds like an oxymoron, but I have to believe it for your sake, Timaeus. I don't know how well I'll be able to find them or convince them to free you. They have to make the choice themselves, after all. Humans are driven by greed. They'll want your cards, surely, but how do I communicate your power? How do I communicate at all? I'll stick out up there. I'm sure of it. I don't know how to be human anymore. I'm not sure what my name is supposed to be."

She rolled onto her side and grasped her own wrist. "She called me 'Rahlin.' It's the name father said we would have if we were born a boy, as we were supposed to. He had a way of holding anything over us. It's the closest thing I have to an identity. That and what I do. 'Executioner' isn't exactly a name, though. Rahlin. Rahlin. I think it's okay. I... suppose the original intent doesn't have to matter anymore. It's gone and cast off, like him. Rain wanted me to have it, too. She seemed sincere. I wonder how she's doing. Do you think, when I'm up there, I'll have a chance to see her? No, fate would not be so kind to me. But is it wrong to hope?"

The bell tower rang out. She rose and walked in a circle beneath each of the dragons' snouts. "I don't have long now. I haven't felt nervous in centuries. It's sort of a thrill. What's most important to me is you three, of course. I won't stand for this tragedy to stretch on any further, but I... might have some feelings about this adventure? I sound so callous. Humans don't walk in circles talking to themselves this long. They'll know I'm a freak of nature. On top of it all, I have to lie to my patron. He'll be furious once he realizes I'm trying to save you all, and he'll cast me back down here. He's conscripting me to reap the humans' souls, trying again to erase their existence. I don't feel strongly either way, anymore. The trip is just to return the rightful freedom to my friends."

She strode to the back of the pavilion, the lone spot no sunlight touched throughout the day. The slab of marble chilled her hand. The black bloodstains on the ivory showed the years of monsters chained down and suffering punishment of the eternal persuasion.

At Rahlin's hand.

"I doubt I'll have issues being a Reaper," she said, "but is there a chance humanity has changed? For Rain, I hope so. I hope so. I..."

She rested upon the deathly throne in the dark and rested her hands on her lap.

"I'll choose to reserve judgment."

4 "I want to believe you" Clear Skies - a timeline

./cycle1606

The seconds ticked by. I picked at my sleeve as time stretched on and the clock called out every lost bit. Outside, cars and runners blew through the DAIMON streets. The lights in my crummy apartment flickered. I gasped and sat up; it was a sure sign the elevator was moving, and it could be her.

Footsteps on my floor. I swallowed and rolled a little closer to the door. The key in the lock leapt my heart into my throat. Rain walked in safe and sound. I slumped back and nearly wept. I said, "You're okay."

"Safe and sound!" She jingled the keys. "Aw, you worry too much."

Not enough. "Why were you late? Did something happen at work?"

"Nooo."

She avoided eye contact. I threaded my fingers together. "Rain. You remember how important it is that life remains normal."

And it was, Crimson Dragon be damned. He could call her all he wanted. His Signers could pull their own weight.

"Yes!" she said. "I'm doing fine! It's just, I, I met someone. On my way home. We literally, um, ran into each other."

She smiled and stared down at her own palm as though a rose lay nestled in it. I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Let me guess. Short, light blue hair. Criminal mark from his hairline to his chin. Purple mark on his forearm."

"Whaaat? Do you guys know each other already?" She giggled. "He said the funny mark was a tattoo!"

I lifted a binder packed with information profiles and tossed it out the window. Glass broke and shards rained. People below screamed and a car alarm went off. Rain backed away, her hand hovering in front of her open mouth.

It didn't matter.

I sank off my chair and onto the floor.

It was pure fiction to believe every little action in our lives mattered and could drastically alter the future. Media would like me to believe my taking a different way to work one day or adopting a more positive outlook or offering Rain the ordinary fucking life she deserved would change how the world ended.

No matter what, she existed at the root of the apocalypse. I could kill fifty percent of the population and she'd find whoever had the Giant mark and take it from them out of her own goddamned empathy. I could do everything perfectly, the stagehand to the perfect timeline, and she'd still fall in love with Kalin and take his mark.

The mark. The mark.

"Nothing matters," I stated.

"Stop that!" She moved behind me and hooked her arms beneath mine, attempting to lift me. "Every moment of our lives matters. We'll look back on this one day and laugh, I think. D-don't you think so?"

My blank stare blurred.

"I want to believe you."

My bracelet gleamed. I leapt ahead to a future point on the timeline.

There lay Rain, dead on the operating table.

The dark mark on her arm glowed violet.

"I promise," I whispered, "I want to believe you with all that I am."

Laying my palm over the bracelet, I said, "I defy your ending."

/\/\/\/\/\/

I awoke facing the sky, my arms and legs spread. The turquoise glow from beneath allowed me to recognize my location instantly. The sky had changed, however. Rather than an empty darkness, red, black, and white churned like magma compacted into a sphere floating above the landscape.

I picked myself up. My bare feet squeaked on the acrylic, beneath which a huge gear spun. The white throne before the Seal of Orichalcos sat empty. I tried to avoid scrutinizing the environment, but my focus lingered on familiar sights all the same. The sea of rubble around the circular Seal included the ruins of places I'd called home: the Satellite's many hideouts torn to shreds, New Domino's skyscrapers toppled, both the old and new Daedalus Bridges reduced to twisted metal beams.

A spot of white caught my eye. The woman in white stood with both hands on her cane beneath an arch where remnants of the old and new bridges intersected. I broke into a run but a stabbing pain in my abdomen forced me to walk to her side.

"Rahlin?" I said.

Her face was upturned towards the blazing sphere. Her single blue eye cut to me then returned to the sky. "Rain. You haven't been dueling."

"I'm sorry. I-" I coughed and wrapped an arm around my abdomen. I dropped into a crouch, shivering. "You should find somebody else. I can't do anything right. I lost all my friends and my partner and I'm no good to anybody. I'm so hurt I probably couldn't even keep upright for a whole duel."

The crack of her cane's foot against the ground echoed like a clap of thunder. I flinched, and when I looked up, she was standing over me. Her expression was neutral but her eye blazed azure.

"Who hurt you?"

I hugged myself. "It's not- it's nothing."

Her gaze was far-off. "There will be appropriate punishment."

"What?"

She knelt and offered a hand. I accepted it. When she helped me up, a black tendril skittered around her arm like a moving shadow. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. Seeing things. Again. She said, "I know you can do it, Rain. No one else is capable in the way you are."

I grasped my elbow and stared at my dirty feet. "I want to believe you."

The sound of glass shattering rang out from above. The sphere shrank into a blinding white orb. Rahlin shook her head. "Time is short. Keep your garden in mind; tend to it."

The shattering noise shifted into the screaming of winds the intensity of a hurricane. I shouted, "You don't understand!"

The white exploded and consumed us in an instant. Her voice boomed around me: "You will change the world."

I swallowed breaths and rubbed the heels of my hands up my face. The black spots retreated. I clawed forward. The ivory throne stood out on an all-white landscape. I collapsed at its feet and said, "Where-?"

"Is someone there?"

I followed the voice around to the back of the seat. Rahlin sat cross-legged in the shadow of the throne, her suit black rather than white. She hugged a glass violin to her chest. I found myself staring at the beautiful and fragile instrument held against her as though it was her dying child.

"H-hi," I murmured. "Am I still dreaming?"

"If only that were the case."

"What- who are you?"

She fell onto her side, her cheek resting against the violin's neck. Her lips quivered. A tear ran down her cheek.

"I don't know. I don't know if-" Her voice broke. The violin was ice, melting, shrinking in her arms until she held onto nothing. "I ever knew."

I dropped to my knees to comfort her, to say anything, but the floor collapsed. The sensation of falling stirred me into the waking world.

5 "Dried and Cracked" Acid Rain Team Satisfaction

Jack and I flanked a doorway. Yusei's shout inside served as the signal. Jack bashed open the door and sprinted inside. The opposing gang members scurried into shadows, shouting their own alarms and many expletives aimed at Team Satisfaction.

We clocked in on opponents at the same time, and he defeated his in fewer turns than me. Once my enemy's duel disk exploded and he collapsed from the pain of the duel, Jack appeared at my side. He said, "We're to lay low. They'll be flushing out the rest, and we're lookouts."

I nodded.

He made a face. "Don't just go along with it. They're hogging all the fun."

I stared at the steam rising from my opponent's clothes. Behind him, a brightly-colored machine displayed a blank white screen. The exposed wires at the bottom of the cabinet suggested someone had been working on it.

"What is it?" I said.

"Arcade game."

"What does it do?"

He exhaled through his nostrils. "It's a form of *entertainment.* Before the City left us out here to dry and crack and rot, people had time and resources to dedicate to simply having fun."

"Now we have fun with..." I gestured towards the gang member.

"I have *fun* doing what will improve my life in the long run and earn more power on this godforsaken island. It's the only thing that can keep us all alive."

"You know..." I wrapped hair around my finger. He'd get mad at what I had to say. Then again, it was guaranteed. "When a plant rots, there's a way to nurse it back to health-from the roots up. The way Kalin puts it, that's kind of like what we're doing."

"Even if that's true," he said, his volume increasing, "it's surely more time and effort that could be put towards the healthy plants. Why bother? And how would you know that, anyway? Spent too much time with Martha?"

"I just think-"

"No you did not." He folded his arms over his chest. "I like you better the less you speak."

I frowned. The arcade machine's screen flickered. "If we fix things, could we play this game together?"

"What?"

"If we do 'cure' this place, and we can make it like the City... instead of worrying and fighting all the time, we can play games. So you have to promise you'll play this one with me."

He grit his teeth and averted his eyes. "Why would you want to do that with *me*?"

"We're still teammates," I murmured.

"...Right. Okay. And when you're wrong, we'll rematch in a duel instead."

"Shake on it?" I asked, brave enough to smile.

"No."

"O- oh. Okay."

\/\/\/\/\/\

I didn't remember.

My birthmark, the wings, shattered into red shards and vanished. Red Nova Dragon on my field disappeared much the same way. The room was quiet. Rain stood opposite me alongside Primo.

It shouldn't end like this. We should've stood side-by-side, playing a game for fun.

Not this; never this.

Why had I forgotten?

Not only that quietest member of Team Satisfaction, but the girl who lay comatose on the hospital bed all bandaged up after taking on multiple Dark Signers.

A fool in much the same way as I.

I had so much to say and yet no words to form. There was no argument to excuse me, no way to place myself in the right.

"Your field is empty," Rain said. She pointed a finger at me. "I attack you with my Earthbound Immortal and The Crimson Dragon, and my team wins the duel."

Her team. Hers. Them.

In another world, we'd be side-by-side at the arcade.

As the attacks struck, their damage real like so many of our enemies had suffered, I chose to think of that imaginary life.

6 "What's wrong?" Under the Apple Tree after Rahlin injury

Something thumped hard against the ground. Mai shot up and threw off her eye mask. The alarm clock read 4:37AM. She felt around the comforter, and her fingers found Elegant's fur. The cat was curled up in her usual spot by Mai's hip.

She puffed out a sigh and opened her bedroom door. The electric blue light of the clock on the oven fell upon Elegant's food and water bowls and a shock of white hair. Mai said, "Kiddo?"

A groan. The hair slithered into the shadow behind the couch. Mai said, "Rahlin?"

Nothing. Mai stepped toward her. In a forceful and clipped tone, Rahlin said, "I fell."

Mai's brows lifted. She noted the fancy cane Dartz had given Rahlin resting on the table in front of the couch… very far from Rahlin. "Seems like that would happen when you skip out on physical therapy. You have to be more responsible, kiddo."

No response. She rolled her eyes. Just what she needed–the silent treatment at four in the morning. Soft sounds found her. She knelt closer. They were Rahlin's gentle sobs, wracking and stumbling past Rahlin's hand pressed to her own mouth. Guilt stabbed Mai. She reached a helpless hand forward. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong? What's *wrong*?" she repeated, shrieking. Her mouth contorted and tears streamed from her remaining eye. "I *can't fucking walk*! I'll never, I won't, no matter how many times I rework that day and what I could've done and who I could be. I can lay here. That's it."

Rahlin's breaths were heavy. Mai blinked until her misty eyes produced tears, which she wiped away. There was no right answer or canned response that would help. Mai's typical advice of bucking up would only multiply the pain.

So she sprawled out on the floor and said, "Is this spot taken?"

Rahlin's bark of laughter broke through her whimpering sobs. As time stretched on, her breathing normalized, and unanswered words from Mai confirmed she'd fallen asleep. Mai pulled a blanket over her and elected to sleep on the couch in case of further incidents. She never thought she had this kind of thing in her. Sympathy. Grace. Whatever.

The cane remained in her view as she drifted off, thinking it might not be so bad to pull out that "whatever" more often.

7 "Attacked" Clear Skies, end of the original timeline

Gore, torture, (psychic) discrimination

The pounding in Rain's head awoke her. She squinted into the surgical lighting aimed at her. Bindings locked her wrists together above her head on the table, and manacles trapped her ankles. Duct tape over her mouth made it difficult to breath and she panted, her heartbeat accelerating.

"Excellent! You're awake." A man leaned on the table beside her. The sharp illumination reflected off the lenses of his glasses. His unkempt dark green hair fell into his eyes and down his shoulders. His suit was ruffled, the button-up shirt wrinkly.

Rain inhaled sharply. She remembered. He'd stopped her in the street and asked for an autograph. He'd shown her a magic trick, and..? She couldn't recall anything between then and now.

But he and his scorn were eerily familiar. She still couldn't place it. He banged his hand on the table, and metal clanged. Rain flinched. "Good. You're lucid. Remember me?"

She shut her eyes tight and shook her head repeatedly.

He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him, at his burning eyes. "Koda. The Fortune Cup."

Rain's features slacked as it came back to her: this man facing Aki, his psychological prodding of her, and her using her powers to tear him to shreds without remorse.

"Life," he said, his words breathier than any other person she'd heard before, "hasn't been the same since that day. Your kind-" He spat the word. "-is a plague upon this planet. I can't possibly feel safe knowing any moment I'm at risk of a building collapsing on me because you decided to get a little too emotional in a duel. And you? You…"

His smile stretched wider than anyone's should.

"I saw you in the World Racing Grand Prix. Your name in lights, your name in headlines. Striking your opponents. Breaking the skin. The blood, the blood. Rain Orichalcum, a psychic with a criminal mark, and one of the Directors of Sector Security *stood by you* and your ability to participate. But what about us? Us normal people, put in danger by your existence?"

He lifted a scalpel and touched the blade to her hairline. "It's not fair. It's not right. I'll find out what's going on up there, Rain Orichalcum, and I'll find a way to fix you all. Don't cry, no. You are one step toward fixing this world. Don't you understand?"

The tears dripped onto the table. Now she heard the muffled screams from the rooms around her.

He slammed down a butcher's knife on her hand, severing three fingers at an angle. She squealed and struggled and writhed. "I said *don't cry.*"

She closed her eyes tight but it didn't help; they didn't stop.

*Please,* she begged in her mind, crying out. *Crimson Dragon?*

*Young dragon…* The Dragon's voice was strained. *I'm so sorry.*

Laughter rang out. The shrill voice of the Dark Signer whose mark she bore rang out in her mind: *Yes, yes, yes! You have no earthly idea how long I've waited for this.*

"Now." Koda's steady hand pushed back her bangs and skimmed her pale, unbroken skin. "This part is important. If you want a chance of staying alive, you'll have to keep very. Still."

Her sob wracked her. She yanked against her unyielding chains and arched her back.

"Excellent," he said. "Let's get to work."

He drove it down, sprouting blood and tears and severed flesh.

8 "Dark Days" Acid Rain after Facility

The ceiling fan in Blister's apartment spun slowly. I stared into the center until my eyes blurred. The last duel puzzle on his computer screen remained on the COMPLETE screen. I'd obsessed over them and now longed for something, anything else to be engrossed in.

I watched TV on occasion. A part of me worried the apartments around Blister's would be concerned about noise while he's away, if they knew he lived alone. Most of me did not feel. The news showed updates on the search for me. I guess nobody at the Facility bothered to write down the name "Rain," so they called me "Dangerous Fugitive Satellite - The Shadow." The sketch of me and my criminal mark was surprisingly accurate. I'd spent hours staring at it in the mirror, tracing it on repeat.

It was my last tether to my partner. To have something permanent no one else could take away from me offered me a shred of peace. Sure, they forcefully emblazoned it on me, but I chose to get caught knowing the consequences. I was branded for the sacrifice I made on behalf of my partner.

But without the duel puzzles or anything equally distracting, our last moments in our cell played on repeat. His trembling hand on my face. His assurance that I'd be fine. His heart ceasing, his body disappearing.

"I don't feel fine," I eked out, my voice a scratchy and weak and broken thing.

There's a channel that played the most popular songs. Music was new for me. The song of the Satellite was the caws of vultures and the shouts of distant conflict. Oh, there was the sea… I had liked that.

I remembered the sunset on the glittering sea, my face in his hands, him expressing his worry for me.

A yawning void opened in my chest. I turned off the TV and lay on my side, studying the tiny squares in the couch fabric. The songs waxed poetic about love and the kinds of… things… one would do with such feelings. I wasn't sure what to do with love anymore. He's gone. It's lost its purpose yet it remained thudding behind my ribcage. I hugged the flat throw pillow against me and curled into a ball.

Things that have no purpose should disappear.

No. He wouldn't feel… that way. Like the criminal mark, I needed to keep those feelings with me, forever. So long as I kept on, there was a chance what he desired could be accomplished. Yusei, Crow, and Jack might be working towards just that right now.

But if they weren't, I couldn't blame them. Hell, here I was staring at the puzzles, at the mirror, at the clock. Hidden away like a cockroach from a fallout.

I took out Kalin's deck from my back pocket with his headband wrapped around it.

"I can't help but feel like…" I shut my eyes, my expression pinched. "I'm letting you down, partner."

Holding it to my chest like a lifesaver, my mind finally emptied, and sleep enveloped me.

9 "The Catch" Post Under the Apple Tree

Ryo Bakura sat upright in the seat of a chair with his knees hugged to his chest and his chin resting on a knee. In the apartment living room, this and one other seat faced a table holding two plants. The recently replaced glass wall and sliding door to his left led out onto the balcony. The aloe plant closest to the glass thrived, green as pure jade. The other succulent's leaves sagged, their color a withering brown.

His phone buzzed with messages in the group chat. They'd made up with Mai and became fast friends with Rafael, Valon, and Alister. They spoke about the Seal of Orichalcos and the madness around Kaiba losing then regaining control of his company.

Ryo logically knows all these events occurred, but doubt infested his thoughts.

Had Rahlin existed?

Of course she had. Footage from the tournament proved it. She lived in the memories of his friends, too, all of whom had no clue where she'd gone.

The only evidence he'd kept was this plant she saved after he'd left both to die and the heartrending note she penned, words from Atlantis. He was no stranger to ancient spirits. Had he simply been victim to another haunting?

He recalled their duel at twilight in the park, the intricate stories she spun, and her final moments under the apple tree.

She'd vanished. There was no earthly explanation for her disappearance.

Ryo pinched the aloe leaf. He'd planned to never leave this apartment, his sarcophagus, and the Spirit would never have a chance to act. His theoretical embalming and last rites were done and dusted.

Then she shattered the glass.

"If you were a ghost," he whispered, "you saved my life. Thank you."

Outside the sky opened, and rain poured.

Of course the genuine connection he'd made with another person turned out to have a catch. His rotten luck and fate all but guaranteed it.

He watered the plant, though, and he sent a message to his friends: anyone want to have a board game night?

A gift from beyond was nothing to waste. He fell sideways in his chair. There was a way he could spin it positive.

There had to be.

10 "Can't Go Home" Clear Skies WRGP

The heart monitor maintained a steady rhythm. I interlocked my fingers and rested my forehead on them. The nurses had dimmed the lights and drawn the curtains for Rain to get some proper rest. Innumerable bruises pocked the surface of her near-translucent skin. The swelling of her face, at least, had waned.

Her eyes fluttered open. Their ordinary brightness had dulled to ultramarine like the sky moments before nightfall. She attempted to sit up but I shot to my feet and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Please," I begged, "keep resting."

Our proximity allowed me to hear the shallowness of her breaths. She swallowed, lay on her side, and pulled up the thin blanket. "Primo…"

"Yes?" I said.

"I hate it here." Her voice was hoarse. "Being stuck here again. I can't stand it."

"It's only temporary. I swear there's not a chance you'll fall comatose again."

"How temporary?"

I stood over her, the fingers of my outstretched hand curling and uncurling. What in the unholy world was the proper response in such an event? Comfort was not my strong suit, perhaps not even a word in my dictionary. I cleared my throat. "You sound thirsty. *Hydrate.*"

I pushed the bottle into her hands with perhaps too much force. Rain sipped and didn't meet my eyes. With the straw between her teeth, she said, "You didn't answer. Are you lying?"

"No. I simply hate admitting that I do not know," I said. "They must monitor you until your condition improves."

"What if it never does?" she asked, voice cracking.

"The only way to make your desired future reality is by taking action to achieve it and manifesting such with your *belief.*"

She murmured, "Which means?"

"Resting."

"It's impossible." Rain rolled onto her back. Her palms faced the ceiling, and the IV in her forearm was visible. "This place is the furthest thing from home. What- what even is my home anymore? The Satellite's being rebuilt. Everything I love there is getting demolished. I can't go back to Satisfaction Town. That's where I have my own place, but Kalin… I don't want to see him anymore. It should stay his. I can't stand to stay with old man Klaus, either, or face anyone. Does Klaus even remember me?"

Rain glared at me, and her lips curled back from her teeth. "Or did you ruin that, too?"

A corner of my mouth twitched downward. I sat on the edge of my seat, as close to her as possible. The air conditioning kicked on, disturbing the curtain. A sliver of daylight shone on her. "He had nothing to do with the WRGP, so he should be unaffected. Your having nowhere to go is my responsibility. I'd be happy to offer you one of the rooms at the mansion."

"Mansion?" Her nose curled. "Oh. The place Godwin lived."

"They rebuilt it the same for some godforsaken reason," I grumbled. "The Director of Sector Security position does not call for such grandeur."

"And yet."

Her hands were balled into fists, and her heart rate had increased. I said, "I know it could never be a home to you. I feel much the same. Consider it temporary lodgings where I can make sure my mistake is properly tended to and does not result in permanent damage."

"You're my nurse now?"

"*No*."

She smiled and lay back. Her heart rate had returned to normal, I noted. She said, "What are we doing? There's nowhere we belong. Your partner is gone and mine… can only lie to me. We've got no friends. Why do you even want to save a world like that?"

"Because Eurea wanted it," I said. "I believe you do as well."

Rain's eyes closed. "I don't have a place in this world. The Crimson Dragon is gone, the Signer's marks are gone, and it's all my fault. Atlantis was destroyed. The Satellite's being destroyed. Crash Town got blown up. It can't be a coincidence all those places I considered homes are decimated."

Seeing my greatest enemy in such a forlorn state should not have affected me. I'd gotten what I wanted. She was by my side and thus wouldn't be in danger from Antinomy or Antithesis. At the same time, the Signers had lost their WRGP match. I won on all fronts.

Yet my stomach twisted in knots. I proverbially reached out by admitting, "My future, too. As I told you, it's desolation from horizon to horizon. There is no home to have there. But I confess, when Eurea was by my side, I felt as though- we'd made one."

The beeps of the monitor filled the silence. Rain rolled over and hugged an extra pillow to her abdomen.

"If that's how homes are made," she murmured, "then I can't go home."