(Content/trigger warnings for this chapter: self-hatred)

-Ranya-

I paced across the scratchy carpet of my room and ran my hands through the brown now-knots of my greasy hair. I tried to form plans, but they were fractured since I couldn't speak them aloud. My eyes closed for a few seconds, and the lull of sleep pulled on my mind.

North and Tooth, still and strong, watched me from a far corner. I couldn't read their gazes, but couldn't hide my panic. With my dad paralyzed, I didn't have any semblance of a plan. We couldn't use Isabelle as bait. We had nothing.

I pulled out my phone and checked Dakota's message again:

"The Guardians' centers—their light powers—are gone."

"What does that mean?" came a voice behind me.

I nearly jumped, but pulled my phone against my chest as I spun around. Tooth hovered behind me.

"Nothing," I said. Dakota still didn't want the Guardians to know about her powers.

"How would she know if we didn't have centers?"

"That wasn't what she said. You read the text wrong."

"But Ranya, if our centers are gone, that would be very dangerous." Tooth had returned to being suspicious? Since when?

"What?" North strode over. I turned off my phone and shoved it down my bra.

"It's nothing," I said. "We were just talking about school. Please leave me alone."

The Guardians backed off and looked away. Why?

I glanced at my laptop—its clock read three in the morning, and my eyes closed for a few seconds longer than last time. I shook myself and blinked—I couldn't rest until I had a plan. Either Isabelle or I would be kidnapped soon, and then it would be over.

With the Guardians now not watching me as closely, I plunked down at my laptop. I half-wondered why I hadn't just gotten on it by distracting the Guardians earlier, but my lack of sleep was messing with my rational thought. The Guardians left me alone as I created a new document and typed out my fragmented ideas. My eyes closed for a few seconds again, and once I opened them, I sighed and set a timer for fifteen minutes. Just a nap. Hopefully my mind would be clearer afterward.

I crossed my arms over my keyboard, lay my head down on its smooth surface, and immediately passed out.

When I woke up after a dream I couldn't remember, the first thing I noticed was a strong sense that something was wrong. My pendant burned cold in my pocket, and an odd sense seemed to pass from it into me. Dakota is in danger. She has information you need. Rescue her.

I sucked in a breath as I jerked my head off numb, prickling arms. The laptop in front of me flashed bright orange. I cursed myself. What a fantastic time for this…

When I glanced at the time in the lower right corner of the screen, I cursed myself again. Five in the morning? I'd been asleep for so long! Who knew if something had happened during the night? Though the Guardians hadn't woken me up, so hopefully Isabelle was still safe.

As my thoughts came together and the pendant burned colder, I knew it was what had woken me up. It was urgent.

I needed Dakota to kill Pitch. Besides, I did care about her, even if she hated me. A protective feeling rose in my chest.

I stood and nearly tripped to the ground swerving under my legs. But I stumbled over to my thick pillow beneath the covers, slipping my hand under it and pulling out a little bag of Dreamsand. I shielded it from the Guardians' gaze with my body.

The protectors were ever silent. I glanced behind myself. They were watching me steadily again.

I poured a little Dreamsand into my pocket, shoved the bag back, and approached North and Tooth. Soon I stood between them, doing my best to stay upright. They still watched me.

"Hey, guys," I said. "Look over there." I stuck my finger toward the opposite corner of the room. Their gazes followed. I scattered twinkling Dreamsand on them both, and they dropped. When I tried to catch their arms this time, I couldn't remain steady and crashed to the ground with them with a loud bang.

I paused—tense. Something shifted in Isabelle's room.

"What was that?" said Bunny.

"I don't know," Jack replied

"We should go check it out."

"Isn't the Watcher silent?"

"Yeah, but maybe he appeared and North and Tooth are fighting him."

"I don't hear anything else. And we have to stay and watch Isabelle. North and Tooth will take care of Ranya."

"But—"

"If the Watcher comes after her, we need all of us here."

I waited two minutes after the conversation had stopped. Then I slowly stood back up using the wall.

The pocket where I'd put my pendant warmed again, and lightened, too. Lightened? I stuck my hand in it and met with something smooth and circular, like a large, thick coin. I pulled it out.

It looked as it felt—just with a smooth round button on the top that I'd neglected to find. A teleporter, came a sense. What had once been the pendant. In my vision that night, it blazed gold like the setting sun.

I slipped on socks and boots and headed toward the stairs to get a jacket.

As slowly as I could, I began stepping down the stairs, holding on tight and tense to the thick railing, wrapping my arms around it. Isabelle and I hadn't had problems with the stairs before. But the fifth step creaked beneath me. I froze.

Nothing. I took another step.

Creak. My feet landed on the seventh.

"You hear something?" said Bunny.

"I think you're being paranoid," said Jack.

Creak. Eighth step.

"I'm sure I heard something," Bunny said. "One of us really needs to check it out."

I moved my foot to reach the next stair, but lost my balance—even with my arms around the railing—and crashed down the next two steps.

"Seriously, I'm gonna go check."

"Bunny—" began Jack.

I fell hard on my shoulder, pain bursting, and slid the rest of the way down the stairs. My back and arm throbbed, but I pushed myself to crawl toward my coat hanging near the front entrance.

The door to Isabelle's room creaked open. I bear ran to the front hall and pulled my jacket on. Footsteps thundered down the stairs. Picture where you want to go in your mind. I zipped up my coat and visualized Dakota's front yard with its dying purple plants. Then I pressed the teleporter's button.

My vision spiraled through a thousand constellations in half a second before I tumbled onto a pile of snow in the frigid night.

The world revolved around me, and clean icy powder slid into my mouth and down my coat and boots. I closed my eyes, breathed, then opened them again.

As my vision continued to settle, I first noticed the cacophony of beating wings and skeletal clambers that when combined, sounded like power. I knelt at the edge of Dakota's yard just beyond the road, and as the world stopped spinning quite so hard, I realized not five feet from me was the mass of Fear Angels. They swarmed the house—climbing over one another like bugs—to where I could hardly see the building and its siding and flowers that all pulsed purple. A few of the creatures glanced back at me, but other than that, they didn't care about my presence.

"Attack Fear Angels!" The raw-sounding shout tore through the gusts and clattering. "Die!"

I stumbled to my feet, but fell back again.

"Dakota!" I shouted from the ground that seeped cold water into the butt of my pants. "Can you hear me?"

Her shouting paused, then continued.

"Ranya?" That was her mom.

"I was told you were in danger!" I shouted back. "I have a teleporter now. I can get you out! Where are you?"

"The master bathroom!"

"Are there any empty places nearby?"

Mrs. Halbrook paused, and then, "There's a closet behind us."

Dakota was probably the only reason they were not paralyzed yet. I had to get there quickly. But I still didn't know what I was supposed to do.

"What does it look like?"

"It's a walk-in, with purple walls and blue hanging rods. Most of my clothing is brightly-colored shirts and blue jeans. My husband's clothes are on the right, mostly gray and blue."

I tried to picture that as best I could, but when I pressed the teleporter's button, nothing happened. "Any other descriptions?"

"The hangers are purple, and the room's L-shaped. The door is closed!"

It still wasn't enough for my teleporter. "What else?"

"The carpet's purple as well, and we have a small blue shoe rack! It's mostly filled with my heels!"

This time when I pressed the button, stars spiraled past me and I collapsed onto the pink floor. Its fuzz stuck to my wet clothes like briars. I used the hanging rods to stand up as I dropped my teleporter into my coat pocket, but then I crashed back to the ground.

Dakota's shouting was much louder here. "Die! Attack Fear Angels! Die!"

I crawled to the door, then managed to precariously stand and yank it open. The dissipating smell of smoke meandered into the room.

Dakota's family fought on the other side. Pajamas clothed them, and they had scarves of different throbbing colors tied over their hair.

The room was too small for many things to fit at once with all the large bathroom furniture. Dakota stood in front of her parents, trying with her power to keep the Fear Angels from both the tall window over the bathtub and the door out of the room. Dakota's mom wielded a small but heavy-looking jewelry box, which glittered and rattled when moved, and her husband, rounder and a little lighter and shorter than she with graying dreadlocks, wielded a heavy-looking European sword. His bushy eyebrows were settled low over his small eyes. Neither of Dakota's parents used their weapons yet, but the Fear Angels were quickly taking over the room, only a few feet from the family.

My pendant—teleporter—grew deathly cold again. You can only teleport one of them with you at a time. It warmed.

"Attack Fear Angels!" Dakota shouted, and a surging yellow bolt streaked into a creature's skull. Her hand smoked bright. The Fear Angel turned to attack its fellow creatures, but another soon paralyzed it, and it dropped into the doorway. The paralyzed Fear Angel's body worked as a temporary barrier, but the creatures pulled it behind them. A few stood in mourning while the rest powered forward. "Save my parents, Ranya," Dakota rushed out as she spat another command.

Her mom's eyebrows knitted as she took a fighting position next to her daughter. "You're still so young. You should go first."

"Honey." Mr. Halbrook put his hand on his wife's shoulder. "She is the one with powers. We wouldn't stand more than seconds against these "Fear Angels." Our weapons are useless. Don't let your emotions get ahead of you."

"Take them, Ranya!" shouted Dakota before she hollered another power-infused command.

In a split second, I decided to grab Dakota's mom's arm as I yanked out my teleporter. I held hard onto her for balance and pictured the first empty place I could think of—the high school's band room—and pressed the button.

We stumbled to the ground when we appeared in the room and its thick tape and curling rust and splinters. I hit my elbow hard against the tile, but ignored the pain and teleported back to the closet as Dakota's mom turned to look at me.

I tripped as I tried to run back into the bathroom, and was just in time to glimpse Dakota's dad fall back hard as he dodged a Fear Angel swiping at him. The creatures had gained ground.

"Retreat to the closet!" he shouted as he tried to pick himself up, but obviously the fall had seriously injured his older body, because his eyes squeezed shut and he moaned when he tried to move.

Dakota dashed over to his side. "Attack Fear Angels!" she commanded a Fear Angel charging them, but another soon paralyzed it. She spun back around and shouted more commands, but the Fear Angels had breached the room farther now, and there weren't easy chokepoints this close.

It was Lori's house all over again.

I tried my best to bear run over to Dakota's dad to pull him into the closet, but I wasn't quick enough. A nearby Fear Angel shot its arm toward him. I tried to grab his wrist and teleport him in time, but too soon, fingerbones touched his hand. He dropped over on his back. My self-hatred flared.

"Dad!" Dakota shouted in a voice now hoarse from hollering. Her face churned with the fury of a hurricane. She glanced back at me. "Take him! I'll be okay!"

I faltered for a second, but grabbed her paralyzed dad's wrist as she backed behind the closet door. I thought of the band room.

Dakota's mom spun to face us when we arrived, and her hands flew to her mouth when she saw her husband with his eyes closed on the ground.

"I'm so so sorry!" I didn't have time to say much else. I teleported back to the far end of the closet.

The Fear Angels had already backed Dakota up to nearly that.

I couldn't hear her voice in the commotion, but her mouth moved, and surging blue bolts shot from her hands into Fear Angels' skulls. Her movements were slow; she was tiring. The room filled with paralyzed creatures like sand in an hourglass.

A Fear Angel shot its arm toward her, and I grabbed her sweaty ankle and teleported us away.

(A/N: Please favorite, review, and follow!

Please also join my Discord server! You can talk about RotG with fellow fans, share and talk about RotG fanworks, talk about my works, get notified when I post a new chapter to anything, and make friends! Go to my profile for the link; FFN won't let me post it here!)