Freed from the tight restriction of the train, Cassandra, Stephanie, and Tim took just a moment to shake off their whiplash and threw themselves at Gedeyon. Even three against one, the transformed man maintained his strength and weight advantage. Cassandra took several hard swings with her katana that dented a few of his scales, but a thunderous punch from the ogre's trunk-like fist knocked her aside. Tim grabbed Stephanie's staff from where Gedeyon tossed it aside and thrust a trio of hits into half of his face, but the giant only grunted, whipped around, and kicked Tim hard enough to throw him off his feet. When he hit the ground again, it was in grass and dirt beside Stephanie as she sifted through their backpacks.

"Bastard hits like he's from Krypton. Or at least Atlantis." Tim wheezed as he pushed back to his feet. In the chaos after Gedeyon rushed the four out of the train, he'd scattered their backpacks all around the grassy hill. The ground sat mostly level as they fought, but there was a steep incline further down the hill into the ocean if the battle spread. "You find anything useful?"

Stephanie held up a handful of small, gray pellets. "He's got four eyes. Think some smoke bombs would mess with him?"

Tim grabbed the pellets and glared at the fight as Cassandra dipped and dodged around Gedeyon's swings. If she stuck to defense, he couldn't land a hit on her, but it seemed if she stopped to fight back, she'd leave herself wide open. "Worth a shot. Any more of those gooperangs?"

"I've stress tested them, at his size, don't think it'd hold him for long." Stephanie slipped a few more batarangs out and drew Tim's collapsable bo out of his bag. "Switch me sticks. If we can hit him hard enough, we might be able to roll him down the hill and into the water. Maybe it'll buy us some time, at least."

Tim traded staffs with Stephanie, nodded, and the two ran to join Cassandra.

"Brought down that building, didn't you?" Cassandra dodged the ogre's strikes, but didn't try for an attack. Maybe if she could force him to reflect, it could weaken his resolve. "How many died?"

"Only the enemy," Gedeyon said. "And I only smashed in the roof. Sandoval started the fire—and then he and the others cleared it out."

Cassandra didn't have time to look back toward Sadie, but she accurately guessed the admission made her stomach turn. She searched around the surrounding area—the train was nearly out of sight, and they stood on a brief stretch of grass that dropped off into a cliff to the ocean. A few fishing boats lined the water, and just on the edge of her vision she saw a speedboat that looked out of place. Desperate for anything she could do to protect herself, Sadie pushed through the contents of Cassandra's backpack. Past Cassandra's uniform she squeezed and brought a pricked finger to her mouth. Batarangs were on hand, but she didn't trust herself to throw one. Further down, she paused a moment and looked into the bag. Her hand brushed a dagger that shimmered with a faint orange light. Well, she didn't need a throwing arm for that, at least.

One step of Cassandra's went an inch too wide. Her fighting style wasn't meant to play defense forever, she always fought with the expectation a few hard, fast strikes would bring a battle to a decisive end. So, with her footwork just a little off, Gedeyon caught her with a monstrous punch to her gut. Cassandra flew off the ground and went rolling toward the edge of the cliff. Sadie screamed her name as Cassandra dug her sword into the dirt to break her momentum. By the time she stopped, she tasted blood in her mouth and struggled less than a foot from the sheer drop off the cliff. Gedeyon closed the distance in a flash and raised his foot as if he meant to stomp her into a stain in the dirt.

Before the giant struck, a trio of small capsules flew into the side of his axe-shaped face. With his thick skin, he didn't give it any thought until they exploded and released bursts of smoke into the air. Gedeyon screeched and grabbed at this face, all four of his eyes shut tight and he took in deep breaths, and after he did, he uttered harsh wheezes. Cassandra pushed off the ground and retreated as the monster flailed around.

With a roar, Gedeyon demanded, "Little worm—you dare? Where are you?"

As the ogre struggled at the edge of the cliff, an idea struck Cassandra. She looked to Sadie and shouted, "Get back." Then she turned to Stephanie and called, "Grapple gun in there?"

"Yep." Stephanie drew the tool and pulled her arm back, but stopped when Cassandra shook her head.

"Keep it, coming for it." She ran uphill, so Tim ran to take her place fighting Gedeyon. As they passed one another, Cassandra gave him a thankful nod. When she reached Stephanie, she said, "Tie the cord around your arm."

"Wait, what?"

"Throwing all my weight at him," Cassandra said. "Hoping to throw him into the water. Need the support in case I fall."

Stephanie gawked, first with confusion, then bewilderment. "If it was anyone but you I'd say this was too crazy to work."

Without a trace of humor, Cassandra said, "But it is me."

"I know, I know." Stephanie complied. With the end of the grappling hook bound tight around her arm, she and Cassandra exchanged a last nod and thumb's up before Cassandra took a downhill run at the ogre.

In just the minute it took to prepare the grappling hook, Tim was hammered by a flurry of blows from the enraged, blinded monster. With stiffness running through his arms, he raised his staff for one more exhausted block, and Gedeyon threw his head forward. The steel axe blade in the center of his face broke through Tim's staff at its center. With an ache in both his arms and a tinge of sadness in his heart, Tim jumped backward as Gedeyon lifted his head and flashed a satisfied sneer.

Stephanie shouted, "Yo, uruk-hai! Over here!"

Gedeyon turned his head, more confused than by the reference than angry, and opened his four bloodshot eyes in a squint. Cassandra angled her run to the right, jumped, and delivered a two-booted kicked to the giant's face. The force of the blow rocked Gedeyon off his feet and onto his side. Disoriented, the ogre flailed for a moment, failed to find purchase, and rolled off the cliff. A harsh, distorted scream rang out from the monster before he crashed into the ocean. Cassandra fell after him, but the grappling hook hitched and interrupted her descent. Higher up the hill, Stephanie bit back a cry of pain as the cord tightened hard around the wrap on her arm.

Sadie and Tim ran to the line and helped Stephanie pulled, Sadie shouting, "We'll get you back up!" as she did.

Cassandra looked back down at the water as she held on tight to the grapple gun. After the initial splash, nothing was readily visible of Gedeyon. Not bubbles, not a continued struggle, nothing. Her stomach turned as she maintained the watch. Short prayers slipped through her mind and pled, Please let him be all right. Let him not sink.Nasty memories of Benjie flying out of the plane cabin flashed back into her memory, and she felt like she could throw up right onto the face of the cliff. She searched elsewhere for a moment's distraction and settled her sight on a speedboat in the middle of the bay as it closed in on a rocky stretch of beach. That made her frown, why wasn't it going for one of the piers in town.

A few snatches of words between Sadie and Tim reached her. It sounded like a brief argument ended as Tim said, "Just trust me, I've done this before."

"All right, fine." Sadie let out a huff. "I just hate feeling like I'm the load here."

Tim's upper body and arm extended down over the cliff and toward Cassandra. "Take my hand," he said. "I'll pull you up."

Cassandra got a good grip on his forearm and, after a few seconds of coordinated struggle, the brother and sister both sat panting atop the cliff again, Sadie beside them, Stephanie unwinding cord from around her arm.

"Sadie wanted to put her arm out. I had to tell her it isn't like in the movies, you need a lot of upper body strength." Tim spoke between deep breaths.

Cassandra rose and caught Sadie in a tight hug. "Thank you for letting him do it."

With a long sigh that released most of her body's tension, Sadie said, "Well, whatever gets you up here safe, right."

"Man, never doing that maneuver out of uniform again." Stephanie grit her teeth and muttered, "Frick, frick, frick," as she pulled a last stretch of cord from her arm, a stretch that took a line of blood and slashed fabric with it. "Ate right through my hoodie. Looks like I lost a fight with a very angry cat."

That got a laugh out of both Cassandra and Sadie. Tim ran to one of the backpacks and dug around until he produced a roll of medical tape. "Hold onto this, I think there's some antiseptic in one of the other bags."

Stephanie accepted it with a, "Thank you, dear," bit one end, and started to stretch out the gauze to wrap up.

Cassandra released Sadie from their hug and looked down at the water. "Hope he comes back up."

Sadie looked down with her and swallowed hard. "You're—uh—you're a lot better than most people would be about that, you know?" She opened her hand and looked down at the stigmata. "All he had to do was steal our backpacks and run away, you know. I know you gave him a hell of a fight, but I think he was seriously ready to kill all of us. Same for that first guy, back on the plane."

With a pained exhale, Cassandra said, "Used to all that. Most of my enemies want to kill me. Can't want that. Can't do that. Not again."

Involuntarily, Sadie's eyes went wide. "Again? Wait, you have ki—I mean—you… have, before?"

Pained by the look in those wide eyes, Cassandra looked away. With hands in her pockets, she said, "Didn't mean to."

Before either could say anything more, Tim ran past them and squinted at the beach on their right. "Looks like that speedboat just parked. Crap, is that a police boat or something? I don't even know how we explain something like this—"

A gigantic fwoosh of water roared up from the bottom of the cliff. In a blur, the monstrous Gedeyon ascended out of the water, landed on solid ground, and threw one enormous hand around Sadie's neck. Before she could even scream he pressed down, hard, and pinned her to the ground.

"Still smell it!" Gedeyon roared. "Give it to me—give me the icon!"

Cassandra and Tim were both paralyzed with shock for a few precious moments as the ogre threatened to crush Sadie's throat. Before either could resume the battle, Sadie yanked the dagger out of her pocket and dug it into the monster's arm.

The sound that came up from Gedeyon began as a monstrous roar, but then resolved into a far more human scream. In an instant he leapt off of Sadie and landed near Stephanie. She edged backwards to create some distance, but he didn't turn a single of his four eyes at her.

"No—no no no." Gedeyon tried to grasp at the blade with his fingers, but his hands were too large and, if Cassandra had to guess, his senses too hazy to grip at it properly. His enormous gray bulk receded as he fumbled, half blind, for the weapon in his side. Within just a few seconds the human with the afro from the train stood before them again. "You don't understand. You c—c—couldn't understand." Gedeyon spoke in the pleading stutters of a drunken man on the verge of throwing up. "They knew what he did— they'd all have protected him. They— they—" He stumbled in his steps and fell to his hands snd knees. As he gasped for breath he muttered, "Mothers. Fathers. Sons and daughters. K—k—killed them. All of them."

Stephanie retreated to Tim and Sadie's sides, but Cassandra took a few steps forward, hands raised. "Easy."

Through her teeth, Sadie demanded, "What are you doing?"

"Making sure he'll live." Cassandra stepped closer, hands still raised to show she held nothing. "That knife, I know how it hurts—"

Gedeyon jerked around, his eyes wide with terror. "Keep away—you can't judge me. Only God can—stop it! Leave me alone, leave me alone!" He ran uphill, back toward the train tracks. Cassandra took a few steps closer before she saw his shape vaguely change and he rushed uphill in another series of gigantic leaps.

Tim stepped up and squinted as the ogre vanished over the horizon. "Think we're done with him?"

Cassandra sighed. "For now. I hope." The two of them turned toward the other two members of the company. "How much further do we have to go?"

"I think we were getting close. My cellphone is still somewhere in all this mess." Stephanie gestured toward the chaotic items spread over the cliff. "We find one of those we can GPS it. We might need to finish walking into town."

Resigned to yet another long walking diversion, the four split up across the grass to start gathering the remaining detritus. As they gathered, before anyone got a good look at it happening, the same blur from the train slipped up behind Sadie. It distorted the air like a heatwave for a second before a hand grabbed her from behind, yanked her upward and, at the same time she screamed, raised a knife to her throat.

Cassandra, Stephanie, and Tim all whipped around at the sound of the scream. Nijah reappeared, the steel of her weapon held just at the edge of Sadie's neck, her other hand holding the woman by her short hair.

"Dispatching Gedeyon was no mean feat. Well done." Nijah projected her first words for all four to hear, but lowered her voice to focus on Sadie after. "But I saw all I needed to see in that fight. Gedeyon might have smelled the icon on you, but you're still the weak link. Tell me where it is or I'll finish you off."

Sadie struggled against Nijah's grip. "Get off me, you crazy bitch!" When she remembered an old self-defense trick, she stomped on one of Nijah's feet as hard as she could. The enemy showed no reaction. "Cassie, help me!"

Cassandra stared down Nijah but held her ground. When Stephanie took a step forward, she extended an arm and shook her head.

"Cassie?" Sadie continued to wriggle.

"Let her go." Cassandra locked sights with Nijah. "You don't want this."

"You're right, I don't," Nijah said. "But I'm prepared to do what I have to."

"Said you didn't want more killing," Cassandra said. "Think you have a code. Like I do."

Among her struggles, Sadie demanded, "Is this really the time to test that?!"

"Hasn't even used the, 'stop moving or I cut faster,' line," Cassandra said. "You're like us, Nijah. You fight, but you don't kill."

Apart from Sadie's terrified movements, everyone held their stances. If Nijah demanded she be still, she probably would have frozen up. But, as Cassandra said, she hadn't. As if after she'd made the initial threat, she hadn't known what to do next. Tim and Stephanie looked back and forth between Nijah and Cassandra, ready to jump in, but somehow sensing the battle was already well underway in their eyes alone.

In the distance behind Nijah came a shink sound. An instant later, something smashed into Nijah's back. She screamed, released her grip on Sadie, and fell to the ground, something like a hiss sounded from the place she'd been struck. Sadie ran from her, back to Cassandra's side, tears in her eyes as she walked into an embrace.

"You're okay now," Cassandra said.

"Stupid." Despite leaning into the hug, anger tinged Sadie's voice. "That was so stupid! You should have done something."

"Knew she wouldn't do it—"

With a scowl, Sadie pulled away. "I didn't know that though! Cassie I was scared, I thought I was going to die. I'm not wrong for being freaked out here."

Cassandra struggled for a way to respond to that for a moment before a shout of, "Stay down, jinn. I've got another salt bolt at the ready," took her attention.

The four Gothamites turned as a bearded man dressed in Benedictine robes, stepped forward. He looked maybe just around Tim or Stephanie's age, and in a hand pointed toward their enemy, he held a crossbow with a white-tipped bolt at the end. Nijah writhed on the ground and leered at him from the ground, but did not rise.

After a moment to share her stare, the monk looked up at the four. "Are you the ones from Gotham?"

Tim stepped past Cassandra. "We are."

"Do you have Brother Arlington's herald?"

"He's Brother Arlington now?" Tim raised the communicator on his wrist. "How did you know we were here?"

"We were already on our way here, and heralds send out alerts to one another withing close distances." The monk waved toward the speedboat by the rocky shore. "After the signal stopped moving at train speeds, I concluded you must have been intercepted again. I am here to guide you. I am Brother Dominique." He hesitated for a moment before he continued, "Is the icon safe?"

"It is." Tim pointed down toward Nijah. "And she doesn't know where it is, so we shouldn't be specific."

Dominique nodded. "Come with me then, I'll take you from the speedboat to our sailing vessel. We'll confirm whatever else we must there." He bent for a moment, grabbed Nijah by the back of her jacket, and began to drag her.

"Wait," Cassandra said. "What did you do? Are you bringing her?"

"Shot her with an arrow of shaved salt," Dominique said. "In a normal jinn, it would be deadly. For this—" disgust seeped into his tone. "Half breed, it's just suppressing and sapping her power."

"Hold on, jinn?" Sadie said. "She's, what, part genie?"

"All will be explained later. Come along."