Emma Barnes had had a pretty bad couple of weeks.

"She went in that alley!"

"Get 'er, lads!"

One moment she had been chilling in her room, reading her light novels as she usually did when she wasn't loathing herself for her past sins. Next moment, a golden light shined through her room's window. Then, outta nowhere she landed in a fuck-huge castle, becoming Emilia Rubyheart, a real-life princess in a prim and proper fantasy world.

Of course, as she was sure it was true for many people, this would have been a dream come true. Not for her, though.

At first, right after the confusion wore off and she'd begun to realize her situation—which closely resembled those isekai books she secretly loved to read—she'd hoped that, hey, maybe this new life wouldn't be so bad. Maybe she wouldn't fuck up as badly as she had in her previous life.

"Heh! Dead end, your highness!" The men laughed.

She really should've known better than to test her luck.

See, being a fantasy princess meant she was highly sought after, whether for good or ill. Guess what kind of intentions these folks chasing her had. Go ahead, she could wait.

Not.

Who would've thought that personally visiting a crime-infested and warlord-controlled city that His Majesty, King Rubyheart wanted to negotiate peace terms with while bringing along Her Highness, the PrincessTM (which was her, in case you hadn't figured it out) as a sign of trust, would have turned out so terribly? That's right. Everyone. Really, what the hell were you thinking, father?!

This was ABB all over again.

"P, Please! Leave me alone! Nooo!" That was some great acting, if she were to say so herself. And that was definitely just acting. No repressed trauma acting up at all. Truly.

"Please don't tell me this is a trick, Skitter," muttered Emma under her breath.

" If I wanted you captured, I'd have done a way better job." The princess tried not to shudder as the mass of bugs hidden in her shawl answered back. From the ominous buzzing barely resembling a chuckle, she could tell she didn't quite succeed.

"What the, whoah!" One by one, the 'professional kidnappers' fell as they tripped on spider silk.

"Shit! It's Skitter!" The men started thrashing and crawling away panickedly when they realized who had set her eyes on them.

Emma struggled not to roll her eyes. Of course Skitter would've become a household name not even a month after getting isekai'd. Not a minute later, they were all blindfolded, gagged, and tied up. No weapon within their reach and no possibility to chant a single spell.

Spells, yeah. Fantasy world. If she got to walk out of this in one piece, she was definitely gonna learn some magic later.

Into the alleyway walked a wiry eight year old girl with curly black hair. Her brown eyes seemed unfocused yet contrarily sharp, with her walking over the fallen bodies without so much as a wobble or misstep. Emma's breath still hitched every time she'd caught the sight of her.

"So, what now?" Breaking off her stupor, Emma asked the most important question at the moment.

" That depends on you, your highness." Her swarm answered for her, tone flat, and no emotion could be seen on her face.

Yet, Emma could tell the Warlord of the Bay was looking down on her all the same. She swallowed her own bitterness at the situation. She could recognize now that she'd had this coming for a while. One couldn't expect to walk away free after tormenting their own childhood friend for years and turning them into a monster.

"C, Can you promise me that you'll leave my family alone, at least?" New life or not, they were still her family; they didn't deserve to get caught in the line of fire.

She entertained no thought of running away, much less of fighting her. She knew she stood no chance against the parahuman once known to have conquered an entire city with nothing but her wit and skill. If Skitter—didn't matter that she rebranded as Weaver, she'd always be Skitter in the redhead's mind—wanted to, she could flay Emma alive right there and then, and no one would be able to save her.

Skitter snorted. " I don't target innocents. I'm not you."

That blow stung, but Emma supposed that was fair.

The first thing to come out of the villain's (hero? ex-villain?) own mouth was a sigh.

"Follow me, Emma," she whispered, probably so that the kidnappers, as well as the rest of the city, wouldn't realize that in the center of the Swarm-That-Walks was actually just an unassuming little girl.

The princess didn't resist as Skitter took her hand, though not without shuddering once again at her touch. She had to walk at a faster pace because even when shrunk down, Skitter was still taller than her. It didn't help that Emilia Rubyheart's body was also the same age. Damn tall Hebert genes. She had to wear heels just to match her height. And back when she was still obsessed with one-upping her at every turn, Emma wore heels almost every day at school. It was fucking stupid and she'd had blisters almost constantly.

Her hand was tugged at, and Emma realized she'd stopped moving. She shook her head. She was getting distracted. No, she was distracting herself, looking everywhere except at her.

Skitter led her through alleyways in the seedier part of town (which was saying something, since this whole town was seedy), not once stopping to see if the coast was clear. If PHO were to be trusted, then the bug controller practically had constant 360 vision and hearing as far as several blocks… among other things she'd rather not think about.

Eventually, they settled in an abandoned cottage. Skitter had her sit down on a chair in what she supposed was a dining room and took a seat across from her on the other side of the table.

They sat quietly a minute or two, with Emma struggling to meet the other girl's eyes.

"So," Skitter started. "Did Contessa shrink you down and kick you off Bet, too?"

"What?"

Skitter cupped her chin. "That's what I assumed had happened. One moment I was being shot in the head. Next thing I realized, I no longer had brain damage and was an eight year old girl. Either I'm at the point where my brain damage is so severe that it's giving me a false semblance of normalcy, or that the bitch really did shrink me down and kicked me off world into another shithole of a city, and put you here too as a final 'fuck you' or some such thing."

…What the fuck was she talking about?

Last Emma had heard about Skitter was that she had been hunting down the Slaughter…house… oh. Shit, the sickos must've messed with her head, giving her brain damage. That was what Emma assumed, at least.

"...Fucking bullshit precogs. They're even worse than tinkers. Fuck Contessa. Fuck the Simurgh. Fuck Scion. Fuck Dinah, even. She had to have known…" Skitter started rambling.

"One of them had to be responsible for this, at least. Maybe not Dinah, but I wouldn't put it past her and Faultine's crew to fuck me over one last time." The more Skitter talked, the more Emma felt a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"...Or, maybe this was another harebrained Cauldron plot. Yeah. That's got to be it."

Oh no. Was Skitter one of those people? You know, those conspiracy theorists that blamed every little incident that happened as part of a Cauldron and/or Simurgh plot? Granted, Cauldron turned out to be a real thing, but surely their involvement had to have been extremely exaggerated. Just like those theories about Scion. Like that one where they said that he was actually an interdimensional alien parasite giving people powers just to eat them later, or that he had taken some hero advice from a gay hobo who lived like a troll under a bridge. Outlandish insane theories that never had even the possibility of being true.

Emma looked at the girl worriedly. Surely the bullying couldn't have led her to this downward slope, could it? It had to have been the Slaughterhouse Nine. Yeah. That had got to be it.

"Umm…"

Skitter's head turned back towards her in a snap, and the words clammed up in Emma's throat. Jesus, was the girl trying not to act human?

"Right. I'm getting distracted. Now, what do I do with you?"