Anya waited through the first hour and into the second, because it was art class. She drew an image that rose in her mind. "See, here's a castle, an' this is a dragon breathing fire," she said. "An' here the people are all melting…"

"Oh, my," said the teacher. "That is, ah, creative…"

When the art time ended, Georgie raised his hand, with a sidelong glance at Anya. "Oh, no!" she said. "I really gotta go poo real bad!"

"Then go already," Damian said. "Why not take your books with you so you can study?" Anya was already hurrying out the door. She got a few meters before she froze in her tracks. A platinum blonde stood before her, dressed in the uniform of a maintenance worker.

"Fiona," she said. I can call Master Henderson, she thought, but she would just kill him.

"Yes, it's me," the blonde said with her idea of a smile. She took out what looked like a pen. "Your Papa sent me to pick you up. He said he decided to take a day off."

Anya crossed her arms. "That's insulting," she said.

Fiona resumed her usual cold expression. "I'm here to take you somewhere safe," she said. "If you come with me, I don't have to do anything else."

"I can read minds," Anya said. "I know you're a spy, like Papa. I know you're in love with him!"

"I know," Fiona said. "They told me. I was pretty sure before."

"Well, I can see the future too!" Anya said. She knew it would be useless to say it was her dog who could.

"Really," Fiona said. She smiled again. "Can you tell me if I marry your Papa? No, no, of course I will."

"No, you won't," Anya said. She backed up toward the maintenance scaffold. She smiled the way she did when she had her best friendship schemes. "'Cause you're gonna die!"

Fiona only smiled wider. "Then I die for him!" she said with a zesty shake of her hair.

"Yeah, but Mama's gonna die too!" Anya said. "Then Papa's gonna marry Sylvia!"

"What?!" Fiona snarled. "That kuja! She let him go!" She twirled the purported pen as she pondered. "But if I can live and his fake wife still dies, then he can be all mine!" She grinned like a shark. "Tell me more, Anya!"

"I'll tell you everything!" Anya said. She stepped on a length of drainpipe with an audible crumpling sound. Fiona's eyes darted downward. Anya hooked her foot underneath. Fiona jumped as the pipe swept along the ground. Anya snatched it up and swung at the level of her knees. The adult howled and dropped the pen. Anya dashed under the scaffold. Fiona ran around it. Then she stepped on the pen. The object went skating out from under her. She fell face-first into the open sewer. Anya's eyes locked on a power saw left carelessly on the ground.

Fiona raised her head from the muck. She had lost her helmet, but she had another fake pen already in hand. She heard an audible buzzing. She looked up, just in time to see the scaffold come crashing down on her head.

"Now that definitely changes things," Anya said. She put down the saw. "But I better hurry." She ran toward the gate, away from most of the students and teachers coming to investigate.

By the time Anya doubled back on the far side of the courtyard, most of the grown-ups had already crossed over to the fallen scaffold where she had started from. She sensed a mind like steel among the crowd. She opened her bag. Inside was the rocket ship. She ran faster. As she ran, she began to hum the Westalian farewell.

A woman in an Eden uniform turned away from the scaffold. The obstructing statue of the founder kept her from seeing the pink-haired figure until she reached the triple arches. For a moment, her hand twitched toward her open coat, but the gremlin had already disappeared. "Sometimes," Sylvia said, "you have to do it yourself." She strode down the walkway in long, loping steps. Soon, she broke into a run.

Anya could barely walk by the time she got within sight of the door to the stairway. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She thought she was going to faint. She felt like she was going to die. "Gotta… keep… going," she said. She took out the rocket. "Push the button, or… every… body… dies!" She stumbled forward, drawing concerned looks. At the other end of the inner courtyard, Sylvia raised her silenced pistol.

Suddenly, Anya found two different images before her like a double exposure. One was of the door. The other was of Bond in her room. "Oh no, I'm back!" she said. She turned her head. There was a strange haze around her. She stared into Sylvia's grimacing face.

"Brought you back, dog focker," Sylvia snarled. "I told you what would happen if you focked with me!" In the overlapping vision of the school, Anya looked back across the courtyard and saw the woman who would be her stepmother taking aim.

"Where are we?" Anya said to Bond. He gave a perplexed worff. "This is a no-place! Time is writing itself around us!" On the school grounds, Sylvia squinted as if through a snowstorm.

In the No-Place, Sylvia pointed her pen pistol. "I can get you here and there," she said. In the schoolyard, her aim steadied. Then a shot rang out…

At Eden, Sylvia staggered and cried out…

And in the room of 9-year-old Anya Forger, Loid Forger stood with gun in hand, gazing down at the body of his wife…

And in the No-Place, Anya said, "I did this for you. Enjoy it." Then she closed her eyes in peace.

6-year-old Anya found herself before the door. She hastily opened it with Henderson's key. "Just me now," she said. She stroked the rocket ship in her free hand. "Can't really remember stuff. Just push the button. Push the button, save everyone. Damian an' Henderson an' Bill an' Becky an' Mama an' Gloomy an' Papa too."

Suddenly, a voice called out, "Hey! What the Hell are you doing?"

She smiled.

It was Damian.