“You don’t have to do this,” Aquila said to Cap, and then turned to the others as they crested the hill overlooking the town. “None of you have to do this. We can just leave. We’ve already rolled the dice to determine our direction. I can screen the next world and we can just go.”

    “I let these people die,” Cap said. “I have to see them.”

    Aquila sighed and looked back over the wreckage that had once been a town. Only the shells of the few stone buildings the town had contained remained upright. The wood and stucco housing was gone, the scorched cobbled streets and a charred timbers the only sign that they had ever existed at all.

    And the bodies. All of those black, charred bodies.

    “Cap, the dead don’t forgive,” Aquila stated. “They’re gone. Please don’t torture yourself. Please don’t be like me.”

    “It’s not about forgiveness,” Cap said. Beside him, Yuri took his hand, and together the two began to descend the hill with measured steps.

    “You tried,” Kasumi said, taking Aquila’s hand as Natsuki, Sayori, and Yukari followed him down. “And we can’t let them do this alone.”

    Aquila looked at Kasumi, a tear rolling down her cheek. “I let them die too. If I had gone down there and surrendered to him, and let him–”

    “No!” Kasumi declared. “It wouldn’t have saved anybody. The firestorm was already starting by the time we knew he was here. And he wouldn’t have spared us either. You did the right thing.” Kasumi wiped a tear from her own eye. “My turn to be strong for you, and look at the job I’m doing.”

    Aquila gave her a sad smile. “You’re doing fine. Let’s get this over with.”

    They made their way down the hill onto the main street. Charred bodies littered the cobbled throughway, some reaching towards the edge of town. In front of them, Sayori was on her hands and knees at the side of the road, retching by a puddle of vomit, Yukari and Natsuki kneeling beside her.

    “Just spit if you have to,” Natsuki was saying. She glanced up as Aquila and Kasumi approached. “Aquila, could we get that water bottle of yours?”

    “Of course,” Aquila said, reaching into her coat and handing the metal bottle to Natsuki. Natsuki passed it to Sayori, who took a sip, and then retched again.

    “How are you two taking this so well?” Sayori demanded, taking another sip. This time it stayed down.

    “Back when I tried my hand at mountain climbing a couple of years back, there was a rockslide just above base camp,” Yukari said. “Everybody left at base camp, like me, pitched in on the rescue effort. There were a lot of bodies to recover.”

    Sayori blinked. “You never told us about that.”

    Yukari nodded. “I wasn’t ready to talk about it until now.”

    Natsuki gave Yukari’s shoulder a supportive squeeze. “I thought something had happened in that world, but I didn’t want to press the matter. Sayori, I saw the murder, and I think after seeing that I’m okay, but...Aquila, do you mind if I keep your water bottle for a while? I may need it next.”

    “Go ahead,” Aquila said. She looked down the street to where Cap and Yuri stood.

    “Is there something we can do for them?” Yuri asked. “Anything?”

    “Just one,” Cap said, kneeling and pressing his hands together. “Merciful God, take pity on these souls who I did not save. Spare them, Lord, and remember them in your mercy. Let not these souls be parted from you. May all these souls, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.” He looked up at Yuri, tears streaming down his face. “I don’t know if I did that right. It’s been so long since I...I...”

    “You did fine,” Aquila said softly. “Better than I ever could.”

    “What do I call myself now?” Cap asked, looking at Aquila and Yuri. “‘Infinite’ is a superhero name. After this, I’m just a man with powers.”

    “How about ‘Matthew Markham’?” Yuri suggested.

    Cap shook his head. “How could I ever associate that name with this?”

    “We’ll stick with ‘Cap’,” Kasumi suggested. “At least until you figure it out.”

    “We need to search for survivors,” Yukari said, walking up to them. “If there are any, these next few hours will be critical.”

    “There’s no point,” Cap stated. “There are none.”

    “How can you be sure?” Yukari demanded.

    Cap tapped his ear. “Because the only heartbeats I can hear are ours.”

    Yukari cursed. “Then we gather the dead.”

    “There’s no time,” Aquila said. “The only reason Balthazar left was that he couldn’t be sure we were still here. There’s every possibility he’ll return to see if we were just waiting him out.”

    Yukari cursed again. “This actually makes me wish I was a yandere again, just so I could hurt him.” She stormed off to lean against one of the few standing buildings and screamed.

    Kasumi put a hand on Aquila’s shoulder. “We should finish up here.”

    Aquila nodded. “The next world is pretty far off our course, and it’s a long jump,” she called out. “We should be able to get some much needed rest, and the odds of Balthazar looking there are pretty low.”

    “I can get behind that,” Sayori said, picking herself up. “What do you think, Natsuki?”

    There was no reply.

    Sayori looked around in confusion. “Natsuki?”

    Kneeling beside Cap, Yuri blinked and looked around. “Wait, where’s Natsuki?”

    A chill went down Aquila’s spine.

    Cap and Yuri stood up. “Natsuki!” Cap shouted. “Where are you?”

    “Most of this place was flattened,” Kasumi said. “We should be able to see her. Natsuki, tell us where you are!”

    Cap closed his eyes cocked his head. Then he opened his eyes and looked at Aquila, panic on his face. “Natsuki’s not here – I’m only counting five heartbeats other than mine.”

    Sayori stared at Cap in shock. “No, not Natsuki! We made it so far...I...I...please tell me she’s not dead. Please, I need to hear that she’s not dead!”

    “She’s not dead,” Aquila said. “And I’m a fucking idiot!”

    Kasumi stared at her in confusion. “What?”

    “Nobody move!” Aquila barked. “Everybody stay where you are!”

    “Okay, what’s going on?” Yukari asked. “If Natsuki’s not here, where is she?”

    “Natsuki is safe, at least for the moment,” Aquila said. “She’s on the hub world.”

    “The hub world?” Sayori said. “How did she get to the hub world?”

    “She fell through the information stream,” Aquila replied. “Balthazar burned this place down using information stream powers. The fabric of reality here is basically Swiss cheese. It’s a minefield, and I just let us all walk right into it!”

    Kasumi nodded and pulled out her cell phone.

    “What are you doing?” Sayori asked.

    “I’m calling Natsuki,” Kasumi said, pulling Natsuki’s name up on the address book. “These phones work across worlds. I’m going to make sure she’s safe and let her know that we’re coming to get her.”

    “Damned right we are,” Cap growled. “I may not be able to call myself a superhero anymore, but I was a United States Army Ranger, I have always led my life by that creed, and we do not leave people behind!”

    “Well, first we have to get there,” Aquila stated. “And we need to be ready for whatever is waiting for us there. And we have no idea of how much of this ground is safe, and if I fly, it sends up a flare to Balthazar telling him that we’re still here and where we are. There’s no way he isn’t keeping an eye on this place.”

    Kasumi put her phone to her ear and then frowned. “It’s not connecting.”

    “That just means her phone is broken,” Aquila said. “For all we know, she had a hard landing.”

    “If we can’t call her, how do we connect with her once we get there?” Yuri asked.

    “Natsuki’s smarter than all of us combined,” Aquila replied. “We let her worry about her end. What we need to worry about is navigating this minefield, creating whatever we need for the hub world, and not getting found and killed by Balthazar before we get there.”

    “Right,” Cap said. “Kasumi’s sketchbook won’t work outside of the story worlds, will it?”

    Yukari started to kick at a nearby charred timber, breaking it into coals. “I’ve got an idea for the minefield,” she said, pulling over a second timber and kicking it. “We chart our own path with debris. If the coals stay on the surface, it’s safe. If they disappear, it’s not.”

    Sayori blinked, and then reached for a timber. “That’s good! But what’s stopping the debris that falls through from landing on Natsuki?”

    Yukari grinned as she started on a third timber. “Presumably, Natsuki.”

    “It will be fairly random anyway,” Aquila said, looking around. Around five feet of street separated them from Cap and Yuri. “We’re in the middle of the street. We’ve got no timbers or coals.”

    “We’ll work our way to you four,” Yukari declared, starting to toss coals onto the street. “You worry about figuring out what we’ll need when we get there.”