"Do you want to join us in this fight?" Tik Moonheart asked.

I met the older woman's stare. Her voice was gentle, but there was steel behind it.

Father never mentioned Tik Moonheart. All Mother ever said about her was that she was close to my aunt, River. That was the extent of my knowledge about Tik Moonheart and River Kathron. Well, that and that she was currently working as an art teacher at the school, and did detective work when she wasn't teaching.

I respected her profession, but still...she was friendly with Zeta Faleur. That said everything I needed to know about her and her strange allies. I turned my nose upward and started walking, not thinking about how I'd be going backwards to get away from them.

"We have better places to be," I said.

"You're just going to leave like that?" Esther said.

"Yes," I said. "We were doing just fine before you showed up."

"And head backwards? Just take that rosin," Charmaine said.

"I feel like the blasting through walls thing only got us so far," Myles said. "It's either go with them or go home now."

My dramatic exit was halted only a few paces in. The others respected my calls, but they didn't hesitate to tell me when they disagreed. I had heard from the rest, so I had to ask my closest companion in the group before I made a decision.

"What do you think we should do?" I asked Sai.

"I feel like it would be a worse move to not do anything to stop this Reed guy when we have the power to," Sai said.

I made a bitter sound, a cat's growl practically, because it was hard to argue against that.

"Fine," I said. "We'll help. But whatever you plan, treat us as a separate team." I stared at Zeta. "I refuse to help her out."

Tik kept staring at me. I braced for her to tell me off too for not wanting to be around one of my greatest enemies.

"Well, you could take the path back through the vent, I guess," Kara said. "Go to Caya and do what she says. We can show you the way to her, but if you get lost it's on you."

Mars knelt down, getting out a poster paint stick and began drawing on the tile floor. The bright pink contrasted against the floor's dark blue.

"Kay, we're here," Mars said, dotting in the farthest rectangle. He switched to a yellow paint and put another dot diagonally from us. "Caya's around here."

"Can I have one of those?" Sai asked.

"Sure," Mars said. "What color?"

"Gimme the pink one," Sai said. Mars tossed it their way. He also gave them one of the gate rosins.

"Just in case you get really lost," Mars said. "But I think my map's pretty good."

"That's really the best direction you can give us?" I asked.

"I could've beamed an image of this to your wristband dealie, but since you're being rude I won't now," Mars said.

"Ana!" Esther said.

"Whatever," I said, staring at the map Mars had drawn. "I can remember this, easily. And you know what else?" I took my phone out and got a picture of it. "There."

"I'd say call if you need help, but the reception is wonky in here," Kara said. "If you shout, we'll probably hear."

"That won't be necessary," I said.

"And you're sure you won't need one of us to escort you there?" Kara asked.

"No, we're fine," I said, giving one last glare to Zeta before we left.

"Um..." Zeta said. "Don't get lost."

I scoffed.

"Kay," Zeta said. "Well, good luck then. Team Starlight, go!"

We were adept enough that climbing into the vent wasn't an issue. It was an example of some of the things the devil treatment helped with. The vents were wide and tall enough for us to stand up fully in, but our steps did feel like the floor could give out under us, and we had to jump every few feet over wide gaps. Sai used the poster paint Mars gave them to mark on the walls, partially for their own amusement and to track our path.

"'Team Starlight, go,'" I said mockingly. "Can you believe her? Utterly ridiculous that she thinks she's the only one who can be a fan of Raina Starlight."

"I feel like she'd want more people to be fans of her, actually," Myles said. "But that's just because every other time I talk to her she talks about Raina Starlight. Kind of reminds me of someone."

"If you're saying I'm anything like her..." I said.

"I mean, you gotta be at least a little like her," Charmaine said. "You're siblings, after all."

"Are you trying to piss me off?" I asked.

"No, if we were doing that we'd start the team leader debate again," Charmaine said. "Alright, just hypothetically speaking, our team leaders are either Anastasia or Caeda, right?"

"Ugh, you are trying to upset me," I said. "Can you not plot usurping me while I'm standing right by you?"

"It's not 'usurping,' just thinking out loud," Charmaine said as she leapt over a gap. "It's good for us as a team to figure out what's working and what's not. I think ideally my vote goes to Esther, but she doesn't want it."

"I had enough leader time back home," Esther said. "Even if they can be difficult, I'm glad Caeda and Ana stepped up to the role, at least."

"And Ana at her worst isn't as bad as Caeda at her best," Charmaine said. "So why do we bother letting Caeda have any authority?"

"Because she'll be painfully annoying otherwise," I said. "And Mother likes her for some reason."

"She's the only one Chickadee listens to as well, but who knows what that girl's thinking," Esther said.

That was also true. I had a spy class with Chickadee when we were transitioning from one campus to another, and made the attempt to be her comms person as she watched a Rising Shards class. She didn't listen to a thing I said, instead obsessing over dressing up as a maid. Finding out afterwards that Faleur was in that class and I gained no valuable information put Chickadee on my enemy list for a while.

"Ideally, we could get Caeda and Chickadee out, but since we're stuck with them, I guess this is the best we can do," Chickadee said. "Unless we get a wildcard leader like Ash or Myles."

"You don't want Ash leading anything," Myles said. "Trust me, that burden is way too much for her."

"Sai, what do you think?" Charmaine asked.

"I wish we didn't have to have a leader at all," Sai said. "Obviously if I had to pick one I'd go with Ana between her and Caeda. But it'd be nice if we didn't have to be a team that needed to have a hierarchy like that, I'd rather we just be friends. But I'd also rather us not having to do these missions or anything."

"Maybe once this is done, we won't have to worry," I said. My nebulous 'this' didn't refer to just the Reed situation, but the broader one we were training for. The threat Mother spoke of that only we could stop.

"And no matter what, at the end of the day, we are friends first," Esther said.

"Right," I said. "Hopefully one day—wait..."

A strange noise came from the gap in the vent in front of us. We jumped down and found Caya, in a spot I'd never guessed I'd see her in.