A biting at my fingers made me veer away from the initial exit we'd been directed to. The rumbling grew more intense, more like an earthquake. I had no clue where I was going, where I was leading Amy, but trusted the insect panopticon to know what was going on. We plunged through waist-deep clouds of Grue's power and I shouldered through another door as an almighty and constant thundering filled the air.

  It took a moment for my panicked brain to put it together: Siberian dropped a building on us, like Leviathan had on me oh so long ago. I looked over my shoulder, eyes widening as I saw the pile of rubble, the peak rising above the mall's roof. Amy suddenly cried out and fell, her pained shout swallowed by the darkness. I stopped and waded backwards, kneeling.

  I felt out and touched a hard...something that Amy had run into. She was laying beside it, hyperventilating and clutching her stomach. I slipped an arm around her back and helped her to her feet. She fought briefly, until we got out of the darkness and she realized it was just me. With some support, we managed a limping jog out of the parking lot and down the road, trying to put as much distance between us and the mall as possible.

  There was another rumbling behind us and I yelped, and Amy screamed in my ear, as we were swept off our feet. A hand reached into my field of view, black with no white, and I grasped it frantically. We were heaved onto the back of a hideous thing that, allegedly, was a dog. Almost as soon as we were on board, the dog suddenly toppled and spilled us to the pavement. My ankle flared in white-hot agony as I landed in the perfect way to twist it again. Darkness surrounded me for just a second, before vanishing completely.

  “Thank you, Grue,” Tattletale spoke up from where she was seated on the ground. She pulled herself up as Siberian approached, holding out a palm. “Hold on.” Siberian stopped, and I blinked. Was she really going to try and talk to the Siberian?

  “I think you should know, we're here for three reasons,” she continued. Oh my god she was really going to try and talk to the Siberian. “Reason number one, we're trying to save these two.” She jerked a thumb at me and Amy, where we lay still sprawled. I pushed myself to my feet, wincing in pain as Tattletale complained about Taylor's compassion. I wasn't sure why, she didn't have much to go around.

  “Reason two, we're aiming to kill you.” I swore my heart stopped for a second. “See, we know about your...other self And the third reason, I think you should know, is sort of tied into the first. We're making you waste time. Longer you take to kill Tweedles Dumb and Dumber here, the better. Awfully arrogant of you to leave your team and go off to pick off candidates like them. The rest of your team? Crawler, Jack, Mannequin, and Bonesaw? Right this second they're getting a surprise visit from the rest of our team. What do you think--” Without warning the Siberian flickered and vanished.

  “Shit,” Trickster swore. “She--”

  “Just get a phone! Warn them!”

  I shook my head and helped Amy up as the loudest mouth in the room scrambled for her phone. She clutched her injured hand to her chest, mine throbbed in sympathy. Fuck, I really needed to stop the bleeding, clean them, since Amy...was Amy right now. Maybe once these clowns took off to go save their friends we could--

  “Amy.” Skitter's voice made her jump and freeze. I took a half-step forward, body singing with pain, my ankle nearly giving out. I locked my knees and took a deep breath. “Are you okay?”

  “No, I'm not okay.” I noticed every eye in the room was on us. “She bit off my fingers.”

  “Kind of a dumb question,” I added sarcastically, drawing what I assumed was a glare from Skitter. “Thanks for the save, wait, is that Trickster?” I saw the asshole dusting off his stupid tophat. “Why the fuck didn't you teleport us douchebag?” He shot me a glare.

  “Didn't have anything fat enough,” he bit out.

  “You really could use the exercise,” Tattletale snarked, then looked over. “Hey Amy, listen. Can I ask you a quest--”

  “Don't,” Amy barked, letting Tattletale get further than I expected. “Don't talk to me. Don't even look at me, you bitch”

  “This is important.”

  “What part of what I just said did you not understand?!”

  “Probably the 'don't talk' part,” I sneered. “Considering how intact your face is, I guess Jack's lesson didn't stick?”

  “I'm done.” Tattletale whirled around and glanced at Grue. “No point, fuck it. I'm going to try and call the others again while you handle this.” There were a few seconds of tense silence as she walked away.

  “How are your fingers?” Skitter asked, breaking the silence as she glanced between us. “You're keeping the bleeding down using your power?”

  “Yeah,” Amy said glumly.

  “You haven't,” she said, glancing at the bleeding digits by my side.

  “Got anything for them?” If she was just going to stare, I was better off beating her up and cutting her skirt apart. Wait, had she always had that?

  “Bandages, if you want,” Skitter replied evenly. “Only the basics, but maybe they'll help.”

  “They'll be great, thanks.”

  When Skitter passed the supplies to me, I tried to bandage myself and nearly fumbled them into the filthy water of the streets. My hands were shaking too badly for this, so I waited my turn while she bandaged Amy's fingers. It was weird, seeing Skitter like this. I'd fought her, been threatened by her, shot by her teammate. I forgot, in all the insanity and bullshit surrounding her, she had something resembling a heart.

  “How can you even be teammates with her?” Amy asked Skitter. “Are you friends?” I grimaced behind my mask.

  “We are,” Skitter confirmed, the fruit.

  “Everything that happened to me, it's like it all snowballed out from the moment you assholes robbed the bank.”

  “She didn't plan that,” Skitter hedged. “It might have started that way, but she wasn't the cause of everything that followed.”

  “No,” I snapped, taking a step closer and kneeling next to them. “But she's the one that tossed the cigarette in the grass.” There was a beat of silence.

  “I've had nightmares about her,” Amy said, barely audible.

  “We didn't expect you to be there,” she continued making excuses. “We were cornered, Tattletale used the power she was given to get us out of that spot. I'm sorry it happened.”

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  “Mmm, 'sorry' doesn't cover bank robberies, I think.” Skitter glared at me.

  “And you still think of yourself as a good person?” She turned back to Amy.

  “I...don't know that I do think of myself that way. I've probably done more damage than good, by trying to help others.”

  “At least you were trying?” I offered. It felt...weird, hearing her be so real about exactly what she did, and exactly what it cost. “But it begs the question: where's the end of that road?” A beat, two.

  “What do you mean?” I glanced back, saw Amy's wide eyes staring at me.

  “I mean...trying to help.” The gears in my head were grinding and I wasn't sure who, of the four people present, I was talking to. “At some point, if you're doing more harm then good, it's time to stop. But if you don't then...where does it end?” I shrugged.

  “You're still trying to help me,” Amy said plaintively.

  “I hope I'm not doing that badly.” I grimaced and shook my head. “I...say the word then. If you think you're better off without--”

  “No!” The shout caught me off guard and Amy shrank back. “Just...aren't you hurting yourself too?”

  I frowned, looking down at my hands. Skitter reached out and tried to bandage my fingers, but I shook her off. Amy wasn't wrong, if I'd stuck with the heroes there was a chance I'd be better off. I was still nominated, the Nine would still have come after me, but maybe we could have fought them off. I'd have had a shelter, food, and sleep. I wouldn't be covered in the diseased ink on my right arm. But the alternative...

  “I'd suffer either way,” I said, moving my projection and offering my injured hand to Skitter. I winced as she began cleaning the wounds. “Anyway, sorry Skitter, I'm wiped and kind of a bitch. Thanks for the bandages.”

  “It's fine,” she said, finishing the dressing and standing.

  “What's your plan?” I asked, rising before helping Amy to her feet. Her hand grasped mine. I let it be, things were...rough.

  “We're going to fight the Nine,” she replied simply. “We need all the help we can get too. I know we saved you, but I won't force either of you to come.”

  “I...” Amy began after a moment. “I can't fight, can't face the Nine.” I frowned, even though I knew the answer was coming.

  “Okay.” Skitter said, staring at Amy silently for a moment. “Okay. I won't ask you to face the Nine. But you can give us the ability to go after them, to fight them. There's this part of the brain that Bonesaw called the... Corona something, corona pollentia? Can you access mine? Tweak my power, give me more range? As much as you can.” My eyes widened in shock as I realized what she was asking for.

  “I can't affect brains.” Oh thank god she was still doing that song and dance.

  “You can't--” Skitter sighed. Something she mentioned niggled at me, something about range...

  “Hey wait,” I said, cutting off whatever Skitter was just starting to say. “You messed with her bugs earlier right?” Half-remembered words from a story I'd never read. “Could you make her bugs do that? Bounce the signal, like a relay?” Both looked at me, then Skitter at Amy.

  “Can you?”

  “I...I shouldn't,” Amy replied, looking at the ground. “That could be dangerous, making a new species of insect.”

  “Not really,” I countered when Skitter didn't answer. “Give them a short lifespan, make them sterile. One-time use, because the Nine are a hell of a lot worse than any of the locals. Well...we can talk about whether Tattletale is up there or not later. For now?”

  “Well...”

  She held out a hand. A dragonfly, several moths, and a dozen flies landed in it. I saw several of them melt together, and the dragonfly began to grow. Skitter twitched, her hands balling into tight fists. It sounded like she might have been breathing harder, but suddenly she let out a near-silent sigh.

  “There,” Amy said, holding up...a big dragonfly. Well, it had a lot of antenna on it, taking the relay part seriously?

  It took off and began flying around. Skitter tracked it visibly, not saying a word. It came and hovered in front of her for a few seconds, then zipped off out of sight. Her head suddenly snapped back to Amy and she took a step forward.

  “Can you make more?” Amy looked at me, as Skitter continued. “Or what about the dogs, can you use your power on them? Make them bigger, stronger? Or at least keep them from shrinking.” She glanced at the nearest one, clearly scared of the almost literal hellhound.

  “I'd have to touch them.” She gave the nearest one a side-eye.

  “Yeah,” Skitter replied. “They're not as bad as they look. They're regular dogs, it's only appearances and sizes.”

  “Regular dogs still bite people.” Another bug took flight from Amy's hands and she looked down. “I don't want to lose more fingers.”

  “I can stand between you and its mouth,” I offered. “They can't get through my projection, and I can stop it from going after you.”

  She glanced at me, then Skitter, then at the dog. She took a deep breath and let go of my hand, stepping onto the other side of me. We slowly approached, Amy offering a hand to it. The dog sniffed it once, making her flinch, but I just nudged her arm and shuffled us a bit further down. Skitter came up and scratched the dog's chin, making its bony tail wag. That was apparently enough for Amy, who pressed her hand to a fleshy part of the dog's side.

  “The hell?” she muttered. “Can't wrap my head around this.”

  “You can't make him bigger?” Skitter's head snapped around.

  “No, I don't think I can, can't make something from nothing.” Amy paused, lips pursed, thinking. “I think I can stall the shrinking though, might get undone once he gets back in He-- in Bitch's range.”

  “Should be good enough, right?” I asked, and Skitter nodded.

  “Okay, think I've got it.” She sighed and ran her hand though her hair. “He's not going to shrink anytime soon.”

  “Thank you,” she gestured and Tattletale rejoined the group. We walked over to the other dog and Amy repeated the process.

  “There,” Amy said after a moment. “You're going to save your friends?”

  “And if we can, put down the Nine. We figured out the Siberian's weakness.”

  “What?” Amy sounded startled.

  “Did you find the Siberian's master?” Surely she'd have mentioned that.

  “Not yet, but we will.” Skitter rose and took Grue's hand. He helped her up and onto the dog's back. “And when we do, we'll put her down.”

  “Just like that?” Amy's voice shook. “You'll kill her?”

  “She's not the only one.” I crossed my arms. “What do you need?” Skitter cocked her head.

  “Your projection can resist hers.” I grimaced.

  “For about three seconds before it breaks.” I shook my head. “Don't know what would happen if she actually hit me.”

  “You'd be better off than any of us.” Skitter looked past me, at Amy.

  “You're risking your lives,” Amy said thoughtfully.

  “Yeah.” Skitter wrapped her arms around Grue. “See, it helps that we're pissed.”

  “I'm pissed too,” Amy said. Skitter extended a hand, but Amy shuffled closer to me.

  “But you're more scared than pissed.”

  “Her power isn't exactly great for the front lines,” I said as Amy's gaze fell. “And she doesn't have anything that makes her more durable. Oh, and the Siberian just tried to drop a building on us. Scared's justified, I think.”

  “It is,” she agreed. “I'm just more pissed than scared.” I sighed.

  “If I help you...” Amy swallowed hard. “Join you, I'd be betraying the family that raised me.” I heard a scoff from the back of the dog.

  “You're one to talk,” Tattletale snapped. “About betraying family.” My eyes widened and I felt Amy flinch hard.

  “Hey, Tattle,” Skitter began.

  “No. Sorry, Skitter, but it's my turn to talk now. We've wasted enough time with their bullshit and you're getting distracted.” I glowered at her as she turned her head. “Amy? I know what you did.”

  “Don't you dare--”

  “You fucked up. You crossed one of the lines that's reserved for the real monsters. You know it, I know it.” That was enough. I took two steps forward, grabbed Tattletale's leg, and dragged her to the ground. I clamped a hand around her mouth, squeezing hard.

  “Skitter,” I growled, tightening my grip, enough to hurt, not enough to break her jaw. “Muzzle your dog or I will.”

  “Hey, Amaranth, take it easy.” She said. I heard bugs buzzing in my ears. “Tattletale...back off.” Tattletale glanced to the side, then at me. I felt her try to nod once, so let go.

  “You two are fucked,” Tattletale snapped, rubbing at the red marks lining her jaw and clambering back onto the dog. “You're at a point of no return. You need to start doing your part, fixing your shit, and you need to do it ASAP. You're not Nine material, not yet, but if you don't get your shit together you're going to be at the bottom of that slippery slope fast.” She kicked her heels into the dog and took off with Trickster and Sundancer. Grue sat up and grabbed the dog's chains, like he was about to take off after her.

  “Amy--”

  “I'll come with you,” she cut me off. “So...where are we going?” I looked at her, then at Skitter. I knew the Undersiders would win, would survive. No guarantee I would, but if I didn't go... I sighed, Tattletale's bitchy lecture echoing in my ears.

  “Room for two more?”