“I guess it makes sense that the connection runs in both ways,” Tilly mused. “What are you going to do, though? Can you actually destroy the part of the Star Fragments that they have?”

“Probably,” Angel said, taking his scribe out and examining the runes on the box that housed the tiny specks of Star Fragments. “Especially if they’re so small. I doubt their pieces will be any larger than these, so we should be able to fry them without too much effort. But I am curious – it didn’t look like any of the Star Fragments had missing parts. They were perfectly smooth, yet there are parts missing.”

“Maybe they were carved into perfect spheres before we got them,” Lilian said. “Although that wouldn’t explain yours. It could have happened during or before the Great War, I suppose.”

“Doubt we’ll ever have a chance to figure it out,” Angel said. “For our purposes right now, it won’t matter. I’m going to modify what Mind left us over here and use that to send a very strong vibration through any other pieces of the Star Fragments here. It should be enough to break apart specks like these.”

“That easy?” Tilly asked dubiously.

“It would have taken me a week to make something that could do it on my own,” Angel said, modifying a rune as he talked. “But luckily, I don’t have to start from scratch. A lot of the hard work has been done for me. Namely, there’s already a connection. All I have to do is change what’s passing through it.”

Tilly nodded, remaining silent as he worked. Angel tuned out the rest of the world, focusing in on the scratch of his scribe. He was dimly aware of Silver and Alison entering the room at some point, but he didn’t let it distract him.

A little over an hour later, Angel sat back and put the scribe aside. “What do you think, Blue?”

The orb floated out of his bag, scanning the modifications with a beam of energy. “They should function as you expect. You are losing efficiency in a few places, but for your purposes here it shouldn’t matter.”

“Perfect,” Angel said. “Let’s get this taken care of, then. The sooner we’re on the move, the better. But first…”

He squinted at the map under the Reave’s Star Fragment. It was marked near the top left of the map, near a mountain range that was disturbingly close to the edge of the Barren. Reave, Shield, and Body were all marked roughly in the same area.

“Right,” Angel said. “Let’s get on with it.”

Lilian approached the monitor and snapped her fingers. The hexagonal face that resided within the main console outside appeared before them, tilted to the side inquisitively.

“Activate this device, please,” Lilian said, nodding at the box.

“Very well. An activation signal has been sent.”

A pop of smoke rose up from the box and an acrid sent reached Angel’s nostrils. He grimaced, waving the smoke away and squinting at the dents. The pieces of the Star Fragments were gone, reduced to ash.

“I’d say that worked,” Angel said. “If we fried the ones here, the bits that the Reawakening had are probably gone as well.”

“Is there a reason you destroyed the tracking for the Star Fragments belonging to Reave and Shield?” Alison asked. “We could have kept tracking them.”

“No point,” Angel replied. “We’re leaving soon, and I know where they are anyways. We have to consider the chance that we kill one of them and get another Star Fragment. If we do, they’ll be able to track us again.”

Alison nodded her understanding. For the first time, Angel realized that the ends of her hair were singed and she had several bruises forming across her arms and upper body. Small cuts and wounds covered the girl’s fingers.

“I see you and Silver have been hard at work,” Angel observed. “And judging by the fact that Tilly has been watching me for a bit, I assume you’ve all finished what you were working on?”

“I wasn’t doing anything but watching Alison beat herself up,” Silver muttered. “I barely even got to do anything. It was mostly Alison just blowing herself up with magic.”

“Careful,” Angel warned. “You almost sound disappointed that you didn’t get to train her more. And Alison, you should be careful. Hitting yourself with the amount of energy you have could have fatal results.”

“I know,” Alison said with a small frown. “I just can’t afford to take it easy. Reave won’t go easy on me because I’m a kid.”

“Blowing your arm off won’t help,” Angel said. “Present persons excluded, that generally ends up badly. Training hard is good, but don’t seriously injure yourself.”

Alison pressed her lips together but nodded.

“Did you at least get what you were working for?” Angel asked.

“I’ve made progress,” Alison hedged. “I’ve been trying to learn some other spells. Since the fireball spell really isn’t that different than normal runes, I’ve tested a few more. I’ve been able to summon gusts of wind and shatter thin metal. That’s where most of my cuts came from.”

“She hid behind a thick artifact while she tested it,” Silver put in. “She was safe. Mostly.”

“That’s good,” Angel said, rubbing his forehead. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to get overbearing or controlling. I just don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“I know,” Alison said, her features softening. “Thank you, Angel. Tilly and I both just don’t want to be a burden.”

“Speaking of Tilly,” Angel said, glancing at the other girl. “You were working on fancier gauntlets, weren’t you?”

Tilly grinned and jogged out of the room. They followed her out and waited as she ducked behind a pile of scrap, emerging a minute later wearing the largest pair of gauntlets that Angel had ever seen.

They were getting close to just being full on armor. Metal wound down Tilly’s hands, traveling up her forearms and tapering off to points just beyond her elbows. The armor was jagged and made from several different metals in a patchwork pattern.

“I’ve got the modification that lets me get a few uses out of a single canister,” Tilly said, walking back to them and turning her palms up so they could see the slots near the base of her hands where a canister could be inserted. “And in addition to detonating the canisters, I can also use them to power the gauntlets.”

“What do they do?” Angel asked.

“They emit a wave of force along my forearms,” Tilly said. “I’ve tested it a bit by having Lilian and Silver throw parts at me, and they get blocked. I’m not sure if it’ll stop anything moving faster, but it’s better than nothing.”

Angel let out an appreciative grunt. He examined the delicate runework running through the gauntlets and gave Tilly a nod. “This is well done. I see a few things that could probably be optimized, but force fields are tricky. How long do they last?”

“About ten seconds per canister,” Tilly said. “Not the best, but it’s enough to block a few attacks, especially if I turn them off between attacks to save power.”

“Impressive,” Angel said, meaning it. “Just don’t try blocking any magic with that. It’ll go right through, especially Reave’s plasma attacks.”

“Yeah, I was worried about that,” Tilly said, her lips turning down. “I was hoping I could figure some way to make it affect magic like your Star Fragment does, but I’ve gotten nothing so far.”

“Maybe it’ll come to you,” Lilian said with a motivational grin.

“Speaking of Star Fragments, have you figured out what yours does quite yet?” Angel asked. “My Star Fragment said that you’ll probably figure it out this week or the next one.”

“Nothing yet,” Tilly said, sounding slightly frustrated. “My arm hurts a bit every once in a while, though.”

“That’s what mine did as well,” Angel said. “My powers showed up a bit later. Judging from where the Reawakening is and assuming they’ve found the Vault, we’ll have a few days before we catch up with them. Hopefully that’ll be enough time.”

“It’s time to leave, then?” Silver asked, rubbing his hands together. “It’s about time. This underground basement doesn’t suit me. I belong in the skies, not deep in the earth like a worm.”

“You’ll live,” Angel said with a chuckle. “But you’re right. It’s time to go. Lilian, could you get the chopper out again?”

Lilian nodded and approached the console. She gave it a quick command and a low rumble shook the Reawakening hideout.

“It should be out,” Lilian said, her voice barely audible as the quake came to a stop.

“Let’s go, then!” Silver exclaimed. He darted to the exit and pulled the door open, only to catch a small avalanche of sand to the face. The former bandit sputtered, throwing himself back amidst a slew of curses. He glanced back at the others sheepishly. “You got one of those canisters that pushes the sand out of the way?”