Mr. Purple rubbed his chin as he examined the message sent to him by the Timelet. “Yes, yes. Ah can see it. It really might work. Yeah.”

“So, does that mean we can get out of here?”

“Ah think so. Lemme explain.”

The group gathered the non-functional generator abandoned at the warehouse and brought it to the training room. Purple explained.

“It never occurred to me that we could use another bounding box for Green’s space expander. I had discarded the idea of using the base as a box because it was complicated and risky, doubly so based on its overall shape. I must have watched you fight dozens of times, but I never had to revert the room. Dunno why but it all just clicked when I flicked the switch.” The group walked towards the FAB.

“But the crystal? We still lack a way to get Green’s crystal.”

“No, not here. We happen to have one of the most advanced Fabric threaders outside of the City, right here. We couldn’t wire up the generator out by the warehouse, but we’re mere minutes from Green’s crystal.”

“I thought distance doesn’t matter when it comes to threads. I got that impression based on the fact that we seem wired to the City and distant settlements.”

“Distance doesn’t matter once a connection is made. It matters when tethering in the beginning. Watch this.” As they made it to the FAB, Mr. Purple pulled out something that looked like a large, empty spool of wire, stuck to a handle like a paint roller. He smacked the crystal, making Bec wince. The spool rapidly started revving and spinning. Bec swore she sensed the thing sparking like flint on steel, but it gave off no light. They ran as quickly as they could to the training room and Purple socketed in the spinning spool. It spun in position wildly. The generator whirred with energy, shaking, and rattling while Mr. Purple did a little dance.

“Why didn’t we connect the FAB to the expander in the FAB room? You said distance mattered?” Bec was curious.

Mr. Purple’s smile darkened for a moment. “Don’t ruin this for me, Gray.”

He gave a little skip and hop, but he’d lost the vigor of before. With a sigh, he went up to the display panel on the machine and poked it furiously. His smile returned fast as he fingered the display. “Now, Ah gotta tell it to use the already existing 4 markers embedded in the corners of this wall to set the plane of expansion. Ah’ll tell you what, Ah could write papers on Green’s use of a 2-dimensional point of expansion by crossing two literal dimensions. Talk about circuitous… Although it does seem like that thing collapses without destroying everything. Aaaand done. Let’s see this baby go!” He slapped the display panel and the thing actually quieted down. Holding it back from its job seemed more taxing than actually doing the expansion. Bec smiled as she saw the wall, they were looking at shimmer away. It was replaced by another identical room with another generator humming happily.

“Yes! YES! Ha HAA. Purple, you did it. You actually did it.” Ms. Scarlet jumped back and forth between the threshold.

Bec gasped. “Uh guys, don’t get too excited, do you hear that?”

The two stopped their celebrating. Quietly, they tried to listen over the hum of the generator. “No, what is it.”

Bec looked at them. “I hear… a siren?”

“A siren?” Ms. Scarlet drew her blade from thin air. Mr. Purple deactivated the generator and unhooked his bat. As the generator quieted and the space in the room collapsed, Purple and Scarlet could hear the siren come into focus. They exchanged a worried look.

“That’s the raid siren. We’re under attack.” Ms. Scarlet hurried to press her ear to the door. “I hear movement. Multiple people walking through the hallway.”

Bec followed suit. She leaned down and pressed her fingers to the crack of the door. “I see them. Three guys in Border attire. They are armed.”

Ms. Scarlet opened the door and shouted over the siren at them. “What is the situation?”

The men whirled around and opened fire at her, but their movements long telegraphed their intentions, and Ms. Scarlet was already ducked back into the room. “Shit. They’re acting like Tamara’s cronies. That probably means she’s alive… and pissed at the Border.” Ms. Scarlet waved her hand and the sounds of gunfire moved down the hallway. “It’ll take them a little bit to figure out they’re firing at the wrong door. See Gray, this is why we practice Fabric awareness.”

“What is her Word?” Bec swore at the revelation that Tamara was still alive.

“Ah know it… Ah didn’t bring it up before cuz…” He sighed. “Ah didn’t want to bring it up. Remember when she stomped my fingers? It felt… good. I could feel her power influencing me, so I started to disassociate as a defense.”

Scarlet nodded. “So, her Word.”

Purple blushed. “When she stomped me, it… it turned me on. Based on how she fought with the blades, I think her Word is attract. I’d bet money on it.”

Bec cringed and shook her head. What a Word for Tamara. She looked at the Timelet on her belt and saw ‘Error 602’ all but confirming Tamara was here. “She’s here. We can’t kill Mountain’s Border members, can we?”

“If we have to, we will. Gray, they’re unambiguously hostile. We can’t afford to walk on eggshells right now. We need to keep the FAB safe. We have no idea how long the base has been under lockdown, but Black is likely rushing down the traversal system to get here. We must protect the FAB until he gets back.” Scarlet ordered.

They ran into the hallway just as the group of Border members turned around the corner. “Get them! Queen Green demands the head of Ms. Gray!” They started to spray down the hall, but it was already empty.

Bec cursed as she trailed behind Purple and Scarlet, bolting down identical hallways in a way that made Bec’s head spin. “She knew I was here? Dammit, dammit, dammit.” Every once in awhile, Bec whispered into the group's ears to tell them that a group was approaching. Scarlet would then move the patrols to other hallways, confusing them and avoiding direct contact. Eventually, they worked their way towards the FAB. Bec’s heart sank as the double doors were already blown off their hinges. The group saw an awful sight.

Bec scanned the scene in the FAB room and it told a horrific story. It seemed that Tamara had tried to round up every woman in the base for execution. She had a pile of corpses. From what Bec saw, it had three to four women in it. So, some of them escaped? That’s a relief. She had no idea how she managed to gather so many followers of the men of the Border. There Bec saw her. Bec saw Tamara there, wearing a mask ripped straight from an opera studded with green gems. She was seated on a throne made of pipes and steel. Purple froze. He turned on his heel and ran, shouting, “Sorry gals, you’re on your own.”

That strong? Bec gritted her teeth. She wasn’t happy about Purple leaving, but she guessed that he would have turned on them, based on all the cronies. It’d be up to the girls today. He’ll pick up the slack somewhere else, for sure.

She gave her comrade a glance. She was red. Bec did a double-take even though she didn’t actually need to look to see. Quickly she waved her hand at Scarlet to feel what she was sensing clearer. She was absolutely red in the face. “Hello, Ms. Gray. Hello, Ms. Scarlet.” Tamara stepped down from her throne.

“Hello, Tamara.”

“I see you made it. I was starting to worry that my plan would just be me taking over one of the most highly sought-after economic assets on this planet. I so do like it when my plans have a more… personal benefit.” Tamara cocked her head in a way that made Bec feel that she’d become unhinged in the few days since their encounter.

“But your mask, it’s so impersonal. I wonder why you chose to hide your face during the great face-off?” Bec teased.

Tamara shrieked, “I’ll rip your mask off first.” Her voice lowered into a snarl. “Then… I’ll rip your face off.” Bec did want to get a reaction out of her, but that was… extreme.

“You knew I was here. The Timelet is pretty neat, in that way. You have it with you?” Bec fished.

“Like I’d be stupid enough to wear mine on my belt.” Tamara tapped her forehead

Ms. Scarlet acted in that moment. Lunging at Bec so fast that Bec only managed a flinched before she was gone.

Tamara shrieked in rage again. “WHAT DID YOU DO!?”

“She’s gone.” Ms. Scarlet said. She was sweating, heart pounding.

“She’s running out of here. She’s going to get help. Her Word makes us… lucky.” Scarlet bullshitted. If you want to get answers, say something wrong. People hate it.

“Is that what she told you? It’s not her Word. She’s been lying to you.” Tamara sneered as she waved her hand. “She’s cheating. She’s using time to cheat death.” A Timelet careened into her hand from the long tunnel up from the FAB somehow answering her call. “This, this is her secret. I don’t know what her Word is. None of the people in this damn base knew. She poisoned me. I’m dying. My biometrics tell me that I’m dying. Ms. Gray killed me. I’m just looking to return the favor.”

“You’re awfully talkative for a dead person.” Ms. Scarlet stabbed with her blade, appearing in front of Tamara mid-strike. The tip of her blade stopped mere moments before hitting Tamara. The girl in the green mask was undoubtedly smiling.

“Cute, you thought you could fight what’s between us? The feelings we share?” Ms. Scarlet closed her eyes and tried to ignore the sweetness of Tamara’s words. “You know you felt it. When my fist met your face, *pow* fireworks. A permanent mark left on your mind. Am I right? It felt like butterflies... like you were flying?”

Ms. Scarlet shook her head. “Yes.”

“Well, tell me everything you know about Ms. Gray, and I promise we can spend as much time as you want. Together. Exploring those feelings.”

“She’ll kill you.” Scarlet’s eyes burned with hatred and lust.

“You believe that. You actually believe that. I’m sorry but I’m very difficult to kill.”

Scarlet strained. “No. You aren’t. You just come back when you do.”

Tamara’s fists balled up and her knuckles were pulled white. “I knew you weren’t my type.” Tamara gave her a dismissive gesture, and Scarlet fell.

Up. Scarlet fell up. She tumbled upwards into the endless tunnels of the FAB’s silo at high speeds. When the Crimson Lady disappeared into the darkness above, Tamara let out a long sigh and looked over at her Timelet, thinking how she was always a fan of that rising trick. It was a pain to mark roofs (especially in this room), but it was worth it in these dramatic moments. She read the Timelet. It blinked an error message on the splash screen. She read, “Error 602: Tem—” Before she had a chance to process the words she read, the world exploded. Her mind was rocked by a shriek so loud that her head vibrated like a massive bell.

“Tamara! I will kill you!” A gray masked woman shouted from the scaffolds above.

Tamara shook off the attack and laughed. “Gray? I’m so glad I get to torture you!” She placed the Timelet on the throne and threw three knives up towards Bec. Bec had no trouble dodging the blades, but that wasn’t their intent. Tamara rocketed up to Bec’s third-floor platform and used the embedded blades to pull herself onto the ledge. She broke their connection to the surfaces they were stuck to and they whizzed angrily into her hands. She saw Bec running and let out a furious cry.

Bec heard the roar of rage and bolted around a corner to avoid the inevitable blades. The sounds of metal on concrete-filled her ears as she bolted between the halls connecting to the walkways of the FAB.

“Don’t run, coward!”

Bec ignored the shouting, focusing on keeping a pace and dodging any strikes she sensed coming towards her head. Tamara’s blades were a lot slower when she had to curve them, and even slower than that when they weren’t being pulled by the environment around her. Bec knew at this point that Tamara could only pull and push things that had been touched by her previously. A mark, Bec thought.

Those were the words that Tamara used when she talked to Ms. Scarlet. Bec heard the whole thing clearly, even from her little vantage point above. She needed to get higher.

Bec guided Tamara through the walkways, darting up metal stairs with a clattering that would always attract more attacks. Bec clearly had better stamina than Tamara, and she could probably outrun her but, unfortunately, that wasn’t the plan, or the backup plan, or her last-ditch gambit. Bec could hear Tamara shriek like a banshee as her blades failed to hit their target time and time again.

It’s like she has eyes on the back of her head, Tamara thought as she chased the elusive girl. Eventually, Tamara turned a corner and saw Bec, back to the FAB, Timelet in hand. Tamara huffed for only a moment before she threw a blade… not at Bec, but at the Timelet.

Bec screamed as the blade pierced straight through the screen and Tamara pulled it in like it was on a fishing line, wrenching it from the gray masked girl’s hand. Pulling the blade from it, she threw it to the ground and, with an accelerated stomp, shattered the thing into pieces.

Bec hesitated, and Tamara took this moment to throw the other two blades right into Bec’s chest. Bec half flinched, half blocked the strikes as she twisted her body away. Her dodge woefully insufficient as one struck her shoulder and the other struck her side, burying itself into her ribs. Bec stumbled and leaned into the FAB, the reflex of being stuck imparting more momentum than the blades themself. Bec felt the blood begin to gather quickly causing the cloth of her grey shirt to start to stick. High on the platform, above it all, she felt the cooling feeling of a breeze on the blood that gushed forth, despite it being indoors. The Fabric around her tumbled wildly in the room, and Bec really felt it for the first time in her life. No guesses, no uncertainty. She knew she felt it. Her head swam, and all she could say was a croaking, “So, you did it. You got me.”

Tamara walked out onto the narrow platform with Bec and smiled. “I did, didn’t I? With your Timelet destroyed, all I need to do is kill you and end it. End your story forever.”

“Yup.” Bec spat some blood. She looked down over the edge of the platform, soaking in the carnage that laid before her. Corpses of innocent women lay there in a pile, and images of men walk the halls like zombies. “Is this really what you want?”

Tamara tapped a finger to her lip. “Well, I was hoping for a bit more of a climax. You put up next to no fight. Pretty disappointing, all things considered.”

“Yeah, I know. Sorry about that.” Bec felt dizzy as blood poured out like water out of a balloon. The blades seemed to not plug the wound at all. Bec felt the dribbles of blood actively starting to gather near the waistband of her pants.

“Take off that mask for me, please.” Tamara almost whispered to Bec. She stood a few strides away, and Bec felt as cornered as when Scarlet had her little chat with Bec five days ago. Bec pulled off the mask and dropped it over the railing.

“You. You’re the lamer girl in the meeting. You were the dweeb who embarrassed me.” Tamara’s voice was colored with disappointment. At that moment, Bec was glad Tamara hid her face. She didn’t know if a look of disgust would help her self-esteem right now. Her esteem was already bad enough right now as Bec just now realized that she had only won a fight with Ms. Scarlet because she was still grappling with the Fester attribute of the blades that currently stuck out of Bec’s stomach and shoulder. They hurt. Really bad. Like notably bad for a knife wound. Bec’s familiarity with that particular wound was added salt, to say the least.

“Yeah, it’s me. Bec. Dunno why you care, I’m basically dead.” Bec leaned on the railing putting her fingers out feeling the scene. She reached out with her fingers and felt the Timelet on the throne. The mask laid on the floor far from the bodies. Letting out a shallow pained sigh of disappointment, Bec worked up the courage to do what she had to do.

“This isn’t a game, is it?” Tamara said like she’d been chewing on the question. “You being here doesn’t exclude the possibility, but…” Tamara looked out. “This is real. This is a real place. But what’s the difference really? I am going to crack this world over the back of my knee. With the Timelet, I will really make some waves.”

Bec chuckled. That’s a good idea. “Yup. This is real life. And I’m dead. I guess it wouldn’t matter if I died up here, or down there, right?”

“What do you mean?”

Tamara sounded confused for only a moment because Bec teetered over the rail and plummeted. She spun suddenly as the blades were ripped from her chest. Bec looked at the darkness. Up towards the endless void of the FAB. Time creaked by at a snail’s pace as Bec let the feeling of death take her. Her fingers took in the confused, outstretched hands of Tamara. Surely, she just wanted her knives back. A thought of Tamara trying to save her. The fact that an idea like that could flit into Bec’s mind at this moment was so insane that she could only smile.

The spinning force of the blades pulling from Bec’s body lost out to the aerodynamics of her form, and she began to tumble. Her heart rose up in her chest as a sensation both terrible… and terrific filled her body.

The world blossomed into existence. No more general sense of things, Bec felt it all. Within the pulse of a heartbeat, all became clear. No vague idea of color. She saw everything. Bec felt Tamara up above, now noticing that her exposed neck was a bright angry red. She felt the dull gloss of the smooth concrete. She felt the individual colors of the woman that laid dead at the foot of Tamara’s improvised throne. She felt the fine metallic sheen of each individual pipe and sheet in its construction. She even felt the Timelet laying there on the seat of the Throne… with a smallish red X on it.

She also felt fear, sadness, and profound emptiness. She’d won. Ms. Scarlet swapped Bec’s Timelet with Tamara’s. She destroyed her own chances when she tried to crush Bec’s. Bec’s flurry of thoughts focused like her vision as she felt the floor close in on her. Regret. Anguish. Fear. Sadness. Crystalized terror. Bec’s last complete thought before it went dark was: “Please no.”