The entrance to the facility opened with a sluggish creak through reality itself, and the strain it put on me was far worse than before. I grit my teeth and bore the discomfort as all the Staura we’d taken away from Scalovera’s destroyed mansion piled into the entry room, and activated my communicator to get a little help.

{Jun, I need some help here. Can you and Mortician open up a door for a lot of people?}

Jun’s voice crackled to life, and I could hear Thorn and Mortician chatting easily in the background. {Sure. We had to open one for Thorn and whoever Viri is, and that was more effort than I expected. How many people are you bringing in?}

{A lot more than two.} I chuckled. {Be ready for a lot of mental and physical strain.}

{I will. Moving to open a door for you now–I’ll be at the right spot in two minutes.}

I nodded to myself and gave Okeria a thumbs-up. {Thanks, Jun. See you soon.}

Okeria tilted his head back in question. “All good?”

“All good.” I confirmed. “Jun’ll be there in two minutes, then we can go do the real preparations for all the shit you set in motion today.”

“Not set in motion–that was done long before we got there. Call it… fannin’ the flames.” Okeria said with a grin in his voice. “But don’t tell me that ya ain’t at least a little excited ta finally oust Scalovera from this place and get a sense of normalcy back.”

Normalcy. That was something I hadn’t had for a long, long time–and I highly doubted I’d ever feel ‘normal’ again. And I wasn’t exactly sure that was a bad thing. To Okeria’s words I just nodded, waiting and watching as Cyntherin worked to calm and convince the crowd of scared Staura that everything would be fine.

“Okeria… she said she fought with Nia. But she’s still so weak. How’s that even possible?”

“I ain’t got a clue, Sebastian. Maybe Keratily stole away more of her power than the others. Or maybe she wasn’t a frontliner for the war, and her mind never quite recovered enough ta start gettin’ better.” Okeria shrugged sympathetically. “Maybe it’s our job ta make sure people like her actually get a voice. Should’ve been my job before all this, too, but I ain’t so proud that I can’t admit when I failed someone. Like I did with Thorn, Ambus, and Gloriosa.”

I studied Okeria for any body movements that would’ve given me a hint on what he was thinking, but he was as still as a stone. “If you actually want to help people like her, then you need to get her people who’ll support her. Like how you and Keratily were there for Nia, and how Keratily was there for you.”

“Heh. Sounds real weird when ya put it that way.” Okeria chuckled. “Keratily’s the only reason I’m standin’ here, but she’s done things that’re so heinous that I can’t be thankful for it. The act of helpin’ me, sure, but not the woman herself.”

Okeria tossed out two more teleportation devices at a stretch of empty floor, then snapped his fingers. They flared with his power, and in a flash of light, Ambus and Gloriosa stood in their places. Both of which wore their armor with their helmets under their arms, and an air of deadly seriousness surrounding them.

“Okeria.” Gloriosa said with a small nod. “All the supplies are being moved to the spot, and everyone else is waiting for your signal. You’re sure this place is safer than the other one?”

“One-hundred percent certain.” Okeria said easily. “Even if Scalovera or Endra found this place, which they probably already did, they don’t got no way ta get in. Unlike our old base, which is one unlucky scan away from becomin’ a deathtrap.”

Gloriosa nodded, first to Okeria, then to me. “Good to see you, too, Sebastian.”

“Same to you.” I said and returned her nod. “Hopefully we can reestablish those connections of yours sooner than later.”

The small smile that crossed Gloriosa’s lips was brief but bright. I couldn’t tell if she was putting on a strong facade, or if she was actually as hardened as she appeared. But we’d need those connections if we were going to go anywhere after Rainbow Basin, so I was glad to see she hadn’t run away.

Ambus, however… she didn’t say a thing. She just stared right through Okeria, then slowly turned to me. “Sebastian. You found something that can help them?”

“I can’t say for sure, but there’s a chance. One that we can’t even take until we get Endra and Scalovera out of Rainbow Basin for good.” I said as convincingly as I could. I hadn’t seen Ambus since I left her with Jun to chase down Thorn, and just like Jun had said, she didn’t look like she’d been taking it well. “As long as we can get back into the hazard we were in, we should be able to do something.”

“I know the one. I’ll do everything I can to help.” Ambus said with a small flicker of determination that was quickly snuffed by grief. “But we need to hurry. I don’t know what being like… like they are does to someone’s mind. They need to come back as the people they were.”

That was a guarantee I couldn’t make. And my silence was more than enough to let Ambus know. She bit her lip and clenched her fists, then quietly looked away as a few tears welled up in her eyes. I knew she knew it wasn’t a one-hundred percent chance. But she needed that hope.

{Seb, I’m opening the door now. Tell people not to panic when they see us.}

Good call, there. I clapped my hands to get everyone’s attention, which had the desired effect plus the unfortunate side effect of scaring the tar out of everyone who wasn’t somewhat paying attention to me.

“The walls are about to open up. Don’t get scared.” I said with as commanding a voice as I could muster. “Keep your armor on, listen to Okeria, and don’t wander off. We’ll make a safe place for everyone to stay for a few weeks, but we’ll need all of your help doing it right.”

Cyntherin was the first to nod. “What do you need us to do?”

Hadn’t I just told them that? I paused as the sound of Jun tearing the way to the rest area split the air, waited for her to finished opening the portal, then continued when she waved at me.

“Listen to Okeria, stay alive, and get used to wearing your armor. It’ll keep you healthy as long as you’ve got battery in it, so don’t treat it like a weapon.” I tapped my fist against endless for emphasis. “Your armor can do so much more than just protect you or hurt people. If you don’t know what your core does, find out. Get used to using it, and find ways to use it that aren’t just to hurt.”

I walked through the group, which stared intently at me as I went by. Cyntherin snapped off another salute at me, but this one was a little more… forceful. Which was both terrifying and flattering. Until she found out the person she was taking orders from was a human, I had a feeling I could count on her for anything but fighting.

The portal passed over me without any resistance, and I took a spot next to Jun to help with the inevitable rush of weight. She offered a hand that I took without hesitation, and she squeezed it a little tighter than I’d expected. Then came the rush of people. Cyntherin hopped through first, gesturing and controlling the flow of people that followed, until only Okeria, Ambus, and Gloriosa were left.

“That wasn’t so bad.” Jun snorted as Okeria stepped through. “Sure, it was a little uncomfortable, but I expected a whole lot worse. Maybe it’s because you were there to shoulder some of the burden?”

I shrugged with a weak smile. It hadn’t been as easy for me as it had for Jun, and when I got a better look at her, I could easily see why. Her armor was absolutely brimming with strength, and all of her movements seemed both methodical and effortless at once.

“Did you fill all of your nodes?” I asked as both Ambus and Gloriosa stepped through, then sighed in relief as Jun let the portal close. “You feel a lot stronger than before we left.”

Jun flexed her fingers as she watched the other Staura go. “I didn’t think it would make this much of a difference, but apparently I had a lot more empty nodes than I thought. And more stat nodes to fill them than I knew what to do with.”

“Good.” Okeria patted Jun on the shoulder and gestured off toward somewhere the Staura hadn’t gone. “Gloriosa, go get Thorn and Mortician. Oh, and tell Cyntherin that she’s in charge until we’re back. It’s finally time ta go on the offensive.”

Gloriosa nodded and followed the group off into the distance. Okeria led us off in a direction that looked no different than the rest of the rest area, but that felt slightly different. Almost like it was less important than anywhere else, and as the waters in the ceiling diminished down to small glass pipes, I figured that was the reason. The water coalesced near the pools, and probably near where it connected to the other facilities, but we were going where it wasn’t as needed.

Wherever that was.

A few minutes later, Okeria gestured at a wide table and walked away to snoop through what looked like another break room. He came back a minute later as we were all settling in with metal water bottles that dripped with the waters of this place, set one before each of us, and another three for those of us who weren’t there yet. With one last look around he nodded to himself, dismissed his armor, and took a seat to my right. Jun took the one to my left, leaving only two more seats at the table for the three people who walked in right behind us at that very moment.

“Ah, good, we were just about ta get started.” Okeria said chipperly. Thorn and Gloriosa exchanged a glance, but took the last two seats without hesitation. Leaving Mortician to stand behind my left shoulder and Jun’s right without a word of complaint. “So ya do get it, Mortician. Good. That makes this a whole lot easier.”

Okeria slid a bottle toward Mortician. It stopped just at the edge of the table, and they removed their armor to reveal a wide, honest smile.

“Thank you, Okeria. Juniper has helped us grow far stronger in the small amount of time you were gone, but we have refrained from drinking of the waters out of the fear of what it could do to us.” Mortician explained as they brought the bottle to their lips. “Though we can’t continue in this way for long. If we somehow end up possessed by an even greater number of souls, please treat them as well as you have treated us.”