“Yeah, but other times, it’s like he’s just trying to screw with us.”

“The content doesn’t worry me so much as the fact that Setrákus Ra is able to transmit them at all,” says Malcolm, deep lines forming in his face as he thinks this through. “Do you think it’s possible he’s tracking us through the dreams?”

“If he could do that, wouldn’t we already be fighting off Mogs?” Eight replies. “Why even bother drawing John and Nine off to New Mexico?”

I nod in agreement, thinking back to the visions Nine and I shared. “Even though the nightmares can be creepily specific, I don’t think he knows where we are. It’s more like he’s trying to make us slip up.”

“The question, then, is how do we stop the nightmares?” Malcolm asks.

“I’ve got a solution,” Six says, and everyone looks in her direction. She takes a considering sip from a mug of coffee. “Let’s go kill Setrákus Ra.”

Nine claps his hands and points at Six. “I like the way this chick thinks.”

“Oh, is it that easy?” Five asks, speaking up for the first time. “You make it sound like taking out the trash.”

“I wish it were so simple,” I say. “But we don’t know where he is and, even if we could find him, that’s not going to be an easy fight. The last time we went up against him almost killed us.”

“We could get him to come to us,” Nine suggests, glancing over at Five. “Maybe fire up some more crop circles.”

“You can’t be serious,” Sam says. I noticed him shifting in his seat at the mention of Setrákus Ra.

“He’s not serious,” Five says, glaring in Nine’s direction. “He’s mocking me.”

Nine shrugs and feigns a yawn. “Whatever. I really do think we should go fight something.”

“That’s all you ever want to do,” Eight cuts in.

“Yeah, it’s my thing.”

“For the first time ever, we’re together,” I say, keeping my voice measured. “We have the element of surprise on our side. We’ve got an opportunity to prepare and pick our next battle. Let’s not rush into anything.”

“John’s right,” Marina says. “There’s still so much we don’t know about ourselves, our powers, our Chests.”

“It’d be good to know exactly what we’re working with,” Eight says. “We did some training with Nine in the Lecture Hall the other day. It was helpful. Surprisingly so.”

Nine grins. “Compliment taken, insult ignored.”

“Yeah,” Sarah chimes in. “I think I speak for all of us humans when I say a little more combat training wouldn’t hurt.”

“Learning what our Chests contain would help too,” I offer. “Maybe we could figure out which items are those Phoenix Stones that Malcolm was talking about.”

“An inventory seems to be in order,” Malcolm says.