There was another identity, one from another world that had never been hers. It was a world that’d had—it had had its problems, but it wasn’t hers. She’d defied it, as a matter of fact. Where I’d longed for it, thrown myself into that world, she’d run from it. She’d wanted love and acceptance from our family, but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to join in.

I reached for my mask, where it lay at my upper thigh, the curvature of the mask making for a neat fit. I slipped it on, hooking it to the metalwork where my hood met my hairline, a band of chain going around the back, securing it in place. It clicked in a satisfying way.

I wore a face, my face, but it was cast in alloy, untouchable, unmoving.

My breath was warm against my face as we stepped beyond the corridor, through the wholly unnecessary if impressive opening Goddess had made.

The sky was so bright, and it was warm. There was only a sliver of sun, but after the darkness and the rain, the harsh coldness, the setting was eerie. Less of a crossing over to another Earth and more of a crossing over to another world.

And there were guards. The long distances and the open spaces with only chain link blocking off access meant that getting from A to B was more time consuming, and that was a dangerous thing when anyone with a gun had an open shot, often with next to nothing on the far side of us, the targets.

Capricorn began drawing out orange-red motes, clearly intending to give us some cover.

Goddess beat him to it. With a sweep of her arm, she used her telekinesis to carve a great furrow into the earth. Dust and dirt was sent flying, and there was a great opaque cloud. Again, in the moment I saw the earth react, before the dust cloud covered it, I saw the pattern by which Goddess’s telekinesis touched the world, like a hand used to push would leave a handprint. A line that zig-zagged out, back into itself, out. The first gunshots erupted, the sounds louder because they could skip off the flat ground like a stone could skip on water. Our group ducked down, and I put the Wretch out, shielding Sveta, Kenzie, and Natalie.

The dust was clearing, however. Goddess had pushed out the earth, and where it had piled up, it formed a loose general barrier, thick with stones.

Goddess’s head snapped around. She reached out, and part of her barrier exploded outward, stones and dirt flying.

“Don’t hurt them!” I said. My voice was almost drowned out by the follow-up strike. Something more localized. Taking out one person who was still after her, following the initial strike.

“Hurt—you hurt the guards?” Sveta asked.

“Maybe they were bad people,” Kenzie said. “Right?”