“What about you guys?” I addressed the quieter contingent.

“I miss Kenzie,” Ashley said. “I woke up late and she was already gone on a job. You two were gone. The morning felt empty. Let’s just have our meetings and hear how much worse it all is.”

“There could be good news,” Sveta said.

Ashley turned Sveta’s way, and reached up to lightly pinch Sveta’s cheeks.

“Ow?”

“You decided not to use Rain’s blood as part of your body. That’s fine. Sensible.”

“Hey.”

“I like you, Rain, but we don’t know how inbred your family is.”

“Wow, woah,” Tristan cut in. “Ashley, what the hell?”

“It’s okay,” Rain butted in. “It’s okay.”

Ashley still had one of Sveta’s cheeks in a light pinch. “You decided not to use my DNA as part of your new body. That’s fine, I’m not holding a grudge, but it shows a grave error in judgment and critical thinking, and if you think what the Wardens have to say today is going to be better than yesterday, then that grave lack of critical thinking may be chronic.”

“Ashley, what the hell?” I asked.

“It’s okay,” Rain said.

“It’s really not, kind of?” Sveta piped in.

“It’s okay,” Rain said.

“I’m going inside where it’s dry,” Ashley said, before turning and walking away.

Leaving us standing in the freezing rain.

“Did I actually offend her?” Sveta asked. “She said it was fine, but now it isn’t.”

“It’s not that,” Rain said. “She went off on someone on public transportation.”

“Went off,” I said, repeating the words. “People-had-phones-out went off?”

“No,” Rain said. He paused. “Maybe. Someone mentioned that people might start targeting her because she’s ex-Slaughterhouse. She’s not dealing with it.”

“I don’t think any of us are,” Tristan said.

“Maybe we go inside and they say, hey, we won,” Sveta suggested. “Crisis over.”

“Want to bet?” Tristan asked. “I will bet you any amount of money.”

“I don’t want to bet, Tristan.”

Tristan shook his head, getting visibly angry. “Byron, you take over.”

Then he blurred.

“Maybe I don’t feel like taking over,” Byron said. But he didn’t change back. He turned his face skyward, letting freezing rain patter against his skin. “Should we go inside?”

We did. Into the Wardens’ headquarters. We said our hellos to the receptionist, and joined Ashley where she was pacing by the stairs.

Up the stairs to the password hallway. Rain handled it.

And into the Bunker. The weather wasn’t as bad, though the snowfall was heavier. Sheet metal formed a peaked cover over the path to the Wardens’ headquarters.

I exhaled. “How are you guys really?”

“Not so bad,” Byron said, smiling. “But play-acting that we’re down and defeated is kind of bleeding into reality.”

“And you scared the shit out of that guy on the train,” Rain told Ashley.