“What do you need?” Tattletale asked.

“We’re wondering about masks, gear, what might translate. Any ideas?” I asked.

“No friggin’ clue,” she said. “Kids are being good enough?”

“Yep. We were brainstorming a bit with Precipice.”

“Mm,” Tattletale made a noise, looking at Rain. “Nervous? It’s your head on the chopping block.”

“Might have been nice to get advance warning that we’d be letting the beast out of its cage, there,” he said, looking at the wall. Kenzie looked up at him, and he conceded, “It’s probably a good thing we found out about it before we did this. I’d rather know in advance.”

“If you had to fight it, could you?” Tattletale asked.

Rain shook his head. “No powers in there, pretty sure.”

“That, right there, is the administrator of your weird dream room. Dreams are especially hinky as far as agents are concerned, and they might have been anxious when setting up the dynamic you have. Before Gold Morning, minds got wiped, you’d have the dream room thing and you’d forget everything, but that’s not there now. So instead they set up this role. Manager, distributer of your token things, and guard dog.”

“Giant lightning-man guard dog,” Rain muttered, looking over at the projected screen.

“It’s not going to look like that when you’re in there,” Kenzie said. “Just FYI.”

“Great. Now I feel even less prepared,” Rain said.

Tattletale explained, “You’ve knocked down the dividers between sections, including the guard dog’s pen. It’s going to be pissed, but I don’t think it’s going to want to kill you, Cradle, Love Lost, or Colt. Maim, maybe, and I don’t know how that translates to you being awake, but you’ll get more deferential treatment than Snaggletooth did.”

“That’s… a bit reassuring, I guess?”

“Nah,” Tattletale said. “Don’t be reassured. Because the walls are down and that thing isn’t going to act by human standards. I’d say you have fifty-fifty odds that it comes after you, hard, to guard its corner, and it’ll come after you tomorrow night, and the next night, and the next…”

“Oh,” Rain said, and his voice was light, airy, “Oh great.”

“That’s if you and your clustermates are lucky.”

“What happens if they’re unlucky?” Chicken Little asked.

“Maybe don’t answer that,” Rain said.

“Something like Ash Beast,” Tattletale answered it anyway.

“I don’t know who or what that is,” Chicken Little said.

“The human essentially gone, the powers at full, reckless capacity, always on. You get the part where you’re repeatedly torn apart, but it’s more of a twenty-four seven, every second of every day thing than it is a once-a-night thing.”

I swallowed, looking at Rain.

“What do I do?” Rain asked, very clearly steeling himself.