“Yes, but others too. Natalie and I were talking about the human-cape dynamic, and how it compares. One advantage humans always had over capes is that they outnumber us. They decide what society is like, and we nudge it and we fuck things up sometimes, but they decide. Well… humans really outnumber the Titans.”

“That’s a lot to ask,” Rain said. “Depending on how it goes, it could be…”

“Really fucking ugly,” I said. “It could be a massacre. It could also be a massacre if they stay home and do nothing.”

Sveta stared at me, her expression serious.

I could read her mind, really. I was just talking about this, she thinks.

Asking others to make sacrifices.

“We gather an army. From the tent cities, as necessary. If Natalie wasn’t comfortable staying, maybe some other able-bodied people are restless too. Heroes play defense. Maybe the Wardens thought of this but they didn’t have a great idea about where to send the civilians if they used ’em. Maybe they’re defaulting to a mindset of wanting to protect the citizens and handle things themselves.”

“Maybe they don’t want to throw away lives against an enemy even capes can’t stop,” Sveta said.

“We have jobs we can give them. We make an army and they dismantle, bomb, target, whatever, but they fill in that spot accompanying Rain into the dream, they spelunk into the crevices. They interfere. I’m sure we have the data to know where and how to attack,” I said. “But we make it clear this is our world, and to a degree, at least, they have to adapt to us. We use our numbers.”

The room was quiet, except for Kenzie clicking on her phone.

I looked at Sveta again. “We’ll give them all the facts, let them volunteer. We’re not choosing sacrifice for them. We’re letting them make the choice.”

“There’s no time,” Byron said.

“Then we get moving now,” I said. “And we arrive late.”

I looked at everyone. I met Sveta’s eyes last. Searching her face for an answer, for permission to take this idea to the Wardens. Looking for—

A confirmation. One small nod.

Radiation 18.10

I waited, impatient. I’d taken twenty minutes to get my costume together, made use of the tools that were still in Rain’s old room to file off the most abraded parts of my armor, and broke off one tine of the decorative arrangement at my left shoulder while trying to straighten it. Hair brushed and fixed up, costume brushed with an animal grooming brush to get the grit out.

The phone remained silent.

Rain sat in the living room, off to the side of the front hall, curled up in a chair, his head bent. With his mask, it wasn’t possible to read his expression, but I was assuming his eyes were closed.