Mars stirred in her sleep. In her memory she was at play in a park with an old friend. She and her friend, both holding small twigs, sparred with the imagination of would-be wizards. They cheered made-up words and feigned dramatic deaths between each make-believe round. In the middle of a magic duel, someone called her name from far behind. When she turned, the park was gone. She was in the dusty streets of a fallen city, surrounded by shadows of shinigami and angels alike. The twig wand in her hand had changed into her scythe. The only shadow she could make out was her comrade, in trouble. She leaped ahead and swung.

Mars!

She bolted awake at the sound of a crash on the porch. Half-dazed, Mars grabbed her scythe and threw the door open. She knew.

"Show me where they are!" she demanded. Then she saw the marks in the grass where Jason had switched between flying and running. She could see the right way to travel. She spread her wings to take flight and then noticed that Jason had collapsed because of flight. "If you can't walk, we'll run. I'm going to fly ahead, though. Let's hurry!"


Silas blinked. "A crystal?" He sat back and traced his fingers through his hair.

"Shoot," he mused. His mind drifted to years earlier when he had accepted the position of underling commander. He and Anders swore full information disclosure to each other as part of the mentorship. Disclosure requirements created time and space for Silas get to know the life of a commander. It created time and space for him to get to know Anders. It occurred to him that this knowledge of a time-traveling crystal, and for the sake of a shinigami, would definitely count as treason. There was no way he could hide this information without risk of a broken oath. Or punishment for treason. He bit his lip at the thought of a life as a Fallen.

"Is there any way we can find that crystal now?" he said, glancing toward the hallway. "I have a bad feeling about this. If we go back now, we can erase more than just the mistakes of yesterday."



At the sound of the small shinigami's plea, Anders turned to face her escaping partner. The brief glimpse of the silhouette struck Anders as familiar, though he couldn't place the name before the girl attacked.

He aimed a block and gritted his teeth as the scythe cut into his bracer. Though the flight suit bracers weren't metal, they were thick enough to defend against a single unexpected attack. It was hard to see through the residual dust, but he managed to recover from the block and dash toward his comrade.

"Ghost," Anders said after he regained his balance. "We need to cancel this assignment. Forgive me for the override request." He materialized his orb weapon so as to repel incoming attacks. "My underling had a traumatic run-in the other day with the shinigami who just disappeared over there. Said he knew the boy. I fear that any death to that shinigami's associates would compromise my underling's sanity. Highrose does not train multiple underlings to prepare for this kind of risk―we need to retreat."

I'll lose him if we continue here.

Anders turned back toward the direction where the shinigami girl had attacked from. The visibility was low, but she was far enough away for safety. "We can discuss this matter more back at the base, but for now I urge that we not make a martyr out of―"

Anders staggered at the sudden flash and cold force against his weapon orb, arm, and torso. He didn't see the glint of light from the dust before his orb dematerialized in a bright illusion of glittering shards. He found himself on the ground without an ounce of balance left in his legs to stand or otherwise move. He could barely make out what had happened, but he knew that the sharp pain and horizontal gash from his right side through the crux of his left elbow were the unmistakable artifacts of a scythe wound.

Mars reeled her scythe back from its swing and immediately dug her heel into the ground. She pushed herself back toward Lea but didn't dare look away or make herself vulnerable to retaliation. "Lea! We have to get out of here and treat your wound. I can't see for sh*t in this mess but if we stay here we're gonna be toast!"