I really should’ve expected my dad to have a plan for saving Gaia by this point. Sure, he was still fairly new to this stuff by Heretic standards. But the fact was, my father was very smart. And, well, he’d been involved in this stuff for over a year. That was longer than I was involved in it by the time the whole Rebellion reawakening thing had happened. Hell, it was definitely longer than it had been before Shiori and I were sent to the Meregan world, or all of us started dealing with Seosten assassins and such. So, I could hardly throw stones about him not having much experience.

  The point was, he’d spent an awful lot of time with Wyatt and Abigail, as well as some others, just going over things like Boscher security spells, ways they would contain very powerful criminals (or what they considered criminals), and so on. Mom, apparently, was a really good resource on that point. Of course she was, after having been their prisoner for literal decades.

  Between all of them, Dad had picked up a pretty good idea about how some of the Crossroads security measures worked. He assumed they would be going all out on them in this case, using everything possible to keep her contained. Not to mention keeping everyone else away from her. They weren't going to half ass this at all.

  After all that, he had spent months working at other types of magic. The magic they didn't teach at Crossroads. Spells that came from other species, or even other groups of Bonded here on Earth, in other countries. He had people like Sariel and Wyatt set up security measures as strong as they could (though they were both restricted from using everything they knew, sticking only to what was available to Crossroads), and then worked his way through several of the counterspells from those other sources to figure out what was most effective.

  Yeah, I'd had absolutely no idea he was doing any of this, yet apparently my dad had been busy with all this basically since the Exodus from crossroads the year before. Off and on, of course, but still. He had kept himself very occupied. When I asked him why he was working on it so much, after finding out it happened at all, he said that Gaia had been there for his wife and daughter so much, he owed it to her. Besides, the rest of us had plenty to do.

  There was good news and bad news about all the work he had done. The good news was that he was pretty certain he had something to counter most of the protection spells they could put up. The bad news was that he didn't have a way to do that completely silently. Some of them he could get through without setting things off, but there were others that were impossible to bypass silently. And we had no idea which ones would be there or in what order until we actually got there. We might set off alarms immediately, or we might be almost through by the time that happened.

  Either way, we needed a really big distraction. Something even bigger than what was going on right then. Because all of us were pretty sure the Committee would come running the instant they even had the slightest thought that we were trying to free Gaia. We needed something that would grab their attention and keep it long enough to pull this off.

  Which, of course, led to a whole lot of discussion back and forth about what kind of distraction it could even be. Seriously, what the hell was going to make them focus on that more than the prospect of Gaia being freed? What were they more afraid of than her? More to the point, what were they more afraid of than her that we could actually access or fake? We weren't exactly overflowing with good ideas. So, we kind of resorted to discussing and rejecting a bunch of bad ones. Including having me show up as Jacob somewhere to lure them to me (assuming the other Jacob wasn’t anywhere around to help). For some reason, everyone rejected that one emphatically. And threw things at me for saying it out loud, which I thought was a bit rude.

  Miranda, who was literally standing on her head in the corner because she said that helped her think, spoke up. “We have the Edge with us. Can't we just, you know, turn off their ability to use their powers? Make them human again like they did to your mom?”

  I grimaced. “It'd be nice if it was that easy, right? But we don't know how to do that. And even if we did, they had to have Mom in front of them to do it. They took her through a whole ritual thing or whatever. I don't know, maybe we can come up with something once Bob can actually talk to us, but apparently that's not going to be for at least a little while. And we really don't have that sort of time right now. We need to do something soon.”

  Abigail was speaking carefully, a visible frown knitting her forehead. “Whatever distraction we go with, it has to be something bad. They won't show up for anything positive. Not when they're so angry. I mean, you helped steal the thing that gives them all their power, the thing that lets them make more people like them. As far as they're concerned, you've left the entire planet doomed if they don't get it back. They need something big enough to distract from that.”

  I blinked once at her, then again before looking at my dad. He, in turn, blinked back at me before we simultaneously smacked our forehead. We were both chorusing about how stupid we were and how obvious it was. When Abigail asked what we were talking about, I was the one who answered. “The Edge. We were all thinking about what could possibly distract the Committee away from Gaia, and that's it, the Edge can. The ship. The lighthouse, whatever. That's the only thing that would make them leave Gaia alone even if they felt alarms going off. The only thing more important than containing her would be getting the edge back. If we can make them think they're close to taking it, they'll definitely stick to that at least for a minute or so. Hopefully long enough to get Gaia out of there.”

  My sister just stared at me for a moment. Actually, both of them did, because Tabbris had just come back from grabbing some sandwiches for everyone to scarf down in time to hear me say all that. My two sisters, older and younger, both blurted, “Are you serious?”

  Abigail was the one who continued after they exchanged a glance. “Your plan is to dangle the Edge in front of those people and hope they don't catch you, or whoever happens to be on it, long enough for the others to free Gaia? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? Do you have any idea how likely it is to backfire? You can't taunt the Committee with the Edge. What if they get it back? What if all of this was for nothing? This other version of you did an awful lot of work to make sure you could get it-- him out of there, and you're talking about potentially just handing him back to them?”

  I winced a little despite myself. My head shook. “I mean, first of all, it's not exactly just handing Bob back to them. I don't want them to get him, or any part of the Edge, at all. But, second of all, how do we know that having something that could sufficiently distract them so we could free Gaia wasn't what the other me had in mind to begin with? Maybe that was the idea.” Not for the first time in the past few minutes, I really wished that other me was here so we could talk to her. I was seriously fascinated by the idea of talking to a version of myself who had apparently lived for over four millennia. Fascinated and terrified, if I was being honest.

  Accepting the sandwich from Tabbris, Dad exhaled while shaking his head. “I still think that might be our only real chance, but I don't believe it was what the other you had in mind. I think it's safe to say she wants us to keep the Edge.”

  I gave a weak shrug. “So, we just have to figure out how to use it to distract them while making sure they can't actually get it back. Anyone got any ideas on that front? All we have to do is play keep away using an entire ship against a group of the most powerful and dangerous beings on the planet, who could have any power you can think of. Simple, right?”

  Tabbris looked like she really didn't want to be encouraging this whole idea, but she finally spoke up reluctantly. “Hey, what about the Jitterbug? Spark’s ship! It can teleport everywhere instantly. And it's been designed to plug into larger ships. What if it plugged into Skuttlebutt so it could jump anywhere to get away from them?”

  I hesitated, considering that. “I mean, I'm not sure what its limitations are, but Skuttlebutt can definitely already teleport itself to some extent.”

  Tabbris bobbed her head up and down quickly. “Uh huh, and it leaves a trail when it does. I checked, uh, when I wanted to see how hard it would be to follow us. It leaves a trail that they can follow.”

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  Dad lifted his chin, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. “So, you're saying we make the ship jump around to lead them on a chase long enough to get Gaia out of there, then use the Jitterbug to make a completely different sort of jump, one they can't follow after all.”

  With a helpless little shrug, Tabbris offered, “I hope someone else has a better idea. And you can only do it if Skuttlebutt agrees.” Her voice was very firm on that point. “It gets to decide if it wants to risk that. It's not a slave.”

  Taking a bite of my own sandwich and chewing thoughtfully, I gave a slow nod. “Right, we ask if it would be willing to help. And assuming it is, we need a group who can stay on the ship to help defend it from the Committee, and another group who can go save Gaia. Except, the problem is that most of them are busy protecting all those other places. That's the whole point of this, remember? This is the best chance for us to go save her because all the Loyalists are busy attacking every corner of the world. And if we pull off enough people to do this, they're not going to be protecting those places. They won't be there to save all those other people.”

  Dad muttered a few curses under his breath. “Right, good point. So how do we come up with enough people to pull this off without letting a bunch of innocents die because no one was there to protect them?”

  Before any of the rest of us could respond to that, another voice spoke up from the doorway. The voice of a man who hadn't set off my item sense. Probably because he was instinctively masking himself from it. “I believe I have a solution for that.”

  We all turned, as I jolted a bit in surprise. “Puriel?”

  The old Seosten man gave me a very small smile before coming the rest of the way into the room with a nod. “I'm sorry for intruding, but Spark told me you might need some help. If it's firepower you're looking for, I can keep your Committee busy. Spark can make sure the two ships are linked properly, and run the jump system herself while I distract those people. I won't let them take the ships, you have my word.”

  Miranda had fallen over and lay there on her back, staring up at the man with a soft squeak. It was like she was trying to say something, but couldn't quite get her voice to cooperate.

  This was really weird, right? Yeah, it was weird. Yes, Puriel had been on our side for a while. He had changed. But I still wasn't at all accustomed to the idea that he could actively help. Looking at him now, there was honestly a lot I wanted to say. Especially after everything that happened back at that Egypt rift. But, as usual, now wasn't the time.

  It was Abigail who found her voice first after that, hesitantly asking, “No offense, but are you sure you can handle that by yourself? We're talking about at least half of the Committee here. From what everyone tells me, one of them by themselves is one of the worst threats you can imagine. Half a dozen together? Seems like it might be a bit too much. Yes, we want to pull this off, but there's no reason for you to throw your life away. We don't want you to get hurt, or worse.”

  Puriel regarded her for a long moment, looking like he really had no idea how to react to someone caring about what happened to him. Unless I was really mistaken, the man actually blushed just a little. Clearing his throat awkwardly, he insisted, “I know how to take care of myself, young lady. And I certainly know how to handle threats. I can deal with anything they might throw at me.”

  We all started to respond to that, but Abigail suddenly raised her hand and frowned. Her head tilted, like she was listening to something. Then her eyes jerked up to stare at me and widened dramatically. She cursed a few times, asking for clarification from whoever was contacting her. Then she jolted upright and started pacing around in front of us while insisting on even more answers. Answers that apparently weren't forthcoming right then. Clearly agitated and confused, she kept that up for a few long seconds while the rest of us watched her in complete confusion. All I could wonder was what the hell had gone wrong now. There were so many possibilities swirling through my mind that I couldn't keep any of them straight. I was terrified about what might've happened to any of the others. Especially given how pissed off all of the Loyalists were. Dammit, I knew I should've been out there to help during all this. What had I been thinking? Why was I sitting here babbling nonsense about this plan instead of fighting? Why did I let myself be talked into sitting all this out for so long? Now someone I cared about was hurt. Maybe even multiple someones. What if it was worse than being hurt? What if--

  Abigail finally spoke, cutting through my rapid spiral of self-recrimination and panic. “We need to go to this place.” She scrawled something on a piece of paper and held it out for the rest of us to see. It was the address of some place in northern California. “We have to talk to these people in person. It might be just what we need. And… and we need to hear the story in person.”

  Miranda shook her head. “What story? Who are we going to see, exactly?” She exchanged a nervous look with me. We could both tell that whatever was going on, it had definitely freaked out my older sister.

  Abigail let out a long, unsteady breath. “The other members of the Committee. The ones who were on our side. They said it's time to switch sides once and for all, and that they want to help.”

  Dad gave a low whistle. “They're ready to make that jump because we have the Edge?” Clearly despite himself, he gave a slight chuckle at that phrasing.

  Abigail hesitated before replying, “That's part of it, but also something bigger.” It looked like she was about to say something, before cutting herself off with a quick shake of her head. “You need to hear it from them. Trust me, they used the security code. It's really them and they really want to talk.”

  Wyatt made a disbelieving harumph sound. “Unless they've been playing us the entire time, going into deep cover pretending to sympathize with us until it was time to spring their trap. We could be walking into the Dragon den like a bunch of helpless, stupid lambs.”

  Puriel grunted a little. “I will go with you to this meeting. I want to hear about this myself.”

  Honestly, I wasn't sure even he would be enough if this was a trap after all, and all of the Committee members worked together against us. Even if they had been on our side to one extent or another, what if having the Edge stolen had pushed them back the other way?

  Even as I was thinking that, Abigail informed us, “It's not just those Committee people there. Gwen is there too. She's the one who just contacted me. They're with her. And from what she said happened back on that island… just trust me, you need to hear this.”

  Well, color my curiosity piqued. Did piqued curiosity have a special color? Oh, whatever, the point was, I was interested. And confused, and worried, and a whole bunch of other things all at once. Either way, the only way to settle all of this, apparently, was by going to that address to talk to those people. At least knowing that Gwen was there helped ease my nerves a lot. Sure, she probably wasn't actually a match for half a dozen Committee members the way she was for just one of them, but still. I had to believe she wouldn't be calling us in if there was any chance that this was a trap. If she believed it was on the up and up, I would go with that.

  We discussed it a little bit more, but there was obviously no other choice to make. We were going down to that address together, we were going to see just what the hell was going on. I just hoped that whatever it was would lead to more of a solution rather than new problems. Abigail continued to be mysterious about the whole thing, insisting that we should hear it from them. But she also kept giving me lingering looks.

  In the end, we went down there anyway. It was my dad, Percy, Cerberus, Abigail, Wyatt, Tabbris, Miranda, Puriel (with Spark, of course), and me. I let Eurso go into the tiny pocket lake with my sharks so he could relax. When this all went down, and we actually made the move to save Gaia, I was definitely going to involve Avalon. She'd never forgive me if I didn't. But for now, we couldn't justify taking her away from the actual fight. She, and so many others, were still busy dealing with all those other attacks. Which, of course, just helped to make me feel even more guilty about not being there myself. But this was important too.

  The address led us to what had once been a vet office, but had clearly been shut down for a long time. We all stood out in front of it for a minute, taking in the place and the surrounding area. We would've gone in sooner, but Wyatt insisted on checking the surrounding area for any sort of trap spells, or other sort of ambush. Even when Puriel declared the place safe, my brother audibly scoffed at him and went back to doing his own inspection.

  Finally, even Wyatt had to admit the place looked clear. He didn't seem too happy about saying that. I felt like he had been hoping there would be an obvious trap that he could call out so we all left without going in that place. Not that I could blame him at all.

  But, it was clear. And there was no sense in wasting even more time. Not with everything that was going on. So, we all walked right up to that main door, exchanged looks, and then walked inside.

  They were all in there, sitting around the waiting room. It was obvious they had known we were outside, but waited for us to come in. Gwen was by the reception desk, while the others were all scattered through the room. The four other members of the Committee: Percival, Sophronia, Calafia, and Teach.

  All of them stared straight at me as I came in with the rest. They weren't focused on the others though. No, they were definitely staring at me so intently it made me squirm. They barely seemed to notice my companions, even Puriel.

  “Okay,” Abigail started as soon as we were all inside, “tell them what you told me. Tell her what just happened back at Crossroads.

  “Tell Flick what her other self managed to pull off.”

  Joke Tags: No? Flick? Pique Isn’t A Color. It IS A Fabric? Though Pronounced Differently Than The One You Meant