I hit the ground hard, on my back, my arms still wrapped around Josephine, cradling her protectively against my chest. The air left my lungs, stars exploding in the corners of my vision—but I could still make out the tip of that circuitry-bladed sword as it was leveled at my face.

“I told you to leave her,” the boy who wasn’t Acacia snapped. All I could do was glare, half turned to protect Josephine with my body.

“We don’t leave our own behind,” Joeb said calmly, coming up to put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Please, explain yourself.”

The boy shrugged Joeb’s hand off, which gave me the opportunity to scoot back from the tip of his blade. I leaned up against a wall, registering dimly that we were back at InterWorld Beta. There were more than a few of us in the room right now, but at the moment, I only cared about one.

“Josephine,” I murmured, propping her head against my shoulder and touching her cheek. She didn’t respond, though her eyes were open. I felt my breath catch, fear clutching at my stomach. This wasn’t happening.

“I’m Avery Jones, Agent of TimeWatch,” the boy answered, and I slowly looked up. “And if you don’t leave your own behind, explain why my people had to find and fix him.”

He gestured with the hand that wasn’t holding the sword, and at first I had no idea what he was indicating. There were several of my team members standing there, as they had been when we’d arrived. Jo’s white angel wings, some of them still wrapped firmly with bandages, stood out starkly against the gray-silver walls. Next to her was Josef, who also stood out due to his massive size. J’r’ohoho was on the floor before them, not moving, and kneeling next to him was a Walker who looked almost exactly like me, tears on his face as he gripped the centaur’s shoulder.

“J/O,” I breathed, a jolt going through me. The last time I’d seen J/O, he’d been trying to kill me. Now he was crying, head bowed over J’r’ohoho’s body.

“We found him wandering through the timestream,” Avery accused. “Who left him there, exactly?”

“I had no choice,” I snapped, recalling vividly the feeling of Acacia’s hand on my shoulder, the way all the strength left my body as she took me through time against my will. “Acacia—”

I got no further. He took two steps forward before I could react, the tip of his sword pressing against my lower lip. The blade was warm against my skin.

“Say her name again, and see what happens,” he said, his voice low and angry.

I should have stayed still. I should have pulled back slowly and answered calmly, and I knew it. Instead, I was on my feet almost before I knew what I intended to do, batting the sword away and closing the distance between us. My hand found the material of his vest, and I hauled him closer to me.

“Whatever she may be to you, Acacia,” I said deliberately, “is also a friend of mine.”

His eyes, which were violet like hers, flashed green for a second. Whatever that meant or whatever he’d been about to do, I never found out. Joeb pulled us apart, fixing me with a stern, hard look. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw J/O get to his feet, wiping the tears from his face.

“I’m sorry, Joey,” he said, one of the few times I’d ever heard him apologize to me. “I was completely reprogrammed. I didn’t … I wouldn’t have …”

“I know,” I said, still glaring at Avery. “I know you wouldn’t have. You okay now?”

“Yes. Fully operational. TimeWatch found me and cleaned out the virus.”

“You’re welcome,” Avery said snidely. I fought the urge to throw a punch, Joeb’s hand against my chest providing a comforting measure of stability. “If that’s settled, I suggest you figure out what to do with her.” He gestured over my shoulder, and I bristled.

“She’s one of us, and not your concern.”

“Not her,” he said, not even sparing a glance past me to where Josephine lay. “The Agent of HEX.”

“What are you talking about?” Joeb asked, still trying to keep the peace.

“You didn’t think it odd that she allowed your escape so easily?”

“That was easy?”

“Compared to what one of her power is capable of, yes. Did she not take out several of your number before I came to your rescue?”

We glared at each other, my anger struggling with what little common sense I was holding on to. One thought made itself known amid the fury I was fighting to keep under control.

“You knew that was going to happen,” I said.

“Of course I did,” he responded, and I very nearly went for him again.

“Why didn’t you stop it?” I yelled, pressing against Joeb’s hand on my shoulder.

“I’m a Time Agent, Joseph Harker, I have bigger problems. It’s not my job to police the Altiverse. It’s yours, and it’s a job you’re not going to be able to do at all if you don’t stop being an idiot and listen,” he snapped. “You think you know best? You think you made a clean getaway, even though I told you to leave her?”

“Joe,” came a whisper from behind me, and I forgot all about Avery Jones and TimeWatch as I went immediately to kneel by Josephine’s side. “He’s right,” she breathed, a mere hint of a sound, so faint I had to put my ear right down to her lips. “She’s with me. I can hear her singing in my head. …”

“We’ll fix it,” I assured her, but she made a small sound of negation.

“Can’t. I know what she did … what happened to the others. I know what she knows. I know she’s coming here.”

“She can’t come through time—no one but the Time Agents and Hue can!” I looked back to Avery for confirmation, but he was shaking his head.

“Weren’t you listening to a thing she said? She knows how to sense you, and how to drain you. That’s how she killed the others.” Avery gestured behind him, to J’r’ohoho and the other Walkers lying too still on the cool metal floor. “She stole away their lives, and that’s—”

“What she’s doing to me,” Josephine whispered. “I can feel it. I can feel the others. …”

I stared at her, at a loss. All I could think of was that house I hadn’t grown up in, the one with the portrait of the redheaded, freckle-faced girl and the woman with the prosthetic arm whose daughter would never come home. Avery was saying something else, but I only tuned back in to one specific part.

“… is how she’ll track her through time. She’s created a soul link, and that means she can follow it anywhere, even here.” Something tugged at my memory, but Josephine twitched beside me, her hand tightening in mine.

“Avery’s right,” she said, and out of the corner of my eye I saw him turn toward us. “You can’t let her, Joe. He’s right. She’s coming here. You have to fly. Fly away.”

“We can’t fly yet, Josephine,” I whispered. “You know that. We don’t have power.”

She looked past me. A smile tilted up the corners of her mouth, barely. “I have power,” she said.

I felt another jolt of adrenaline break out a cold sweat all over my body. “No,” I said, putting as much force as I could into it without growling at her.

“You told me … You said they use us to power their ships.”

I pulled back from her, feeling like I’d been punched. “No way,” I managed. I felt sick. “I am not … I won’t …!” I faltered, unable to even find the words I needed. She wanted me to use her to power the ship, like HEX and Binary used us? She didn’t understand what she was asking me. She hadn’t seen what I’d seen.

She was my first ever recruit. I couldn’t lose her.

“I want to,” she insisted, her voice stronger than it had been a moment ago. “I want to see InterWorld fly.”

“The idea has merit,” Avery said from behind me, and even Joeb looked like he might be considering letting me hit Avery.

“You don’t understand,” Joeb began, but Avery shook his head.

“Like hell I don’t. I know exactly what she’s asking you to do, and I’m telling you, it’s not a bad idea.”

“You’re insane!” I shouted, getting back to my feet. “You want me to use her like HEX does, then? Boil her down to nothing, keep her in a jar? We don’t have a cryochamber here to freeze her like Binary does, but I’m sure we can build one! Hell, we’ll install it next to the showers, put it to everyday use!”

“Joey,” Joeb murmured, but I ignored him.

“I won’t use one of my own like that, no matter what TimeWatch says.”

I expected Avery to get mad, but he just calmly put away his sword, little flashes of electricity sparking blue as it slid into the metal sheath. “This is not a directive from TimeWatch.”

“Even if it was, TimeWatch can kiss my—”

“Joey!” Joeb was looking at me seriously, arms folded across his chest. He raised an eyebrow, glancing back down to Josephine, who was breathing shallowly, gaze fixed on us.

Everyone else was watching me, too, Jo with her white wings folded around herself in comfort, Josef with tears on his face. Jakon’s furry ears were cocked back uncertainly, her expression sad. I turned my back on all of them, glaring at Joeb.

“I won’t,” I said.

“I would,” said Jo, from behind me. “If I had a choice. If I was dying, and I could be part of InterWorld forever … I would.”

“So would I,” Josef rumbled.

“I’d donate my circuits and power core,” J/O admitted. “I wouldn’t be using them, and I’d give anything to keep InterWorld up and running.”

More voices spoke up from around me, adding their general agreement. Not everyone spoke up, but no one said they disagreed. Not one of them.

“You have mere minutes, Harker,” Avery said, though he was looking at Josephine rather than me. “The HEX witch will find her way here unless you act.”

“Wouldn’t … wouldn’t binding her to the ship keep that link?” I asked, grasping desperately at straws. “Wouldn’t Lady Indigo be able to track us, then?”

“I can break the link,” Avery said.

“Then why don’t you? Just—”

“Because breaking it will kill her,” he snapped. “And despite what you think of me, I am unwilling to do so without her permission.”

The room was holding its breath. Everyone was watching me as I stood there in silence, staring at the floor. I had no idea why, but I suddenly remembered when I’d first come to InterWorld with Jay’s body. I’d woken up in the infirmary and seen Jay’s funeral from the window, and after that the Old Man had come in to see me. He’d talked to me about InterWorld and our purpose and our enemies and our duties. He’d talked about our oath and our values and he’d told me when my classes started, but that wasn’t what I found myself remembering. It was when I’d asked if he blamed me for Jay’s death.

Yes, he’d said. Of course I do.

“J/O,” I said, and the cyborg version of me looked up. “Can one of the PLSS units in the infirmary be modified to hook up to a transducer?”

“I think so,” he said.

“Figure it out, fast. Josef, go get one and bring it to the engine room.” I didn’t even have to look to know the huge version of me was doing as told. I could feel his footsteps thump, thump, thump down the hall as he left, like a heartbeat.

Josephine looked up at me from where she was propped up weakly against the wall. “I want to do this,” she whispered.

Joeb and Avery walked behind me as I carried Josephine down the hall to the engine room, ignoring the pain in my injured shoulder. I could hear everyone else following, the footsteps of thirty or so of me echoing in the dead ship.

I don’t remember much from the moment the decision was made to when I saw Josef bring in the PLSS—one of the portable life support systems we kept in the infirmary. I know at some point I’d sent a few others to get a cot, which was what Josephine was currently laid out upon next to the machines. She was paler than we usually were, her freckles standing out starkly against her skin. I imagined I was beginning to see the bones beneath, like Lady Indigo’s translucent skin. She was sweating and she kept telling us to hurry up so we could get this over with.

Once we’d gotten her set up on the cot, Avery had knelt next to her. He hadn’t moved since, and she was smiling faintly as they spoke in low tones. He was holding her hand. It seemed odd—hadn’t they just met?—but I had other things to worry about right now.

“That should do it,” J/O said, his voice subdued as he stepped back from the machinery. “The PLSS is hooked up to the solar power grid, so it’ll run. Theoretically, if she … when she …”

“Dies,” I said. The younger version of me blanched.

“When that happens while she’s hooked up to the PLSS, it’ll store an imprint of her and autopulse to act as a defibrillator. I have the pulse wired into the transducer instead.”

“Fine,” I said. “Get me Jai.” I turned away, making myself go over to Josephine. I ignored Avery. “You don’t have to do this,” I said, and she made a faint sound that might have been a laugh.

“Shut up,” she told me. “You’re being a wimp. What kind of leader are you, anyway?”

“A bad one,” I answered. “I keep letting my people get killed.”

“Get better at it,” she said. “I’m going to make this ship fly. You better keep it in the air, got it?” She was white as a ghost now, shadows ringing her eyes. Her lips were dark with blood from where she’d been biting them.

“We’re ready, Joey.” Joeb’s voice came from behind me, right before I heard the PLSS flare to life.

“I keep running but she knows,” Josephine whispered, looking up at Avery. “I keep hiding, but she can find me anywhere. I’m the flame to her moth. Mother Moth …”

“Shh,” he said, and smoothed a hand over her hair. “She won’t find you, Josie. I promise.”

I frowned, glancing sidelong at him as he stood. He ignored me, stepping out of the way as J/O came over to hook her up to the machines.

“Jai?” I said.

“Present,” said the familiar voice, and the calm, brown-skinned version of me stepped over to Josephine’s other side.

“You’re the magic guy,” I said, “And this is some serious magic. I don’t care how it works or how you do it, but your job is to make sure nothing goes wrong. Make sure the link is gone, and help guide her to … wherever. J/O, make sure the transducer works right.”

Jai shifted me a thoughtful glance, but said nothing. He nodded, holding one hand out above Josephine and closing his eyes.

“Avery—”

“I know what I’m doing,” came the rough response, the dark-haired boy moving to stand at the edge of the cot. He put a hand on the hilt of his sword. “Back up.”

There was that cold hard knot in my stomach again, though I wasn’t sure if it was from anger or fear. I took a step back, watching as Jai focused.

“I can sense the link,” Jai said. “It is intact, and strong.”

“Show them,” Avery said, and Jai concentrated.

At first, nothing happened. Then I saw a glint, like something above us caught the light, just for a moment. It was there and then gone, then there was another, and another; like the thin threads of a spiderweb glinting in the sun. There were maybe ten of them that I could see, tinged vaguely with red and all in a bundle. They started at Josephine, wrapped loosely around her, and arced upward. I looked around, trying to find their source, but they were nonlinear and scattered, winding around all of us and slowly tightening, like they were being pulled taut.

“She’s coming,” Josephine whispered. I heard the click of Avery’s sword as he tightened his hand around the hilt.

“Josephine,” I said suddenly. “There’s something I never did.”

All eyes turned to me.

“Repeat after me,” I said. “I, Josephine Harker.”

Her gaze found mine, and she gave a tiny half smile. “I, Josephine Harker.”

“Understanding that there must be balance in all things, hereby declare that I shall do all in my power to defend and protect the Altiverse from those who would harm it or bend it to their will. That I will do everything I can to support and stand for InterWorld and the values it embodies.”

She repeated it, word for word, though her voice was barely above a whisper by the end and her knuckles were white where her hands gripped the side of the cot. The threads above her blurred as my eyes watered, and for a moment, I was able to see them all clearly.

“Welcome to InterWorld,” I whispered. My voice sounded bitter even to me.

Avery moved, so suddenly I almost missed it, whipping his sword from the sheath and striking in the same motion. The circuitry blade cut cleanly through the strands that wound around us all and I saw one, just before it fell, going straight through the heart of Avery Jones.