***ALEX***

While Gideon rails against Thompson - and I wholeheartedly agree with everything he says - I continue to hold Fionna against me. We're both crying bitterly, and it's hard to say who's taking Steve's death harder out of the both of us.

At one point, Fionna's head tilts down against my chest, and I hear a faint metallic clinking. I see her Kingdom Hearts pendant.

Fionna looks up at me. Oh, sorry about that, she thinks, stowing the blue heart back under her shirt.

It's okay, I think. It'll be okay, Fi. Everything's gonna be fine.

We're pretty much cried out by now, but neither of us wants to let go of the other. I continue to cradle her head, stroking her hair. Both her arms encircle me, her hands positioned to feel the rise and fall of my wings under my shirt.

I think about what Steve said earlier. How his heart was being pulled in two directions at once. Now I'm experiencing the same feeling. On the one hand, there's Juliet, with whom I've formed my strongest romantic connection ever. On the other hand, there's Fionna, and I'm sure what we had between us could have been something equally special - if only she were still alive.

In my head, though, I know there's no chance of me and Fionna getting that spark back. Not now that we're supposed to be stuck in separate universes.

Speaking of which, aren't Gabe and Gideon and I supposed to be getting back home?

I ask Russell about this, and he responds by rubbing his forehead. "Well, if they really bombed the city...that's gonna make this really hard. We're gonna want to get out of town, that's for sure. Of course, it's possible that there's some areas of the tunnels that might have caved in..."

I wipe my eyes. "Okay. You guys lead the way. I wouldn't even know the first direction to go in."

Russell and Annie open the door again - the one through which we came in. Before we leave, however, we spare a minute or so to look at Steve's body. Gideon stands over him, tears falling from both his eyes, while Gabe stands to Fionna's other side, hugging her while she hugs me. It's like that shot from the Prisoner of Azkaban movie where Harry hugs Hermione while she hugs Ron. The main difference, however, is that unlike in the movie where it only appeared that Buckbeak had been killed (and it was eventually proven that it wasn't the case), we actually saw Steve die. Gideon and Fionna even felt him die, the way I did for Fionna.

Honestly, I'm a bit surprised that Steve wasn't so visibly scared of the idea of dying - for real this time. Maybe because, unlike the death of his first body, this time he wasn't forced to kill himself. This time, he was surrounded by friends. He wasn't alone.

But eventually, we are forced to move along. Thompson has Kyle help him carry the body to the crematorium - which, conveniently, is underground and therefore should not have been affected by the bomb. It's also in the opposite direction from where the rest of us are going, so they leave us to get out of the city without them. As Russell and Annie lead us down the tunnel, I try to keep track of where we're going in my head. But since I'm in a totally unfamiliar place without a reference point for what direction we're moving in (even Russell can't get a decent compass reading off his smartphone app, both from lack of reception and because of some kind of magnetic material present in the tunnel walls, I think), I'm soon forced to give up on that.

For what feels like several hours, we keep on walking through the tunnels. We're forced to do a hell of a lot of backtracking, because there's more dead ends than I can count on both hands and both toes. Many of these aren't supposed to be there, but are instead the result of cave-ins, exactly as Russell said before. Every time we reach another cave-in site, Russell curses under his breath and smacks his phone repeatedly.

"Okay, that's it," Russell groans after the umpteenth time we hit a cave-in. "Annie, you take over. I can't figure out where the exit is to save my life."

"Has it occurred to you that all the exits might be blocked off, and we could be totally trapped down here?" Everyone turns to glare at Freddie after he asks this question. "What?" he says defensively. "I bet we were all thinking it, at least. Someone had to say it out loud."

"Well, if we can't get out just through the tunnels, I think I know another way," Annie says. "Russell, it's this way to the medical vault, right?" She jerks her thumb towards a tunnel we haven't even attempted yet.

"I...I think so." Russell stares down the tunnel. "Wait, the medical vault? Are you sure about that?"

"Of course," Annie says. "We don't have any radiation suits, but they got plenty of iodine pills. That is, if you guys don't mind a little nausea."

"Annie, those pills aren't meant to prevent radiation sickness," Russell says. "They're only supposed to treat you if you're already sick."

"Tell that to all the people who went and cleaned out all the pharmacies of iodine pills after Fukushima," Gideon says. When we all stare at him blankly, he goes on to explain how a few years ago, on Earth, a Japanese nuclear plant melted down after a massive earthquake and tsunami, and the radiation cloud spread across the Pacific all the way to the West Coast.

"Oh yeah, I sorta remember that one," Annie says. "Well, it was all a bunch of crap, 'cause there wasn't nearly enough radiation crossing the ocean to make people sick. But here, there's been a fresh nuclear bombing. You'll want as much protection as you can get."

And on that scary note, we head for the medical vault, the door for which is helpfully labeled as such. The vault turns out to be not so much a vault as a massive warehouse space, not unlike the inside of a Costco - if Costco were full of boxes upon boxes of pills, syringes, and various cough syrups, among other things.

"Why are there so many supplies in this place?" Fionna asks as we start skulking through the aisles, none of which are labeled to show their contents. "It's like it's stocked for a city of ten million people. How many people live in this town again?"

"I think the population of Bearville is around 44,000 or something," Annie says. "You're right, though. There's way more medical supplies than we know what to do with. 'Course, you never know when you might need enough flu vaccines for the entire city of Chicago and then some," she says, pointing to a crate marked "H5N1 FLU VACCINES - BIOHAZARD - HANDLE WITH CAUTION." "And not just any one Chicago, but every Chicago in every dimension of every universe."

"Oh, now don't tell me there's multiple dimensions in the Second 'Verse too," I groan. "I'm having enough trouble getting used to one."

"Nope, just the one," Russell says. "Um, I think that's the iodine, right there." He points to a box on the third shelf up, which is high enough to be way out of reach. And, unlike at Costco, I don't see any forklifts with which we can pull the box down.

However, he has other plans. He surrounds his hands with dark energy and then sticks them to the metal column that divides two sections of the shelves. Adding more dark energy to his feet, he starts climbing up the metal, looking just like Spider-Man.

"Wow," Gideon says. "Didn't think I'd ever see that again."

I turn to look at him. "You've seen them do this before?"

"Not Russell specifically," he says, frowning. "You remember how I used to date a human boy? Jay Cross? Well, he had powers just like this."

I have trouble deciding which unusual thing I want to pay more attention to - Russell's wall-crawling demo, or Gideon's surprise revelation. I soon decide to go with the latter. "A human with powers? Are you sure he wasn't one of us, just hiding out on Earth like you were? Or...or maybe he could've been one of them?" I add in an undertone, gesturing to Russell.

"Nope, he was human," he says. "After I showed him my wings, he showed me how he didn't have any himself. But I've never been able to figure it out - sometimes, humans have elemental powers too. Not quite the same system as ours, though. The only elemental they have in common with us is fire. Unless you count ice as part of water."

"Great," I mutter. "Just another question we should ask these guys."

"If we wanna get answered with more questions, that is," he says.

"I got it!" Russell opens the box and pulls out a single bottle of iodine pills. "Someone get ready to catch!"

Annie catches the bottle after it's dropped, and while Russell climbs back down to the ground, she pours out a handful of pills and distributes them to everyone. One double-ended gray-and-blue capsule each. "Hold on a second," she says. "I'm gonna get some water for everyone, to help them go down better."

While Annie goes and fetches the water, Freddie simply sticks his pill in his mouth and pinches his nose, swallowing it dry. "I fucking hate pills," he groans. "I had to take a bunch of them for ADHD when I was a kid. Never got used to it."

"What about when you were an adult?" Gabe asks.

"Didn't have to after I was fourteen," Freddie says. "Turns out I was misdiagnosed. Go figure."

None of the rest of us even bother with the dry-swallowing thing. I, for one, have too much of a dry mouth as it is right now. So we wait for Annie to come back with a couple of water bottles for washing down our pills.

"Is this gonna be enough?" Fionna asks. "Just one pill each?"

"We shouldn't be exposed too long anyway," Freddie says. "This place is right underneath the inner checkpoint on the Western Gate. There's a garage full of Humvees and shit a couple stories up."

"Won't they not be working, though?" asks Gabe. "And hell, now I think about it, why are all the lights still on? I thought nukes were supposed to take out the power. Like, with an EMP or something."

"That's true," Russell says, "but the underground sections of the city are shielded with dark energy. The garage is underground, right?" Freddie nods rapidly, and Russell spreads his arms. "There you go. The Humvees will work fine. I'm not so sure about them being able to protect us from the radiation for long, though. So we'll wanna get out of the city right away."

"Right," I say. "Which way to the garage?"

"The elevator's over there," Annie says, pointing to the furthest corner of the vault. "I'm surprised you didn't know that already, Russell," she adds, punching her brother in the arm.

"Hey, don't get all complain-y on me now, sister," Russell grouses. "I've never been to this part of the city before."

"Right," Annie laughs. "'Cause with your god-awful eyesight, you'd be laughed out the door with a 4F stamp before you even got a foot in."

"Do they even do those stamps anymore?" Gabe asks. "Or is that just a Captain America World War II thing?"

"How should I know?" Russell asks, hitting the elevator button. "I wasn't in World War II."

We ride the elevator up to the garage in silence. There's not even any elevator music. The first sound we hear is the bell that goes off when we reach our destination - the floor marked "G."

The second sound we hear is the vibration of someone's phone. Russell's, I think. I'm surprised it's still working after the constant poundings of frustration he put it through. He checks the screen, then answers the call. "Thompson, what's up?" He pauses while Thompson talks to him, pressing the button to keep the door closed the whole time. Then a look of serious surprise dawns on his face. "What? You gotta be kidding me. Hold on, I'm gonna put you on speaker. I think everyone's gonna want to hear this." He thumbs the phone's screen, then says, "Okay, we're on. Repeat what you just said to me."

"The nuclear bombing...not nuclear." Thompson's voice is garbled with heavy static, probably the result of us being underground and not able to get good reception. "It was...thing worse than that. Preston has ordered...breach...universes..."

"Say again, Thompson?" Russell asks. "You're breaking up." He turns to Annie and asks, "Should we maybe get out of the elevator?"

"Unless the garage is deserted, I'd say no," Annie says.

Russell lets go of the "door close" button, then peeks out around the elevator door. "No signs of life," he says. "Let's go." He leads the way out of the elevator, then hunkers down behind a towering stack of crates. "Let's try that again, Thompson. You were talking about the universes being breached?"

"Yes," Thompson says, his voice coming in much more clearly now. "Those bright flashes of light we all saw - those aren't nuclear airbursts like we were led to believe. Preston has had the dividing line between the two universes torn open. As long as those lights are in the sky, it is possible to travel between universes without the aid of the Terminal." He pauses to draw a breath. "Which, of course, is not recommended, because the Terminal allows your body to adjust to the inter-universal travel much more easily, rather than just allowing you to be dumped in a strange world with slightly different physics than ours."

Annie goes pale as she hears Thompson's words. I'm sure she's not the only one - I can feel the blood draining from my face. Even though Thompson's not getting into any gory details, I've seen enough physics-breaking sci-fi shows and movies to know what he's getting at.

"He's gonna send armies of scrivs into the Prime 'Verse, isn't he?" Annie asks.

"I'm afraid so," Thompson says. "Why he would take such risks to do so, I'm not sure. Unless he's simply that desperate to wipe out mortals that he'll just rush in with sheer numbers and hope for the best...or should I say worst?"

"In that case, should we still send the live Primers back home?" Russell asks. "If Holly's gonna send his armies in there, it could be just as much of a death sentence, don't you think?"

"So far, this act of war seems to be confined to the United States," Thompson says. "It's summer vacation, yes? Simply have the live Primers take a vacation in Mexico or something. It won't seem so out of the ordinary."

"Are you telling us to turn tail and hide?" I ask incredulously. "While you guys get to have all the fun? I don't think so."

"Yeah," Gabe and Gideon say simultaneously.

"But you three are innocent civilians," Thompson points out. "Your combat experience is, no doubt, little to none. And no, playing violent video games doesn't count."

"But we don't-"

"Enough," Thompson interrupts. "Troiraz, get the live Primers back home. Troianni, take Miss Lee and Mr. Krause to your father's house. Troiraz will meet you there, along with myself and Mr. Prado, so we can begin to discuss Operation White Shadows." He curses under his breath, then says, "Mr. Prado, get behind me! Troiraz, I'm afraid I'll have to end this conversation. Preston's men have gotten into the tunnels." He hangs up, leaving us all staring in shock at Russell's phone.

"You heard the man," Russell says. "Let's move out!"

He leads the way to the nearest Humvee, a green-camo model sitting on the other side of the tower of crates. Luckily, this one even has a gun mounted on its roof. Freddie is quick to inform us that it's designed to be operated from the inside of the vehicle, like a gun on a tank.

Russell runs around the tower of crates, gathering more supplies, such as ammo for the gun. He also grabs a few other implements, like a screwdriver, which he uses to start the engine in the absence of keys.

"Where'd you learn to hot-wire a Humvee?" I ask.

"Mom taught us," Annie says. "Now, quiet. We'll need our master at work to have all his concentration for this job."

A few seconds later, Russell successfully starts the engine, then closes the driver's door behind him. He steps on the gas and steers the big armored machine out of its parking space. He narrowly misses clipping other Humvees on the way out, but then he finds the exit and rams through the lowered gate, bursting out onto ground level.

Right away, the light hits us. The skies aren't dark anymore, but instead filled with blazing whiteness. Even in Heaven, where the sky is white by default, it's never been this bright even on the sunniest of days. Thankfully, the Humvee is equipped with windows that darken immediately in reaction to the light. Like Transitions lenses for glasses, but on a bigger scale.

But none of the buildings in Bearville have caught fire or collapsed or anything. Guess Thompson was right about it not being a nuke after all. "Does that mean we took those pills for nothing?" I ask. "Hope it doesn't start giving us any kind of mutations."

"I don't think so," Annie says. "But if you start getting dry heaves, let someone know. It might mean your balls are gonna fall off." She laughs under her breath, alerting us all to the fact that she's just kidding, even as us guys all instinctively reach for our crotches.

What's not a joke, however, is the gunfire that's now raining down on us from behind. "Freddie, get the gun!" Russell yells, spinning the Humvee around and driving towards the Wall - which also happens to be the source of the gunfire. "Fire when ready!"

Freddie pulls down what looks like a periscope from the ceiling, then grabs hold of a pair of hand grips with triggers. "Fire in the hole!" he says. The sound of our own gun joins in the hail of bullets around us, sounding like a constant roll of heavy thunder.

Russell, meanwhile, stomps on the gas, heading straight for the gate, which is sealed tightly shut. "Shoot the gate gears!" he yells to Freddie. "They'll have to open automatically for maintenance!"

"On it!" Freddie turns the periscope and fires again. Ahead of us, the gate starts to slowly creak open. Before long, we're out and barreling through the woods, the gunfire from the Wall once again on our six. I notice that the light over the city doesn't extend out over the Wall, so the sky here is once again as pitch-black as ever. Freddie turns the periscope around 180 degrees and keeps on firing for a minute or two, until we're out of range.

Russell finally brings the Humvee to a stop. "Well, that was fun," he says with a crazed, adrenaline-buzz grin on his face. "We should try that again sometime."

"Yeah, maybe next time with Steve still alive," Fionna says with more than a hint of venom in her voice.

The smile fades from Russell's face. "Yeah. Yeah, of course. Okay, live Primers. Time to take you guys back home." He steps on the gas again, now driving much more slowly so he doesn't end up wrapping the Humvee around any trees.