***ALEX***

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuu-"

I can't even finish swearing, my face hurts so much. Never mind how much ice is covering and healing my wound, it's not doing me a lick of good in the painkilling department. And while we're on the subject, I'm pretty sure I'll be bad at licking anything for a while. Even ice cream.

It could've been worse. That cut could've gone all the way through my cheek and left me a second mouth hole. And then, from there, it could've taken out a tooth or two.

Still, it's going to leave a mark.

And while I can't swear out loud, my brain is screaming how much this fucking hurts!

Out of the corner of my one open eye, I see Gideon hang up the phone - I think he called the cops - then turn to give AK a hug. Both of them visibly tremble against each other, even AK, who mercifully missed the actual moment of Dio's death. I never actually knew the guy, but I'd heard Gideon talk about him a few times, saying he was the best boss ever. Of course, he was the only boss Gideon had ever had, but still, I took his word for it. Enough that I even wanted to work here myself next summer, something I'd wanted even more after learning I'd be working with my cousin.

Have I told AK yet about how the Second 'Verse works? If I have, I've forgotten by now. Either way, I'm sure I should tell him that he'll likely still get a chance to say goodbye to the old man.

In the meantime, it's now registering to me that music is playing all around us. Is there a jukebox in here or something? Nah, I doubt there'd be ChronoWulf on a jukebox. Certainly not "Another Place."

Wait, it's my phone ringing.

Who's calling...oh crap, it's Kelly. And she's trying to do a video call too. Dammit, she's going to get an eyeful of my pretty new face. Well, she's seen other fluids of mine, and in greater quantities too. This shouldn't be too bad for her.

I sit up and answer the call, holding my phone in front of my face and trying to angle it to minimize the amount of scarring she sees. "Hey, Kel. Listen, it's kinda not a good time-"

"I can see that." On my screen, she raises her eyebrows at me, and her voice sounds strained. "I know you'd like to build a snowman down in your town, but you don't have to, you know, be the snowman."

I can't help but laugh, even though it pains me. "It's my elemental. Why not?"

"But seriously..." Kelly shakes her phone a bit, making the connection turn blurry. I'm surprised it was as clear as it was for the last twenty seconds or so, since we're calling across dimensions and all. Unless she hopped across the Bridge? It wouldn't be impossible since she's staying in Coldfire Creek with her family for Christmas. "Alex, you look like shit."

Leave it to my girlfriend to be so beautifully blunt. "I know. Give me a day or two and maybe this scar will go away. Maybe."

She raises her eyebrows again - I can see it now because the only snow on the screen is falling behind her onto what I'm guessing is the semi-frozen waters of Coldfire Creek itself. "What's going on? Do you need me or Ty to come help you out?"

"Maybe next time," I say. "No, no, wait, what'd I just say-"

"I'm holding you to that," Kelly says. "But you sure? You know Ty and I can kick ass with the best of them-"

"We got plenty of ass-kickers here this Christmas," I say as fast as I can. "I love you, Kelly. And Ty too, I suppose."

"Say it like you mean it and maybe I'll honor your request," Kelly says. "Ty?" She waves offscreen, and the man himself steps up behind her, adjusting his purple-and-gray-striped beanie with gloved hands.

"Did I just hear you say you loved me?" Ty's eyes crinkle as he smiles broadly. "Best Christmas gift I could've asked for this year." His smile shrinks, though, as he finally gets a good look at me. "Shit, bro, what happened to your face? You seeing Jack Frost behind my sister's back?"

"Yeah, bukkake's his favorite," I say.

Kelly rolls her eyes. "Boys." More seriously, she says, "All right, Alex, if you don't need our help just yet-"

"I don't." I look back at AK and Gideon, who are still standing behind the counter, sneaking the occasional glance at Dio. "Shit's bad down here. I don't want you getting mixed up in it."

"Whatever you say." Kelly eyeballs Ty in such a way that makes me wonder if she really means it. I bet I'll find out when the two Jacksons surface in the Bay Area and help us take the fight to Kristoff. Though now that I'm imagining it happening, it probably won't. Fuck you too, Fortuna.

"I'll see you after Christmas, I hope," I tell Kelly and Ty both.

"Don't worry," says Ty. "You will, you big damn badass." He and Kelly blow me kisses before ending the call.

I turn to Mom. "Should I take this ice off?"

"If you want," Mom says with a resigned sigh, "but I don't think it's done-"

"I'm sorry." I wave my hand at her to cut her off, then back over my face to remove the ice and vaporize it. "I don't think I have time for 'done.'" I leave her to join AK and Gideon, who are both still standing by Dio. Still shaking like leaves. Still crying, especially Gideon. And I don't blame him, because he remembers Gabe's death as clearly as I do. The hole in Dio's forehead is giving us both flashbacks, and as I stare at that hole, I'm paralyzed, remembering how much I screamed and cried so uselessly for Gabe to come back.

AK tugs on both our arms and brings us out to the other side of the counter, where he awkwardly works his way in to hug us both at once. Mom comes up behind me to join in. Then Josh comes up to AK's other side. Out of the corners of my wet eyes, I see Ahmad and Firdaus hang back for the longest time before joining us. He comes between Mom and AK, and she, between Mom and Josh. They're all forming a semicircle around me and Gideon. Michael's the only one not joining in, but I don't think he's much of a hugger anyway.

Still, though, Gid and I are mostly talking to each other, alone. I'm sorry.

For what? he asks.

Not being as brave as I should be.

He laughs into my collarbone. News flash, dude, I'm not so brave either. As I pat his shoulders - and his head - he adds, What are we gonna do, though?

Hell if I know. I let go of him, and the group hug slowly breaks apart all around us. Peppermint are so many steps ahead, it's not even funny.

Well... Gideon gestures to the group, especially Josh and Ahmad as they go back to the seat we all vacated. We still got our brain trust.

Sure... I join them myself and say, out loud, "Please tell me we have a plan."

"Hard to make one," says Michael loftily, "when they hold all the cards." The rest of us - me, the boys, and Firdaus, who's just slid in next to me - look at him strangely, and he adds, "Yeah, I was listening to your thoughts, Alex. Shoot me."

"Be serious," I tell him. "For once in your immortal life."

"Shit, no need to get personal," he says with a flash of a sneer.

"You sound like fucking Lucifer right now."

Michael lowers his head into his hands, but then raises one hand to flip me off. "Again," he says, "no need to get personal. Or rude."

"Seriously," Firdaus says. "If you have any bright ideas, now's the time."

"I barely know what the hell is going on anymore," Michael growls. "How should I be able to help you?"

"Maybe you should've asked yourself that," Ahmad says with a pointed glare before returning his gaze back to his computer screen, "before crawling out of that sterile zombie pit you call a home."

"I don't, actually."

I pound the table just lightly enough to get attention without startling everyone else. God only knows how startled I'd be if they tried the same on me, so... "Really, though, do we have a plan other than hacks and counterhacks?"

"My dad's got a plan in mind," says Josh, "but frankly, if you or anyone else has another one, I'm all ears and ready to claim majority vote against him."

"Why, what is it? Sacrificing me, I bet. He hates my guts, you said it yourself."

"He does," Josh admits. "But..." He looks down at the table, then around the room before beckoning me to lean in closer to him. Though his telepathy isn't super strong, I can still pick up on a little something he thinks. He wants to do a possession.

"Wait, what?" I can't believe I just heard him correctly. "No, no, if he wants to-"

It's not you, Josh is quick to add. He wants to possess AK and his brother. That way, he's got eyes on the battle in both Prime and Second.

I jump to my feet, and I'm not sure if that's making the blood rush from my head, or if I'm just dizzy and sick from fear for my cousins. "How is that better?"

"Exactly!" Josh crosses his arms. "I told him none of you guys would be cool with it, but does he ever listen to me?"

"Who said we wouldn't?" Michael asks with crossed arms of his own.

"Don't tell me-"

"I don't!" Michael cries. "Just playing devil's advocate. No, no Lucifer jokes, you fucking Maltese poodle."

"Hey!"

"It's all right, Mom," I say, even though I'm just as stung in my own Maltese pride as she is in hers. "I've heard worse, believe me. Not from him, but...you know."

"I remember," Mom says. "Still, you shouldn't take that kind of abuse from him. No matter who or what he is."

I look up just in time to see Mr. Graziadei pass by the window on his way into the building. Luckily, I'm still on my feet, so I can run over to the door, my wings opening at the last second to slow me down. But not all of me. Not my fist.

A fist which...

...holy shit.

I can't believe I just punched God in the face.

Even more so, I can't believe he actually stumbles and falls. And then, for good measure, the door swings shut and smacks the top of his head. I half-expect the door's glass to shatter, or at least crack into a spiderweb, but nothing happens.

Some omniscient and all-powerful God this Elliot Graziadei really is.

He turns his head so quickly, it almost looks robotic and artificial. Like a scene from The Exorcist or some shit, ironically. "This is why I don't like Breakers."

"Why, because we're so cool and can do all sorts of shit?" Although let's be honest, this wasn't on the list of shit I imagined I could do as a Breaker. Not when it was only sold to me as the ability to cross between universes unaided and nothing more.

For the first time, I start to wonder if maybe, just maybe, I'm meant to be a god myself.

But that's a thought I can't dwell on right now, so I let it go and offer my hand to Mr. G to help him to his feet. As I expect, though, he refuses to take it. Instead, he climbs up to his feet on his own, albeit very slowly and awkwardly. Now, in spite of myself, I see why he would want to possess AK's body for a bit. Younger, stronger, more capable. But of course he'd probably be a greedy assbutt and try to keep AK for himself.

AK and his brother, I have to remind myself. What was his brother's name again? I can't remember. I know I saw it somewhere in his Instagram posts or something - the memorial one, I think.

"TJ," Mr. G tells me. "His name is TJ. Trust me, I've got it all memorized." He taps his forehead with his knuckle. "Although even now, I'm not sure my plan could work - Josh told you all about it, didn't he?" He waves me into silence just as I open my mouth. "Of course he did, because he's constitutionally incapable of keeping a secret when I want him to-"

"Or when I'm morally obligated otherwise," Josh points out.

"Why don't you think it could work now?" Michael asks his father.

Mr. G fumes for a moment before answering. "That Penner thought it'd be funny to try and test his little digital possession trick on TJ Grant. Among others." After this, he switches to a guttural language I don't know - probably Aramaic, Hebrew, Enochian, or Voynich - but judging from the looks on his boys' faces, he's spouting a legendary litany of curses. Some of which have Josh and Michael laughing, and alternatively, some have them wincing and reaching for their crotches. You fill in the blanks. Switching back to English, Mr. G says, "Though actually, I forget whose idea it originally was, the digital possession project. So I might have just delivered all that invective against someone who doesn't actually deserve it-"

"If it's Penner," I say, "he does." Gideon, as the only other person present who's seen Penner in action, nods with me. He's looking a little pale, and his breathing looks like he's barely got it under control, but he's still standing as tall as he can.

"Whatever you kids say," Mr. G says offhandedly. "All right. So. TJ's mind and body might already be compromised enough as it is...but AK's hasn't. That might give me an advantage, let me distribute the stress of sharing my soul a little better..." His voice trails off as he realizes AK's staring at him incredulously. "What?"

"Who says I even wanna share anything with you?" AK asks with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not about want," Mr. G says.

"I know, but still, you shouldn't just..." AK fumbles for the words.

"Not consider that?" I suggest. Shit, even moving my mouth hurts. It's like if I speak, that iced-over cut, no longer iced, threatens to split wide open again. Even more wide than ever this time around too.

AK nods with me. "Yeah, what he said."

"Not that eloquently," I admit, "but yeah, boss-"

"Do you have a better plan?" Mr. G so rarely raises his voice that it's a shock, enough to make me and everyone else take a step back. "If so, I'd like to hear it." He waves at me impatiently, then puts a cupped hand around his ear. "You don't have one, do you? You're just being a wrench in the works, you..." He stops himself, clearly not wanting to taint his "loving God" image any more than he already has. I mean, the guy's been saying he's not as bad as Josh says, but he ain't doing a word of what he himself says. Worse than the indifferent God in which I came to believe, suspiciously, after many years. Or be indifferent myself. However you want to put it.

"I don't like it either," Firdaus says, "but..." She pauses and pushes her hair behind her ears. "I think we might have to trust him, just once."

I can't believe the words that come out of Mr. G's mouth next. "Thank you."

My mom stands behind me, as do Josh and Ahmad. Firdaus is the first to stand behind Mr. G, oddly enough, even before Michael. Then Gideon.

AK himself is the swing vote, as, well, he should.

He swallows, then steps up to Mr. G. "When do we get it done?"

It may be AK's choice, but I don't have to like it. I reach out and tug on his arm. "Dude, don't do this to yourself."

He pulls away from me. "Like the man said, if you have a better idea..." He turns back to Mr. G and repeats his earlier question.

"At the last second," Mr. G says. "We'll have to get into Scoville's building first."

It's a fair vote, but still, I have to keep on thinking of a better way.

I refuse to trust Elliot Graziadei with AK's bodily autonomy. Or anything, for that matter.