Behind me, Paul groans. I turn around to see him standing up again, glaring at the aft end of his dad's SUV as Elijah drives it away through the woods.

"Damn," I grunt. My fists are clenched, and I'm seething with barely-controlled rage. "He got away."

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch as Mr. Smythe rolls over and pushes himself off the ground. Paul steps forward and offers a hand, but his dad waves him away. "I'm fine," he insists, shooting his cuff so he can roll up his left sleeve - checking for damages, I'm guessing.

"Dad, what happened?" Paul asks.

Mr. Smythe frowns deeply as he moves on to his other arm. "Jack wasn't at the bookstore when I got there. I waited for over an hour, but he never showed up." He extends both sleeves back down to full length, then starts walking back to the cabin. "So I came back here, because I suspected you kids wouldn't be safe. Guess I was right."

"That's not what my dad said," Jeanne calls down the stairs. "He just called here and said you showed up, knocked him out five minutes later, and next thing he knew, you were gone."

I look from Jeanne to Mr. Smythe and back again, not sure which one to believe.

Mr. Smythe tightens his jaw for a split second. "I...I'm sure that's exactly what Jack would say if he were trying to deflect suspicion off himself," he says. "I'm sorry, Jeanne, but I don't know what else to tell you."

Jeanne shakes her head, scoffing. "Don't give me that, Robert. I trust my dad. And he said he's got security footage to back himself up."

At this point, Mr. Smythe freezes on the top step. I realize he's been lying even before he lets slip a highly incriminating thought: Oh shit. I should've remembered...

We all glare at Mr. Smythe as he realizes he's been exposed.

"Something you forgot to mention?" I growl. I had no idea I was capable of growling like that. I sound like a wolf coming in for the kill. I might as well be a wolf, for all the anger building up inside me right now.

Mr. Smythe turns from Paul and me to the rest of the group, all of whom are blocking his way. He's spared answering our question by a noise coming from the woods, in roughly the same direction Elijah drove off in. Judging from the pounding and grunting noises, it's either wandering hippies stopping for sex, or a fistfight in progress.

I'm willing to bet it's the latter, and it turns out I'm right. Mr. Smythe jumps over the side of the stairs, gliding a few hundred feet faster than any of us, even Paul, can follow him - not that we don't try.

At a nearby fork in the road, another SUV, a gray 4Runner, has pulled over, and a short, stocky man with jet-black hair and a bloody nose just like Mr. Smythe's tries in vain to run after the stolen Acadia.

"Jack?" Mr. Smythe runs up to the other man. "Jack, I'm sorry. I didn't-"

Mr. Darknell headbutts Mr. Smythe, catching him in the solar plexus and knocking him to the ground for the second time in less than five minutes.

"You didn't what, Bob?" he yells. "You didn't know Elijah would double-cross you too? How long have you been working with him, huh?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, guys, stop it!" Paul says, pushing Mr. Darknell away from his dad.

"Oh sure, take his side!" Jeanne yells, gesturing wildly at Mr. Smythe.

"I'm not taking anybody's side!" Paul yells. "Look, we've been betrayed, and I wanna find out who did it just as much as much as the rest of us." He looks to me, Dani, Aron, Gabe, and the souls for support. "Don't we?"

"Let's get back to the cabin," I say. "And then both of them can tell us their side of the story."

"I'm driving back myself," Mr. Darknell says, pulling open the driver's door of his 4Runner. "The last thing I need right now is some deputy on patrol giving me a parking ticket."

He guns the ignition and drives off, forcing us to scatter to the sides of the narrow road. We all stand there for a moment, listening to the screech of tires as Mr. Darknell drives angrily, then we fly back to the cabin, Paul and I keeping a close eye on Mr. Smythe so he doesn't try to bolt on us.

Inside the cabin, Mr. Darknell has already fired up the living room TV and DVD player, into which he's loaded a disc. The disc starts up, playing a split-screen of four different views of the bookstore's interior, time-stamped 9am.

"So what did he say, huh?" he asks, pointing brusquely at his colleague. Mr. Smythe is sitting in one of the dining-room chairs, as if trying to stay separate from the rest of us.

"He said he was alone for an hour waiting for you," Aron says.

Mr. Darknell snorts. "What a load of...how stupid does he think you are?" He presses the fast-forward button and moves ahead about twenty minutes to show himself arriving at the bookstore and sitting in the office. Five minutes after that, Mr. Smythe comes in and joins Mr. Darknell.

"You believe me now?" Mr. Darknell asks. "Do you still need to see him get the drop-"

"I think we got it, thanks," Gabe says, waving his hands until Mr. Darknell ejects the DVD.

I turn to our betrayer and deliver him my most steely glare. "Explain yourself, Robert," I growl, not feeling the need to address him respectfully anymore.

Robert may be a big, tall guy, but that doesn't stop him from cringing, even slightly, under my angry expression. "I...I haven't told you everything about-"

"Yes, yes, we get that. Thank you, Captain Obvious." I start pacing the floor in front of Robert. "Get to the damn point."

"I was going to do just that," Robert says. "What I was trying to say is, I haven't told you everything about Project Red Rain."

I stop pacing and grab another chair so I can sit in front of him. Behind me, I hear everyone else move around, probably looking for a good position to sit in.

Someone pass the popcorn, I hear Gabe think with a nervous titter.

I second that emotion, I think back. Turning to Robert, I signal him to continue.

"The conspiracy book said that Elijah was the first and only volunteer for Red Rain, correct?" Robert asks.

I think back to what the book said - I sort of remember something along those lines. I turn to the souls, and Steve nods.

Robert laughs bitterly. "Just another lie for the list. I've been rehearsing that one in my brain so long, it's almost become the God's honest truth to me."

"I almost wanna say you'd go to Purgatory for saying that," I laugh, "but given my own lapses of faith, I don't wanna be called a hypocrite. So what's the truth?"

"Elijah was an early volunteer, yes," Robert says, "but he was nowhere near the first to sign up. He was one of about ninety men to have done so."

"You said ninety?" My eyes widen in disbelief. "What happened to the others? Were they all failures too? Did they go psycho like Elijah?"

Robert shakes his head. "None of the others made it past the initial test, because they were all ineligible."

"Wait, you had to actually qualify for this? How?"

"We would take any volunteer we got and run a genetic test," Robert says. "A test for demon DNA."

"Demon DNA? But you hadn't even done the-"

Robert holds up his hand until I shut up. "Most people don't realize this, but angels and demons are much more alike, genetically speaking, than any other two species in any of the three dimensions. It's said that we're approximately 99.998% alike. But it is possible to differentiate between the two, and we can guess, with a five percent margin of error, the percentage of angel vs. demon DNA in any one person.

"The reason why we chose Elijah, out of all the volunteers, was because he had the least amount of angel DNA. Only 85 percent."

"'Only?' Eighty-five still sounds like a lot."

"Our backup candidate, the one with the next-lowest level of angel DNA, had 94 percent."

I lean back in my chair. "So you're saying-"

"Elijah had some demon ancestry," Robert says. "Only three of four generations back, from our guess. And that's why we picked him, because we theorized that it would be easier to alter DNA with a more noticeable blend beforehand." He scoffs. "But you know what they say about hindsight. Now we can see perfectly, and what we see is our own folly."

I turn around. "Mr. Darknell? Is that true?"

"Yes," says Mr. Darknell. "For once, he's telling the truth."

"Good," I say, turning back to Robert. "So why are you working with Elijah now? What's in it for you?"

Robert hems and haws for a moment. "Er...well, see, during the project, I was the closest thing to a friend and confidant Elijah had. He always came to me first whenever he had questions - such as when he was wondering why his powers were vanishing. I guess he hadn't forgotten me when he escaped from the stockade, so I was the one he sought out. He told me he just wanted a new identity, new documents, so he could go into hiding somewhere abroad."

"And why would he come to you for that?"

"Because I make a secret side business out of that sort of thing," Robert says. "I've helped people start over many times in the last thirty years. But only people who genuinely need my help, and who won't use their new selves for evil, if you'll pardon the hackneyed expression."

I told you I had a good way to make my fake ID, Paul thinks, nudging Steve.

Well, excuse me for not believing you, Steve counters.

"You used my equipment to make a fake ID?" Robert asks, looking astonished.

"You had no idea I was using your stuff?" Paul asks. "Honestly, I was scared I hadn't put it away right when I first used it. I promise, I've only used it to sneak into bars. Never for sleeping with demon girls or anything like that."

Penny, rightly offended by that remark, slaps Paul in the back of the head. He quickly apologizes to her, and then to his dad - but the latter apology isn't nearly as sincere.

Robert laughs out loud. "I don't know how to respond to this. I honestly don't."

"Considering what you've been caught hiding from us, finding out your son's been breaking the law is the least of your problems," Paul says acidly.

"Back to Elijah," I say. "Did you make his new papers or not?"

"No," Robert says. "I was still making his new birth certificate, under the name of Isaac Hill, if you were interested-"

"We're not-"

"-when I found out about Steve's death," Robert continues. "I suspected Elijah right away, and he immediately denied it. I took his word for it at the time, but he had to know I would eventually discover the others he'd killed - especially since the gateway to the Terminal is right here in my house.

"As soon as they - that is, Steve, Mr. Krause, and Ms. Crowe - described the circumstances of their deaths to me, I knew. The next time I met Elijah, last Monday, I told him I was done and that he could just go find someone else to forge documents for him - even though we both knew that wasn't what he really needed or wanted. I suppose that's why he targeted Paul next - as a warning to me."

"You know, I was wondering why that guy made such a weaksauce move against me," Paul says, glaring at his father again. "Now I know."

"Aww, you're special," Steve says, punching Paul on the arm. Paul rolls his eyes but otherwise ignores him.

"Anyway," Robert continues, "after that, Elijah decided he was gonna send the letter to the bookstore, purely for Jack's benefit. The real plan, on my end, was to lay the mud trap here at the cabin. But then he spotted you and Miss Lee on the deck and...I guess she was just a target of opportunity. So before I could stop him, Elijah got out of the car and went after her. I didn't even have time to shut it off before I chased him. And...well, you saw what happened," he finishes with an embarrassed smile.

I stand up and start pacing again for a while before asking, "Let me ask you something - did you really think you could stop this guy all by yourself? Did you stop to think, perhaps 'cause he was such a loose cannon, he should've been restrained, like, maybe with one of those Hannibal Lecter face-mask contraptions?"

"I didn't see you acting with any sense when you tried to stop him yourself just now," Robert says. His face is so eerily non-expressive, making it perfect for deadpanning his way through awkward talks such as this.

"Uh-huh." I keep pacing, then finally I snap and punch Robert right in the face. He falls to the floor, groaning slightly and rotating his jaw.

"That's for letting Elijah take my girlfriend," I hiss before standing aside so he can get back into his chair.

Robert frowns at me, but then something else catches his eye. He looks somewhere over my left shoulder, and I turn around just in time to see Gabe step forward to punch the other side of Robert's face.

"And that is for being a fucking imbecile," Gabe says, his voice more menacing than I would have ever thought possible.

I look at Gabe and take in the hurt expression on his face. I'd almost forgotten that before she first met me, Fionna was one of Gabe's best friends. He must have been really attached to her to react like this to Robert's account of what happened.

Gabe and I exchange glances, then look down at the floor. As good as it felt to vent our feelings against Robert so strongly, it hasn't really accomplished anything. We still have no way to-

Suddenly, the phone rings. Paul picks it up and says, "Just an unlisted number," before putting it back in its cradle.

"Wait!" Robert cries. "What if it's Elijah? He could have instructions for us to get Miss Lee back."

"Could be," I admit. "Could also be a telemarketer. Not sure which option is more evil."

We stare at the phone apprehensively as it keeps on ringing. Finally, the answering machine picks up, and after the beep, our enemy's Southern accent fills the room, the venom in his voice perceptible even through the cheap speakers.

"Bob, I know you're there," Elijah says. "Pick up."

Robert looks at everyone, then steps up to pick up the phone himself. Putting it on speaker, he says, "What do you want now, Elijah? Do you honestly think I'm still going to work with you after the stunt you just pulled?"

Elijah chuckles nastily. "Oh, that demon girl...can she put up a fight or what?"

"What did you do to her?" I yell at the phone. "If you've hurt her, I swear I'm gonna-"

"Is that the boy who tried to knock me into the fountain the other day?" Elijah asks.

"That doesn't matter," Robert says, holding his hand out at me. "In all seriousness, though, if you do hurt Miss Lee, I will have to take action. I promised myself I wouldn't-"

Elijah interrupts Robert with another nasty laugh. "You wouldn't let another of your old friends lose their kid? What about me? I never got to meet my kids! You and your buddies have been giving me the shaft for almost twenty years. It's about time I got to turn the goddamn tables!"

How does he know about Gabe and me? I ask Robert.

I told him, Robert says. I thought it would convince Elijah to abandon his plans, knowing he had sons. As usual, though, I was wrong.

Damn straight.

"Hello? Are you still there?" Elijah calls out. "I don't exactly like talking to myself."

Robert swallows before continuing. "I'm still here. Are you going to discuss terms with me or-"

"Not so much 'discussing' as 'outlining,'" Elijah says. "You told me earlier you had my sons with you? I wanna meet them myself. Tonight, eleven-thirty, in the plaza on the Hell side of town. Are they listening right now? I have something to tell them directly."

Gabe and I exchange glances before approaching the phone. "We're listening," I say.

"Good. I want you boys to come alone. I understand the Bridge closes at ten? So you definitely don't wanna miss your opportunity. If you're not there alone at eleven-thirty, I'm gonna kill this girl. That's it. Clean and simple. You understand?"

I look at Gabe. His voice shakes a bit as he answers, "Yes."

"Good. Oh, and before I forget...Robert? I think you're right, I will go find another forger. You realize you can use computers for these things now, right?"

Ignoring the insult, Robert cuts the connection, then sits back down in the dining room chair. "Okay," he says. "Okay, I'm going to need to cross the Bridge now. If I get there fast enough, I can set my mud trap in the plaza before-"

"No," I say. "No tricks, Robert. We can't risk Fionna's life."

"And who says Elijah would spare her if you followed his demands to the letter?" Robert asks. "He can't be trusted, Alex. If I set the trap-"

"No," Gabe says, his voice no longer shaking. "I think you've done enough."

"He might just kill you boys as well," Robert points out. "Have you ever thought of that?"

Gabe and I stand side by side in front of Robert. "We have no choice," Gabe says.

"We need to save her," I say.

"What would you do in our shoes?"

"If worst comes to worst, we'll just fight him," I say. "Water may be his element, but it's ours too."

"And we have more powers than he does," Gabe adds.

Robert sighs. "I shouldn't let you do this. You're children, for God's sake."

"Only in the eyes of the law," I say. "I think Gabe and I are more than mature enough to handle this together."

"I..." Robert hangs his head. "I guess I can't stop you, in the end. Hah, I can't even ask what your father would think, given he's the one forcing you to do this."

"Nice that you can still see the funny side of this shit-storm," Gabe says. He and I break away from Robert and head out the door.

"Wait!" Robert calls after us. "Good luck, boys."

Behind him, everyone else nods all at once.

"Thanks, guys," we say simultaneously, taking wing and flying over the woods towards the Bridge. When we cross it, we notice that the bookstore is closed, and wonder where Mrs. Smythe is, and whether or not she knew her husband was secretly - and apparently inadvertently - helping the Aqua Killer.

We stop at Three Guys - actually, they're already changing the sign to say "Two Guys" now - for slices before reaching the Hell side of town. By the time we get there, it's not even three o'clock. We have more than eight hours to go until Elijah wants to meet us. Since the meeting time is so late, we're both going to be stuck in Hell overnight even if we, along with Fionna, get out of this mess in one piece.

"I see this place hasn't changed much," I say, gesturing to the town around me. Same old brick buildings, same old grassy waterfront plaza, same old cable car station connecting to Castledown.

"It's only been, what, six months since you were here last?" Gabe says, laughing a bit.

"Almost nine, actually. Haven't been here since our last birthday."

Gabe and I both laugh unnecessarily hard at that memory, so we can briefly forget our current troubles. To celebrate the occasion, Gabe had managed to get cigarettes from someone ("You don't wanna know," he'd said when I asked how he'd gotten ahold of them, and I wisely dropped the subject), and we decided to hole up in the woods after our annual cutting and smoke them.

Turns out, cigarettes not only smell like shit, they taste like shit as well. And if you're a first-timer, it leaves you coughing your lungs out like you've already got cancer. We only had one each and that was enough disgustingness to last the rest of our lives. But it did have the somewhat more pleasant effect of making certain brotherly-bonding scenes from Shameless even more funny and touching for us.

Today, we again find our way to that place in the woods, a little pocket of cave concealed under an overhang. The sky is getting stormy again - I've always liked the way Hell's sky turns pink when the weather is bad, because a pink sky looks so peaceful and normal and sunset-y in Heaven - so we're grateful for a bit of cover when it inevitably starts to rain again.

We actually go to sleep for a few hours, setting our cell phone alarms to ring at eleven. When they do, we leave the little cave and walk through the rain-soaked woods back into town, reaching the plaza with five minutes to go before the deadline. The rain has stopped, for now, but I sense that more will come soon.

"I just want this over with," I say - my first words in almost six hours. "God...if he hurts her...and I didn't even tell her how I feel about her, like she did with me."

"Should've known that would come out sooner or later," Gabe says. "The real reason why I set you guys up was 'cause I knew she was crushed out on you and couldn't ask you out personally, so..."

We sit in silence on the bench for the next few minutes until Elijah steps into our line of sight, holding Fionna by the arm. She looks fine, if royally pissed off, and she's glaring at Elijah like she wants to stick a hot poker or six up his ass. I'd join her, given the chance.

"So you two are my so-called sons?" he says, sneering. "Come on, pull down your hoods so I can see your faces."