Penelope moved in front of the Alley that led to the Star Tower.

  The gesture was purely symbolic. Frederica could activate and vanish into the shadows, where Penelope would be unable to stop the grieving woman. would allow Penelope to track the otherwise invisible woman and would let her keep up with the shadow walker, but there was nothing that Penelope could do to stop her.

  “I know you’re grieving—”

  “What do you know about loss?” Frederica cut Penelope off. “When have you cared about anyone so deeply that you would know what I’m going through?”

  Penelope bristled as the words hit her. Her speech about loss and pushing forward died on her tongue as she realized that she had no similar experience to draw from.

  “You don’t know—”

  “No.” Penelope held up her hand to stop Circe from coming to her defense. She looked at the younger woman between them. “Frederica is right. There’s no one in my life that I’ve loved like that.” Her lips burned, reminding her of the kiss and passion that the last Looper had imparted on her. Penelope pushed the confusing feeling out of her mind.

  I don’t have time to deal with that right now.

  Awkwardness hung in the air at her admission; no one dared to speak. Patrick tapped his fingers together while Circe and Frederica stared at Penelope, waiting for her to continue.

  “I’ve never experienced what you’re feeling, and I don’t know if I even can.” Penelope swallowed, then motioned at the portal she’d just walked through. “But I’ve seen what grief did to Marlow. It ate him from the inside until it killed his will to live.” She looked at each of the other three people in the open courtyard, pausing to let her words sink in.

  “The clock is going to keep counting down and if we don’t keep pushing the floors, the Demons will come for us.” Penelope looked at the older woman. “So while I may not know what you’re feeling, I know that it will kill you and who knows how many more of us down here if you let it.” She pointed up at the ceiling. “You’re already higher level than anyone else, so if you want to sit out for a few days…”

  “I want that bastard’s head.” Frederica gritted her teeth, pointing to her right where the Star Tower loomed above the other buildings in the distance. “And the heads of everyone who worked with him.”

  “You executed Dawson.” Penelope made sure to emphasize ‘executed’ instead of ‘killed’. I need there to be a clear line between what she did. We can’t have people running around killing each other.

  “It won’t take long for people to figure out that PKing someone who is leveled will give you experience.” Jeru grumbled. “Once they do, you’re going to hear a lot of excuses about why people had to die or why someone should be an executioner.”

  Not helping. Penelope turned her focus back to Frederica. “You got justice for Oakley and besides…” She glanced at the tower. “With how hurt they were, we don’t know if they’ll even survive the first square.”

  “All the more reason to make sure they’re dead.” Frederica growled. She clenched her fists but made no movement towards the alley that led towards the Star Tower.

  “What makes you think we can break in?” Penelope pointed at the windows. “And what happens when you attack the tower? How many people do you think are going to want to follow us into the Dungeon once they see you killing the members of the other teams in their beds?

  “A lot more than if I let the murderers go free!” Frederica screamed as she jabbed her hand at the tower on the other side of the buildings surrounding the courtyard. “How am I going to keep the people’s respect when I leave killers loose on the surface?”

  “You…” Penelope paused, then shrugged. “I don’t know.” She motioned at the portal. “But if you stay up here, then we’re all going to have to stay up here until you break into the tower and we have no idea how long that’s going to take…” She closed her eyes. “And without us down there, Rae isn’t going to be able to go into the Dungeon.”

  “That thief can take the people she stole and she’d have enough to fill out a full team.” Frederica fired back.

  “No, she won’t.” Penelope opened her eyes and looked at Patrick for support.

  “We don’t have four full teams anymore.” Patrick put his hand on the angry woman’s shoulder. “We’re looking at 16 groups of Demons versus our 3 groups, so we can’t afford to be divided on this.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “That’s…” Frederica’s shoulders sagged, but her fists clenched tighter. “We need to rebuild with people that are loyal to us instead of that thief.”

  “Rae didn’t steal anyone.” Patrick held up his hands as Frederica turned her glare on him. “She’s still fighting beside us. It’s only natural that the people who fight together are going to stick closer.” He lowered his voice. “Besides, I don’t think any of them want to be on the front lines.”

  “We don’t have a choice!” Frederica stomped her foot, then jabbed her had at the yellow portal. “Who do we have left? The four of us, Nina, Caleb, and Riva?”

  “Skylar and the twins—”

  “Skylar will do what Rae tells her to and so will Aly and Fae.” Patrick cut Circe off. “We’ve got one good team, plus Nina, who, let’s face it, is only with us because we were in a party with her mother.” He sank to the floor and buried his head in his hands. “We’re going to have to bring in the backups to even field a full lineup, and the fourth team is going to be full of level elevens.”

  Penelope’s heart sank. The first run is going to go badly, won’t it.

  “It usually does.” Jeru floated over to the crying woman that he couldn’t interact with. He watched her for a moment before looking back at Penelope. “The end of a floor and the start tend to be the biggest meat grinders.” He paused and tilted his head. “Right now, your main focus needs to be getting to the fourth floor. I know you don’t want to hear this, but the grieving woman in front of you is not the person that is going to follow you into the tenth floor boss fight.” He pointed at Frederica. “Say whatever you have to say to get her back on track…” He motoined between Frederica and the tower to her right. “Then all of this can just be a bad dream only you remember.”

  How do you just turn it off? Penelope tilted her head, but the Elf vanished, leaving her with the other three people in the square.

  Penelope took a deep breath. I can’t just treat them like they aren’t real people. It doesn’t matter if I’m going to be resetting them or not. Her memory was bombarded with images of Frederica dying over and over again on the first floor. She shook her head to clear the thoughts. I know I need to do that again, but…

  “Now you know them.” Jeru’s voice filled her mind. His own pain filled each word. “It’s what your people call the Trolley Problem. The closer you are to someone, the more value you give their life over multiple people you don’t know.”

  I know what the Trolley Problem is. Penelope sighed. I don’t know how to treat these people like they’re strangers!

  “They are.” Jeru reappeared and pointed at the other three people. “This is basically a dream. One that you get to play over and over again until you find the version that you want to make a reality. Until you finish the dream, these people aren’t real any more than some computer game or book, so stop wasting time trying to make this run perfect and tell her what she needs to hear to get back in the Dungeon!”

  It doesn’t matter if the memories that they make right now stay a part of who they are or not. They’re still people and I’m going to treat them like it! Penelope pushed the argument to the back of her mind as she turned her focus to the people in front of her.

  “Freddy, I get you want justice for Oakley and the person who killed him is dead.” Penelope took a deep breath and turned to Patrick. “Can you wall off the other side of the portal so no one can get into the third floor unless we let them?”

  The balding older man scratched his chin. “You want a door or a shield?”

  “A door.” Penelope saw Circe’s eyes light up at the option of sealing offf the portal completely. “We need our people to be able to get in and there needs to be a way to get us a message if something happens on the surface.”

  “You mean like a bunch of killers who leave their tower as soon as the only people who could fight them lock themselves in the next floor?” Frederica narrowed her eyes. “Leaving them alive behind us is a bad idea.”

  “We don’t know how long a siege will take or what defenses the tower might have.” Penelope shot back. “And if the squares have quadrupled in size, then we have a lot less time to complete them without even having a full team to deploy!”

  Frederica hesitated as the older woman looked at her menu.

  “Freddy…” Patrick sighed. “Pen has a point. As much as I want to make them pay for what they did, we can’t afford to waste time on them. But!” He held up a finger. “I’ll block off the portal so they can’t get into the third floor. When we finish, we’ll be level 30 and they’ll still be level 20. We can make sure that we have enough people to man the forward team, then you and I can go take care of the Derek problem.”

  “I’ll help.” A black-haired 54-year-old woman stepped out of the shadows behind Penelope.

  “RIVA!” Circe had her bow out and an arrow notched before she realized who had snuck up on them. “Don’t scare me like that!”

  “Then pay more attention.” The salty older woman snapped as she walked over to Frederica. Riva held out her hand. “Let’s help these kids get things back on track, then we’ll come back and clean up this mess.”

  Frederica looked at the offered hand for a moment, then grabbed it. “Tell everyone to siut up. We’re heading to the third floor.”

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