I realized that Katarina and I had been staring at each other silently for a bit when Lilith bumped her body into me, causing me to have to catch myself.

  When my eyes broke from Katarina’s, she spoke. “You brought Kiera home.”

  “Ah… yeah… it seemed like I should. People might start asking about her.”

  She shrugged. “She was a former slave. Jeri and I were the only ones who spent significant time with her. Women go out and die in the wasteland all the time. No one ever misses them. Why I could have died at some point while you were gone.”

  Something about the tone of her voice put me on edge. “Um… Katarina, are you mad at me?”

  “Why would I be mad?” She asked, looking away. “You’ve given me this place, the safety of those weapons, and food. This is everything a girl from the wasteland could hope for from their partner. There are plenty of girls who have given more and received less.”

  “Are you… jealous of Kiera?”

  “She seems healthy… clean… her teeth used to be a bit crooked. The colony has a machine to fix that, but she showed me this strange clear thing she puts on her teeth at night. She says that it will slowly straighten her teeth.”

  “Is that so?” I coughed.

  I wanted to say I was aware of it. Now that she mentioned it, Kiera did have a gap in her front teeth that seemed to be all but gone now. I hadn’t been paying that much attention to her teeth though. Since going to that world, she had gained weight, her hair and skin complexion improved, and she naturally started using makeup. Kiera had been an ordinary-looking woman, a beauty by wasteland standards, but only average by colony or my world standards, and yet a few weeks in my world and she was much more beautiful now. Simply having access to dental care, hygiene, and beauty products could change things.

  “What are you planning to do with that Perco you found?”

  I blinked, a little caught off guard by her sudden change in topics. It took me a second to realize what she was talking about.

  “You mean the one bound to Hazel?”

  She rolled her eyes. “We both know that you can reprogram those things. I bet you could find a new user… unless you plan for everyone who gets a Perco to come from your world?”

  I glanced around and then took a few steps toward her. “Can we be a little ex-nay on the other-world-eh? I told you that to you in confidence. Even Kiera doesn’t know she’s traveling anywhere other than a rather large and impressive colony.”

  “She does?” Katarina looked surprised.

  “She thinks the sky is artificial. She believes we mastered a teleport spell.” I explained.

  Katarina blinked, and then her cheeks turned pink. “S-sorry. I didn’t mean… sorry.”

  I let out a breath. “Has it been difficult without a Perco?”

  “No one can interact with any of the machinery. It follows whatever the parameters you set for it are. This has led to some problems.”

  “Problems?”

  “An attack… last night. The raiders came in looking like customers. Then, they suddenly attacked. They tried to take hostages. If they were hostile and attacking, the turrets would shoot, but since they were backing away and holding weapons…”

  “What’s the damage?” I asked, my face turning serious.

  “We lost about five crates of supplies. There were also three dead. We managed to get the hostages back, but two of the hostages died in the fight and one of the dragon claw soldiers during the recovery. It could have been worse-”

  “Shit!”

  Thud! Her words froze in her mouth as I punched the wall next to the door. It was a concrete wall, and it hurt about as expected. I already had a limited number of people, and I had promised them I’d keep them safe. However, the enemy was all around us, and they’d constantly be testing for weaknesses. I should have considered they might approach in a way Cecelia’s algorithm couldn’t predict. This was why someone with a Perco was needed.

  Katarina was right to be angry. I had messed up and people were dead. That Perco could have been given to anyone. Instead, the only extra Perco I had was on Kiera’s wrist. The third Perco was just gathering dust in my digitizer. The reason I didn’t put it on anyone was that I had it in my mind it should go to someone else with sorcery. I had a few sorcery algorithms now, and if I could get them set up, they could be a force to be reckoned with. Yet, what did that matter if I wasn’t able to keep them safe now?

  I felt a hand on my back, and when I looked up, Katarina’s angry expression had been replaced with one of concern. “Daniel, it’s not your fault.”

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  I grimaced feeling tears dripping down my cheeks. “Isn’t it though? I gathered everyone here and promised they’d be safe.”

  “They’d be less safe anywhere else.” She declared. “Besides, I'm the one who refused to take the Perco before."

  "Will you take it now?" I asked.

  She looked up at me, and then winced, shaking her head. "I can't."

  I could sort of guess her feelings. The Perco was closely associated with Colony's. Although she still had some feelings toward the Colony she grew up in, it was clear she wanted little to do with them.

  "Then, I have to find a different way to protect everyone." I declared.

  "The wasteland is a dangerous place. People die all the time. Anyone can die all of a sudden. That’s why we’re trying to build this safe place. Until it’s done, though, we all know the risk. At the very least, it was just a few members of Dragon’s Claw…”

  “Just?” I looked up at her with a glare. “They’re my people! They gave me their freedom because I promised safety!”

  “At least you realize that.” Those words cut into our conversation.

  Behind Katarina, on the inside stairway whose doorway she had been leaning, Red stood on the stairs. Her had grown out a bit more from the last time I had seen her. It was now at the level she might be confused for a tomboy. It was still very red and was her most prominent feature other than her large chest.

  “Red.” I opened my mouth, wanting to apologize but not finding the right words.

  She waved her hand across her face, approaching us calmly. “We’re waiting on you. The past is the past. I’m not concerned about the mistakes you make. It’s whether you plan to repeat those mistakes that worries me. I don’t mind seeing you like this over my people either. I wonder if you’d cry if it was me who died.”

  She reached out and touched my cheek, wiping away a tear as it fell. I quickly pulled back, wiping my entire face on my sleeve.

  “Your death can be arranged.” Katarina’s face turned ugly as she reached for the gun on her back.

  Red held up her hands and took a step back. “Please, mercy! I was merely pointing out that if he cries over a stranger dying, how broken would he be if he lost you, Katarina?”

  “Me?” Katarina asked incredulously, but as the thought hit her, she turned slightly red.

  She seemed to realize she was holding me, her chest nearly pressed against me. She pulled back with a jerk, turning and looking away. Before I could ask her what was wrong, she was already heading up the stairway. Red gave me a smirk.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Come on, boss. Let’s give you our reports.” She froze for a second. “That can stay.”

  She was looking down at Lilith, who was skulking behind. It looked like since Lilith had gained some weight, she was no longer allowed up on the upper floors. She let out a whiny voice, bearing her teeth at Red before turning to me.

  “Sorry, girl. It won’t be long.” I reached out and awkwardly patted the creature.

  It did have a lot of teeth, and I felt like a single wrong move and I’d lose a hand. I was a bit helpless about what to do with the Murder Dragon. It was only going to get bigger. She whined again, but she let me walk through the door without following, allowing me to breathe better. As the door shut, I turned to Red, who was already heading up the stairway.

  I followed after her. Red led me to a floor just under the living space. This floor had previously been unusable thanks to a collapsed hallway. However, someone had come in and repaired it. They weren’t able to make it look as nice as it would have been before, but the footing felt steady and we were able to enter a large room that appeared to have been used for conferences in the past. At the least, there were chairs and a larger table in it, although that could have been set up recently.

  Five people were waiting in the conference room. There was Red, Katarina, Riley, Jeri, and Kiera. Other than Raven and her group, it was just about everyone that had any relationship since coming to this world. I took my seat at the head of the table and looked across them.

  “I’ve returned,” I stated, not sure how else to begin.

  Thankfully, they didn’t depend on me to set the pace. “Did you successfully get some skilled personnel from Twin Elms?” Red asked.

  That was right. I had a few purposes for coming to Twin Elms, but the main purpose was to find some slaves with certain skills I needed to take my next steps both in this world and that one. I took a breath and then started to tell them about my experiences over the last week. It felt like forever ago.