Era landed where Sotir and Pan had stood. She straightened and stalked forward.

Pan wriggled her hand out of Sotir’s. He stopped running, but Pan pushed him on.

“Go. Go,” she ordered.

Pan glanced back. Shuttle two had already left. She didn’t know how long ago. That meant all their finds were headed back to the ship. Her friends were stuck. She had to get them on their way, and maybe herself. She wasn’t ready to fight Era.

Era continued to stalk, pausing only to reach behind her. She exerted telekinetic pull on a tree, and it started to shake.

“Fight her!” Brynn shouted. “Don’t run.” The ghost waited at Pan’s back. Her presence added only a hint of chill to the night air.

“I’m not ready.” Pan glared. “I don’t have a plan.”

“And, whose fault is that? This is the perfect planet. You don’t need to do anything but survive.” Brynn pointed ahead at Era. “Also, don’t kill her if you can help it. And, don’t suppress her.”

“Pan, follow me.” Sotir stopped. He held out a hand to Pan. “Come on. Your chances to win aren’t good.”

Brynn scoffed. “He only sees the first one. The one before the first time message. Don’t listen.”

Pan teetered in place, torn between flight to Sotir or getting the whole fight with Era over with. Pan glared at Brynn’s ghost. “Any ideas?”

The tree swung Pan’s way. She caught it with her own telekinesis. Pan had the leaves. Era had the roots.

Behind, Aria and the rest of Pan’s friends shouted and called to each other. Alban seemed to organize a retreat. Pan heard something about shuttle one and two. She thought Alban said abandoned and adrift. That didn’t sound good.

“Can they come for us?” Aria asked.

“Era chased the Ischyros off. They’re not responding. I’m guessing she disabled the ship at a distance. Assume they aren’t coming.” Alban glanced at Sotir but got no confirmation. “We’ve got four shuttles left. One is on its way back. Two is stranded, and three and four are still at the storehouse.” Alban waved the rest of his crew over.

Everyone, aside from Pan, stood in a huddle. Sotir glowed in white. Irini showed yellow. Alban’s crew displayed a mix of worry and logic. Alban himself just looked frustrated.

“Sotir?” Alban growled. “Anything? Or do we just wait for shuttle one?”

Sotir snapped to attention. “Don’t bring any shuttle close. Have three, four, and two hide.”

“What about one?” Alban asked.

“We need to wait for the right time. If shuttle one comes close and Era sees it, she’ll destroy it. I’m sorry. I can’t get anything else,” Sotir said.

Alban growled. He spoked into his com. “All shuttles hide. Shuttle one be ready, and come back on my order.”

Aria glanced at Pan. She seemed to have things under control.

“If you’re willing to do a lot of do-overs, you can beat her,” Brynn said. “Unfortunately, phase two will result in more than a few casualties.”

Pan held the tree tight. Era didn’t want to let it go, and Pan couldn’t let it go because Era would sweep her off her feet, using the tree’s upper branches and leaves as a giant brush. Forget being swept off her feet, Pan would be swept away.

“I don’t love the time message. And, I really don’t love casualties. I’m going to try to get away.”

The leaves rustled. At the tree’s center, Pan drew a portal. She set the destination to the edge of the lab and its crumbling walls. Pan let the tree go. Era swept the tree across the lab and leveled it.

Brynn raised an eyebrow. “Hope you got what you wanted out of that place.”

“I did. Materials.” Pan lifted the remains of the lab. She got desks and bed frames, papery walls and flimsy supports, hunks of plaster, and a few bits of concrete and stone.

Brynn floated aside. “If you don’t want to time message and you don’t want to sacrifice some people, you’ll have to get away.”

“That’s what I just said. I can hide from her on planet. She tracks me like a rubber band. When we’re too close, she can’t feel my pull.” Pan sent storms of wreckage. She swirled the pieces in tight formations.

Era deflected each one.

“Be careful about that. You have to follow some rules if you want to escape. Number one – don’t let her see you leave. Number two – If you flee to a different continent, she’ll be able to find you. You need to stay close-ish.” Objects sailed through Brynn, but she paid them no mind.

Era usurped some of Pan’s attack and swirled her own storm. She added illusory bits to the mix. Some she froze to give them strength. Others she set aflame.

Pan drew a portal. It swallowed most of the wreckage and sent it askance, where Pan reclaimed it, now afire. The illusions persisted, so Pan didn’t know what she truly had a hold of.

“Brynn, I need you to do two things for me. Go listen in on Aria and the others. Tell me the shuttle’s status. Then, steal one of their cameras. One with pictures from the lab’s interior. I need that. We don’t want Era to cheat at hide and seek.”

Brynn smiled. “My pleasure.”

Irini shifted from foot to foot. She looked at the golden threads around her fingers. All four shuttles hid, but not from Irini. Two threads led off in the same direction. Irini guessed those were shuttle three and four, still parked at the storehouse. Another thread led far away in a direction Irini had never been. She bet that thread found shuttle two. The last thread looped and swirled. It pointed away and up: shuttle one. It didn’t come for them yet.

“Sotir?” Alban said.

“I don’t know what you want of me. I’m doing my best. Let me look ahead in peace.” Sotir watched the battle, but he had that glazed look in his eyes.

Aria huddled with the crew. She averted her eyes from the battle.

Irini thought Pan did great. Pan grabbed the research center and used the whole thing in her battle. Well, she used it in pieces – still cool. Irini hadn’t seen Pan and Era fight the first time. She loved to see it now.

“Irini, get down!” Sotir pulled Irini into a crouch.

“Sorry.”

Stray objects floated over their heads, and Irini ducked low. Her view of the fight was obscured, and now, she just saw a whole lot of projectiles and dirt.

One of their cameras slid through the dirt. Irini narrowed her eyes. She wondered why Era or Pan wouldn’t get the thing in the air. Maybe they fought over it.

The camera continued to slither away. It slithered towards Pan. Irini guessed Pan wanted to be discrete.

Hundreds of illusory animals swirled around Pan. They nipped at her legs and heels.

Pan didn’t recognize most of them as they were Soffigen animals. She thought they looked particularly mean, unlike cute fluffy things that could be found on Scaldigir.

Meanwhile, Era stalked close. Pan threw whatever she could in Era’s direction, including parts of the tree that felled the research center.

Pan felt the pinch of animal bites and scrapes of claws, but only in the moment that they attacked her. After they withdrew their attack, she felt whole again. Unfortunately, Era made so many that one always attacked; they never gave Pan a break. She pushed at them, but they resisted the telekinetic influence.

Pan puzzled at the illusions ability to sting her, but she guessed the animals worked a bit like ghosts. They looked real enough to hurt her, so she imagined they did.

Pan thought they might be real enough to portal. She set a portal down in the middle of their merry-go-round. Every animal ran through it and disappeared somewhere on the edge of the forest.

Era searched for her animals, and Pan pushed crumbles of the research center towards Era. Era took some against her skin. The bits and pieces fell apart. Others Era caught and sent back. Era didn’t notice the flaming piece that Pan held by her hair.

Not till her blue locks caught flame did Era notice. She froze the flames, just as a camera fell at Pan’s feet.

“Have you been playing tug of war?” Brynn looked at the debris strewn between Era and Pan.

“Yes, thanks.” Pan snatched up the camera. “I portal her away any time she tries to get close. I’m very glad she can’t teleport. But I can’t keep this up.”

“You don’t have to. Shuttle can’t come close by the way. Sotir predicts Era will destroy it,” Brynn said.

Era tried to yank the camera from Pans’ hands, but Pan held tight. She let Era grab other objects under Pan’s power and even gave them a little nudge. Era got hit with a few. She cried out in frustration.

“Run away, I liked that better!” Era shouted.

“I’d rather you do the leg work this time.” Pan flipped through the pictures. She saw a dark room, deep in the lab.

Era charged Pan again. This time, Pan let Era get close. She drew the portal in front of Era. Era dodged and came around, but she sidestepped into one of Pan’s backup portals. Era fell through.

Pan let the portal close. Then, she turned and looked into the wreckage. She found the elevator shaft and, with telekinesis, twisted it closed. The metal screeched and wrapped itself up. Pan dumped rubble atop the lab, as she ran for the forest’s edge.

Sotir and the others already moved into the trees, courtesy of Sotir’s predictions. Pan joined them.

“We can’t go too far away,” Pan told Alban.

He ran in the rear beside her. “Or, she’ll know where to find you. I know. We can’t exactly get aboard the Ischyros. It left and has been disabled. Sotir says it’s not destroyed.”

“Great, I hope they hide themselves because she might take a tantrum if she can’t find me.” Pan ran a few steps. She heard a crash back towards the lab.

Sotir led them on, quick and quiet into the forest. He stopped by a large tree, and so did everyone else.

“Pan, we don’t have a strategy, but I think you can win,” Alban whispered.

Brynn thought so too, so long as Pan redid the battle a few times. Brynn also cautioned against casualties.

“I don’t want any of you to get hurt,” Pan said. “Quiet ‘cause she can hear well.”

They shut up.

Sotir mimed drawing a portal. Pan nodded. She squinted. She could only see so far in the dark of the forest, but she made a portal big enough for three to walk abreast. The team hurried through. Alban and Pan went last.

Pan drew another portal, and they made more progress forward.

A distant shatter drifted from the clearing and the research center. Silence followed, until...

“Where are you!” Era shouted. “I hear something moving in this forest. Glad to see we’re back to your favorite games.”

Pan wondered if she really could beat Era in the moment. She would struggle to do it with anything short of a beheading.

Pan’s heart sank. She stepped to the side of another portal and waited. She grabbed Alban’s arm. “Do you have the suppressant?”

He shook his head. “Shuttle one.”

Pan nodded. He’d left the suppressant on shuttle one. He didn’t expect Era so soon. Neither had Sotir. They’d all been so distracted, or maybe, they just calculated wrong. Era might have cut her travel time by hitching a ride on a ship. Who could know?

Well, Sotir could sort it out, once he looked steadier on his feet. Then again, would it matter at that point?

No one could use their flashlights, but Aria saw by aura light. She, Sotir, and Irini had to act as guides for Alban’s remaining crew. Sotir had Pan’s arm. His power phased in and out, giving him a choppy view of the forest ahead. Aria had some random crew members. Irini had Alban and the rest.

Aria had no idea how Pan saw any distance into the darkness to draw the portals, but Aria did know that Pan didn’t take them far. In some cases, they could have walked the distance just as fast, but the portals allowed them to move more quietly.

Era continued to shout. Her voice remained audible, but her words lost their clarity. She didn’t know which way they had fled, and the forest hemmed in the lab on all sides. Era had three-hundred and sixty degrees of land to check. She’d picked wrong.

“Maybe we can meet the shuttle soon,” Pan said. “Once we find an open enough space.”

“We might be able to risk it,” Alban agreed.

Pan said, “Sotir, just find us a way to get up. And if you can, let me know when we start to pull the band tight.”

Sotir nodded. “I can manage that.”

“Irini,” Alban added. “You keep an eye on Era’s location too.”

Irini looked to her hands.

So much of Aria’s view looked white: Sotir, Irini, the quiet forest. Alban and his crew presented grey – as a kind of reaction to the quiet retreat they performed. Pan possessed her usual colors: a hint of white, a soft lavender, somber blue, and a touch of gold.

Aria frowned. She certainly deemed Pan’s fight against Era to be necessary, but it didn’t strike Aria as noble. Pan believed she’d made a good choice, one that served the greater group and not just her own interests. Aria wondered what it was.

“One clearing. Just as ordered.” Sotir stood at the small clearing’s center. He pointed up.

Aria looked in that direction. She could see stars. White mist from the trees shaded them, but Aria acknowledged a definite open space. It would be just big enough to allow the shuttle inside.

“Are we too far yet?” Pan asked. “Will she notice?”

“No.” Sotir shook his head.

“That stands to reason that she might locate us still by sight or hearing. Irini, where is she?” Alban asked.

Irini pointed back. “I think she’s far.”

Sotir nodded. “Call it in. Have it be as quiet as possible.”

Alban raised his com to his lips. “Shuttle one. Come for us. We’re due west of the lab. I don’t know the distance. Follow my com’s tracker. I’ve just activated it. Approach from the west, and do not go any closer to the lab than we already are. Do you understand?”

The com crackled its understanding.

“Aria, can you help me find some rocks?” Pan asked.

Aria felt her brow furrow. “Why?”

“I’m going to make a little marker for them. It’ll be dark, but they’ll be able to scan it. And, best of all, Era won’t see it.” Pan held out her hand to Aria, ready to be puppeted.

Aria took Pan’s hand. Aria could see rocks and other forest debris everywhere. The small white glow of pebbles, and the great shine of boulders surrounded Aria. She spotted a few logs and one greater fallen tree. Aria held Pan’s hand and aimed it at the rocks.

Pan pulled gently and got the rocks in her telekinetic grasp. The rocks clustered close.

“Okay,” Pan whispered.

Aria aimed Pan’s hand at the fallen tree. “Be very careful with this one,” Aria warned.

Pan tugged. The log floated lazily forward and stopped right in front of Pan and Aria, finally close enough for Pan to see.

“Whoa,” Pan said. “I think this will be enough.”

Pan reclaimed her hand. She pushed the log and the rocks up. They touched the sky and floated just above the canopy. “Am I there?”

“Yes,” Aria said.

The log and rocks arranged themselves into a sort of arrow.

“How’s it look?” Pan asked. “Does it come across?”

Aria smiled. “It does, but you know they won’t see it.”

“They’ll see it scanned. Even my tug can determine the shape of things. I bet Alban’s shuttles can detect ants spelling his name.” Pan’s aura glowed white, but lavender snuck its way in. She turned to Aria and asked, “Do you think I have time for that?” Pan spread her hands and suggested a message, “Alban Hohl is here – fleeing in terror.”

Aria opened her mouth to answer, but Alban beat her to it.

“No. No time for that.”

Pan held her arrow aloft and waited. She didn’t have the kind of endurance that most telekinetics developed. She found holding the arrow exhausting, but she wanted the shuttle to find them with ease. The com’s tracker would call them close, but why not make the job easier and more entertaining?

A few of the crew and Alban tried to talk to Pan, but she hushed them. She couldn’t multitask holding that arrow. She barely had energy to think.

She wanted to though. She wondered how Brynn knew there would be casualties. Sotir knew that, but he had a good reason. Pan also wondered what exactly was this phase two that Brynn referred to?