Bzzt.

Alex focused on his breathing, in and out, while maintaining control of his gate. The orb in his hand sent shocks through his arm as power raged from his gate and into the device. The orb was the center of the amplification machine Arci had been hooked into, the core of the machine that facilitated the reach of her curse.

His magnetic sense extended beyond just the room, beyond even the building. He sensed the metal shape of the entire base underneath the rocks and knew he could bend all that metal to his will. It was temporary, and doing it would tear the core to pieces and end Arci, but Alex couldn't deny the power in his hands. It was enough to destroy Tartarus right in the palm of his hands.

"You're horrible at making decisions," Arci spoke in his mind, her voice echoing from the rob and through his arm.

"Well, that's your fault for telling me how it all worked. You can end it whenever you want now," Alex said. "Just release the tether to the orb, and you'll be gone."

"Anything for you not to make the choice. But I'll see your offer through first."

"Destruction," Alex said. "You know more about using the amplification than I do."

"So, I'll help you destroy the base on the way out," she reiterated their agreement. "Though this is far from what you initially planned when you first decided to come down here."

"That was before I saw what they'd done," Alex said as another jolt ran through his arm.

However, there was a problem with that plan. Well, two problems if he counted Klaus and Erick. Erick was still frozen at his feet, too shocked to act with Klaus wrapped around his leg. Three, if his sense of Erin and Wen fighting on the docks was correct. Alex needed to get them out while he facilitated the destruction he promised. However, the real problem was standing up across from him and brushing off the rubble from her body.

Skin peeled off her face like plaster, cracking before it fell to the ground. Like falling leaves, she was losing her skin, piece by piece. Alex almost didn't recognize her as the woman in the office from before.

"Well, you don't see that every day," he said before remembering Erick and Klaus. "Get out of here. I'll handle her."

"Come on, Klaus." Erick reached down, picking up Klaus and starting for the exit.

Secretary Eaton, at least Alex thought that was her name, didn't stop them from leaving, though she followed them with her eyes through her bent glasses. Alex lowered his arm as they left, letting the orb rest at his side. He had no idea what was going on or why the woman had attacked Erick, but now was the time to find out.

"You surprised me, Ortega."

Crick-crack. Bzzt.

"Oh, yeah?" Alex said, cracking his neck as he looked her over. "And what are you, exactly? A patchwork secretary?"

She looked down at her body, examining her arms and legs before running her fingers across her face. When she was finished, she came away with a long layer of skin that ripped off her face with a simple rip. It was like watching a sunburn peel without the inevitable skin cancer.

"It looks like this disguise won't hold on for much longer." She removed her bent glasses. "I won't be able to return to my work, so I might as well go back to the real me."

She held out both arms and flames erupted around her outline.

"Rebirth Flames!"

"You're not going to stop her?" Arci asked.

"I don't want to unleash this power until I'm ready to destroy the base," Alex said, shaking his head as electricity surged through his arms. "Tell me when Erick and Klaus are out of the building. Then I'll let loose. We're on a timetable if we want the ship ready to pick us up."

The simple truth was that he didn't know how much the amplification device would affect his curse. If it were like using the system on the Nighthawk, the building wouldn't survive him letting loose. It was fine to conjure a barrage of metal out in the open nightsea, but the same technique would make holes the size of elephants in the confines of the base.

So, he stood there, holding a storm in his hands, holding it back from leveling the entire area.

"You know, it's funny," a blonde thin man said as he stepped out of the flames in a black suit with a tie. "We spent all those resources looking for you across the Fringes, but you end up here, right on the path where we wanted the prince all along."

"Wasn't he a woman a second ago?" Arci asked.

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"Meh," Alex said. "With what I've seen, this isn't surprising."

"What?" the man asked, leaning forward with one ear. "You're mumbling to yourself, Ortega!"

"Another one of you." Alex sighed, shaking his head as the man put on his bent glasses. "Every island seems to have one of you bargain bin mobsters on it. Someone needs to clean you all out."

"Our network is wider than a few islands." The man stretched out his arms. "You know what they say: Five fingers to a Hand."

The hand was Miss Malone, of course. Alex knew a little about them based on the information her 'Fingers' had let slip in their previous encounters. First was Mister Deadman on an unnamed island in Death's Yard. Second was Mister Foley on Diamond Peak. Third was Miss Brooke, who attacked the ship on Dry Turtle. Finally, there had been Miss Glory on the last island. That made this Finger number five.

"So you're the last one, then?" Alex asked. "If I beat you into the ground, then I won't have to deal with any of this ever again?"

"You won't beat me." The man laughed, his deep voice shaking as he smirked. "Let alone, Miss Malone."

"Heh." Alex shook his head. "You guys haven't beaten us once. I'll curb stomp Miss Malone on Grim Aegis."

"If one Hand falls, another rises." The man shrugged. "I suppose I should introduce myself before you die from all this false bravado. My disguise was Secretary Eaton, but you may call me Mister Tyson."

With one finger, he pushed up his glasses as flames erupted around his form. Alex would be lying if he said he was worried. With the power in his right hand binding into his curse, he wasn't sure if the man could throw anything that would hurt him. Until the orb burnt out, Alex was on an entirely different level.

"Rebirth Cut!"

With a kick, flames erupted out of the man's leg, sending a scything line of fire toward Alex. Alex raised a hand, tethering his control to the floor and wrenching the metal within. He didn't need to make a name for the technique; the power was just there, ready to be molded.

Bzzt. Groan. Errt. Fwoosh.

Fire crashed against a wall that rose between them, cutting off the attack. Alex smiled at releasing such a small amount of power inside the orb. Normally, he would need to use his mind to focus his control of the metal, and that limited what he could do. He would have needed to open the second level of his curse and then call the metal into being if he wanted to do the same thing without the orb. With it, it was as simple as wrenching the metal free. Power overrode the need to concentrate.

"What?" Mister Tyson's voice shook.

Errt.

"A good try," Alex said, lowering his hand and bending the metal back down. "But I'm not going to be playing this game. Not today, at least. I'll give you a chance to run, and if you can get away, I'll forget whatever you were planning to do. But, know this--I'm about to tear this base to the ground. This is your only chance."

Mister Tyson looked at the ground where Alex had torn it open before looking back up at him. Alex could see the man doing the math behind his glasses. If Mister Tyson were smart, he would accept Alex's offer.

However, in Alex's experience, none of the Fingers had been very smart. In retrospect, it was probably just part of the nature of operating a criminal enterprise. Maybe his dad could tell him about it if they ever met again.

"No, this is some trick," Mister Tyson said, taking in a deep breath. "I won't let you—"

Errt. Crack. Thud.

With a flick of his wrist, Alex grabbed onto a chunk of the floor, sending it flying up and catching Mister Tyson in his chin before he could finish his sentence. With his other hand, he ripped open a hole in the roof, tearing it open several floors and out into the open sky above. Mister Tyson flew out from the building in one blow, and Alex sensed his land in the waters outside the island.

"Are they out yet?" he asked Arci.

"They are."

"Good." Alex held out one hand, forming a rod of metal made out of pieces of the floor before wrapping it around the two soldiers on the ground.

He picked them up from the ground with his mind as he started up the stairs, forming another rod to grab the other soldiers that he had taken out on the way in.

"You're taking the soldiers out first," Arci said. "That's very heroic of you."

"Yeah," Alex said, shaking his head at her sarcasm.

Considering that these were the soldiers guarding her cell, he could understand her distaste for his decision, but he couldn't ignore his humanity. That was why he was going to tear down the base, to begin with. It was just as human not to want the soldiers to die as it was to get some revenge for Arci. Humans were just full of contradictions.

"You know, there's a short story from my world. If Li Wen had been here, she might have been able to give a dissertation on it, but it was a popular story to read in schools. I always had a problem with it."

"Oh, do tell," Arci said. "I might as well be entertained before this is all over."

"There's a perfect village on the coast," Alex said as he picked the next group up with a wrapped metal rod and continued his ascent. "Everyone's happy. There's no disease, no war, no poverty, nothing. Life there is perfect."

"Sounds like a nice place to be," Arci said. "If only we had lived there, maybe none of this would happen."

"Doesn't it?" Alex asked. "But there's a problem—something everyone in the village knows about."

"What's that?"

"At a certain age, every person has to go see this problem," Alex said. "They have to go and look inside this dark room where the village secret is kept."

Alex took a deep breath as he approached the building's entrance. He brought out the final rod and used it to pick up the last two guards, then carried them all outside and away from the building. He sat them down on the ground outside.

"In that room is a child. The child is broken and sick, beaten daily, and starved. The child takes on all the people's suffering, and because of that, they live happy lives. If they take the child out, all of their world will fall apart."

Alex looked down at the soldiers, shaking his head.

"There are those that stay, but there are those few who walk away. They refuse to participate in that kind of system."

"Is that what you are?"

"Yeah," Alex said. "If you look at my track record so far, that's pretty much me, but that's also my problem with the story. It's easier to walk away than to break the system and allow the suffering of that one child to spill over. Maybe that's why those people choose to walk away from Omelas."

"I don't think ending that one child's suffering would be enough," Arci said. "What happens when you go to the next village, and they have their own suffering child ensuring everyone is happy?"

"I guess you just keep tearing down villages," Alex said. "I don't pretend to have the answer to the problem. However, this time, I'm not walking away. Let's burn this village to the ground."

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