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There's an interesting little group making their way toward the Cooper farm. It consists of three smallish dragons and what looks like an enormous ball of light.

No one's said much on the way back. For Rachel, it's out of frustration. They took it down and that's a victory, but they didn't get the father, the guy that started the whole thing, and that's making her tack it down as a failure.

But she'll mention that when they land.

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For Tobias the silence is mostly a product of his conflicted state of mind. He and Rachel had been separated during the fight, and that was eating at him. It was all the worse for how close he suspected she'd come to serious injury.

He's not sure what he'll say to her when they land.

If anything.

When they land...

Well, Lucy heads inside to the kitchen for an apple.

Val plants herself straight onto one of the upstairs balconies, shakes off her armour, and goes straight to the bathroom for a shower or twelve.

Rachel watches her go for a second before demorphing herself. She'll catch Lucy later, and she can tell Val. She doubts Lucy will mind another fight.

She doesn't think about the pause she took before speaking aloud to Tobias.

"It isn't finished."

Tobias is mid-morph when she speaks, and he waits until he's done before responding.

<What do you mean?>

Rachel shakes her head and drops her gaze, kicking irritably at a stone. "The guy that started it, called himself the father. I never saw him but he talked to me. He said he'd just build a new one."

Intangible things, voices without bodies, demigods - Rachel has no good history and no patience for them.

Tobias freezes in mid feather-ruffle. <You didn't see him?> And he talked to her? That sounded... not good.

Rachel shakes her head, frown deepening in frustration. "No."

<And he got away...>

That brought back some terrible memories.

But it sounds like an accusation. Rachel glances at him sharply, glaring, though it takes a moment for what he's saying to click.

Which makes her blink, her expression softening.

"It wasn't Crayak," she says softly, dropping her gaze to another rock and kicking it, too. "Or Drone."

She could never mistake their voices.

He bobs his head slowly.

<Did sound... similar?> Evil? Insane?

She's thinking more all-encompassing, cocky, powerful. Which is why she shakes her head.

"Just another nutjob trying to destroy things."

<But a dangerous one,> Tobias points out. <I saw that thing...> Melding with her... or something.

Rachel shrugs at that, unconcerned. "If they weren't dangerous, they wouldn't be our problem," she points out in return. The cathedral is, apparently, their problem.

<Rachel,> Tobias knows this is the wrong approach, but, <This isn't the fight we know. You're going to get hurt.>

There probably isn't a good way to tell Rachel she can't do something. Tobias just happened to pick one of the worst.

She stops and looks up at him, face blank while his words sink in, and then eyes slowly narrowing.

"What's your point?"

<You need to be more careful.>

Somehow he makes a bad thing worse. He just said "you" instead of "we".

Yes, he did. He singled her out as reckless and dangerous, and while it's not like Rachel isn't aware that she is or that everyone else knows about it, that doesn't stop it from hurting her when the person who loves her the most calls her out on it.

Her glare becomes furious before she even manages to snap out, "I think I might have figured out how to fight by now, Tobias. This isn't even a war."

It's too late for him to take it back. Apologies never go well between the two of them.

<That's not what I meant,> he says calmly. Even if it was what he meant. <It's just that we don't know this world. These threats.> The thing is that they don't know how to fight here.

"You know what you're saying a lot of lately?" Rachel snaps, still glaring at him, hands settling defensively on her hips. "'That's not what I meant.' Maybe you should start thinking before you say things to me because every time you say something you 'don't mean,' it's to insult me."

You need to be more careful.

I love you for you. Not what you look like.

"Maybe I know more about this world and the threats in it because I've been paying attention to them. You didn't argue with me when I told you about this, so why are you arguing it now?"

<You could have died out there!> Tobias snaps. He suspects that it was closer than she'll admit.

And the worst part is that he wasn't there to watch her back. That's what scares him the most. Her dying. Again. Leaving him. Again.

"I could die any time!" Rachel snaps back, louder - as if she'd been expecting him to use that. "There's been a million opportunities for me to die and I've always gotten through them - and what about you? The things that happened to you..."

She wouldn't say they were worse than anything that happened to her.

...not outloud.

Biting back that retort, Rachel glares at him, but it's softer now, more hesitant. She doesn't like where this is going, how they've been with each other, how he's been acting. But all the same, it isn't something she can ignore either.

"What do you want me to do?"

Tobias turns away. Because he doesn't know. He doesn't want her to change, he knows that. But if she doesn't change she's going to get herself killed again. She burns so bright, but that can't last forever.

He's not sure what he'll do if... when it happens all over again.

Rachel rests assured in the knowledge of one thing: she didn't die until she chose to. Luck and skill and determination got her through a war until she chose to stop fighting. That might not mean it will happen like that again, but... well, Rachel's not sure it doesn't mean exactly that.

She glares at him.

"I'm going back in. And again and again until this is done. This is what I do, Tobias."

It's like asking him to give up his wings, asking her not to fight.

<I know,> he says quietly.

He takes a deep breath and morphs human.