Winterwing refused the urge to expel nervous energy. He was moving from the immediate danger of being ruthlessly murdered, to the much more mundane danger of maneuvering social dynamics. Emily stood with him in the elevator, with a body still in the wrong shape, fussing with the hems of the facsimile of Tanya’s lavender jacket. Nosedive looked as though he was going to be outright sick. They had made an unwilling accomplice of him, and the gravity of it appeared to be weighing poorly.

The three of them came up from the fusion level with no plan, no explanation, and no negotiation, because none felt adequate. They were all going to be in trouble, like schoolchildren that had broken a window, and regardless of how articulate they were, they were not going to talk themselves out of it.

The ride seemed impossibly long, agonizing, and then it ended far too quickly.

Winterwing made the decision to exit first, before the other two had a chance. In the end, he was the one who had made the choice to conceal Emily’s transformation, and the one overrode Nosedive’s supposed authority as the senior member. He did not turn to see if the other two were following him, they must have been, because there was no where else for them to go.

Everyone was already there, on Drake One’s platform, waiting for them. There was the distinct smell of burning plastic and ozone in the air. Down below the platform proper, a small pile of scrapped security bots had been gathered. There were some scorch marks about, and a few choice holes the size of pucks in the walls, but the damage appeared mostly superficial. It had all worked out, apparently.

The rest of the team had turned at the sound of the elevator, with the expectation of thanking the three for their contribution. There was even the beginning of such congratulation in the raising of voice, which faltered in realization, and five people staring silently at the three of them. No, that was unfair, it felt like all eyes were on the three of them, but the reality it was only one person who drew attention. They were all registering that they now had a second Tanya.

It was Mallory who reacted first, reaching for the oversized rifle she still had at her side.“She’s one of them!”

Winterwing did not move from his spot in front, and for a moment it looked like he was going to have to contend with taking the full force of a blast to his breastbone at close range. Tanya had assured him he would be able to survive at least some forms of ammunition in the armor, but it was unclear now how much he would enjoy surviving. He refused to move, his arms spread defensively before Emily. It would not have even slowed Mallory down, he knew, she had flipped whatever switch that granted them empathy to off, and now they were simply her objective.

Tanya herself leaned over from her place at Drake One’s controls, but made no hostile move to match. Instead she scrutinized her copy from afar, face twitching as some internal conversation appraised the verisimilitude, and shook her head, concluding “Well, that’s just silly,” before turning back to the master computer.

“He said she had one chance,” Winterwing said, loud enough to be sure they all heard. “He said one chance. She could have chosen not to do anything and we could all be dead instead.”

This did not sway Mallory’s opinion or rifle.

It was, yet again, the intervention of Nosedive that probably saved him a hole in his torso. The teen carefully nudged the barrel of Mallory’s rifle away, towards nothing, not quite willing to die for the cause and stand in front of it. He looked past her to Wildwing, well behind the rest of the group, toward the platform’s edge.

“We were a really good distraction,” he said to his brother.

Despite what he insisted to the contrary about democracy, it all came down to Wildwing's opinion. They each had their own thoughts, Mallory most expressively, but they would remain still until he said something. And Wildwing just stood there in stupid silence, while every head in the room swiveled in anticipation of his proclamation.

Wildwing eventually nodded, ever so slightly, and said “Good job, all three of you.”

Mallory whirled around, agape. “You can’t be serious!”

To Winterwing’s relief, she forgot about him entirely, the firearm coming back to her side, as now she pushed through the rest of her teammates to physically get as close to Wildwing as she could manage at her height. “What is wrong with you? Get your head in the game and think for two seconds. That’s your face she’s supposed to be wearing. They were going to replace you!”

Tanya leaned her weight to the other foot, considering, “Okay, yeah, that makes sense.”

Wildwing’s response was uncharacteristically quiet, lacking all its usual gravity. “I know.”

“Then what the fuck are you doing?” Mallory demanded.

“That’s twice now they’ve been separated from the rest of us and chose to help Nosedive,” Wildwing said. “They’ve had opportunity to hurt him, both times, and didn’t.”

“And what about Canard? You’re just going to forget that?”

Wildwing’s expressionless face passed through anger, and it looked momentarily like he would respond with the same vicious tone. He stood up a little straighter, visibly swallowed whatever words came immediately to him.

“He’s right. I said she got a chance,” he said. “She could have kept this ability to herself, and she chose to be honest about it instead, I’m not going to punish her for that,” Wildwing looked past the rest of the team, to Emily, and Winterwing still standing before her, and he regained the tone of voice that demanded respect. “Don’t do it again. Not one of us. Ever.”

Emily nodded quickly, hyperaware of all the witnesses to the conversation, and trying to shrink as best she could behind Winterwing’s shape.

But Mallory was not satisfied. “You’re just going to let that thing walk around in here?”

Wildwing’s jaw flexed as clenched, and he took a full breath. “We know why Dragaunus brought her here, what about him?” Wildwing and Winterwing stared at each other, across the gap of the platform. “Why is he here, if Emily’s the replacement?”

Mallory shook with fury. “Who cares?”

“Dragaunus lost control of the experiment, and now we have it,” Wildwing said. “But we don’t have all the information yet.” Wildwing looked to the rest of his team. “We need to get this place back in working order. Between the Pond, the Aerowing, and Drake One there’s weeks of cleanup and repair. Tanya, try to coordinate tasks for us. We’re not as able on the technical side but we can at least do the manual labor. We can clean up today’s mess while you work up a plan.

“When we’re done with that we’re going to look into a way to spot that shapeshift without the Mask.”

Wildwing then descended the stairs of the platform, intent on something below, refusing to stop even as Mallory chased after him, shouting profanity at his back.