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While a cheerful new arrival to the house named Pipira introduces herself to Jesse and Jake, there is a knock on the
door. Jesse opens it to find six Ebene officers and a group of soldiers and shapeshifters. Two of them engage
the group in the lobby while the rest sneak off and take two hostages, the new girl Pipira and a very nervous little refugee
named Conan. The alarm is sounded and Mia, Tranns, Phil, and Ariadne join the fight. Ariadne gets two of the officers
in the basement and kills them both, with Jesse's help, but Jesse is injured. Two more show up and Ariadne and Jesse
fight them, but in the end one of them manages to take Jesse hostage and Ariadne kills the third.
The Ebene hold
the three hostages in the kitchen and tell the group if they don’t give them Pfalz and Rufio they’ll kill all
of them. Philip, the one who this decision rests on, pretty much does nothing so they threaten to kill one every five
minutes until they’re handed over. Jesse tries to distract the officers in the kitchen to make them leave Pipira
and Conan alone, but when five minutes pass they kill Conan after he made a break for the door.
Ariadne kills a fourth
officer that had been guarding the kitchen door and they are prepared to charge in when the sixth officer appears at the top
of the stairs with a knife at Sic’s throat. He says they must make a decision now or all of the hostages die and
vanishes. Again, they decide to just attack the officers in the kitchen when Pfalz appears with a vial of black liquid
in her hands. She gives it to Tranns and tells her to threaten the Ebene with it.
Tranns and Mia go into the
kitchen and Tranns tells them she has more of the liquid and she’ll use it. The Ebene immediately become
horrified and retreat. Jesse is taken into the lobby to get bandaged up while Tranns goes down to the basement to talk with
Pfalz and Rufio. She asks Pfalz what’s in the vial, but without explanation Pfalz takes the vial and smashes it
before running upstairs. Later, when Rufio is not present, she tells Tranns it was a poison that burns the skin off
on touch. It is only toxic to Ebene.
Back downstairs Jesse is resting but he’s obviously very uncomfortable
and in a lot of pain. Sic, seated next to him, suddenly asks if he would feel better if she sang him a song. The
present company is shocked to hear her talk, but Jesse nods. Sic sings a very short song, but when asked how she managed
to speak she goes back to sign language. She signed that she was given three minutes to say whatever she liked.
Jake gets incredibly upset and leaves to the roof, where Pfalz calms him down.
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