On it.

“HEY!” you snap as you push to the middle of the room, locking eyes with Kenneth. You know he’s not going to be happy about it, but you really don’t care. “Calm. The Fuck. Down.” You can feel a resistance at first, but it drops seemingly at-will, and his body slackens, standing still with a slight, passive sway. Turning, you can see Eva is looking at Andy, who’s affixed her with a stare that seems to be keeping her from moving from that spot. “I don’t want to be playing crowd control during this! Sure Andy doesn’t either.”

“NOPE!” she calls back.

“Eva’s right. We can’t just kill these people at first blush.” Kenneth snarls a little. “And I’m not saying you’re wrong, because we also can’t let this get any more out-of-hand. But do you want to kill a bunch of innocent women? Look me in the eye, and tell me you do if that’s the case.” It isn’t an order, the werewolf regaining his full mental faculties, but all the same, he doesn’t speak. You walk over to Eva, slip one arm around hers, and move to Andy’s kitchen as she watches Kenneth, letting Eva go with you.

“What the actual fuck?!” she hisses quietly to you, understanding you want a word alone. “I thought you said he was going to help, and that’s his plan?”

“Well, you did sort of explode the second he said it. And I don’t know if you meant to go for the throat with that last shot, but it’s pretty obvious you did either way!” you whisper back to her, frustrated with having to referee the best shot you’ve had so far at ending all this. “Look, I agree with you. We can’t just kill the girls. I mean, Atlee needs to go down, but I don’t want any of them to get hurt. BUT. Kenneth’s the only one of us who knows anything about them.”

“Okay, but what makes you think he’ll even tell us if there IS another way?” she shoots back, not exactly in happyland, either. “If he thinks this is the only safe way to do, even if there’s a chance we can save them, why the hell would he tell us? It’s not like he trusts us! He doesn’t even think you or I are actual people.”

“It’s not ideal, but tell me: do you think screaming at him and trying to press his buttons is going to make him MORE likely to consider alternatives?” Eva purses her lips at that, tries to speak twice, then resign herself to shaking her head. “Me, either.”

“I’m sorry … I’m just so MAD at him! I mean, he’s talking about people like they’re collateral, we can’t start thinking like that,” she continues. Though you can tell she’s still angry, her eyes soften to a sadder state than cold fury as you guide her through calming down. You pull her to you and hug her tightly, squeezing when she does the same.

“We won’t. We can find a way out of this. We just need to go back in there, be strong, and talk it through. Can you do that for me?” you ask. She nods, face still buried in your chest. You take her hand and lead her back into the living room, where Andy and Kenneth, in human form again, are seated. The three of you pile on to the couch while he sits in the chair Andy was previously in, head low.

“That was … rude,” he says after some consideration. “I’m sorry it was rude. But I’ve been on this planet for ninety-seven years.” Jesus, you were guessing mid-sixties. “Lost a lot of people. And a lot more to trying to save them than to being willing not to. I didn’t come here for a fight, but I got a lotta’ graves I’ve dug for friends and family. Don’t push there.”

“… I won’t. But I also won’t let you just **** everyone,” Eva responds, straining to keep her voice calm. “I’m sorry that hurt, but I can’t go along with the idea you’re throwing out. There has to be something else we can do.”

“Nothing as likely to succeed,” he continues to explain. “She’s strong if it’s a spirit and a body with no soul in the way. Anyone she splits off to won’t be quite as bad, but give ‘em time. And if she’s smart, she’s hidden a couple away.”

“I don’t think she has,” Andy interrupts. “I can see it, her connection to them. Like, with my eyes. Looks like a bright, green string. All of them were pretty firmly in-house.”

“She wants a family,” you speak from memory of your discussion. “It makes more sense if she understands how this all works to make plans, but I really don’t think she does. I think she’s just trying to fill Atlee’s need for control and how lonely that must have made her before she could even care about it.”

“That’s good. Fomori are usually poor bastards who did almost nothing to earn it. Not all of them, but most. The problem here is the exorcism.” He sighs looking up at all of you. “Exorcising banes tends to kill the person you do it from. This lady, it sounds like we’re at a great loss, but if she’s tying herself to all these people, if I even can do it, it’s going to get ugly for them. A lot uglier than if we just do ‘em first.”

“What about the consent thing?” Everyone sort of glances aside at Eva when she says it. “She’s a supernatural monster made out of hate or something, right? If she’s pulling people into her, why’s she asking permission? A person would because it’s the right thing to do. But Atlee wouldn’t even do it BEFORE.”

“You think there might be a crack in her armor there,” he realizes, looking back at her. If you had to guess, the look is … begrudging respect. He’s clearing mulling it over, at least. “Maybe. We’d need someone to … how does she fold them in again?”

“She has anime tentacle sex with them,” Andy answers before you can put it more technically.

“I’ll take a shot in the dark and guess that means I’m out, then,” he says wryly. “If we can weaken her, and we can get someone on the inside before she locks them up, I might be able to push the bane out and kill it in the Umbra without hurting the other people. Disrupt her network. Then if the bane’s destroyed, it just won’t ever come back online.”

“When you say someone on the inside …” you ask apprehensively.

“I mean someone would need to sleep with her, yeah,” he finishes. “If she’s sticking to sorority girls so far, I’m probably too sharp a departure.”

“And I just can’t,” Andy offers with regret. “Like, I’m actually super-curious, but it’s brain stuff. Supernatural brain stuff doesn’t tend to work right around me. Maybe that’d be good? But maybe it’d also kill all of us right away.”

“That leaves us, then,” Eva contemplates out loud. “Should … look, I killed her, I can do it.”

“… no,” Kenneth tells her, thinking carefully. “No, it has to be Jaq.”

“What? Why?” she pushes back, leaning forward and getting a bit angry again.

“I’ll explain it later, but it’s up to you, bloodsucker,” he sighs.

“I really prefer Jaq. Or vampire, if we’re talking species.”

“Well, I prefer Garou, but everyone keeps calling me wolfman or werewolf. Do I look like Lon Chaney to you?”

“Who the fuck is Lon Chaney?” Andy asks, looking up as she tries to put anything to the name, meeting with utter failure. Not that Eva or you do better.

“This is the worst child crusade, and that’s a high bar,” he groans. “Okay, fine. Jaq. If you think I’m right after I tell you why, will you be the bait?”

“Yes.” You’re shocked you don’t hesitate more, but guilt and excitement at seeming to make progress outweigh caution, even fear for your life.

“You sure? Because if you fuck up, we have to kill everyone she’s got. And that’s going to include you.”

“I started this, I can finish it.”

“Alright. Before I can say I have an actual plan here, you came in looking for some kind of thing to fight her.”

“Something divisive,” you explain. “Andy managed to read it off of her. With all her unity talk and the brainwashing and creepy cult stuff, we think it might be like a cross or something to her? Something to drive her off.”

“Divisive. Yeah. I can work with that,” he ponders, stroking his chin. “If you’re willing to take the risk, I gotta’ say, I’m a lot less invested if it’s a vampire on the line.” While the statement in and of itself is kind of messed-up, you appreciate the genuine effort he makes you use the right species name instead of what’s clearly a slur. “We make this play. If it doesn’t work, we do it my way. Deal?” You and Andy nod, then all of you look to Eva, who groans, sighs, then also nods. “Okay. I need every detail, but we’ve got a framework. If everything goes right, you might prove me wrong. Honestly? I’m hoping for it.” He continues to solicit details from the three of you as you all make a plan together. It’s not one you’re incredibly optimistic about … but you can pull it off as early as tomorrow night. And maybe no one else has to die.