I was on my knees, completely exhausted, though more emotionally than physically.

Pham’s body was a short distance away, or at least, what was left of it. There wasn’t much, but what there was… It was enough to make me sick to my stomach.

“Pham,” I whispered with tears running down my cheeks. “He saved me…”

“He…was a good man,” Giles said, though his voice cracked as he said it, revealing the emotions that his words didn’t fully convey.

“He was,” Grayson quietly agreed.

For once, Lenore didn’t say anything. Instead, she merely stood beside me, putting her hand on my shoulder to offer what comfort she could.

“I barely knew him,” I whispered. I’d liked him. He’d been nice to me in ways that few people ever had. “Why would he do this for ME? I don’t deserve it.”

“He thought you did,” Grayson told me in a gentle voice. “He thought you were worth it.”

“But…” I started.

“Don’t insult him by arguing with his last fucking act,” Lenore told me. She was angry, but not at me. “Fucking mutt…”

“We should get out of here,” Grayson said. “Before that thing changes its mind and comes back.”

I blinked at that. “We can’t leave him…”

“The Labyrinth will clean this up,” Giles said with a heavy tone. “It always does.”

“That doesn’t mean we have to leave him out in the open until then,” Grayson pointed out.

I nodded and slowly got to my feet. It was harder than I expected. I felt like crap. Pham had died because of me. Because I’d pissed that thing off. Because I hadn’t been fast enough to avoid it on my own. Because…

“We can bury him,” I said. “I know the Labyrinth will probably just absorb that too, but we can do that much for him.”

“Yes, Miss Donna,” Giles agreed sadly. “We can do that for him.”

The ground was hard, solid rock with a layer of crushed rock on top of it. We couldn’t really dig down, so instead, we gathered up a lot of rocks and used them to bury what was left of Pham. Grayson called it a cairn. I just called it a tragedy.

No one spoke over the grave, not as a group. Instead, we each took turns standing beside it, quietly saying our last words to Pham.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered with tears still in my eyes. “Thank you for saving me, but…” I hung my head. “I’m not worth it. All I do is hurt people. Even my power is all about hurting people. You shouldn’t have sacrificed your life for me, but… But thank you anyway. I won’t forget you. Ever.”

We stayed there a lot longer than we should have, building the grave and saying our goodbyes. Each minute we remained was another opportunity for Fenrir to return. But in spite of that, Pham deserved better than for us to just abandon his body and run away. He deserved this much at the very least.

“We should get going,” Giles finally said, looking and sounding tired. “The sooner we finish the mission, the sooner we can get out of the Labyrinth.”

“I second that,” Lenore said.

I just nodded at that. This wasn’t even my mission. I was just along for the ride. But in spite of that, after everything that I’d gone through with this group, I felt invested in the mission anyway.

“Let’s finish it,” I agreed.

“But before we go,” Giles said. He bent over and picked up Pham’s staff, then turned and handed it to me. “Miss Donna,” he said in an almost formal tone. “I believe that Agent Pham would want you to have this.”

I accepted the staff, feeling my hand shake a little as I did so. I felt guilty for taking the staff, but at the same time, it also felt like an appropriate reminder of what had happened…and of what he’d sacrificed for me.

The staff felt oddly comfortable in my hands. It felt…familiar…as though I’d held staffs like this countless times before, in spite of the fact that this was the first time I’d ever actually touched one. Then I reached for the mental connection I had with the tool. I had no idea of how I knew how to do this, only that I did.

A brief connection was all I needed to see that the staff was still half-charged with Pham’s power. Another shaper might be able to use that stored energy, but I couldn’t. In fact, I couldn’t really do anything with the staff as long as the battery still had that charge. I would need to drain the power first. And for some reason, I knew exactly how to do that. All I had to do was push a mental button and the staff slowly began to disperse that stored power. Once it was fully drained, I’d be able to start storing my own energy instead.

“Red?” Lenore asked me with a worried look. “Are you okay?”

I blinked, realizing that I’d been completely absorbed in examining the staff. “Not really,” I answered honestly, my eyes darting to Pham’s grave. “But I’ll manage.”

“That’s the most anyone can do,” Grayson agreed.

I took a deep breath, then straightened my back. In spite of what had just happened and how crappy I felt, I also felt a strange new confidence from holding the staff. I felt like a marksman who finally got his hands on a gun, or a swordsman who had just picked up a blade. For the first time since waking up in the respawning pool, I actually felt armed and dangerous.

“Okay,” I announced. “Let’s go and finish this.”

----------

Bubblegum. I’d never been a big fan of the stuff, but at that moment, I really hated it.

I was currently standing in a large cavern, one where the walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of some white stone that glittered from tiny specks of quartz. The whole cavern made me think of the inside of a salt mine, not that I’d ever actually been inside of one.

My attention was currently locked on the monster that occupied the middle of the cavern, a giant glob of pink goo that looked like a wad of bubblegum that had been chewed up and spat out. It was about ten feet tall, and it moved. It bubbled and oozed, sending slimy pink tentacles out as limbs.

I glared at the monster, even though it hadn’t really done anything other than exist and be in our way. I was still in a bad mood over what had happened with Pham, bursting with grief, frustration, and an anger that demanded to be released. Fortunately for me, this bubblegum monster had just volunteered.

“That looks like something that got stuck on the bottom of my shoe,” Grayson mused. “Or the underside of my desk, back in high school.”

“It smells like crap,” Lenore offered, even as she conjured an arrow. “Like formaldehyde or something.”

I nodded at that, even as I clutched Pham’s staff and held out my hand. The staff was now fully charged with my power, and I was eager to try it out. This was a test as much a chance to lash out at something that deserved it.

The giant pink blob was moving towards us, with long tendrils stretching out ahead of it’s body. It was trying to grab us before it even got close.

I tapped into the power that I’d stored inside the staff, then used that to create a ‘Cursed Ground’. The bane was a little stronger than it would normally be, maybe twenty-five percent more, but just as important was the fact that I would be able use ‘Cursed Ground’ again a lot sooner than normal. This boosted both my power and my recharge speed.

Then I tapped into the stored power again and channeled it into ‘Hex’. My second bane hit the monster, which had already stopped moving. It shuddered and shook with bubbles of goo forming on its side.

It was at this point that everyone else finally joined the fight. Lenore shot an arrow directly into the bubblegum monster, though it didn’t seem to do any good. The arrow went in almost all the way, though the blob didn’t even react. She immediately followed this up by conjuring one of her special arrows and shooting that, with the exact same reaction.

“I doubt our weapons can do much against this thing,” Grayson said.

The other enchanter rushed forward, easily dodging a tendril that reached out for him. He stopped just outside the area of my ‘Cursed Ground’ and slashed out with his sword. The blade went through the side of the pink goo, but the material merely closed up a moment later.

“I believe you are correct, Mister Grayson,” Giles responded.

In spite of what he’d just said, Giles had to test it for himself. He approached the bubblegum monster and swung his halberd, tearing a deep slice into the ping goo which immediately sealed back up.

“How the fuck do we kill this thing?” Lenore demanded.

“I can use my flaming column,” Giles reluctantly admitted. “Or…” He looked at me. “Miss Donna’s abilities seem to be hurting it.”

“Which reminds me,” I said, blasting the monster with another ‘Hex’.

The bane stacked with the two others that were already on the monster, increasing the strength of each a little. I smiled grimly at that, knowing that since my ‘Hex’ was now recharging faster than normal, I’d be able to stack three of them into a target now.

A long ping tentacle began stretching out towards me but Grayson was suddenly there, slicing through it with his sword. As soon as it was cut free from the main body, the end collapsed to the ground into a disgusting pink splatter.

“We might be able to cut it apart,” Giles announced. “Piece. By. Piece.”

I nodded at that but didn’t take my eyes off the monster. As soon as my ‘Hex’ had recharged, I blasted the blob with another one. Now I had three layers of ‘Hex’ on the creature, though that wouldn’t last for long. Soon, the first ‘Hex’ would wear off and it would be only double stacked again.

“For now,” I said with a predatory grin.

The pink blob continued to advance forward, though slowly. Very slowly. It kept reaching out with its gooey tentacles, only to have them be quickly sliced off. Soon, the outer edge of its body had moved out of ther ‘Cursed Ground’, but most of it remained inside and would for some time.

The fight continued in this fashion, with the monster slowly becoming sicker and weaker. The damage from my banes continued to add up, eating away at its life in a slow but steady manner. Before long, the monster began to melt, looking more like a puddle of half-melted ice-cream than a glob of bubblegum.

“It’s almost there,” I said, hitting it with one more ‘Hex’.

At this point, my ‘Cursed Ground’ faded away, though it was no longer necessary. The monster was no longer in any condition to move around much. Less than a minute later, it collapsed into a motionless puddle of pink sludge. It bubbled up several times then went completely still.

“Shit,” Lenore cursed, making a show of plugging her nose. “Now it smells even worse.”

I just stood back and stared at the monster, agreeing with Lenore. That nasty pink glob really did smell like shit. Technically, it smelled like formaldehyde, chemicals, and death, but the point still stood.

I felt a sense of pride as I looked over the dead monster. I did that. I was the one who’d killed this bastard. For the first time, I really felt like a player, not just some noob who was well out of her depth.

Then I looked over at the others, seeing that they were all in a much better mood as well. We needed this. We needed this win after what had happened with Fenrir.

“Hey,” Grayson abruptly called out. He had a faint grin on his face as he gestured off to the side. “I think I see a treasure box.”