I knew all too well the kind of grief Xandra was going through. To take a life, the most precious thing there could possibly be, wasn't something anyone could just forget and move on from.

Knowing I was in any way responsible for the deaths of the Piper officers during their last attack had changed me far more than the power had.

But even then, I understood well enough that I had taken those lives either indirectly, having lost control to the fox-frog-monster, or I had done so in the heat of the moment desperately trying to survive. Like when I had punched the Piper officer that was driving the jeep; if my punch hadn't killed him, then the resulting flipping over of the jeep certainly did.

I reached over the counter top and offered Regina my slip-gloved hand to take. She hesitated taking it, as if surprised it had been offered in the first place. She took my hand and I felt again the rubbery-ness of her soft palm against the extra-sensitive sinew of my gloves. But more than that, I felt the warmth between us as I did my best to comfort not only Regina, but Xandra within her too.

It wasn't easy maintaining eye contact with Regina. As much as she was a manifestation of the power mixed with Xandra's childhood imaginative daydreams, as far as I could tell, I was also aware of two conflicting realities at once. The first was that I got the strong sense that Regina really was her own distinct person, with a full personality.

I could tell as much looking into Regina's large toon eyes. Like with any other real person, I got a sense there were a dozen different thoughts and a handful of competing feelings fighting for dominance within Regina – all completely distinct from Xandra.

The second reality, however, was informed by what I knew about Xandra.

Xandra was a free spirit. Someone who didn't like to be told what to do. Someone who valued her sense of freedom enough to run away from home, to avoid the evacuation, to cut ties with her parents, her aunt and uncle, and her cousin. In the brief time I had come to know Xandra it was clear she was determined to keep the freedom she had made so many sacrifices for already.

And yet, in the kitchen of the mansion, sat next to me on a stool, was Regina.

Regina, who had taken control of Xandra's body.

It occurred to me that I didn't truly yet understand the grief Xandra was experiencing, because she had been willing to give up that very same freedom that was so fundamental to who she was, over to Regina, in order to escape the mental anguish of what had happened between her and the Piper officers.

And I knew then, that there was something about the situation Regina wasn't telling me. Not in a way that I felt she was lying about Xandra having been cornered by the Piper officers, after her dumb decision to go back to the World War Two bunker for our abandoned supplies, but that there was more to whatever decision Xandra had made to be filled with such intense grief.

This didn't mean I didn't trust Regina. If anything, I understood with greater clarity how important it would be to adjust to having Regina around for the time being.

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"If she needs you to be in control for a while," I said, looking Regina firmly in the eyes and squeezing her rubbery hand, "Then I'm here if you need anything. Okay?"

Regina's already large eyes widened, and marble-like tears formed in the corners of her eyes. She nodded, and sniffled. And the next thing I knew Regina flung herself forward and gave me a very firm, and very rubbery hug.

Regina eased away, looking from me, to Clang.

Ah, I thought, How's he going to take this?

"I don't know you yet," Clang's voice rang.

Oh gosh, I thought, it hadn't occurred to me that Clang might take serious issue with Regina. He was often at odds with Xandra as it was already. Had Regina's arrival only made things worse?

Clang moved away from his seat and stood beside me. As he did I could smell the metallic scent rising off him like an aura, helped no doubt by the steam with silver and gold metallic skin particles swirling around his head beneath the hood.

He offered Regina a hand to shake.

"We'll make it official," he said, "I'm Clang, les' be friends."

Regina, in spite of being a life-sized half-toon-looking, half-human person, still somehow seemed the more normal out of her and Clang. A little bemused, but relieved and thankful, she shook Clang's hand. At first she did so gently, and then vigorously until Clang let out a metallic chortle, and she let out a high-pitched giggle.

"Nice to meet'cha, Clang," said Regina.

She cocked her head to the side and looked to me.

"And you're still Fox-Frog?" she said.

It was interesting how she said 'still fox-frog', since when I first went on the run with Xandra she and I had agreed to use codenames too. I had decided on 'Fox-Frog', and Xandra's had been 'Miss Raccoon'. Though well intentioned, both of us had quickly forgotten to use the codenames altogether.

"Nah," said Clang, "He's Slip now."

"Slip?" said Regina, curiously.

"Yeah," I said, "Fox-Frog is old and busted, Slip is the new hotness."

"Woah," said Regina, with forced playful awe, "New hotness, huh?"

She moved away from her stool and moved round to the other side of the counter, leaning over.

"I was wonderin' why you both were playin' dress up," she said.

"You can talk," Clang's voice rang.

"It's part of The Archetype Project," I said.

Regina's raccoonish ears pulled back.

"Oo-aw? What's that?" she said.

"I made a plan for the future," I said, "When you're both ready I'd like to go upstairs and run you both through it."

"Let's do it," Clang's voice rang, "I'm ready."

"Hold on a sec," said Regina, with her hands balled into fists and rested near her chin as if she were some kind of dismayed princess.

"Don't'cha want to see all the stuff I brought back first?" she said.

There was a pause, then Clang's voice rang, saying, "Where is it?"

"Well," said Regina, putting her hands excitedly to her hips with cheerleader pep, "Lemme show ya."

She started to swell up, her eyes bulging, her face filling out as if she were inflating.

"What are you doing?!" I said, alarmed.

"I stuffed everythin' inside my body! I swallowed it!" she said.

Her eyes bulged some more and she twitched, looking up at the ceiling.

"Swallowed it?!" Clang's voice rang, as alarmed as I was.

Does the power allow her to do something crazy like that? I thought, Just how much did she swallow? Why didn't she look engorged with the stuff? How the heck did she stay so thin before?!

It was then Regina stopped bulging her eyes and head and stopped twitching altogether. She grinned mischievously and put her hand to her hip again.

"Juuuust kiddin'," she said.

She pointed with a thumb over her shoulder, "It's all out back."

Clang and I were silent for a few moments, soaking up what Regina really meant. Then, all at once, we broke out into chuckles, mostly from the relief that Regina wasn't about to toonishly vomit up all the supplies she'd brought back.

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