Everyone turns to face Ledi.

In four words, my universe tilts. I clutch the pillar so I don't tumble across the room and land on my head.

Maybe this is my myriad of head injuries playing with my senses.

I'm hallucinating.

My eyes are intaking the reality, but my ears trick me into perceiving this torment like it's tangible. They've captured me. I feel as much a prisoner as my friends who are lined up and gawking at Ledi who doesn't give away a hint as to whether he heard the words or not.

"You better have a great fucking response to this, Freyer," Kai says, the fiery hatred behind his eyes illuminates his scowl in the dimness of the throne room.

I internally slap myself. I forgot to tell Kai and Cambell about Ledi and his ability to disguise himself as my friends, family, and self. I didn't share most of my current plan because, rightly enough, I didn't know who to trust.

But Dean.

It can't be.

Ledi stares straight ahead. Hopefully, he's scanned enough of my memories with Dean to make this real.

Make this real.

This is real.

I want to cut through the room and tell everyone to go back to battle. This isn't happening.

Ledi salutes her. "I never left, Empress."

Juno is suspicious. Her jaw clenches and her lips purse. "Juno watched you board with Commander Hayomo. The Guilded escorted you and ARC9 to secured Olympi air space. How can this be?"

If I wasn't so numb, maybe this would have been another knife in my back to join the collection growing like a second spine.

"I was instructed by Commander Hayomo to stay. To wait for Janika Lorn, Empress."

"You bastard." Kai struggles against his restraints. "She would have done anything for you. You fucking betrayed her."

Ledi's lofty gaze tells me he's using my memories to construct context for Kai's outburst. He smirks. "Jealous, Kamalani?"

Finally, Juno loosens her stance. She grins in front of Kai. "Another victim of Janika Lorn?"

Kai hasn't removed his piercing glare from Ledi's profile. He spits at his boots.

With her attention on this new drama, Juno seems reinvigorated by my friends' appearance. She approaches Teeno. "And how about you, Teeno? Have you fallen for Commander Lorn's charm?"

Teeno rolls his shoulders, cracks his neck right and left, and flashes his most devious grin. "How are you so sure Commander Janika Lorn has not fallen for mine?"

I swear to the Lady, the only thing bigger than the Olympi is Teeno's ego.

I follow Juno's movement as she steps up to Ledi. In Dean's body, he caps off the line of prisoners like a tower at the end of a wall. Juno, however, reaches his chin. She's tall enough to look him in the eye and not have to crane her neck or stare at the underside of his chin.

"Why are you here, Commander Freyer? Your instructions were clear enough. Now you are caught squabbling among the insurgent's friends?"

"My mission is need-to-know basis, Empress."

Kai rolls his eyes and groans. "Oh what a pot of shit. Just spit it out, Freyer. You used her. You were with them all along."

"I serve my people. That's my only mission."

The words are an infection trickling from my ears down to my soul. When Ledi says it, I believe him. I believe it's something that would have come from Dean. Maybe the scenario Ledi is presenting is the most strategic possibility as to why Commander Dean Freyer and General Hayomo were aboard the Olympi before us, why they were collaborating with Juno, and why she took them to her protected air space.

And why she knew my name.

That first message Teeno played for me in his penthouse aboard the HMS Valediction—she called me out. By name.

Deep in my chest, something cracks. I always thought my heart had broken a long time ago, but, in light of this new betrayal, this might be the last hit I take before I shatter.

Dean. How could he?

He loved me.

He said it.

I said it.

What bullshit has he been spewing about love when he was always willing to sell me out to my enemies? I told him I loved him. I did love him. I do.

He made me promise to wait for him. Over and over and over, he made me promise to wait...

My eyes bulge in understanding.

Wait for him.

Maybe it had nothing to do with fidelity. Maybe, all this time, he was begging me to wait for him to fill me in on what he knew. All those times when he acted out of some unknown sense of duty could have been him moving through the steps of his own classified operation.

I have to give him a chance to share this story.

It better be a fucking good one.

The guard behind Kai punches him in his lower back. Groaning and wilting in place, he tries to stand erect again. Quietly, almost imperceivably, he whispers, "She would have done anything for you. You don't deserve her. You never did."

He's so quiet, I have to turn on my comms on to be sure I heard him correctly. Checking on Moon's reaction, I don't think he heard my frequency click. I know his super-charged hearing is good enough to hear a fart from two planets away or some stupid shit like that, but as his focused attention doesn't leave the back of Juno's head, I assume I'm safe.

Juno's interest piques. She regards Kai and then raises her gaze to Ledi's. She holds his chin between her fingers and pulls his focuss on her. "Is that true?"

I internally groan. Raising my PAHLM to my lips, I'm about to whisper, but stop before the first word escapes. If Moon didn't hear my frequency activate, why test how good his hearing really is. Using the pad of my middle finger against the tip of my thumb I spell out my message in morse code. Hopefully Kai isn't dense enough or riled enough to not pay attention.

Not. D. He. Is. My. AI.

I wait for Kai's response. As soon as I finish the sequence, he lifts his head and jerks one curt nod. Message received.

My friends wait in silence for Juno to speak. Nuna's gaze challenges the woman—with her chin up, her nostrils flared, her eyes wide and daring, she breathes slowly, her chest rising and falling at the pace of a bomb's countdown. Juno approaches her.

"And you, Nuna. You must know where Janika Lorn has gone. After watching you and the Commander during the racing games, Juno is sure that you have succumbed to her allure."

Nuna remains immobile.

"Tell Juno. Tell your Empress where that Earthen waste is hiding."

Nuna's intensity is unwavering.

"No? Are you willing to risk your own people for hers? Your own brothers and sister of the Olympi?"

For the first time, I notice the gold imbedded in Juno's arms. Thin strands of metal weave through her dark skin as if they were decorative threads adding to the regal embellishments on her body. With one finger, she traces one of the gold lines.

Instantly, I'm reminded of Moon's band that wraps around the back of his head connecting the small gold plate on his temple to the gold-filled eye-socket. Their matching bands is another clue to their shared past. His gold. Her gold. His obedience. Her hold. The pieces are filling in slowly, creating a bigger picture. She was so terrible to him—the stories Teeno told me, the hints Nuna gave, and the way Moon acted whenever someone mentioned Juno—it makes sense. They are as interwoven as the gold in Juno's skin.

We were goners before we even started this mission.

After Juno drags her finger across the alloy enhancement, a Guilded soldier approaches with the civilian woman who relayed my plans to Juno just before the rest of my friends were marched through the hall.

"Choose, Nuna. Do you wish to save Commander Lorn?"

Nuna's gaze remains ahead, but even from my hiding place in the shadows from the corner of the room, I can see her lip quivering.

The woman smiles at Nuna. She is so sure that Nuna will come through for her. There's so much love and trust in her soft gaze.

Nuna doesn't react.

Juno raises a single, sharp brow. "This surprises your Juno."

The Guilded soldier readjusts his spear so his hand is closer to its spearhead. In one quick motion, he pierces the unsuspecting civilian in the gut.

As if the spear was driven through her own body, Nuna closes her eyes, her pained expression making my limbs itch to move into action. I want to leap from my hiding place to stab the fucking Guilded in the eye.

When the woman collapses, no noise escapes except for a soft squeak as she lands on her knees, blood pouring from the wound in her middle.

We all watch her die. Slowly, blood foams around her mouth, dribbles down her chin, and pools around her knees. Her eyes roll back. She falls face-first into her own blood.

I carefully watch Nuna's reaction. These are the people she wanted to save. The whole reason she's here is to free them—to give them an opportunity to have a better life under a new leader's direction. She never wanted them to die. Especially if they're dying for me.

"Nuna," Juno thunders, "Where is Janika Lorn?"

Her silence is her only response.

Juno draws another line of gold up her arm.

Another Guilded soldier approaches dragging a man—the vocal one who thought this whole thing was a terrible idea to begin with. How fucking right he was.

"Nuna, don't—don't let me die. Nuna, please." He struggles against the firm grip of the Guilded soldier on his harm.

He begs and thrashes around. They make him stand at the foot of the murdered woman who came before him. Tears well in Nuna's eyes. I can see them shine from here.

Why is she doing this? Why is she letting her people die for me? I can't take it anymore.

The Guilded readjusts his hand's position on the spear. Just as before, he aims for a kill-strike on the trembling civilian.

"Nuna," Moon says so softly, I almost miss it. "Don't resist."

I tap John's leg that's still covering most of my body as I'm crouching in the darkness. I tap it again and point toward the ceiling. When I'm secured on his undercarriage, he climbs the wall and creeping from shadow to shadow. The ceiling is so opulent, no one would be able to recognize us moving from the thousands of figures carved into the marble that hangs above my friends' heads.

"Nuna, don't let me die," the man says. He bows his head and weeps, his arm still in the Guilded's clutches.

From my vantage point, I can't see their details anymore. I'm so high up, they've become dots. I lose their voices with the exception of Kai's continuous transmission that speaks softly in my ear.

The man sobs again. "Please, Nuna."

She remains stoic. She's giving up her own battle to support mine. I won't let this be a decision she has to make.

I tap John's leg again.

He releases me.

We fall from the ceiling together. In my descent, I unholster my two pistols and aim for their helmets. The forceful strike to tops of their heads is enough to jostle them from their stationary positions while holding the civilians hostage. They stagger in place, dazed when the force of my blast punches enough strength to discombobulate them. They leave my friends an opening.

I crash to the floor, landing on John's soft back. When I disentangle myself from his flakes and stringy orange slime, I straighten and march over to Juno, arms wide, my smoking pistols in each hand. "You wanted me, Juno? I'm here."

There are a million responses that I thought could happen, but when Juno sees me for the first time, she throws her head back and laughs. "This? This is Janika Lorn?"

Ouch. "What were you expecting?"

"Someone more worthy of the sacrifices these soldiers have made. You are small."

"I'm average height."

"And you are no beauty."

"What the fuck does that have to do with—"

A golden spear whizzes toward me. I spin sideways to avoid its trajectory.

"Jesus Christ, Lorn, will you ever shut up?" Moon digs in his coat pocket for another weapon. "It's over. Relent."

"Don't you dare speak to me ever again," I say, pointing a finger at him. Despite still being on the dias and far from where I'm standing in the middle of the bloodshed, I can see the irritation radiating from him.

"I should have left you in the markets. I should have never involved us in your asinine pursuits."

"I told you to. You didn't listen. You throw your fucking body around and do stupid shit that no one asked for and this is what you get." I raise my arms in demonstration. "I'm the idiot who trusted you. I told everyone to trust you."

Part of me would love to continue this—to walk up the dias and slug him right in the face. I'd love to go head-to-head, hand-to-hand, whatever. I want to size him up and show him how much I don't fear him.

Or her.

"Janika Lorn." My name from Juno's voice is like the thunderclouds clapping for my attention. "Surrender. You will not win."

Now that I'm faced with the reality of my position, I pause. My friends are free, but Moon is standing between me and my goal of destroying Juno once and for all. And after his betrayal, I know he's capable of anything.

"That's what you don't know about me, Juno. I never give up."

Umpire and Coodi step up and flank me. Despite their lack of weapons, they are imposing.

Juno sneers. "Then you are as foolish as you are pathetic. Bow to Juno."

"Never."

"Bow to Juno, or the people will suffer." She slowly turns her attention to the enormous window at our side just beyond the row of marble pillars. The blackness is peppered with lights, and, in the distance, I can see the small outlines of HMS Valediction and ARC10. The blurry shape of another ship approaches them.

Juno rubs the hold embedded in her wrist. On command, a box appears around the images of the ships and highlights them. The window zooms us in and projects the three ships as if they were right next to us. I can see HMS Valediction clearly, the rough edges of ARC10 as perfectly as if I was standing next to it.

And the looming, perfection of ARC9 hovering beside my ship.

It's Dean. My heart soars. He's here to help.

"It's over for you, Juno," I raise my eyebrow and let my arms and smoking pistols drop to my sides.

"You will not bow to Juno?" She traces her long finger over her gold-laced wrist.

I give her my hardest glare, the confidence of ARC9's appearance making me fly. "Fuck. You."

Juno taps her gold band.

ARC9 fires at ARC10.

The only sound in the room is from Coodi who falls to her knees and releases one high, terrified gasp.

**A/N**
I'm sorry. 😭