Tom pulled clothes from his closet and dresser, shoving them as quickly as he could into a duffel bag. He didn’t have a whole lot of possessions at Sanctuary, and most of what he did have he was capable of carrying on his back. One of the things he learned from his time in the military was to pack light.

  A knock on his door interrupted his packing, and he at first chose to ignore it. But the knocking continued. He relented and went to the door, finding Rachel standing on the other side.

  “That was pretty dramatic back there,” she said.

  “Wasn’t my intention, just know that now’s the time to leave.”

  “When we’ve got an enemy bent on conquering the world?”

  “You don’t know that,” said Tom.

  “For sure? No, I don’t,” said Rachel. “But based on what the crystal showed me and what Sylva said to Ethan, I don’t think it’s beyond the realm of possibility.”

  “You guys can handle it.” Tom threw the last of his things into the bag, then zipped it up and hefted the strap onto his shoulder. “You don’t need me for any of this.”

  “Then what are you gonna do?”

  Tom shrugged. “Hell if I know. Stay with family until I can figure out my next move. My brother lives in San Diego, so maybe I’ll head there.”

  He turned to the door, but Rachel closed it and leaned against the surface. She folded her arms and gave him a stern stare. Tom sighed.

  “Get out of my way, Rachel.”

  “No.”

  “This is childish.”

  Rachel smirked. “I know you are, but what am I?”

  He rolled his eyes. “This isn’t the time for jokes.”

  She gave a shrug. “Have to do something to cut the tension.”

  “It’s not working, you’re just pissing me off,” said Tom. “Now move.”

  Rachel hesitated. She shook her head, then opened the door and stepped into the hall. Tom left his room, and without giving Rachel another look, began walking toward the elevators.

  “You’re wrong, they didn’t die for nothing,” she called after him. “Scott, Emily, Mike. They died as heroes. No matter what the Quantum Group might’ve been responsible for, that doesn’t affect what our friends did. You need to see that.”

  Tom glanced back over his shoulder. “Even after all that, you still believe in the Knights? The Omega Force? All of it?”

  Rachel nodded. “I have to. Otherwise, generations of my family will have wasted their lives.”

  “Then you keep the faith. You don’t need me for that—you never did,” said Tom. “You were always a better choice for leader than me, so now you’ve got it.”

  Rachel called after Tom, but he ignored her. Instead, he walked straight to the elevator, and got inside. Rachel had caught up to him just as the doors closed, and he hit the button to close them faster.

  He took the elevator to the Nexus level and crossed the distance until he reached the Nexus itself. Only a few technicians were left. Without contact with the Tribunal and given Marcus’s death, no one really knew what to do next. Some had gone back to their homes, others had retreated to other areas of Sanctuary.

  The ones that were there were able to transport Tom to where he had to go. When they asked him for his destination, the words San Diego were on the tip of his tongue. But instead, he said something else.

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  After Tom’s departure, Rachel summoned the team to Sanctuary’s briefing room. Candace and Orion joined in person this time. The injuries Orion suffered at Malakai’s hands were minor and nothing that required further observation or care. He was bruised up, but otherwise fine.

  Rachel was the last to arrive in the room. Everyone sat around a round table, and she was met by questioning stares. Her response was a frown and a shake of her head before taking an empty seat.

  “So no Tom?” asked Ethan.

  “No, he was pretty adamant.” Rachel addressed Candace and Orion. “What do we do about Marcus? Did he…have family?”

  “If he did, he never talked about them,” said Candace. “But Quantum has a personnel division. We can try to reach out to them as soon as possible.”

  “And the Heads?” asked Rachel.

  “That’s a mystery,” said Orion. “No one really knows how the Tribunal communicates through the technology in the Sanctum. We’ll have to talk to some of the tech people, but first we have to get our own communications up and running again.”

  “How long will that take?” asked Rachel.

  “I think that massive ship was one of the main reasons we couldn’t make any contact,” said Orion.

  “Sylva called it the Obsidian Dreadnought,” said Ethan.

  “Whatever it’s called, now that it’s gone, we should be able to get stuff up and running within a few hours or so,” said Orion. “Once that’s done, we can start reaching out to other high-ranking Quantum officials, see if we can get some answers about the Tribunal.”

  “That still leaves the Dreadnought’s crew, including whoever’s leading them,” said Ethan.

  “And Sylva, don’t forget her,” said Alexa.

  Rachel couldn’t help but note Alexa’s icy tone. She took notice of how Alexa and Ethan sat on opposite sides of the table. Her memory flashed back to the night on the beach, and how close they’d gotten. Now, given that Ethan had some connection to Sylva…Rachel couldn’t begin to wonder how Alexa had felt at that.

  “I don’t have any problem going after Sylva. Or anyone else, for that matter,” said Ethan.

  “Glad to hear it, because that’s what we’re going to have to do,” said Rachel. “Orion…can you find some way to track the Dreadnought?”

  “That shard’s a good place to start. Also, the big guy’s corpse. If he was on that ship, he probably has its signature on him. Not sure how much it’ll do, but we could rule out some places,” said Orion.

  “What about re-establishing contact with the Tribunal?” asked Candace. “Isn’t that what you wanted to do?”

  “I feel connected to both my Gauntlet and Raiju, so that means the Omega Force is still working despite the Tribunal being MIA,” said Rachel. “And after what it looks like they’ve done, I’m not in any rush to listen to what they have to say. We’re operating on our own terms for the time being.”

  Rachel looked around the table. “Does anyone have any objections to that?”

  “You ask me, it’s long overdue,” said Orion. “The Tribunal’s always been a pain in the ass. And if they are genocidal nutbags, I’m all for cutting them out.”

  “Yeah, same. Never cared much for their attitude anyway,” said Alexa.

  Olivia nodded, then looked up at Rachel. “We’ll follow your lead. Definitely.”

  Rachel’s eyes bulged. She slid her chair back from the table, holding up her hands. “My lead?”

  “You did a pretty damn good job down in the Amazon,” said Ethan. “No offense to the rest of us, but who else is there?”

  “He’s right,” said Candace. “You’re the best person for the job, Rachel.”

  “You ask me, you always were,” said Orion.

  Rachel sighed. This was what she’d wanted for so long. And now that it was here, being offered to her on a silver platter, she felt hesitant. Guilt over Tom’s departure, but also her own feelings of inadequacy. It had been easy to dismiss the Tribunal’s decision earlier. But now that she had the opportunity to take that position, a new thought started to emerge—what if they were right?

  “I hate to step on our girl’s moment here, but…aren’t we forgetting something?” asked Alexa. “We’re one Knight down. Which means one Titan down. If we go in like this, it’ll be one veteran, three newbies, and no back-up.”

  “She’s right,” said Rachel. “Without a Red Knight, there’s no one to pilot Phoenix. And without Phoenix, we can’t fuse.”

  “Yeah, but we took down that elemental beast without fusing,” said Ethan.

  “If that thing was a Level 4, then imagine what else the Dreadnought has,” said Orion. “Could be a 5 or even 6. Possibly even a 7.”

  “A Level 7 has never been recorded,” said Rachel.

  Orion closed his eyes and nodded. “I know.” He opened them and stared right at her. “But there’s a first time for everything. And we’ve already seen a few firsts around here.”

  “Aren’t you just a ray of fucking sunshine…” muttered Alexa.

  “That’s me, always lightening the mood,” Orion deadpanned.

  “So what, then?” asked Olivia. “Do we find someone else to give Tom’s Gauntlet to?”

  Candace shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that. The Omega Force chooses who it bonds to. There are hundreds of potential candidates, but the selection process, even the list itself…only the Tribunal has that information. We wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

  “That’s not entirely accurate,” said Rachel as she picked up the Red Knight’s Gauntlet. “One place to start is to go to someone who’d been chosen before.”