Sean waited in front of the closed door of Violet and Sierra’s ship. The pilot was shutting it down as he waited for them to get out. The door slid open and Sean’s eyes widened as he saw the state of Sierra’s exosuit. An exosuit that the man was still wearing.

  The whole thing was dented and damaged. The joints were sparking and dark fluid covered the armor where the small pressurized hydraulic fluid leaked from the gaps onto the exterior of the armor.

  The exosuit stumbled and Sean saw that both arms were stiff and the whole thing moved in spurts.

  “Sierra, what happened?” Sean asked as he quickly brought out his tools and started cutting through a few warped segments of the armor where it would usually open up at the chest to release the man. Sean could see it rattling, but the dents in the metal and various other damage was keeping it shut.

  Sean finally managed to pry open the door and Sierra stumbled out. Sean looked at the man and all his bruises and small cuts stood out against his pale skin. Sean could even see some burns scattered across the man’s body as Sean caught him before he fell to the ground with some effort.

  “Violet,” Sierra muttered as the doctors rushed in and loaded him onto a stretcher. Sean and the base had gotten word that something had gone wrong, but nothing like this…

  “Violet,” Sierra said as he turned to look at Sean with a half delirious expression, “Violet… left behind. Captured. We have to go after her… Violet…”

  Sierra was quickly carried away as Sean stood there in shock and looked back into the empty bay of the flying vehicle. Violet had been captured… who knew what the Jade Congress would do to her?

  Sean had to do something.

  — — —

  “Absolutely not. We need you here. And you have no combat training.”

  “I do. Just not with you,” Sean said, “I can even pilot those exosuits you have. Let me show you. I have to go on that mission with Sierra. I’m not leaving her out there.”

  The commander sighed and rubbed his temples, “Malketh, think of this from my perspective. You're one of the most brilliant engineers I’ve ever seen. I can’t let you throw your life away on this suicide mission. Sierra knows its suicide, but he’s doing it anyway. That exosuit he’s taking is his coffin, and his retirement package as an apology since I doubt he’ll make it far.”

  “That’s why I need to go,” Sean said, “When have I asked for anything? I’ve been working here for five years now, doing my best. Keeping my head down as best as I could. But I have to go with him, I’m not losing Violet.”

  “Not losing her?” the commander said, “Aren’t you too close to this? You’ve got to think rationally. Don’t throw away your life like Sierra. You should have heard his wife in here just an hour ago. She was begging me to lock him up until he came to his senses. We can’t lose the both of you in one go.”

  Sean took a deep breath, “Let me fight Sierra. I’ll beat him in a fistfight. Will that be enough proof to you that I’m capable?”

  The commander looked at Sean for a moment before nodding slightly.

  “If you can prove that you can match him and he approves… Then I suppose I won’t stop you. And give you your own coffin exosuit to match Sierra’s. But you should calm down and reconsider. Violet wouldn’t have wanted you to do this.”

  “Violet’s not dead, she’s captured. We’ll break her out. We already have the location where she’s held. She’d want to be freed.”

  “And I’m telling you, just like I told Sierra. It smells of a trap. We got this information too easily from an untrustworthy source. Somebody that likes to play both sides. If she’s even there then it’ll be an ambush, I guarantee it.”

  “We can handle it,” Sean said, “We’ll be ready for them.”

  The commander considered it before groaning, “This is a mistake. But I suppose it will have to be your mistake. Very well. Defeat Sierra in hand to hand and prove you know how to pilot the exosuit yourself… And you can go with him.”

  “Thank you, commander. You are… one of the best leaders I’ve ever met.”

  “Damn. High praise from you, Malketh. Now get out of here before I change my mind and lock up both you and Sierra until you two see reason.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Sean left and promptly thrashed Sierra in hand to hand combat and proved his competence in using the exosuit. While these older exosuits were different from the modern ones from the far future, they were close enough that Sean picked it up pretty quickly. He had plenty of practice using the exosuits in the battles against the invasion of the Endless Flesh of Emily and Asuta’s home planet.

  A few days passed, and it was finally time. Sierra and Sean both silently went into the transport with the pilot who also volunteered to go on their suicide mission. Sean barely even knew the pilot’s name. The man had simply left and not talked with Sean for almost the entire time he’d been here with the GFC. Even now that they were on an apparent suicide mission together, the man hadn’t said so much as a single unnecessary word to Sean.

  Although from what Sierra and Violet had told him, that was just what the man was like. Ice cold with anyone he didn’t know until thawing a bit if someone made an effort or he particularly liked them.

  Sean was wearing the exosuit and standing alongside Sierra.

  “You ready for this, Malketh?” Sierra asked through the speakers of his armor, “This serious business. Still time to get off. I have obligation to myself to do this, but you do not. Or you do not have to. She will not be happy that I let you come despite your surprising skill in fighting.”

  “I’m going,” Sean said, “Something that most people don’t get is that there are many fates far worse than death. You two are my only real friends in that place. I’d rather go out in a blaze of glory than die the slow death isolated and alone.”

  Sierra didn’t reply for a few seconds, “Ay. The slow death indeed. You see so clearly sometimes, Malketh. Like you are ready to die already. Why? Why for Violet?”

  Sean took a breath that came through the speakers, “She was a good friend,” Sean said, “It’s been a very long time before I’ve had a new one of those. I’d rather die than see another one of them be hurt. Not if I… Can do something to help this time.”

  “I see…” Sierra said heavily, “She is like a spiky fruit, prickly and hurtful on the outside. Soft and tender once you get past the outer shell. You went through the spines to get to know her. Many do not bother and simply leave her alone after being pricked.”

  Sean chuckled slightly, “Trust me, I’ve dealt with more extreme people than her before. Compared to any of them she’s practically… normal.”

  Sierra laughed as well, “Ah, normal. I can not imagine meeting such people stranger than our Violet. Normal is not a word I would think for any of the three of us. You are a man of endless mystery, Malketh. One of the reasons I like you so much. Always a new clue to ponder with you.”

  The flying vehicle’s thrusters whined and activated and they started rising into the air quickly and flying to their destination.

  “Yes, I do try,” Sean said, “If I told you everything, I’m sure that you wouldn’t believe me.”

  “I very much doubt that,” Sierra said, “I am a man who loves a good conspiracy. We are not ones known to be disbelieving of crazy things. If the web of connections itself is beautiful and interesting enough, then mooring it to any facts in the real world is only a small concern.”

  Sierra and Sean kept bantering slightly as they flew through the high atmosphere to their destination. But their conversation gradually petered out as they drew closer and closer to the moment.

  The pilot’s voice came over the intercom into their cabin.

  “Dropping. Thirty seconds. Full drop and release. I will return in thirty minutes if I see you. And in an hour. If I do not see you then I will go. Best of luck. You will need it.”

  Sean locked the joints of the exosuit and saw Sierra doing the same as they gripped the handholds above them with the exosuit, locking themselves to the metal frame of the craft.

  Thirty seconds passed and then with a lurching sensation they started diving downwards at full speed at a near freefall towards the ground. At the last moment the four thrusters roared full throttle and Sean was pressed downwards heavily even within the exosuit as they jerked to a sudden stop in the air. Sean and Sierra unlocked their exosuits and the exterior doors opened. Sean and Sierra jumped out of the vehicle and the thrusters roared again and sent it shooting back into the skies.

  Even now Sean could see some small arms gunfire pinging off of its exterior and a few larger weapons just barely missing as the vehicle nimbly jerked to the side from the anti-air weapons.

  Small arms fire also pinged off of Sean and Sierra’s armor as they both charged towards the closed doors of the bunker-like facility.

  Sean was wearing the assault combat exosuit. Strapped to his chest was a heavy machine gun that he unlatched and held in his large exosuit hands. His armor was bulkier than Sierra’s and could more exert more raw strength when it was needed.

  Sierra’s armor was the hacker and engineering unit with its long fingers and tools. It was durable enough to resist gunfire and enhance Sierra’s strength, but its main purpose was to let him hack through doors and rewire anything electronic as needed.

  Sean adjusted his grip on his gun and hesitated as the soldiers charged around the corner. But then they started firing at the both of them and Sean reflexively pulled the trigger and blasted them away.

  The two of them charged forward and Sierra stuck his armors finger into the closed doors to the elevator shaft. He pried them open and revealed the full elevator inside as Sean heard the sounds of pounding feet approaching from all sides.

  They both went inside the elevator and Sean raised his gun as Sierra fiddled with the elevator controls. The doors started closing as Sierra connected two wires he’d dragged out of the wall to each other.

  Sean heard some shouting, and a few bullets came inside and hit the back wall before the doors fully closed and the elevator lurched into motion.

  “Why did those soldiers charge me like that?” Sean said, his voice shaking slightly as they descended, “They didn’t even pause…”

  “Military families,” Sierra said grimly, “They were given the disease of feeling no pain or fear a few generations back. A very bad thing, Jade Congress still denies that it was them. But despite the suspicions, many choose to join the military anyway. There are always a few around who have no sense of preserving themselves in combat.”

  Sean nodded, but didn’t say anything else.

  He had killed a few people by accident before. Hitting them too hard, having them fall the wrong way… things like that. But nothing as blatant as gunning down soldiers charging directly at him.

  “Is good, ey?” Sierra said as he seemed to notice that Sean was standing abnormally still even in the exosuit as they rode the elevator down, “Keep any deep thoughts for after the mission. Save Violet first, deal with any death and suffering later. Yes? And try to not hesitate this time. You know what these government bastards do in these places. No one here has clean hands.”

  “Right,” Sean said as he refocused on their task despite still being slightly disturbed by the deaths above, “Time to focus.”

  “Good man,” Sierra grunted as Sean raised his weapon as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened.

  “They usually keep the important ones down here,” Sierra said as they both stepped out into the abandoned hallway, “But no welcoming party… be on guard. Seeing no enemies in a place like this is a bad sign. Lurking in the shadows like rats…”

  They continued through the suspiciously empty facility until Sierra found a computer in a side room and started using his tools to hack it and get access to the internal network. Sierra worked for twenty seconds or so before Sean tensed as he heard the sounds of footsteps.

  Sean stepped out into the hallway and saw a squad of five soldiers charging towards Sean and his exosuit. They were wearing tight body armor over themselves and carrying heavy weaponry. Sean’s eyes widened and he quickly fired into the group with his machine gun just as they raised their own weapons towards them.

  His attack surprised the group and Sean’s weapon fire managed to take down one of the five men and sent the others diving behind cover in one of the side rooms before they could counterattack.

  The bleeding body of the man that Sean had managed to hit was quickly dragged to the side and out of Sean’s sight even as he kept groaning in pain and spasming.

  Sean lurched backwards as one of the four unhurt soldiers popped around the corner and fired a massively oversized bullet at Sean and his exosuit. His reflexes let him sway back out of the way of the blast, but just behind him down the hallway there was an explosion that caused Sean to stumble as he dived back into the room with Sierra as he saw another heavy weapon firing his way.

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  “Sierra? How’s it coming?” Sean shouted, “Is she here? Is it a trap?”

  “She is here,” Sierra said distractedly as he kept tapping at the computer keyboard rapidly with his long exosuit fingers after having finished with doing his alterations to the wiring and casing.

  “Not a good trap without proper bait,” he said, “I know the room… Now just looking for the map… Ah, there. Yes, found it. I know the way now. How many?”

  “Four up. One down and injured. A direct hit could probably kill us with the weapons that they’re packing.”

  Sierra thought about it and reached down to his side and took something out from a small compartment that opened up at his side. Sean went to speak, but Sierra held up his hands to stop him and put a finger of his free hands to the ‘lips’ of the exosuit.

  They shifted over to the door quietly and waited as Sierra put his exosuit’s hand over the handle, with his other hand carrying a metal orb waiting in the other.

  There was the faint sound of the squeak of a shoe on the floor just outside the door. Sierra flung it open wide and Sean fired his machine gun into the form of the surprised man waiting on the other side with his heavy cannon like weapon raised. The man fell to the ground as Sierra wound up his grenade and tossed it at the next man who was standing a few feet back.

  The soldier managed to fire off a shot that hit Sean’s right shoulder and exploded on the external plates of the armor. He felt a searing pain in his arm as the metal dented inwards and felt like a massive fist had just slugged him in the collarbone. Or with a steel pipe. Sean heard a crack and waves of hot sharp pain started radiating off of his collarbone even as the metal stayed dented and pressing painfully into his body.

  The grenade that Sierra threw landed at the offending man’s feet and exploded a second later and sent the whole hallway rumbling and creaking. Reminding them all that they were far underground. A trickle of dust fell from the ceiling, but the roof held as Sierra and a wheezing Sean charged into the hallway and started running the opposite way as where the three standing soldiers remained.

  Another heavy blast struck the back of Sean’s exosuit just as he was about to round the corner after Sierra. The back plate proved stronger than the shoulder, and while it dented in and painfully jabbed into his back, it didn’t feel like he broke anything or had a metal spike digging into his shoulder whenever he moved like on his shoulder.

  Sean glanced back as he rounded the corner to see all five of the soldiers chasing after them. Wait, five? One of the man’s body armor was tattered and ripped, and his helmet was lying shattered on the ground behind him. Two more of the men were bloodied with clear indents across their chests where Sean had hit them with a burst of his machine gunfire.

  As Sierra and Sean rushed through the hallways at high speed assisted by the exosuits, Sean turned over what had just happened in his mind even as they slowly gained distance on the five soldiers that they could hear charging after them from behind.

  There really was only one conclusion.

  “Immortals,” Sean said, “Those five are Immortals. That’s what the trap is. If they trap us in here for long enough then the Immortals will eventually beat us.”

  Sierra nearly missed a step, “Ay? Immortals? That is crazy talk… But… No, I did see something with that man I hit with the grenade. But I had thought it was just a trick of the mind. It was nice knowing you, Malketh. We have no hope now.”

  “Let’s find Violet first,” Sean said, “Then we’ll see what our chances will look like.”

  Sierra grunted skeptically, but then paused and took another turn to the left.

  “Almost there,” Sierra said, “Records say she’s in one of the tanks like you were in Malketh. I work on getting her out, you hold them back, yeah? Best of luck.”

  “Okay. Meet you back at the elevator,” Sean said, “I’ll ambush them.”

  Sierra nodded through his exosuit and then ran off around the last corner as Sean came screeching to halt. Sean heard a door banging open around the corner where Sierra had gone and some shouting inside which was suddenly cut off.

  Sean turned back to where he could hear the five Immortals charging towards them and rapidly making up for their lost ground now that Sean was standing there rooted in place.

  He took in a deep breath, and something clicked in his chest even as he ignored the pain radiating from his broken collarbone. Sean was a mortal right now. But he’d unknowingly trained for this all along. Fighting other Immortals. It would be just like one of their training sessions with Emily or Asuta. But this time he couldn’t make any mistakes.

  The first Immortal rounded the corner and Sean let out a blast of gunfire that sent the man falling to the ground with a half choked scream of pain. The next man followed after him and went down as well. Two more barreled around the corner and raised their weapons. Sean didn’t aim for the people themselves, but for their large barreled weapons that they carried. With two precision bursts of gunfire, Sean shot into the barrels of the large guns. The large shells inside their weapons exploded in the barrels of the weapon, chaining to the rest of their ammunition and destroying it all in a sudden burst of flame.

  The both of them screamed and fell to the ground writhing in pain as the explosions washed over them and shrapnel bit deeply into their bodies.

  The final two men were also armed and managed to fire their weapons at Sean. One hit Sean in the damaged shoulder and the metal pressed inwards even more and the metal groaned as it stabbed deeper into Sean’s wound and caused his broken collarbone to slide out of alignment and sent his left arm to go completely limp and immobile.

  The other shot missed Sean in the chaos and whizzed right by his head before hitting the metal wall behind him. The force of the blast sent Sean stumbling forward. Even now, Sean could see the first man that he’d shot was already standing up, even if he was panting heavily as he did so.

  Sean raised his machine gun again with one arm, using the strength of the exosuit to support him now that his left arm was useless. He pulled the trigger and focused on the pouches on the hips of the two soldiers preparing to fire at Sean again.

  He missed at first, but his skill and sheer amount of firepower being thrown their way eventually ignited something and caused their stores of ammunition and grenades hanging at their hips to explode all at once in a big chain just like it had for the other men. They must be using explosive rounds on him, Sean noted as he took a step forward and dropped his gun to the ground now that the rest of the Immortals were disarmed of their weapons.

  The first man just stared at Sean in confusion as he charged at them. He came to his senses too late as a single slap from the exosuit’s hand snapped his neck to the side and with a loud crack sent him falling to the ground.

  The rest of the Immortals stared at the man with a broken neck in apparent shock as Sean kept his charge and slammed his shoulder directly into another man in front of him. Sean diverted to the side and with his full momentum, slammed the man directly into the metal walls of the hallway full force.

  Taken by surprise, the man wasn’t able to escape Sean’s one armed grip on him as the metal of the exosuit’s shoulder plate dug into his abdomen and likely ruptured a few important things inside his body. Still shoving his metal shoulder into the man pinned against the wall, Sean reached down with his usable arm and after grabbing the man’s right leg tore it to the side violently so hard that it practically went flying away in a spray of gore.

  Sean reached out to the left and did the same as the man pinned under Sean’s dissolving plate of metal screamed bloody murder and pounded on Sean’s exosuit with his bare fists.

  Sean took his bloodied right hand and after grabbing the heavily injured Immortal by the neck pushed against the wall to pull his shoulder out of the Immortal’s torso and create some distance.

  He immediately crouched and shoved the bloody stumps of the man’s legs tightly against the floor.

  There were a few heavy impacts on Sean’s back that sent waves of pain through Sean’s injuries, but he stayed in place as the man tried to thrash and escape as Sean’s exosuit hand held him pressed against the wall by the neck.

  After a few long seconds Sean finally let go as he saw his strategy had worked.

  Sean turned and grabbed the next man with a viper like strike and snapped their neck with one hand. He dropped the man and then kicked him hard so he hit the opposite wall hard, briefly stunning him.

  Sean punched downwards and splattered the stunned man’s head like a melon before grabbing the now limp body by the shoulder tightly and maneuvering it so the bloody stump was pressed against the metal wall. Sean waited until he felt the man twitch again under his grip and he let go.

  The Immortal had just regenerated his head completely encased in the metal of the wall, unable to pull himself free.

  Sean turned around and saw that the man he’d stuck to the floor by the legs was the same. Flailing and cursing as he sat there embedded waist deep in the floor. In something like stone little movements might help him escape in time… But everything here was encased in metal in some way. So it would take both of them a while before they managed to get free. Especially because Sean could see by their evident panic that they’d never had this particular situation ever happen to them before. The other three Immortals were looking at Sean in his blood covered exosuit in shock and not a little bit of fear.

  Sean reached out his blood soaked hand towards the next closest man, and the Immortal nimbly dodged his blow. Sean’s head was swimming. He could only ignore the pain so much when he could tell the damage to his left shoulder grew worse and worse every time he moved.

  Sean’s vision flickered in and out a few times and he stumbled as his blows grew clumsier as he fought off the three Immortals that had overcome some of their hesitation and were surrounding him in an attempt to attack. They had long machete knives that they stabbed into the joints of the armor and cut through to leave little bloody streaks across Sean’s body underneath.

  After over ten seconds of furious battle, Sean finally managed to catch another of the Immortals. The man had been trying to dodge Sean’s reaching hand, and not realized it was a feint before Sean lifted his metal coated leg and kicked him hard in the shins full force.

  The man went crumpling to the ground screaming in pain as Sean lifted his leg and stomped the man’s leg into paste. A lance of pain slashed across Sean’s right shoulder as the other two attacked him from behind and slid their sharp knives through the joints to stab him while he was distracted.

  But Sean remained focused and just gritted his teeth as he grabbed the flailing man below him and pressed the bloody mass of his leg and shoved the man’s body hard against the wall so the stump was pointing at the ground.

  More hot lances of pain formed all over Sean’s body as the knives carved deeper and deeper into his joints as the other two Immortals struck at him in a flurry of desperate blows.

  It only took a few seconds for the pinned man’s leg to regenerate while anchored inside the ground, but he was finally stuck as Sean started feeling weak from his blood loss.

  Sean whirled around and managed to hit one of the Immortals with the wild blow. But as soon as he took a step to finish the deal, the other one dived between Sean’s legs and stabbed deeply into the back of the exosuit’s knee. The Immortal tugged the blade free and was thrown back as Sean reflexively kicked the Immortal man away. But with a final groan, the hydraulic fluid came bursting out of the back of the exosuit’s knee and Sean stumbled to the side and fell to the ground.

  The leg was locked up, the knee completely fixed in its position without the hydraulic fluid to help it shift.

  Sean tried to stand with the other leg, but the other Immortal came from the side and with a few quick swipes with their blade disabled that leg too.

  Now Sean only had a single arm that he waved threateningly in front of him as he sat there slumped and splayed on the ground with one useless fleshy arm and two disabled exosuit legs. Sean was feeling lightheaded and it was growing hard to think.

  Pushing off with his arm, Sean managed to push himself so his exosuit was sitting with its back pressing against the wall. His vision was blurry, and he mistimed his clumsy block with the exosuit arm. He tried to ward away the Immortal, but they slipped under his exosuit’s metal arm and up to the center. They straddled the metal chest of the exosuit and after raising their large knife plunged it directly into the neck of the exosuit. Sean shifted his head slightly, but the blade came slicing past his head and cut off the top portion of his ear as it stabbed directly through his cheek to embed itself in the padding behind him.

  “Suit… Emergency eject!” Sean coughed in a rasping voice and tried to focus as best as he could.

  In a loud hiss of air, the chest of the exosuit swung open and launched the Immortal perched above it flying into the opposite wall with the sudden force. The large machete remained in place quivering right next to Sean’s head.

  Sean sat up and reached over with his right arm and with a groan pulled the blade and armed himself as he painfully climbed out of the ruined exosuit.

  His left arm still hung limp and useless at his side as he bled from wounds all over his body.

  “You’re… you’re a monster…” the Immortal from the opposite wall whispered as he stared at Sean climbing out of the exosuit and took in Sean’s extensive injuries. The other Immortal was far to Sean’s right for some reason and picked something up from the ground and turned around.

  “Malketh! Malketh!” Sean’s head snapped to the side as he saw Sierra standing there at the far end of the hallway with Violet’s form clutched to the chest of his exosuit. She was wearing the same tight bodysuit that Sean had when he’d been captured and in his own sensory deprivation tank.

  Sierra turned and started running away the other way with Violet in tow.

  “Sierra! Sierra, what in Gaia are you doing?! Go help him!” Violet screamed, “Malketh, watch out!”

  Sean saw that the Immortal a dozen feet away had been picking up the machine gun for the exosuit that Sean had dropped earlier.

  “Don’t kill him,” the Immortal with the gun said to the other one,

  “But sir, this man...”

  “We’ll still kill the rest, but he knows something. He knew how to disable us, that’s important. I’m sure the boss will want to know what he knows. Now shut up and go. We’ve still got to kill the others.”

  Sean stood there shifting the machete in his hand as the Immortal stood there with the heavy machine gun pointed at him. But then the gun shifted to point at the back of Sierra’s retreating exosuit. And more importantly… Violet was half exposed as she rode high and half slumped over Sierra’s exosuits shoulder. A spray of bullets across Sierra’s back would almost certainly hit her.

  “MALKETH!” Violet screamed as Sean threw himself to the side in the path of the weapon just as it fired. Sean felt several impacts in his gut as the Immortal’s face twisted into surprise. He hit the ground and felt him sliding limply as all sensation faded from him.

  Before Sean’s body even hit the ground everything went black and he stopped breathing.

  — — —

  “Gaia damn it, Sierra! We have to go back and save him!” Violet cried as Sierra fiddled with the elevator while holding her weakly twitching form in the other.

  “We can not,” Sierra said sadly and half distracted with his work, “He is dead. He had no escape. Shot down by the Immortal’s gun before I could have made it even half the distance to him if I even tried. We must escape to honor his sacrifice.”

  “Gaia damn it, Malketh. Why…” Violet muttered as she managed a few angry and frustrated tears run down her cheeks as Sierra finally managed to call the elevator and take them back to the surface.

  Violet was carried along from the ride as Sierra fought off the soldiers blocking their way once they reached the top level. Sierra was forced to run around the base for a few minutes at high speed to escape various groups trying to attack them before their spaceship finally came roaring out of the sky to hover in the center of the nearby courtyard. With a loud click the vehicle activated its mounted miniguns and pivoted in a circle to spray fire on the three anti-air emplacements that were slowly turning back down to target it. The stations went up in flames from the gunfire and Violet saw one soldier on fire jump from the top of a tower to the ground three stories down.

  Good, she thought vindictively, these people deserve it. For what they did to my family. To me… To Malketh. They all deserved it.

  Sierra rushed into their ride and quickly shut the door and kept holding her tightly as the ship lurched upwards at high speed again.

  After a few minutes and they were fully clear from the aerial pursuit and planes that had chased after them, Sierra finally put her on the ground. Violet just lay there on the ground limply, feeling utterly exhausted. Why hadn’t Malketh just stayed behind? She’d never asked him to do anything like that for her.

  Violet felt her hands curl into fists and unconsciously grit her teeth in anger. Who in Gaia did Malketh think he was? She hadn’t asked for him to do something like that for her! Why had he done it? Why… Why had he done it? All the anger drained out of her all at once and she let out a long shaky breath of air. She had never asked him to, but he’d done it anyways. He’d chosen to jump in front of the gun instead of going forward and attacking the man with his knife. He’d saved her life.

  Why couldn’t the Jade Congress just lose for once? Why did it always have to be her losing the people she cared about while those corrupt pigs were still out there as free and happy as ever…

  Why did they get to live while people like Malketh had to die? It wasn’t fair… None of it was fair. A joke of the universe. A joke in the universe against her for daring to become friends with anyone new again after so long.