“Get away from him!”

I'd know that voice, those words, anywhere. I darted out to charge the Companion.

“Valrea, wait. She gave us your medicine, remember?”

“My medicine?” Fury raged through me, a pale shadow of the flames that had tortured me. “It's not medicine, it's what she drugged me with, addicted me to.

I whirled to face Geir.

“You said it wasn't my fault? Who else should be responsible except the thing who gave them to me?” I shook, my hands curling into claws to tear the hated mask away. All the words, the bile, the hatred, and pain spilled out of me in an unstoppable flow.

“It made me wait until I begged, never, never told me why.”

The Companion just stood there.

“I am sorry,” it finally said.

I stopped, the words like a bomb.

Of all the things the Companion had done to me over the years, for me, it had never apologized.

“I still don't understand.”

Raising its arm, I saw that it held Geir’s knife.

“I retrieved this for you. You should come with me. There is still much to learn.”

Geir grabbed the blade from its hand. “Why are you helping us?”

“Because I am finally able to,” was the surprising answer.

“All right,” Geir said. “Let’s blow the lab, then get that shuttle.”

I shook my head. “We've got to save Tianna first. And I can't leave my sister,” I pleaded.

The Companion ignored us both. “There is someone else you need to see. I will not ask you to trust me. But you should.”

Geir and I exchanged long looks.

The Companion had given him the pills I needed to stop the withdrawal. Had brought his knife.

But still, trust was a long way away.

“Where we are going, there are a number of guards,” the Companion stated flatly. “They will need to be killed or disabled without raising alarm. I understand that you should be able to do that. Is that correct?”

Geir laughed. “Depends on how many we’re talking about, but yeah, kind of what I'm built for. But I'm not bringing Valrea into a fight.”

The Companion nodded. “I am capable of protecting Val.”

I didn't trust it. But it didn't seem like we had many alternatives.

Carefully the three of us passed back through the prison.

I wondered if Tianna was in one of the cells, or was she already in the cage. Would we be able to save her?

Even if she had betrayed us, she would not have had any choice. No one here ever did.

The Companion led us through sections of the hall that I didn't know existed.

“How did you know this was here?” I whispered. “I've never seen it.”

“I was here when it was built.”

Once again, its reply didn't answer any of my questions, just brought up new ones.

Finally, it raised a hand for us to stop before the hallway we passed through opened into a wide, high-ceilinged open room.

Geir slid from behind me to look over its shoulder.

“Do you see?” The question was so soft I could almost have imagined it. “Four. And two more above in the balcony, there and there.”

Geir nodded. “A lot of resources to put on one door. What's behind it?”

“Who.”

He shrugged. “With different levels, it’ll take me a minute to get all of them. How fast will they call for backup?”

“I can block their signal, but only for a short time. In me, it was an imperfect adaptation.”

Geir didn't seem surprised, just nodded. “Keep Valrea safe.”

“That has always been my goal.”

He spun, crushed me to him, his lips devouring mine. “Always good to give someone something to look forward to,” he grinned and then leaped to the attack.

From the shadows I watched as he tore through the guards, the knife blade blurring into a fan of silver and crimson as it sliced through the enemy.

The first three were down before the others even noticed.

One raised his blaster to Geir’s back as he gracefully sliced through the throat of the last guard on the ground floor.

Heart in my throat, I stepped forward to warn him, but the Companion pulled me back.

“He is skilled at this. Do not distract him.”

I glared at it, but with uncanny grace Geir spun, using the dead guard’s own weapon against the attacker, then sprang up to the balcony to deal with the two snipers above.

Next to me the Companion stumbled, fell to its knees.

“What's wrong?” I asked.

Surely, the flicker of worry was that it claimed to be our safeguard, our guide. I couldn't, wouldn't care about the Companion.

“My ability to block their signal causes pain. I will not be able to hold it for much longer.”

Pain. For all the years, I had never thought, never considered that the Companion could feel pain.

“Lean on me,” I said roughly, pulling it up and wrapping my arm around its waist to support it.

“If a call for backup did go through, we’re going to have to move quickly.”

In the seconds it took Geir to finish with the guards, I realized how startlingly close in size and build the Companion and I were.

I'd always thought of it as a giant, looming over me. And once, almost too long ago to remember, a safe, comforting presence, a bulwark against the dark.

Geir loped up, the dark smile on his face distracting me from old memories. “I've been wanting to do that for a while. Where do we go next?”

The Companion rested its arm loosely on my shoulder as we crossed the blood splashed chamber to reach the door.

Unsurprisingly, it was locked by a palm plate.

“I don't have Tianna's tablet anymore; how are we going to get in?”

The Companion placed its hand on the lock. “I have come here often. The guards were used to me, but your presence would have been difficult to explain.”

I glanced back at the bodies of the guards.

It was hard to feel sympathy for them. They'd been part of father's loyal cadre, his weapons against the rest of the compound.

But I felt something. They were dead simply because we would've been difficult to explain.

The door slid back, drawing my attention back to what lay ahead.

The Companion stepped through without waiting for us.

“I have brought them, as you requested. Now you will finish helping me?”

“Of course, child, I always pay my debts.”

An old woman's voice, hoarse and cracked. Not one I recognized, but Geir stood rooted to the floor, for the first time I'd seen him completely at a loss.

“What is it?” I whispered, ready to run, hide from whatever horror the room concealed.

But he didn't hear me, just stepped into the room, eyes wide and staring.

“Doc?”

* * *

A vast laboratory. Vials and beakers, consoles. Row upon row of giant tanks.

But nothing seemed to be running. The tanks sat empty, disused, and a light film of dust covered it all.

This wasn’t what I’d searched for, the laboratory where I’d been made.

Geir stopped, facing a tiny, elderly woman. Her head barely came to his chest, her hands pressed into the cheeks of her wrinkled lined face and her eyes shone with a film of tears.

“Oh, my brilliant boys. I didn't believe him when he said he'd captured you.”

“You were dead.” His words echoed softly through the room.

“No.” She stepped forward, but he stepped back, maintaining the distance between them. “It was a failed body from an old experiment, one I'd kept in reserve for years, in case I need to throw someone off the scent.” She dashed away a rogue tear. “But like everything else lately, it didn’t do me any good. The Hunters found my hiding space, and all my decoy achieved was to make sure you boys didn’t come after me.”

She thrust her hands into the pockets of her coat. “I was content with that, thought you'd all stay safe.”

Geir’s laugh was more of a bark. I went to his side, wrapped his icy hand with both of mine. Whoever this woman was, it was killing him to see her here.

“Safe. We’re a long way from safe, Doc. But I don't even care about any of that right now. I want to know what you had to do with this.”

The old woman frowned. “Had to do with this? I took jobs for Melchior from time to time. His scientists and I collaborated on some projects. Knew he was always looking for gene shapers.”

“Did you build the Hunters?” The low threat under Geir’s words raised prickles up my neck.

“Course I didn't, sloppy work.”

“Did you clone Valrea?” he hissed. “Have anything to do with what they've done to her?”

“No.” Her keen eyes flashed between us as she shook her head. “I knew nothing about it. Could've told him it wouldn’t work.”

“And it was wrong,” Geir insisted.

The Companion stepped forward. “You do not understand. She is helping.”

“Helping who? How?” This woman looked just as much of a prisoner as I had ever been.

“Helping me.” The Companion raised its hands to its covering dome.

“Sure that’s a good idea?” The old woman questioned but she hurried around to the Companion’s side to assist anyway.

“She needs to understand.”

The release of the seal sounded like a sigh, and slowly Doc exposed the Companion's face.

One bright eye regarded me warily, the other lost in a mass of scars.

Shaved russet hair. A face, though distorted by pain and age, was still recognizable.

Mine.

“You always asked why you were being punished,” the woman said as I clung to Geir’s arm for support, my knees suddenly weak.

“I couldn't answer before, the compulsions our father programmed into me were too strong.”

The Companion turned slightly so I could see the wires leading in and out from the back of her shaved head, running down into a long thin shell that still clung to her spine like an obscenely large beetle.

“Doc has been helping.”

“It was a crappy job.” The old woman glanced up at Geir. “And it was ethically wrong. Never thought you'd hear me say that, did you?”

Her words were a distant murmur as I stared at the Companion, transfixed.

“Your punishments weren't for you,” she continued. “He only thought of it as how they would wound me more.”

“I don't understand. I was there,” I cried. “They happened to me.”

She closed her eye and I was grateful to be relieved of its ruined gaze.

“I know. But he didn't think of it that way. He knew every time you, any of our sisters were hurt, it hurt me. And he knew I could do nothing to stop it. Could do nothing to warn you, nothing to save you.”

Her fists clenched. “You had to find your own way out.”

“That's why you gave her the stories, isn't it?” Geir asked.

I looked up at him, shocked. “The fairytales?”

“I am glad your prince can do more than just fight,” the Companion answered. “I wanted you to look for allies. To know your own strength. To know someone was always watching out for you, even when you couldn't see them. Even when it seemed like you were alone and lost. Our father thought it was nonsense, just a teaching tool.”

Warmth cracked my chest, loosening the steel grip of my breath. “What was - no - what is your name?”

“I was the first Valrea, of course. But why don't you call me Rhea instead?” It's lips - her lips - twisted into a hopeful smile. “If you'd like to.”

I couldn't look away, couldn't keep my feet from bringing me closer, slow step by step towards her. “Rhea. I really have a sister.”

* * *

Later we sat side-by-side on the small cot that had been set up for Doc.

“I wanted nothing to do with our father's rebellion. He'd abandoned our mother, only later when he began to dream of the Empire did he think about the uses of a daughter. A reward to bestow, a rallying point.”

Her voice was thick with disdain. “I already hated him for leaving our mother to die, poor and sick in a port town slum. He was determined before, but when they came back after the accident on the Star, I think he was mad.”

Geir interrupted. “What happened on the Star? What interrupted his plan?”

“When the General’s rebellion started, during the attack, they lost pressure.

He nodded. “Meteorite storm. Looked like it caused serious damage to parts of the ship.”

“He truly believes it is his destiny to conquer the Empire, bring it back to a path of righteousness. But just after the uprising, in what should have been his moment of triumph, they were hit. As he took the new symbol of the unified Empire for his own use, it nearly killed him. I don’t think he handled the irony well.”

Void. I’d never known what had happened to our father. He’d always been in the medchamber. It was just how he was. The rattles and squishing noises had terrified me when I was little.

“He's tried experimental procedures for years, both to build stronger soldiers and attempt to rebuild his own body. All along, he had fixed on the idea of having his daughter at his side. And refused to give up.”

“He’s sick.” Doc shook her head. “I'm sure there's fancier, medical terms we could come up with. But he's sick.”

“I don't care,” I insisted, clutching Rhea’s hand. “He's a monster. We have to stop him.”

Geir leaned back against a console, eyes fixed over my head, calculating. “That may take more people than we have. Believe it or not, this was supposed to be a simple scouting mission. Not that I'm arguing with how things are turning out.” He flashed a grin at me.

“But the smart thing to do would be to get the codes for the dome and get out Then the Pack together could handle him.”

“But we don't have the codes anymore,” I argued. “Even if we still had Tianna's tablet, they know she was helping us. They would be idiots not to change every code in the place.”

He slammed his hand into the workbench. “Void take it. You're right. Doc, Rhea, do either of you have access to the systems?”

“Geir, it's not just the Pack against the world. Other people have been hurt, and they can help.”

“How do you think you're going to find them here? Doc isn't exactly known for her friendly personality. I don’t think she’s made a lot of friends since she arrived.”

“I can see that.”

He pressed on. “And the Companion, sorry, Rhea, hasn’t had a chance to make alliances, I'm guessing for a long time.”

Rhea tilted her head to the side. “That is true.”

I refused to give up. “Abril said not everyone turned away when she was taken. There's a small city’s worth of people out there, and a lot of them are tired of being intimidated. They’d fight if we told them how.”

“How do you expect to figure out who's who? You're the one who told me that people are afraid to talk, afraid that whoever they confide in will turn out to be a member of the General’s cadre.”

“We’ll ask Abril. She has as much to lose as anyone.” I thought of Tianna, trapped in the cage. “Maybe more than most. She'll remember who was there when she was taken. What their faces revealed.”

Rhea rose to her feet, reached for the helmet. “I need to get back to the child soon. She'll be waking in a few hours, asking for her morning stories.”

My voice broke. “What do you call her?”

“He calls her Valrea, of course. Recently I have allowed myself hope and decided to name her from the age of the fairytales.”

A triumphant smile transformed her ravaged face, made her beautiful.

“I call her Vicki.”

She settled the dome on her shoulders and resealed it.

“Victoria.”

Geir rose with her. “We can't stay here. If they don’t know we’ve escaped our cell yet, it won’t be much longer.

“Since I'm assuming you haven't tidied away the bodies yet, shortly they'll know I've been discovered as well, said Doc.

Geir looked at me, nodded, and I knew I’d won. “If we're going to figure out a plan, we need a new base of operations.”

“I may be able to assist with that,” Rhea said. “Doc, is there anything you wish to take from this place?”

“Never was much of one for mementos,” the old woman answered. “Lead on.”

As we followed Rhea through the lower levels of the Hall, Geir asked Doc, “What are you doing here anyway? What did he want with you?”

“The old goats been trying to get me here for years,” she muttered. “Realized that the gene shapers he had on staff weren't up to the job. It was fine taking his money, but I didn't feel the need to work any closer to him.”

“Connor said you told him you were building an army.” Geir voice sounded strained.

“Fools make it too easy,” she scoffed. “Not my fault he wanted to believe in the impossible.”

His response sounded private, so I tried not to listen.

“Rhea,” I whispered. “Where are we going?”

“Long ago, before I wore this mask, one of the original engineers courted me. His name was Thrace. I doubt if anyone else remembers that.” She pressed her lips together. “Father had him killed, of course. He wasn't a useful enough of a tool to win me as a prize.”

She turned into what looked like a dead-end hall, but when she removed her glove and slid it into one of the tiles I realized it was simply a very good hologram concealing a palm lock.

“Of course, it will trigger for you as well.” The wall opened, and we stepped into Rhea’s memories.

Two chairs turned towards each other, as if the occupants had just gotten up mid-conversation. A desk stood against one wall, covered with journals.

I didn't have to look to know that I would recognize the handwriting.

“He wanted me to run away with him. But the first child was already growing in the tanks. I couldn't leave her. It was a most effective tether.” She rested her hand on the back of the chair. “This chamber was in the original plans for the Compound, but father had no use for it. Thrace repurposed it as a hideaway for us.”

Racks of shelves holding boxes stretched away into the depth of the chamber. Doc wandered off to explore.

“Does Stanton know?”

Rhea shook her head. “He’s a newcomer. Father recruits and collects disaffected imperial agents like toys. Only Father and I know all the secrets here, and he chooses to lose himself in dreams of future glory.”

She replaced her glove, and clad in black wore the disguise of the Companion once more.

“At the end of the tunnel, you'll find yourself outside of the dome. In one of the boxes, I haven't looked for decades, there are scatter cloaks. I have not kept up with the technology enough to know if they are still effective against father’s satellites. But this is the best I can do.”

“It's wonderful.” I hugged her. She stiffened and then relaxed in my arms. “You stayed. You could've escaped anytime.”

She cupped my cheek with her hand. “I would never have left you.”

Doc returned as Rhea sealed the door behind her. “There's a bed back there. Hasn’t been touched in years from the look of it, but it’s clean. You youngsters should rest up.”

My face heated. “Oh, that's quite all right. That cot in the lab back there certainly didn't look comfortable. Shouldn’t you get some sleep?”

She snorted. “I'm old. No time to sleep. I better run inventory, see what we have to work with here.”

Doc turned away to the boxes stacked against the wall. “Don't worry dear, she called over her shoulder. I didn't upgrade my own hearing.”

Geir’s face was stony.

“What did she mean by that?”

“Never mind. Come on.”

The room went on past where I could see, divided into sections by rows and rows of shelves. We turned a corner and I gasped.

“They’re real,” I breathed. “Actual books, not just files.”

“Well, I know what to get you when you’re mad at me,” Geir joked, watching me stroke the covers.

When I tore myself away from the books, we went further back until we found the nook that had been turned into a bedroom. I stared at the bed. Not a brocaded dais, draped with curtains and piled with lush pillows, from the fantasy world of the stories. Plain, with a carved wooden headboard, deep burgundy cover, faded with time. Solid. Real.

“Do you think she loved him? The engineer?” I whispered.

“From the way she said his name,” Geir’s reply was just as quiet. “Yeah. I think she probably did.”

I leaned against him, still unwilling to trespass into what had been their haven.

“How can one man destroy so much?”

“I don't know. But I do know that you need rest.” He lifted me. “And that your sister would agree with me.”

“We need to plan,” I protested. “Tianna’s time is running out, and we still don’t have the new codes, and…”

I realized how exhausted I was. It had only been hours since we had stumbled into Stanton's trap, but it felt like days.

Geir lay down beside me on top of the sheets. “And making plans while we’re tired is a good way to screw up.”

Rolling to face him, I pillowed my head on his arm. “When I wake, we’ll find a way to make him pay, right?”

“I promise.”