They’d waited.

She sighed in relief, knowing it was no doubt Ian Krane’s doing. The humongous, spherical starship they meant to use as a weapon just so happened to be ready right when she awoke. Having another seer in her corner rocked.

The Wise all went on board, unwilling to miss their moment of triumph.

“Nalini, dear, you’re certain you’re well enough?” Kovak asked sweetly.

She smiled and nodded. “I want to see it. I was kidnapped. I want to see it burn.”

Lie and truth, all wrapped in one, presented with a pretty bow.

“Very well.” Kovak patted her hand.

She wasn’t allowed on the deck here. These people meant to coddle her and treat her like a small, breakable object, even after making her indestructible. She had a hard time not rolling her eyes, although being away from them, and mostly left alone with just two guards, certainly served her purpose.

Feeling that the ship had exited light speed, she moved, quiet, efficient, lethal. Two flips of her wrists, and the guards fell, necks snapped. She moved the bodies into her room, and was on her way.

Nalini had two missions. One of them she took from their book.

It was handy to have a traitor aboard, when one wanted to mess with your shields.

«We’ve arrived in the sector. I don’t have the coordinates yet, bear with me,» she informed Kai.

She encountered a few enforcers, none of which paid her any mind. Being underestimated at every turn did, in fact, help.

She got to a computer and pulled up the information she needed, sending it to Kai.

«Got it. Just find a transport and get out of there. Come to me,» he commanded.

«Not yet. We don’t know how strong their shield is, but I’d put my money on very. Let me mess with it.»

«Nalini…»

«And I need to find Krane. I’m not sure he knows we mean to blow this joint.»

Kai swore. Then he was resigned, knowing arguing would have been pointless. «Alright. Hurry, and confirm when you’re out of there. We’re coming.»

She knew the moment they’d jumped to their location; it helped her locate the source of the weapon’s shield, as the Wise engaged them as soon as the Dominion appeared on their radar.

Following the source of the energy, she ran. It might have been the Imperial uniform she wore, or the Wise orders, but no one stopped her. Finally, she opened a door, and…

The shot should have killed her. Would have the day before. It was precise. Went right through her heart.

«Nalini.» Kai’s tone was urgent.

Kovak laughed. “You’re good, sweetheart. I’ll give you that.”

Nalini coughed her guts up, struggling to breathe, to stay awake. Tears streamed down her face.

“Just not good enough.”

The kicks started, hard, on her flank.

“Did you really think you could fool me? I’m a thousand, three hundred years old. I was there when you and that filthy shit tried to seize the power the first time. I saw your eyes then. I see them now.”

Another kick, this time breaking her nose.

«Nalini!» Kai screamed helplessly through their bond.

She wanted to tell him she was there still. Holding on. Alive, for now. But any communication now might make things worse. He’d remember her words. Her last words.

Kovak lifted her blaster again and took aim.

A blast fired. Nalini looked death in the eyes.

Kovak fell back, shocked, one word on her lips. “You…”

Following the direction where the Wise stared, Nalini turned her head and saw a tall figure. A wolf. Salt and pepper hair.

“Me, you piece of shit. Guess you should have looked at my eyes.”

Kovak wasn’t dead; the nanocytes inside her body had started to heal her, just like they healed Nalini, so she’d expected Ian to shoot her again. Wanted him to.

He did no such thing. No, Ian was too much of a sadistic motherfucker for that.

“Nox. Take care of her, will you?”

Nox was no dog, he didn’t take orders, unless he felt like it. Right now, he did.

The wolf pounced on the woman’s head and ripped out her throat.

Okay. She’d needed killing, badly, but Nalini was going to throw up nonetheless.

She needed to do one thing. Immediately. Focusing took some effort, but she managed. «I’m alive. Krane. Krane came through.

«Fuck. Don’t you ever do that again.»

«Don’t plan to.»

“Trust me when I say she deserved worse, kiddo,” Ian said, moving to the control platform at the middle of the room, disabling the shield. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. I need you to stay with me, long enough to tell your mate you’re out of here in a few, okay? Then you can pass out.”

The old male picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder.

“Okay? Stay awake, stay awake, stay awake,” he chanted. “Want me to sing? My singing is terrible. Should keep you conscious. Don’t answer that. Talking would hurt like hell right now.”

He spoke to her all the way to the escape pod, making her wish laughing wasn’t so damn painful.

“We’re out.”

She repeated the information to Kai, and immediately he deployed his fighters. She saw it through the small window.

It wouldn’t be enough against this machine. She knew just what it needed. «Where are you?»

He answered immediately. «The bridge. I’m not fighting. I need to see you.»

Krane directed the escape pod inside the Dominion and held her up, half carrying her.

“The bridge. I need—”

“Sleep. You need to sleep it off. Trust me on this.”

“Kai. I need…”

Fast steps approached, and there he was, right in front of her, holding her in his arms; although it hurt, she pulled him tight, crying against his chest. She’d almost died. She’d almost lost him.

“Never. You’ll never lose me. I thought you’d get that by now. I’d die along with you, and we’d meet again.”

“Let’s just not do that, though,” she begged through her tears.

“Seconding that request,” Krane supplied.

Both she and Kai turned to him. Kai put one hand on his shoulder, and Nalini took his arm.

“Dude, tell me we’re not doing hugs,” Krane sighed. “I can’t deal with it. Don’t even have tissues.”

He wasn’t one to show affection. Feeling it, however….

All of a sudden, the veil was lifted, revealing what he’d hidden behind his wall.

“You were my father,” she said.

Or he had been, at the very beginning, when she was Darkness’ male Light. And perhaps he still was her father, in all the ways that mattered. She saw Krane tapping her shoulder in another life, when she’d inhabited another body. “Don’t you take a break, boy!” He’d said that so many times.

Krane lost his smile.

“No. No, the last time you saw me, in the shell I gave you, you told me I wasn’t. You told me I was nothing to you. You were right to do so.” The old male sighed. “I voted to kill the love of your life. I knew she was too dangerous. I just couldn’t see past the fear. Took me a while to get past it. Took seeing my son die because of me.”

Struggling to move, but needing to, she pulled away from Kai and wrapped her arms around her father, old, buried love coming through in waves.

“A thousand years. A thousand years, you plotted to get me back safe. Exiling yourself. The Nova, those who gave birth to me, gave me away. They had no choice, of course, but when I was five, they had another daughter. A replacement without magic. Then, they stopped visiting at all, pretending I was dead. I truly believed I had no family. But my father was there all along. With my mate, then with me.”

He awkwardly wrapped his arms around her, and the rest of the world disappeared. Everything, except her father and Kai.

For a second, anyway.

Her heart well on its way to healing, she pulled at both of the males’ sleeves. “Come on. We need to destroy that piece of junk.”

“There’s hundreds of fighters doing just that,” Krane reminded her.

She turned to Kai. “Call them back.”

Not questioning it, he gave the order through his comm. Through the translucent energy door leading out, she saw their ships returning to them.

“Get out of the hangar, and open the door from the command platform once you’re safely in the contained zone,” she instructed Krane.

Her father felt compelled to point out, “This is a doorway leading to space. You will get pulled out and die in the cold, dark elements, in endless agony.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Dramatic much? Open the damn door.”

Krane gave up, muttering as he did what he was told.

She pushed to her tiptoes, kissing Kai, as the energy door opened. They needed no words; not after all this. They were one single mind. Their feet remained planted on the floor, their power anchoring them, and protecting them.

“I love you more than life itself. You’re destruction. Darkness. Do what you do best.”

She put her hands on either side of his head and surrendered all of her power to him.

Kai lifted his hand and smirked as golden strands of energy manifested, dancing out of his sleeve. They were quite beautiful, really. They gathered in one small ball in his palm. He pushed it out at full speed, straining a little as it transcended space, dividing to avoid their ships, then reforming and growing exponentially.

It hit the large, round, luminous Imperial StarX at full speed, and the skies were alight as thousands of souls perished, blown to pieces, just like she’d seen they would, long ago.

How stupid of her, thinking it had been an actual star.

Her hand was in Kai’s, and she smiled, glad those beasts were gone.

She was Light, not a freaking saint.