The explosion seemed slow—impossibly slow—when it appeared after Xaleyp flew the transport up several meters to hover in midair. It tore through the blast doors that blocked the path of the Emperor’s escape, ripping into the hangar and pulling crates and bodies and smaller ships into the pressure void of space left in its wake. Hardly thinking and acting by pure instinct, he piloted the transport directly into the explosion as it expanded across the hangar, using the pull of the vacuum to assist his escape. Bits of metal—as well as organic matter Xaleyp would rather not think about as human—bounced off the glass of the viewport, some leaving cracks and chips and others harmlessly spinning off to never be seen again

It was impossible for him to consciously pilot the ship through the wreckage. The chaotic nature of what was left was difficult for even the CAM to judge properly, and there were countless close calls as they flew through the gauntlet with smoke from the detonated oxygen slowly dissipating. They weaved this way and that, narrowing dodging different sheets of metal left in the aftermath of the explosion, and warnings flashed in the corner of his vision of dangerous temperatures. He kept the throttle all the way up, wanting nothing more than to get away as fast as possible from the expanding blast zone. Eve clung to the seat next to him, her nails digging into the plush armrest and holding her breath, with a forced neutral expression on her face.

Going left, right, right again, up, down, left again in quick succession allowed him no chance to second guess his piloting, relying mostly on luck rather than skill to get them through and out. He saw only two possible outcomes: Make it out in one piece, or go out in a blaze as he misjudged their path through the wreckage.

And somehow, against all odds, they made it, pushing through one last patch of metal debris before appearing in open space and immediately being hailed by the Starkiller.

‟Unknown transport, power down your engines and prepare to be seized,” the voice of Ardus Kaine said through the Helios-One’s speakers over the common channel.

‟Ardus, it’s us,” Xaleyp said, breathing a sigh of relief at hearing the man’s voice. ‟Xaleyp and Eve, and we have Seth and Maxwell and the sword.”

There was silence at the words, giving Xaleyp and Eve time to survey what was left of the battlefield above Arcadia. All three of the Hyperion frigates were left nothing more than fields of debris, their parts slowly floating away as the gravity well of the planet pulled them as a sort of set of artificial rings to join the natural ones. The Siatian vessels looked worse for wear—particularly one of the cruiser escorts—but the Starkiller was in good shape with fighters and bombers still circling as they awaited clearance to return to the hangar.

‟Xaleyp, it’s good to hear your voice, and I’m glad you survived,” Ardus said, though the tone of his voice seemed to have the opposite feeling behind it. ‟Please get to the hangar as soon as possible. There’s been another interesting development, and there is much for us to discuss.”

Xaleyp didn’t respond, instead setting the transport to autopilot and sitting back, happy to have a moment for his body to finally relax after the last adrenaline pumping fifteen minutes. He suddenly felt exhausted, as if he had just been running in a marathon for the last few hours and the finish line was just ahead of him. Eve appeared to be feeling the same, running her fingers through her hair and spinning the seat around to stare towards the back of the transport.

‟I can’t believe we fucking made it out of that mess,” she said, her hands behind her head and elbows sticking straight out. Xaleyp saw, despite her calm voice, her entire body was shaking in the seat. She chuckled in spite of herself, her breathing coming fast but slowly steadying, and she lightly spun the chair back in forth in small arcs. ‟That was some seriously damn good flying there, Xaleyp. There is no way we would have made it out of there if it weren’t for you.”

‟Don’t mention it.”

Xaleyp dismissed the compliment with a wave of his hand, knowing full well two things: First, it was hardly because of him that they got out and more blind luck than anything else. Second, no matter what they did or who they were, hundreds of people were now dead because of him and his actions. That chilling voice of the Arcadian soldier in the sewer just a couple months ago came back once more to haunt him: How many people were going to die before he got what he wanted? How many people was he going to step on just because they happened to get in his way? Would he know when to stop, how many was too many, before it was too late? Part of him, however, knew if he was having to ask himself that question, it was already too late.

In the back of the transport, Seth quietly stirred, trying to find some way of releasing his straps to no avail. His hand was still bleeding, though the blood already covering the spot his finger once lived coagulated somewhat and turned to a dark red, almost black. Maxwell, on the other hand, was still unconscious, sitting exactly as Xaleyp had left him with his head lolled to one side and his mouth open, a small amount of drool hanging from his lower lip. The sword still lay abandoned in the corner where Eve had tossed it, a narrow rut of melted and cooled metal laying in the path it took when it skidded to a stop.

Even from this distance, Xaleyp still felt he could hear the voices emanating from it, calling out to him, begging and commanding him to wield it. With a great amount of willpower, he pushed them away. There were more important things to worry about.

In front of them, the Starkiller rapidly approached, the runway cleared of other fighters for them to enter without delay. As they neared it, the autopilot decelerated, allowing inertia to carry them in until the drone latched onto the front of the transport and guide it into the lift with a brief fire of its retroburners. The lift descended at once, revealing the interior of the hangar which, with the battle being over and won, had a mere fraction of the activity as it did previously.

As the transport made its way across the room, guided by the autonomous drones, Xaleyp saw Ardus standing by the doors leading out of the hangar, his hands loosely folded behind his back and rocking on the soles of his feet. There was a look of mild discomfort on his face as he stared at the Helios-One. Behind him was a group of Siatian soldiers, getting ready to secure the prisoners when the transport stopped.

It came to a rest several meters away from the group, and Ardus strolled forward, taking carefully measured steps, as a technician opened the door. Eve stood first, her legs shaking somewhat, and looked to Xaleyp, who was staring at the sword laying dormant.

If Maxwell could made it shoot fire and arc lightning as if it were as simple as breathing, what other mysteries did it hold? As far as he knew, he was the only one left in the galaxy capable of hearing the voices, not even mentioning being able the sword to its potential of stopping Ciovyr, some alien race from another galaxy. But just what else could it do when it already seemed to behave as some sort of magical device? If only he could withstand the whispering and shouting of the voices, maybe he would be able to uncover a fraction of its secrets for himself.

A hand on his shoulder gently pulling him out of the seat brought him back to reality—or rather, that version of it. Eve looked at him with a somewhat confused mixed with concerned look in her eye, and Xaleyp remembered just how little she knew about the sword. If only she could hear the voices, knew what it was like to feel the pure, unadulterated power flowing through her, she would understand how he felt.

Ardus snapped his fingers as the group approached the transport and pointed to the two sitting in the back of the ship, both still pushing against their restraints. The guards immediately entered, keeping their rifles aimed at them as each was released and bonded with metal shackles.

‟Seth Drake, Emperor of Hyperia,” Ardus said, relishing in the moment, ‟you are hereby under arrest for war crimes and treason under the Siatian Concord. Guards, escort them both to solitary confinement while I talk with our hero. Oh, and please bring the sword to my personal chambers. I wish to study it a little more closely when I get the chance.”

He smiled and opened his arms wide as the two were dragged—Seth kicked and screamed the entire way, lashing out at his captors, while Max remained silent—out of the hangar. Another guard climbed out of the transport carrying the sword with the hilt in one hand and the blade in the other, looking at it as if it were a live creature. Eve glared at the Acusiont, crossing her arms and staring at him not unlike the bedyr on the barge Xaleyp took into Eredhen. Ardus, on the other hand, seemed not to notice and looked only at Xaleyp, though his smile did fade once the ruckus died down and the pair stepped off the transport.

‟Now, for a little bit of some unpleasant business,” he said, hesitantly wrapping his arm around Xaleyp’s shoulders and guiding him forward. ‟During the entire matter with the battle against the Hyperions, we detected a hyperspace jump into the Vortau system. Shortly after, we received a message from Siatia that Tober Delargivic managed to escape his confinement and snuck in amid the confusion of the conflict.”

‟You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Eve shouted from behind them, stealing the words from Xaleyp’s mouth. ‟All that effort that we put into making sure he was captured, losing half our squad in Nevermoor Hold to get us to that point, and you lose him in a few months? Let me guess, now you want us to go back into Arcadia and arrest him again before word gets out he escaped, right?”

‟Actually, Evangeline, I already have a team moving in to secure him at his palace just outside of New Alexandria. We should be receiving an update from them shortly, and securing the orbital space around Arcadia was a vital part of ensuring his recapture. It is thanks to the work of you and Xaleyp that we are at this stage of Siatia’s goal, and it shall not be forgotten.”

Ardus bowed his head towards Eve, who continued to glare at him out of the corner of her eye. To Xaleyp, it all felt a little too coincidental with Tober managing to escape just at the right moment to be able to sneak in under the cover of the battle. Something with what Ardus was telling them didn’t seem to be adding up, but he pushed the thought out of his mind.

‟How was Tober even able to escape, Ardus?” Xaleyp asked, keeping in step with the man. ‟I thought you said you had him locked up in one of the most secure prisons on Siatia.”

‟We did, or at least, so we thought,” he said, leading the pair of them out of the hangar and gesturing down the hall towards the lift. ‟I have suspicions that there is a guard who helped him escape, but, being so far away, I haven’t been able to get all of the information yet. As far as I know, the commandant in charge of the prison may have already found the root of the problem and solved it. There’s nothing I can do now except wait for another report or spend the two weeks traveling there to find out in person, which I’d rather not do given that there are more pressing concerns here, what with Tober being on the planet.”

They stopped in front of the lift, neither of them saying anything until the door opened, at which point Ardus entered and turned to face them.

‟But, for now, you two are free to do what you wish with your downtime until I send you a message with an update. Thank you, again, for both of your service, and I will ensure that you are given proper accolades for your bravery.”

The door slid shut before either of them could answer, leaving them alone in the hallway. Eve immediately turned to Xaleyp, her face mostly stoic save for her eyes, which had a look of utter amusement.

‟That is the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard,” she said, her voice faltering as she tried not to laugh. ‟Am I the only one who didn’t believe a single word that asshole was saying?”

Before Xaleyp had the chance to answer, a voice called out from behind them at the opposite end of the hallway.

‟Xaleyp, could that possibly be you?” the somewhat familiar voice of Oliver Sudden asked. He half jogged, half walked down the hall to meet them, holding his hand out in greeting. Not much had changed in his appearance since the last time Xaleyp saw him at Vertyn, though his jet black hair was now cropped short to his head and had a thin streak of dark blue running in a spiral pattern around the top. He wore one of the navy blue technician uniforms and held a datapad in a tight grip at his waist. ‟It has been several months since the last time we were acquainted, and I thought you might have perished during the Arcadian attack at Vertyn.”

‟Oliver, it’s nice to see you again.” Xaleyp moved forward and clasped Oliver’s wrist, and the other man did the same. After, he took a step back, looking him up and down as if seeing him for the first time in a year—which, it had almost been. ‟Don’t take this the wrong way, but how the hell did you end up here on the Starkiller?”

‟Oh, it is a rather dull anecdote, and I do not know if you would find all that entertaining, particularly to someone that I have never met before.”

As he finished the sentence, he glanced at Eve, his cheeks turning slightly red as his gaze shifted again, this time to the floor near her feet. She looked at Xaleyp with a somewhat bemused but skeptical look, one that told him that she wasn’t entirely sure what she was about to get into.

‟Oliver, this is Eve Plenskach, a friend I met from Siatia. Eve, this is Oliver Sudden, one of my best friends from my childhood before the Hyperions kidnapped me.” They exchanged pleasantries for a brief moment before Xaleyp continued speaking. ‟So, now that we all know each other, how did you end up here?”

‟Well, after the Arcadians came, they ferried some of us from Vertyn and sent us to different parts of their new empire, with the more scientifically inclined of us transported to Arcadia itself. I found myself in a laboratory with some of the most advanced equipment I had ever seen.” Oliver’s eyes lit up as he talked about it, seeming to reminisce for a moment before he shook his head and returned to the present. ‟Anyway, I was there for a few months when I heard about some assault on some Nevermoor Hold by terrorists, then the next thing I knew, Ardus Kaine was recruiting scientists to make weaponry for Siatia and I happened to be one of them.”

Xaleyp felt a horrible pit rising in his stomach as he realized the implications of what Oliver had said. Ardus had known the Siatian Concord would be passed and pave the way for him to instate the Vanguard Ascendancy as the police force of the galaxy, and he wanted to make just he had the weapons to enforce it. That must have been why he was hiding the true nature of the mission at Nevermoor Hold from Xaleyp, to keep him from getting suspicious. And if Ardus was willing to keep that a secret, what else was he concealing?

After several seconds of being lost in his own thoughts, Xaleyp looked up to see the other two were staring at him with peculiar expressions.

‟Are you having another fit or something?” Eve asked, her voice gentle and quiet.

‟No, I just realized something,” Xaleyp said, his throat suddenly draw and unable to from the words properly. He cleared his throat and looked around to make sure the hallway was empty before putting his arm on Eve’s back and guiding her forward, beginning to walk away. ‟It was great to see you again, Oliver, but we have to go find Mian, one of our other friends.”

‟Mian?” Oliver cocked his head to one side as if trying to recall some bit of almost forgotten information. ‟I overheard some of the other crew say something about finding someone named Mian and bringing her to the medical bay.”