The camera feed went dark as the door of the starfighter slid closed. Xaleyp continued staring at the blank screen for several moments, unsure of how exactly to feel. Part of him was glad that Tober Delargivic was again in Siatian custody, if for no other reason than it meant he was that much closer to getting revenge for Lina, to getting to see his parents again. Another part, however, wrestled with the idea of if this was actually the right thing to do, if Delargivic actually deserved whatever fate Ardus had in store for him. Then he remembered what happened in Avalon, what happened in New Alexandria, the way he delighted in firenanite being used so freely.

So maybe he did deserve this. After all, he was so quick to toss away other people’s lives without a second thought, why should any consideration be made for his own?

A piercing feeling came to Xaleyp’s stomach at the notion. He had led so many people to their deaths himself, was he really any better? Hudson, Adric, and Crowley, Colonel Diaspora and all of the other God’s Machine soldiers at Nevermoor Hold, even—his insides squirmed, and he thought he would vomit at the idea—Lina died because of him. Could he really consider himself that much better than Tober when he was just as likely to leave a trail of bodies in his wake to get what he wanted, consequences be damned?

A hand on Xaleyp’s shoulder brought him back to reality after several minutes of silence. He turned and saw Ardus standing there, a passive expression on his face.

‟Shall we go to the hangar and await the arrival of the transport?”

Xaleyp made of a noise of consent and followed Ardus to the lift with Eve close behind. The hallways felt like a blur as they made their way back to the hangar for the third time in just a couple hours of a day that felt like an eternity. It was hard to believe that earlier that same day Ardus took him off Arcadia, he fought and captured Seth Drake, and now Tober Delargivic escaped and was recaptured. Just thinking about it caused his eyelids to feel a thousand times heavier, and he struggled to keep them open as they entered the hangar. From elsewhere in the Starkiller, he heard his bed calling out to him, beckoing him forth.

A wall of noise slammed into them as the doors slid open and revealed the interior. Technicians still scurried around the room, checking and rechecking the assortment of different transports and fighters in the hangar. At the other end of the bay, the Helios-Two dropship was just coming down the lift he had taken many times already.

As they approached, led by Ardus, the door slid open to reveal Strategos Warwick standing next to the other two soldiers and trooper Gareth, whose visor was retracted into the helmet. All four had solemn expressions, and the dim interior showed the rest of the group—the final pair of soldiers, the pilot, and Tober Delargivic, a look of mild surprise covering his face. The latter looked around the room, his head jerking slightly with the movement and eyes rapidly scanning the area. When he spotted Xaleyp, his eyes locked firmly on the boy’s, and a creepy smile spread across his lips.

‟Xaaaleyyyyp, it’s so good to see you.” Tober’s head lurched as it tipped to one side, his pupils rapidly dilating.

‟Please, take the prisoner to his cell,” Ardus said, his voice somewhat nervous as he shook his head. ‟It’s just as you left it, so maybe you’ll feel at home.”

The smile disappeared at once, and Tober tried to scurry away from the hands of the Siatians as they wrestled him to his feet and across the ship to the door. He screamed out, attempting to get them to release him in panicked tones, his legs flailing out in every direction in futile efforts of incapacitating his captors. The yells echoed through the area, drawing the attention of the technicians as the man was slowly dragged from the hangar and out of sight.

‟Another successful mission, Strategos,” Ardus said, his eyes narrowing on the older man, and he looked back with a inquisitive stare. ‟It’s good that the Council of Unity is letting you out again, especially after the last incident.”

Warwick grunted in response, looking past Ardus to where Xaleyp stood side by side with Eve. The other Siatian soldiers began filing out of the transport, led by Gareth towards the hangar door.

‟As much as I would love to stay and chat, Acusiont, I have more pressing matters with your Levion.” The Strategos made a shooing gesture to Ardus, who seemed to inflate himself with a deep intake of breath, his shoulders rising, before he bowed curtly and walked away.

‟I expect to see you on the bridge in the hour for a full debriefing, Xaleyp,” Ardus called out over his shoulder.

Once Ardus was out of earshot, Warwick stepped off the transport and approached Xaleyp and Eve.

‟So, you’re the one that I’ve heard so much about, eh? You don’t look like much, but, then again, not many people have been so highly regarded in so little time.”

He looked Xaleyp up and down, sizing him up, before pulling the chip from his robes and holding it up for the younger man to see. Xaleyp looked at it with an odd expression, unsure of what to make of it, when he caught a quick glimpse of the name ‘Alex Sympaori’ emblazoned on it. His heart raced at seeing his fake name, and his mind immediately went into overdrive thinking of what it might contain.

‟We found this in Delargivic’s Palace, and, unless I’m mistaken, it’s for you.” Warwick held the chip out to Xaleyp, who took it delicately. ‟If I were you, I’d find a secure terminal to view what’s on it. Now, I’d just like to remind you, do not trust anyone who promises whatever your heart desires, or you’re guaranteeing that you’ll get burned. Best of luck on your future missions.”

The Strategos walked away without another word, his heels clicking loudly with each step and hands folded behind his back. Xaleyp stared after him for several silent seconds, and Eve tried to steal covert glances at the chip in an attempt to read what was written on it. He held it up to her, showing the name written on it, and the look of confusion on her face was evident.

‟It was the name I used while we were hiding on Arcadia.”

‟How did Tober know that, and why would he have a data chip with it on it?” she asked, trying to take it from him. Subconsciously, his arm retracted, holding it close to him and out of her reach. She crossed her arms at her chest, narrowing her eyes on him. ‟If you don’t want me to see it, you can just say so.”

‟It’s not that, it’s just…”

He stopped abruptly, unsure of what exactly he wanted to say. Part of him didn’t want anyone else to know what was on the chip, regardless of what was on it, and another was worried that whatever that may be could be dangerous if in the wrong hands. Yet another hoped that it was some way to get the power for which he so desperately yearned and didn’t want to risk anyone else finding out about it, even if it was someone he trusted as innately as Eve.

With a deep breath, he nodded, looking her in the eyes.

‟Let’s go see what’s on it together.”

She smiled and followed him out of the hangar and to the lift, which they took to the quarterdeck and eventually to his small room. It was just as he left it three months ago, though the bed seemed freshly made and neatly pressed. At the right side of the room, the holocomputer sat idle with the chair in front of the desk, waiting for someone use either.

With a slight jerk, the ship went into hyperspace, and the stars outside the window seemed to stretch to infinity. Eve walked into the room and sat on the bed, laying back and looking at the ceiling with her hands folded on her stomach.

‟You know,” she said, ‟when I was recruited for that mission at Nevermoor Hold, I never expected for all this to happen.”

‟What do you mean?” He sat in the chair and spun it around to look at her.

‟Helping create then fight a galactic police force is just a little much to wrap my head around, even for us.”

‟Sometimes we do something that we think is right without realizing the full repercussions, and then it falls on us to right the mistake when no one else will.”

Xaleyp felt his insides squirm as he said the words, knowing full well that this was exactly what he was looking for, what he wanted to achieve in the galaxy. The mistake, to him, was simply that Ardus Kaine beat him to it.

Eve apparently agreed, sitting upright and nodding her head before making a gesture to the chip between his fingers.

‟Well, go on then and play it.”

He was about to insert the chip into the console of the computer when he hesitated and remembered what Warwick said about using a secure terminal. His hand hovered inches away from the port, quivering slightly, before he retracted it again.

‟I’m going to call Oliver here and have him make sure Ardus can’t see what we’re doing first,” he said, pocketing the chip as he sent the message through the CAM. Oliver quickly responded, stating that he would be there as soon as he could, and showed up just five minutes later.

‟What is going on, Xaleyp?” he asked, somewhat out of breath, as the door opened. His face flushed red when he entered and saw Eve sitting on the bed, her hands flared out behind her. He looked down, scratching the back of his head and trying to stare anywhere but at her. ‟Oh, Evangeline, I did not realize you were going to be here.”

‟It’s nice to see you again, Oliver,” she said, trying to hide a slight smile as she looked at Xaleyp out of the corner of her eyes.

‟Oliver, I have this chip, and I need to make sure that Ardus can’t see anything that I’m doing with it from this computer.” He held up the red bit of plastic, and Oliver automatically reached out to look at it, spinning it over in between his fingers. ‟Can you help make sure the holocomputer is secure or whatever it is?”

‟How long do you think you will need?” Oliver asked as he pulled Xaleyp out of the chair and sat down, starting up the holocomputer and entering an administrator mode. His fingers typed in a flurry of movement on the holographic keyboard, guiding him through a series of pages and panels. ‟I can exclude you from the intranet for a set period of time and attempt to automatically purge the activity logs once you are done. I will forewarn you that any anomalies are heavily monitored, so I do not know how much time you will have before you appear as an irregularity in their continuous screening.”

‟I really have no clue what is even on it, so as much time as you can get me will be appreciated, but if you’re going to get in trouble, forget about it. I can find some other way to get into it safely.”

Xaleyp felt his heart thumping against his chest as he thought about Ardus discovering what Oliver did and the inevitable punishment. Part of him wanted to tell Oliver to leave and forget it, not wanting him to face the repercussions because of something he asked him to do. Another, however, knew that, regardless of what he said or whatever consequences he may face, Oliver would do anything he could to help.

‟Xaleyp, I have known you far too long to be deterred by vague and innocuous threats.” He paused for a moment and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, folding his hands and looking at Xaleyp. ‟I trust that your intentions are for the best of everyone involved, and I know that you would never knowingly do anything that would harm your friends. You have fifteen minutes before you’re back on the main network, so hurry and do what you need to while I try to hide it on my end.”

Oliver stood and clasped hands with Xaleyp, pulling him in and patting him on the back before walking to the door, where he hesitated for a moment.

‟Farewell, Evangeline,” he said, halfway turning around to look at her, though his eyes kept darting between her and the floor. As he made to walk out of the room, he stumbled over his own feet and caught himself on the wall before falling. His face turning red and muttering something, he hit his forehead against his palm and disappeared from view.

‟He is certainly something,” Eve said, crossing her arms and letting a smile come to her face. She shook her head as her cheeks turned slightly red, looking at Xaleyp with a somewhat hopeful expression. ‟So, are you going to actually see what’s on that chip, or are you just going to sit there like an idiot and waste time?”

‟Right, no time to lose.”

He shook his head and put the chip into the dataport of the holocomputer, and it sucked it in for a second before spitting it back out. A hologram for a screen appeared and displayed a window containing three different icons, two of which were waveforms labeled ‟XP1” and ‟XP2” and the third displaying an image of a play button named simply ‟Meeting.” At the top was a title of just three letters: CAI.

Xaleyp stared at the files for several seconds, his blood roaring in his ears, as he tried to consider what each may mean. This datachip was meant for him, therefore he should know about what was on it, but then why did none of the words make any sense?

With a trembling finger, he pressed the first in the series, XP1, and a larger version of the waveform image appeared with a chime, vibrating with each spoken word. As he listened to the voice, a chill went down his spine, and a feeling of recognition surged through him. The person speaking was none other than Colonel Augusta Ire.