“Alright, settle down everyone!” Aquila called across the chatter.

I hadn’t been talking before she said anything. My crew and I were mostly downing cups of coffee in an attempt to stave off the exhaustion that was threatening us. My hands shook every time I picked the cup up but I knew it would start to kick in soon. The coffee blend in the Command Centre was quick-release so the caffeine and other nootropics would get into our systems quicker.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Cas and Gem move almost in unison, downing their drinks and placing the cups carefully back on the table.

“As you are all aware, our rescue mission did not go particularly well,” she started sending a quiet, unhappy muttering through the room. “We lost thirty-seven fighters, all believed to be dead.”

I knew this already but the information still hit me hard. I’d watched thirty-seven people die. I didn’t really even know any of them and they were dead because of me. Because of my crew.

If I’d been better, smarter or faster to act, Peggy wouldn’t be captured and they wouldn’t have died because of us.

“This was an unfortunate tragedy and their sacrifice will not be in vain. We are currently reviewing the situation to find out exactly what went wrong and why some of our information was incorrect so that this does not happen again,” Aquila’s tone was grave and bristled with barely contained anger.

I sucked in a deep breath, trying to steady myself. She was right. Someone messed up or deliberately mislead the fighters. Or maybe even worse. Maybe someone was feeding information to the Council about our plans.

That was a scary thought. I thought we were safe here but if that was the case, we might not be. The dark look on Aquila’s face indicated that she had considered this too.

Whispers shot around the room but she quelled them by holding up her hands.

“But, this mission was not a complete failure. We have still managed to gain valuable information that the analysts are currently decrypting. Once we have this, we will be able to advance our fight against the Council.”

A muted cheer went through the room but I couldn’t bring myself to join in. In my mind, the mission was a failure. I understood the potential value of the information they had gathered but it didn’t outweigh the cost. It never would. Too many people died and we didn’t manage to rescue Peggy.

My eyes found Andy who hadn’t joined in the cheer either. His jaw was set and his grip was tight around his mug of coffee. The dark bags under his eyes showed he hadn’t been sleeping well either. He turned his head and met my gaze. His lips quirked up into a slight smile which I returned before looking back to Aquila.

“Many will see this mission as a rousing success. Not only did we storm the headquarters, recovering vital information and subduing more Guardians than any previous attempt but we have also managed to level another blow against the Council.” Aquila fell quiet, building suspense.

I waited for her to continue, not knowing where she was going with this. Apprehension began to tickle in my stomach which only got worse as she met my eyes and smiled broadly.

“Everyone now knows that Aries and Crew Seven Six One survived and are working with us!” she announced, gesturing towards the screen on the back of the wall.

A creeping sense of horror slipped down my spine as I turned slowly, not wanting to see it. It was a forum, clearly one that was hidden from the Council, and right at the top were the words ‘Captain Aries, seen delivering supplies to the people of Osinir just days ago, still fights for us’.

Nausea bubbled in my stomach as I stared at the huge picture of me that must have been taken on Osinir just after they realised who I was. I looked away from the picture not wanting to look at the horrible picture and stared at the headline instead. It didn’t feel like it had only been a few days since I’d been on Osinir. Time had been distorted by exhaustion and heartbreak. It felt distant, almost dream-like.

I blinked and looked away, my gaze falling on the photo once more. It showed me, just moments after that woman had switched off my disrupter. Her hands were clasping mine and tears were dripping down her face.

I looked terrible. The wig looked terrible with my skin tone, I was sweaty and exhausted and fear was so clear on my face. I hated that other people would be able to see it too. I wanted to look around at the other people in the room and see if they were looking at the picture with as much disgust as I was but I couldn’t look away. I was too ashamed, too fearful of what I would see.

“Look at our powerful fighter!” Aquila called causing cheers to break out around the room.

I glanced around in surprise, the reaction so much more positive than I expected. A genuine smile crossed Andy’s face and I looked down in embarrassment.

“Many people posted about their experience seeing Captain Aries and we leaked that she and the rest of her crew have been helping us to deliver the much needed supplies to planets cut off by the Council,” Aquila continued.

Another round of cheers went through the room. Fornax slammed her fist against the table creating a deafening din of celebration. I glanced around at my crew who were all looking embarrassed. The quiet click of Cas’ knuckles as he clenched his hands was almost hidden under the noise but it was impossible to miss how red Cory had turned.

Aquila held her hands up once more and the noise fell away.

“And, because the Council were too distracted by our attack, they couldn’t take down all of the forums. The news has spread far and wide. We have had contact from more people than ever before looking to join us and it has bolstered our existing fighters. The Council will not be able to recover from this easily.”

Pride shot through me, followed quickly by sadness. This was not a win. So many people died and we didn’t get Peggy back, that’s what mattered.

The smile fell from my face and I was assaulted by the mental image of Peggy lying alone in a pool of her own blood. That’s probably what was happening on Nova right now. We didn’t deserve to be celebrating when a member of our crew was suffering.

Beside me, Andy looked across and caught the expression on my face. His slight smile sobered quickly. My leg began bobbing as I fought the urge to shout at them to stop cheering and instead start working on another plan. We needed to keep moving, we couldn’t leave her there for much longer.

“Alright, alright, enough. Although this is cause for celebration, we still have a lot of work to do. We still need to develop a plan to free Pegasus. After the response we received to Aries being seen on Osinir, we need to leak pictures of the rest of the crew on missions and we need to recover Pegasus. To be able to take her from the Council and show her healthy and well again, fighting against the Council will be a blow they cannot ignore.” A hungry smile graced Aquila’s face.

“If she wants to join the fighters once she has recovered,” Andy added quietly but firmly.

“Of course, it will be entirely her choice,” Aquila said with a nod.

“She might be more comfortable working with the analysts once she is able,” Andy mused, glancing at me for confirmation.

“I’m honestly not sure. She loves to visit other planets but I’m not sure if she’d want to risk being caught again,” I said, my voice hoarse and weak from tiredness.

Andy nodded.

“Once we get her back, we’ll see what she wants to do.”

“I bet she’ll want to fight. She won’t be content sitting in her and telling others what to do. She’ll want to take down those fuckers herself,” Gem added with a snarl before shooting Andy an embarrassed look. “Sorry. I meant, she’ll want to take down the Council herself…”

“Better,” he said admonishingly. “Although, I do understand the sentiment.”

Gem grinned, used to him chiding her for her explicit language.

“Alright. We need to wait until more information has been decrypted before we can formulate the next plan and the dust needs to settle so we can know what they will do with Pegasus. I don’t believe they will execute her, she is too valuable to them. The Council would rather use her as a pawn in their plan.”

I sucked in a shaky breath at Aquila’s words. I didn’t think they’d kill Peggy either, Harvey knew how much we loved her. He blamed Cas for a lot of this and he still wanted to hurt him. I bet at that moment he was sitting somewhere, smugly laughing about it. He would have known that we’d seen Peggy and that we were distraught.

We needed to get her back. She’d looked so ill and I wasn’t sure how much more she could take. She was so thin, so frail. We needed to do something.

Cas’ leg bumped against mine, getting my attention just as Aquila looked at me.

“Aries, if you don’t mind staying behind. I’d like to speak to you.”

I nodded hurriedly before shooting Cas a grateful look.

“Okay, everyone else go do what you need to do. Get some sleep, speak to the families of those that we lost or get some food. I’ll be going around later to see those close to the fallen fighters so please don’t feel that you need to,” Aquila said.

People started to rise around us but I stayed seated, anxiety building in my chest once more.

Do you want us to wait? Cas asked.

Nah, it’s okay. I’ll meet you in our room? I replied.

He squeezed my shoulder gently before joining the group heading towards the door.

“Andy, Elliot, I’d appreciate if you could leave us too,” Aquila said with a polite smile.

Andy looked between Aquila and me with concern written on his face. I understood why he looked so worried, I was too. I couldn’t think of anything that she had to say to me without them there. Maybe she was going to punish me for revealing myself on Osinir?

I deserved it.