Peter swung the door open.

He headed into the room, then scanned it with his brown eyes while keeping his gun raised. He stayed vigilant. He had shot and killed Freemans, and he could do it again. Many of Lock Tannis's warriors had died on Soy. They could die inside this building.

"No Freemans," Peter said.

Freemans didn't occupy the room ahead, but they took up space in other areas within the building. They might encounter Jake and Peter. Right now, the Freemans didn't see them. And the boy and the man didn't see Lock's warriors, people who would kill the two Soynites if given the chance.

Jake stepped into the room. A table as gray as the floor and walls remained in the room's center. Six chairs rested near one side of the table, and across from that side were six more. A chair was near each of the table's ends. If the Highs sat in the room, there would be eight extra seats. When would the six of them sit in a throne room together?

A sheet of paper rested on the table. A black pen lay on the paper, which was the same color as Freeman skin.

"I wonder what that paper says," Jake said. He pointed. "I'm going to grab it."

Jake walked fast, aware every second mattered. His shoes slapped against the floor, making noise. Would a Freeman hear his footsteps and order him to identify himself?

Jake grabbed the paper with his free hand. He set his gun on the table before focusing on the paper. If the average human saw Freeman writing, they would see it as meaningless symbols, but Jake understood his enemies' language. So did Peter.

"Read it out loud, Jake," he said.

He shut the door.

"This is what we know," Jake said, reading the writing on the paper. "One former Soynite High, Boris Endman, is dead. He was killed by Great Leader Lock Tannis. The other former Highs who sided with Lock are still alive. Theo Majestic is not one of them. His location is unknown. His son is in hiding. Theo's three daughters are in hiding. As for the current Highs, barely anything is known about them. One of them is a female with orange hair. She was blinded during an incident that happened on planet Still. That occurred one year after our attack on Soy. Freeman warrior Zale Kin is the one who encountered the blind High on Still. He might have been killed in action. Ultimately, it's unknown what happened to him. The Freeman race's knowledge of the Soynite rulers is little, but we have been harming and killing other Soynites. Lock Tannis will lead us to victory. The Freeman people will win."

Boris Endman had betrayed his people. For some reason, Lock had decided Boris would be better off dead than alive.

One of the children Jake had spent time living in a spaceship with had been blinded on Still. Lovely Windsore was his co-ruler. She used to insult him, as if he were almost as awful as the typical Freeman warrior.

Theo Majestic had children. Yet he had failed to prevent his friends from siding with the worst Freeman in the universe.

Jake shook his head before slamming the paper against the table.

"The former Highs betrayed us!" he said. "But Theo Majestic is the only one who hasn't. And he has children."

Theo's children were Jake's sixth cousins.

Were they blond-haired and blue-eyed? Were they like Jake and Theo? Had they killed Freemans before?

One had shot Jake. Afterward, that Freeman had shot Maggie in the head. He had murdered her. Being a pacifist no longer suited the Soynite race well. Any Soynite who could fight needed to fight.

Peter moved closer to Jake, then placed his laser pistol on the table. "I know you've just read it, but I have to see this information with my own eyes."

He grabbed the note, and started reading. After finishing, he folded the paper. He moved it into his pants pocket.

"Interesting," Peter said. He lifted his gun off the table. "Theo has four children. I would love to meet their mother before I die."

Jake sat on the chair, as if the information had drained his energy. Theo had produced children with his wife, Lilly, Jake assumed.

Hase Majestic was the earliest ancestor of Jake and Theo. Hase's wife had given birth to two sons, Rio and On. Their sister, Nerra Majestic, had been born a Bloodhound. The first one.

Jake was a descendant of On Majestic. On's older brother was Rio Majestic, one of Theo's ancestors.

Jake's great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Hase, was the first Soynite.

Jake's great-great-great-great grandfather, On Majestic, was Rio's younger brother.

Jake's great-great-great grandfather, Ant Majestic, was Sane Majestic's first cousin.

Jake's great-great grandfather, Ban Majestic, was Goal Majestic's second cousin.

Jake's great grandfather, Beetee Majestic, was Terrace Majestic's third cousin.

Jake's grandfather, Jommen Majestic, was Holy Majestic's fourth cousin.

Jake's father, Jalen Majestic, was Theo's fifth cousin.

Jake was sixth cousins with Theo's children.

On Majestic was the deceased younger brother of Rio Majestic, the second earliest ancestor of Theo Majestic.

Theo was not a descendant of On. The man was a descendant of Rio, On's older brother.

The Freemans didn't know where Theo was, but a Bloodhound could find him. On and Rio had known what it was like to be the first Bloodhound's brothers.

Nerra Majestic, Jake's distant aunt, had murdered the first Freeman, a man named Zero Spike. Nerra had become the first Soynite to willingly murder a Freeman. She was the first Bloodhound in history, but other ones existed. They could find Theo. They could find Lovely. If there was a Soynite who interacted with her daily, Jake pitied them.

He would never love her.

"That poor girl is blind," Peter said. He glanced at the door. "Lovely Windsore has my pity."

"Her being blind is a good thing," Jake said. "Maybe it turned her into a good person."

Peter stepped back, as if Jake had aimed his gun at him. Had Lock Tannis shot Boris? Why had he killed him?

Jake put his elbows on the table.

"What you said about Lovely was awful," Peter said. "You really dislike her that much?"

"She was almost as bad as the Freemans," Jake said. "You remember. She was never affectionate to me. She was only cruel. Some people are hopeless. Lovely is one of them. Lock Tannis is one of those people, too."

"I agree with what you said about Lock," Peter said. He stood next to Jake's chair. "But Lovely is still a Soynite, Jake. She's just a girl. She is a teenager now, just like you. Being treated well makes it more likely that you will treat others well. If you decide to be good to her, she will be good to you."

"You don't know Lovely like I do," Jake said. "She can't change, and she won't change. I don't want her to be on my side. I want Maggie back, and I want to see my best friend. I haven't seen her in way too long. I don't want to see Lovely. We landed on this planet a long time ago, and that was the last time I saw her."

Lovely couldn't see anyone.

"I want that to be the last time I ever see her," Jake said. He gestured to the gray walls and the closed door. "We're here. We're inside a Freeman base. If Lovely was with us, she would be useless. She's blind, and she's a terrible person. The Invasion happened eleven years ago. The note said that Lovely was blinded one year after that. That means she's been blind for ten years. She's probably not even alive. Maggie could see, but she still got killed. A blind Soynite won't survive the Freemans for long."

"You're usually so hopeful," Peter said. He furrowed his brow. "You want Lovely to be dead."

Jake aimed his blue eyes at the wall.

Peter put a hand on his shoulder. The sense of touch may be more important to Lovely than it was for Jake.

"Be angry at the Freemans," Peter said. "It's not like Lovely is going to kill one of us. She is a Soynite, and she is also what you are. She's a High. You and her are my rulers. I serve you, Jake. But I also serve Lovely. We can't have any infighting happening between Highs. You're supposed to protect each other. You and the five other Highs are supposed to govern our people, the Soynite people. Remember that."

During Soy's invasion, six children and their Watchers had gone to meet Theo outside a spaceport. The contingency plan he had created had stated he would only turn children who hadn't turned thirteen yet into Highs. The youngest one had been a baby when Theo made her into a ruler.

"Maybe Lovely isn't dead," Jake said. "I don't want to talk about her. I want to talk about the other Highs. I want to see my best friend, and I want to see Kara. She's not a baby anymore. If she was in this room, she would be able to talk to me."

Kara Ascend.

"Right," Peter said. "She's eleven, and that's if she's still alive. Kara was a good baby. I wonder if she's a good eleven-year-old. We know her father joined Lock Tannis. We can only hope that Kara didn't join him."

"Let's hope she's still with her adoptive father," Jake said. "If we're lucky, they didn't decide to join Lock Tannis."

"If we're lucky, Kara and her Watcher are still alive," Peter said. "The Freemans only know about Lovely, but they don't know about the other Highs. That means there's a chance they killed some Highs and didn't even know it. They tried to kill you. And if they had, there would be a dead High. And the Freemans wouldn't know. There's a possibility Kara didn't even reach the age of one."

Jake tapped his fingers against the table.

Did Kara lay in a puddle of her own blood? Had her biological father murdered her?

Did blood spill from a hole between Lovely's eyes, eyes that were useless because of whatever had happened to her on Still?

Theo had turned her into a Soynite ruler. He had made Highs and unmade them. His former friend, Don, had produced a daughter with Camille. That baby had become the youngest High in Soynite history.

"She's alive," Jake said, as if he had seen her ten seconds ago. "She needs to be. Kara isn't like her father Don, and she never will be. Maybe Lovely is an even worse monster than she was before, but Kara will never be like her. She will always be good. You shouldn't defend Lovely, Peter. By the time we arrived on this planet, you didn't even like her."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"I know," Peter said. "Neither did you. But people you dislike can become people you do like. You don't like Lovely. Neither do I. But it doesn't have to be that way forever."

"I wonder how Lovely became blind. What do you think happened to her on Still?"

Peter tapped the folded paper through his pocket. "It's too bad that this note didn't go into detail about it. But we might learn all about the horrible details in the future."

If Lovely had been permanently blinded, she would never see grass on Soy again. And she wouldn't fight well. Jake could see, but that hadn't stopped a Freeman from hurting him earlier. A blind Soynite would have a harder time surviving encounters with their enemies.

"Details," Peter said. "That's what I wish we had. Something happened to Lovely on planet Still, and the incident blinded her. We know Theo Majestic has children. But we don't know their names. We don't know where Theo is, and we don't even know if he's still alive. I hope he is. We can only hope that he hasn't been killed. Boris Endman is dead. Lock Tannis killed him, but we don't know why. There's so much that we don't know."

"Boris probably became good again," Jake said. "He probably tried to kill Lock so he could become the new leader of the Freemans and end this war."

"It's a possibility. Regardless, we don't have the answers to our questions. We can only speculate. Maybe me and you will never get the answers we want, but I hope we do. And I hope Lovely gets her sight back. Because our people need rulers who can see, and we need Lock to die. Lovely can't kill him, considering there's a chance she's still blind. She can't be a warrior. And we need warriors. We need them more than we have ever needed them."

Jake's laser pistol lay on the table. Lovely couldn't aim a gun at a Freeman, and she couldn't aim one at Lock. He had killed Boris. Would Lock kill Lovely?

If Jake had to pick a High to die, he would pick Lovely.

"Fortunately, Lovely is the High who got blinded," Jake said. "Out of all the Highs, she's the one who deserves to be blind the most. The others don't deserve to be. Lovely hated me, and I'm sure she still does. She also hated Reese. And she hated you, too. Now she's blind, and that means she won't be able to cause us too much trouble. You have to see to be a major problem."

Peter put his free hand on the table.

"Her blindness is a major problem," he said. "When she became blind, the Soynite people lost someone who could fight for them. Rulers can rule without being able to see, but we need warriors. The Freemans outnumber us by a lot. Lock has many people who will gladly fight for him, and they already do. They kill for their leader. You saw what that Freeman did to Maggie before we made it into this building. I saw it, too. A Freeman shot her. She fell, and she didn't get back up. She never will."

Maggie Up was dead. So was Boris and Jake's parents. Freemans had slain Soynites before, and they could do it again.

"The Freemans are dangerous," Peter said. "That means we have to be dangerous, too. Lovely can't be. Deadly soldiers need to have working eyes, and Lovely doesn't have that. She can't see. She can't help us fight. She can't fight for her people, our people. That High is blind, and she can't fight for Soy. As awful as that truth is, it's still the truth. And we have to accept it. We have to, because we don't have a choice."

Jake had chosen to aim his Soynite laser pistol at a Freeman. He had killed the warrior. Yet he hadn't saved Maggie, and he hadn't prevented Lovely from going blind. She couldn't kill Freemans with ease.

When she lived in a spaceship with Jake, Lovely had been a terrible person. She had become a blind one.

"I want to help Lovely," Peter said. "I really do. I also wanted to help Maggie, but I couldn't. She died and I didn't. We didn't. Like casualties in a war, bad things happen. We don't like Lovely, but we know that something bad has happened to her. She can't see. And a person who can't see can't be a great fighter. Lovely shouldn't go into a Freeman base. She shouldn't do what we've done today. Because if she does, she will die. She won't be able to help us win this war against Lock. That's her reality. That's our reality, too."

Jake sighed.

"I don't know how Lovely became blind," Peter said. "I don't know what happened to her on Still. But I do know that I wish I could've prevented her from going blind. You don't have to like someone to realize that they might be a great help to you. Death came to Maggie, and blindness came to Lovely. Maggie's death happened too soon. So did Lovely's blindness. She is blind, and Maggie is dead. And Lock Tannis's death needs to come as soon as possible. He has been alive for far too long. And he has ruled for far too long."

Long before Jake's birth, Lock had bought his authority over the Freemans by killing Vice Reaper. Free's people had kneeled for the person who had slain their leader. They had kneeled for Lock, and they would do that for Jake if he murdered him.

The Freeman leader ruled Free, and he had gotten former leaders to support him. Jake couldn't trust Kara's father Don. Neither could he trust Ray Fire, Tale Wick, or Notch Slip.

Peter glared at the door.

"Good people died while the Freemans were attacking Soy," he said. "Great people died, people who I will always remember. I will never forget them. I will never forget that Lock needs to die for what he made his people do to ours. We need to kill them. We might not kill all of them, of course. But we do have to get rid of the Freeman who is worse than the rest of his people. Me and you already know that Freeman's name."

Jake nodded. "Yeah, we do. And he's going to die. Wars don't need to be fought until all the people fighting in it are dead. When I kill Lock Tannis, I will end this war. The Freemans will kneel for me."

"Let's hope that happens, and let's hope that no child of a former High decides to help Lock. That wouldn't be great at all."

The door opened.

A laser rushed past Peter, missing his neck by an inch. He fired.

A blue laser tore through pale skin and hard bone. While the Freeman stumbled back, the hole in his head bled, forming a gruesome stream. He dropped his rifle. His breathing stopped, and he died before hitting the floor. His corpse changed into smoke.

Shaking, Jake reached for his gun. His hand struck it, and the weapon slid off the table.

Footsteps crashed against the floor outside the room.

Jake stood. He grabbed the chair he had sat in, then tossed it through the smoke. Someone grunted. Peter raised his pistol before firing. A laser shot through the smoke, then blasted into the Freeman.

"We need to get out of this room!" Peter yelled, as footsteps advanced. "More Freemans are coming."

Jake moved onto his hands and knees, his heart pounding, as if it wanted to free itself and avoid being hurt.

The High ran a hand through his blond hair.

Where is my gun? Where is my gun? Where is my gun?

The pistol lay underneath a chair. Jake crawled.

"Come on!" Peter said.

Laser beam fire sounded.

He snatched the gun off the floor, and moved from underneath the table before standing. He ran. A red laser almost hit him. The boy flinched and stumbled, breathing hard, as if Lock chased him, something Jake hoped wouldn't happen soon. The Freeman leader had powers.

Peter dodged a laser before rushing out the room.

Freemans stood in the hall that connected to the one outside the conference room, and most of them wielded black rifles. Wind slipped into the room through the new holes in the wall. Lasers could wound Jake, too.

"Run, Jake!" Peter shouted, as if the Freemans might stop attacking if he yelled. "Too many Freemans. I'll find you."

Jake ran. Peter unleashed lasers from his gun. Jake hoped his legs would get him to where he needed to be: a safe place. Freemans opened fire, attempting to kill Peter. The ones who carried laser guns, anyway. Several enemies held swords, and a laser tore through a swordsman's forehead. Peter's work. The laser blasted through more pale foreheads.

After running through long halls, Jake stopped. He stood near a closed door. He took a breath that trembled like his body did.

"Peter is going to be fine," Jake said. "He's going to be fine."

The door opened.

A person rushed through it, then slammed their weapon against Jake's arm. He winced. His gun dropped onto the floor.

The attacker grabbed Jake's shirt. He shoved the boy into the room he had emerged from. Jake stumbled forward, and his hands crashed against a bookshelf.

He grabbed a book. He turned before swinging the weapon. The Freeman grabbed his wrist, squeezed. Jake yelped and released the book.

The Freeman shoved him against the bookshelf. Like spilled water spreading on a table, pain coursed through Jake's back. The enemy aimed his laser rifle at the boy's face.

Noise rocketed into Jake's ears.

A blue laser tore through the Freeman's head. It zipped above Jake's, ruined books, and blasted a hole into the wall. Blood escaped the one in the Freeman's head.

The Freeman dropped onto his side, and his eyes went still. He morphed into smoke.

The room Jake stood in was shaped like a rectangle, but it was smaller than the conference room. Three bookshelves stood, including the one behind Jake.

Wind moved through the hole in the wall and the bookshelf.

Jake ran past the smoke cloud, then headed into the hall. His savior didn't have a wound in her head, as if that Freeman outside had never shot her.

"Maggie?" Jake said.

Maggie Up placed her Soynite laser rifle on the floor.

"I saw you die," Jake said.

"But you didn't see me get back up," Maggie said. She smiled, and brushed her forehead with her fingers. "I heal fast. My Save gives me the power to rapidly regenerate."

Jake grinned. He gestured to her.

"Can I hug you?" he asked. Maggie nodded.

Jake hugged her, and she hugged him back. Their weapons rested on the floor, but their owners might have to use them soon.

The hug ended.

Jake pointed at the Soynite laser rifle.

"Where did you get that gun from?" he said.

"My spaceship," Maggie said. "After I got shot, I went back to it. I grabbed that laser rifle. If only Lock Tannis was the person I killed. When I see him again, I'm going to kill him. Just like how I killed your bad mood when we hugged."

True.

Pain had settled in Jake's wrist, but the healing glass that had healed his arm wound could destroy the pain.

"Yeah," Jake said. He pulled the healing glass square from his pocket, then placed it on his sore areas. The pain vanished. Jake put the healing glass into his pocket. "You're cool. That Freeman was going to kill me, but you stopped him. I picked up a book while he was attacking me, and I was going to use it as a weapon."

"Knowledge is power, my High," Maggie said.

She lifted her laser rifle off the floor.

"You really met Lock Tannis?" Jake said.

"Sadly," Maggie replied.

"Me and Peter found a note," Jake said. "Lock killed Boris Endman. One of the Highs is blind. Her name is Lovely Windsore. It's probably not her name anymore, though. And Theo Majestic has children. They're my sixth cousins."

Where did Jake's sixth cousins live? What were their names?

Maggie smiled. "You should arrange a family reunion."

"Did you learn anything interesting?" Jake said. "While you were away from me and Peter, I mean."

"I heard a baby wailing," Maggie said. Jake furrowed his brow. "But I couldn't investigate it. Freemans showed up. Don't be too concerned, though. It was probably a Freeman baby."

Kara Ascend had been a baby when Jake and the other Highs arrived on Earth. Her birth father, Don Ascend, had betrayed the Soynite people. He had sided with Lock.

"Don Ascend joined Lock Tannis," Jake said. "Almost all the former Highs did. Theo Majestic didn't. And the Freemans don't know where he is. Don's daughter, Kara Ascend, is a High. I knew her when she was a baby. We lived inside the same spaceship together. I don't know if she's still alive, but I hope she is. I want to see her again."

"If that girl sees Don again, she might join him," Maggie said.

"No," Jake said. He shook his head. "She never met Don. She never saw him before. Her Watcher adopted her, and he said that Don wasn't there when she was born. His wife, Camille, lived with her older brother. And Kara's Watcher delivered her in that house. Camille's brother was there when it happened, and his name is Cambridge. Cambridge Downer."

Jake's parents had never produced more than one child. He had never had a brother or a sister, but Theo's son had sisters, and those Soynite females had one brother.

Theo's children had siblings. Jake didn't, but he did have people under his rule. Most Soynites were supposed to acknowledge Jake as one of their six rulers. The former Highs who had allied with Lock might never kneel for Jake and his co-rulers, but those children hadn't stopped being Soynite leaders.

"I know who he is," Maggie said. "Kara met her uncle. But she never met her biological father. If she does, it would be nice if she doesn't join him and Lock Tannis. I don't want one of my Highs to team up with the most evil being in history."

"That's never going to happen," Jake said. "Me and my co-rulers are never going to support Lock. We know what he did to Soy, and we won't ever forget it. We're going to hate Lock forever. We have to, especially after what he made his people do to ours."

Maggie frowned.

"Almost all the former Highs joined Lock," she said. "Highs can be horrible people who would join the Freemans if given the chance."

Maggie had used her Soynite laser rifle to save Jake. She had rescued a High, and she might meet the five other ones. A blind girl was one of them. Lovely had seen Theo over a decade ago, and he had pressed Hase Majestic's pendant against her pale forehead. Now she couldn't see.

Jake hoped Lovely wouldn't be too horrible to Maggie.

"I hope you meet the other Highs one day," Jake said. "Unfortunately, Lovely is one of them."

Jake and Maggie looked around. No Freemans rushed into the hall, but they might be attacking Peter in a different one. Jake had separated from his Watcher. He had found the girl who seemed dead earlier, and they could find Peter. They could help him fight the Freemans.

"One of the Highs is blind," Maggie said. She gestured to Jake. "And this High has a Watcher who I don't see right now. Where's Peter?"

Jake ran his fingers through his hair. "Fighting Freemans."

Maggie averted her gaze.

"Not anymore," she said.

Peter ran toward Jake. When the man was close enough, Maggie put a hand on his arm. He had dealt with those Freemans. The Watcher had put his training to good use, and he had turned his enemies into smoke.

"I don't remember ordering a Watcher," Maggie said. "But it's nice to see you, Peter."

Armed with two Freeman laser pistols, Peter smiled. Were the other Highs' Watchers as great as he was?

"I assume you can rapidly regenerate," Peter said.

Maggie nodded. "I can."

"Maggie saved my life, Peter," Jake said. He picked up his Soynite pistol. "And I'm glad you're okay."

"I'm not going to let myself get killed by a Freeman, that's for sure," Peter said. "Maggie, thanks for protecting Jake. You kept your High safe. That's good."

Maggie hadn't let a Freeman kill Jake, but he remained inside the enemy base. He hadn't returned to the safety his mansion in Seattle provided. But he would.

Peter headed closer to the hall he had emerged from. The Freeman laser guns remained in his hands, and Jake wielded his Soynite one.

"We need to get out of this hall," Peter said.

"Wait," Jake told him. "I have to talk to Maggie first. There's something I want to tell her."

Jake and Maggie faced each other.

"You saved my life," he said. "I'm grateful."

"The day will come when you won't be," Maggie said.

She offered Jake her hand. He took it, then she placed her other hand on his shoulder. She brought her lips close to his ear. She whispered a single sentence, but it made his heart hammer. He pulled his hand away from Maggie's, then he turned and ran.

"Jake!" Peter said.

"Stay away from me!" Jake yelled. "I'm going to deal with all of this on my own."

He would free any Soynite prisoners inside the base.

He would try finding a way to accept what Maggie Up had told him.