Zoey had kneeled for Hailey, as if she were a High. If Lena learned what Zoey had done, how furious would Lena become?

Hailey sat on the bed in her room, fiddling with her fingers. Someone knocked on the open door.

"Hailey," Zoey said. She stood in the hall, but Hailey saw her from her seated position on the bed. "Can I come in?"

"Yes," Hailey said. "Of course you can."

Zoey went into the room. Earlier, Hailey had taken a picture of her. Hailey had taped it to Lena's bedroom wall. When Lena was five years old, Hailey's father had taken a picture of Lena. Hailey had brought that photograph into this space station, along with other pictures of the Highs. One of them displayed Nova. How many times had Hailey caressed that photograph?

Zoey gestured to the bed. "Can I sit down?"

Hailey nodded. "Yes."

Zoey sat beside Hailey on the bed. The photograph of her father remained taped to the wall, and Zoey looked at it.

"Your father used to be my grandfather's best friend," she said. "I don't know if Boris still saw your father as his enemy when he died, but I'm glad me and you are friends. And I don't regret kneeling for you."

"I'm grateful that you did," Hailey replied.

"And I'm grateful that I'm here. I'm also grateful for my mother, even though she hurt me."

"I wish you wouldn't call Misty your mother."

"I know, but that's what she is to me, Hailey. Like how Lena is my sister. Misty Windsore is my mother, and she always will be. I also haven't forgotten that I have two mothers. And one of them loves me and you."

"Holly is going to love you even more," Hailey said. "She's going to love you even more because the two of you will reunite, and then you and her will spend time together. It will be precious. You're going to be ready to see Holly again. One day, Zoey. I want to see my own mother. When she saw me for the last time, I was asleep. She was finally in the same place as me again, but I didn't talk to her on that day. I haven't talked to her in eleven years. And that's because she left me. She took Nick with her, but she didn't take me. She's going to come back home, though. She will be at our space station, and so will my brother. They're not there right now, and I'm not either. But the three of us will be at that space station again."

Like all Soynite space stations and Freeman ones, this one was laserproof and so were any windows it had. Lena Fly had resided in this place for years. Even before the Invasion, Lena's Watcher, Betty, had owned this space station. Yesterday Freemans had snuck into it. Lena had killed one of them, and Hailey had disposed of the others. Betty had taken the Freemans' spaceship, their clothes, and their communication devices away from here. Freemans could track their communication devices.

Supplies that had been inside the Freeman spaceship now belonged to the group.

"I met Crammer and Zodiac at a space station," Zoey said. "I don't like thinking about Zodiac. Just like Crammer doesn't like thinking about the time when he was a Child of Still."

"The Children of Still are awful," Hailey said. "I wish all of them had died a long time ago. They kill any Soynite who doesn't decide to join them, and that's wrong."

"And if a High doesn't decide to join the Children of Still, they will kill them. Or try to. Lena needs to be protected from the Children of Still. Fortunately, she has Betty. She isn't going to let any of those Still worshipers kill my sister. And neither will I."

"I'm going to protect her, too. She's my High, and she's also my friend. I know that she tried to kill me yesterday, but she doesn't want to kill me now. She even loves me. Her love is one of the things I got for saving her life."

"What else did you get for saving her?"

"Her friendship," Hailey said. "I'm Lena's friend. She's the only High who likes me, and she's also the only High who knows I exist. None of her co-rulers know that my parents had children."

"Ironically, one of Lena's co-rulers is one of those children. Reese is going to learn who she is, Hailey."

Hailey looked at the photograph on the wall. "And our father will tell her who she is. Nova needs to know the truth. She is Theo and Lilly's daughter, and I want her to know that. My parents and my brother want her to know that, too. I wonder if Anne knows that she is a Majestic. Summer kidnapped her when she was a baby, and that awful woman probably didn't tell Anne that she is Theo and Lilly's daughter. If Anne doesn't know that those two are her parents, that means I have two siblings who don't know I'm their sister. And even if Anne does know who her parents are, she probably calls Summer Mother."

The body Anne had come out of eleven years ago belonged to Lilly, not Summer. Lilly used to breastfeed Anne inside the Soynite royal palace, not Summer. Anne had been born with the last name Majestic, not Locket.

"Summer will never be Anne's mother," Hailey told Zoey. "I wish my parents' baby had never gotten taken away."

"Archer and Holly weren't able to stop their baby from being taken away," Zoey said. "Now she's a teenager. And she knows who she is, because her friend helped her find out the truth. If it wasn't for Hero, I would probably be with my kidnapper right now. He helped me. And someone is going to help Anne."

"Thank you, Zoey."

"You're welcome. And I want you to know that your father has my respect. He doesn't have my sister's, but he has mine. I couldn't kneel for him, but I did kneel for you. And I'm never going to regret it, Hailey."

"Hailey!" Lena shouted.

She stepped into the room, wearing her dark sunglasses. She held her white cane. It had been with her when she and Hailey met for the first time. Back then they hadn't been friends. Now they were, but that fact didn't make it impossible for Hailey to anger Lena.

Lena clenched a fist. "Did you really make my sister kneel for you, Majestic?!"

"Hailey didn't make me kneel for her," Zoey told Lena. "It was my idea to do it."

"Why did you kneel for her?"

"Because she deserved to know what it's like to have someone kneeling for her."

"I told her that no one will ever kneel for her," Lena said. "Because of you, I was wrong. And you know how much I hate being wrong. You have disappointed me, Zoey."

Zoey looked at the floor.

"As for you, Hailey, do you want to replace me as a High?" Lena said. "Do you want to kill me, and then be chosen as a new High?"

"No," Hailey said. "Of course not. I love you."

"I don't think you want to kill me. But if you do want to, I suggest you stop. The day you try to kill me will be the day we become sisters. And that day is never going to come, because you will never want to kill me. Now follow me. Me and you are going to go to the cafeteria."

Hailey stood.

Zoey did the same. "What are you going to do to her, Lena?"

"I'm not going to tell you. Let's go, Hailey."

Lena left the room. Hailey followed her. Lena led Hailey into Lena's bedroom, where she retrieved her sheathed Soynite dagger. Afterward, they walked in the hall. Hailey fiddled with her fingers as she followed Lena. Why had she armed herself with the dagger?

After they arrived inside the cafeteria, Lena placed her cane on the floor. She faced Hailey.

"Zoey shouldn't have kneeled for you," Lena said, carrying the sheathed dagger. "You're not a High, and you will never be one."

"Are you going to try to kill me?" Hailey asked.

"No. You're going to kill me."

Lena handed the sheathed dagger to Hailey.

"Kill me, Hailey," Lena commanded.

Hailey grimaced. "No. No, Lena. You're my High. I can't kill you."

"Yes, you can. You have my dagger, and you can kill me with it. Do it. Kill me with the same dagger I tried to kill you with. Kill the girl who hurt you yesterday. Kill the girl who doesn't have any respect for your father."

"No."

Earlier, Lena had ordered Hailey to kneel, and she had obeyed. If she had refused to do it, Lena wouldn't have commanded Betty to kill Hailey. If she didn't kill Lena with the dagger, she wouldn't order Betty to execute Hailey.

Tears filled Hailey's blue eyes. She set the dagger on the long bench beside her.

"I'm not going to kill you," she said. "Why did you even command me to do that? I don't want to kill my own High. And you're not just my High. You're also my friend. Do you know how awful I would feel if you died?"

Tears descended Hailey's face.

"A great High gave you the option to kill her, but you spared her life," Lena said. "Congratulations, Hailey Majestic. You know who you serve. Me. You don't have power over me. You don't have power over Zoey, either. When she kneeled for you, she did a very foolish thing. Our people used to kneel for your father, but that will never happen again. The best thing Theo Majestic ever did was turn me into a High. I know you hate it when I disrespect him, but he deserves to be disrespected. Why do you respect the man who abandoned you?"

Hailey bowed her head, as if doing that might make Lena leave the room.

"Why do you respect the woman who took your brother away from you?" Lena said. "Your mother didn't just do that, though. She's the one who came up with the idea that your older sister should be given up for adoption. She's the one who came up with the idea that Summer should keep Anne. Your family is separated because of both of your parents, though. Your father let himself be influenced by your mother. And after she left you, your father did the same. I wonder where he is. If he's dead, he won't be able to bring the Soy Maker here, and I really need that thing. But if your father is dead, at least he won't be able to abandon you again."

Even if Lena were one hundred miles away from Hailey, it would have felt like she was too close to the terrible High. Hailey rushed past Lena, crying. Lena laughed. Hailey left the cafeteria.

Zoey approached her. Zoey grabbed Hailey's hand, then led her into a nearby hall. After releasing Hailey's hand, Zoey hugged her. She hugged her precious friend back. The hug ended too soon.

Zoey used her thumbs to wipe away the tears on Hailey's face. "I was listening. I'm sorry Lena said all of that to you, and I'm also sorry that she commanded you to kill her. Come on. Let's go back to your room."

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Hailey and Zoey went to Hailey's room.

Zoey faced Hailey. "It's my fault that Lena did what she did. I'm the one who kneeled for you. I'm sorry, Hailey."

"My older sister is a better High than the one in this space station," Hailey said. "I wanted to serve Lena. I really did. For such a long time, I would've loved to meet one of the Highs. I wanted to be good to them and know what it was like to kneel for a great leader. Yesterday, I met Lena, and she hurt me. And instead of having the decency to call me by my name, she called me weakling. I'm not even sure if I should stay here anymore. I think I should leave. There are five other Highs out there, and one of them is my older sister. She won't treat me like Lena does. Nova will love me. I know she will. But I have to find our father. I want to hug him, and I also want him to know that I never thought he abandoned me and Vera."

"I'm sure that your father didn't plan on staying away from you and Vera for this long. You're not the only one who believes that Freemans captured him, Hailey. I want you to know that."

Hailey put a hand on Zoey's arm. "Thank you, Zoey."

"You're welcome."

"And I'm glad that me and you are friends, but I really have to leave. It's time for me to go back home. I can't be here anymore. If Vera is at our space station, she's going to be happy to see me again. She's not going to hurt me. She's not going to try to kill me, either. Vera isn't like a certain girl we know."

Zoey sat on the bed. "Lena won't always be the way she is."

Hailey looked at the walk-in closet's closed door. She had put her backpack inside it, and that backpack would be out of the closet soon. It would be with Hailey when she returned to the space station she shared with Vera.

Hailey sat next to Zoey on the bed. "It's terrible that she's the way she is. I can only hope that the other Highs aren't like her. I want to meet them. I want to see what all of them are like. There's a chance that they're good people, but there's also a chance that they're like Lena. One of the Highs has a father who is much worse than Lena is. The last time I saw Don Ascend was a long time ago, but I think he's still alive. And he probably wants to find Kara. He might try to get her to join Lock Tannis, and it will be bad if she does do that. I don't want Lock to have one of the current Highs as an ally. And I also don't want him to have a powerful Soynite helping him one day. By the time Kara turns twenty, she will be powerful."

"You're right," Zoey said. "And when that day comes, she will still be someone who has never joined Lock. Wherever Kara is, I think she's good. I don't think that she's like that traitorous father of hers. Don might meet her. And if he does, he will probably try to convince her to join Lock. He will fail to do it, though. If Don thinks that he's going to get Kara to serve Lock, he's going to be disappointed."

"If Kara meets Don, she will have to be careful. If she refuses to join Lock, her own father will try to kill her. Back on Soy, Boris Endman tried to kill my father for Lock. And my father and Boris used to be good friends. For an extremely long time, they were like brothers to each other. Kara is Don's daughter, and they haven't met. But if they do, and if Don fails to convince her to join Lock, he will try to kill her. He will try to kill his own daughter. He'll probably manage to actually do it, too."

"If Don kills Kara because she refused to serve Lock, at least she will die good," Zoey said. "She won't die as an ally of Lock, and neither will I. My grandfather joined our worst enemy, but I'm not going to. I never will."

Hailey stood. "And I believe you."

Zoey would never do what her terrible grandfather had done.

She stood. "I wish you could stay here, but I know that you have to go."

"And at some point, me and you are going to see each other again," Hailey said.

"I wish Lena hadn't done what she did. What she did in the cafeteria was bad, and so were those other awful things she did to you. She hurt you, and she even tried to kill you. But she's going to regret all of that one day."

"Thanks for being a better person than she is. Thanks for never hurting me. You're a good friend, Zoey."

"Likewise, Hailey."

"I'm going to go back to my space station, and I think you should go to Soy soon. You should visit the planet where both of our lives started."

"I will, and I'll be missing you while I'm there. Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

After Hailey and Zoey hugged, they separated. Zoey left the room. Hailey went into her walk-in closet before grabbing her backpack.

Time passed.

Inside the space station she shared with Vera, Hailey walked into her bedroom. A woman stood near her bed, looking at Hailey with her blue eyes. She examined Hailey with her gaze, as if she had never seen another person before today.

"Hailey?" her mother said. "Is that you?"

Hailey glared. "Where were you?!"

She removed her backpack before placing it on the floor. Since returning home today, she hadn't seen Vera, but Hailey had found the woman who had abandoned her. When Lena tried to kill Hailey in that cafeteria, her mother hadn't been there. She hadn't been able to protect her daughter from the worst High. Tears blurred Hailey's vision.

"Where were you, Mother?" she asked.

"I know I've been away from you for too long, but I'm here now," her mother said. She grinned. "I am so happy to see you. You've gotten older, baby. I have to hug you."

"I don't want a hug. I want you to stay away from me. That should be easy for you to do. After all, you've already done it for years."

"I don't want to stay away from you," Hailey's mother said. "I've been away from you and your sisters for too long, and I want all of my girls back. My children need to be together again. On your seventh birthday, I had a dream that our entire family was here. All of us were together. Me, you, your siblings, and Father. I woke up, and then I looked at pictures of all of you, and I missed you, your sisters, and your father even more. And I knew I had to get all of you together. Me and Nick captured two Freemans on your seventh birthday, and then we came back here. We came back home. Vera was there, and she saw us, but you didn't."

"Is Nick okay? He isn't dead, is he?"

"Your brother is still alive, and he's powerful. But he's also mad at me, because I split our family apart. And I did do that. I gave Nova away. I let Summer keep Anne, and then I left you and Father. I even took your brother with me. Earlier, me and him came here, but we didn't see you or Vera. Nick left. He has the spaceship that me and him left in eleven years ago. That spaceship isn't my home anymore. This space station is. It's been my home for a long time, even during my absences."

A sheet of paper rested on Hailey's bed. Her mother picked it up.

"Vera left you this note," she said. "Do you want me to read it to you?"

Hailey pointed her thumb at the space behind her. "I want you to get out of my room."

"You're crying, baby."

Hailey's mother placed the note on the bed. She approached Hailey, then wiped away the tears on her face.

"It's okay," her mother said. Tears left her eyes. "I cry sometimes. I'm even doing it right now."

After wiping away her own tears, she kissed Hailey's forehead.

"Stop," Hailey said. "I don't want you to touch me. Just get out of my room."

Hailey's mother hugged her. She didn't hug her back.

"Right now, I have to be with you," her mother said, as she embraced Hailey. "Mother is back, and she's going to get this family together. Hug me back. Please, Hailey."

More than once, Lena had hurt Hailey. Lilly Majestic wasn't Lena, and Lilly wanted the Majestic family to be together. So did Hailey.

She hugged her mother back. "I missed you, Mother. And I'm sorry I was rude to you."

"You have the right to be mad at me," Hailey's mother said. "I shouldn't have left you after the Invasion. I should've stayed here. I'm so sorry that I didn't."

"It's okay. I'm just glad that you're back."

The hug ended.

Zoey couldn't hug her stepfather. When she saw Boone for the last time, she had been eight years old. For sixteen years, Zoey hadn't been able to see her birth father. Archer's father had been a High, something Zoey deserved to be. But there could only be a maximum of six Highs at a time, not seven. Never seven.

"I met Alice Endman," Hailey told her mother. "But she prefers to be called Zoey."

"You met Alice?"

"Yes."

"Where is she?"

"She's at Lena's space station."

"Who is Lena?" Hailey's mother asked.

"Lena is Lovely Windsore. I met her. She's Zoey's stepsister. Zoey's kidnapper married Lena's father. Her name is Misty, and Zoey sees her as her mother."

Hailey's mother frowned. "That's not good."

"Also, Misty abused Zoey."

Hailey's mother clenched her fists. "I hope Misty suffers. Is Zoey like her? Is she cruel, like the awful woman who kidnapped her?"

Hailey shook her head. "No. Zoey is good, and she also cares about me. We're friends. Zoey isn't a bad person. She's not like Lena."

"Is Lena a bad person?"

"Yes."

"What did she do?" Hailey's mother asked.

"She..."

Hailey fiddled with her fingers.

"Did Lena hurt you?" her mother asked.

Hailey looked at the floor. It was the color of the space station where she had met the worst High. Hailey made eye contact with her mother.

"Yes," Hailey said. "Lena hurt me, and she also tried to kill me. She tried to murder me at her space station. I defended myself, and then I healed her. She didn't want to kill me anymore after that. Lena tormented me earlier, because she was mad that Zoey kneeled for me. I left Lena. And I'm not her friend anymore."

"I'm sorry all of that happened to you," Hailey's mother said. She caressed Hailey's long blonde hair. "And I need you to know that I will do everything in my power to keep you and the rest of our family safe."

"You being here makes me feel safer."

Hailey's mother smiled. She kissed Hailey's cheek. Afterward, her mother went closer to the bed. She picked up the note.

"Do you want me to read you the note Vera left you?" Hailey's mother said. "I already read it, by the way."

Hailey nodded. "Yes. Please read it to me."

"Hailey," Hailey's mother said, reading the note. "If you come back home, I probably won't be there. There's something I have to do, but I'm sure we're going to see each other again. I won't be away from the space station for too long. If any pale fools try to kill you, kill them. I love you. Vera."

Hailey's mother placed the note on the nightstand beside the bed.

"Vera is gone, but I'm here," she told Hailey. "Whatever happens, I'm going to protect you. And I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to do."

"Okay," Hailey said. "Also, I'm not the way that I used to be. I stopped believing that all life is precious. I even killed some Freemans to protect Lena. I wish I could let Vera know that. She would be proud of me."

"I'm definitely proud of you, and your father is going to be too. I wish I knew where he was."

"Me too. It's been a wish of mine for a long time."

"Our wish is going to be granted," Hailey's mother said. "And I'm wondering if you were granted a Save. You said that you healed Lena. What did you use to do it? Your hand, or a healing glass?"

"I used my hand. I have the power to heal now. Lena used to be able to do that, but she can't anymore. And she can't fly anymore either. Still took away her Saves and her vision. Lena's Watcher has all of the Saves because of that. Her name is Betty Fly. Lena went blind and lost her powers because she's the person who Betty loves the most."

Hailey's mother moved to the spot in front of her. "Is Lena's condition permanent? You couldn't heal her?"

"If she becomes worthy, she will be cured. The Soy Maker should be able to cure her too, but Father is the only person who knows where it is."

"The Soy Maker is here," Hailey's mother said. "It's in this space station. We just don't know exactly where it is. If your father was here, he would be able to get it for us. We need the Soy Maker. It's the only thing that can revive Soy. Lock Tannis made his terrible Freemans destroy our planet, but the Soy Maker can heal it. Soy is dead, but it's not going to be that way forever."

"I know."

Hailey's mother smiled before kissing her cheek.

"I'm so happy that I can show my girl affection again," her mother said. "Your mother is with you again, and she's going to give you the things you need. And one of those things is a family that's together, not separated."

Misty had separated Zoey from her family.

"I hope Zoey finds her family," Hailey said. "Misty took her away from her parents. She took Zoey away from her grandparents, too. One of them is dead, by the way. Boris is. I don't know how he died, though."

"I'm glad that he's gone," Hailey's mother said. "I hope those other traitors who joined Lock end up like Boris very soon."

"He tried to kill Father, back on Soy. They were fighting with strife swords, and I was there. Vera was holding me. Did she tell you that Father and Boris fought each other?"

"No. I guess she forgot to. Do you know how Boris died?"

"No," Hailey said. "I just know that he is. Zoey was with Hero and his siblings when she found out that Boris is dead. They heard a Freeman talking outside a Freeman base, and that's how they learned that that traitor died. Boris is finally dead. He's gone forever, and he can't help Lock anymore."

If Boris's wife was still alive, she could reunite with Zoey one day. As a teenager, Virginia had gained the power of immortality. Boris and Archer had developed it when they were teenagers, too. The last time Hailey had seen Archer, he had looked like a thirty-year-old man. Any Soynite with immortality could turn that power on and off.

"It's great," Hailey's mother told her. "Boris isn't a problem for us anymore, and it's going to stay that way. Unfortunately, the other former Highs who work for Lock are probably still alive. They need to die, and so does Lock. Those traitors see him as their leader, but I never will. Lock needs to die for all of the awful things he's done, and he will do more awful things. Someone needs to kill him as soon as possible. It's too bad that he survived his duel against Vice Reaper. Still, even if he had killed Lock, the Freemans might have attacked Soy at some point anyway."

"Probably," Hailey said.

Her mother looked at the bed. "I know I have my own bedroom here, but I want to sleep with you today. Is that okay with you?"

"Yes."

Hailey would sleep with her precious mother, who had returned home today.

After Hailey and her mother removed their shoes and their socks, they went closer to the nightstand, and took off their pendants. They placed them on it. Hailey got onto the bed before moving onto her side.

Hailey's mother lay on her side behind Hailey, and placed an arm on her. "We're going to see Lena soon. I know what we have to do, and I'll tell you more about it later."

"Okay," Hailey said. She sighed. "I wish I had found Father instead of that blind monster."

"I wish you had found him instead of her, too."

Hailey and her mother remained on top of the blue comforter, each of their heads resting on a pillow. Hailey and her mother stayed close.

"I love you," she told her.

"I love you, too," Hailey said.

"And I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to do."

"Lena commanded me to kill her. She knew I didn't want to do it, but she ordered me to, because she wanted to torment me. Lena is willing to make people do things they don't want to do."

"I'm not like her," Hailey's mother said. "And I will never be like her."

"I know. And thanks for coming back home."

"I'm glad to be home, baby."

Soon Hailey fell asleep. Lilly Majestic remained behind her. Lena had hurt her baby. Before Lena could kill Nova or other people who didn't deserve to be killed, Lena would have to die.

As Lilly's long blonde hair rested on the pillow, she shut her eyes. Twenty minutes later, she slept.