Kat Shame had been Hero's sister for the majority of her life.

She sat in the cafeteria, wearing a purple shirt with long sleeves. Children of Still acted like purple had become the only color clothing could be. They favored purple, but they refused to wear Soynite pendants. Kat donned her pendant and blue jeans. Her white shoes touched the cafeteria's floor. No one else's footwear did.

The door opened, and Zoey stepped into the room.

"Kat," she said.

"If you want me to tell you the big secret, I'm not going to," Kat said. "Sorry."

"I don't care about the big secret. Not anymore."

Misty had taken Zoey years ago, and Kat and her siblings had kidnapped Able a few days ago. Heaven's soldiers hadn't riddled Kat's body with laser beams. She preferred to keep it that way, and that meant she shouldn't tell Zoey the truth.

She sat across Kat.

"You came back," Kat said.

"Sydney was the first person I saw when I got back here," Zoey replied. "She's taking a nap."

Sydney acted like each word she spoke would take one year off her lifespan, and her father couldn't sit in the room. The father Kat shared with Sydney couldn't be with his daughters. Or his sons.

The Exchangers would get him back.

"I know," Kat said. "She's dreaming about our father, hopefully."

Were Sydney's blue eyes shut? Or had she opened them and left her bed?

Kat didn't have dark brown eyes, and neither did Zoey's gray-eyed sister. Though Soynites had kneeled for Lena, she lacked the power to see. Her royal authority hadn't prevented her from becoming blind.

"Your father adopted you," Zoey said. "My mother kidnapped me. After she confessed, I didn't know what to call myself. Was I Zoey All? Or was I Alice Endman."

"You're both," Kat said.

"I know that now. And for way too long, I didn't know that I was part of the Endman family. I'm still part of it. I spent years thinking that Misty was my birth mother. There was so much that I didn't know."

Zoey ran a hand through her hair. She and Kat were brown-haired and brown-eyed. One girl was an Exchanger and the other wasn't.

"I saw Misty," Zoey said. "I saw my mother again. I used my teleportation stone to get back into her spaceship, and we hugged. But she was still obsessed with killing Boris Endman. She didn't want to get rid of that dumb obsession of hers, and she still doesn't. I left her. I didn't plan on living with her again anyway, but I didn't tell her I love her back."

Kat ran her finger along the cafeteria's table.

"You will," she said.

"I might get a brother," Zoey said. "Or a sister. My mother implied that she had sex with Boone."

"You're smart, Zoey," Kat said. "You're like a Watcher. You figure things out. And if your mother does have a baby, you'll be a great older sister."

"I already am a great older sister."

Lena Majestic. Former High Theo had become her father, like Mitch Shame had become Kat's father. She and Lena were adoptees. Kat had that in common with High Lena, but the Exchanger might frown if Lena ordered her to kneel for her.

"And Lena might get a half-sibling months from now," Zoey said. "People can debate on whether or not Misty is my mother, but who can deny that Boone is Lena's father?"

"Not me," Kat said. "But Lena hurts people. Are you sure she won't hurt a baby?"

"She won't hurt Boone's children," Zoey said. "That's why she never hurt me."

In life, Boone Windsore had been Misty's husband, not Zoey's birth father. That fact hadn't led to Lena striking Zoey with her white cane. And Lena's ability to be in the same room with Zoey had vanished. She lived with the Exchangers. She didn't reside in a spaceship with the woman who had assaulted her with slaps.

"You don't deserve to be hurt," Kat said. "I spent most of my life not hurting anyone. And I remember being so hopeful, until the Freemans took my father away."

"The first person you killed was that Freeman, right?" Zoey said. "The one who was going to kill Hero?"

"Yes. That Freeman I killed at that base in Washington was the first person I killed."

In a hall outside the prison wing where Able Brick had been imprisoned, Kat had stopped a Freeman from murdering Hero.

"I wasn't going to let anyone kill my brother," she said. "That Freeman base was a horrible building to be in, but I survived our attack on that place. We all did. And we met you inside that base."

"You and your siblings wanted to kill me," Zoey said. She rubbed her arms. "And Hero and Sydney didn't want me to die."

"Sydney adores Hero," Kat said. "Like how you adore Lena. And we didn't kill you. Fortunately, we let you live with us. I'm glad that's what ended up happening."

If Wade had shot and killed Zoey the day the Exchangers met her, she wouldn't have told Hero that Hailey Majestic was a Pure.

Zoey had saved Hero during the attack on the Freeman base. She was his savior and his girlfriend.

"This is your home now," Kat said. She gestured to the blue walls. "You're welcome here. And my father will accept you. He won't make you leave, Zoey."

Zoey put her arms on the table.

"Your father is a better parent than my mother," she said. "And no one can say that your father isn't your father. You chose him and he chose you. I wish it were like that for me. Misty All kidnapped me. She took me from my family, and she abused me."

And Kat had kidnapped Able Brick. She had tried doing the same to High Jill, but Vera had made that abduction attempt fail. Yet the Bloodhound hadn't interfered with the first kidnapping the Exchangers had committed. They were abductors.

Kat was what Misty was.

Hailey. Her father hadn't made her into a High. He had given royal power to her older sister Nova. Theo had turned Hailey's adoptive sister into a High, too. The ruler lived with Vera's mentee.

Maybe the Exchangers would meet Lena and Hailey on the same day.

"I don't remember my birth parents at all," Zoey said. "I know who they are, but I can't remember seeing them with my own eyes. But I saw Misty. I haven't forgotten her, and I don't want to. But she wants to kill a man who's already dead."

In Washington, Kat's ears had caught a Freeman's words. Boris Endman was dead. Misty couldn't make his heart beat again.

"Why can't everything be simple, Kat?" Zoey said. "I love my kidnapper, and I don't even remember my birth parents. They love me. They want to find me, and I want to find them. But the three of us can't be together. Are Archer and Holly even alive? I don't know. But they really did love me, back when I was living with them, back when this planet still had trees and grass. Archer and Holly loved me."

Kat nodded. "They still do, Zoey."

Archer couldn't kiss Zoey's forehead. Neither could Holly.

Mitch.

Kat's father couldn't show her affection. The Freemans had stolen his freedom and replaced it with imprisonment. It had become Kat's duty to free him. She shared that responsibility with the other Exchangers.

Zoey's friend Hailey hadn't seen her father in years. Was Kat doomed to become like her, a girl who had gone years without being in a room with her father?

"Hero loves you, too," Kat said. "So do I. Me and my brother haven't even known you for a week, but we care about you. We care about you a lot. The others do, too. Sydney. Wade. Everett. Macy. We're glad you're here. The day we met you, I didn't want you to be with us, but that's not the truth anymore. You're my friend. And you're my brother's girlfriend. We have to be good to each other. Me and my siblings aren't going to hurt you, and we want you here."

On March third, the unconscious Able Brick had gone into the spaceship. Zoey had been inside it when it happened. She hadn't seen or heard Able.

Her false mother had stolen a baby, and the girl's housemates had taken a Pure.

Zoey lived among kidnappers.

"I wish Boone was here," she said. Boone didn't sit within the cafeteria. He couldn't sit anywhere. "He never hurt me. I wish I could say the same about my mother. I've forgiven her, but I'm never going to forget what she's done to me. Why did she have to hurt me?"

Misty had made it seem like she had given birth to Zoey. Less than a week ago, Misty had pushed out a confession inside her spaceship's lounge room. She was Alice Endman's kidnapper.

Zoey had come from Holly, and that would always be the truth.

Misty had pretended to be Zoey's biological mother, but Kat didn't pretend to be the girl's friend. She was.

Zoey stroked her cheek.

"She hurt me and people know about it," she said. "You know what Misty did to me. Hero knows it, too. Everyone in this spaceship knows what Misty did to me. They know that she hurt me. Why couldn't that woman be like Sydney? Why couldn't my mother be like her, someone who only hurts people who deserve to be hurt? You were there when me and Misty reunited on Earth. I was glad that I got to hug her, and it was a sweet moment. Then she slapped me. All because I lost her invisibility bracelet. But I had it, Kat. I gave it to her, but she slapped me anyway."

Zoey pinned her gaze on the table, as if staring at it would win her a precious hug.

"Betty didn't slap me after I hugged her," she said. "Neither did Lilly. She isn't even my mother. But if she were, no one could deny that me and Lena are sisters. And I would be a Majestic. I still want to reunite with Theo Majestic. When I was a baby, I met him. But I don't remember it. That was before Misty took me away from my family. That was before I met Hero."

Hero. He was a boy who could fly. Kat's eldest sibling. An Exchanger.

He and his siblings had tried capturing Jill. The Bloodhound Vera had wrecked that attempt. Because of her, Sydney didn't talk much. She had escaped Vera, yet the woman tormented her.

"He wanted me," Zoey said. "When almost all of his siblings wanted me dead, he didn't. Hero saved my life inside that Freeman base. We both saved each other that day, and I'm never going to stop being grateful that he exists. He never slapped me. Hero never hit me. And after I reunited with him, he showed how much he loves me. You know what my mother did after I reunited with her. You saw what she was like. Your brother isn't like that, and me and him have really bonded. I'm glad I saw him in that forest a few days ago. If it weren't for Hero, I wouldn't have learned the truth. I wouldn't have learned that I'm Alice Endman. Hero. He makes me feel loved."

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Kat had held Hero after shooting him by accident. If he had died from his wound, he and Zoey wouldn't have fallen in love.

"But Hero is hiding something from me," Zoey said. "So are you. You and your brothers and sisters. I won't pester all of you about your secret, but I hate it when people hide things from me. I wish the people here didn't have a secret. And I wish my mother hadn't hurt me. I wish my stepfather weren't dead."

Kat held Zoey's hands.

"We love you, Zoey," she said. "That's what matters."

Zoey bowed her head. "Thank you, Kat."

The door opened. Hero stepped into the room, and Zoey stood. There he was, the boy who had defended Zoey when Kat, Wade, Everett, and Macy wanted her dead.

"Hero," Zoey said.

"Zoey, you're back," Hero said. "And you're okay. Nothing bad happened to you while you were out there, right?"

"Right. And I don't care about your big secret. Not anymore."

The big secret.

Kat. Hero. Wade. Everett. Macy. Sydney. Mitch Shame's children were Pure kidnappers, and they worked for Heaven's leader. Zoey lived in a spaceship with the Exchangers, but Heaven's soldiers would murder her if she learned her boyfriend's secret.

The Exchangers wouldn't become Heaven's soldiers. When Kat and her siblings joined that planet's society, they wouldn't be allowed to leave the place.

"Hero, can I talk to you in private?" Kat said. "Soon?"

"Sure, Kat," Hero replied. He caressed Zoey's cheek. "I just have to talk to this special girl some more."

"I'm nothing special," Zoey said. "Lena is."

No matter what Zoey said about Lena, Kat would rather hold a baby Freeman than kneel for the blind High.

"You can give me a special kiss," Hero said. "You can do it before I have a talk with Kat. You still know how to kiss, right?"

Zoey put her hands on Hero's cheeks, and pressed her lips against his. He gripped her hips, as if her body would rise and slam against the ceiling if he didn't.

Kat looked at the table.

A smooching noise came.

"Go to our room," Hero said, speaking to Zoey. "Wait for me there. I'll be there after I finish talking to Kat. I'm glad you're back, Zoey."

Kat and Zoey slept in the same home, but one girl was a kidnapper and the other had been kidnapped. Yet their friendship hadn't fled.

Zoey left the room, and Hero sat across Kat.

"What do you want to talk about?" he asked.

If Kat spoke, Zoey might hear the Exchanger girl's words. If she heard Kat talk about Heaven or its soldiers, that would be awful.

"Just wait," Kat said. "Let's wait for a bit, and then I'll tell you."

A minute passed.

"If all of us manage to become citizens of Heaven City, Zoey is going to be mad at you," Kat said. She leaned toward Hero, as if her father would die soon if she didn't get closer to the boy. "Very mad. She doesn't know that only Heaven's president and soldiers can leave the planet. I don't think Zoey will be one. That means she won't be able to find her parents. And she won't be able to leave Heaven. None of us will."

"I know," Hero said. "I know. But I'm going to make sure that she joins us anyway. I have to. I wish things weren't so complicated, but they are. I want Zoey to find her parents. And if she doesn't, I will make her stay with us on Heaven anyway. Does that make me a bad person?"

"You're my brother. That's what matters."

Hero smiled. Kat had seen him do that for the first time in her life years ago. Over a decade had gone by, and Hero hadn't stopped being her older brother.

When they were younger, Kat and Hero had slept together, chased each other in the spaceship's halls, and ate in the cafeteria while their father held baby Sydney.

Kat and Hero were siblings.

Hero's bedroom had become a room he shared with Zoey, his girlfriend. Boris Endman's granddaughter. The Exchangers had found Alice Endman, but her grandfather hadn't reunited with her. He never would.

Kat had been a stranger to former High Boris. Her chance to meet him had died, and it was because his heart had stopped.

Had he taken his life? Had someone killed him?

Zoey couldn't be with her grandfather. Her abduction was like a stain on the past, one that nobody could wipe from history.

Mitch. The Exchangers' only parent.

Kat couldn't speak to her father, or hear his words. She couldn't look at him. Zoey's sister couldn't look at anyone, and a Freeman had killed that High's father.

Had a Freeman cut Mitch Shame's life short?

"I have a great sister," Hero said. "I have great sisters. You, Sydney, and Macy are still alive. We're alive and we're on Soy. I know that Vera could've killed us, but she didn't. We can thank Jill for that. I just wish that Sydney hadn't been tortured so badly. I miss how she used to be, and I wish she never met Vera. Hailey's Watcher is a cruel Soynite, and Jill is a good one."

"Unfortunately for her, the Exchangers don't kneel for Highs," Kat said. "If Vera hadn't been in that mansion, we would've taken Jill. She would've become our second victim, but Vera made sure that didn't happen. She is such an awful Bloodhound. And if she didn't hate us, we could make her take us to Father."

"We could. But let's not think about something we can't make happen. Vera doesn't like us and we don't like her. We're not going to get her help, and we're going to finish our mission. We took one Pure. All we have to do is take nine more."

Able. He was the first Pure the Exchangers had abducted. They had to see, meet, and kidnap nine more.

The Exchangers needed to reunite with their father. When they did, they wouldn't inject Vamp into his body. If she could, Kat would hug him.

He had spent too much time away from his family.

"And we're going to take nine more Pures, Kat," Hero said. "Nine Pures. That's the price we have to pay to see Father again. We already took Able. We weren't able to take High Jill, but she's not the only Pure. There are other ones. Hailey Majestic, for example."

"She's Zoey's friend," Kat said. "And she's High Lena's sister. If we take Hailey, and if Zoey finds out about it, she's going to be mad at you. She will be furious."

"When the time comes, Zoey will learn our secret. She'll learn that we're Pure kidnappers. She will find out about what we're going to do to some Pures. After we finish this mission, of course. I know that. But she's going to forgive us."

Zoey hadn't met Able, Kat assumed. But Zoey had met Hailey. They had hugged before. Zoey was friends with Hailey, but the Exchangers would take any Pure they could.

Heaven City's walls didn't surround Kat, Hero, or Zoey. If they lived at that place, would Boris's granddaughter try departing from it?

"When we're living at Heaven City, let's hope that Zoey doesn't do something stupid," Kat said. She put her arms on the table, like Zoey had done. "How do we know that she won't try to leave the place? She has loved ones who might never become citizens of Heaven City. Loved ones like Lena And Misty. And Archer and Holly."

"Don't worry, Kat," Hero said. He rubbed her arm through her purple sleeve. "Everything is going to be okay. I know that bad things have happened, but we're going to be okay. All of us. Me. You. Zoey. And our brothers and sisters. Father is going to be okay, too. Lost people can be found. We found Alice Endman, didn't we? And now she's living with us. We'll find Father, and he'll meet Zoey. They deserve to meet each other. Zoey can only see pictures of Father, but it won't be that way forever. One day she'll see him in person."

Would Kat's father and Zoey stand beside each other one day?

During his absence, Mitch's children had become kidnappers. Pure kidnappers.

"In the future, when Father learns what we did to get him back, will he smile?" Kat said. "Will he be glad that his children kidnapped ten people to reunite with him? Or will he be disappointed?"

"He loves us," Hero said. He stroked Kat's hand with his thumb. "If he gets mad at us, it won't last. He'll forgive us. So will Zoey. In the future."

"In the future. Right. I wonder how many more days we have to go without Father."

Kat and Hero sat underneath a blue ceiling. The other Exchangers, and Zoey, took up space inside their home. A home that could fly. But Kat's father didn't step into the cafeteria, safe and alive.

How long did Kat have to stay fatherless?

"We're taking a break now. We're on Soy and we're trying to recover from that incident with Vera. Especially Sydney. When she is back to her normal self, we'll start looking for Pures. We took Able to Heaven, and we're going to find nine more people like him. One day we might take Hailey. Hopefully, we won't have another encounter with that Watcher of hers. I don't ever want to see Vera again. And I don't ever want Sydney to see her again."

Sydney. She had one father, and maybe he remained locked inside one prison cell.

"Vera is friends with Zoey's parents," Hero said. "I haven't forgotten that. Holly took a break before, too. Some time after Zoey was kidnapped, people stopped seeing Holly in public. She must have felt so horrible. Her daughter was gone, and she didn't even know that Zoey was in the care of a terrible woman. If Holly knew that, she would've felt worse."

"We're not Misty," Kat said. "None of us have slapped Zoey, and we never will. We won't hurt her. You definitely won't."

"I know I won't, Kat. I love Zoey. I want her to meet our father, and I want her to live with us on Heaven. When we're finally living on that planet, we won't have to worry about Freemans anymore. We deserve to live on Heaven."

Hero smiled.

"Heaven doesn't have any Freemans. Just Soynites. And Heaven doesn't look like this planet. It doesn't look like Soy. Heaven is beautiful. I want Zoey to see it, and I want Father to do the same. Heaven is where he deserves to be. It's where Zoey deserves to be, too. All of us have to go there. We've suffered too much. But we know that Heaven exists, and it's the ultimate safe haven for Soynites. When Zoey is living on Heaven, she won't try to leave. Neither will I. It's the best place in the universe. It's even better than Soy."

When Kat walked on Soy's surface, she took steps on gray dirt that carried no life.

"Me and you have seen what this planet looks like now," Hero said. "It was beautiful. But it's not like that anymore. The Freemans ruined it. They turned this planet into an ugly one that doesn't even have trees. Or grass. There's no water here, either. Heaven has that, and it has trees and grass. There are lots of Soynites there, too. How many Soynites are living in this spaceship, Kat?"

"Seven," Kat said. "There's me and you, our siblings, and Zoey."

"There aren't seven Soynites on Heaven. There are lots of us on that planet. The fact that there are no Freemans there makes me love that place even more. Lock's pale minions took our father away from us, but we're going to get him back. Zoey came back to us. She found us, and we can find Father. Nine more Pures. That's what we need to find. Even if we don't take Hailey, there are other Pures out there. Hailey and Jill are just two of them. Theo Majestic is another one. Pures are real, and we're going to take the ones we have to. We take who we have to take."

Hailey. Jill. Theo.

They were three Pures Kat and her siblings had never delivered to Heaven.

With fierce violence, Vera had interrupted the Exchangers when they tried kidnapping Jill. The way she had treated Hero and Sydney had been brutal.

Had Vera realized Kat and her brothers and sisters had tried taking Jill because she was a Pure?

The eleven-year-old Jill didn't wear a Heaven soldier's uniform.

Did Able?

Wade had pulled a lever and unleashed him. The Exchangers had rescued Able from a Freeman base, but they had sent him to Heaven against his will.

He had gone to the best place in the universe. Kat and the other Pure takers had left it.

Kat sat across Hero in their spaceship's cafeteria, and their mission remained unfinished. They had delivered Able to Heaven. But they hadn't given Heaven City's government ten Pures.

The Exchangers' task wasn't done.

Hailey. She was Vera's mentee. The Bloodhound had raised her. Hailey lived at a space station Kat had never gone into, and the Pure girl's father was a man Kat and her family hadn't met.

He had turned six young children into rulers, and Kat had pinned her gaze on one. Jill was a High. The Exchangers' ruler. But she was a Pure Kat and her siblings had tried taking, a person they had failed to force Vamp into.

A long time ago, lineage had determined Soynite royal power. But Holy Majestic had lost his life. His son, Theo Majestic, had gained a king's authority. He had granted his six friends royal power. One friend had almost brought the Soynite race's destruction.

Lock Tannis. The Freemans' Great Leader. The worst Soynite.

He was the reason why Kat couldn't hug her father.

She hadn't been born as an Exchanger, one of six children who had discovered Heaven and its beauty.

She had killed her former status. A non-kidnapper, that was something Kat had stopped being. If Mitch Shame craved liberation, his children had to inject more Pures with Vamp. Ten abductions would turn six children into father huggers.

Two Exchangers sat inside a cafeteria, brother and sister, kidnapper and kidnapper.

"We're the Exchangers," Hero said. "We take who we have to take."

"I know," Kat said. "And I'm going to keep helping the rest of you take who we have to take. I love my family. And I'm going to try my best to reunite with Father. Kidnapping nine more Pures will make that happen, so I'll do it. Father took care of me, and he loved me, and he still does. He doesn't deserve to spend the rest of his life as a prisoner of the Freemans. I miss him."

Kat had returned to Soy, but her father hadn't.

Having a missing father was bad enough, but having a missing father and a hideous home planet was too cruel.

"And I'm sure he misses us," Hero said. "A few days ago, Wade opened Able Brick's prison cell. One day we're going to get Father out of his."

The cost for Mitch Shame's freedom: ten Pures.

In the future, Kat might see a Pure, or kidnap one, but she would never be a Pure. Neither would Hero, Wade, Everett, Macy, Sydney, or Zoey. Each Pure had been born as one. If a Soynite hadn't come into the universe as a Pure, they would never be one.

Kat wouldn't become what Hailey was, but Hailey might obtain what Kat would kidnap nine more Pures for: the privilege to live at Heaven City.

"If Father was never taken from us, we never would've met Zoey," Hero said. "I appreciate that I've bonded with her, but I don't appreciate that the Freemans have our father. There are Soynites who won't ever escape the Freemans. They'll die in their custody. But that won't happen to Father, because he has six children who love him. They will do everything in their power to get him back."

The Exchangers had syringes filled with Vamp, and the quickest Soynite spaceship, but they didn't have their father.

Zoey. They had her.

If Kat had been where Zoey had been, the Shame girl and her siblings might've taken Hailey.

One day the Exchangers might bring her to Heaven, and she would fight for its people. Right now, Hailey was someone who hadn't learned about Heaven or the society thriving on it.

"And Zoey can't find out about Heaven until it's time for her to," Kat said. "If she learns about it too early, Heaven's soldiers will kill all of us."

"That isn't going to happen, Kat," Hero said, as light bathed his blond hair. "Zoey won't figure out the big secret too early. We'll take Father away from the Freemans, and we'll all go to Heaven. We'll live there. Permanently."

Kat nodded. "You're right, brother. And you should go to Zoey. She's waiting for you."

Hero stood.

"You're right, sister," he said. "I'm glad we had this talk. I'll see you later."

He left.

Kat sat in the cafeteria, staying in an area no one else occupied. In the future, would her father ever escape the place the Freemans had taken him to?

He had a daughter. If Kat had one, she would name her Kaitlyn. That had been her mother's name. Kaitlyn Kracken had been a great woman.

Kat would never be as great as she had been.