The meeting between the Defiant Unchained had been three days ago. If they stuck to their schedule, they'd be meeting again today. I could imagine Rito pulling them into the dark, cramped space under the floorboards, and sympathized.

If I squinted hard enough, the lines in the concrete ceiling above me looked sort of like the wooden slats in her school's floor. The bars on the open door looked like a line of pillars holding up the building.

But more likely, I was just going a little crazy from being here for three days. Locked up away from the world with nobody but interrogators to keep me company.

It was stupid, and what's more, I felt stupid for not seeing it coming. We told the Defiant about the death of their leader, then of course one of them would go posturing or threatening or whatever the fuck it was they did to the XPCA, then my name comes up, and next thing you know, I'm in a cell.

I mean, the door was open because they couldn't close it on me without the room blowing up. It had taken the morons three rooms to get that right. But it was still a cell, even if I was honestly still here by choice. Like one armed guard outside the door was going to do a damn thing to me if I really wanted out.

Every day they had more questions. The one that kept coming up was why did you kill him, and it seemed like no matter how many times I told them I didn't, they kept finding new people and new ways to ask the same question.

I'd told my story probably fifty times over the three days, and it felt like the last jackass who pulled me out of here wasn't any different or closer to cracking this than the first.

I knew the girls were probably worrying about me, though I'd managed to borrow Tem's holo and let them know where I was and that I was fine and to let this all blow over. She'd been trying to live under my bed, but without food, and with the risk of my shield detonating and killing her accidentally if some dumbass closed the door on us, I had to report her to get her out of here. I was able to use her holo to have Cosette do it with some tact and hopefully keep her out of trouble, but still.

Mostly I just laid there with my thoughts. The first day was absolute torture, thinking about all the time I was wasting, the crazy things my friends might get up to looking for me, wondering if there were other ops going on where Exhumans were getting iced because I couldn't be there to save them.

I thought a lot about Karu and AEGIS, and how both of them had been transformed recently. AEGIS had taken a step back from who she was, and the old her in the new world was overwhelming and scary and she'd reacted to it with fear and arrogance, lashing out at people and friends because of their unrealistic expectations of her, and her whole ignorance of the wider world and all that had happened to us in it.

Karu was the opposite. She'd taken a step forward, but down a strange path, choosing to shrink her world from something overwhelming to something tiny, somewhere she could have control over herself and her feelings again. When I sat down and thought about it like that, it didn't seem as bad as my gut instinct that she'd dropped her guns and became a waitress but...deep down I knew it was wrong for her. I hoped she'd see it too...but at the same time...if she didn't...was that okay?

By the second day, I'd run out of things to think about and was just retreading old ground in my mind, it felt like. I felt cagey and anxious, felt like I'd been benched too long, that I was at risk of growing rusty. I felt mad, and even yelled at one of the interrogators, probably doubling my stay here for the stupid outburst.

But come-fucking-on. How many times can you hear the same story and ask the same questions and get the same answers before you can reasonably expect to have your head bitten off? I didn't know who the hell all these intelligence officers I was talking to were, or what they were trying to get from me, but it was becoming apparent to me really quickly how the XPCA could be so consistently stupid, if these people were the 'intelligence' in it.

By the third day, I was just depleted. I was tired of these walls. Tired of sleeping on this shitty bed with the lights only half-off. Tired of the careful handling and constant stares of the XPCA soldiers transporting me to and from interrogations and holding, watching me like I was going to flip out and kill them all if they so much as blinked.

It reminded me of an uncomfortable truth I knew but rarely actually faced. People legit hated Exhumans. Like obviously, that wasn't something I could ever forget, but most days, I was with friends or colleagues, or other Exhumans. People desensitized to Exhumans by constant exposure. Here on this base, these personnel probably only saw Exhumans once or twice, and in the years before New Eden, every single time they did, half of them wouldn't come home that day.

It was sobering and frustrating, and after being angry at these jackasses all day yesterday and burning out on it, gave me a small bit of a new perspective. It might even suck more for them than for me, maybe, I thought.

Maybe.

It wasn't until after dark that evening, following the third day of interrogation and isolation that something changed. I heard boots clicking down the hallway far later than ever before, and just listened to them come. They stopped in front of my cell and I heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, Chariot. Time to go home."

I looked up at her, upside-down from my perspective on the bed, and saw Cosette standing there, exhausted but smiling, her brown hair straight with accumulated grease and her uniform jacket open and hanging off her shoulders over a plain black tee.

"I'm glad they didn't send you to interrogate me, I would have cracked in no time," I said, returning her smile.

"For fuck's sake Chariot, all I ever ask is that you keep out of trouble, and you're going around poking your face into the murder scene of the XPCA's most wanted. Do you have any idea how many things you touched in that room? How much DNA you left behind? I had forensics investigators shoving little baggies and holos in my face for the last seventy-two hours straight, saying do you know why he touched this? Can you explain why his dander was in this room? Like I don't have anything better to do with my time, like protecting the goddamn world."

"Sorry," I mumbled at her.

"Didn't hear that. Sounded a bit like a lame-ass apology, but I know that can't be right after all I've been putting up with for you."

I stood up and clicked my socked feet together, snapping her the crispest of salutes. "Apologies sir! This soldier expresses his deepest regrets and conveys gratitude for your efforts, sir!"

"Fuck yeah you do. They wanted to keep you a whole week, but I told them if I lost my strike lead any longer, I may as well just hand the world over to the Exhumans. The bad ones, that is," she said with a sideways glance. "What are you still standing there for, get your ass outta that cell. The detention center is drafty as fuck."

"Well you could always wear your jacket," I said, joining her.

"I'm going for the crazy disheveled look over here. I figure, I stop doing personal hygiene, the whole world will just calm the fuck down for a minute when my stench hits 'em, and I get some time to relax. Also here, look, I've been practicing my crazy eyes."

"Very nice. Very crazy."

"Thanks. I don't mind the generals' bitch work so much if they understand I might bite them for asking. Always dress for the job you want, right?"

I got checked out and she kept up a stream of amicable chatter which was doubly relentless, both because she was very wound up and obviously hadn't spoken to anyone in a while, and because I hadn't spoken to anyone in even longer and had become sort of quiet as a result. Even though she seemed happy enough, she was walking slowly and there were bags under her eyes. To say nothing of the fact she just happened to be on base after dark and had been served the bitch work of telling me I could go. Freaking intelligence guys didn't mind wasting my time, but couldn't be assed to come out and tell me I was free themselves.

"You got a place to stay tonight?" she asked, as we crossed out of the detention center into the cold, crisp night air. The harsh lights of the base painted the sky velvet and erased any trace of stars.

"Um, barracks, I guess."

She shook her head. "Barracks is full up. We had an event yesterday halfway to Colorado and logistics is still trying to get everyone home. Everyone alive anyway. Well, the dead, too, but they aren't taking up space in the barracks."

"I missed an event?" I gaped at her. "Was everyone okay?"

She turned to me and smiled again, pointing to the dark lines under her eyes. "Kid, I earned these stressing and working enough for the both of us. It's fine for you not to be at every single disaster in the world. The A in XPCA does not stand for Athan."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"So everyone's fine?"

"Ehh. Everyone survived. Tem's under arrest, she wouldn't go without you. Or so I assume, she wouldn't say or do anything. Moon and Tower were MIA for a few hours but turned up laughing and smiling. He was, anyway. She's weird. Otherwise, no issues."

"That's a relief. Was Jack lead?"

"Yeah. He's smart but he doesn't make decisions well. Tends to go with whatever he thinks everyone else wants. Great soldier, not a great leader. I'm sure everyone will be extra-happy to see you as a result."

I blushed under her compliments. We reached a set of doors for the main building and paused outside it. "So, got a place to stay?" she repeated. "You can take my car and crash at my place tonight if you need it. I'm hardly there anyway."

"Take your car?"

"Well, don't wreck it, obviously, but sure."

"And how would you get home?"

"I wouldn't. I've got a nice comfy sleeping bag under my desk. It's really helping me develop a whole new world of back pain I didn't know I could ever aspire to, plus I get to face the generals in the morning without my bra on. Every girl's dream."

"No...I'll just...wander and find something. Been doing not much the last few days but resting so I think a walk wouldn't hurt."

"Fair enough. You've got your effects back so call me if you change your mind. But if you happen to wake me up..." she leaned in close and grabbed me by the collar. She really did smell sort of offensively ripe from this distance. "...I will kill you."

She let me go and fixed my collar. "But, statistically speaking, I never really sleep anymore so, hey, no worries."

"Great," I said. "Please take care of yourself, Cosette."

"Meh? World ain't gonna save itself."

She turned to go but I called after her back. "Remember Mage, please. She died because I gave so much of myself to the fight that I couldn't help when she really needed it. The first rule of combat is not to get yourself killed."

She froze and then glanced back at me. "You been taking Peregrine training, kid?"

"No, just life tips from Karu."

"Ah, that'd do it. Well, tell that buzzard to keep her winglets vertical. And make sure you tell her thanks."

"For what?" I called, but she just gave me a lazy wave as she walked back into the building.

I only had a minute to wonder what she meant by that before I reached the main gate and found Karu sitting there in jeans, a jacket, and a knit cap. She was still holding herself like she was cold, and seemed apparently catatonic on the same rock I'd seen her on a week ago.

"Karu?" I called to her. She started awake and almost fell off her rock, rubbing her eyes as she looked around in the relative dark.

"Ashton!" she said and rose, only to immediately wobble on infirm legs.

"Woah, easy," I said, catching her. She was cold, and leaned on me heavily.

"Accursed legs have gone to sleep under me, my apologies," she said, shaking them out.

"Karu, it's the middle of the night inside a secure XPCA facility...what are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you," she said, frowning at me. "Was it not obvious?"

"Karu...I was jailed indefinitely. How long were you planning to be out here? How long were you out here?"

"Only most of two days. I did go home to eat and sleep."

"And your job?"

She shrugged. "I was under the impression you thought very little of that job anyway. I let them know of my situation, and we shall see if they allow me to resume employment. Personally, I view my chances positively, as I believe the manager has something of a soft spot for broken girls with tragic pasts of which they will not speak." She smiled like it was a joke, though I didn't see the humor. "Oh, lighten up, as it were. You were unincarcerated today."

"You...seem different today," I said, and then realized how that might be interpreted poorly. "I mean, you seem happy."

"Come, let us walk, should my legs permit it," she said with a smile. "Are you staying in the barracks tonight?"

"They're full up."

"Then you shall stay with me. I insist."

"Karu, that's a really bad--"

"No, I insist. Nothing untoward will occur. You are my platonic friend and guest and will be offered appropriate hospitality and immunity from my charms."

I didn't know quite how to respond to that, though I had to admit I found myself significantly less immune to her charms now than usual. It really seemed like she had taken a second lease on life, or found inner peace, or something, and honestly I was a little desperate to know if there was some hidden secret to happiness she could share with me.

Was it her restaurant's pies? I bet it was pies.

I asked about it again after we'd gotten in her car, but she just told me to wait until we were home to have a real chat. She also didn't ask about my time as a hardened criminal, which I thought would be the first thing to come up, so I supposed she was serious in keeping it light for now.

"Oh yeah, Cosette said I should tell you to keep your winglets vertical? What's that about?"

Karu laughed full-bodily and I really wished she wouldn't. She was already driving like a bit of a maniac, and it was late, and dark, and she'd just been asleep a few minutes ago, and I wasn't entirely convinced her legs were fully awake yet, and Jesus Christ that was another car, Karu you are killing me here.

"Oh that takes me back," Karu said with a broad grin. "Training jetpacks have no neural uplink, so that you can train your body even if one's mind is not yet disciplined enough. They are therefore quite different in both form and function, and have actual wings on them, the kind with swept-up tips at the ends. Winglets, those are called."

She rubbed her hands and then cranked the heat up, speaking louder over the ensuing blast. "Well, when flying forward, a rookie may often have the propensity to fly forward facing forward, as though standing up, which is a poor habit. Unless performing feints or maneuvers which require otherwise, one should always be flying...upwards, I suppose you would call it. Headfirst. Superior aerodynamics and agility. So, when flying forward, one should, in spacial essence, be lying on their chest, and in this orientation, the winglets on a training jetpack would be vertical."

"Keep your winglets vertical. So it's a line in training, that's it?"

"Originally, and every cadet is well familiar with the phrase. But the only time one's winglets would be vertical is when they are flying forward. Thus the epithet is more a wishing of success -- to keep moving forward. This is a long explanation which is likely unnecessary, and for that I do apologize."

"No, it's interesting. And funny, now that both of you know you're Peregrines. She also told me to be sure to thank you."

"Ah," Karu said, but didn't smile at that one.

"What's that about?"

"That," she said, turning left through a light which was almost certainly red "is her overstepping her bounds."

"How so?"

"Because if I had wanted you to know that I had played any role in your release, no matter how minor, I would have told you myself, not tossed out a casual mention of it and let it linger in your mind."

"Oh. So you did?"

"I did. And I did not intend to bring it up in the slightest. I contacted your sister and the AI and Code-X and let them know you had been taken again...and they seemed...disinterested."

"Well...it wasn't a big deal. And I told them that."

She pulled the car into a half-full lot and looked at me like I was stupid after she parked. "I believe in your own words earlier tonight, you were 'jailed indefinitely'. As in, should the XPCA have desired it, you would remain there for weeks, or months, or even years."

I had to laugh. "The door on my cell wasn't even closed. I could have just left."

"And would you have? And branded yourself a public enemy?"

"Well...no…"

"Then there may as well have been a door."

I frowned at her. "It wasn't a big deal."

She shrugged. "I am glad it was not. But had your superior and I not been agitating for your release, perhaps it would have been. Who is to say?"

"The others would have stepped in if it got bad," I said, though I felt like I was now just trying to defend them somehow.

"And were that the case, the fact would be you would be in a situation which had gotten bad, as it were." She shook her head at me. "How many times must I preach anticipation and preparedness to you before you take it to heart? You do not plan to lose and then turn it about once you are losing. You plan to win, from the outset. All else is foolishness."

She stepped out of the car and under the yellow light of the parking lot she'd put us in, the dirty lightbars faintly buzzing in lampposts, surrounded by a cloud of swarming bugs even in this cold. Ahead of us, a long two-story building coiled around the parking lot like a fossilized snake, the same pueblo brown as everything else in New Mexico it felt.

There was a pool which was drained, and a few people standing outside their rooms almost certainly using some form of substance or alcohol. Karu had always picked travel accommodations with more...I dunno...more VTOL pads on the roof, I guess. Here, the roof had a green glowing sign advertising the number of channels on the holo.

"Well...it is home, for now," she said gesturing grandly and doing her best to hide her embarrassment. "Of course I have a legitimate apartment in Vegas, I was just here for a few days for you and--"

"It's fine, Karu. I've just spent a few days in detainment, a crappy motel has never looked better."

She smiled easily at me, and I found myself returning her smile. Her positivity seemed infectious...but I also realized, I wasn't the same person as the last time I'd met her. The three days in isolation had stilled my thoughts and let me sort through some of my anger in a way that a world of distractions just wouldn't have allowed. Yes, it was painful and crappy, but so it went with sorting emotional baggage, I guess.

She led us past several rooms, at least one of which smelled very strongly of burning narcotics, and used a physical metal key, not even digital, to open one of the many doors.

And then scurried around the room, picking up bits of trash and clothes and depositing them in the bin and her open suitcase, respectively, before allowing me to enter.

"One bed," she intoned. "And you have been in that outfit for three days. I would not fault you for wishing to sleep nude." I was about to reply when she held up a finger and continued. "But as I said, this is a platonic offer of hospitality only, and must insist that no matter how irresistible you find me, we do nothing foolish."

"I'll keep my pants on," I smiled back.

"Good," she said, and laid on the side of the bed nearer the door with a heavy thump. She took a deep breath and then sat up and faced me again, her green eyes burning bright.

"And now, I believe we have plenty of important matters to discuss. Unless you would prefer to sleep and do it in the morning?"

"No, I've been resting all day," I said. "Let's talk."