{Earth}

Lightning struck in the distance. Thunder cracked through the heavy clouds. Rain was on its way.

Perfect.

After living five million years on a planet with no rain, Bones enjoyed Earth’s downpours. Except… it often meant their King was unhappy. Here, it heralded the perfect backdrop for a fight. Anticipation and fear coupled in the air with the scent of dry sand and smoked meat.

Steady now.

The heavy beat of Tameka’s great wings fanned the crowd, who stared in awe at the shift in her eyes. They gasped and stepped away. Bones felt her power brush against him. That unique ability to drain and fuel nacres tested him. Someone in the crowd cried out, and the center parted. The woman with mousy-brown hair and a big mouth collapsed to her knees, head hanging low. Drained.

So the loudest member of the anti-nacre protest hid an awfully hypocritical secret.

“Hey, lady! How’s your nacre?!”

Iuo and Bones gaped at Lam talking shit across the din. Tumu rolled with it like he developed an immunity to the sassy green pill. “As Officer of the Third, I am under the jurisdiction granted by Enki’s Grand Tribunal to order you to peacefully and swiftly disperse. Noncompliance will cause the detention of every protester without permits for assembly issued by The Brethren.”

Curious. Bones noticed the compression orb on Tumu’s belt glowed red instead of blue for the first time. But wouldn’t that mean—

“Fuck you!” someone shouted.

Another. “We won’t give in!”

And another. “Earth is for humans without nacres.”

Right. The stupid parade. Bones gripped the pendant on the chain around his neck.

Lamassau touched his arm to lower it. Shaking his head, he observed, “I’m not entirely sure what that does, but you won’t need it here. Trust me.” After which, he took two steps into the throng, inhaled unbelievably deep, and expelled flames over their heads. As people broke away, terrified and screaming, Tumu decompressed halfway to his full height of sixty-five feet.

Wow. What a power couple.

But this was the battle of the stupids. Two heavy-set men from the fringe of the crowd rushed for Iuo. That’s right. Of all the people to attack, choose the man made entirely of muscle. The Lamian Prince suplexed the first guy to the sand hard enough to flash his life before his eyes.

Oh goodie. The second moron charged Bones. The Icarus dodged easily and gripped the guy in a hold. Then gave his attacker a noogie the guy wouldn’t forget.

Through the rush of bodies, Bones saw Tameka knock together the noggins of two idiots. Caedes resorted to lifting bodies and tossing them harmlessly into the sand some distance away. But people kept coming. Stubborn humans.

Thirty-foot Tumu shook people clinging to his feet as he walked them further into the desert.

Simply ridiculous—

“This is beyond shameful.” A stern voice on a bullhorn cut through the rioting. And not just any voice.

King Regent of Earth, Jack Callahan, glowered from the conduit to Cinder. Light brown hair and hazel eyes disheveled, he looked more mad than disappointed.

Beside him, John shook his head in disgust. The Osage human favored his left leg, amputated two years ago. Tall, dark, and pissed, he shot a flare in the air.

Right. The protesters stopped bitching around and looked to their mostly human King.

He put a fist over his nacre in the Shadow’s salute and confessed, “I have a nacre. We retrieved them from Icari we bested during the war. Without them, I couldn’t operate the vehicles that contributed to our victory on Volcano Day. Most humans who survived on the front lines did so because of these miraculous pearls of nanotechnology. And you shame me by denying them to people who need them.”

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Tumu took the break in his speech to decompress to his preferred height of thirteen feet. Lamassau wrapped a possessive arm around him. Iuo recorded Jack’s speech on some kind of Enki stenography device. Bones searched the crowd for Fury and Caedes. The mass tightened up as everyone listened to their ruler.

The young Progeny searched his audience for logic and reason. “King Rayne couldn’t defeat Nox without one. Don’t you see? The same group that destroyed The Brethren’s headquarters and damaged the global communicator has manipulated you. Even their spies among you possess nacres. Please.” He beseeched them as John opened a massive crate. “Take one. Swallow it. And you’ll never feel the limitations of this lesser body again. And there’s nothing wrong with that.”

The two Tritans headed to the conduit. Tumu called out, “Single-file line. Free nacre. No obligations. We want humans better.”

They worked with John to distribute them as people calmed down and lined up.

Iuo nodded at Bones. “Excuse me. I need to speak with the King Regent. Nice fighting.” He patted Bones on the shoulder before leaving.

How did Jack and John get here? And where was—

A shriek sliced through the crowd.

Tameka.

Bones pushed through the people, roughly knocking them away. No. No. No…

The young woman held Caedes in her lap. A wicked blade of nacre glass stuck from his back. Nearby, the throng parted with some shouts and cries as the assassin escaped. Bones pursued when Lam arrived to check on Caedes.

Jack called into the bullhorn, “Stop them! Don’t let them escape!”

Now screams erupted, and a voice called out. One that hardened the cerulean blood in Bones’ veins.

“That won’t be necessary.”

Abresson.

The dark blue Tritan with white scars marring his complexion gripped the mousy brown-haired woman. Well, she was a woman. Now she was a Popsicle. Abresson held the spy aloft by her wrist some four feet off the ground, blue and dead.

Tameka broke the line of terrified people and stared at Abresson with wide eyes. The redhead stammered in her explanation. “She… she tried to stab me. Caedes got in the way. He’s already healing. He saved me.”

“Not the first time he’s done that. You Progeny women command so much devotion from the men around you. It’s quite the accomplishment.” The less than savory Tritan dropped the human. She shattered on the sand like the T1000 in that one scene from Terminator 2.

“I’ll try to digest that as a compliment from you,” Tameka assured as Tumu gently passed by her.

Lamassau squeezed in behind them and quipped, “I thought you didn’t appreciate aggression in your women, Eminent. Isn’t that the reason we no longer have any?”

Bones had to ask, “You no longer have aggression?”

Tumu shook his head. “No. Women.” He squared off with the dark blue Tritan, glaring at him. “Eminent, I wasn’t expecting you on Earth.”

“I kindly brought the young King Regent and the Educator to assist in the dispensation of nacres on Earth per Eminent Lance and Eminent Celindria’s orders. Eminent Karter also approved. Is this an inconvenience to you?” He ground his shoe into the sandy puddle made by the woman’s broken ice pieces.

The green Tritan known as “the Chef” pointed to that puddle. “Well, because of you, we no longer have the one sure lead from Imminent to interrogate.”

“How dare you fail to address me by my title…”

The two Tritans argued until Tameka glided across the sand between them, bent over, and picked up the woman’s nacre. She held the pearl in her palm and stared into it. “Actually, we can interrogate her just fine.”

Moments later, the group banded together to dispense nacres to every single person who protested them not an hour earlier. Meanwhile, Tameka and Tumu communicated with the Shadow at the Ecology and the Arsenal.

“So Kyle is doing okay?” Tameka sounded relieved as she checked Caedes’ dressing. The wound already healed shut. He slipped his shirt back on with a glance in her direction.

Not Bones’ business, but the glance held some longing.

Lucas, another upstanding Icarus, answered her on the comms device, “Yes. He is joining the others to see Rayne. Will you meet them there?”

At her nod, Tumu responded, “Yes. Who will be there and who is staying behind?”

Bones approved of the casting for the King’s guard while Imminent went on the warpath. Andrew, Kyle, and Silence needed to speak to her. Abresson ordered Lamassau to resume guarding her, insisting on a Tritan present at all times. They asked Bones to join Abresson, Jack, and Iuo to the Ecology given it’s the most accommodating Iona facility. John asked if he and Caedes could visit the Arsenal where Lynn worked on a top secret assignment that the Eminent demanded to know until he went blue in the face. They’d rather he passed out from oxygen deprivation.

“Did Pehton already leave for Gait?” Tameka asked Tumu.

He nodded with a warning glance at Abresson. “Yes, she’s home. Will Chris and Karter mind watching Pax while we see Rayne?”

They weren’t planning to visit Cinder at all. But they didn’t want the short, dark blue Eminent to warn any nefarious associates of his on Gait. Particularly one whose name rhymed with laser.

The green-eyed, redheaded Progeny nodded reassuringly. “All good. I checked with them earlier. He’ll join them for Karter’s official initiation into Eminence.”

Caedes, fellow Icarean warrior, beamed with pride despite his typically gruff exterior. Bones shared the puffy-chest syndrome. It was a big step for their kind.

Abresson groaned and rolled his eyes, stomping off, presumably to locate Jack, Iuo, and John for the journey.

Tameka leaned into Bones and whispered, “You take care of each other.” After a gentle squeeze and a serious look, she hopped to her feet. “I hate peeling you away from your boyfriend, Officer of the Third, but are you ready to go?”

Lamassau chuckled beside Bones.

Tumu stared at him until the green Tritan fell quiet. Something passed between their voids. A secret message. Bones hoped things wouldn’t get this serious. That things would calm down. But with Sagan missing and Imminent attacking on all sides, maybe it was time for him to consider saying some goodbyes.

Just in case.