I look up, calling, screaming Rai's name. The sun sets over the capsule as it bursts apart; a bonfire in the sky.

The explosion sends a shock through the ground. I feel every inch, every speck of dust and chunk of rock shrieking as it slashes through them right to the core. A pain more than anyone, anything, can bear.

'It's okay,' I cringe, their pain my pain too. 'Please, please –,'

I can't fix this. Rai was wrong. He really was wrong about a lot of things.

No more, the earth sobs. No more, no more, can't take any MORE–

'I want to go home.'

Glancing over my shoulder, almost blinded by tears, I see Sammi collapse beside me, her shoulders heavy with exhaustion.

'Please, Kass,' she whispers, sinking onto her hands and knees. 'Please. Take us home.'

And with a jolt in my heart, I realise, it's over. The capsule's gone – pieces scattered in the wind. We can go home.

I sit up, easing my arms out of the ground, ignoring the screams of every rock I pass – don't leave us, please, don't leave . . .

Pockets, pockets. . . I dig deep into my cloak, desperate, quick, where's the wormhole, we need to go home –

Wait, my heart says, with a slow, solemn frown. Home? Where is home?

My fingers close around the wormhole as I blink at Sammi. Rai crashes to a halt beside us.

NO MORE, the ground screams. CANNOT TAKE ANY MORE –

And I realise, with terrifying clarity, that everything we've experienced up on the mountain so far was just a taster. A starter.

My hands shoot back to the ground but too late – the mountain had given us our final warning. I barely have time to raise my head and look into my friends' eyes, before –

BOOM.

*

Flames. Smoke. Everything, so hot. . .

Burning. . . My mouth is so dry. . .

A light, bright, too bright, above me –

No. . . Someone's shaking me – no. I just want to sleep. . .

A sound. What is that sound? It's. . . weird.

Singing?

I can hear singing?

Oh god. Am I dead?

Is this what death feels like? There are arms around me, holding me.

I open my eyes.

No. I'm not dead.

Or at least, if I am –

It's hell.

*

Everything around me is wet.

I'm wet too, my clothes sodden, my hair dripping something salty into my eyes, my nose, onto my lips –

The arms tighten around me.

Oh god, no. No no no no –

We haven't left the mountain. We're still there. And it's definitely erupted, a real eruption this time. I'm surrounded by a sea of lava and smoke, amber and charcoal, swirled together –

But we can't be. How can we still be on the volcano?

And still be alive?

My brain is slow, still aching, not quite ready to catch up with me yet. There's an ache, something pressing against my forehead. It's making it impossible to think. I give up on the outside, and focus inside instead. There's something dark and soft across my chest. I sift my fingers through it. Soft, like feathers, and it smells sweet. Honey –?

Sammi. My hand freeze as I realise it's her hair.

'Sammi?' I croak. I try to reach for her, but a heaviness is stopping me raising my arms. Why can't I lift my arms? Huge, choking sobs start to build in my chest – I realise I'm shaking, so hard I can't control myself. Everything is warm and I don't understand –

Then I notice something. The lava surrounding us seems far away. There's some kind of screen, transparent and fluid, between us.

I want to lift my hand to touch it, but I can't – but even as I think about it, the 'screen' ripples, bubbles flowing though it like a stream.

Water.

Somehow, we're wrapped in a bubble of water.

And then I realise something else – the reason I can't move my arms?

Is because someone's holding them down.

'Rai?'

His name splutters out my mouth – the pressure on my forehead is his forehead. The arms around me – his arms. The weight is him too, squeezing me so hard my vision blurs.

'Kass?' Sammi stirs underneath Rai's body. 'S-s-stop him.'

'Wha–?'

And then my ears catch up too. The singing – it's Rai. But he's not singing. He's screaming. Like every inch of his soul is alight. I wrench my arms free and force his face away from mine. Tears are flooding from his eyes, I had no idea a person could hold so many tears inside them.

His skin is so perfect, so alabaster and smooth, the pain can't be coming from the outside. It must be on the inside.

His lips move.

'Rai? What are you saying?'

But I can't hear, I don't understand. Each word is a sob; every movement, a scream.

'Kass, get us out of here.' Sammi is weeping now too, but unlike Rai, she's blackened with soot and ash, great folds of her skin a sickening pink with blistering yellow.

The wormhole. Of course.

I clearly didn't get to the wormhole in time. Rai must have protected us with this water-shield thing when the volcano erupted. But how is he this strong?

The wormhole had fallen to the ground. With trembling fingers, I pluck it through the liquid bubble that sloshes as I move my hand through it. I hold the wormhole to my lips and say the first thing that comes into my head:

'Take us home.'

A blinding flash of darkness consumes us – and we're gone.

*

Quillin. Of course. For there never was any other home for me.

We land with a crash on top of my old kitchen table, which collapses under our weight. It's pitch black. My knees are shaking so much I can barely stand, but still I wade through the mess towards the light switch, praying there's still a trace of electricity left from before the massacre.

A dull lamp flickers into life, casting me all the way back to my sixteenth birthday. Nearly a year ago now. There's nothing left of the home I once loved; no smell of porridge cooking on the stove. No cackle of laughter from Kitty as she chases after Dad; no Mum reading at the table, her glasses slipping down her nose as she frowns at the words, so difficult for her to read.

No. All that's left is broken. Including the teenager slumped in a pool of water.

A pool of –?

'No!'

The bubble that saved us is gone. The lake that protected us abandoned, thousands of miles away. But somehow, somehow, water still seeps from Rai's body, encasing him and everything around him, like his body is subconsciously trying to form a new bubble. I run back to where Sammi is cradling Rai in her arms, struggling to keep his head above the water.

'Stop, stop,' she cries, over and over again. I sink to my knees beside them, shrugging her out of the way. Tears trickle from Rai's eyes, endless rivers into the surrounding pool.

'Rai, stop. You saved us! Come on, Rai, please.' But water keeps leaking out of him, slipping over his body, his arms, his legs. I clutch him to my chest, shaking him. 'Stop crying, please, stop crying!'

But he doesn't. His hands scrabble at my wrists and to my horror, water starts to creep over my hands too. I squeeze Rai tighter, unable to deal with the thought of anyone else I love dying in this house –

'Where's the water coming from?' Sammi is crying too; there's terror in her eyes, and I just want it to be over –

'We left the lake behind. So, it must be coming from Rai.'

Sammi stares at me. 'But then –,'

We watch the tears drip weakly from underneath his lashes. And I remember that day in Keller's lab when Rai showed us how he abused his powers to protect himself.

'Stop it, Rai. DON'T YOU DARE.'

I won't let you. I won't let you do this –

'If he loses too much water he'll die –,'

'I know, Sammi. What the hell do you want me to do?'

'I don't know.' She curls into a ball and tucks her head under her arms. 'I don't know.'

'Don't you do this to me, Rai.' I turn back to him, searching the back of his neck for his emotion sensors. My fingers only find smooth skin. My blood runs cold.

They're gone.

Oh god. . . Why are they gone?

'Please. . .' Tears of my own race down my cheeks. 'Please wake up. I need you. I need you. . .'

And I drag his body out the water and hold him against my heart until finally, finally, his tears stop.

*

'Come on, Kass. We have to go.'

It feels like hours have past, but who knows how long it's really been. I open my eyes, peel my cheek away from Rai's hair, breathing in his fresh, salty smell until my lungs are full of it, full of him. The water has slid from his skin to the floor where Sammi now sits, hands folded neatly in her lap. Looking like a cat in a puddle. Her face so calm, solemn, watching me. For some reason, it makes a hot rage flash through my chest.

'Where the hell are we meant to go?'

She sighs. 'You need to tell Cotton about Eldred. We have to warn them. I have to. . .' Her words fizzle out, but the meaning is clear, even though she never said it. She wants to see Musa. She wants to know if he's okay.

Part of me wants to scream at her, scream about how selfish that is, how selfish she is.

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But I can't do it.

'Maybe they can do something. . .' She bites her lip. 'Maybe Dr Keller can help him.' I glance down at Rai's body in my arms. He's so pale. Like death. He looks like death.

'I think it's a bit late for that now.'

'No.' Sammi leans forwards, her expression blazing. 'Don't do that. Don't be that person, just 'cause you're scared. You can't give up on him now. I'd never give up on Musa.'

I bring a balled, shaking fist to my forehead. 'I can't. . . change what is, can I? Keller can't either.'

'No.' Her eyes soften, and she stretches a hand towards me. I think, at first, she's going to touch me, stroke my face or something. But instead, her hand slips underneath Rai's chin and presses the side of his neck.

'What are you –?'

'There's a pulse.' A smile, tiny, but there nonetheless, spreads across her lips. 'Kass, I can feel it. There's a pulse. It's not too late.'

My heart stops. Just for a second. Wild thoughts flash through my mind – had I ever thought to check my mum's pulse? Niven's pulse? Maybe, maybe everyone I thought was dead was alive too, maybe I'd given up on them too soon too, maybe –

No. I wipe my eyes on the back of my hand, then stroke Rai's hair, his freaky, blue hair. No. I can't – think – like that. At least Rai, for now, hasn't been taken. Not yet.

'You're right. We need to get him to Keller.' I stand, lifting Rai clumsily; he's heavier than I expected, weighed down by his saturated clothes. 'Sammi, get the wormhole.'

'On it.' She rises, fishing the wormhole out of the puddle. 'Oh!' She bends down again and lifts out something bigger. Something round, a white pumpkin. 'We can't forget you. Rai would never forgive us.'

It's Henry. But just like Rai, he's a lifeless version now. Without his blinking lights and flurry of noises, he's just another piece of Futurist junk. It hurts to look at him.

'Let's go,' I mutter. Sammi places her lips to the wormhole and whispers RESISTS location, and Keller's lab. Once again, we step into the void.

*

We emerge in an empty corridor. I stumble, Rai dragging me down. Heaving him up onto my back, I look around.

'Hello?'

Silence. Sammi takes a step forwards, her footstep echoing. A nervous expression spreads across her face.

'Where is everyone?'

I swallow. I've never seen headquarters so quiet, so deserted. We've appeared just outside Keller's lab; usually it's buzzing with scientists carrying trays of luminous test tubes, and carrier drones transporting soldiers to medical or heavy lab equipment. Odd as it might seem, I've always thought of Keller's hospital as a happy place. Much more so than military; the scientists were always laughing together, and I remember all the hours we spent in Keller's lab practising our powers. When Sammi and Rai made it rain, and Rai squirted me in the face.

I scrunch my face as the memory burns. There were few times I'd laughed since my family died. And all the times I remember were with him.

'C'mon.' I wrench Rai further up my back, and cock my head towards Keller's door. 'Hopefully they're in here.'

Sammi turns the handle, and we slip inside. The first thing that strikes me is the darkness. It's eerie; Keller's experiments are bubbling away, but otherwise, the lab seems completely empty. The desk's been cleared of all Keller's papers, which now lie scattered the floor in a mess. His office chair turns slowly, empty.

'Look!' Sammi grabs my arm and points, and I sigh in relief. In the corner of the room, behind an enormous, rumbling machine, sits Dr Keller. He's crouched on the floor, arms wrapped around his knees, hugging them to his chest. He jumps at Sammi's voice, his head snapping up; he stares at us like he can't believe his eyes.

'Y-you're back! I thought. . . I thought. . .'

'A little help?' I grimace, my back aching under Rai's weight.

Keller jumps to his feet. 'Of course. I'm so sorry.' He rushes over and catches Rai just as I buckle; together, we lift him up onto the treatment bed. Keller bends over him, checking his pulse just like Sammi did, and then with a gentleness that surprises me, lifts up one of his eyelids. He glances at us, his mouth turned staunchly down.

'What happened?'

Sammi purses her lips. 'We might ask you the same question.'

Keller flushes and turns back to Rai, redness spreading down his neck in blotches. 'You. . . must have heard. . .'

'We more than heard.' I take a step towards Keller, and he winces at my expression. 'We were there, goddammit. How could you?'

Keller mumbles something indeterminable, then pushes Rai's hair off his forehead. 'I warned Rai about this. I told him.'

My breath becomes trapped in my chest. 'Can you help him?'

Keller rubs his own temple with his thumb and index finger. 'He's severely dehydrated. We have to get him on a re-hydration programme immediately; the damage being done to his internal organs could be significant, if not fatal. How long has he been like this?'

I can't answer. The words. . . just won't come.

'It can't be more than an hour,' Sammi whispers.

'What happened?'

I open my mouth but still nothing comes out. After glancing at me, Sammi grits her teeth.

'He used the lake to form a barrier to protect us from the volcano. But when we teleported away, the water from the lake vanished. B-but he didn't stop. He started using the water from his body instead, like his body switched to autopilot, like it thought it still had to protect him. He was out of control – he wouldn't stop crying. . . It only stopped when he passed out.'

Keller closes his eyes for a second, as though trying to remain calm. 'I better get to work straight away, then.'

We watch in silence as Keller rigs Rai up to some kind of machine, an oxygen mask over his mouth and an intravenous bag of fluid plugged into his arm. I touch Rai's fingers with my own, intertwining them. They look so slight between my own. Mine are red-raw and shaking uncontrollably.

'Where is everyone, Keller?' Sammi eventually asks.

Keller gulps, not looking up. 'In Singavere. Well, most people, anyway. Our entire military is there holding the city, and most of medical went to help care for the wounded.' Keller's voice cracks, but then after a deep breath, he continues. 'We took the city. After the Great Hall blew, the Futurists launched an attack; everyone thought they would win easily. The fighting was horrific, but then. . . Everything stopped working. All of FUTURE's fighter drones fell out of the sky, the last remnants of the artificial climate collapsed, and all the lights, everything, just stopped working. It was chaos. Somehow, their power source had, well, disappeared.' He frowns again. 'It sounds mad, we couldn't understand it. But then we realised –' he glances up at us, finally. 'You must have destroyed the third capsule.'

I close my eyes as my knees give way. Beside Rai's bed, I rest my forehead on the back of his hand.

Keller seems to take our silence as a sign to carry on. 'All their technology relied on the energy from the capsules. Without it. . . they fell to pieces. The fighting pretty much stopped instantly, and it barely took us an hour to seize the city. And now. . .'

'Now?' Sammi echoes, her voice faint.

'Now RESIST is in charge. Cotton will take over Presidency; in fact –' Keller picks up a control from his desk and points it at a dusty TV screen suspended on the wall. The picture flickers to life. There, on the screen, is General Cotton, flanked as usual by Colonel Văn. They're standing outside the burning wreckage of the Singaverean Palace, with a crowd of civilians and reporters, both human and droid, anxiously flitting around them.

'Citizens of Singavere and the wider world.' Cotton clears her throat, frowning deeply into the camera. Her eyes intense as always, her hair pulled into it's most severe bun. 'Today marks the dawn of a new Tellus. I am General Cotton of RESIST, and today we seize back control of a planet divided, of a planet corrupted by greed, neglect, and disregard for the very ground we tread. Where people are judged and sentenced for the crimes of their ancestors, left to rot in a world abandoned. We stand here and say: no more.

'We are blessed with a planet more beautiful than Lares, with freedoms Vestians can only dream of, without the claustrophobia of the over-congested Ra. Beneath our own barren rocks lies a garden, dormant, waiting to be reawakened. We need not ship our people away – if we unite internally, and declare ourselves independent, we can rebuild what our ancestors destroyed. Today, we break down the barriers between the Futurists of Singavere and the rest of the world; today, we share out their resources so the world can heal; and today, we light the fire that will fuel our planet not just to sustain foreign planets, but to compete with them.'

Cotton straightens, her face alive with a fury I've never seen before; even Colonel Văn is watching her in awe, his usual mask of ambivalence melted away.

'Too long have my people suffered.' Cotton pounds her fist against a crumbling pillar of the Palace. 'Too long have my people been deprived of basic human rights: to healthcare, to food, to clean water. Today is the day we say no more.'

'No more!' Resister soldiers in the crowd salute, whilst Futurists exchange frightened, bewildered expressions.

'But, General Cotton,' one of the reporters butts in, shoving his microphone in her face. 'How do you plan on sustaining us? We are entirely reliant on Ra for power –'

'A good question.' Cotton smiles stiffly, without it quite reaching her ears. 'Whilst I plan to see Tellus withdraw from the Republic of Extra-terrestrials, naturally it is within our best interests to maintain positive trade relationships. Whilst Lares are yet to respond, we have successfully made contact with Ra. One of my officers, who I have recently appointed as the new Interplanetary Secretary, has already brokered a deal with them, which we feel suits Tellus far better than FUTURE's former deal.'

A tight fist balls in my chest, and I struggle to breathe. Sammi grabs hold of my elbow, her nails pinching my skin.

'No,' she whispers. 'No, no, no –,'

For standing beside Cotton, in the midst of the wreckage that was once the mighty capital city of our world, is a man. The Lord Protector Ares Eldred of Ra. A girl stands behind him, her scarlet hair flowing in a halo of fire, and a wide, cruel grin stretching from cheek to cheek.

'Under Professor Eldred's new deal, all relocations will cease until further notice. Ra is going to help us rebuild our planet, providing us with enough vaccinations for every child. They accept our right to put a stop to the constant atmospheric pollution from the hotspots, and we've negotiated a new deal with them in exchange.'

'What deal?' Another reporter calls out.

'A full report will be distributed in time. All the world needs to know for now is that every child will get the chance to live. The constant natural disasters will end, and with the help of the Ra, we will begin plans to reverse the damage done to the environment, in the hope that someday, we will return Tellus to its former glory. We believe that day will be soon.'

'Very soon,' Eldred echoes, a smile playing on his lips. Fina laughs in the background, a manic gleam in her eyes.

'We also cannot forget the monumental role the Elementalists played in the downfall of FUTURE. Without their enormous courage and self-sacrifice, we wouldn't be in the position we are today. We would like to unite in a minute's silence to honour the Elementalists, wherever they happen to be in the world right now, and pray for their safe return. We are all waiting for you.'

My trembling hand snatches the remote from Keller. On the screen, Fina steps forwards to take a bow. I smash my thumb down onto the off button and the screen goes black – then I fling the remote at the wall. It hits with a crack.

But now, it's just silence. And the frantic thud thud thud of my hammering heart.

'What do we do?' Sammi's grip on my arm grows tighter. 'Eldred's got everyone in the palm of his hand.'

'Eldred?' Keller frowns. 'What about Eldred?'

I turn to Dr Keller with dead eyes, a dead heart. 'He says he brokered a deal with the Ra? You're all bloody morons, Keller, he is the Ra. He's the one responsible for everyone's deaths! He is. He's manipulated you all: he played the Futurists for fools, and he's doing the same to you, just worse. Those vaccines you all love? Visinium. The visinium everyone loves? A goddamn parasite that turns you into a capsule. Remember? Remember the people in the capsules? The people were the capsules. Trapped in living hell.'

Keller opens and closes his mouth like a fish. 'Wha –?'

'Oh, you think I'm lying? I wish I was. Everyone who's had a vaccine is infected, contaminated, whatever; you're all going to become a capsule in the end. Everyone who's been relocated to Ra? Living on a capsule farm. You really think –,'

'Stop it.' Keller backs away, his face draining of the little colour it had left. 'I know you're angry, I'm angry too, this isn't the way I wanted to win either. I'm not even sure this counts as winning. But making up these absurd accusations –,'

'Oh yeah,' I say, deadpan. ''Cause it's so fun. We're having such a blast over here. Can't you tell?'

'Keller!'

The door slams open and Labelle bursts through, stopping abruptly when he sees us. His eyes pop.

'Sammi, Kass. . . And god, Rai?' He rushes over to Rai's bedside, looking appalled. 'What happened?'

'Oh, don't pretend you care. We're just collateral to you'

'Of course, I care,' he says. He actually has the audacity to look offended. 'Why would you say that?'

'He seems to be under the impression Eldred is a double-agent from Ra,' Keller says with a snort of contempt.

'What?' Labelle gives a short, nervous laugh. 'Seriously? You better not let him hear you say that – he's on his way back with Cotton now.'

'Then it's time we left.' I turn to Sammi, taking each of her hands in my own. 'Sammi, we can't stay here. Not now. We need to go.'

'I know.' Tears glisten in her eyes, but she clenches her jaw and squeezes my hands back. 'What about Rai?'

'He stays with us.' That's not up for debate. Rai is ours, and we are his. I'm not letting go of my only family without a fight. Sammi doesn't try to argue, just nods once.

'Okay.'

'What about Musa?'

Sammi falls silent for a moment. 'What about him?'

There's agony behind her calm façade, but I ignore it. If she needs to pretend, I'll respect it.

'Wait, what? What do you mean, go?' Keller gasps, pinning down Rai's shoulders.

'Yeah?' Labelle frowns at us. 'You can't leave, not now. We need you. You're the Elementalists. You saved us.'

'And if you believe that crap, then you aren't half the man your brother was.' I pick up my rucksack from the floor and hold it out to Keller. 'Anything you can give us before we go? Food, anything?'

'You're not going anywhere. I won't let you.' Labelle takes a step towards us, looking more miserable than anything and certainly not threatening. Sammi reacts instantly, pushing in front of me and he freezes, staring at the ball of condensed air blossoming in her hands.

'What are you going to do?' Sammi growls. 'Keep us prisoner?'

'Damn, Sammi, of course not. You're our friends, we care about you.'

'Keller, this is your last chance. Anything you can give us?'

Tears spill down Keller's cheeks, and he scrubs roughly under his glasses in embarrassment. 'You can't really mean it about Eldred. You can't.'

'It's true,' I tell him. 'Whether you believe it or not.'

I remember something Eldred once said to me. The truth can be anything you want it to be.

Not in my world, I hiss in my head. To Eldred, everything is the same, just something to be broken, played with, manipulated.

This is the last time I let you break me, I promise, closing my eyes tight. I will come back for you. And when I do – it will be your turn to break. If it's the last thing I do.

'Here,' Keller shoves something into my hands, and my eyes snap open. 'Take this for Rai.' It's a bag of a light-blue liquid. 'You must attach it into his arm when the other bag runs out. If he doesn't re-hydrate with the correct electrolytes, he won't make it. I don't know what state he'll be in if he wakes up; he could be brain-damaged, suffering multiple organ failure, anything.' His voice quivers, then he takes a deep steadying breath. 'Please, won't you leave him here with me? I promise I'll look after him. On my life, Kass, I promise.'

I regard Keller, his wide eyes innocent and honest; he truly believes he would do the right thing. 'I'm not sure your word is worth much right now,' I mumble. 'But thanks, Keller. If we could trust you, then maybe. But, we can't.'

'But –,'

I unhook Rai from the machines, hoist him from the bed and onto my back. Sammi takes the wormhole out of her pocket again, and with a quick glance at me, she takes my hand.

'But where will you go?' Labelle's face is suffused in bewilderment. 'I don't understand why you're doing this?'

'Because we're not ready to be Eldred's puppets quite yet,' Sammi says.

'Eldred's –? At least let me fix Henry.' He holds a hand out to Sammi, who has Henry tucked under her free arm. She flinches away on instinct. 'Oh, come on. He's no use in that state. When he's fixed, I'll give him to Musa. How does that sound?'

A sharp intake of breath from Sammi is all it takes for me to see how much she's breaking. All it takes is the mention of Musa's name –

'I can't,' she mumbles, miserably. 'If Rai wakes up and Henry isn't there. . .'

'No, thanks, Labelle,' I say, staggering under Rai's weight. 'We'll be seeing you.'

'No!'

Footsteps pound along the corridor towards us; Sammi gasps. As though a shot in the chest.

'Don't, wait! You can't go, you can't!'

A boy, with dark hair wild and falling over his face, crashes into the room. Labelle shrugs apologetically at me, mouthing 'sorry.'

'Goodbye, Musa.' Sammi's voice is steel. Her face thunder. But a solitary tear betrays her.

'No, Sammi, wait, please –,'

She takes the wormhole in her hand, and a black void into nothingness appears in front of us, blocking Musa's path. Her hand pulls away from mine as she rips something off her wrist. A chain, fine and silver, delicate as a spider's web, slips through her fingers. Musa's eyes follow it, widening in horror as it hits the floor.

'Goodbye, Musa,' Sammi repeats, taking my hand once again. And as one, we step into the darkness. Musa's howls echoing in our wake.