{Cinder | 6,000,000 Years Ago}

“We can combine forces. You, the first of us. And I, the eldest Primary in Enki.”

As Remorse came closer to begging for his life, he kept looking away from Surra’s glowing blue eyes to the stars winking out behind her. They pulsed in time to the azure surge under her deep gray skin. All those worlds—Each of them cultivated by him and populated by her. On his knees, he spared this proposed arrangement a considerable amount of thought.

Surra’s army of nacre-imbued Icari could make the difference against the Aegis, who clung selfishly to their Dyson’s Sphere, but she insisted her soldiers were meant only for locating Ishkur and defending Cinder from Enki’s interference. Remorse counted on that. “You cannot find Ishkur without the Exalted. He has responsibility in your design. Together, we can bring him to his knees.”

Surra unlocked the sickles from Remorse’s neck, letting him breathe. Black blood trickled onto his clothes as he stumbled off the audience house’s red floor and onto his hands and knees before her, cowed before Surra. Dressed in armor and kitted out in weapons, even pregnant, she made for a fearsome sight. The blue streak of her hair was left out from her braid, swinging to the back of her knees. It swayed with her as she stepped back.

Sharp silence filled the space between them, honed for more explanation.

Remorse considered this a boon and tried for more. “It was I who sabotaged Quet’s suit and sent him to Cinder alone. I sent him to you because we may not have always fought on the same side, but now we can both see the optimum future and should work toward it together. With you leading us.”

Looking unconvinced, Surra glared at him. Her six-octave Atramentous resonated a tremor deep in his chest. “You wish Enki to end?”

“I wish for power, Surra. You gave us that with Cascading Light.” All truth. Most of it.

Surra cocked her head to the side in an avian gesture and repeated, “Us?”

Remorse winced and gently approached the explanation of the organization he’d created. “We honor your discovery of the window into the Probability Matrix. We—”

“Silence, Elden seeks you—Oh, Primary, forgive me.” Umbra went to one knee and bowed.

To a man he shouldn’t know.

That was one way to introduce Surra to Imminent.

{Enki | Quet’s Sanctum | Now}

Remorse spun and screamed, circling to see the wound gushing in his back. To see the mortality leaking out of him like a geyser. “NO—”

He collapsed on the floor of Quet’s Sanctum in a painful spasm as powerful and impossible hands wrenched into his spine and stole what kept him whole.

“I relent!”

Disconnected, Remorse slammed back into his physical body and soaked in the moment, lying on the glass, feeling his own skin and intact spinal cord. On a growl, he cursed, “Nox!”

This development was unexpected. How was Nox in Rayne’s shadow, and what were the implications—

Celindria could never know.

This. Was. New.

Impossible.

And entirely Silence’s fault. She was to blame for the extreme disparities between this and the other Probabilities. No doubt to Celindria’s immense delight.

No.

Remorse would keep this from them all and resume his search for Project Surra. That’s how he found himself here, in her father’s sanctum. The lab which created her. He needed to confront Silence about freeing Rayne before her time. And wouldn’t that be ugly business? There was no questioning the Mother to her face. Entirely too dangerous. Although she’d never risk her mission to find Ishkur, she’d easily cause trouble to inconvenience Primary Rem for his treachery.

Vi would call that “good business.”

Remorse stood in the lab meant to discover Tritan salvation. Zero’s words echoed off the walls, haunting him. “There is no recompense we can offer to replace the females of your species, but perhaps we can help you begin anew. In this lab, we will assist you in rebuilding your race. An embryo is all you need. One such as this one. Surra.”

Zero was right, of course. Project Surra seeded every planet under their surveillance. Life which the Tritans cultivated into the Vast Collective. Remorse and Razor carefully omitted the Mother from Enki-approved histories. No need for the galaxy to learn of its creation from the womb of one experiment.

One ridiculously overpowered rogue experiment.

Then came Celindria, the next most powerful being Remorse had ever met. Why was it always in the hands of a woman? No matter how much he touched Cascading Light, it never endowed Remorse the way it gifted those two females.

Which begged the question, what would happen if Rayne touched the black fire?

Remorse shuddered at the thought.

No.

This was all a distraction from his tasks before Rayne ended Enki.

Deploy the Tantamount.

Check in with Celindria.

Throttle Abresson.

Locate and confront Silence.

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And if Rayne interfered in any way, Remorse would demonstrate to her how the Tritans defeated the most technologically advanced race in the cluster.

{Enki | Gait Shrine}

It took Remorse an additional hour to reach the Tantamount lab while remaining conservative with his supply of Aegis blood for creating conduits. Two Caprents, one Pil Dwarf, and a Luk were gathered in a Shrine fixed in the path of Gait’s trajectory.

Strange.

Remorse had intended to collect Lucy for the reproductive program after Celindria approved her, but… “Where are Yito and the human girl?”

The Pil Dwarf, a male tall for his race, answered, “Eminent Lance checked in on our progress a few hours ago and took her with him. Yito escorted them. They should return any minute.”

What would Lance want with Lucy? And without Yito, this station went unguarded.

No.

Remorse didn’t like this. “I’ll see to their return. In the meantime, what will you use to affix the Tantamount to Gait? I understand it’s gained in speed as it nears the ocean.”

One Caprent, with his backward-bent joints, beamed. “Dukki,” the Dwarf, “engineered appendages like those in his mech suit to a drone designed by Primus.” He nodded to the Icarus when he finished.

As he explained, a three-dimensional model projected in their terminal. It was a wing-ed mech suit, fully remote operated from this station.

“Impressive.” Remorse meant it.

They grinned ecstatically, as one does before a pleased god. The Icarus bowed. “Thank you, Primary.”

The Luk interrupted the congratulations to say, “I contributed my electric jelly to power the suit. We’re at ninety-five percent capacity. Another hour, and we can deploy it. Do we have your go ahead, sir?”

This was the first good news Remorse had heard since he learned Xelan was resurrected, which was immediately ruined by the decimation of Gait and Razor’s death.

For the first time in weeks, Primary Rem smiled. Not out of cruelty or jest, but out of elation. “Job well done, team Tantamount. You should all be proud of yourselves. Yes. Proceed with the launch sequence once ready.”

The last thing Imminent wanted was for another catastrophe to befall Enki before Rayne could destroy it, and if Remorse had his way, Rayne would only end herself while the Dyson’s Sphere he fought so hard for would remain.

The Dwarf clapped his hands together. “Thank you, Primary! We’ll notify the demolition team to withdraw their members from the rock and—”

“No. I’ll notify them myself.” Lies. “Everyone performed commendably on this task, and your counterparts deserve to hear that in person, as well.”

Again, this team shared pats on the back before seeing him off. As he stepped up to the conduit, the Luk said, “It was Lucy’s idea to combine our talents. We don’t want her to miss out on any credit.”

Over his shoulder, Remorse assured, “I will see she gets her due.”

{Enki | New Cinder}

Remorse wore Karter’s body to Celindria’s lab. Like always, the stalwart Valkyrie stood naked and proud in her mind, impregnable. Her bizarre eyes recorded every task he attended with rapt ferocity. To confuse her recollection, Remorse took a more complicated route and intentionally circled a portion of the maze twice.

Through the tunnels of exotic flowers, over the land bridge, and into Celindria’s lab, Remorse from within Karter announced, “We have an unpleasant complication—”

Karter’s mouth hung open as Remorse gaped.

Shadow, including some very important Progeny were locked in Celindria’s cell. What a fascinating development.

The nightmare in white called to him from her workstation, “Look, Rem. I found some flies in my web.”

Delicious. Truly.

Karter’s body walked over to them as Remorse met Tameka’s fuming glare.

“Don’t get any ideas, Remmy.”

He smirked with Karter’s lips. What fire in her. Tameka was unshaken, and oh, how he looked forward to rocking that foundation of hers. “If it isn’t Fury. Near to the top of our most wanted list.” He took a bold step closer to the cage, certain they wouldn’t harm Karter’s body. “I regret I never found time to spend with you while you resided here in our home, but now I can compensate for that.”

Tameka rolled her eyes and glanced over at Celindria. To Remorse’s extreme irritation, Celindria also rolled her eyes in commiseration. Over their irritation with him.

Females.

Instead of dignifying their treachery with a response, the Primary walked Karter over to Celindria. “Are there more of them?”

The annoyingly intellectual First Progeny kept her eyes on the weapon she examined as she answered, “Undoubtedly. I disarmed them of these. Very good design. I desire to have a chat with Lynn Renee.”

Frustrated with Celindria’s nonchalance, Remorse folded Karter’s arms over her ample breasts, which he quite liked with the jumpsuit partially unzipped.

“Thanks for ruining them for me.”

Remorse closed his eyes in Karter’s head to shut out her quips. She was entirely too much her own, and his imagination remained too limited to invent a suitable treatment without Para to punish.

But perhaps…

Inside her head, Primary Rem asked, “Do you think Jack would accept a male partner if it was one to which he held a prior relationship? Such as guard to the King Regent. What would that be like to have a man you loved like an older brother assert himself on you? Shall we find out? I’m sure Celindria is game. In fact, I hesitate to mention the threat aloud as I worry I wouldn’t be able to stop her once the idea got in her head.”

Karter’s thoughts assailed Remorse.

You’re so weak without someone to hurt. Soon, the Shadow will send you to Eternity. Coward.

Remorse wagged his finger at her. “No, child. I am millions of times older than the combined age of your Shadow. Eternity no longer seeks me. I will grant you that I am prone to hurting people weaker than myself, but it’s not due to cowardice. I simply enjoy when you cry, but I commend you for not giving voice to your thoughts. So I will leave Jack’s sexual inexperience intact. For now.”

Outside Karter’s mind, Celindria asked, “What are these complications you speak of?”

Remorse glanced at the cage filled with Shadow and back to Celindria. He hesitated to communicate Rayne’s freedom in front of her people. It might inspire them, and Eternity knew what the Shadow were capable of with a little inspiration.

Instead, Remorse said, “I’ve already arranged for the disposal of the demolition team, but we need a clean erasure of the Tantamount engineers. One of them is missing. Lucy. The human girl you interviewed for the breeding program.”

Celindria blinked. “Missing?”

Remorse dismissed her ire with a wave. “She’s with Lance for some reason. We’ll need to collect her and clean the engineers. Silence, on the other hand, has vanished. I can’t locate her.”

Still tinkering with the gun, Celindria shrugged. “If the Mother wishes to be found, she will be. I’ll see to the engineers and your Lucy.”

Remorse wouldn’t go so far as to call that predator “his.” Something ravenous starved behind her eyes.

“What will you do with us?”

He turned Karter’s body to face the cage once more. The young woman with curly brown hair and extraordinary eyes between brown and green asked the question. Remorse said, “You must be Ross. Razor spoke highly of you and your abilities.”

Para put a protective arm around the girl.

Quite rudely, Remorse laughed at the gesture from inside her lover’s body. “You know better, Para.”

The small Valkyrie shuddered visibly, but kept her arm around Ross.

How Shadow of her.

Remorse gestured at the cage and announced, “With the Mother away, we can induct the females into the breeding program immediately.”

Celindria slammed the weapon on the counter and stood in such a fashion that Remorse stepped Karter’s body back. Sweeping aside the excess of her white skirts, the First Progeny turned and faced him. He wished she hadn’t.

Those cobalt eyes were empty. Hollow. And like a portal, something stretched and yawned behind them.

A breeze picked up from… where?! They were underground. It flowed through her skirts and the fabric draped from the bangles on her biceps.

The pressure rose and rose until Remorse needed to pop Karter’s ears—

Too late.

Blood trickled from the blown eardrums and from the capillaries in her nose.

No!

Karter shouted inside her mind, “What’s happening?!”

The pressure squeezed and condensed the very marrow of the Valkyrie’s bones. Tendon and ligament contracted muscle until the tissue shrank off the bone. Blood vessels constricted to thin cords and twisted.

Remorse felt all of it.

Vi’s voice came to him then. “From every painful lesson, you must accept the cost with the wisdom to make yourself a better Tritan.”

“I relent!”

Why were all of Remorse’s lessons so costly?