During our next break, Andrew found me staring at a shard of Mercury Turbo's exterior shell I kept for my museum. In its invisible display case, it transitioned between matte black and polished titanium silver in a perpetual wave of motion. I'd been using the moment to reflect on how to approach the next entry when I heard him call my name.

"How can I help you, Conscience?"

Rayne, since you've left, Andrew's been running the Probability Matrix observations with Silence, Lucas, and Smith. Occasionally, Aria and Torch help. I'd hoped T.a.o. would stay and work on the team, but, like you, she has her own way of doing things.

"I won't be gone forever. I promise," little you assures.

Andrew joined me on the glowing landing at the top tiers of the ravine. His expression said something was... interesting. "Sorry to bother you. I'm sure you could do with some privacy, but I've gotten word on a trend I'm currently monitoring." From his palm device, a graph illuminated in a projection. He said, "See, here are the number of Probabilities which erupted after Rayne... destroyed Enki."

Before you left us, the Probabilities ended with you. Once you'd completed your mission, billions shattered into existence. This graphic depicted those fresh instances.

"Go on," I encouraged with a nod.

Andrew wet his lips in a nervous gesture before swiping to the next graph.

Ah.

I frowned. "I see."

With another gesture, Andrew increased the size, saying, "The Matrix is shrinking. Little by little, Probabilities are dying out."

Biting my thumbnail, I considered the causes. "What percentages are we looking at?" Something about this rang in my ears. Something I knew, but couldn't quite place.

Andrew closed the projection and lowered his hand. "Only five percent, but five percent of billions is millions. Hundreds of millions of Probabilities."

I looked up from my thoughts and glimpsed the concern in his eyes. How could I allow apprehension in my Progeny? With a gentle pat on Andrew's shoulder, I assured, "You're on my time, right now. Don't worry about it until we return to our roles. Then, I want to discuss it with Silence and the others. They're older. Perhaps they've seen this before."

A little more confident, Andrew nodded. "Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Wingmaster."

"No. Thank you for taking your job so seriously." Another pat. "We'll figure this out. Let's get back to the study. We're getting closer to when I first met all of you."

While we headed back, Andrew rolled his eyes, asking, "Do we really have to rehash all that?"

I chuckled. "What's the matter, Conscience? Afraid I'll remind everyone what a spaz you were?"

"Don't worry. I remind him every fucking day," Kyle said from the bottom of the synchronized steps.

I laughed while Andrew grappled Kyle into a headlock.

My Progeny.

"I miss them so much," both versions of you confess.

They're waiting for you here, Rayne. Just come home.

Little you waves a finger, while preteen you answers in your sleep, "Not yet, Superman. But as soon as I'm done, I'll be there to claim my two strawberry milkshakes."

Is one for Nox?

Your silent, precocious smirk on both your faces is a mixture of adorable and nerve-racking.

You enjoy torturing me.

At the front of my study, Tameka ate from a vegetable tray meant for our little family to share. I enjoyed the cherry tomatoes. Pax favored the celery sticks.

To my waiting audience of snacking Shadow, I said, "The zero millennium turned during my tenure at Enki, and I perfected the Weapon unit a thousand times over. But they didn't know that."

Tumu chuckled where he snuggled close against Lamassau, having learned a valuable lesson about not appreciating his lover more.

Completely on a sidebar, I asked Aria and Torch, "What was it like for you at this time?"

Their wordless exchange spoke to their twin connection beneath the flames of Cascading Light. Aria said, "By now, you'd disposed of us."

"And we'd built an empire of lost ones beneath Torrentus," Torch finished.

Pehton squeezed her eyes shut and let out a sound I could only assume was involuntary. Before Caedes could hold her or her children could say anything, Korac was there.

Immediately.

My General pressed his mouth to my Executive Warden's ear and whispered so only she could hear.

Pehton turned those teary garnet eyes onto my lover and asked, "Tameka, what was it Aya had said about introducing you to Aria and Torch?"

Tameka looked from me to the two Gargantuan Lyriks in question. They nodded their approval for Tameka to answer.

"'We'll need permission from our gods to speak to you.'"

Korac repeated, "'Our gods,' Pehton." Without taking his eyes off hers, he called to the twins. "Tell us. Tell us about your life."

Pehton's eyes were transfixed on Korac, but she still took Caedes' offered hand and listened to her children.

Torch seemed to understand. "We were happy and healthy. A little deprived of sunlight, but we have more than made up for it since reaching Ishkur."

Aria said, "We wanted for nothing. We want for nothing. Our family came from Gait, and we will always remain."

A hush fell over the Shadow.

Yes.

Locked in this moment, Korac gripped Pehton's biceps, and she clutched the lapels of his shirt. Her children's words sank in, and Pehton lowered her head onto Korac's chest. He heaved her up and led her to the door where Torch and Aria stood guard. With a nod at both of them, they followed him out of the room with Pehton.

Caedes stood and saluted me. "Please continue. We'll be back in a minute." He took his time leaving, affording Pehton and her kids some privacy.

Korac returned and took his place once more with Echo and Sagan. He said, "Go ahead, your imperial majesty." A warm smirk appeared, as if he couldn't hold it back any longer.

Good for Pehton, Aria, and Torch.

"During the one hundred years I spent on Enki, Korac was earning money for Nox's campaign in the fighting matches at the Queen's Fare. T.a.o., you were with him. Do you want to share anything?"

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T.a.o. glanced between her brother and met Korac's eyes across the study before returning to me. "All the Worlds opened to me and let me walk among their people. But purposeless. The Seam offered me a room, and Korac was there. I was safe... until I wasn't."

Andrius knew how to talk to her better than anyone. He gently touched her shoulder and asked, "Why didn't you visit our father during this time?"

A shadow fell over the Atramentous star in T.a.o.'s eyes, and I hated it. I knew the answer before she confessed to me, "The miasma never left you."

Devis said, "But you touched Cascading Light. You knew Celindria would find you eventually."

T.a.o.'s gaze made the rounds again, lingering on Korac. When she met my eyes, the ice in her made me wince. She said, "My daughter..."

Of course. The child Abresson had forced on her was the beginning of her line, which one day led to Sagan.

Tilting her head so all those waves cascaded to the side, T.a.o. said, "Korac kept the dawn safe until I succumbed to the night."

I'd never heard Korac as gentle with anyone as he was with T.a.o. I'd noticed it all those millennia ago in Nox's castle, and I noticed it now. He asked, "Tell us about Razor. He was my brother, and I want to know how he treated you."

"The Seam asked nothing of me but words and smiles. Laughter filled the halls every day." T.a.o. touched a hand to her chest and shored herself up for the next confession. "I made him cry when he couldn't protect me. He hated goodbyes." A single tear fell from her lashes.

Andrius pulled her against his side and chafed her tiny arm. He whispered, "I know he cared for you. He protected you from Celindria until you knew it was time."

T.a.o. nodded, confirming his interpretations.

I crossed the room and knelt to kiss her hair, muttering, "I know. I miss him too."

Sagan stood Echo up and walked her by moving her baby feet, while Korac watched, deep in thought.

It was time to change the subject.

"Jack, can you please read the next entry? Volume two thousand, four hundred and ten. Page seventy-two."

You smile with so much warmth as you say, "I'm proud of my delinquent little brother."

We all are.

Ross kissed his cheek, and the young man stood with a blush, giving a goofy wave under the spotlight. Jack found the volume and read with a clean and steady cadence. The room drifted into the story within seconds.

The stars cried to me.

They said, "Father, forgive me. I am lost without you."

I choked the words out. "Can you feel?"

"Only sorrow, bitterness, and rage." Constellated across the sky, Celindria's eyes blinked back tears. Her voice came on the wind across the Earth's desert. "I would rather not feel at all."

I cried, "Come home! Please!"

The stars blinked again, and her fading image promised, "When my work is done."

"Celindria!"

I startled awake in my lab on Enki. Something smelled... foul.

A Tritan leaned with his hands behind him against the far wall. He was darker than any Tritan I'd seen, almost indigo in complexion. I didn't like his voids. Beady buttons of everything wrong in his heart.

This was Abresson.

When he waved at me with his fingers, the sleeve of his robes slipped to reveal fresh scars. Malice permanently painted on his skin. With entirely too much authority, Abresson said, "If it were up to me, I would give you another one hundred years." His voice grated. He trailed a grubby finger along my stainless steel surfaces as he sidled my way. Frost lingered in his wake. "Your work is so impressive. The others cannot stop talking about it, but I suspect you of subterfuge."

In.

Out.

I breathed to calm myself, while I laid eyes on perhaps the dirtiest soul in the Vast Collective.

Abresson seemed disappointed he didn't get a rise out of me. Cavalier, he shrugged it off before saying, "I wonder if you would practice more caution if you knew the resources you waste with each failed test."

"What resources are those?" I asked, not really caring about the answer, but there was a flicker of humor in his eyes which told me I wouldn't like it.

Abresson looked through one of my instruments, unthreatened by me, and offered out of hand, "Only those children stolen from Gait with Inanis."

As the blood drained from my body, a ringing filled my ears and threatened to pop my eyeballs. I couldn't breathe or think.

The test 'simulations.'

The tanks.

Not clones or knock-off Progeny failures—

"Eight million, three hundred thousand children no one would miss. It was Celindria's idea to use them, back when she was still alive and building weapons for us. A genius, that woman. Too bad about the ice in her veins or I would not mind—"

"Get.

"Out."

Abresson's face shifted. His voids widened slightly, and his lipless mouth quivered.

I knew I'd shifted into Atramentous. When I opened my wings, Abresson hopped back a full meter. I repeated, "Get. Out."

The indigo Tritan kept his eyes on me, moving backwards and feeling for the archway. All the while, Abresson assured, "To go against me is to go against Primary Rem himself. You will face Imminent if you incite violence against me, boy."

Imminent.

The voice laughed in my head.

Nox.

The Tritans.

Surrounded by corruption and vile intentions.

With every step I took, Abresson pooled more and more into a frightened liquid as he shrank for the door. In three pitches, I said, "Tell your master to send me to Earth. Fetch Razor and Tumu for my escort. Send all your Primaries and Eminents to witness. Watch this Prince leave and fear his return."

The Shadow stared at Jack and me, transfixed in the moment.

Until Tameka asked, "What did you do?"

I grinned at her so she'd repay in kind before I said, "What any disgruntled mad scientist does. I destroyed all of my research except for what I had commandeered for myself. The same goes for the Pantheon. Tumu..." I gestured at him on the couch, and he bobbed his head, still drunk. "He helped me smuggle it out."

Sagan asked, "Why did you call for Razor?"

Iuo answered, "For us. He had a way of gathering us for Xelan that I'm not sure even Remorse knew about. If I may?" He waited for my nod, then continued. "I think Razor liked our Traitor Prince stirring up trouble."

Lucas concurred, "The more trouble, the more Probabilities."

Pehton said, "So he brought us together for one last roundtable before our fearless leader faced a sentence of pure isolation."

I looked away from their knowing glances.

Preteen you has rolled over onto your stomach so you can stare at me with your chin set on arms, laying across the width of your pillow. You ask, "Did you look away because they know about your mental illness and how badly solitude affects it?"

I nod.

Yes.

Little you is curling up on top of the remnants of your fallen pillow fort. You say, "We love you."

My lips are suddenly dry, and I lick them before I choke on tears.

I never doubt that about you, Rayne, and I don't doubt it about them. But sometimes, it's hard to bare your vulnerabilities and expect a good outcome.

"What was the outcome, Superman?"

Iuo laughed. "And then F8 asked him to lead an empire. Right there in front of all of us."

Lucas was beaming as he recalled, "Do you remember how he answered?"

"How could I forget?" Pehton was holding her sides.

Tumu, merry in his cups, held his hands up like a conductor. "Everyone. All at once. Three, two, one..."

"I got you!" The Shadow called in a chorus of chuckles, smiles, and love.

Kyle said, "I don't understand. How were you having this meeting in private?"

Andrew echoed, "Yeah. How did Remorse not learn about this?"

Silence answered, "They were in the Opal Mezzanine. Weren't you, Lucas?"

He grinned at his ancient friend and bowed with his head to confirm her assumption.

Sagan begged with a gesture of both hands. "Gimme the descriptive, baby. What's this Opal Mezzanine like?"

While they indulged Sagan with the description of yet another beautiful Aegis construct, I nestled Tameka into my side. I asked, "Are you overwhelmed yet?"

"No. This has been a heart-warming past few days. But..." She climbed to her tiptoes to whisper in my ear. "I'm worried about you. How are you doing?"

I let Tameka set back down on her feet and lied to her with a reassuring grin—

Pax wiggled into our couple's snuggle, turning it into a family affair. I ruffled his red coils. He's at that age where it's not 'cool' anymore, and he glared a reflection of my own eyes up at me.

"Daddy." Pax sounded exasperated and disappointed in my clearly uncool dad behavior.

It made both Tameka and I laugh.

Preteen you says, "I'm with Pax."

I laugh because I know it couldn't be further from the truth.