Earth

2027

Rory had returned to Theo after delivering her message to Vehru while Jace had to attend a debriefing. Her heart hadn't stopped pounding since they'd transmitted the message and footage to Levi's nanny. As satisfying as it was to see Vehru lying on the ground after, it also ignited the hatred inside of her to see that woman dare to pity herself.

Before parting, Jace had gazed into her eyes, clearly wanting to draw her close, and told her that she'd done well.

This had to work. If the rest of their plan fell through, they at least had to have the neuroweb out of her son's brain.

She sat with Theo on the bed now and shared the part of the plan with him that she could. "I got the approval for you to leave the base. You'll be checked to make sure you don't have anything. They already communicated with General Price to make arrangements for you to be delivered to him."

He crossed his arms. "I'm not comfortable with leaving you."

"I have work to do too. We all have to go do our part. This is the only way for everything to be okay one day. Now, later, we'll get the data back to you. You need to give everything to Earth. All of it."

"Your squad is willing to help?"

"Yes. Once we know Levi is safe, we'll send a message to you. Don't hold back after that. Give Earth everything we have and help them figure out how to reverse engineer the transportation system."

Theo sat back. "What about the rest of you? You all have the neuroweb."

Rory had never lied to him before and even though it might have made things easier on him to hide the truth, she couldn't. Now was not the time to start breaking each other's trust. "We're trying to get the neuroweb out of all of our minds, but I don't know if it'll work. Some day, someone has to say enough is enough, no matter the consequences. We can't let that stop us. Once Levi is safe, we make our move."

She could see him wrestling with her words. "They could torture you to death or even torture you indefinitely."

If Rory thought about what Vehru or Morfrain could do to her and her family, then the terror of it would entirely freeze her. Her training on Lumiea had taught her how to compartmentalize. It was something she'd noticed that she often automatically did, one of the first things she had learned about herself after losing her memory. Since then, she'd tried to find a healthier way to live. Now, they were at war. Rory had to fragment her mind to do what had to be done.

"One person can't win a war or save the world," Rory said. "So it's easy to tell ourselves that we can get away with not doing our part. Will it really make a difference?" Rory laced her fingers with his. "Our only chance of saving Earth from the federation is if we all do everything we can. Some of us will have the chance to make the kind of impact that changes things. Vehru put me in a position like that. How can I turn away from what only I can do?"

"I know you're right. I know." He settled his forehead against hers. "But you were right when you said it's too hard not to love one person more than the entire world. Seeing what Vehru did to you destroyed me. I can't…"

Rory drew him down on the bed and held him close, like when it was the two of them, and their lives were their own. "You can."

He held her tightly against himself. "No, you were right before. This is impossible." Theo's eyes looked full of sorrow. "I saw you when Vehru hurt us. You know what she could do. We have to make sure our plan is realistic."

"We can't let the fear of what could happen stop us. The history of your planet is full of people who did the impossible. Look to their example when you lose your strength. What if Harriet Tubman had let her fear stop her? No one would have blamed her. Think of what they would have done to her and the people she was helping."

Theo nodded, listening.

"Imagine the strength it took Malala to keep speaking out after she was shot in the head. Nelson Mandela could have cowered against the apartheid. That's the strength of the human spirit. We all have that power living within us if we choose to take it. There's times in everyone's life when they have to do the impossible. It may not always find its way into history books, but it matters just as much. Our job, Theo, is to give Earth the chance to beat Vehru. We cannot surrender that power out of fear, no matter how true that fear is. We'll endure whatever comes."

Theo kissed her softly. "I don't know if we are all strong enough, Rory. But I know that you are. So I'll give it everything I have. I'll try to get others to give it all. Even if we fail, though, you have to press on, because you do have something special in you."

"It's in all of us."

"I hope so. I'm terrified of what each day might bring."

"I'm scared too," she whispered. "I have so much to lose."

"That's why you can fight so hard."

"It's the same for you."

Theo nestled his face against hers. "What are you planning?"

"It's better if none of us knows more than we really need to."

"Will I see you again soon?"

Rory chewed the inside of her cheek. "I'll come to you as soon as it's over if I can." She didn't want to be separated either, especially with all the danger the world faced.

If they had to part, even for a short time, then she needed to be with him without anything between them. She had to hold him close and cherish this time. Theo was her husband. He'd given everything he had to her and she loved him so deeply that the fear of losing him strangled her now.

Pushing herself up, she gazed down at him, and then she kissed him deeply.

His hand slid up her arm. "Are you sure?"

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Unable to speak, much less explain, Rory nodded. She had never wanted to leave Jace and she never wanted to lose him again. Her heart yearned for him. But she and Theo had never been ripped apart. It was not something she would inflict upon them when she intimately knew the torture of it happening with Jace. Though she had no idea how to reconcile her two lives, she knew that destroying the bond that was still alive and well between herself and Theo would fix nothing. And she knew that Jace understood, because he'd meant it when he told her to make a life for herself. He'd even planned on keeping his distance from her once on Earth.

Drawing Theo close soothed the wounds in her heart, even while reigniting the pain she felt over being torn from Jace. Rory held her two lives together, held both the suffering and joy at the same time, and did not let go of any pieces of herself, though it had once seemed impossible to juggle all of it at once.

Familiar had become a feeling she loved more than most others. For so long, it had been her only comfort on Earth. Theo's body against hers, his every kiss and touch, felt so beautifully familiar.

They could not lose this war.

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Saying goodbye to Theo left her feeling empty. The only thing that made it better was knowing he would have Chip and Benji to keep him company while they were away.

Now Rory waited on Jace. She'd paced for twenty minutes and eventually sat down in an office chair. He was supposed to meet with her after the debriefing, but Vehru had requested him. Alone.

He would press her for an answer on their son. The fear had started to get to Rory. It was one thing to tell Theo that they would stop at nothing to defeat Vehru and a completely different thing to sit alone, terrified she had gotten her kid hurt.

Rory jolted to her feet when Jace entered the room. "What is it?" The serious look on his face stilled her. Had it all been a mistake? Had Vehru actually done something to their son? Had–

"I tried to think of what to say, but I think it's better to show you."

Her heart stopped. Convinced something terrible had happened, Rory couldn't stop her racing thoughts from taking her to the most unimaginable of places.

A shadow fell over the doorway. It was like seeing lightning in the distance and waiting long seconds to hear the clap of thunder. Rory did not understand what she saw. And once she did, a cry involuntarily escaped from her lips as she doubled over and leaned against her knees.

A young man stood at Jace's side, looking at her with wide bronze eyes that shone with tears.

"Levi?" Rory gasped breathlessly.

He took a step forward and then glanced back at Jace, like he was looking for permission, or guidance on what to do. One nod from his father and then Levi stared at Rory for only more moment before taking three long strides to her.

The boy ran into her and hugged her desperately. Rory grabbed him up in her arms, hardly able to stand. Shock stripped her voice and thoughts away. They held one another silently until it hit her that her son was really here and the tears started pouring down her face.

"Oh, Levi," she cried. "Oh, Levi, I love you. I love you so much."

He didn't speak, but he held her tighter, seeming so young to her.

Powerfully real memories swept over her of rocking Levi to sleep as a baby or tracing his round cheek while imagining who he'd grow up to be. Holding onto him now, she remembered the day Vehru had stolen her away, and the agony of having Levi ripped from her life. But here he was. Here he was and Rory could never let anyone take him away again.

She had to stop crying. She didn't want his first memory of her to be like this but trying to dry her tears only seemed to make it worse. "I'm sorry," Rory said as she wept, clinging to him. "I'm so sorry. I can't stop." She pulled back to see him but then was so desperate to hold him that she immediately wrapped her arms around him again. Words spilled from her mouth but she didn't even know what she said. The rapture of embracing her son, knowing he was safe, seeing him for the first time in ten years, witnessing who had become–it utterly overwhelmed her with a joy even more powerful than when she'd held him for the first time after he was born.

Levi sniffled and when he spoke, Rory realized he had been crying too. "I waited for you every day. I never stopped waiting."

Her knees did buckle this time. They both sank to the ground, neither of them apologizing for anything anymore. Jace approached quietly and knelt down beside them. "The neuroweb is gone. I watched her remove it. Vehru's mother insisted on you seeing him."

Relief poured through her. Jace worked his arms around them both while Levi and Rory still held each other. Her body melted against Jace's chest. He kissed her cheek and then the top of Levi's head and squeezed them tightly. "It's okay. Everything's going to be okay."

The strength of the emotions exhausted her as if she had just fought a battle. Rory's eyes slid closed.

"Every moment has been for this," Jace said. "You will never lose each other again."

It was a promise that wasn't Jace's to give. He couldn't ensure that happened. The authority he spoke it with fooled her for a moment into truly believing him, though. Levi gazed up at his father, clearly convinced.

Jace looked hard into his son's eyes. "You take care of your mother." He looked to Rory now. "And you take care of yourself for him."

The way he said it, as if he wouldn't be here with them, initially terrified and angered Rory. Only it didn't last long. She finally understood that after all that had happened, Jace giving his life for his family to be together would have been a gift to him. Rory knew the consuming pain of realizing she'd never hold her baby again. But Jace knew the pain of holding their son and his grief for his lost mother day after day. Rory could only imagine the guilt that came with that when she knew Jace thought Levi needed her more than him.

Now was not the time to steal away Jace's hope and his faith that if he gave all he had to this fight, then he could put Rory and Levi back together again. When he said every moment had been for this, Rory knew exactly what he meant. He'd meant that surviving ten years without her, raising their son alone, suffering through the most painful training and surgical enhancement, including Morfrain's horrific torture, and never giving up through it all had been to see Rory and Levi one day hold each other again.

No, Rory could not take that away from Jace by telling him that he didn't get to die for them or by reminding him that she would not hold back in this war. He needed to hold them together right now. So Rory just had to find a way to get them through this alive.

There was too much to lose to surrender to Vehru now.

The fear of what could happen could consume her, so that she lost the fight before she even started. Vehru counted on that. This might have looked like a capitulation but Rory knew that the commander always pivoted and never stayed down. She had to channel what she felt seeing Levi into strength, instead of into fear.

For now, Levi and Rory both rested against Jace, together as they always should have been. Nothing could erase the long years they had lost or the scars that would remain, but Rory had learned to appreciate joy all the more because of how she had suffered.

"Mom," Levi said softly.

The name slowed her world to a stop. "Yes." It was all Rory could manage to say.

He looked down sheepishly and then met her eyes again. "I love you."

Rory's chin quivered. "I love you too, baby."

Levi shifted to hug both parents at the same time. "And you too, Dad."

The muscles in Jace's jaw bunched. He nodded and looked between Levi and Rory, voice deep. "I love you both more than the world, more than life itself. I'm sorry it took so long for this to happen."

It was impossible for Rory to know whether the conviction of those words would help Jace to find the strength to do what needed to be done or whether it would make him one of the most dangerous men on Earth. Because if Vehru successfully used Rory and Levi against Jace, then all his training and progress would make him an incredible weapon for her.

Fear crept into Rory's heart. "You hold us together," she said, keeping his stare. "I'll protect you from yourself."

Jace didn't ask what she meant and she knew from the look in his eye that he understood all too well. They couldn't let Petrin be right about them. They couldn't be too dangerous to be left alive.

Rory put away the thoughts as she basked in the peace of having her son and his father close to her.

Was there any world in this universe in which she could one day hold all she loved together at the same time?