Earth

2027

Rory's breath came in short spurts.

"You did the one thing I never believed you could be stupid enough to do." The quiet rage flooding Vehru's eyes like fire seized Rory's heart in her chest. "I thought I could trust you. You sent Jace to Morfrain, you stupid, miserable, foolish girl." Vehru released her throat and pushed her back a step. "You want to make your pitch to me while Jace tries to persuade Morfrain? I've heard it already. My Replica shared it all with me. Everything you planned to say to me."

Was this what total defeat looked like? The fight that had burned so deeply within Rory began to die out without her control, no matter how hard she tried to keep it going. Feeling nothing but emptiness and loss, Rory spoke in monotone. "Your mother isn't your weakness. It's your war with Morfrain." She swallowed hard. "I could only slow you down by using your mother against you. Morfrain is the only way to defeat you." A spark of hope flashed because even if Vehru knew what they planned, she might not actually be able to stop it. "You're panicked because you know it still may work."

"Don't you dare have hope," Vehru said. "Morfrain is not going to help you." She laughed bitterly. "You despise me so much and think I'm so awful. He's the one who tortured your husband. I had to save him. And yet you would turn against me for Morfrain?"

Rory's eyes widened. Even though Vehru could read her every thought, she was not all-powerful. As advanced as she may be, Vehru was still human. "Your feelings are hurt?"

"You think I'm that childish."

"You actually feel a connection to us, like all the sick and twisted nightmares you've put us through have bonded you to us. Whatever guilt you have for your actions does not mean you care or that there's any goodness within you. It's for your own benefit that you allow yourself to even feel guilty, so you can believe you're justified." Sure, Vehru may have known these thoughts, but it didn't mean they wouldn't hurt. "It must kill you to have so much power over us, even over our mind, and still you cannot control us."

"Your original speech was better." Vehru's nostril twitched. "The one where you planned to ask me to remove the neuroweb from you and your squad in exchange for helping me fight Morfrain. It's just too bad that I know you're doing the same thing to Morfrain."

Rory's breath hitched. Hearing Vehru say it terrified her. "You still need us."

"Don't try it. I've heard it already."

Rory raised her voice. "You've heard it but you aren't listening. I know you're in a power struggle with Morfrain and that you want to push him out. That's what you do. You conquer. Before, I thought you let us get away with things because it suited you. I didn't realize how right I was. Even reading our thoughts, you let us rebel because you thought you could use our fight against Morfrain." It all made sense now. "It's why you let the rebels capture the Witnesses and stoke dissent. It's why you chose me even when I clearly was never going to comply."

Vehru watched her. "I needed someone who's stronger than me to endure this war and care enough to fight. That was supposed to be you."

"It still is me." Rory moved closer. "You weren't strong enough to figure out how to save your planet without becoming a monster and a destroyer of worlds. You've saved no one, only slowly killed your mother and likely your planet. So what if I've defied you. You still need me."

"I can do it myself."

"Can you?" Rory narrowed her eyes. "I just didn't see it before. All these years you've been gathering the players you need to take on Morfrain and none of us knew it. You said you know that we were giving the data to Theo, but you must have known that Jace was compiling it for me ahead of time. You wanted Theo to give that information to the world." Rory straightened, all the pieces coming together now. "You let rebels like Petrin so successfully war against you because you wanted to teach us how to defy the Federation. You've been secretly training us on how to wage a rebellion. You're sabotaging your own invasion."

A smile ever so briefly twisted onto Vehru's face before falling to sadness. "This is why it pains me so that you've reached your hand out to Morfrain."

"If you can read my thoughts, then you know we never planned to help you or Morfrain. We wanted to keep pitting you against each other. What does that matter to you? You think you can stay plenty of steps ahead of us." Rory closed her eyes. "No, you have been ahead of us, all this time." She looked at Vehru, genuinely now. "Does what we did really matter? You can still use us. It just made you angry."

"You don't understand what you've done." Vehru's jaw bunched. "It's not just me you've hurt. It's your family and both of your worlds. You don't understand what you're in the middle of."

"Then help me understand. You can't fight Morfrain alone. You and your Replica are an echo chamber for each other. Instead of manipulating us into fighting a war for you, actually work with us. You said you know not to underestimate the potential of a person. Don't underestimate us. We can help you."

"Oh, Rory." Vehru sighed. "I know that even as you say this, you have no intention of ever helping me. You will fight me so long as it suits you and betray me as soon as you can."

"So? You believe I can beat you?" Rory chuckled, truly amused. "Are you actually afraid of us?"

"Yes." Vehru didn't even look angry. "You all love each other so much that you would do anything. A person who doesn't fear and respect that is destined to lose against you. I've always feared what you and the people you love can do. It's why I chose you."

Rory was so shocked that it stole her words and thoughts.

"That's why I can't let you go to Morfrain." The hurt on Vehru's face had returned. "This ruins all my plans. I needed you and you did the one thing I cannot overlook."

"Yes, you can. You want Morfrain to fail so that you can take over, right? You knew that we would not stop fighting for Earth, no matter what. You counted on that. So count on it now." Rory reached her hand forward. "Leave my neuroweb in. Read my thoughts. Keep me on your chain. Imagine what the two of us could do together. We could take Morfrain down. Between your twisted fuckery and my commitment to this rebellion, we could actually do it."

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Vehru hesitated. "You actually meant that."

"I'll try to kill you when it's over. I can't hide that from you. Your replica is probably telling you now. But that's a battle for another day."

"Jace would never team up with me. You weren't there these past ten years. You think you hate me but you don't understand how deep it runs for him."

Rory shrugged. "I believe Jace hates you more than I could ever imagine. As desperate as I am to make you suffer for what you've done and stop you, I'm not a vengeful person. My husband can be driven to extremes that are not in my nature. But he loves me and Levi more than he hates you. He also believes in us more than he believes in you and knows we can win in the end."

"Your husband is incredibly hard to control. You think you can make him behave?"

"I told you, Jace will do anything for us. Even drink your poison."

"Even if I wanted to work with you, you've already ruined it," Vehru said. "You tipped Morfrain off. He knew something was coming, but you don't realize how much information you've given to him today just by Jace going to him." Darkness shadowed Vehru's eyes. Was that fear Rory saw? Even helplessness? "You don't know what I've held him back from doing. My plan was never to sabotage the invasion of Earth. Not even I'm that cruel."

"What do you mean?"

Vehru had never looked more like a person to Rory than she did now and it took her off-guard, seeing the unhidden evidence of human limitations in her. "Surely, you realize the Federation could take over Earth in a matter of hours."

"They won't though. Jace said they want pure consciousness."

"Yes, they do. They also want compliant subjects. If Earth actually managed to defeat Morfrain and me, the Federation would intervene. At that point, the effort for pure consciousness would be wasted already. They'd takeover Earth and accept that it would take many generations to purify the energy source." Vehru shook her head. "They would crush you and rebuild you. And they'd make you suffer for robbing them of their investment."

Rory actually felt as foolish as Vehru had said she was. In her desperation to never surrender, she'd refused to see how hopeless her fight had always been. What weapons did they have against a Federation who could conquer their planet in a matter of hours? Looking at Vehru now, this woman who had felt so overwhelming powerful to Rory for so long, she realized that this commander was fighting a losing war as well. Did Vehru really have hope of fighting the Federation?

"Did you really become a Commander to save your world?"

Vehru's eyes looked glassy. "I gave more than you will ever know to save my planet. I know the power of sacrificing the people you love because I had to do it too. It was clear to me that I could never actually fight the Federation unless I attacked from the inside with their own power."

"It was never going to work. You still don't see that, do you? Someone who conquers worlds and rips families apart can never be the hero their world needs, and you won't become who they need you to be by becoming the villain."

That humanness Rory had seen in Vehru brightened as determination in her eyes. "You think you've dedicated yourself to your rebellion. You've only just begun. I said I would not give in and I never did. I never will. I'm going to change things. I've actually managed to change things already and I've only scratched the surface of what I'll do."

"Vehru." Rory's voice became soft. "You didn't need to steal my memories and my family to make me strong enough to fight a war for you or to manipulate me into doing it. Instead of lording over people, you should fight alongside them. Just admit to yourself that you did surrender. You're not fighting the Federation. You became them and you're wanting to change them into something more powerful."

"You have no idea what I'm doing and what I've sacrificed."

"If you actually want to fight the Federation and want our help defeating Morfrain, then give us the weapons you have. Get us biomechanical bodies."

Rory was not sure she had ever stunned Vehru to silence before, but the commander did not speak for several seconds. "Even if I would consider it, which I won't, because I cannot trust you, the Federation will not do that."

"You say you fought so hard for all these things. Fight for that. If we have biomechanical bodies, we can actually make a difference."

Vehru shook Rory off with a wave of her hand. "Don't waste my time. Like I need you or Jace or any of your people to be harder to deal with than you already are. I can't even imagine the damage you two might do. You cannot just go battle the Federation. This is a slow, silent revolution."

"It's a slow, silent capitulation."

Warning filled Vehru's eyes. "Enough from you. Do you not remember saying that I'm the one who has secretly prepared you for rebellion? You're fighting my revolution. This is my war. I chose you, trained you, and pushed you in the right direction. I have not surrendered. I have plans."

"You're deceiving yourself then. Think about when you fought for your planet and remember the promise you made. If you want to return to it, then you need more than just help fighting Morfrain. You need a moral compass to get you back in the right direction."

"Be honest, Witness. Even if we worked together and I changed my ways, you still would kill me once you had the chance."

Rory tried imagining such a day. "Jace would. He would be justified. I wouldn't stop him." She glanced down Vehru. "I would force you to serve the people you hurt for as long as you could and even slightly make up for what you've done."

"We'll never be on the same side and I can't even use you now. We shouldn't waste more time on this conversation. Not when Jace's vitals just changed. He was the only one I couldn't stop, because you gave up too much to Morfrain. They're together now. Looks like your plan didn't work."

"His vitals?"

"You brought this on yourself. You–" Vehru's eyes snapped up, like she was looking at something.

"What?"

When Vehru didn't answer, Rory almost shook her.

"What happened!"

"Quiet." Vehru's stare snapped to her. "We're trying to find him. That bastard Morfrain just blocked me from his neuroweb and moved him. I can't see anything."

Rory sucked in a painful breath, the horrible reality of the situation feeling more real than it had. She knew that today could end with the people she loved dead or suffering, but she couldn't do it. She couldn't do this and she had to. There was no stopping what they'd done and now something terrible might have been happening to Jace.

Why had she let him go to Morfrain? Rory had wanted to be the one after what Morfrain did to Jace but the stubborn man had refused.

Vehru closed her eyes, face lifted. Even though Rory wanted to pressure her for an update, she knew that her only hope of finding Jace right now was to let Vehru and her Replica work. She had never seen Vehru function like this before. Knowing how Trin's AI interface had worked, Rory could not imagine how advanced the link between Vehru and her Replica was.

"This is why you shouldn't have done this." Vehru glared at Rory now. "I told you that Morfrain was coming and you had to be careful." She twisted and stalked back a few paces.

Seeing Vehru shaken like this only made Rory feel more panicked. Her imagination went wild with thoughts of what Morfrain could be doing to Jace. Why had she thought this could possibly work? She couldn't catch her breath. Leaning against her knees, she struggled to slow her breathing.

Jace could already be dead.

Each passing moment made that feel more and more likely.

Finally, Vehru snapped at Rory. "I found them." She cackled. "He thought he could hide from me."

"Take me to him. Take me to him, now!" Rory grabbed Vehru. "Please."

Heat spread over her again and the next instant, both Vehru and Rory had landed together in a wooded area. Morfrain hovered above the trees. He locked eyes on Rory and his stiff lips twisted in sneer that looked as strained as strands of steel.

The panic flooded her system with burning adrenaline.

Where was Jace?