Ashby Virtual Hotel District, The Ephemor Federation

2027

Even after holding onto Trin's hands for ten minutes and staring at her the entire time, Rory could not believe what she was seeing. "This is real?"

Normally, Trin did not like to be so touchy, but apparently thirteen years trapped at Ashby virtual hotel had, at least temporarily, made her as eager for contact, because she held onto Rory tightly. Jace sat with his arm around their friend, refusing to let go.

They'd spent the first few minutes repeating themselves, saying things Rory could no longer even remember. The shock hadn't lessened, but the joy of seeing her friend again had managed to rouse her thinking mind.

"I want to hear everything," Rory said.

"The glitches kept getting worse until one day I suddenly appeared here." Trin looked exactly the same as the last time Rory had seen her. Her face was so young. Had they all really been this young when they were fighting on Lumiea? "Vehru was waiting for me here. She told me that she needed my body from now on. Even had the gall to apologize."

"She's a bastard," Jace said.

"I guess all the amenities here were supposed to make up for her hijacking my body. There's whatever food or view I could imagine. It all tastes bitter when you're trapped." It was incredibly rare for Trin to tear up, but her eyes looked misty. "I missed everyone so much. I could never accept that I wouldn't see you again."

Rory pulled her close into another hug. "We couldn't either."

"Vehru gave me access to all sorts of information, though. I can't leave here or communicate with anyone. It hasn't been able to do any good, but I at least got to follow what is happening on Lumiea and Earth." She bit her lip. "I know what Vehru did to you."

Jace squeezed Rory's knee.

"I can read or watch anything that's public. I saw all the footage of you on Earth, Aeryn. Or, Rory. What do you want me to call you?"

"I'm still Aeryn. I always will be." She smiled. "I hope it helped you not feel so alone to get updates on us."

"What other information do you have?" Jace asked.

"Plenty of information. I don't think the Federation put a great deal into security here. Why would you spend a lot of time on something that has never been an issue and that you don't anticipate being one? The Commanders are trusted to handle their guests. We're trapped here and anyone who Vehru brings in should be under her supervision. It's not like someone can come wandering in."

The implications were spinning through Rory's mind. "We're Vehru's guests, not Morfrain's. I wonder if he can read our thoughts here."

Trin shrugged. "I don't know about that. I can say this, though. Proprietary Federation technology is off-limits, even for Commanders, but I've been studying it since I got here, and others have for hundreds of years. You would be amazed at what we can figure out with the information we have."

"What about the transportation system?" Jace sat forward. "The entire time Aeryn was on Earth, we tried to find information on it."

"I'm not sure if what we know would actually work. We can't test anything here. But we have plenty of research and theories."

"Do you think you have it?" Rory asked.

Trin grinned. "Close. If someone could actually tinker with it in the real world, I think we could get it working."

Her heart jolted in her chest. "So you and all of the Witnesses, all of Vehru's guests, have been able to study for years."

Trin nodded. "You need to meet everyone."

"This is Vehru's invitation." Rory met Jace's eyes. "It's her twisted way of accepting a partnership with us. She's brought us here so we can prepare away from Morfrain."

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Her husband shook his head. "She brought us here so she could steal our bodies and do something terrible to Earth. Don't be naive, Aeryn."

"Yes, fine. You're right. But don't you be so black and white, either. You know that Vehru makes multiple plays at once. She has collected revolutionaries from planets she conquered and amassed them here. This is not some kind of resting ground. It's her reserves."

Jace squeezed his hands together and looked as if it took all of his effort to keep his voice in check. "If you are entertaining the idea of working with Vehru, then you are making a terrible, terrible mistake. We can never trust her. Even if she thinks she's doing something that in her convoluted sense of justice makes the universe better, she's wrong. Vehru is not right in the head."

"I never said we should trust her. We cannot turn away any weapon at our disposal, though."

"No." Jace raised a trembling fist. "Never. I mean, never."

Rory ignored the authoritative tone and crossed her arms. "Do you want to win this war?"

"Yes. I want to win and crush Vehru."

"I want to crush her too. Doesn't mean we can't use her for what she's worth first. She can read our minds, Jace. Be smart."

"This is insane because she's insane." Jace lowered his head and voice. "Every single night for ten years, I put our son to bed alone, and every single night I felt the vacuum of your absence. It should have been you. He should have had you and he didn't." His voice boomed. "On every one of those nights, I swore to myself, to our son, to you that I would kill her one day."

Silence followed, silence and Jace's heavy breathing. The veins running along his choreded arms stuck out and fire burned in his eyes. It was the unyielding sorrow, though, that crushed Rory's chest with a fierce grip.

"Vehru robbed you of your son," Jace said. "Do not ever forget that."

Tears broke free of her eyes. "I never could."

"I know what it is to be robbed," Trin said. "The Federation and Morfrain robbed us as well. They all did. We have to work with what we have."

"Vehru will use us to get what she wants," Jace said. "If you think the Federation is bad now, imagine it getting worse."

Rory laughed and shook her head. "Come on. She is one woman. You think she's going to revolutionize the Federation and transform it into–"

"I've spent more time with her than you have. I'm telling you, Aeryn. Whatever good might come from working with her will only end up biting you in the ass. Put yourself in her shoes. If you had done the things she has, do you think you'd even be capable of doing good anymore? Her judgment is skewed, if not willfully perverted."

Rory sighed and took his hand. "She'll try to use us, but that's why we have do better at using her. She's not all-powerful, Jace. Don't give her too much credit."

"Vehru is willing to do things you aren't. You need to appreciate what that means."

Trin sat forward and lifted her hands. "You're both right and you both know it. JyNell knows Vehru pretty well. She really does believe in what she's doing, but she has created the most effective resistance against the Federation that anyone ever has. Vehru has been building armies right beneath their noses, with the most capable here in this hotel, living together with nothing to do except plot our revenge."

"It's been purposeful all this time. She subtly turned the Federations own tactics against them to wage a slow-motion war over the past five hundred years."

Jace stood quickly and walked to the other side of the room, back to them. It wasn't that Rory didn't hate Vehru for tearing apart their family like Jace did. He just had never been as forgiving. And he'd been the one to watch their son suffer without her. Would Jace burn down two worlds and their family to spite Vehru? No. He'd do what needed to be done, even if it killed him.

He needed time to himself.

"I want to meet everyone," Rory said. "I want to see everything you've been working on. We need to try to get updates on what is happening on Earth and figure out if there's a way for us to take any of this information with us when we return to Earth. I'm certain that Vehru told the truth when she said this wouldn't be forever."

Jace slammed his fist against the wall and wheeled around. "She's using your body right now to manipulate the people of Earth. Who knows what she is doing with mine. My hands may be killing innocent people right now while I'm stuck here, playing her games with all the pawns she's collected over the years."

Everything he said silenced her, even if it didn't change the fact that they could not afford to shun any help right now. "So, we kill her when we can."

"Aeryn." Jace looked at her with such certainty. "Even if Vehru did all of this for good reasons, she still did it, and that does something to a person. You cannot fall into her plan."

"Then let's subvert it."

The muscles in his jaw bunched and finally, he nodded. "I'm not going to ally with her, even temporarily, but I will use her for what I can. I won't stand in your way. Don't expect me to even remotely trust her."

"I wouldn't," Rory said quietly. "Don't let me ever fall for it."

Jace took her head in his hand and met her eyes. "Vehru will crush anyone and anything to get what she wants. She's fought a long time for her world. We don't know what that means for the rest of us or what she is truly capable of."

It did intimidate Rory to think of just how much she didn't know about Vehru and about all that this woman had accomplished on her own. But if Vehru did that, then Rory could too. Rory could do more, because she would not crush entire planets to get what she wanted. She'd find a better way.

"Let's meet the other Witnesses." Rory took Trin's arm, not ready to let go of the friend she'd lost, and slid her hand into Jace's.

As she walked with them and remembered their early days as a squad, the feeling of home returned. It had been so long since she had missed her parents and siblings, but she did. Her heart longed for Levi and Theo and for her family to be put together again.

Rory would come home to them.

She promised it to them now, even if they were too distant to know.