Bliss tapped his foot incessantly as he watched Dr. Crux make his rounds. The figure of his fragment circled the chamber in the center of the room over and over, never free from its maintenance duties. Crux had shut off its ability to hear and limited its sight to a few feet ahead, leaving no perception of Bliss in the corner. He was tempted to break the fragment where it stood, wondering if Crux would even notice its loss. The fragment couldn’t hear his conversation, but Bliss did not feel comfortable showing vulnerability in front of his boss, even if he was faking it.

  Bliss kept moving his gaze between his boss and his brother, waiting for the moment Onder would wake up and he could finally leave the damn planet. At this point, recruiting his brother to the agency was a long shot. Onder was not going to cooperate, and even if he did, Crux wouldn’t be able to trust him. He made it clear that he didn’t think Bliss had any agency. He wouldn’t be manipulated by someone he perceived to be a wayward child. He was only there to taunt Onder and test how secure the chamber was. If he did manage to escape, Bliss would need to be there to prevent him from rampaging through the entire Rebirth System.

  Like that worked out so well last time. Maybe I should tell him that Crux trapped me in here using my own trauma against me. Imagine the look on his face! Priceless.

  One good thing came out of the charity disaster for Bliss; he was no longer emotionally conflicted about his brother. The man who raised him made it clear that he did not respect him, which was something Bliss could never forgive. He could now throw him in the cellar of his mind with the rest of his family. The rest of the faces from his childhood that didn’t mean anything to him anymore, despite how much Onder wanted them to. This bitter silver-lining allowed him to get some much-needed sleep, restoring his stamina that was lost to the electric cage. His mind turned off for nine wonderful hours before the elephant in the room interrupted him.

  “Mtsi! Mtsi, look at me!”

  His eyes flickered open and he saw his brother flailing around in his cage. A small chuckle escaped his mouth.

  “Come on Mtsi, let me out of here. You know deep down you want to go home. You know I’ll protect you.”

  Bliss started walking towards the center of the room. “Why would I EVER want to go back home.” He reached the glass wall of the chamber and slammed his fist on it. “Back when I was weak, back when I needed to be chained to you every second of the day if I didn’t want to be dragged off. Even if we don’t go back to Sigiba, even if we lived on the most luxurious planet in the galaxy. I don’t want to spend another second with you or Helena.”

  “Helena? Is she alive?”

  Bliss threw his arms up. “I don’t know and I don’t care. She was more alive than I was last time I saw her.”

  “Mtsi, please don’t blame her for what happened, it wasn’t her-“

  “Don’t. Even. Say it,” he hissed.

  Onder slumped forward, which was difficult to do while floating in stasis. “Blame me, please just blame me instead. I was supposed to protect you, but I gave you to father without a fight.”

  Before Bliss could respond, he felt Dr. Crux’s fragment bump into him. The body looked up and saw that he was interrupting the siblings’ conversation. He sent his voice into Bliss’s mind alone to provide instructions.

  “Speak to him and make sure the chamber holds him. Try taunting him so we can really test its limits. If he’s going to break out I want it to be with you here. I will move to the corner and remain on low sensory input. Please tap me on the shoulder if anything happens or if you have finished your conversation.”

  The fragment moved away and faced the wall. It was a laughable attempt at providing Bliss with some privacy. Nothing Crux could do would get him to forget that he was being watched. Even if the fragment couldn’t see or hear him, Crux could feel things. He would know the emotional toll of their discussion. Just for a moment, Bliss thought about ending it all. He could release Armageddon and let him destroy everything Crux built. The CEO would be forced to combine his fragments and assume his natural form. If Bliss were lucky, they would kill each other in battle. Of course, that didn’t solve anything for him in the end, he still needed Crux’s help to stay alive. Prophecy was not a foe to face alone.

  “What the hell is he doing?” asked Onder, looking at Crux in the corner.

  “His best, I guess. Just pretend he’s not there. We have more talking to do.”

  Onder started moving his arms as if he were swimming, trying to move his body to the edge of the chamber. He put his palms up to touch the glass, but the air began to thicken and resist his movements. He would normally be able to push through, but the pushback from his force propelled him back into the low-gravity space. Without his suit to counteract the effects of low-gravity, escape would be difficult.

  Bliss put his hand to the glass and started walking around the circular cell. “This prison was made just for you. Even I don’t think you’ll be able to escape it. If nothing else, Crux is a brilliant engineer, but don’t tell him I said that.”

  “I’ll find a way. When it comes to your safety, I will find a way.”

  Oh dear, sweet Onder. You make this way too easy.

  “Then I guess Crux has nothing to worry about.” He widened his eyes and added some trembling for good measure. “I spent six years in hell and you were trapped on Sigiba the whole time. You were still there when Entropi saved me.”

  He kept flailing around, not to escape, but to get closer to Bliss. “I did escape. I know it took longer than it should’ve, but it happened.” The machine continued to mercilessly push him back to the center. “So even if it’s not today, I will get out of here.”

  Bliss started walking towards Crux with his thrown up in the air. “Well then, I guess we have at least six years to figure out some backup plans.”

  Onder started yelling after him. “Mtsi, get back here! I’m not finished talking to you. Come back!”

  Fruitless thrashing in the air continued. Bliss figured he had tested the chamber enough for now. It probably wouldn’t hold his brother forever, but it would work long enough to give Crux some thinking time. Onder was craftier than he looked, he had to be to keep two children alive on Sigiba. He was still no match for the engineering mind of Crux, who designed and built everything in the Rebirth System from the ground up. Bliss put a hand on the fragment’s shoulder and started shaking it mercilessly. It slapped his hand away and turned around again.

  “No need to be so rough, I could still feel that.”

  Bliss smiled. “Yeah, I know.”

  “Charming. Are you finished speaking now?”

  He nodded and gestured towards Onder, who was still trying to move closer to him. Crux walked back to the chamber to make sure it was holding properly against his resistance. He made one circle around and nodded his head in satisfaction.

  “Excellent. You may go, agent Bliss.”

  He waved his hand and the green barrier in front of the door dissipated. Bliss took one last look at Onder, tears now streaming down his face as he called for him. He flashed a casual smile back and gave a small wave before leaving the room. His triumph over Armageddon would buy him at least a few days of peace from the empty space in his mind.

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  Planet ammini switched to its day cycle and Lunai rose from her bed. This Sunday marked her seventh day of work in a row for the week. It would be the first of many times that she broke duty hours. Of course, she would have to log the infraction herself, making even more work for her in the end. She hoped that Dr. Crux would explain to HR that this was necessary, otherwise she’d have to attend a meeting to discuss why she needed to be at work that day. She did not want to justify herself, that would require talking about the gala again. She would already be doing that for the next two days at the very least, depending on when they could schedule the press conference. As she dragged herself out of bed, her CellPulse lit up with a message from Argalax.

  [Argalax]: Good morning Lunai, I hope you were able to get some rest. I’ll see you soon at the office. Let’s try to make this as simple as possible, we don’t want to get lost in the details during the conference.

  [Lunai]: Sounds good, see you then.

  Every step of her standard routine was less thoughtful than normal. A few loose branches were left hanging on her skin. Dead leaves remained in the moss on her arms and back. She felt like she was watching herself in the room, moving on autopilot. The bugs living on her were left alone. She couldn’t bring herself to hurt them, not today. She put on a pair of boots to prevent more bugs crawling onto her, something that was taboo on her home planet. The spirits would understand; lives were at stake here.

  The usual foot traffic around the main building was absent. Many of the GSA’s residents were taking time at home to mourn their fallen hero. Others were packing their bags and considering leaving the Rebirth System now that Armageddon was their neighbor.

  Lunai was greeted by a different security guard in the lobby. He gave her a wordless look of pity as she walked to the elevators. The desks outside the resident rooms were empty except for a few workers scattered throughout the space. It was a mercy for Lunai; she couldn’t bear more prying eyes of sympathy. Opening the door to the small-scale combat room, she found Argalax sitting at his desk and talking to a woman in Bliss’s usual spot. She turned to face Lunai, revealing a pitch-black face with a rectangular slit for an eye spanning the midline. The eye expanded horizontally when it reached the mid-chin, forming the woman’s mouth. Her suit matched the signature colors of the GSA, sky blue and white, with the agency’s logo resting on the center of her chest. A disembodied hand hovering under a planet with a dark blue heart in the center. Lunai recognized this woman, she hadn’t met her in person yet, but she saw a message from her on her first day at work. It was Fail-Safe, the GSA’s personal planet evacuator and permanent apocalypse attending hero.

  “Good morning Ms. Hiraetha, I’ve been expecting you. Your friend here was just telling me that you two interns were summoned to work today.”

  “O-oh yeah. I’m sorry, we should’ve known the room would be occupied, we can go somewhere else…” Lunai frantically grabbed the doorknob.

  “No, no, just pretend I’m not here. I could use the noise, anyway. Small-scale combat is always so quiet. I’m only here covering since Surfrista-“ she paused, “well, you know.”

  Lunai’s voice lowered to a whisper. “Armageddon had him and I was powerless to stop it, we all were. Now you’ve been moved from your important work because we weren’t strong enough to protect our event.”

  Fail-Safe eyed her curiously. “That’s a weird way to put it. Also not entirely true, Crux wants me in the system while they make sure Armageddon’s prison will hold. They need me here if he gets out. Just killing two birds by covering this service.” She turned back to the computer.

  Lunai shuffled over to her desk, she did not want to discuss the gala further with a stranger. She didn’t want to discuss it with Argalax either, but some shared venting could do some good for both of them. Her discomfort in front of Fail-Safe was clear, so Argalax took the lead to spare her sanity. As he recounted the night, she tried her best to separate her feelings from the words leaving his mouth. It was imperative that she actually listened and studied the notes he wrote, even if it pained her. Heroes had to do this all the time, she just didn’t expect it to happen so soon in her career. Argalax reached the end of the information he had, only Lunai was close enough to witness Entropi’s victory. She filled him in on her assist with putting roots in his brainstem and how Bliss gave her the information needed to find it. He glanced over the entire account for any errors or missing info, tapping his finger on the desk in contemplation.

  “Lunai, did Bliss tell you how he knew Armageddon was half-human?”

  She sat up as if she just remembered to be curious about it. “Now that you mention it, he never did. I didn’t ask.”

  “I don’t want to pry, but we should probably have this information. It’s very possible the press will ask us about it.” Argalax opened his CheetahChat app to the group chat between them and Bliss, trying to type the perfect message that Bliss wouldn’t take the wrong way.

  [Argalax]: Good morning Bliss, we are currently writing our account of the events of last night. We believe we’re missing one detail from you that the press may ask about.

  They received an uncharacteristically quick reply from their senior.

  [Bliss]: Yeah? What do you need to know?

  [Argalax]: During the battle, you told Lunai that Armageddon was half-human. We just wanted to know how you knew that, just in case we get questions.” He stared at his message, deciding one last statement was needed for good measure. “We worry if we can’t answer this the burden of dealing with media questions would fall on you.

  They watched the chat closely. Bliss’s text bubble popped up and disappeared after a few seconds. This happened a few more times before it finally remained up for a good while. They then received his full reply.

  [Bliss]: He was talking to me back when I was on his ship. I was barely awake but I thought I heard him mention he was also half-human. Sorry, should’ve mentioned it sooner but I wasn’t even sure he actually said that, I was kind of delirious. Figured it was worth a try during the fight and thankfully it worked out.

  Argalax added his statement to their report.

  [Argalax]: Thank you, this will be very helpful to prevent any miscommunication with the media. I’m sure Dr. Crux will have you doing your own interviews.

  There was no reply after that. Lunai hoped that Bliss didn’t have to stay on Armageddon’s planet for too long. If she had to face the man, she would have a breakdown. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like for Bliss, who he attempted to kidnap twice.

  Argalax sent the written report to the same group chat, allowing Bliss to review it if he needed to. It only took an hour for them to finish their work, but Lunai felt as though the entire day had gone by. All she wanted to do now was head home and cuddle Cromble in bed. She said goodbye to Argalax who left the room before her. Fail-Safe was still sitting at Bliss’s desk, scrolling through some website on her CellPulse. She wasn’t paying too much attention to what the interns were doing, but she still smiled and waved at Lunai as she left the room. She did not seem to understand the weight of the day for the interns, which was a surprise given how smooth she was when entire planets were melting down.

  As the door closed behind her, she tried to walk towards the exit. Her breath started to falter as she moved closer to the hallway. She looked to the side and saw one of the empty desks in front of her. She ran over to the chair as fast as she could and plopped into it. The pounding in her chest returned as her breathing became raspy and uneven. She felt like all of her energy was leaking out; she desperately wanted to run out into the sun to get some back. Her thoughts were surrounded by fog as her vision blurred. The office in front of her became an empty void she couldn’t escape from.

  She felt a steady hand on her shoulder. “Lunai, Lunai!” The familiar face of her fellow intern Ashetana hovered above her. “Lunai, are you okay? Do you need to go to the medical bay?”

  She grabbed onto her arm. “Can you help me get outside?”

  Ashetana nodded and put her arm over her shoulder, helping her out of the chair. She led her down the empty hallways to the elevator. Lunai was grateful for how empty the office was on Sunday. She could feel the fresh air ahead as they reached the lobby. They passed the concerned security guard and Lunai gasped with relief as the brisk air hit her face. Ashetana gently lowered her on a nearby bench and sat beside her. She didn’t talk at first; she let Lunai catch her breath. The warmth of the sun settled on her skin and her chloroplasts started the process of photosynthesis. It may have been a placebo effect, but she was starting to feel much better.

  “Thank you. I was starting to feel boxed in back there. I think everything’s fine now.”

  “No problem.” Ashetana paused for a moment. “Hey, we heard about what happened at your gala. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, we’re all here to talk, especially Kelang, but I wouldn’t recommend talking to him.”

  Lunai laughed; she realized it had been a few weeks since she saw the other interns. Maybe talking to them would help settle her mind. She needed to hear from people who were just as lost and disoriented as her.

  “Talking would be nice. Do you think you could stay here a little longer?” she asked.

  “Of course. Talk as long as you need; my shift is done for the day.” Ashetana prepared to listen, looking attentive and non-judgmental.

  Lunai smiled at the gentle affirmation. She no longer felt alone in her doubts and endeavors. Every intern was finding their way, and they would all have each other’s backs. Together, they would conquer their first year and the rest of residency, but the first thing Lunai needed to conquer was her fear of helplessness. If she couldn’t do that, she would never make it as a hero in the Old God’s galaxy. She would never be ready to make the sacrifices required for survival.