Five days passed of endless ocean and no surprises, and we had managed to get through all of the sea patrols and into safer waters. The village spent most of the time resting below deck, occasionally taking in the updates on the war, or the newest lies. I had now truly realized that our government was indeed nothing more than a corrupted, hateful power.

  Every time we gathered around the viewing wall, a few more felile joined the crowd in curiosity. Now, it seemed like all of the adults gathered for our updates, usually three times a day, while keeping the children at a distance. We all watched silently, looking upon the screen without commentary, waiting for the day to come to another slow end.

  I was finally able to get my legs back, which was a big relief. It hurt removing the braces as much as it had putting them on, but I was able to walk with ease again, and I could be of a much greater use to the group.

  Veli and his friends hadn’t spoken to me since the first night on the ship. We exchanged a quick glance once or twice at the communal dinners, mostly made up of village leftovers, but we always parted quickly. I didn’t know what he thought of us anymore, and I didn’t want to ask him yet.

  I spent most of my time with my small circle of fellow humans in the back of the vessel, discussing current events, idling over Rupert’s new theories, or wondering what we would see in China.

  On the night of the fifth day, I awoke to the sound of a struggle. I sat up and gazed around in the darkness, noticing movement in a cot six empty beds away from me—where Veli was sleeping. I slowly crept up on him, keeping silent. He had been thrashing about quite violently, and his blanket lay crumpled on the floor. Thinking it was a bad idea to wake him from a nightmare, I began to walk away. Until I saw him reach for his pike.

  Imagining what might happen if he fired it up, I rushed back over and shook him, making sure to get the pike away from his hands. He struggled more as he felt around for his weapon.

  “Veli, wake up,” I said above a whisper and shook him. “Veli!”

  His eyes shot open and stared at the ceiling with a glazed look. He then sat up, breathing heavily as he looked around the dark living space.

  “Hey, are you all right?” I asked.

  “… Uhn… I… Where?”

  “It’s okay, you’re safe. What happened? What were you dreaming?”

  “I, uh… I don’t know. It was trying to grab me… Valice…”

  “Valice again?” I asked. “What tried to grab you?”

  “Dark… Wants to know where… Valice is…”

  “Just like before? The same creature?”

  “Y-yeah…”

  “What’s going on?” another voice demanded.

  Jeg was standing to the other side of Veli, fully awake.

  “It’s Veli…” I replied. “He—”

  “What’s wrong with Veli?” he asked in a mildly harsh tone.

  “I-I’m not sure. He was having a nightmare.”

  “Jeg… the monster found me again. This time… he had a soldier with him… Had a big, black helmet… Seen him before, too…”

  Jeg sat on the side of Veli’s bed. “Are you going to be okay?”

  “Yeah… I’m fine now. I’m fine, I’ll just go back to sleep. Don’t worry about me and my stupid little dreams.”

  “Was it a Terra-Force soldier with this monster?” I asked patiently.

  “Yes… I’ve seen him before…” Veli repeated.

  “Vince, just go,” Jeg commanded. “I bet he had a nightmare about all those terrible experiments your kind are performing on other felile.”

  “My kind? Why do you…”

  “Yeah, the curious, sadistic humans. We’ve all watched what they do. They’ve been dissecting us in front of an audience, trying to figure out ‘what’ we are. What the hell is that? You tell me. It’s sickening.”

  “Jeg, I think that’s just as horrible as you do…”

  “I’ll tell you something, hairless kid: I never trusted your group, and I still don’t. There is no reason for me to believe that you’re on our side. Ornue, Malahej, and I have been keeping our eyes on you. Just because the elders think this is a good idea doesn’t mean I—”

  “Jeg, leave Vince alone,” Veli piped. “Just… everyone go back to sleep. I’m sorry.”

  I looked at Jeg once more, at a loss for words, and then turned around to go back to my cot.

  “Veli, don’t trust them yet,” I heard him say.

  I walked away slowly, keeping in earshot of what they were discussing as long as possible.

  “Jeg, please. You don’t need to worry. Let me sleep.”

  “You’ll need to defend yourself when the time comes,” Jeg’s voice diminished. “Don’t believe a thing they tell you…”

  The next morning, we were awakened early by an announcement from the captain and the village elders. Furnlo spoke first.

  “Listen up. We’ve decided to stop at an abandoned base in Hawaii. The captain’s told us that the imperials left these islands long ago, and they’ve been empty ever since. After discussing the matter, we’ve decided to refuel at a known Resistance outpost and gather any supplies we can find. We should only be here for a few hours, and all of the hunters, as well as Martin’s team, are requested to carefully scrounge about the buildings for anything useful. Food, tools, anything—it’s a chance to make the rest of the voyage go smoothly. Everyone else can remain on the ship.”

  I was worried about this already, and had no desire to stop here and explore some derelict island. I would’ve liked to stay on the ship and let everyone else deal with the seemingly unnecessary task.

  We slowed to a stop, and the hunters were called forth. Jeg and Veli glanced over at me before proceeding to the Pearl’s exit. Rupert handed me a small rifle, and with the exception of Pelter, we followed the felile groups out and onto the long, old pier where we had docked.

  “Don’t worry, Vince, we’ll be back on the ship in no time,” Ruby said as she threw several empty bags over her shoulder. “Besides, this is kind of exciting, don’t you think?”

  Fresh ocean air flooded my lungs as we approached the top of the vessel. A clear, blue sky loomed overhead, and an eternal ocean could be seen from all directions. On the far horizons, however, I could just make out the yellowish-gray cloud layers that polluted most of the mainland.

  “Wow, it’s beautiful out here,” Jess said, leaning over a railing.

  Her cat, nearly fully grown, was curled around her neck, nose busy.

  “We’re far enough out from the factories… so the pollution’s minimal. All of the oceans used to look like this,” Martin explained.

  Off to the side of the ship was an extinct volcanic crater, presiding over beaches and hills riddled with old imperial watchtowers. We were stopped at a decrepit port, its pier crumbling into the water below. But it was still strong enough to support our weight, and the faded Resistance graffiti marking the harbor station as a safe house was a welcoming sight.

  I heard some screeches above me and looked up to see birds flying overhead, towards the islands. The lapping waves, the animals, the very energy of the life here, offered a glimpse of what the rest of our world once was as the island reverted into untamed paradise. I watched as the pace of the others slowed to a standstill and they soaked in the feeling of being here. If it were possible to just forget everything else, maybe we all would have gladly stayed on the island forever. But that was an impossibility.

  Once we were beyond the wall of steep hills, we began to separate. Trees grew freely on the cliffs and the old military buildings were covered in plant growth. Most of the doors were gone and the windows broken, and weapons and equipment littered the ground, decaying and unrecognizable.

  “It looks like they left in a hurry,” Furnlo said.

  Martin knelt down, examining a partially buried rifle. “Are you sure there’s no one left on this island?” he asked.

  “Yep, devoid of human life,” the captain replied as he advanced to a hill’s peak. “I suppose the islands get raided from time to time by passerby rogues and Resistance, though. I’ve been here before, and you can’t imagine what lies just over.”

  “It’s such a beautiful place…” Ruby said. “There has to be a reason why no one will resettle here.”

  I watched Jeg and Veli scale the incline, sometimes glancing around at the crumbling towers and buildings. They paused at the top, looked down at something, and suddenly stopped moving.

  Lugging a rifle on my back, I sped up and joined them. What I saw below took my already labored breath away. An entire city, running along the coast, was deserted and in ruins. The taller buildings acted as lifeless monuments guarding mounds of scrap that were once businesses and homes. I could see buried roads, toppled stoplights, and crushed cars.

  What really caught my eye was the forcefield generator, leaning on a skyscraper next to it, lifeless. My friends also kept still as they surveyed the scene, not a sound or hint of movement springing out from the wreckage. The city, one on a chain of islands deep in the Pacific, was frozen in time.

  “What is all this, Fletcher?” Martin asked him, his vision fixated on the disaster below. “I’ve never seen or heard about anything like this.”

  “A failed imperial experiment, that’s what. Wiped out everything. This island looks nice and all from the outside, but only places outside the city support life. See the generator? Field kept in most of the explosion, but of course, it just obliterated the city it protected…”

  “Incredible…” Sasha exhaled. “But what explosion?

  “And how do you know all of this?” Martin asked.

  “I used to work around here, you see,” the captain replied. “But not for them—I ran fishing trawlers to provide some food to the workers. This was way back, when they turned the city into a big military base.”

  “Any idea what they were building way out here?” Martin continued, now very curious to learn more.

  “No. I just remember the day it happened… It was early in the morning, and they fired up the air-raid sirens. The field was turned off to assist evacuation, but a lot of people didn’t make it out.”

  “They wouldn’t deactivate the field if they were under attack…”

  “Suppose not, but it went back up just before the city inside was destroyed in a bright flash. The explosion just barely broke through and… well, there you have it. They deleted the islands from the public registry and they were forgotten. I just come by here on my runs from time to time.”

  “So there’s no lingering radiation or anything, right?” Jess asked.

  “It’s safe. Sure, nothing grows in the city, but I haven’t seen any other side effects. Yeah, after that, those on the other islands left in droves. Didn’t see a reason to stick around. Empire stopped supporting the place.”

  “Foolishness,” Furnlo grunted. “Anyway. Hunters, proceed down. Be careful, collect only what would help the villagers.”

  “Martin, why don’t you help me refuel the ship?” the captain asked. “There’s a Resistance reserve near our landing spot that hasn’t run out yet.”

  “… Lead the way,” Martin agreed, still somewhat cautious of the captain after five days together.

  The two walked off, back towards the barge.

  “Oh, Hunter-Captain… Be sure to tell them to meet us back here in a half hour,” the captain yelled back. “Exactly.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Yeah, got it,” Furnlo replied.

  I began to walk down the cliff when Veli approached me.

  “Vince,” he said quietly, “could the two of us talk… alone?”

  “Yeah, sure,” I answered. “What about Jeg?”

  “He’s off with the others… Um, let’s head down to the small building over there.” He pointed to a structure that read ‘Research Center 3’ on the outskirts of town, near some emptied factories.

  “Why there?”

  “Rupert mentioned that if there were anything of value on this island to begin with, it might be in that place.”

  “He’s usually right about these things.”

  “Vince, look… I’m sorry about the past few days. I had some thinking to do. You know, I actually offended Jeg once,” Veli explained as we went down the embankment. “I only said that humans maybe weren’t so bad, and he kinda lost it; went on about how I was judging them too soon. He started acting that way after watching the, um, events a few times.”

  “It’s okay. We’re still the only friendly humans you know, and I’m sure you did have plenty to think about. I’m not asking for Jeg’s trust yet.”

  “Well, you have mine. As do your friends… Ever since I saw my brother killed by the soldiers, my life has changed so much. But I think my views of humans differ from most felile. When I heard how Kepper saved you… He had to have done that for a reason. He wouldn’t have put his life in danger if he didn’t truly believe in your group.”

  “We can still save him," was the only thing I could think of to say.

  “Well,” Veli continued, as if he didn’t hear me. “Jeg was lecturing me about not trusting you yet, like you might betray us. That it was foolish for the elders to let you into our village… and that you may even have been behind its destruction—like you led that army to us. I tried defending you, and he lost it. He really frightened me. He apologized afterwards, but I’ve never seen him like that—that angry. Of course, maybe it’s not my place to argue with him. He’s a hunting group leader, and still a close friend.”

  “It’s just a time of change for your people, Veli…” I replied as I struggled to think of something more to add to the conversation.

  We continued to the science lab, an awkward silence between us.

  “Er, so… what happened last night? Your dream?”

  “Oh…” he sighed. “I wasn't really dreaming. It was more like, I went into a trance where that monster demands to know about Valice.”

  “Yeah, the same thing you saw the day we arrived. And you still have no idea what Valice is, right?”

  “No… But I think it has something important to do with felile. Maybe some sort of sacred place… I don’t know.”

  “If you don’t know, why does this keep happening?”

  “It’s only the third time… And I have no explanation.”

  We continued over the broken debris of a building and advanced towards the nearby laboratory. The city reminded me of how certain areas of Chicago looked after they had been hit by the rays from the satellites; burnt, crumbled, and devoid of movement.

  Upon arriving, we pushed through the faulty doors and entered. The air reeked of mold. In the light from the broken windows, electronic equipment was scattered about the floor, and some robotic drones lay in broken parts on tables. Deeper inside, we heard creaking from above, a sign of the building's instability. Computers, most with broken screens, lined the walls. But I noticed one in the corner—its central unit had a blinking light.

  “I don’t believe it,” I said.

  “What is it?”

  “This one might still be running.”

  I walked over to it and brushed off the layers of dust. I touched the screen, awaiting a response. After a few seconds, the monitor fired up.

  The last person to use the station had been examining recent additions to the Terra-Force weaponry catalog. Though the screen was dim and partially marred by graphical errors, I could still make out its details. A winged long-range drone model was displayed in a three-dimensional space to show all sides, while written details filled up the left and right columns. The words “Terra-Force Internal Network” lingered on the upper right.

  “Why is this thing still powered?” Veli asked.

  A voice from behind us answered, “It’s not all that surprising. Must be emergency generators, some of which can keep power running through a place like this for many years.”

  We turned to see Rupert, making observations around the lab.

  "Did you follow us?" I asked him.

  “No. This is the first place I wanted to check out when I saw it. Didn’t think I’d actually find you both here…”

  “Veli brought it up, and I guess we kind of just ended up here.”

  “Mind if I look?”

  We moved aside so he could see the screen.

  “Hm, drone development. Let’s see if they have anything a little more interesting here,” Rupert said as he pressed on the nearby key panel to show the next weapon or tool in development.

  We continued along, skimming the descriptions of each item. Many had very advanced specifications that only Rupert would understand, while others had development logs. We didn’t see the latest advancements like cloaker drones or rail-tanks, likely due to the age of the lab’s data, but we did see prototypes for such weapons. The final diagram was of a satellite, which spun around the screen in full color. I knew what it was, even though it was the first time I had ever seen one of the deadly weapons.

  “Is that…” I started.

  “Yes, definitely. That confirms it; the imperials do indeed own and operate these things… and use them to strike fear into their own people, or to destroy their dissenters and enemies. Cowards. Heartless bastards,” he said with a long sigh. “Heh, and right when I was about to finally decode the signals from the satellites. But, this proof is even better.”

  "Some part of the Resistance must already know this," Veli brought up a good point. "They've already been to this island before."

  I replied, “The accident here probably happened ten years ago. I was a kid when they started firing on cities. We should look at the logs.”

  It was then that Rupert’s transponder went off, signaling that it was time to return to the ship. He instead ignored it and turned it off.

  “Aren’t we going back?” Veli asked.

  “This information may not be vastly important, but I'm not leaving without it. If I break into the terminal, I may be able to copy all of this onto storage. It'd be very difficult for us to get data like this again.”

  “Rupert, what’s the final entry on hyper-cannon development?” I asked. "I have a feeling it might have to do with the disaster."

  He scrolled down to the bottom. An entry dated ‘5–29–02’ had a single detailed account.

  ‘Progress on the Hyper-Cannon Defensive Satellite has hit a setback. The heads want to take over, perform the final developments, and perhaps activate them for use. While they should provide adequate defense against these dangerous alien invaders, my colleagues have discovered a slight instability within the satellite’s core. If brought to full power in a low-pressure, non-zero gravity environment, the core’s material may expand enough to destabilize the surrounding resistors, resulting in a potentially cataclysmic criticality incident. Our efforts to warn our overseers about this issue have fallen on deaf ears, and we are quite anxious about tomorrow's live demonstration. They wanted this weapon completed in too short a time, and we cannot be held responsible for any accidents.’

  “Good to see the imperial safety standards have improved so much over the years,” Rupert muttered as he took a databug out of his pocket.

  He proceeded to tear open a cabinet under the monitor and sort through a mess of wires until he got hold of a certain one, which he quickly plugged into the tiny storage device.

  “Strange that the explosion didn’t flatten everything,” I noted.

  “It probably emitted more radiation and heat than it did raw explosive power. Their energy always struck me as… exotic.”

  “You got anything yet?”

  “Just give me a minute, I think I can get a good siphon…” Rupert looked back at the monitor after it let out a beep. “Typical, readings say the generator’s running out of juice.”

  “Why all of a sudden?”

  “Guess the computer has just been sitting here in sleep mode all this time, slowly using up the available power. Now there’s none left.”

  “Vince…” Veli spoke. “These satellites… These are what you and Ruby mentioned? They’re in space and fire upon your… villages?”

  I nodded.

  “Why are your leaders doing this, though? I’m still confused.”

  “It’s all part of public manipulation. They fire on cities to announce their presence, then Terra-Forces report they’ve destroyed it, and then they bring aid to the victims… All making them look like the heroes.”

  “But that’s horrible! Your people are… We call that fratricide.”

  “Vince is right, though,” Rupert replied. “It’s all for the gain of trust, as bizarre as it sounds. And we need to find out why; the endgame.”

  “Maybe we can find a way to destroy them with this new information…” I added optimistically.

  “Doubt it. Can’t even use it to prove to others the Empire created the things. But any info is good info. Ah, got it! The data uploaded pretty quickly. Guess we should get this back to Martin,” Rupert said, trying to hide his excitement. “You rarely get anything so easily like this.”

  A few seconds later, the computer turned off, as the power to it had finally drained. Rupert took out the storage bug and safely tucked it away in one of his wrist-mounted computer’s compartments.

  “Hope we’ve got enough supplies,” I said as we left.

  “To tell you truth, I don’t understand why we’ve stopped here,” Rupert grumbled. “We should’ve had enough supplies to begin with, and I don’t think a place like this would have much of anything anyway. I should’ve questioned Fletcher’s motives on this detour.”

  Back in the city, all of the scavenging felile had gone, leaving the area once again empty. Knowing we were already late, we hurried upwards across the hills. The barge slowly came back into view, but was oddly devoid of any signs of life—there were no felile above on the decks and no one on the beach. Something was wrong. I could feel it already.

  After a closer look, we noticed a number of small black patrol boats, racing away. They quickly turned and vanished from view.

  “Imperial p-patrols,” Rupert stuttered. “They—they found us…”

  My heart pounded as Veli froze up. I looked around, trying to find anyone that had made it out of the ship.

  “Wait… I can see Martin!” I pointed at the base of the cliff.

  We scrambled downward, at times jumping over the jagged rocks to increase the speed of our descent. The leader of our group was hunched against a boulder, panting for breath.

  “Boss, what happened?” Rupert asked.

  “They surrounded us—just as I was getting back on the ship… I couldn’t do anything except make a run for it… Everyone was panicking, some shots went off from the patrol ships… I think they took as many people as they could carry. A few soldiers went inside the Pearl, but they came back without any prisoners… I—I don’t know who all they took.” He coughed. “Damn it, we have to get after them.”

  “You hurt?”

  “No, Rupert. Just out of breath.”

  “Stay here. We’ll search the boat.”

  We hurried over to the ship, keeping our eyes open to make sure that no soldiers were still lurking about the nearby crevices, boulders, and plant life. After making a beeline down the broken pier, we entered the Pearl, finding its port doors forced open.

  Farther inside, we found that the cargo area entrance was locked shut with some sort of bulky round machine that stuck to the wall and door. Through the thick, shatterproof window, I could see many felile piled near the door, pounding on it violently and desperately.

  “Hold on, I can get this off,” Veli said, taking out his pike.

  “No, wait,” Rupert stopped him and bent down to examine the device. “Damn… This thing’s a bomb of some sort. See the timer?”

  I saw it, and noticed that its red LED lights had just reached eighty seconds. I then noticed a reflection of a second timer display in the inner layer of the door’s window.

  “Rupert… They’re making them watch it count down,” I muttered.

  “Sadists. Okay… we can’t tamper with it, there has to be another way to get them out. Think.”

  I could see the anger rise quickly in Veli, who had stepped over to the wall near the door. He activated his plasma pike and started searing straight through the metal with its tip. The surrounding bulkhead turned red-hot as he cut open an exit.

  “They would’ve done this already…” Veli explained as he pushed himself. “So they must’ve had their weapons taken from them and were thrown in here to die.”

  “This is taking too much time,” Rupert rushed him. “Just weaken it with a single slit, and I’ll try blasting it.”

  “All right, all right.”

  Veli finished cutting a downward horizontal fracture in the wall and stood back. Rupert then pulled out what appeared to be a flare gun.

  “All I have on me. But it should be strong enough at this range.”

  He loaded it, cocked it, and fired it near point-blank at the wall. The flare exploded, throwing embers everywhere and severely warping the cut slab. Veli balanced himself on one leg and gave it a swift kick, which finally knocked in the entire segment. The first villager through was Kesha, who started to cry as she ran up to Veli and latched onto him.

  “Kesha…” Veli said quietly, gently pulling the child away. “Run back to the dock, you’ll be fine. We’ve got to get the others out.”

  “Veli!” a female hunter, Almsy, I believe, shouted. “They took the captain, and the elders… and your entire hunting group.”

  Veli stood up, his mouth agape for a few moments.

  “Why the hell did they take my group?”

  “Your friends tried defending everyone else, but they were stunned by something and taken away.”

  “That’s just like them… Everyone, we must get out of the ship now! Hurry, hurry!” Veli yelled.

  Felile began pouring out, dashing to the top of the ship in an organized fashion as the time bomb hit fifty seconds.

  “Go, go! C’mon, we have to move!” Rupert hustled the villagers.

  I stood still, my mind racing, I couldn’t focus on what to do or think. But one thing I did notice was that no humans were here. I had to surmise that they had taken Jess, Sasha, young Pelter, and… my sister.

  Now we had twenty-six seconds to get off the ship.

  “We have to go, Vince. Now!” Rupert shouted.

  “Wait a second.” I had noticed Jess’ cat, hiding under a cot.

  I rushed in and grabbed the terrified animal, stuffing it under my coat on the way out and enduring a few scratches.

  We raced up to the top of the ship, trying to make sure that the felile were safely ashore as we made our way to the pier. Just as Veli put Kesha down at the beachhead and the last of the felile leapt off, some into the water, the explosion began a hundred meters away.

  The bridge’s windows went up in flames as its windows shattered and blew apart, and the entire vessel shuddered and groaned. There was no time left—we jumped off onto the pier, just as the hull exploded from all sides. Crates and metal shrapnel went flying into the air, landing in the water and flying into the cliffside. Amid its death cries, the Pearl slowly sunk into the shallow reef as black smoke poured from its top.

  All of the felile had settled on the beach to recuperate from their latest traumatic experience. The three of us approached Martin, who had since recovered and was trying to keep some order in the chaos.

  “How bad is it?” he asked. “Who did they take?”

  “The hunters in my group, the elders… and all of the humans,” Veli answered, rage still evident in his voice.

  “Ruby…” I murmured.

  “But where… where would they take them?”

  “A Fawloc carrier…” Rupert answered.

  “A what?”

  “A Fawloc class transport. It’s the only thing they have that can fly back to the mainland from here with a full military battalion. They’re giant aircraft that need time to take off, but can fly at very high speeds. If it gets off the ground, we’ll never see the people they took again.”

  “He’s right,” Martin agreed. “Whatever their plans, they’d carry off the prisoners in one of those. Since they require a large airfield, an old air base must be nearby… There might still be time to get on that plane before they leave.”

  “But we don’t have any way of getting there in time,” I worried.

  “Actually, we do. See that crate that landed in the shallow water? Rupert’s bike is in that one, as is mine.”

  I turned to see a large, metal box on the beach. It was charred from the explosion, but barely damaged. Veli went up and cut it open with his pike. Inside were the two bikes, heavily tethered and in working order. We had used them to get to the village, and they were since stored in one of the felile transports, and then onto the topside of the Pearl. We had considered selling the last two or giving them to the resistance at our final destination, as we never figured we’d actually use them again.

  “Right, time for a rescue attempt,” Rupert said after brushing off a handgun that was sticking out of the sand. “Veli, you come with me. Vince, you can ride with Martin.”

  “Wait,” I said, taking out a soaked Trisky. “What about the cat?”

  “Give him to Kesha to take care of,” Veli replied.

  I hurried over and asked her to watch over it. She took the animal softly without saying a word, and headed off to her mother. They seemed remarkably similar. It almost looked like Kesha was holding a baby felile.

  “Something’s not right…” I heard Rupert say to himself. “The explosion started from the bridge… But they wouldn’t have the time, so that’d mean the entire ship had to be wired beforehand…”

  “Rupert, let’s go. We’ll figure it out later,” Martin interrupted.

  Without further hesitation, we got the bikes running and sped off, kicking up sand as we rode along the beach. I looked across at my felile friend, ready to do whatever it would take to save his fellow villagers. He looked back at me, ready to save my friends along the way. For the first time, we were on the offensive together.

  Now we had to show the Empire just who we were, and what our people meant to us. It was a moment that I had been waiting for since I first learned about the Resistance, and though I had never felt so scared, I was sure I could prove myself. But most of all, I owed Ruby for showing me the truth, and it was time to repay her.