Cosmosis

As we plunged into Coalescence, I found myself surrounded by Farnata surroundings, rather than features Earth. It was rare for our shared mental landscape to show this much of Nai.

She and I found ourselves lounging in twisted wooden furniture—like wickerwork—sitting on top of a building, looking out over her hometown on her lost planet.

Our battle at old-Balumspar unfolded in miniature on a small table between us. If I squinted, it seemed like the table was covered in action-figures brought to life, but the images were so fluid, it was more like our holographic displays.

"Man, he was really kicking your ass," Nai commented.

"Hey, I got my own licks in," I said lightly.

"You did," she agreed. "I think all of your reads were more or less correct. You accurately gauged the gap in your skills and you paced yourself around our arrival well."

"They were pressed for time," I shrugged. "There were only so many options they were going to think of with the amount of forewarning we offered them."

Mav's psionic-blocking barrier was interesting. Surprisingly effective. He was only the third Adept I'd met to successfully create an effective catch-all psionic countermeasure. Nora had pulled it off in gaseous form, filling a confined space and blocking any transmission from within. Capsody Maysh had created manacles and collars that could suppress psionics in an individual.

But Mavriste's attempt might have been more impressive than both.

A long time ago, Vather Mikram had completely suppressed Nai's vorpal flames by creating a bauble that produced an exotic field capable of quenching the flames super-exothermic properties. Mavriste's psionic blocking did something similar: creating an object that radiated a useful exotic field.

What a shame I wasn't the only Flotilla member with a superconstruct.

I wasn't sure if I could have figured a way around Mav's psionic-blocker on my own. Well, I was sure I could, just not in the time.

Jordan and her pearls made sure I didn't have to. Staying in contact with everyone else through her had been trivial. Mavriste's blocker had the unfortunate flaw of existing only in 'conventional spacetime'.

I didn't understand how Jordan's Superlocator side-stepped the ordinary rules of location, distance, and how straight lines worked in physical space. But I didn't need to.

Coalescing my mind with Nai's sealed our win. It was only a matter of how quickly we could work, and how much damage Nai and I could prevent in the process.

"Still, we cleaned up the main camp. I could check Macoru on my own with little trouble," Nai said. "With Donnie backing me up, Mac was kept completely in check."

"I didn't expect Mavriste to go for me like that. Isolating you would have been the better move," I said.

"Mac & Mav are well informed, but they've still never left this planet," Nai reminded me. "They have a much fuzzier idea of what I'm capable of than you do. Even assuming I'm a superior combatant, you're the leader. You were the more worthwhile target to isolate."

"They paid for the mistake," I said.

"Indeed. We swept the camp atop the slope," Nai agreed, showing me the events. "Few casualties on our side. Some of our Vorak guys got chewed up, but they should live. Donnie might have sprained an ankle, and Jordan was bleeding pretty badly."

"She's still conscious," I observed. "Yeah, she's just going to need some stitches sooner rather than later. Madeline and Johnny though…"

"Verdict?"

"Outstanding," she answered. "Both of them bested multiple enemies simultaneously—Madeline crushed Itun especially harshly. We really might have to stop calling them Puppies."

"But no Vo," I confirmed.

"Nowhere up there."

"Then I'm pretty sure they've got them on one of the submarines," I said, pointing Nai's attention to some of the faint registers my radar had picked up while fighting Mavriste.

"…Yeah. I agree."

"Then let's do this right," I grimaced.

·····

(Starspeak)

The awe-inspiring power of Coalesced minds spilled out onto the battlefield.

Somewhere far behind us, one of our crewmates laughed.

"[Oh, you guys are in trouble now…]"

We half expected the M&Ms to surrender. They were clearly not ignorant to the shift in power Coalescence represented.

We.

It was proving difficult to distinguish ourselves to the degree I/Caleb was more comfortable with. It was no mystery why; this wasn't calm and collected Coalescence. Adrenaline was pumping, we were thick in the fog of battle.

There was comfort, safety, and literal power to be found in intertwining our minds. We would adjust.

Because the twins weren't out of tricks yet.

Mavriste had cleverly shut down his own superconstruct when I'd tried creating my own simulacrums for feints, and my creations had winked out when he did so.

That didn't feel great. I/Caleb had once needled Tiv for not considering the ramifications of creating his clones. We weren't sure how many simulacrums I/Caleb had made, or how much awareness they had. But when Mavriste reactivated his sim-Macoru, we saw no signs of the human sims.

That discomfort helped untangle our minds. Caleb knew what 'the Prestige' was. Nai didn't. I breathed easier as my self came into a sliver more clarity.

Nai offered a wordless explanation, that I'd created the sims hastily and they likely weren't anything more than images.

It was a small comfort, but I accepted her offer for the support it was.

With the return of sim-Macoru, alongside the arrival of the genuine article, sim-Mavriste was perceptible too. To our Coalesced abilities, they weren't' hard to perceive even through Macoru's firewall, despite her psionic defenses being far more intact than her brother's.

The sims of each sibling didn't stand idle though. Sim-Mavriste rippled and melded into Mavriste, with his sister undergoing the same process with her sim.

Were they trying to ad hoc something like Coalescence? The psionics they used to create their Simulacrums had to be capable of some kind of connection to scan another's brain like that…

Mav had mentioned that he could only create a Simulacrum of Mac. Assuming that went vice versa, what would happen if Macoru and Mavriste tried to continuously update the Simulacrums? Could that form the same kind of reciprocal connection that allowed Nai and I to share our powers?

Our combined instincts said no, but reality disagreed.

The black plasma wreathing Mavriste's arms spread to cover his whole body like before, but unlike then, the plasma this time seemed to maintain its current energy density. Stray sparks of green and pink flickered through the black plasma now too.

Macoru's crimson-pink plasma expanded similarly, tinged with black and gold.

Nai and I combined our experiences and made key deductions. Nai understood the exotic physics of the Adeptry. I understood the psionics she didn't.

They called it 'smart-plasma' and the exotic fluid was precision engineered to physically respond to psionic signals.

It was a triumph of engineering and creativity.

They could issue complex instructions to the fluid, and the fluid would move itself to match the commands.

It was still subject to the rules of Adeptry, the fluid had to be built to move itself, and it still took energy that had to come from the fluid itself.

But as long as it had energy, the fluid could move into whatever shape the M&Ms wanted.

They cut down on the energy cost drastically by limiting the fluid in choice ways. They imposed certain presets onto its motion, formatting the fluid to be predisposed to certain activities.

When the cloak had covered Mavriste's whole body, it hadn't been quite so dense, but it had effectively guarded him from all but the most energetic of attacks. Concentrating the fluid on his forearms had enabled superior offense that had melted through Caleb's armor in an instant.

Macoru had done something similar. She'd concentrated the plasma to her arms and chest as a forward facing defensive shield. When she concentrated the plasma on her back and shoulders, it had launched more quickly and in greater volume when she'd tried blasting through Nai's flames with brute force.

The plasma had clear offensive and defensive formats. Likely more.

But as the siblings' supercontructs thrummed their plasma took on characteristics off all the formats.

It covered their whole bodies and exhibited the thickness and energy for inflicting maximum damage.

The two Vorak blurred, moving faster than the eye could track, but we moved just as fast, interrupting their attacks mid-stride.

I struck at Macoru while Nai met Mavriste, both of us drawing on the other's experience.

The two Vorak were both caught off guard, not just by our choice in opponent, but by our speed and the fact that we handled their condensed plasma with our bare hands.

Nai could make the invisible armor far more durable than I could. But together? We could clad ourselves with armor that wasn't just stronger, but thinner too.

In perfect unison, we wrenched their arms aside, putting them both off balance. With our minds moving faster, they couldn't keep up as we both parried their counter attacks.

I guarded myself with a plume of vorpal fire at close range; Macoru panicked for a split second, and I took advantage by kicking her in the gut, sprawling her backward.

Nai riposted with one of my own pressure bombs, bracing her footing with both crystal and magnetizing herself to the ground; Mavriste was blasted away, right into Macoru.

They exchanged a quick glance and an even quicker psionic query. Against any other two Adepts in the cosmos, and the M&Ms would likely be able to outthink them on the fly. But Coalescence let us communicate at lightspeed, and there was nothing they could do to close the gap.

We flared the encircling fires higher, encircling the four of us completely.

Macoru took the lead, shifting her rosy plasma so that it didn't just look like porcupine quills on her back, but a whole raging forest fire.

She blasted both us and our ring of fire in an onslaught designed to tax our resources, giving Mavriste a chance to break out and rescue Vo from Johnny and Madeline's advance.

Tut, tut.

Nai and I responded with our own trump card: smart fire.

Joined to Nai like this, allowing her to tactically keep me in the dark about certain secrets of Adeptry, I understood more than ever just how crucial the Realization was to the M&Ms' smart plasma.

But while I understood how much I didn't know, Nai simply understood it all.

And wielding my psionic talents like a tool, she was more than capable of copying, comprehending, and deconstructing their creation for her own use.

Nai knew hundreds of little tricks to get her vorpal fire to move, undulate, and float the way she wanted it to. Dematerializing cavities in the fluid to change its momentum and flow, adding fluid of different temperatures in certain locations to create imbalances, the list went on.

But now?

We created Nai's vorpal fire anew, the teal flames shivering as new material replaced the old.

The color was ever-so-slightly different. No longer just teal, but with streaks of Earth's sky-blue interwoven.

Instead of maintaining the fiery prison around us, we peeled it apart, leaving long gaps in the ring while it swirled, sending massive ribbons of flame swerving toward the rak like snakes.

It was a psychological attack in addition to the obvious. With visible gaps in the flames, they could see the progress our allies were making toward the submarines humble dock.

Piling on to the sight of their signature piece of Adeptry being completely imitated and surpassed?

By all rights, they should have been shocked and fearful.

And they were.

But Mavriste still wore half a smile on his face, some part of him buoyed by inexhaustible optimism, an the rest of him by genuine happiness at his friends' accomplishment.

That stung both me and Nai.

Mavriste had spent those several days with me, so I at least understood how he'd become a friend. But I'd spent far less time around Macoru, and Nai much less time with either of them.

And yet Macoru wore the same cheerful fear as her brother, and she was no more hostile to Nai than Mavriste had been to me.

Nai and I had to crush the surge of sympathy we felt for the two of them, even as they leapt and twisted their bodies away from our fiery attack with not even inches to spare.

"<VO!>" we thundered, amplifying the sound a dozen times with Adeptry and psionics. "<Show yourself, you coward! These rak are fighting to save your life. Is this how you'll repay them?>"

<No!> Mavriste snarled. <Don't you dare!>

He cut downward, into the platform underfoot. Trying to come at us from below? It was a bad strategy with our radar.

But, no. It was a distraction for Macoru to unleash another barrage, aimed directly at us. Mav covered the assault by tearing up through the platform, trying to cut down on the amount of stable footing.

Nai and I could just create our own footing though.

"<You said it yourself, Mav, it's not you who needs to surrender,>" I said, directing motes of flame to intercept each bolt of plasma flying toward us.

<You cannot coerce remorse!>

Macoru redoubled her attack, improvising a chaotic psionic weapon to try and throw as much havoc into our radar as possible.

She probably felt like it earned her a little breathing room, but it was only because we gave her a few inches.

"<Surrender, Vo! We're done being polite.>"

This time it was Nai's voice thundering across the battle, and shudders went through even the marines a quarter-mile away.

Mav joined Macoru in trying to overwhelm our defenses, firing a mixture of plasma spears with a variety of behaviors. Curving trajectories, tightening spirals, exploding, imploding.

It didn't matter.

What might have managed to blow through a curtain of ordinary fire couldn't contend with the upgraded form.

When we sent a few streaks of vorpal fire into the swamp, targeting the submarines, there was no longer any denying it.

Together, Nai and I far surpassed them, and the twins saw they were losing.

<Know when you're beat, Mav,> I warned.

Nai and I pressed him, closing to hand-to-hand, beating him at his own game. Even his smart plasma blades couldn't break through our armor faster than we could parry the blows and counterattack.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

<I understand you're fighting for your people Caleb,> he said, eerily quiet. <But I've always been ready to risk my life for mere minutes.>

Macoru emphasized his point, forcing Nai and I to separate by unleashing a barrage of continuous fire aimed exactly between us.

But if they thought trying to separate us would work, they had another thing coming.

<If it takes just another five minutes to give someone a chance at a change of heart? Don't you dare doubt for a second what we're ready to give up for that time. Minutes. Seconds. It all matters.>

Macoru's words were no less impassioned than her brother's. This wasn't a psychological attack. It was inspiration. The words were a reminder for themselves more than an explanation for us.

But passion didn't change how much trouble they were facing.

One of the downsides of psionic communication on the battlefield was that even bad news spread quicker. There was something to exploit there.

I took a step back, letting Nai take over piloting my body for a spell. I dove into my psionics and crafted a specialized transmission formula. Tightbeam. Not broadcast for all to hear, but only a select few, in a certain direction on radar.

And it was encrypted, so only someone of a given skill level would unravel the message in real time.

Between those factors, I believed we could aim a message directly at Vo—and no one else on the battlefield.

<What are you waiting for?> I asked silently.

I felt the impulse to respond emanating from the ether. Vo wanted to reply, but held themselves back. Tactical discipline? Shame? Both? More?

<They aren't going to give up. I know you're not some remorseless killer. I've read up on your history, and I've seen how you act,> I pleaded. <I don't know you any more deeply than a puddle, but even only knowing that much, I know you're not evil. Not really.

<Please don't let this continue. All you have to do to end this is come in. No one else gets hurt.>

Even with the myriad benefits of Coalescence, there were still limits to our psionics. Distance being the most sharply felt.

The figure on radar I believed to be Vo was only barely in range, and the emanations their mind gave off were murky at best.

But I could feel it.

There was a war being waged in their skull, between good and evil, pride and shame.

I just needed the right words. The lightest touch to tip the scales.

And I found them.

<You spent a decade living for revenge, and they're risking their lives to make sure your next decade gets to be lived for yourself. Don't let them down,> I pleaded.

I found them just seconds too late.

Even while my breath heaved and my fists flew like fire, my attention remained focused on Vo—our real target. In our synchronized state, it was a focus that Nai agreed with, and something we balanced in the moment with all the other dangers taxing our attention.

The first warning sign was Mavriste's sim-Macoru winked out again. We all missed the significance.

<Kebbia han… I'm truly sorry,> Mavriste whispered.

It took Nai and I too many milliseconds to place his phrase. Their native tongue, Galaboudine. The dictionary Halax had provided said it meant… 'however the truth settles' or 'no matter what happens'.

My and Nai's first clue that something changed was that he aimed the words at specifically me, Nai, and his sister.

Each of us all made the same mistake; we all just underestimated each other.

Mavriste had one last surprise for us up his sleeve: desperation.

It just wasn't his style. He was cool, collected, endlessly optimistic and adjustable. His entire tactical objective today was to withdraw safely. It didn't jive with our understanding of him to be willing to move all-in.

He'd said he was willing to die for mere minutes, seconds.

We hadn't believed him enough.

Macoru was in the middle of launching a torrent of pink plasma missiles at us, two dozen at a time. Nai and I were consuming the onslaught with undulating waves of vorpal fire, moving more swiftly and precisely than ever before.

A figure clad in black plasma leapt through the violent storm, and for a split second we lost Mavriste on radar. He tried something with his cloak, searing his psionics down to nothing. A blank.

Even with everything else occupying our focus, it only took a fraction of a second to adjust the radar to be sensitive to the new moving dead spot…

…But that fraction of a second was enough for Mav to surprise us.

Not enough to win.

But to threaten us.

To make us panic.

To make me overreact.

Mav altered the composition of his plasma to let him deflect off Macoru's torrent, launching him directly toward Nai. He focused every scrap of plasma he wielded down to a single point, thrusting it toward Nai's chest.

Nai's arm moved, but it was me moving it. I glanced back from persuading Vo and saw malevolent darkness six inches from Nai's chest, and I moved us without thinking.

The burst of vorpal fire in Nai's palm was too late to parry the plasma like I intended. Mav's blow took him further forward, and the flames went through his arm instead.

And kept going.

·····

I couldn't bring myself to say anything at first.

"…What is this?" Mavriste asked, looking out at the Farnata vista.

He wasn't quite in the same loop as Nai and I. Coalescence ran strong and deep between us, but he was a newcomer to our link.

"It's where I was born," Nai said quietly.

Mavriste stood on the rooftop with us, but there was no Farnata-wicker furniture for him to rest on.

"Hmm. It's beautiful. The way only a homeworld can be."

Nai snorted good-naturedly.

"As if you would know."

Mavriste smiled, only for his good mood to falter when he looked out across the mental landscape. In the distance of the town, blocks away, a dark figure could be seen desperately bounding toward us.

It was Macoru—or her sim? I couldn't say for sure—but she wouldn't get here soon.

Mavriste almost seemed relieved she wouldn't hear this.

"…What the hell?" I asked him, finding my voice.

"She's my sister," he said. "Hearing me like this would only hurt her."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it."

On the small table between Nai and I, our own bodies were acting out the scene miniature and the painful crawl of slow-motion. Mavriste's faltered stab at Nai, while teal and blue flames washed across his arm and chest, dissolving flesh into ash.

"You switched gears!" I accused. "We had that…the détente!"

Mavriste had been pointedly avoiding definitively lethal attacks against me, and Nai had been doing the same with Macoru. Not that what we'd been doing was safe—it was still combat. But we'd been very intentionally passing up on the most lethal opportunities, naively hoping a more peaceful resolution might present itself.

I'd thought that Nai would have been the limiting factor before we Coalesced, that she would have been the first one to become unwilling to risk further mercy.

But it had been Mavriste to 'snap' first.

"What do you want me to say?" Mavriste said. "You backed us into a corner. I was out of options. If there was any way this could end without any of us dead, I would have aimed for that. But…it is what it is."

"Vo might have changed their mind!" I yelled. "Why did you make me—"

I snapped my mouth shut. I hated even thinking this way, much less actually saying it.

'Why are you making me do this?'

It was the language of abusers, blind and malicious people who didn't care to see their own part in things.

It burned me that that was how I felt. I hadn't wanted Mavriste to die. And with the power of Coalescence, we had been more than a capable of containing both the twins simultaneously. I'd escalated out of alarm, and only because he'd shifted tactics and explicitly moved to kill Nai.

The change in his behavior was the only real threat. We'd prevented the attack itself, and if we'd seen it coming, we could have rebuffed it even without killing Mav.

"You already know why," Mavriste said. "Nothing I'm going to say hasn't already gone through your head. You're right about the détente; we were being as non-lethal as possible…but only as much as possible."

"Desperation, Caleb," Nai summarized. "Don't let yourself get lost in making sense of it."

"Bad luck. Bad timing is all it was," Mavriste said. "Like I said at the beginning: no hard feelings. I meant that for you too."

"I know you have no way of knowing this, but I can't begin to put into words how sickening it is for me to listen to a friend reassure me how at peace they are with their own death," I snarled.

Nai nodded pensively, drawing on my own memories of Daniel's last moments in my head.

Coalescence meant I didn't need to put anything into words.

"…I'm sorry to make you listen to this song again, then," Mavriste said. Then he frowned, only just now seeming to realize how our minds were connecting in his final milliseconds.

"If it's any consolation, from your memories, I would say that your friend was only a Simulacrum," he offered.

"It's no consolation at all," I said bitterly.

"Sorry, this is the only way I know how to die," Mavriste said, trying to open himself to our connection. "You are upset because…you can live with this, and that's what's going to really kill you. As torn up as you are over this, you understand what parts of it were beyond your control. It might take a few weeks or months…but this isn't one of the things that will leave you with nightmares. And part of you doesn't like what that says about you."

"Mavriste, quit while you're ahead," Nai suggested. "You can't always make people feel better."

"Hey, that's the only way I know how to live," Mav grinned, settling further into nonchalance. "So understand that I don't give this advice often: get over yourself, Caleb."

"Come again?"

"I'd love to take your emotions more seriously, but in this case? You're getting ready to torture yourself for something that was entirely my fault," he said. "So…yeah. Quit feeling sorry for yourself."

"I don't feel sorry for myself," I snapped. "You're the one who—"

I bit off my own comment. I could see where he was dragging this conversation.

"Yes! Blame me! It was my mistake! Sorry if you've heard this all before, but the truth hurts more than once sometimes! This wasn't your fault."

"Not my fault. No plan survives contact with enemy. You're only human. All the good platitudes? That's not good enough," I said.

"That's because those platitudes are logical," Mavriste said. "And what you're feeling isn't about logic. Honestly, Caleb? It's probably logical—even healthy to agonize over this for a few weeks and then ultimately make your peace with it. Just promise me you won't feel bad about moving on."

I glared at him. He knew exactly how I felt. It didn't make it any less frustrating.

"What I said earlier? 'You can love the excitement without loving the violence?' You're good at that already. Better than most, even. But you're still probably not as comfortable with that as you need to be," he said. "There's a reason your crew sent you on vacation. Even with how it ended up, you didn't let yourself unwind."

"You're hooked into my memories right now," I countered. "You know I take breaks. You know I pace myself."

"But you don't unwind," he said, pushing a Vorak flavor into the word that I didn't grasp. "You force yourself to sit still and nap for an hour because that's what you think you're supposed to do. But even when you're relaxing, your brain is churning ideas about the Flotilla, your abductors, and work, work, work."

He turned to Nai, looking for her support, only to find her deep in thought.

"You are just as bad at it as he is," he realized. "No wonder you get along so well. You're very practiced at slowing down, Caleb, and you've let yourself believe that's the same as taking care of yourself. But—and Nai, back me up on this—somewhere you forgot to have as much fun as you need to."

"…You used to take everything a lot more lightly," Nai recalled. "I hated it."

I cracked a smile despite myself.

"I didn't have to kill anyone back then," I admitted.

Nai nodded sympathetically. She knew the toll that took on me. It was a good reminder to have, that she understood. All of it.

I didn't want to think how much worse I'd feel without Coalescence to cheat.

"…Thanks for going for me," Nai said turning to Mavriste, "and not Caleb."

"You were the biggest threat," he said simply. "Nothing personal."

"Still. You could have killed Caleb when he was on his own. You didn't. I appreciate that, when you resorted to lethal measures, you didn't aim them at him," Nai said.

Mavriste accepted the thanks with a nod.

"I only hope you could return the favor," he said quietly.

A fresh streak of shame went through me as I realized how much we'd spent focusing on my anger meanwhile Mavriste was literally dying in our minds.

"Macoru," I nodded.

"She's not going to stop fighting," he said. "Please. Promise me you can keep her alive. If there's anything I truly regret, it's leaving her to go on alone. That's what will haunt me, putting it all on her. I didn't even have time to ask."

"You're only human," I said, trying to be reassuring. The words slipped out before I could correct them.

But Mavriste only smiled.

"Human, huh?"

"I meant…"

"I know what you meant," he said. "I like it. I don't think most species would be that…generous with their own definition. Casti are Casti. Vorak are Vorak. Casti aren't Vorak, and Vorak aren't Casti. The words for the species and the word carrying the essential elements of a person are different. But not for you all."

He looked at me, provoking me to answer emotionally and without any hesitation.

"Am I human?"

"…Yeah," I said. "In every way that matters."

His smile grew only wider.

"Hah. 'In every way that matters'…I love that," he said. "I'm glad I met you, Caleb. Even if I had to go sooner than I expected, I hope you're glad to have met me too."

"I am," I said. "And I'll make sure Macoru makes it through this. I promise."

"Thank you," he said.

And he was gone from our link.

·····

The flames kept going, biting through Mavriste's shoulder in a fiery starburst, charring deep across his chest and down his torso.

His body was pushed away by the expanding air, heated by the vorpal fire, and he tumbled down and away.

Macoru let out an sky shattering wail, and the impulse to leap for her brother's body rippled through her, arrested on the spot by years of training and discipline.

Her plasma bristled and glowed though, ready to unleash punishment upon Nai and I.

Still Coalesced, Nai and I were ready to take on any attack. Even alone, she was still a skilled enough Adept that there was a chance she might accomplish the same surprise attack her brother had. And choosing between her or us?

We'd already made that choice once today. I wouldn't let myself into a position to make it a second time.

"<Stand down,>" we said, forcing ourselves not to look at Mavriste's body. "<There's no victory to be had here.>"

<I'm not fighting for victory. Neither was Mav> Macoru said. Even her mental voice sounded like it was on the verge of breaking, anguish dripping into every syllable. <We're fighting because someone's very soul is on the line.>

There was just no convincing her. Mav had told us as much.

More than anything in the world, I wanted to end this without anyone else dying.

"Stop! <Stop!>"

The voice was barely audible over the rest of the fighting, but like a magic spell, it made everyone who heard it stop fighting.

"<Stop, stop! I surrender, just stop!>"

Vo moved barely upright, falling over themselves with every step. Their eyes fixed on where Mavriste's body had fallen. Sounds of anguish tore their way out of the rak's throat. It was too ugly and angry to be called crying, but even ignorant observers could tell Vo was only screaming at themselves.

Macoru deflated in an instant when her protectee gave up. A storm of emotions roiled off her. Without Coalescence, the individual emotions would have been all but incomprehensible by themselves. Grief and rage warred back and forth in her, but both were unexpectedly tempered by a dose of pride.

Nai and I were surprised to find ourselves understanding the blend of complex feelings. The grief was obvious, and the pride was both for Vo—for surrendering to justice of their own volition—and for Mavriste—for his steadfast commitment to their mission.

Her rage was for everyone though.

Nai and I, for killing her brother. Vo, for not surrendering themselves even a few seconds sooner, for waiting until Mavriste was dead before managing to own their remorse and responsibility for their crimes. At Mavriste, for risking himself in an all-or-nothing sacrifice and coming up short.

But most of all, she was angry with herself. For not being stronger. For not stopping Mavriste. For not anticipating what he'd do.

For not being the one to do it instead.

There was no point for anyone fighting anymore. Vo surrendered into our custody. Half-a-dozen other Missonary Marines followed their example. Out of solidarity? For their own crimes?

It didn't matter right now.

In just a few minutes, medics from both sides were tending to the wounded.

Nai and I stayed Coalesced through the whole time limit, silently watching the scene unfold, and making sure no violence reignited while Agent Avi and the rest of our local allies made their way down the hill to the water's edge.

By the time it came for Nai and I to finally untangle, all I had left in me was to sit and try not to be overwhelmed.