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The harsh truth was, the Titans couldn’t defeat the Changelings. Not in any way that mattered. They were outgunned and outmatched. They might win after a long struggle but at what cost?
Kal had been right to stand down. His initial impulse was the right one. Not this sudden blitz into honor and chaos.
I’d seen what chaos looked like. I couldn’t remember my parents from my earliest years but I could remember the bombs and the explosions, the dust drizzling down, and the booms of tank fire.
And the screams.
They shook me most during the long nights and my foster parents had to run into my bedroom and hug me close. Nothing could distract me long from the nightmares. Alcohol was a welcome friend. So was partying. Numbing distractions from the horror.
I couldn’t let that happen again due to selfish inaction.
If I could go back and stop the conflict that claimed my parents’ lives, would I do it?
The answer was a surprisingly simple one.
I had no choice but to call the Changelings.
I raised the communicator to my face and jammed my finger on that green button.
And it was done.
I sat back on the bed and hung my head, placing it in my hands and waited for the inevitable. Still, a lingering part of me hoped Kal would achieve his goal and light that beacon, for whatever good it would do.
The shuttlecraft took a tight bend as we swung around the back of the huge host planet and used its gravity to slingshot us behind it on the far side.
Home. I was heading home. I would soon be in the land of milk and honey, back to the regular problems of a backward species. It felt strange to think of my people that way but after what I’d seen, was there any other way to think of us?
I was looking forward to heading back.
At least, I had been.
Right up until that moment last night when I tiptoed off to Kal’s room and forced myself inside. He’d been a willing victim, I told myself. We made love for hours, and it’d been the most magical experience of my life.
And then I betrayed him.
I shook my head to dispel the self-inflicted accusations. I needed to focus on the journey ahead. I didn’t need to worry about this stuff. It no longer had anything to do with me.
Except you betrayed him.
My fingers twirled around the thread poking out of a hole in my pants. I’d gathered my things quickly and jammed them in my bag. When the huge Changeling ship touched down, so big it cast a shadow over the entire town, I ran out to meet it.
I couldn’t stay in that castle another minute. The entire place reeked of him. I could never return there without it bringing me out in hot flushes.
And the fact I couldn’t think of him again saddened me more than anything else.
I couldn’t ever return there. Not even if I wanted to.
And I did want to.
But he would never forgive me. I would never forgive myself.
I tried not to think of him, tried not to see that broken look on his face when they dragged him into the main hall. His wrists and ankles were tied with metal chains and he fought to protect his friends and family—and me—from harm.
S’lec-Quos took a great deal of pleasure in revealing I had been the one to betray him.
And then the crushed look on Kal’s face when he realized it was true…
My legs shook and I could barely sit still on the shuttlecraft seat. I looked out the window to divert the road to ruin my emotions were heading down.
