An ache settled in my breast, and I knew it would not go away until I saw Jidden and Lucina again.

"We should rebury Gallia now," I suggested. "While we have this moment of peace, and while we're all still here."

Bellona interpreted my words to mean our likelihood of survival. "Gallia will be the first, but she won't be the last," she solemnly predicted.

It wasn't exactly what I meant, but I didn't clarify. We dug a plot on a flat ledge that overlooked the river and captured the spray from the waterfall. We dug quietly, thinking private thoughts about our fearless, green-eyed Commander. Gallia had been tough, but she was also fiercely protective. If I turned out to be a fraction of the Commander Gallia had been, I would consider myself a success.

"If we find her family, we should tell them she's here," I said once we had finished digging.

"When we find her family, not if," Bellona responded. "I think she had a sister, but I'm not sure. She didn't speak much of her personal life, only of her career within the military."

"We'll look into it," I promised, not only to Bellona but Gallia as well.

Bellona gathered the women to give Gallia the burial she would have wanted while I returned to the ship. In the cold room was a coffin made of whitewood. Carved into the center of the coffin under Gallia's name was a crescent moon. There was also an inscription: Our leader. Our friend. Our sister.

With the help of others, we lifted the coffin onto our shoulders and carried our leader, our friend, our sister to her resting place.

After Gallia's burial, most of the women returned to the ship so they could rest. Juventas lingered to talk to me. "What happens now?" she asked.

"Kista will be reliable. She'll notify the resistance that we have returned, and then they will put our skills to good use. We have to be patient."

"I trust Kista will do as you say, but I was speaking about what happens after that. We're good fighters, but we can't save Earth by ourselves. It's already lost. I think we all know that, even if we haven't accepted it yet. Do we fight until we die? Is that our destiny?"

"We fight until we're certain there is no way to defeat the Surtu. We plan, manipulate, rescue, and fight. If nothing changes, if the Surtu refuse to allow humanity to live free, then we focus on building as many secret colonies as we can. We must survive."

Bellona joined us. It was good timing. There was something I wanted to say to both of them, and it was urgent.

"I'm glad you're here," I said. "I'm leaving, and I don't know when I'll be back."

"You're leaving?" Juventas cried. "What about sticking together to stay strong?"

"I need to find my family."

"We all have a family to find, but we remain as a unit, because it's what's best. You said so yourself."

She was right. I was taking advantage of my position and giving myself privileges over the others. The pull to find my family was powerful. I was selfish, but I tried to justify my decision. I told them about the vision of my brother Daniel.

"I feel it's important that I find him," I claimed. "Maybe he's figured out how we can save Earth. Or maybe he plays a vital role in the resistance. I don't know, and I won't know until I find him."

The truth was that it was important to me. I wasn't so sure it was valuable to our cause.

"Okay," Bellona relented, though I was certain she could see right through me. "Just make sure you come back."

"You'll be in charge," I told them. "Both of you."

Bellona resisted. "No. I'm a lone wolf."

"You haven't done anything by yourself. You belong to our pack. You have protected the women more than any other. You already stand beside me, even if you don't realize it, Priestess."

She smiled, reluctantly agreeing. "I prefer the Red Assassin," she said.

"And I prefer Ninja Baker," Juventas interjected, causing us to laugh.

"Red Assassin, Ninja Baker watch after them."

Without turning back, I went to the ship and retrieved a glider, leaving my sisters under the gaze of the moonlight.

As I flew towards the desert where my family home was located, I noticed something strange.

The sky was empty.

The silence in the clouds as dawn broke was further evidence the Surtu had taken control of the planet, defeating humanity into submission. The desert was secluded enough that there was a chance my family had avoided capture, but I wondered if there were differences between reality and my vision.

I frequently checked the monitors to make sure I wasn't being followed. There was a price on my head, but I doubted Captain Fore had any clue where I was. The world was a big place. The Surtu military may have taken the capitals, but it would be a long time before they turned over every rock.

Granted, had Captain Fore done his research and learned about me, I was probably making it easy for him to capture me by going to my home. It was a risk I had to take. I hoped he didn't have time to look into my background, and that he was too busy with the war to make me a priority.

The communicator on the glider crackled. "Code R. We are calling in a Code R. All vessels in the area respond. We're at Mammoth Ridge. We are going down."

Mammoth Ridge was a desert canyon carved out by a torrential river. The Surtu were closer to my home than I wanted them to be, but not so close that I considered retreating. I continued to fly, setting a new course around the canyon.

Have fun drowning, I thought. Saves me killing you later.

"Code R. Calling a Code R. All vessels respond. We're going down. We have women on board."

I closed my eyes and sighed. That changed everything.

"Mammoth Ridge," I called to the monitors. "Give me a hundred mile radius."

Live satellite images appeared. A glider similar to my own floated at an odd angle on the broad river. It looked like it had skimmed the side of the ridge and crashed down. A ship approached from the east, but it wouldn't make it there in time. If I didn't provide assistance, they would drown.

I didn't care about the soldiers, but I did care about the women.

"Looks like I'm going to Mammoth Ridge," I muttered, and I redirected my course once more.

I flew close to the ground when I reached the ridge and scanned the scene below. Only the top of the glider was visible; the rest of it was underwater. The passengers stood on top of the craft. There were only two soldiers guarding a group of twenty women. They held their blasters high.

If I was going to save the women, I had to rescue the guards as well. Only men served in the Surtu military. A woman flying a glider was a dead giveaway that I was part of the resistance. I could rescue them and get thrown back into captivity, or I could fly away.

They spotted me flying overhead. The women began waving their arms frantically. For all they knew, I could be Surtu military, yet they were happy to see me. I guess I would be too if I were slowly sinking into a giant river with a deadly current.

They didn't have much time left, but I had already decided what I was going to do long ago. I opened the loading door and set my glider to autopilot before I went to the back and grabbed a rope.

Next to the rope was something unexpected: a cache of weapons. I hadn't thought to check the gliders when we'd left the refuge for Earth. Our landing on Earth would have been more secure if we were armed. We had blasters, but didn't know it.

I grabbed a blaster and went to the loading door. Before the guards had time to realize I was not one of them, I shot them each in the head. The women screamed as the guards fell lifelessly into the water.

The rope was unnecessary. My glider hovered inches from the sinking vessel, close enough for the women to jump onto my ship. "Hurry up! Get on!" I shouted.

They hesitated and stared at me with mistrust in their eyes.

"I won't hurt you," I told them. "Don't be fools or you'll drown. Get on."

One by one, they started boarding. I held my hand out for each, steadying her as she jumped on. When everyone was onboard, I called to the autopilot, "Resume course!"

I turned to make sure the women were okay, but before I had a chance to see anything, a beautiful brunette struck me across the face.

"What have you done?" she shouted, with tears in her eyes. "You killed them."

I held a hand to my cheek. It stung, but my confusion outweighed my outrage. "What do you mean? I saved you."

"You saved us from the river, but not from the soldiers. We wanted to be with them."

I was horrified. "They were part of the network? Why did they ask for help on the main frequency?"

I thought I already knew the answer. They had no other choice. If they didn't request assistance, they all would drown.

I was wrong.

"What network?" she asked, her doe eyes wild with rage. "There's no network. We surrendered ourselves to them."

I was confused again. "You surrendered?"

"We want to be wives of Surtu men. They worship women. We're sacred to them."

I didn't understand. "But they're cruel."

"Not all of them. They told us that if we surrendered, we would have our choice of alien men."

"I doubt that would have happened. Surtu men like to claim women."

"Only because they have to. Their survival depends on it. We feel for them. We want to help."

Although I had no right to my feelings, I was disgusted. An observer might think my choice wasn't much different than theirs. "You're putting yourself in danger, and you're assisting the Surtu invasion."

She was unapologetic. "The Surtu have already invaded. We're only making a choice for our best interests."

"It's the wrong choice," I argued, but I gave up, knowing I was the villain in their eyes. "What do you want me to do?"

"Besides bring back the dead?" she snapped. "Set us down."

I thought quickly. There was a ship on its way to help them. They wouldn't be stranded, but I had vowed to protect my fellow people, not hand them over to become willing slaves. Sometimes protecting people meant saving them from themselves.

Jidden and Lucina came to my guilty mind.

Sometimes protecting people meant honoring their right to choose for themselves.

"This is something you all want?" I asked, looking for further confirmation. "Because once I set you down, I have to leave. A ship is on the way. You may be willing to surrender yourself, but I'm not."

I looked around to make sure they were all in agreement. They held their heads held high with confidence and determination.

"Set us down," the brunette demanded.

"I will," I said, "but remember, this is your choice. This isn't everyone's choice. Don't assist the Surtu in pushing your choice on others."

The brunette finally relaxed. "You misunderstand us. We make this decision so other women won't be forced to. If some of us are willing to bear the children of Surtu men, we hope others will escape."

My childhood home was a small, humble structure in the middle of the desert. What it lacked in size, it made up for in personality. My parents were not minimalists. They adored color. They covered the cracks in the wall with my father's vibrant paintings. The curtains were lemon-colored, matching a lemon tree my youngest brother, Daniel, had somehow succeeded in growing, despite the desert heat. Our house had a life.

Now it was abandoned, and it illustrated my worst fears. The war had caught up with my family. I still didn't know where they were, but it was not here. Their fate was unknown.

Weary from my travels, I climbed the short steps up the porch and entered my house. It was intact and everything was in its place, but it was an empty shell. Every one of my footsteps that echoed down the hall was another crack in my heart, reminding me of everything I had lost because of the Surtu invasion.

I went to my room and sat on my bed, which creaked beneath my weight. It remained my room while I resided on the Fortuna. My parents kept all of our rooms in the same condition as when we were children, even those of my older brothers who had long ago left to earn their way in the world. It was my parents' way of ensuring we always had a family to come back to, and a place to call our own.

Burying my head in the green leaves of my white comforter, I began to cry. As Commander of the Fortuna, I had to be strong. As Nightshade, I had to be ruthless. But back in my home, I was just Terra again. I cried, for everyone and everything I had known. I continued to cry until I fell asleep, and even then tears continued to fall.

A noise startled me. I woke up and didn't remember where I was; I immediately shifted to alert mode. A new sun rose low in the sky, casting shadows across my room. All the shadows were still except for one that crossed my door. I was not alone in the house anymore.

I grabbed a fighting stick I played with as a child, and I waited breathlessly behind my bedroom door until the intruder moved back up the hall. Using the skills of an assassin taught to me by Bellona, I silently opened the door and followed the shadow's path, which led out onto the porch. I did not go outside. Instead, I peeked through the cracks of the front door.

It was a man, and he was Surtu. His tall stature and elfin eyes told me as much. Dark gold streaks reflected in the sunlight off his hair, which matched the golden brown of his eyes. He was handsome, in an unassuming sort of way. His looks weren't intimidating like Jidden, but he was still hot.

Too bad I have to kill you, I thought.

Without a blaster, my only weapons were my fighting stick and the element of surprise. I braced myself, then charged out of the house at him, holding my rod high. He was fast. He rolled off the porch onto the ground, evading my blow. I tried again, jumping high and positioning myself midair to bash him. I thought I had him until he met me as I landed with his arm out. He grabbed my stick from me and used it to pin me to the ground.

"I'm not here to hurt you," he rumbled.

"Too bad, because I'm going to hurt you," I bit back, even though I was defenseless beneath his weight.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "What are you doing here?"

"That's for me to ask. This is my home."

As soon as I said it, I wished I could take it back. Terra, you idiot, I scolded myself. Inadvertently, I had revealed my identity to the intruder.

"You're Terra Lynch?" he asked, stunned.

I felt his hold on the stick slacken. It was my opportunity. Acting quickly, I rolled out from under him. He still had my weapon, but at least I was free to escape. I began to run.

"Wait!" he called. "I know your brother, Daniel. We've been fighting as part of the resistance together."

I stopped. His revelation was like hitting a brick wall. I knew he could be lying, but even if it was a lie, I had to know the truth. "You know Daniel?" I asked.

"Yes. Very well. My name is Kylu."

"Why are you here, but my brother isn't?"