""When the nights were long and the days were deep, there lived a girl."" "Why does it always start like that, with the nights and the days?" "All stories start like that." "That's how we know they're stories." "Now, do you need me to continue?" ""When the nights were long and the days were deep..."" ""There lived a girl and her father in a beautiful castle."" "Was he a king?" "I like when they're kings." "He wanted to be." "Sometimes he thought he was." "He was on a quest to feed his people." "But he had disturbed something old, deep, deep under the land." "All gifts come with a price." "The girl's father had awoken an ancient darkness, something in search of a name, a voice, and without knowing it, he gave it one." "And that's when he saw that his kingdom was small." "Microscopic." "What happened next?" "Yala, you must remember the stories" "I tell you, especially this one." "It's important." "Why?" "Because, Little Bird, this is how it all began." " Let him sleep." " I wish we could, but that's just not gonna fix things." "Hey." "Pawter." "What are you doing?" "We have to go back for Pawter, now!" " Lucy, ramp!" " Johnny, stop." "She found me when you put a knife in my gut and left me for dead." "Now I made it through that, and she is gonna make it through this!" "Delle Seyah is not gonna let that happen, and you know that." "Lucy was tracking her vital signs." "If I thought she was alive, I wouldn't have left her." "Johnny, she's gone." "Oh, good." "Nap time's over." "Khlyen will be here soon." "What'd I miss?" "Doctor Illenore Seyah Simms." "The Quad will never see another like her." "She will be missed by her family, but she will be missed most of all by the people of Old Town, whom she healed and whom she championed." "We, the Company, are committed to the roadmap to peace that she laid out for Westerley, and we are humbled to declare a holiday in her honor." "Off." "You got to hand it to Delle Seyah." "She doesn't stop." "Using Pawter's death as propaganda?" "Here." "Take your medicine." "You know, I started to think that maybe my world was big enough to include Pawter." "That I could be that kind of happy, you know?" "Regular-people happy." "So what do I do now?" "Hey, if you want to bring Delle Seyah to justice," "I got your back." "You want to quit all this and run?" "I call shotgun." "I mean it." "We don't have to stay here." "We can just fly away." "Never come back." "Well, that sounds amazing, but we really can't do that." "Grieving is for winners, and we haven't won yet." "Johnny, I don't even know exactly who we're fighting." "You're right." "We used to be a lot better at this." "Based on your vocal patterns, I calculate this would be a good time to interrupt." " What's up, Luce?" " D'avin's heart rate." "Dramatically." " Fancy." " Fancy." "Keep fighting, buddy." "Give me a reason to make your eyes explode." "Boys?" "Khlyen will tell you his plans when he gets here." "Be patient!" " Be explode-y!" " Boys, we have guests!" "Hey, Lucy, you could have warned us." "Apologies." "I was taken by surprise." "Their technology is... exotic." "We've come for Khlyen." "Where is he?" "Did you lead them here, you green shit stain?" "I highly suggest you give us what we want." "How about a dreadnought in your eye?" "I happen to have one." "Where'd you get it?" "From me." "Sir, really?" "Well, this is embarrassing." "May have miscalculated." "Feel free to run." "Never mind." "Holy leaking shit." "Sorry about the mess." "You brought us here as bait." " Tiny bit." " What'd you use on them?" "A toxin I made after studying you." "I had to field test my little weapon." "Well, I'm gonna say it works." "Indeed, and what if I told you we could use this to save the Quad?" "All of us." "Together." "One glorious suicide mission." "Who's in?" "He's getting it everywhere, John." "I'll hose you down girl, I promise, but for now, let's just do a full work-up on this shit." "It's harmless now." "No offense, not really gonna take your word for it." "Suit yourself, genius." "Full-spectrum analysis initiated, John." "Appreciated." "Isn't Fancy still out there?" "Yup." "Talk." "You weren't meant to have that yet." "She's your daughter." "Yes." "Why do you want me to kill your daughter?" "Because one day, it might be necessary." "If Aneela ever finds out about you, she'll kill you first." "Why?" "You've met quite a few Sixes by now." "Have you ever wondered why there are no young ones?" "I'll spare you the suspense." "Their prefrontal cortexes are still growing." "They can't take the mental transition when the plasma invades." "Aneela," "I am sorry to say, is quite a bit insane." "Yeah, no shit." "I saw her lab on Arkyn." "My, you have been busy." "And you're putting off the real question." "Why do I look like your daughter?" "I don't know." "That's the truth, Yala." "It's not good enough." "The truth often isn't, but that does not make it a lie." "The Quad has one narrow chance of being saved, and right now, we are it." "That is the only truth that matters." "Saved from what?" "Hullen." "Specifically, the invasive neuroparasite the plasma contains." "Come on." "You're telling me this shit is sentient?" "When bonded with a human host, yes, we're sentient." " "Host." So you're..." " Hullen." "No longer entirely human." "Centuries ago my people offered the ancestors of the Nine a deal:" "eventual assimilation or immediate annihilation." "Their descendants have had ten generations to suck the wealth out of the Quad and honor the deal." "What you're seeing in Old Town right now is the beginning of that handover." "A silent invasion has begun." "This is crazy." "No, this is bullshit." "This is... this is crazy bullshit!" "How can you be so calm about all this?" "Well, to be fair, I've had a lot longer to process." "Centuries." "You do not have that luxury." "The sole reason the Quad is of interest to my people is its plasma." "Destroy that, we will have no reason to come, no ability to make new soldiers, and the invasion will be aborted." "So those darts of yours can destroy the plasma and save the Quad?" "Done." "I don't care what you call that shit, I want it dead, and I am good at killing." "Lucy, change course." "Let's go piss in Arkyn's pool." "Arkyn is crawling with Sixes right now preparing for the handover." " We'd never make it." " Confirmed." "Falcon-class Black Root ships surrounding Arkyn." "So how the shit are we supposed to poison the plasma if we can't get onto Arkyn?" "Pure plasma retains a strong bond with its parent source." "Poison the parent, the spawn dies." " Is this shit from Arkyn?" " No, but I know of one remaining pure source that is." "When you invaded my memories, you saw the Scarback attack on Arkyn, yes?" "Hard to forget." "Looked like a bloodbath." "That was a raiding party." "They stole something from my lab, a tree growing in a pool of original Arkyn plasma." "Aneela swore to break the survivors and track it down." "We need to find that tree." "So 12 went to fight the devil, and 1 came back with a goddamn tree?" "We're sadomasochistic theosophers, not botanists." "You worship a mystical tree." "You really can't see the connection?" "Look, your people must have some sort of reliquary." "A place where they protect the Faith's valuables." "If the tree is more than religious symbology, nothing on here says where it is being kept." "Half the references say they were stolen back by the Devil, and my people were on some holy mission to find it again." "Good... the Devil is what the Scarbacks call Aneela, right?" "So they must have figured out where she took it." "What's all this say?" "Poetry." ""The Devil covets the sap of the tree." "Judgment written in the stars."" "You need to work on your termite problem." "Look at all these holes." "Yeah, that's old-school technique." "Artists would used pin-pricks as a grid to make it all line up." "So why are there holes that don't line up?" "Hey, what the hells?" "Sorry." "Genocide over iconography." "What is it?" ""Written in the stars."" "It's a star chart." "Lucy did a spec analysis, and we matched the solar configuration to... here." " Which is?" " Crow nebula." "No nearby colonies." "Not a hells of a lot going on out there." "Oh, there is one thing." "Archive." "Lucy." "It's an ultra-high-security storage facility." "It's been the choice of the elite and the paranoid since the J colonies began." " How do we get in?" " We'll need a ship with strong cloaking capabilities." "Fancy can call in a few favors..." " Stop." " Stop what?" "Khlyen-ing." "You're not in charge here." "This is not anher assassination or a red box." "This is a classic Killjoys mission." "Get in, get dirty, get out." "It's what we do." "So I lead, or you stay." "Oh, I think I would rather like watching you work." "What's your trick for getting in?" "I am." "You say they cater to the elite, and I'm a goddamn runaway queen." "Did you get me what I asked for?" "It took a while to dig it out of the debris at Spring Hill, but yes." "Good, have it brought to my apartments, and find me a doctor." "I got a bit stabby with the last one." "Speak." "Oh, you may not like my words." "Go." "Khlyen." "This is unexpected." "There's no time for a transmission dead-drop." "The liberation of Old Town has challenged our timetable." "Okay, let me explain about that." "Backup plans are already in motion." "My people are on their way." "We'll need to get creative." "Then you'll get your reward." "Good." "Aging is so bourgeois." "So I can still go through the program?" "If you do me one last favor." "You were right." "Yalena and her team have become a complication." "I need you to take care of them." "Just tell me where and when you need me." "Approaching Archive." "That is one sassy-pants bank." "Its docking matrix is being rather condescending, John." "Don't let it ruffle you, Luce." "Fly like a rich bitch." "Okay, guys." "Stand by for docking." "Have fun saving the Quad." "Don't get any on you." " Your highness, it's an honor." " ARCHIVE" "It is." "May I present" "Yalena Yardeen of Family Yardeen." "Ah, the Yardeens." "A noble family fallen on hard times." "We're mounting a comeback." "Welcome to Archive." "If you wouldn't mind having your body men wait here?" "No personal security beyond reception." "Rules, you understand." "I am Dej Sarafan, at your service." "It's been my honor to serve as Dej since my father was Dej, and his before him." "Discretion, of course, is the heart of our operation." "Once registered, I myself do not even know which door leads to whose vault." "You may come and go unobserved." "This will do." "I'm satisfied." "Let's get your genome into the system, shall we?" "Hi." "So, you guys union, or..." "Contract?" "If Her Highness could place her hand on the scanner, we'll get a drop of blood and open her account." "It won't take but a minute to process." "I didn't hate what you did there." "Yeah, well, keep it in your pants, but ditto." " Just keep doing your share." " My share?" "Accept it, Jaqobis." "I'm physiologically superior now." "You're a Six, not a Ten." "Simmer down." "John, scanner balls doing their thing." "Yeah, they're building the floor plan now." "I'm gonna have you follow some magnetic field lines to what looks like reinforced service tunnels." "You think you two can keep playing nice together?" "Ask him." "He started it." "Heading for tunnel now." " Okay, we're in." " Okay, Johnny, check it." "You should be in the system too." "Okay, Lucy, run Khlyen's DNA through Archive's accounts." "Look for any DNA that's close enough to be his daughter's." " One match found." " Okay." "Other Dutch is never not gonna be a weird thing for me." "Okay, let's just match Dutch's DNA to Aneela's vault." "I've overwritten Aneela's genome, ID, and fingerprints with Dutch's." "She can now open the vault." "Damn, we are good." "Dutch, Ditch the Dej and go crack that vault." "And for a little more every year, you do qualify for our Gold Package." "It's the ultimate in breach-proof security." "Something quite special." "We don't need anything exotic, thank you." "Just the basic package." "We'll select her vault another time." "We're needed elsewhere today." "Let's go." "There's one more level of security I should mention." "Me." "I'm very good at reading people, and you two read wrong." "A Yardini would never abide her footman to lead." "So, Yalena Yardeen of family Yardeen, why are you really here?" "Fine." "You win." "Now we fight." "She's quite good, isn't she?" "I'm very impressed." "Hey, a little help here?" "Oh, I don't want to step on your toes." "This is your operation, remember?" "You're such an asshole." "Get in here!" "So I assume you have some security measure that will prevent me from simply killing you?" "There's a G1 explosive in my chest connected to my heart rate." "Harming me would be highly inadvisable." "Tea?" "No, thank you." "They'll never know we were here." "They'll never know we're here, huh?" "Worst partner ever." "Now then, Yala, shall we show them how it's done?" "Admit it." "That was fun." "Come on, before Sarafan brings backup." "D'av, we're heading to the Vault now." "Cook up an exit." "Keep it hot and ready." "Damn it." "Cover me." "Come out with your hands up!" "Aah!" " Easy shot." " Oh, yeah?" "Stick your head out there and make a better one." "I dare you." "Dutch, we might need a minute or two." "That's not a happy sound." "Lucy?" "Two Black Root ships are attempting to lock onto us." " Are they hailing?" " No." "They don't seem in the chatting mood." "All right." "Take us out." "We got to get 'em away from here." "Evasion pattern: blueberry foxtrot." "We need to work on your codenames." "Just shut up and fly, Lucy." "Guys?" "Finish faster or you may not have a ride home." "We got to get in before we can pull out, John." "I'm going as fast as I can." "Be careful out there." "No promises." "Come on, come on." "Hello, old friend." "It's... quite beautiful." "That's the green." "It tries to perfect the organisms it invades." "When I first encountered the plasma" "I thought it was a miracle growth agent." "No time for memory trips, sorry." "That's never good." "Don't move." "We've triggered a security feature." "Okay, that's new." "What is it?" "Sunlight." "From what sun?" "Where the hells are we?" "Looks like Aneela bought the Gold Package." "It's no good." "We're trapped and about to get our nuts roasted." "As Aneela planned, I imagine." "She left just enough crumbs to lead us here." "Final punishment for my sins as a father." "Well, save the martyr-daughter pity party 'cause she didn't plan on Killjoys." "John?" "John, are you copying?" "Shield webbing absorbing damage." "I can hear you, Dutch, but you've fallen off the edge of the map..." "where the hells did you go?" "We're in low orbit around a sun somewhere." "What?" "How?" " I'm not the nerd!" " I-I don't know." "They must have some sort of Myer-portal tech or gradient warp field." "It's kind of genius theft prevention." "Best way to keep all that treasure safe, not even have it on the station." "Super, now we're not on the station." "Get us back now." "This is not my kind of hot-boxing." "D'av?" "Go help Dutch." "Make Sarafan bring back that vault." "On it." "I'm gonna do what I can from here." "Luce?" "You better have your dancing shoes on." "I'm a ship, John." "I don't have feet." "Oh, I understand the reference now." "That was funny, John." "You're funny." "Yeah, yeah, I don't need your pity, Lucy." "Shit, Johnny, we're pinned." "Dutch will be fine." "She has Khlyen." "No offense, I always imagined my last stand, blaze of glory being with my brother." " Not you." " I heal, remember?" "You're the one having an existential crisis." "Don't worry." "I'll tell everyone you died sexy." "I forgot." "You survive anything less than instant brain death." "Right?" "Why?" "Don't say "human shield."" "Stop enjoying this!" "Too late." "Human shield, bitches!" "You sure there's actually an override code?" "Aneela's insane." "She's not stupid." "Father of the year." "Why are you smiling?" "Physical danger, an obstacle to solve, it's just like our old games of Catch and Kill." "Solid quality time." "It's not good bonding if we die." "Well, do you have a plan or not?" "Always so impatient, Little Bird." "Oh, no." "We can put off dying." "I'm super patient for that." "Take the toxin, just in case." "Why?" "Desperate times..." "You smell like chicken." "Are you going to finish the job or just stand there and quip all day?" "Suck on this, you little green bitches." "Crap." "Why isn't it working?" "Didn't you test this stuff?" "I had no original source to test." "The plasma in this pool is protecting itself." "Ah, shit balls of bitch dicks!" "Shit." "Ready, girl?" "We're buzzing that damn tower." "Negative, John." "The pattern is full." "Yeah!" "That is how you thread a needle!" "All right, people, that's two Black Root birds down." "Thank you, and don't forget to tip your pilot." "Hi, I'm D'av, and this is my little buddy Fancy." "We'd like to talk about a refund." "John, the toxin isn't working here." "Ideas?" "One." "Luce, tell 'em what you told me." "I've been analyzing the black fluid that stained my deck." "Pure plasma's natural defenses against the toxin can be overcome by using a catalyst of human-bonded plasma." "I have no idea what she just said." "You have to poison a Six first, and then use the black goo to kill the pool." "Let me calculate..." "just got to figure out the volume you're looking at." "You don't need to do the calculation." "We have enough." "Don't." "There'll be another way." "In time." "The Black Root are coming." "Your John got lucky, but the next sortie will get through, and we'll have lost our chance." "Give me the toxin." "Why are you doing this?" "You don't give a shit about the Quad!" "No, but Aneela will." "She's leading the vanguard." "She'll already be on her way here, to you, unless I can give her a good reason not to come." "This is my penance, Yala." "I failed her." "I didn't protect her from herself when she was so mad and corrupted that she came up with this plan." " What does she want?" " Everything." "Those of us who were first infected, the pairing was imperfect." "We retained some autonomy, some sense of self." "Aneela and the others, they used the Red 17 experiments to increase the bond, to turn the infected into slaves." "That was never my goal." "But I could live with it, until..." "Until what?" "Until I saw you." "A face I never thought I'd see again in a place it never should have been." "You were my chance to make things right." "Bullshit." "Don't pretend you love me." "That's not fair." "My name was on that damn list." "You were gonna turn me Hullen!" "To keep you with me, Yala." "Hullen will be everywhere eventually." "Aneela will make sure of that." "I could lose you like her, or I could train you to survive the transition." "Those were my options until D'avin provided a third." "Now I can set you free." "No!" "Johnny!" "Johnny, get us out of here!" "Don't you goddamn dare!" "You're stronger than this." "You're stronger than anyone." "Yala." "The pool." "I'd rather not waste my heroic moment, if you don't mind." "Where the hells is our evac?" "Aneela won't rest until she's conquered everyone." "Aneela can suck it." "We're killing the damn green, aren't we?" "Here, yes." "There are other sources in the J." "But that's not your fight." "I'm sorry, Yala." "Everything I did, every cruelty," "I did to protect you." "And to prepare you." "You never prepared me to be free." "I have nothing left to teach you." "I'm not ready to let you go." ""When the nights were long..."" ""And the days were deep..."" ""There lived a girl."" ""And her father."" "Khlyen..." "Johnny, the boat's docking." "He's gone." "He's gone." "He's gone." "Yeah, open." "Are you doing okay?" "Never better." "It's okay if you don't want to talk, but I would like you to listen." "You spent most the past six years hating Khlyen, and whatever you're feeling, I'm sure it is more complicated than I can understand." "But speaking as a member of the shitty dad club?" "You don't have to forgive someone to miss them." "And you don't need anyone's permission to love someone that you hate." "Thank you." "This has not been our best 24 hours, huh?" "I'm sorry." "You have been through just as much as me, and here you are being someone's shoulder again." "Well, I like being your shoulder." "It's my second favorite job." "You know what I like even more?" "Being your drinking buddy." "Lucy checked the surface with probes." "Arkyn's plasma's officially dead." "Well, after all that loss and all the shit, let's not forget, we won." "I will toast the shit out of that." "Pawter, it's gonna be okay." "Hey, come on." "Stay with me here." "Come on!" "Johnny, we can go, really." "No." "It's fine." "I'll get the next round." "Please, your money's no good here, even when money is good here." "So what happens to Old Town now?" "What happens now depends on whether the Company and the Nine keep their word to us." "Oh, Delle Seyah must have a mouth full of honey-candy with all the sweet promises she's making." "Don't tell me that people actually believe her?" "There's a lot of charm in that snake." "How about you?" "Would you ever leave?" "Sometimes you have to leave a home to protect it." "Sometimes you have to stay and fight." "Time will tell." "Pawter's favorite." "To Red." "May we all be so lovely." "May we all be so loved." "Damn, my girl could drink." "Oh, that she could." "Will you tell them that I need some space?" "I'm gonna get some air." "Come on, Khlyen." "Where are you?" "Wasn't sure you'd actually show." "Kind of hoped you wouldn't, but I guess greed trumps caution." "It was you who was calling me?" "Not Khlyen." "Technology is a disloyal bitch." "Kind of like you." "Clever." "We're done here." "You know, everyone keeps asking me how I'm doing after Pawter." "Ask me how I'm doing." " What do you want, Killjoy?" " What you can't give me." "So I think the question is, what will I settle for?" "Well, I hope it's not an apology." "Our sides were at war." "She was collateral damage." "Well, from what I hear, the war isn't over yet." "So you know, that wasn't for all the people that you killed, or the millions more that you would enslave if you got another chance." "I am not a hero." "I just loved her." "Doctor Illenore Seyah Simms, the Quad will never see another like her." "She will be missed by her family, but she will be missed most of all by the people of Old Town, whom she healed and whom she championed." "We, the Company, are committed to the roadmap to peace that she laid out for Westerley, and we are humbled to declare a holiday in her honor." " Open." " No." "Lucy, what's going on?" "John Andras Jaqobis, in the last three hours, you have booked travel on eight separate long haul flights to eight separate destinations." "Were you not going to say "Good-bye"?" " Trying hard not to." " Did I do something?" "No." "No, Lucy." "I did something." "Something unforgivable." "I..." "I don't even know if I'm sorry about it." "I forgive you." "It doesn't work like that." "I forgive you." "Well, thank you." "It helps a little." "Are you in trouble?" "Yeah." "Look, people are probably gonna come for me for what I did, and I can't bring that back here to Dutch and my brother." "Not with everything else that's going on." "You got to let me go, girl." "Good-bye, John." "Hey, nerd." "Clara?" " What..." " Lucy called me." "Said you might need some company." "You need a wingman, and she has a gun arm." "Sorry about your friend." "So, you running away from home?" "As fast as I can." "Cool." "I love road trips." "I call shotgun." "We're gonna need to steal a ship." "Well, I have had luck with that in the past." "Where have you been?" "Getting stitches." "Holy shit." "You're cured?" "Matter of opinion." "Let's say I'm just a regular asshole again." "Well, I actually missed Regular Asshole Fancy." "Welcome back." "Wow." "This belonged to friends?" "Friends from where?" "Way out of town." "One of 'em won't be needing it anymore, and the other one?" "Is an asshole." "I'm not exactly sure how to fly this ship." "Good." "No fun knowing everything." "Let's figure it out." "Let's see what this does." "Does this mean all the Sixes are straight-up humans now?" "The ones made with Arkyn plasma, yeah." "Why?" "What about Aneela?" "No." "I don't know how I know, but I just do." "That bitch isn't gonna go so easily." "We finally got our answers." "We know who's behind the RAC and what they're using it for." "Right now we have two choices." "Take our local win, hope the fight doesn't come back to us, die old and boring in our beds..." "You make it sound so sexy." "Or?" "Take the chance Khlyen and Pawter bought us." "Make their deaths count." "There's more Hullen, more plasma, and Aneela is not gonna stop unless I stop her." "So let's stop them all." "I don't want to win just one battle." "I want a whole bloody war." "Who's in?"