"What do you mean she's gone?"
Finn's face showed devastation, his pupils wide, eclipsing his irises. He looked like a man whose world had just been destroyed. "I didn't stop it."
Talon set a hand on his shoulder. "There was nothing you could have done."
Finn covered his face with his hands, his shoulders shaking as he lost control of his emotions.
"Would someone like to tell me what the fuck is going on?" Raider shouted.
Graydon ignored the question as he knelt in the place where Kira had disappeared, touching the ground where she'd last stood as he threw wide his senses. The ship faded around him as the universe flooded Graydon's mind.
A younger, less trained Tuann would have been overwhelmed at the amount of input. Their mind would have broken under the strain.
Graydon let the pain pass through him. Where are you, coli?
There. A trace.
Graydon opened his eyes. "I have her."
Wren knelt beside him. "Are you sure?"
Graydon struggled with the impatience that question caused. Of course, he was sure. He wasn't a man that made mistakes.
Graydon spared no attention for those around him, focusing on the increasingly tenuous connection. A single lapse in concentration and he'd lose her.
He closed his eyes again, concentrating on the ki he'd scattered into the air like a net the instant before the rift had snapped closed around Kira. His soul's breath condensed. He used it to rip open the remnants of the fissure in time and space the other man had caused.
Graydon strained, the tendons in his neck standing out as he forced it open a millimeter at a time.
"Holy shit," Raider exclaimed as the air screamed.
A breeze stirred, quickly becoming a gale as Graydon's ki manifested as black sparks in the cargo bay.
Finn lifted his head, hope replacing his devastation.
Talon quirked an eyebrow, looking impressed as Joule and Devon drew closer.
With one last cry, Graydon ripped the rift the rest of the way open. He staggered to his feet, fighting a spell of dizziness.
"I'm coming with you," Finn declared.
"Wait," Raider started. "Don't tell me. That crazy guy with the ability to rip holes in the fabric of reality took her."
"And Jin," Joule added quietly.
"Graydon, I'm her oshota. I need to go," Finn said, focusing on Graydon.
"You can't. It won't support both of us," Graydon informed him.
And if anyone was going, it was going to be him.
Graydon squared up with Finn, ready to flatten him if he tried to force the issue.
"You're not thinking of following her through that?" Raider waved a hand at the rift in disbelief. "Are you crazy?"
"Kira is on the other side," Graydon ground out.
Finn's stance eased at the human's interruption, the moment passing as the oshota ceded his duties to Graydon just this once.
"You're just as crazy as she is," Raider muttered.
"Would you rather I abandon her?" Graydon asked, sending him a hard look.
Raider sighed and shook his head. "Of course not. Curs don't abandon each other. No matter what fucked up rift they wind up on the other side of."
"Glad we have that settled," Graydon spat, turning his attention to the rift.
"Make sure you bring her back," Wren said.
"There was never any doubt of that."
As if Graydon would let anything stand between him and his coli.
"We'll meet you on Rothchild," Graydon told the others, stepping through.
Wren’s voice followed him into the darkness. "Good luck. May the Mea'Ave protect you."
Nine
Kira - Somewhere else
The rift spat Kira out in the same manner in which she entered. Tumbling backwards, ass over tea kettle like the newbiest of novices. As if she hadn't spent nearly every day of the past 92 years training to be the biggest threat in the room.
Her back hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of her. Dots of black ate at her vision. Her stomach heaved.
Don't throw up. Don't you dare throw up.
That would be the cherry on top of this sundae of spectacular failure.
Pallas sauntered out of the rift while she was still trying to get her bearings. "I was expecting more from that ship of yours. It's a tiny bit run down. Somewhat lacking as a flagship of House Roake's heir. What's the matter, Nixxy? Your house experiencing financial difficulties?"
"Pallas," Kira snarled.
The world heaved as she flipped onto her stomach. Kira was forced to stop and breathe lightly through her nose as the motion set the world to spinning.
Fuck spatial dislocation and her idiot brother. Tuann teleportation devices didn’t cause this kind of reaction.
No. This awfulness was limited entirely to the use of Pallas's messed up little ability.
"Is it because they don't support your suicide mission? Is that why they half assed your ship's retrofit?"
Kira tuned Pallas out, his babble a low drone as she pushed herself upright. Devastation settled slowly over her at finding herself no longer on the Wanderer. Or any ship for that matter.
Stone walls had replaced metal ones. The floor she knelt on was made from the same material. The chamber was massive. Not something you'd find on a ship in space.
Its architecture wasn't of human design. Not Tuann either.
This place felt old. And abandoned. Dust had accumulated on the floor and stairs, disturbed by Kira and Pallas's arrival.
Three steps as wide as the room's length led up to a landing. Beyond it was a giant door that seemed almost narrow given the breadth of the rest of the space.
"What the fuck did you do?" Kira's question was spoken in a low tone. Her manner outwardly calm.
Pallas pointed at his chest in fake surprise. "Me?"
Kira stared.
His hand dropped. "I thought you'd be more grateful."
"Grateful?" The word was almost a hiss. "You kidnapped me!"
He'd taken her from her ship. She was alone. Against the greatest trial she'd ever faced. On a planet whose location she didn't know the first thing about.
"You ruined everything! I had a team. A plan. And now it's gone."
He didn't even look sorry.
A deranged smile played on his face as he watched her meltdown. As if he found all this vastly amusing.
Should she just kill him?
Tempting.
Except the last time she’d tried, it didn't exactly end well for her. Three broken ribs. A shattered wrist. And so much internal bleeding the doctors were surprised she survived.
The only thing that had soothed her wounded ego was that Pallas had been in equal if not worse condition.
Pallas's smirk grew predatory. Practically goading her. Dancing on her last nerve. Tip tap. Tip tap.
"Someone is feeling spicy." Pallas pretended to shiver. "Go ahead. You know you want to."
"Don't push me," Kira warned.
"What's the matter, Phoenix? Afraid? How do you expect to accomplish anything if you're pissing yourself right out of the gate?"