and Veila is looking between them like she can’t decide who to check on first.
Veila spins towards me, eyes flashing pink. “What the hell are you doing?”
I don’t answer her. Valor crosses the room and grabs my arm. “How did you wake up?”
I take a deep breath and hold it for a moment, unsure if this man in front of me is still my brother.
“I woke him up,” Baby lies.
“Why?” Veila asks.
“Because we need him.”
“We discussed this,” Valor says. “We weren’t going to wake anyone up until we had a plan. Is time moving forward again?” He looks at Veila. “Are we… on the clock now?”
“I don’t know.”
Valor turns to me. “How did you get Delphi out of the spin node? And why is Tycho inside a locked pod? What are you doing?”
I want to glare at them. But it’s really Veila I’m angry with, not Valor. Still, he owes me an explanation. “What the fuck, Valor? What the actual fuck is going on here?”
Veila positions herself in front of him. She’s shorter than Valor by a good measure, so she doesn’t block my view of his face. “We saved your station, that’s what’s going on here.”
I don’t even glance down at her. Just continue staring at Valor.
“We were about to be killed,” Valor says. “The princesses had made their way to the platform and were attacking us. And then…” He sighs. Throws up his hands. “I don’t know. We just”—he glances down at the back of Veila’s head for a moment—“stopped time.”
“Just stopped time?” I ask.
He starts talking fast, explaining how people were frozen. How they put everything back together. Put everyone in their place. Locked up the princesses. And then fixed the station with the help of Baby and the bots and borgs.
And even though I can’t detect a lie as all these words spill out of his mouth—it feels like a lie.
He pauses, like he’s reading my mind. Waits for me to say something.
I realize I have a lot to say.
“So let me get this straight,” I start. “You two stopped time, locked everyone up, and then just left us frozen. Like prisoners?”
“What?” Valor asks.
I blink my eyes at him, then hold up a finger. Because I’m about to make a list. “Number one. She is our enemy.”
“She’s not—”
“Number two. This station is filled with our people—”
“People who turned against you,” Veila interjects.
“—and you let her lock up what basically amounts to our army and just take over my station?”
Valor is frustrated. “That’s not how it happened, Crux. You’re not listening.”
“Number three,” I continue. “After you let her take us all prisoner you agreed to put Tycho in the same general vicinity as Delphi.”
“We wanted them to wake up close to each other. Delphi was going to be upset—”
“Shut. The Fuck. Up.” I growl those words at Veila. “One more fucking word from you and—”
“You’ll what?” Valor says, pushing Veila behind him. “What are you gonna do, Crux?”
I scoff. “So you’re with her now then? Is that how this is?”
“She’s with us,” he snarls back. “You weren’t there. We saved the fucking station. And if you’d shut the fuck up for one minute, you’d realize that.”
I point at Veila. “She’s the whole fucking reason we’re in this mess to begin with! Did you conveniently forget all the terrible things she’s done?”
“That wasn’t me!” Veila objects.
“Do you have a twin? If so, tell me all about your twin.”
“We all have twins,” Veila snaps.
I hold my breath. She’s right. But for some reason hearing her say that really pisses me off. I glare at her, let out my breath and say, “Get. The fuck. Off my station.”
“No,” Valor says. “She’s not leaving. She’s the only one who can set things right.”
“That’s a lie,” I say, still glaring at Veila. “That’s a fucking lie. She’s here for Delphi and Tycho and Corla.” I lift my eyes up to Valor. “And all three of those people belong to me.”
“So you’re just going to what? Shoot Tycho out into space? Leave Delphi here in this pod? Keep them prisoner the way you’ve kept Corla prisoner?”
If Valor wasn’t here… I would strike her. I feel that rage deep in my bones. If Valor wasn’t here I would kill her.
“I think we should all take a deep breath,” Baby says. “I’m fairly certain that the time freeze is deteriorating. People will be waking up soon.”
“Great. That’s just great.” I try to calm down long enough to gather my thoughts. The jumbled mess they were