The whole way to Mother's office, Cosimia's mind whirled with possible ideas. How to get out, who to bring, which planet had the strongest resources, how to get Mother to agree...

The last one was going to be the most troublesome. She knew that it was late so telling her plan to a sleep-deprived, irritated Commandant probably wasn't the best of ideas. But if she didn't tell Mother, Cosimia might burst. She knocked rapidly on the mahogany doors, and Geneva whipped it out with a glare that could cut through ice.

"What?" Even with her groggy voice, Geneva still managed to look intimidating.

"I need to speak to Mother. Now." Geneva rolled her eyes and began to shut the door when Cosimia squeezed half her body through the entrance.

"Please, Gen. It's an emergency." Cosimia hated the desperate tone in her voice, but it couldn't be helped. She had to talk to Mother now.

"Why don't you tell me what you want to say? I'll take it to her." Geneva's smile was sweet like honey- poisoned honey.

"You're her secretary- I can't trust you with this information. I need to speak to Mother." At the insult, Geneva's violet red eyes flared with anger.

After a moment of passing heated looks back and forth, Geneva relented. "You get five minutes." Rushing past her sister, Cosimia ran through Geneva's chambers and pounded on Mother's door. She would most likely get punished for this but Cosimia didn't care. As Mother opened the door, Cosimia quickly rushed in and closed it behind her. Even though she was sleeping, Mother still managed to look immaculate.

"What is so dire that you need to disturb me from sleep?" Mother said, words bordering an irritated growl. Cosimia inhaled deeply and sat down on one of the long lounge chaises.

"I think the Unbalance might be real." Mother's nostrils flared and she dragged a hand down her face.

"I don't want to hear of your childish ideas, Cosimia. You are Huntress now."

"Precisely my point." Cosimia got up and paced back and forth. "My job is to protect Zorias and Saturnus. The Unbalance could be a serious threat to us!"

"That man had no evidence of what he was saying." Mother shook her head at Cosimia. "Don't tell me you actually believe him?"

"I don't know if he's entirely telling the truth, but it's good to be prepared, is it not? In a worst case scenario."

Mother planted her hands firmly on the table. "Saturnus already has ample protection. We don't need to waste our resources on anything else extra."

"Mother, it won't be enough. I've learned about it and if it really is going to happen, Zorias will be nothing but a pile of smoking rubble after." Mother turned around and rested against the large table.

"Well then, if this is such a large concern to you, Huntress, you must have a plan formatted by now." Mother challenged.

Staring her mother defiantly in the eyes, Cosimia said: "I must leave the rings."

Mother jumped up, her amber eyes flaming dangerously. Anger contorted her features, and something new glinted in her eyes: pain. Cosimia opened her mouth to question it, but with the rage-filled look Mother shot at her Cosimia decided it would be better to keep her mouth shut.

"No such thing will happen." Her normally calm, indifferent voice was laced with fury and grief.

Cosimia felt her ire spark. Did nobody take her seriously?

"Why not?"

"Don't push me, Cosimia." Mother warned, voice trembling.

"No, I want you to tell me why. When I was up there, I realized that everything the tutors had taught us about navigating the rings was wrong. We could easily fit one of the bigger vessels through. Why don't we?" Cosimia demanded. Mother's eyes flashed and her palms were bleeding from little crescent shaped cuts from pressing her fingers in too hard.
"I'll tell you why, you ungrateful child." Mother snapped. "The rings are not to be tampered with. You don't know anything about them."
"I've read virtually every text on the rings we have. Don't tell me what I know and don't know." Cosimia said through gritted teeth.

"The rings will kill you. Just like they did him." Her yellow eyes went misty in remembrance and Cosimia bit her lip in order to restrain herself. She didn't want to listen to some sob story with some hidden moral inside. They were a waste of her time.

"He was just like you, Cosimia, with a hunger to explore the outside world. And I loved him for it. The rings fascinated him, and I specifically remember him telling me how much he desired to go up there." Mother chuckled. "We were young. Foolish, as most youth are. Somehow, he was able to find a ring pod and steal it from the Minerva. He went outside the rings and never came back. On ring patrol, a Minerva found a dead carcass floating around the rings. After the anatomy and DNA testing, the scientists revealed that it was him." Tears sparkled like golden jewels in Mother's eyes. "Nobody knew how he died out there." She glared at Cosimia with new hatred. "Mathias and Geneva were young, and they didn't know their father well. Mathias knows how he died but Geneva is unaware." Her voice became oddly distant. Father? Cosimia felt her knees starting to buckle. It made her happy to know that her father, the one she had wondered but never questioned about, was just like her. Mother turned away from Cosimia and took many deep breaths. Questions whirled around Cosimia's head but she forced them away with a shake of her head. Father or not, she had to convince Mother to let her go.

"I'm sorry but just because the man you loved died in the rings doesn't make my mission any less important. You have to let me go." Mother's shoulders shook with rage, looking like a volcano ready to burst.

"Get out." Mother said in a low voice, like the calm before the storm.

"But-"

"Get the hell out. Now." Sensing that this conversation had ended, Cosimia bolted out of the room in disappointment and fury. She couldn't believe that Mother was willing to put her emotions as priority instead of protecting Saturnus. She saw Geneva standing there but ignored her. She didn't have the mental capability to handle her sister right that moment.

Cosimia steeled herself. If Mother wasn't going to aid her, she would have to do it herself. Her mission weighed heavily down on her shoulders, and Cosimia leaned against a nearby wall so she could collect her thoughts. All she knew was that whatever it took, she needed to get past those rings.

"Cosi? Can we talk?" Airlia's voice sounded firmer and more serious than Cosimia had ever heard. Her happy-go-lucky personality was something Cosimia had gotten used to.

"What for?" Cosimia drew herself reluctantly out of her thoughts and faced Airlia, surprised to see her whole patrol standing with her. Airlia looked around the crowded dining hall quickly.

"Not here. Can we go to your stateroom?" Cosimia shrugged half-heartedly and stood up. The patrol filed out silently, looking like a funeral procession. Cosimia closed the door shut behind her and crossed her arms as her friends took seats on the cluttered coach.

"Whoa. This place could be the library from all the texts you've got in here." Isadora skimmed through the books.

"Yeah. I know. Look, I'm kind of busy, so can you make it quick?" Her friends glanced at each other with expressions Cosimia couldn't decipher.

"Cosi, we're worried about you. It's been a month and ever since you got back from your mother's stateroom you've been holed up inside yourself, and super depressed. We're your friends, and we want to help with whatever you're going through." Cosimia wanted to wrap her arms tightly around Airlia and let out everything, but she kept it inside.

"Nothing's wrong. Being the Huntress takes a toll, right?" Her joke fell flat and a fracture formed in her facade as Airlia looked at her with a tender, concerned expression.

"Come on, Cosi. It's us." She probed gently, and Cosimia felt her will wobble. Maybe she could let them in on everything that's happening- her fight with her mother, the revelation about her father, the Unbalance, stopping it, getting out of the rings... it would be incredibly helpful to share the burden of the task with someone else, not just herself. But still, she hesitated.

"I can't." Cosimia whispered.
Airlia's eyes sparked with determination. "Yes, you can." She got up and led Cosimia to a spot on the couch. "We aren't moving until you tell us what's up."
"Umm, Airi? Do all of us have to stay?" Oralie asked but immediately piped down from the glare Airlia shot her.

Cosimia inhaled shakily, and exhaled. "Okay. I'll tell you." She shifted on the couch. "You all know how interested I am about the rings. I've always wanted to go past, explore the unexplored. But before I've never gotten the opportunity. When Manai came in and told us about the Unbalance, nobody believed him. Well, a few weeks later, I paid him a visit to ask more about it. He told me about past Unbalances and how destructive they were. It made me think that maybe... maybe it's real. I started to do research on it, find out as much as I could. When Dominica and I were on patrol, I noticed that the rings were nothing like what they had taught us during lessons. It would be very easy to take a large vessel out. So I thought, why shouldn't we take precautions to make sure that if the Unbalance really happens, Saturnus would be safe? I planned for it but when I told my idea to Mother, she blew up. Apparently... my birth father went through the rings and died." Airlia gasped softly besides her. "I knew she was just worried about me getting hurt, but I couldn't just ignore what the facts were pointing towards. So, here I am. I've been formulating a plan to get out of the rings, ally with Terra, and try to create peace between all the planets so if the Unbalance happens, we can all stay safe." She bit her lip, waiting for them to yell at her about how insane and crazy she was. But instead, Airlia nodded and stood up.

"Well, you're going to need help." At Cosimia's shocked expression, Airlia put her hands on her hips.

"Cosi, you didn't actually believe you were going to do it alone, did you?" Red crept down her neck and Freda swatted her arm lightly.

"The whole point of a patrol is to help each other, dufus." She snorted and Cosimia felt the first smile in months.

"You're sure about this? You could get into serious trouble from the Commandant by helping me."

Airlia raised a brow. "After what you told us, at least we know the Commandant has feelings." Cosimia shot her a dirty look. Despite their argument, the Commandant was still her mother. Nova, probably the most serious of the bunch, grabbed a spare piece of parchment off the table and began to sketch roughly all over it.

"What's the plan?" Nova said, looking at Cosimia expectantly.

"Get out of the rings." Nova bit her lip.

"Then it looks like we have a lot of work to do."