While the Lyreans and the Terranians were working together to arm Terra, Lilith and Rhaena decided (with the blessing of Cooper and Aegar, who could fend for themselves as translators) to take advantage of the ambient agitation to explore some parts of London that they didn't really know well. After their walk, Rhaena decided to show her lover the ship in which she arrived on Terra, so they came back in Peckham High Street, went over the roofs, and Rhaena took her little communicator. She tapped on it as if she was typing a message on a mobile phone, then grabbed Lilith's hand and told her to stand straight unless she wanted to do a nice little backflip when the attractor beam would collect them.

"Attractor beam ? Bingo !", Lilith said. Then, spotting Rhaena's slightly puzzled look, she explained :

"On the day of your first interspecies-meeting attempt, I've seen you and your mates coming down as if you were levitating. Except that levitation isn't naturally possible. Unless your species had some kind of abilities that we humans call "extra-sensorial", but at that time I noticed some sort of flickering around you, a flickering that went straight up to the ship's tip. Therefore, I told myself that I was right, it wasn't natural but technological. An attractor beam. Just like in the science-fiction movies I showed you last week."

"You have good eyes !", Rhaena answered, proud of her lover's cleverness.

Then, the attractor beam began to make them levitate. In a matter of seconds, they were overlooking London.

"Gravity don't mean too much to me....", Lilith hummed. She then smiled as she saw Rhaena chuckle softly. Then, the beam made them change direction, dropping them off on some kind of platform on the ship's side. Rhaena caught Lilith's hand and said with a malicious gleam in the eyes :

"You close your eyes. And no cheating !! You open them when I tell you."

Lilith smirked and did as required. She then felt Rhaena making her come forth, and considering the changes in light on her eyelids, she knew that they were noxw in the ship itself. After a few steps, Rhaena told her to open her eyes.

"Welcome on board of the Destiny !!", the young Lyrean exclaimed. Lilith chuckled, trying hard not to think about the sword-shaped ship that appeared in her favorite science-fiction series. She failed.

The young woman opened her eyes slowly, and pinched herself to see if she was dreaming or not. It was simply magnificent. The walls and the ground were made out of some kind of opaline metal, with pearly reflecions just like the inside of a sea shell. Glowing orbs were quietly floating around, lighting the corridors, split into groups of threes and fours ; casting a yellow-orangey light on the visitors. Here and there, the walls' opaline pannels were inlaid with silver, making drawings of strange glyphs that looked like the ones on Aegar's dagger during the union ceremony. The lovers crossed paths with some other Lyreans who looked quite wary at first, but more friendly after Lilith had saluted them in their language.

The young human was in heaven. Literaly. For a couple of months already, her life had taken quite an unexpected but perfect turn. She had never felt that well, in her element. She was going from discovery to discovery, and that was the apotheosis. Rhaena was watching with an amused look her lover poking around all over the ship, beaming like a child for Christmas. Lilith had then found a control pannel, and it took her only a couple of seconds to find out how it worked. Decidedly, Rhaena had done the right thing by marrying this genius. Something was telling her that she would never get bored with Lilith around.

"Oh. Blimey. Wicked !!", Lilith exclaimed with a grin. She had just found a three-dimensions map of the Destiny and was running through every level to memorise every inch of it. Every corner, every corridor, every cupboard. This done, she turned around to kiss Rhaena then asked her with her voice filled with excitement :

"Would you show me your favorite place ? After all, you know every inch of my rooftop, but I have still not seen your special place..."

"Follow me, then, Itha", Rhaena said with a sparkling smile.

They crossed several other corridors, heading to the center of the ship. According to the map Lilith had just memorised, they were walking to the ship's control room. And when they went through another door that slided in a whoosh.....

"Bingo", Lilith thought. They were indeed in the control room.

"That's where I prefer to be.", Rhaena said. "From here, you can know everything that's going on on this ship, nut not only. You can also know what's happening up here, in outer space. It's just like you had every existing world within reach.Besides, it's where we have the best view !!", she explained while pointing a wide bay window occupying a wall of the room. The couple went closer to the window, contemplating London.

"Hey, look ! The London Eye !", Lilith exclaimed as she noticed a small point on the horizon.

"And here, there's your estate", Rhaena said while pointing a building below, dwarfed by the ship's height.

"Indeed, that's the Powell Estate.... Funny", Lilith smirked.

They stayed here for a while, observing the city as dusk was setting. Rhaena had laid her head on Lilith's shoulder. The young human blushed violently as she didn't really know how to react. After all, it was the first time someone actually cared about her. Oh, she had her mother, but last mentioned was generally too drunk to even recognize her daughter. Eventually, the young woman had laid her head on Rhaena's, who nearly purred with contentment.

Then, the contemplative silence that had settled between them was broken by Lilith's phone's ringing. She sighed, then softly smiled as she saw Rhaena pouting while straightening up ; and took out her hellish Al Capone before checking the name that appeared on the screen.

"Mom ?", she said as she picked up.

"Hhhheeyyy, dearie, would it bather.... bither....mind. D'you mind to go and get me mads...meds for hangovers ?", a whiskey-soaked Evalyn asked. A cloud came into Lilith's eyes, and she answered :

"No problem, on our way."

She put her phone bach in her pocket and turned around towards Rhaena.

"She doesn't seem well. Is it because of the..... What's it called already ? Visby ?"

"Whisky. Yup, must be because of that. Or maybe she drank miles of vodka shots in some pub."

They came back down on the ground and went to get Evalyn's remedy, when som kind of rumbling blared. It reminded Lilith of the shock wave that shook the whole city when the Lyreans arrived... She got a bad feeling about this. Rhaena kept glancing around, looking for the rumbling's origin, then let out a surprised gasp as she spotted her mentor who was running towards them.

"The Möreans are here ! They found us ! Go somewhere safe, both of you, now !!", he exclaimed when he reached them.

"But it's too early ! They can't be there yet, according to what you told me about their technology !", Lilith said, puzzled and worried.

"Apparently we were wrong ! Their ships are more powerful than predicted ! Now go !!"

Lilith felt a tension on the short sleeve of her black t-shirt. She peeked at Rhaena who was staring at the sky with big round eyes. An enormous ship had just appeared. It was far more impressive than the Destiny. Its size was so important that its shadow was covering the whole city and beyond, giving the impression that the night had already completely settled. This ship was entirely black, and even if it was still high in the sky, considering its size Lilith could see its architecture and its details. It felt like a combination of metal and organic. The sapceship itself looked like some sort of huge, reptilian, even nightmarish beast in the twilight glow.

The gigantic canons deployed all around London as well as those installed everywhere in Europe began to blast bursts of pure energy, white and blinding. In the streets of Peckham, they could see as in broad daylight. The huge Mörean mothership responded, opening fire on London, and Lilith could see a multitude of smaller shuttles taking off before opening fire in the streets, deploying soldiers as they flew closer to the ground. In a matter of seconds, it was chaos.

Rhaena squeezed Lilith's hand in hers, grabbed Aegar's hand and the three of them started to run towards the Powell Estate. They dodged the building's rubbles that collapsed in front of them because of the enemies' fire, then, guided by Lilith who knew every onch of her borough, ran in a side-street when a Mörean squad had landed in the main street and started to shoot. They kept running, approaching the estate right when an explosion blew the whole street, knocking out the three as they collided on some other building's rubble. For a few seconds, Lilith couldn't see anything except some white fog created by the ruins' dust. And the silence stunned her. She couldn't hear anything. Then unexpectedly, all the surrounding sounds found their way back into her eardrums. The explosion had only given her a huge tinnitus. The young woman shook her brown and red hair to dust off the white ashes. Rhaena and Aegar got up in turn, and Lilith let out a relieved sigh as she saw that none of them was injured. A couple of minutes later, the white dust settled, and the three of them noticed that there was nothing left of the street. Or the Powell Estate. Nothing. Just rubbles and dust. Blood, too. Nothing else. Lilith held her breath. What if.... Impossible. Evalyn wasn't a fantastic mother, but she still had a lot to do for her daughter. She couldn't die now and abandon Lilith for good. Not yet. And at once, all the times the young woman had to go pick her mother up in her pubs, all these unpleasant memories vanished. The good moments were all that remained. The complicity and affection, sometimes. And Lilith realized it fully, entirely, for the first time. The word "mother" took on its full meaning, now. Evalyn was her mother and Lilith loved her, damn it ! So no way she ended up like that, in an explosion !

Lilith sped up towards what had once been the building in which she grew up, fumbling in the rubble, throwing away the remaining bricks..... Then a glow caught her eye. She got on her feet, almost ran towards the glow, skidding in the rubble, and saw... A pendant. And not just any. Her mother's. Given by Lilith's father on the day he and her mother got married. Lilith knew every detail of the simple pendant, even though she never paid much attention to it before. She noticed that it was soaked with blood. And considering the force of the blast, the mass of debris that hadn't been simply vaporized in the explosion.... Despite all the calculations, all the hypotheses that followed one another in Lilith's overpowered brain, she knew it. There wasn't any chance her mother survived. No one could survive this. Evalyn Gardner was dead.

Lilith fell backwards, her lungs aching. Actually, her whole chest was tight and burning. Asthma ? No, that would be ridiculous, she never had had it. No, that was.... pain. Lilith had lost her mother, and it hurt, it hurt terribly. She suddenly felt two hands on her shoulders. She turned around and saw Aegar and Rhaena.

"I am sorry. But we must not stay here. We have to go.", Aegar said with his calm, soothing voice.

"He's right. It's dangerous to stay here any longer.", Lilith thought. "No way they get hurt- or worse- too. No more. You are Lilith Gardner, your IQ is 190, and you know this city far better than them. So you pull yourself together, and you get them away safely ! There's a time for everything, and wailing isn't the priority right now."

She got up, her eyes perfectly dry and her brain in full swing, burying her pain deep down in her soul. She dusted her black jeans, then stared right into Rhaena and Aegar's eyes.

"Let's get outta here.", she said.

"We have to reach the ship", Rhaena suggested. "We'll be safer there."

"Indeed", her mentor approved.

They began to go up the flow of the panick-stricken crowd that tried to run away from London, dodging the Möreans' shots, Aegar having their backs. Lilith felt like a cold hand squeezing her entrails. She was scared. No, even worse than scared : she was terrified. And apparently Rhaena too. All of a sudden, they heard Aegar gasping in pain. The young women turned around in the same movement, and saw the Lyrean stumble. He spat some ultramarine blue blood, wincing in suffering. Some sort of black spear stuck in his back, coming out of his chest. A squad of Möreans had just turned up behind the three, one of them fatally injuring Aegar.

For the first time, Lilith could clearly see the enemy. The Möreans had pointed ears just like the Lyreans, but their head was bald, their teeth were needle-like and their skin emerald green and scaly like a snake's.

Rhaena rushed to keep her mentor from falling, repeating in lyrean that everything would be fine, they only needed to reach the ship, two streets from there, to escape, that his wound wasn't that bad.... Aegar cut her off.

"You go, the both of you. NOW !! Get back to the ship and go away ! Far, far away !"

"No, Aegar, you're coming with us !", Rhaena cried.

"Ena, I've spent enough time bothering you with medicine for you to know that I will not make it alive ! May my death be useful, at least. I can hold them off, slow them down, but you would better run away and hurry up !!", he roared.

"Angel, I'm sorry... But it's true. We have to go.", Lilith said softly. She felt her eyes filling with tears again. Rhaena began to cry and repeat "no !", Lilith lift her by the waist and started to walk backwards, feeling tears pouring along her cheeks.

"Ena !", Aegar called her one last time. "I love you, my daughter."

The Möreans moved even closer, and Aegar fell. Rhaena yelled.

"Angel, I'm sorry, we have to go, we must leave, now...."

Lilith pulled her lover right towards the spaceship, going through the rooftops to avoid the Mörean troups. Rhaena had calmed down when they reached the Destiny, even though there were still tears pouring down her cheeks. She still kept a clear head. But at the very moment she took her silvery device to summon the attractor beam, a shot of concentrated energy coming from the Mörean mothership striked the Lyrean ship with most force. The upper half of the ship purely and simply exploded, sending a shock wave into the sky, then the rest of the ship collapsed on the ground, sparing Lilith and Rhaena on their rooftop. When the dust settled, the couple beheld the chaos provoked by the turquoise and silver ship's fall.

Some kind of alarm rang from Rhaena's device, startling them both. She tapped it quickly, then her eyes widened in shock.

"It's happening again... The humans weakened their planet's core too... Look, Itha", she exclaimed, brandishing her communicator. "The Möreans destroyed every single dark energy-canon ! This added to their own shooting, it weakened the core even more ! It's happening just like on Lyra ! The planet's not going to resist it ! It can't !"

"We're fucked."

"Nah, d'you think ?"

Lilith took a look at the surroundings, her genius brain actively searching a solution. And as she examined the Destiny's remains..... Bingo.

"Angel, is a lyrean shuttle able to fly into space ?"

"Yes, they're built like miniature Destiny. We can live in there just like we were in an actual ship as long as we want and travel with it across the Universe. Why ?"

"Because as far as I can see, it looks like one's in running order. Or flying. Whatever."

Rhaena squinted and exclaimed :

"Yes, you're right ! There's one untouched ! Hold on."

She manipulated her device and turned around, holding high the communicator.

"There isn't any living Lyrean here... All those who stayed on the ship- that is to say everyone except me- are... dead."

"I'm sorry."

The Lyrean had a sad smile, then added :

"However, there's a lot of Möreans around and Terra's core is in critical state. If we escape with the shuttle, it's now or never !"

"Let's go."

They ran as fast as they could towards the shuttle, doging the Mörean ship's fire as well as the soldiers', then rushed into the little ship. Rhaena dashed towards the control pannel, checking the systems and show Lilith a map.

"Well, well... When you said it was fully equipped, that wasn't porkies... Seriously, there's several rooms and everything we need to live in there !", the young human exclaimed.

"Told you so ! Anyway, the shuttle's intact."

Another alarm came out of Rhaena's device. She opened it, and said :

"All the other Lyrean ships have been destroyed. Not a survivor on all seven ships."

She smiled sadly.

"I'm the only one left, now. And speaking of good news, Terra's core will implode in a few seconds now. Time to go."

She took off the shuttle, helped by Lilith who was learning how to fly the spacecraft by doing. In no time they were in space, then Rhaena lowered a little lever. They were now travelling faster than light. When the shuttle slowed down, back to normal speed, they were far enough from Terra so the implosin wasn't a threat anymore.

In a flash, what had once been called the "blue planet" had become a yellow-orangey ball of fire. Then, nothing. Just rocks and dust. What remained from Terra and the Moon would become, later, a second asteroid belt.

Lilith peeked at the monitor screen.

"No heat signature from Terra. No survivor.", she read. "And apparently no other ship than ours in all Solar System. The Möreans didn't have time to go away, did they ?"

No. They can go faster than light, but their technology is still not as powerful as our shuttle. Besides, we barely escaped. No, they didn't survive, this time."

Lilith thought about her mother, about Aegar, about Cooper too. After all, she rather liked the agent.

"No survivor, eh... That means that I'm the only human left. I'm the only one left.", she said softly. "There's just us."

"As long as we're together, we're invincible. Moreover, didn't you tell me that your biggest dream was to go in space ? There's just us, now, it's true. But we're together and the whole Universe is waiting for us !!"

"Yes. We're together. For all time, always.", Lilith added before kissing her lover.