Rhea faded back into consciousness, bright lights bombarding her vision. She was flat on her back in a bed, one wing sitting atop a cloth that was suspended from the ceiling. The other hung off the opposite side of the bed loosely. As her mind warmed up, Rhea recognized her surroundings. She was back at Legion Headquarters, in one of the rooms of the small Hospital wing. They quickly found that they needed one, because of the dangerous line of work the heroes were in.

        She lifted her head a bit, looking around the room. As her eyes adjusted, she noticed that there was a figure sitting on the chair next to the bed, peering back at her anxiously. It was Brooke.

"How did I get here?" Rhea questioned weakly.

"You were knocked out, and brought here. I think you may have broken a wing." Brooke answered quietly.

        Rhea let her head fall back on the pillow. 

"I'm so sorry I couldn't get you out of there." She whispered, voice cracking and eyes sparkling with tears.

"Don't even talk like that. I was told about what happened while I was in the ship. You did everything you could, if not more." Brooke replied quickly, reaching out one hand to gently touch Rhea's wing. 

"How did you even get out?" Rhea asked.

"He let me go. But he took Supernova into the ship." Brook replied ruefully. 

"Damn." Rhea whispered.

        The door to the small room opened, and a nurse quickly shuffled in. He was dressed in white.

"So you've woken up. I assume you're wondering about any injuries you may have received." He said.

        Rhea nodded anxiously, afraid of what he might say. What if she could never fly again?

"You're very lucky. Your left wing is sprained, so you'll need to avoid flying for a few weeks. It will heal fine as long as you're careful. Aside from a few scrapes and bruises, all you have is a minor concussion." He explained.

        Rhea sighed with relief. Avoiding flight for a few weeks would be a struggle, but it was nothing she couldn't do.

"We'd like you to stay here for the rest of the day so we can monitor you for any other injuries." He continued.

"Alright, then." Rhea answered.

        The nurse wished her luck before leaving the room. 

"I guess it could be worse." Rhea said with a shrugged.

"You're right. You could have died." Brooke replied.

"You could have died too, you know. Which got me thinking."

        Brooke tilted her head.

"What do you mean?" 

"We both know what happened on the balcony at the party. We can't just keep on refusing to acknowledge it. Either of us could die suddenly, and leave so much unresolved." Rhea explained.

"You're right. I guess I was just afraid to say anything. But... I really do like you, Rhea."

"I feel the same way. And to be entirely honest, I want to be with you. Even with the risk that may come with." Rhea replied.

        Brooke smiled.

"I think we can make this work." She said, reaching out a hand to place it atop Rhea's.

        Fey sat, arms wrapped tightly around her legs, on the cold, metal floor of the small ship. Her back was to Ceris, refusing to look at him. Tears were still rolling down her cheeks, and choked sobs escaped her throat over and over. Her body was so weak, and her mind so flooded with emotion. She didn't know what to do but cry.

"Stop crying, Quasra. This is for the better. You weren't among your kind on Earth. Now you can reach your full potential." Ceris told her, in a comforting tone that Fey didn't buy it for a second.

        She released another choking sob.

"You killed her!" She spilled out.

"Don't stress over that. She fulfilled her purpose, there's no reason for her to be alive anymore." Ceris said, placing a hand on Fey's shoulder.

        In a quick yet shaky motion, Fey grabbed one of the knives from her belt and whirled around. She stabbed it into his wrist. Ceris yanked back his arm with a shout.

"How dare you? What did they teach you on that planet?" He shouted.

        Fey wiped the tears from her puffy eyes.

"They taught me to stand up against cruelty and darkness." She growled.

        Suddenly, the exhaustion from crying dulled. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, and she felt stronger than she ever had. Her anger had manifested, and Ceris was the only thing in her way. She slid her knife back into her pocket, facing away from her father. Within her lilac palms, she formed a glowing ball of energy. It was denser than any sphere she'd made before, whiter than white and glowing brighter than ever before. She only had a moment before he saw its glow.

        She turned around, fiercely hurling the ball at Ceris. Since he was addressing the wound on his hand, he barely had a moment to turn. The glowing sphere struck him in the lower stomach. It didn't go right through him, like his own attack had done to her mother, but it went deep. The hole smoked, singed and bloody. The alien roared in pain. 

        He formed a ball of his own, throwing it back at Fey in a desperate attempt to defend himself. But in his pain, he didn't have the power to aim. Fey dodged the attack, running forward as she pulled a knife from her belt. She held it to his throat, wide eyed.

        Fey was frozen for a moment. Ceris was on the ground, laying, wide eyed, with a knife to his throat. She hesitated, not knowing what to do. He had done so much to hurt her and her mother. But he was still her father, and she was afraid to make the decision to take a life all on her own. But she didn't have time to think. If she hesitated any longer, he would be able to overpower him again. She had taken him down only with the element of surprise, and once that wore off...

        She looked away, and brought the blade down deep, slicing with as much force as she could to make sure it would go as fast as possible. Ceris shouted, coughing and sputtering. He struggled, but was already weakened by the gaping wound in his stomach. It took several minutes for him to die, much longer than Fey had expected. Blood dribbled from his mouth, splattering onto Fey with each cough. She couldn't bring herself to look, but the warm fluid splashing onto her made her want to vomit. Eventually, he ceased moving, eyes growing dull and face slack. She pulled her knife from his neck, backing away.

        Fey took a moment to calm herself down, crouching on the metal floor of the craft, covering her face with one hand. Once her breathing slowed, she allowed herself to think of what she would do next. 

        Obviously, she needed to get home. But she needed to figure out how. Ceris couldn't control the ship anymore, so she had to. She was sure that they couldn't be too far away from Earth, but she would still need to figure out the foreign controls. She didn't even know how to fly a ship made for humans, so that might be a problem.

        She had to step over her father's limp body to get to what she was pretty sure was the controls. His dark blood was already drying on the floor, staining the metal. Once she reached the controls, she looked them over intensely. There weren't too many buttons and levers, luckily, but the labels above them were written in the Virtagen language, which she barely knew. She had been taught some of it when she visited Vivis, but that was a long time ago, and she hadn't learned very much. 

        She took hold of what was clearly a joystick for controlling the ship's movements. When she pushed it forward gently, the ship moved. It lagged considerably, but maybe it was for the better. She'd have more time to think about her movements. The thick window in front of her showed a million stars, but Earth was nowhere in sight. Fey didn't allow herself to panic, though.

        She maneuvered the ship around in different directions, looking for anything familiar. When her eyes were bombarded with light, she knew that she had found the sun. After searching even more, using the sun to find her bearings, her eyes landed on the Earth. It looked so small from space.

        Fey urged the ship closer, at a much higher speed than she was moving before. It was exhilarating, but terrifying. It took over an hour to reach Earth, but once she did, she reached a roadblock. Fey had no idea how or where she would land. She looked over the controls again,  but it became clear that there would be no way for her to land on her own. However, one button stood out, giving her an idea. Fey interpreted the swirly Virtagen letters as "Painful Distress Signal Hole." She couldn't help but chuckle, certain that she'd made a mistake in translation. However, the words 'distress signal' might mean she could use it to call for help.

        She pressed the button, and it began to glow and emit what sounded like radio crackles. What looked like a microphone slid from a previously unseen panel. Without much else to do, she leaned her head close to it, and began to speak.

"I'm not sure who this will reach, but this is Fey Taryn. I am a member of the Legion, and I was kidnapped by my Virtagen father, Ceris, and taken into space. I am currently in his spaceship, hovering near Earth. He is no longer a threat. I do not know how to land, so this is a request for rescue. Please, send help." Fey said, as loudly and clearly as possible.

        The microphone slid back into its hole, leaving Fey in complete silence, alone with the corpse of Ceris. His blank eyes seemed to stare at her. The throat wound still oozed blood slowly. She couldn't bare to look at it. Fey pushed him onto his front, so he lay face down. His weight was nearly double hers, and it took all of her strength just to move him. But she no longer needed to look at his empty face.

        There were no readable clocks, but Fey waited for hours. She didn't know how the distress call function worked, but she hoped that someone on Earth would receive it and contact the Legion. Even after hours passed, Fey refused to let herself panic. Space travel would take time, nobody would show up that fast.

        Almost a full day passed. The dead body began to emit the foul odor of decomposition. Fey was half asleep, leaning against the metal wall, when the ship quaked suddenly. She snapped awake and jumped to her feet, looking around. It rumbled a few more times, before going eerily still. With the creak of metal on metal, the door of the ship fell to the ground. Fey expected for the oxygen within the ship, along with the artificial gravity, to be sucked out, but there was no change in pressure.

        With a burst of movement, two tall figures marched into the ship. To Fey's surprise, they were Virtagens. They held spears with sharp blades on the end, pointed right at her. The armed aliens took a quick look around the ship, and relaxed their weapons. 

"Quasra, please enter the other ship." The one on the right told her, beckoning to the doorway with his free hand.

        When Fey approached the destroyed door, she found that it connected to another ship via some sort of tube. She walked through, finding herself into a larger Virtagen ship. Unlike her father's craft, it had multiple rooms. She couldn't tell the full size from the room she was in, but it branched into several hallways, allowing her to estimate its size.

        Within the larger ship, a Virtagen male was standing ready to greet her. She recognized him immediately as the ambassador who showed her around the Virtagen planet, Vivis, when she visited. Fey quickly ran up to him to give him a hug.

"Gano! Thank you so much for getting me out of there!" She said, simply glad to see someone alive after her day of isolation. 

        Gano stepped back, keeping one hand on Fey's shoulder.

"I apologize for sending in the soldiers. We worried that Ceris may have used you to send the distress signal to us, so he could make an attack. He hasn't made any sort of contact in years, but one can only be so careful. However, I see you've already taken care of him." Gano pointed out.

"I didn't want to kill him, Gano. But there wasn't anything else I could have done. He just killed my mom-" Fey sputtered, reliving the memories of her mother's death, but the Virtagen cut him off.

"Do not be ashamed of what you did. I commend you for having the bravery to do it." Gano told her.

        Fey sighed, feeling suddenly exhausted beyond belief. Everything that had happened just sucked the energy out of her in one swift motion.

"Come, Fey, have a seat. We'll take you back to Earth immediately. I'm sure your Legion is worried about you." Gano said, leading her to a nearby chair gently.

        He was right. A wave of guilt washed over her, just imagining how everyone she knew must feel. Did they think her dead? Or even worse? How must they feel that there was nothing they could do but watch as she was taken away by her own father? Fey wiped a few tears from her cheeks, her head down, staring at the floor. She just wanted to go home.

        The Virtagen ship landed in a field, on the outskirts of Peek City, beside Legion Headquarters. Once they had picked Fey up, the Virtagens had contacted the Legion to let them know that Fey was alright. Once they landed, a few Legion members ran out to greet them. As Fey walked out of the ship, she recognized them.

        Julian Smoke was there, with Insectoid beside him. However, Fey was happiest to see Theo. He ran up to her, grabbing her in a huge hug. Once the rest of the three came up, he finally stepped away.

"We're relieved that you're okay, Fey. I'm so sorry about everything that happened." Julian said, running his robotic fingers through his black hair.

        After speaking to Fey, he turned to address Gano.

"Thank you for bringing her back, Gano. We don't have any spaceships of our own, so it would have been disastrous without your help. We'll certainly be in your debt." He said, nodding at the tall alien.

"It's no problem to help a Virtagen like Quasra. Even with a father like hers, she has shown great loyalty. I can see Insectoid trained her well." Gano said, putting a plum-colored hand on her shoulder.

        Insectoid smiled and nodded.

"Fey, you're probably starving from being in that ship for a day. You should probably go and get something to eat. We'll stay here and speak with Gano." Julian suggested.

        Fey nodded vigorously. She was so hungry her stomach was rolling with pain. She practically ran inside, with Theo in tow. Things had been rough, but they were beginning to look up. She had lost a lot the day before, and grieving her mother's sudden death would be hard. But Fey considered herself lucky. She had survived, and she still had her friends and the Legion. Things were bleak, but they were looking up.