Joe is in the wheelchair I sat in my first day on the Immortal. He looks like he is leaning back, with his head falling lazily to his shoulder, but I know it's because of the trauma to his brain. Joe has lost most of his motor function control. Even when he sees me and smiles, only one side of his face lifts. I can't bring myself to smile back.

"Good to see you again," he croaks. His voice is dry from disuse.

I strain for the right words to say. "How are you feeling?" I ask.

I immediately scold myself for the question. Of course he's not feeling well, I think. But then Joe replies, "Alive and real. I'm glad to be out of the computer. I never thought I'd see real faces again."

Dr. Guzman wheels him back to his hospital bed, and two nurses help the doctor lift Joe back onto the mattress.

"He'll have to go through intensive physical therapy," Dr. Guzman says, folding the chair and propping it against the wall beside Joe's bed. "And he may never regain full range of motion in his face, but like he said, he's alive."

Just then Winston bursts into the room in a flurry of tears. "Phoebe," he calls as he rushes to her side. A nurse is checking her eyesight by asking her to follow a light she's shining into her eyes. She hasn't said anything to me yet, but her voice comes alive with Winston's name. She flings her arms open to embrace him, and knocks the nurse away in the process. Winston falls into Phoebe's arms, and they grip each other as if they're trying to make sure this is reality. Then again, maybe they are. I wouldn't blame them.

The nurse walks past me smiling. "I'll finish testing later," she says.

My eyes fill with tears as I watch Phoebe and Winston's reunion. They once plotted to make me into a martyr, so I shouldn't care about them. But we all went through so much together that I can't justify feeling angry or resentful toward them now. Unlike Declan, Eleanor, and Ian if he's still alive, at least Winston and Phoebe can be with the person they love. Everyone deserves a fair chance to live, but they also deserve a fair chance to love. Holding onto my anger towards them isn't fair. Not now.

"I waited here every day," Winston says when he finally comes up for air. "I knew you would come back."

Phoebe starts to speak, but her voice is raw. She clears her throat, and says, though barely audible, "You always waited for me." She smiles, and then meets my eyes. Her smile fades. "Isla," she strains to say. "Come here."

I walk toward her, and though Winston appears hurt, he moves to make space for me on Phoebe's bed. I take a seat beside her. "Hey Phoebe," I say. "I'm glad to see you awake."

"I have a few things to say," she says. Always business with her. "First, I saw what Gunther put in your mind, and I just did my best to help Ian."

She doesn't say anything else, so I thank her. She nods.

"Second... I was wrong about you. You have always been loyal to the Deathless. Thank you for taking care of all of us." She looks at Winston after she's said this, and he pulls her hand to his lips for a kiss.

"Sure," I say.

"Third... we are going to destroy Gunther Quail, but it may mean more loss." She waits for me to process this statement, and it takes me a second, but I understand what she's trying to tell me: Ian is likely going to die if he hasn't already.

"Okay," I say.

"Are you sure you're stable enough to fight? I'm not asking to be condescending. I'm asking, because I saw what Gunther has been putting you through. It's perfectly fine if you need some time to make sure you're okay."

I nod. "I can do it. He made the mistake of letting me in his head. I'm not scared of him anymore."

The infirmary door opens with the sounds of heavy breathing. I turn back and see Eleanor guiding Dr. Rachel Sanders into the room. Her pants are wet. Dr. Guzman perks up. "Is she in labor?" he asks.

"Yes," Eleanor answers. "Our first Carrier baby is coming."

Dr. Guzman checks the room, flustered. He pulls his hands through his hair. "Okay, I'm not quite ready for this, I still need to take care of some—"

"Dr. Guzman," Eleanor interrupts with a smile. "I can take care of this."

"I can oversee the birth," Joe offers, but Dr. Guzman shakes his head. "Please."

Eleanor smiles widely. "You're awake, oh my goodness. Welcome back. I'm Eleanor Crowley, Daniel Crowley's mom."

"We've met, actually," Joe says. "At the estate. I helped with the insemination."

Rachel groans with pain from a contraction, probably. Eleanor is shocked back into midwife mode. "Right, sorry Rachel."

The nurses help set up some fabric barriers around the bed on which Eleanor places Rachel, and Dr. Guzman helps Joe back into his wheelchair. "Go easy," he tells him.

"Isla," Eleanor calls from behind the fabric barrier. I go over to her, but quickly turn back around upon seeing Dr. Sanders' feet propped into stirrups at the end of the bed. Eleanor laughs. "Get your mom. She can be my second pair of hands."

I race out of the room, happy for the distraction, when I remember: Dr. Sanders' baby was created from Ava and Ian's DNA. This baby was going to have a father, and now, maybe it won't. Most likely it won't.

Where are you, Ian? I think, but the thought lives only in my mind.

***

Five hours later, Dad and I still sit in the hall outside the infirmary with our words. He's getting better at reading them, but I'm too distracted by everything that has happened today to pay much attention. I'm terrified for Ian, grateful for Phoebe and Joe, happy for Winston, and anxious for the baby to arrive. Who will take care of Ian and Ava's baby?

Dad writes a sentence he finds funny, but when I don't react, my cover is blown.

"You're not listening, are you?" he asks.

I tuck my knees into my chest. "No, sorry."

He gathers the words from the floor, and slips them into a pocket on the front of his shirt. "Then we will just sit and be still," he says, wrapping his arm around me. I tuck my head into his chest. "I think tomorrow is the day we reach St. Louis. You'll see Daniel then," he says.

"Yeah, I know. I'm really worried about Ian, though. That baby in there is his technically, and Dr. Sanders doesn't want it. Now it's no one's."

He squeezes me. "We'll figure it out."

The door from the patio opens, and Declan and Celia enter with stacks of circular patches in their hands. They hurry to me with oversized smiles, so I sit up.

"What's up?" I ask, a little skeptical.

"I commissioned a new Deathless logo from Celia last week, and now we have it," Declan says. "We've actually had it for a couple days now, but after this morning with the incident in the cafeteria, we thought we should show you."

"Why?" I ask.

"Because we made it for you. Now the old Deathless and the new people from the estate have a logo that's a compromise."

I don't understand what they mean until Celia hands me a patch. On it is a black skull, facing completely forward like the Día de los Muertos skulls she once showed me in a book. In place of eye sockets, orange Tiger Lilies bloom outward, reaching across the cheekbones and up into the forehead. The teeth are spiked, like Celia's signature armor and my headband, and they remind me of a shark's mouth. Where the space for an upside down heart-shaped nose hole should be, she has painted an upside down slingshot. This may be the new Deathless logo, but they are right, it is customized just for me. In jagged lettering above and below the skull, it reads, "Deathless Rebels."

"What do you think?" Declan asks.

When Dad and I are too in awe to say anything, Celia fills the silence, "It's special to me, because it also represents part of my culture. My grandma always loved Día de los Muertos, because it was the day she could believe that everyone who was gone came back. It was the day that everyone could be remembered for their life. And I think that fits with the Deathless. Is that stupid?" she asks.

"Not at all," Dad says.

"Celia, this is beautiful," I tell her, and she exhales in relief. "You added the tiger lilies and the slingshot for me?"

She nods. "That's another reason why it's special to me. It's my way of honoring my best friend and sister."

"So you like it?" Declan asks.

"I love it."

"Great, because these are going on all our uniforms," he says.

I smile. "They're perfect."

The infirmary door opens, and Mom steps out. She smiles. "Are you all ready to meet the baby?"

"Everything went okay? It's healthy?" Dad asks.

"Everything went very smoothly, and she is very healthy," Mom responds.

Dad helps me to stand, and then the four of us go to meet the first Carrier baby. Rachel looks exhausted, but she still cradles the small, pale baby in her dark arms. Eleanor cleans the area where everyone is gathered to admire the new life. Phoebe, Winston, Joe, Dr. Guzman, my parents, Julian, Celia, Declan and I all make a circle around Rachel and the baby. As twisted as Gunther's project was, we can all forget it for the moment as we gaze about this precious little girl.

"What will you name her?" Celia asks.

"Well, she's not mine," Rachel says. "I already have my hands full with Oriana and Neo. Eleanor, have you placed her with a family yet?"

Eleanor joins the circle. "I was planning to wait until Ian returned, but... I may have to start searching for a family, just in case."

"Todd and I will take care of her until then," Mom blurts out, not taking her eyes away from the baby.

"We will?" Dad asks with a chuckle.

"Yeah," Mom says, still staring at the child. "This is Drew Becker's grandchild. We owe it to Ian's family to make sure she's taken care of." She approaches Rachel and lifts the baby from her arms. "She should be with people who knew her family until Ian comes back."

Dad breaks from the circle to stand beside Mom. "You're right. Okay, we'll take care of her." He looks up to me and waves for me to join them. I walk into his embrace. "Isla, you knew Ian and Ava best. What should we call her?"

The baby opens her eyes, and her grey-blue irises search our faces. I shrug, starting to cry. I can't think about Ava or Ian right now.

"Wow, her eyes look like a storm," Dad whispers to Mom, and it hits me.

"Tempest," I say.

"What?" Mom asks.

"Well, Dad always compares us to nature, right? Her eyes are like a storm, and a type of storm is a tempest. Ava was forceful like a storm, and that's what Ian loved best about her."

Dad smiles. "Tempest it is."

"Tempest Becker," Mom says to herself, testing it out. She smiles. "I like it." Mom holds Tempest so that she can see everyone in the circle. "Tempest," she says, "meet your new family."

Everyone greets the baby as my mom makes her way around the circle, and Declan and Celia take turns holding her. I try not to feel Ian and Ava's absence too strongly, but I can't help it. Everything about Tempest—whether I'm imagining it or not—reflects her parents so brightly, I can barely look at her without seeing them. I excuse myself from the room, and luckily, no one seems to mind.

I race down the hall to the patio, and after throwing myself against the balcony, I desperately search the sky for planes, tears streaming down my cheeks. Nothing but clouds, grey like Tempest's eyes. I slip down the balcony rails, and sit on the patio floor.

My walkie crackles awake, still on the channel reserved for only me and Daniel. "Isla?"

I peer up, across the distance to the Beast, which still rumbles beside the Immortal. In one of the windows, I can barely make out the look of concern on Daniel's face.

"What happened?" he asks.

"Ian is lost in the world, Phoebe and Joe are awake, and Dr. Sanders had Ian and Ava's baby, who my parents are going to take care of until Ian comes back. If he ever does. I named her Tempest."

I watch Daniel's eyes widen in information overload. "Okay... deep breaths," he says. "I hear good news. We can get the implants out of everyone now, and at least a piece of Ian and Ava is still alive. Plus, your parents always wanted a bigger family, right? At least mine did. If Ian never comes back, at least you know that Tempest will have a good family. Right?"

"Right."

"We're stopping tomorrow," he says. "I will give you a hug then."

I smile. "You better. I need it. Oh—and there's a group of people who attacked the Originals this morning in the cafeteria."

"With orange X's?" Daniel asks.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"It's been happening over here too. I didn't say anything, because I didn't know what it meant. Isla... I think we may have an uprising on our hands."

Not now. This is the last thing we need, I think. We have to stay together.

"What do they want?" Daniel asks.

"They want to support me, I think."

"These are the 'Bloom with Blume' people?"

"Yeah."

He pulls the walkie away from his mouth for a moment to think. "I think I have an idea. I'm going to speak with General Kazemi about it, but there might be a way we can use this to our advantage," he says.

"Alright," I say. Anything to unite us. Maybe the patches Celia and Declan made will work, but in case they don't, I hope Daniel can help fix this.

I say goodbye to Daniel, but before I stand up to go back into the Immortal, I hear something strange from the Beast. It rolls past some sort of trigger that sends sharpened wooden spikes springing up from the ground. Of course, the giant tank runs over the spikes without trouble, but they send shivers coursing through me.

The trap was too rudimentary for the government or Gunther, which means... someone else is out here.