A loud thud echoed through the hall immediately before I was about to announce that I'd retract my allegations against the Andekas family.

Distracted from my decision, I looked in the direction of the commotion to find Dominic grappling with Tobi, trying desperately to prise the blade from his fingers.

Undeterred from his enforced mission, it was clear that Tobi was intent making every effort to fulfil the directive he'd been given, twisting his wrist free of the intervening man after kicking him hard in the shin.

Dominic winced, but otherwise held his ground, shoving the platinum blond Katki backwards before lunging for the knife again.

"Seven Zero Eight One, stand down!" Thomas' enraged voice reverberated through the chamber.

Tobi immediately complied, enabling Dominic to relax enough to take a step back.

"Dominic, what are you doing?" Thomas reprimanded his son in a disparaging tone. "You're here to observe, not to interfere. Move out of the way before you get hurt."

"Peter's my friend and I don't want to see him harmed," Dominic asserted.

"I understand, son, but this is necessary," he countered. "Remove yourself from the room if you'd rather not witness it, but I need Matthew on those screens. Peter's going to help me to persuade him to see reason, so you need to step aside."

Dominic didn't move.

"Choose someone else," the younger man insisted. "Not Peter."

Thomas blinked incredulously.

"Someone else?" he scorned, crossing his arms. "You need to focus on the bigger picture, Dominic. Stop acting as though you're in love with this man and let me do what's required."

Dominic paused, clearly pondering his next words carefully as every pair of eyes in the room watched on in intense silence.

"And what if I was?" he eventually retorted, a new level of defiance forming in his hazel eyes.

Several people gasped, and one of his siblings started muttering indecipherably to another one.

Thomas looked unimpressed.

"Don't be ridiculous," his father jeered. "You're one of us, not one of them."

"You sound so sure of that," Dominic challenged, his eyes narrowing.

Thomas looked thoroughly confused and turned to his wife for clarification.

"Rachel, what's going on? Don't tell me he was a match?"

"Why not?" Dominic interjected before his mother could respond. "What would you have done if you'd found out I'd been a match against the Katki template, father? Sent me into slavery with the others?"

"How dare you!" Rachel scowled at her son. "After all I've done to protect you! I gave you your freedom. I sacrificed everything so that you could have a normal life, and you're throwing it away – for what? You must know Peter will never feel about you the way you feel about him!"

"It doesn't matter!" Dominic barked at his mother, taking a step forward into an aggressive stance. "I know he won't ever love me back and I don't care! I just don't want him to be harmed. As for having a normal life, that will never happen, don't you see? Anyone capable of reciprocating my feelings is trapped in a shell!" he added, motioning towards Tobi with his hand to illustrate his point.

"You have no idea what I've had to do to keep this quiet," Rachel hissed. "And yet you still want more. Can't you see your father is focused on a wider issue? And yet you insist on standing in his way, despite having more freedom than any other Katki. How could you be so ungrateful and selfish?"

"Selfish?" Dominic spluttered in disbelief. "Because I want to find someone to settle down with?"

"Because you won't step aside and let me do what I need to do to restore peace!" Thomas thundered, giving Rachel a sidelong glance that indicated he would deal with her later. "You're putting your own paltry desires above re-establishing the long-standing tranquillity in our society!"

"Maybe I am selfish to want what they have," the young man concurred, indicating Seren and Peter. "Or maybe I just don't want to live a lie anymore. Either way, I've spent too much time hiding my true feelings, never able to meet anyone who can reciprocate them. I want the chance to love and be loved in return, and if things stay as they are, that will never happen. So, no, father, I won't be stepping aside."

"Then you leave me no choice but to have you removed," Thomas asserted, nodding towards one of the guards to indicate his wishes were to be carried out.

As the sentinel advanced towards Dominic, I heard a clatter on the floor. Two small cannisters rolling in my direction caught my attention seconds before the room filled with smoky vapour thick enough to obscure everyone's vision.

Having impaired movement was bad enough, but having my sight limited as well set off a new wave of panic, which only surged more as I coughed from inhaling the fumes. I turned to the only person whose face I could still see, but it seemed that even in this overwhelming situation, Peter remained relatively composed.

I watched as he leaned forward slightly and lashed out behind him with his right leg, kicking the guard that was restraining him firmly in the shin.

As adrenaline flooded my system, I instinctively copied my friend, kicking my own sentinel in an identical manner. But despite feeling I'd kicked him hard, and knowing that Peter would have done the same, neither of the guards did more than flinch. It seemed their training had resulted in more resilience than we'd given them credit for, although it was possible we were weaker than we thought after a few days our respective cells.

Peter continued to kick backwards repeatedly, but I was too dazed to continue with what felt like futile actions. Judging by the cacophony of sound emanating from the commotion emerging around us, I wasn't the only one that was rattled by the circumstances we now found ourselves in.

Coughing and thudding could be heard from every direction through the thick, cloudy gas. People were starting to shout, but there were too many voices to decipher what any of them were saying – substantially more voices that I remembered there being people in the room.

Perhaps I was just disorientated from the impairment of my senses. Certainly, this discord was becoming too much for me on top of prior events, making my head swim, and I was struggling to form a coherent thought.

Listening helplessly as anonymous voices drew closer, I braced myself for the arrival of more unidentified potential tormentors. My attention was promptly drawn to the sound of a scuffle behind me, resulting in my guard releasing his grip on my restraints. The sound of keys was swiftly followed by a click, as my wrists were released and I was free to turn and face my liberator, who was already unlocking Peter's handcuffs.

I recognised the young Katki from the time I'd spent at the fort, despite having not spoken to her much.

Both guards were sprawled on the floor behind her, apparently unconscious, and I recognised the shape of the punch-injector that was protruding from a pouch tied to her waist.

Turning to me, she smiled through the waning mistiness.

"I have Matthew and Peter!" she yelled into the brume.

My mind was still processing information as I stood, rubbing my aching wrists, bewildered, while watching Peter do the same.

Any remaining anxiety started to dissipate along with the thinning cloud around us as my father's face broke though the smoky haze.

"Father?" I uttered, confused. "I don't understand. What's going on?"

"Matthew," he greeted me, visibly relaxing. "First, we need to make sure everyone's all right, and then I'll explain everything. Are either of you hurt?" he added, turning to indicate Peter.

I shook my head, relieved that I was now able to see that Tobi looked unharmed and was still standing in exactly the same position he'd been in before our vision had been obscured.

"Then let's get you out of here, son," my father suggested, pulling me into one of his bear hugs for a moment, before pulling back and resting his hands on my shoulder so he could see me properly. "Why didn't you come to me with any of this?"

"I knew how loyal you were to the Andekas," I acknowledged sheepishly.

"You thought I was more dedicated to them than to my own family?" he inferred.

"I don't know," I admitted. "You've always seemed so devoted."

Looking straight into my eyes, he shook his head.

"I did what I did because of my family," he urged. "Your mother and I wanted a child more than anything and we did whatever it took to make that happen. My priority is, and always has been, my family, and if I've ever made you feel like that's not the case, then I sincerely apologise. I wish you'd come to me, Matthew."

"I thought I was handling it," I sighed, pulling in sharp, ragged breaths as my emotions overwhelmed me. "And then suddenly everything was spiralling out of control so fast. I just ... I didn't realise what I was getting into."

"Come on, son," he said, pulling me into another tight hug. "Let's get you home."

Over his shoulder, I saw Thomas in restraints and several Katki dealing with the aftermath of their rebellious act. Everything appeared to be under control as my father and I separated again.

With his restraints now gone, I saw that Peter had approached Dominic.

"That was a brave thing you did," he said, putting one hand on Dominic's shoulder. "I'm so grateful to you. That couldn't have been easy."

Dominic nodded silently, apparently unable to form words as the tears slithered wildly down his sallow cheeks.

I made a move towards the Thomas' eldest son, hoping to offer him some solace, as Seren joined her husband.

"We'll make sure he's all right," Peter reassured me as he turned to face me, evidently realising what my intentions were. "I think it's the least we can do. You go and get some rest."

Inhaling deeply, I nodded and turned my attention to the platinum blond Katki who stood vacant and oblivious in the aftermath of the alarming events that had happened around him. My heart ached to free him, but I consoled myself with the knowledge that at least he was safe, without serious injury and having not done any permanent damage to anyone else.

Walking over to him, I cupped his face gently, trying to find his soul in those lifeless ice-blue eyes, but finding only cold indifference. Reassuring myself that I just needed to be patient, I wept silently, my cheeks continuing to feel the stream of the saltwater that wouldn't stop flowing.

"Tobi," I stated as I let go of him and tried to sound authoritative, despite feeling that I sounded less than convincing. "Follow me."

Watching my father make herbal tea for me and my subdued Katki wasn't something I ever dreamt would happen, and yet here I was.

Pulling up a chair, my father joined us, alongside my mother, at the small kitchen table at my parents' house. My own house had been ransacked by the Andekas' soldiers and my father suggested waiting for my shock to subside before returning there.

"How did you know what was going on?" I asked as he sat down. "Did you manage to get my journal somehow? Seren said she didn't manage to retrieve it?"

"No, I don't know anything about a journal," he admitted, taking a sip of his tea before continuing. "Do you remember, last Autumn, you asked me about Dr Harold Stone?"

I nodded as I took a sip of my own.

"I know you claimed to have pressed the wrong keys on the computer, Matthew, but I can tell when my son's lying," he continued, smiling just a little bit. "I knew your questions about Harold weren't purely conversational, but what I didn't know was why you were so interested in him. So, I worked a little later that evening and went back through the list of computer logs that had been accessed that day. I discovered that you'd been viewing the entry relating to the Katki result for Dominic Andekas.

"Your actions confused me. I couldn't understand your intentions. Like most people, your mother and I believed the propaganda and assumed that the Katki were aggressive. But what I did know was that investigating someone in the Andekas family could potentially lead you to trouble, and I also knew you well enough to know you were unlikely to disclose the information if I pushed you for it. So, with the help of your mother and the access I had to the lab, we decided to ensure we were prepared for a variety of situations, just in case anything went awry. We didn't know what you were doing or how we could help, so we just pulled a number of resources together, hoping we never actually needed to use them.

"Shortly before the Andekas announced that they wanted you for questioning, we had guards stationed outside our house. I assume their job was to ensure nobody entered or left the premises until the Andekas family had reached a resolution and could figure out the extent of our involvement.

"Thankfully, as part of our preparations for emergency situations, I'd taken enough chemicals from the laboratory to create a basic sedative which allowed us to remove the sentries without hurting them.

"The Andekas were fixated on trying to resolve the Ravim problem and pacify the anarchy you'd created. Presumably that, coupled with the idea that they thought we were being monitored effectively, meant your mother and I must have slipped under their radar.

"That allowed me to go in search of Harold, who I suspected you'd already spoken to after our conversation about him. Once he understood my motivation for seeking him out, he told me everything. And when Elizabeth took me up to the sanctuary they'd created together, I recognised your Katki immediately. He was gentle and kind, just as you'd described in your broadcast, and clearly devastated that you were in the hands of the Andekas family. Elizabeth's contact inside the walls of the Kinnisvara was able to give us a broad idea of their intentions, so we knew where you were likely to be and when, which gave us a way of planning and implementing some strategy. Everyone living at the fort in Rannik was keen to contribute to any proposal that involved bringing down the Andekas, and a sizeable group of civilians that had been touched by your broadcast also found their way into our network and came forward to offer their assistance.

"I'd previously taken enough materials from the lab to be able to create some simple smoke bombs that could be used to obscure vision and a few chemical explosives. Nothing that would inflict any damage, of course – mainly just things that would cause confusion. The explosives didn't do much other than make a loud noise, but they served as a useful distraction. Since the sentries were all on edge anyway, they were inclined to investigate any abnormal sounds."

"You got inside by creating distractions?" I repeated as the information sunk in.

"Indeed, we did," he confirmed. "After being seen on the screen during your transmission, Tobi was very recognisable to pretty much anyone who saw him, which also came in handy as a diversion."

"Wait," I stated, blinking with astonishment. "You used my Katki as bait?"

"Well, that part was his idea," my father clarified. "Although, Tobi and Elizabeth getting themselves arrested wasn't part of the plan, so we had to improvise a little after that. But he was just as keen to get you out of there as I was. In fact, he seems to care about you a great deal."

Instinctively, I turned to steal a glance at my impassive platinum blond Katki, who'd risked so much for us to have a chance to be together again, and although he didn't know it yet, had potentially helped to give all the Katki an opportunity for freedom and love.

"He does, father," I acknowledged, turning back to my parents, grateful to be out of that prison cell surrounded by people I cared about. "And the feeling is mutual. I have so much to tell you both."

"Then why don't you start at the beginning?" my father prompted with a welcoming smile.