The ArcDefense office floor they found themselves on was nearly identical to the one Xaleyp and Mian had encountered Tober in. Just like that day, the office was devoid of workers, though datapads and computers were strewn about the floor from the explosions, and a thick cloud of dust hung in the air. The central shaft for the lift sat deactivated, and the door was open at an awkward angle, with the top of it being closed more than the bottom.

Beta marched straight over to the lift, using the strength of the exosuit to pry the doors open and hold them.

“By my calculations, we’re on the seventy third floor and we need to get to the thirtieth. No stairwells, so we’re going to have to use the ropes from our grappling hooks to go down the shaft.”

Two of the Siatians closest nodded and stepped forward, pointing their arms at the interior wall. Small explosions came from their wrists and the hooks of the grapple dug into the tough metal of the shaft with scraping creaks. They carefully stepped over the edge and dropped a meter before coming to a halt as the lines went taut, then they slowly began to lower themselves down the tube. The other Siatians, and Rach, though somewhat hesitantly, grabbed onto the ropes and climbed down.

Xaleyp stepped forward and put his hand on Beta’s shoulder just before she was able to grab one of the ropes herself. She glanced at him before brushing the grip aside and stepping into the shaft.

“Tell me, what was that?” Xaleyp asked, keeping his voice low so that only she could hear. For a moment, she remained mute as she began to climb down the rope with Xaleyp following close behind. “You can’t just blow up a building with a single bullet and not expect me to question it.”

Finally, she looked up at him but kept lowering herself further.

“First of all, it wasn’t a bullet, but if that’s what helps you make sense of it, more power to you. Second, it’s untested technology that needs to be kept secret or all the little pieces we’ve worked so hard to put into place will fall apart.”

“I would say it’s tested now, and I think I deserve to know what it is.”

With a sigh, she gestured with one hand to her head and, simultaneously, a private communication channel in the CAM network opened up between them. As they kept climbing down, he saw in the corner of his vision a small figure of Beta, leaning against a brick wall with her arms crossed. The area around her appeared to be almost a park area, with grass and trees in an open field.

Xaleyp said, arching his eyebrows both in real life and in the virtual environment.

Beta scoffed and shook her head, a small smile coming to the corner of her avatar’s face even as the actual Beta kept descending.

Beta said, her avatar staring into his eyes even as the real version of her continued looking down,

A rumble went through the building as a missile struck elsewhere in the city. The metal around them creaked and groaned as it expanded and contracted from the assault.

Xaleyp thought hard back to what felt like a lifetime ago, when Emperor Seth Drake called him to the office aboard the Royal Carrier above Vertyn in orbit around Stariek. He remembered how the runes, once red and violent, changed to their calming greens and blues. How the metal was cold to the touch, as if trying to permeate his skin.

And the voices, the overwhelming voices that tried to drive him mad when he was just standing near it. The ones that managed to convince Maxwell when they had failed to do so to Xaleyp.

he said after several seconds of silence in the virtual environment.

she pressured him, her avatar moving towards him.

Beta’s avatar stepped so close to him he swore he could feel her breath on his neck.

he nearly shouted, barely able to keep himself from saying it aloud.

Before Beta could answer, an explosion erupted from below them, sending a web of fire up the shaft. It engulfed the bottom two Siatians, ripping through the rope and forcing them to fall into the darkness in the bottom of the shaft. Shouts and screams filled the air, both of pain as the fire rent the exosuits and surprise of the sudden explosion.

When the smoke cleared, half a dozen assault rifle barrels were aiming up at them from a doorway at the thirty-third floor. A man, dressed in a somewhat official looking uniform, stood at the precipice, his hands casually folded behind his back.

Xaleyp made to start climbing back up the rope, but another half dozen rifles clicked as their safeties turned off. Each of the barrels was trained on the group of Siatians dangling unprotected. He looked to Beta, whose face was still invisible and unreadable beneath the glass visor.

“This is your first and final warning,” the official soldier beneath them said, his voice quavering slightly with nervousness as he shouted up the shaft to the Siatians. Several seconds passed before he said anything in an attempt to gather his voice again. “You can come with us quietly and peaceful, standing trial for the crimes you have committed against the Praes Dominion, or you can fight and die tired. As for the traitor, we would very much like for her to come alive for public execution for treason.

“You have until the count of three to make your decision before we slaughter you all. One.”

Xaleyp’s mind flicked back and forth, desperately searching for any way out of the trap. That’s exactly what it was, a trap the Arcadians were able to so easily lure them into. They knew the Siatians would have nowhere to go but the lift shaft, and they planned this ambush when they’d be most vulnerable.

He looked at Rach a couple meters below him and found her staring back at him, her eyes asking a silent question: What do they do now? Part of him wondered if she actually made the right choice by joining them on his crusade. Beta looked sideways at him, the visor slowly rising up to reveal her face. Her eyes, however, wondered something entirely different from Rach: How many was she going to take down with her?

“Two.” The officer’s voice shook again with the single word, perhaps hoping that he would be stopped before getting to three.

Xaleyp glanced around the shaft, searching for any way out. The doorway to floor thirty-five lay directly in front of him, the dark letters emblazoned on the closed door. It was a two meter gap between him and it—there was no way he could get to it before the Arcadians fired. Even if he did, what would happen to the rest of the Siatians that he led to their deaths?

Down was another option, though not much better. A thirty-five story drop, about a hundred and fifty meters, was no easy feat to survive with a half broken exosuit.

He looked again to Rach, who was silently pleading with him to do something, anything. Deep down, he knew what she would want him to do: Give up, no matter how much it hurt his pride, so that he could live and fight another day.

“Three.” The officer held up a hand in full view of the Siatians and Arcadians, and the barrels of the assault rifles were realigned on their targets. “This is your last chance, Levion. Please, don’t make me do this.”

Xaleyp looked around one final time, trying to find the secret that had always presented itself to him. No matter how things had gotten before, he was always able to get out with some clever plan or another. But the worried glances from Beta and Rach and the other Siatians told him that this was different. This time, he had run out of options.