Sam yawned as she waited for the bathroom door to open. "Hurry up, Cassandane, I'm going to start making embarassing assumptions about what you're doing in there if you take much longer." The morning had just begun and already Sam wanted to return to her cot. The news from the previous day had not been on her mind most of the night, costing her precious sleep. Not a great way to start yet another grueling day of lifting things with the kinetic talent. "Seriously, what's the hold up this morning? I have to take a space pee."

The door cracked open and Cassandane squeezed past her with arms folded tight. Sam wasted no time rushing inside to relieve herself. As she washed up after, Sam noticed that a corner of the mirror had broken off and was nowhere to be found. "The stars are stacked against you, girl. Get back in bed," she sang to herself. As she exited the bathroom, she found Cassandane tapping her foot at the apartment's exit and hurried over.

At breakfast, Sam attempted to use her corona to eat as Cassandane was doing that morning and had to revert to normal means once it proved too difficult to eat with her hands in her lap. They rushed off again once they were done to sit in the control center of their shuttle. Sam pointed to the computer screen. "There wasn't any reason to rush today. We're fifteen minutes early."

Cassandane unfolded her arms for the first time that morning and held up a sliver of mirror to look at herself. Confused, Sam only watched as the dappling on the Aoleyen woman's face began to fade. On the forehead just below the hairline, darker areas lightened rapidly and paler areas slowly tanned, leaving faintly visible patchwork lines.

"You're removing your markings." That was all Sam could think to say.

Cassandane's lips tightened. "I'm not hiding my heritage out of shame like Mengko Virkell."

"Then what are you doing?"

"You will understand soon enough. You are in charge of getting the shuttle to the planet this trip."

After a moment, Sam began running through the pre-flight checklist. When they had separated from the Angelship and were moving towards the planet, she glanced over to see normal, brown skin across Cassandane's forehead and one cheek beginning to undergo the drastic alteration. "Can you tell me anything?"

"There was a point in my childhood where I would have given anything to be able to do this. I went to an integrated school after the government shut down the Aoleyen academies and I wanted so very much to look like all the other children. My skin appeared to be a curse back then. After taking the Angelship, it is the only reminder of my proud heritage. My mother was my world's premier mathematician. Stateira Amestris. My father was a geneticist -- one of his sequencing projects created the rapid growth genes used in cabbaginos. I could never hold a candle to the brilliance of my parents. My mother would even call me her 'return to the mean' when I would perform below her expectations. Being better than baseline Angmari was not impressive to her.

"I had thought becoming a powerful paragon would prove my worth. It was to be my domain, the one subject I mastered better than any other in the world. Unfortunately, my efforts lead to the destruction of our Earth and my family with it. They never knew what I had become. I would not want them to know my role in destroying everything they held dear. My skin, Sam, is an important part of me. I don't shed it lightly."

As the progress indicator counted down to thirty minutes out, Sam turned to face the Aoleyen, who by now was almost unrecognizable. "Cassandane, I am your friend, right? Please tell me what is going on."

"I don't have a place in the fleet, Sam."

"So you're leaving?"

"Maybe. I will decide my future after I locate Tyler Marius. Killing him and his students may earn me a place on this Earth. Incapacitating him and returning him to the fleet may buy me forgiveness from the people of the fleet. I don't know what I am going to do, Sam. But I know that I can't live the rest of my life the way I have been." Cassandane looked away from her mirror to make eye contact. "If you want, I will take you with me."

Sam's voice came out softly. "I can't leave Jess alone on the Angelship."

"Then I have done my best to make you an undeniable asset for the fleet. You should be fine, Sam."

"Cassandane!"

"Yes, Sam?"

"You're abandoning me!"

"I am sorry, but there are no better options."

Sam blinked away tears. "Why like this? You could have freed Jess and taken her with us. You're Stateira frickin' Cassandane, you can do anything."

"I would rather not coat the walls of the Angelship with human blood again. Especially when I can just fly away."

"But I can't," Sam said.

"You choose not to."

"Because I'm not willing to leave a friend behind like you are."

Cassandane performed a thorough inspection of herself in the mirror. "I consider you a friend, Sam. Perhaps my only living friend. I remained with the fleet after my failed political move in order to train you because of my regard for you, but with the events unfolding planetside, it is time for me to leave. It is unfortunate you have something preventing you from doing so. I wish you a happy life, Sam."

As they neared the ground, Sam switched on the motors to assist their landing. She pushed up at the structure with fierce intensity to slow their descent as the engines whined. The landing was not quite smooth. None of the alarms went off, though, so apparently she hadn't put too much stress on the shuttle. The external door clanged open and Cassandane casually floated down to walk through it.

Sam followed a few paces behind and by the time she was outside, the youngest porter was staring into the sky where the dwindling form of Cassandane could still be seen. "Where is she going?"

"Cassandane is deserting," Sam said. "You should probably report the fact to someone. Oh, and tell them that I'm not entirely confident I can lift us back into orbit by myself."