MARCH 1, 2011

The invasion was not wonderful.

Land Preachman. He had been right. He had been right. He had been right.

Despite what Summer Locket had believed, the armed and dangerous Freemans had stepped foot on planet Soy.

To survive, Summer needed to kill.

She needed to fight and kill Freeman foes, the invaders, the pale invaders with deep hatred for all Soynites.

Summer had heard Theo Majestic not long ago, within the Soynite royal palace. The Watcher had heard the man, but she hadn't seen him. Theo Majestic was present.

Boris Endman.

Don Ascend.

Ray Fire.

Notch Slip.

Tale Wick.

Summer did not know where they were.

Boris Endman. The man had lost his granddaughter. Perhaps he hadn't lost his life.

That High had reached the age of two million years. Would his granddaughter reach the age of sixteen? Summer didn't know. It was not within her knowledge, and she couldn't see the future. Vera could.

Where was Vera?

Where was Anne Majestic? Where was Nick Majestic? Where was Hailey Majestic?

Nova Majestic. Her Watcher knew what to do.

Where was Anne? Where was Anne?

Wherever Anne Majestic was, if she was in the bedroom her parents shared, or if she was in a different area, her loyal Watcher would find her.

Summer's parents were dead. She had driven her car to the outside of their home, and she had gone into the home. A laser beam was in each of their heads. Summer hadn't seen the Freeman who had murdered her parents, but she knew Theo and his friends didn't need to meet the same fate.

So, with tears descending her face, the twenty-one-year-old woman had started the trip to the royal palace.

She wielded a laser pistol in her right hand. The Watcher had taken the weapon from the royal palace's armory, which contained blue laser rifles and blue laser pistols and other weapons.

Summer was armed.

Running, she intended on getting into the bedroom Theo and Lilly shared with Anne. Her shoes made contact with the blue carpet as she ran, her heart beating quick, warm tears blurring her vision.

"Theo!" Summer shouted. "Theo Majestic! Where are you?!"

"Summer!" Theo yelled.

The woman couldn't see him.

Three people rounded the corner, the hall's illumination glowing against their pale skin. They wielded green daggers, Strife daggers.

Freemans.

They rushed toward Summer, much taller than the Watcher. They aimed their eyes at her, still armed with the Strife weapons.

If the three people got too close to her, she wouldn't be able to see Anne, Nick, Theo, or the other Soynites she cared about.

A Freeman, a member of the species the rushing warriors belonged to, had murdered Summer's parents. Or maybe two Freemans had been involved in the murder. Either way, while Summer remained armed and determined, three Freemans remained alive.

Each Freeman had earned their right to have their life taken.

Summer took aim.

Her laser pistol's barrel pointed at an advancing Freeman's forehead. The ignorant moron did not know he ran toward a Watcher, someone who had been trained to kill, someone who planned on protecting Anne, Nick, Hailey, Theo, and other wonderful people, people the woman loved.

Summer was not the only Soynite in the world. Her gun would defend herself and defend others.

The gun would kill.

Summer would kill.

The pistol's hard blue reflected the light. It would fire a laser, and that great laser would blast through three Freeman foes.

Foes.

The three Freemans were foes. Summer know. Despite how she had viewed them fourteen days ago, the Freemans were not her friends. They intended on slaughtering her. They intended on slaughtering her friends. They had already murdered her dear parents.

Summer pulled her laser pistol's trigger.

Noise exploded. A blue laser shot through the distance between Summer's gun and a Freeman's forehead. The laser ripped through too-pale skin, bone, flesh, and brain.

The blue beam exited the Freeman through the back of his head, then it blasted through a stumbling Freeman woman who had sharp icicles piercing her eyeballs.

It must be Theo's work.

The Freeman Summer had shot collapsed onto blue carpet. As his two comrades continued rushing toward Summer, the wounded enemy stopped breathing. His flesh morphed into smoke.

The Freeman woman, the only foe in the hall with jagged icicles in her eyes, dropped onto her hands and knees. As Summer fired again, the woman fell onto her side. She changed into smoke.

Another Freeman fell, suffering a laser beam wound from Summer's pistol. He died.

His lifeless body became smoke, like all Freemans did after their lives fled.

Summer took aim on the last Freeman in the hall, aware there was a possibility other pale morons had slipped into the palace.

The Freeman hollered, gripping his Strife dagger.

Summer fired.

A laser ruined the Freeman's head. He staggered back as the gaping wound in his skull shoved out blood. The redness descended his pale face. He dropped.

Summer, armed, stayed standing.

The Freeman stopped breathing and his body became lifeless. It morphed into smoke.

Theo stepped into the hall. He aimed his blue eyes at the two sharp icicles on the carpet, both freezing weapons free of blood. The icicles had penetrated a Freeman woman's eyes, but a Freeman's blood turned into smoke after their possessor's death.

"Summer," Theo said.

He rushed toward the woman with the gun, which was what the three Freemans had done, but Summer didn't aim the weapon at him. She cared about the man.

Summer set her gun down. When Theo was close enough, both Soynites wrapped their arms around each other.

"Lilly was right," Summer said, shutting her blue eyes. "The Freemans are attacking!"

The hug died.

Freemans had died, but that wasn't unfortunate in the present moment. More Freemans dead meant more of a chance Lock Tannis's people would not destroy planet Soy.

The Freemans were attacking.

"I know," Theo said. He gripped Summer's shoulders. "I have to get to my family. Follow me."

"I'm going to get Anne," Summer said. She picked up her gun. "Then I'll meet up with you."

"Anne is in my bedroom," Theo said. "Move fast."

"I will," Summer said.

She sprinted, rushing while gripping her laser pistol. Her heart hammered as she ran. Her urge to pick up Anne and get her to a safe place stuck in her.

What would be a safe place for Anne?

Theo had refused to help Reed Pisces destroy all the Freemans. Now, because of Theo, the Freemans had started a devastating attack on Soy. Because of Theo, Summer's mother and father were dead.

Dead.

The Watcher's parents were dead. Theo, Supreme High Theo Majestic, was not.

His luxury was the luxury to breathe.

How many Soynites lost that luxury because of the Freemans?

Summer stopped running. She turned.

Theo stood close to the pile of belongings that had been owned by Summer's most recent kill. The Freeman she had shot had wielded a green Strife dagger. Other Strife daggers sat on the carpet, preventing any Soynite near it from using whatever powers they possessed.

"Theo!" Summer shouted. Theo faced her. "This is all your fault! My parents are dead because of you! And our planet is being attacked!"

"There isn't time to argue!" Theo yelled. "I need to get to my family! And I don't know where the other Highs are!"

"Bring a new generation of Highs!" Summer shouted. "That's what you're supposed to do!"

"And I am!" Theo yelled. "You remember the emergency protocol! That's good! But I have to get my family to safety before I bring the new generation of Highs!"

"This is all your fault!"

"Summer, please!"

"You can't keep anyone safe!"

She took aim, pointing her weapon at Anne's father, aiming at the man who had selected her to become his daughter's Watcher.

Theo raised his arms, powerless.

Summer moved closer to the man, alert to the fact his powers were gone.

"You can't keep Anne safe!" Summer said. "But I can. I love that baby so much, and the Freemans are going to come for you. They're always going to keep coming for you. They won't stop."

"Summer, put the gun down," Theo said. "We are going to leave this planet together. Me, you, my family, and Vera. She might be here. Holly and Archer might come here, too. They won't leave Boris."

"Is he here?" Summer said.

"No," Theo replied. "None of the other Highs are here. Lower your weapon. I love you, Summer. Don't give me a reason to hurt you, please."

"You can't hurt me," Summer said. "You're around Strife and I have a gun."

"What do you want?!" Theo said, raising his voice. "I'm trying to be calm, but that's difficult to do when you're aiming a pistol at me during a highly stressful time."

"I want your baby," Summer said. "I want Anne. If you don't give her to me, I will..."

Summer scowled.

"Just give me the baby, Theo!" she demanded.

Anne was inside the bedroom she shared with her parents. Summer needed to get to her, hold her, comfort her, keep loving her.

"No!" Theo said. "I've already lost one child. You know that. Nova is gone! She doesn't reside here! And I'm grateful that me and Lilly didn't send Hailey and Anne away. I'm also grateful for you. If you put the weapon down, I won't treat you like an enemy. We don't have to hate each other. You've been good to me. You've been good to my family. But I want you to stop aiming your gun at me. I need you to stop aiming it at me."

"Even if I do, it isn't going to change what the Freemans are doing," Summer said. "They're killing all of the Soynites, but you're their main priority. You're the Soynite with the most power and authority."

"I'm aware,"

"Nova is gone because of you,"

"I wanted to keep her,"

"Land made your wife too much of a paranoid person," Summer said. "I'm never going to make another person influence me that much. No one is going to convince me to commit horrible deeds. Not even you. If I let Anne live with you, Freemans will kill her. And it would be your fault. You should've joined Reed Pisces. You should've killed all of the Freemans with him. Why couldn't you be like your distant aunt? Why couldn't you be like Nerra Majestic, who killed the very first Freeman?"

"I killed that Freeman woman," Theo said.

"Too late,"

"It's not too late for you to stop aiming that gun at me,"

Summer didn't lower the weapon.

Despite aiming a gun at Theo's forehead, the Watcher didn't plan on killing him. It wasn't a necessity to end Theo's life. No, Summer desired his daughter. She didn't desire for Theo's death to become as true as the hard metal in her hand.

A woman ran into the hall, holding a toddler.

"Summer!" Vera shouted, carrying Hailey. In one of the other Watcher's hands was a Soynite laser pistol. "Drop your weapon!"

"No!" Hailey yelled, aware Summer aimed a gun at her father. "No!"

Summer aimed at Theo's thigh, then pulled the trigger. A blue laser rocketed from the barrel, blasted through the High's leg, making Theo shout in surprise. And agony.

He dropped.

Hailey screamed. So did Vera.

"Run!" Vera yelled, pointing her laser pistol at Summer as Theo bled. "Run, or I will kill you!"

Vera had ordered Summer to run. The brown-eyed Watcher's love for her friend Summer hadn't fled. Perhaps Vera knew the woman never planned on killing Theo.

Summer had shot Theo, but he would heal if he got away from the nearby Strife. Anne's Watcher knew this.

Anne herself was in a bedroom. She was in the Soynite royal palace. But here, in this place targeted by pale horrors, the baby girl was not safe.

"I'm sorry!" Summer shouted, backing away from the man she had wounded.

She didn't have to kill Theo, or Vera, or Hailey.

But Summer did have to leave them. She needed to grab Anne, then go far away from the palace, go far away from Theo and Vera and Hailey, go far away from planet Soy.

Anne's new mother would be her Watcher.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

It was a good idea, a great idea. Nova had been adopted. Anne needed to be adopted.

Freemans had made their advent. That advent had brought frustration, pain, and deaths. Unlike her parents, good people who had lost their lives inside their home, Summer could keep death at bay.

She hadn't taken a Strife dagger to the head. The woman was alive.

Summer's enemies. They were Freemans. Just Freemans. Summer was a Watcher and she had a gun. A dangerous combination. Any pale warrior who would block her path to babe Anne, the Watcher would kill them.

Past the hall, beyond walls, Anne occupied space. Maybe she lay in her crib, continuing to be the sweet baby she was.

Summer turned, ran.

After rushing through several halls, she entered one Lilly and Nick ran in.

Lilly was close to Summer, but Nick was too far from the two women as an enemy sprinted toward the boy.

A Freeman.

He wielded a Strife dagger and a red laser pistol. The pale man was close to Nick. Too close.

Summer took aim.

A laser tore through the Freeman's head, Lilly's doing. Armed with a Soynite laser pistol, Lilly remained as Nick's rescuer.

"You're not going to kill my boy," Lilly said, speaking to the Freeman, speaking Soynite.

Nick fiddled with his fingers while the Freeman's pale ones held his weapons, tools meant for slaughtering.

The Freeman dropped his weapons. He dropped. When his dead flesh turned into smoke, Lilly set her gun on the carpet. She kneeled. Mother and son hugged.

After the embrace, Nick moved around Lilly.

"Summer!" he said.

Summer ran.

"Where are you going?!" Lilly yelled. "Summer!"

Another person ran the hall, but she was not a Freeman. Pristine, running and unarmed, screamed as laser beam fire sounded.

The red laser blasted a hole into the woman's head.

"No!" Nick shouted, yelling as his Watcher hit the carpet.

Summer slid her attention to the pile of Freeman belongings. Lilly had killed the Freeman in the hall, and Summer could use a second gun.

After grabbing the dead Freeman's laser pistol, Summer took aim.

The Soynite warrior's heart pounded with the same intensity as her urge to protect the Majestic family, herself, and Vera.

And the royal palace itself deserved protection.

Freemans had started devastating the wonderful royal palace with horrible brutality. Summer hoped great Soynites would bring ruin to Freeman places.

A Freeman charged into the hall, armed with a laser pistol and a Strife dagger.

Summer pulled her Soynite pistol's trigger. The gun sent a bright laser launching toward the enemy, an enemy with the desire to kill Anne and the other Soynites in the palace. Blue light touched the Freeman, touching his dark combat uniform and his skin, then it devoured his life.

A Freeman came, dashing.

He carried a Strife dagger, the weapon sharp. In his other hand was a red laser pistol.

Summer shot him in the head.

Two more Freemans bolted into the hall. Two Strife daggers. Two red laser pistols.

The surviving Watcher pulled her guns' triggers, letting the pistols release a pair of sounds.

Two headshots killed the foes.

Summer's will to spare Freeman lives had crumbled. Great. Because that meant she would kill any Freeman wishing to murder a baby she cared about.

A blue laser had killed a Freeman. A red laser had killed a Freeman.

Summer would kill more Freemans. They wouldn't stop her from reaching Lilly's youngest child, the fourth child of the most powerful Soynite in the universe.

The Watcher broke into a sprint, moving, running, planning on reaching Anne.

She rushed through the gap between two smoke pillars, smoke pillars that had been breathing Freemans.

"Summer, wait!" Lilly shouted.

No.

The Watcher had made it clear to Theo she intended on taking Anne. The baby would be hers.

Running, Summer put more space between her friend Lilly and the little friend. If Lilly learned the Watcher's plan, that would ruin so much.

She, Summer, didn't encounter more Freemans during the run to Theo's bedroom.

Inside the room, not near Freeman hostiles, baby Anne rested in her crib. Framed photographs were on the walls, one of them displaying Nick, another one displaying Hailey, another one displaying Anne, and another framed photograph displayed Nova, who was not a baby anymore.

Nova was not a baby. Her sister Anne was.

Past the crib's blue bars that faced Summer was Anne, a baby with the right to live. Her Watcher would not let a Freeman murder her. She would never let a Freeman murder the baby girl.

Summer dropped her Freeman laser pistol. Then she released the Soynite gun.

It would be easier for Summer to prevent herself from dropping Anne if she held the babe with both arms. The Watcher needed her hands free of weapons.

Fighting darkness, the ceiling light glowed against the crib, the big bed, the photographs displaying Majestics, Summer, and Anne.

Summer and Anne needed to be close. They needed to be together.

The Watcher's desire was to hold Anne, just like Lilly had done. Her plan was to escape with Soy, leave with a baby who wasn't hers.

Several blue spaceships were parked in the grass-occupied space behind the palace. Summer would have to take one of them, fly away from her doomed planet, raise Anne someplace safe, and survive.

The Watcher's intention to let Lilly keep raising Anne had shattered.

Anne had only been alive for three months. With Summer's help, she could live to see her eleventh birthday.

The Watcher's parents had helped her live to see her own eleventh birthday. Summer could do the same for the girl she had been tasked with mentoring.

Summer approached the crib.

The beautiful Anne Majestic fiddled with her small fingers. Her blue eyes met Summer's.

"Hello, baby," the Watcher said. "We're going to go to a safe place."

The woman grabbed Anne, then lifted the baby out the crib. Now, while Freemans brought Soy closer to its end, Summer was closer to accomplishing her goal.

Leave Soy with Anne, that had to happen.

It was a must.

Laser beam fire sounded, erupting within the palace, which Theo, Lilly, Nick, Hailey, and Vera occupied. The young Nick and the younger Hailey wouldn't be able to fight Summer well enough to take their sister from her, but the adults possessed a greater chance at ruining Summer's plan.

Lilly and Vera had guns.

Anne wailed.

"I got you, baby," Summer said.

Summer would tend to Anne. She would keep her protected and love her.

"I love you so much," Summer said. "These terrible Freemans aren't going to hurt you. Your Watcher has you."

She smiled.

"Your mother has you," the woman said.

Mother.

Regardless of what the mother Lilly would believe if she learned Summer's Anne-involving intention, it would only be right for Summer to take Anne away from her family and her planet.

Anne had siblings. She had three siblings. But she didn't have to see them. No, Summer could keep the girl away from her brother and sisters.

Nick, Nova, Hailey. It would be great if those three never saw their youngest sibling in the future.

Anne had never even seen Nova. Nova had never seen Anne.

How far away was Nick to Anne? He was older than Hailey and stronger. Would the boy try to shoot Summer?

If Nick loved his sister enough, he would try to kill Summer to stop the Watcher from taking Anne.

But Summer had carried Nick more than once. They had talked. Nick had smiled at Summer. The kid loved her, and Nick shooting the Watcher didn't seem likely to happen. His Watcher, Pristine Claude, had been shot and killed. Nick grieved. He would resume grieving. He wouldn't shoot and kill Summer.

Pristine had died from a laser beam to the head, but Summer would not die because a disgusting Freeman chose to shoot her.

A moronic Freeman had killed Pristine.

Wetness continued leaking from Summer's eyes. She cried. The Soynite woman couldn't wipe away her tears. After all, she held Anne. She needed to hold Anne, and escaping in a spaceship with the baby was another must, a serious must.

Summer hadn't been a warrior before today. But she would turn more Freemans into smoke if it became necessary.

Strife daggers had been in Freeman hands.

The Watcher didn't possess any powers, but Theo did. The Freeman brutes knew how powerful Theo was, which was why they had been armed with Strife. It was every Soynite's natural weakness.

Summer needed the Freemans dead and Anne alive.

Though the Watcher had killed Freeman opponents outside the bedroom, it was true a pale enemy could kill her in the future. That needed to be avoided. It had to be.

Summer's body was not empty of love for the baby she held.

The woman had shot Theo in the leg, but she hadn't killed him. It had happened as Vera and Hailey were in the hall. They knew the opportunity for Summer to kill Theo had been there, but the Watcher had aimed at Theo's leg. She had fired.

Despite her plan to kidnap his daughter, Summer loved Theo.

Like Summer, Vera could aim and shoot well. If Hailey's Watcher took in the wish to shoot and kill Summer, she would be able to do so. If Summer was in the same area as her.

But Vera had spared Summer.

Because of that, Anne's Watcher was grateful for the other woman. Summer had wounded the great and powerful Theo Majestic, but Vera had let her live.

She had permitted Summer to live.

Perhaps the Freemans assaulting the home would prevent its residents from taking Anne from Summer.

Anne was Lilly's biological child, not Summer's.

"Okay, Anne," Summer said. She turned to the open door. "I'm going to get us out of here."

Much to her good fortune, Summer didn't encounter more Freemans during the trip to the royal palace's backyard.

Theo.

Lilly.

Nick.

Hailey.

Vera.

Five beating Soynite hearts were within the royal palace. Or maybe those beating hearts had left the palace. Theo, if he was away from Strife, could teleport his family and Vera to a different place, a safer place. The High owned several space stations. Taking his family and his friend to one of them would come with wonderful ease.

The full moon's light glowed as Land Preachman and Lilly Majestic remained as two people who had been right.

Freemans attacked Soy.

The invasion was Theo's fault. It was Lock Tannis's fault, too, but Theo had failed to help a former High destroy the Freemans. Because of that, the Freeman race had been allowed to survive. Tannis now had power over his fellow Freemans, and he had commanded his military to brutalize Soy and its natives.

Blood had been shed. Pristine's blood.

Blood had been shed. The blood of Summer's parents.

Lock Tannis and Theo Majestic were at fault.

Other Freemans had served as planet Free's ruler before Lock Tannis. Even a Soynite could rule Free and sit on the Freeman throne, but that had never happened. Maybe Summer would become the next Freeman leader. Maybe Nick would. Maybe Hailey would.

Summer preferred not to imagine Anne meeting Lock Tannis. The Freeman would murder her.

"I got you, baby," Summer said, hoping Anne would love her forever.

Black spaceships were scattered across the night sky, unleashing red laser beams from dark turrets. Laser turrets didn't aim at Summer, but Freeman laser pistols had already been in the woman's presence.

Freeman spaceships were in the sky, assaulting a planet, assaulting and slaughtering Summer's fellow Soynites.

Awful.

A Freeman had driven death into Summer's parents. A Freeman had fired death into Pristine Claude.

Laser beam fire erupted. Too close.

Summer didn't see any Freemans emerge through the gaps between the towering trees in the distance, but that didn't mean Freemans weren't in the area.

Planet Soy lacked a military and a police force. Summer didn't live on Free or Earth. Most Soynites weren't as horrible as people who lived on Earth.

The planet called Soy did not lack space vessels.

Not far from Summer was a Soynite spaceship. Other blue spaceships were in the palace's backyard. Arranged in two rows, they remained cloaked in the massive light fixtures that cast bright illumination on the woman, the baby, and the space vessels. Green grass glowed in the light as Summer ran with Anne against her.

The closest Soynite spaceship's side faced the palace.

A Freeman stepped past the spaceship, moving away from its side that Summer couldn't see.

The Freeman was armed with a Strife dagger and a red laser pistol. He aimed his brown-eyed gaze at Summer, then at Anne.

Then a laser blasted through his head.

Wounded, the pale foe released his hold on his weapons. The laser pistol dropped. The Strife dagger's green blade and black handle collapsed onto the grass.

The Freeman dropped. Red blood poured from the gaping injury in his head, contrasting with his too-pale skin. The grass drank red. Lifeless flesh morphed into smoke, the Freeman's blood doing the same.

Holly rounded the parked spaceship, armed with a blue laser pistol. Archer accompanied her.

As sweat on their foreheads glistened in the light, Holly and Archer approached Summer.

"Summer, the Freemans are attacking!" Holly said. "Lilly was right! We have to go! Where is Theo?! Where are the others?!"

"Where's my father?" Archer asked.

Boris Endman. He was absent, gone. Like Don Ascend and other Highs. Summer had seen Theo inside the huge palace, but she didn't see him now. His daughter Anne didn't see him. Holly and Archer didn't see the man.

They didn't see Boris.

The universe's tallest High had produced a child with his wife. That child had grown into a man, Archer Endman. His wife, Holly, had shot and killed a Freeman, but she didn't know where her father-in-law was. And Archer didn't know where Boris was.

Archer had asked for his father's location, but Summer didn't know it. What she knew was baby Anne's distance from her biological mother, and that distance needed to be a far one. Lilly needed to be far away from Anne and Summer. Lilly would try to take Anne away from her, attempt to snatch the pleasant babe out Summer's life.

Theo would make an attempt to do the same.

Still, he had been a faithful friend to Summer. It was why she had shot the High in the thigh and not the head.

Due to the life Summer had spared, Theo had the chance to turn six preteen children into Soynite rulers. Information about the emergency protocol wasn't hidden from Summer or the Soynite public.

Theo had hidden the Soy Maker.

It was the same object that had created the first six Soynites. And the first six Freemans. The Soy Maker preferred Soynites, and it possessed the power to revive a dead Soy. It could not revive dead Soynites.

Pristine Claude was gone forever.

Summer's parents were gone forever.

But Anne was not gone. Neither was Summer. In spite of their efforts, the Freemans had failed to kill Anne's Watcher. They hadn't been able to kill Anne.

Summer's willingness to slay Freemans had uncoiled. She had struck. Freemans had raged, but Summer had killed. She could kill again.

The invasion raged.

Summer's longing to escape raged.

Archer and Holly were close, close to Summer, close to Anne. The Watcher and her baby girl had to be alone together.

"Run away," Summer said. "Boris isn't here. None of the Highs are. Except Theo. And he's probably gone. He wants to bring the new generation of Highs into existence. After he gets the others to safety, of course."

Archer furrowed his brow.

"And they let you keep Anne?" he said.

"Run!" Summer shouted. Anne wailed. The shout might alert Freemans. The wailing might alert Freemans. "Run and find your father! Then get off this planet!"

Holly and Archer didn't run.

"Go!" Summer yelled.

Archer took a step back. Holly didn't. Her husband put a hand on her shoulder. The woman with a missing daughter, the man with a missing father, they needed to leave. So did Summer and Anne.

"Come with us," Holly said.

"Please, Summer," Archer said. "If you think we're just going to let you and Anne die, you're wrong."

"Summer, come with us!" Holly said. "We need to get out of here!"

"Go!" Summer yelled.

Anne wailed louder.

"I hope you find Boris," Summer said. "And I hope you find your daughter. Goodbye."

The Watcher did hope Archer and Holly would find their daughter, who had been taken by a person who might be what Summer was. A Soynite.

So far Holly had shown she was capable of killing Freemans. She did what needed to be done. Whether a Freeman or a Soynite had taken Alice Endman, Holly might find her lost child.

Summer had kidnapped Anne. It was not information Summer should give Archer and Holly.

"Goodbye, Summer," Archer said. "Let's go, Holly."

Archer turned. Holly turned. The two Soynites ran, increasing the distance between themselves and Summer.

The Watcher stood in the light, holding a wailing baby, her only ally being a small person who could not fight. Anne, clad in a blue outfit, was not alone. Her new mother held her.

Summer and Anne could escape. A spaceship in the backyard could birth their escape.

They would escape. Or so the Watcher hoped.

Summer moved her attention to the spaceship closest to her. She needed to live.

Twenty-one years of age, Summer was, and she possessed the chance to escape Soy with a wonderful baby and no one else.

Good.

That was what she desired.

"We're leaving, Anne," Summer said. "We're going to leave. And I am going to love you forever."

He closed in.

Something slipped into the Watcher. Pain slid into her forehead.

Memories vanished.

The woman's mouth gaped open as the Freeman tugged the green blade free. It was called a Strife dagger, and a foe had used it to stab the Soynite's brain. Blood spilled from the slit.

No, the woman thought.

Then she screamed.