MARCH 3, 2022

Jake Wayne stared at the prison wing's ruined entrance.

He had been on the floor above him earlier.

The boy now stared at the damage. As the bottoms of his shoes touched solid gray, the section of floor near the prison wing's entrance didn't lose its dark color, blackened by whatever fire had been born in the hall. Scorched.

Jake didn't know the person who had started what he assumed had been a fire, but he would love to meet them. Maybe they were a Soynite, a good Soynite.

It was possible for a Soynite with pyrokinesis to birth a fire. Pyrokinesis, like telekinesis, was one of Theo Majestic's powers.

But he wasn't able to help Jake fight and kill Freemans.

The Freemans were harsher than they had the right to be, and they hadn't shown Jake mercy. He wouldn't show them mercy.

Death hadn't taken hold of Jake, and the boy wasn't imprisoned in a Freeman prison cell. He was free.

Maggie Up.

The heroic Maggie, who had been shot in the head before rising again, had wielded a Soynite laser rifle when she saved Jake's life. Maggie had been more dangerous than Jake during the time. Maybe she still was. Since Peter was with her, and since Jake preferred to not see his Watcher's lifeless corpse, Maggie needed to be dangerous. Watcher Peter was not invincible. He was not Theo Majestic.

Jake and Maggie. The pair had fought and killed bellmas together.

Maggie had whispered a dreadful truth to Jake.

She had whispered a single sentence to the High, but that sentence had been too overwhelming.

Jake had left Maggie and his Watcher. He had run. After separating from Maggie and Peter, Jake had encountered Freeman enemies, but he had killed them.

Someone had ruined the entrance to the prison wing. The Freeman base's section meant for keeping prisoners locked up might be too damaged. If there had been prisoners inside the prison wing, Jake hoped good Soynites had freed them.

No great Soynite deserved to be locked in a Freeman base. Jake didn't.

He hadn't left the gray building. Inside it, he could lose his gun, his blood, his life. Inside it, he could gain a new ally, gain a new weapon, kill another Freeman.

With his laser pistol in his right hand, Jake shook his head. He turned. Footsteps sounded.

Jake took aim, waited.

A blonde girl. A blonde Soynite girl. Jake recognized his own kind.

The Soynite girl wore a zip-up hoodie and black jeans. Underneath the hoodie was a short-sleeved shirt that was white with blue stripes. The hoodie was unzipped. The blonde wore her Soynite pendant in full view.

She was familiar.

Her hands were behind her. She was restrained with Strife handcuffs, Jake assumed.

Behind her was a Freeman warrior, just one. No pale comrades. That would make it easier for the boy to kill him. Good.

Jake fired.

Blue burst into the hall, casting light as it flew. It blasted through the Freeman's forehead. The enemy hit the floor and his body trembled hard, the Freeman's body jerking and dying.

The boy set his gun on the floor. He needed to get closer to the Freeman.

Jake went closer, kneeled. He found a green key in the shaking enemy's pocket, then moved to the space behind the girl. He unlocked the Strife handcuffs.

After doing that, Jake tossed them toward the floor. Green collided with gray.

Jake turned.

The Freeman had stopped shaking. He didn't breathe. Still, while glaring, Jake aimed and opened fire six times.

Seven new laser beam holes now occupied the dead Freeman, but he deserved to be shot more.

Maggie hadn't done Jake a kindness.

"He's nothing now," Jake said, clenching his fist. The dead man morphed into smoke, like all the deceased members of his disgusting species did. Jake lowered the gun. "I'm Jake. Jake Wayne."

"I'm Sabrina Sam," the girl said. She grinned, gestured to the pile of Freeman belongings. "That was a good show you put on, Jake."

Sabrina closed in on the Freeman's fallen laser pistol, then lifted it off the floor.

"The only good Freeman is a dead Freeman," Sabrina said. She pointed. "Did you do that?"

No, Jake hadn't started the fire that had ruined the entrance to the prison wing. Because someone had ruined it, Jake didn't plan on going into the area meant for containing prisoners.

If Jake didn't drown in bad luck, Freemans wouldn't lock him inside a prison cell.

The Freemans would take in pleasure if they succeeded in imprisoning Jake and any other Soynite who opposed Lock Tannis and his brutal empire. Lock Tannis's reign had lasted for way too long, Jake knew.

The Freemans were not Jake's friends. Lock Tannis was not his friend.

Maggie was. Even after what she had whispered to Jake. Maybe he would see her again, even help him fight Lock Tannis.

"No," Jake said. "A different Soynite probably did it."

A different Soynite named Maggie had fallen. She had risen. Developing the power to rapidly regenerate would increase the nice possibility Jake would survive his terrible time inside the Freeman-infested building.

Before the day grew old, Jake would have to leave the base with Sabrina.

"You know how to kill," Sabrina said. "Good. There's one Freeman who is going to be my kill. Hush Warden. During the trip here, I heard him talking to another member of his foul species. Don Ascend is coming here. He's working for Lock Tannis. All of the former Highs joined Lock. Except for Theo Majestic."

Boris Endman. He was dead.

"I know," Jake said. "I didn't know Don was coming here, though."

"What do you know, Jake?" Sabrina said, not saying that sentence in a rude tone. "Did you discover any secrets I should know about?"

What Maggie had whispered shot into Jake's mind.

Jake ran a hand through blond hair, his blond hair. Sabrina looked familiar. But Jake didn't caress her hair like a friend or relative would.

"One of the Highs is blind," Jake said. Sabrina frowned. "Her name is Lovely Windsore."

Sabrina scoffed.

"Not much of a loss," she said.

Cruel and arrogant and spiteful. Lovely Windsore was all of those things. Jake pitied whoever saw Lovely Windsore on a daily basis.

She didn't deserve to see.

Jake didn't have his Watcher and his friend with reddish-brown hair to help keep him from dying. Peter and Maggie weren't there. If Lovely were in the Freeman's building with Jake, she would be a horrible fighter. Maybe she was already dead. If she was, Jake wouldn't mourn.

"You look so familiar to me," Sabrina said, her blue-eyed gaze pinned on Jake's face.

"Yeah," Jake said. "And you look so familiar to me."

"Are you a High?"

"Yeah,"

"Your Soynite name is Cape Majestic?" Sabrina said.

Jake nodded.

"It is," he said. He gestured to Sabrina. "Is your Soynite name Reese Low?"

"Yeah," Sabrina said. A grin reached her. "I've waited for this moment for years."

Ten years. The spaceship had landed on Earth in May. May 2011. That had happened almost eleven years ago. It was March 3, 2022 now. Jake had reunited with Sabrina Sam, who had been known as Reese Low.

Sabrina put down her gun.

Jake put down his gun.

"Cape!" Sabrina said. She hugged him.

"Reese!" Jake said, hugging her back.

Even though it would be smart to stay vigilant, Jake shut his eyes as he embraced his closest friend. He cried. But it was okay. Reese Low was with him again and they were going to kill Freemans together.

Together.

The embrace ended too soon. The best friends wiped away tears.

Sabrina looked Jake up and down.

"Look at you!" she said, speaking with happiness as she stood in a building owned by pale murderers. "You got bigger!"

"We both did," Jake said. He grabbed his Soynite gun. Sabrina grabbed her Freeman pistol. "Have you met up with any of the other Highs?"

"No," Sabrina said. "Just you. And that's a good thing, too. I missed you more than I missed the others."

"The feeling is mutual, Reese," Jake said. He chuckled. "Sabrina."

"Cape Majestic," Sabrina said. "I wish your distant cousin were here to help us. I'm assuming that he's not with you."

Elsewhere, somewhere away from Jake, Theo Majestic lived. Or maybe he died.

Theo either had a beating heart or a still one, and Jake would rather the man possessed a beating heart.

He hadn't seen Theo in years. Eleven years.

Sabrina turned.

"There are Freemans we have to kill," Sabrina said. "And probably Soynites to help."

"My Watcher, Peter, is here," Jake said. "Well, I assume he still is. He's with a Soynite girl named Maggie Up."

"Maybe we'll-" Sabrina started saying.

"Hey!" a voice shouted, yelling with a thick Soynite accent, but they spoke English. A male's voice. "I'm in here!"

In a neighboring hall was a door. Jake and Sabrina ran toward it. After Jake swung the door open, he moved into the room.

"My name is Doug Scape," a boy said, standing in a gray room devoid of any furniture. "Is the fighting over?"

Doug Scape's cheek wore a triangle-shaped scar.

He was tall and thin. Jake guessed he was sixteen years old. Unlike Jake and Sabrina, Doug had brown hair and green eyes.

"There's no fighting going on nearby," Jake said. "But more Freemans might be here. I'm Jake. Jake Wayne. This is Sabrina."

"I'm still Doug Scape," Doug said.

"You were in here this entire time?" Jake said.

"I've been here for some time, yes," Doug said. "The Freeman who was going to torture me in this room got distracted, because some other people were around. I'll talk about it later. We should get out of this building."

"Not yet, Doug," Sabrina said. "We have Freemans to kill. One of them, Hush Warden, is a Freeman I really want to kill. And I'm going to do it."

"I believe you," Doug said. He moved a hand into his pants pocket. "You want to kill that Freeman. I want to kill my sister's absence."

The brown-eyed teenager pulled a photograph from his pocket. He turned its front side.

The photograph displayed a teenage girl with brown hair and grin eyes. She grinned at the camera, and maybe she didn't grin now, wherever she was.

"Her name is Allison Scape," he said. "Have any of you seen her? She's my twin sister. She's sixteen, and she might still have a triangular scar on her cheek. It looks like mine."

"No, sorry," Jake said.

"I'm sorry, too," Sabrina said, her hand remaining near Jake's. "I don't know who she is. I've never seen her before."

Doug returned the photograph to his pocket.

"I'm not going to give up," Doug said. "I'm going to find her. I couldn't go with the Soynites who I heard earlier. I didn't go to them. I stayed here."

Doug had heard other Soynites, but he had refused to go with them.

Why?

"Why didn't you go to them?" Jake asked.

"Trust me," Doug said. "They're not the kind of people you want to meet. They have to kid-"

The door swung open. Jake and Sabrina turned. A red laser beam shot into the room.

A gun fell. Then a hand met Jake's.

The laser passed through his head, his intangible head. Doug scurried.

Jake took aim and pulled his gun's trigger.

A blue laser blasted a hole into the Freeman enemy's big chest, creating a wound that brought satisfaction to Jake, creating a wound that didn't bring satisfaction to the Freeman.

A red laser passed through Jake's own heart, which was as intangible as the rest of him.

Wounded, the Freeman collapsed, died.

"You can become intangible," Jake said, talking to Sabrina as the Freeman's lifeless corpse morphed into smoke. Sabrina didn't stop holding Jake's hand. "That's your Save."

Sabrina's gun had dropped. She had turned her power on, turning herself and Jake intangible, untouchable.

Jake's heart hammered, yet he was alive.

Sabrina helped him live. After spending two months living in a huge spaceship together, they had reunited, and Sabrina had saved Jake's life.

"Lucky girl," Doug said, standing near a wall. His hand was pressed against its grayness. "I don't have any Saves. But I do have you two as my allies. Allies need to escape Freeman bases together."

"Not until we kill all of the Freemans here," Sabrina said, releasing Jake's hand. "You're going to get out of here, Doug."

Doug went to the hall, then he picked up the Freeman laser rifle.

"Lasers are going to get out of this gun," Doug said. He moved back into the room. "Do you two have people you want to get back to?"

"My Watcher," said the blond-haired Highs.

"My Watcher's name is Kevin," Sabrina said, fiddling with her fingers. "I have to see him again. The Freemans separated us."

"They love separating families," Doug said.

Freemans viewed Jake and Sabrina as people who had earned the punishment of being separated from their Watchers, who had traveled with them in a spaceship for sixty-six days.

Jake had met Kevin.

Sabrina had met Peter.

The teenage rulers had met Doug today, but they had met each other's Watchers a long time ago. Jake had known about his friend's Watcher before the invasion.

"They do," Sabrina said. "That's another reason why we have to kill them. Kevin should be at the Freeman base we attacked in California. After I leave this one, I'm going to go back home, then I'm going to get my Watcher back."

"I'll go with you," Jake said.

After spending almost eleven years being away from Sabrina, Jake could afford to go to California with her.

She was his closest friend, the friend he loved the most.

"Thanks, Jake," Sabrina said.

"Also, I forgot to mention something," Jake said. "Theo Majestic has children. Four of them. They're my sixth cousins."

"You're related to Theo Majestic?" Doug said.

"Yeah," Jake replied. "He's my dad's fifth cousin. My dad is dead now."

"Someone is going to kill Lock Tannis, then your dad will be avenged," Doug said. He pointed his gun at the pile of Freeman belongings. "If that dead Freeman has a dad, I'm going to kill him. That enemy of ours could've been a Soynite, but he was born from two pale natives of planet Free. Our planet is gone, but at least we aren't Freemans."

"Soy is going to live again," Sabrina said.

"Correct," Doug said. "I'm going to be back on it. I wasn't stabbed with a Strife dagger. There's still time for me to see Soy again."

"And you're going to see your sister again," Sabrina said.

Doug smiled. He looked at the discarded Freeman belongings.

"Thanks to Nameless Dead Freeman, there's a higher chance of that happening," Doug said. "Thanks for the gun, dead man. I could look at your name tag and see what your name is, but I need to save my energy. I need it to reunite with my twin."

Doug stepped into the hall.

"Are you leaving?" Jake said.

"My plan to stay in that room has," Doug said. "I'm going to be in the hall."

He moved out of sight. Jake thought about Lovely Windsore, the blind High. She couldn't see, but that fact didn't make Jake shed tears or bow his head in bitter sadness.

Lovely's blindness was real, like the fact Jake had shot and killed a Freeman not long ago.

Jake hadn't seen Lovely in almost eleven years. Twenty-four hours ago, Sabrina was a girl he hadn't seen in almost eleven years. She now stood beside him, more powerful than she had been when they hugged each other goodbye.

They listened as Doug's footsteps became harder to hear as time passed.

"Doug is okay," Sabrina said. "You're better than him, though. Still, I want to see Doug reunite with his sister. Family is important. Those twins aren't going to be separated forever."

"Maybe they will," Jake said. "Maybe they won't."

He let a sigh loose. It was heavy, like the dead Freeman had been, and the High didn't disguise his frustration. Jake walked toward the nearest wall. When he set his free hand against it, he focused on listening. Doug's footsteps didn't reach his ears.

"Are you okay, Jake?" Sabrina said.

I'm pretty far from okay.

"Definitely," Jake lied.

Maggie hadn't lied. Why would she lie to Jake? Jake, who had fought and killed bellmas with her.

Freemans had sunk deep trouble into the Soynites.

A girl who could rapidly heal had ignited something unwanted in Jake, and he couldn't force it out. He couldn't extinguish it.

"I got to see you again," Jake said. "I missed you. Really, I did. But we're going to have to have a chat."

"We already are," Sabrina replied.

"No," Jake said. He pressed his forehead against the wall, letting solid gray meet his skin. "We're going to have a serious talk, but it can't be here. I have to tell you something. But it can't happen right now."

A single sentence had been enough to fling dread into Jake.

If Jake whispered to Sabrina what Maggie had whispered to him, how would the blonde girl react?

Jake faced her.

"We're family," Sabrina said.

She approached him, put a hand on his shoulder. Her lips went to his cheek.

"I'm here for you," Sabrina said, her soft hand resting on his clothed shoulder. "We're together, and none of these foul Freemans are going to make us separate again. They're not going to split us up."

The girl was Jake's best friend, no doubt, and she was with him. She was close. They were close.

A long distance no longer stood between Jake and Sabrina. It had shortened. After the boy had helped the girl, the two Highs had hugged close to the prison wing.

It had been great, helping Sabrina.

The long space between the two had been snatched. Happiness had embraced Jake when he embraced Sabrina, a girl who could become untouchable.

Freemans were the reason why they had met.

Freemans were the reason why Jake and Sabrina had separated.

Jake's love for the Freemans was as absent as furniture in the room.

He hated Lock Tannis.

Lock was the worst being of all time, and the hatred Jake aimed at him was huge and explosive, intense and violent.

The teenager had rushed into the Freeman-occupied building, had dashed through halls that menacing Freemans had bolted through.

Running had stopped.

Jake hadn't made his exit from the building. He hadn't left the Freeman base, but he planned to. While Jake stood in the Freeman-tainted building, Lock Tannis remained elsewhere. Well, Jake assumed so.

"The Freemans brought me into this building," Sabrina said. "I'm going to make sure that they die in this place."

Wherever the Freemans were in the base, they maintained their hunger to spill Jake's blood. They wanted to kill him. They wanted to kill Sabrina. They wanted to kill Doug, the two Highs' latest ally.

Jake wanted to kill the Freemans.

The Freemans hadn't aimed their gazes at the boy when he shared a living space with Sabrina.

One thousand years, the lifespan of the average Soynite, was a long time. But Jake hadn't spent one thousand years living in a spaceship with his best friend. They had spent two months living within the space vessel that had brought them to Earth, and then they had spent ten years Jake and Sabrina separated.

In the present moment, Jake didn't leave Sabrina, but there was bound to be a Freeman enemy beyond the room. Somewhere. The two Highs weren't in a safe spaceship anymore. They had gone into enemy territory. Jake had ventured into it on his own free will. Sabrina had been forced into it.

"I'm really glad you're going to help me kill more Freemans, Jake," Sabrina said. "Where do you live, by the way?"

"Washington," Jake said. "Seattle, Washington."

Jake and Peter had left that city. They resided in Seattle, but they had gone to the Freeman base.

Peter and Maggie had been close to dead bellmas when Jake ran from them. He had run from Peter. He had run from Maggie. Jake had done much running in his life. He would run more. He had to.

In the future, Jake would encounter more Freemans, no doubt. A Freeman would love to kill Jake, Sabrina, and other Soynites they could find. Jake and his friend Sabrina were Highs, but they weren't exempt from the Freemans' hatred.

"Soynites," a voice said, shouting.

Jake furrowed his brow. He had heard that voice's owner give speeches on Soy. That had been before the invasion exploded into reality.

Don Ascend.

Jake and Sabrina left the room.

"It's Don Ascend," Doug cheered, speaking Soynite as he stood beside Don. "Our High is here!"

Don wore black pants and a black shirt with long sleeves. Unlike Jake, the former High didn't wear his Soynite pendant.

"He's not our High anymore," Jake said. "Don is evil. He joined Lock Tannis."

Don moved a hand into his pocket. He appeared in front of Sabrina, teleporting. Maybe he kept a teleportation stone in his pocket. The traitorous former High grabbed Sabrina's Soynite pendant, then inspected it.

"Hello, again," Don said. He grinned. "What's your name?"

"Sabrina Sam," Sabrina could have said, but she didn't.

No, Sabrina didn't have to tell Don her name. Don worked for Lock Tannis, and Sabrina telling the former High her name would make it easier for the Freemans to locate her home.

She turned and ran. Sabrina headed toward the area close to the prison wing, but Don didn't pursue.

"Run!" Don said. "If these two friends of yours don't join Lock Tannis, they're going to have to run."

Doug took aim.

A red laser beam rocketed out the scarred boy's Freeman gun, then it blasted a hole into the wall.

"Bad job, kid," Don said, standing behind Doug.

He had teleported.

A blue force field slammed against Doug's back, forcing him off his feet. He released his gun. The boy crashed onto the hard floor, groaned.

"With former Highs like these, who needs enemies?" Doug said.

His attack hadn't resulted in satisfaction. Doug had opened fire, but he had failed to kill the thin former High. Compassion for Don was thin in Jake, and the teenager knew he needed to kill the man. If Don lived for another year, he could help Lock Tannis for another year.

Lock Tannis didn't deserve help.

Jake, Peter, Maggie, Sabrina, Doug, and even Kara Ascend, Don's daughter, deserved help. But Lock didn't. A great person had to end Lock's life. Maybe that person would be a Majestic. Maybe that Majestic would be Jake.

Don, he needed to die, just like Lock Tannis and so many Freemans.

Jake aimed at Don and opened fire.

Blue laser beams shot through empty space, not blasting through Jake's target. Don, utilizing what Jake assumed was a Soynite teleportation stone, had moved without walking, jogging, or running.

Something crashed against Jake's body, making him reach the same fate as Doug. Weaponless, Jake groaned beside his new ally. Both boys stayed on their stomachs.

"I'm looking for a girl," Don said. "She has brown hair and brown eyes."

"A lot of girls have brown hair and brown eyes," Doug said. He grimaced. "If you give me more details, I might be able to help you."

"She turned eleven years old on March first," Don said. "Her name is Kara Ascend, and she's a Soynite. Just like us. Do either of you know a girl who fits that description?"

Jake had met Kara Ascend. He had held her when she was a baby. That girl should now be eleven years old, bigger than she had been years ago, and Jake was sure he had never reunited with her. Don Ascend, Kara's biological father, didn't know what Jake knew. He didn't know the boy he had attacked personally knew his daughter.

Sabrina knew Kara. The blonde had left, had run.

"No," Jake lied.

"Are you a High, boy?" Don said.

"No," Jake lied.

Jake Wayne. Sabrina Sam. Lovely Windsore. Kara Ascend. Those four children were Highs, and Jake despised only one High.

Don Ascend was on the hunt for his daughter. That meant there was a possibility he had never met her.

His wife, Camille Ascend, had met Kara. She had given birth to the girl, then had let the kid's Watcher take her to Theo Majestic.

"Do you know any Highs?" Don said.

Where was Sabrina?

She wouldn't stay away from too long, Jake believed, but Don could kill Jake and his ally Doug before Sabrina's return.

"I know that you were one of them," Jake said. "You betrayed the Soynites. You turned on your own people, our people."

Don had joined Lock Tannis. He had decided to ally with the worst being of all time, but he hadn't decided to help his people by fighting against the horrible Lock Tannis.

"You should've fought Lock Tannis," Jake said.

"You can't fight Lock Tannis," Don said. "Unless you want to fight for your life. I made the right choice, and you didn't. It's not too late."

"I'll never join you," Jake said. "I'm never going to join Lock Tannis, either."

"What he said," Doug told Don.

"Both of you are going to know what it's like to be crushed to death," Don said. "Get ready."

Jake's laser gun was too far.

Don crashed onto the floor, just like Jake and Doug had done. Someone had sent the former High dropping onto the hardness he had made two teenagers crash against.

Sabrina put Strife handcuffs around Don's wrists, restraining him with the same green handcuffs she had been restrained with.

Jake and Doug stood, grabbed their guns.

With his Freeman laser rifle in his hands, Doug smiled.

With his Soynite laser pistol in his hand, Jake aimed a glare at the brown-haired man who had planned on crushing him to death with a force field.

"Get ready, Don," Jake said.

He aimed the laser gun at Don's face, pointing the blue weapon at Kara's biological father.

"No," Sabrina said. She stood close to Don, who remained on his back. The man's hands stayed beneath him as he scowled. "Don't kill him. I need him to do something for me."

"He tried to kill us!" Doug said. He grimaced and rubbed his back. "He hurt me. What do you want him to do for you? He betrayed our race. And he was going to crush me to death with a force field. Why do you want to keep him alive? It's not like he's going to give you a kiss on the forehead and tell you he's proud of you."

"I already have someone who does that for me," Sabrina said. She pointed at Don's forehead. "I need Don here to do something else."

"If you're going to torture me, it would be a waste of your time," Don said. "I won't tell you anything. If you kill me, there will just be more enemies. There are billions of Freemans, and there are so few Soynites. Lock Tannis is the greatest being in this universe. You can't stop him. You can't even tell me your name."

"Because I'm not stupid," Sabrina said. "If you want my first name, I'll tell it to you. But you won't get a first and last name out of me."

Don Ascend grinned.

"I know exactly who you are," he said.

Sabrina didn't glare. She scowled and held eye contact with the traitor, blue eyes pointing at brown ones.

"And I know that I need you alive," Sabrina said. "For now, at least."

"Please, just kill him," Doug said. "Or let me do it."

"Be quiet, Doug!"

Sabrina bent over and grabbed Don's shirt collar. The High sneered.

"My name is Sabrina," Sabrina said. "I'm a High. And you're going to tell Lock Tannis to come to Earth, because I want to kill him."

She took the laser rifle from Doug, then slammed it against Don's head. A pleasing noise rushed into Jake's ears. Don lost consciousness.

Jake lost more hope.

After handing Doug's his laser gun, Sabrina looked at Jake.

"Let's go," Sabrina said. "I think he got the message."

She moved. Jake's gaze landed on the handle of a Freeman laser pistol, which protruded from the girl's pants pocket.

Jake and Doug followed the blonde girl.

"Sabrina, why did you tell Don all of that?!" Jake said. "Do you know what's going to happen now? Lock Tannis is going to come here and he's going to make everything harder for us."

Sabrina had shortened the time Jake had to prepare for Lock Tannis's possible arrival on Earth.

His best friend had made the wrong choice.

If he made his unwelcome advent on the humans' planet, Lock Tannis would make life harder for Jake and everyone he loved. He would.

"I'm going to make everything harder for him," Sabrina said. "I'm going to try my best to kill Lock Tannis. And Don can keep the teleportation stone he most likely has in his pocket. I want him to get back to Lock Tannis as soon as possible."

Sabrina had knocked out Don, and the sound of Doug's weapon slamming against the traitor's head had pleased Jake, but what Sabrina had commanded Don to do hadn't brought the boy happiness.

Jake slowed his steps.

Doug, who had protested against keeping Don alive, moved beside Sabrina as the three Soynites walked.

As the trio moved, as Don Ascend stayed unconscious, Lock Tannis remained alive and well. Jake didn't know Hailey Majestic would kill the Freeman ruler in the future.

The boy couldn't confirm Kara Ascend was alive.

She was.