APRIL 6, 2011

Two Soynites had married.

Because of Boone Windsore, Zoey All had a stepfather.

A Soynite marriage involved one member of the couple wearing the pendant of the other. As the person gripped their pendant as their partner wore it, the couple kissed.

Boone had put his pendant on Misty. Then he had gripped it and kissed her.

Zoey had spent too much time without a father.

Thanks to a certain someone, Misty's sweet daughter no longer had an absent father.

Boone Windsore was Zoey's father. That was the truth now, because Misty had married the man four days ago.

Zoey was five.

She was five and so was her stepsister, Lovely. They had never met, but their meeting would bring much happiness. It was how it had to be.

The girls had to hug. They had to be good to each other. They both cared about Boone.

Someday, maybe even ten years into the future, Lovely and Zoey would meet.

Boone didn't know if he would see his daughter again. Zoey had become like a daughter to the man, but Lovely had gone away from him and never returned to his life. The two girls were young. Boone knew his birthday, and he knew the birthdays of his daughter and stepdaughter.

Like Alice Endman, Zoey had been born on the first of January.

January 14th.

That was Lovely's birthday.

Five years ago, a great kid had come into the universe. She had left her mother and saw Soy, a planet that had stopped being beautiful. That was because of what the Freemans had done to it. The pale attackers hadn't been noble. They hadn't been kind or compassionate or righteous.

They weren't like Zoey.

Unlike her stepsister, the girl had never killed a Freeman. Boone had come into the universe as someone who had never killed a Freeman. It was okay.

Zoey could kill Freemans years from now. The compassionate kid wouldn't stay five forever.

Boone had been five years old a long time ago, and he had grown into a Freeman slayer. He had burned Lock's warriors alive with his fire, beautiful fire that had consumed enemies in its heated radiance.

It was a pleasure to burn, Boone knew.

Burning Freemans alive would never stop bringing more peace. No Freeman was good.

The Freemans were awful. They were as real as Misty, but Boone hadn't seen a Freeman in weeks.

Freemans.

They were awful. They hadn't been nice to Soynites.

Boone held Zoey. He had picked her up, and the man stood in the lounge room where he had hugged Misty a month ago.

The man rubbed Zoey's back through her blue shirt. She wore blue jeans. No shoes. No socks.

Boone hadn't been barefoot when he, Lovely, and Marina ran down ruined streets during the invasion. They had survived that night. Lauren hadn't.

Zoey didn't wear a Soynite pendant.

Zoey had a father, at least. Boone planned on keeping her as safe as possible. He was a lot better than the Freemans, who would kill Zoey if they could. The man had failed to save his dead wife and that man and that little girl, but he could protect his current wife and Zoey.

Young and unarmed, Zoey needed protection.

But a young person could kill a Freeman. Boone had seen a Freeman die because his daughter had put a laser beam through the foe's pale forehead. Lovely had been five. She was still five, but her father couldn't see her.

The light in the room touched Boone, Zoey, and Misty. It didn't touch the Freemans. That was great. No Freemans stood in the room. They had left the Freemans on Soy, but Boone didn't doubt the pale warriors would try killing the Soynites who had survived the attack.

Boone had left Soy with no serious wounds.

After parting from Boone, Lovely and Marina had gone into a spaceship. They had escaped.

"I wish I knew where Boris Endman was," Misty said. She sat on the sofa, rubbing her forehead with thin fingers. "I... admire this man. I have to see him again. I was fortunate enough to meet him a few days after the invasion, when you and Zoey were asleep, but now I'm not with him."

Boone wasn't with Zoey's stepsister. The man wasn't with Lovely, his only biological child.

Six children had escaped their doomed planet. Boone loved one of those children more than anything on Soy, but he had been forced to separate from her. After arriving on Earth, Lovely would depart from whatever friends she had made while living inside that evacuation spaceship.

"You will be with him, Mother," Zoey said.

Misty stood. She came close to the girl, then kissed her brown hair.

"You're always going to be my little optimist," Misty said.

Boone stroked Zoey's hair.

"She's always going to be my little optimist, too," the man said. "I love you, Zoey."

"I love you too, Father," Zoey said.

As horrible as that global attack had been, the invasion had made Boone find Misty and Zoey. He loved them.

But the man hated Lock Tannis.

Maybe he was the man Misty wanted to kill. If Misty's goal involved killing the Freeman leader, Boone wouldn't hate her for it. His first wife had died because of Lock. That Freeman hadn't died. No one had killed planet Free's current ruler, and he had earned the right to die. The man deserved it.

Boone hadn't forgotten who Lock Tannis was. Misty remembered Lock, and she and her husband knew what had to happen.

Someone needed to give the Freeman leader a violent death. A great Soynite had to do it.

They had to be brave, skilled, heroic.

Bravery.

Lovely had shown bravery when she killed that Freeman during the brutal invasion.

Lovely could become skilled.

Maybe she would become as skilled with a gun as Misty. Lovely had shot a Freeman to death, but Boone didn't believe she would never miss a target. The girl could become better at shooting.

Her father couldn't kill any Freemans, not when he lived inside a spaceship and there were no Freemans in sight.

"Also, I was thinking about Don Ascend's daughter," Misty said. "You said that her name is Kara."

Kara Ascend. Her Watcher had brought the baby to the former High Theo. He had turned Kara into one of the six current Highs. Theo had his friend's child into royalty and he had gone away from her. He had left other Soynites. The man's brother-in-law had been on that airstrip. Maybe he would see Theo again, and there was a possibility they had already reunited.

Boone hadn't reunited with Lovely. And he hadn't seen Marina since the invasion.

Lovely and Marina had been at the same place. They had boarded a spaceship Boone hadn't gone into himself, and the man stood in a different spacecraft. He had gotten married. The girl he held was his wife's daughter, and she might meet his biological child.

The name Don had given his own daughter was Kara.

"Kara Ascend," Boone said. He caressed Zoey's long hair as she clung to him. "I forgot her Watcher's name, but I remember what he looks like. He has brown hair and brown eyes."

Above the three heads was a blue and hard wall. Beneath Boone's shoes was the floor, and no Freemans stood on it.

The Freemans had gone to Soy last month, to murder the planet's people.

A baby's Watcher had stepped foot on an airstrip. Boone had seen his brown hair and brown eyes during the terrible invasion.

"Like me," Zoey said.

Like Boone's stepdaughter, Kara's Watcher was brown-haired and brown-eyed, but Boone didn't like him as much as he liked Zoey.

A better place.

Boone needed to find one. Zoey had earned the right to live in a better place.

"Yes, like you," Misty said. She put a hand on Boone's bicep, touching him through his blue shirt. "Boone, don't be too concerned. The name of Kara's Watcher doesn't matter. Remembering it won't make something great happen."

Remembering the name of Kara's Watcher wouldn't bring Lauren back from the dead.

Even if it could, Boone had found new love.

If he reunited with Lovely, she would have to meet his wife's daughter. They were stepsisters. Zoey had become like a daughter to Boone, and he didn't wish to forget her.

A father. Boone was one. A stepfather. The man had a daughter and a stepdaughter, and it was his responsibility to be good to them both.

"I know," Boone said. "I didn't even speak to the man. The only Watcher I spoke to that night was Marina. We hugged, then she left me. So did my daughter. I saw them leave in that spaceship, but I couldn't go with them. All I could do was watch. I'm never going to stop being grateful that I found you and Zoey on that terrible night. And maybe I will see all of the Highs again."

The man saw no Highs.

He didn't see Kara. And he didn't see Lovely, whose eyes were green and beautiful. Lauren had sported eyes like that, but her life had drained. Without a doubt, destruction had devoured body and her eyes.

Who was Boone now? He had been Boone Windsore for so long. He was the father of High Lovely Windsore, the stepfather of Zoey All, and the husband of Misty Windsore. Boone had a distant daughter. He had no residence on Earth, the planet his Lovely would live on.

"There's one High you want to see more than the other ones," Misty said. "I hope you and her reunite. A parent deserves to be with their child, so it's unfortunate you and Lovely are separated from each other. It isn't good. And so much else isn't. We don't have a planet, and most of our people got killed, and I might never see Boris Endman again. It's brutal. It's frustrating. And so are the Freemans. You saw what they're capable of. They killed your first wife. They destroyed our planet in one night. And they also killed the majority of our people. As awful as it is, we might even be the last Soynites alive. Just the three of us. Me, you, and my baby. We have to hope that Lovely will be strong when she's older. If we want to be happy, that's what has to happen. Your daughter has to be strong."

Lovely had shot and killed a seven-foot tall Freeman warrior at five years old. She was strong.

But she could become stronger.

Boone could hold Zoey, but he couldn't hold his other daughter, his child who had become his royal superior.

The baby Boone had seen was his High. Don Ascend had been the orange-haired man's High last year, and now the little Ascend was Boone's High. She was his ruler. And she was Zoey's ruler.

"And you have to become strong," Boone said. He set Zoey down. He could hold her again later. The man would be with the girl ten years from now. Boone didn't plan on leaving her anytime soon. Zoey left the room. "Who's the man you want to kill?"

Misty had trained. She had done it because her goal was to kill Lock Tannis, right?

The woman grabbed the back of his head. She kissed him with real passion. The kiss ended too soon.

"Kill your question," Misty said. She played with orange hair. Boone had created orange fire, but Misty preferred to not inform him about her target. "You can't fight fate, Boone. Remember that. I know I'm going to."

Boone caressed his wife's cheek. "You can't avoid my question forever."

"Maybe I can."

Maybe.

Maybe Boone would die before learning Misty's secret.

Maybe the spaceship carrying the man's daughter would never reach Earth.

Maybe a Freeman enemy had slaughtered Zoey in a hall beyond the lounge room.

Setting living beings on fire had become as easy as breathing. That was Boone's reality. But convincing Misty to reveal who her worst enemy was would come with difficulty. Too much difficulty.

If Boone was his wife's worst enemy, the woman didn't show it. Boone wasn't a corpse in a puddle of his own blood.

No, he was a man who lived. So many Soynites did not live. Boone pitied them.

He had been granted his survival.

Boone's first wife had died. A Freeman had gunned her down, and Lovely might never forget that.

Death was Lauren Windsore's domain. It wasn't Boone's. Life was his domain, and he bathed in it. A Freeman had killed Lovely's mother, Boone's first love, but that awful Freeman hadn't succeeded in murdering Boone. That Freeman had meant harm. Misty didn't plan on harming Boone, but she intended to kill a person who wasn't him.

It was her murderous wish.

Boone didn't burn his longing to kill Lock Tannis. Like Misty, he had someone he wanted to kill. It wasn't a lie. It was the solid truth, and no one could extinguish the man's desire to end Lock.

He had to make the Freeman leader burn.

It was Lock's fault Boone had parted with Lovely, his motherless daughter.

Lovely had been born five years ago. If she had been born fourteen years ago, the government agent's wouldn't have let her use the evacuation spaceship to survive and thrive. Boone, a man who had been a preteen years ago, had been prohibited from becoming a High. His daughter had been granted authority.

Maybe she would scorch Lock's life.

What Lock's Freemans had done hadn't pleased Boone. They had pleased their ruler. The too-pale warriors had made their unwelcome advent on Soynite domain. They had murdered innocents. And they had slaughtered men, women, and children. The Freemans had killed with brute force, with no remorse. With love for their harsh ruler, Freemans had killed Soynites who loved their lives.

A pale man hadn't snuffed the flame of Zoey's life.

Boone would protect her. He had to. And he would keep her mother, his second wife, safe.

With the Freemans away and absent, Boone had no enemies to kill. His world had been reduced to the large spaceship he lived his life in, and he cared about his wonderful wife and her precious daughter.

Lock Tannis was less precious than the trio. He was more cruel than kind. The Freemans praised him and they despised the Soynites.

Freemans.

They hated Boone, a man who could create and control wonderful fire.

They hated Misty, a woman who could see the past and the future.

They hated the good and kind Zoey, the five-year-old who had hid behind her mother while Boone ran toward the lady. Freemans had pursued the man then. They didn't pursue him now.

Freemans weren't in the spaceship Boone now lived in with his family, which was composed of people the man wasn't biologically related to.

Peace had resided on Soy. The Freemans had disturbed that sweet peace.

Lock had known what sending his Freeman warriors to Soy would bring. He had known what they would do to the people who weren't him, and the cruel leader had ordered his military to attack Soy with immense violence. Boone had killed Freemans with sweltering intensity. His daughter's Watcher had killed one Freeman too late. No one could save Lauren. Her death had come and Boone knew it.

Like Boone, Lauren couldn't hug Lovely.

Like Boone, Lauren couldn't kiss Lovely's forehead.

Like Boone, Lauren couldn't be with Lovely.

The woman was dead and Boone was not. Yet they were both unable to be in the same room as their daughter.

Lauren. Dead forever.

Boone. He was a living man, but he would die. Between now and his inevitable death, though, he had business to attend to.

Lock had kept his death at bay for too long.

The Freeman ruler was fierce and furious. Much to Boone's dismay and the dismay of others, Lock's power was extreme. He was tougher than the other Freemans, and that meant no Freeman was stronger than Lock.

Slaying him would come with boiling difficulty.

Someone, it didn't have to be Boone, had to end Lock's life, to prevent him from getting more innocents killed.

What had happened to Lauren didn't have to happen to the remaining Soynites, the people who had escaped Soy.

A hero could slay Lock.

Because of the mastermind behind Soy's invasion, Boone had struggled. He had struggled to survive.

He had struggled to smile.

In the present, while Lauren remained dead and Lovely remained absent, Boone didn't have the opportunity to kill a Freeman.

The Freemans had made sure to do what their Great Leader had wanted them to do. The Freemans still did what their ruler longed for them to do, and that made Boone the Soynite hate them more than he already did.

While the bright illumination glowed against her long brown hair, Misty grabbed Boone's pale hand.

"I really am sorry, Boone," Misty said. Past the window was outer space's vastness, but the spaceship kept Boone and his wife safe. Theo could survive in the vacuum of outer space, but Boone and Misty couldn't. "But it's a shame you didn't see what I saw. If you did, you would understand why I did what I did."

What had Misty done?

Was it as bad as what Lock had forced onto the Soynite race?

Lock Tannis and the Freemans despised the Soynites for what had happened millions of years ago. Boone understood why Lock had made his fellow Freemans destroy Soy and massacre its natives.

What had Boone's wife done?

Whatever she had done, the man in the room knew Misty had helped him. She loved Zoey and she loved Boone, her husband, her first love. The woman was a good lady. She was great. What she had done couldn't be too bad.

Misty had proved how good she was.

The Freemans, Lock and his pale people, had proved how brutal and cruel they were. That was the truth. Boone couldn't deny it. He didn't deny the truth. It stayed as honest as the fire he had engulfed vicious bellmas in.

Boone's plan to kill as many Freemans as possible hadn't crumbled. It stayed.

The present Boone lived in wasn't as intense as the brutal invasion had been. It had brought agony. And it had brought too many deaths. Freemans had died, sure, but Soynites had died. Their deaths hadn't been gentle. They had been violent. Freemans had taken Soynite lives with terrible ruthlessness, and Boone had failed to save his planet. He had failed to save the majority of the Soynite population.

Boone had failed.

Theo Majestic had failed.

Lock Tannis had failed to view the Soynite race as a species that deserved to be alive and thriving a decade from now.

How could the Freeman leader have caused so much destruction?

If a heroic Soynite killed Lock, the ruler wouldn't be able to sit on his red throne ten years from now.

If Boone killed the pale dictator, Lock wouldn't be able to wear his red crown ten years from now, and taking Lock's life would be a great pleasure.

Would Boone be alive ten years from now?

A Freeman hadn't murdered his first wife a decade ago. Lauren had met her demise one month ago, and Boone had mourned.

He had grieved but lived.

He had suffered but thrived.

He had killed but remained good.

Red blood didn't pour from a wound in Boone's head. Bellmas didn't tear into his warm flesh with their jagged teeth. Boone hadn't taken a laser beam to the head.

Fortune hadn't been on Boone's side when a Freeman murdered Lauren.

"I'm with you, and I'm with Zoey," Boone said. "I deserve to know the truth. Who do you want to kill? Why won't you tell me?"

Misty put her hands on his cheeks.

"Sometimes people don't get what they want so early," she said. Then she moved her hands.

"Waiting isn't exactly fun," Boone said.

Misty scoffed. "Neither was the invasion."

"We survived, Misty," Boone said. He tapped his chest. "I'm right here. You're right here. You know you can talk to me. Why don't you?"

Boone and Misty spoke to each other every single day, but a secret sizzled in the woman.

She kept the secret at bay. But it was evident it involved the unknown man she planned on murdering.

Misty needed to talk. She had to tell her secret.

"Me and you talk to each other all the time," Misty said. "We live together. We have a wonderful daughter. If the Freemans found us, I would protect the two of you. It wouldn't be wrong for me to hurt as many Freemans as I can. Some people deserve to be hurt. Some people don't get to have free will."

Misty had possessed free will when she gave Boone permission to board her spaceship, which was now their home.

"Yes, they do," Boone said. A sigh shot out his mouth. "You made a choice back on Soy, back when the Freemans were ruining everything. You could've let me die on that planet. But you didn't. You gave me permission to go into your spaceship, this spaceship."

He gestured to the space around them.

"I was able to make that choice," Misty said. "It wasn't your destiny to die during the invasion. Clearly."

"And it's not your destiny to keep secrets from me forever."

"It could very well be."

"It isn't," Boone said.

Misty moved past the man.

"I'm going to find our daughter," she said.

Boone followed her into the hall outside the room. A small person rounded the corner, and she walked toward Misty. When Zoey was near her, Misty moved onto her knees. She opened her arms. Zoey hugged her and Misty hugged her back.

"I love you, Zoey," Misty said. "So much. So much."

She shut her brown eyes.

"I love you too, Mother," Zoey said.

The hug ended. Misty stroked the child's hair and kissed it. She smiled. After standing, she picked Zoey up. Misty walked down the hall while carrying the girl. Boone accompanied them.

The man walked near the mother and child, the only family he had with him.

"I can't wait to meet Lovely, Father," Zoey said, as Misty carried her. "I want to see her so badly."

Misty had worn a blue dress when Boone met her. If Zoey met Lovely, what would that stepdaughter wear? Where would Zoey and Lovely meet for the first time?

"Me too, Zoey," Boone said. He longed to have both his kids in his life at the same time. "Me too. I think you're going to like Lovely. She's also tough. Like me. Like your mother."

Whatever Lovely did now, her father preferred for Marina to tell him his High child was safe. The girl and the Watcher had found shelter in that evacuation spaceship, but Boone wasn't aware of Lovely's current status.

Was she a dead girl? Was she a living one?

The father couldn't confirm if Marina was a living woman or a dead one.

Marina and Boone and Misty were tough people, skilled Soynites who had become survivors. It was not a guarantee they would be alive ten years from now. Much can change in a decade.

And much had changed in one night.

Planet Free's ruthless natives had ruined and destroyed so much. They had brought destruction to way too much, and they had drained lives from too many Soynites.

Because of Freeman weapons, and because of the Freemans themselves, too few Soynites existed.

Boone's mind lacked information about the former Soynite Highs' locations. There were seven former Highs.

Theo Majestic.

Boris Endman.

Don Ascend.

Ray Fire.

Notch Slip.

Tale Wick.

Reed Pisces.

The exiled former High, Reed Pisces, had been replaced by the powerful Boris Endman. No one had seen Reed in so many years. No one had seen Boris's granddaughter in years. Alice, like Lovely, was gone. She was not in a place where she deserved to be. Boone would love to find her. The missing girl had to reunite with her family, like how Boone had to reunite with his daughter.

Alice Endman had gone missing.

Lovely had entered a spaceship and fled Soy. Her father had watched the space vessel depart from the planet.

Don Ascend.

A museum had been named after him. The Ascend Museum had housed the fastest Soynite spaceship in the universe, but no one had informed Boone about that spaceship's fate.

Maybe someone had taken the spacecraft and flown it away from Soy.

Wherever it was, Boone knew Kara Ascend hadn't used the spaceship to get off her home world. The man had seen the baby girl's Watcher carry her, and the infant was Don Ascend's daughter.

Where was her mother? Had she survived the attack?

Don's brother-in-law, a man named Cambridge Downer, was Kara's uncle. Maybe the uncle and his niece would meet later and form a close bond. Maybe they would help each other survive on Earth, which might become a battleground where Soynites and Freemans would clash.

The Freemans would track down and kill any Soynites who had survived that global attack on Soy, no doubt. Since it wasn't planet Free, Earth was the best planet for Soynites to move to.

If the Freemans were wise, if their ruler was wise, they would go to Earth.

Soynite bases stood on the humans' planet.

Freeman bases did not stand on Earth, but they were located on Free.

If Boone and the other Soynites were fortunate people, the Freemans would never build their own bases on Earth.

As for Don Ascend, he was a thin man with brown hair and brown eyes. Boone didn't know how many people were aware his wife had given birth. In any case, it should take Don's daughter some time to become fight ready.

Boone doubted a baby could shoot a gun with dangerous precision.

Lovely had grabbed a currently deceased man's gun. She had opened fire and killed a Freeman. Boone had been proud. Lauren would've been proud.

Theo Majestic.

He had been the leader of the presently former Highs. The old Highs were missing and gone. Theo himself was missing. He had teleported. He had vanished, and Boone was sure neither Misty nor Zoey knew Theo's location.

"I hope all three of us see Lovely soon, Boone," Misty said, still carrying Zoey as she moved. The kid's bare feet didn't touch the floor. Her mother had her, and she wouldn't drop her child. Boone's own kid had made a Freeman drop. "The four of us together would make a great team. If Lovely came to us, we would be a great family, I think."

"We're already a great family, Mother," Zoey said.

Boone grinned. The addition of Lovely to the family would be wonderful. Yet his daughter was not with them. She was with Marina. Boone hoped the child was still with her Watcher, at least.

Misty and Zoey were mother and daughter.

Boone and Lovely were father and daughter.

Zoey and Lovely were stepsister and stepsister.

An extra person had gained the right to reside in the spaceship with Boone, Misty, and Zoey.

The High Lovely Windsore.

If Marina were in the home, Boone would let her live in the place. She and Lovely could settle in the spacecraft if they desired it, and Boone would have four great people to protect and love.

With Lauren dead and Lovely absent, Boone had Misty and Zoey to devote his caring attention to. And yet, the man didn't forget Lovely hadn't ceased being his daughter. Boone had a duty. He needed to keep loving one of the six Highs, that child ruler who had been born as his daughter.

How long between the present and his reunion with Lovely, Boone could not say.

The man had separated from Lovely one month ago. It hadn't been a long time since Boone had seen his green-eyed kid. She had been alive for five years, and bitter grief would find her father if he became aware a Freeman had cut short Lovely's five years of existence.

Boone couldn't communicate with his daughter.

He couldn't contact his kid, and she couldn't contact him. Dread hooked into the present plight. Because Boone lacked the opportunity to see if Lovely was okay and thriving.

To his credit, the father had succeeded in helping his daughter reach Theo.

But he had failed to keep others safe.

What awaited the six Highs? In the future, would six dead children die on Earth and lay in puddles of their own blood?

If that happened, Boone's only biological child would be a corpse, a lifeless body with no power to install more hope into the man who could birth fire.

The three Soynites moved, walking under the hall's ceiling, distant from Soy, Free, and Earth.

"You're right, Zoey," Misty said. "We're already a great family."

"I'm never going to leave the two of you." Boone said, his voice filled with joy.