"You're in trouble, Crammer," a man said.

He was tall, thin, weaponless. But it was possible he was the Child of Still who had used telekinesis with great deadliness.

Telekinesis.

Zoey didn't have that Save. The girl had no powers, but she had a throwing knife. Regardless, she didn't try using the Freeman weapon. Her mother didn't attack. Zoey didn't attack.

"Did you hear me?" the man said. "You're in trouble."

"I heard you," Crammer said, his voice shaking, the man angry, as if the person in purple had thrown a book at his face.

Crammer's sword floated away from his big hand. It went toward the man who had talked. He grabbed the weapon. Like the other nine people in purple, the man was a Child of Still.

Well, Zoey assumed they were the Children of Still, people Crammer wanted to stay far away from.

He was now weaponless.

The Children of Still glared at the unarmed man. What had he done to them?

"You're the Children of Still," Zoey's mother said.

The five men and the five women who had come wore purple. Planet Still was that color, and it wasn't a place Zoey ever wanted to travel to.

"We are," the man said. "My name is Cage Pacer. What's yours?"

"Misty Windsore," Zoey's mother said. She gestured to Crammer with her free hand. "What are you planning on doing to Crammer?"

"Before I tell you, I have to give you some information," Cage said. He pointed at Crammer, who scowled. "This man used to be one of us. He's a former Child of Still."

"I knew it," Zoey said.

Crammer had more knowledge about the Children of Still than Zoey and her mother had. He had painted the message on the wall.

"You're a smart girl," Crammer said. "But you're not smart enough to realize that I'm going to die today. No matter what happens, I'm going to die in this space station."

Maybe he wouldn't.

"What do you mean?" a woman said. She was pale and orange-haired. As she wielded a blue dagger, she aimed her blue eyes at Crammer's face. "If you're fortunate, you'll die on Still."

"I don't care about Still," Crammer said.

Cage took a step closer, armed with the huge man's sword. He could use it to kill. If he murdered Crammer with the weapon, Zoey's mother wouldn't be able to bring the man into their home.

Maybe he should die.

But what if Crammer would be good to Zoey and her mother? Was there hope? Was there hope for the seven-foot tall Soynite?

"I came very close to chopping off your head," Cage said. He sneered. "Just now, Crammer. Just now. If you say anything negative about that glorious planet again, I will kill you. Anyway, I used my power to find you. And I'm willing to forgive you for what you did. You left that note. All of us read it. It explained how you don't want to be a Child of Still anymore, and I want you to know that we can forgive you. And Still can forgive you. But you have to go back to worshipping that wonderful planet. If you don't, you know what I'll do to you."

"And what's that?" Zoey's mother said.

Cage moved his focus to her. Brown eyes looked at brown eyes.

"If Crammer doesn't decide to become one of us again, I'm going to cut off his head," he said.

Still holding the Freeman throwing knife, Zoey rubbed her arm with her free hand. Crammer seemed like a man who liked the girl.

Did he deserve to die?

"If that happens, he won't die on Still," Cage said. He glanced at the black walls, which were the same color as his hair. "He'll die in here. He'll get killed inside a Freeman space station."

Crammer had killed Freemans in the place, and Cage might end his life in the hall.

Cage could kill Crammer. The Child of Still wore purple and he kept the taller man's sword in his hand. He didn't drop it. If Crammer got killed and his body hit the floor afterwards, it wouldn't become smoke. No, Soynites didn't turn into that after dying. Crammer could get his head cut off and his corpse would rot. It wouldn't change into smoke.

Freemans became suffocating smoke after death.

Soynites didn't.

If Zoey's father were in the hall, he would be able to set the Children of Still cult members on fire and smoke would come from their burning bodies.

Zoey would love to see that.

Boone Windsore wasn't in the hall. He wasn't beside Zoey, and he didn't stand next to his wife.

If the girl's father were in the area, he would give Cage and the other Soynites dressed in purple a hard time. Fire had to come. Burning flames needed to hurt the purple-wearing people, kill them, make their bodies smoke.

Zoey didn't have her father.

And she didn't have fire. What she had was a Freeman throwing knife.

The sword in Cage's hand belonged to a big man. That man was skilled and tough. Black-haired and brown-eyed. He stood taller than the other Soynites in the hall.

Crammer had killed Freeman warriors with ease. He had contributed to Soynite society by getting rid of those pale enemies, but the people in purple weren't Freemans.

Ten cult members had come for him.

It seemed like Cage had telekinesis. Dangerous telekinesis.

The invasion had stopped. What the Freemans had done to Soy and its people had ended years ago. At some point, though, a Soynite had created the Children of Still cult.

Which Soynite?

How many people belonged to the cult?

Zoey didn't know if the group had been created before or after the invasion.

The Children of Still cult had at least ten members, and one of the cultists was Cage. Zoey assumed he was a Bloodhound.

The Freemans captured or killed whatever Soynites they could find. Lock Tannis's pale warriors were not gentle. They were bad. Bad and dangerous and horrible. One of the Children of Still, a telekinesis user, had attacked and killed the Freeman mob. Zoey assumed Cage was that telekinesis user.

She couldn't trust him.

The girl didn't plan on joining the cult the man had become part of.

When the Children of Still finished dealing with Crammer, what would they do to Zoey and her mother?

"If you kill me, I won't be mad," Crammer said. "I would deserve it. I killed that man, and he didn't deserve to die. I thought killing for Still was going to be a great thing, but it wasn't. When I realized it, it was too late. I couldn't bring that man back to life. I still can't. All of you have been convinced that killing people for Still isn't wrong. But it is. It is. And I'm never going to kill for Still ever again. I'm not. The Children of Still have killed way too many innocent people, people who didn't deserve to die, and it's not right. It's not right at all. After I killed that man, I couldn't stop feeling guilty. It stayed with me. I couldn't get rid of it. I still can't. I know what has to happen. I have to die. That's how this guilt is going to go away. Someone needs to kill me, or I need to kill myself. No matter what happens today, I'm going to die before this day is over. I'm determined to die as soon as possible. You have to kill me, Cage. Because I'm never going to worship Still ever again."

Cage scoffed, then he man glared.

Zoey took a shivering breath.

Her mother shook her head.

As black walls and a black floor surrounded Crammer, he rubbed his forehead. Tears left his brown eyes.

Zoey's dislike for Crammer flew away from her.

The girl wore a frown.

Crammer had given a speech. The man on Zoey's white shirt had given many of those in his life. If Theo Majestic were in the hall, what would he want Zoey to do?

Ten Children of Still members. One mother. One daughter. One former Child of Still cultist.

Thirteen Soynites.

So many people had been born on planet Soy, but now there weren't enough Soynites. And too many of them had become Still worshippers.

Their target was Crammer.

Because he had left the cult, Crammer had become the Still worshippers' enemy. Zoey had seen the Children of Still make their dislike for the man known, but the eleven-year-old didn't attack. Her mother had an easier time killing people than she did. Zoey couldn't use her weapon.

Not yet.

The kid didn't belong in the hall. She needed to be back in her bedroom, within her spaceship, not close to Cage and the other Still worshippers. These people would love to cut off her head if they knew she would rather not worship Still.

The girl didn't scowl at Cage, and she didn't give a rude look to the other Children of Still. But she preferred to kill them. They lived. They didn't deserve to live, though. The girl believed her mother felt the same way.

Zoey's weapon wasn't gone, and neither was her mother's. They were armed.

The kid and her mother would kill the Children of Still, and they would go back into their spaceship, which was parked in the space station's massive hangar.

The spaceship was their home. Boone had been in it. Like the spaceship, though, he was away from Zoey and her mother.

Gone.

Men and women dressed in purple weren't far from Zoey, but a man she cared about was.

Zoey's mother planned on befriending Crammer.

Theo had made Zoey's stepsister into a High, but the girl in the black hall wasn't sure if her mother would succeed in making a friend out of Crammer.

Would it happen?

If Crammer became a friend of Zoey's mother, how much time would pass until a Freeman killed him?

The Freemans had ruined Zoey's home planet. They could kill whatever friends she made in the future. It might happen.

With Zoey and her mother were ten purple-wearing cult members, a man who had betrayed the Still worshippers, and the Freemans' dark leftovers.

The company the Children of Still gave wasn't good.

Zoey held her weapon, grateful she had it. It might keep her from dying before the day ended. If the Children of Still learned she didn't plan on joining them, they might try making her bleed.

She needed to protect herself.

"You don't have to die, Crammer," Zoey's mother said. "If you live, you can help me and my daughter live. You can do that for a long time. But you have to live. If you die, you won't be able to help us."

"I'm sorry," Cage said. He looked at the Freeman's sword's red. It could cut off a head, and the Child of Still saw Crammer's head as one that had to be cut. "Crammer isn't going to live. He doesn't side with the wonderful Still anymore, and that means he has to die. The same will happen to you and your daughter. If you don't join us, of course."

He had made himself a target.

"I can't tell you sorry and mean it," Zoey's mother said, wielding her Freeman sword.

Yes, Cage had become a target. And the other men in purple had become targets. The purple-wearing women too.

Zoey's mother moved her hand into her pocket. She turned invisible.

Cage furrowed his brow, as if he tried solving a hard math problem.

Zoey's mother had taught her how to do math, and the woman would teach the Children of Still they had made a big mistake.

Cage turned his head, pinning his gaze on the wall. No, he was a Bloodhound. He could find Zoey's invisible mother without seeing her.

An unseen sword sliced off Cage's head.

It had been too late. The headless man would never kill Zoey's mother.

Blood poured from the hole where the body part had been, and the unharmed Children of Still opened their mouths as their eyes widened.

The invisible mother killed the nine purple-wearing Soynites with no mercy, putting her sword to better use than Crammer had put his.

Ten men and women in purple lay on the floor.

Dead.

Cage's head sat on blackness, his brown eyes open. He would never see planet Still again, and it was a fate he had deserved. The ten Children of Still had died away from the planet they had loved when they were alive.

A good woman had murdered them. But the deaths had been necessary, and Zoey knew it. The lady's daughter hadn't forgotten she couldn't trust any Child of Still. They wore purple. Unlike Zoey, they probably wore purple underwear.

The Children of Still didn't wear Soynite pendants.

Whatever the population of the Children of Still was, neither of them could become friends with Zoey.

The girl's mother was the one who had killed ten Children of Still.

But they had deserved what they had been given. Zoey wouldn't forget it. She would remember, like she remembered Boone Windsore and the good he had brought into her life. His wife had taken lives.

Ten purple-wearing cult members, dead.

Their murders had happened. A six-foot tall woman had brought the deaths. Zoey's mother had used a Freeman sword she had taken and killed ten targets without regret. No remorse. No guilt.

Cage had planned on chopping off Crammer's head with no remorse, no guilt. Zoey's mother had stopped him. She had wounded and killed the man dressed in purple. The woman knew the dead Children of Still were people who had deserved to die. They had earned their deaths.

The Bloodhound named Cage was dead.

The woman with orange hair and blue eyes was dead. Her pale hand contrasted with the floor's blackness, her life gone. Because of her identity as someone who had been willing to kill for Still, the woman had needed to die. She had. A good Soynite had killed her with an invisible sword.

Zoey was alive. For now, at least. It was good. No one had killed her. She had been alive for eleven years, and no one had taken her life.

She would reach the age of sixteen, and her life would be even better.

Zoey's mother turned visible.

"Mother!" Zoey said. She smiled. "You're awesome!"

The woman had used her invisibility bracelet to her advantage. It was in her pants pocket, safe, useful.

"She is," Crammer said. He glanced at the bodies with blood on them. "There are more Children of Still. There's a lot more than ten."

"We'll deal with them," Zoey's mother said. "And if there are Freemans still alive, we'll deal with them, too."

She had killed the Children of Still to protect herself, her kid, and Crammer. Zoey's mother had done something wonderful. She had saved three people. She had murdered ten Soynites to make that happen, but it was okay. It was all right.

Why had the Children of Still decided to be monsters when they had held the privilege of being normal Soynites?

Zoey didn't know why.

Even as ten Children of Still lay on the floor with no beating hearts, other people in purple stayed away from the space station. They were out there.

"You painted that message on the wall," Zoey said, looking at Crammer.

The huge man bent down near Cage's dead body. He grabbed the red sword and stood.

"I did," Crammer said. "Planet Still isn't good. I know that now. And I knew that Cage was a Bloodhound. Like me. I'm not surprised that he tracked me down. The Children of Still obviously don't like anyone who leaves that cult of theirs. But I'm alive. I'm here and Cage isn't. He's gone. Thankfully, he was the only Bloodhound the Children of Still had. They shouldn't be able to find me now. I have a Soynite spaceship, and it should still be parked in the hangar. The two of you are free to use it. I don't need it anymore."

Cage had been a Bloodhound.

Crammer was one.

Whatever age the tall and muscular man was, he had been born with the power to find anyone in the universe. He could find Zoey's father.

The black underneath Cage's chopped off head matched his lifeless hair.

"You don't know that," Zoey's mother said. "If you come with us, you might have to leave it, though. It's okay. You can live with me and Zoey. We would really love to have you with us. You can't fight fate, Crammer. I always tell people that. I let them know that you can't fight fate. No one can. It's not your destiny to die here. You have to live. You have to live and be my friend, then we will win. We're going to win. Whatever happens, me, you, and my daughter are going to be victors. I want you to know that. No one is going to kill any of us. Not a Freeman. And not a Child of Still. Your former people are out there, but we're here. We're not dead. Cage and these other Children of Still are gone forever, but not us. We're going to live, and we're going to see tomorrow. We're going to live for a very long time."

Zoey glanced at Cage's headless body, as if his head would reattach to it and the man would stand and cause trouble.

He didn't.

Because Zoey's mother had stopped his heart.

"I don't want to live, Misty," Crammer said. He nudged the wall with his big shoe. "The guilt is never going to go away. You know what I did, but you still want me to live. You and your daughter deserve to be alive tomorrow. I don't. I don't even deserve to be alive right now. I was with these people."

He gestured at the corpses in purple.

"They did bad things," Crammer said. "They murdered people who didn't deserve to be murdered. If Children of Still find any Soynite who doesn't want to join them, they kill that person. If they find a Soynite who traveled to Still before, and if the Soynite doesn't want to join them, that person gets killed. The Children of Still also kill anyone who has objects from Still. Unless that person joins them, of course. And they have to be a Soynite. The cult only lets Soynites into their horrible group. That's the cult I was with. I was one of them, but now I'm not. I'm a man with no purpose. I'm a man with nothing but guilt. If you come here tomorrow, you're going to see a corpse. But it's not going to belong to a Child of Still."

Zoey frowned and held onto her backpack's strap with her free hand. As she touched its blue, the red throwing knife stayed in her other hand.

"I know what you just implied," Zoey's mother said. "You don't have to do it. Killing that man was just a mistake that you made. People make mistakes. Even someone as talented as me makes mistakes."

"I like your concern for me, Misty," Crammer said. "I still think it would be best if you and Zoey left. I'm going to stay here, then I'm going to kill myself."

"I'm going to keep you alive by force," Zoey's mother said. She stretched her legs, did the same to her slim arms. "You want to kill yourself. But I need you to know that I won't let you do that."

"In that case, you have to die," Crammer said.

He charged, armed with his sword.

Zoey's mother stood, as if it were impossible for the rushing big man to kill her.

Freemans swords clashed.

Two Soynites wielded them as a third Soynite, the youngest one in the hall, screamed.

"Mother!" Zoey said.

Breathing hard, she raised the throwing knife higher. Her mother and Crammer were too close. She could kill her own parent by accident if she threw the knife. The situation was far from good.

"I can't get a clear shot!" Zoey said.

Zoey's mother moved, but she stood between her daughter and Crammer now. Metal hit metal. Zoey could throw the blade into her mother's back, but she didn't want to. The person she had to kill was the former Child of Still.

"Crammer, stop!" Zoey shouted, begging, pleading. "Stop it, please!"

Crammer kept fighting.

The woman did the same, trying to wound the huge and menacing Bloodhound.

Crammer's foot bumped against Cage's chopped off head. The mother's foot crashed against the orange-haired woman's pale hand. She ducked. Crammer's sword sliced the wall. Past the wall's wound was another hall. Good. No one would get sucked into space if the wall crumbled.

"Don't worry, baby!" Zoey's mother said. She dodged a series of Crammer's sword swings. "I got him!"

The woman's blade slipped into Crammer's chest.

He dropped his sword, injured.

Zoey's mother pulled her weapon free. Crammer's blood soaked the blade, and the big man himself collapsed onto his broad back.

"I didn't want to do that!" Zoey's mother said.

Crammer exhaled. The breath shivered, as if Theo Majestic had frozen his hand.

"Misty, take this," Crammer said. He pulled a photograph from his pants pocket. It displayed a younger Crammer, a man, a woman, and a man who seemed to be in his twenties. Crammer placed the picture on the black floor. Zoey's mother bent down, grabbed it, and stood. "That's my family. My parents and my younger brother. They were killed during the invasion. I think about them every single day. It's like the invasion never ended. Not for me."

He winced. Blood spilled from his chest. Crammer, former Child of Still, son, older brother, shut his eyes.

Zoey's mother kneeled. She placed her sword beside her, put down the photograph showing Crammer with his dead family. The woman pulled out her healing glass. It was the one she had used to heal Zoey's thigh.

Crammer still breathed. If the woman used the healing glass on him, the man could breathe tomorrow. He didn't have to die.

Zoey's mother lifted Crammer's shirt. The blood matched the color of the lady's sword. She had used the weapon to hurt the man and send him crashing onto his back.

With the healing glass, Zoey's mother healed Crammer's wound.

The Bloodhound opened his eyes.

Zoey's mother moved Crammer's shirt, to hide his muscular torso. The man sat up. The brunette woman offered him her hand. He grabbed it.

"You saved me," Crammer said. "I tried to kill you, but you saved my life. You should've just let me die."

"No," Zoey's mother said. "You have to live. You're Crammer. And you are going to protect me and my daughter. That's your purpose. What you were before today doesn't matter. It doesn't matter anymore. Understand? I can see the future, and I know that you have to be in it. The future needs you, Crammer. I need you."

With one hand still holding Crammer's, the woman gestured to the standing Zoey.

"We need you," the girl's mother said, still on her knees, the woman kneeling as Crammer sat. "You will stand up. You're going to hurt whoever needs to be hurt. You're going to kill whoever needs to be killed. In between all of that, you will love me. And you will love my Zoey. We're your friends now. You remember how to be friends with people, don't you?"

Crammer had done good for Zoey's mother.

The man had earned the right to be alive twenty-four hours from now. If he was fortunate, he would still have a beating heart ten years from now.

Zoey hoped for it.

"I do," Crammer said. He stopped holding hands with Zoey's mother. The man hugged her. She hugged him back. "Thank you, Misty."

Zoey smiled.

The long-haired girl spotted a black backpack. It was part of a pile of Freeman belongings. None of the other dead Freemans in the hall had worn backpacks during the fight.

"I see a backpack," Zoey said. "One of the Freemans had it."

She moved past the embracing friends.

The eleven-year-old approached the dead Freeman's belongings. She tossed the throwing knife onto a nearby combat uniform.

After moving onto her hands and knees, Zoey examined the backpack.

What was inside it?

She grabbed the backpack, moved it away from the combat uniform's dark sleeves. The young Soynite unzipped its largest pouch. She reached into it and pulled out X-ray vision goggles. A Soynite object.

Zoey put the goggles on.

The walls became transparent in her vision. Gazing through the tinted goggles, she looked at the hugging Soynites. She saw their skeletons. If she wanted to, she could see their nude bodies.

Gross.

The X-ray vision goggles showed a person what they wanted to look through.

Zoey glanced around the area. All the black walls and the black floors were transparent.

No Freemans. All the Freemans had been killed. The Children of Still had helped get rid of the space station's Freemans, and those purple-wearing men and women were dead. They were as deceased as the Freemans who had been forbidden from becoming Children of Still.

Zoey saw a skeleton.

It didn't belong to herself, or her mother, or Crammer.

"Mother," Zoey said.

She took off the Soynite x-ray vision goggles. When she turned her head, she saw her mother and Crammer standing across each other.

"Just wait, Zoey," her mother said. "Me and Crammer are talking."

She talked.

Crammer talked.

Zoey frowned and put the x-ray vision goggles down. After moving them into her blue backpack, she stood.

She made the trip to the nearby prison wing.

"You can't fight fate," Zoey said. She took steps in the black hall. Twenty prison cells were in the area, but the girl had only seen one person in the space. "You can't fight fate."

Each prison cell had a piece of Strife in it. Maybe the prison cells' floors and walls had Strife in them.

Strife.

It was the Soynites' natural weakness. Each Soynite with at least one Save would become powerless when too close to Strife.

Zoey, unlike her mother, had no Saves.

Whenever she got too close to Strife, the situation didn't change. Strife didn't change how defenseless she was. Because the girl didn't have any powers the green substance could take away.

No powers. But she did have a mother, and that woman had the Bloodhound named Crammer.

Zoey approached the occupied prison cell.

It had no window. But there was a closed slot in the door, at its base. A slot meant for taking food trays into the prison cell and taking food trays from it, Zoey assumed.

A lever was near the door, its length red. Zoey's mother had almost killed Crammer with a red sword, but she had healed him. And Zoey could free the prisoner she had seen as a skeleton.

She put her thin fingers around the lever.

"Don't free me!" a voice said, coming from inside the prison cell. "Not yet, not yet. I heard you talking. I heard your footsteps. Get on the floor and open the tray slot at the bottom of the door. I want to talk."

The voice belonged to a male. They had spoken Soynite.

Zoey moved onto her hands and knees. With a pounding heart, the preteen opened the slot in the door. Hoping the person inside the cell wasn't a Child of Still, she moved her hand through the open slot. Another hand grabbed hers.

"My name is Zodiac Angel," the prisoner said.

"I'm Zoey All," Zoey said. "I took a dead Freeman's x-ray vision goggles. It's how I was able to see you. I'm eleven."

"I'm ancient," Zodiac said, the warmth from his hand mixing with the girl's. "When is your birthday?"

"January first."

"Free me, Zoey," Zodiac said.

The girl stopped holding the man's hand. She stood and grabbed the lever.

Inside the prison cell was a man who planned on destroying the Soynite race, but Zoey didn't know this.

She didn't know what a Destroyer was.

Zoey All pulled the lever, unknowingly bringing her race closer to complete extinction.

The door swung open. Because Zoey wasn't too close to it, the door didn't hit her. She went to the spot in front of the cell's entrance.

Like Zoey, the man didn't wear a Soynite pendant.

Cage and the other dead Children of Still hadn't worn their pendants, but they had worn purple. The clothes Zodiac wore were black, like the surrounding walls and ceiling.

Zodiac towered over Zoey. He smiled. The man put his hands against the girl's brown hair, and he examined her face. His smile grew bigger. The ancient man kneeled.

With true affection, he kissed the kid's forehead.

Zodiac embraced her. Zoey hugged him back. They embraced as if they were long lost friends.

"Finally," Zodiac said.

Finally.

Zoey didn't know how long the man had been the Freemans' prisoner, but she had freed him. The Soynite had finally escaped imprisonment.

The hug ended.

Zodiac stood. He grabbed Zoey and carried her bridal style. The light shone against Zodiac's long white hair, and it seemed natural for him to hold the kid like this.

"We're going to escape," the old man said. Tears left his eyes. With too much Strife nearby, he took quick steps toward the open door. "I know you can walk, but I have to carry you. I have to."

"We have to get to my mother!" Zoey said.

Zodiac scoffed.

Another man stepped into the hall. He was big. Crammer stood tall, six inches more than the bearded man holding Zoey.

"Put the girl down!" Crammer said.

"Okay," Zodiac said. "Okay."

With sweet gentleness, he put Zoey down, as if her bones were too weak.

The ancient man rubbed his neck.

Zoey stepped toward Crammer. A wrinkled hand grabbed her backpack and tugged. Zoey jerked back.

The man named Zodiac Angel, a Soynite who was taller than the girl's mother but shorter than Crammer, brought trouble.

He was weird.

Zoey was sorry she had called Crammer weird earlier. No, Zodiac was weird. Zoey couldn't trust him. But she could trust Crammer now, and he could bring her back to her mother, wherever she was.

"Come get her," Zodiac said.

Crammer jogged. He approached Zoey and the old man swung his fist. It slammed against Crammer's big chest. He stumbled. The taller man swung his own fist.

Zodiac dropped onto the black floor, unconscious.

Crammer's fist was a weapon.

"He's probably a lot stronger with his Saves," Crammer said. "If he has any. Come on, Zoey. Your mother is waiting in the hall. She sent me to find you while she searched our dead enemies for anything valuable."

Okay.

Crammer could take Zoey to the hall where her mother was.

Zodiac.

The girl had freed him and the man had let his appreciation be known. But he had to understand Zoey couldn't leave with him. She had a mother. And now the duo had a friend, a third person in their squad. It was all right.

Zodiac didn't have to die.

"Are you going to kill him?" Zoey said. She pointed at Zodiac, the man unable to hurt anyone. "I don't want you to."

"I don't want me to, either," Crammer said. "I've seen enough death. Let's go."

"Wait," Zoey said. "Can we hug?"

Crammer kneeled.

The girl hugged him. Crammer hugged her.

"Thank you," Zoey said, showing sincere gratefulness for the man. If he hadn't arrived, Zodiac might have done something bad to her.

A short moment passed.

Zoey and Crammer left the prison wing, unaware that leaving Zodiac Angel alive would bring so much death.

The girl and the huge man found Zoey's mother in the hall where ten Children of Still had died.

Purple-wearing Soynites stayed dead. Freeman belongings stayed in piles, not far from each other, their owners dead and gone. They had turned into smoke. Zoey believed someone would kill Lock Tannis and make his corpse become smoke.

Kneeling, the mother moved her hands out of Cage's pants pockets. They were empty.

"Nothing," the woman said.

She spotted Zoey and Crammer.

The mother stood. She opened her arms and said, "Come here, baby."

With her blue backpack still on, Zoey went near her mother. They embraced. With love for her mother in her body, Zoey closed her eyes. The moment was sweet. She couldn't deny it. As they hugged, Crammer stood not far. He was the man who had punched the Destroyers' leader.

"I love you, Zoey." Zoey's mother said.

"I love you too," Zoey said, hugging the tall woman. "Mother."

She had freed Zodiac Angel.

Zoey All had brought her race closer to extinction.