I was glad when we were finally finished eating. The entire time people had come running up to us telling us we were their heroes. Someone told me she’d lost both her children and her husband in the fight but she was glad to do it for us. That put me off my food. We didn’t deserve it.

People kept clutching my arm and telling me they never thought they’d get to meet me. Someone even said that dreaming of me and the things I had gone through kept them sane when the Guardians were torturing them. I almost vomited when I heard that. I was glad the rest of my crew were there because they dealt with it much better than I had. I guess, they’d just been dealing with it for longer.

My heart twanged with sadness and guilt at the thought. I should have been conscious sooner. I could have helped them sooner. I knew it wasn’t my fault but the small voice at the back of my head whispered that I’d failed my crew. That I continue to fail my crew.

“Take your boots off,” Gem demanded pulling me from the miserable spiral I had been indulging in.

“What?”

She’d stopped us outside a thick looking plain metal door and was now standing with her arms crossed, her shoes tucked under one arm and her expression impatient.

“Take ‘em off.”

I glanced at Cas who was unzipping his boots. A small smile played on his lips as he shrugged at me.

“Why?”

Suspicion nibbled within me as I remembered the last time she’d made a request without explaining it. Hopefully, this time wouldn’t end with my skin stained blue.

“Just do it! We all have!”

I glanced at the others who had in fact taken their boots off and were waiting for me to do the same before bending slowly to unfasten them. A small spark of pain flared through me and I clenched my teeth to stop myself from making any noise.

Cas saw through me immediately.

“Here,” he said, holding a hand out to stop me before kneeling on the hard metal floor of the corridor and gently easing the zipper down.

I smiled, my heart swelling with love, before looking back at the door cautiously. I breathed in deeply, flaring my nostrils and trying to pick up a scent.

“Hey! No mods! I want this to be a surprise!” Gem cried, hitting my arm and glaring.

I was half a second away from blinking to activate my mods when she’d stopped me. I wanted to do it anyway but I knew how carefully she was watching me. I hadn’t gotten the hang of activating my eye mods without blinking like Cory had so I had to settle for just waiting. Fortunately, Cas made quick work of my boots and stood before long, both sets of our boots clasped in his hands.

“Thank you,” I mouthed.

He just smiled in response, the dimple in his cheek showing, and I had to stop myself from reaching out for him.

“Okay. If you two are quite done undressing each other with your eyes, we can move on,” Gem drawled sarcastically.

I narrowed my eyes at her, wishing I was holding my boots so that I could hit her with them.

“Alright, go on. What’s the big surprise?”

Her face broke into a smile and she raised her hand, preparing to swipe it over the scanner.

“I give you…” she brought it down, activating the doors, “The Pleasure Deck!”

My mouth fell open and I stared at the sight before me.

“What the fuck?” slipped out of my mouth.

I walked forwards over the thin grates that bordered the room, my eyes wide.

“This is… This is…” I trailed off, not knowing how to verbalise how cool this room was.

Sand covered the floor and the sounds of happily screaming kids bounced around the vast room. It was like Gusiun but more kid-friendly. Less booze, more juice. Somehow, half of the room was taken up by an expansive beach, complete with what looked exactly like the sea. It wasn’t like a pool, it lapped gently at the sandy shore and there were even waves. There was a lifeguard and a sign in many languages warning us that the sea was choppy today.

A scream from the back wall over the water capture my attention and I blinked to activate my mods and see clearer. There was a climbing wall over it. Kids in swimsuits and hoverHarnesses jumped off it into the perfectly still sea below.

They must have some kind of weird tech stopping the water at the back from throwing them against the wall, right? I thought to my crew, wanting them to see it too.

Gem rolled her eyes and grabbed my hand.

“Ignore that! Come look at the slides!”

I followed her excitedly towards the sounds of even more screams.

They were wicked. Reinforced inflatable rings with inbuilt thrusters threw people down the slides at seemingly unsafe speeds.

“I am so glad you’re here now, Arie. Gem has been trying to get me to go on that… monstrosity since we got here. Even though she wasn’t cleared for it.”

His eyes narrowed on her slightly but she just smiled playfully at him.

“They make you wear hoverHarns, that’ll stop you from taking too much of an impact.”

“Still, you’ve only just been cleared and Aries hasn’t yet. She can’t go on it yet.”

Gem’s face dropped before her eyes landed on Cas and an almost evil smile appeared.

“Cory, has Cas been cleared?”

Cory bit back a smile.

“Well, I believe Chal cleared him for weight training and impact activities last week so I assume the water slides would fall under that category…”

Cas let out a heavy groan.

“No. I told you, I hate water slides. Ever since that kid puked on me when we went to Ya’kha’therd. Urgh, no. I’m not doing it!” Cas visibly shuddered.

“Come on!” Gem wheedled, “It’s only fair! You said you would once Aries got better!”

Cas turned his pleading eyes to me.

“If you said you would, it is only fair…”

“Yes!” Gem shouted, scaring a nearby child.

Cas narrowed his eyes at me.

“Sometimes I think you like seeing me in emotional pain,” he said, barely suppressing a smile.

I let the grin grow over my face.

“Sometimes, you’d be right.”

“Yes! Captain’s orders! Now you’ve got to! Let’s get changed!”

Gem pulled me towards the vending machine near the changing rooms and swiped her hand.

“Wait, do we have to pay for this? Do we have any money? What do they even use here?” I asked, eyeing the selection of swimsuits inside.

“No, get this: everything here is free. It’s a utopia, like Peg used to tell us about. Everyone of age works and gets their food and lodging and everything else they need for free! And it works! You just scan your chip so they know things aren’t going missing!” Gem explained choosing a bright red swimsuit for her and a dark blue bikini for me before typing in our sizes waiting for the machine to spit the packages out.

I cocked my head questioningly at her but her gaze flitted to Cas before coming back to me. She’d tell me why she’d made that choice later, when Cas wasn’t there I assumed.

“You two get your costumes, Arie and I are going to get changed!” she called over her shoulder.

Shrugging at the boys, I followed her towards the changing cubicles.

“Why?” I asked once we were out of earshot.

Gem glanced over her shoulder to make sure they were still at the machine before turning back to me with a grin.

“You can’t go on the slides so don’t need a two-piece. Might as well drive Cas a little crazy for now. It’s even his favourite colour.”

I glanced down at it. She was right. I probably wouldn’t have chosen the bikini for those reasons alone but I couldn’t help the smile that spread on my face.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you,” she smirked, “I bet he’s going to be staring at you so much he trips over.”

Her cackle was so loud, I’m sure even the boys heard it.