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Axton Manor, July 2008. Seven years before the end of everything.

Indigo's teary eyes remain fixed on the ends of their tattered purple boots. Their small body aches, and their muscles burn white hot from the fiery punishment endured from their successful mission. As Kyran lands the Cepheus soundlessly beside a field of flowers at the shores of the lake, Indigo remains seated as their siblings pass them by, eager to debrief and enjoy what's left of their weekend. Indigo wipes their eyes in the sleeves of their uniform, an uncomfortable black and blue body suit, wanting nothing more than to remain seated there, but the idea of being alone with their thoughts pushes them to step into the summer air and march back to the manor.

Indigo is tired of feeling torn as a culmination of sixteen years of pain and questioning echoes in their thumping head. No matter how late into the night they lay in bed thinking about why their heart aches, the only question they find themselves asking when the sun rises is 'who am I?'

Are they a Zenith, or are they masquerading as one? Do they not like girls because not so deep down they wished they were one? They don't know, and it's eating them from the inside out in anguished silence as they're forced to see their siblings discover themselves in open acceptance and celebration, while they have to discover who they are alone through nights of crying themselves to sleep.

After what feels like forever, Indigo wipes away as much of the makeup and tears off their face as they can before marching up to the manor to meet Thaddeus. But when they arrive inside the grand library, they find his large chair unoccupied.

"Where's Dad?" Kyran asks, gritting his teeth as Fletcher bandages his wounds.

The panther yelps in pain, re-materializing in the other end of the room, rubbing his aching arm.

"I told you to hold still, dear," Fletcher says, patting the couch for Zephyr to sit so she can clean the deep cuts on his nose and ears.

"I'm sure he'll be here any minute," Kamala reassures him as she takes a seat on one of the cushions.

"That should do it. How about you, dear?" Fletcher asks Kamala who shakes her head and grins.

"Not a scratch on me," Kamala says proudly.

"Atta girl!" Fletcher says, clasping the first aid kit shut. "Kyran?"

"I'm fine."

"Where's Indigo?" Fletcher asks to the others, who shrug at her, not noticing the rabbit sobbing solemnly beside the twisting trunk of a long bookshelf.

Indigo rises from the corner of the room, everyone's questions dissolving to white noise as a deep, soothing voice in their head guides them down the hall and into the manor's grand ballroom.

Like a ghost from the coldest corners of their heart, Phoenix stands taller than ever, staring up at the four portraits hanging on the wall alongside Thaddeus Axton. As if sensing them, he turns around, his eyes exactly as the appear in their dreams.

"You look so much taller in your painting. It must be the shoes," Phoenix says, smiling the radiant smile Indigo dreams about.

The rabbit's face grows hot as the room spins like in one of their illusions.

"That's all you have to say to me, after three years?" they ask as Zephyr, Kyran and Kamala wait at the doorway to the gilded ballroom behind them, their thoughts a mix of shock and anger.

"You can read the rest in my head, can't you?" Phoenix asks, removing his tattered shirt and revealing the large gash running across his chest as he accepts a change of clothes from a maid.

"I'm sure that has an interesting story," Kamala whispers to Zephyr as she bites her lip. Their leader's expression is impossible to read, but Kyran's fury is vividly painted on his handsome face. He pushes forward into the room.

"What are you doing here?" Kyran asks, his chin held high to appear taller as his voice echoes off the walls in the barren room.

"Stand down, Zenith 2," Thaddeus commands. Kyran's nose wrinkles and his brow furrows as he inadvertently releases a deep growl at the sight of the golden-haired lion.

"I won't," Kyran says, ignoring the pleading look in Zephyr's eyes.

"Is there a good reason why you won't stand down, or are you just feeling brave today?" Thaddeus asks, peering down at the lanky young panther.

"Why the hell is he here?" Kyran asks, undaunted.

Thaddeus's eyes narrow. "Phoenix has chosen to rejoin us as Zenith 4."

Kyran glances at Phoenix, who has grown considerably larger since he last saw him, squinting and trying to make out his face in his blurry vision.

"Why is that his choice to make? Do we not have a say on whether or not he gets to stay as part of the team?"

"Kyran!" Zephyr calls out, but Thaddeus raises his hand to silence the loyal timber wolf.

"If you have something to say, I expect you to say it, or is your courage waning?"

"I don't want him here," Kyran says, his voice breaking as tears fall down his face.

"It's nice seeing you too big bro," Phoenix says softly, wincing as one of the manors staff inspect his wound.

Kyran finds bravery in fury, shouting until their voice breaks.

"I don't want you here! You abandoned us, and for three years we've been fighting out there without you. We don't need you; we never did!"

"That's not up to you to decide, Zenith 2", Thaddeus says dismissively, his tone much lower but astonishingly more commanding as he gestures for Fletcher to guide the young panther out of the room.

"Then whose responsibility is it, Zephyr's?" Kyran objects, moving away from Fletcher as she tries to reach for his shoulder.

Indigo reads the chaos in everyone's heads as they lean on Kamala's shoulders.

"This won't end well," the rabbit says, still feeling like they're floating in a dream.

Kyran grabs his thin neck as he coughs the taste of blood onto his tongue. Brushing aside his short tufts of jet hair, the defiant panther marches up to the lion until he's facing his chest.

"Look, if you don't want me here, that's fine, that doesn't change how things were before, but why can't you let me admit I was wrong," Phoenix says softly.

The fire reignites in the smaller cat.

"We're a team, a family! You don't understand any of that because you're only ever looking out for yourself, and you don't care about who you leave behind or how much it hurt us!"

"Enough!" Thaddeus growls, standing between his sons as they try to pounce at one another.

"I will not tolerate insubordination, Zenith 2!"

"Put it up to a vote then," Kyran says, wiping his eyes in his sleeves.

"Now you're sounding like the reasonable son I raised," Thaddeus says, pushing them both apart and stepping aside.

Phoenix doesn't break his gaze from the fury burning in Kyran's eyes.

"Well?" Thaddeus says, taking a seat by the fireplace.

"All those in favor of Phoenix rejoining?" Kyran asks. Without hesitation, Kamala and Zephyr raise their hands. Indigo thinks, staring down at their reflection on the marble floor, doubting this will be the last time they cry over Phoenix.

"And those who oppose?"

Indigo joins Kyran in raising a hand.

Phoenix glances at Indigo, who looks everywhere but back into his eyes, sensing the pain in the large lion's heart.

"Tied."

"I get a vote too," Phoenix says, "and I choose to stay."

"That's not fair!" Kyran says, but Thaddeus clears his throat and calmly rises with the help of Fletcher.

"I'll allow it. Now Phoenix, most of your siblings have outgrown their bedrooms, but I'm sure our staff will help you prepare whichever room you find yourself most comfortable in. Your re-training begins immediately, Zenith 4."

Kyran vanishes as Kamala and Zephyr walk away after waving at Phoenix, speaking to one another in hushed whispers, leaving Phoenix and Indigo alone as Thaddeus is guided out by Fletcher.

"Glad to know you'll be there for me when I need you most," Phoenix says, his words searing.

"I voted the way I did because I know exactly who you are. Now that you're back, prove me wrong, and get those dirty thoughts out of your head," Indigo says, turning around and leaving Phoenix alone in the room, staring up at the four portraits of strangers he once knew.

***

Axton Manor, July 2015. Nearing the end of everything.

Several weeks after Phoenix's departure, Kyran tosses under heavy blankets on a narrow bed overlooking the nave-like annex to the manor's library. Originally serving as additional space for the documents Thaddeus Axton would eventually elect to keep hidden in his study, Kyran transformed the space into his own secluded study over the years.

When Kyran was young, he often found himself falling asleep on the pillowy sofas under the artificial trees in the library after long nights of reading books too complex for him to understand. Eventually, he teleported his belongings from his bedroom to the library's unoccupied annex as he began to see the books as his only way of making sense of a world that saw him as an oddity.

Kyran darts awake from the shaking of the iron ladder leading up to his secluded alcove. He tosses sweat soaked sheets aside as morning sunlight pours in from half-moon windows.

"It's okay, it's just me," Kamala says, carrying a paper bag between her teeth.

"I'm not used to the ladder being there," Kyran admits.

"I know. You like to make yourself inaccessible, so that only you can leap up here. I'll remove the ladder if you remember to take your medicine, otherwise I have to climb up here every morning until you're all better."

"Lucky me. I'm doing fine, I'm just in a lot of pain," Kyran says, finding his new glasses as he swallows an assortment of pills.

"I saw a light last night," Kyran says, gesturing diagonally at the solarium beyond a makeshift skylight, "is he back yet?"

"No, that was Indigo. They're making a habit of spending the night in Phoenix's room again. They're pretty torn up about it, I can hear them sobbing. We haven't heard from Phoenix in a week. How are the bandages, do they need to be replaced?"

Kyran shakes his head, "I need to see Aarden."

"The doctor said--

"I know what she said, I was there. I won't leap, I'll take the elevator down, we just need to figure this out. We have less than twelve days."

"Are you still sure about all this? We can always wait for another opportunity, until you're better," Kamala says, sitting on the edge of his narrow bed and overlooking the sea of filing cabinets below.

"Do you hear yourself right now? I thought you were the one who wanted this the most. We may not have another chance. We're going to London, whether I'm feeling better or not, or--

"Whether we have a plan or not?" Kamala says, smirking and brushing her hair aside.

"Exactly. Besides, when have we ever had a plan?"

***

Kamala has yet to find the words to describe what she senses when she's near the Zenith Crown. It's far beyond the anxiety Aarden feels whenever he's around it, but it's also so much closer than the assurance they can read its mind as Indigo described. Kamala senses a connection that's so much deeper than what anyone else has described, as if the Zenith Crown and its energy is her.

"Are you alright?" Aarden asks her as she presses her nose against the barrier housing the collection of enigmatic jewels, a faint orange glow making its way through the opaque black glass to illuminate the worry on her face.

"I should be asking you the same thing," Kamala says, thinking about the young red pandas breakthrough.

"I'm fine. I've known I was a part of this for years now. The only thing keeping me up at night anymore is thinking about what Fletcher said when she told me she didn't feel the energy the same way we do," Aarden says, looking at his hands, convinced they'll shoot energy or dissolve to smoke.

"I know it must be frightening to feel it the same way we do. Whatever this is, it's in your eyes, in Kyran's eyes, it is us. We just can't agree on the words to describe the feeling," Kamala says.

"But what is it?" Aarden asks in frustration, "that's what's bothering me."

"My best guess," Kyran's voice rings out, echoing around the vaulted ceilings of Aarden's basement lab, "is that the Zenith Crown is like nothing else found on this planet."

"Are you suggesting it's extraterrestrial in origin?" Aarden asks, taking a seat beside his sturdy work bench.

"If you have any proof we're aliens, you better tell me. I may or may not have powers, and now you're saying I'm an alien on top of that?"

"Relax, I never said we were aliens. Based on what's left of Thaddeus's writing, the Zenith Crown first appeared thirty years ago over Siberia. At first, Thaddeus believed it fell from space, like a comet. Eventually, he knew it came from a tear in the tempest sky. Whatever this is, it's powerful, and I'm betting everything Ziegler has no idea it's been hidden here all along," Kyran says, placing his hands over the glass barrier, the energy vibrating against his fingertips like electricity.

"Then we have the upper hand," Kamala says confidently.

"To gain an upper hand, we need to first understand what it is we have," Kyran says, removing numb hands off the glass covering to the Zenith Crown.

"There's no way Ziegler doesn't at least suspect Thaddeus hid this here. I spent nearly every moment alongside him in that mountain lair, and he's way too intelligent to be fooled, and way too ambitious to not try and find it on his own if he needed it. Maybe it's because he already has what he's looking for?" Aarden says.

"I think I know what you're talking about," Kamala says, scratching her chin.

"Is it your instincts again?" Aarden asks.

"Something like that. My adaptation, from what I understand, relies on polarity, and I feel the same energy emanating off this Zenith flower I feel off energy fields, except the energy coming from this is asymmetrical, and it's messing with my senses, shifting polarities around and making me feel like I can't tell the difference between up and down. It feels like it's struggling to maintain equilibrium. Maybe that's why it's affecting me more than the rest of you, I can sense something is wrong with it."

"Or missing. Aarden, I need you to lift the cover so I can get a better view of it," Kyran says.

"Are you sure? It will fry your eyeballs before you even get a good look at it."

"I'm sure."

"Allow me. I put it behind the glass in the first place," Kamala says, lifting the barrier and placing her hands on the collection of gemstones as Aarden tosses Kyran a pair of heavy goggles with pitch-black lenses.

The Zenith Crown fills the room with blinding light. An incredible surge of energy flows into Kamala's body, and in return, the energy radiating through her veins is taken in a transaction to restore balance, causing the light within the radiant gems to dim enough for them to see.

"Not to ruin the moment or anything, but it's actually kind of beautiful when you see it up close," Kamala says, observing closely.

Every piece of metal is pulled toward the crystals in the center of the room. Aarden grasps at his cannon and Kyran catches his glasses as they fly away from his face.

"Sorry, I got distracted," the panther says as she refocuses on her adaptation.

"The energy is unbalanced, because she's flying through the storm on a broken wing," Kyran says, gesturing to Aarden, who runs up closer to inspect the jeweled lotus.

"There's a gemstone missing," Aarden observes, every strand of fur of his already bushy coat rising with the static filling the air.

"Look, six gems in the middle, but only five around it. Most flowers in nature have an odd number of petals, so eleven isn't odd at all. Odd as in unusual, of course. Obviously, this thing isn't a flower, but that's the best way Thaddeus could describe it. But you can see one piece is missing and I bet Ziegler has it, that's why he's not too concerned about getting his hands on this. It's probably how he's able to control Zephyr."

"Because Zephyr was once healed with the power from one of these things. He must've been able to do it again," Kyran says.

"If Zephyr has the power of two of these things inside him, leaving us with a volatile space flower, how does that make this any better for us? If what you're saying is true, that only makes him twice as dangerous," Kamala says.

Kyran adjusts his glasses.

"Well maybe--

They're unexpectedly launched backward by a powerful wave of energy as Kamala loses her connection to the Zenith Crown, bathing the room in blinding light. Aarden places the eclipse goggles back over his eyes and seals the crystalline flower back behind the obsidian glass.

"Are you okay?" Kyran asks his twin sister who nods and lays her body on Aarden's bed, energy surging back into her.

Aarden picks up the cannon from the ground, inspecting it before glancing over at Kamala, who plays with the residual arcs of lightning bouncing between her hands as the energy dies down.

"I think I figured it out!" Aarden says excitedly, looking from Kamala to his cannon until an idea sprouts in his head.

"I have a plan!"

***

London, July 2015. The dawn of the end.

Dietrich Ziegler sits at the precipice of the founding of an empire, but he's dangerously close to losing his most devoted knight in the process.

Far below the drowsy London noon, in a lab where it's always midnight, Ziegler holds a glowing glass vial of concentrated Zenith energy with surgical precision. As he prepares his clinical machinery, he reminisces about the moment he nearly died to hold a heavy and ragged carnelian like gem, split in half in his bleeding hands. If he had died in that freeze, it would've still been worth it, as the power the gem held, while only a fraction of the infinite power of the Zenith Crown, was enough to keep himself alive, and resurrect Ulysses Thorne.

Back when he was a young and vigorous wolf, Ziegler was adrift in the seas of contemplation, his body surviving all forms of torment and abuse on his voyage toward the deepest depths of discovery. Now, a graying wolf, Ziegler's mind still soars lightyears beyond the same sea, but his frail body sinks lower into a different abyss.

The mistakes of his past have caught up to his present, and every movement he makes with his body comes with pain until he's numb to anything else.

"This will hurt. The scales I've forged for you require the strongest needle I could find. Hold still Ulysses, because these are also the most expensive, so I'd hate to waste a diamond to save you."

Thorne slams his powerful jaws shut as Ziegler pierces a needle into his cold blood, knowing the real pain, the kind Ziegler never tells him, comes after.

Agony is pumped into Thorne's bloodstream as the bright orange energy illuminates every path and channel it takes through his body. Thorne pulls at the restraints, his whip-like tail kicking up sparks as he slashes at Ziegler, who has learned exactly how far to step back to avoid it.

The pain stops as suddenly as it started, leaving Thorne staring into Ziegler's ruby eyes.

"I've synthesized you with the Zenith for long enough to conclude you two are incompatible," Ziegler tells him, regrettably.

"Then kill me," Thorne rasps as Ziegler tightens the restraints cutting into his ankles and wrists on the cold surgical table.

"Not yet. You've always been my most loyal follower Ulysses, and I must admit I miss the days when you were far more articulate. But if there's one thing that I proved to you is that I can resurrect the dead, and I'll do the same for you until your mission is through, until you've shed some light into how I can heal my own body the way you do yours. I have the vision for years past what this body will allow me to live, all I need is more time, which we're quickly running out of. So, let's try this one more time."

The machine springs back to life and the caustic orange energy floods back into Thorne.

***

Axton Manor, July 2015.

With only seven days remaining until the unveiling of Zenith Genetics' new headquarters in London, Aarden gathers the team in a clearing by the lakeside shore. Brown smoke from a raging wildfire travels along the sweltering summer air, and like the Zenith Crown in its glass enclosure, the face of the sun glows a dull crimson through a heavy auburn haze.

"Are you sure this is the best way to do this?" Kamala asks Aarden, sounding nervous.

"It's the only fair way, since I know no one wants to volunteer," Aarden says, grasping two sticks in his clenched fist.

"Ready?"

Aarden counts backward from five and they pull. Indigo catches Kamala's open palm in the air.

Kyran glances down at the short stick in his hand, his mind racing to process an excuse.

"You can't expect me to do it, the doctor said--

"Now he wants to listen to what the doctor said. Nice try Kyran, but you picked the short stick," Kamala says, "so you have to test it."

"We need a better method!" Kyran objects as Aarden picks up his cannon from the top of a mossy brick wall and hands it to Kamala, whose arm drops slightly, expecting the weapon to be lighter.

"We could flip a coin. Why does if have to be between me and Indigo anyway?" Kyran asks.

"We've gone over that already," Aarden reminds him, "Only Kamala can make it work, and having no adaptation comes in handy this once for me and Quinn."

Kyran curses and teleports as far as he can into the grassy clearing, bracing himself. Kamala aims the cannon directly at his chest and fires a powerful surge of green energy through dense black smoke. The blast crashes into the center of the lake, painting a rainbow in the geyser-like mist.

"Kyran!" Aarden yells out, as the panther peers from behind the bark of a redwood.

"Sorry, I can't control it!"

"Kyran, you have to trust us. If it makes it any easier for you, I can count down from five," Aarden says.

"Or I could make you stand still," Indigo suggests, brushing dust off their short jean shorts.

Kyran digs his sharp claws into the tree as he leans against it, knowing he'd have to uproot the tree if he tried to teleport away.

"Okay, do it, count from five."

Kyran nods and tightly shuts eyes aching from the nauseating smolder, hearing Aarden count only to two when a bright green flash strikes him across his chest, whacking his head back into rough tree bark and causing him to see stars.

Kyran stares into orange sunlight filtered through dense branches as splintered bark clings to his face and blazer. He stirs as the rumble of the others running toward him shakes his disorientated body.

Kamala picks him up with ease, and Indigo places his glasses in his hand.

"How do you feel?" Kamala asks.

Immediately, Kyran knows something is wrong, stumbling unbalanced as if his tail were torn off, or if he's lost one of his senses.

He concentrates on the parchment-colored walls of their manor, envisioning himself at the gates by the garden as he steps forward to leap. But a sleek black shoe only lands before the other, sending panic up Kyran's body as he becomes the first to realize the results of their experiment.

"It worked," Kyran says, trying again to no avail as the others cheer.

"Aarden, you're a genius!" Kamala says, handing him back the cannon by pushing the polarity away from her fingertips.

"I couldn't have done it without your help Kamala," Aarden says, "if it weren't for you, the idea would've never crossed my mind. Now we have a plan."

"The only downside," Kyran says, his hands beginning to fade to smoke, "is it doesn't seem to work for too long."

"How long did it take the energy to restore?" Aarden asks.

"A few minutes," Kyran says, reappearing a few feet behind them.

"That's more than enough time for me to get him back," Indigo reassures them. Kyran exhales the acidic air, thankful he doesn't have to test it again.

"Excellent. We should meet sometime later this week and finalize the plan. Meanwhile, I'll make sure the Cepheus is operational," Kyran says.

"When should we set the meeting?" he asks Kamala.

"It's your call, you're the leader, even if I am the older twin," Kamala says winking at him.

After the others have gone, Kyran tries his best to reassure Kamala in the very same place where it all fell apart, in the center of a still growing garden.

"I promise we'll bring him back."

"I know we will. Both of them."

Kyran walks away, his attention focused on decreasing his own racing heartbeat. Alone with nothing but the lake and a raging forest fire before her, Kamala stifles emotion from breaking through the hardened shell she's been forced to conjure since their childhood training sessions. While other children her age learned about the mystery of the world around them, Kamala was taught to take life, to channel her unique adaptation into something deadlier than poison or razor sharp claws. She thinks of her life, every wonderful, miserable, mystifying moment of it. Everything within her wishes she could turn away from it all and run toward the unknown. She then thinks of Zephyr, and the tears break through the barrier.

***

At the end of that same week, Aarden lays on a narrow bunk recessed into the heavy steel of the Cepheus, reviewing the specifics of their plan mere hours away from when they are scheduled to take off for London.

He mutters to himself when the cabin doors hiss open and the tapping of heels echo up to the front of the jet before stopping. Thinking it's Indigo, Aarden doesn't call out, knowing the rabbit will know he's already there without him having to say anything.

Aarden turns back to his notebook when the curtains to his bunk are pulled back, causing Fletcher to squawk at the sight of Aarden, dropping fresh sheets onto the steel floor.

After helping Fletcher change the sheets on the six bunks, Aarden sits in his allotted seat for the first time, examining the brand new stitching reading Zenith 6.

"You've been Zenith 6 all your life, you just never knew it," Fletcher says, hesitating for a moment before passing by and sitting in Kyran's seat at the front of the craft, her hands gliding gently over the jets complicated switches and controls.

To her, they make perfect sense.

"It never gets any easier," Fletcher says softly.

"What doesn't?" Aarden asks.

"Seeing you all go. If you knew the life I've lived, you'd find it laughable I'd feel this way, but I admit I've grown attached to every one of you. It never gets any easier, especially after Zephyr didn't make it back home the last time. If what you're planning is even possible, then I fear things will only get worse after that. Ziegler will come for you, but not in the ways you'd imagine."

Aarden sits beside her as they both look through the windows of the Cepheus at the hangar's gray wall, Fletcher visualizing the serene sight of a field of clouds as Aarden's mind lingers on what happens next.

"I used to pilot her. Dietrich insisted he teach me to fly despite my objections. He'd always say that someone with feathers like me should soar like we used to long ago. He was my friend, as were the twins' parents, and your parents. I fear even if you're all back here under one roof again, your lives are already being pulled toward drastically different paths. I fear some of you believe everything will go back to the way things were before that day. I once thought the same thing about my friend Dietrich. Things won't be the same again Aarden, you need to brace yourself for that."

Aarden's face grows hotter than his rusty complexion allows him to appear.

"We haven't spoken much about our lives before this, Mrs. Fletcher; I don't know much about you. Clearly the same can be said about you when it comes to me. I don't hope things will be the same, I know they'll be better, even if we're not all here to see it. Kamala said it feels like we are the Zenith Crown, and I know she's right even if I can't feel it the same way she does. While every part of the Zenith should remain together for it to be balanced, it doesn't become any weaker when a part of it is ripped away. We may lose our balance without Phoenix, or Quinn, or even Zephyr if we're unsuccessful, but we'll still be just as strong."

Fletcher nods, brushing aside lint from her slacks before crossing her long, slender legs.

"If you believe that, then I hope you're right, and don't call me Mrs. Fletcher. If you do, I'll have to call you Mr. Kuiper in return."

The way Aarden's mouth falls slightly open, and his eyes begin to glisten tells Fletcher all she needs to know.

"You never knew?"

Aarden shakes his head and looks down. Fletcher places her hands on his shoulders, her lilac eyes looking into his.

"I first met the Kuipers long ago in Rotterdam and even then, I knew they were the most brilliant minds I'd ever meet. That was, of course, until I got to know their son. It pains me to admit I forgot what they looked like until I met you. You look exactly like your father, but you have your mothers' eyes and hair, but that green streak makes you uniquely you."

"What happened to them?" Aarden asks, trying to picture an older version of himself and a red panda with flowing golden hair and emerald eyes.

"If you're asking if they're alive, I don't know. Dietrich wanted them on his side more than anyone else, so he spent years chasing after them and trying to make them see things as he does until his persuasion turns to violence. I arranged for their disappearance and placed you in the hands of Elio Xavier without ever looking back. Maybe that's why I was so afraid to face you, not because I'd be looking into the eyes of an old friend, but because I knew just how much of a hand I played into the pain you've endured over your short life. For that, I'm sorry."

The revelation weighs heavy on Aarden. Growing up, he spent so many restless nights thinking about his parents, who they are and where they might be, and to have all of his questions answered so suddenly makes him wonder if the burden of finally knowing will eventually give way to the relief of understanding, but it never does.

"Thank you for telling me, but trust me, we're all used to others determining our futures and obscuring our pasts for us. Hopefully after this, we can start shaping our own lives for a change."

Aarden departs the jet, leaving Marina Fletcher still gripping the cold controls, imagining the last time she saw the sunlight glisten off her white feathers as they crossed oceans to soar back home.

Aarden follows the concealed passages from the hangar to the manor, enjoying half of a lonely dinner before realizing he has no appetite, wondering if the others felt the same way earlier.

Aarden wanders the manor until an idea falls into his spinning head, his mind lingering on the possibilities until he's knocking on Indigo's bedroom door.

***

Indigo and Aarden are hours deep into a conversation along the paths leading away from the manor when he asks them the question burning in his mind.

"Would you mind if I asked you to use your adaptation?"

Indigo doesn't seem at all baffled by the request.

"Only if you promise to show me yours once you find them," they tease, stopping when a smile doesn't come across Aarden's face.

"What's wrong?"

"If everything is going to change after London, I may not ever have the chance to do this, to ask if you could let me talk to someone who died. I know you can enter my mind, show me memories? Can I see an illusion of someone who's already dead?"

The rabbit's nose furrows as they think.

"I can, but you need to understand that they're not really there, it's more like fragments of their memories through you. They can only really reveal things you may already know or suspect. Who do you need to talk to?"

Aarden peers out as far as he can see into the redwoods, searching for the courage to turn back time and face his past.

"Even if he didn't die here, can you still reach him?" Aarden asks.

"Being around where they died is the easiest way to have you slip into your own mind, but I've done it other ways. Who do you want to talk to?"

"Elio Xavier. He died near Flagstaff a few weeks before we lost Zephyr. But this was his," Aarden says, removing his Kelly-green jacket and handing it to them.

Indigo channels the energy inside them, their connection clearer than it's ever been as soon as they grip the cool satin.

"We're so close to the Zenith Crown, I can see him as clearly as I see you. If he wants to come through, he will," Indigo says, "I left the door open for him, he knows you're here with me. One last thing, watch your head."

"What?" Aarden asks as his vision goes black and his body crashes onto the forest floor.

***

Aarden wakes up in a forest of ponderosa pines, seemingly hundreds of miles away, all the while laying before Indigo in the forest just outside Axton Manor.

The forest is silent, and it only seems to be growing quieter when a blue specter walks toward him, his movements doing nothing to disturb the forest floor.

"I told you you'd get taller," the cheetah says, smiling brightly at Aarden. Elio Xavier is exactly as Aarden remembers, from his thin wire glasses to his unkempt patch of graying hair that matches the silver rosettes on his dull bronze fur.

"I never thought I'd see you again. But then again, I've seen friends come back to me before, and I hope it doesn't stop happening," Aarden says, looking behind to glance at Indigo but only seeing dark forests.

"I've missed you," Aarden says, "so much has happened, but I never forget that you're not around to see it, or that he took you from me. We're going to stop him, but I need your help."

"You can't stop him, Aarden."

Aarden shakes his head, his throat tight as memories flood back to him.

"Not alone, but together we can."

"You won't win this."

Aarden's heart sinks. He pushes, unwilling to allow Xavier to kill the last hope left in him.

"I'm tired of only being seen for what I'm not capable of! I can't go to school, I can't have a normal life, I can't be a Zenith, I can't have power! There's plenty of things I've done despite what I've been told I can't do!"

Xavier sighs. He steps forward on the memory of a tattered boot, but he stops, rooted in place, incapable of moving forward.

"Why can't you see, you can't win."

Aarden stands defiant, his eyes glistening but his composure as strong as the bursts of energy that inspired him to create his cannon.

"Not alone. With your help, maybe I can stand a chance."

Xavier peers around the forest. It reminds the illusion of the times he guided Aarden through the forests back home, teaching him to embrace it rather than fear it.

"I never thought I'd see you be this brave, but then again, you were forced to grow up too quickly, and that was always the one thing I tried so hard to prevent. I'm so glad to see you Aarden because you left before I got to tell you the truth. It's time I tell you what you can do."

The words escape Aarden faster than he can think.

"Tell me, because I can't go on without knowing."