"Capala!" Robin shouted. His jaw dropped. "What are you doing?!"

Gage raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."

"I've used him before," Capala said, her voice low. "Let me contact him. He knows me. Trusts me. For a price, he will kill whoever you ask, without question."

"And why should I trust the woman pointing a gun to my head?"

Capala's jaw tightened. "Because Meghan is no longer my Queen. Because I'm tired of living under the thumb of a tyrant who does not deserve what she has been given. Because as a military officer I have a duty to all Iron citizens to protect them from their enemies, even if that enemy is their own monarch."

Gage seemed surprised. "A passionate response," she murmured. A tense minute passed as the commander judged the woman before her. "But you went from being on Goodfellow's side to mine, very quickly."

"Ah, but I didn't. Goodfellow has his beliefs and I have mine. I never said who I was loyal to; the jester did most of the talking."

"Cap...stop!" Puck sputtered, struggling against the men holding him.

Capala gestured to the fey behind her. "If anything, his reaction should prove I am my own person." The woman's eyes narrowed. "Let me fight for you. I may not agree with everything you say, but if it's a choice of being loyal to someone who has failed me before, and taking a chance and fighting to build a new world for me and my people, I'll take the revolution."

Gage raised her chin. "Very well. If I do let you go," she said, "if I do allow you to go after this assassin, you must know it does not come without a cost."

"I understand."

"Do you?" Gage stepped in closer, her forehead touching the cool metal of the gun Capala still had trained between her eyes. "I can promise you a new world. But that world will be born of blood and fire. In order to live in it, to create it for future generations of fey, you must give up everything. Everyone and everything you have ever loved will be torn from you. Such is the price of revolution. Can you honestly say you agree to this?"

Then Capala spoke in such a low voice, Puck almost didn't hear. "Everything I ever loved was torn from me long ago. This is an opportunity to build myself a new life. I will not waste it."

"Your words are pretty," Gage whispered in reply. "But it doesn't mean I trust you."

"I know." Slowly, Capala lowered her gun. "Put me under surveillance. Do whatever you wish to assure my loyalty. I will get you your assassin. All I ask is you let him come with me." She gestured to Robin, not even looking at him. "...I owe him."

Gage nodded. "Very well. When do you want to leave?"

Capala swallowed. "Tomorrow morning. Until then, we need rest, medical supplies and food."

"Done." Gage looked to the soldiers standing around them, waiting for an order. "Make sure the dryads are well cared for. They are a neutral party here, and we do not harm civilians. Bring food and other supplies up here - the jester can't survive in the building." The commander glanced at Capala. "Would you prefer to sleep up here or downstairs with us?"

"Here," Capala said. "Goodfellow will...have some questions. I am obligated to answer them."

"Very well," Gage said. "Tents, doctors and supplies will be up shortly."

With that, Gage turned and led the crowd of soldiers into the elevator and down, leaving three behind with Capala and Robin. Puck was still in shock, the sudden silence on the roof contrasting with the blood thundering in his eyes. He turned to Capala and wanted to shout at her, to yell and scream and ask her what she was doing. She's got to have an answer, Robin thought. She can't mean what she said. She can't.

"Capala?" he said, his voice weak. "...Cap?"

She didn't look at him. Her head was bowed, her hair falling over her face and obscuring her from view. Slowly, she sheathed her gun, knelt down and pulled something from inside her military vest. She still hadn't changed from the clothing she'd been wearing when they first met.

A small book withdrew from an internal pocket, and she handed it to him. Robin looked at the cover. "Spanish to English Pocket Dictionary," it read. "Fourth Edition."

Capala spoke. "No quiero que ellos sepan lo que estamos diciendo."

Puck blinked, then started flipping through the book. She repeated several words until he understood, a few minutes passing until he deciphered the message. I don't want them to know what we're saying.

The trickster looked through the book to form his reply. "¿De dónde has sacado esto?" Where did you get this?

"En la estación de gas, antes de Miguel nos dio un paseo. Pensé que sería útil." At the gas station, before Miguel gave us a ride. I thought it would be useful.

Robin chose his next words carefully. "Capala, es lo que realmente está de acuerdo con ellos?" Capala, do you really agree with them?

Pain flashed in Capala's eyes. "...No lo sé." ...I don't know.

The trickster swallowed. Sadness and anger fought for dominance inside him. "Por qué no?" Why not?

"...Porque yo no sé en quién." ...Because I don't know who to trust anymore.

Her answer confused him, and Puck opened his mouth to speak, to reassure her, but got interrupted. The elevator dinged to announce new arrivals, and in the blink of an eye Capala had swiped the book and stuffed it back into her vest.

People came out and started setting up tents and offering food and beds to the tired fey. Robin cursed their inability to talk freely. He had so many questions, and wanted so many answers. But his stomach churned as the smell of iron and smog filled his lungs, the fey cold and dangerous around him. Capala refused to meet his eyes, treating him like a pet or lesser person in front of everyone else. She didn't dare show weakness.

So Puck gave up trying to talk to her, and prepared himself for the worst.


Late that night, Robin was tucked away inside his tent. The small cot inside his tent felt like a bed of nails, and he couldn't fall asleep. The jester's mind refused to rest. He kept tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable and failing.

He opened his eyes and sat up when Capala stepped inside the tent. "Cap?"

The woman held a finger to her lips. She sat on the edge of the bed. "I wanted to talk to you," she whispered. "Privately."

The trickster swallowed. "Well, I don't know if I want to talk to you," he muttered, lying down again.

A moment passed. "Robin!" Capala snapped, once her surprise had worn off. "Don't be childish."

Sudden, hot anger rose inside him. "I'm not being childish!" he spat, sitting back up and glaring at her. "I'm a prisoner of the rebels who are going to kill Meghan, I can't go anywhere because the whole fucking city is made of iron, and you seem to agree with Gage! They're fucking crazy, Cap. Are you really going to let them kill Meghan?"

Capala swallowed. "I..." She bit her lower lip. "To a degree, I agree with them. I don't think they should kill her, though. Assassination is not...what I would prefer."

"Oh, I don't see why not," Robin hissed. "It's just Meghan, after all. Your Queen, my friend. This whole murdering business is just wonderful."

Capala's eyes sparked, and she opened her mouth to reply, before tensing. She swallowed and closed her eyes. Her shoulders slumped. "I know," she murmured. "I know. But...she's just the means to the end of finding a monarch better than Meghan."

"What's wrong with Meghan?" Puck asked. "She's fine."

"Is she?" Capala raised an eyebrow. "You know the same things I do. Hell, you know her better than me. Don't act like you haven't seen all the examples of her sticking her head in the sand, refusing to listen, or doing something stupid. She may be a good person, but she's not a good queen."

Robin bristled. "Yeah, and power-hungry and murderous Commander Gage is a much better choice. I'm sure she is just fine with being the 'means to an end,'" he snarked. "Something tells me she's not the type to get power and then just give it away."

"Puck, just..." Capala took a deep breath. "Again, she's not perfect, and I don't agree with everything she says. But...she's not Meghan. If we can just start over, we can choose whoever we want to govern our kingdom. Not just Gage. Anyone."

Robin opened his mouth again, ready to fight her, but failed. He sighed and fell back down against the bed. "...It's your people, Cap," he said. "Your race, your Court, your family. I just...I just want to go home. I never asked to be a prisoner here. I never asked to be a part of this."

Capala didn't reply at once. "I know," she said quietly. "I'm sorry I have to drag you into a war that isn't yours."

The trickster sighed. "I'm just surprised she trusted you so easily. That she's agreeing to let you go find her a killer."

"She thinks she's right," Capala said softly. "She thinks she's one of the good guys. If you believe you're on the side of justice, you want to be kind and understanding. She wants to believe I'm turning to her side because I think it's the right thing to do. It makes her feel good." She paused. "And to a degree, I do think it's the right thing. Not assassinating Meghan, I despise that, but...but the reason she's doing it. The idea of building a new world. I just...I want to believe in it."

A few tense minutes passed. "You know what I wanted, Cap?" Puck said, lying down and lacing his hands behind his head. "I just wanted to go home to the dryads. I wanted you to come with me, and I had this little idea of how everything was going to work. Aster would like you, and we'd be safe and happy together, and I'd get to know you better and maybe make you fall in love with me, 'cause that would be cool, and...and I wanted to be happy. Because I haven't been really happy in a long time."

Capala reached out and took his hand in hers. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "But for what it's worth, I had my story too. I wanted to believe you liked me. That, because you chose me over Meghan, I'd have a second chance at happiness. We could go save the dryads, and Meghan could station me in their forest and I'd get to stay with you. I thought I could fall in love again, and live happily ever after like in the fairy tales that created us."

"...But that's not what happens, is it?" Robin whispered.

Capala gave him a bitter-sweet smile. "No, it isn't." A moment passed. "...But we can at least try, can't we?"

Puck swallowed and pulled her into a hug, enjoying her touch and smell. "Yeah," he murmured. "We can try."

They sat there, without speaking, for several minutes. Robin held Capala to his chest, each comforting the other with their presence. At some point, Cap settled into the space beside him on the cot and rested in the crook of his arm. With her at his side, the trickster started to doze off.

"I love you, Cap," he said, mumbling the words into her hair as he pulled the blankets over them.

Just before he fell asleep, he heard Capala reply. "I love you too."