AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry about this chapter. It's a little lame…okay, it's really lame, but I couldn't make it any better, so…on with the story…

CHAPTER SIX

"You knew who I was all along and you didn't tell me," Rath said, hurt and anger radiating off him in waves.

Siare shook her head, standing up in front of him. "Rath, sweetie," she said, placing a hand on his shoulder. He shook her hand off him like it burned. "Rath, please understand…"

"No." He shook his head. "Naw, it's fine. We can't deal with this now," he said looking out the window, at the floor, to his girlfriend, anywhere but Siare's face. "We have to…" He ran a hand roughly through his hair and turned, walking towards the door. He paused next to Maria. "Wake him up. Fill him in. We're gonna need him to get the Granolith. To save Antar." Maria nodded, looking at him sympathetically. "I uh, I have to, um…go. Call me when baby bro gets his lazy ass up, okay?" He didn't wait for an answer as he slipped out the door.

Rath slammed the door behind him, leaning his forehead against the warm wood and closing his eyes with a sigh. He had to be stronger. He couldn't break down, or storm off, or even run away like he wanted to. His planet needed him. Antar needed him.

No. Antar needed Michael. He was probably just extra fodder.

He chuckled ruefully under his breath as he braced his hands at either side of his head. This shouldn't have been news to him. He'd always known he was an outsider to the Royal family. He knew they were hiding something from him. He should have known it was himself.

No. He wouldn't let this get to him.

"General?" a voice asked from behind him.

Straightening up, he took a deep breath, forcing stray emotions down, down into the depths of his mind to let his subconscious deal with it when he finally slept. Running a hand through his messy hair, he turned to find Major Haess standing behind him.

"Major," Rath greeted, nodding at the man.

"Are you okay, sir?" he asked, concerned.

"Fine." Rath looked him up and down, taking in his ruffled appearance. The man had been unkempt of late, but this was worse than usual. Major Haess was the one who brought Kaylanna in from the battlefield where she was shot down. Since then, he'd kept a constant vigil at her bedside, refusing to move until she awoke from her long sleep. It had been five days and she had yet to awaken. "You alright, Haess? You look like crap."

"I-It's Lady Kaylanna, sir. I came to tell you." The major paused, looking to the ground and shuffling his feet. "She…she's dead, sir."

Rath closed his eyes, shaking his head. "How long?"

"Five minutes. She woke up for just a second, then…" he trailed off, blinking rapidly. "Lady Cortenia asked me to come get you." Rath nodded, then slowly began to make his way to the medical bay, where another of his family lay. Dead.

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Siare sank to the floor as Rath slammed the door shut, tears streaming down her face. Rath was never going to forgive her for that. She looked towards Faith, who was sitting across from her, glaring at her slightly.

"Aren't you going to go after him?" Siare asked.

Faith closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, and then opened them again with a sigh, shaking her head. "He needs to be alone for a little while," she said, coldly. "He needs me, I'm there." She tapped her temple with her index finger. She narrowed her eyes, pointing that same finger at her. "You are…" she shook her head barely containing her anger. "I don't even have time to waste on you."

"I just…"

"No. I don't wanna hear it. Rath had a right to know who his real parents were even if you didn't know why they gave him up or if they wanted him back. You should have told him," Faith said in a low voice, the level never rising. Siare dropped her gaze away from the girl, the deathly glare of her brown eyes too much to take.

Just then, there was a groan from the ground where Michael lay.

"What the hell happened?" he muttered, bringing his hand up to rest on his aching head as he slowly opened his eyes. He felt completely drained, like he'd just run fifty miles with a killer whale strapped to his back in a sea of lead. In the distance, he could always feel Maria pulling at their connection, trying to reel him back into the land of the conscious, but the resistance was heavy, pulling him back into the murky sea of sleep.

"You fainted. Probably overdid it with the powers," Maria explained after she finished kissing him everywhere she could get to...in decent company, anyway. "Or…Deimon did, anyway."

Michael just nodded. Assuming she was right. The last thing he remembered was an explosion. He remembered watching as the dark smoke spread, and every Antarian that roamed outside collapsed to their knees, choking, dying. He remembered the hot anger that spread through him as he watched the people fall. The surge of energy under his skin that finally culminated in his palms, the invisible tentacles of his powers reaching out and collecting all the bad gases in the base and hurling it out the window. After that it was blank. That was probably when he blacked out, he figured.

Michael sat up slowly, with some help form Maria. Looking around the room, he took a mental count of the people in the room, noticing that his brother was missing. Then, his eyes landed on Siare's form sitting on the ground, her head in her hands as she cried. Isabel was knelt next to her, patting her back.

'What's going on?' Michael asked Maria telepathically as he surveyed the scene.

Maria paused, not sure if giving up this information to him was such a good idea at this point. 'Siare told us that the Granolith can help us save Antar.'

"How?" Michael asked aloud. Talking in his head was fine, once he didn't have a splitting headache, but now it just made his head throb more.

"Siare told us that the Granolith basically created the planets. And she thinks that if the keeper summons it, we could use it to fix the atmosphere," she explained.

Michael eyed her suspiciously. "What are you hiding?"

"I'm not hiding anything. What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Maria, I'm in your head. I can feel you, remember?" He frowned. "Where's Rath?"

Maria sighed. "Siare revealed who the keeper of the Granolith is."

"Yeah, it's Max. We figured that out already."

"No. It's not Max. It's you."

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Lindsey's smile faltered as an unexpected emotion ran through him, shaking him through to the bones. He had just been watching the video of the second phase of The Plan with his father. He had been enjoying it up until now.

What was that he felt?

It was… was it …guilt? No, it couldn't be. The Royal Four were getting what they deserved. A gruesome end to their shoddy reign.

As suddenly as it appeared, that feeling vanished, once more allowing him to enjoy his work. Khivar chuckled one more time as he flicked the TV off and turned to his son. Lindsey grinned at him as he got up from his seat.

"Go get ready. We have phase three to get through," Khivar said in dismissal. Lindsey nodded and left the office, making his way slowly back to his room.

Phase three. Destroy the stragglers.

Kill the Royals.

Lindsey smiled to himself as he pulled on his dark blue cloak, pausing to fish his sapphire pendant out from under his clothes. As he smoothed the hair out of his eyes, he caught a glimpse at himself in the mirror.

Frowning, he stepped closer and studied his reflection, cocking his head to the side as he tried to figure out what was wrong with the image. He wasn't a very tall man, just slightly muscular with a broad chest. His hands were mismatched slightly and he had a scar around his left wrist. His brown hair was longer now and hung into his grey eyes…

His eyes! That's what was wrong.

But for the life of him, he could figure out why.

Of their own accord, his hands reached deep into his pockets, somehow knowing exactly where to find them. Just then, there was a knock on his door. Yelling his permission for entrance, he watched as the door opened a crack and a servant walked in.

"His majesty wishes to see you," she said with a bow.

Lindsey waved her off and dusted off his shirt, raking his hands through his hair one last time. As he made the trek back to Khivar's office, he caught his reflection in one of the hallway mirrors. Stopping, he smiled as he studied his blue eyes.

Yes. That was better. That was how it was meant to be.

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The medical bay was unusually crowded and loud, the extra people brought in from outside taking up all the room as they took in the clean oxygen in the palace. As soon as he stepped inside, there was a hush and the people parted, clearing a pathway for the stormy royal.

Rath's face was set in stone as he walked towards the bed at the far end of the room. His eyes were locked on the blonde that sat hunched over the bed, her shoulders shaking.

"Cort?" he whispered, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She spun around and launched herself into his arms, sobbing. He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her close and whispering soothing words into her ear until her sobs subsided.

"Rath! What'll I do? She wasn't s'pposed ta die, not yet," she rambled. Her accent was getting thicker and thicker in her grief and it was pretty much impossible to understand what she was saying.

Finally she pushed away from Rath and stormed out of the room. Rath could do nothing but follow her. She made her way over to Kaylanna's room, pulling out one of her army outfits.

"Cort, what are you doing?"

"OI'll kill'im is what OI'll du. Me sister's dead at 'is 'and and OI'll not let 'im live."

"Cor…"

"Op'n a pahrtal ta Carnath and we'll see if that bastard lives anotha day."

"Cor, stop," Rath said sternly. She froze and turned to him. "I can't let you go to Carnath."

"Bu-"

"You have no training, no field experience. Cort, you work in the lab making defence systems, Khivar'll kill you in a heartbeat," Rath reasoned. "We'll get him for you, okay? 'Anna wouldn't want you dying in the process."

Cortenia sighed heavily and flopped down on the bed with her head in her hands. "You want me to stay here and make more alarms for the base?"

"No," Rath sighed. "Look, Khivar's last attack left the atmosphere poisoned. Everyone will die." Cortenia gasped and her eyes widened. "So far the base is the only safe place for full Antarians. Michael cleaned the air here."

"That's horrible."

"Yeah, well, there are still people out there that need help, Cortenia, some people who managed to survive until now, but we need people to go get them. I hate to ask you this now, but you're one of the few people who can actually survive out there."

"But surely housing a few people in the base wouldn't help much. What happens when the air runs out?"

"We have a possible fix for that, but we need to go to Carnath to get it."

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Michael stood in the middle of the room with his eyes closed, taking long deep breaths. It was a meditating technique that was supposed to help him focus his powers, well, Deimon's powers, so he could summon the Granolith, but so far all it did was make him want to sleep.

"I don't think it's working," he heard Kyle say from his right.

"Obviously," he said, opening his eyes. He turned to Faith and raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure this works?"

"It's what Giles always told me and B to do," she answered with a shrug.

"Did it actually work?" Maria asked.

"Actually it used to make me kinda sleepy, but it might work for you," she said. Michael rolled his eyes.

"Maybe you need to be near the Granolith for it to work," Isabel suggested.

"Sure, why don't we just walk up to Khivar and say, 'We know you're having fun with the whole annihilating an entire species thing, but could we please borrow the Granolith to fix it?' Yeah, I really don't think that's gonna work," Maria said sarcastically.

"Then we just have to take it from him," Rath said as he walked into the room with Cortenia in tow. Faith walked over to him and wrapped an arm around his waist.

'You okay?' she asked silently.

'Yeah. I'm cool,' he answered. She looked unconvinced, but let it slide.

"Grams?" Maria asked. "What's wrong?"

"Kaylanna passed away just now," she said sadly.

There was an extended silence in the room as they took that in. Another one of their own was gone. They were just being bumped off one by one. Each person couldn't help but wonder who would be next.

Just then, someone knocked on the door and opened it, breaking the silence. It was a soldier carrying a pile of equipment in his arms. Cortenia calmly took it from him and nodded at him in silent dismissal. The soldier saluted to the room, then turned on his heel and left. Cortenia carried the supplies to the table and started sorting through, strapping on different things.

"What are you doing?" Maria asked.

"I'm going out," she answered. "Someone has to go out and rescue the survivors."

Maria walked over to her grandmother, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Are you sure? I mean, you just lost your sister."

Cortenia turned to her. "There was nothing Kaylanna wanted more than to help keep Antar safe. She wouldn't want me to sit around and mope while her people suffered," she said with a reassuring smile. "It's what she would have done herself if she could. I'll do it for her." With that, she shoved the last of the gas and oxygen masks that the soldier had brought in, into a large bag. She strapped it on her back and hugged Maria to her.

"I'll see you when you get back," she said, kissing her forehead. Looking to Michael, she said, "Take care of my Granddaughter," before walking out the door.

Maria frowned. "When I get back? Where are we going?"

"Carnath," Rath replied.