Iris

I'm a very lucky girl.

Eidolon is home alone. His housemates, Liza Flouria and Houghton Field, are two of the deadliest people to ever come from District 9. I was careful to wait until they both went out before knocking on the door.

I'm also lucky that Eidolon views me as a friend. He invited me in and made me a coffee, giving me the perfect opportunity to slip the drugs Mercury gave me into his own cup.

I hide my smirk in my coffee as Eidolon takes a sip of his. All I need to do is wait for the drugs to take effect. Eidolon's big so it might take a while. I need to distract him.

And I know exactly how.

"I'm so glad you let me in," I say. "There's something I need to tell someone and I'm sure you'll understand."

Eidolon nods.

"I'm… a lesbian," I say. "I spent my life denying it because I knew my grandfather would never accept it but I'm ready to admit it now."

Eidolon smiles at me. He reaches for a pen and a piece of paper and begins to write. I watch as he begins to slump on the sofa. The pen falls from his hand.

I grin and rush over to the door. I open it and let Mercury in.

"Is he asleep?" Mercury asks.

"Yeah. Let's get him out of here before the Nines come back."

We close the door and rush over to Eidolon's unconscious body. Mercury picks him up by the wrists and I take his ankles. After a few minutes of straining to lift him, I realise that there's no way I'll ever be able to get Eidolon out of the house.

"He's too heavy," I complain. "Can we take a break?"

Mercury sighs. "Let's just keep him here. The Nines won't try anything if we've got a gun."

He nods to the bag he'd left on the floor.

I bring a chair over from the kitchen table and, somehow, Mercury and I manage to lift Eidolon onto the chair. Mercury pulls a coil or rope out of his bag and begins to tie Eidolon up.

"Think he'll break free?" I ask. "He's pretty strong."

"I doubt it," Mercury says.

I leave him to his work, walk over to collect the note from the floor and read it.

Thank you for telling me this, Iris. It's very brave of you. I hope we can be friends, despite the fact you hate Manel. I understand why you hate him and I don't want to be limited to my love for him. I'm happy to offer you all the help and support you'll

The note ends in the middle of a sentence. That must've been where Eidolon passed out.

I feel a pang of regret. I ignore it. I don't need friends like Eidolon. I need revenge.

It doesn't matter how lonely I feel.

It doesn't matter how much it felt like the truth when I told him I was a lesbian.

Eidolon begins to stir. He realises something is wrong and his eyes snap open. He strains agains his bonds. I hold my breath but the ropes don't break. Eidolon lets out a small, helpless cry.

"Don't make a sound," Mercury demands. He pulls a small pistol out of his bag and holds it to Eidolon's head. "Got it?"

Eidolon nods, tears welling up in his eyes.

Then he looks at me.

His eyes burn at me, full of hurt and betrayal. I trusted you, they say.

I harden my heart and ignore all the pain I feel. It's my grandfather's way, after all.


Houghton

Sometimes, I come home and I feel like jumping through the window for no reason.

Everyone tells me it's stupid. Jumping through the window will break the window. Then the window will be broken and I could potentially cut myself on broken glass. But I have this destructive impulse within me. Part of me just wants to attack. I've had problems with my memory since I was resurrected for the Quell and I just can't remember why it would be stupid to jump through a window.

But, today, I know I'm jumping through the window for a reason. I see the flash of a gun's barrel and I leap.

My body slams into the glass with enough force to shatter it. I didn't expect to hit it so soon but losing my eye during the Quell messed up my depth perception. I can hear Liza yelling at me to stop, too late. The momentum carries me forwards, straight into the gunman. He doesn't have time to react before he's knocked to the ground. I snatch the gun from his hand and aim it at his head.

I give the room a cursory glance. Eidolon is tied to a chair, tears streaming down his face. This man must've hurt him or scared him somehow.

I pull the trigger without hesitation.

There's a scream. I turn and see a skinny girl with dyed blonde hair cowering in the corner. I aim my gun at her.

"Please don't kill me," she begs. "I didn't want to get mixed up in this, I swear."

She bursts into tears. I'm briefly confused. There's a strange girl in my house but she seems harmless. I don't really want to kill someone crying and helpless.

"Liza, what do I do?" I ask. I've always been able to rely on my mentor for advice.

Liza recovers from the shock of watching me crash through the window and shoot someone. She climbs through and starts untying Eidolon.

"Eidolon, did she hurt you?" She asks, gently.

Eidolon nods.

"Okay," I say. "That settles it."

"Don't shoot her," Liza says. "She's just a child. Just make sure she doesn't try to fight. I'll call the peacekeepers."

Liza manages to guide Eidolon over to the sofa and wrap a blanket around his shoulders. He's shaking uncontrollably. I hate seeing him like this. Apart from Liza, Eidolon is probably my only friend. From the moment I met him, I felt this drive to protect him. I knew, even though he's three years older than me and massive, he'd never be able to protect himself.

That's what I did in my first life. I protected people. When I do it now, I don't feel as much of a disconnect between who I used to be and who I am now.

Maybe it's for the best I'm not going to shoot the girl. Because killing people makes the disconnect widen.


Eidolon probably wins the prize for the hardest character to kidnap, simply because he's too big to move. Iris is definitely not the most competent of kidnappers so I knew she'd fail. Also, Houghton has done nothing all story and I wanted to make sure all the Quell survivors contributed to the plot - even the one who made it through the entire Quell without contributing much to the plot. So I gave him an opportunity to be his usual chaotic self.