Metis rarely practiced as a doctor, but she was licensed to, so she spent part of the day before the launch treating employees suffering from anxiety. Aura took advantage of the time alone in the lab to check in with Ponco and Clonco. Given how few people Metis interacted with, Aura's spybots, as she called them, had little to report. Aura didn't intend to listen to them recount Simon's lessons with Metis, but Clonco insisted upon telling her one oddity.
"Uncle Simon asked Mommy Metis what she'd discovered about his phantom," Clonco said.
"He's got a phantom now? Is that the newest psychobabble for 'his demons?'"
"I don't know! Nothing about 'phantom' exists in my database! But Mommy Metis printed data from her mood matrix and told Uncle Simon that the phantom didn't experience feelings like normal people. Mama Aura, do I experience feelings like normal people?"
Aura disregarded the question and laid an arm over Clonco while she pondered. Simon requested Metis create a psychological profile—not one on him himself, if the results were any indication. 'Phantom' sounded like either an opera character or a codeword. Given his line of work…
Aura's head jerked up, her fists clenching as the truth hit her. He knew. Whoever this terrorist—this phantom—was that ruined everything, Simon knew.
Not only that, but he'd gotten Metis involved. He'd led her murderer to her. He was just as bad as the rest of the court system—no, worse. He, at least, professed to having honor, honor which Metis granted him, yet he might as well have invited a demon to slaughter her—and covered his tracks through deception.
Aura paced, nearly tripping on the cord of a machine that only Metis kept plugged in. Why had Simon covered for Athena, knowing a likelier monster hovered in the shadows? Had he not played the role of knight, Aura wouldn't have wasted years hating the princess, wouldn't have wasted her first attempt to save Metis on a red herring. So it wasn't her fault, after all—a bug had been placed in the system from the get go. Aura managed one bark of laughter before leaving, ignoring Clonco's pleas to let him finish his job as she pulled her coat on and stormed out.
Snow fell on her windshield as she drove to the prosecutor's office, where she would have spit on the steps were she not too a shade too classy. Ignoring the receptionist, she took the steps two at a time up to the floor where her brother worked. He was sitting at his desk when she burst in, slamming the door behind her and pulling him up by the lapels.
"You treacherous, phony piece of filth!"
Simon's face rivaled Athena's in shameless bemusement. "Aura, what are you doing here? I'm still—"
"You know," she continued, shaking him. "You knew. It's all your fault. It's all your fault!"
"Aura, these walls aren't soundproof, please—"
"I don't care if I embarrass you in front of your corrupt government friends," Aura spat. "I should have known better than to trust a prosecutor. I should have just left you to the gallows!"
"What the devil are you talking about?!"
"Funny you should mention devils. This phantom of yours—what are they?"
Simon's eyes widened, his lips parting slightly before pressing together. "Did Dr. Cykes tell you? Or, no…that robot, I knew I shouldn't have let it prowl about." He sighed, glancing at the door and window. "Listen, Aura—I'm about to tell you a strict government secret. If word leaks…"
"I don't care for your red tape. I'll keep my mouth shut on my terms, not yours."
His face tightened. "Then I can't tell you. Sister or not, I have a responsibility to the state to—"
"Responsibility. Always on about your responsibility. What about your responsibility to me?" Her fingers trembled on his lapels. When he reached to pry them off, she smacked his hand. "Why didn't you let me in, Simon? Do you have any idea how long I've been alone?"
Even without his eye bags, Simon looked tired. "Aura, I don't understand."
"Of course you wouldn't." She exhaled, recalling when he'd caught the shift in her face right off the bat. She'd doubled her makeup so that it wouldn't happen again, but…
After finding out what he'd concealed, she hadn't planned to reveal herself. But she'd had it with secrets and the isolation that came with them, and she missed her brother, had missed him for a decade. She took her handkerchief and wiped it across her eyes until makeup coated it. Simon cocked his head, squinting.
"Your face…?"
"Simon, I'm over forty years old." A lump caught in her throat. "My stupid baby brother. You don't have any idea what you've put me through."
Simon studied her, his expression masked in a technique Metis must have taught him. "Have a seat. I'll put the kettle on."
Aura dropped onto the couch, only now realizing how harsh her breathing was. Trying to calm it, she crossed her legs, her heel tapping as she watched Simon. His motions while brewing were similar to Metis's, though her face usually relaxed in the process whereas lines creased his brow.
Despite regaining much of her composure by the time he handed her a cup, it quivered in her hand. She took a sip and set it down before she could spill it.
"It's still not as bitter as hers," Aura said as Simon sat beside her. When he didn't respond, she sighed. "You're not going to believe this…"
And she could tell he didn't, though except for him biting his lip when she mentioned Metis's death, his mask lasted until Aura got to the part about Athena.
"How would you have possibly—"
"I don't need you to get on my case for it when you suspected her too," Aura snapped. Simon shook his head.
"What in hell's name would possess me to think…?"
"You never told me. You never told me a thing," she said, her voice more bitter than the tea. "If you had, I would have known about the phantom."
Simon slumped forward, his elbows resting against his thighs, and stared at the floor. "This is hard to swallow," he said. Aura crossed her arms.
"Told you you wouldn't believe me."
"No, I do. You're not above a prank, but you wouldn't fake distress over Metis."
After all he'd pushed her away, that he trusted such an absurd story made Aura's throat tighten. "How like you," she said, unable to keep the strain from her voice. He took her hand.
"It seems I caused you great worry," he said softly. "I'm sorry."
Minutes ago she'd been so furious at him, but having waited a decade for his apology, receiving it sapped her energy. You'd better be, was all she could say, so she said nothing.
His fingers were bonier now than while in jail, she thought when she rubbed a thumb across them. The fact she even knew that made her free hand came down hard on the couch cushion. "Just, dammit, why? Why her, why you, why Athena, why me? I can't even trust myself. I certainly can't trust anyone else, now that I know everyone knew a real criminal was running around. I don't…I don't know how what I'm supposed to rely on, Simon."
"Aura, I…"
"Don't bother with platitudes," she said, sniffing. "Nothing you say could possibly comfort me. Just…"
He squeezed her hand. "I understand. I swear on my master's honor that you shan't face the rest of this alone."
Tears spilled down Aura's cheeks. The release left her neither upset nor relieved, simply empty, spent. She rested her forehead on his shoulder. "Thank you," she whispered.
xxxxxxx
The pressure rebuilt itself in Aura's gut a minute into her drive back to the space center. When she entered the lab and found Metis dismantling a robot, her stomach churned. She contained it and touched Metis's shoulder.
"One needed fixing?"
Metis nodded. "One of the cleaning robots assigned to the launch pad. Their identification function was scrambled and their head damaged." She pursed her lips. "It didn't seem like an accident. Would you take a look?"
"Of course." Red flags waved. Was the phantom already in the facility? Perhaps they'd been employed there for months. It made more sense than a newcomer getting through the space center's security, much of which she'd created. Her resolve to trust none but her family intensified.
Aura fingered the dent in the metal. A fall might have caused it, but a blow seemed more likely. The damage to the software, however, must have been due to outside interference. She tapped her hip. A hacker—a spy.
Unable to share this revelation, Aura only recorded the problem as unidentified. When she looked up, she was surprised to find that Metis hadn't returned to her station but had been standing nearby watching. Her face looked controlled, but her hands stroked each other, and when Aura stood, Metis turned and slipped over to her chair.
Cold inside, Aura poked at her work for an unfocused period before excusing herself. When anxiety threatened as she left the lab (what if Metis wasn't there when she came back, what if the phantom—oh god, they were probably in the facility that moment—got her before Aura could even apologize?), Aura reminded herself that she was the only threat Metis registered. The thought made her want to laugh and cry in equal measure.
She arrived at the launch pad, scanning the room with suspicion. Cosmos was touring a few bigwigs, and technicians worked busily throughout the rest of the room. Accessibility being limited, and Aura having no plan for ghost busting, she reluctantly left, glaring daggers into each and every person in the room first.
Now that her presence could upset Metis, she dawdled on her way to the lab. When she neared it, she found she wasn't the only one: Athena stood in the corridor outside the lab, staring at the headphones in her hands with a frown.
Feeling awkward, Aura stretched, hoping the gesture would seem casual—not that it helped around the princess. "Metis called for you?"
Athena's mouth twitched. Her finger traced her ear, then played with her bang. "Don't want to enter," she said, her finger finding her mouth.
Crouching, Aura gently pulled the finger free. Athena jerked it away and went back to touching her hair. "I'm sure Metis is wondering where you are," Aura said.
Athena covered her ear and whipped her head side to side before jerking it up to face Aura. "Why are you upset?"
Aura smiled. "What do you mean?"
Athena puffed her cheeks out, her forehead scrunching in a gesture of concentration such a less controlled version of Metis that Aura's smile became less involuntary. "I don't know. It hurts to listen. I hear sadness, anger…are you angry at me?" she asked suddenly.
Knowing Athena would simply duck away, Aura resisted the urge to reach for her. "No," she said. "It's not you."
"Oh." Athena continued concentrating, and Aura wondered if she'd ask who it was, but she moved on. "You sound…guilty? Did you do something bad?"
"Yeah, I did."
The headphones in Athena's hand tapped against her leg. "What?"
Figured that she'd ask that. Aura looked at Athena properly for perhaps the first time in years—so little, yet so powerful; so brightly colored, yet so somber—before taking the headphones from her. "Lots of things. Sorry." Never an easy word, but it felt small, not even a byte in comparison to the mass of mistakes in Aura's memory.
"To who? To Mom?"
Aura turned the headphones around in her hands. "Yeah, I did something that hurt her."
"Oh." Athena seemed to lose interest. She stared at a wall and scuffed her foot against the floor. "You sound lonely."
Loneliness was such a constant state for Aura that hearing it stated like that struck a chord. "That's not your concern," she said. She reached out a hand. "Shall we go in and see your mother?"
Without taking the offered hand, Athena nodded and reached for the doorknob, her face pale and her eyes glazed. Lonely—it wasn't a foreign emotion to her in the least. For all their bulk, the headphones in Aura's hand felt light, but for Athena, they carried immeasurable weight, including the weight of a love Aura had no idea how Athena processed. She carried the headphones in, thinking that maybe when all of this was over she should ask.
Metis sat at her station with the mood matrix open and a file in her lap. "What kept you?" she asked. She didn't turn to face either of them, but Aura knew the question was for Athena, fueled by motherly concern despite its brusqueness. Glancing beside her, she saw that Athena had fixed her gaze on the floor.
"Athena was just giving me a therapy session. You have quite the budding psychologist here, you know."
Metis swiveled toward them, her expression unguardedly curious. Athena kicked her knees while Metis glanced between the two of them before smiling. "I'm sure that's true."
Whatever Athena heard in Metis's face, it made her blush, and it struck Aura how many wires could have connected if only Metis had never died. Wouldn't die—could connect, she reminded herself. If she'd doubted her mission was worth it, not a shred of doubt remained.
Once Athena left, Metis stared at the door for a long moment before running her hands through her ponytail. "Aura, if I may…"
"Of course," Aura said, pulling her chair up near Metis's station.
"I appreciate that you two got a chance to bond…" A tightness in Metis's voice betrayed rare jealousy.
"But?" Aura prompted, half-expecting Metis to ask her to stay away from her daughter. Metis tossed the ponytail back over her shoulder and shook it out.
"I may lack her empathy, but I'm a licensed psychologist. Should you need counseling, there's no need to burden her with it."
Aura ran that through her Metis decoder: I'm here for you, too. She smiled. "I'll keep that in mind."
If Metis carried her earlier apprehension to dinner, she didn't display it. Conversation passed lightly, broken up by the slurping of noodles and the sound of Ponco miming eating as she'd taken to doing. Athena almost made a mess trying to do her hair up with still-saucy chopsticks; Metis rose to get a clean pair and help her learn the method. Across the table, Aura met Simon's eyes and received a small nod, enough to remind her that someone had a whole foot in her world.
Perhaps loneliness didn't have to be a constant. The thought felt surreal, but Athena returned with a fresh hairdo, and Ponco tried to fit Athena's abandoned chopsticks into grooves at the top of her chassis, and Aura, against her better judgment, relaxed.
xxxxxxx
Simon tried speaking to the higher-ups, as he vented to Aura with a scowl, but the launch continued as planned. Aura hadn't bothered hoping they'd admit the threat, focusing instead on Metis, who she asked Simon to guard while she helped check the rocket. When she rejoined them and escorted Metis to the launch site, Metis seemed in good spirits, even chatting with others.
"I've never been to a launch before," she told a police officer standing guard. "I usually watch them from my lab."
No doubt wary of terrorists, the officer had worn a pensive expression when the two entered, but she smiled at Metis's excitement. Despite her unease, Aura had to smile, too. Metis never noticed, but like the moon and sun, others reflected her light.
By now, when the rocket exploded, Aura was prepared—or so she thought. A second later another boom sounded, only this time, it rocked the center itself.
Aura clapped her ears on instinct, grateful Athena wasn't there. Her heart pounding, she tried to register this bend in the formula. The deafening noise couldn't have come from more than a couple of rooms away, and though mission control was trained to deal with the rocket, they were not prepared for an attack on their own building.
Chaos unleashed. The task force brought in for this purpose moved to secure the area, leaving the command room less staffed than it had been and forcing Aura to take charge of the panicking employees. At first, she kept one eye on Metis, who had backed against a wall with her hands over her ears, but in the space it took Aura to turn around and yell a couple of commands, Metis disappeared.
Aura's heart thundered. She called Metis's name; when she got no response, she sprinted from the room without a word.
Emerging into smoke, she hurried through to the hall, where the smoke thickened. After an officer cordoning off the area confirmed that a woman in a kimono passed through, Aura elbowed them out of the way and ran, her heel catching on rubble before she made it to the elevator and ascended to the lab.
The door was locked. Aura shook the handle, wishing she'd brought the key. Had Simon locked it to keep Metis safe? If he had, that would be a weight off her shoulders. Still, a bad feeling filled her gut as an employee appeared whom she ordered to help break the lock. When they did, her knees almost gave out.
Simon lay on the floor, a bloody katana beside him. Metis held his head in her lap, keeping one hand pressed against her eyes to stop her tears from falling onto it.
Aura reached out to the doorframe, resting her head against it. Despite being more solid than his shoulder, it steadied her so much less.
When her legs could move, she settled down beside Metis and wrapped her arms around her. Metis buried her head in Aura's neck, weeping while Aura held her. After her release at the prosecutor's office, Aura didn't—couldn't—cry, letting Metis grieve for both of them. Metis's corpse had long haunted Aura's dreams, but Simon's didn't feel real, as if it was simply a collection of malfunctioning parts. Underneath her numbness, Aura felt a vague horror. Had she truly grown so used to death that kneeling beside her brother's corpse didn't faze her?
Metis removed her hand from Simon's cheek to cling to Aura, who shifted to support her. Metis. She was alive, as the sobs wracking her body attested. Just as Aura couldn't mourn, she couldn't rejoice while Simon's hand went cold. Still, when she felt the skin at the back of Metis's neck, she couldn't help but find relief in the fact that its warmth wouldn't fade.
Metis tried to speak, but it was fragmented, and Aura didn't force an explanation out of her. Besides, she already knew at least what the murderer was. She grit her teeth, anger breaking through whatever barrier her psychology had constructed. So that monster would take everyone from her.
"Athena," Metis said, lifting her head. "I have to make sure Athena is safe."
"She was in her room," Aura said. "I'm sure she…" She trailed off. Athena had hardly stayed away from the scene of the crime before. If something happened to her now, it would be Aura's fault for only keeping tabs on her in the midst of suspicion.
At this point she remembered the employee who helped her open the door and found them at the threshold, calling for help. One less thing for Aura to worry about, she supposed.
That thought didn't last long. No sooner had the police come than they arrested Metis. She was too distraught and confused to react, but Aura was another story.
"Metis wouldn't harm a deactivated robot, let alone Simon. On what grounds are you pigs arresting her?"
"The door was locked, and nobody else was inside—is that right?" The officer turned to the employee, who pulled the brim of their cap over their face and nodded. Aura seethed. She should have knocked the door down by herself. "Plus—wait, you're not a part of the investigation. We don't have to reveal anything to you. Unless you know who did it?"
Aura could have lied. She could have offered herself up to the gallows in Metis's place. But unlike Simon, she wasn't an honorable knight who'd die for her liege. She was a scientist, a strategist, and she knew she could reset everything—but not if she was on death row. With guilt, she let the authorities take Metis away with nothing but curses on her part to stop them.
xxxxxxx
Spending years waiting for Simon to die didn't lesson the shock of having him suddenly taken away. When, upon lying down, the past twenty-four hours caught up to her—not just the cold hand she'd held, but the warm one that had gripped hers—she broke down and cried over a death she knew she could reverse. Because she would reverse it, wouldn't put all of that effort into saving Metis only to lose her brother instead.
Her tears had stopped when a quiet knock on her door made her call out an invitation to enter. She was unsurprised to see Athena there, clutching a robot part to her chest. Aura ran a hand through her unkempt hair and patted the again empty spot in her bed, which Athena hesitated before filling.
"Why did they take Mommy away? She can fix Simon, I know she can."
Aura sighed, petting Athena's head until Athena had had too much and jerked away. In the past, the princess's naivety would have angered her, but she didn't have the energy, especially when she knew it was her own fault for never bothering to tell Athena that people couldn't be fixed like machines.
Then again, am I any better?
"I'm going to fix him myself, but the machine's going to take a very, very long time to build, so be a good girl until then, okay?" Her own voice sounded odd; she wasn't used to affecting a tender tone, but she still felt guilty for her past behavior. Athena didn't seem comforted.
"I want Simon. Where's Mommy?"
Aura sighed again. "Mommy's going to be away for a while. I'll try to take you to her soon, all right?"
"Where did Mommy go? She's always leaving me. I want Simon." And to Aura's horror, Athena burst into tears.
She couldn't handle being touched, and Aura had no words of comfort. In the end, she let Athena cry for the both of them until she fell asleep, at which point Aura was too spent to finish her own crying and lay staring at the darkness with sore eyes.