Chapter 21: Homecoming

In the space of a few days, everything had changed.

The tide of the war had turned. It was not long after Max went north that Blue Moon had seen the weakness in Orange Star's defences, and launched a full offensive to capitalise on it. Until that point, the invasion had been fought along static lines of control. The conflict had been contained to the border regions, and Blue Moon's attempts to break through had proven costly and fruitless. Nell was still in shock at how swiftly their strategy had collapsed. Only a few short days ago Olaf's invasion had been on the verge of failure, but now the advantage had completely shifted. Orange Star's forces along the front were in disarray, many of their units encircled or forced to retreat. It had fallen to Rachel to lead the desperate defence, but her last known position had been overrun thirty hours ago. The troops holding their forward positions were simply gone. There was no way to know whether they were missing, captured, or dead. And with every passing hour, the Blue Moon Army swept further into their territory. It was a total catastrophe. The war was far from lost, but it was rapidly spiralling out of control, and Nell found herself faced with the prospect that from here, things might get a great deal worse.

She looked up from the reports strewn across her desk. She had worked all through the night, and now the glow of morning was seeping through her office. The ordeal had left her exhausted. Necessity had made her numb to her emotions, but the effort required to hold herself together was immense. Sitting there, Nell was struck again by the enormity of it all. How had it come to this?

A sudden chime interrupted her thoughts. Nell's eyes moved to the com panel on her desk, where a small green light indicated that she had an incoming call.

"Go ahead," she said, activating the intercom.

"Commander Max is here with Grit, ma'am," her secretary's voice came through. "What should I tell them?"

Nell closed her eyes, taking a precious few seconds to steel herself. She had been dreading this ever since Max and Grit landed in the capital, and now, the conversation could be delayed no longer. It did not matter how weary she felt, or how difficult it was just to keep from falling apart. There was too much that needed to be said.

Nell took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She had no choice but to deal with this, however hard it might be.

"I'll see Max first," she said, making a conscious effort to keep her voice steady. "Send him in now, please."

"Yes, ma'am."

The green light disappeared, and the connection was broken. Nell barely had time to acknowledge the short exchange before the door swung open, and Max stepped into her office.

There was little of his usual confidence in his bearing. Max's broad shoulders were hunched, and he kept his eyes downcast. Every movement was slow and hesitant, and he was shuffling his feet as if he no longer entirely remembered how to stand. If there had been any lingering doubt in Nell's mind as to whether or not Max understood the full ramifications of his actions, it soon evaporated. This man quailing before her knew exactly what he had done.

Max assumed a position standing in front of her desk and looked up, his eyes full of regret.

"Nell, I –"

As he began to speak, Nell felt a sudden flash of anger, and she did not try to push it away. In fact, the emotion was strangely welcome. Nell took great pride in her professional demeanour, but today she was simply too tired to maintain her composure, and her anger was a source of sorely needed strength.

"Did I give you permission to speak, Commander?" She cut him off.

Max stared at her, shocked, before he managed a quivering shake of his head.

"No," Nell agreed. "So just listen. Now, let's review the situation. You ignored my standing orders. You removed a significant force from our defensive line to go on a wild goose chase. Why? Because you thought it was more important to fight a meaningless battle against a minimal enemy force that posed no significant threat."

Max grimaced. Nell watched him for a second longer, waiting for any further reaction, but it did not come. With a short breath she continued.

"As a result, our defences were critically compromised. When Blue Moon realised that, they launched a full offensive and overwhelmed our positions. We've taken heavy casualties and lost significant amounts of territory, all because you wanted to go after Grit. Have I left anything out?"

He swallowed. "No ma'am."

"You disobeyed orders and seriously undermined the defence of our country," Nell summarised. "I don't think I need to explain just how bad this is, Max. There will be consequences, and I won't be able to protect you this time."

He shook his head again, helplessness showing on his broad features. "I didn't mean for this to happen, Nell. I just… I didn't think…"

"No, you didn't think!" Nell snapped. She could barely stand to look at Max, and somehow, seeing his remorse was only making it worse. "That's the problem."

"So what happens now?"

"There will be a hearing into your conduct. What happens after that is for a board of inquiry to decide. You could be suspended, demoted, perhaps even discharged." Nell glanced briefly away. "However, as things currently are, Orange Star can't afford to lose any more commanding officers. Whatever happens, it won't be decided until after this conflict is over."

Assuming we survive it, a particularly cynical part of her added.

"Right," Max said, still watching her like a spooked animal. "And what about Rachel? Has there been any news?"

Nell's heart froze at the mention of Rachel's name. For a split second she was overwhelmed by fear. She could not even move, let alone think of what to say. Nothing had prepared her for this, or terrified her as much as the thought that her little sister might have been killed. There was no one in the world Nell was closer to than Rachel. After the death of their parents, they had been each other's family, the only family they had left. Having to confront the very real possibility that she had lost Rachel as well was far worse than anything Nell had ever faced before.

"No," she finally managed to say, her voice shaking slightly. "There's still nothing."

Max's gaze turned downcast. Nell could not help but wonder if he was more scared for Rachel, or ashamed of what he had done.

"We gotta do something," he blurted out.

"I think you've done quite enough already," Nell said coldly.

"We can't just leave Rachel. We need her –"

"Enough!"

Nell lifted her pointer and slammed it down on the desk with a bang. Max flinched at the sound.

"Until we know more, there's nothing else to say on the matter."

She spoke clearly and concisely. Her voice was so terse it was almost on the verge of breaking, and it was a struggle just to get the words out. Couldn't Max see how much it was hurting her to even think about Rachel? She couldn't talk about this. It was too soon, too overwhelming. Too many things she could not bear to deal with. She needed this conversation to end.

"That will be all, Max."

"Nell, I –"

"Dismissed!"

There was silence. Max could only stare at her, frozen in place. Nell knew she had spoken harshly, but she had no sympathy for him. Not today. It took every shred of strength she could muster to maintain any control, and there was no room left for anything else. She only glared straight back at Max, staring him down until, cowed, he bowed his head and hastened from her office.

Once he was gone, Nell closed her eyes and exhaled, long and slow. At least the worst part was over.

It was all such a wretched mess. Max was the most reliable friend she'd ever had, and he'd thrown it all away for a reckless moment of vengeance. He had compromised Orange Star's entire defensive strategy, and let Blue Moon break through into the heart of their country. How many lives would be lost because of a single mistake? Before this turn of events, Nell had firmly believed that they could hold back the invasion, but now the future was far more uncertain.

She leant back in her chair and sighed again. They could still defeat Blue Moon. Nell had barely slept since the news reached her; all her hours had been devoted to enacting emergency plans, and shoring up their positions. She was confident that the new defensive line, drawn deeper in Orange Star territory, could hold. That was not what most concerned her. The problems with their new strategy were less immediate. First, most of their reserves were committed now. There was little left with which to answer any other threat, and with Black Hole still out there in some unknown capacity, that was a dangerous position to be in. The second problem was even more long term. Keeping enemy forces out of their country was one thing, and expelling them from occupied territory was another matter entirely. Once Blue Moon's troops were entrenched, they would be far more difficult to remove; experience had taught Nell that once Blue Moon took control of a region, they would not give it up easily. Any hope that Olaf would soon deplete his army's strength and be forced to negotiate a truce or ceasefire had been extinguished. She could no longer see a way to resolve this conflict swiftly, or without great cost. They were in for a long and gruelling war.

It was almost too much to bear. Nell had grown used to shouldering heavy burdens in the past few years, and for the most part, she did so without complaint. She had always held the conviction that what was right needed to be fought for, no matter how hard it might be, and she still believed that with all her heart. Even now, after what had just happened. After Rachel.

A faint look of grief came over Nell. It had been thirty hours since they lost contact with Rachel, and still her mind had barely processed this new reality. Rachel was gone, and Nell didn't even know if her little sister was alive or dead.

Once again she set the terrible worry aside and focused on the present. No matter how she felt, there was more to be done. Her duty had to come first. With that thought in the forefront of her mind Nell straightened up, and with a press of her finger activated the com panel again.

"Have Commander Grit sent in now, please."

As she waited, Nell could not keep from running a hand through her long blonde locks. Her hair, usually perfect, had grown distinctly unkempt over the past few days. She wasn't even wearing her hat or purple suit jacket. A resigned look crossed her lips. There was little she could do about such things now, and besides, it hardly mattered. Grit had never been one to put much stock in appearances.

The sound of slow footsteps reached Nell's ears. Soon after her office door swung open, and standing there was Grit.

"Howdy, Nell," he said.

"Howdy," she repeated, one eyebrow raised. "Is that all you have to say for yourself?"

"Well, it ain't much, but I reckon it's a start."

Grit took off his hat and set it aside as he sat down opposite her, spreading his coat out so it was draped over the back of the chair. Nell could not keep from marvelling at the way he ambled in. There were dark rings under Grit's eyes, and he looked thin and stressed, but on the whole, he appeared remarkably at ease.

"Why did you come back here?" She asked.

It was a blunt question, but she was too tired to do anything but get straight to the point.

He flashed her a well meaning smirk. "Well now, Max didn't exactly leave me much choice in the matter."

An unimpressed twitch crossed Nell's lips. She had spent more than enough time with Grit to recognise when he was deflecting, and that he would try to do so now was galling. It wasn't in Grit's nature to open up easily, but these were hardly normal circumstances, and Nell no longer had the patience to accommodate his quirks.

"I think we both know that you could have found a way to avoid coming home, if you'd wanted to," she observed, her voice cool. "How did you put it? You go where you want to go, and stay where you want to stay."

Grit's brow creased slightly. "You remember that?"

"Of course I do," Nell said, almost taken aback.

It was only then she realised that he did not know how much that answer had meant to her, meagre though it had been. Nell exhaled and sank back into the soft leather of her office chair.

"You do understand how serious this is, don't you?" She asked. "After you left Orange Star, you were tried in absentia by a military court. You were found guilty of treason, which means I have no choice but to place you under arrest."

He forced a melancholy chuckle. "I didn't much think those boys with guns following me 'round were lookin' out for my health."

Nell could only stare at him, shocked at how obstinate he was being. Did he not understand what that meant? Her disapproval must have shown, for any mischief quickly dropped from Grit's bearing, leaving behind only a man who looked every bit as exhausted as she was.

"Grit, this is no laughing matter! You betrayed Orange Star, and as for what happens next…" she faltered. "You could spend the rest of your life in prison. You could even be executed. So I'll ask you again: why did you come back?"

"I didn't have much choice."

"Because of Max?"

"No."

Grit's nonchalant veneer was completely gone now, and there was a bitterness and hurt in his eyes that Nell had not seen for a long time. She felt a flicker of eerie anticipation. Now they were getting closer to the truth.

"I ain't welcome in Blue Moon any more, Nell," Grit said. "The more I say, the less those folks listen. It was only a matter of time before I was dismissed from the army, shuffled off to some out of the way place, and forgotten about, if not somethin' much worse."

Nell frowned. "So that's it? Blue Moon didn't suit you any more, so you decided to just pick up and leave again?"

"Now hold up." Shame showed in Grit's eyes, before he looked away. "That's not what I meant. I came back because it was time."

"I don't understand."

"It's hard to explain." He pursed his lips, still unwilling to meet her gaze. "I've been watching my life in Blue Moon fall apart faster'n you can believe, and it's got me thinking about some of the choices I've made, and how I ended up here."

Nell said nothing. Grit had her full attention, but as yet he had given her little she could reply to. If Grit wanted any kind of meaningful response, he would first need to give her more than these vague allusions to past regrets, if regret was even what Grit was trying to express. He needed to show her something real, something concrete.

After a short silence he made a strange grunt as if to summon his courage, and went on.

"There are some things I've been meanin' to tell you for a while now. I just never had the chance. With all this goin' on, I was starting to think I never would, and I didn't much like that idea."

Nell felt a strange flutter run through her heart, and it was all she could do to prevent it from showing in her expression. Grit had still not told her much, but he had given her enough to set her imagination racing with the possibilities.

For a moment she could only wonder at herself. Even after all that had happened, all the time, distance, and difficult choices, the warmth of her feeling for Grit hadn't changed. She had forgotten, almost, what it was like to be this close to him. They had barely spoken since Grit left Orange Star, and when they had, it had usually been as part of a council of war. Never alone. They had not been alone together in over five years.

"What things, Grit?" She asked, her heartbeat rising. "What do you want to tell me?"

"That I'm sorry for leavin' without a word the way I did. It wasn't fair on you, on Maxie, on anyone." He paused. "It was a mistake, and I'm sorry."

"Why did you leave?"

The words were out before Nell could stop herself.

Grit looked her straight in the eye. "Do I really have to say it?"

"Alright, I'll rephrase. Why did you think leaving like that would help?"

He winced. "I just didn't want anyone to get hurt, y'know? But I couldn't see any way to avoid it, and then after the accident… seein' you like that in the hospital…" he let out a sigh. "Well, it sure felt like I was just making everything worse, so I figured the best thing was for me to saddle up and disappear."

She stared at him in amazement. "And it never occurred to you that disappearing the way you did would only hurt us all the more?"

Grit turned away, just for a moment. When he looked back at her, there were tears welling in his eyes.

"I was a fool, Nell, and I ain't too big to admit it. I couldn't see the forest for the trees, and I'm sorry."

Nell knew he was telling the truth. She could see it in the hurt and shame writ across Grit's face, and in the tears glimmering faintly in his eyes. So why couldn't she simply accept this explanation? It was as if all the old pain had risen up to the surface, and with it came the same question, playing over and over in her mind: why? Why had he gone? There had been little time to contemplate such things after Grit left Orange Star, and the whole world had been turned upside down. Nell had spent more than a few nights lying awake and trying to make sense of it all, before duty had compelled her to set her feelings aside. Now, faced with the chance to find some answers at last, she found herself consumed by a desperate need to know. Why?

"That was really all it was?" Nell asked at last. She was almost scared of what the answer might be.

"I got all caught up in my own head, and I…" Grit paused, visibly struggling to find the right words. "I managed to convince myself that y'all would be better off without me, that all I'd do is hurt you. You know I've never been much good at staying close to anyone. I've always been better at keepin' my distance. I ain't saying it's right, but it's what I was thinking."

Nell considered that. "It sounds to me like you were afraid."

"Of hurtin' you?" Grit offered up the saddest smile Nell had ever seen. "Always."

It sounded so simple when it was said aloud. Not the great revelation she might have hoped for, but simply the story of a man who had fallen prey to his own doubts and fears. That was all it took to change the course of history.

"Oh, Grit," Nell sighed.

Her hand went to one of the large drawers in her desk and pulled it open. Inside sat a bottle of brandy and two shot glasses. She lifted them out and sat the glasses on the desk.

Grit's eyebrows raised. "Well, I wasn't expecting that."

"It's been a rough few days," Nell said with a small laugh.

She poured out one measure of brandy for herself, and another for Grit. He took his glass and raised it high. Nell matched the movement and let their glasses clink together in a quiet little toast.

"To being honest with each other," she said.

"Reckon I'll drink to that," Grit murmured.

It was only a small thing, but Nell found the ritual strangely comforting as she downed her drink in a single swallow.

"It's funny," Grit said after he drank his brandy. "I was just startin' to think that Blue Moon felt like home, and maybe I could settle down there. Then all this happens." A trace of bitterness showed in his eyes. "I guess that life just ain't for me."

"I don't believe that. You deserve a home, Grit."

"Maybe."

He gave a curt shrug and looked away again, and Nell knew better than to press the subject.

"So what'll happen to me now?"

"I have to take you into custody until a final decision is made," she said. "A lot's happened since your conviction, and I'm sure the government can be convinced to review the matter."

Concern bloomed in Grit's eyes. "Don't go to too much trouble on my account, darlin'. You need to be taking care of yourself now, y'hear?"

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. And I will do what I can to help you." Nell paused, thinking. "What would you do next, if you were given the choice?"

"Can't say I've given that much thought, seeing as I ain't the one holdin' the reins."

Nell accepted that with a small nod, taking his empty glass and sitting it next to her own. "It's something you might want to think about. If you're willing to cooperate with us and provide intel on Blue Moon, that could make a big difference. After all, you probably know more about them than anyone in Orange Star."

The corner of Grit's lip twitched, the barest hint of amusement making itself known. "You want me to sing for my supper, is that it?"

"Something like that."

Grit put a hand to his head and ruffled his hair. "Well, if there's any way I can help end this foolish war, I reckon that's what I'll do." He went quiet for a time. "Still seems mad to me, this mess we're in. I can't help but wonder if it had all been just a little different, if Lash had never joined up with us in Omega Land, then maybe…"

"Maybe we wouldn't have ended up here?" Nell finished.

Grit managed an almost playful smile. "Something like that," he echoed. With a shake of his head the smile faded. "At least that one's locked up safe and sound where she can't do no harm."

Nell felt a faint shiver and glanced away. She said nothing; she did not trust herself to lie well enough, especially not to Grit. As it turned out, her silence made no difference. Grit's expression shifted first to dawning realisation, then became exasperated.

"Oh, Nellie. You let her out."

"It's not quite that simple," she said.

"Isn't it?" Grit asked, his tone cynical. "Trust me, darlin'. A nice, cozy cell is the best place for Lash."

Nell looked at him with mild surprise. "I never thought you were the type to hold a grudge, Grit."

"This ain't about grudges," he exclaimed. "If you'd seen the things I've seen, if you knew what the little lady is capable of –" He broke off. "That one's dangerous, Nell."

"You think I don't know that?" She asked. Her tone was sharper than she'd intended, but she was too tired to hold back. "I'm quite aware of everything that Lash has done."

Grit rubbed his forehead. "I know. I didn't mean…"

"Letting her out of Thornfield wasn't a choice we made lightly. Truth be told, it was an act of desperation. There was a mission that we needed to succeed, and it wouldn't have been possible without Lash's help."

She stopped speaking and stood up, seized by a sudden impulse. Grit looked up at her with faint alarm as she retrieved her suit jacket and pulled it on. Nell did not put her garrison cap back on, and nor did she button up her jacket, leaving her white shirt showing underneath.

"Come with me."

Grit got to his feet and followed her, unable to entirely hide his apprehension.

"You mind tellin' me where we're going?" He asked as they left her office.

"Not far," she replied.

She nodded to the soldiers standing guard outside. They fell in behind Nell and Grit as the two of them walked through the military headquarters, heading towards the lifts. Nell felt a faint twinge of regret that a man who had once walked these halls with her as a trusted companion required such an escort, but she knew there was simply no other way. They had all made choices, and there was nothing to be done except face the consequences.

A quiet beep announced the arrival of the lift. Nell, Grit, and the guards crammed themselves into the small space. Grit cast a wry glance at the assault rifles pointed towards the floor, and Nell barely managed to suppress a smile as she watched his expression change. It was strange to be so close to him and yet so feel far away, standing in a cramped lift with a pair of armed chaperones. Nell found herself astonished at the absurdity of it all. Who would ever have thought that they would end up here, in this strange piece of theatre they had written for themselves?

The descent was spent in silence. The lift came to a stop, and without hesitation Nell kept moving. They had arrived on the lowest floor of the building, where the walls were bare and grey. Security cameras covered each room and hallway, and there were armed guards watching every entrance. There would not normally have been so many personnel posted to this level of headquarters, but in recent days it had played host to a very important guest, and additional security measures had become a simple necessity.

Nell led the group to an unassuming black door and came to a halt.

"Wait here," she advised their escorts. "Grit and I will be just inside."

She and Grit stepped through into a small observation room, where Nell assumed a position looking through a two-way mirror. Grit came over and stood beside her, peering through the window with a wary shadow in his eyes. An audible intake of breath passed his lips as he saw who was waiting on the other side of the glass.

There was no one in the interrogation room except for Lash, who sat cross-legged on the floor with a jumbled mess of files and papers arrayed on the carpet around her. She wore a plain grey tracksuit emblazoned with the symbol of Orange Star's military academy, and her wild hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail. She little resembled the Lash who Grit had faced in battle. Far from a fierce mastermind or a menacing commander, the girl before them appeared small, plain, and pale. Ordinary, almost.

As they watched, Lash was overcome by a look of intense frustration. For a few seconds she stared at the open file on the floor in front of her, before with a shriek she began tossing pages up in the air.

"You've got that one doin' paperwork," Grit stated flatly.

"We couldn't risk giving her access to a computer."

He considered that for a moment, and then began to chuckle. "Y'know, I reckon that's the first thing you've said 'bout Lash I don't disagree with."

"Come on," Nell said, gesturing towards a door leading into the interrogation room. "It's about time I checked on her."

Before Grit had a chance to object, Nell opened the door and walked through. Lash's gaze flicked upwards as she entered.

"Hey, I haven't –"

She broke off as she saw Grit, her eyes going wide. Then she let out a squeal of terror and promptly dived under the desk behind her.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, Lash," Nell reassured her. "Everything's all right."

Lash poked her head out and peered up at them with wide eyes. "You're… you're not sending me to Blue Moon?"

Nell glanced at Grit. "No. Grit is a guest of Orange Star, just like you."

"Oh." Lash came scrambling out from under the table. "Duh, I knew that! You wouldn't have the guts to hand me over to that old geezer."

Grit regarded Lash with a cautious eye. "I see all this hasn't made you any more humble, then."

"Humble?" Lash screwed her face up in revulsion. "What, like I should pretend I'm not as smart as I am?"

"That ain't it," Grit replied, his voice icy. "It ain't about pretendin'. But you might carry your smarts a little better, and own up to the fact you make mistakes just like the rest of us."

Lash scowled. "What mistakes?"

Grit laughed in disbelief. "Look around, princess. Seems to me your life choices haven't worked out too well, have they now? And that ain't even mentioning what you did to old man Olaf's hometown. This mess we're in? How much of that is on your head?"

Lash looked down at the floor and muttered something under her breath. Nell found herself unsure how Lash would respond. To date, she had rarely reacted well when faced with the consequences of her past. Bringing Grit to see her was a risk. There was no denying that, but Nell had decided it was necessary. She wanted to gauge for herself how much Lash could be relied upon, and that meant knowing how she would handle uncomfortable situations. The world beyond these walls would be far more confronting than a simple conversation with Grit, and if Lash couldn't handle even this much stress, Nell needed to know it sooner rather than later.

She tossed her hair back over one shoulder. "Have you found anything, Lash?"

Lash did not immediately reply. Instead her eyes continued to dance over the mess of papers for a few lingering seconds, a frown growing on her lips.

"There was one thing," she said. "You know how communications cut out during the mission?"

Nell nodded once.

"Well, just before it happened, we picked up some funny readings in parts of the radio spectrum."

Lash scrabbled around, looking for something. Soon she found a specific print out and tapped it with enough force to crease the paper.

"See?"

Nell knelt down and retrieved the sheet of paper, but the analysis of radio signals and electromagnetic bands meant nothing to her.

"What am I looking at here?"

"There was this series of weird blips before all your communications went dead. It's easy to miss because it only shows up in the background noise. But guess what? The same thing happened before Black Hole attacked Green Earth! Some of the last signals those twerps picked up show the same pattern."

"Which certainly suggests that Black Hole was jamming us during Operation Starfall," Nell concluded. "But if that's true, why did the interference stop? The blackout only lasted a few minutes. When they attacked Green Earth, communications were down for over a day."

Lash shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe something broke."

Nell frowned. She did not consider that a satisfying explanation. New technologies could be temperamental and unreliable, but that was not an assumption they could afford to make, not in light of this evidence. If Black Hole could disrupt communications whenever they wished, then it was all the more urgent to understand how they were doing so, and develop countermeasures.

She sighed and made a mental note to pass the discovery onto their research teams. It was not a question she could answer here and now.

"And the rest of it?" Nell asked. "What do you make of all this?"

Lash did not even bother to look up at her. "What do I make of all what?"

"Black Hole's new army, and where it came from."

"How should I know where it came from?" Lash snapped. "I didn't do it!"

"You're the one who developed most of Black Hole's new weapons," Nell pointed out, "and you oversaw their rejuvenation in Omega Land. I think it's fair to say you know a great deal about how Black Hole builds their armies."

Lash's pouty lips began to twitch. She could not entirely keep a gratified smile from showing, before with forced seriousness she wiped it away. Nell took that as an opening and continued.

"So far as we can tell, this threat seems to have originated in the Macro Land conflict, rather than Omega Land. Is it possible that someone started building this army during the Second Great War?"

"How?" Lash demanded. "After you jerks beat us, we had nothing. It's how that wheezy old windbag Von Bolt got his foot in the door. He had money, and we needed a way to rebuild. I came up with the Black Crystals, but without that we didn't have an army." She stared at Nell. "Don't you get it? There was nothing left!"

"Are you sure about that? Couldn't we be dealing with some kind of reserve force or contingency plan devised by Sturm?"

Lash shook her head violently. "Sturm didn't make backup plans. Not like that. When we lost, his plan was just to blow everything up." She clapped her hands together. "Boom!"

She dissolved into a fit of manic giggling. Meanwhile Nell and Grit exchanged an uneasy glance. It was remarkable, in a terrifying and twisted sort of way, how nonchalant Lash could be at the thought of total Armageddon.

"So where do you think this Black Hole army came from, then?" Nell asked.

Lash froze. Then she started tossing files around again.

"I don't know. It doesn't make sense! It's stupid and annoying and I hate it!"

Nell made sure to offer Lash a reassuring smile. "Don't be too hard on yourself. We haven't been able to come up with any answers either. Keep looking, and let me know if you find anything else that might help."

"Let you know how?" Lash shot back. "You won't even give me a phone!"

Nell raised one eyebrow and met Lash's gaze, unmoved.

"What?" Lash asked. "It's not like I'd take it apart and use the pieces to build a bomb. I totally could. But I won't."

"How nice of you," Nell commented.

"Boo!" Lash stuck her tongue out. "Have it your way! But if I don't get a phone, then I want pizza!"

"Pizza," Nell repeated. "Very well. I'll see what I can do. And if there's anything else – anything important – you can ask one of the guards to contact me."

She turned back towards the door, and with a tilt of her head gestured for Grit to follow. He had fallen silent towards the end of her conversation with Lash, and now Nell saw that a distant light had crept into his sharp eyes. He followed her back out into the hallway, and, once the door to Lash's room was closed, leant back against the wall, stunned.

"This is real, ain't it?" He asked in a quiet voice. "Black Hole is back."

"How much did Max tell you?" Nell asked.

"Some. We weren't exactly talkin' much."

"I see," she said. "Well, to answer your question… yes. They're back, and it's bad. We still don't know the full extent of it, or how it's even possible, but it's clear that the threat from Black Hole was never truly over. Whatever is happening now, it's been building for some time." She paused. "How much does Blue Moon know?"

Grit started to shake his head slowly, staring straight ahead with despair in his eyes. "Honestly? I got no idea. Those folks are acting like everything's hunky dory. I don't know if they're aware of the truth and just pretendin' otherwise, if they actually believe their own lies, or if they're just that damn blind."

Nell had already suspected something like that was the case based on Blue Moon's official statements, but it was still deeply troubling to hear Grit's read of the situation. There was little chance they could reason with a country so deep in denial. Again faced with the prospect of a long and difficult war, Nell glanced away. All her eyes found was a clock at the end of the hall.

"I'm late for my next appointment," she realised.

Grit forced a tired smile. "Reckon I shouldn't keep you, then."

Nell beckoned the guards forward. Grit was right; she could stay here no longer.

"Escort Commander Grit to a holding cell," she ordered them, before turning back to Grit. "I'm afraid I'll have to keep you there until we decide what we're going to do with you."

"I understand. Whatever happens, I understand."

Nell felt a flash of fear. She didn't want to lose him, not again, but there was only so much she could do to prevent it. She had every intention of making a recommendation to her superiors on Grit's behalf, but the final decision rested with the President's office. Before the feeling could grow too strong she forced it down, back into the deepest part of her heart, safe and secret. Nell knew she could not give into her emotions, not now. Her duty had to come first. She was unable to keep from wondering at herself as those words played in her mind again. How many times had she repeated that same mantra since hearing the news that Rachel's position had been overrun? It was all she had to hold on to, all she could do to try and cope.

"Least I'll have plenty of time to relax and catch a bit of shut-eye," Grit remarked.

He was still forcing himself to hold a smile, and Nell wasn't sure what he was trying to prove. Was it an attempt to be brave in the face of an uncertain fate? She could no longer tell.

"I'll see about bringing you some reading material," she said. "It'll be at least a few days before a verdict is reached. The least we can do in the meantime is bring you up to speed on everything that's happened."

Grit cast a glance at the guards as they brushed against his shoulders. "Now there's somethin' to look forward to."

He paused, and for a second his smile slipped. Once again Nell saw that deep sadness in his eyes, and she felt her heart catch.

"You be sure to look after yourself, now."

"I will," Nell said. "We'll talk again, Grit. I promise."

She nodded to the guards, and Grit was led away. She watched him walk down the length of the hall until he was lost to sight. It was all so surreal. And it was cruel to be reunited with him after all this time, but to still feel as though all she could do was say goodbye. Grit had let down more of his guard today than he ever had before, and yet in some ways the distance between them was greater than ever. He had come home, and as a result, the consequences of all they had chosen might see them separated again. Perhaps for good this time.

Nell put a hand to her brow. Whatever happened, whatever became of Grit, or Rachel, she had to keep going. There was too much work to be done. All she could do was change what was within her power to change. As for the rest? There was nothing left but to try and find some acceptance, and let it go. After all, Nell knew that for the most part, the fates of perhaps the two people she cared about most were simply beyond her control.