About 2 am, Jason gave up trying to find sleep. The balcony that belonged to his room gave view to the inside of the Hotel complex and the pool below. The night was warm and quiet as the noise of the city was muted. He could only guess by the distant flickering lights that the visitors of the comic convention that the party was still going on.

"You are restless."

Jason turned around. Neri put on her dressing gown and stepped next to him on the balcony.

"Did I wake you?"

Neri shook her head. "I could not sleep either."

"I guess, you're also thinking about the Pyramid."

Shalamorn along with Diane and the Councilors had still been still in a meeting with the senators when the O.R.C.A. gang finished writing their proposal. Froggy was agitated and enthusiastic, kept going on about the team he would need, all the experts on Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Mechanics.

"Maybe, I was wrong to be afraid. Brett was right." She leaned against the balustrade. "I was never afraid of using the synchronium. And the Pyramid always responded to my wishes. Perhaps, I was afraid of … who I am. As long as it was just us – Brett, Cass, Mother, … My world was small. The world I had to save was small. Now, my choices affect the people of Earth and the people of the Ocean Planet."

"You never backed away from responsibility." Jason shifted to lean sideways against the balustrade, facing her.

"Yes, because I was still Neri," she explained while looking up at him. "Now, I am Princess Neri. And I do not know, if I can ever be just Neri again. My life belongs to my people. It is the way."

Jason looked up at the stars, suddenly feeling nervous when he remembered a conversation with Brett long time ago. "Malakat changed your people but maybe not just for the worst," he finally said. "The more I heard about your people," he went on when Neri just looked at him questionably with her forehead in wrinkles, "naïve, thrusting … they sounded to me like they were looking up at their leaders like children to their parents. Malakat set some things in motion that sort of forced them to grow up. You told me yourself: you began to see the errors in your parent's ways."

Neri looked down to the pool again and Jason gave her a moment to process this thought.

"My mother made choices which were not for the best for all of my people," she finally replied. "That is why, they are angry. They chose Malakat because they thought he would do right by them."

"Shalamorn said she wants to give them a voice. Choosing their leader might be part of that. I mean," he shifted again, "not right now. I think, in all this chaos it's a good thing they know who to look at for leadership. But in the future. When everything's done."

"Yes," Neri agreed and watched him thoughtfully when he didn't respond for a while. "There is more?"

Jason took a deep breath. "It's selfish," he admitted, "and I didn't know how to talk to you about it."

Neri cocked her head, waiting.

"I had a conversation with Brett a while ago," he started. "Just a few days after your coronation. He felt, that Mera may have been overlooked. After living on the Oceanplanet for quite some time, and speaking the language fluently …"

"And she has the Gift, as well," Neri finished.

"Mera has everything you have." Jason shifted, leaned his back against the balustrade and crossed his arms. "She is kind, dutiful, determined. Only, that she was born second."

"My people love her," Neri remembered and smiled. "I could feel it." The smile disappeared. She reached for his hand and Jason opened his arms to meet her.

"I cannot abandon my people, Jason."

He took both her hands into his. "I know. I can't either. As I said, it is selfish of me to wish for a life where it's just the both of us."

Neri's face broke into a wide smile. "Then I am selfish, too."

Jason laughed and pulled her into his arms. For a while, they just held each other. Jason buried his face in her hair and enjoyed to feel her so close.

"What do you say, Princess Neri?" he murmured after a while. "How about a quick dive in the pool?"