"Why didn't you say something to us?" Jace asked.
Kira stirred. "By the time I put everything together and had proof, it was too late. The war was long over."
"You couldn't have said something before?" Jace asked.
"Kira was hurt during the Falling," Jin said, referencing one of the biggest battles of the war, the one that had turned the tide. "She was in a coma for the last three years of the war. She only woke up about seven years ago. That’s when all this came out."
Both men stared at her in shock. This, more than anything else had surprised them.
Kira fidgeted in the bed, trying to avoid their eyes. Their pity cut deeper than any wound, to a place she'd done her best to spackle over and call healed.
"A coma?" Jace's voice was soft.
She jerked her shoulders up in assent.
"Why didn't any of us know?" he asked.
"Himoto didn't want the Tsavitee learning the ignition weapon and the Phoenix were the same thing," Kira said softly. "When I woke up, the worlds had moved on."
Her friends had also moved on. Each one happy or at least thriving, since her disappearance.
By then, Kira's legacy as a hero had faded, tarnished by the misinformation and her disappearance.
Her friends were convinced she was a coward for abandoning them on the cusp of victory. Many of her former peers noted her absence in the past three years of the war and blamed her for not being there.
"It's fine. Being a salvager suits me. No politics to dance around." Her smile was strained.
Himoto had been the one who made that possible. He'd gotten her a bonus for her contributions to the war effort. It'd been enough to buy her home and business.
Jace didn't look particularly comforted by her words. He looked shocked, his expression blank as he stared into the distance.
Raider's expression was more reserved, his thoughts harder to guess.
To be honest, she hadn't thought either of them felt enough anymore to care. It was all water under the bridge at this point. They'd all survived. It was enough.
"He let us think you'd betrayed us," Jace said, emotion throbbing in his voice. His eyes were glassy as he shook his head, walking out of the room without another word, his expression lost and confused.
Raider remained behind.
"You should go with him. See if you can find a place in the Citadel to lay low," Kira told him. "If the Tsavitee are here, we need to be prepared."
Before he could respond, there was the sound of boots in the hallway.
"I have a feeling it’s too late for that," Raider said, turning to face the door.
Green armored warriors filled the room, led by Roderick. A dark-haired woman in a long dress that clung to her upper body before falling in a graceful drape to the floor kept pace with them, her expression furious.
As was the case with all Tuann, her face was beautiful, something belonging on a painting rather than out in the world. The braids in her hair pulled her brown hair from her face, exposing sharply pointed ears.
"You're coming with us," Roderick informed Raider without delay.
Raider cocked an eyebrow but didn't move. "Am I, now?"
Roderick didn't look amused by Raider's question, gesturing sharply to his men.
"What are you doing?" Kira asked, as Roderick's men surrounded Raider.
"He and the rest of the humans are being taken into custody," Roderick said in a crisp voice.
