From the direction of the shipping yard, Finn and Raider made their way slowly towards them.
Neither man had escaped the battle unscathed.
A burn mark on Raider’s shoulder still oozed blood, and he had a giant bruise on one side of his face. Half of his pant leg had been ripped away.
Kira found it wrapped around Finn's thigh, staunching the blood from his wound.
Her oshota had a noticeable limp as he walked toward her, his face a mask of relief.
"What happened to you two?" Jin asked.
Finn stopped and glared at Jin unhappily. "Someone got themselves kidnapped and the rest of us had to go rescue them."
"Who?" Jin asked.
"You," he growled.
While the two were arguing, Raider’s gaze landed on Elise’s body. Shock and grief rendered him immobile.
In the next moment, he collapsed by the fake Elise’s side.
Kira tapped Graydon's shoulder. "Down."
He gave her a sidelong look. "If you fall, I won't be happy."
"I'll keep that in mind," she told him.
And then she'd promptly forget it, she added silently.
Grudgingly, Graydon set her on her feet.
Kira wobbled but caught herself.
She moved to Raider’s side where he knelt by Elise, touching his shoulder gently. They jerked as he tried to swallow down his sobs.
Kira crouched beside him. “Raider, it’s not her. It’s not Elise.”
He met her eyes, his face ravaged by loss and grief. As far as Kira knew, Elise had been the only one Raider had ever loved. Dashed hope was almost worse than having no hope at all.
“What are you saying?” he asked.
Conscious of the number of people around them—the emperor in particular—Kira knew she had to phrase this carefully. For now.
“Think about it—why wouldn’t she care that Elena was on that planet?” Kira asked.
She saw the struggle in Raider as his desire for this not to be Elise warred with the body before him.
“She might not have known,” he said.
“She used House Remie to ambush us. She had to have some dealings with them. Wouldn’t they have told her about the preteen with me? They saw Elena with me on multiple occasions. How could she not have known?” Seeing he was starting to think again, Kira inched closer. “Elena is the answer to years of research. Why would they risk destroying that?”
The answer was they wouldn’t.
If the Tsavitee and their masters had any inkling of who Elena was related to, they would have sacrificed even Kira and Jin to obtain her.
Kira leaned closer, dropping her voice so only he could hear. “She didn’t know the third code.”
Raw emotion stared at Kira through Raider’s eyes.
