"Except you're working with megalomaniacs who want to conquer the galaxy and massacre everyone in their way. Oh—and you killed our friends," Raider finished with a dark edge in his voice.
"Just like you've killed several of my brothers."
"Is Lothos the one who turned Elise?" Kira asked.
"No, that's someone else." Aeron's smile was mocking. "Someone on your side of the fence."
"What does that mean?" Raider asked with a glare.
"It means she's not responsible for Rothchild," Kira answered.
Raider’s glance held horror. "Did you ever think she was?"
"I considered it."
Just as he had. Whether subconsciously or not.
"As for Luatha's star maps—Odin is processing them and comparing them to what I've uncovered," Kira continued. "The data is massive. It's taking too long."
"That's why you need me," Aeron guessed.
Kira lifted her chin in acknowledgment.
"Why should I help you?" Aeron asked.
There was a tight feeling in her chest that made it hard to breathe. A band wrapping around her forehead as a dull headache started.
Kira passed it off as nerves and focused on Aeron. "Don't you want freedom?"
"What good is freedom if everyone I care about dies?" Aeron challenged.
Finn frowned; his gaze thoughtful as it shifted to rest on Kira.
Her gaze dropped to the table as she contemplated the pattern of the wood grain.
"Come on, Phoenix. You know what I want," Aeron hissed.
Yes, she did. The question was whether she was willing to give it to him.
"Alright, you win," Kira said, feeling like she'd been hurtling toward this outcome for decades. Every challenge she'd faced. Liberating herself and Jin from the camp. Raiding camps just like it to rescue the children she found there. All so she could arrive at this moment in time. "I'll free your young. All of them."
"Swear it. Swear it on your Mea'Ave," Aeron urged.
"Don't," Raider warned.
Kira shook her head at him. "You know I have to."
If this was the only way to save Elise, Elena, and Jin, she'd do it. She wouldn't think twice.
Even if they weren't in the mix, Kira wasn't sure she could have walked away. They were children. Innocent. The same way Jin and the rest had once been.
It was telling that Graydon made no move to stop her as Kira rose. Confirmation that she was in the right.
"I, Kira Forrest, so named Layana by my parents, daughter of House Roake and the Phoenix of the Consortium, do hereby swear on the Mea'Ave to do everything in my power to remove your young from the influence of the Tsavitee's masters. I won't stop until I'm dead—or they are."
An invisible force wrapped around Kira, squeezing once before it was gone. The universe seemed to blink, resuming a second later as if nothing had happened.
Except Kira and Aeron knew that it had. Her vow was witnessed and accepted. Whatever came next, she was committed to this course.
