"So let me get this straight." Wolfen's voice cut through the quiet of the ranger station, his golden eyes scanning each face in turn. "After Lily left and I got trapped, you guys spent eleven months looking for her and a way to bring me back. You made a small alliance with the Architects—no fighting, and you'd help them fight the Monster Queen, who you didn't know was Lily until later. Then you decided to lie that Eva was going insane to make Lily feel guilty. Lena and Zoey went looking for Superior-1 for help, who somehow survived his execution. And Lily now has an army of monsters, has killed over twelve thousand people, runs an information network, and you're planning to get her back from the Architects by force if they find her first."
He paused. "Is that everything?"
"Pretty much, yeah." Derek shrugged, as if this was all perfectly normal.
Wolfen looked at them. All of them. For a long, terrible moment, his expression was utterly unreadable.
Then he spoke.
"You dumb idiots."
He turned to Maya first, his gaze dropping to her cropped hair. "First of all—you got kicked around cleaner than your haircut. I have to sand—"
Maya's fist connected with his face before he could finish.
Wolfen stumbled back, hand going to his jaw, but he was laughing—actually laughing—and so was Leo, who had somehow ended up on the floor, rolling, tears streaming down his face. He stopped when Maya looked at him, but the grin didn't leave his face.
"Got any better ideas?" Eva's voice cut through the chaos. She hadn't moved from her chair, but her eyes were fixed on Wolfen with an intensity that held something almost like hope. "Because I can't think anymore. I can't deal with this anymore."
Wolfen straightened, rubbing his jaw. When he looked at her, his expression softened—just slightly, just enough.
"Don't worry, Evie." His voice was quiet, certain. "I'm back. I got this."
Evie.
Eva's eyes widened for just a fraction of a second. She looked away quickly, but something in her chest had shifted. She liked that. She really liked that.
Wolfen turned to Dave, still sitting in his corner, still wearing his grey mask. "And what's your story?"
Dave's modulated voice was calm. "I was put on trial for betrayal. And of course, they couldn't kill me." A pause. "They're too stupid."
Wolfen nodded, accepting this without question. "Okay then. That's fine too."
---
Night fell over the ranger station.
Inside, the others talked in low voices, the warmth of reunion slowly replacing the cold of separation. But Eva had slipped outside, sitting on the worn wooden porch, her short hair stirring in the night breeze. The stars were out—thousands of them, indifferent to the chaos below.
Footsteps creaked on the porch. Dave sat down beside her, his grey mask catching the starlight.
They sat in silence for a long moment.
"Why did you help us?" Eva asked quietly.
Dave was still for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was softer than she'd ever heard it—less modulated, more human.
"There are a lot of things you don't know, kiddo."
Eva looked at him—at the mask, at the man behind it. "Mind telling me some? Sir David?"
A sound that might have been a chuckle. "Do you remember some of Absolute 2's memories?"
Eva nodded slowly. "Some of them. And I know I'm her clone."
Dave turned toward her—not enough to see his expression, but enough to feel his attention. "I know. Before the Cleansing—before everything fell apart—I was her teacher."
Eva's breath caught.
Her teacher. Absolute 2's teacher.
"Her life was brutal," Dave continued, his voice carrying the weight of decades. "Her father expected perfection in everything. Every test, every score, every single thing she did—it was never enough. And when it wasn't enough..." He paused. "He would hit her. Abuse her. In ways that left marks you couldn't see."
Eva's hands tightened on the porch edge.
"She and Lily were both my students," Dave said. "I saw what was happening. The bruises she tried to hide. The way Lily would flinch when anyone raised their voice. So I went to their house. I warned him personally—if he ever touched them again, I would make sure he never touched anything again."
"And?"
"And he was wealthy. Powerful. The next week, they were gone. Moved to another city, another school, another life. I couldn't find them." His voice dropped. "I couldn't find them."
The silence stretched.
"I really liked them both," Dave said quietly. "They reminded me of my daughter."
Eva looked at him. "Your daughter?"
"She died when she was eleven. Cancer." The words were simple, but they carried everything. "I couldn't save her either."
Eva stared at the stars, processing this. A Superior Architect, sitting beside her, sharing the grief of a dead child. The world had become very strange.
"But why help me?" she asked. "I'm just a clone."
Dave turned to face her fully. Even through the mask, his gaze was intense.
"You and Absolute 2 Eva are the same person. The same soul, split by circumstance. And in my eyes..." He paused. "In my eyes, you're both like my daughters. And Lily—" His voice hardened with resolve. "I don't care what she's done. I don't care how many people she's killed. I will protect her. Both of you. That's not a choice. It's just... what's left of me."
Eva was quiet for a long moment.
Then, softly: "Thanks, Dave."
He nodded once. They sat together under the stars, two people who had lost everything, finding something in each other that neither had expected.
---
Inside, the conversation had taken a different turn.
"—so what were you two doing while everyone was gone?" Lena's voice carried a teasing edge as she looked at Jordan.
Jordan's expression didn't change, but something in his posture shifted—the barest hint of discomfort.
Lena's smile widened. "Come on. You can tell us."
Leo leaned forward, suddenly interested. "Yeah, Jordan. What were you doing?"
Jordan was silent for a moment. Then, reluctantly: "Eva would sit in one place and stare at a spot. For hours. Then she'd get up, walk to another spot, and stare at that one. Then back to the first spot. Repeat."
The room went quiet.
"That's..." Derek started.
"Yeah." Jordan's voice was flat, but something in it held a weight that made everyone listen. "That's what she did. For eleven years. While we waited. While we planned. While we hoped."
Zoey's scarred face softened. "She was waiting for him."
"Waiting for something," Jordan corrected quietly. "She didn't know if he was coming back. None of us did. But she couldn't stop. Couldn't move on. Couldn't do anything except sit and stare at the spaces where things used to be."
Maya looked toward the door, where Eva sat outside with Dave. "She's stronger than she knows."
"She's stronger than any of us know," Jordan said. "But that doesn't mean she doesn't break. It just means she breaks in ways that are harder to see."
The room fell silent again, each person lost in their own thoughts. Outside, the stars wheeled overhead. Inside, a family waited for dawn.
And somewhere in the darkness, the Monster Queen rode her tiger, surrounded by nightmares, moving toward a future none of them could predict.