Matt shrugged. “I needed to hide my identity.” A slight grin touched his lips, nothing humorous about it. “But I guess messing with you was a secondary motive.”

“How did you know?”

“You’re also not the only one who can read a file, Kenzie.” He tossed me a disdainful glare, one I wouldn’t have thought the old Matt capable of. “And your fanfiction sucks, by the way.”

Blood rushed to my cheeks, and I struggled for words, but before I found them, Reed literally shouted. “Your powers!” he exploded, answering Matt’s earlier wonderings. “It has to be.” We all turned to him, and he waved his hands excitedly. “Our powers have changed. I can suddenly heal myself, and Kenzie can do whatever the hell she’s doing, and Mia can—” But Mia stomped on his foot hard enough to make him swear and hop up and down, glaring at her.

“Mutated powers?” Matt arched an eyebrow. “Don’t quite see how that’s possible, or what coming back from the dead has to do with my abilities. But you might be right, because somehow, I woke up. I dragged myself to the airlock just in time to see you escape in the shuttle, taking the aliens with you. Not to mention Tyler’s dead body. Did you accidentally kill him, too?”

Cage moved to take my hand, but I pulled away. He had barely managed a syllable in my defense this whole time. Maybe for once he was merely at a loss for words. Or maybe he wasn’t used to getting caught in his lies. All of my earlier doubts about him surged to life, the pain and frustration and betrayal simmering just below the surface. I closed my eyes. “That was the aliens,” I said to Matt. I remembered Matt and Tyler had been friends, cellmates. Another reason for him to hate me.

“That’s what you said about me,” he pointed out, eyes narrow. “Right before you left me to die. It’s a good thing I remembered something Kenzie told me about an escape pod.”

My eyebrows shot up so far, I saw my own hairline. “That’s why Sanctuary blew up. You activated the self-destruct and took the capsule.”

“And arrived on Earth to find a not-so-friendly squad of Omnistellar soldiers waiting for me. They were very interested in my story, though. Interested enough to cut me a deal. Work for them, sign on as a bounty hunter, and they’d clear my criminal record, provide for my family, and give me a chance to take out the people who killed me in the first place.” A sneer touched his face. “How could I refuse? It was a good thing I already had some training. All that remained was an expedited surgical process. A very painful process, but at least it was fast. And look at me now: an honest-to-God Omnistellar metal soldier.”

Mia scowled, sagging against the wall. “How fast? You’ve been gone less than a month, Matt.”