And then I am Red, seeing from his point of view, standing at the edge of the foothills ringing behind Newage. He’s staring without a word at the smoke still billowing from the city. Beside him are glimpses of a few other Strikers—maybe a dozen of them, their uniforms dirty and charred—settling in the darkness without fires to keep them warm or heat their food. They gnaw instead on handfuls of roots from the forest and what little provisions some of them had managed to take from the city.

Are these the only soldiers that escaped?

Beside Red comes a familiar voice. My heart surges as Red turns to look at Adena beside him, who nods down at the ramparts of Newage’s steel walls. She’s hunched over a Karensan gun, taking it apart bit by bit.

Even the sight of Adena’s slouched figure sitting on the ground makes my throat constrict. Tears well behind my closed eyes. I’ve thought about her so often since my captivity, had ached for her quick smile and her homemade remedies and thoughtful inventions. I miss her even more than I thought I did.

“—not nearly enough of us to mount even the semblance of a rebellion,” Adena says. “But we have to free those prisoners. We need more than just this small crew.”

“How much time can they really buy for us against the Federation?” Tomm says.

Tomm had hated us not long ago, back when the Maran warfront still held. Now here he is, sitting side by side with Adena. All I can feel is gratitude at the sight of his blue coat. I suppose desperate circumstances can unite anyone.

“A month? That’d give us enough to think of a way to push back, maybe even force them out of Newage,” Adena argues. “We can’t defeat the entire Federation. We only want them to think Mara isn’t worth the trouble.”

“You don’t understand,” Red responds. “What we saw at the train yard changes things. None of us knew that the Premier would be on that train tomorrow. That means he will be out at the yard in the morning, when we are supposed to make our move, and Talin will be the one protecting him. She is a true Skyhunter, Adena, one loyal to the Premier.” His voice quiets. “I am no match for her. None of us are.”

She straightens and shakes her head at him. “Waiting isn’t a luxury we can afford. You said that yourself.”

If they had been near the train yards, then they are definitely close. No wonder I felt Red’s pull today. And he had seen me there. He knows what I’ve become.

Then I notice Red is wearing my armguard from the last battle we’d fought and lost. Except this is impossible, because I’d never taken them off. I blink and look at Adena, whose hair also seems too long given the time that has passed.

This is, after all, still a dream. I don’t even know how much of what I’m seeing is real and how much is just a fantasy. Maybe only fragments are real. Maybe I can’t tell what is and isn’t. There were times, back during my transformation, when the agony of steel instruments working against my back and on my limbs and in my eyes had sent me into shock, had filled my head with hallucinations. Maybe I am still confused.