By the time I got back to the Marsupial, I was already exhausted, and I hadn’t even directly participated in the fighting. I just dealt with the various entitled assholes around the city, which was worse.

  “How’d everything go?” Hel asked, as soon as I trudged onto the bridge.

  I stared at her for a long moment; I’d honestly forgotten she was here.

  “Alive, for now,” I mumbled. “I managed to convince him to entrust the remaining council members to the Family’s custody. Although, I’m sure you already knew about that. I did punch him before I left, although his stupid hardlight shield prevented most of the damage.”

  “You punched him…”

  “He’s lucky that’s all I did,” I growled. “If you hadn’t injected me with that serum earlier, I probably would have sicked Bob on him or something.”

  Slowly, I turned towards Hel. “By the way… I haven’t forgotten you injected me with that fucking syringe. I might have been a little irate at the time, but that doesn’t give you the right to take matters into your own hands.”

  “You were more than a little irate. You were fucking losing it,” Hel replied.

  “It doesn’t matter!” I spat. “You should have talked to me first, tried to talk me down, or at least asked my permission, but you didn’t. Instead you showed me a complete lack of respect and stabbed me in the back.”

  The other woman winced. “I was concerned if I didn’t, you might have gone and done something you’d regret later.”

  “Well, that wasn’t your decision to make! It was mine. I’m a big girl, and I can live with the consequences of my own fucking actions,” I snapped. “Did you know that I have a minor phobia with drugs? I’ve seen so many undercity kids OD that I won’t even touch samurai-grade pharmaceuticals. What you did was a complete betrayal.”

  “I’m sorry,” Hel said quietly. “I didn’t think it would be such a big deal.”

  “And that’s the problem you didn’t think! With this one move you’ve lost pretty much all the trust and respect I had for you. Fuck! I thought you’d know not to fuck with other samurai behind their back!” I stepped back, breathing hard after all my yelling. I really wanted to hit her, just like I did Mirage. The only thing that stopped me was the knowledge that she probably didn’t mean to harm me. Not that that made it any better. In fact, it kind of made it worse.

  “I’d appreciate it if you’d stay away from me, and my family for a while. I can probably handle dealing with you in professional matters but personally? I can’t stand to look at you right now.”

  “Really?” Hel asked quietly.

  “Yes, fucking really! With this one move you’ve almost completely lost all my trust and respect. Time will tell if you’ll be able to earn it back, but for now, get off my ship!” I growled.

  She stepped back, a look of shame and disappointment on her face. “I’m sorry you feel that way. It wasn’t my intent to harm our relationship like this, but I can see now that I crossed some sort of line. With your permission, can I take a Kodiak back to the Family headquarters, then contact Sharron or the others when we need to make arrangements. Is that acceptable?”

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  “Fine,” I huffed.

  “I’ll see you later then,” Hel said politely, before slowly walking away. She did turn back to look at me once, but she didn’t stop, and soon she was gone.

  “What a fucked-up day,” I mumbled, sinking into a nearby chair. I felt even more exhausted now, I just wanted to go home and sink deep into my bed.

  “Bandit, please plot a course back to the Shelter. I’m too tired to deal with it,” I called to the fox.

  “You got it, boss!” he replied, before running to the other side of the bridge.

  Despite its size and awkward shape, the Marsupial was quite swift. It didn’t take us long to get to the one undercity access point the ship would fit through, then head back to the shelter. When the gigantic vehicle finally parked, I needed to take one of the docked Kodiaks back down to the ground. Even if it was floating at minimum safe altitude, I’d be hesitant to jump blindly from the ship into the chaotic floor of the garage below.

  Once we touched down and my bears scattered, I headed back to the residence.

  As soon as we stepped inside, the four women around the table looked at me.

  “What?” I asked blankly.

  “Evelyn, are you okay? You look like shit. Are you okay?” Jane asked as she rose from the table. She paused for a moment when no one followed me in. “Where’s Hel?”

  “We’re not on speaking terms after that stunt she pulled earlier,” I grumbled. When Jane raised an eyebrow, I elaborated. “She injected me with a sedative, without my permission, so I wouldn’t kill Mirage. Not that I would have anyways. I would have left him mildly maimed, at worst.”

  ”She did? No wonder you kicked her out,” Jane said quietly. She walked over and patted me on the head. “Want to talk about it?”

  “Naw… I got all my frustrations out by yelling. I’m just tired now.”

  “What about the replacement government? Without Hel, it’ll be a lot more difficult, there could be anarchy in the streets if we take too long,” Nora pointed out.

  “Anarchy!” Eddie cried happily as he jumped up on the couch.

  A moment later, Issi popped up beside him, mimicking his pose. “Anarchy!”

  “There’ll be no anarchy!” I declared. “Just because I don’t want to see her doesn’t mean that you guys can’t work with her. We’ll just have to split up the duties so the two of us never have to meet.”

  Jane just shook her head. “I hope you can figure it out. The girls here were filling me in on what happened. I wouldn’t have a clue where to start if I had to rebuild the government or run a city.”

  “That’s why we consulted an expert; at least the closest thing there is to overthrowing the government in this city, Stalking Shadow.”

  “I’m glad you have a plan,” Jane replied quietly. “Just make sure you take this seriously. I know you, and you’ll never forgive yourself if you cause more damage than good in the long term. Make sure you make the right choice.”

  “I promise,” I replied, nodding seriously.

  “Good. Come on kids, I’ll make you snacks before you go do homework.”

  “But I want to stay and help Evie, Squidy, Nora, and Angie with what they’re doing,” Issi pouted. “Whatchu doing anyways?”

  “Putting together a comprehensive plan to implement an interim government, including the rules required to make sure power is transferred smoothly to the permanent government when it’s in place,” Angeline told the little girl seriously.

  Issi stared at us all for a couple more seconds before hopping off the couch and running into the kitchen. “Snack time!”

  “That’s what I thought,” Angeline laughed as she turned back towards the table. “She’s cute. Reminds me of my daughter.”

  “You have a kid?” I blurted out. “Since when?”

  “Since seven years ago,” Angeline replied cheekily. “I don’t talk about it that much, because when I do, people try to take advantage. Either find and influence her, or get leverage on me. I know I should have mentioned it before, since I consider you all my friends, but I’ve grown so accustomed to keeping my private life private for security purposes that it never came up.

  “You should bring her over the next time you come. She can play with Issi,” I said, taking a seat at the table. “She’d love that.”

  “Maybe I will,” Angeline agreed, with a smile.

  “So where are we on the government plans?” I asked. “Made any progress?”

  “Plenty, although I’ll admit things went smoother when Stalking was helping,” Sharron explained.

  “When she left earlier to talk to Mirage, she said she was going to be busy this evening but available again tomorrow.”

  “Speaking of which,” Nora said, turning to look at me, “how did your discussion go? I assume it went smoothly since the city is still intact.”

  “He was extremely cooperative and released the remaining council members to the Family’s custody without any issue. In the end, I only punched him twice,” I said proudly.

  Nora looked at me in shock while Angeline looked amused. Sharron just scoffed, “Honestly? I expected more.”

  “He got off lightly,” Angeline agreed. “Now, let's send Evelyn a copy of our plans. She’s got a lot to get caught up on.”

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