Runan paced the slight stretch of flat earth in their hiding nook among the fragrant pines. While Tunia monitored the royals' positions, Ju'rah, back in his actual body, looked over her shoulder, making her blush and tense with the attention. Soft footsteps approached, and Solara embraced Runan.
"You'll wear a hole in the ground and alert them we're here," she said.
"What if Tunia's right and Ita's is gone for good?"
"We can't assume she is. You survived this once. I'll be with you if the worst happens again."
Pinecones crunched as Tunia stood. "They're coming through the tunnel. We have a minute or two."
Ju'rah grabbed a rifle and passed another to Runan. "I hope you're still a good shot. We'll wound everyone but the queen then lure her away from the pack." Ju'rah held out pairs of handcuffs the Uppers had used on Runan. "We'll use these to control the others. Once they click shut, there's an activation key to keep them electrified and ready to shock when there are sudden movements." Ju'rah tossed a nylon bag of cuffs to Runan.
"Do you think Ita's still in there?" Runan asked.
"If she is, seeing you, Solara and I should help coax her to the front of the queen's mind."
"Positions," Tunia called.
Runan kneeled behind a boulder and loaded his rifle. He aimed it down at the landing point, near the almost camouflaged tunnel entrance. After the ground rumbled like a disgruntled beast, a diagonal line split through the rock. A dark hole spat out a pod slightly larger than the one Runan and the others had commandeered.
Tunia signalled to wait as she played on her holo-screen. After the pod's engines stopped, the top of the vehicle opened, exposing most of its passengers. The driver jabbed at buttons to close it, but his cursing meant Tunia was winning. The tunnel door closed behind them, and no one answered their efforts to call for help on the radios.
In the first two rows, passengers in royal guard uniforms readied their weapons while the last two held riders huddled together, wearing the bright colours of royals. Two women were younger, one as old as Messita and the other in her early teens. A younger boy peeked around the forest until a red hand pulled him into the shadows.
"It's her," Tunia mouthed.
Runan nodded and inhaled to steady his aim. He and Ju'rah would take the first shots once Tunia confirmed everything was okay. The rest would follow with non-lethal rounds. They needed these people alive if they wanted public sympathy, but they also couldn't have anyone escape and warn others.
As the passengers refused to move, Ju'rah picked up a medium rock and threw it to the edge of the bush where none of their allies were hiding. It cracked and skipped across the hard ground. The employees in the pod scoured the area without leaving their seats. All four had blast coil weapons pointed in different directions. Runan's muscles ached in memory of what happened at the farmhouse.
The driver huffed. "We've been cut-off from outside communication."
"Do you think Lowers did this?" a guard in the second row asked.
Two men laughed. "It's one of our people, maybe a sympathizer or a disgruntled former employee."
"Stop theorizing and go!" the queen's voice boomed. "Open the tunnel."
"We can't."
"Pry or blast it."
"With all due respect your highness, if it were that easy to breach the royal residence, your life would be in significant danger."
"Our lives are in significant danger." A red hand stroked the curious boy's brown hair and pulled him out of view. "You must do something."
Two men stepped out of the pod, blast guns drawn. One faced Ju'rah and Runan, but he hadn't located them yet. After nodding to his friend, Runan and Ju'rah aimed like they did when they hunted as kids. Runan targeted the man on the left while Ju'rah took the right. The shots echoed within seconds of each other, pinging as they tore through the metal coils. Sparks shot out, and the men dropped their weapons. The passengers screamed and covered themselves with their arms. As his man stilled, Runan lined up another shot for his calf. A loud cry and a groan from the man indicated he hit his mark.
"Blood! There's blood!" the boy cried out, leaning toward the servant. The queen pulled him out away.
"Go protect us!" she harped at the other two guards in their seats.
They fired electric shocks in Runan and Ju'rah's direction before disembarking from the vehicle. The blasts burned through the trees and singed the pine needles on the ground. Shots banged from the East where another Lower crew was hiding. The guards fired at random until the guns wouldn't respond to trigger pulls.
Smoke rose from the hit trees, thickening the air and burning as it entered the lungs. Runan covered his mouth and nose with his shirt before he coughed and revealed his position. More gunshots reverberated from their allies. Once the third and fourth guards were clutching wounds on the ground, Runan and Ju'rah scaled the mountainside to the pod, rifles over their shoulders.
"Lowers," the oldest daughter said through gritted teeth.
"Stay where you are and our people won't shoot." Runan pulled handcuffs out of his bag to place on two of the wounded guards while Ju'rah did the same. One tried to kick Runan's legs from under him, and Runan backed away, pointing the gun at the man's uninjured leg. "Your recovery can be simple or painful."
As the attacker lunged forward, he grimaced. Runan shot him again. Ignoring the screams, Runan grabbed the guard's arms to pull them behind his back.
"You will not hurt the queen!" The man advanced inches but cringed as his legs moved.
"We don't want to hurt her, only recover something or someone of ours she possesses," Runan said.
The daughter turned to the mother. "What is she talking about?"
"Nothing. Lowers are delusional and misinformed."
He approached the vehicle with measured steps. "Have your headaches not worsened, voices not swarmed your mind, and your choices and behaviour not contradicted your beliefs?"
The daughter shuddered. "How does he know this?"
"There is a Lower living in your mother's head," he said.
The queen emerged from the shadows, fixing a pointed stare at Runan. "Your sister is dead like you two and whoever else is out there will be when my more competent guards find you."
"I have help to cover our tracks. When you mistreat your people, it isn't hard to turn them against you."
"Uppers would never align with Lowers," the daughter spat.
Runan looked to the forest behind him and raised an eyebrow. Rocks crunched under boots and two Uppers stepped out, most of their skin covered by guard uniforms but scar-marred faces exposed.
"I will execute you and your families for your betrayals," the queen seethed.
"You don't win allies with threats. Your people executed my entire family in the service of this place. First the poisoning of my parents, next the sale of my sister's life so we could have a home and eat. Ita, if you're in there anywhere, come forward so we can move you to a more hospitable place."
"Mother, if they can rid you of—"
The queen's lip curled. "The pest is dead."
Runan nodded to Ju'rah who had finished with the guards and strode over. The oldest daughter froze as he neared, following his every move.
"Ita, I know you're there. Deep down, maybe silenced for what feels like forever, but we won't give up on you," Runan said.
A hidden ally guard had gotten close enough to swing a tranquilizer dart at the queen's arm as she watched Runan.
When she cried out and swung to hit the attacker, Ju'rah and Runan each grabbed a daughter and wrestled them into handcuffs. The younger boy jumped from the vehicle and pursued the guard who'd stabbed his mother. For a bow-legged child, he moved with agility and determination, lunging with his fists and baring his teeth.
The boy's pain caused by the attack on his mother was all too familiar. "She'll survive," Runan called out. "Let us make her better, and we'll return her to you. The people of Caldozza will decide her fate, not us."
The pause the boy took was enough for their guard to cuff him and place him in the vehicle with his sisters. Runan and Ju'rah carried the queen to one of their pods to distance themselves from the tunnels. Four fighters stayed behind while Solara and Tunia followed them in the second pod.
After five minutes of flying, Ju'rah navigated the pod toward a rocky area with a cave large enough to accommodate it. The bottom of the vehicle scraped against the rocks as Ju'rah guided it down, making the queen jerk and fall to the empty seat. The pod cover popped open, screeching against the cave's lower ceiling. Ju'rah shuffled out and placed his hands under the woman's armpits to lift her. Runan helped steer her legs out of the vehicle. It was like carrying frail, starved people to their families for burial. Without her attitude and power, she was almost identical, just more disfigured.
Ju'rah led them to a level section of the cave, and they lay down the body. As footsteps echoed on the rocky walls, Solara announced her arrival. Behind her, Tunia clutched a sling bag at her side and dug through it with shaking hands.
"It's in here somewhere." She extracted papers, material, wires and a black case with a silver zipper. Opening it up, she pulled out a glass vial and a needle. She loaded the needle with orange liquid and flicked at it a couple of times.
"Ju'rah and Runan, when we wake her up, her brain will reboot. Both minds will fight for dominance. If she's in there and strong enough, recognizing your faces and voices should bring her to the surface. Once we do that, Ju'rah, talk her through the jump process in case she's shaken up."
"Where is she jumping?" Ju'rah asked.
The cave quieted. Runan's mouth grew dry, and he scratched at his neck. His stomach turned as he looked at the queen. Messita could be with the queen and wouldn't win the long-term fight. If he welcomed her into his mind, would he lose his identity and his future with Solara? A fiery streak of shame passed through him, overwhelming like a sweltering summer storm. He hadn't gone this far to leave his sister's soul without a home. They'd make it work.
"I'll do it," he said.
Tunia shook her head. "You're not chipped and you don't understand the technology. It should be Ju'rah... or me."
"It should be me," Ju'rah said.
"Only until we find her a more suitable body, not forever. If you and Messita are both relaxed about taking control, you should experience fewer side-effects than the queen suffered."
Ju'rah dug through his bag until he found the metal star pendant he'd had in Solara's office. His chest rose and fell with slowing exhalations. "I'm ready."
Runan nodded to Tunia, who approached the queen with her needle. Solara stood nearby armed with a stun gun. Tunia counted down from five, injecting the queen's arm. The orange liquid vanished.
A minute passed of deep breathing, shifting feet, and racing hearts. Runan's eyes played tricks on him until a gasp confirmed the queen's eye movement wasn't his hallucination. Seconds trickled by like days before she gained more awareness. This was worse than driving to his crops after a hail storm or waiting for Messita to return safely from her creator adventures.
"Ita, sweetheart, it's Ju'rah. I've missed you so much."
The queen blinked a few times and stumbled forward. "Ju-rah" the syllables came out slow and awkward, but they were softer than the queen's usual tone and accompanied by a smile. Runan's heart raced, and he dug his feet into the rocky ground to prevent them from running to her.
Ju'rah stepped closer and held out his arms. "We're here to free you. Is that really you?"
The queen nodded and hobbled to Ju'rah whose smile grew. "How?"
Tunia broke their intimacy. "You'll jump, like you've done a dozen times."
"Do I need these?" the queen held up her cuffed hands. "I want to hold you."
Ju'rah looked to Tunia, who frowned.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt," he said.
As Ju'rah removed the cuffs from her wrists, she slammed him into the cave with an unimaginable force for that frail body. Her hands wrapped around his neck, and he gasped for air. The star pendant clanged to the ground, and the queen kicked it across the room.
"You idiot boy. So easy to mislead. I would have thought you the brighter one."
Runan lunged toward them and tried to pry her off Ju'rah, but she stuck on like tree sap. "Ita, I'm proud of you." As she elbowed him in the ribs, he groaned. "You did more to fight for our people than anyone. You sacrificed so much, all while I harassed you over your choices."
The queen stilled a bit, only twisting from side to side without injuring him further. Ju'rah's gasping breaths slowed. She was in there somewhere, and she was fighting!
"You are more than I ever could have imagined, brave, compassionate, self-sacrificing. In searching for the truth about your death, a fraction of those qualities rubbed off on me. I need more time with the real you, the amazing one you hid away, and to apologize for the hurtful things I've said and heartache I've caused. You didn't any of deserve it."
The queen turned around with tears in her eyes and released Ju'rah. "Ru?"
Runan's breath caught in his throat as relief flood through him like a rushing river. "Ita?"
She smiled. "I wouldn't have fought so hard if it wasn't for you."
"It's Messita!" Runan hollered.
The queen snarled and grabbed at Runan's collar only to retract her hands seconds later.
"Ju'rah, quick! She's there, but..."
Ju'rah coughed. "I don't have the pendant."
"Messita, focus on me," Tunia said. The metal star rested in her palm. "I'll open a link in my mind for you. Picture my face, picture me. I'm sitting in the valley near the tunnel entrances where we all met. Imagine yourself there with me, pull your energy threads from this body one by one."
As the queen's body relaxed, falling into Ju'rah, he lowered her to the ground. Tunia grew closer and placed the star in the queen's hands. It glowed like in Ju'rah's memory, then the queen went completely limp. Ju'rah cuffed her with haste then looked at Tunia.
"Ita?" he asked.
"She's in here, I can sense her, but she's very weak," Tunia answered. "We have to let her recover."
"How do you know it's her?" Runan asked.
"She keeps whispering your names."
"Will she be all right?" Ju'rah lifted the queen.
"She seems whole but exhausted. It will help that she won't have to fight me. As she grows stronger, she'll take control and adapt to this body. Do you know of a safe space where we can recover for a few days? It would be best if the four of us went together."
Ju'rah nodded. "Do you have another sedative? I don't trust her to stay out for the ride back."
Tunia dug through her purse and pricked the queen's skin with another shot. Then they placed her in the pod Runan agreed to man alone, so Solara could be safe and Ju'rah close to Ita.