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Saminsa on the raid, she would not have been able to save you when you fell from the roof.”

“You idiot,” I said, feeling guilt burn through my veins like fire. He’d gone because of me. Risked his safety for me. And worse, the only reason Saminsa had even needed to save me was because Adrien had gotten captured. If he’d only stayed home, none of it would have mattered. In trying to make sure one vision happened, he’d caused the circumstances leading up to it.

I swallowed down my grief. At least he was responding to me. That was what I needed to focus on.

“Do you know who the red-haired glitcher was in that hallway?”

“He creates hallucinations based on a subject’s fears and desires,” Adrien explained in a completely blank monotone. “While your mind was busy in the world he created around you, the weapons from the ceiling were supposed to take you down. But you detected them and the gun he had with him as well. The Chancellor was afraid if she sent out more soldiers to kill you, you’d sense them with your telek in spite of the hallucinations. So she sent me out to kill you instead by taking off your helmet. As I had foreseen.”

“She said you saw me die.” My voice was quiet.

“I saw flashes of you writhing on the ground, and then not moving at all. I assumed that indicated your death.” His voice was still so empty and cold. He talked about my death with the same emotion as one might when discussing the components of a propulsion engine.

“Do you feel anything?” I asked, desperate for some spark of the old Adrien I’d known.

He raised his head, and his eyes met mine for a moment.

This was it. This was the moment our souls would recognize each other and I’d see the light come back into his eyes.

I clutched his hand tighter.

See me, I wished silently. Look into my eyes and remember.

“No,” he said. “I do not feel anything.” His gaze was just as empty as my brother’s had always been under the control of the V-chip.

No. I couldn’t lose him like this. I would make him remember. I scooted my chair closer to his, ignoring the screech of the chair legs scraping across the ground. His eyes did not follow me, but instead stared at the spot I had previously been.

I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t see his hollow stare. I touched my lips to his.

He didn’t respond. I kissed deeper, harder, pouring all of my desperation into it and willing him to remember.

His lips didn’t move.

I pulled back and searched his eyes. He still wasn’t looking at me.

And I knew.

We hadn’t saved him, not really. We’d brought back his body, but that was all. The Chancellor hadn’t given me a choice after all. She knew I was going to lose both Taylor and Adrien either way.

My body trembled as I stepped back. “You should get some rest,” I said. “Everything will turn out okay.” I tried to sound more confident than I felt.

And then I fled from the room. The tears I’d been holding back before now flooded my cheeks.

My arm com buzzed.

Compound-wide meeting in the training room, attendance is mandatory.

I swiped the tears from my eyes and took a deep breath. The last thing I wanted right now was to be around other people, but I knew everyone was afraid for the future of the Rez. The General had been killed and the Chancellor had escaped again. We needed solidarity more than ever right now. I changed directions and headed toward the training center.

By the time I got there, half the room was filled. All the Rez fighters from the lower level were there. Even the Professor stood in the corner. He looked just as bad as I felt, with his disheveled tunic and red-rimmed eyes. His grief was so thick it seemed to cloud the air around him.

Ginni hurried over and hugged me. “I heard about Jilia’s prognosis for Adrien, I’m so sorry.”

I didn’t say anything, just blinked back more tears and let her take my arm to lead me to where she was sitting. I noted with brief surprise that Xona and Cole were already there, talking in hushed whispers. This wasn’t the first time I’d caught them like this. The fact that he’d thrown himself in front of the laser fire for her had changed everything.

While Adrien was undergoing the battery of tests, I’d gone back to my dorm to change out of my suit. Xona was sitting on the edge of her bed, eyes wide. After asking me about Adrien, she opened up about it. “If Saminsa had gotten the orb up only a millisecond later, Cole would have died saving my life.” She shook her head. “For so long, I could only see them as killing machines, but he protected life instead of taking it. I talked to him earlier and do you know what he said?”

“What?”

“He said that if I of all people could forgive him for what he was, then maybe he could too. Like in spite of everything he always said, he couldn’t believe he was fully human until he’d proved it to me, who hated them the worst.”

The Professor’s voice broke into my thoughts. He’d made his way to the front of the room. “This is a difficult time for all of us,” he said, his voice raw. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Rosalina tried to prepare me for this possibility. She always said that to accomplish anything truly great or make lasting change, sacrifices would be necessary. Honor, loyalty, courage. These qualities are her legacy, and ones that we will all need more than ever in the coming months.”

He looked out at the crowd until his eyes stopped on me. “Zoe, will you please join me?”

I looked at him, bewildered, but I got up and walked to the front of the room. I paused beside him.

“Tyryn,” the Professor nodded to the large man who’d been standing off to the side. Tyryn approached. The Professor looked out again at the gathered crowd. “General Taylor’s last act before leaving on the mission was to name Zoel Q-24 acting Colonel should she not return. Zoe will join the other four Colonels who head the Resistance.”

“What?” I couldn’t help the astonished question popping out.

The Professor looked at me. “She thought your generation of glitchers should be represented among the highest ranks of leadership, and you in particular. She’s watched you closely these past few months and believes you are ready.”

I stood still, completely stunned as Tyryn came forward and pinned a star on my tunic. A hundred thoughts raced through my head at once. I thought Taylor hated glitchers, but she’d made me a leader in the Rez. It was just as Adrien had foreseen, but not at all how it should have happened. None of this was.

The Professor turned back to the crowd. “We have suffered heavy losses recently and made sacrifices that at times seem too much to bear.” His voice cracked slightly before he took another deep breath and continued. “More will be required in the months ahead. But hope remains as long as we have breath in our chests. We fight for our lives and for the ones we love. Rosalina always believed that, though we are few, we can still change the world.”

The Professor stepped back and I dazedly walked to sit down again while Tyryn discussed heightened security measures and the need to ration supplies now that more and more people were seeking sanctuary at the Foundation.

I leaned my back and head against the cool hallway outside after everyone else headed to dinner. It stretched out empty on both sides of me. That was how I felt. Empty. I’d always taken for granted that Adrien would be by my side no matter what came. But now I faced it alone.

Terror pitched in my stomach like acid at the thought. I gritted my teeth and clenched my jaw. No. I wouldn’t let fear rule me anymore. I would not be weak.

The future was coming, and I would be ready to face it this time. As a Colonel, I could make sure the EMP plan was never put into effect. We’d find another way to end the war once and for all. And by all the stars and shadows in the universe, I would make the Chancellor pay for the lives she’d destroyed.