"Gaia? Stand down."

The effect is instant. The thing with Seraphina's face freezes in place, her back straightening as she rises into a pose that looks much like the one she stood in while contained in the glass coffin. Her broken arm hangs at an awkward angle, but she doesn't seem to notice it.

Manfred Ignatius Moon beams from the doorway, looking as bright and as round as his namesake in his crisp white suit and silver lapel pin, teeth gleaming. He locks eyes with Kozmotis, and his smile grows wider. It's a friendly, sincere smile.

Kozmotis doesn't trust it.

"What are you doing here?" he asks. There's a strange echo to his voice, a hiss underneath the words. Kozmotis realises, with a flicker of horror, that he isn't sure how long it's been there.

Mr. Moon smiles a little broader.

"It's interesting," he says, flicking a piece of imaginary dust from his lapel. "Some people simply have no foresight. I owe you my thanks, by the way."

Kozmotis takes half a step backwards, stops when he remembers the thing that looks like Seraphina is standing behind him.

"For what?" Kozmotis demands. Mr. Moon smiles up at him, short and broad and perfectly innocent.

"I asked you for your help." The man twinkles. Kozmotis had thought that people only did that in fiction from the eighteen hundreds. "And you've done more than I ever could have hoped." His eyes flick over Kozmotis' shoulder, towards the still form of the thing with Seraphina's face. Kozmotis braces himself, forcing himself not to turn and look.

Mr. Moon seems to notice, because his smile grows knowing. "Ah, yes. I love that most about you," he says, clasping his hands childishly. "Your loyalty. So willing to deny everything you know for the sake of one person. That's why I thought General Pitchiner would make such an excellent donor for our little project. And look at you! You live up to his legacy marvellously." He claps. "Gaia? Attention."

Kozmotis stumbles sideways as the thing with Seraphina's face takes a step forward, shifting into a position like she's prepared to move into action at a moment's notice. His heart gives a painful lurch in his chest when she turns her head in his direction, and he takes another stumbling step away.

"Gaia, disregard," Mr. Moon says, looking intently at Kozmotis. "You see? Just the thought that she -" he gestures towards the thing with Seraphina's face – "might harbour some sliver of your daughter within her was enough to stay your hand, even when she was bent on killing you."

He beams. Kozmotis, dumbfounded, can't seem to string words into a sentence. His tongue feels leaden in his mouth.

"I like you, Pitch Black," Mr. Moon says. "You've been an invaluable ally, though unwitting. Which is why it's going to be so difficult to have you killed." His smile grows even wider. "But I'm not an unkind man. Why is why I won't have her do it." He nods in the direction of the thing with Seraphina's face, his smile never so much as dipping a notch.

It takes a moment for Kozmotis to find his voice.

"Am I meant to thank you for that?" he manages, at last. His throat feels raw, like sheets of sandpaper rubbing together. Shadows curl listlessly around his feet, but – it's been a brutal fight, a long and excruciating day. Kozmotis has no reserves left to draw upon. Whatever happens now, he can only hope will be swift.

Mr. Moon half-shrugs one shoulder, folding his little hands in front of himself.

"It won't matter, in a moment," he says. "I only wanted you to know." He brings one little fist up to his mouth, clearing his throat, and then says, like he's reading off a line from memory, "Pitch? Execute sequence eleven-five-thirteen. Command prompt…"

He glances up towards the ceiling, and then blinks once, a soft smile of remembrance crossing his face. "Ah, yes. 'Scared'."

…

There is a door.

It's huge, and heavy, made of some black metal. It's also badly dented, apparently from the inside. Shadows seethe around it like some oily, viscous fog. It stands, imposing, filling the end of the hallway Nightlight has led Katherine and her little entourage down.

The door is not what's captured Katherine's attention, though. No, that would be the body.

It's lying motionless in the middle of the floor, just before the door, face-down. The shadows all curl back from it, as though it's somehow unpleasant to them. Katherine can't blame them. She finds it thoroughly unpleasant as well. Suddenly, she's very glad they'd decided to leave the children behind with Ombric and Sandy.

"Those shadows," Tooth whispers, and Katherine wonders if she realises her voice is so hushed. "Do you think - ?"

North rumbles agreement. "Pitch."

Katherine bites her bottom lip.

Nightlight gestures furiously towards the door, waving his glowing dagger in such a way that its light sweeps over the enormous wheel at the centre of the door like a spotlight. His eyes lock with Katherine's, his gaze pleading, and Katherine worries at her bottom lip until she tastes blood.

"I don't know if I can get through this door," she admits. "I don't think Ombric has the codes for this one. I didn't even know it existed."

Nightlight juts out his lower lip in a thoughtful frown, and crosses his arms over his chest, leaning back against thin air.

He jumps in midair at the sound of an enormous, hollow boom from the other side of the door. Another great dent pounds out of the metal, as though something has struck it from inside with unthinkable force.

Katherine wonders, suddenly, whether she really wants to know what lies on the other side of that door.

"Step aside," Bunny says, pushing past Katherine and cracking his knuckles. He flexes his fingers, and then lunges forwards, swiping through the air towards Nightlight with a handful of claws.

Katherine claps both hands over her mouth, but the scream that's building in her throat strangles and dies when Bunny's vicious claws don't so much as graze Nightlight. Instead, the air in front of him tears open, revealing a room lined with blue-lit glass coffins.

Katherine only has a moment to take in the sight, however, before something large and round and white comes flying backwards out of the room beyond the rip at high speed, crashing into Bunny and bowling him off his feet. It takes Katherine a moment to realise that it's a person.

Darkness floods the rip in the air, so fast and so thick that for an instant Katherine thinks she's looking, not through a portal, but at a scrap of black fabric hanging on the air. Shadows spiral out into the hall, a howling vortex of darkness. Katherine throws up her hands to protect her face, but nothing touches her, beyond a faint, creepy brush like cobwebs trailing along her bare arms. The walls, the floor, the ceiling all vanish into the maelstrom, and Katherine could swear she hears whispers all around her, cold and menacing and full of wicked glee.

"Pitch!" Tooth shouts, a warning and a curse.

The only response is deep, rising laughter.

A shout from behind her makes Katherine spin, just in time to see a tendril of solid shadow wrap around Tooth and pluck her, struggling, out of the air. It coils and flings her, hard, into North's back, bowling both of them to the ground. Bands of darkness erupt from the floor, binding the two of them back-to-back and chaining them to the floor before they can rise to their feet again. Bunny pushes the little round man off of him, starting to jump up, but a tentacle of darkness grapples him around the throat and slams him back against the ground. Jack darts into the air to avoid joining them, only for another tendril of shadow to plaster him against the ceiling.

Eyes like silver coins blink open in the dark, sweeping over Katherine and the Guardians as though they're not there and fixing on the round, pale man who had tumbled out of the rip in the air.

The little round man stares defiantly up as Kozmotis steps forward out of the darkness, trailing shadow like smoke. Except – it isn't Kozmotis, not the one Katherine had met back in the cells. That Kozmotis had been much more like the man Katherine had imagined from her uncle's stories, if sadder, alarming eyes and all. This Kozmotis…

Katherine takes in the expression on this Kozmotis' face, and shudders at the memory of darkness coiled around her throat, cutting off her breath.

"Well, would you look at that," Kozmotis sneers, and even his voice is wrong. It's dripping with contempt, and there's a strange, hissing echo to his words. "You brought the welcoming committee."

His upper lip curls, and he glances briefly down at Bunny. "The Guardians. I am honoured."

Katherine's tongue feels leaden, her arms and legs fixed in place as though she were bound. The others, thankfully, don't seem to be similarly affected.

"Th'hell d'you think you're doing, Pitch?" Bunny snarls, claws thrashing uselessly against thin air as he tries and fails to free himself from the shadow holding him in place.

Kozmotis doesn't so much as spare him another glance. "Finishing what I started," he says, in that voice like a snake winding through sand. "Goodbye, Mr. Moon."

He raises a hand, and a pillar of shadow rises below the little pale man, bringing him up to eye level with Kozmotis. The little man – Mr. Moon, Katherine thinks – stands as though hypnotized, a songbird staring up at a serpent as Kozmotis reaches out and pulls a wickedly jagged-edged harpoon out of the dark. He draws it back, one-armed, and Katherine sees, behind him, Nightlight, glowing fiercely, with his own dagger raised to strike.

The shout tears out of Katherine before she can stop it. "No!"

Kozmotis half-turns, seeming to notice Katherine for the first time. And, in the split second that he turns away from Mr. Moon, Nightlight plunges his dagger home.

The howl that rises from Kozmotis is unearthly. He drops the harpoon, which dissolves back into shadow the instant it leaves his fingers, his arm dangling limp and useless from its socket.

"Wretched glowworm!" Kozmotis hisses, whirling to face Nightlight with a sweep of trailing shadows. Nightlight bounds backwards in midair and sticks out his tongue. With his back to her, Katherine can see the glowing dagger sunk deep in Kozmotis' shoulder, the shadows coiling and recoiling from it. "I will rend you -"

He doesn't get a chance to finish his sentence. Instead, North narrows his eyes, and every single one of the ceiling lights flares like a flashbulb, ripping through the smothering layer of darkness overhead. Sparks rain down from broken bulbs and empty sockets, flickering and fading as they fall.

Kozmotis stumbles back, clawing at his eyes as thick ropes of shadow flail wildly around the hall. Katherine has to duck to avoid having one take her head clean off her shoulders. In the staccato light from the odd shower of sparks, they – and Kozmotis – look like the monster from an old stop-motion animated film, moving in jerks and starts between frames.

Mr. Moon topples from the crumbling pedestal with a shout, but he doesn't reach the floor. Instead, Bunny catches him in both arms, bearing him gently to the ground. The rest of the Guardians, too, are shaking off their weakened bonds. Katherine watches Tooth slice four dark bands neatly, with on flick of a wing, and throws up her arm to protect her head when Jack's bonds, frozen solid overhead, shatter abruptly into a million pieces.

With the lights blown out, the occasional burst of sparks and Nightlight's steady, dim glow provide the only illumination. Katherine sees the fight in snippets, flashes of reflected glow as Tooth's wings and scales, North's twin swords, Bunny's claws, Jack's ice glint in the dimness. She can't see the strange metallic gleam of Kozmotis' eyes anywhere, can only see him as a shadow when he passes between her and Nightlight, like an eclipse. The fighting is nearly silent, the shuffling sounds of people in motion and the occasional sharp shout or ring of metal the only sounds of what must be a pitched battle.

In the darkness, it's all too easy for Katherine's imagination to transform each startled cry into a scream of agony, each hastily-drawn breath into a death rattle. She struggles to draw steady breaths of her own, not to give in to the black-edged rose of fear blooming in her chest. Katherine can't even be certain what she's frightened of, who she's frightened for. All she knows is that the oppressive, smothering viciousness of the dark frightens her, that something terrible is about to happen, that there is no light –

A hand closes on Katherine's arm, and she only barely manages to stifle a scream. A fraction of an instant later, though, a spray of sparks from the lights overhead reveals Bunny's face, drawn with irritation that barely masks his worry.

"What're you still doing here?" he demands, and then, before Katherine can answer, shakes his head. "Nevermind. You two -" He punctuates his sentence by tearing a hole in the air right beside Katherine, and in the fluorescent light that spills through, Katherine can see Mr. Moon standing a little behind Bunny and looking alarmed. "Get out of here. Let us deal with -"

"Pitch?"

The voice seems to come from nowhere and everywhere, low and mocking and satin-smooth. The faintest hissing echo accompanies it, sounding a little like laughter.

Mr. Moon's eyes go wide, just as he's yanked abruptly backwards out of the light. Eyes, pale and metallic, wink open in the darkness, above the crooked silver gash of a smile.

Bunny's claws are up in an instant, North's swords and Tooth's wings flashing as they swoop in to converge on the smile. Shadows scatter, the impenetrable dark retreating enough that Katherine – and the others – can clearly see Kozmotis.

And the jagged-edged black knife he's holding to Mr. Moon's throat.

"Stay back," Kozmotis snarls, hunching over his captive in a way that puts Katherine in mind of the wolves in an animated movie, haunches up, teeth bared. "I'm trying to set you all free, in case you hadn't noticed."

"Yes, yes, this we have heard many times over," North says. His tone sounds casual, dismissive, but Katherine watches the calculating way he eyes the knife in Kozmotis' hand, the careful sideways steps he takes, and knows that there's nothing about him that's casual. "I am still not certain how you think we are not free…?"

Kozmotis' eyes narrow, and he whirls just in time to catch Tooth creeping up behind him, her scales up and her arms outstretched. He jerks his arm, and Mr. Moon makes a choked sound. "You still honestly believe there's nothing more you could be except this man's trained dogs, to heel and attack at his command?"

His eyes flick up towards the ceiling, and he adds, his voice treacherous and sweet, "You still believe that you are no one?"

…

The Guardians rush in.

Jack…doesn't.

He doesn't really know why he hangs back. Or – no. That's not true. It's that same old doubt, snapping at his heels, nibbling at his heart. Is any of this right? What's really going on? He's had too many revelations for one day – he's a Guardian, he's not a Guardian, being a Guardian is bad, he was secretly someone else before he was a potential Guardian, his memories of being someone else before he was a potential Guardian are all false, he has a sister, he doesn't have a sister…

It's too much, and none of it makes sense.

So Jack hangs back. The wind taps impatiently at the back of his neck, ice crackles between his fingers, but he stays back. Let the Guardians and Pitch and whoever this Moon is sort their own mess out. Because if there's one thing Jack is still sure of, it's that none of this is really his problem.

He's just eyeing the hole Bunny tore into the air, idly wondering if he shouldn't just take the girl – Caroline? Something like that – and go. After all, this isn't her problem either, and she's not a Guardian, not even a potential Guardian. She could get hurt. And all of these halls look similar, but Jack's pretty sure Bunny opened a portal straight back to where they'd left the children and Sandy. Jack could -

And then, Pitch looks directly at him, and asks.

"You still believe that you are no one?"

"Don't listen to him, Jack," Tooth says, almost before Pitch has finished speaking, her voice unusually serious and urgent. "This isn't -"

"Whoa, whoa, hey, leave me out of this," Jack says, drifting back with both hands raised, palms out, as though to keep them all at arm's length. "I don't even know who that guy is."

All eyes turn towards Mr. Moon, who swallows, visibly.

"The founder of the feast," Pitch sneers, his voice dripping with disdain. "Manfred Ignatius Moon. The owner of Moonclipper Corp." His gaze flicks, for the first time since he spoke, away from Jack and towards something lying on the floor behind him. Something that, Jack realizes with a horrible lurch, is a human body. Up until now, Pitch hadn't actually killed anybody, but now, suddenly, that knife in his hand looks a whole lot more threatening. "And now, with the death of his late parents' trustee, the sole director and CEO of Moonclipper Corp, as well."

"You killed that guy, though, right?" Jack points out, and Pitch's face splits in a shark-like grin.

"Oh, yes. An astute observation from Frost!" He raises the knife, pressing it lovingly against Mr. Moon's cheek, the very tip just below Mr. Moon's open and frightened eye. "Yes, I killed that man. Just as you Guardians were about to kill me, and remove the last of the thorns from Mr. Moon's side without his little white hands getting soiled. Funny, isn't it, how things work out?"

There's silence, for a moment, while everyone digests that.

"All right," Tooth says, finally. "It sounds like you have a story to tell. Why don't you let Mr. Moon go, and we'll -"

"Another funny thing, that," Pitch says, conversationally, digging the blunt edge of the knife into Mr. Moon's round cheek. "I can't."

North exchanges a thoughtful look with Tooth and Bunny. Jack swallows a pang, at the thought of knowing another person well enough to be able to exchange thoughts with them with just a glance.

"If we make promise of no harm to come to you -" North starts, and Pitch gives his head a shake, a tight-lipped smile taking over his face.

"No, I don't think you understand." His smile grows wider, but no less tight-lipped. "I can't."

"Why are you listening to this – this maniac?" Mr. Moon finally explodes, his voice frantic with fear. "Please, please help me! He's going to kill me!"

The Guardians jerk to attention, but Jack still doesn't move. There's a thought taking shape in his head.

"But he hasn't killed you," he points out.

Bunny shoots a glare in Jack's direction. "Even Pitch ain't that much of a bleedin' idiot, ta throw away his only bargaining chip when we've got 'im on the ropes -"

"No," the girl – Caroline? Catherine? – interrupts, stepping forward. Jack barely resists the urge to swoop down and bodily throw her through the portal Bunny'd made, the one that's slowly starting to close, taking the light with it. "He's had plenty of opportunities. With the harpoon, in the dark…"

She stares directly at Pitch as she takes another step forward. Jack's suddenly glad she hasn't fixed that stare on him. "Why can't you let him go, Kozmotis?"

A shiver runs through Pitch at the unfamiliar word, but he doesn't say anything.

"Why don't you do something?!" Mr. Moon pleads, turning from Tooth to Bunny. He puts an unusual emphasis on the second word when he speaks again, an emphasis that Jack can't quite make heads or tails of. "I'm scared."

Every shadow in the room goes stiff, for just an instant, and Pitch's spine snaps rigid.

Jack isn't sure why, but a memory of the sizzle and jolt of the shocks they'd given him in the arena bursts to mind.

"Fine," Pitch says, and his voice is back to that bitter snarl. He raises the hand not holding the knife, and for an instant it looks like his fingers are lengthening – and then Jack realizes he's growing long, dagger-like claws from each fingertip. "If you won't listen, then I'll just have to – cut - the problem out at the root."

"Kozmotis!" the girl – Katherine! - yells, and Pitch freezes. "You don't have to do this. I know you don't want to!"

She's almost close enough to reach out and touch Pitch now, and Jack wonders when she got close enough to do that. She brushes past Bunny, and holds out a hand, like she's a child reaching up for a parent's hand.

Pitch freezes, staring at her hand like it's a viper about to strike. He doesn't move.

In a slightly softer voice, Katherine says, "Maybe you're not who you thought you were. But you don't have to be who they tell you to be."

Pitch doesn't move. But his eyes meet Katherine's.

Slowly, ever so slowly, his claws and the knife he still holds to Mr. Moon's throat begin to dissolve.

Katherine reaches up, and, with the hand that had so recently sported claws, Pitch begins to reach out.

"Quick!" Mr. Moon hisses, under his breath, at North, who is nearest him. "Now, while he's distracted! Get me out of here!"

"Shh," Tooth says, raising a finger to her lips, her eyes fixed on Pitch's hand.

Mr. Moon's eyes sink closed.

"And everything was going so well, too," he says, sounding disappointed. "Guardians? Execute command prompt -"

Pitch's head snaps up, and he grips Mr. Moon around the throat, cutting off his air. The rest of the sentence disappears into a choked noise.

"No," Pitch growls, and there's something new in his voice, something steely. "No, you won't. Never again."

"No!" Katherine wails, but Pitch has both hands around Mr. Moon's throat and is squeezing, hard. Tooth looks up, looking stunned, and meets Jack's eyes. He can tell she's thinking the same thing he is, the same thing that's running through the other Guardians' heads.

Mr. Moon had tried to set them up.

Pitch was right.

It takes a moment for the shock to wear off, and by then, Jack can see that Mr. Moon's round face is turning from its previous pallor to a cherry red. It strikes him, again, that Pitch has already killed one person today.

It only takes Jack a fraction of an instant to decide that he shouldn't get a chance to kill another one.

The glowing dagger is still sticking from Pitch's shoulder. Jack summons a wind, catapults himself through the air and then drops with all his weight towards the floor, grabbing the hilt in both hands and dragging it down with him. It catches against bone, and Pitch lets out a howl of rage and pain, whirling around to face Jack. His movement wrenches the dagger out of Jack's grip, and Jack conjures a fistful of ice.

Pitch opens his mouth, and Jack nails him in the face with the snowball.

Pitch wipes his eyes, sputtering, as North pulls Mr. Moon out of his grip. Mr. Moon gasps, tugging at his collar, and looks up at North, his expression pure regret and understanding. "I'm terribly sorry about all of this," he says, and North takes a deep breath and lets it go, giving Mr. Moon a suspicious look. Jack's gotten the impression off of North, so far, that it's nearly impossible to get on his bad side. He thinks, however, that he's getting a glimpse of what that looks like.

Mr. Moon tries to push himself to his feet, but North's massive hands tighten on his shoulders. Mr. Moon rallies impressively, though, dusting off the front of his impeccable white suit, giving his head a little shake that tosses the single curl of fair hair hanging over his forehead.

"As I said, I'm terribly sorry for the fuss," he says, locking eyes with Bunny. "But -"

"Don't!" Katherine cries, and Jack lobs another snowball, aiming for Mr. Moon's face, but it isn't either of them who stops the fateful command from coming out of Mr. Moon's mouth.

Instead, a bolt of golden light streaks from somewhere behind Katherine's shoulder, startling everyone, and collides with Mr. Moon's stomach. He tries to double over, but North holds him in place.

The portal that Bunny had opened, the one that even Jack had forgotten about, flares with brilliant light, and the boy with the golden eyes steps 's followed closely by the tall redheaded girl with a shimmering bubble of a force field around her, the stocky girl with the unicorn horn, the wisp of a boy who glows with an eerie graveyard light, and –

Jack can feel the smile that spreads across his own face. "Sandy!"

Sandy waves one little hand, before turning his attention back to Pitch and Mr. Moon, crossing his arms over his chest and shaking his head.

"We heard everything," the tall redhead says, a scowl crossing her face. She raises both arms, and her bubble grows, wrapping Katherine up along with her.

The unicorn girl nods agreement, slamming one fist into the palm of her other hand and grinning with a wicked glee that looks totally out of place on her young face.

Mr. Moon turns a look of horror on the glowing, spectral boy, horror that Jack realizes is tinged with betrayal. "…Nightlight?"

The spectral boy sucks in a deep breath, pushing out his chest and raising his chin to stare Mr. Moon down. Mr. Moon shakes his head in apparent disbelief.

"My Nightlight?"

Nightlight shivers, all over, just once, but Katherine reaches up and places a hand on his shoulder, and he turns to her instead, away from Mr. Moon.

Sandy doesn't say or do anything, only stares, that strange hypnotic stare of his that makes Jack want to look. Mr. Moon seems to resist for a moment, but then, he's caught. Jack can see the moment that Sandy's powers take hold, the way Mr. Moon's jaw falls slack and his eyes glaze.

There's a moment of perfect stillness, a moment when no one moves. Jack can feel the tension thrumming in the air around him, like a single movement would cause something to snap and everything to fall apart into chaos.

Then Mr. Moon blinks, as though waking from a deep, deep sleep. He blinks, looking down at his feet like he's trying to remember what they are, and then looks up at Sandy, brow furrowed.

Sandy nods, once.

"Oh," Mr. Moon says, and then, again, heavier, "Oh."

Jack risks a glance up at Pitch, who's still standing like a man transfixed, like he's the one Sandy had hypnotized instead of Mr. Moon. Slowly, glacially, Pitch turns to look down at Jack in return, and Jack thinks that he looks almost as befuddled as Mr. Moon.

"Sandman?" he asks, cautiously, and Sandy beams up at him.

Mr. Moon gives himself a shake, and then says, like he's just remembering something that should have been obvious, "Oh, Pitch, at ease."

The breath that flows out of Pitch seems to take his spine with it. He slumps, as though he's suddenly turned to jelly.

Around the hall, the shadows begin to lighten.

…

Everything is a mess.

All around Kozmotis, people are hugging, crying, jabbering. The girl and her uncle are talking with Moon, discussing details of the facility that is to come. There is excitement. There is joy. There is relief.

All Kozmotis feels is an overwhelming urge to sleep.

He doesn't even know, now, if he can claim that name. It certainly doesn't belong to him. But he can't bring himself to use the only other name he has. Just as he can't bring himself to believe the kindness and concern that Mr. Moon is projecting in every word and action. Can't bring himself to believe that this is a happy ending. Can't even bring himself to believe that this is an ending.

The man had used him. Played him for a fool, from the very beginning, built some kind of cheat code into his system that would make him play the villain without actually doing harm, set him up to take the fall so that Moon could reign unchallenged over his little empire and still have everyone believe in his goodness –

No. Kozmotis – Pitch – whatever he may claim to call himself doesn't trust this ending.

The girl breaks away from the conversation, hurries over to sit down beside Kozmotis. He manages to stifle a groan, but lets his eyes sink shut. He's exhausted. He's been beaten to within an inch of his life and stabbed in the back, literally. Surely the little interloper can understand that.

It's an uncharitable thought. Kozmotis knows, with a twinge of something bitter, that had Katherine not intervened, he would not be here now. That the others would still be under the thumb of that megalomaniac.

That they would not have even the possibility of a happy ending that they have now.

"Are you all right?" Katherine asks, and Kozmotis presses a hand over his eyes, cutting off another groan. Of all the questions she could have asked. "You've been very quiet. And you don't seem pleased that we've won."

"Did we?" Kozmotis asks. He manages not to add, was there a 'we' in the first place?

Katherine is silent for a long moment.

"I'm sorry," she says, finally. "About your daughter."

Kozmotis says nothing.

"Mr. Moon told us she was part of the first wave of the project. That she didn't get implanted memories," Katherine continues. Kozmotis wishes she'd just stop talking. "But – I mean, I didn't get implanted memories either. I was only a child, but – she could live, she could learn -"

"No," Kozmotis hears himself saying. "At this point? It would be cruelty. I would only be doing it out of selfishness. Because I miss what I remember. And that? That was never mine."

There's a silence again. Kozmotis almost dares to hope that Katherine has gotten up to leave, before she speaks, again.

"We'd like you," she starts, and then takes a breath before trying again. "We'd like you to have a role in Moonclipper Corp, from now on. In case…someone tries to do something like this again."

Kozmotis can't help a very weak, very sad smile.

"Legally, none of us are people except for you," he says. "And I'm not even certain about that. I don't think I can hold a role in a corporation."

"We're going to change that," Katherine says, with such conviction that for a moment Kozmotis almost believes her. "We're going to change everything."

It's too hard to believe. There's been too much pain, there's too much red tape. Kozmotis has tried everything he can think of to do exactly what Katherine is dreaming of, to change everything, and has only ended up with a handful of ashes and a wicked, mocking laugh in the back of his mind. It's – it's difficult. No. It's impossible to imagine that anything will be different for Katherine.

But –

She'd held out her hand, to him, in the middle of a battle. And in the centre of the storm, in the most dreadful hour…she hadn't been afraid.

Kozmotis draws a deep breath, lifts his hand from his eyes.

"I can't wait to see it," he says, and almost believes it.