The story so far:

---- Aija and the others are on the South-Land. They are waiting for the Leadership to attack. Aija finds out that The Gale was attacked on the Main Lands, and she worries for her brother - Rei/Goldstar. Goldstar is alive. They lost the Premiere, Leigh, Tailyn, Arah Lin. His leg is broken and his finger missing. Ze is getting better in his training. Ze and Ruyanir aren't married yet. Avery gets copies of the Leadership's experiments from Tailyn And feels bad for doubting Goldstar. Zuri thinks of the first time she met Aija. The Leadership attacks them and Zuri goes to protect the people of the South. Xan tries going after the others to help but soon realizes that he can't. He hates it. Zuri manages to get the shield up at the Zayr Settlement but a soldier fires at her. Luka goes with Var-Inu to fight and when seeking an Iernei shielder, an explosive hurtles to the ground towards him.

---- Goldstar is weak thanks to his broken leg. he struggles in the battle. When a bomb comes hurtling towards them, Luka protects him. Thieron is with Aija and Ayr'i. They try and bring several jets down. When the Iernei spaceships arrive, the jets plunge into water, creating large waves that drag them all into the ocean. Aija and Ayr'i survive the ocean. The war comes to an end when Iernei spaceships arrive. Aija finds her brother Rei and Vincent alive. Nala finds Zuri in the Zayr Settlement. They go to the Core and find Luka, Aija, and Thieron.

----Aija and Thieron tell Goldstar all that has happened with them. Aija and Thieorn want to go to Ierne to give Aa'di Irih'va the Avo. Aija convinces Zuri to meet her family once before they leave.

----Luka didn't expect to survive this long. He now feels at home with Thieron and Nala.

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****10.2ZURI ****

Wisps of memories tugged at her heart.

The steps on which Zuri had trudged over hundreds of times; the time she'd fallen and scraped her knees on them. The path that led to the playground. The door at which she'd stood a whole day anticipating her mother's arrival with Alex; that door through which she'd carried him in as a newborn. The mud road that led to the swimming pool where her father had taken her almost every weekend. The window of her room through which she'd escaped to meet her friends. The exact same shape the banyan-tree shadowed their house for years. The fraying paint of the roof. Her mother's touches manifested in the blue poppies, red begonias, yellow marigolds. Her father's touch tangible in the repaired door and windows, patches of paint streaking over the old. Alex's presence, evident in the football and hover-cycle lying in wait in front of the house.

Zuri had built a whole life around the house, amassing precious memories in her heart.

"Go on," encouraged Rei. Behind him, his boyfriend, Vincent, nodded.

Zuri gathered as much stale air of the Outermost as she could into her lungs and let it go, bracing herself. With the distance between her and Nala great, the bond on her wrist pricked with pain. Aija had bandaged her wrist in preparation, saying it would bleed. But Zuri hadn't been prepared for the amount of blood that trickled down her hand, having drenched the bandage the rich red hue of her blood.

She had wanted to take Nala, but Aija had said she should introduce Nala later, once her parents were assured that she was alive and well. Zuri had then begged Aija to join her; she felt scared, meeting her family, and Aija could ease her fear. But Aija had refused, convinced Zuri had to do it herself. Zuri had hurled curses at her best friend, who'd only smiled and sent Zuri off with her brother and his boyfriend. And as Zuri stood in front of her home, it occurred to her that Aija was terrified too, scared that Rei might drag her to Innermost, to her parents. And that's why she hadn't taken the chance.

"We'll be back in a day," Rei guaranteed. "You should bring them to the South. Premier Zhaleh will ensure they are well taken care of."

Zuri agreed with a nod. Rei and Vincent were on their way to take the Oshiros to the South. With the Leadership out to get to them and Rei's involvement with the Gale blown out of proportion, the family was in danger.

Rei surprised Zuri with a hug. He whispered, "You'll do fine,"

Zuri nodded.

Rei and Vincent left the way they'd come, back to the playground to use the ist'we stone.

Zuri stood a second longer in front of her home, under the darkening day of the unbegun night, and warily took a step forward, and another, and another until she was in reach of the front door.

"Zuri?"

Zuri's heart gushed at the sound of the familiar voice: the voice that had soothed her, that had encouraged her, that had loved her.

"Papa?" Zuri whisked around, forgetting the burning on her wrist.

Noah King stood in his work clothes, tears in his eyes, lips trembling, the dying sun igniting his copper curls into twines of fire.

"Zuri!" he rushed to her as she ran to him. "My girl," he held her, crying. "my little girl...you're alive."

"I'm alive," Zuri clutched him harder, feeling sad that they'd tormented themselves with her possible death.

The sound of the front door creaking open grunted through the quiet evening. Noah King let her go; she turned to find Imani running to them. Without a word, Imani hugged her daughter, sobbing.

"Mama," Zuri whispered, embracing her.

Imani held Zuri by her shoulders, inspecting her as if she'd forgotten how her daughter looked. "There's candy-cake...for dinner," her voice broke. "I knew you'd like it. You have missed it."

"Oh, mama," Zuri cried, "I have missed you." Zuri wiped her mother's tears.

Imani smiled.

The three of them rose together, branches of the same plant.

Zuri saw Alex at the front door, a blend of emotions warring on his sweet face. He didn't run to her as he would whenever she'd visited them on breaks from volunteering. He stood frozen, shocked, relieved, and sad.

Zuri went to him. Alex gazed up at her, tears pooling in his golden-brown eyes. "Tell me it's not a dream," he stuttered.

Zuri pulled him to her and hugged him tightly. "It's not. I'm here, Alex."

Alex held her and, finally, broke down. He cried loudly. Zuri felt awful. She carried him; even at ten, he was tiny. He locked his legs around her waist and draped his hands over her shoulders, sobbing wildly into the nook of her neck. Zuri went in and held him in her arms, seated on their fading blue sofa, like she had when he was an infant. He cried as he did then, a tiny thing in her arms. A tiny cute thing; a tiny cute thing Zuri loved.

****

Alex wouldn't leave her side. He even skipped school that morning.

He sat huddled in her arms as Zuri told her parents the truth, all about the Ytai, their work on Earth, about what really happened to her and Aija, and about what the Leadership did to retain its power. Zuri had listened to Rei's discoveries of the horrors of the Leadership when he'd told Aija. She now told her parents about the Savages and Creatures, the Leadership's experiments on humans through the Eligibility Assessment, and the Green Plague.

When Rei had told them of the experiments, Aija had gone still. 'Oh, no,' she'd murmured under her breath. Zuri, after a beat, understood Aija's glum tone. Xan. By Rei's description o the experiments, it had been evident that Xan hadn't survived it. That had been the reason behind his hospitalisation. A perfectly healthy, young kid robbed of life for the Leadership's greed. Aija and Zuri hadn't informed Xan yet. They'd decided to wait until Zuri had returned from the Main-Lands.

Zuri worried for Alex. A good few years away from the Assessment didn't mitigate the risk. The Leadership had to be brought down, and Zuri hoped Rei with Gale would succeed. She had asked him if she could help in any way, but he'd said he had plans set in motion and that Zuri shouldn't risk herself for it. Zuri itched to help; her brother and hundreds of kids every year were at risk of death.

Omar, Chet, Amyas, and Anne had heard the news of her arrival and had dropped by in the evening. Zuri hadn't told them about the Ytai and had concocted a story about how a group of humans had taken her, and she'd escaped. They left after dinner, for which Imani had set up a feast and baked a new cake – chocolate.

Zuri helped her father with the dishes while her mother coaxed Alex to bed early for school the following morning. But Alex was being adamant about staying home another day.

"Zu! Zu, tell her!" pleaded Alex. "I want to stay home with you."

"Mama, let him be," Zuri washed her hands and shook them dry.

"No," Imani scowled, trying to grab Alex, who broke free of her grip and ran to Zuri. "He can't miss school; it's important. You will return to school soon, too, Zuri. That's the only way we'll have better lives."

"No!" Alex yowled, holding onto his sister.

Zuri grasped Alex, surveyed the darkness out before turning to her mother. Rei would show up the next day, and she needed her family packed by then.

"Mama, Papa, we need to talk."

"Sure," her father placed a plate he was washing back into the sink, and her mother said, "Once Alex goes to bed."

"No," Zuri shook her head. "He isn't going to school tomorrow."

"Yes!" Alex rejoiced. "Thanks, Zu,"

Zuri smiled.

"He's going to school,"

"Imani," Noah cut in. "It's just another day."

Imani glowered at Noah, who winked at Alex. Alex grinned.

"Can we sit?" Zuri needed to explain that they had to leave.

Imani, Zuri, and Alex took the couch, and Noah sat on a chair in front of them. Zuri told them of Rei's offer to shift to the South-Land. She told them that Aija's family would be there too and Alex would be safer there. Once done, Zuri awaited a response. Her parents were silent, mulling over her suggestion.

"We should pack," Zuri pointed out when minutes had passed without a word.

"No," Noah declined.

"What? Papa!"

"This is our home, daughter."

"True," Zuri agreed. "But you'll have better lives there. Alex will be safer."

Imani and Noah exchanged a sad look.

"Our shop is here, home is here. Alex is safe with us. All we've ever known is here," Imani said.

"Sometimes, Mama, you've to leave all you've known to find something better," Zuri appealed to her. "it is why you wanted to go to Innermost. It is why you sent me and why you want Alex to study well. I've seen the South; there's fresh air, food, freedom. Alex shall grow up free; marry who he wants, one day, not someone the Leadership chooses for him."

Alex smiled, considering the possibility of it.

"You said the Gale would bring the Leadership down," Noah debated.

"They will, Papa. One day. Until then, you are better off on the South-Land. I know how badly you wanted to get to Innermost. What happened to that wish? The South-Land is even better."

"No, Zuri," he declined again.

"Papa!'

"You would move us there. What of the rest of our family, child? My brother, your mother's brother? Their families – your cousins?"

Zuri paled. She hadn't given it much thought. Noah's brother's family were almost entirely dependent on him for money, living on the fringes of the Open. Imani had talked so much about wanting to go to Innermost, Zuri hadn't anticipated them rejecting the South – an even better place.

"Innermost was fine since we could still send money. The South you talk of is too far. It isn't fair to ask Rei to take all of our extended family too. I understand your reasons," Noah stood, and Zuri glanced at him, upset. "But our lives are here."

"I'd like you to meet my girlfriend," blurted Zuri. She'd heeded Aija's advice and not spoken of Nala, but if they came to meet her, they'd get a glimpse of life on the South-Land and may agree to stay back. Rei would never say no to having her extended family brought to the South; she knew. "Come, meet her once."

"Girlfriend?" Imani's eyes rounded.

"Why didn't you bring her along?" Alex's eyes filled with joy.

Zuri told them who her girlfriend was. And the judgement that hadn't been in Noah's eyes materialised. He scoffed and left, leaving Zuri hurt.

Zuri turned to Imani, who sighed, shoulders slumped. Zuri followed her father out; he stood in the backyard, looking up at the stars. Zuri joined him. If admitting she had a girlfriend elicited such lukewarm joy, what would they say when she told them she meant to leave?

"I'm sorry, Papa. I love her." Zuri took a glance at her newly bandaged wrist.

Noah King huffed, eyes obstinately on the stars. "I don't hate that you love a girl. It's not unheard of. Your classmate Dhara ran off too; I remember."

Relief lightened her bones.

"But," her father faced her, "she's not human. She's hunted humans for centuries. She did that to you," he pointed to her bleeding wrist.

"People can change,"

"Not overnight,"

"She's promised me. Also, the work they set out to do is done, Papa. The Ytai are no more a threat to us. We've already made plans to travel...there's no more killing."

Noah put his hands at his back, observing her, face stern. "You are leaving,"

"Please come to the South with me,"

"I'm not changing my mind about leaving,"

Zuri bit the insides of her cheeks, killing her dissent. He'd made up his mind.

"Does she have a good heart?"

"She does. She loves me; she was ready to leave the only family she'd known for me. I trust her."

Noah closed his eyes, face clenched as if hurt. Zuri grew anxious when he stood like that for a long time. He opened his eyes, resting them on hers, determined. Zuri had the taste of an outcry on her lips when he spoke,

"I won't stop you from living your life, Zuri."

Zuri's heart nearly gave way with relief.

"You are old enough to choose your path," he continued. "Just remember – you can always come home, no matter what."

Zuri hugged her father, crying.

"Will you remember you always have a home here, child?"

Zuri looked into his eyes. "Yes, Noah,"

A test – calling him Noah. If he rejected it, he was still upset.

Noah grinned, leaving Zuri gratified.

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