Heavy bass pounded through the floor as Zaphron let us into the apartment. I followed Axel through the door, worrying over how badly his donor arm was shaking under Delta's weight.

"We'll put her in our room," Axel said, swinging through the first door on the left. I hesitated, torn between following him or Zaphron—who had continued down the short hall toward the lounge and kitchen. When I caught sight of the moody blue-haired girl, who I assumed was Atlanta, at the surveillance desk—I quickly decided to go with Axel.

He lowered Delta onto a double bed in the corner of a small, very untidy room. I glanced around, feeling overwhelmed by how much stuff was strewn over the floor and tripped on a pair of discarded boots.

"Careful." Axel caught me by the shoulders before I hit the carpet. "Sorry about all the crap. Zaph is the messy one."

"I can believe that," I said, straightening up and directing my gaze to a fold-out couch against the opposite wall. Somehow, I could tell from the tangled sheets that it was Zaphron's. All kinds of discarded clothes and weapons lined the floor around it—I even spotted a hunting knife stabbed into the carpet below a bedside table.

"You and your friend can have my bed," Axel said, gesturing to the far neater bed he had placed Delta on. "Zaph and I can work something out for ourselves." He surveyed me with weary eyes before opening a cupboard and passing me a towel from inside. "There's a bathroom through there," he said indicating to an adjoining door.

I frowned, wondering if he was trying to hint that I stank—but when I looked down, I realised I was covered in flaking layers of Delta's dried blood.

"I'll ask Atlanta about you both borrowing some clothes. Or I suppose if anything of ours fits you're welcome to borrow that too." He gave a small, half-hearted smile.

"Thank you," I said, trying to instil as much appreciation as I could into two words. He had done so much for us today. "Are you alright? You don't look so good."

He waved his hand the way he had when Zaphron had offered to help carry Delta. "I'm fine. It's just been a hell of a day."

I nodded and kneaded the towel in my hands.

"I'll leave you to it, shout if you need anything." He closed the door behind him and I peered down at Delta. She was a picture of serenity as she slept—still deathly pale, but peaceful. I slid off her boots, then my own—placing them side by side at the foot of the bed and padding into the bathroom.

It was tiny. A toilet, vanity and shower were all crammed into a space barely large enough to be a cupboard. More clothes littered the tiled floor and products covered every inch of the vanity, surrounding the sink as though they were holding it hostage.

I picked up an almost-empty bottle of cologne and sniffed it. An instant and all too vivid memory of Zaphron's arm around me at the theme park popped into my mind and I put the bottle straight back down.

As I got undressed, I realised that in all the panic surrounding Delta, I'd completely ignored half a dozen pieces of shrapnel that were buried in my arm and hidden by my shirt. The largest of which was an obvious piece of the professor's door. It was sticking out by about half an inch and throbbed under the hot water of the shower. Without thinking, I pulled it straight out—gasping in daft surprise when it actually hurt. A small spray of blood followed, slowing to a trickle, but not stopping.

I tried to forget about the damage to my arm and soak in the comfort of the warm water. It felt like ages since I'd had a proper shower. In reality it was probably only a few days, but time seemed skewed—and everything prior to that day at the theme park felt like a lifetime ago.

My eyes stung with moisture and it wasn't until a shuddering sob wracked my body that I realised I was crying. I sank into a ball, hugging my knees as the water fell over me, my tears mixing with the warm water of the shower until I had none of either left.

I towel dried my hair, catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror. A monstrous hand-shaped bruise was in full bloom around my throat, coupled with a matching welt on my right cheek. I prodded the discoloured skin lightly, testing the tenderness, before squinting at myself. The eyelash extensions Mum had so proudly given me were dark and wet with tears.

If only she could see me now.

I blew out a breath, shutting down the line of thought before I could begin to wonder if I would ever see Mum again. Surviving was the priority for now—then finding Dad's malware. Once Zenith was dealt with I would be free to pick up the pieces of my life again.

I searched the crowd of products on the vanity and found a can of men's deodorant. Spraying it on and wrapping myself in the towel, I took a few deep breaths before stepping back out into the bedroom.

As I padded back over to Delta, the door burst open. Atlanta stomped in with a stormy expression, a pile of clothes in her arms.

"These are all I can spare at the moment," she said, dropping the pile unceremoniously at the foot of the bed. Her dark eyes looked me over, honing in on my injured arm. "You're bleeding on our towel," she pointed out plainly, before striding back out the door.

"I'm aware of that," I said to myself after the door slammed behind her. It sounded as though she yelled something down the hallway about a med kit.

"Who was that?" Delta raised her head and was squinting at the door like she was looking into a bright light.

"You're awake!" I rushed over to her and pulled her as gently as I could into a hug.

"Ow. Careful, yeah haven't slept that well in... maybe ever." She gave a strained grin that turned to a frown as she passed a dazed glance around the room. "Where the hell are we?"

I picked up the clothes Atlanta had dumped on the floor and put them on the bed. "Bit of a long story, but we took you to hospital and now we're back at the club I told you about."

"With Zaphron?" she asked, her voice a croak. "What happened to The Alliance rebels at the academy?"

"Zaphron and Axel," I answered, pulling a pair of black PVC tights and a grey t shirt dress from the pile with more consideration than was needed—anything to stop me from thinking about what had happened at the academy.

"You think we can trust them?" Delta's eyes dipped in a tired blink and her voice grew faint.

I sat on the bed beside her, pulling my knees to my chest and my towel tighter around me. "We kind of don't have any other options," I said quietly, "but it sounds like they want to help us."

Delta's eyes fluttered and she let out a tiny sigh. "Or for us to help them—?" She drifted back off to sleep.

I let go of my knees and stared at the floor. Was there a difference?

A knock at the door made me jump and I nearly lost the grip on my towel.

"Astrid? It's Zaph, Atlanta said your arm needs a patch up?"

"Just a second," I called, wriggling into my borrowed clothes. The grey t shirt dress turned out to just be an oversized tee, but it did the job—hiding how the tights practically fitted me like a second skin.

I covered the worst of my injuries with my hand in an attempt to slow the bleeding, but I was already too late, a rivulet of blood had begun to trickle down my forearm. Clutching the wound, I crossed the room in three steps, opening the door to reveal Zaphron's back. "Ready nurse," I said sarcastically.

He spun around and I noticed he'd cleaned himself up. All evidence of his blood nose was gone, accentuating the bruises under his eyes and along his jaw. He faltered and stared at me for a moment, a funny, almost bewildered, expression crossing face as his eyes ran over my outfit. "Nice shirt."

"Thanks," I said, drawing the word out suspiciously.

He stepped past me, unlooping a small med kit from his shoulder. "Sorry about the mess," he said, kicking an empty take-away container aside as he headed for the bed where Delta slept. "It's all Axel's."

I laughed. "I don't believe that for a second."

He raised an eyebrow and grinned, pushing the pile of Atlanta's clothes off the bed to make room for the kit. They fell into a messy heap on the carpet. "You'd be right not to."

I bunched my lips to one side to hide a smile.

Zaphron's gaze dropped to where I clutched my arm and his face grew serious. Blood had begun to well between my fingers, trickling out over my knuckles. "I think I should probably take a look at that," he said, motioning for me to come over.

I sat on the end of the bed, grabbing my already blood-stained towel and sandwiching it between my forearm and my lap in anticipation for the mess. Zaphron opened his med kit, kneeling to take my arm in his gloved hands.

"That's an impressive collection of shrapnel," he said, pulling out a long pair of tweezers and removing a few stray pieces of glass from my skin. A slithering trickle of blood oozed down my forearm between them like a crimson stream. "I'll have to clip that big one closed."

I nodded and braced for it to sting. He doused the cut with antiseptic solution, his fingers tightening ever so slightly on my arm as I flinched. "Sorry." He peeked up at me, the bright blue of his eyes piercing through his dark lashes. "You okay?"

"It's fine," I mumbled, glancing away. "Better than it getting infected."

He pulled a pack of Seri-Strips from the kit and pinned the cut closed with five of the stitches, topping the whole thing off with a bandage around my forearm.

"That should do it," he said, standing up and pulling off his gloves. "Well, it should stop you from bleeding all over my favourite shirt at least."

"Your shirt?" My gaze snapped down to the oversized tee. "I thought this was Atlanta's?"

Zaphron laughed. "Atlanta wouldn't be caught dead in anything that wasn't two sizes too small for her."

Heat climbed my neck, spreading to my cheeks. "It must have got mixed up with her stuff when she dumped it all on the floor. I'll find something else."

Zaphron bit down on a grin and shrugged. "Don't worry about it. It suits you."

The heat in my face intensified as I floundered for a response. "Thanks," I managed to mumble, tugging at my sleeve self-consciously.

He ran a hand through his hair and busied himself packing up the med-kit. "Axel and I are going for a drink downstairs if you want to come along."

I frowned, the warmth draining out of me. "After everything that happened today, you're going clubbing? What about Delta?"

"She's not exactly going anywhere," he said, casting a glance from her to me. "Atlanta can keep an eye on her."

I couldn't see Atlanta being too pleased about that.

"I'll pass," I said, sitting myself further back on the bed.

Zaphron drew breath to say something, but was interrupted by Axel popping his head through the door. "Zaph, you coming?"

Zaphron's gaze held mine for a moment, before he turned away. "Yeah man, be right there."