Si Hera. The Waste Wars. The seemingly endless desert.

After Mylo died in battle and June—Jane—returned to the shack, she didn't know what to do anymore. But she'd been here before. The emptiness. The well in her chest that stretched into unending darkness. She looked down into it, waiting for something to come out.

Years passed, blurring together under the blinding suns. Jane woke up one morning and realized It was 1989 on Earth. And she was here on a harsh desert planet, thirty-seven years old, still trapped in an unaging body.

Finally, she had to face the fact that she couldn't survive out in the sands on her own. Food and water were running low. Winter was coming, bringing frigid nights to accompany the cooler-but-still-sweltering days.

She wandered to Sagev, the bustling city that also happened to be the closest piece of civilization to the shack. It had been evacuated during the worst of the battles, but now the citizens were back to drink and gamble and party. Jane easily slipped back into her old ways of stealing food and taking shelter in dark corners. She kept hidden from most people. The police didn't catch her. Other criminals didn't hurt her. Old enemies didn't track her down.

But it wasn't enough to stop Elexa from finding her.

Elexa was native to the Si Heran mountains. Her skin was tough, almost at odds with its pastel blue color. In contrast, her eyes were a remarkably dark blue. Fluffy white hair fell from her head in layers aroundher tall, pointed ears to her chin. Her tail ended in a tuft of white fur, while her fingers ended in black claws.

"I spotted you on the roof of Silvium Tower," Elexa said as she dropped into the subtrain maintenance room Jane was hiding in. "Their security is infamous. How'd you get up there?"

"What are you, a cop?" Jane's fingers twitched at her side as she rose to her feet, mentally mapping out the best escape route.

"Absolutely not. Name's Elexa." Elexa swept her gaze over the dirty blankets and food wrappers and crumpled Nova Cora cans littering the room. Some of the hair Jane had hacked off the week before still clung to the cement, too. "I'm looking for people like you. People with skills."

"And what makes you think I'm a team player?" Jane asked.

"You fought in the Waste Wars, didn't you?"

"How did you know that?"

"I fought in them, too. Recognized you." Elexa crossed the room and stopped right in front of Jane. She was, surprisingly, a couple inches taller. "You were good. When I saw you again today, I knew we needed you."

Jane's eyes narrowed. "Who's we?"

"The Waste Wars may have ended, but things aren't exactly settled. There's still battles to be fought between politicians." Elexa smirked. "And those can get just as bloody."

Jane tipped her head to the side. "You gonna get to the point, or can I go?"

Elexa laughed. "Go where?"

"Literally anywhere else."

"Okay, okay," Elexa said. "I'm with the Resistance."

"Really? The Resistance?" Jane asked. "You couldn't think of something less generic?"

"Well, the Third Si Heran Eastern Resistance, if you're going to get nit-picky." Elexa folded her arms. "How'd you like to have a reason to fight? A purpose? Instead of, well, this." She gestured to the mess Jane had been living in.

"Rude," Jane said.

"But true."

Jane was about two seconds from wiping that stupid smirk off Elexa's face. "Newsflash, I don't give a damn about any of the warring governments on this stupid planet."

"Then why are you still here?" Elexa jabbed a finger at Jane's chest. "Listen, if you want to sit around and waste your life, fine. But people out there are suffering, because the guy who won the Waste Wars is shaping Sagev into a place for rich people on vacation and driving up the prices. People are being forced out of their homes with nothing to eat and nowhere to go."

"What else is new?" Jane muttered.

"Don't you want to do something about it?"

Jane lifted her gaze from the floor to meet Elexa's. The girl's eyes were burning with fury. It was a look Jane had seen in the mirror all too many times.

"Are you actually making progress?" Jane asked. She wasn't sure she could handle another failed attempt at trying to fix one of the galaxy's problems.

"Yes," Elexa said. "We're the ones who robbed that cargo ship last pentasol. We redistributed the food to the camps at the edge of the city."

Jane wasn't convinced. "That's great, but that's not going to do much to stop the government."

"Which is why we're planning a big uprising. We're going to replace Si Hera's leader with one of our own. But we need all the help we can get." Elexa lifted her chin. "Are you in?"

Maybe it was a longshot. Maybe they'd fail. Ah, what the hell? What better way to find out than to tag along?

"Sure," Jane said. "Why not. I'm in."

"Good." Elexa flashed her a grin. "So, what's your name?"

Time to pick a new one, Jane supposed. "Juno," she said. "Juno...Powers."

Juno threw her clothes and some unopened food into a bag before following Elexa out of the underground. Elexa led her to the edge of town, and Juno briefly wondered if Elexa was actually planning to kill her.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case. They wound up at an old war shack not unlike the one Juno had lived in with Mylo. Elexa walked up to the door and hit it with a pattern of alternating long and short knocks. After a long moment, it opened.

"I have our newest recruit," Elexa said.

The man on the other side of the door looked Juno up and down. He was a rather ordinary looking Si Heran—bald, shimmery dark blue skin, bright yellow eyes with slitted pupils. "She's the one you were looking for?"

Elexa nodded.

The man sighed. "Bring her in."

As Elexa led Juno into the shack, she said in a low voice, "This is Astor. He's the leader of the Resistance."

Astor gestured to a small, round wooden table. Two chairs sat next to it. "Have a seat."

While Juno and Elexa sat down, Astor disappeared through a curtain into another room. He returned with two glasses of water, which he set on the table in front of them.

"I can't promise the rest of the Resistance will be on board with this," Astor said. "Bringing in someone new right now is risky. Especially given that we don't know who the mole is."

"Are we sure there even is a mole?" Elexa asked. "I just can't believe anyone here would betray us."

"There's no other explanation for how the government knew about our plans." Astor sighed. "Now Lee is dead, and we have to find someone else suitable to rule Si Hera."

"Trust me, we'll need her on our side to succeed," Elexa said. "She survived the Waste Wars. She got in and out of Silvium Tower. And based on all of the junk lying around her hideout, she's the one behind the recent heists around the city."

Astor lifted an eyebrow. "How old are you?"

Juno shrugged. "Old enough."

"Let her prove herself." Elexa leaned forward. "We can't move forward without the government database, right? If anyone can steal it, she can."

"Is that true?" Astor asked, turning his gaze to Juno.

Juno's fingers twitched. "Maybe. Where is this government database?"

"It can only be accessed from a single server room in the middle of the Sagev Defense Building. Their security is much tighter than Silvium Tower's."

Juno was well aware of the SDB's security measures. "Right," she said. "They're near impossible to get through." She lifted an eyebrow, some of her old confidence finally returning. "Key word being 'near.'"

Elexa smirked. "Sounds like you have a way in."

"I might." Juno leaned back in her chair. "Are you letting me join your Resistance, then?"

"It's not entirely my decision," Astor said. "But if you succeed at getting us the database, then I'm sure our members would accept you."

Juno didn't love the idea of pulling off such a dangerous mission without the guarantee of these people taking her in, but she nodded. "Fine. But if I'm going to pull this off, I'll need a team of five people, some blasters, and a motorcycle."

Astor didn't bat an eye. "Whatever you need."