A short while later, Ten was seated in the meeting room, still smiling.

“…Is your face stuck that way?” Fifteen asked, annoyed.

“No. I’m just so happy to see you all again. And I’m excited to tell you all that I’ve learned since I’ve been gone.” Ten smiled brighter.

“You’re not really our Ten, are you?” asked 86. “I mean…you can’t be. You must be the Ten from some other fleet…”

“I promise you, it’s me. Besides, double-digits are extremely rare these days. What are the odds that another Ten who looked exactly like me would come to visit you just after I left?”

“You didn’t 'leave'. You DIED.” Fifteen said.

The room was silent.

Just then, 404 burst in with 1225 and Hundred in tow. They stared at Ten in wonderment, too stunned to speak.

Ten waved.

404 carefully closed the door. “Alright,” she said, “Now that everyone’s here…let’s start this meeting.”

“What are we meeting about??” asked 86. “We don’t even know what’s going on here!”

“Well, let’s find out,” said 404. “Ten…if that is who you are…what are you doing here?”

“This is where I belong,” Ten replied. “I was born to serve with the 1st Fleet as long as I live. And as you can see…I still live.”

“Forgive us if we find that hard to believe…seeing as your signal went offline and is STILL offline,” said 404.

“I have a new signal now. One that you probably won’t be able to detect.”

Ten rested her arms on the table. “I don’t blame you guys for thinking that I died. The evidence definitely points that way. But the truth is that I didn’t. The Living Ones made sure of that.”

“You mean…the people living in that city…saved you after we left?” offered 1225.

“Not those Living Ones. The ones in charge.”

“That isn’t possible,” said 404. “Why would Administration do something like that? Especially without notifying us??”

“Not to be rude, but…I don’t think you have the ‘clearance’ for this, 404.” Ten said, grinning. “Technically, I’m not supposed to be telling you guys any of this. I’m not even supposed to be here. But they couldn’t do anything to stop me.”

“I am…the answer,” she continued. “The answer to the problem of the Residue AND the Exhaust. Now that I’m here, no Phaeton will have to die ever again.”

“So, then…you are the reason for this ‘dry spell’?” asked Hundred.

Ten turned to face her. “…No. Or, actually…I don’t really know, myself. If I have any ability to suppress the Exhaust, I’m not aware of it. But—”

“So what makes you ‘the answer’?” Fifteen interrupted.

“You’re about to find out.”

As soon as she stopped speaking, the alarm rang.

+++

As the group of captains hurried down the hall to the launch bay (404 sprinted ahead of them), Ten continued her explanation without a care in the world.

“I knew that was going to happen. Before Fifteen so rudely interrupted me, I was going to say that I can always tell when it’s going to show up,” she said.

“How??” asked 86, incredulous.

“Do you really expect me to have an answer to that? The people to ask are the Living Ones.”

“Attention, please. We’ve received reports of Exhaust formation in...well, all Class captains, please report to the launch bay. All other personnel, on-call or otherwise, please stand by,” said 404 over the intercom.

“’Stand by’? What are we gonna do all by ourselves??” wondered 1225.

“Obviously, something is wrong, and she wants to speak to us privately before involving anyone else,” said Fifteen, quickening her pace. “As if this day wasn’t strange enough already…”

“Don’t worry. Whatever happens, I can handle it,” said Ten. The smile returned to her face.

+++

When they arrived, 404 was on the verge of tears.

“For the first time in my life…I don’t know what to do!” She said, dropping to the floor. “There just isn’t a way to do this…there just isn’t…”

86 knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, don’t stress out,” she said. “There’s a solution to every problem. Just tell us what it is, and we’ll all figure it out together.”

“You want to know what the problem is?!” she exclaimed. “Just go over there! Go to the drive rail and look, and then tell me how we’re going to figure THAT out!”

86 obeyed, and the others followed suit. And what they saw put 404’s panic neatly into perspective.

An enormous wall of darkness covered the horizon. It was so tall that they actually had to look up to see its top.

And no matter which section of the drive rail they chose as a vantage point, there it was. It was as if it surrounded the facility on all sides.

“It’s covered the entirety of Sector A,” 404 said, defeated. “It’s so huge, you can even see it from other sectors. It’ll undoubtedly be on the news before long. Any of the Phaetons watching TV down there, they’re going to hear all about it soon. If they’re outside, they won’t even need to…”

“How did it get THIS big before we heard anything about it?!” Fifteen demanded.

“I don’t know! It just appeared all at once! And it’s not even at critical mass yet…” 404 began to cry. “When it does get there, I have no idea what’ll happen! Everyone in the sector could be dead in less than 5 minutes, and I don’t know what to do!”

The captains stood in silence. There really didn’t seem to be a way out.

An Exhaust formation usually quadrupled its surface area after dispersion; one of this size would end up covering a sizable portion of the continent. It would take hundreds of thousands of Phaetons just to contain it, let alone fight it.

And all the people it killed in the meantime, all the people it was killing right at that moment, would only make things even worse later on. Even if, by some miracle, they beat it this time, they would certainly fail next time. Especially when casualties were taken into account.

The Residue had brought them to their knees faster than they had expected. It really looked like the world was about to end.

Suddenly, Ten spoke up. “…Like I said, don’t worry. I can handle it,” she chirped.

Everyone in the room stared at her. “Are you…insane??” Fifteen hissed.

“I told you I was the answer. To things like this, and anything else the Exhaust can throw at us.”

She grabbed her hilt and unsheathed a long, ornate sword. It was even longer and wider than those of the Limit Phaetons: definitely not a normal weapon for a Point.

She carried the sword over to the drive rail. “I’ll be right back,” she said, and jumped off without even waiting for launch.

Exactly what happened next was hard to fathom. The Exhaust cloud billowed outward, then began to shrink into an infinitesimal point, as if something was pulling it all in. A strong wind whipped through the launch bay, almost hard enough to send 1225’s tiny frame over the edge.

When the wind finally subsided and the Phaetons could open their eyes, the sky was clear.

404 slowly stood up. “The signal…is gone,” she said. “It completely disappeared!”

“Told you.”

Ten reappeared behind the group, mysterious sword in hand. “The Exhaust has been taken care of. There’s nothing to worry about anymore.”

“How…did you do that?” 86 asked. “Did you seriously do that??”

“You saw it with your own eyes,” she said. “It’s what I was made…well, re-made to do.”

“I need to talk to Administration right away…” 404 said, wiping her face.

Ten ran to her and caught her arm. “Don’t,” she said sternly.

“…Why not?”

“The people in Administration that you would talk to…aren’t supposed to know about this either. I told you, you don’t have the clearance. This is all very top secret.”

She turned to the others. “I’d really appreciate it if what I did just now didn’t leave this room.”

“But how come? I mean, this is a really good thing!” 1225 exclaimed. “Besides, it’s not like we’d get in trouble for just talking about it here—”

“You would get in trouble. A lot of trouble,” Ten replied. “Don’t talk about this with anyone. Everyone will know…when it’s time.”