Kiana spends the day in town, shoving a fist in her pocket every time a family friend passes by and making sure to shake with her left hand. One more minute of her mom prattling on about Emmanuel Nikos and she just might break. She can’t imagine treating any person-- especially someone with so much money and such… unique ways of enforcing his policies-- like as much of a saint as she does. She never caught the name of the woman she helped last night, but one thing is for sure: there are dozens of others like her. People are being mugged under the guise of “unregistered bionics”, only for that technology to be turned for a profit. 

When Kiana fell off the crane and watched her arm get stuck in the lattice halfway through the fall, the hopelessness almost screamed louder than the agony. She couldn’t afford the hospital bill, couldn’t tell her parents what had happened, and certainly couldn’t spend another day dealing with the excruciating pain her now useless arm was causing her. An under-the-table replacement was the only option. She was purely, utterly, alone before turning to cage fighting. Nobody deserves to go down that same pipeline. Not if she can help it.

She walks a lap through the shopping district, trying to devise a game plan for tomorrow. With every scenario that includes a quiet, private exchange between her and Nikos, there’s always a roadblock. There will be too many people in the room. A dress isn’t exactly combat friendly. I’ll be unarmed. I’ll endanger my family. I’ll endanger my reputation. As much as Caelius tries to convince her to let go of how the people in Beaufort see her, it’s been on her mind since the moment they arrived. She can deal with that only after there’s justice for all the people that Emmanuel Nikos has hurt.

Caelius slips out of a clothing store, tossing a new pair of gloves to her roommate. Her comforting hand rests on her shoulder and silently asks Kiana to take a breath. As much as she hates to drag the people she cares about into her messes, she doesn’t regret bringing Caelius along. She can hold her own no matter what. They enter the restaurant at the end of the lane together, where Isaac has already saved two seats in the middle of the table for them.

At least one of us is having a good time, Kiana thinks when Caelius strikes up a conversation with her father. She’s never been shy of talking, which is the strongest asset she’s got right now-- less conversation means less questions that she has to lie her way through to answer.

Or maybe not.

“Kiki, have you ever thought about taking over the house once your residency is up?” her dad asks from across the table.

“My what?”

He chuckles and raises an eyebrow. “Your residency at the lab. You do still work there, right?”

“Oh, my residency! Yes. I mean...  yes, I still work there. Caelius too. About the house, though, I’m not sure. I’ll have to think about it more.”

Kiana reaches for a lifeline when she looks at Caelius, but is only met with a pitying grin and the words good job mouthed in her direction. She grabs a chunk of break from the center of the table and takes a bite out of it. Her mom seems unsettled by her daughter’s indecision, but luckily, keeps her reservations to herself.

“So, Caelius, how’d you end up at USC? Are you a California native?”

Caelius fixes the pins keeping her hair back before resting her elbows on the table. “I’m from Oregon, actually,” she begins. “Moved into the dorms my freshman year but I didn’t meet Kiana until I was a sophomore. As much as I tried to get her to come to parties with me, she was wound pretty tight.”

“I assume you’re both too busy with work for that kind of stuff anymore. What a shame.”

“You’d be surprised at how much you can shake a person loose.”

Again with the graceful lying. Kiana almost wishes it were the truth-- how easy her life would be if she and Caelius met as two college students instead of a cage fighter living hand-to-mouth and a science experiment on the run from the ACA. In a way, a few ounces of truth weave themselves into the lies. Next to being a public nuisance, Caelius’s favorite hobby is chasing ambitious bounties and bringing Kiana along with her. 

“Kiki, I want you to introduce yourself first when we get to the gala tomorrow,” her mother insists.

“Momma, you’re a bionicist. These people will wanna talk to you more than me.”

“Well, I can’t let all the stories I’ve told about you just be half-truths! The least you owe them is the real deal.”

So now everyone within a ten mile radius knows, she thinks. Perfect. 

“I’ve also been pushing for some new lab equipment, but my boss is a bit stiff on the subject. Feel free to give Mr. Nikos a push in that direction, too, if you get the chance.”

She curls her fingers around the edge of the table. “So you want me to go and talk to Emmanuel Nikos so I can get him to do something for you?” Kiana asks. She forgets that she’s addressing her own mother before it’s too late. 

“Excuse me? Honey, not me. All of us.”

“Who’s us? Because I don’t think it’s people with bionics that you’re ‘helping’ with your research.”

The table goes absolutely silent. As much as Caelius enjoys seeing her companion’s exterior melt away, this is quite possibly the worst time and place for it. Kiana takes a deep breath and unfurls her fists. “I didn’t come home just to sign my name to a family estate or be the family poster child. When I go to this banquet, I want to go as Kiana. Not as ‘the eldest Lennox daughter’, not as a USC grad, and not as the image of me that you guys made up.”

The image of me that I made up.

She’s very familiar with the glare her father shoots across the table. Watch your damn mouth, it says.

“Can you blame us?” Hendrick speaks up. He looks hesitant to be throwing himself into the fray. “All we get from you is a few phone calls every once in a while and some social media posts. Since you’re here, why don’t you give us something that we don’t have to make up?”

The one thing she’s wanted to do for years, explicitly being asked of her. But her body freezes up in her chair. All she can manage is, “There’s a lot I want to say. But not until after the gala.”

Fortunately, the silence doesn’t last and the panic evaporates. Kiana finishes her meal and excuses herself, saying that she’ll meet everyone back at the house. Caelius follows her out the door without so much as a glance. Being alone is the last thing Kiana needs right now.