Sephra refused to do anything until she had Angron stabilized. Once they reached a safe distance, she set the autopilot on a simple course and rushed into the room where the others had taken the man. Cigarette packs, likely bought on the black market in Darella, littered the room. They couldn't be acquired legally. His problem wasn't too common.

She picked up one of the packs, pulled out a cigarette, and put it in Angron's mouth. His breathing slowly but steadily stabilized.

"What about his broken arm?" Serion asked.

"Leave it as it is."

Solar snapped. "Have you gone mad? It's broken!"

"I know what I'm doing, kid."

Sephra simply secured Angron's arm in a tight splint and left it at that.

All four of them sat in silence in the same room on the other beds. The two younger ones had calmed down somewhat, but they were still nervously fidgeting. They couldn't forget the way Angron had looked at them in the cell.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" the girl asked quietly.

Sephra nodded.

"He got his dose. It will be much more challenging to calm him down when he wakes up. He'll have terrible guilt for killing the younger boy."

Solar and Daron remained silent.

"You don't want to tell us what's really going on with him, do you?" Serion interjected, voicing what everyone was thinking.

"No, I know you think you deserve to know, but... I can't. If he wants to talk about it, he will. I'm sorry."

"We understand," Solar grumbled, though it was clear she didn't really understand.

At this point, Serion decided to change the subject.

"Would you show us again what you found?"

The girl nodded and retrieved the green shard hidden in her clothing. She noticed how Sephra's purple eyes gleamed.

"Does anyone know what this is?" Solar asked.

The admiral reached out her hand, and the girl handed her the shard.

"Yes, I think I do. Did you find anything else?"

"Hira downloaded something when she deactivated the energy field around that thing. I don't know what it is, but I think we can check it here."

They all jumped when Angron suddenly moved. He slowly raised his hand to his head, and with a hoarse voice, he asked, "W-What happened?"

No one replied. Angron looked at each one of them, starting with Solar, then Daron, and his eyes widened. The change that occurred on his face was almost as terrifying as when he transformed. He grew paler as more memories flooded his mind.

He turned towards Solar, who involuntarily moved back on the bed.

"You... I asked you to take both kids out, didn't I?" Angron said.

The pilot tried to get up to grab the girl's throat but used his broken arm for support, causing him to fall back.

"It's his fault!" Solar pointed at Daron, who was shaking his head in terror.

Angron managed to sit up on the bed and began to wave his good arm frantically.

"Shut up! Everyone get out of here! Now!"

"Ang..." Sephra started, but the man didn't let her finish.

"Out!"

Serion, Solar, and Daron got up and rushed out one by one. The white-haired man paused in the doorway and looked back at Sephra, who was still sitting on the bed. Sephra turned towards him and nodded. Serion grimaced; he didn't want to leave her alone, but in the end, he left and closed the door.

Sephra turned back to the pilot, who was staring at her. She knew what he needed most right now. He wanted to rage, slam the walls, break everything around him, all freely, without supervision. However, given the circumstances, she couldn't afford to give him that chance.

Sephra picked up an open box, took out another cigarette, and extended it toward Angron. He swatted it out of her hand.

"I don't want it! Leave me alone!" he shouted.

Sephra wordlessly picked up the cigarette again and looked back at her friend. As much as she despised this, she had to do it now. She took a drag and exhaled the smoke. She felt it sting her lungs, but she didn't care. She wanted to help, and this was the only option at the moment.

Angron moved back on the bed, but he quickly realized he couldn't do anything. He let the smoke take effect and then reached out, taking the cigarette from Sephra.

Neither of them knew how long they sat in silence. Sephra watched the man, while he stared at the ground. As soon as he finished the first cigarette, he immediately pulled out another one. Then a third.

"I tried... I really tried... I did everything to prevent this from happening again. I made sure I always had some with me. Yet it still happened. It wasn't even my fault. Why does this happen to me? I didn't want this. Why did my father do this to me? I've never harmed him. I haven't even seen him since he left. Yes, we're on different sides, but still... So far, I've seen terrible things, and now I'm going to have that kid on mind. What's worst of all is that I know I enjoyed it. I mean, in transformed state. I liked tearing him apart..."

Sometimes he spoke rapidly, sometimes he muttered, once loudly, then quietly. He wasn't sure if Sephra understood everything he said, but it didn't matter. He just wanted to talk.

He snapped back to awareness when the smoke began to sting his eyes. Perhaps the ventilation was turned off. Looking sideways, he saw that an entire box was already gone. Luckily, he had bought a lot of them.

He looked up at the woman who was just getting up, moved closer to him, and embraced him. It felt good. Perhaps it was the only good thing he had felt lately. He leaned closer and rested his head on Sephra's shoulder. He smelled her hair, and it was entirely familiar.

He could barely remember the last time he had the opportunity to be alone with her. Perhaps back on Shouta. It had been so long. Now he had a chance to tell her what he felt.

No. Not under these circumstances. Perhaps the opportunity would never come. Maybe he would always be alone. But as long as Sephra was with him, even if only as a friend, nothing bad could happen. Even if they weren't together the way he wanted, he felt it was worth staying alive as long as she was there.

***

What happened? How did they manage to escape from the cell? So far, no one has succeeded because the panel controlling the energy field was too far away for anyone to reach. Did they receive help from the outside? Is someone a traitor? Why is there only footage of them at the hangar? Weren't they noticed before? Why didn't any alarm go off? Why weren't the aquatic man and the Grand Admiral in any of the pictures? Will everyone be questioned about this? Who is responsible for this?

Who made such a serious mistake?

The surviving soldiers whispered these questions to each other but fell silent when the Captain hurried past them with a dark look on his face. He went straight to the Leader.

As he entered, he saw that his lord was sitting at his desk, silently listening to the guards' report.

Quilen looked at him with his glowing blue eyes and then pointed to a chair.

"Sit down, Captain! Listen to the report!"

The guards bowed deeply to him before they began speaking in a rush.

"The prisoners have escaped, my lord. All of them. We tried to stop them, but the fight started too late. Until then, for some reason, no one saw them and nothing had signaled their escape. They took their ship. We could no longer target them. Furthermore, not only have they disappeared, but also what we were guarding on the second-floor corridor."

Quilen looked at his subordinate again, waiting in silence. The Captain looked at the guards, who simply showed him the evidence. They pressed a few buttons on the keyboard of a nearby device and pulled up the right footage. The monitor displayed how the young girl who came with the imperial forces went into the room, disabled the energy field with some small object, examined the green shard, and simply took it with her. The alarm didn't sound.

The Leader stared at the recording in silence, which replayed before his eyes. The Captain tried to read anger, despair, or something similar in his gaze, but he couldn't. As always, Quilen's brilliant blue gaze was utterly empty.

The red-haired man finally pressed a button and, at the same time as the image disappeared, closed his eyes.

"Tell me something honestly!" he said. "Who is responsible for all of this?"

"I don't know, my lord," one of the guards replied.

The Captain shook his head. He didn't want to name anyone.

"Who is responsible for all of this?" Quilen repeated the question, louder and more firmly this time. "Who allowed them to escape?"

"Many are responsible, my lord. Do you want to punish everyone for it?"

Quilen shook his head. His red hair swayed in front of his face.

"Of course not. Gentlemen, you may leave. Do everything to find out who was responsible!"

The guards looked at each other in disbelief and then hurried out of the room in joy, relieved that they were not held accountable.

When the Rebel Leader and the Captain were left alone, Quilen turned off the monitor.

"I'll ask again. Who is to blame for their escape? Who said that they didn't need stronger protection?"

"You, my lord. You are to blame for what happened."

Quilen grinned. "Exactly. I appreciate this honesty. It's not a mistake, when everything goes according to plan, am I right?"

The Captain responded without blinking.

"We lost the..."

Quilen knew what he wanted to say, so he immediately raised his hand. He didn't want to hear it.

"It was not important. We will manage without it. You've done an excellent job with destroying the recordings, Captain."

His subordinate bowed at the praise. "As you commanded, my lord."

"In which direction did they go?"

"I think the admiral randomly chose a direction. Should we go after them?"

"There's no need to rush. I would wait to see what our spies have to report. Nevertheless, Angron is indeed as uncontrollable as we expected. He needs to be kept in check during the whole time."

"I agree, my lord."

"I assume, you didn't tell him the truth this time either."

"No, my lord."

"Why? Do you want to live forever with your son's anger? Maybe I have no business with your family affairs, but I still suggest that when you see him next time, explain everything to him. You may leave."

The Captain bowed deeply, then straightened and left the Leader's office.