By the time Ainslee, Moonlight, and I joined her, Poppy, and my sister, Karen was looking a lot better and seemed to be doing okay. She was obviously still a bit shaken from the fight, Davenport trying to brainwash her, and coming far too close to death for comfort, but that was completely understandable. She didn’t look nearly as pale or shell-shocked though, and she wasn’t shivering anymore either, so I was hoping that it meant she was doing better as I asked, “How are you holding up, Karen?”

For a moment, it looked like she was going to try to brusquely brush me off, but she paused to take a long breath and then answered, “Better than I was. I’m probably only still alive because of you and Moonlight, so… thanks. Mostly, I’m just glad it’s over and hoping that he’ll never get the chance to hurt anyone ever again.”

“Yeah, between that ability and what I read in his file, I’m pretty sure that once the VC gets a good look in his head, he’ll never see daylight again,” I assured her. “He’ll pay for what he’s done.”

It was as I was telling her that the familiar high-pitched whine of a personnel transport’s engines descending announced the arrival of our ride as the transport settled in for a landing. There wasn’t nearly enough room for it in the clearing our campsite was in, so it settled into a hover over the water as close to the shore as it could and then extended a loading ramp. A moment later, the medical team disembarked and started to examine the prisoners and give them what medical care they could beyond the basic first aid they had already been given.

While that was happening, Lilac came to us to discuss what would be happening now. She would be joining us for the ride back to the city on the transport to serve as a witness, but the rest of her team and Overwatch Two would remain here to watch our campsite while we were gone. The idea was that when the hearing was over, I could teleport us all back to the campsite so she could return to her team, and they could get back to their stealth ops training. Whether we decided to stay here and finish our weekend of camping together or gather our stuff to go back to the city would be up to us.

I put it to a vote while the prisoners and the body-bagged corpse were being loaded onto the transport, and it was decided unanimously that we would finish our camping trip and try to relax after everything that had happened lately. I was a little bit surprised at that, especially with Karen and Poppy voting in favor. I had figured that with our mission now complete, they both would have voted to go back to the city.

After what Karen had just been through, I would have thought that she’d want to put some distance between herself and where it had happened. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised though, since going back to the city would likely mean being locked up in her room in Vanguard Tower again. She also seemed to genuinely enjoy camping, and before the attack had happened, she seemed to be starting to relax and drop her guard with us a bit. This was a good thing, in my opinion, because it gave me hope that she would let us in and would become a real friend and part of the team.

As for Poppy, she was a city girl and with my house now destroyed, our options for sleeping somewhere safe in the great outdoors were severely limited. Even with the magitech warding spikes set up around the camp, there was a lot of wildlife out there and we were bite-sized for most of it. She had been acting out of sorts since she told me about Lindsey and the prophecy last night though.

Poppy had been quiet and withdrawn for most of the day, not at all her usual cheerful and excitable self, and only really came out of it when we needed to focus on repelling our attackers. Not that she didn’t have reasons for being quiet and withdrawn, especially now. Last night she had dug up the ghosts of her past, and I could see that the memory of what happened on the day of that Incursion held a lot of pain for her. She would probably have to go through it all again soon for the Vice-Commander too.

That wasn’t even counting what had happened during the attack by Davenport and his hired goons. Poppy had severely injured one of those men and killed another, the only casualty of the attack. I was worried about how that might affect her, and apparently, I wasn’t the only one.

Once we were all inside the transport and it was lifting off, Lilac, who was sitting with me and Poppy, glanced at my quiet girlfriend sympathetically. “I’m going to guess this is your first time taking a life,” she said, quietly enough for only me and Poppy to hear.

For a moment, Poppy said nothing, she just kept staring off into space with a pained expression. Finally, though, her voice barely a whisper, she tentatively replied, “I… I didn’t mean to. I was turning it back on his weapon… trying to take it out of play, but I couldn’t control it well. I… barely kept it contained to just him.”

“I’m honestly surprised you could manipulate it at all,” the Pixie told her as she reached out to gently squeeze Poppy’s shoulder. “Plasma isn’t like regular fire, and those weapons are illegal with good reason. There is no mere wounding with a plasma weapon, usually, they leave only the incinerated corpses of their targets, if they leave anything at all.”

“We were lucky my plan worked, and he was focused on Kelly, she’s probably the only person in the world who could just shrug that off like she did. If he had used it on anyone but her, or you hadn’t been so quick to take that weapon out of play, one or more of us would probably be dead right now instead of him,” I told my girlfriend as I wrapped her in a loving embrace to comfort her.

“She’s right,” Lilac promptly agreed. “If that man came armed with such a weapon, he was intending to kill, and he doesn’t deserve your sympathy or second thoughts. As soon as he used that weapon, it was you and your friends or him, and you made the right call. We saw that some of those men had illegal weapons, but that plasma pistol was heavily modified to change its appearance and make it look like a legal stun pistol. If we had been able to properly identify the weapon, we would have taken them all down before they got to your camp, regardless of the mission.”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure if our words, or even my embrace, brought Poppy much comfort. Sure, we all knew that we were training to take down Titans, but they were aliens and the aggressors in the strange war our world was now embroiled in. These people we had just fought with, on the other hand, were just that; they were people. They were people from Earth, just like we were, even if we couldn’t really be called human anymore, and while we had been expecting to fight to defend ourselves and Karen, the thought of killing one of those attackers wasn’t something that most of us had considered because the goal was to bring them in alive for trial. Poppy was quiet and lost in thought for the rest of the trip back to the city.

It felt like déjà vu all over again as we silently rode in the personnel transport back to the city and to Vanguard Tower with prisoners. There were some marked differences, of course, such as Kelly and Poppy being with us, Karen being on our side this time, at night instead of during the day, and the transport being more crowded, but things were very much the same too. The post-battle tension, the disdain I held for the people who attacked us, and the anticipation that justice would shortly be served were very much like the last time.

The courtroom was a little more crowded than the last time I was here, with not just my full team in addition to Commander Kline, Vice-Commander Carpenter, and the Vanguard team watching over the prisoners, but the seven prisoners as well, all securely restrained in those super secure medical beds with thick metal restraints holding them in place. Even with those beds angled upward so that they were all in mostly upright positions, this small, private courtroom was feeling a bit crowded. Commander-General Kline and Vice-Commander Carpenter both looked tired too, like they had a long day, but I guess that was to be expected since it was now well after midnight.

The trial began much as the last one did, with the reading of the charges. All of them were being charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, assault with intent to commit murder, possession of illegal weapons, assault against a Vanguard officer, and assault against Vanguard personnel. The one who blew up my house was also being charged with the use of Altered abilities as a deadly weapon, attempted murder with an Altered ability, and destruction of private property. Davenport faced the added charges of conspiracy to commit sexual assault and espionage, the last charge being shared with Jacob Carson, who was watching Vanguard Tower and waiting for Karen to show her face outside.

In the end, once the Vice-Commander had finished reading each of their minds, she and Commander-General Kline quietly deliberated before handing down their verdict. While I gathered from the look on her face that none of what she found in any of their minds was a pleasant experience for her, Vice-Commander Carpenter made a point of singling Davenport out as a twisted and dangerous sex predator. All of them were going to be spending the rest of their natural lives in prison as meals for the local Vampire population, but Alistair Davenport was getting special attention in his sentencing as well.

She must have seen my threats to him when she read his mind, because the sentence she announced was exactly what I had threatened him with, almost word for word, and she even made a brief nod in my direction while announcing it. The VC didn’t stop there either. She also announced that all his considerable assets and bank accounts would be seized and that half of those proceeds would be divided among his previous victims while the rest would be used by the Vanguard for worthwhile projects. A much smaller portion would also be given to me to replace my house and other belongings that were destroyed in the attack on us.

It was probably the best outcome that we could hope for, and Karen looked happy that both Davenport and his goons were getting the book thrown at them. Unfortunately, even as the prisoners were being wheeled out, I knew that I still wasn’t finished yet, and neither was Poppy. Taking her hand and quickly excusing ourselves, I led my girlfriend toward Commander-General Kline and Vice-Commander Carpenter, hoping to speak with both of them before they left, probably to go back to bed.

They were both watching the prisoners being wheeled out of the room and Vice-Commander Carpenter’s face still bore a particularly disgusted expression. I felt kind of bad for her having to go through that asshole’s brain before bed, but hopefully, this would give her something far more important to focus on. It was Commander-General Kline who first noticed our approach and the Elven man gave a tired smile as he said, “Cadet-Major Pierce, we really must stop meeting this way.”

He was right, we’d only met twice and both times we were in this courtroom following some sort of attack. I winced slightly as I replied, “I couldn’t agree more, Sir. I was actually hoping to speak with both of you regarding an extremely important matter though. Poppy here has some very important intel to share with you, and I would really recommend that you both hear her out.”

Vice-Commander Carpenter raised an eyebrow in interest, even though she looked like she’d probably rather be in bed. She was well aware that we were only here so late because of the sting operation she had pushed for though. After a moment, she nodded. “I know that you wouldn’t ask to speak with both of us unless it was extremely important, Lily. On a scale of one to ten, how important do you think this matter is? Would it be able to wait until Monday morning, or is it time-sensitive?”

“Vice-Commander, this is a definite ten, maybe an eleven,” I told her seriously, causing her eyebrow to rise once again, this time along with the other. “It’s time-sensitive, but not immediately so, but this is big, and I consider this a matter that you would likely want to know about as soon as possible.”

This time, Commander-General Kline’s eyebrows rose as well. “Please explain, Cadet-Major.”

I nodded, took a deep breath to steady myself, and then cleared my throat before speaking again. “Poppy told me last night that when she was in the Incursion before she got cocooned, she spoke with a girl who said she was an Oracle. She gave Poppy a prophecy, predicted her meeting me, and a bunch of other stuff that has happened since she Sprouted. She also gave her the exact location, date, and time for an Incursion, less than three months from now, and she said it could change everything.”

Both officers now had their attention firmly locked upon my girlfriend, their eyes wide but with conflicted expressions, like they were hopeful but also uncertain whether they should believe in such things. “How sure are you about this? We’ve yet to encounter any Oracles since Altered began appearing. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they can’t exist, but…” Vice-Commander Carpenter trailed off, but I knew how unbelievable Oracles sounded, even with other Altered running around. If it had been anyone but Poppy who told me, I probably wouldn’t have believed them either. She seemed so certain though, and everything else that Lindsey had predicted had come to pass so far.

“I’m sure enough that I want you to go through my memories so you can see for yourself,” Poppy insisted with a look of steely determination in her eyes.

Vice-Commander Carpenter looked from Poppy to the Commander-General, who nodded with a very serious expression on his face, and then back to Poppy before finally nodding herself and saying, “Show me.”