Tiegan glanced at Sim-pony to gauge her response. She pulled her lips into her mouth, chewing nervously.

“To rid yourselves of the humans, you would turn your back on your own kind?”Daz asked.

“Those who wish to protect the humans have been bewitched.Something is not right with them. Especially the one that nearly killed me.”

Sim-pony gasped.

Tiegan glanced up at her and saw that her arm was trembling. She quickly tugged it into her lap to hide it from view.

Daz laughed in the recording.“Humans are much more fragile than you and I.”

“Not that one.”The rebel looked right at them with an insidious gaze.“That one is different. Much more evil. Whatever gave her those powers needs to be eradicated from this planet! We must protect ourselves before we are doomed. I have given my life for this cause and I will continue to do so!”

The alien began to struggle, pushing against his restraints and slashing his tail at the guards. Glitches appeared on the holo as shouts rang out from Daz’s warriors.

The recording cut off and the holo swooped back into his wrist.

A hard, echoing silence fell on the room.

Tiegan turned his head to take in Sim-pony. He’d assumed a wild animal had been the one to throw the warrior against the tree, but if it was Sim-pony…

His eyes dropped to her arm. What exactly had happened when she was attacked?

Thirty-Four

Symphony

Symphony climbed off the bed,running away from Tiegan’s intense stare. The memory of the attack in the forest surged in her mind. She remembered feeling scared, panicked and furious. She remembered shoving the alien. She remembered the energy blast too.

What if she admitted she did that to him? Would that mean she was a freak here on this planet just like she’d been on earth?

Would Tiegan still want to be with her if he found out that she could do something like that? It was one thing for the delicate and feminine girls on this planet to fight in exoskeletons. They could climb in and out of those exo-suits at will.

It was another thing entirely if they becameonewith an exoskeleton. If theywerethe actual weapon.

She couldn’t tell Tiegan. If he looked at her with disgust, she wouldn’t be able to handle it. The alien had fallen for her because she was normal. Someone like Simone, Sara, Kia, Emma and even Leel.

Someone lovely.

Sophisticated.

Elegant.

A woman who had no visible differences thanks to alien technology and a nano-bot arm that could function with every command of her brain.

She didn’t want to be pushed into the ‘other’ category again. She didn’t want to feel different again. Why couldn’t she just be like everyone else for once?

“Sim-pony?”

She scrambled back, actively running away from the questions in his eyes. Sim-pony didn’t want to be exposed and, if she let Tiegan get any closer to the truth, he would surely shun her.

“I should check on Adhi. Rune said she was tired from the experiments. I need to make sure acting as a glorified lab rat didn’t take too much of a toll.”

Tiegan’s voice snapped through the room. “You are running away.”

She froze.

His voice remained sure and strong. Though she had her back turned and couldn’t see him, she could feel his intense stare in the darkness. She imagined his purple eyes narrowing and his jaw muscles moving as he clenched his teeth.