Right now. Before the Osiri came back and Kira lost control of the situation.
Elena stood there as Kira stooped to grab Elise.
"We can't! We have to save them,” Elena protested.
It wasn't that she didn't want to save Elise's children and Jin's possible clone. The thought of abandoning them destroyed something in her. She knew the future they'd face. What the Osiri would do when he returned to find his prize gone.
The children would be better off dead.
If Graydon or the others had been here, she could make a different choice. Maybe try to save both the children and Elena.
But they weren't.
This was the hand Kira had been dealt. An awful one to be sure. But that was life. Sometimes shitty. Often tragic.
"This is unexpected," someone announced.
Pallas sauntered into view from the same entrance Kira had used to gain access to this place. "Kira Forrest abandoning the innocent. Is this what they call personal growth?"
Kira moved protectively in front of Elena.
Pallas’s expression contained a cruel edge. "I didn't appreciate being imprisoned on my own ship."
"What a coincidence. I don’t appreciate you killing my friends."
There, now they both had something to hold against the other.
"That was for your own good. You were never going to do it. You were going to sacrifice yourself. Someone had to do what was necessary."
"That wasn't up to you to decide!" Kira screamed.
"It was!" Pallas roared. "You were ours! Our sibling! Our friend!"
With Elise in her arms, Kira eased back, using her hip to keep Elena behind her. The girl was careful not to hinder their retreat, clutching the back of Kira's armor with shaking hands.
"Auntie," Elena called softly.
At the sound of her voice, Pallas's gaze flicked to her niece and Elise before returning to Kira's face. Calm replaced his anger.
"Besides, it wasn't like I was operating on my own. I was under orders. Your admiral's orders."
"Bullshit."
"Do you think so?" Pallas flashed her a cruel smile. "Who was it who taught you about the 'greater good'? The admiral, wasn't it?"
Kira's heart went cold, her veins filled with ice.
"We were in contact with him for years," Pallas informed her, digging the knife a little deeper.
He really did like to talk. And talk. And talk.
How had she never realized he was so chatty?
"All that time and he never told you," Pallas mused.
Her eyes locked on Pallas, Kira addressed Elena. "When I tell you to—run."
Kira sensed her niece’s instinctive resistance, catching her stubborn expression out of the corner of her eye. Elena's hands clenched on Kira's armor before loosening.
"Alright, Auntie," Elena whispered.
"Good girl."
Pallas’s expression was incredulous as Kira turned back to him. "You can't be serious. The forty three don't hurt each other."
"I warned you what would happen if we met again."
Did he think she was lying?
"How did we get to this point?" Kira asked, feeling weary all the way down to her soul.
She'd really like to know. How did that little boy who'd once hated causing pain to others become so used to death that he thought nothing of taking the lives of her loved ones?
He wasn't even remorseful. He acted like it had been his right. Like he'd done her a favor.
Kira loosened her hold on Elise, preparing to drop her. Sorry, Elise. This might hurt a bit.
Pallas’s eyes narrowed. "Don't you dare do what I know you’re thinking. I'm responsible for the moon’s explosion but not Rothchild. Someone el—"
A shot came from the dark. Several others followed in a rapid burst.
The first took Pallas in his shoulder. The rest deflecting off his shields.
Kira crossed the short space, taking refuge behind the monstrous cradle Elena had been strapped into earlier. She set Elise on the ground and pulled Elena down with her.
"Stay here," Kira ordered.
It took effort and concentration to send ki into the akieri. Something in the room making the task as difficult as it had been the first time she’d attempted it.
To her relief, the metal snapped together at last, forming a blade smaller than usual. Something between a dagger and a sword.
All those years operating in ki depleted environments, only reliant on the soul's breath her body could produce, had come back to pay dividends in this moment. She could feel how wrong this place was. How painful it was to draw ki from the pool in her center.