The blade met the bag, slicing cleanly through it as the acrid scent of burning fabric filled the room. The bottom half of the bag dropped to the ground as the rest darkened, catching fire and whisking away.
Jin rose from the ashes, his sphere glowing white-hot from the flames. "Surprise, bitches! Did you miss me? Don't lie. We both know you did."
Finn inhaled harshly, sounding like an angry tea kettle.
Kira's arm was still extended, the blade held as if it were an extension of her body.
Jin tilted, taking in the bag's remnants. "Really, Kira? You had to go there? You don't even believe in ghosts."
Kira allowed her stance to relax as she glared at her friend. "When you see a pest, sometimes you have to cut it down."
Jin sniffed. "How rude."
An angry sound escaped Kira. "Do you even understand what you've done? What are you doing here?"
Finn rumbled threateningly, looking seconds from attacking. Kira shuffled a step away so she could put distance between him and his blade, the only distance she could manage in her small room.
"You didn't think I'd let you do this by yourself? Did you?" Jin lowered onto the bed. "I'm angry at you, but I don't hate you."
"How kind," Kira said through clenched teeth.
"I'm evolved. I know. It's good you recognize that."
A small growl escaped her, and she handed Finn the blade, hilt first. Maybe the oshota should teach her friend a lesson in social etiquette.
"If you were so evolved, you wouldn't have smuggled yourself in a bag." Kira snarled. "You've put all of us in danger."
Jin shot up from the bed, zooming across the room.
"Come on. You're exaggerating." Jin hit the far wall and changed directions.
"Quiet, you. I counted at least eight defensive weapons after their perimeter wall." She chucked a pillow at him when he wouldn't stop circling, a clear sign he knew he was wrong but didn't want to admit it.
"Fifteen, but who's counting?" Jin sniffed.
"These people make me look trusting," she spat. "How do you think they'll feel when they learn I brought a military-grade drone into their home?"
Kira could be overreacting, but she didn't think their response would be nonviolent. She didn't really want a deathmatch right off the bat. She might have preferred to keep herself distant from these people, but they were still hers.
Raider sobered, the extent of the mess they were in registering. "How sure are you that will be their response?"
Kira lifted an eyebrow at Finn.
"Any other would face death. Kira might get a pass, but the humans wouldn't." Finn's expression was serious, his bearing that of one delivering a terminal diagnosis. This situation might as well be.
Kira knew her friend. He wasn't the type to fly under the radar.
"It's likely they would have forbidden him entry even if he'd come through proper channels," Finn continued.
“They did forbid him entry,” Raider confirmed.
"Ha, I was right to smuggle myself onto this planet," Jin crowed.
Kira held up a hand. "Not. Another. Word."
"I'm mad at you," Jin protested. "You don't get to be mad at me too."
The three of them ignored him.
"What do we do?" Raider asked. "Come clean?"
Kira was reluctant to take that option. There were too many unknowns. Too many factors to account for. If Roake decided to kill them, Kira didn't like their chances of fighting their way free. Not when they lacked a proper weapon among them—Blue's smuggled device notwithstanding.
This wasn't like going against the Tsavitee or even humans. These people had the same strengths as Kira, only they were much better trained and weren’t dying.
Escaping in the middle of the night while the Tuann's guard was down was doable. A straight fight that pitted the three of them against the still unknown numbers of Roake's military force, not so much.
"I need to think," Finn said. He moved to the door before pointing at Jin. "He doesn't leave this room."
"Aye, aye, Captain." Jin bobbed in the air as a salute.
Finn scowled, exiting and slamming the door behind him.
Silence descended.
Kira punched Raider in the arm. He jumped and cradled the injured appendage. "Ow. What was that for?"
"I expect this sort of behavior from him, but not from you. What were you thinking?" Kira hissed, feeling the urge to punch him again. "You don't even like each other."
Raider shrugged. "Not much choice. He would have found his way here one way or another. At least this way was less likely to draw attention."
Kira's shoulders slumped as she acknowledged the truth of that statement. Jin was nearly unstoppable when he got an idea in his head.
Raider patted her shoulder sympathetically as he made his way over to the door. "Let's be honest—he was never going to stay behind, no matter how mad at you he was."
With that, Raider took his leave, leaving Jin and Kira alone in the room.
Kira regarded her friend, an individual that had been in her life since she could remember. As dangerous as his latest antic might be to them, she couldn't bring herself to regret his presence.
The knot in her stomach that had developed when he’d left her to face Roake and Luatha on her own, finally relaxed.
"I'm glad you're here," she confided.
Jin snort was derisive. "Of course, you are. You'd be lost and lonely without me."
Kira shook her head even as she smiled. She should have expected his response. His arrogance was nothing if not consistent.
Jin settled onto her bed. "Man, this place is strange. I thought I was short-circuiting when we first crossed over."
Kira's head tilted, a few things suddenly making sense. "That headache was from you, wasn't it?"
She should have suspected as much. The nature of Jin's making meant they were irreversibly linked. Most of the time, that didn't mean much. He could ride her senses when allowed, experience things the same way she did. Only in moments of extreme adversity did the other's feelings or pain bleed over, as was the case in this situation.
Jin hummed in agreement. "I thought my number was punched. If that's how you felt on Luatha, I feel sorry for you."
Kira glared at her friend, not moving.
Jin spun to face her. "What?"
The question made her snap.
She grabbed him and spiked him onto the bed. "This is why smuggling yourself in a bag was dumb. Don't ever scare me that way again."
Jin sputtered before righting himself, electricity buzzing along his casing so Kira couldn't repeat the throw.
"You're always so violent," he complained.
She bared her teeth. "I'm about to show you violence."
Jin made a tsking sound before spinning in place. "What do you think it means, though?"
Kira calmed, considering his question. "I suspect you were interacting with the Mea'Ave."
"But why here and not on Ta Da'an?"
That was a good question. Kira could only guess.
"Maybe this is where you were born," she mused. It was a wild supposition at most. "Perhaps because I'm descended from both Luatha and Roake, I reacted to both."