Epilogue
(Corran)
Ionce believed monsters were born. But I was young and an idiot because after everything I’d seen in the past few years on Veon, there was no doubt in my mind that they were made. Formed by the ugliness around them, by society, by hatred. This wasn’t the kind of world I wanted to bring up our baby with Ella… so that meant change was needed. Massive change, starting from the top.
“I can hear your brain cogs working from over here.” Thane tossed a snapple at me from across the room, and I caught the purple fruit with one hand before biting into its sweet flesh. I wiped my mouth from the juices dripping down my chin.
Thane lounged on the sofa, reading from his monitor while picking at the bowl of fruit in his lap.
“Our Council is broken,” I stated.
“What’s new.”
“They need to go. Get replaced with fresh blood and no corruption.”
Thane snorted a laugh. “Fuck yeah they need to go, but corruption is close to impossible to eradicate. I vote for finding a new planet to live on.”
I ignored his suggestion. Leaving our families here wasn’t an option, and neither was running away. “We start at the top because everything has a trickle-down effect. Just need a plan to overturn the Council. End their corruption.”
“And then the next in line step in, who are just as corrupt.”
“No, that’s the thing. We show evidence to the public, let the civilians see the truth, and we push for a forcible removal of the Council.”
“That could lead to rebellions in the streets, which brings a lot of attention. We would need strong evidence.”
Right then, Derrial emerged from the bedroom and shut the door behind him.
“How’s she doing?” I asked.
“Tired. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Vepar pregnancies are usually half the length of human ones. She’s panicked enough as it is.”
“We’ll tell her later, and that once she hits two months, we should be able to test for the baby’s father.”
Thane groaned and placed the bowl on the table in front of him. “I really hope the baby’s one of ours.”
Neither of us replied. In truth, I wanted that too, we all did, but we’d have to deal with whatever happened.
“Ella and the babe are ours, regardless,” Derrial murmured, his shoulders rising and falling with each rapid breath. “What was this corruption you were talking about?”
“Corran plans on finding evidence to overthrow the Council finally.”
Derrial turned in my direction. “Do we have evidence?”
“We might, but it stays between us for now.”
Both of them stared at me strangely, like my words didn’t make sense. But they’d understand soon enough.
I headed to the side table near the window and pulled open the drawer. “When we were in the testing facility recently, I discovered some files and I took them.” I turned around, holding in my hand several papers folded up to easily fit into a pocket.
“And?” Derrial asked.
I unfolded the pages and handed them to Derrial. Thane was on his feet, walking over and reading them over Derrial’s shoulder.
“The Council are purchasing kidnapped females from the Khonsu to conduct fertility experiments on. Those papers are the receipts. Which is why they’ve turned a blind eye to the Khonsu living on our planet, building communities on our planet, hunting down Vepar females. They allowed this to happen.” My blood was boiling at all the lies we had been fed, all the Vepar slayed and forced to live in tight cities while the Khonsu took over our world.
“Fucking bastards,” Thane spat.
“But the document shows something else,” I continued, pointing to the papers in Derrial’s grip. “It shows that the Khonsu have a separate camp just for females.”