Hours had slid by in a low mechanical hum, the old transport chewing up distance under them while frost-laced ridges crawled by outside.

Akiko found herself in the co-pilot's chair. It was cramped, and she half-twisted to keep her tails clear, but she was surprisingly content. Vashri had turned out to be less of a hard edge than she'd first pegged him for. Still gruff, still wary, but with the sort of wry pragmatism she recognized from every good captain she'd ever known.

They'd spent the last hour trading stories in quiet intervals. Little things. They weren't quite to trust just yet, but familiarity was a start. The kind that made shoulders ease and eyes less sharp.

Akiko gave him just enough truth to keep it real: tales of half-cocked ventures, narrowly avoided calamities, always skirting how close she'd danced to losing herself entirely. And Vashri, in turn, offered pieces of his own wrecked history, the grudges he still carried like old scars.

That delicate quiet broke when the hatch squealed open and Roran ducked through, shoulders nearly brushing the sides. His bulk made the compartment feel even smaller, a living wall of muscle under stained salvage leathers.

"Vashri," he grunted, nodding to Vashri before giving Akiko a look that was half curious, half grudging respect. "We're picking up weapons fire. Forward sensors show flares. Looks like someone's already poking at the Haven wreck."

Vashri let out a breath through his nose. "And our mystery survivor's holding them off."

Roran's mouth ticked up at one corner. "So it seems. Looks like it might turn lively."

Akiko felt her claws flex against the seat's battered armrest. That was the trouble with salvage, as she was learning. Sometimes the prize didn't want to be claimed, and sometimes someone else wanted it worse.

Vashri scrubbed a hand over his face. "We're not a combat rig, Akiko. One solid slug through our reactor and that's it, we're another corpse out here for someone else to pick over."

Akiko leaned forward, elbow braced on her knee. "Then we don't give them a shot. I'll go on ahead, do a quick flyover, make sure they know they're outclassed."

Vashri's eyes narrowed. "You think that'll be enough?"

"They're scavvers, not soldiers. Odds are they've never even seen a suit like mine, much less fought one. A little shock and awe, they'll bolt."

He didn't look convinced, but he didn't look like he had a better plan either. Finally he exhaled, low and grudging. "Don't get cocky."

Akiko flashed him a quick, toothy grin. "Who, me?"

The corridor felt longer on the way back. Akiko's boots rang hollow over the steel grates, tails flicking restlessly behind her. For a moment it was too easy to slip into old patterns. Her, alone, throwing herself at problems with nothing but teeth and foxfire.

Then she reached the back compartment.

Raya was there, close with Jyn and Maevi over a rough schematic, but the second Akiko stepped in, Raya's eyes found her. Something eased in her shoulders, her mouth pulling into that small, private line that was only ever for Akiko.

Akiko crossed to her in two strides, leaned in close enough for their foreheads to brush. "Quick scare job. Nothing stupid. You don't have to suit up for this one."

Raya let out a breath that was half relief, half resignation. Her hand found Akiko's wrist and squeezed. "You better not make me regret trusting you on that."

Akiko's grin softened, teeth just peeking out. "What, me? Never."

She turned, and as she did, slotted her arm into the waiting harness of the mining laser, the port snapping tight around her arm with a faint hiss. A familiar weight settled against her shoulder.

Then she turned, tails flicking behind her, and made her way toward the hatch at the front of the compartment.

Maevi watched her pass with wide eyes, half awe and half greedy curiosity. Jyn just gave her a small, tight nod. They knew better than to crowd the exit.

Akiko slipped through into the narrow transition corridor, boots ringing hollow on metal, then ducked into the cramped airlock. The inner door sealed behind her with a muted thump.

The airlock was slow. Agonizingly so.

Akiko shifted her weight from foot to foot, claws drumming on her armored thigh. Her tails flicked in short, impatient whips, foxfire already coiling in lazy spirals around her ankles. The cycling process dragged out, pressure gauges ticking down by fractions. A final heavy clunk sounded through the floor plates.

Then the outer doors opened, and the cold slapped her like a lover's hand. Sharp, biting, and in the right circumstances… welcome.

She stepped out, boots sinking an inch into crusted frost, exhaled a plume of white, then let it all go.

Foxfire burst at her heels, flaring in a bright, disciplined spiral. Her body launched upward, weight dropping away in the moon's thin clutch. The ground blurred into a patchwork of white ridges and old wounds where impacts had cratered the ice.

For a heartbeat she just soared, breath catching in her throat. It had been too long since she'd felt this, the clean bite of low gravity, the star-pierced sky rushing up to greet her.

Then her HUD sharpened, overlay snapping into focus.

Below, maybe half a klick out, the firefight unfolded. Flashes of pulse fire cracked through the thin atmosphere, bright against dark rock. Figures in mismatched pressure suits scrambled behind old wreckage and iced-over boulders. A few muzzle flares tracked back toward a half-collapsed Haven shuttle, return shots growing more desperate.

Akiko's mouth curved into something that wasn't quite a smile.

She let foxfire spiral around her wrists, dropped her weight forward, and rocketed toward the fight, tails streaming behind her.

She angled her descent hard, foxfire flaring in sharp corrections to twist around scattered debris. A fractured ridge sped up at her, and at the last instant she poured foxfire through her legs. Pulse Vector, quick and dirty, dumping all that velocity in a single, explosive burst.

She hit the ice in a crouch, armored claws scraping furrows. Heat roared outward from her, a radiant shockwave of foxfire that vaporized frost for meters in every direction. Steam billowed up in thick, writhing columns, swallowing her in ghostly white.

Takuto's voice threaded through her mind. "Local channels breached. You may find this amusing."

Voices broke through the static. Rough, mismatched comms, panic riding every clipped syllable.

"—fuck was that? Sensors just redlined, heat spike right on top of us—"

"Where'd it go? Where the hell did—"

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"—no, no, I've seen that trick. That's the fox. That's the fucking fox! Pull back—!"

Akiko straightened slowly, silhouette emerging through the roiling steam. Twin tails lashed behind her, foxfire crawling in lazy arcs around her shoulders and claws.

It was almost lazy. Almost kind. She didn't even draw the mining laser up, just let the subtle threat of it hang there, the blue-white foxfire etching veins along its surface.

"Smart," she murmured, though they couldn't hear her. "Run faster."

Around her, suits broke cover, scrabbling for purchase on the ice. Their shapes wavered in the fog, some slipping, others hauling companions upright, all of them running.

Akiko exhaled, her breath a plume of frost. Steam still coiled around her ankles, hissing where it met the cooling ice. The moment stretched quiet, almost peaceful in the aftermath of fleeing chaos.

Her comm crackled.

"You done playing ghost of the frost yet?" Vashri's voice, dry as Zephara's empty plains.

Akiko huffed a small laugh, shoulders loosening. "Clear. They'll be telling ghost stories about me all winter."

"Great," he grumbled, but there was relief under it. "Just get eyes on that wreck. We'll roll up once you give the all-clear."

She stepped forward, foxfire wreathing her steps in little lazy sparks.

The wreck wasn't far. Even at a steady, careful pace, her boots ate up the distance in long, easy strides.

It rose from the ice like a broken tooth, jagged metal ribs jutting skyward. The maintenance cradle must've torn free when the entity's frigate had set the sky ablaze with its missiles and beam weapons; Akiko could see the sheared edges, raw steel twisted in patterns that still held a whisper of impossible heat.

Panels lay strewn in a rough radius, half-buried under drifting frost. A tangle of old wiring spilled from a cracked conduit, frozen solid. The entire structure listed to one side, partially sunken where the impact had punched deep into the crust.

As she drew closer, her HUD lit with scattered power signatures. Erratic, flaring hot for an instant, then cooling.

A faint flicker of motion caught her eye through a rent in the cradle's outer shell. A glint of optics. A slim silhouette shifting to brace.

Akiko opened her mouth to call out, but the warning crack of mana condensing came first.

A thin blue-white bolt lanced out, catching her square across the torso.

Her Harmonic Barrier flared, foxfire chasing the impact lines in a ripple of force. The shot didn't even stagger her, but it snapped her patience short.

"Cute," she muttered, tails lashing.

She surged forward, not bothering with subtlety anymore. A quick pulse of foxfire under her boots turned her into a streak across the ice, bearing down on the half-collapsed hull.

She tapped her comm open on approach.

"Vashri, got an itchy survivor with a mana rifle. I'm going in. Tell your crew to hold back until I give the clear."

His answer came low and tight. "Copy that. Don't get dead, fox."

Akiko hit the wreck like a meteor. A quick brace of foxfire under her feet, then she vaulted through a torn bulkhead, sliding in low and fast.

Inside was a tangle of collapsed walkways and severed conduits still leaking pale vapor.

She spotted him instantly, half-crouched behind an old maintenance console, rifle up and tracking. Young, jittery, his breath fogging the inside of his cracked faceplate.

He swung toward her. Too slow.

Akiko was already inside his reach. Her clawed hand snapped the rifle barrel down, the other shoving him hard against the console so it rattled on its mounts. His helmet thunked the metal with a dull crack.

"Easy," she growled, voice low and edged with foxfire resonance. "You keep flinching and we'll see how long that pretty shield on your suit holds up."

His eyes went wide with recognition behind the visor.

"It's you," he choked out, voice filtered through cheap comm mesh. "The… the kitsune. They said you could look like us, move among us. That you were just… just waiting to finish the job!"

Akiko snorted, claw still hooked in his suit collar as she plucked the rifle from his hands. Cheaply converted, a standard Haven gauss rifle retrofitted with a clunky mana focusing rig. Maevi was going to love this.

"Right. Alien shapeshifter infiltration. Because that's the real nightmare here."

She leaned close enough for the glow of her eyes to paint across his faceplate.

"I'm not your boogeyman. Or… at least, not that kind."

Her eyes dropped to the patch on his suit, half-torn but still readable.

"Ensign Corwin, yeah? You've got two choices. You can walk out with me. There's a safe transport, warm air, proper food. Or we can finish this now and save everyone some trouble."

He stared, throat working. Then, slowly, his hands raised. Unsteady, but surrender all the same.

Akiko opened her comm with a thought, never quite taking her eyes, or her claws, off Corwin.

"Vashri, package secured. Bring it around."

A brief crackle, then his gruff voice answered. "Copy. You sure about dragging a Haven uniform aboard?"

"He's unarmed. And he's coming along quiet."

A moment of silence. Then: "Yeah. Alright. We'll make space. Don't expect me to coddle him."

They picked their way back across the ice, Akiko's hand clamped on the back of Corwin's suit. He stumbled more than once, maybe not used to the gravity, or maybe just used to someone else keeping the world steady for him.

When the transport finally rolled into view, tires crunching slow over frost, he let out a breath that fogged heavy against his faceplate.

Vashri was waiting by the lowered ramp, arms folded tight across his chest. His eyes flicked from Corwin's suit to Akiko's still-glowing claws.

"Haven's presence on this rock's thin as a cut vein," he muttered. "No promise there'll be anyone left willing to take him in by the time we circle back. But…" His gaze lingered on Corwin, then slid to Akiko. "As long as he plays nice, he's got a seat to Isvann."

Akiko gave a sharp nod, then gave Corwin a light shove up the ramp.

"Congratulations, Ensign. You live another day. It's not luxury, but it beats freezing out here."

Corwin didn't answer. He just ducked his head and climbed aboard, boots scraping the metal with the unsteady rhythm of someone who hadn't yet decided if he was relieved or terrified.

The interior of the transport felt almost too warm after the bite of the outside air. Corwin hesitated at the top of the ramp, shoulders drawn up tight, until Akiko gave him a pointed nudge between the shoulder blades.

Inside, Maevi's voice was echoing down the cramped corridor.

"—no, but look at the resonance lines, they're practically woven. That's not just mana guiding a force, that's mana embodying the force. I mean, have you ever—"

Akiko rounded the bend just in time to see Maevi crouched on a crate in front of Raya, eyes wide, hands hovering like she might just snatch the trident from Raya's grip. The trident's surface was slick with faint water condensation, runes glinting with dim, alien life.

Maevi nearly vibrated out of her boots.

"What is this? Some kind of hyper-advanced Haven project? Is this even from here? Is it alien?"

Akiko snorted, passing Corwin off with a light push toward Roran, who caught the young Haven ensign with a bored grunt and steered him to a bench. Better to get him settled before he processed how much Akiko didn't match the monster propaganda.

Maevi was still babbling.

"I mean, we get weird salvage all the time, but this… this is like someone reached into a storybook and pulled out the fancy pages."

Akiko leaned her shoulder against the nearest bulkhead, grinning as Raya shot her a dry look over Maevi's head.

"Sorry," Akiko mouthed, not sorry at all.

Maevi's eyes glittered as she leaned closer to Raya's trident.

"But seriously, where did you even find this? What kind of site churns out something that practically breathes mana?"

Akiko opened her mouth. Closed it again. "It's from… a dungeon," she managed finally.

Maevi blinked. "A what?"

Akiko sucked in a breath, trying to line up words that made sense.

What's a dungeon?

It was a question she could've answered a hundred ways, all of them half-wrong. A place of trials, of teeth and claws and ancient instincts. A living knot of mana, or maybe a mind given form by greed and fear and challenge.

A place where you could die for reaching too far. Or come out stronger, if you were stubborn enough.

Her chest tightened. It was easier, she realized, to just face down the claws and jaws than to untangle the meaning behind them.

So instead, she let her grin stretch sharp, and produced Corwin's clunky mana-rigged rifle.

"Anyway. Here. Haven's latest half-baked mana tech. Knock yourself out."

Maevi's gasp was almost scandalized.

"You took this from a Haven op and just… oh gods, the flow regulators are exposed, did you see that? I need… can I—"

"Yes," Akiko drawled, already pushing it into her hands. "Please."

Maevi didn't even finish squealing her thanks before she was gone, practically evaporating down the narrow corridor in a flurry of half-formed theories and excited muttering about capacitor latticework.

That left the space blessedly quiet. Akiko let out a breath she hadn't meant to hold. Caught Raya's eyes over the sudden hush.

Raya's smile was small, tired. But it held a warmth that cut straight through to Akiko's ribs, like she knew exactly what that awkward stumble around Maevi's question had been. Like she was saying, It's alright. You don't have to have all the answers.

A throat cleared. Vashri filled the doorway, arms folded tight across his chest, his expression already shifting back to business.

"Alright. We've burned enough daylight sitting pretty. Get your kits ready. First sweep's gonna be controlled. No heroics. We're here to salvage, not write our names in the history books."

He didn't look at Akiko, but then he didn't have to. She could feel the unspoken expectation all the same: pull your weight, don't make this harder than it has to be.

As the crew started moving, shouldering packs and checking their sidearms, Akiko's mind slipped elsewhere. Out past the transport walls, to where metal and ice and foxfire dreams waited half-buried in the Zepharan cold.

She needed parts. Needed to finish what she'd started.

Even if it meant treading that same line she always did, balancing her promises to the people around her against the promises she made to herself.

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