Matrix in hand, Dev stood watching the wet girls. Five of them. The sixth, Pleasant, standing doubled over before a table in the rec-room, still kept her head in the bucket.

The qualifier indicator had long come and gone—she was out to prove something.

Surely, now with their private rec credits depleted, they were turning more than a few heads. Pleasant's ability attracted an amazing amount of onlookers.

At Dev's back, Sen and Oni took up root. Each beep from the matrix attracted other crewmen. There was a small army by the time Sen held Dev's shoulder.

"We need to get her out."

"No." Mercy, standing on the left side of the table, never took her eyes off Pleasant's back. "If she makes a record, it's good stats."

Dev shook her head. "The record is held by a head cadet, she'll never beat it." With the crowd size around them increasing, Dev felt foolish. The other five girls had all passed with ease. Pleasant was showing off.

But if she passed out or suffered any type of damage, they'd just be a spectacle yet again. A spectacle Mother'd surely hear about.

With a sign to sound Dev's defeat, she walked around the table and tapped Pleasant on the back. She didn't move.

Alarmed, Dev hooked her matrix to her hip and dragged Pleasant up with all her might. A fist connected with Dev's cheek.

Fatigue robbed Pleasant of power enough to cause damage but Dev's pride suffered nonetheless.

Huffing and puffing, gasping for every breath she could, Pleasant staggered back.

"Is it enough now?" she demanded. "To put on a show, to make fools of us? Is it enough now? You think we're not capable of anything 'cause of where we come from? What do you take us for?" The next breath to leave her carried a shout which wasn't all that loud. "Are we done with the pageantry? We thought you finally respected us. Now this? Is it enough now, you menga!"

The way her body trembled told Dev the girl wouldn't stay on her feet much longer. A bigger problem loomed. Mercy hadn't taken the test.

Asking that of her now seemed cruel but from the very start, she'd been Dev's target.

No, this situation wasn't ideal but a lot came from it. For one, it highlighted how the girls operated. The tallest, who Dev secretly referred to as number one, started. Then the twins, two and three, and finally the two youngest, four and five. Pleasant was always the seventh—until today.

That was the only thing Dev needed as proof. Now, even Pleasant's rage seemed protective.

It was also deadly and stupid.

"You can't carry her to the other side of this, and it's foolish to try," Dev said. The throbbing of her face was enough to conjure up embarrassment. She must have looked like a right moron for trying to reason with—help someone who'd just punched her. Maybe if the impact was a bit stronger Dev wouldn't see the desperation in it. "This has to end here or it's going to end in death."

Silence rushed in, stealing all but the pounding of Dev's own heart echoing through her ears.

This was weak. This wasn't the process. Anyone able to advance, should. Anyone foolish enough to try the impossible, deserved what they got.

That was the way of the Volunteer—the creed and Dev trampled on that now by doing this, and doing this public.

At Pleasant's back, Mercy trembled as well. She went so far as to hold Pleasant's shoulder, not in an effort to help her weary sister up, but to shield herself.

Dev hated this but she wasn't going to back down. "It's your turn."

One by one, the sisters stepped before Mercy, forming a barrier.

This protectiveness was astonishing on many levels. It would have been more understandable for anyone but Mercy. The girl was bitter, petty, vengeful, and weak. All the markings of a coward and a fraud. How far did they think she could get?

Now when Dev thought of the impressive time Pleasant just put in, she wondered what it meant.

"You have two lifelines," Pleasant began.

"Not for you. Any of you." Dev left the words to linger. "Not for any one of you and you arguably have the best stats in this room beyond the head cadets."

Surprise flickered in Pleasant's eyes.

It ignited something in Dev, disgust.

"What are you trying to prove? What are you trying to accomplish! It's not as if you can give her your...." Dev's tensed muscles lost power. The thought came to her so quickly, her hands moved to her matrix before receiving command to do so from her brain. She typed with purpose, bringing up seven profiles. She stripped down the first layer.

Number one, nineteen, one hundred and seventy-six centimeters, the tall one. Two and three, eighteen, twins, one hundred and seventy centimeters. Four, sixteen years-old, mole by the right eye, one hundred and seventy-three centimeters. Five, blue-grey eyes, also sixteen, twins.... Dev ignored her mistake of not knowing there were two sets of twins and settled on what she read next. Mercy, fifteen...born at the top of the year; Pleasant born at the end of it, both fifteen.

Pleasant, one hundred and sixty centimeters.

Dev read it again, awed and dismayed. "Mercy, a hundred and seventy-two centimeters. Pleasant...." When she picked her head up, it was no longer out of sympathy but disdain. Utter and total disdain. "One hundred and sixty centimeters." Dev clenched her fists. "Idiots." Once didn't do it justice so Dev said it again, louder. "You pack of idiots!"

Someone held Dev's shoulder. She didn't have to look. His lack of vocal protest along with her meant he'd known.

She shrugged Sen off. "You could have told me."

"You would have figured it out eventually. Especially if you'd stop avoiding them. If—"

"So you support this?" Dev whipped around. "You think this makes any sense!"

Despite her mounting rage, Sen was a pitcher of calm. "No. In fact, I welcome today as much as you do. It had to come eventually. For any other reason, it'd be clever—"

"This is idiotic beyond epic proportions."

"It's not," Sen explained. His eyes drifted from left to right, taking in the onlookers.

In that instance, Dev saw it, his actual admiration.

"How could you call this anything else?"

"Forcing you to give up a lifeline?" Sen asked, awed.

Dev's world shattered. She gathered the pieces up and didn't like the picture they rearranged and assembled. Mercy—Pleasant—whichever little miss one hundred and sixty went by—was a lost cause on many levels. Weak in body, skill, continence, and mind. Now with glowing stats. Her sister's stats. Stats too good to dispute or explain if allowed injury or death during the evaluation.

Now when Dev focused on the girls before her, this new betrayal hanging before them, Dev felt cold.

"Look at me. And let me make this clear. I'd sacrifice everything I have, even a body part before giving any of you a lifeline. Even if your hanging took me with you!"

Sen tried to reason, "Cousin—"

"Don't start." Dev whipped around to face him. "You knew. You knew something like this, something I'd never keep from you, and you did it for these swills."

It was a collective gasp and she met it head on.

"I'm switching the names back—"

"You switch the names back," Pleasant said, gravel in her voice, "and everyone can know these swills have made a fool of you for the last five months."

Dev stood to her full height, with one intent. "The moment she does go into that water, it'll tank your actual stats you menge-head, guaranteeing that your chances are lost. Had you thought of that! Of how it'd mark her as unqualified immediately."

The gleam in her eyes meant she had.

Once again, they were the center of attention, but Dev decided it would be the absolute last time.

"She's getting in that bucket."

Despite Pleasant's weakened state and slender frame, she guarded all six of her sisters, Mercy clinging to her back for safety.

"No, she's not."

A scoff left Dev's nose as she unhooked the matrix and handed it to Sen.

"Oh, I'm through playing with the lot of you," Dev explained. "You put my reputation on the line? Play with my legacy and that of my family's? No. Today, today she's taking this test."

The defiance drained out of Pleasant's stare, replaced with palpable, unbridled fear.

"Why are you doing this? Just when we were finally coming together. We did all the courses, all the training." Her voice broke when she said, "We were doing better. This felt like an actual crew. You're supposed to help us. He said you'd help us."

Dev didn't have an answer. Now, when she gaged how much force it would take to beat all of them into submission, she assessed it wasn't that much. She'd make it a gentle beating but it was unavoidable at this point.

And then it happened, Pleasant's desperation reached its pinnacle.

A boney finger thrust out. "What about him? How come he gets some gentle pats on the back, a few cheers of encouragement, and we get your boot? How come he's not putting his head in a cleaning bucket in the middle of the rec room!"

It wasn't a cleaning bucket but that hardly mattered. Dev prayed she'd shut up before they forced her to reclaim her pride at their expense.

This was a reach, and it was a bait Dev planned to ignore.

A hand returned to Dev's shoulder again. "Cousin, just let him take the test as well. That way, it'll be blanketed. They'll have no claims for discrimination then."

Dev froze. She allowed her head to rotate to face him. "Stop deflecting. Me having valid reason, more than valid reason, to get them out of here doesn't give you an excuse to throw away your single recruit, too!"

The surprise in Sen's eyes angered her all the more. Had he thought she wouldn't figure it out?

Hands raised in surrender, Sen explained, "I'm just saying; we can cover our bases."

No. That wasn't what he was saying at all. From anyone else, she would have taken the secrets of the names as an attack, a willful attack to undermine her, but this was Sen. He'd die for her, the same way she'd die for him. This was something else. This was him seeing a big fallout and using the opportunity to get rid of Oni as well, something unfair considering how hard Oni'd tried.

"What will it matter?" Sen insisted. "Just let him take the test."

"Why?" Considering that Oni's ability would prove nothing impressive, not compared to these six which were about to get the boot, he'd suffer for it during the cull. "We both know he can pass. This is about them."

"Then maybe it should be about all of them," Sen argued.

Something came over Dev, and she couldn't quite say what it was. The words left her before she even realized what she was saying. "Why do you have to pick on him?"

Sen took a step back. "What?"

"You pick on him; why? His stats are average. He can keep up well with others. Hell, yesterday he even beat everyone to the top. What would justify you calling this one basic ability into question so close to the cull?"

"What would justify yours!" Sen fired back.

His words put Dev into a freefall. He was the one who brought it up the day before, hinting at it. Wasn't this his intent?

A tentative voice came. "It's okay. You don't have to fight. Just please stop before you hit each other." Oni took a step towards the table.

Dev caught him in the chest and shoved him back.

Her eyes never left her cousin when she told Oni, "You stay put."

Now with her hand on Oni's shirt, she realized that his initial steps towards the table weren't of his own volition—Sen's hand rested on his back.

"Let him take it. Let them all take it," Sen demanded. "It'll save their lives."

"If his stats are too basic, it'll impact his cull. He will not step foot towards that bucket!"

All eyes trained on her as if she was being in some way unreasonable. This was a dirty trick on Sen's part, but she didn't have to grip Oni's shirt quite so tight.

"Stats mean nothing," Sen said through clenched teeth, "if they die."

"Why do you keep saying that? He says he can pass. Why are you acting like that's in dispute—?"

"You're being emotional!"

Dev shut up.

It shut Sen up as well. Despite opening his mouth, he had nothing to say.

That was fine, she'd show him emotional.

When Dev turned her attention to the burdensome sisters, she did so with one intent, compliance.

"We'll do it," Pleasant said, eying Oni, "when he does it."

In the silence to follow, Sen cleared his throat. "That's fair."

"You, shut up." Dev's patience gave out. "Every one of you, shut up."

"It's not an unreasonable ask," someone grumbled.

"Shh. This is getting good."

Pleasant's brown eyes scanned the crowd. When they settled on Dev, they pierced her with a thousand lasers.

"Why ask us but not him? He's a recruit, not your boyfriend!"