Zane hears the news within a day. He attends the funeral. It's closed casket, he doesn't get to see her face. He looks at it, unable to cry, unable to say that he's sorry or he wishes that there was something he could have done better. Her killer's gotten off scot-free, it was perfectly legal. Vernon hires a lawyer, but they get nowhere. Figures. He wishes there were a better outcome, wishes there was something he could have done to prevent this. There probably was.

He can't think of anything. Adana would have found it, easy, that's what she did, she was the thoughtful, careful twin. He was the emotional one. The one who went with his gut and did what seemed right without thinking it all the way through. His sister's not here, not anymore, so he will need to make up for her. He thinks, very carefully, about what he is going to do.

Calmly, rationally, he decides that he is going to kill the woman who shot her. He will not go charging off to shoot her and get stopped partway through. Death is the end result he wants, because his sister is dead, she is gone, and now he will make sure her killer is gone, too. It will take time. He can't get close to her immediately, can't walk over and shoot her, she needs to know what she has done.

He summons a fairy. He'd thought it was stupid, before, but she wanted him to do it, so he does. Zane thanks the fairy, quietly, and then dismisses him. It's stupid. But it's what she wanted, he doesn't know what she was planning but she had to be planning something, she always was. He trusts her. He always trusts her, he just - doesn't think it through, enough. He did stupid things, and he upset her. (And he's sorry.)

He quits his job. He's got savings, he's now got insurance money, and it's not like he's saving for retirement. His retirement is in a jail cell or a grave, he can't decide which. There isn't much he can do about her space station, he's not good at managing things. The companies are the same, he just - picks some people that seem reasonable, and then ignores them. Zane's got a job to do. It's a pity that his sister's work is just going to languish, but he is going to do what he knows. He knows how to hurt people.

It takes months, to get close enough. Security job on Mars, perfect security guard. Promotion. He had a good record, he was good at guarding things. (But not her. He was not good at guarding her, if he were she would not be dead.) He gets access key codes to the security cameras. To monitor them.

That's all he needs.

Cameras sets a looped feed, and then he goes to her quarters. He knows her name, the murderer's name. He doesn't use it. She doesn't deserve it. She doesn't deserve anything but pain, she killed his sister. He rambles, as he kills her. Things that Adana was good at, things that he misses about her, all of the various things she was planning to do. The ways she actually made them happen.

It's not fast, it should probably be fast, Adana wouldn't want people to suffer - but Adana is not here. He is. So he makes it slow. He makes it painful. He makes sure the summoner screams, and begs, and that she gets everything she deserves.

But his purpose is to kill her, not to keep her alive for ages. So he does.

They find him. He doesn't resist arrest. He doesn't care, he's too busy laughing because he killed her, she is dead. Dead, dead, dead. The woman who killed his sister is dead. She will not be coming back.

He doesn't do well in prison. His father visits, but - he's locked, in a cage, staring at four walls every day and feeling like they're closing in and crushing him. Like he's suffocating, slowly, like he's dying as slowly as he wished his sister's killer would have died. He wishes he could have made her suffer this much. But he didn't have time, he had to kill her. (But he still made her suffer.)

Eventually, he does something desperate.

It gets him killed. Trying to threaten a guard with a makeshift weapon, making it into a hostage situation - not smart for the long-term. He goes down fighting. They have no choice but to kill him.


Then he is standing on solid gold, and he has no idea how he got here. Someone tells him that he's a demon, that he can just - make whatever he wants. He tries it, and it works. He makes himself a knife, like the one he used to kill her, the one that was sharp and serrated and extremely good at slicing. Useful. He pockets it.

He wanders, wingless, because who cares, if he's a demon for what he's done then he just does not care.

Then he sees a flier. He stares at it. It has her name. It has directions. His sister.

It snaps into place. This was why she asked him to summon a fairy. She knew. She knew he would be here, she planned this. She's got to be here, too. Hell's such a big place - but now he has directions. Now he can find her.

He makes himself wings. He follows the directions.

And then there is a knock on Cam's door.