The nurse cleared her throat, her foot tapping against the polished floors. Face flushed, Ki retracted herself from Na with a sheepish smile. The nurse stared down at her questioningly, one fisted hand planted on her hip.

  “It’s alright,” Na said. “She’s a friend.”

  The nurse huffed. “She’s a Ki.” With that, she gestured to Ki’s wrist with a tight frown on her face. “And she shouldn’t be here without invitation.”

  Confused, Ki shot a quick glance down at her wrist. In her panicked, wild escape from the room with the monitors, she had never once noticed the black numbers tattooed around her wrist. The name Ki-701824 stared back at her in bolded text, the same one the staff had used when addressing her. Her identification, the thing used in place of her real name.

  My real name…

  “I invited her.” Na pushed himself to his feet and slung his arm around her shoulders. He grinned at the nurse, pulling Ki a little closer than before. “We have something to talk about. If you would give us a few minutes?”

  Ki’s face grew warm as she reached up to take Na’s hand. A similar tattoo circled his wrist, only his number code read Na-729108. She pursed her lips and looked away, drawing her gaze to the face of the nurse instead, who seemed to be deep in thought.

  Finally, the nurse sighed. “Alright. You seem to be doing much better these days, but please call me if you need anything.”

  “Of course.”

  Satisfied, she made her way to the door and stepped out into the hall, shutting the door behind herself. When she was gone, Na sagged against the edge of the bed with a sigh, his arm sliding back down to his side. Ki sank into the seat beside him, smiling warmly when she caught his eye. He returned the smile with one of his own that made her heart flutter.   

  She looked away and cleared her throat. “I see that your wound is healing well.”

  “Yeah,” he said, the smile still evident in his voice. “All the attendants were really concerned about it when I awoke. I’ve been in the medbay ever since, but it’s mostly healed now. I think it’s been several weeks since then.”

  Ki flinched at the mention of time. It had never been real inside the Chamber, and even from her memories of outside the Chamber during her time with Flint, she had trouble recalling how long it had been. The details slipped through her fingers, floating away down the tumultuous river of her thoughts. Almost as if it had all been nothing but a dream.

  But Na sat beside her, proof that it was real. He was living, breathing, solid proof. Tears welled in Ki’s eyes as she faced him again. Her lips trembled and her brow creased. Na’s smile fell, his eyes shining with pity. He took her in his arms again, his fingers tangling in her hair as he pulled her close. She pressed her face into his shoulder, squeezing her eyes shut tight until her tears faded.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she breathed, wrapping her arms around him. “For a long time, I thought I would never see you again.”

  “How did you escape?” He pulled away to hold her at arm’s length, his gaze sweeping over her as if he were checking for injuries. “I’m… sorry that I left you behind. I couldn’t wait any longer, but what I did was selfish and cruel. I’m so, so sorry, Ki.”

  She took his hand in hers. “It’s okay, it’s really okay,” she said, squeezing his hand. “And… It’s Valentine, actually. Valentine Sallow. I wanted to know for so long that I was someone other than a Vault Guard, and I guess, now that I know, you should, too.”

  He blinked, his eyes widening slightly. “Valentine.”

  “And you?” She leaned forward slightly. “You have a name too, don’t you?”

  With another soft smile, he pressed his forehead against hers. “Kanan,” he whispered. “Kanan Amiri.”

  Kanan. The name resonated with her, breathing life into the image of him in her mind. He was more than just a number used in a system, a false identity in a simulation, he was more than just her fellow guard, Na. He was Kanan. A real person, in the real world. Her real friend.

  Just as she was no longer Ki. She was Valentine. She was her own person, with her own identity.

  When the warmth of his hand was pressed against hers, and when he sat beside her with his head against hers, that was all that mattered. 

  She had done it. She had escaped the Vault and found Na--Kanan, as it were.

  But a nagging voice in her head reminded her of the world she had woken up to, and of the personnel still searching the grounds for her. Swallowing thickly, she pulled away. It was hardly an escape--not yet. Flint might have been wrong entirely and there was truly no escape from the Vault.

  Her mind flashed back to Ti, watching as the Vault doors closed slowly.

  Whether or not this world was the escape, she had left Ti behind to suffer the consequences of her actions. Not only Ti, but Flint, Emma, the new Ki, the new Na, and all those others. They would all have to deal with the aftermath of her choices.

  Of Valentine’s selfish acts.

  “Na--” she stopped herself, twisting the fabric of her skirt in her fingers. “No, Kanan. We need to talk about the Vault. But not just that, about all of this. These numbers on our wrists, this facility, the virtual reality test, the… the Master. All of it.”

  He nodded. “Really, though. How did you escape?”

  She hesitated, her brow furrowing as she mulled over his question. His dark brown eyes were kind as they studied her face. There was never a hint of malice in him when he looked at her, only that gentle look of understanding. Even though she had always been slower than him when it came to putting the pieces together. Even though she had always been so different from him.

  “I… went to the place where the thieves come from,” she murmured. “I went to the world outside the Chamber.”

  Kanan’s eyes widened in surprise. It took a moment before a deep frown of concentration etched itself into his face and his gaze hardened again. “Tell me everything.”

  Pulling on as much detail as she could recall, Valentine recounted everything that had happened since he left the Vault. From the new Na, to Ti’s attack on her, to the Chamber swallowing her and spitting her back out in the Forest of the Dead, she told him everything. Just recalling it made her stomach churn with anxiety and guilt. She couldn’t tell if her actions had been right or not, but they had led her to her own intended goal. Not that that made it okay. Though it brought her relief to be next to Kanan again after so long.

  “When I entered the Vault,” she said, “I heard your voice from a jewelry box on a pedestal. You were calling me, so I followed you and woke up here.” 

  He folded his arms over his chest, frowning down at the floor. “It doesn’t make sense. That I was so quickly replaced, that you left the Chamber through another means, and that what you saw in the Vault is the mirror of what I saw.”

  “The mirror?”

  “I don’t know how long I stayed in the Vault for,” he murmured. With a sigh, he buried his face in his hands, elbows resting against his knees. “The moment the doors shut, I regretted it. I wanted so desperately to go back, but I couldn’t get the doors open again. I was alone in the dark for so long before I heard a voice calling me. Like you heard mine, I heard yours.”

  Warmth flooded her face and her heart skipped a beat. “R-really?”

  A sly smile curled at the corners of his mouth as he leaned on one hand to face her. “Don’t let it go to your head. Who else would I have heard? Ti? That wouldn’t have been the most encouraging.”

  Valentine chuckled, ducking her head in embarrassment. “Yeah, she was never the most warm and friendly--and certainly not encouraging.”

  “That’s one way to put it,” he said, pressing a hand against the place where his wound had been in his shoulder. His face screwed up in thought, but she could only feel relieved at the thought that waking up from the test had brought him to a place where he could be healed properly. 

  With a deep sigh, she leaned her forehead against his shoulder, squeezing the fabric of her skirt in her hands. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

  “Me too,” he whispered. “I’m really glad to see you again, Valentine.”

  She smiled involuntarily at the use of her own name--her real name. The sound of it on his tongue was so freeing, so right. Almost more so than when she said it herself, but perhaps that was her own imagination getting ahead of her. 

  The moment was shattered by the sound of footsteps outside the door.