First Blood on Delancey

As the chapter of the war turned, each ally changed with him. Amara stopped chasing only proof and began protecting the people who risked giving it to her. Naveen stopped pretending neutrality could survive when his research cages had locks. Selene learned that redemption was not a dramatic death but an exhausting sequence of useful mornings. Holloway discovered obedience could become cowardice when the order was immoral. Thyren stopped treating Earth as a doomed echo of his lost home. Milo learned brilliance meant little unless ordinary people could survive the invention. Kieran saw those changes and understood his own rise would be hollow if everyone around him remained frozen.