"What are you doing, Rey?"

"Nothing," she lied. She'd been lying easily these days. It was second nature, same as breathing in, breathing out; same as worrying about her son. It was what she had become since being suspended. A fiery ball of messy emotions, and a whole lot of rage. Rage that could set the world on fire. All she needed was a spark.

"Rey? What are you doing?" Diaz's voice crackled calmly through her ear pods again.

"Nothing." She swiped her wrist over the scanner at the SkyLift gate. This had become her daily routine over the past week. She usually set out to walk, clear her head, and somehow always ended up at a station, where she'd swipe in, catch the local to Central, and from there, switch for the SkyLift and head up to The Havens; to stake out the Presidential Suite in one of the most secure buildings this side of the hemisphere. The oddly named Kirribilli Home, a building named after the Prime Minister's house that used to be on the ground, when sky cities were a thing of distant futures. Not anymore.

So today was no different. Today, Reina was doing it all over again, like a bad habit she couldn't shake. All she wanted was to glimpse Keya Sapkota, to ask her what she did with her son. What she did with Anghad? That's all.

Except today, Reina wasn't paying close attention to her surroundings as she might have before Anghad disappeared from under her very nose. What she wouldn't give to turn back time and warn him not to go clubbing that night or ever, not until the Stoner Boys case was closed. Not until Keya Sapkota was behind bars, or better yet, done.

But as Reina scanned her wrist at the gate, someone yanked her back before she could enter, despite ringing up a charge.

"Hands off!" She swirled around, ready to snap the offender's wrist in two, before realising who it was. "What are you doing here?"

"Geez, even their train station drips opulence, doesn't it? God forbid they have to walk through ratty old stations like us." Diaz eyed the fancy station before his gaze settled on her. "The question is, what are you doing here? Again?"

Reina looked away, casually scratching her nose as if nothing was out of the ordinary. "I don't know what you're—"

"When Weir started spouting concern for your mental state at the station, you made it my business," Diaz cut in. "He's told me and everyone he saw you walking past his house this morning like a zombie again. You even had him wondering where you go every morning at seven, like clockwork."

Weir was the last person Reina expected to care for what she was up to or her mental state. "He's probably just trying to convince Cap not to let me come back."

"You think? Come on. Walk with me." Without warning, Diaz pulled her away from the golden gates of SkyLift, toward a coffee cart that served fancy beans and high-end pastries for its fancy clientele. "You're gonna buy me a brew and we're gonna sit down and chat."

"I don't have time for this, D."

"Oh, you do. That's all you have right now. Especially if you wanna know where and when you might chance a meeting with Keya," Diaz whispered in her ear. "A little birdie told me she's descending from the heavens again—"

"When?" Reina stopped walking and stared at her partner with her heart in her throat.

"Coffee first. I need you calm... before you do something rash, and I have to swoop in and save your ass."

Reina hesitated for a moment, eyeing the time on the display for the next lift. Five minutes.

"What do you get from stalking the fancy lobby of the presidential building, aye?" Diaz nudged her to walk again. "It's not like you can get past the federal cops, the private bodyguards, or the biometric scanners to get up into her home and ambush her."

"I need to be seen," Reina confessed, reluctantly joining Diaz for a coffee she didn't think she could swallow. "I need to remind her — that I know what she is, what she's done."

Diaz eyed her tee then. "Is that the reason you've now taken to wearing a shirt with Anghad's face on it?"

"What else am I supposed to do, D? Just wait around for someone to finally tell me my son's—that my—that my—"

She couldn't do it. She couldn't say the words.

Dead.

"We have time to kill. Eat your food." Diaz thrust a half-baguette sandwich into her hand and a large cup of coffee, then sat on the wide fence to eat his own.

That's when Reina noticed it. Diaz was not here in an official capacity. "You're not on duty today?"

He wrinkled his nose and took a bite of his sandwich, and as always, in true Diaz style, chewed too loudly and spoke through his food. "Can't focus on work when a friend of mine is worried sick for her kid. I took a day off. Figured you'll need me today."

For once, Reina didn't feel like she wanted to shoot his kneecaps. In fact, at that moment, she quite liked Diaz's kneecaps exactly where they were. In fact, she liked where he was too, next to her. Perhaps, in another life, in another time, someone might mistake them for a couple. She knew how often they seemed that way to others.

"And why would I need you today?" She couldn't bring her coffee or her sandwich to her lips. Not yet. Not until Diaz named the invisible elephant in the room. What was happening today?

Instead of speaking through another mouthful, he reached into his jeans pocket and handed her the art gallery pamphlet she'd seen on the floors of Keya Sapkota's emptied apartment by the time a warrant came around.

Reina knew it the minute she saw it—what today was all about. "Today's the opening day?"

Diaz tapped his nose twice. "You'll get that chance to ask her about Anghad... and I may or may not have made sure she sure as hell knows who you're asking about."

With a slight grin, Diaz set his half-eaten sandwich back on the wrapper, dusted his hands, and unzipped his jacket.

Inside, he was sporting a T-shirt with her son's face on it too. "I might have made a few extra"—he winked. "Like I said, we got you."

"We?" Reina finally lifted her coffee to her lips, a sense of relief lapping at her weary heart.

"You'll see." The grin remained on his lips.

***

Reina stood in the middle of the largest room in the newest wing of Sydney Art Gallery with her stomach turning to stone as she stared at the pieces around. Beside her, Diaz stood equally gobsmacked.

"Do you see what I—"

"See?" Diaz nodded beside her.

Reina couldn't breathe. Couldn't move a muscle. Not an inch. "How many do you count?"

"I don't fucking wanna count..."

Reina gripped her belt tightly, a chill coursing through her body. "We have to take photos of all of them. Match it with those reported—"

"Missing over the years?" he questioned.

"This is more than we thought." Reina wished she hadn't listened to Diaz and eaten that sandwich an hour ago. "I'm going to be sick."

"Me too."

Around them, all about the room, pale white marble statues stood in various states of moving. Their cold, vacant eyes staring at them were wide, perhaps in the throes of terror.

"I don't..." Reina slowly turned on her heels, scanning the boy's faces. "I don't see him, D. I don't see my son."

"There are other rooms... maybe in there?" Diaz quickly twirled his camera around before security asked him to put it away.

He grabbed Reina and rushed them into the next annex before the guard caught them and asked for the phone.

Here, there were no patrons yet, not this early. Reina folded over her knees, unable to breathe. "I can't—I don't see him. I don't see him."

"Come on." Diaz propelled her into the next room that was almost as large as the one they left, and here, the crowd gathered, huddled around some raised platform, and more boys-to-statues stood sentry around the room. "Geez... it keeps going, Rey... that's easily what, thirty more victims if—"

Someone turned around and shushed him. Diaz clamped his mouth and skirted the crowd of fifty, pulling her behind him.

"Do you see her?" Reina asked, shaking with rage, yet unable to see who was talking on the stage.

Diaz peered over the heads and nodded.

"I need to get in front of her." By the time her words had formed, Diaz was already expertly wedging himself through the crowd. Damned be the grumbles. She scrambled in his wake.

No sooner did they spill out into the front, Reina's eyes met with the blonde leaning into the woman she was here to confront. She watched Keya Sapkota, a frail-looking entity with haunted eyes, look her way before worry etched her face.

Reina stepped closer to that flimsy stage and asked, "Where's my son, Keya Sapkota? What did you do to all these men? What did you do to my son? Where is he?"

Keya's gaze flickered to her tee and the Diaz's. Then towards the back, where the question suddenly boomed from several lips.

"Where is Anghad Reina, Miss Sapkota?"

Reina turned to see the front of the crowd look back at the edges of the huddle where off-duty cops dressed as civilians stood, wearing the same printed tee as her. Even Weir seemed to ask the question. His shiny bald head bobbed in the crowd.

"Keya Sapkota..." they began, but behind them, security flooded in and the blonde made a move to secure the guest of honour.

This is my turn. Reina jumped up on the stage before Keya could escape out the side door and grabbed her hand. "I know what you are. Just tell me! What did you do with my son? Tell me and I'll let this all go... just give me back my son! Give me back my son!"

But before Reina could get her answers, men in suits forced her off the President's daughter and pinned her to the floor. "Don't move!"

"No!" Reina screamed. "No! Let me go... Keya. Keya! Do the right thing. Just tell me where he is. KEYA!"

In the melee and confusion Reina hadn't noticed the centre piece Keya Sapkota had unveiled moments before they had stepped in the room, but from the floor, pinned by two men, their knees digging unnecessarily harshly into her back, Reina saw the truth hidden in plain sight.

Keya Sapkota was telling the entire world who or what she was if only they were astute enough to understand her message.

In the hero spot of the room, beneath a beautiful dome skylight was an eerie statue, still unglazed; half Medusa's head, half Keya herself. One becoming the other. But which?

"I know what you are... I know..." Reina's words spluttered out of her last time as hope died again.

WC: 32, 110

A/N: We're nearing the end. What did you make of this chapter? I feel I rushed it, but with only days to go and little word count left, I had to.

Was it predictable? Did I reveal the twists well? Love to hear your thoughts.