A woman floated out of the fire-wreathed spaceship. She was also aflame, with fire burning atop her head in place of hair. Her eyes were burning orbs, and her graceful yellow dress had a shifting pattern of dancing flames. Jason smiled and the airlock behind him opened. He went inside and she followed, waiting until the door shut and air was vented in.“I like the new look,” he told her. “The new dimensional vessel, too. You know it looks like the God Phoenix ship from Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, right?”Her fire hair turned to normal, if vibrant red locks and fell about her head. Her eyes went from magma-like orbs to ordinary but beautiful eyes of fiery yellow. She used them to fix Jason with a judgemental stare.“Three sentences,” Dawn complained. “That’s how long it took for you to bring up some cartoon nonsense.”“I would say anime, rather than cartoon. I know the line was blurred when they retooled the series as Battle of the Planets for the western market, but—”“You need to stop before I set you on fire.”“Speaking of fire, your new avatar is lovely and all, as is your spaceship, but they don’t make any sense. Fire in space? There’s no oxygen.”“It’s your universe. I’m not responsible for the physics.”They grinned and shared a hug. When they let go, Jason kept his hands on her shoulders as he looked at her with concern. She wouldn’t quite meet his eyes.“Raythe said you didn’t want to see me,” he said.“It’s not that I didn’t want…”She met his gaze.“I didn’t intend to see you. I wanted you to know everything, first. To give you a chance to hate me.”“This is about old loyalties, isn’t it? The World-Phoenix and I having agendas that are similar, but not the same, and she got you first. You’re conflicted.”“Yes.”“I understand. I know the stakes of the choices we have to make, and that sometimes, every option sucks. Maybe you did something (...)