Whit gently pushes her away, pain in his eyes. "It's not that simple, Janine." Next, Feffer, our rescued hound, comes prancing up, barking with excitement.

"Where's Margo?" Sasha, our resident zealot, asks with confusion all over his face.

Oh God. They think we succeeded on our original mission. They don't know…

And so, for the next fifteen minutes, utter devastation drowns the group as we explain the sordid outcome of the mission that failed.

Margo was one of the original and most beloved Freeland leaders, one of the real rocks in our ever-changing existence. As it turns out, those on the mission who had escaped got back to Freeland without witnessing her execution. And Garfunkel's-whose power mostly comes from an ingenious method of siphoning energy from perfume bottles-doesn't have regular access to New Order broadcasts. Actually, that's probably a blessing.

"We were all just keeping vigil for your return," Sasha says. "For all of you."

Having to tell the story just tears me up all over again. And looking around at everyone makes it worse. The ragamuffin crew's light of hope seems extinguished. I'm even sorry for Sasha, whom I don't particularly trust because he lied through his teeth to us once. But he and Margo had the same fire of resistance in their blood. They would do anything for the cause.

And Janine-well, she and Margo were like sisters. Her green eyes, which had shone so brightly for Whit, were glazed over with shock and grief. Whit was stroking her hair comfortingly. Finally, she buried her head in the crook of his neck. "We grew up together," she moaned. "Best friends since preschool, you believe that?"

"Sure I do," whispers Whit. "Everybody loved Margo."

Emmet, my best bud here, comes over to me and puts his arm around me. Normally it would make me beyond happy-because, let's face it, Emmet is extremely wicked cute-but right now, strangely, it almost annoys me.

I've had it with falling apart. If Margo walked in here right now, she would probably revolt against all this pitiful weeping and feeling sorry for her.