With the Empress dead and Lirna taken over by the Outer Colony rebels, the Ascendancy may be on the point of collapse. Leaderless and with their military severely wounded, they are forced to regroup on the colony world of Arbaros. Li'ren suffers with her own personal grief, and Aria settles into her role as a captain of a Royal Guard with no royalty to protect. Meanwhile, Jack sits by on the sidelines, swept up in the crisis but unable to do much except watch.

Episode Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGzgoSg5OZg Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams

I know I'm already breaking the schedule I set for myself, but I got halfway through the request I'm working on and then this just flowed out of me. X3