Prax and Amos run through the Io base toward the primary lab while Naomi monitors them from the Rocinante and reports that local defenders are resisting outside. Prax uses his familiarity with research facilities to navigate the corridors, while Amos stays alert and armed as the station shakes from nearby fighting or instability.

In the lab area, Prax and Amos overhear Dr. Strickland arguing with a security woman about evacuation and bargaining chips. They enter to find sedated children in cages and Mei hidden in a transport crate. Strickland shoots the woman, then claims he was stalling her and that he has been forced into the experiments against his will.

Prax opens the transport and reunites with Mei, who recognizes him despite sedation. Strickland insists that Mei and the other children are alive because he saved them, but Amos rejects his story as manipulation. Prax realizes Strickland preserved Mei because Holden’s broadcast made her valuable as leverage, not because of compassion.

Prax tells Strickland that revenge no longer matters because Mei is alive, but Amos kills Strickland anyway. Prax and Amos then load Mei and the other rescued children into transport carts for protection against Io’s surface conditions and begin moving them out of the base.

On the way out, Amos clears a barricade of security personnel, and Prax notices that the violence no longer affects him as it once would have. Prax feels only overwhelming relief at Mei’s survival and a fierce need to protect her.

Prax and Amos reach the surface and meet Bobbie, whose powered armor is badly damaged and contaminated with protomolecule residue. Bobbie performs an emergency blow to shed the suit before entering the Rocinante’s airlock. With Mei and the other children aboard, Naomi prepares for launch, Avasarala approves destroying the base, and Amos declares that they are home.