Two woke with a start. Something was wrong. Where was she? She didn't remember her bed ever being this hard. She groaned a bit as she sat up and realized she wasn't in her bed. She was on the floor in the corridor of the ship with the faintest pain in her forehead, remnants of a headache.
Why was she on the ground? She couldn't remember how that part had happened; the last thing she could remember was having a meal planet-side with the rest of the crew. How was it that her memories always seemed to be leaving her? She dusted herself off and headed for the bridge, calling the others to meet her there to figure out what the hell happened the night before.
She was the first to arrive to the bridge, the android greeting her as she headed to the nearest console to make sure they were at least in the place she last remembered being. Thankfully, they were still hovering above the mining planet they had been on the day before.
"What in the hell is going on? I have this awful headache and I swear some of my memories are gone again! How the hell does this keep happening?" Three asked as he walked into the room.
Four was close behind and added, "I seem to have a headache too. But I do not recall drinking last night."
Next to arrive was Six, rubbing his temples as he walked in and asking the android if there were still painkillers in the infirmary. "I believe we have many types to choose from. Would you prefer a narcotic or anti-inflammatory?"
"I'll just stick with an aspirin, thank you." Six replied.
"Hold off on that android, I think we may need you in here." Two was still trying to figure out what happened the night before. She finally looked up from the console and realized that someone was missing. "Where is Five?" She activated her com, "Five, where are you? Come to the bridge, we have things to discuss."
Something was off. Five was always prompt when called to the bridge, always ready to intervene in the next technical malfunction.
"Has anyone seen Five?" The rest of the crew started to look concerned.
Six jumped in, "The last time I remember seeing her was at dinner, last night on the mining colony. Speaking of….how did we get back on the ship? I don't remember driving the Marauder back up here."
Two didn't understand either and she was getting really tired of not being able to remember. "We need to find Five. Search the ship, meet in the infirmary in 10 minutes. Something doesn't feel right about this."
The rest of the crew hurried off, planning out who would take which wing as they went off. Two remained in the bridge a moment longer. Something had caught her eye while Six was talking. She went over near the bridge door and realized what it was: Five's com. Her heart sank, she was hoping Five was just hiding somewhere on the ship, but she always had her com on her, she was the most dependable with it. With a sick feeling in her gut, Two realized something was definitely wrong because Five was not on board. As her worry for Five began to bubble, the anger she always felt when helpless began to stir as well.
"Let's get to the infirmary, android," she said as she rushed off to check her theory.
When Three, Four, and Six entered the infirmary they saw Two and the android examining scans on the screen.
"What is this?" asked Four.
"I had the android run a diagnostic on me to see if we had been drugged, unfortunately that appears to be the case. A minor dose of an anti-memory drug to make us forget the last 12 hours or so."
"What the hell is going on here?" Three asked.
"Who did this to us?" Four supplied at the same time.
Six seemed to ask the most pertinent question. "Where is Five?"
They all looked at each other hoping someone would supply the answer, but nothing came of it.
"Let's stop asking and find out. She's obviously not on the ship and the last place we all remember being was planet-side having dinner. Five was with us then, and she's not now. Somehow, someone managed to slip us a drug and either get us back on board themselves, or we managed to do that part." Two was getting angrier by the second; she needed answers not more questions!
"There's no way we would have left Five on the planet alone, drugged or not. If we were capable of flying the Marauder back up here, then there's no way we left Five. So how did someone get us back up here and manage to disappear themselves?" Six was always good at bringing some insight in difficult situations, even if Two still couldn't completely trust him after his betrayal, at least his cop instincts came in handy.
"Actually, I may have found something to answer that riddle. I have been scanning the ship for any abnormalities in the last 12 hours and it appears that sometime during the night, the airlock was used. I'm pulling up the footage from the airlock now."
They all turned to the screen and watched as two people dressed in spacesuits opened the airlock and left the ship. The footage was short and the two seemed to know what they were doing.
"Damnit!" yelled Three, "How in the hell is everyone able to sneak one over on us? You can't even see who those two are! And where the hell are they going? Into dead space? They're fucking crazy!"
"I do not believe they went into dead space at all. You may not be able to see it, but I can. There is a small shuttle waiting in the corner of the screen. I would think that they had all of this very planned out. Whoever administered drugs to your systems then got you back on this ship, and themselves off of it, were not playing around. They seem to have experience with this technology. Crazy may not be the right word at all."
Three seethed at the android making him look lackluster as usual. "Well, had I been so inclined I could've come up with a plan like that myself!"
"That's enough!" interrupted Two, "Whoever that is didn't just knock us out for fun. They wanted Five and they wanted us to not remember that she was gone, at least not until they had a good enough head start. "
"That footage was only 4 hours ago, we must have woken up much earlier than they had planned," Four noticed.
"That means if we hurry, we might have a small advantage. We need to get down to that planet and find out where Five is, I'll get the Marauder ready," Six offered. There was a sick feeling in his gut about all of this. This was too professional, too clean. This wasn't some random attack. He may not remember a lot about his past, but everyone knew that some mining colonies had a bad crowd. The ones that were overworked needed 'relaxation' and 'enjoyment' the corporations would argue. So, the corporations would provide this in the form of trafficked women, children, and men. The miners only had to work so many hours a week to receive a person for whatever they desired. The corporations argued that the trafficked people were volunteers who were well compensated and mostly used for household chores. Everyone knew better than that. Six could remember too many news reports of mass graves filled with bodies no one would claim: drifters, floaters and children taken from their families before they were even grown. He ran faster towards the shuttle, Five would not become one of those people, not on his watch.
Five woke slowly; she could tell something was off before she even opened her eyes. There was pain in her head and her wrists felt raw. Fear instantly spread throughout her body. Instead of opening her eyes she decided to listen for the sound of any other people around her. When she heard nothing, she opened her eyes slowly to assess her situation.
She was lying on her side on a wooden floor. Her wrists were tied together in front of her with some fraying rope. The room she was in was about the size of her room on the Raza, give or take a few square inches. The only source of light in the room was a small window, way out of her reach. As her eyes continued to scan the room she noticed the door was closed and without even checking she knew it would be locked. There wasn't much in the room itself. A lot of dust, what appeared to be random papers, and a bed. The last item made her cringe, she did not want to be here long enough to have to use that bed, or worse, figure out what it was really used for.
"Don't waste any time. As soon as you realize you are restrained, you must figure out how to free yourself, okay kid?" Three's voice cut through her observations. This is exactly what they had been training her to do, to get out of bad situations and protect herself as best she could and she was already failing. Enough looking around, time to start acting.
She sat up and began to feel around the top of her right boot where she kept her knife. Whoever had tied her up and locked her in here had obviously figured she wouldn't be hiding a weapon on her person. Sometimes her being small and innocent looking worked in her favor. She grabbed her knife and began sawing at the rope. It took her about two minutes to cut free of the ropes and she hopped up to check the door. As she had suspected, it was locked.
Suddenly, she heard a door outside of hers banging open and men's voices coming through her door.
The first voice sounded so normal as he asked, "What do you think we can get for this one? With her green hair and all?"
"Eh, I reckon if we dyed that hair back to normal and keep her all shiny and clean we can get a pretty penny for that one! Looks only 15 or 16! In her prime! Most of the miners would be clawing at each other to get to her first!" Five recoiled from the door as the second man talked so nonchalantly about her. Not just about her, but about selling her, as if she were some sort of merchandise and not a person.
The first voice cut through her thoughts as he spoke again, this time sounding closer to the door than before, "Are you sure we have to keep her all clean? It's been too long since I've gotten to break in a pretty girl like that one!"
Five didn't want to hear anymore. She began to panic as she realized that their voices weren't just sounding more terrifying, but also closer and closer. They were going to come in here and she had no plan. She was trapped in a room with nothing to keep them from coming in and nothing to help her get out. Her breathing was intensifying and she couldn't slow it down. She knew she needed to keep her emotions in check like Four had taught her to but she was terrified and out of options.
"Stay calm." Two's voice was breaking through her panic, "The first rule is to stay calm and focus on what you have. You are small; there is no changing that. But you have power; if you use that power right then you have a fair enough chance in a fight. Don't go for punches you can't back up. You have to use your attacker's power against them." She began to remember what Two had taught her; she pushed her fear aside and passed her knife to her left hand as she moved her body to a crouch. Her knees were bent and loose, her stance was light like Two had shown her and she was ready to pounce on whoever was about to enter her room.
The door opened and two much larger men stood in the doorway, "What the…didn't you tie her up Kyle?"
"Oh how adorable! The little girl thinks she can fight us off with her little knife! Isn't that cute Dom?" Kyle was the one she had thought sounded normal at first, but everything he said made her cringe. He was the one she needed to go after first, but she had to at least try to get them to back off without violence.
"I'm not a little girl. I'm a member of the Raza and I know how to fight!" She remained in her stance and tried to make her voice sound in charge and unafraid, just like Two's always was. "I don't want to hurt you, if you let me go my crew and I will just walk away and leave you unharmed, but if you come near me I will hurt you." She truly hoped she sounded fierce and not as scared as she felt.
"Yeah, right, and I'm the ruler of this world and the next five." Dom said has he rolled his eyes.
Kyle began to walk towards her, "Let's get her tied back up and get rid of this awful green hair."
He started to reach for her and she sprang into action, her muscles doing all the work she had practiced over and over again with Two. The knife went straight into his ear and he fell hard and so much faster than Five thought possible.
The cry that left his body was something animalistic and terrifying all in itself. Five almost felt guilty but remembered they were here to hurt her.
"What the hell?" Dom raced to grab her and Five realized she didn't have another knife and there was nothing to grab. He reached for her and she backed away, trying to get around the broken man on the ground but she wasn't quick enough. She felt a sharp tug on her scalp as she was pulled down to the ground, hard.
"You little Bitch!" Dom yelled as he began punching her face. Five had never felt pain like that, but she tried to ignore it and get back on her feet. She managed to roll away and attempt to stand back on her feet when Kyle appeared suddenly back on his.
"Don't let that little Bitch move!" he yelled as he ran from the room. Dom obviously enjoyed hurting her because even though she was down, he started kicking her in the gut. Every time she tried to roll away he was right there. She started to curl up in a ball and try to take it when Kyle returned.
When she saw the knife in his hand she knew she had messed up. She had made the wrong call; she shouldn't have tried to fight them off. She was too small and there were two of them. Now, she wouldn't even be sold, she would be killed right here and now and without her friends.
"Not so tough now, huh little girl?" Kyle chuckled as he approached her with the knife. "Stand her up. I don't care about clean and shiny. Hell, I don't even care if we get to sell this one! I'm going to have some fun and well, if the merchandise gets damaged, we can always find more!"
She felt Dom's arms under hers as he effortlessly dragged her onto her feet. The first cut was a shock to her system. It was deep enough to hurt, but not to kill her. She could tell that Kyle meant what he said; he was going to drag this out. Five gave into the fear that she was feeling. She wasn't like the rest of the crew, she couldn't keep the terror that she was feeling inside no matter how hard she was trying. Tears started to stream down her face as Kyle lifted her shirt and began cutting her stomach.
"Nothing to say now little girl?" Dom teased in her ear. "We're going to have fun breaking you in!" he laughed.
Suddenly, the door outside hers banged open again.
"Aw hell!" Kyle spat. "We were just starting to have fun!"
In walked a third man; he was older than the other two and his presence made them stop what they were doing.
"What the hell is going on in here? Dom, you're supposed to be keeping the merchandise clean and shiny, remember? How the hell does this seem clean and shiny to you? Kyle, how many times have I told you not to damage the merchandise?"
"But, Ronnie, she attacked me! She stabbed me in the ear! The fucking ear!"
"Quit your crying! So the little girl pulled one over on you! Suck it up and do your job. If you want a turn with the merchandise then you buy the merchandise! Get her out to the barn and get rid of that disgusting hair! We still might be able to make something off of her." Then he turned and left.
"Fuck Ronnie!" Kyle seethed. "I'll do what I want!"
"Yeah, right Kyle. You heard what he said. I'll take her to the barn, go clean up that disgusting mess on your head, you don't want the others too see what she did to you." Dom told the other man.
"Let's get moving little girl!" he yelled in her ear as he twisted her arm painfully behind her back she felt a sharp pain and a crack. That was all she could handle and she fell to the floor, her eyes shutting hard on her way down.
As soon as the shuttle's door closed, they were off. Headed to the last place they all remembered being, a small bar that didn't ask many questions and had the best meat in town.
"Can't we go any faster?!" Two asked in frustration. She could feel herself getting angrier by the second; worse, she could feel the anxiety rising up in her chest, wanting to close off her airways. Five was too young to be in this mess with them, so they hadn't really put in as much effort as they should have in training her to fight. They had only taught her basics on how to free herself and run. If she was outnumbered there was no way she would know what to do. They hadn't even allowed her to carry a weapon most times they went off-ship. They didn't want her caught up in their lifestyle more than she already was.
Two wished they had trained her more. She thought about all the things that could have happened to Five; a rival corporation would be the best outcome. Two knew that mining colonies offered much worse options. She banged her fist on the console. "We need to be there now!"
A few long minutes later they were finally on the ground and headed towards the bar. They busted in, weapons blazing, asking for the bartender that worked the night before.
A small man nervously came out from behind the bar with his hands raised above his head, "Uhh…that was m—m-me…" He seemed childish and way too young to be working in such a rough place. Two briefly thought that him and Five must be the same age.
Three grabbed him by the arms and dragged him outside. "Where the hell is our friend?" he yelled as he threw the kid to the ground.
"Wh-what friend?" the kid stammered.
Three went in for a kick as Four grabbed him and dragged him back, "Your rage will not help as right now. He is already scared, all we must do is ask." Three shoved Four off of him and grabbed his gun, aiming it at the boy on the ground.
"We're going to ask you some questions and I think you'd better answer them or you might be feeling some pain soon." Three told the kid as he nodded to Two to start the inquisition.
Two wanted to do the same as Three and just start ripping into this kid, the old her would have him strung up already, but that's not who she was anymore and she couldn't get past the fact that he looked the same age and size as Five. So she took a breath and spoke calmly, "We were in here last night. There were five of us and one of us has gone missing. We don't remember where she went and it's very important that we find her, and fast."
The kid's face suddenly went pale and somber. "I-I can't help you," he stammered.
"Like hell you can't!" Three yelled as he went for him again. This time it was Six that stopped him and pushed him back towards Four, giving him an annoyed look.
Six stooped down to look the kid in the face. "I can see that you're scared. You know what happens in this town. Some people go missing occasionally, you look the other way and hope the next person isn't you or someone you know. You know what happens to the people who disappear. I can see that you're afraid to talk. I'm going to tell you that my friends and I, we are a lot more terrifying than anyone you're afraid of right now. There are things we know how to do to make a person talk and we won't lose a wink of sleep at night over it. My friend over there is usually hard to control when he's not angry. And right now, he is very, very angry. I usually don't let him hurt people too badly, but if you don't want to tell us what you know, then I just might have to turn the other way."
The kid's face was even more ashen. The crowd that had formed around them wasn't intervening at all. This town was like that, they all turned away when things were happening that weren't right. This town was either going to kill him or this group of people just looking for their friend. He might as well help this stranger if the people who knew were not going to help him, "O-okay…I'll talk, but not here."
They dragged the kid up and went around the back of the bar for more privacy. "Where is she?" Two asked the second they were alone.
"What happened to you happens to a lot of crews that make a pit stop here. The Everett brothers own this town. They run a service for the miners and in return the miners protect them. They –"
"What kind of service?" asked Three.
Two and Six looked at each other and decided to let the kid break the news.
"They sell people to the miners that work too many hours. The people are supposed to be volunteers and only do housework but that's only on paper. The people are usually taken from visiting crews and what the miners do with them is not the Everett brothers' problem. The lucky ones end up dead before the brothers send them off-planet to be re-serviced on harsher planets."
Two's stomach was churning. She had a feeling tugging at her gut that she knew what it was like to be one of those people who were bought and sold. It was like grasping at straws for the solid memory. But she could remember the feeling of being helpless and that was enough. The anger inside her needed an outlet, she grabbed the kid's collar, "We don't need to know what they do! We need to know where the hell to find our friend."
The crew looked at her and seemed unsure of what to do. So they let her be, holding the kid against the wall by his collar.
"T-there's a farm. That's where they take the new ones. The brother's own it. It has a lot of guards but it's not hard to get to."
"Take us there. NOW." Two yelled as she dropped the kid to the ground and walked away, "are you coming?" she hollered towards the crew.
Five shot awake at the feeling of water being dumped all over her head. It was ice cold and trying to suffocate her. She jostled around and about passed back out from the pain radiating throughout various parts of her body, but mostly from the middle.
She tried to gather her bearings and see where she was now. She was laid back in a chair and a woman was dumping cold water over her head.
"What are you doing?!" she yelled at the woman.
"Green hair is not good for the merchandise. Miners don't want crazy girls. They tell me to take away the green, I take away the green."
Her hair. They took away her green hair. They had beaten her, cut her, and as far as she could tell broken her wrist. And now they actually did it, they took her green hair.
Her heart sunk. She felt so broken and alone. She wanted to be back on the Raza, back with her crew. She wanted to be tinkering on the ship and trying to solve their latest technical difficulty. She wanted to be sharing her thoughts with two, training with Four and pranking Three. She didn't want to know what was coming next for her here on this planet. Where were her friends? What had happened to them? She can't believe she hadn't even thought about where they might be. What if they were here as well? Was it possible they would be in this barn? Were they waiting for her to join them?
Her thoughts were getting the best of her. There's no way Two would have been overpowered by those two men. As for the rest of the crew, most of the people in here were women or younger children, Three, Four, and Six were most definitely not what the miners wanted to purchase.
So where were they? Why weren't they coming for her? Had she been taken to a different planet? She had no idea how long she had been out; maybe she hadn't woken up a few hours after dinner, but days. If she didn't know where she was, how was the crew supposed to know?
She would have to accept this as her new life or try to keep fighting back like her friends had taught her. Accepting this fate was something she could not do, she knew that much about herself. She was a fighter, maybe not in the physical sense as her crewmates were, but she would fight this.
The woman was done drying her hair and placed cuffs around Five's wrists before leading her down a few rows of people and placing her on the floor. The cuffs were going to be a bigger problem this time around. Her knife was gone and these were metal. On top of that the slightest movement of her wrist sent shockwaves of pain throughout her whole body that made her dizzy and on the brink of passing out.
"You have to at least try. You can do this!" she thought to herself. The cuffs looked easy enough to pick open if she could just find something small enough. She glanced around and all she could see was hay and wood slivers. She decided to try using a wood sliver. It seemed hopeless for sure, but she couldn't just sit here and wait to be sold.
Ever so slowly, she began picking at the lock.
The kid was right. This must be the place because why else would there be so many guards standing around a barn at the edge of town? From what they could tell there were no booby-traps, just a house and a barn with guards. The brothers obviously didn't think anyone would try to challenge them too badly.
Two took the lead as usual, "Okay, we don't know how many guards they have on the inside, but it seems like we have plenty of firepower to take out the ones on the outside. I'd guess they have more men inside the house so we have to be ready for that. Plan is simple, we go in guns blazing and get Five back. Four, Six, I want you two staying back and handling any that try to come inside the barn once Three and I breach it. Three, you take out any guards that get in our way inside. I'll find Five. We get her and we get the hell off this planet. Save any revenge plans for when Five is safely back on the Raza where she belongs."
They advanced on the barn, taking out guards left and right. As Two suspected, more came running out of the house at the sound of gunfire. The guards were not much of a match for them, Two and Three were closing in on the barn and Four and Six were holding their positions, drawing the guards to them.
Finally, they breached the barn doors. Two's eyes took seconds to adjust to the darker lighting and she scanned the many faces for Five as Three took out the two measly guards inside the barn. Two briefly wondered how two guards were able to keep this many people from revolting and she shuddered to think what methods must've been used to break them.
She shook that thought out of her head and scanned the room for the fourth time, still not seeing Five. There were too many people, she thought, she just needed to keep walking the rows. The faces looking at her were overwhelming. They were thin and dirty most of them young. Still, none of them had Five's green hair. She was starting to panic when she noticed a girl with short brown hair bent over seeming to be working on something.
As she got closer she realized the girl was trying to pick a lock on the cuffs around her wrists. "Five?" Two asked hesitantly as she ran up to the girl.
The face that looked up at her was swollen, bruising, and bloody. Two was taken aback and briefly thought this couldn't be Five, her signature green hair was gone, and this girl looked so broken. Two was caught between relief and disbelief as she accepted that the face staring up at her did indeed belong to Five. She noticed that Five's arm was sitting in an awkward position. Her heart broke and she felt the need to run back out and kill every last one of the guards outside of the barn. Five, the most innocent of the whole crew, was beaten to a pulp and looked so fragile and broken.
Two cut the handcuffs apart and reached out for Five.
"I did what you guys taught me," Five slurred as she tried to stand. Everything was still too swirly in her head and she tipped back onto the ground. Two wanted her out of this nightmare, she had never been more thankful for her nannites and strength as she picked up the girl and carried her out of the barn, "I've got you Five, you can tell me all about it when we get you back on the ship."
When Three saw them approach the front of the barn, Two saw emotions on his face she thought weren't even possible for him. Greif, regret, relief, and rage all flashed across his face in seconds.
"What the hell did they do to her? I'll kill 'em!" he yelled as he went to grab Five from Two's arms. Two recoiled; she wasn't ready to let her go. She knew that Three would get her back to the ship just as well as she could, but she needed to keep Five in her arms. She needed to feel that she was alive and breathing and not going anywhere. As much as she wanted to kill every last guard she couldn't put Five down.
Three ran out of the barn and started shooting, killing every guard that crossed his path. By the time they reached Four and Six, the field was covered in fallen guards. They hadn't seemed to run across the Everett brothers yet though. All of them had the desire to end their lives, but they had to put Five before their revenge, so they left the farm and headed back to the Marauder.
"Is she okay?" Five had passed out on the way back to the Raza. Two couldn't tell what was happening and had rushed her to the infirmary once back on board. When the android had seen her face, Two swore she saw anger in the android's eyes, but she shrugged it off.
"She seems to have been badly beaten. Are you sure you would like the full report?"
Two didn't want to hear it, she didn't want to know what those men had managed to do to her in the few hours that they had her, but she needed to know that Five would be okay. She sent the rest of the crew out of the room so that Five could have as much privacy as possible. They tried to argue but she didn't budge.
Once they were alone, she asked the android for the full report as she grabbed Five's good hand.
"She seems to have a mild concussion, a badly bruised eye socket, 3 bruised ribs, a fractured wrist, as well as some cuts on her face, arms, and abdomen."
Two was feeling too many emotions. She couldn't decide which was most prominent. Rage at the people who did this, sadness at Five's condition, anger at herself for not protecting Five were just the ones she could tangibly describe. She didn't want to ask but she needed to know, "Can the scanner tell you if she has been assaulted?"
"Yes. The scanner shows no signs of sexual assault. Just the injuries I have outlined." Two let out the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. The android continued, "I recommend trying to wake her due to the concussion. She may feel pain but I can get her something to ease it. Her wrist will take some time to heal, but she should make a full recovery."
There would be pain and it would take time for her physical wounds to heal, but Five was going to be okay. Two took a minute to collect her emotions before gently waking the girl.
Five's eyes blinked open. She was confused. Was she in the infirmary? Then she felt the pain that seemed to be all over her body. "Wha-what happened?" She asked as she tried to sit up. "Ugh…ow!" she winced as she lay back down on the bed.
"Don't try to sit up," Two said as she was standing above her. "You managed to get yourself into quite some trouble for someone so small." She stroked a piece of hair out of Five's face as the android injected a pain reliever into the girl's arm.
Five's confusion quickly turned to fear and then relief, as she seemed to remember what happened.
"I did what you taught me," she said again.
Two wanted to know what she was talking about but she didn't want her to be in any pain, "Shhh, for now. You can tell me later."
"No! I want you to know you helped me! I woke up confused and staring at the ceiling of a house. My hands were tied together and I could hear these men talking not too far from me, behind a door. I used that trick that Three taught me to get out of the ties. They must not have thought to check me because I still had the knife I keep in my boot. When I heard the voices come my way I did what you said, I got a solid stance and tried to appear scarier than I am."
Two wasn't sure she wanted to know how this went but she let the girl continue, watching her face for any sign she might need to stop.
"When they came in, I told them to just walk away and let me go, because otherwise I would hurt them. They laughed at me Two! They just laughed and said yeah, right! So when the first one came near me, I did like you said and I stabbed him in the ear. You were right! He went down so fast! I guess I should have kept another knife on me though…when the other one came near me I tried my best to fight him off but…I couldn't do it."
Her face had gone from excited and proud, to scared and helpless. Again, Two wanted to go back down to the planet and obliterate all of the brothers and any guards that might have escaped. "Soon enough," she thought as Five continued to choke out her story.
"I tried to not let him see that he was hurting me…I thought that might make him stop sooner, but it was so hard to do, Two. I was on the ground and he was just kicking me and I couldn't do anything…When his friend got up off the floor and went for a knife…I was so scared. I just tried to think of how strong and brave you guys all are and I did my best to hide my emotions like Four taught me. His friend grabbed me and yanked me off the ground. When they started cutting me, I couldn't help but scream. Two…I know what they were going to do…and I couldn't do anything about it…Another man walked in as they started to cut my stomach and told them to stop because I looked wrong for the sale. They were going to sell me Two! That's when they took me to the barn and dyed my hair. Can you believe they took my green hair away?"
She could see that Five was trying so hard not to cry, but a tear still managed to slip down her cheek. Two wiped it away as she told Five, "Don't you worry. I've got you now. We all got you. We'll get your green hair back. You'll get all fixed up and we'll go visit those brothers and let them know you don't mess with the crew of the Raza. I promise you that you will be able to defend yourself; as soon as you are ready we start training. Okay kid?" Five nodded, "But for now, you need to heal. I'm going to be right here the whole time. You are safe. I promise."
Two snuck away once the android was able to safely sedate Five. "Keep her safe!" she yelled to the android as she headed to the training room.
"Four, Three, Six, meet me in the training room."
"What's all this about?" asked Four as they entered the room.
"How is the kid?" asked Three.
"She's going to be okay. But we need to talk. We are not going to let her be at risk any longer. The second she is ready we start training her for real. She needs to know how to fight and to defend herself. Six, I know that you're opposed-"
Six cut her off, "No. You guys were right. We should've been teaching her to fight the second we woke from those stasis pods. We need to do better."
"Good, let's get this room set up. As soon as she's ready, we train her to fight."