A/N: After one episode, I can already say that Defiance looks like it's going to be an awesome show. And, unless someone's posted something else, this is going to be the first multi-chapter fic in the category, as well as the first fic posted after the show aired. I'm planning on having a number of scenes from the show intermixed with bits and pieces of Nolan and Irisa's past. Hopefully I can do justice to the fantastic relationship these two characters have, as well as the melting pot of alien cultures the show contains.

I will try to post weekly, a chapter per episode, though I've got a number of other projects I'm working on, so I might be a few days late sometimes. Also, as you can probably tell, since the show's just started, this will probably become AU by the end of season 1. Hopefully I can still intertwine the two.

Disclaimer: I don't own Defiance, though I wish Bear McCreary would compose the score of my day-to-day life.

Chapter One

Why Don't You Stay For Dinner?

The Terra-Sphere was heavy in his pack. The jubilation of finding the treasure had given way to a sense of dread. It wasn't the first time the Spirit Riders had interrupted Ark Hunters after they'd found treasure, but this wouldn't be like the epic battles he'd witnessed in San Francisco, either. He and Irisa were outnumbered at least ten to one, and he didn't fancy a full-on firefight with those odds.

He'd survived the Pale Wars, and he'd learned: know your limits. If a battle would end in failure, it was better to live to fight another day than to waste your life needlessly.

"Spirit Riders," he said to Irisa. "Better stay—"

He stopped. A tall Irathient had grabbed Irisa, a gun in his right hand, and a hat tilted jauntily on his head. The flashes of light from the Spirit Riders' vehicles briefly illuminated his face.

A female Irathient wearing what appeared to be a football helmet approached him. He tried to defuse the situation, knowing that it could devolve into a firefight at any moment - and if it did become a fight, he wasn't sure they could escape with their lives.

"At ease, friends," he said in the Irathient tongue. Knowing the Spirit Riders' hatred of humans, it would be a mistake to speak English to them. "We don't want trouble."

The female took his gun from his holster while the big one spoke to Irisa.

"Little one," he said, "why do you partner with this human? Why not ride with your own kind?"

"Because you people smell like shtako," she snarked, in English. Nolan shook his head. Irisa never could tell when to be polite.

"Such fire," the male said, and Nolan was thankful to hear amusement instead of anger. "You are Irathient to be sure."

Nolan noticed a scar that crossed the male's face. He wasn't new to leadership, or to fighting. His initial assessment had been correct: the situation was very, very dangerous. He took Nolan's gun from the female.

"She's just this human's pet," the female said dismissively. "Does he feed you little treats?"

Irisa responded, equally mocking, this time in the Irathient tongue. "We're cannibals," she said. "Why don't you stay for dinner?"

Joshua Nolan crested the ridge. He'd left the mass of Ark Hunters behind. They all jostled for favors, each trying to be the king of their little group. Nolan didn't have time for it. He didn't need a group in order to feel safe; once he'd gotten the majority of the arkfall treasures, the others would show up, having been slowed by all the infighting and problems that came with a large group. Then the Spirit Riders and other creatures would show up, and he could simply leave in all the confusion.

The arkfall bloomed in fire and smoke overhead, and he mentally plotted its trajectory. His Roller could do it for him, of course, but he still didn't trust it to be entirely accurate. He'd watched too many fellow soldiers die because technology had miscalculated the targets of cold-fire mortars. He was close to the landing zone; he'd make it there in a few minutes. He'd have maybe twenty, twenty-five minutes before the other Ark Hunters showed up, and then he'd have to get away before he got too caught up in the chaos of the inevitable fight for resources.

He turned to go back to his Roller, when a sound got his attention.

He almost dismissed it as a wild animal until he heard the strained grunts of what was unmistakably an Irathient. He'd heard them wounded and dying too many times to forget the sound.

But the Pale Wars were over, and he couldn't hear the raucous cheers of Spirit Riders. An Irathient on their own was a dangerous enemy, and for one of them to be attacked meant there was an even more dangerous enemy nearby, one who could attack him next.

"The enemy of my enemy," Nolan said, and ran towards the sound.

What he found stopped him cold.

The skeleton of a male Irathient lay on the ground, picked clean. Nearby, two emaciated Irathient females struggled against each other, an adult fighting a child. Neither had the strength to win a decisive victory, and they were both suffering from bleeding cuts, but the child was slowing down, and Nolan knew if he didn't intervene, she would lose the fight - and her life.

He raised his pistol without thinking and fired a burst of shots. They went through the adult female's head, and the Irathient toppled to one side, dead. The child didn't move, panting and grunting in pain.

He cautiously walked over. The woman had the tribal markings of the Spirit Riders, but seemed to be on her own. The child didn't have the markings, which meant that the woman hadn't been part of a group of Riders since she'd either found the child, or given birth. The similarities in appearance, visible even despite the emaciation of the two aliens, led him to believe they were related.

"Are you alright?" he asked in the Irathient tongue. He wasn't too worried about the girl, seeing as she was already weakened and injured, but he didn't want a scratch or bite that he'd have to worry about getting infected later.

"Are you going to eat me?" asked the girl.

Nolan put the pieces together: the clean skeleton of the male Irathient, and the emaciated state of the two females.

"No," he replied, taking a step forward. "I'm sorry about your mother."

The child shrugged slightly. "She was going to eat me," she said tonelessly.

Nolan sighed. If he left the kid on her own, she'd die within days. The family had already been starving to death, and the female Irathient wouldn't provide much by way of food. If he'd been a little calmer, he could have reasoned with the woman, maybe given them some food and a ride to a settlement of some sort, but now the girl had nobody to look after her.

He looked at where he reasoned the arkfall would have landed, and then back to the girl. He'd have to rush to get there before the other Ark Hunters as it was, and if he also had to deal with a child, there was no way he could get any sort of payoff before the fighting broke out.

He cursed, and dropped to a crouch. "I've got some food," he told the girl. "And I'll look out for you, if you want."

The child stared at him, her inhumanly round eyes gazing intently at his own face.

"Alright," she said.

As he picked her up, he spoke. "I'm Nolan," he introduced himself.

After a pause, the child spoke. "Irisa," she said. "Irisa Nyira."