They'd only been girls when their family was abducted. Helene Geigenfirth had turned eight that day; or, at least, she thought she did. Unfortunately she was on an unfamiliar ship and the concept of time was the last thing on her mind. The metal table beneath her was like dry ice against her back, hands, legs – blue eyes darted down, her mind unable to recognize that her left leg was missing below the knee. A single clear plastic tube, surrounded by what appeared to be wires, lead to a box. Nothing seemed to be moving. Helene craned her neck in either direction, a dull empty feeling turning her eyes into cold things, hardly capable of making sense of what was happening.

Beside her was her little sister Effie, whose mouth was held open by a metal head piece. It revealed a nub of a tongue, the majority of it gone. Helene wasn't entirely sure how she knew, but she was living in a reality where her mother and father were dead, and if her younger brother, Dean, wasn't already, he would be. She blinked once or twice. Still, nothing made sense.

Helene Geigenfirth from Kansas, United States, Earth, Virgo Cluster. That's what scrolled across a screen overhead. Her lips pulled into a dry, cracked smile. If one had asked her just why she was smiling, she would've just stared back with that dull look. It wasn't long before she began forcing the time before to the surface.

They had gone to bed. Someone began screaming first, one of her parents. Then – Then they were being escorted out of their rooms and outside.

Urrrgha urrragha!

Helene turned as much as she could on the table. "Effie?" she whispered.

The five year old couldn't move though she tried, wrists raw from the cuffs holding her in place. "Urrragh! Urrraghaaa!" she said, Helene realizing making noise.

"Shh," Helene answered. "Shh, it'll be okay." Helene didn't imagine it would be. Nothing she saw yet allowed the idea in her head, but it was all she could say.

That was, until he stepped over her. "Hey," his voice soothed. "My name is Officer Sanchez. I'm with the Galactic Superfederation. Did you hear us come in?" Helene watched the man, tall, only slightly stocky, a head full of thick blonde hair. Other officers entered, and soon he freed her hands.

"No," Helene said.

"We're going to take you home," the officer continued.

"Where are my parents?"

Officer Sanchez paused. "Your parents are Jean and Henry Geigenfirth?"

Helene nodded once.

While no emotion flickered across Sanchez's face, Helene gained her answer. "We'll be taking you and your sister to your grandmother's house."

"Oh," Helene murmured. "M-my leg –"

"Don't worry," Sanchez interrupted. "We'll set you up with government paid prosthetics. Your sister – W-well, we can't fix her tongue, but we'll do the best we can." Sanchez didn't smile, though for a moment Helene thought he might.

"Okay," Helene said.

An explosion shook the room. Effie leaned up from the table, hopped off, and ran to stand beside Helene's table. Sanchez reached for a small black square hanging from his hip. He raised it to his mouth. "All units to the hospital wing hall, a 121 in progress. Get the other Sanchez in the wing to escape with the survivors."

Helene began to raise a finger – a beast twice Sanchez's size had entered with a knife. Sanchez turned, unaware. The beast stabbed him in the throat. Blood, thin like kool-aid splattered thirty feet about the room. Helene reached down and covered Effie's eyes, but it was too late. The youngest girl glared between Helene's fingers as they shook. The beast roared, thin lines of spit tearing into the air.

Helene felt a hand on the scruff of her loose hospital gown. She was pulled backward, her grip tightening on Effie as a red haired woman pulled her through a green portal into another hospital room.

This is where Helene and Effie's tale begins, poised on the eve of destruction. Seeing ugly before they were meant to, and surviving it. The woman who pulled them through to the other side was Sandie Sanchez, the officer's wife. They were agents of the Galactic Superfederation, Special Victim's Department. They rescued the abducted from known hostiles. They lived and died by the federation, but not before they had a son. His name was Rick.

In her memory, Helene referred to Officer Sanchez as the Gold Lion. Coincidentally, her favorite type of cocaine would be known as the Gold Lion.