It was white.

Almost blindingly so.

She blinked, trying to clear her vision. It had been blurry at first, but then she rolled her head to the side searching for someone else. A moment of searching made it clear that she was alone. No Johnny. No D'avin. No guards. Nothing at all in the room, just light emanating from the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Too much white.

It made her eyes hurt as she tried to widen them a bit more. "Hello?" she called. It wasn't until the words left her mouth and hit her ears that she realized how weak she sounded. A stretch of silence filled the white room. Dutch brought herself up to a sitting position and tried to recall the last thing she remembered. It hit her, suddenly, images flashing past her like she were flipping through book pages. They'd been out on a warrant, but it felt like a trap...and suddenly the world was pulled out from around them. Dutch remembered falling, reaching out for Johnny, and hearing D'avin yell for them both.

The quiet whoosh of the doors opening pulled Dutch's attention immediately and her instant response was to get to her feet. She didn't know where she was, but ideas were already circling her brain. She needed to be ready, whether it was friend or foe. What friend would lock her up? There really didn't seem to be many friends anymore in the world...not outside of those she knew that she could absolutely trust like the Jaqobis brothers, Pree, Bellus, and even Fancy and Turin. The person who stared back at her she knew straight off wasn't a friendly.

"From the outside, people might think us sisters…"

It was surreal.

It wasn't like looking into a mirror. Dutch knew that D'avin had thought he'd seen her before and she supposed in general they looked alike, but Aneela definitely dressed herself in a specific way. Aneela looked like she belonged amongst the Nine and perhaps if Dutch hadn't lost her husband...maybe she would look more like Aneela. One thing she knew for sure, no matter what Khlyen had done to her...she was nothing like Aneela.

"But I know the truth," Aneela practically purred. She was dressed in full white, her long hair done perfectly into a braid. Her make-up was flawless. There was a glimmer in her eyes and Dutch was trying to place what it was. "You have no family-"

"I do have a family," she countered, glaring at the other woman.

"What?" Aneela questioned with a smile, her voice high pitched and almost sing-song. "You mean those precious boys?"

"If you've-"

"Oh, calm yourself."

"This is between you and me, Aneela...there's no reason for you to have Johnny or D'avin," Dutch told her, hands balled up. It was taking everything she had in her not to try to throw a punch. Aneela was Hullen, though, which meant that her strength was formidable. It was a fight that Dutch might not win. In that moment, she knew that she needed to just wait it out.

"For now, but I find them entertaining...and the one...D'avin...I find him curious…" Aneela told her as she paced about a bit. "Daddy made him different. I wonder if there was a purpose in it."

"Perhaps it was one that you wouldn't appreciate-"

"You mean that he did it to protect you?" Aneela questioned coming to a stop. There was an evil smile on her face and she seemed almost amused by that thought.

"Yes," Dutch responded, her eyes never leaving Aneela's.

"I think you believe that he favored you…"

"I didn't say that," Dutch said. As much as she'd found herself actually missing Khlyen...she didn't think that was true. "He didn't treat me like a daughter. He just seemed to want to train me in order to protect myself. That was all."

"It was only because you look like me."

"Is that the only reason? Do we just look the same? Or is there something more to it?"

"What more do you think we have in common?" Aneela challenged.

"DNA."

Aneela laughed at that.

Dutch was dead serious though and her eyes didn't leave Aneela who seemed more than amused. "You're a nerd, right?"

"Excuse me."

"You do science," Dutch said. "Right? I've seen you working in a lab."

Aneela got right up in Dutch's face at that moment. Dutch didn't flinch or even take a step back. It was clear that this had gotten the other woman's attention. "How did you see me?"

"You didn't think that Khlyen just taught me to kill, did you?" Dutch taunted. "He taught me to survive. He taught me things that I hated him for. In the end, this is what he was teaching me...how to survive you...how to survive the Hullen."

"You're not leaving this place unless I will it, Yalena," Aneela snapped. Her facial expressions moving from pissed to suddenly amused. "Yalena Yardeen, a little girl from a house that fell to ruin...put into a harem...and then what? My daddy took interest in you? He only did that because you reminded him of me. It wasn't because you were special."

"Whatever you say."

"He didn't make you Hullen-"

"No, but he was planning to," Dutch countered. In her head, she kept remembering how Khylen had called her 'Little Bird' and wondered if he'd ever given Aneela a nickname. "He also wanted me to kill you."

"Why? I'm his daughter."

"Because he said that once you found out about me that you'd kill me if I didn't kill you," Dutch explained. She wondered if the truth would do any good here. Without Khlyen there, she doubted it. It was worth a try though.

"Not because we share the same face," Aneela told her.

"Then why?"

"It would have to be something deeper…"

"Like what?"

"You said we share DNA, perhaps we'll start there."

Dutch didn't know what to think about that. It would buy her time, the science of it would take time to process and examine, but what did that really do in the long end? "So until then, I'm a prisoner?"

"Such a label," Aneela told her and seemed cheeky about it. "I haven't tortured you and you have been treated well. Most wouldn't call that prison."

"What do you call it?"

"I guess we'll find out soon enough."

She'd tried to get out of the white room, but she was just alone. Dutch had told herself that Johnny could have probably figured out the tech in the wall that she'd pulled out and tried to override to open the door to work, but it just wasn't working for her. So, eventually she'd just sat in the corner and waited. Her mind turning to hopes that Johnny and D'avin were okay. Honestly she didn't know what to think. What would Aneela do to them? D'avin had a different effect with the green...but not Johnny...so did that make one of them valuable and the other not? Leaning her head back and upward, she closed her eyes and just prayed to the trees that Aneela hadn't harmed her boys.

Time stretched on.

The passage of it was more torturous than anything Aneela could do to her physically. Eventually, she got up again and started to pace. The boys were the only thing on her mind, well them and escape. She had no idea how they were going to get off of Aneela's ship and even less idea of what they'd done to Lucy (if anything). It was one thing to be isolated, but it was another to be isolated with all kinds of questions for what was going to happen to those she loved. If she'd been the only one taken, then she'd sit there and just wait...but this was different. Johnny and D'avin didn't deserve to be involved with Aneela, even though Dutch knew exactly what they'd say to that.

Eventually the doors whooshed open and Aneela entered. She was dressed differently, though still in white. She still looked perfectly made up and it just made Dutch wonder more how much time had passed since she'd been in that cell.

"You were right about one thing," Aneela stated.

Dutch hadn't expected that.

"We do share certain alleles."

"What does it mean?"

"I'm not certain yet," Aneela told her. "It's made me curious, though, so for now...you will remain here...as a guest that is confined to this room."

"I'm still a prisoner, no matter what label you put on it," Dutch countered.

"As you wish," Aneela said in a sing song tone.

"What about D'avin and Johnny? You could let them go-"

"No," she snapped, but with a smile in place. Her hands were neatly folded in front of her, perfectly composed. "I am finding D'avin quite the challenge to figure out...Daddy had to have done something differently with him." She paused for a moment. "If I let the other one go, he'll just try to come back and save you both...there's no reason to set him free. He'll just get himself into trouble."

"Sounds about right," Dutch mumbled.

"I could allow him to visit with you for the time, keep you company," Aneela offered. "Since I will be taking some time to look at what D'avin can do with the green plasma."

"If you're just going to leave Johnny all alone, I suppose him keeping me company wouldn't hurt anything," Dutch said. If Johnny was there, then maybe he could help get them both out. Or maybe it was too difficult and that was why he hadn't made a move to try to escape yet. Whatever it was, it would be nice to have him with her and know he was safe.

"Well, he's also a guest," Aneela told her with a smirk before leaving.

"Dutch!" Johnny exclaimed the moment the doors opened and they came face to face. He looked happy and unharmed. He immediately moved to her, his arms wrapped around her, and they were left alone. "Oh hells is it good to see you, the actual you and not that creepy looking version."

Dutch held him for a long moment, holding onto him tight. Johnny had always been a comfort. She just really needed to know that he was okay. "I'm so relieved that you're really okay," she told him as they separated.

"So, Aneela…" John said as he shoved his thumb in the direction of the now closed door. "She seems to think that we're all her guests here."

"I tried to explain to her that her use of that word wasn't going to cover up the fact that we're all prisoners."

"Right? Where's D'av?"

"She's running tests or something on him," Dutch told him. "I don't think she'll hurt him. She finds him too fascinating."

"And you?"

"She's not pleased, but so far...she hasn't done anything except collected samples in order to compare our DNA."

"And?"

"We share alleles, but she doesn't seem to know what to make from it," Dutch told him. "I tried to get her to let you go."

"Well, that obviously didn't work out," Johnny stated as they sat together.

She smiled in instant response as she shook her head. "Aneela seems to think that you'd simply become a troublemaker and try to rescue me and D'av."

"No idea where she'd get that idea from."

"I'm also fairly confidant that she feels like there's no way the two of us can escape from this room."

"You'd be right," he told her. "I tried...whoever designed these ships didn't exactly go the traditional route."

"Does that mean that you're useless to me?" she teased with a smile.

John placed his hand over his heart and looked like she'd wounded him with just her words alone. "I don't know whether to be upset over that or to feel like that's your way of challenging me...possibly to electrocute myself in the process."

"Just don't die."

He laughed at that. "Oh, just don't die. It sounds so easy, but you know me."

"Oh, I know you, Johnny Jaqobis."

And she did.

"I suppose we might as well do something to pass the time as we wait for Aneela to do her thing with D'av or decide she just wants to kill us all," Johnny said as he got to his feet. "You know I sort of thought that our last moments would be more in a blaze of glory-"

"Oh, they will...either that or we'll somehow manage to die old and grey…"

"Together?"

"Are you going to abandon me?" Dutch asked him as she got to her feet, their eyes meeting.

"Never."

TBC…