You know. This started as an idea to do something spooky. Then my muse gave up on that plan and I tried something else. Honestly, as much as this is made clear from about half way through what is happening, I actually had no clue while I was writing it. Not until I got to the end did I actually work it out myself what I was doing…

This was a fast stint through an otherwise boring lunch break … I actually ended up liking this one!

Enjoy and feel free to give me your thoughts. Oh I belatedly realized that Princess didn't think of using her communicator at all during this. My bad, but if she thought of that, then this story would be ... what it is...

Oh, and yeah. I don't own Battle of the Planets … yet … My 6/49 numbers may actually come up one of these days and I'll put a bid in for them!!!

GK

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The air was rank with cordite and burning electronics and stung the noses of the Eagle and Swan as they carefully traversed over upturned tables and computer screens. The hallways were cluttered and crumbling in the wake of a battle that had raged for nearly 23 hours, and while there had been no deaths, there had definitely been bloodshed. The erratic patterns of red across the walls and flooring resembled some sort of obscene abstract art and smelled just as awful.

Mark spoke loudly into his communicator to ascertain the locations and possible E.T.A. of his remaining three team members.

Their responses were quick, but exhausted. Even the thought of an imminent sanctuary inside their warship Phoenix wasn't enough of an excitement to reenergize their voices. They were tired. They were exhausted. They were ready to put the ship on Autopilot and sleep the whole way back to Earth.

Princess was especially worn out. She'd been suffering the worst case of insomnia over the past few weeks and found herself operating only on a meagre hour or so of sleep a night. True, her implant gave her the ability to function on little or no sleep, but even that had its limits.

Mark had tried his absolute best to help her through the sleeplessness. He'd tried offering massages and long sessions of lovemaking or training – anything that could be considered exhausting enough to let her get through it, but still she stared up at the ceiling over their bed for hours on end.

Salvation seemed to have arrived in the form of a Spectran attack. The hours of fighting and tactical planning, as well as the flight from Earth to Riga, had exhausted her to such a point that she found herself leaning against Mark or rushing herself against a wall in order to keep herself awake.

"Princess, can you make it okay?"

She nodded in the affirmative to Mark and raised a finger toward one of three doorways. "We came in through there, so that's be our best bet to get out."

His nod was firm as his eyes quickly scanned the hallway for any remaining enemy goons. "Hang in there, okay. We rendezvous with Keyop and Jason in three minutes."

"Did they get the disks?"

"And then some, apparently."

She opened her mouth to ask what, but was cut off as the ground below their feet began to rumble. "Uh-oh, Commander."

He paused mid-stride and steadied himself. "Did you plant anything I don't know about?"

She looked up at him with wide eyes. "I can account for every one of my toys, Commander. And they all detonated a long time ago. This isn't from an explosive."

"That's what I was afraid of." He extended his hand behind him to offer her a hand to climb over a large piece of concrete. "Take my hand, Princess."

"I'm okay," she assured softly. " You just get moving."

He flicked his hand at her. "Please, Princess. Just take my hand."

Knowing better than to argue a second time, Princess bit on her lower lip and reached forward to clutch at his hand. As their fingertips touched the ground beneath her gave way. Her eyes were wide and she let out a startled yelp as the ground opened up and swallowed her.

Mark was horrified. Her name exploded from his chest as he threw himself forward to catch her hand. He barely spared a thought before he stood and spread his arms to leap into the fissure behind her. He leaned forward, but was blown back by the shockwave of an explosion above his head. The blast sent him sliding headfirst away from the ground's giant wound. It was just far enough away that the collapsing floor from above him caught only one peak of his wing.

Desperation saw him shuffle and slip forward on his knees toward the foot-thick slab of flooring. He struggled in vain to try and push the slab off the hole. Each push and grunt saw his toes and knees slide harder and more bloodily along the floor. Her name blasted through his lips over and over as he continued to struggle and push until finally he could no longer find the strength to even breathe.

He finally raised his com-link to his mouth. "G1 to G-Force. We've lost Princess. Trace my signal for new rendezvous coordinates."

******************************

Princess didn't feel herself hit the ground. She didn't hear her visor smash with enough violence to crack her helmet open in three places. She couldn't taste the blood in her mouth from the obvious bite mark on her tongue. She could no longer smell the dense aroma of cordite, blood or explosive residue of the base.

I"Four senses down – one to go,"/I she thought miserably to herself as she tried to will her eyes to open. They did and she groaned painfully at the pitch-blackness of the world around her.

"Oh please tell me I didn't die," she moaned to anyone or anything that may be with her.

A small voice – one of a young child – ghosted along the air to her in response. "No, you didn't die. But you will if you don't get out of here."

Alarmed that there was a young child in the middle of all of this, she sucked her breath in hard. She seemed to inhale each of her senses back into her body with that single breath, because in a blinding second everything seemed to hit her at once.

The room flashed into view, dim in lighting, but crystal clear ahead of her. The walls were damp and growing their own mould and algae covering. The floor was muddy, sealed and cemented, yet old, cracked and muddy. There was no discernable light source, yet there was soft illumination.

The smell was musty and old. There was a distinct absence of artillery odour. Instead all she could smell was fertile earth. It was a scent rotten and mouldy, but it seemed somewhat pleasant. She almost thought she could taste the acrid smell. It was a flavour of soft metal and water and seemed to enter as a solid through her nose to slide as food down into her mouth and on to her tongue.

Her tongue.

Perhaps the taste was merely the copious amount of blood her tongue had spewed shortly after she sank her teeth into it. For confirmation she leaned forward and spat a mouthful of saliva on the ground.

Yes. Blood.

Her head dropped with enough force for her sweat to release its hold on her face to splatter on the ground below. She looked dejectedly at the spray and felt immediate panic to see that her sweat was thick and crimson.

"I'm bleeding?" She questioned as she raised her hand to investigate any injury. Her breath hitched to find jagged glass edges jutting out from her helmet. She let out a moan to find several large gashes on her helmet – one wide enough for her to press her finger into. Beyond that crack was a long gash to her forehead. The gash could only have been an inch or two in length, but stretched down along her temple.

The little voice was right. If she didn't seek medical attention and determine whether or not the gash was deep enough to cause eventual exsanguination, then she would surely die.

She looked around the room hoping to find the owner of the little voice. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

In a corner from her left the voice softly sounded. "I'm over here … and I'm very scared."

She squinted her eyes to try and focus through the darkness. She saw the small image of a young girl seated with her legs bent and her arms tightly hugging them to her chest. She carefully crawled closer to her. "What's your name? I'm Princess."

The little girl shook her head. "I … I don't know what my name is."

Princess let the comment linger and paused a couple of feet from the child and extended her hand to coax her to come out of hiding. "It's okay. I won't hurt you."

The little face buried in her knees slowly rose to look at her. "I know you won't."

Princess was struck at the depth of the girl's eyes. Bluer than the clearest summer sky and almost half as large as her yo-yo, they shone through the darkness like little beacons of hope. She touched at the girls long raven hair and let a curl wrap around her gloved finger.

"Come on little one. We need to find your mommy and daddy."

The little girl crawled out of the corner and moved her face so close to Princess' that their noses almost touched. "My mommy and daddy don't know I'm here."

"But I'm sure they're very concerned about you."

"I know daddy is very worried about mommy," she breathed anxiously. "We have to find him."

Princess drew herself to her knees and swayed a little under the sudden sting of a headache. Her hands held on to either side of her helmet as she tried to stave off a sudden wave of pain induced nausea.

The little girl tugged at her hand. "Come on. We have to go. It's dangerous here."

Princess nodded slowly and drew herself to a tentative stand. Once sure she wasn't going to pass out, she held out her hand to the small child. "We'll go find your daddy, okay?"

The little girl nodded and eagerly took the offered hand. She clutched onto it with both hands and pulled to draw Princess toward the exit. "I think I know the way."

"Where are we?" She asked softly. She couldn't help but feel drawn to a child suddenly showing so much courage. An instinct seem to kick inside of her and she felt a sudden need to just pull the little girl into her arms and hide her safely in her wings as she got them both out of there.

The little girl looked upward and gave a beaming smile. "You are very beautiful. You do look like a princess." She dropped one hand to her side, but continued to walk with her attention on the Swan. "I wish I could be a princess."

She couldn't help but blush. "Thank you, little one." She paused. "Tell me your name, please?"

The girl's focus shifted to the darkened hallway ahead of her. She remained one step ahead of the Swan. "I'd like to be called Kathryn."

Princess smiled. "Kathryn is a beautiful name."

She giggled. "Then will you call me that?"

"Of course."

"Promise?"

Princess let out a laugh that was a "yes" but it quickly became a moan as she staggered and swayed with a sudden feeling of vertigo. She stopped and pressed her hand into the wall. "Kathryn, please wait. I need a minute."

Kathryn tugged urgently at her hand. "Princess, please. We have to go. This place is scary and dangerous."

Princess pulled her hand from the wall and found herself having to find support again. Her breath pulled in and out of her painfully. "Just a minute, please. I need to find my bearings."

Kathryn was insistent. Her voice was panicked. "Please. We need to get out of here. If you die in here then I die too." She started to cry. "I don't want to die."

Princess nodded and fought through the swirling pain in her head. "I don't want to die either, Kathryn."

"No," she agreed. "We have to find my daddy."

Princess let the young child lead her again down the hallway. She honestly didn't know how she was functioning. Her legs felt numb, as did her arms, but she knew she had to keep moving. This was a little child who needed to find her father, to be rescued.

She tried to use conversation to keep her awake. "Kathryn, how did you end up down here?"

"I fell," she said softly. "The ground was all shaking and I fell down a hole."

"What about your mommy and your daddy?"

The little girl's footsteps didn't slow as she spoke. She maintained a swift pace that was enough to occasionally tug at Princess to keep up.

"My mommy brought me here." She said softly.

"And your daddy doesn't know?"

She shook her head and stuck out her bottom lip. "No. He doesn't know I'm here." She looked up at Princess with wide, beautiful eyes. "He would be so worried, Princess. He worries so much about mommy all the time."

She squeezed the little girl's hand. "I'm sure he worries about you too."

Kathryn nodded. "He will when he finds out I'm here."

Princess ignored the twitch in her eye from a stab of pain in her head. "Then I'll take you to him. We'll make sure he knows you're here and that you were safe with me, okay?"

Kathryn paused at a t-junction that looked like it was crumbling and ready to collapse at any moment. Her little lips pursed in thought and she pressed her finger to her lips as she looked around. She finally looked innocently over her shoulder. "I think we should go this way," she suggested as she pointed toward a hallways that looked more like a freshly dug burrow than an actual structure. "We'll find daddy if we go this way."

Princess looked through squinted eyes at both hallways. "I think it would be safer this way, little bird," she advised softly. "That way looks very dangerous for a little girl."

Kathryn tilted her head and gave Princess a wide-eyed and innocent stare of admiration. "But I'm with you. I'll be safe with you."

Princess wanted to smile, but instead stumbled to her knee. She groaned long and clutched at her helmet as she felt the fresh wetness of newly flowing blood languidly rolling down her cheek. "Mark…" she breathed long.

Kathryn's face appeared in front of her. Her blue eyes were full of concern, but didn't hold any tears. "Is his name Mark?" she asked softly.

Princess struggled to raise her gaze to the little girl. "He's probably worried about me like your daddy is for you," she answered softly.

"Mark is a good name," Kathryn swooned proudly. "I bet he'd be a good daddy."

Princess allowed herself to have a small chuckle. It came out more as a breath, but it seemed to work. "One day he will, Kathryn."

Kathryn pulled Princess to a shaky stand. "Is he strong?"

Princess slowly followed behind her little leader. "Very strong. He is a wonderful man."

"And you love him?"

Princess seemed to find energy in her thoughts of Mark and barely noticed the sloppy and slippery terrain. "With every beat of my heart."

Kathryn smiled in a way much like a little girl over the prince in shining armour of a fairy tale. "And he loves you."

Princess nodded and touched her fingers to the wall to let them sweep finger marks in the mud. "Yes he does, Kathryn. So much."

"I'm so very glad."

Princess stumbled again, but found support inside a little hand. "So am I, Kathryn."

Kathryn's urging took them to the end of a hallway. The abrupt ending of the tunnel brought a groan from the tiring swan. She shook her hand free of Kathryn's and pressed both palms into the fallen mass of black earth that had become an enclosing wall. She pushed against it as if trying to move it. She pushed again and again.

"No," she moaned dejectedly. "Please, no."

She pushed at it again, and yet again, so blinded by her own pain and defeat that she couldn't allow herself to believe that the end of the tunnel was just that … the end of a tunnel. As final realization washed over her she let out a long wail and slid down the muddy barrier into the sodden mud at her feet.

"Kathryn, I'm so sorry," she whispered as she collapsed in a heap. "I can't go on, baby. I just can't"

The little girl knelt beside her and cupped Princess' face in her tiny hands. "It's okay, Princess," she whispered softly. "We're here."

Princess raised her face to the small child and raised herself to a seat with her back against the wall. "Where are we, Kathryn?" she asked softly.

"Where daddy is."

Princess frowned and looked around. There was noone here, there were no signs of life or anything to suggest that anyone beside she and the little girl had been here in years. Her gaze returned to the pale little face and focused on her wide blue eyes. "Kathryn, where is your daddy."

The little girl lowered herself to her knees and crawled herself in to Princess' arms. She snuggled tightly into her and kept her head tucked safely underneath Princess' chin. "Call him."

Princess closed her eyes and rested her chin on the little girl's head. "Call who, Kathryn?"

"Mark," she answered softly. "Call him. Call my daddy."

Princess didn't freeze at Kathryn's words, instead she found herself nuzzling her chin against her hair. "Let's call him together?"

"He won't hear me," she answered tiredly.

"But I will."

Kathryn raised her face and smiled up at Princess. Without further hesitation both girls called out loudly to the G-Force Commander; one calling her lover, the other calling to her father.

Mark's voice filtered in from an old vent above their heads.

"Princess?"

Princess smiled at his voice and held on to her little bundle tighter. "Down here, Mark."

"Sweetheart, are you okay?"

She took a shaking and painful breath. "Please hurry, Mark."

"Just hang on, okay? We'll be right there. Just hold on, please."

Kathryn sighed softly. "He sounds strong, like a hero."

Princess gave a gentle laugh. "Like a prince," she corrected.

"And you're his Princess."

Princess smiled and took a long look at the young child in her hold. She smoothed down her hair and leaned down to kiss her on the tip of her nose. "And you're my little princess."

Kathryn cupped Princess' face and gave her a long and adoring smile. "Promise me that you'll call me Kathryn, mommy. I really want to be called Kathryn."

"I promise," she vowed on a breath that caught short as the roof above them ripped open to let in fresh air and four worried faces.

The little girl looked up at the man in the blue visor and then back at Princess as he looked away to give orders to his friends. "He is very handsome."

"Yes, he is," she replied only a moment before the little girl in her hold clutched tighter against her, so tight it took the breath out of her. When she finally found herself able to inhale, Kathryn's form dissipated into a light fog that enveloped Princess before she drew it in on a breath.

And then Mark was at her side.

"Princess, honey, are you okay?" He asked her worriedly as his hands quickly checked her for major injury. "Are you hurt."

Princess looked tiredly into his concerned blue gaze and breathed a couple of deep breaths before she closed her eyes and nodded. "Concussion, Commander."

"I'll get you out of here," he promised as he drew her into his arms and held her in a tight cradle hold against his chest. He looked up at the remaining team members as they passed down a crudely constructed make-shift ladder. "Notify medical, Jason. She's hurt."

"Already done, Skipper."

"Try to hold on to me, Princess." Mark secured her in his hold and walked toward the ladder. "How did you make it here? When I heard the second earthquake and the floor over where you fell collapsed, I thought I'd lost you."

"I had a little guide help me through," she whispered softly.

Mark paused and took a short and cautious look around. "A guide?"

She took a deep breath and nuzzled her head into his shoulder. "Mark?"

"Yes sweetheart?"

She closed her eyes to remember the face of the little girl who helped her home. "Mark. I'm pregnant."