Wolf couldn't stand to stay inside the Nicell for even another second. Desperate for air, he wandered out onto the scuffed wooden staging area next to the ship. He watched silently as a boom-crane guided by a grubby looking Outlander loaded wooden slats laden with supplies and cargo onto an ancient-looking space tug. It was streaked and pitted with the marks of service, with the white words Void Runner painted across its black hull. It reminded him of ships from his childhood, when they were fresh and new, when honest work meant something and things weren't ruled by the people with the biggest gun. Where you turn away for two seconds and not have your children taken from you. He rubbed the bandana and thought of Sloan.

He had hoped that Nikki would take his hasty retreat as a hint and leave him to stew in his guilt alone, but he was not so lucky. She wandered out from the Nicell's open loading bay hatch and found him. Without a word she took up a silent position next to him and craned her neck to watch what Wolf was watching.

"All we need is one clue," Wolf told her bleakly. Nicola leaned forward and said nothing as Wolf thought out loud. "One clue would give us something to go on. We know who has her. Well, we hope that we know who has her..."

"King has her," Nicola reasserted.

"So, in theory, if we could get to King, then we would be able to find out where Sloan is."

"I suppose, but I see one big problem with this theory."

"Only one?" there was just a hint of sarcasm in Wolf's voice. Nikki shot him a look and continued on.

"Just because we get King doesn't mean he'll tell us anything. My mind doesn't seem to be able to fathom Regis King breaking under interrogation. How do you plan on getting the needed information out of him?"

"Leave that to me, you worry about getting a hold of King." He turned and began to walk away, still hoping for some silent time alone.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to the warehouses, I'm sure Xannon wants me to help with her evacuation plans."

Nikki watched him go. Something about what he had said was bothering her. Xannon. Why was Lady Zindia's name important?

Xannon…getting a hold of King…

XxX

"No! I won't! Absolutely not!" Xannon cried in anger at her father. She looked at Eclipse like someone had just dragged a monstrous beast into the room. Eclipse had never seen anything quite like princess Zindia before. Her dress looked like it was made of gold that flowed over her body and trailed gently behind her. Her void-black hair was held back by gold clasps that seemed like they were floating in a shadow. The whole scene made her look like an angel, but was shattered when the eye reached her enraged face. Eclipse wasn't unused to such hatred, Unnaturals were one of the few things universally despised in the system.

Eclipse had been chosen for what she had been assured was a prestigious honour, the guarding of the princess Lady Zindia, hand picked by the Emperor himself. Lady Zindia did not seem nearly so impressed, and neither was Eclipse. If she had her way, she would have turned down her 'prestigious promotion' and went to battle with her brothers and sisters in arms. She was a bio-weapon, a creature of war. She had no interest in baby-sitting royalty.

"Xannon, listen to me, I'm doing this to protect you! You insist in running around, consorting with all the filth of the galaxy. Something must be in place when one of those vagrants finally decides to cause you harm!"

"They won't hurt me, father, and they most certainly aren't filth! And furthermore, I won't have one of those monsters following me around!" Xannon pointed her unkind words toward Eclipse, who promptly tuned her out. Listening to the abuse of such a stuck-up brat was useless. Someone from behind her stepped forward. Without seeing him, her mind registered the man as Regis King. He walked right up to the Lady Zindia in a very familiar way, one that she was clearly not impressed with. Still, she listened to him, and eventually the harshness in her face disappeared. She glanced over at Eclipse, who was still standing attention. Eclipse felt the tiniest stab of frustration when she saw Lady Zindia nod. War machine turned nanny.

XxX

The intensity of the memory sent her to her knees. Her head was spinning. Unnatural's memories were monitored, diluted, and wiped clean on a constant basis. But she hadn't seen the inside of a Memory Chamber since she became property of Xannon. Her body was wearing down against itself. This memory had surfaced so powerfully, she was overcome by it. The warmth in the tiny room, the smell of perfume in Xannon's hair, it was such an old memory, yet it felt like it was happening again. Every detail railed through her mind, including one that stuck around.

"Wait!" Nikki screamed, stumbling to her feet and running after Wolf. He was just on the threshold of the dock. Unhappy and impatient, he could barely manage to wait for her.

"What is it?" he asked, slightly irritated. It wasn't until then that he saw the state she was in. Her eyes were wild, and her chest was heaving as if she had just run a marathon, her hands were shaking. She looked as if she'd gone insane.

"We can lure him out with the promise of a sale!" she said, breathless with the memory that had invaded her usually static subconscious. Wolf blinked.

"What are you talking about?"

"King!" She looked at him, infuriated that he didn't understand. It took her a few seconds to realize that the usually frail, foggy memory was not so sharply clear for Wolf as it was for her.

"Lady Zindia never told you how we met, did she?" Nikki asked.

"No, never."

"I see. It was her father that introduced us-"

"Revenant Zindia introduced his daughter to an Unnatural?"

"I was bought," Nikki snapped, as if it was obvious. "Emperor Zindia had me brought in to be a bodyguard for his daughter. She didn't like the idea, but King was able to talk her into it. He also told her to come back to him if she ever needed anything else!"

"An interesting story, but I don't see how that helps us."

Nikki looked at Wolf like he was the crazy one. Her voice was full of her frustration. If only she could make the memory invade his reality the way it had invaded hers, then he would understand. "It helps us because it gives us away to bring him to us. I'm listed as a rogue unit, remember? That leaves Lady Zindia without a bodyguard."

"And that means that if she contacted him, he would be more than happy to discuss the possibility of a replacement," Wolf finished Nikki's thought with amazement in his voice. A smile lit Nicola's face for a moment, then slipped off as if it was to heavy for her lips to bear. Wolf allowed himself to bask in the sliver of hope for a moment, before a realization whipped it away. "We would need Zindi's help," he said, defeated.

"She will help us, she must," Nikki insisted. Wolf shook his head.

"You know as well as I do that her first priority will be those other children," Wolf replied heavily.

"She can't. Sloan will die otherwise..."

"And those kids will die if we run off to save Sloan. Zindi will not sacrifice the lives of so many to save only one."

"But what else can we do?"

A silence settled over the two of them, heavy and thick. There wasn't anything else, the signal scanning for Sloan's microchip had been boosted to its max, and could go no faster. Nicell and Sabre were searching for something else, anything else, to aid the scan, but they could only work so fast. Nikki's head dropped with defeat and exhaustion and inspected the scuffed wooden floor beneath her feet.

"If we save Sloan, we won't just be saving her life, we'd be saving all her future victims, too," she said quietly. Wolf's eyes were forced closed by the impact of Nicola's words. Sloan's future victims.

"What if we didn't involve Xannon?" He asked suddenly. "What if we just make it look like Xannon wants to see him? She needn't be involved directly. Then she gets to keep on with the kids, and we can go find Sloan."

"It sounds like a perfect plan, if you don't take into account the fact that Xannon will kill you if you go behind her back."

"We're not going behind her back, we're keeping out of her way. I have to go now, stay with Panther and Sabre and try to be helpful."

"She won't see it that way!" Nikki called after him. "Wolf!"

"By the time Xannon finds out about it, it will all be over," Wolf muttered to himself. Besides, Xannon wouldn't be angry with him forever if he acted. If he did what was 'right' and walked away, Sloan's death would be a little more permanent. Still, he had no idea how to send a message to King that would bring him out. He had known Xannon long enough to be able to mimic her in a letter. It would be short and sweet, as always, but how would he get it to his enemy? He touched the comm. button on his control bracelet. Sabre's voice answered his call.

"Yes, Wolf, what is it?"

"Do you think that you could hijack an imperial communications signal? I need something that comes from a more prestigious planet than this one."

"I can try, but just the effort would take power away from the scan for Sloan."

"That's alright, I don't think it will be much help to us anyways. Get the details from Nicola, she's coming up to help you now. Wolf out."

XxX

Xannon sighed deeply and left the room. The boy that she had been up with all night had just died, and she couldn't bare to look at him just then. One of the Outlanders, a wolf with blue-black fur, was silently waiting by the entrance, and took the child's body away as soon as Xannon left. Screwloose was waiting patiently by the door that led out of the wing set up exclusively for Xannon's children. He watched the wolf carry the dead boy away with his calm, lifeless eyes. It was something he had seen many times before.

"Have you seen Nicola?" Xannon asked him. Screwloose shook his head no, continuing to watch the depressing scene. "I need her help," Zindi said, rolling down her sleeves. She had not yet changed back into her power armour, and was still dressed in the Outlander clothes she had worn for the warehouse mission.

"And she needs yours, but she's not getting it," Screwy answered plainly. Xannon paused for a moment, staring.

"What?"

"You won't help to find Sloan. That's all Nicola cares about."

An angry spark appeared in Xannon's eyes. "Sloan is one girl. These kids need to be saved."

"So does Sloan." Screwloose cocked his head to stare unblinkingly at Xannon. "You forget that Nicola is still first and foremost an Unnatural. These kids don't mean anything to her."

"That's not true."

"You expect her to care more about kids that, to the eyes of an Unnatural, have no value, more than she cares about her own 'sister', simply because you say it should be so?"

Xannon glared at him, knowing he spoke the truth. Screwloose did not wilt under her angry look, neither did he get angry in return. He was an impartial creature, and didn't feel the clouding swing of emotions. Eventually, Xannon's glare faded into sadness.

"Wolf is looking for her too. He thinks it's his fault that she ran away. I would help if I could, but…" she looked behind her at all the children, some sleeping peacefully, others stricken with the diseases of poverty. "I can't sacrifice a thousand lives for one."

Screwloose did not answer. He knew that if Sloan was to become an Unnatural, saving her from that fate would save many more lives that what huddled in Xannon's metal haven, but he also knew that Xannon would not understand this. She had never seen a Spec Ops in action. She had never seen one single person level an entire, helpless village over the small stretch of hours between twilight and dawn. It was something that could not be fathomed until it was seen with one's own eyes. Xannon took his silence to mean an agreement.

"Well, my allies have confirmed that they will help us move the children to Elise, but it's a small ship. Hopefully Wolf isn't so wrapped up in his manhunt that he's forgotten his promise to lend us his ship."

"At the rate they are dying, we won't need his," Screwloose noted. Xannon grimaced.

"Please, Tomas, try to be a little more positive."

"Yes, My lady," he replied blandly.

The entry door to the warehouse door opened and shut, echoing the arrival through the entire structure. Xannon looked up and was relieved to see Wolf coming towards her, looking bothered. He still had not retrieved his coat, since dawn had broken and the sun warmed their side of the planet a little.

"Where did you go?" she asked him, trying to sound angry at him for storming off. "Where's Nicola?"

"Nikki's busy, I came back to see if you needed any help." He glanced behind him. "I saw you lost the kid. I'm sorry."

"And there are a hundred more just like him. I was just telling Tomas here that my friends have come through for me. How much space do you have on the Nicell?"

"Enough, when do you want them moved by?"

"Three days and half these kids will be dead, the ship is coming tomorrow afternoon."

Tomorrow afternoon, Wolf thought angrily. His window was very quickly getting smaller.