Stephenie Meyer owns The Host, not me.

Mixed Feelings

*Whisper of Armageddon*

Sophia ran as fast as she could down the street, looking for a car to steal. Suddenly, it mattered again whether she lived or died.

Sophia knew deep down that the Seekers would kill her when they found her. Fractals had been very clear on that point – humans with malevolent tendencies were euthanized, in spite of the Souls' insistence that they did not kill.

They tried to put a happy face on it, like they did on everything. *What was the word she used again?* Sophia thought. *Discarded, that was it. Like I'm some kind of broken tool.*

She was aware of the irony – she knew they weren't people, and they didn't really view her as a person, or even respect her enough to own up to the fact that they planned on killing her. The difference was that she was right in viewing them as things; judging from what Fractals had said on the subject, the bugs were probably not even sentient when outside of a host.

While the way they thought of her was insulting, she wouldn't have it any other way, to be honest. Up until this morning, she wouldn't have really worried about it much, as long as she could hurt them in the process of getting killed. Alex was dead, and she was screwed. Her thought process pretty much began and ended there.

Now, though, she had a purpose in her life. Alex was still dead, and she was still screwed in the long run, but she'd discovered the bugs' fatal flaw; they found it hard to consider violence, and had only the barest concept of security. If she was smart about it, she could hit them again before they took her out.

She didn't think she could pull the gas truck stunt again - only complete morons wouldn't post checkpoints and armed guards around something so critical and vulnerable as the cryotanks after something like this had happened.

But there were always other targets. There had to be. She'd have to chat some more with Fractals, but she could think of some now.

Schools, shopping malls, power plants, airports - well, they were actually spaceports now. Fractals had mentioned something about them redesigning the nuclear plants so it was harder to make them melt down, and she'd need a big bomb to do anything at the schools, but there was so much stuff happening at the spaceports that there had to be something valuable to hit there.

Spaceships. Something about them was niggling at her head, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out what it was. It seemed like she was missing something about them that was obvious.

She'd be having another long chat with Fractals, concussion be damned.

A group of parasites were walking down the block as she turned the corner. She knew she wouldn't pass for one of them - if the AK wasn't a giveaway, she was covered in arterial blood, and was probably still smoking from splashes of burning gasoline.

As long as they already know I'm here... she thought to herself, drawing a bead on them. She opened fire, and two of them dropped, but the rest got away.

Gotta move really fast now, she thought. She saw a parking garage, and turned towards it. Given how trusting the bugs were, half of them probably left their keys inside. Keeping an eye out for any parasites, she checked a few before finding a truly ancient station wagon with the keys still in the ignition.

Sometimes it's hard to believe they beat us, they're so stupid, she thought.

As she opened the door, she saw the blinking light of a security cam. Sometime soon a Seeker would probably be reviewing this footage. She couldn't resist; she smiled, waved, and flipped it off.

Zoe and Fractals woke up to a kick in the ribs. They screamed and curled into a tight ball, expecting the butt of Sophia's rifle to come down on them at any moment.

Fortunately, Sophia seemed to be in a good mood, and only kicked them one more time before dragging them into the front seat of the car.

The human spoke hurriedly. "I think our last talk was very productive, don't you? We need to move fast right now, but as soon as we're on the road, we're going to have another one. Won't that be fun?"

"You're... an evil... bitch," they managed to gasp.

Sophia started laughing. "All's fair in war, Fractals. You chose this planet - you picked the wrong species to take. Now shut up, I'm going to be driving for a change. I need to focus for a while." She slammed the door and got into the other side.

All of this was caused by a fourteen year old girl, Soaring Leaf thought.

There were nearly twelve thousand dead Souls, total. He suddenly found that everyone was taking his concerns about rogue humans very seriously.

He was becoming suspicious of Moonlight. Everyone else suddenly would drop everything to help him, but Moonlight was now avoiding calls and very distant when he talked to him.

Coupled with the way he acted - shying from crowds, avoiding the light - Soaring Leaf was beginning to wonder how much Moonlight was being influenced by his host. He resolved to watch the Soul very closely.

According to the witnesses at the gas station, she'd come on foot, and stolen a gas truck. Oddly, she hadn't shot anyone or started a fire, though they had recovered the trucker's body and a few unlucky bystanders in town. Soaring Leaf informed the witnesses they were lucky to be alive, and sent them on their way.

They had brought in an old human reconnaissance helicopter to search the surrounding woods for several miles, and started CAP overflights to search for the human, but nothing had turned up except her abandoned getaway vehicle which was reported missing the day of the explosion.

He'd checked the security videos of the garage, and lo and behold, she had come in about five minutes after the explosion. She was covered in minor burns, wearing Kevlar and what looked like a tactical rig made of duct tape. He counted at least seven magazines on it, as well as what looked like a can of Still.

Well, that explains how she took out the loading crew so quietly, he thought. He was horrified at humans' ability to turn anything into a weapon.

She saw the camera, and he had the eerie feeling she was looking through the camera directly at him. He met her Soulless gaze, and started to get goosebumps. Then she flipped him off, and the illusion was broken.

Teams of Seekers had searched the woods surrounding the area they'd found the abandoned station wagon. Sophia had disappeared without a further trace, but they'd found the mutilated body of the missing Seeker she'd kidnapped, leaned against a tree about three miles away.

The Soul who'd discovered the body was inconsolable. Just from the description, he felt queasy. Ray's injuries were horrible beyond description. Dozens of injuries repaired by Heal covered her body. They'd identified stab wounds, gunshot wounds, and broken bones among other things that were too horrible to describe.

Worst of all, Sophia had removed Ray from her host and twisted her body until it squished.

Humanity leaves their regards, she had written in silver blood above the corpse. Soaring Leaf had begun to wonder if she was completely sane. She'd dotted the i's with hearts.

Tire tracks led away from the area, but they disappeared as soon as they hit the main road. The human had disappeared like a ghost.

Another horrible thought occurred. He knew there had to be other wild humans out there, and that they had little to lose.

In human times, a big terrorist attack was usually followed by waves of copycat attacks.

God forbid she finds how to remove Souls from their hosts...

He began to wish he hadn't poured out his host's alcohol.

A/N Kat makes a good point about Soul space drives in the reviews, and has thus provided me with a possible new and awesome direction for my story. Thanks, Kat!

[Insert mad cackling, thunder and lightning, etc.]

I've decided to stop worrying about overkill regarding Sophia's sociopathic tendencies, (or anything else in this story) as everyone that's read so far hasn't complained. Or, as my roommate put it, "Overkill is what makes many things epic. Go for it."

}:-)