"There's one thing I don't understand right now," Axton said. He was leaning against the wall in Sarah's quarters, arms folded and staring at the half-closed bathroom door. Zero's video feed hovered to his right, just inside his peripheral vision.

"Let me guess," Sarah called dryly. "Why am I getting dressed in private when you helped me strip?"

"Nah, I figured that one's just because you didn't want to risk becoming overwhelmed with lust and jumping me now that you've got your strength back."

"Interesting guess..."

I notice you didn't say no...

"...but what you really want to ask is why I didn't chase after your shuttle, isn't it?"

"Bingo. You specifically told Gaige not to leave until we were done with the warship. All that stuff about respecting our independence aside, it still weakens our manpower if she and Salvador don't get back in time for the attack."

"True."

"And as much as you" loved "cared for your team, I don't think you're so sentimental that you'd risk mission compromise for your fallen."

"You're right," Sarah said evenly. "I am, however, optimistic enough to believe that subtracting two of your team won't compromise the mission. That affords me just enough sentimentality to allow the reduction in manpower." Something in the bathroom went zip. "Besides, we were never going to be able to keep Gaige here without a total lockdown, and that certainly wouldn't have gone over well."

"Time was, you would've risked pissing her off," Axton pointed out. "If a soldier under you command pulled a stunt like Gaige's, you'd" tell him to run for the border planets "have 'em cleaning latrines. For a month. With half a toothbrush and one square of toilet paper."

"Your people aren't my soldiers."

"Principle's the same," Axton insisted. "Besides, I've seen you snap mercs back so hard they got whiplash. What's the deal?"

For a long moment, there was only the soft rustle of Sarah donning her clothes. "I learned a few things on Acheron," she finally said. "One of them was that sometimes, you need to let the young ones follow their hunches. They might just lead you somewhere useful."

"Or they blow up someone they're supposed to protect."

"Different situation. Gaige is curious, you used an asset as bait for a trap. Besides, you're not that young, either."

Axton winced. "Ouch. Always nice to hear tender words of affection from my dear, sweet wife."

"We're divorced, remember? I'm supposed to be a heartless, bitter shrew that you despise."

"Bitter shrews don't blow up their husband's assassins, then send a flirty text message," Axton quipped. After a second's pause... "Thanks for that, by the way."

"For what?"

"Jarter. That sergeant you killed on Pandora."

"Oh, that." Sarah's tone turned lofty. "Jarter, ironically enough, was officially AWOL. I was executing a deserter." The sounded of a pistol chambering a round echoed out of the bathroom. "He never bothered to make certain his leave paperwork hadn't vanished halfway up the chain."
Axton smirked. "Lemme guess. It got circular filed?"

"Went to the 451 outbox," Sarah corrected. "Harder to reconstruct ash." She pushed the door open and stepped back into the main cabin, arms held apart. "What do you think? And don't say something juvenile," she added quickly. "I need your honest evaluation as a soldier, not an adolescent appraisal of my assets."

Axton blinked, then grinned and shook his head.

"What? What's so funny?"

"Not one damn thing, honey." He ran his eyes up and down Sarah's body. Her uniform was spotless and perfectly mended. The slump was gone from her posture, her hands were steady, and the fire in her eyes was more vivid than ever. "You look good," he assured her. "Like you're gonna go kick ass for the man."

"No." Sarah's gaze was far away. "Not for 'the man'. Not this time."

"Right." Axton motioned to the video feed. "You picked a good time to finish up. Looks like Zero's about to head in."

"Then we should probably get to your bridge," Sarah said, opening the door. "We'll need to be ready when he calls for us. How fast is this ship of yours?"

Axton grinned with pride as he walked next to her. "Fast enough. Even the Fence's upgraded engines aren't this quick." A stray thought occurred. "I'm assuming you kept the name, too. Or was I wrong?"

"After all the hassle we went through renaming my transport The White Picket Fence, do you really think I'd change it just because you left?" She paused. "What do you mean, 'too'?"

Axton shrugged and walked a little slower. "The code to the cargo bay was still our anniversary. The code to your quarters was still my birthday. And even though I'm not sure the 'And Always' part is still true, SLANAA still means-"

"Yes, I kept the name," Sarah cut him off. "I kept all that." He could feel her gaze on his neck. "While you kept my ring."

Axton resisted the urge to grab the ring laying against his chest. "Yeah."

"Even after I said I never liked diamonds." Her voice was almost... guilty.

Yeah, right. That one you're imagining. "It was like three paychecks," Axton shrugged. "I wasn't gonna throw it out an airlock."

"You could've sold it. I'm sure you must have needed the money at some point." It was funny how he could feel Sarah's eyes on him, even while she was looking straight ahead. "I always imagined you probably used it to bribe a pilot to get you to Pandora, or pawned it for a new gun."

"Nah. No need. You can find a gun in the trash if you're really desperate."

"Axton..." Sarah hesitated, then plunged ahead. "Were you... happy? On Pandora?"

"Happy?" Axton glanced her, slightly confused by the question. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, were you happy there?" Sarah persisted. "Was life on that crazy, lawless world all that you could hope for? Did you ever wake up and think to yourself, 'man, I'm glad I'm here today! I sure did make the right decision!'?"

Axton had to laugh. "Well, it was nice to wake up without reveille blasting in my ears." They came up to the elevator and he pressed the call button.

"So I imagine."

"I did meet up with an awesome group of people." The elevator arrived, the doors slid open, and they both stepped in.

"Very true."

"Not to mention I killed the biggest asshole born in the last century or two." The lift began its way up to the bridge.

That one evoked a tiny smile. "There's a feat to be proud of."

Axton nodded. "Yeah, life back there was pretty good. Life on this ship is pretty good, too." He paused as the elevator began to slow. "Only one thing really could have it made it better then. Or, just maybe, better now."

The smile vanished like a spark in a hurricane. "Don't say it, Ax. Please don't."

He shook his head. "I won't. We've got a mission to complete. Besides, I know you're not going to abandon those prisoners to the not-so-tender mercies of an enemy. Still..." He shrugged. "We've got a big ship. We can take a lot of passengers. Just maybe, after all this is over..."

Sarah gave him a pained look. "Axton..."

"But, that's the future. Right now, we've got a ship to capture and some soldiers to rescue." He motioned to the open doors and the bridge outside. "Shall we?"

Zero kept the Red Tail low and slow as they flew towards the downed cruiser. They still had hours on the clock, and he knew from past experience how critical stealth could be when infiltrating an enemy stronghold.

As long as it wasn't Pandora, anyway. Stealth didn't exist there.

He heard Cassidy clear her throat behind him. "What do you think?"

Zero turned and ran a quick eye over his sister. Shields, grenades, a set of his old elbow blades, but... "You're not wearing guns."

Cassidy shrugged and dropped into the co-pilots chair. "You stick to your sword as much as situations allow."

"You don't have a sword, either." :[ "You can't go unarmed."

Cassidy huffed out an irritable sigh and digistructed a bladed pistol into her left hand. "I'm armed, I'm armed." The gun vanished. "It's just that I wanted to test my true talents instead of shooting every enemy soldier we see." Her fingertips hummed faintly, surrounded by a faint blue glow. "Call it a challenge."

':] "Have it your way, then." They sat in silence for a few minutes, then he said, "She can take care of herself. You shouldn't worry."

Cassidy didn't even try to deny it. "Why wouldn't she heed my warning?" She burst out. "Why was investigating that infernal wreck worth risking herself?!"

Zero shrugged. "She's a Vault Hunter," he said. "We thrive on danger and risk, Seeking adventure." :/ "You know the feeling. If you didn't feel the same, You wouldn't be here." He rotated his seat to face her. "Be honest with me. You're more hurt she ignored you Than afraid for her."

"No!"

Zero merely stared at her, his blank faceplate inscrutable. Cassidy stared back defiantly, her expression daring him, brother or not, to push the issue further.

The console beeped softly, drawing his attention. Saved by the bell, sis. "We're approaching the target. Get ready to move." He looked out the window. "I have the mountain."

Cassidy sat up straight and stared into the distance, the discussion shoved aside. "So I see."

The gray granite spire lanced upwards from the horizon. It was part of a mountain range, but dwarfed all the peaks around it. The smaller mountains glimmered in the sunlight, their surfaces laden with a sapphire-colored mineral. This one jutted out from its crystalline brothers, a solid spike of plain rock with only trees to break up its uniformity.

"Where did the warship wipe out?" Cassidy asked.

"A small valley halfway up." He reduced engine speed, and the Red Tail slowed to a hover several hundred feet below the crest of a tree-lined ridge. "The target is up there."

Cassidy nodded and tapped the control pad on her arm. "Aft airlock accessed." She looked up at him. "Are you going to contact our craft? Start sending your visual signal?"

Zero nodded and tapped the side of his helmet. A light blinked on interior display, indicating the Grinder was now showing a video feed from his suit's camera. "Done."

She broke into the timeless, eager grin of a young soldier about to kick ass for the first time. "Let's go after some action."

}:) "A fine plan, sister." He stood up and tapped his ECHO device. A pair of metal blocks materialized in his hands. Zero attached one to his belt and held out the other to Cassidy. "Here."

Cassidy took the object and traced her fingers over one of the narrow, darker bands of metal wrapped around it. "You've utilized this trick before?"

"Quite successfully." Zero opened the cockpit door and headed towards the machine shop, Cassidy right behind him. "They never see it coming." He fingered the sword hilt on his belt. "Or anything else."

"If you say so." Cassidy continued turning the block over in her hands. "When should I adjust the ship's angle?"

"Once we're on the roof," Zero said. He stepped into the machine shop and crossed over to the airlock. "I want a clear line of sight Before I decide." He opened the inner door and stepped in.

Cassidy followed and sealed the door behind her. "Ready."

Zero opened the outer door. He snaked his hand into a narrow groove over the door and pulled, heaving himself outside. Keeping his body pressed against the hull, Zero started climbing towards the roof.

Climbing up the Red Tail's side proved much simpler than sprinting across the Grinder's underbelly. No biting, gale force winds, for one thing.

Once he had reached the top of the shuttle, Zero pulled the metal block off his belt and set it on the hull. He clicked a tiny switch, and the dark bands glowed green. The sides of the block slid outward, magnetically locking to the hull as it grew. The expansion continued until the pad was fully expanded and anchored. The glowing green strips of metal pulsed brightly, indicating the power supply was fully cycled up.

The portable jump pad was ready for use.

Zero looked to his left and saw Cassidy had done the same with her device. He looked over and flashed up '?'

She responded with a thumbs up and tried to shout a question back.

Zero shook his head. Even running in silent hover mode, the Red Tail's engines were too loud to speak over while they were standing on its hull. {Go ultrasonic.}

Cassidy nodded and tapped her throat. She asked the question again, this time using their family's unique communication method. {Have you approximated the appropriate angle?}

Zero glanced at the ridge overhead. His interior display flashed up the wind speed, air density, distance to the mountain. He ran the numbers twice, just to be certain. If his math was too low, he'd end up a smear on the mountainside. Too high, he'd catapult too close to the warship and end up a bullet-riddled smear on the ground.

The numbers checked. Zero relayed the information to Cassidy, then depressed a button on the side of his jump pad and knelt over it. He watched as she adjusted the Red Tail's pitch, perched like a sprinter itching for the starting gun. He could feel the slight push as the device overcharged. A few more seconds...

The jump pad turned red.

{Now!}

Zero released the switch. No longer restrained, the pad hurled him through the air. He straightened his body, cutting down his wind resistance. He watched his helmet display track the arc of his trajectory...

The calculations had been perfect. Zero's momentum depleted exactly as he crested the lip of the valley. He landed with hardly a rustle of the blue grass under foot, well away from the ship and cliff edge.

Cassidy's landing kicked up a small cloud of dust, but nothing worse. Her eyes were shining with exhilaration as she looked at Zero. "That was fun! Can we f-"

Zero clapped a hand over her mouth and held a finger to his faceplate. {Stealth is paramount With the insertion complete. Stay ultrasonic.}

{Right.} Her face worked its way back to serious. {My bad, brother.} She looked down into the valley at the fallen cruiser. {What now? Work our way to the warship?}

{Very discreetly,} Zero agreed. {We wait for the right moment To reveal ourselves.}

{Got it.}

Zero motioned to the surrounding trees. {We take the high road.}

The warship had chewed through a wide swath of forest as it made its forced, unstable landing, but enough large trees remained for Zero's purpose. Approaching from the treetops reduced the chance of anyone seeing them with a simple glance, the thick, dark blue leaf cover affording greater opportunities for stealth. Even more advantageous, there didn't seem to be any outside activity.

Cassidy had noted that as well. {No people patrolling the perimeter. Wonder why.}

{Shorthanded, I hope,} Zero said. {So much damage to repair, Too few crewmembers.} He pointed to a section of the warship's hull. A hole nearly ten feet across gaped at them, red light spilling out of the wound. {Let's go in through there.}

The rip led into a large storeroom, still bearing the signs of battle. Scorch marks from recently doused fires, light fixtures dangling from the ceiling... and several bodies laying where they'd fallen.

{Do you think they're Dahl?} Cassidy asked grimly. {Sarah's detainees?}

Zero examined one of the bodies quickly and shook his head. {No insignia.} He started forward towards a large blast door, nearly twelve feet across. {Let's see if this will open.} He pressed the keypad on the wall.

The door sprang into two halves and retracted into the wall with an uncomfortably loud clang. Zero's hand dropped to his sword, but no alarms sounded. {What a shame.} He glanced back at Cassidy. :( {No guards.}

She just rolled her eyes.

The halls stayed silent and empty as they progressed. Even the ambient noises Zero had come to expect from starship operations were missing. The ship itself was bigger than he'd expected: the corridors were wider and higher the Grinder's, but with none of its lavish environment.

{It's a very stark ship,} Cassidy noted. {Just steel and silence.}

{All this ship is for Is the practice of killing,} Zero pointed out. {This is no one's home.} A glowing panel in the wall caught his eye. {Look.}

{A computer console!} Cassidy darted over.

Zero winced inwardly at her lack of caution, but again, the halls remained silent.

{It's fully functional!} she reported. {Should I see if I can suss out the soldiers?}

{If you can do it Without raising the alarm,} Zero said. {I'll keep you covered.}

{Clear.} Cassidy started typing rapidly. A symbol flashed onto the screen briefly, some kind of elaborate lightning bolt shooting from equally stylized clouds. It quickly spun off into a corner, and a scrambled, shaky user interface appeared. {The mainframe is mangled. It's only running rudimentary security.} She smiled tightly. {Should I do the datapull Sarah initially sought?}

{Not necessary,} Zero pointed out. {Capturing the ship nets all.} He took one last look down either direction, then turned to watch the screen. {Find the prisoners.}

{Right.} Cassidy pressed a few more keys. After a few minute's search, she managed to pull up a floorplan of the ship. {There's no designated detention center,} she noted, {but there is a sealed sector on the starboard aft section. Far from weapons systems, or anything else worrisome to the wardens.}

{Ideal for jailing,} Zero agreed. {Let's see how-}

A shrill, braying alarm resounded throughout the ship. The overhead lights began to flash, and suddenly voices came echoing all around them. Further down the corridor, doors thundered open, and footsteps pounded over the metal deckplates.

Zero looked sharply at Cassidy. {Did you-}

{No!} Cassidy yanked her hands away from the keyboard. {Whatever happened, I didn't do it!}

Zero was about to say something when a flash of motion caught his eye- {DOWN!}

Cassidy flung herself aside as Zero lunged forward, his sword flaring to life-

-and skewered the soldier behind her. His gun clattered to the deck as blood leaked from his chest.

But now the troops were bursting out of every door, weapons in hand and faces grim. One of them waved his arm towards the front of the ship. "Come on, we've got to-" His voice broke off as he caught sight of Zero, Cassidy, and his dead comrade. "What the f-"

Cassidy heaved herself off the floor. Her hand seized the man's face, and he shrieked as a burst of electricity pulsed. She opened her fingers and leaped away, vanishing into nothingness.

The man was dead before her hand opened.

"Fire! Kill the intruders!"

They were definitely well trained. Neither Cassidy's disappearance nor the death of one soldier right in front of them evoked any swears or hesitation. The men simply opened fire, filling the hall with countless bullets.

It wasn't enough.

"Quite admirable!" Zero hurled a kunai through the eye of the closest soldier and vanished. He leapt over the heads of three others, landing behind the one furthest away. He slashed downward, his blade carving through muscle and bone. "You should be a great challenge!" He leapt forward before anyone could react, his blade lancing through another soldier. "Or a good warm up!"

He could feel the laser sights tracking him. Zero jumped backwards, pulling free of his victim-

A volley of gunfire tracked his movement, the projectiles cutting through his torso-

Another solider fell as Zero's blade pierced his throat. The decoy overhead exploded in an electrical burst, staggering another two soldiers. Zero lunged between them and spun around, decapitating both men instantly. He whipped back around, blade at ready... and saw he was out of targets.

Zero straightened up and flicked blood off his sword. {I got my seven. How did you do, little sis?}

{Still battling, brother!}

Zero turned and saw Cassidy standing in a circle of dead soldiers. Burned hand prints adorned each of the fallen, mostly over the heart or face.

One, however, was still locked in hand-to-hand combat. {What's holding you up?}

{Grounded shield,} Cassidy snarled. {Can't shock his system!}

Zero leaned against the wall and folded his arms casually. {Old fashioned way, then?}

{Seems so.} On the next punch, Cassidy seized the man's fist and squeezed. He shrieked as the bones in his hands crunched-

Her pistol's blade slashed at his throat.

There was a brief gurgle, then silence.

Silence from the man, at least. The alarms continued to blare throughout the ship. Cassidy darted back to the computer terminal. {More soldiers will be coming,} Zero cautioned. He drew his sword again. {Not that I mind, but...}

{I'm taking the time to seek the source of that alarm!} Cassidy growled. {It shouldn't have activated by my actions alone! I require a reason!}

I will never doubt Whose daughter you truly are. {Found anything yet?} he asked after a minute.

{No additional enemies approaching,} she reported. {The fighters are all flooding forward. There's an...atmospheric anomaly they're targeting.}

{What?}

{Look!} An image flashed up on the screen.

Zero leaned closer, staring at the purplish-white sphere of light on the display in disbelief. If he'd had a jaw, it would have dropped. {That's impossible...}

{What? What is it?}

{It bears a strong resemblance To Lilith's Phasewalk,} Zero said. {But I don't see how-}

The sphere pulsed and flashed a blaze of light bright enough to make them both look away from the monitor. A sonic boom crashed through the hull, rumbling the ship underfoot. As the light dimmed, Zero turned back to the screen. '?!' {What are they doing up there?!}

The Grinder hovered overhead, revolving slowly in the air. Bursts of light seemed to be flashing from inside the dome, but its weapons were silent.

Cassidy stared in horror. {Our ship's shields are down! If these guys get any guns going-!}

Another flare erupted from the screen, and for a terrible instant, Zero thought he saw their ship burst into flames. Then he realized the fire was moving away from the Grinder, plummeting towards the ground like a comet.

{Outside!}

A hundred yard sprint down the hall brought them to another hull breach and back outside. Screams and gunfire echoed over the landscape, and great explosions shattered the mountain air around them.

Zero turned to Cassidy. {Assist the Grinder! Get her weapons and shielding Up and running now!}

{Got it!} She raised her arm and started entering commands. {What will you do?}

{Learn what's happening, Prevent the ship's destruction, And kill everyone!} Zero sprinted for the front of the ship, the sounds of battle raging and growing more intense with every step. He rounded the vessel's nose, blade in hand and ready for anything.

Or so he thought.

The land around the front of the warship wasn't a battlefield. It wasn't even a warzone. Those terms implied a two-way struggle, a conflict between reasonably balanced sides.

This was a killing floor. Dozens of soldiers lay strewn across the ground, most of them scorched, many of them not completely intact, all of them unmistakeably dead. Zero caught sight of three survivors running at full speed away from their ship, firing wildly in every direction. His legs tense, and he prepared to leap at them-

The lead soldier halted in mid-step, his body encased by yellow light. Zero had a second to notice the absolute terror on his face-

The man exploded.

There was no other word for it. One second there was a human body dangling in the air. The next, a rapidly expanding cloud of red mist, drifting slowly to the ground. The other two soldiers skidded to a halt and spun around, firing desperately at a figure walking towards them. It was wreathed in yellow energy that licked the air like flames. Each footstep left a crater as it approached them-

"Maya!"

She didn't hear him. Zero wasn't even sure she could. Maya's eyes were blue-white with power, her left arm glowing and crackling with energy. Her hair writhed like something alive, and her face was a snarling mask of hatred. She pointed her left palm at the second of the soldiers-

Red mist.

The last one had a grenade in his hand. Zero started to shout a warning, but Maya didn't need it. With a scream like rending metal, Maya leaped into the air. She hurtled towards the man, her left arm leaving trails of light as she swung her hand at him, fingers hooked into claws and striking at his face.

The final soldier hadn't even had time to pull the pin. The man dropped to his knees and slumped sideways, hand clenched around the useless grenade.

Maya dropped what was left of his face on the ground a second later.

Zero tried again. "Maya!"

She spun around, and Zero couldn't help but take a step backwards. He couldn't see any of his friend in that visage, none of the intelligent, slightly aloof, but reasonably sociable woman he'd come to know and like. There were only whited-out eyes and black rage contorting every line of her face.

For one brief and uncertain second, Zero felt certain Maya was about to attack him. His hand tightened on his sword...

"Zeeeerooooo..." Maya's voice leaked out in a barely recognizable hiss. "Ssstaaand aaassssiiiideeee..." She raised her finger, pointing straight at him.

'?!'

"Brother! Behind you!"

Zero's instincts took control. He obeyed his sister's warning and dove for the ground, not even questioning why-

A cannon shell whistled past his helmet as he dropped. If he hadn't ducked, it would have gone through his chest to get to Maya.

Her eyes narrowed.

The shell disintegrated.

Zero rolled onto his knees and saw a massive war mech, ten feet tall and lethally armed. Its steps rattled the ground as it stomped forward, and the five-inch cannon on its left arm was trained perfectly on Maya-

She didn't shriek this time. She didn't jump. Zero didn't even see her lift a foot.

But suddenly, somehow, she was clinging to the suit's cockpit, shards of metal flying all around her as she ripped it apart with her bare hands. The suit's right arm crashed to the ground, sparking, an inch deep bootprint embedded in its shoulder. Maya punched at the cockpit door and buried her arm into it up to her shoulders. She heaved, and the door flew away like paper in a high wind. Light flared from her arm once more-

The suit toppled backwards, crashing to the ground with deafening thunder. Where there had once been a pilot, there remained only red liquid.

Slowly, silence fell over the valley. The light around Maya dimmed and vanished. Her left arm went dark, and Zero saw her shoulders relax. "It's okay, Zero," she called softly. "It's over."

He pushed himself off the ground, looking around the blood soaked terrain. "It's true they're all dead." He stared at Maya's back- she still hadn't turned to face him. "But I do not think 'over' Is the right word here."

"No, I suppose not." Now Maya turned around, and Zero was relieved to see her eyes had stopped glowing. "They still have backup coming from the base." She smiled in a thin, cold way Zero had never seen her use before. "Not that there's much left for them to back up."

Cassidy walked slowly towards Zero, surveying the area with horrified awe. "You did all this damage alone?" She stared at Maya open-mouthed. "How?"

"The famed power boost," Zero said evenly. He watched Maya carefully, glad that his normal expression hid so much.

She could still tell something was wrong. "What is it, Z?"

Zero almost lied. He almost said 'nothing'. Somehow, though, he sensed Maya would know he was lying, and that she would never forgive him for it.

So he masked the bigger truth by telling a smaller one. "I am slightly troubled by Your actions just now," Zero said, waving his arm at the carnage around them.

Maya's expression darkened slightly. "I just cleared out the last of their soldiers and saved you from that mech suit." Her voice was one degree above threatening. "Do you really have a problem with that?"

Zero shook his head. "They were enemies, Ultimately doomed to die. But this?" :/ "Overkill." He watched Maya's eyes closely, looking for any sign of that eerie light returning. "My question is why. Why did you kill these men with Such extravagance?"

Her eyes were still their normal blue-gray, but there was a look in them Zero didn't like. It was as if she were deciding his value as an asset...

Maya shrugged, and the look was gone. "It was personal."

"Personal?" Cassidy looked at the fallen. "You knew these people?"

"In a manner of speaking. It was that terminal you accessed that tipped me off..."

"They found a computer!" Sarah almost leapt out of Axton's chair, her body taught with anticipation. "We're recording this, right?"

"Of course," Maya assured her.

"Can you start running a separate feed for me? Something I can slow down and replay as it comes in?"

"Um... I think so." Maya brought up another holoscreen, looking away just as the stylized cloud symbol flashed up on the warship's computer. "Let me see... yes, here it is. Just give me a second to set it up... you're good."

A holoscreen flashed up in front of Sarah, showing the hall. She examined the controls. "Ax, how do you run this?"

"Uhhhh..."

A laugh rumbled out of Krieg as Axton dithered over the controls. "Too much time cleaning the guns, not enough time shooting."

"Bite me, muscle boy," Axton growled. "Like you know how to use these things."

"Well, you two don't, but I do," Maya interrupted wryly, smirking as Axton and Krieg glowered at each other. The playback controls appeared under her hands while the video image reminded floating in front of Sarah. "Krieg's not totally wrong, though. Axton spent all his time in the gym on the way out here. It's amazing he can work the food dispensers."

Sarah gave the tiniest of laughs. "That's nothing. You should have seen the first time he tried to wash his clothes on my ship."

Maya smiled distantly as she toyed with the playback. "Let me guess. Flooded the laundry room?"

"And the cargo bay, and half the hallway up to the bridge. Hold it!" Sarah hand jabbed towards the screen. "There! What was that?"

"I missed it. Where?"

"Back about five seconds...stop." Sarah gazed intently at the screen. "I'll be damned. It looks like we got an identifying mark."

"From their computer?"

"It's on the start-up screen," Sarah said. "Can you put up a bigger version?"

"Easily." A still image of the cloud/lightning bolt flashed up overhead. "That should do-" Maya broke off as she caught sight of the picture, her hands frozen over the controls.

Axton peered at the image. "It's not a sigil I recognize."

"Neither do I, but I'm sure the intelligence boys will," Sarah said confidently. She shook her head in disbelief. "God damn, we've finally got something to go on."

"If you say so." Axton squinted at the design. "What's that even supposed to be?" he wondered. "A stormcloud?"

"Danger on the horizon."

For a second, Axton didn't realize who had spoken. Then he glanced around the bridge, and it couldn't have been more obvious. "Maya? What's wrong?"

"It's the far-away threat," she went on, as if she didn't hear him. Her voice was twisted and choked, almost unrecognizable. "The oncoming nightmare. The inevitable doom." Her hands were clenched and trembling at her sides. The left one slowly dripped red onto the floor.

Krieg laid an uneasy hand on her shoulder. "Pretty Lady...?"

"It's them, Krieg." She whirled towards him, absolute hatred blazing in her eyes. "Those manipulative, worthless, condescending bastards!"

The screens across the bridge began to flicker.

"Hold on a minute." Sarah got to her feet, ignoring the fritzing video screen. "You recognize that symbol?"

"I should!" Maya snarled. "I grew up seeing it! Every room had a picture of it, every building a mural, every single damned one of them wore it on their robes!"

The screens flickered more wildly, their images breaking down into random pixels. The deck began to vibrate subtly underfoot.

Axton stared. "Wait... you mean that symbol belongs to-"

"The people that raised me to be their weapon. The monks that hid me away from the universe. The church that stole my life!" Maya's tattoos pulsed with light as she stared daggers at the symbol overhead. The drips from her left hand had merged into a thick stream. "The Order of the Impending Storm."

She twisted around to look at Sarah. "You want these guys dead? Fine." She glared at the screen, the light on her arm growing brighter. "I'll do that for you. I'll kill them all."

Axton looked around at the dome uneasily. A purple light had begun to encircle the ship. "Maya...?"

"I'll kill them now."

Maya looked around the area in satisfaction. "And I did." She grinned, a crazed expression loaded with a blood-lust that Zero had never seen in her, even in their wildest Pandoran battles. "And I reveled in it."

Zero did his best to conceal his misgivings. "Revelry aside, You're right about their back up." He motioned to the disabled warship. "We should secure this."

Maya nodded. "But not just the three of us." She looked up at the Grinder, her tattoos beginning to glow blue. "Sarah, at the very least, would be... irritated if we left her out." Her markings suddenly shifted from blue-white to orange-

A burst of purple light flared next to Maya. When it vanished, it left Axton, Krieg, and Sarah standing next to her.

Axton jerked and looked around wildly. "What the hell?!"

Krieg thumped himself on the head a few times with his axe. "The vortex grabbed me by the guts and dragged me to the moon!"

:O "That was a phasewalk." Zero stared in disbelief. "You can use Lilith's powers? How did you do that?"

"I'll explain later," Maya promised. "Right now, I believe there's some prisoners we have to rescue."

"We should still be careful," Axton warned. "We can't be certain this is everyone from the crew."

Maya smirked. "You can't." She turned to look at the ship. "I can feel the minds of everyone in that vessel right now. There's only a handful left, and they aren't enemies."

? "Another new trick?" Zero asked warily.

"I think it's just an amplification of my Thoughtlock," Maya said distantly. She closed her eyes and held her palm towards the cruiser. "They're deep inside the ship, mostly together. They're conscious, I think." Her eyes opened. "And they're terrified."

"Then let's alleviate their fear," Sarah said firmly. "This sense of them that you have, can it guide you to them?"

Maya nodded. "Easily."

"Then you're with me." She turned to the others. "Axton, Zero, Krieg, I want you three to go over this ship deck by deck. Check for anything that might be a threat. I don't want those reinforcements pulling any surprises by remote."

Maya gave her an annoyed look. "I just said-"

"There's no soldiers left, I know," Sarah interrupted, "but what about security systems, or automated combat units? Are you one hundred percent certain you can detect those as easily as people?"

A sour expression flashed over Maya's face. "Nearly."

Sarah shook her head. "Not good enough. We go old school and do a by-the-book search."

Maya shrugged. "Fine. Your mission."

"Yes." Sarah pointed at Cassidy. "You head back to your ship. I need detailed scans of the cruiser's weapons, engines, shields, everything. I need to know if we're salvaging or stripping this thing."

"Got it."

"We'd better move fast," Axton said. "Their reinforcements will be on the way by now. Don't wanna get caught with our pants down, right?"
Zero nodded. "There is a hull breach On the port aft corridor. We can start from there."

"Then we're splitting up here," Maya said. "The people I sense are in the starboard forward section."

Sarah looked at Zero. "Any hull breaches in that section?"

"Doesn't matter." Maya grinned. "If there aren't now, there's about to be."

[One person's bad day is another prisoner's liberation, I guess.]

[Due to travel and holiday stuff, I'll be taking a little time to rebuild and refine my next couple chapters. This story will update next on January 17th. The space between will update in the interim.]

[Thanks for reading!]