Keyop and Tiny found Mark slumped on the floor of the Phoenix. His face was ashen and he was unconscious. By the time Jason arrived, Mark was regaining consciousness and Tiny was thankful to hand the problem to the team medic.

Jason took one look at Mark and removed his bracelet, causing him to revert to his civilian clothes; he then jerked Mark's shirt up. His side was black and Jason immediately put in a call to Centre Neptune.

"Get him back as soon as you can," instructed the Doctor.

Jason turned to Tiny and his brow furrowed. "Where's Princess?"

"Not back," Keyop burbled anxiously. "Not answering."

"Shit. We can't leave without her." Jason paused. "Keyop, you stay here with Mark. Tiny, you and I will try to find her. "

"Take car," said Keyop. "Cover more ground that way."

"Good thinking, Keyop. Tiny, I'll drop you on one side of this town, and then start from the other side. We'll meet in the middle." Tiny nodded and made his way to the bubble whilst Jason headed for his vehicle in the nose of the craft. "Keep your ears open, Keyop. If you hear from her, let us know."

In the car, Tiny turned to Jason. "Mark?" he asked.

"He's in a really bad way. Doc thinks that something has gone wrong with the Haemophilia treatment. Dammit, Tiny! Why won't he listen when he's told to stay put!"

"The same reason the rest of us won't, I guess. Mark's sense of duty though is even stronger than ours."

"Yeah – but we usually do as we're told when Doc tells us to."

"Except when you're Mark and don't trust your own abilities. He seems to think that he constantly has to keep proving himself to somebody."

"Cronus. That bastard has Mark so confused that it only needs a look from Cronus and he's in a spin."

"We need Prin badly. She can keep him on kilter."

"Yeah. I hope that nothing's gone wrong with her."

"Jason, it's fairly obvious that something has gone wrong – otherwise she would have beaten us back to the Phoenix. The worry we have is how bad and can we fix it fast."

Tiny got out of the car and commenced his search pattern. Jason watched him, his eyes narrowing. He kept underestimating Tiny.

It was an hour later that Tiny, passing a narrow alley heard laughter, a thud and the banging of a door. He was going to pass by, except he heard moaning from the far end. Even if it wasn't Princess, he wasn't going to pass that by.

He found her sprawled, naked at the end of the alley. Her clothing and broken bracelet were dropped on top of her. He recoiled as he saw the yellowing of what would be bad bruising. Saw blood on her body, scratches and welts. "Jason, I've found her. Get here fast – she's injured." Tiny paused. "We'll need the car, Jason. Understand?"

"Yeah. On my way."

Tiny bent over their injured teammate and recoiled slightly at the musky smell that came from her. He saw the other fluids on her body, around her mouth and on her legs and pulled her close, wrapping his wings around her. She felt icy cold, and he tried to transfer as much warmth to her as possible.

"No," she whimpered. "Leave me alone. Please."

"You're safe, Princess. I'm here."

"Tiny?"

"Yeah." He stroked her hair back from her face, recoiling slightly at the stickiness of the black strands.

"Mark?" Tiny paused, but then decided he needed to tell her the truth.

"Not good."

"Should have taken him and come back to find me."

"You know the rules, don't leave anyone behind." He saw a flash of light and stood, carefully cradling their injured Swan. "Here's Jason with the car. We'll be at the Phoenix soon."

"No. Can't let him.... Can't let Mark see me like this."

"Mark won't know, and Jason can take it."

Jason met them near the car and his face tightened as he saw the state Princess was in. He could smell as well as Tiny and guessed what had happened to her.

It had been something they all dreaded. Rape. His rational mind said that rape was something that was more inevitable for Princess than the rest, but then you never knew. Especially since his own rape at the hands of Spectra.

He looked at the end of the alley. "I want to take care of those bastards before we leave."

"Jason, no!" Tiny was sharp. "We have two injured, we can't afford to wait. We'll come back and take care of them later."

"They won't be here later."

"Too bad then. It's more important that we get Mark and Princess back to Neptune."

Jason took a deep breath. "I get first go at Zoltar for this."

"Princess gets first go."

They carefully manoeuvred Princess into the back seat of the car and Tiny slid in next to her. "And then when she's finished, I imagine Mark will want a go."

Jason climbed into the driver's seat and reversed out of the alley. "They better leave some for me."

Tiny looked at Princess who was barely breathing. "I just hope that there's enough of them both to put back together," he said softly.