I don't bother keeping track of where I am going, which is probably not smart at all. But I don't care right now, I am still upset about this entire mess. I don't want to talk to Jared, heck I don't even want to talk to Angel right now. She after all wants to murder our own species. I may not be okay with us taking human's lives away, but that doesn't give us the right to go around murdering my species when most of us don't realize what we're doing is completely wrong. I shake my head in disgust, coming in on a totally random hallway. Then I bump into someone and I nearly have a heart attack when I realize it is just Melanie.

"Hey I was coming to get you. Jeb said talking to Lance is probably the best thing to do." She frowns. "Where were you going?"

"Nowhere in particular." I sigh. "I just wanted to get out of that conversation about killing him. It was bothering me."

Her face darkens. "They were still talking about that?"

I nod. "Yes."

"I'll talk to Jared about that. I'm sure he realizes how big of a mistake it is to kill him."

I shrug. "I just need to talk to him. I think shipping him off planet would be easier. I just don't know how to do that without getting caught."

She nods. "We'll figure that out if you can't talk sense into him."

I felt relief. At least someone is on my side. I thought at first that I was all alone in the save him, not kill him side. I'm a little surprised that it is Melanie of all people, when it makes more sense for humans to want him dead. It's as if she and Angel have switched places, Angel the murderous one, and Melanie the peaceful one. I have no idea how that happens.

Melanie turns back around and starts walking back down the dark dank hallway. The heat is a little suffocating, especially since for some reason it's fairly humid, but I ignore it as I follow her to wherever they are keeping Lance. I have no idea where we are going, and I doubt I'll be able to remember this route because it is so poorly lit, blue lanterns dangling along the wall every few yards or so, way too spaced out. But they probably don't have the resources to light it any better in the hallways.

After a few twists and turns, we eventually reach a small hole in a wall, that is brightly lit, but it probably helps that there is a lantern with Jeb who is sitting right outside the hole, and it appears that there is another one on the inner edge inside the hole as well. Our footsteps echo as we approach, and he looks up, his hand on the rifle in his lap, the other hand just sitting on the floor.

"That was quick." He remarks.

"That's because I found her wandering around this direction." Mel says. "I don't think she realizes that she was actually coming towards this."

"Probably not." He looks at me. "Do you think you can talk some sense into this whack job in there?" He points his thumb at the hole.

I shrug. "Possibly. But I am not entirely sure if I can."

"I love the confidence." He sighs. "Well, do what you can."

I nod and step inside the hole. I take a look around. It is oval shaped, and seems to be concave in the middle, with a low roof, I can almost touch it if I reach up. There's a mat and pillow right in the middle. Lance is sitting on it, his hands in his lap, staring down at it. I can see a bruise forming by the eye the light is shining on. He must not have noticed that I have come inside. I clear my throat and he looks up at me, and I can see he has a black eye forming.

"What are you here for?" He snaps at me.

"Well, maybe if you won't listen to them, you might actually listen to me." I sit down in front of him, ignoring his hostile glare.

"You're basically one of them. So sympathetic to them." He spits. "I don't understand how you feel so guilty over us taking their planet. You should be glad. They can't destroy their home anymore. Except the resistance might change that."

I somehow keep my calm. "But we murder them to try to make a planet peaceful when co-existence would have been easier."

"Yeah, right." He snorts. "Humans don't listen to reason. They like to kill things. The minute we set foot here they got upset and killed us without even asking why we were here."

"They don't understand things they fear. And they feared us." I say quietly.

"They feared us?! No! They just wanted us dead! And they still do!" He snarls.

"You don't get it." I say slowly, calmly. "When they fear the unknown they do what they believe is right to keep themselves safe."

"You truly have become one of them." He only gets angrier. "You're not a Soul anymore. You're as human as them."

I actually flinch. "Don't say that. I only feel horrible because we are killing a young species."

He snorts. "I still don't understand."

"That's because you don't try. Like the humans, you don't listen to reason either! You just assume the worst in them because you don't see the worst in us!" I growl, fed up with him. "We do have a bad side, and that is the fact that we wipe out an entire race to sustain ourselves. Whether you want to believe me or not, that is a fact. We invade another species' home and then we take it over selfishly. We don't try to co-exist because we always assume it will turn out for the worst." He stares at me as I continue. "What I believe we should have done is invade the worst of their species and turn them around. That's what we should have always done."

"You really believe that?" He whispers.

"Yes." I answer hotly.

He snorts. "You're delusional."

I slap him as hard as I can across the face, and his head snaps to the side, the slap echoes through the room and I can see his face turning red where I slapped him already. "You idiot. I'm trying to save your life. Don't you get it? If I can't convince you, then they're going to killyou."

He stares at me, rubbing his cheek. "Why won't you let me be killed?"

"I don't see the justice in that." I whisper. "I don't see the justice to kill someone who doesn't understand. But if I can't convince you, then I'll have no choice but to send you off planet."

"But…I like it here."

"You're either stuck in the caves, dead, or I ship you away." I snap. "You don't have any other options. It's too big of a risk sticking you back out there when you could bring Seekers down on our heads."

"You really think I would do that?" His voice wavers in an attempt to lie.

"Yes. I know you would do that." I rise to my feet. "Clearly, I cannot convince you. I'm leaving to talk to the others. We will determine what happens to you there. Ship you off, or kill you."

I step out of the room without saying anything else to him. Jeb and Melanie are both staring at me the minute I am back in the hallway. I stare back at them wordlessly, not really sure what to say to either one of them, but tension is thick in the air, it is probably coming off of me in waves.

"Let's go back to the others. Discuss our options with them." I say flatly.

"You know what they will say." Mel says. "They'll just say kill him."

"That's not an option I am willing to let them choose from." I growl. "Trust me, he is not going to die."

"I'm not so sure it would be a great day to let him stay in these caves though." Jeb pipes up. "He could prove to be a danger."

"I'm not saying he as a soul needs to stay in the caves. His host, yes." I wait for it to sink in what I'm implying.

"So you're saying we should try to ship him off?" Mel stares. "Are you sure that's a good idea."

"If me and Wanda go out to do the ship off ourselves there will be no danger."

"You can't go alone."

"I never said that." I sigh. "I just said we do the ship off alone. Not leave the caves alone."

Jeb shakes his head. "That's still too big of a risk. We can't have that."

"So you are saying that we should kill him?" I snap at him. "Because that is the only other option that is worth considering. He can't stay in his host and if we don't ship him off we may as well kill him and his host."

Mel looks annoyed. "No that's not what we're saying. We just need to look at this from another light and decide from there."

"So death it is." I snarl quietly and stomp past them, ignoring them as they shout at me to come back. I am not willing to kill a Soul. Not if he has a chance, even a slim one, of getting off this planet, one that I have discovered changes our species. It makes us more sympathetic to our host's plight and that's where everything goes wrong within both species. I don't think a Soul like Lance belongs on this planet. It isn't safe for him, or anybody else for that matter. So the only remaining option is to send him away. I know that is the only way. Death is not an option in this case. I will not allow it.

I hear footsteps behind me, as I wander aimlessly through the tunnels, not sure if I am going back to where I came, or somewhere else. These caves are an endless maze; I don't care if I get lost. It is better to get lost, where I can be alone with my thoughts, then end up back in that room, where death was a topic and one where even Angel agreed on it. I shake my head as I keep walking, picking up the pace, and trying to outpace the person behind me. I doubt it will work, but it makes it pretty clear that I want nobody to come within any range of me.

"Moonbeam." It's Mel, and she grabs me, and I jump violently. I had no idea she was as close behind me as she was. "Calm down. I promise you we're not going to kill him. Jeb just doesn't want to take the risk of bringing Seekers here."

"We won't if Wanda and I go out." I growl. "It's an easy story to come up with. We had to perform an emergency removal on our friend as his host was dying and we happened to have a container on us. They'll buy into that story and then we ship him off and be on our way."

"You really think it's going to be that easy?" Mel redirects me to a tunnel branch on the right, as the corridor I am standing in branches off. I must have gotten real turned around as I don't remember ever coming out of a forked tunnel.

"It should be. As long as it is Wanda and I and whoever drives the car. We can't bring an entire group of people with us." I say as we walk, keeping my voice low so it doesn't echo.

"Jared and I can come. I remember doing something similar to this when Wanda was in my body. And we're both experts on how not to get ourselves caught." Then she suddenly swallows hard. "Except for that time I made that stupid mistake."

She must be referring to when the Seekers caught her and implanted Wanderer into her. I don't press that issue, because it seems to be sensitive, judging by the sudden heavy tension I feel coming off of her.

"Jared and you need to stay in the car then." I say and I see the surprise on Mel's face. "Last thing I want is to have gotten you caught because I wanted to save an angry soul's life."

"Then what is the point of having us come then?" She sounds a little angry.

"If we get compromised you guys can get out of there. Leave us there."

"Abandon you? You think we would just let you get caught?"

I huff. "The worst thing they can really do to us is ship us off planet. They'd put Souls in you and Jared and that would bring Seekers down on this place."

I can hear voices, and I realize we are getting back to the bread room. I tense up; I am prepared to argue. With so many of them willing to kill Lance, I am going to have to really try hard to make them see sense. See how unreasonable that they are being. That's all I can do to help him. It's already an argument by the time we've re-entered the room. It stops though, when they see that we have returned.

"Any luck?" Jared is the first one to speak.

I shake my head. "He won't listen to me. But it may have been too soon to talk to him. We may have to give him a day or two. Let him get more level-headed." I didn't realize that that could have been an option as well, until the words had passed through my lips.

"Maybe. But we can't start this whole guard duty thing up again." I hadn't realized Kyle had joined the argument. "It's just inconvenient. We need every person we can get and playing guard is a waste."

"It would just be for one or two days." Melanie snaps. "It wouldn't be an issue at all."

"And what if he still won't cooperate? What then?" Angel asks me, her voice razor sharp.

I swallow hard. "Then we remove him and ship him to the farthest planet away from here. Against his will." Those words burn in my mouth.

Angel's eyebrows knit together and her lips turn down into a frown. A scowl to be more correct. But that's her only reaction. Jared has his arms crossed over his chest and has this look of intense concentration on his face. Ian is also frowning. Ice spreads through my veins. Do they not like my idea? Maybe because it's against his will…? I'm not entirely sure what to think.

"You said yourself that it was too dangerous." Jared makes eye contact with me. "So why do you say that now?"

"Wanda and I could do it. We can lie and they'll buy it and we can get him shipped off planet safely." I say. "It's the least dangerous version of that plan."

"But let's say you get caught in your deception." Jared says. "What then?"

"The worst thing that can happen is Wanda and I get shipped off planet." I say casually, but Ian's face hardens and a hiss passes his lips, Wanda just looks anxious.

"No." Ian growls. "We can't risk that happening at all." His eyes flicker to Wanda and linger there, before flickering back to me. "This won't work. You have to convince him that he'll be okay here."

I sigh and stare down at the ground. Then I take a deep breath in and look at Ian. "I can promise you that the likelihood of Wanda and I getting caught is as close to zero as it can get without being zero."

He opens his mouth to speak but Wanda approaches him and they get locked in their own conversation. I look away to be polite. Then I see Angel and I hesitantly approach her. She looks at me, the anger is finally starting to burn away, and now she just seems tired. She leans against the counter for support.

"Do you really think sending him away against his will would be a good idea?" She asks me in a low voice, concern leaking into her tone.

"I'm really hoping that giving him the rest of the day to cool off will help him and that he'll listen to reason. I'd rather not risk shipping him off planet." I sigh. "But we'll do what we have to do."

She sighs and looks away from me. "Whatever you think is best."

I just pat her shoulder lightly. "I'm sorry to have to bring you into this complicated mess."

She shrugs and doesn't reply. I let my hand fall limp to my side. And Ian approaches me right then and roughly grabs my arm. "I need to speak with you. In private."

He then drags me into a corridor, opposite of the one I had gone.