Stephenie Meyer owns The Host, not me.

Mixed Feelings

*Irrelevant Revelations*

A mortar. A mortar had been fired upon a city's spaceport, and killed several of the bugs. She'd the bugs talking about the blast on the radio, after she'd (unfortunately gently) made Fractals go to sleep.

I'm not alone. Well, alone with nobody but the bugs for company.

Sophia was so happy she had to fight back tears. For five years, she'd been dead certain she and Alex were the only human survivors anywhere.

From the sound of it, whoever it was had better equipment than her - she really envied that mortar. Maybe, they even actually knew what they were doing. This could potentially change everything.

Then her realistic side kicked in.

She knew better than to get her hopes up - she was used to having dreams crushed, and anyway, odds were astronomical that she would ever meet up with them. They probably wouldn't want to see her in any case, what with the whole nationwide manhunt and televised face and all. To the bugs, she was what went bump in the night and scared children.

And from their point of view, she had enormous teeth. Nobody wanted that type of attention brought to their front door.

Sophia realized she might have gotten humans killed by her actions - an increased Seeker presence to look for her meant that they would find more free humans, if there were many left. And that would be her fault.

She certainly wasn't expecting any sort of rescue or assistance. She'd given up hope on that by the time she was ten. And she couldn't worry about the unintended repercussions of her actions when she might be able to learn to remove one of the bugs so soon.

For all practical intents and purposes, she still might as well be the last of her kind. Still, it was good to know there were others, somewhere, even if she would never meet them. Somebody else would still be left to carry on the fight when she was gone.

Sophia turned her mind back to the problem at hand. She needed to catch one of the Soul-raised humans, and do it quietly. She knew there was a heliport somewhere nearby, as she'd seen the copters flying in and out of the city. That meant that if she was seen, it would be the end - she just couldn't see a way to get away from one if spotted.

There were also occasional small aircraft buzzing overhead periodically. She wasn't as worried about those (though they were incredibly dangerous as well) because she was pretty sure a little groundfire would make them think twice about following her. Yes, she'd have to move afterwards, but at least she could do something about them, unlike the infuriatingly bulletproof helicopters.

She knew that school was out of session, and was flattered that the bugs thought she was so dangerous that they should cancel classes. However, it made things more difficult - hijacking a school bus would be by far the easiest way to do this.

Staying here made sense. She was most likely to be seen when moving, so it would be bad to leave when she didn't have to. She had enough food to last for at least another week (damn, did that feel good to think about after barely scratching out enough to eat for most of her life) and her hiding spot in the woods was about as good as any. If she waited long enough, classes would eventually resume, and then she could strike.

Fractals would have time to heal, as well. She was certain it would yield more useful tidbits of info if she kept it around.

Fractals was worried, because Zoe's voice was becoming louder and more frequent. Her experiences with Sophia had convinced her humans were incorrigibly violent creatures, and a conscious one could not be allowed in the utopia Souls had built.

If she ever got away from Sophia, Zoe would be abandoned as a host and subsequently discarded.

She wasn't sure how she felt about that. Zoe was also murderous - suffering through one of her fantasies of getting the gun away from Sophia had dispelled her illusions about that. But Zoe's fantasies were strangely logical if you believed violence was acceptable.

And allowing Zoe to be discarded would be uncomfortably close to committing murder, herself. Zoe was very quick to remind her of that.

But what choice was she left with? She couldn't go around with a live human inside of her head – she'd incite violence, or drive her crazy.

*Hey! I can still hear you!* Zoe cried, insulted. *I'm not crazy or evil!*

The sporadic, uninvited commentary on her thoughts would drive her to madness, if nothing else. Of course, the point was moot if Sophia tortured them to death.

*Come on, Fractals! There's gotta be a way we can get away.* Zoe said.

Her host was desperately trying to find a way out. Fractals realized the human was trying to steer her thoughts away from weighing whether to discard her or not, but the two of them did need to work together if they wanted to make it out alive.

You know I'm trying to figure one out, Zoe.

*If we can get a can of Still, we'd be home free.*

Fractals looked, but the Sophia had made sure she had the Still very secure inside the car.

I'd have to break a window. She'd hear me do it.

*Wait till she's distracted. Do it fast and she won't have time to react.*

If she does, she'll definitely kill me, even if she still wants to interrogate me. It's not worth it, Zoe!

*She'll kill us anyway, you idiot!*

Zoe, we've seen that she's off fighting people when she puts me in the trunk. The Seekers have got to be looking for her. They'll find her soon, and then we'll be free.

*What if she gets killed when we're locked inside the trunk and the Seekers never find us? I don't want to starve in the boot of a police cruiser!*

The human had a point.

I'll -

Click. The noise came hard and sharp, interrupting the conversation.

"I was trying to be nice and let you heal, Fractals." Sophia pulled a can of Still off of her harness.

*Oh, shit.* Zoe groaned.

"Please don't, I'm not doing anything!" Fractals cried, but the child ignored her.

Fractals was learning to dislike the scent of blueberries.

Sophia noticed that Fractals had been acting oddly ever since she'd returned from the Healing Facility. She'd been chalking it up to the concussion, but now its face kept changing expressions. It almost looked like it was talking on a phone or radio - an exceptionally alarming idea.

Her first, paranoid thought was that they had some kind of telepathy. But that made no sense - she'd never seen anything to suggest that before, and if Fractals could contact anyone, she would have so many helicopter gunships after her that you couldn't throw a stone without hitting one.

Whatever it was doing, it was mysterious and therefore dangerous.

Click.

"I was trying to be nice and let you heal, Fractals." Still was awesome stuff, and Sophia was thankful she had so much of it.

The bug looked like she'd caught its hands in the cookie jar, and then made a feeble protest as the Still hit it. Sophia looked at it laying on the ground, considering what to do next.

Ray had passed out from pain when she'd stabbed it in the lower back. As soon as it woke up after that, it had killed itself. She wasn't sure if it was just because it had given up on ever escaping, or if that particular spot was especially painful, but whatever the case, she needed Fractals alive.

Knees, then, she thought. Gotta be gentle or it'll commit suicide.

Sophia flipped out her bayonet. "Fractals, I want you alive. You want to stay alive. We agree on that much. I'll admit, it is fun to beat the shit out of you, but it's not very productive. But if you're going to keep plotting behind my back, I will kill you. Next time something like this happens, this is going into your kidney, and I'm not going to patch you up again."

With that, she plunged the steel into the back of its leg.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" She said, slowly twisting the blade a few degrees. "I can't play games with you, Fractals. If this happens again, you're dead. I'll find someone else to ask questions."

She pulled out a can of Heal, and poured it into the wound. "I'm not going to do this next time," she reminded the bug.

Fractals tried to pretend to be paralyzed after the Still wore off, but Sophia wasn't having any of it. The child prodded her with the bayonet every few minutes until she responded.

"So, what were you doing, parasite?"

Fractals was in a bind. Sophia wouldn't believe her if she told the truth, but she didn't think she could lie plausibly.

Zoe tried to remain silent, but it was hard. She was the one who had gotten them into this trouble, and was terrified beyond belief. She still couldn't believe her knee was whole again, it had hurt so much.

"I'm waiting, Fractals." Sophia brought up the Still again, and Zoe panicked as a rush of adrenaline flowed through Fractals' body.

"Do it! Kill me, you crazy bitch!" Fractals covered her mouth, too late.

The child looked surprised. She eyed the can of Still she was holding, and Fractals could almost hear her debating whether or not to kill her.

That wasn't smart, Zoe, Fractals said.

Why does everyone want to kill me? the human cried in response.

The child replaced the Still in her holster. "I know what you're doing. You're trying to convince me Zoe's still awake somehow." Her voice turned bitter. "Who knows, maybe she is. Probably not, but there's no way to tell. If you are in there, Zoe, I really hope you can't feel anything, cause I'm not gonna stop till somebody kills me."

Fractals' heart thumped loudly as she spoke. "She feels everything I do, Sophia."

Sophia raised an eyebrow. "Well, if that's true, I guess you won't kill her under torture. Assuming you consider killing humans murder, anyway." She smiled.

"I think it's lunchtime. Have some Spam."

Soaring Leaf was happy with the progress his Seekers were making. Several Souls whose hosts had trained human soldiers were trying to get everyone into fighting shape. They were drilling by assigning one person to play the 'human' (or op-for, as the instructors whose hosts had been in the military called it), and the rest of the group was meant to go and find them. To simulate a battle, they were using what was essentially glorified laser tag equipment attached to rifles filled with blanks. It worked surprisingly well.

His only complaint was that the 'human' players tended to try to run, while the Conrad girl seemed like she would fight to the death.

Still, it was good training. His comrades were learning not to stand around cluelessly when they heard a gunshot, and also the best way to cut someone off who was trying to run.

He hoped it would be enough, and that they would pass on what they learned. He still wasn't sure what the human was after, so this was the best he could do.

It was worrying, the news about the mortar attack, but there was little he could do about it. The military types could take care of their own business, and he could not help their investigation much.

Moonlight was still avoiding him, so he'd assigned someone to watch him. Every once in a while, a human with a strong spirit could influence a Soul to do things against their nature (there was even a case where the Soul had been unaware of the control!), and if Sophia was any indication, the Conrad family was very strong indeed. So far, he hadn't done anything out of the ordinary, but given a few days that might change.

He hoped Sophia didn't have another attack planned. There had been enough death already.

A/N Please review! Thank you to those who do, especially TopKat90 who has reviewed every chapter so far!