The Piper Maru came to dock and Paul couldn't be more excited.

For the past couple of days, he had completely forgotten about Athena and her friends. He was much too fascinated with the human like creature he had locked up. The thing was bound to make him famous! Make him respected among the communities that previously only gave him notice because of his father's name.

His father. . .

Paul did love his father. He truly did. Sadly, his resentment was stronger at most times. At first it was his father's lack of attention. He wasn't neglectful, but work often times came before his own family. It was the resentment of a child, one Paul had thought he had outgrown. He never actually had outgrown it completely, but he was more logical now than he was then.

Second was his father's lack of affection.

This one came at a much later age. Paul had begun to work for him for several years now. His hope was that he could bridge the gap between himself and his father. It was still awkward and foreign around him, even when working on the same projects together. Paul's biggest let down was when his father named him the heir of his company, but still made no move to get to know his son further.

All he got was a slap on the back and a toast to the crowd.

Paul shook his head out of his trance. It didn't matter now. His father was gone and the creature possibly responsible was in his grasp. As soon as the boat was tied down, he'd have his name be known.

He clapped his hands together with glee and went back to giving out orders.

Celtic's slumber was disturbed once more by another presence in the room. For a moment, he had secretly hoped that it would be Athena again.

But it wasn't. Instead, the presence in the room was someone who was as equally welcomed as Athena. Or someones. . .

Chopper and Scar materialized in front of him and gave excited trills of greeting. Celtic gave an immediate greeting back, with equal excitement. The relief of seeing his Chiva mei'hsweis well and unharmed outweighed the sudden stinging pain he felt from the shackles that would shock him.

Scar waisted no time in ripping out the door made of iron bars while Chopper rushed into the cell.

"We have the key!" Chopper rapidly clicked as he yanked out the metal piece from his satchel and clumsily tried to fit it into the locks. Celtic was too happy to berate him for his sloppy behavior. As soon as the shackles were free, Celtic leapt up and clapped Chopper on the back while turning to Scar. "What is the strategy of escape?" He asked them both. Scar stood rigidly as sentry guard while Chopper did the explaining.

"Yeyinde and Lucinda are already off of the ju'dha vessel. They sent Lucinda with Yeyinde ahead so she could bring one of their n'ithya vessels to help with the escape. Lex and Athena plan to make a distraction so we can cloak and slip away while the other oomans are confused. We are to meet with Yeyinde off of the boat and hide until Athena and Lex escape as well. Then we are all going to go into hiding."

Celtic jolted when he heard that last part. "Even Athena?" He softly clicked. Chopper took note of how he didn't mention the other lou-dte kale's names.

When Chopper nodded, Celtic protested. "I told her to blame me so she wouldn't have to be titled a ic'jit!" Chopper's lower mandibles drooped into a frown at his near life-long friend. "I don't know why they would be labeled ic'jit from this. But clearly helping us goes against their own codes. Maybe they have a code of honor as well?" Chopper tried to reason.

From what Celtic could already tell, honor was a near foreign concept to these oomans.

"When do we leave?" He softly clicked, feeling less enthusiastic than he did before. "They said to start making our way out when we hear the oomans running above." Scar answered from the doorway before tossing Celtic his mask and other gear.

Celtic wasted no time in getting ready to leave.

Lex and Athena snuck around the crowd as they tried to get through unnoticed.

Paul had called everyone in for a conference meeting that was starting in 20 minutes. Lex and Athena were trying to get to the cafeteria before the meeting started. Hard to do when everyone was pushing one way while you were trying to go the other.

"Excuse us." Athena politely said as she cut their way through. Lex thought it best to let the tallest person guide the way and silently followed close behind her.

When they finally got to the cafeteria, all of the food was prepped and ready to be served out for the last conference meeting before leaving on the dock. Athena immediately went to the drinks first before digging in her bag. Lex stood guard by the door, worryingly tapping her foot on the ground. "What food are you putting the laxatives in again?" She asked, biting her lip after speaking. "The alcohol drinks, the finger sandwiches, and the cake slices." Athena answered. Lex pulled a face. "You couldn't leave anything good left?" She complained. "I'm leaving the veggie and fruit cups alone!" Athena replied. "If I drugged everything, then it'd be too obvious. Besides, only some of each one is getting spiced." "I wanted one of the sandwiches." "Then grab one while you still can!"

Lex quickly grabbed a sandwich and stuffed it away while Athena went to work on the last cake slices.

"That should be everything." Athena announced before going back to Lex. "Good." Lex replied. "The cameras will be down for another five minutes. Let's go!" Both girls calmly left the room like nothing unusual was going on. After putting a good distance between themselves and the cafeteria, they passed by the caterers who were going back to grab their trays for the meeting. No one made eye contact as they passed, and both girls were grateful for that. Athena sighed as they made it into the giant temporary conference room. "It hasn't started yet." She breathed in relief. "Let's quickly find our seats." Lex replied.

As more people straggled in, both women aimed for seats angled towards the back of the room, closest to the escape doors.

They were ready to run when the crowd was.

Lucinda pulled the van around and parked it in a nearby lot by the docs.

Yeyinde uncloaked himself and gestured her over. He was standing guard over their bags which were piled high in an alleyway. Lucinda restarted the van and drove closer to him. She, Lex, and Athena had all gotten their suitcases ready beforehand to leave. Yeyinde was the one who suggested the girls get all of their belongings off of the vessel before they made their escape. One less thing to worry about. When the girls pointed out the factor of actually getting them off, he offered to carry them all. At first, Lucinda had tried to insist that she help him. But he refused, and even picked her up as well, having her ride on his shoulders while his other arm encircled the bags.

When he jumped off of the boat and onto the dock as soon as they were close enough, Lucinda nearly had a heart attack.

She clung on for dear life and had a hard time letting go once they were actually on the docks. Yeyinde had to forcefully remove her, though he was gentle in doing so. It took Lucinda 20 minutes to calm down before she could actually speak again. "S-S-Sorry f-for the trouble." She stuttered. Yeyinde merely patted her on the back to help clam her down.

Nearby was a car rental place. Lucinda went to grab a car while Yeyinde hid the bags.

Now here they were. Lucinda helped Yeyinde pile the bags into the van and then pulled the vehicle closer to the boat, but still out of sight enough that passerby's would just think she was waiting for someone to get off. Yeyinde sat in the back of the van, marveling at all of the technology inside.

They waited for a long time.

"I hear running!" Chopper announced excitedly.

Celtic and Scar were both listening intently by the door when Chopper announced this. They waited for the running to get louder before cloaking. "Let's go." Scar clicked at them and opened the door.

They ran up the stairs, but slowed down when they got to the top.

All the oomans were trying to run for the nearest bathrooms. It was mass mayhem and a lot of dancing in place while waiting in a line. Scar and Chopper would have stopped to laugh at them if Celtic hadn't been urging them on. "Forget the oomans!" He hissed.

Chopper and Scar were about to run with him when they spotted Athena and Lex in the crowd as well.

Both lou-dte kales were running for the edge of the ship. They were about to make it when Lex got her arm yanked back by another ooman. She fell behind in the crowd and Athena didn't notice her friend's absence. Scar did though, and he barreled into the oomans after her. He gave a mighty roar that threw the crowd into an even bigger panic and chased after Lex who was being dragged away.

Athena got to the edge of the boat and swiveled on her feet when she heard the roar. She realized her friend was missing and was about to go back in and look for her when she was seized around the hips.

She looked back to find nothing there, but quickly realized that it had to be one of the humanoids.

"Who-" She was interrupted when the arm around her waist moved and picked her up in a single hold bridal style. If anyone was actually looking, it would seem as if she were being cradled by the air. Athena let out a shriek as she was suddenly launched off the edge of the boat and fell several stories down until they reached the doc.

Heart pounding, she looked at her holder to find that it was Celtic and he had uncloaked himself.

"Let go of me!" Lex shouted at Paul as he dragged her around.

Paul ignored her and threw her into a nearby room, charging in after her and slamming the door shut behind himself. "What did you do?!" He shouted at her. He looked close to popping a vein. He towered over her and tried to intimidate her by stepping into her comfort zone. Lex backed up a bit until she hit a wall.

"You and Athena let that creature out!" He suddenly swung out and punched the wall near her head.

Lex gave a defiant glare at him in response. "We did nothing!" She hissed. Paul raised his fist once more. "LIAR!" Lex just assumed that he was going to hit the wall again, so she was completely surprised when the blow actually connected with her jaw. She fell to the side and gasped as the pain traveled up her jaw and her flesh began to throb. Without warning, another blow hit her ribs and she fell to the floor in a heap.

She coughed as Paul raised his foot to kick her. "I'll beat you until you tell me the truth!" He shouted, letting his foot fly.

Just as it was about to connect, Paul was knocked backwards so hard that he temporarily lost his vision for a moment. He slammed into the wall and slid to the floor. Through cracked eyes, he watched as a humanoid like creature suddenly became visible and bent over Lex. The creature helped the woman to her feet and took off his mask. He blearily watched as one of the creature's disgusting mandibles stretched out and seemed to tenderly brush across the surface of Lex's cheek that he had punched. When Lex started to tremble, the creature stood up straight and let out a roar that could never be mistaken for anything but rage.

The next thing Paul knew, two blades were piercing his chest and he was spurting out blood.

Scar didn't know if he wanted to skin the ooman alive first or slowly pull the flesh from its bones while it still breathed. As soon as he heard the smack of flesh on flesh earlier, he had barged into the room, only to find Lex on the ground and curled in pain while the male ooman had his foot raised for a fatal strike.

He wanted to rip the ooman apart. He severely did. But he remembered the way Lex had reacted the last time she had seen the bodies he skinned. He didn't want to make her scared of him again.

Instead, he left the ooman to slowly die while he picked up Lex and cradled her close before he carried her out.

"We have to go back in and get Lex!" Athena shouted as she was about to charge back towards the ship.

Celtic was about to reach out and hold her back when he spotted the heat signature of his Chiva brother and the ooman woman nearing the edge of the ship. Celtic grabbed Athena by the edge of her pants and pointed at the top of the vessel. Athena was about to turn and yell at him when she saw where he was pointing and stopped. Celtic slowly let go of her pants when he saw that she had calmed down, though he secretly wanted to keep holding on.

Athena saw that Lex had much the same reaction she did when being picked up by seemingly nothing and being tossed over the ledge of the boat.

When they landed, Lucinda behind her waisted no time in waving them over to the van. "Get in quick!" She shouted. Scar kept hold of Lex and ran over to the car. Celtic and Athena rushed over as well, jumping in and slamming the doors shut behind them. They saw that Chopper was already riding in the front seat with Lucinda while Yeyinde had a spot next to Scar and a dazed Lex.

Lucinda pulled the car around and sped out of the area.

Author's note: Translation time!

-Chiva: trial

-mei'hsweis: brothers

-ju'dha: water

-n'ithya: ground

-oomans: humans

-lou-dte kale: female/ child bearer

-ic'jit: Bad blood

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