Wow... Since I last uploaded, a year has passed since I uploaded the last chapter of Reconstruction. It doesn't feel like its been that long at all. I thought it was early this year. It's also been a chapter a month since then. I didn't expect that when I started this either.

In case anyone's wondering from last time, I never tested positive, everyone in my family that did is fine now. Screw Corona...

"Come on, Nalia, it's not that hard," Ruby soothed. "It's your own name. Just flatten your tongue at the roof of your mouth for the 'N' and only the tip for the 'l.'"

Nalia grimaced as her tongue flicked around in her mouth. She made several incomprehensible sounds as she changed positions. That continued for a while until she made a droning 'nnnnnnn' sound. With her small victory, she clenched a fist. "Naaaarrr… Narrrrrr..." She shook her head and hissed.

Orchid laughed and faced Ruby. "She's upset she can't even say her own name," Orchid said in perfect Vytalian, no mechanical assistance required.

"You were meant for civilian pacification," Nalia accused through her translation button. "I was part of front-line assault. Of course, you'd be able to speak faster than me. No need to gloat."

"Unless she's doing it mentally, she's not gloating." Ruby couldn't hold back a smirk. Dragons and their superiority complexes. This wasn't something that Nalia would fake, at least Ruby didn't think so. Both dragons had done a lot to help Ruby out of her various funks. So many kisses, whether Semblance assisted or not.

Nalia hissed at her. "You're supposed to be on my side."

"I am. I'm just trying to teach you how to speak. You know I'd do the same to either of my kids. Or Aaron." Ruby looked off to the side and at nothing. "Can't wait until I can do that again."

"You'll get it eventually." Orchid patted Nalia on the shoulder. "Until then, I'm finally better than you at something."

Ruby snorted. "Now that was gloating." She gave Orchid a look. "If Nalia decides to take action on that, it's out of my hands."

The Avenger's intercom chirped to life. "Ruby Rose and Viper company to the briefing room. Ruby Rose and Viper company to the briefing room."

Ruby blinked at the nearest speaker. "I guess the two of you are Viper company."

"You know what this is about?" Nalia asked as she 'stood' up. Both dragons just rested torsos straight up on their coiled tails instead of actually sitting.

"I've heard that call a few times, but this is a first when I'm involved." Ruby stood up from her bed and led the way to the briefing room just outside the bridge. Inside sat the Commander, Central, and… Kai? What was the propaganda director doing here? "Think Nalia and Orchid can win us some hearts and minds?"

"That is what we're here to discuss." The Commander gestured at the chair across from him. "Take a seat, Sergeant. We don't have long before I'm sending you out."

Ruby took the offered seat and the two Vipers coiled up beside her. She looked at Kai. "How'd the stuff with me turn out?"

The glorified graphic designer beamed. "Amazing if I don't say so myself." She picked up a cardboard tube beside her and pulled a large poster out of one end. She placed it on the table and flattened it out.

Ruby stared at a picture of herself in front of a psychedelic red and white mass. She had a near cocky smile on her face like she just flattened a Goliath with one shot. Her bionic arm held her sniper by the stock with the receiver against her shoulder and the barrel pointing a few degrees off straight up. It was terrible form, but it made quite the sight. The poster had her name, nickname, and current rank at the top with the words, 'Not Even the Night is Safe from Her' at the bottom.

Another poster joined the first on the table. This one had the image of a ruined suburban town behind Ruby. Her face had an almost real, kind smile on it as she looked at another woman that wasn't there for the original shoot. It didn't look like it had been doctored either. This one only had a small part of her bionic arm visible. The wording on the top was the same but the statement on the bottom said, 'Lighting Up All the Darkness.'

"These are just a few of the one's I made of you," Kai said. "But I tried something new for you. As I'm sure you've seen, the people here don't exactly look like the good guys in a Disney movie. But you, and that smile," she pointed at Ruby's mouth on the second poster, "that can win the hearts of thousands."

Ruby blinked then looked at Nalia and Orchid. "You two can tell, right?"

"We know you," Orchid said, once again speaking through the translation button beneath her chin. "Of course, it looks fake."

"But you've given the media plenty of fake smiles before," Nalia said. "All those convinced people. This one is more realistic than some of those."

Ruby stared at the tube of posters Kai still held. "How could that face win thousands? The one camp I've been to couldn't have had more than a couple hundred."

"Some of the camps we are in contact with have functioning copiers," Kai said. "I believe we are going to one of them now."

The Commander nodded. "That is correct. We're going to what used to be Plymouth, Iowa." He scoffed. "With a few exceptions, even the Elders forgot about Iowa. The people there survive through farming the fields around them and scavenging larger cities. The fact that the Reapers have a camp themselves in nearby Mason City helps."

Ruby connected the dots in her head. "And you're sending me there."

"You and one of your dragon Vipers," the Commander said. "The Resistance there has gathered enough excess supplies to load us up for a little while longer. We're picking up the supply drop, and while we're there, we're sending a team into the town to assist where necessary."

"All the aliens that these people have seen are trying to kill them," Central said. "We've hinted in our limited conversations with several camps that we now have aliens and former ADVENT troopers working with us. Some don't believe us. Others do and are angry. We need to show the people here that not all the aliens are trying to kill them, especially with the Liberated out there."

"You want to send one of them into a hostile environment?" Ruby almost growled. Fighting ADVENT is one thing, people who want them dead but we can't do anything to stop the hurting is another."

"It's this or sending them into a camp that ADVENT is raiding," the Commander said. "This is going to be a problem no matter when we try this. If we go to a city, ADVENT will cover it up. If we go in a camp, our allies will shoot our own people thinking they're the enemy. It's better to do this when our allies aren't pumped up on adrenaline and ready to shoot anything that doesn't look like them."

Ruby sighed. She saw the sense in that. "We're going armed?"

Central nodded. "As if you were going to fight the aliens. We've detected ADVENT strike forces en route numerous times when we stay in an area too long or had to leave a drop to respond to an event elsewhere on Earth. In either event, you need your own kit in case something happens here."

"Makes sense." Ruby glanced at Kai. "I take it part of my duty is to be your guard?"

"Only if things get ugly." Kai took the posters off the table and gently slid them back into their tubes. "I'm going to try and get as much footage of the camp as possible for more propaganda. That is one thing I haven't gotten yet."

"And the dragons?" Ruby faced the Commander again. "Which one do you want with me?"

The Commander narrowed his eyes. "You know more about these two than anyone else onboard. Which one would do better in this situation?"

Ruby looked between the two Vipers. Her initial thoughts said Orchid should come. Orchid was undoubtedly the most friendly of the two… which could be both beneficial and detrimental. Some could realize that she just wanted to be friends with them, but Orchid didn't take rejection well. She'd either get depressed or angry. Nalia was much more levelheaded and would do what needed to be done. "Nalia will come. We have much more experience working together." She nodded at Orchid. "Maybe next time." The sides of Orchid's head drooped.

Central nodded. "Get your gear. We'll be landing soon. You are dismissed."

Ruby and the Vipers stood and left the room. Orchid split off at the elevator while Ruby and Nalia continued to the armory. While the human of the two proceeded to grab the gear that she'd used on her missions, Nalia just stared at a rack of assault rifles. The only guns Nalia ever fired were mounted under her wings and aimed through a projection in a custom high-tech faceplate with glass over her eyes. Those guns weren't exactly accurate but with how much fire they put downrange they didn't need to be. These… "Another thing I need to train you in, huh?"

"I think so." Nalia glared at her hands. "I miss my claws and my wings. My poison is not my fire at all."

"When we get back, I'll see if I can get you down in the range. For now, just take a pistol. You can't do nearly as much damage with…" Ruby trailed off as a thought occurred to her. She sighed. "I'll carry it." Nalia gave her a confused look. "Despite what the others said, there will be people there wanting to take a shot at you. Better not give them a reason to."

Nalia hissed. "Are people really like that here?"

"People here hate other people for their skin color. I'm sure that makes even less sense to you than it does to me."

Nalia blinked and looked at her right arm. "Of all the things…"

"If humans don't like other humans over that, I'm not trusting a bunch of people I don't know with your safety. If anything happens, at least one of the weapons I'm carrying will be yours."

Nalia sighed. "I don't like it, but I'll live with it."

"Thank you." Ruby walked over to the rack of pistols and grabbed one she thought would fit Nalia's hands the best. "With all luck, I'm just being paranoid."

The intercom chirped again with the descent alarm. Ruby walked and Nalia slithered to the open back of the Skyranger. Firebrand, after yelling a few more colorful remarks at her ground crew, entered before them. She didn't even look back as the two soldiers entered the crew compartment. Ruby and Nalia secured themselves in their seats just as Ruby felt the ship start to lose altitude.

"Hey, Firebrand," Ruby called into the cockpit, "have you ever thought about adding guns to this thing?"

A scoff came from the cockpit. "I asked Shen about that as soon as I brought this thing aboard. This thing doesn't have the hardpoints for that. Besides, this thing isn't meant to take a pounding. I don't know what the Canadians planned to use this thing for, but it wasn't combat."

"Not even a couple fifties for a strafing run or two?"

"I like the idea, but I'm not a CAS pilot… but if you ask me, a gun on the back to cover you guys coming up the line would be nice."

"I'll pass it along to Shen." Ruby paused. "Figured I'd offer, I am an aerial engineer. If you need help with repairs, just ask."

A long pause followed. "I'm sorry, what?" Firebrand poked her head out of the cockpit. "Aerial? You mean aerospace?" She sounded like she was holding back excitement.

"No. I mean aerial. Up until recently, we didn't have satellites, and we still haven't put a person into orbit." Ruby shrugged. "Anyway, I've designed and built a few fighters in the past. I'm offering my help here when I'm not needed in the field."

Firebrand let her arms hang. "You're not exaggerating, are you?"

"She is not," Nalia said with a quiet hiss. "I'm still mad you can make metal fly faster than me."

Ruby shrugged. "And you know that I wasn't the first to do so."

"An airplane mechanic…" Firebrand shook her head and stepped back into the cockpit. "I can't promise I'll be nice to you, but I can't say no to that kind of help."

Nalia gave Ruby a look. "I don't like that you keep finding more things to commit yourself to."

"We can't do our own things for a while. We need to have the people here like us." Ruby looked away. "Besides, I need to keep doing things. I can't keep spending my days doing the same things over and over. My head wanders to unpleasant places." Nalia dropped her glare and looked away.

A few minutes after they felt the Avenger touch down, more people boarded the Skyranger. Kai came first, carrying quite a few more cardboard tubes. It reminded Ruby of a few students at Beacon with several art projects due on the same day. Next came Rex, but if Ruby hadn't seen him without his helmet before, she wouldn't have recognized him. Instead of his battered and dirty white and blue armor, he wore military camouflage fatigues with what Ruby now recognized as the American flag on one of his shoulders. He also had quite a few medals on his chest. The rank insignia though was a mystery. Last in were a couple muscley guys that Ruby didn't know. They glared at Nalia as they took their seats. Actually, Ruby recognized one of them as the jerk that Shen called out on Ruby's first trip to engineering. She didn't remember this name, but then again, she didn't really want to.

As soon as everyone was secured, the Skyranger took off and banked away. Once the transport leveled out, Rex looked around the crew compartment. "For those of you that haven't been on one of these missions before, I'll lay it out for you. We're here to help the locals as much as we can while the Avenger is grounded. Kai is going to speak with the local leaders and see what the situation around here is. Rose, you're going to help with their defenses, and keep an eye on Nalia. Try to make her look as non-threatening as possible."

Nalia hissed. "I'm sure I have more say in that than Ruby."

Rex continued as if Nalia didn't say anything as he faced the last two men. "You two, help secure the supplies, and when we're between loads, help with any heavy lifting the locals need."

"You got it, boss," the unknown man said. The jerk just grunted.

The rest of the flight carried on in silence. Ruby felt like she could cut the tension in the air with Crescent Rose. Not everyone onboard liked flying with Nalia. Probably her to but these people had been used to killing Vipers, not fighting alongside them. Yes, the Resistance needed to know about 'Viper company,' as the one on the other side of the intercom said, but XCOM did too.

After about a half hour of flight, the Skyranger banked to the left and descended. Unlike the other times Ruby left the Avenger, none of the direction lights came on as the transport touched down. The soldiers inside freed themselves from their restraints and waited for the ramp to lower.

As Ruby stood up, Nalia grabbed her left hand and squeezed. Ruby looked at the dragon. Nalia didn't have her translation button on her forehead. "Where did?" Nalia squeezed her hand and pulled hers away. Ruby glanced down at her open palm. "Nalia, why…" She locked eyes with the dragon. They were hard, angry, a little sad… Their connection wasn't nearly as strong as it was with their soulmates, but they got more from each other's expressions than most others. "You don't want people here to think you can understand what they say." Nalia nodded and cocked her head. "And you don't want to scare the people here." She rolled her eyes and tilted her head the other way. Her eyes narrowed just a little bit and held her wrists together. "You… want them to think that you're mine?" Nalia nodded.

Ruby blinked and looked over her shoulder. The ramp had lowered a few feet revealing a few faces on the other side. They looked friendly enough, but she knew how much a person's appearance meant. She turned back to Nalia and an unpleasant tingle shot down her spine. The emotion in the Viper's eyes flipped to worried in a split second. "I know what you mean… Sissarn. I just don't like the comparison that shot through my head."

Nalia whimpered and flicked her tongue up at Ruby's cheek. That might as well have been her saying 'I'm sorry.'

"Well, I hope you're a good actor." Ruby stuck the translation button in a pocket and offered an arm to the Viper. "They've got to think I'm in control. I think I've seen enough movies to know how far I need to go." Nalia took the offered hand and the Rider hauled her to her feet.

Ruby slowly walked toward the open ramp with Nalia a few steps behind her. Outside, Rex spoke with a few locals at the base of the ramp. From the little bit she saw, things were going well. Then one of the people looked up into the Skyranger. She looked at Ruby then past the Rider. "Snake!" She jumped back a few steps and scrambled for the weapon on her back that looked suspiciously like a V4.

"Whoa, whoa!" Rex raised his arms palms out as others went for their own weapons. "This Viper is on our side. There's nothing to worry about here."

"You working with the aliens now?" someone in the crowd demanded.

"Don't worry about this one," Ruby said as she descended the ramp. She got a few glares as she stepped. "A swift kick to the back of the head knocked this one out and whatever ADVENT did to her. She's on our side, well, mine at least. Besides, if I'm wrong," she pat the extra pistol on her belt, "not even this Viper is faster than me." That… didn't sound too comforting.

"You should have already put a bullet or five into its ugly head!" Someone else yelled. "The only good alien is a dead alien!"

Ruby shook her head. "Do none of you know anything about intelligence gathering? This one may not speak English, but she knows a lot about what's going on in the world outside this place. It's best not to kill a good source of intel?"

"Why bring it here?" another person yelled.

"Because this one listens to me, no one else." Ruby shot a glare at Nalia. "Still working on obedience training." Nalia had no outward reaction other than a head tilt. The emotions in her eyes didn't even change.

"Whatever the case," Rex rose his voice, "this Viper is here with us and under our protection. An attack on it is the same as an attack on any of us humans. If you have a problem with that, use your short range or one of my men will carry a message back to the Avenger. Do I make myself clear?" This time, no one rose a challenge. A good chunk of them shot glares at Nalia before they dispersed. The other members of XCOM stuck around the Skyranger a little more

Ruby scanned what she could see of the small town. The houses there looked well used but not shabby. A few had broken windows but not many. Even some of the lawns looked mowed. If it wasn't for the hastily built wall of cars, stone, and steel containers on the far end of the street, it almost looked like the residential area on Patch.

The Rider began walking toward that wall. Nalia slithered right behind her. Ruby looked into the houses she passed. A few people looked out the windows. As soon as they saw Nalia, they ducked back behind corners. Ruby grimaced and turned her head a bit toward the Viper behind her. "I'm sorry about all this. I didn't mean to insult you either. You know I didn't mean any of that." The only response came from a quiet hum.

As she continued to walk, Ruby looked down the streets she passed. Unlike the main road she walked on, the east and west sides of town didn't appear to have any defenses. She turned her head completely around to face south. She didn't see any major defenses there either. What was to the north that was so bad?

When she passed the last of the houses, Ruby took in the entirety of the wall. The ends did curve in toward the town at the ends but still ended far too quick. She had seen outlying villages that couldn't surround the entire area fortify a few strategic points to give them cover. The wall itself was solid with a few places to shoot through. This felt a bit much, but the people here probably didn't know the finer points of village defense.

One of the guards on top of the wall looked down at Ruby. "You the one that…" His gaze drifted to Nalia and his hands tightened around his hunting rifle. "So that's the commotion I heard."

"She's with me. And if you were going to say that I'm the one to help with the defenses, that would be a yes." Ruby climbed the ladder and looked out over the wall. Farmland stretched out as far as she could see. At least the people here would notice anyone coming from miles away. She turned her attention to the top of the wall itself. There were only two other guards on station with several more mounted machineguns all facing north. She gave her apparent contact a look. "What's north of here that's got you all so scared?"

The man scowled. "Rochester." It sounded like he thought she would know about it.

Ruby cocked her head as Nalia made it to the top of the wall. "City girl. I saw through the indoctrination but I'm not so sure on post invasion history."

"Should have called that." The man sighed. "Why else would you be so comfortable around the alien." He gestured at the side of Ruby's head. "New fashion statement?"

Ruby ran a hand over her pointed left ear. "Short lived. Now, Rochester?"

"Where patient zero started the zombie apocalypse." The guard faced north. Ruby blinked a few times. He… sounded so serious. "I believe you might know them as the Lost. Damn propaganda."

"That'll do it." Ruby nodded to herself. She'd heard a few soldiers talking about the Lost. She just didn't associate them with zombies. "Large population north of here?"

"For zombies, yeah. Took a while to get to the Twin Cities but once there… There's probably about two million wandering around." The guard scowled. "ADVENT blew all river bridges in and out of the state except the interstates. The zombies can't swim so they expand north and south. As far as we know, we're the ones the farthest north." He shook his head. "We've had some big hordes come through in the past months. Don't know how much longer we can hold out."

Ruby scanned the top of the wall again. She counted twelve guns. "These all your guns?"

"Not all of them. We have a couple mounted on the back of a few trucks. Dale and his crew once brought back a couple APCs that we've been able to keep going but their ammo's running thin. All our ammo is."

"What have you done to correct that? Anything?"

"We send out scavenging parties to cities and former military bases. The Reapers actually leant us one of their engineers to find anything useful up in Minneapolis. Took our best shot with him." The guard whistled. "I think he said he was a SEAL? Or was it a Ranger? Either way, he's former spec ops. We're getting something back from that mission, even if it's a few more dead zombies. This is their second run up north. Considering what they brought back the first time, they will make many more in the future."

Ruby walked toward the closest machinegun. For the second time that day, she saw many similarities between this gun and one that the Vale military used. She pulled one of the plates off and the guts looked exactly the same. As confusing as it was, she could work with that. "You have a forge here? Or something that can pass for a forge?"

"The old tire shop right down this road has just about everything we use to repair things. That or one of the old storehouses on the south side of town."

"I'll see if I can get you a small bullet factory up and running in one of them. Melt down scrap metal, used cars, stuff like that." Ruby turned around and saw the shocked expression on the guard's face. "Yeah, I can do that." She turned back to the mounted gun. She saw something she didn't like inside the gun and shook her head. "You've got maybe a dozen bullets in this thing before you've got the wrong kind of internal explosion here. I'm going to take it to one of those shops you talked about. Sissarn? You'll do the heavy lifting." She began using her bionic fingers to unscrew the bolts securing the gun to its platform. She heard footsteps walking away and the guard mumbling something under his breath. Nalia bent down by Ruby's side and began collecting the nuts and washers Ruby removed.

"What do you know about the Lost?" Ruby asked. "That a part of your indoctrination?" Nalia held a thumb and index finger about a half inch apart. "At least you're getting these nonverbal things… then again, you, Cerise, and Halcyon were pretty good with that in the first place." She twirled the last nut off and nodded. "You know I'd help, but…" Nalia pat Ruby on the back and lifted the weapon off its mount. Ruby took the ammo box and folded the belt from the gun back into it.

After a little work getting the gun down from the wall safely, Ruby and Nalia continued down the street. She didn't see anything like a tire shop close, but this was a long street. During her search, she thought she caught sight of something dash behind one of the houses. At first, she thought it was the local wildlife. Then she saw the same thing on the other side. She also saw the glint of a scope.

Ruby clenched her teeth but tried to keep the rest of her body the same. She knew she was walking into and possibly through an ambush. "Sissarn?" She glanced at the Viper beside her. "Remember our first real action together?" Nalia cocked her head. "Ever think what it's like to be on the other side of that?"

Nalia's eyes twitched and her fingers tightened on the gun. None were anywhere near the trigger, not that it would have mattered. Ruby repositioned her grip on the ammo box so she could drop it and draw the pistol in one motion. She hoped this wouldn't happen. Humans just couldn't get rid of their hate.

Two people from both sides of the road popped out from behind houses and aimed their weapons at the Viper. Ruby dropped the ammo box, drew her pistol, and aimed at the woman on her right. "Drop your-" Both people fired shots before Ruby got out another word. Ruby fired almost as quick at the first person and the other before his three-shot burst could finish. Both gunmen screamed and Nalia grunted. Ruby glanced at the Viper. Nalia had taken at least one shot to the shoulder. "Get to cover!" Ruby used her free hand to push Nalia toward the nearest house.

"Shots fired!" Rex called over the comms. "It came from the north."

Once in cover, Ruby turned on the mic in her earpiece. "It came from in the city. Nalia and I were ambushed by two locals. Nalia took a hit to the shoulder. We need a medikit here." Ruby searched her pockets for where she put Nalia's translation button. Once she found it, she placed it on the Viper's forehead. "How you feeling?"

Nalia hissed as she clamped a hand over her gunshot wound. "Now I know how you feel when you get shot by these things." Green blood oozed through her fingers. "It used to take something a lot larger than that to make me feel like this."

"Just stay down." Ruby grabbed the heavy machinegun Nalia carried and set it to the side. She then hefted her pistol and pressed herself against the side of the nearest house. No other locals gathered in the street and none moved to help the downed gunmen. From the other side of the Skyranger, Rex came running. Ruby faced Nalia again. "Don't worry. I've had and seen plenty of wounds like that. You'll be…" Ruby blinked. Why was Nalia's chest smoking? "Nalia, pull your hand back."

Nalia gave Ruby a look then did as asked. At first, Ruby didn't see what caused the smoke. She focused on the blood trail from the Viper's shoulder… The short sleeve was missing completely. Her blood ate away at the rest of the shirt as they touched. Nalia looked at her wound herself and yelped. "What's happening?"

"I don't know." Ruby watched as some of the blood dropped off Nalia's hand. The grass sizzled and died as the liquid fell on it. It even ate into the ground a few inches. Ruby keyed her comms again. "We have a medical emergency. Nalia's blood is… acidic. It's eating through her shirt and the ground. I don't know how to explain it."

A few seconds of silence followed on the comms. "Avenger copies, Shadeslayer. We'll have a medical team standing by once you return."

"I'll settle for one of those medikits right now." Ruby ticked off her comms. "Is your hand burning? Your chest?"

"Other than the bullet hole, no. It just feels like normal blood."

"There's that." Ruby peeked around the corner again. Rex was dragging one of the gunmen across the street and threw him down by his partner. Kai sprinted out of the back of the Skyranger with medikit in hand. She skidded around the corner and knelt right by the Viper.

"I've used this once or twice," Kai said as she primed the sprayer. "It's not pleasant but it will take your pain away." She aimed the nozzle at Nalia's wound and pulled the trigger.

Nalia screamed and slapped the medikit away. The translation button on her forehead shrieked a single high-pitched noise. She clamped both her hands over the injury and collapsed to the ground. Ruby stood still for a second before leaping forward and cramming her metal arm into Nalia's open mouth. The Viper clamped down on the arm while the rest of her body flailed on the ground.

Kai tried to pull Nalia's hands away, but the Viper's tail whipped up and thwacked her away. Ruby grit her teeth before forcing her bionic arm and Nalia's head to the ground, pinning both there. "I'm sorry, Nalia." She also used her bionic leg to pin Nalia's tail in a curl. The Viper continued to thrash but she couldn't throw the Rider off. "Kai, check it now!"

The other woman got her fingers under Nalia's hands and pulled back. Ruby spared the wound a glance. Only the color looked wrong. Instead of dark green, the skin was pale transparent green. No sign of her blood remained. Ruby leaned forward to position her head by one of Nalia's ear holes. "What's going on? We don't see anything?"

"It's burning inside me!" The translation button's tone didn't do Nalia's pain justice. "Get it out! Get it out!"

Ruby just stared at the underside of Nalia's jaw. She couldn't do that, but she could at least take her pain away. The Rider grabbed her pistol by the barrel and pulled Nalia's head forward so the two locked eyes. "I'm sorry." Ruby raised her weapon then brought it down on top of Nalia's head. The Viper's eyes grew distant then closed. Her thrashing around stopped. Ruby grabbed one of Nalia's wrists and searched for a pulse. It was there, but erratic.

"What happened?" a voice demanded.

"Adverse reaction to the medikit." Ruby turned around to face Rex. The soldier had one of his pistols drawn but it pointed right at the ground. "Other than that, I don't know."

"Get her to the Skyranger. At least you two are leaving." Rex turned around and brought a hand to and ear. Ruby's own earpiece clicked. "Handshake One to Avenger, we're sending a critical injury back to you. Adverse reaction to a medikit. Don't know long term effects."

"We copy, Handshake one," Central said. "The medical team will know the situation."

"Come on, Nalia." Ruby climbed off Nalia and picked the disguised dragon up bridal style. All the blood had vanished, something the spray didn't do for human blood, so Ruby didn't need to worry about burning herself. She jogged out from behind the house and toward the open ramp of the Skyranger. More locals lined the street and looked out of their windows. At least the gawkers weren't interfering. The two engineers of the squad stood on either side of the Skyranger's ramp, rifles ready.

By the time Ruby reached the base of the ramp, the transport's engines roared to life. She secured Nalia to the straps on the floor. Why the heck didn't they have a gurney onboard? She didn't sit in a seat herself. Instead, Ruby stayed on the floor by Nalia's head. It would be much better for the dragon to see a friendly face if she woke up immobilized.

"How you two doing back there?" Firebrand called.

"We're alive." Ruby clenched her fists. "What are we going to do about the two cowards that took the shot?" she asked through clenched teeth.

"We've got a procedure. We don't have the capability to police all camps, so they do it themselves. If they hurt one of us, we expect them to deal out proper punishments. If not, they drop to the bottom of the list of those we help… In other words, if they refuse to punish their people and they run into trouble, they're on their own."

"Good," Ruby growled. "Let the Lost get them."

Ah, Iowa. Even after an invasion, you still suck corn.