"Pardon me while I burst into flames. I've had enough of the world and its people's mindless games. Pardon me while I burn and rise above the flames. Pardon me while I always stay the same."

Kathi raced through the halls of her ship, turning only when there was a branch in the hall. She found what she was looking for then turned and held the gun up in front of her before blasting the huge alien's face away.

"Pardon me while I burst into flames. I've had enough of the world and its people's mindless games. Pardon me while I burn and rise above the flames. Pardon me while I always stay the same."

Slowing her breathing, she rounded another corner and listened carefully before stiffening and spinning around and blasting at the alien behind her. Moving forward quietly, she saw one of her crewmembers lying in a pile of his innards and fought the urge to get sick. Careful not to step in the gory mess, she searched further into her ship.

Vegeta slowly made his way through the halls of the ship then stopped when he heard a soft noise around the corner. Powering up to blast an alien, he jumped around the corner then ducked in time to miss having his head blown off by the captain. "Watch it woman."

Glaring at the man who had defied her and insulted her at every turn, she cocked the gun then swore softly before reloading the barrel. "Get over yourself." Hearing scraping ahead of her, she pushed past him then sighted on a large alien slowly walking down the hall. "Die bug." Firing, she saw the alien jerk in surprise then covered her ears when it screeched loudly before turning around and barreling towards her. This one was covered in armor from head to toe, making it a hard kill. Bracing herself against the wall, she fired at it again then swore colorfully when the gun stuck and wouldn't fire anymore. She looked up in time to see one forelimb flying towards her before feeling a moment of weightlessness as her body flew through the air. Her breath was knocked out of her as she landed further down the hallway.

Looking down at her, he sneered then held up his hand and blasted the alien before reaching down and helping her to her feet. "Don't be too cocky captain, that'll get you killed."

"Speak for yourself." Freeing the cartridge, she swung up her gun and pumped off a shot, hitting the alien in its eye as it ran behind him. "You should pay more attention instead of thinking you were better than everyone else."

"I do pay attention wench." Glaring at her, he shot a bug coming up behind her then grabbed her arm and jerked her behind him as he ran in the opposite direction.

She popped off shots at the bugs as they ran, occasionally hitting one before watching as another filled the empty spot. Running out of ammunition, she swore then threw her gun down the hall with the self- detonation set to go off. "Run faster or we're both dead." Getting her feet beneath her, she sprinted ahead of him then ducked into an escape pod before screeching at him when he followed her. Hitting his back, she yelled curses and swear words as the pod detached from her ship.

"I tried to climb your steps, I tried to chase you down. I tried to see how low I could get to the ground. I tried to earn my way; I tried to change this mind. You better believe that I tried to be here."

They stayed on opposite ends of the pod, glaring at each other as they floated through space. Soon they switched sides, trying to stay as far from each other as possible.

She grew tired of staring out the window then blinked when the emergency lights started going off. Pushing away from her side, she knocked him out of her way then pushed several buttons on the terminal before swearing and checking the oxygen levels. "Damn you, this is all your fault."

"Hardly, you're the one who destroyed your ship and kept poor maintenance on your pods." Moving her away from the control panel, he lowered the oxygen levels then glared at her when she tried to move him. "Look, if you want to die that's fine with me but wait until I'm nowhere near you. I'd rather not die in a small pod with a bitchy shrew like you."

"And I would rather not die with an arrogant asshole like you." Again she wondered what had possessed her when she hired him to work on her ship. She hadn't liked him from the moment she met him and they made that hatred mutual in every way possible. "Fucking bugs took over my whole ship and killed just about everyone. Why the hell didn't they kill you and leave me with someone I could stand?"

"Because I know how to fight against things like them and I don't die easily woman." His tail uncurled from around his waist and snapped behind him before lashing across her face, tickling her nose.

"Stop doing that you pain in the ass." Grabbing his tail, she forced it away from her then moved back to the other end of the pod. Sitting down tiredly and sighing, she stared out the window and thought of her friends she'd lost. Feeling tears burning her eyes, she closed her eyes then slowly drifted off to sleep.

He watched her for a moment then looked out his window before smiling and turning back to the computer. Using the boost engines, he pushed them towards the planet he'd seen. Landing would rid him of her presence. When they were on course, he sat down then closed his eyes before falling asleep as well.

The pod landed on the planet but it didn't land undetected.

"I still believe it when you say, it's another perfect day. I still believe it when you say, its another perfect day, another perfect day. I don't know how…I don't know how…I don't know how. Tonight it's yours."

She woke slowly then jumped up when she realized she wasn't in the ship anymore. Looking around, she saw him standing by a window, staring out at the planet. "Where the hell are we?"

"Somewhere I'm not welcomed." Glancing back at her, he lifted an eyebrow at the clothing the habitants of the planet had put on her while she slept. "And apparently they think you belong to me."

Looking down at herself, she shrieked in rage then grabbed a sheet and covered her half-naked body. "Who the hell put me in this?"

Shrugging, he turned to the window again then sighed before moving away from it and walking to a small table in the room. "I don't know and I don't care."

"I hate you, this is all your fault."

"How is this my fault?"

"It is."

"Explain how landing and getting captured is my fault and I might agree with you."

"How the hell did we even land? We were supposed to meet up with another ship, that's what I had planned."

"Apparently their gravitational field pulled us in." Picking up some meat, he sniffed it then took a bite before swallowing it. "Horrible food too."

"All you can think about is food?"

"No, I can think of other things but I really doubt they'll give me a whore for the night."

"Great, you think of sex and food."

"And fighting, I think of sex, food, and fighting, all in that order."

"Pain in the ass man." Sitting on the bed again, she stared down at her toes then sighed before falling back and staring at the ceiling. "Why does this type of thing always happen to me?"

"Don't make it sound like everything revolves around you because it doesn't."

"Shut up."

"No, I think I'd rather not."

"Asshole."

"Thank you." Finishing the rest of the meat, he picked up some grapes and walked over to her before handing them to her. "Might as well eat since I doubt they have room service."

Growling softly, she took the grapes from him and ate them slowly while studying the ceiling carefully. "Did you see a port anywhere around here?"

"Yes, but I doubt it's the kind of port you want."

"What kind was it?"

"Water ships."

Sitting up, she pushed her hair back from her face and swallowed the last of the grapes. "It'll do for now." Standing, she played around with the ceiling tiles then pushed them away before hoisting herself into the darkness above and looking around. Seeing an air vent that led outside, she let her body down and met his gaze. "We're getting out of here."

"How?"

"Very carefully, but I need you to break the grating loose."

"Great, you're using me for something?"

"You bet your sweet ass now get up there and get rid of the grating. I'm not staying here any longer than I have to."

"Sweet ass?" Lifting a brow, he sighed then flew up through the hole she made before spotting the vent she'd been talking about. Making his way towards it, he ripped it free then threw it to one side before getting out. Hearing her swear as she made her way across the ceiling, he floated next to the hole then grabbed her and yanked her out. "I hope you're happy."

"Thrilled, now get us to that port and I'll consider not shooting you when I find a good enough gun."

Swinging her onto his back, he shot towards the port then landed on the dock. "Have fun."

She grinned as she searched for a ship then walked onto the one she wanted and threw the owner off when he protested. Heading to the pilothouse, she started the engine then stuck her head out. "You coming or are you going to stay there for them to catch you when they realize we escaped?"

"Whatever." Boarding the ship, he searched the hold then the cabins before heading back onto the deck.

Steering the ship away from the docks, she set it on auto then walked to the prow and looked out over the waters. "This is better than space any day."

"Yeah right, this sucks."

"You're only saying that because you don't want to agree with me."

"No, I'm saying it because I hate this. There is no food on this ship and all the water is supposed to be rationed carefully."

"That's cool, since this ship is made for ten people I would think there's more than enough water for the two of us."

"What about the food?"

Facing him, she lifted her eyebrow then smiled. "Can you swim?"

"Yes…"

"Can you hunt?"

"Yes."

"Then we won't starve. Go fishing, you can keep up with the ship easily. Or you can wait until we stop for the night and deal with hunting in dark waters."

"Right, I'm swimming in shark infested waters."

"Sharks?"

"Yeah, didn't you notice them when you threw that man overboard?"

"Nope, I was too busy trying to get out of the port."

"Figures."

"Don't worry about it, shark is edible."

"If you say so."

"I do."

"Fine, I'll go fishing for sharks."

"Have fun, they might give you a challenge."

"They might." Pulling off his shirt, he threw it to one side then wrapped his tail tightly around his waist before diving into the water.

She watched him swim out away from the ship then go under as several large fins shot towards him. Smiling, she walked to another section of the deck and grabbed a large fishing pole before strapping her body to the railing. Casting, she played the line then slowly reeled in the small shark fighting against her constant pulling. Getting it onto the deck, she searched for a knife then walked back over to it and brought the machete blade down into its eye. Watching it spasm several times, she waited then pulled the machete free before rolling it onto its side and gutting it. She threw all the guts overboard and listened to the other sharks fighting over the bloody bits as she added more. Removing its head, she thought a moment the knocked several teeth free before tossing the head over.

Shooting out of the water, he held up a large shark by its tail and slowly flew over to the ship and landed near where she was cutting steaks from her shark. "Nice catch."

"Thanks, you didn't do so bad yourself. Did you have many choices?"

"Yeah, tiny, medium, large, and jumbo sized sharks. Some were bigger than this ship…but they just floated along with their mouths open."

"Plankton eaters."

"What?"

Tossing some more of the shark overboard, she ran her fingers through her hair then looked at him. "On my old planet they had sharks that just ate plankton and krill. They survived by eating tiny little creatures you can't even see with your eyes."

"How could they do that?"

"They're gifted creatures." She watched his shark twitch several times then threw her machete into its snowy belly. "Have fun."

Glancing at the large knife, he sighed then slowly gutted the large fish.

They ate in silence then cleaned the deck with buckets of water from the ocean before choosing the cabins they would take.

Slipping into her shower, she turned on the water and rinsed all the blood from her hair and body before just standing beneath the hot spray.

He could hear the water running in her room and visualized what she would look like without clothing on at all. Unfortunately for him, he found that to be a difficult task then berated himself for even trying to think about that. Flopping back into his bed, he stared up at the ceiling then tuned out the sound of her shower.

She climbed out of the shower and toweled her hair until it was dry enough to brush out. Dressing, she looked at herself in the mirror then walked out onto the deck. They were far enough away from land that she couldn't see it anymore but not far enough for her to feel comfortable about stopping. Looking down into the water, she watched dolphins leaping in front of her new ship then smiled when they jumped and twisted in the air. She hadn't seen sights like these in a long time.

He went out onto the deck and watched her standing at the front of the ship, her hair blowing in the wind. "Is this thing ever going to stop or am I going to need earplugs to get some sleep?"

"I'd recommend the earplugs." Turning slightly, she glared at him from the corner of her eye then full on. "I still hate you and this is all your fault."

"Right woman, everything is my fault."

"Damn right it is."

"Whatever, I'm going to bed." Turning his back on her, he walked back into his room and flopped onto his bed with a tired sigh. "Stupid wench."

"Idiotic man." She dropped the anchor and killed the engine before going to bed for the night.