Author's Notes: If Kai seems a little OOC at times in the next two chapters, you have to remember, even though I intend to keep him the same as he was for the most part, you gotta remember that he's trying to suppress acting human. If you haven't yet realized, the only person that he's somewhat open with is someone he trusts, and that is of course, Xev.

"Uh, no you're not!" said Xev. "We just got here! I wanna explore this planet a little further. We might not see one like this for a while anyway,"

Stanley turned to Kai with pleading eyes. "If you ask me to, I will return to the moth with you and take you back to the Lexx. However, I believe that the small part of me that is human wishes to stay. Then I will return here...leaving you alone...with Vlad,"

That was the key word there, small part. None of him really felt human at all, but the unexplannable thoughts led him to believe that he was at least getting closer to it. As Stanley stumbled through the brush, trying desperately to keep up with his shipmates, he could have sworn he saw someone watching from the bushes, and quickly retreat.

Stan watched as Kai hoisted Xev up a steep rock wall, and climbed up himself. "You expect me to climb that?!" he called after them. "No way, pal!"

"What's the matter Stan?" Xev called down to him. "You did this on Fire, remember? It's not that much different. Not even that high!"

Stan sighed, and took hold of one of the rocks, and cautiously put one foot on a rock that stuck out. A second later, Kai lost his footing for a second, sending rubble down toward him. "I apologize," said Kai.

Stan stepped back. "That's it!" he said. "You guys go, I'll stay with the moth,"

"Kai!" said Xev, rolling her eyes.

The former assassin sped his climb up to the top of the wall, and straddled it. He shot his brace down toward Stan and caught him by the shoulder. One quick squeeze, and Stan felt himself touch down on the top of the wall, and immediately dropped to all fours. "But I thought you were human!" he whimpered.

"Not entirely," said Kai. "Part of me is still very much a Divine Assassin. However, my physical strength has decreased somewhat, along with my accuracy. I am still fully qualified to make life and death decisions, yet...I do bleed,"

"Oh, okay, that's nice," Stan said sarcastically. "I'm happy for you,"

Xev stood on the top of the wall, not at all concerned with the narrowness, and walked along it. "Well, that wasn't so bad!" she said. "And look over there!"

Sure enough, there was a village beyond a grove of trees. Smoke was rising from the grass huts, and there were obviously people moving about. "Looks primitive," said Stan.

"Well let's find out!" said Xev.

She smiled, and jumped off the wall, paying no attention to the steepness. She looked back up expectantly, waving. Kai looked to Stan briefly, and leaned headfirst off the wall. He somersaulted in mid-air, and landed perfectly next to Xev. Stan rolled his eyes. Dead or alive, the dead stayed the same. Kai then shot his brace again, and yanked Stan down to the ground, making him land on his knees. "Okay, now that that's done, come on!" Xev persisted.

"Aw Xev, let's rest a while!" Stan panted from the ground. "C'mon Kai, aren't you tired?"

Xev didn't give him a chance to answer. "Okay Stan, we'll rest, but don't expect me to save you when the insects come out!"

The security guard immediately hopped to his feet, and ran ahead of her. "Come on guys!" he said.

The villagers were indeed primative. They stared either interestedly or fearfully at the crew, and backed away as they walked through. They seemed to be hunters, since there were some women in between two huts skinning some sort of animal. A small male came running up holding a staff of some sort. He seemed to be in his late teens or early twenties, and stuttered as he spoke. "Y-You h-have no bussiness here! We won't relent, we promised we wouldn't-"

"Whoa, slow down buddy!" said Stan, playfully tapping his fist on the guy's shoulder. "We don't wanna hurt ya. We're just visitors! Ya know, just checking the place out,"

He looked at Stan like the proverbial deer in the headlights, then to Xev, who waved pleasantly, and then to Kai. "But what about him?!" he said. "I know about his kind! Those Brunnen-G warriors destroyed this place thousands of years ago with their insect war! If it's happening again, leave us out of it!"

"There is no Insect War," said Kai. "I am Kai, Last of the Brunnen-G. My kind is no longer a threat to anyone,"

"L-last, what do you mean last?!" the teenager said unsteadily. "I thought the Brunnen-G simply moved to the Light Universe!"

"That is true," said Kai. "However, the knowledge you posess is outdated. All of my kind was killed thousands of years ago as well, including myself,"

The pale guy's face turned beet red, and he raised his staff as if to hit Kai. "Demon! Return to that from which you came!"

Xev grabbed the object in mid-swing, and put her arm protectively in front of Kai. "Hey!" she said. "Cool it. We don't want to hurt you, but if you try to fight us, then we'll have to,"

Stan scoffed. "Speak for yourselves!" he said.

"Grux!" an elderly male voice called out. "What is the meaning of this?"

The crew turned to see the hunting party return to the village from their trip, and their leader, apparantly a middle-aged man with gray hair and blue robes came forward. Grux put the staff down as Xev released it. "The visitors!" he said. "One of them's a-"

"A Brunnen-G, yes we know, we've already seen them," he said, turning to Kai. "I apologize for our assault outside these walls. We did not understand that warriors like yourselves were benign,"

"Hey, I'm not a warrior!" said Stan, holding out his hand to the elder. "I dunno about Xev, and Kai definitely is, but I'm just a captain. Stanley Tweedle, captain of the Lexx,"

The elder surprisingly shook his hand, and said, "My name is Selk. I will deal with you later, Grux. For now, I will retire to my hut with the visitors. I suggest that that you prepare an empty hut for our guests as well, and see to it that they will be comfortable or it's the pit for you,"

Inside Selk's hut, he hung up his club on the wall, and sat down on a mat. He motioned for the Lexx crew to do the same, which they did, without taking their eyes off him. "I apologize again for our mistake," said Selk. "We cannot be too careful in these parts. So, what brings you here to this blissfully nameless place?"

"We're looking for a home," said Xev, gesturing to her shipmates. "I'm Xev, and this is Kai, and Stanley. We come from the bug in the sky,"

Kai was interested in the fact that Xev seemed to have taken complete control of the Lexx since he was away. Stanley may have had the key, but everyone aboard knew that Stan wasn't exactly leader material. That left Xev, and she was so much stronger than she had been when Kai'd last seen her. She sat there now, not at all interested in the types of men running around, but staring straight into Selk's oddly unfocused eyes, and clutching one hand on the hilt of her sword. Kai found it a bit amusing, since there was so much technology in the universe, yet she chose to use something so primative to protect herself, and did it without batting an eyelash. It impressed him to no end. An unusal feeling, but he supposed that it had to be impression, since he was still turning the fact over in his mind.

Selk cleared his throat. "And such a pretty one you are, Xev," he said, reaching out to cup her chin.

Xev pulled away, her eyes slitting in distrust. "It may be your custom here to do that, but where we come from, that's very rude," she said bitterly.

Kai didn't feel himself do a double take as she shot her remark, and Selk chuckled. "Spirited too, always a good sign. Now come it is time for our end-of-day meal, and we wish for you three to join us. Won't you? I would be happy to answer any questions of yours then,"

Xev looked at him suspiciously. "Sure," she said blandly. "Come on Stan,"

She yanked their "captain" up off his rear, and out through the flap of the hut. Kai stayed behind. "Did you want something?" said Selk.

"Your subordinate, Grux, said something about the Brunnen-G. Is this planet what I think it is?"

Selk sighed, and turned away from him. "I knew that you would come to me with questions, yet I didn't anticipate it to be so soon. Bad manners, it is," he said.

"The dead do not have manners," said Kai.

"Yes, of course," said Selk, following Kai of the exit.

The food was as werid as it could possibly be. It consisted of blue fruits that exploded with purple juices the minute something sharp touched them, and a kind of over-cooked meat that Kai wanted to avoid entirely, since it was served on the table in the shape of an insect. Eating was something else he knew he had to do, yet couldn't get used to it. He remembered the experience from his first living existance, but now it seemed like a mind-numbing task, and best to do when it was absolutely necessary.

The young men around the huge table were either staring or falling all over themselves to talk to Xev, yet she just smiled pleasantly, and to Kai's surprise, politely turned down every invitation to bed that she received. That wasn't at all like the Xev he thought he knew. He turned to Stan, who was flirting with a pretty young woman sitting at the opposite of the end of the table with red hair that she kept in tiny dredlocks about her head. "Xev is not attempting to have sexual relations with the inhabitants here," Kai stated.

"Huh?" said Stan, tearing his eyes away from the girl. "Oh yeah, she's fine. Xev's been this way for a while now, she just sorta lost interest in having sex. Beats me, but hey, whatever works for her,"

"I believe you will be happy here," said Kai. "That woman appears to be...open-minded,"

Stan laughed excitedly, waving to the redhead. "Yeah, don't I know it!" he said. "Hey, what about you, anything strike your fancy here, dead man?"

Kai stood up. "I do not know,"

As the ex-assassin left the table and wandered off into the woods, Selk got up from his place at the head of the table and sat down in Kai's empty seat. "Hello," he said. "Stan, isn't it?"

"Yeah, what's up, Selk?" said Stan.

"I'm curious," said Selk. "About this thing you call the Lexx. What is it exactly?"

"Oh, it's just a big bug that flies around, eats things, blows up planets. Ya know, every now and then you gotta feed it so it don't die on ya, but you know, standard destructive ship," said Stan.

"I see," Selk said quietly. "And you're the captain. How does it do such things?"

Stan looked at him apprehensively. "Why would you wanna know that?" he asked, holding his right hand tentatively.

Selk laughed. "Oh, don't you worry. We're a very primative race here. We enjoy our way of life, and have no reason to destroy planets. We're just curious. We've never had visitors like yourself, and such things are important to make a recording of in history,"

"Oh, I get it! You probably just wanna remember us," Stan replied brightly. "Okay. The Lexx is controlled by a key, that I have in my hand. It's some kinda energy thing that jumps into whoever it wants, but there's only one,"

A loud, subhuman screeching sound came tearing out of the woods, making all of the birds flutter out of the trees. The villagers all either ran toward their huts to safety, or headed into the woods themselves. "What was that?!" said Xev.

"The enemy," said Selk, running with his club in hand. "Come on!"

"Kai," said Xev, following after him.

"Forget that, you guys can-" Stan began, heading toward the safety of a nearby hut.

An arm grabbed him, and stopped him. He whirled around to come face to face with the red-headed woman. She was holding a spear, and smiled pleasantly at him. "Don't you wanna get into the fight?" she asked.

"Uh...will you protect me?" Stan slurred.

"Sure," said the woman. "I'm Riona,"