Lex threw her weight forward against the cliff face. Only the tight wedge she had made with her knee in the rock crevice saved her from falling as the shock of the missed grip almost unbalanced her. She put out her hand again - resisting the urge to flail her arms around in search of a hold and cause herself to lose her footing. This time her fingers somehow managed to find purchase and she stayed still for a moment, panting. "I need to slow down or I'm going to end up as a red splash on the rocks!"

As she hung there, trying to gather her thoughts, she suddenly heard the dogs again. They were somewhere in the forest below, the sound of their barking drifting up to her from amongst the frozen trees. The sound triggered some instinct in her and she began to climb again, hauling herself ferociously upwards, hardly noticing her aching muscles or the pain as she shredded her chilled hands on the jagged rock.

As the baying of the dogs got nearer she was filled with an almost superhuman strength, the primeval need of the hunted beast to escape from whatever was chasing it. Her legs and shoulders burned with the effort and the sun burned down from an uncaring sky.

The howls of the dogs echoed through the frozen air as she finally hauled herself onto the shelf, her lungs feeling like they might burst. She crawled away from the edge and out of sight and then collapsed, lying on her back and panting for breath. She needed a few minutes to recuperate from the frantic climb. She was covered in sweat and her legs felt shaky, now the rush of adrenalin that had pushed her up the cliff face was subsiding.

After a minute or two, she rolled onto her belly and crawled towards the edge again, trying to get a view of her pursuers. For a few minutes, the clearing at the foot of the cliff was empty, then suddenly the dogs and their handlers broke from the line of the trees, like tiny black insects against the white ground. The dogs were dragging at their leads, bounding eagerly through the snowdrifts so the handlers had to hurry to keep up. The animals went straight to the foot of the cliff and clustered there, baying, leaping up and sliding down the rocks in an attempt to follow her.

Lex crawled backwards, away from the edge, decloaked and consulted her wristcom. She was scanning the terrain, looking for a back way down from this clifftop, when she heard again the rhythmic pulse of helicopter blades. Hastily she reactivated her camouflage. Then the copter appeared, a glistening dot that slowly grew, until it descended in a whirlwind of glistening white, setting down amongst the trees just a short distance away. "Must be that clearing I passed on the way up the hill," Lex raised an unseeable eyebrow, "Interesting."

Snowflakes flurried into the air, whipped up by the gale from the propellers as Carravino set the helicopter down in a large bare space amongst the trees. As he and Ostrwoski crunched through the snow and pine needles, one of the local police, a middle-aged sergeant, came to meet them. His face was red with exertion.

"We tracked her as far as the bluff, Sir." He said, as they made their way through the trees, Ostrowski could see a rock wall looming up in front of them. The sergeant led them to a point at the foot of the cliff, a pile of small boulders and scree, "Dogs got her trail goin' all the way up to the cliff face and then - "

Ostrowski cut in irritably,"She's a climber, Sergeant - I think we know which way she went."

Behind him, Carravino cast a suspicious look around the clearing.

"You don't mean to tell me you think she climbed up the bluff?" Said the officer "Without a rope or safety harness or nothin'? It's gotta be seventy feet up!"

"Sergeant, she's used to scaling up mountains. These thrill-seeking types climb higher than that without gear all the time. Trust me, she went up that wall. What I need from you is the lay of the land. Our team'll be here any minute and I want to send them up after her."

The officer thought for a moment "Well, it's a bit of a maze up there Sir, if you want my opinion, could be tricky. You won't be able to get the dogs up, neither."

Ostrowski's eyes narrowed, "My team can handle it, Sergeant."

"Sir!" Carravino called "The rest of the team are approaching our position."

"Tell them to set down next to the other chopper and then get prepped. We need to bring her down! Tell them I want non-lethal rounds only. Rubber bullets, tranquilisers, gas; we need to take her alive. "

His second in command was still frowning, "Are you sure, Sir? If she's as big a risk as you think - "

"That's not up for debate Carravino, I have orders from the highest level." Ostrowski scowled, "She's too valuable an information asset for us to shoot her. Just see that the men understand."

From the concealment of the vent shaft, Scar was watching the door of the brig. To his frustration he had not yet seen anything to confirm that Spyrro was there, as the juveniles had said. "She is very young to be brought here," He thought, "I was older than she when I first saw the inside of one of these cells!" On the other hand, she was a stranger to the clan and had arrived on an unknown, enemy ship. He hoped that was why she had been imprisoned and that her unusual parentage still remained a secret.

"But I cannot stay here watching forever," He grimaced, "Soon enough my presence will be discovered. Then I will be outnumbered and I will lose my chance of getting Spyrro back!"

One advantage he could see was that only two jailers guarded the cells. Scar - an occasional inhabitant of the brig in his previous life - knew this was not unusual. Guards in large numbers were not required. Yautja cells were solidly made and on a spaceship there were not many places to escape to. Additionally, Rough Skull justice tended to be both swift and brutal, so prisoners usually got whatever was coming to them quite quickly.

Eyes still on the door, Scar drew out the case containing the Thei de Nanth'e. He selected two of the darts but did not yet remove the metal cap that revealed their sharp, venomous points.

Presently, another Rough Skull arrived on some errand, which was exactly what he had been waiting for. When the door to the brig had shut, he noiselessly opened a vent cover and slid to the ground, lurking at the side of the door. As the errand-runner emerged, he slipped unseen through the door, and into the guardroom.

One of the jailers was standing at the control panel, back turned towards the door. The other was out of sight, on some business in the cells. Scar uncapped the needle and closed in, making sure the movements of his intended target masked any sound his own steps might make, until he was just a breath away. Then, he seized the Rough Skull from behind, jamming the sharp point into his flesh. The Thei-de-Nanth'e was so potent that his victim collapsed instantly, paralysed by the fast-acting toxin.

Scar lowered the body noiselessly to the floor and then moved to stand, flattened next to the door to the cell corridor. Presently, the second jailer emerged and then froze as he saw the comatose body of his partner on the floor. He span towards the console but it was too late. Before he could sound the alarm, an unseen arm was around his throat, half choking him as Scar stabbed the poison spine into his back. The jailer made a strangled sound, spasmed and then became a dead weight.

Scar let him drop, then looked down at the masked face, feeling uncharacteristically conflicted. Even now, after so many years as an outcast, he still felt a twinge of abhorrence at killing other Rough Skulls who were not his declared enemies, especially in this underhand way. Then his brows drew down under the visor, "They do not deserve my mercy: the Rough Skulls declared war on me the moment they took my daughter prisoner!"

Stowing the remaining darts back in their case, he stepped over the body of the guard to the console and scanned the display on the screens. Halfway along the row, he clicked to himself with relief. "There, in the middle cell!" On the display, there was a small shape, huddled in one corner, curled into a tight, foetal ball.

The sight of her brought memories from Scar's own childhood flashing through his mind; of feeling his skull smash into the wall, of huge fists in his stomach; of spitting his own blood onto the deck. The thought of any of these things happening to his smallest child disturbed him in a way they never had when the target had been himself. A fizzing sensation bubbled up inside his skull and a low, guttural growl started in his throat, "If any of them have so much as laid one finger on her to harm her, I will destroy this ship and burn them all on my way out!"

Rapidly he dragged one of the jailers along the corridor to the door of the cell and pressed the limp hand onto the scanner of the control panel to open the door. The buzz in his temples intensified as he stepped inside and saw her - his cherished pet - shivering and shielding her eyes, as if she had been kept too long in darkness. She was trying to push herself further into the corner and he wondered why she did not know him at once. Then, he realised he was still wearing the void helmet. To her dazzled vision, he would just be a looming silhouette, no different to her captors.

Quickly he unmasked himself and knelt, trying to get a look at her face "Spyrro?" He said, "Mei'Saithi?" {Translation: My daughter}

"Mei'Savir?!" Her head jerked round immediately when she heard his voice and then she leapt up, flinging herself at him with all her strength. As her small body hit him hard he wrapped his arms round her, the fizzing in his brain suddenly defused. The possibility that she might be dead had weighed heavily on him since the moment he'd heard that message, and yet here she was; breathing and whole, burying her face against him. The relief was so overwhelming, he felt lightheaded

"Father!" She wailed into his shoulder, "I thought I would die here!"

"Be calm, my youngest - you are alive!" He said it to reassure himself as much as her.

"I tried to fight them, I tried! But they were too many!" She gasped.

"I know you did. That showed courage, Spyrro."

"I hate it here! I wished and wished for you and Mei'Varsi to come, but you did not!"

"I am here now." He said, lifting her chin in his talons so he could look at her face, "Did they hurt you, my little spirit of vengeance?"

"Not really." She sniffed, though he was impressed to see she did not shed any tears. Then her face darkened, "But they threw me in a prison. Why, Father? I am yautja and a Rough Skull, am I not?!"

"Of course." Scar decided to gloss over the answer to this particular question, it was only a matter of time before someone else came, "Now come, Spyrro, we must leave! Hold onto me."

He stood up with his arms still clamped around her, feeling her obediently gripping him tight. As he emerged from the cell with her still clutched to his chest, he saw the bodies of the poisoned guards and felt another stupid, illogical pang of something like conscience.

"Spyrro is alive and unhurt," He thought "Perhaps they have not deserved such a dishonourable death as this."

Without releasing his hold on his daughter, he pulled out the case containing the Thei-de-Nanth'e and set it on the console. Knowing himself to be a fool, he opened it and pulled out two of the little silver needles full of antivenom, jabbing them into the stricken guards, one after the other. He had just stowed the case, when a voice from the doorway snarled, "Turn intruder... and look upon your death."

Thanks for the views and reviews as always and if you're reading and enjoying, please follow fave and review.

LovyDovy7: Yep, it's going to get worse, although hopefully in an unexpected way. Always enjoy introducing new characters - although I find it's fun to think what the old ones might have been doing when they pop back up :)

Kassandra: The reason for the title will become apparent soon. I have been thinking of writing this since before I finished the last one and it's grown into a bit of a monster already. Lex is having a pretty awful time right now, but she's definitely handled worse - at least it's only humans hunting her right now!