Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek. Reviews are welcome. I don't own any characters other than Fenix Flarestone. Enjoy and stay ethical y'all.

Chapter 2: You're Strong... For a Human

Previously…

Lore was speechless for a moment then tutted, "Don't get your hopes up, kid." She's lonely… Hmm… Who wouldn't be, all alone on this dead planet? Especially if she was exiled here… Left her here. Just as I was. He sighed as he pushed his realization away, they shared something they both understood, abandonment. Lore's original plan to leave the planet was put on hold. Something within him wanted to stay, the reason being her, but he pushed it down and concluded he wanted to see what the Crystalline Entity left behind.

Warm wind caressed Fenix's face and tousled her long hair as she looked to the horizon. She felt Lore's naturally intimidating presence beside her feeling his haunting yellow eyes on her as he analysed her. She stood confidently, never wavering, not wanting to show any weakness around him, something within her told her to keep her guard up around him. She finished her project of putting Lore back together, she now had another to tackle; finding water and food. Certain she'd find them if she kept running towards the horizon with scattered grass at her unusual speed, it wouldn't take long. Her thoughts were interrupted when her and Lore heard her stomach growl angrily. Lore knit his eyebrows together. She's hungry. I don't even need to read her biometrics when her stomach is making THAT much noise. For someone capable of reassembling me, I'm surprised she didn't notice the broken replicator. Silly girl. I could effortlessly fix the replicator, but she needs to prove herself worthy of that, first. Perhaps I'll learn something about her by going on a possible excursion she's probably thinking about... learn about her slightly unusual strength... Fenix hoped he wouldn't make any jabs at her current predicament, "Lore? I'm heading in that direction," She pointed towards the horizon, "Find some water, and hopefully some food. Do you want to come with? I'd like your company." Fenix sincerely inquired, ignoring her hunger as her stomach growled loudly in protest. Lore sighed in boredom, "What else will I be doing?" he replied with a sigh. She flashed him a candid smile. A smile that made him feel something he couldn't place. Lore didn't know what it was that he felt even with his advanced emotional programming. That made him uncomfortable to not understand what he felt. The unknown was killing him and he needed to know what it was he felt in that fleeting moment. His thoughts were interrupted by another question from the woman-child, "Can you run fast? I want to get there sooner rather than later for… obvious reasons, and I'm fast." Lore brusquely replied, "I was built to be superior to all humans in every possible way." Fenix rolled her eyes. Arrogant much? What did I get myself into? Let's put together an android that I found on a desolate planet, it'll be fun! A cocky, bitter android that can feel emotions... Fine, so be it. "Alright, let's go."

She dashed with inhuman speed, she looked back to see Lore still standing still with a perplexed look on his face. She taunted, "I thought you said you were superior in every way? Are you gonna let a human outrun ya?" and boldly grinned as she turned away again to resume running. There was no time to process what was happening except Lore was not going to be beaten in any way by a human. Is she even human? What is she? She's not another android, I would've known from the moment I was reactivated. Her readings ARE biological… At the last thought he started to run, he caught up to her quickly, and surpassed her as expected. He heard her quickened heartbeat, the blood rushing through her veins and her need for oxygen as he passed her. Huh, she's much too fast for a human, but still human according to my readings… I don't understand, my readings are always correct. Did she make a mistake when she reactivated me? Why am I even slightly surprised... He then let her catch up to him and they ran side by side. They dashed through endless baron land of boulders, rocks and dust. Their boots hitting the hard ground with their all their might, it was lively for Fenix since she hasn't met anyone that could match her in physical capabilities let alone outrun her. She smiled brightly as they ran. Her smile was infectious to Lore as he smirked. Easily jumping over large boulders, Lore mimicked her like it was a challenge with him jumping larger boulders than her with a grin. The further than ran, the more grass was present. Lore saw the large jagged walls ahead before Fenix and also sensed moisture in the air was becoming thicker. There's water near. Interesting… Fenix's eyes widened when she, too began seeing the tall rock cliffs. There was an opening in the walls, almost like an entrance. Lore heard rushing water the closer they got. Fenix sprinted faster, wanting to know what was beyond the nature's walls.

Once the pair arrived, the sight before them was incredible. Mother Nature's indeed survive after the onslaught of the Crystalline Entity. With a waterfall that pooled into a small lake that formed into a small creek, lush with grass, there is life here. A hidden pocket of oasis. Her purple eyes scanned the area in marvel and relief. Out of all the things Fenix could has say in that moment, she exclaimed, "I'm not gonna die!" Lore smirked and shook his head. She aggressively threw her jacket off and kicked off her boots, donned in just a white Def Leppard shirt and fitted black pants, she beelined to the lake. With all concern and care out the window, she dived in. Lore walked towards the lake, she was taking a long time to surface. He searched for her in the emerald depths. His unvoiced call was answered when she jumped to the surface, her long dark hair saturated, looking black and plastered in sections on her face. She was laughing, pure joy, it was contagious, even for Lore. Catching himself mid laugh, he pushed that feeling down, deep down. Her laughing suddenly stopped and her face suddenly full of concern, "Lore, can you get wet? Like, can you swim?" Lore plainly stated, "I believe I'm incapable of swimming. My body construction doesn't have enough buoyancy." Fenix looking perplexed, she walked out of the water, her clothes clinging on her lithe form. She wrung out the water from her hair as she faced him, "You know, I could try and install some kind of floatation device and make you completely water-proof. It feels nice to be in the water at times. I think everyone should experience it." She kindly offered. His expression remained neutral, but Lore was taken aback. His own father left him for dead and yet this woman-child assembled him, giving him another chance at existence and now she's offering to help him upgrade so he can experience something pleasant. I don't understand this girl. Why is she doing this? Being nice to a stranger. An emotionally unstable android that was thrown away like trash by his own maker...my own father... He clenched his eyes shut, frowning at the memory and the feeling of complete betrayal that poisoned him, opening his eyes, his right eye twitched with bitter anger.

His thoughts were disrupted when he heard a splash. Fenix was back in the water. What is she doing now? Lore frowned. He saw her diving in and out of water until he noticed that she was biting down on a couple of fishtails. Well, won't you look at that? She's not a human, she's a bear! Mystery solved. Sardonically thought Lore as he quirked an eyebrow, his expression still full of back to shore, she handed him a fish. He curtly spat, "I don't require sustenance." Fenix shrugged it off, "I didn't think you did, but I was being nice." Looking at the two fish she caught, she mumbled, "More for me, I kinda need it." She sank her teeth into it and started eating like a savage, blood dripping down her face and hands. Amusement stirred underneath his frown, "Why did you not prepare it?" She answered between mouthfuls, "I don't need to, and I'm too hungry to care." She spat out the scales that got into her mouth, "It's like eating sashimi but not as enjoyable, I don't have any soy sauce or wasabi, unfortunately." He accepted her answer with an stoic incline of his head. He watched her rip the innards out of the carcass with her teeth, discarding them. He was lightly entertained by her barbaric actions. At least she's washing up the blood on her face and hands. Survival of the fittest. How is she capable of running so swiftly? It was rather non-human. Sure, she's not as fast as I am, but I am superior than any race. His eyes scanned her thin form. I must know. What else is she capable of doing? She might be more useful than I gave her credit, but she still needs to prove herself to this, Lore.

Fenix was settled in the grass. Feeling fatigue looming over her, she let herself rest for just a little while and laid down. Lore is a weirdo. Not in a creepy way, but he's very arrogant. Doesn't seem to give anything about himself yet… Before she could finish her thoughts, her jacket unceremoniously hit her face. Unimpressed but too exhausted to care, and an unintelligible 'thank you' later, she drifted off. Lore silently chuckled. He observed his surroundings in detail and every so often glance back to the woman-child who was currently snoozing. Ridiculous child. She knows nothing of this planet or what dangers could be lurking and sleeps out in the open. For all she knows I could be one of those dangers. I have no use for killing her. Besides, she was the one that reassembled and reactivated me. Even I have some honour, still.

After about half an hour, Fenix woke up and stood. Looking at the top of the waterfall, she concluded she'd have a better view from the top and began walking. Lore tilted his head, "Where are you going?" "Just climbing to the top of the waterfall to see what's possibly ahead." She shrugged. His eyebrows knit together. She's going to scale that cliff? He scanned the cliff wall to see what the best way to make it to the top and followed her. Fenix stood staring up the tall cliff. Lore commented, "It's approximately 800 feet up, I would estimate it to be graded 9c or 5.15d." Fenix shrugged, "I don't know what you just said but I'm gonna do it any ways." Grabbing a possible hold point, she started to scale the cliff, Lore rolled his eyes and joined. Naturally, he had gotten ahead of her easily, and looked down to see how she was fairing. His yellow eyes scanned her biometrics and watched her choice of hold points. She's doing well. Better than any organic I've ever witnessed. She seems rather capable more than I initially gave her credi.Satisfied, he climbed the rest of the way until he reached the top. He sat with his one leg hanging off the side of the cliff and watched her. Well, that didn't take as long as I estimated. She should be here in about ten minutes from the looks of it. Fenix saw Lore and was glad that she was close to the top. Pulling herself up, she reached the top and sat beside Lore and wiped the sheen of sweat off her forehead, "Quite a view from up here." "It's the same as everything else." Lore remarked. Rolling her eyes, she took off her jacket, "Yeah, but I would've never known if I didn't come up." then stretched out her limbs. Walking over to the other side of the water fall, she commented, "Well damn, I didn't have to scale that wall after all. Woulda been way easier to go up this way." Lore stood up to investigate what she was talking about. He looked down the easier looking side of the cliff and assessed, "This would be easier to come down, but I estimate the difficulty climbing up would be on par as the one we did, actually." "Huh… well, we came, we saw, and now I'm over it." Fenix shrugged and began climbing down the cliff with Lore following suite. Fenix slipped her footing and caught herself before falling with a cuss. Lore scanned her and realized she was tired. Her choice of finding her footing, her coordination are lessened by 9%. She continued to try to focus on scaling down the cliff, the longer they were taking, the more mistakes she made. Shit… Come on, Fenix. You're over half way down. Hang in there. The last thing I need is to fall and for him to find out what I'm capable of. Like a bad omen, her instincts told her she was going to fall. Her hand slipped causing her to lose her footing, unable to grab onto anything, she tried with no avail as she began dropping to the hard dusty bottom.

"SHIT!" was all she could say as her view of Lore became smaller and smaller by the second.

Like a falling pinball, her abdomen collided with one of the jutted out part of the cliff and cut her open. Lore's eyes widened, unable to help her as he watched her fall. He saw a glimpse of her and heard her body collide with the ground. Blood started to leak from her head and from the gash she endured to her abdomen when she was falling. Her eyes were blank, and pooled in her own blood. His eyes widened and hurried. Holy shit! She should be dead but vitals tell me otherwise. How is this possible? Fenix blinked a few times and waited while her stomach and head healed. She stood up in disgust from the damp sticky feeling of her blood and dust. Lore jumped the last 50 feet, his cobra yellow eyes were locked onto her as he stalked towards her. Fenix knew her abilities were exposed to him and cussed under her breath. She felt the unspoken yet loud questions Lore was imploring. Lore heard her racing heart, understood she was trying to hide her panic. Something within him didn't like that he had made her feel uneasy, something that never bothered him until now. Trying his best to not frighten her, he demanded, "Let me examine your skull." She nodded in silence. His large hands gently examined the back of her neck to the blood damp hair. Lifting clumps of bloodied hair, he noticed she was completely healed. There's no signs of any cranial damage. Not even a scar… Once he was satisfied, he continued, "Lift your shirt." She lifted her white shirt showing where the gash happened except the only signs of any trauma was her torn bloodied shirt, her torso was unmarred, unscarred, perfectly fine other than a layer of blood that was beginning to harden. He lifted his left hand to examine her stomach but there was nothing left of the incident. Just soft, sun-kissed skin covered in blood, staining his white long nimble fingers even more crimson red.

Fenix didn't dare look up as she spoke softly, "When I was in Starfleet Academy, during one of the experiments I was doing, I had a little 'accident' so to say. Long story short, an explosion happened, no one got hurt except me. Blew my damn head off accidentality. My head regenerated in front of the whole class. My little secret got out and I was taken by some really shady scientists and people, I think one of them was named… Admiral Pressman? Any ways they wanted to get 'the elixir of eternal life' from my DNA and engineer augments or something. But when they couldn't figure it out, they became frustrated. They had me sedated until I was dumped on Omicron Theta." Amethyst eyes met Lore's yellow ones, his expression still unreadable. Fenix thought there might have been a moment of understanding under his stoic expression. "On a positive note, my hyper-regeneration keeps me from ageing as well, which is pretty cool." She nonchalantly commented, yet the bitterness of her past that danced in her eyes contrasted her aloof tone. She looked at Lore's blood covered hand which was still touching her stomach and she cleared her throat hinting him as a reminder. Lore took his hand away from her and they stood. He examined the blood on his hands. She is still human from the readings, but something is telling me otherwise. An… intuition. She's not telling me everything. She's not just some evolved human. My readings would've picked that up, too. Lore averted his gaze at her and her looking at the distant setting sun, "We need to go back to the lab. I can get the shower working, you reek of old blood." She winced knowing she smelled as she looked, "That would be nice. I feel really gross." She sighed realizing they had a ways back than before. Great… how we have to go around the damn oasis and THEN run back to the lab. Might as well start.

Fenix and Lore reached the lab and she sat down on a stool to rest for a moment. Lore chimed, "Try not to get blood everywhere, child. I'll get the shower working in less than five minutes." as he left the area. Fenix tried not to sound snarky when she thanked him with rolling eyes knowing he couldn't see her. Sitting in silence, she stared at nothing, and thought of nothing for once. After five minutes, Lore came back, "Go clean yourself, you're a bloody mess, literally." Hopping off the stool, she happily obliged, "Thanks Lore!" Lore snidely remarked, "I just don't want to smell rancid blood, it offends my senses." Fenix tried not to retaliate as she scampered to the bathroom, she snickered inwardly. With a nose his size, I'm sure he could smell EVERYTHING. Turning on the water, she took her clothes off and decided she needs to wash her shirt, too. She scrubbed her scalp vigorously trying to get all the blood off. After she was done with herself, she scrubbed the torn shirt to rid of the blood. Bringing it up to her nose for a sniff, she was satisfied that it was clean thought it was now stained yellowish brown. Gross… And this is why I should just stick to wearing black… Once she was clean, she realized she didn't grab any other clothes for her now clean but damp clothes to dry. Wrapping a towel around herself tightly, she peaked out of the bathroom, seeing Lore with his back towards her, she tightened the grip on her towel and scampered to the area she found clothes for Lore.

"Where are you going?" Lore asked in boredom as he was inspecting through her bag. Fenix's eyebrows knit together, "Hey! That's my stuff!" He turned around with a smirk, "I know… I was curious." His smirk never faltering, his eyes scanned from her flustered face down her towel covered body, "Are you going to answer my question? It's rude to ignore someone, especially someone like myself." She huffed feeling mildly irritated, "I need dry clothes, duh." He chuckled, "You know… you had the opportunity to see me naked but I didn't get to see you... naked… that's not very fair is it?" Fenix stomped in annoyance and embarrassment, "Ugh! I don't care! I'm cold!" and stomped off with blushing cheeks. Lore laughed in amusement of her childish antics as he resumed studying the objects in her bag. Silly girl. Lore wanted to examine her and see if he could find what the humans couldn't find, but he needed equipment in order to that. He won't be doing anything that causes her any more pain that she endured. He won't do such things to her. She too, was used then discarded just as he was. Fenix came back wearing a baggy black shirt and a pair of fitted black pants and leaned against the wall with crossed arms, "Say Lore… Can you fight? You know, like spar?" He put the unknown contraption down and locked his eyes with hers with a faint smile. Now that's more like it...