Seth's POV

After we had captured Harley, we drove until nightfall. Jack said we needed to stop for the night. Alex agreed with him although I opposed the idea. We were only giving Harley more time to escape.

They stopped regardless of my warnings and Harley smirked at me when I had been ignored. I shot her an evil glare.

Jack got two hotel rooms. One for the males and one for the females.

Harley didn't try and run when she first left the car. She didn't cause trouble as we ascended the stairs either, but I was on alert. It was not until we had reached the room that she jerked out of my grip and tried to free herself.

"I'll get her!" I yelled back to the others, I had already begun to chase her down the hallway. I kept sight of her down the stairs and when she reached the parking lot. I followed her across the street and into an abandoned warehouse.

Once I entered the building, I couldn't find her. I scanned the room several times but couldn't find her. "Come on, Harley! This is pointless."

I heard a noise from the scaffolding above my head and looked up in time to see Harley swing over the edge with her feet forward. The kick landed solidly in my chest and I fell backwards.

Harley dropped to the floor and kicked me again when I attempted to stand. She sat on my chest and grabbed my throat. "If you remove my restraints right now I will let you live."

I grabbed her wrists and tried to pull her hands away. I was not the type of man to strike a woman.

When my attempts failed I tried a new tactic. I grabbed her forearms with both of my hands and arched my back to throw her off. It succeeded.

Her hands released my throat and I pinned them above her head. "You are not going to cause the death of our planet."

"I do not give a shit about our planet!" She snarled.

I fought my urge to strike her. "How are you so selfish? What did our people do to you that would cause you to be this way?"

"Do you really think I would be so naïve to believe you care?" She shouted. "You only want to save your own life or you would not be here."

She attempted to get free of my hold but I managed to keep her in place. "You are right." I spoke when she became motionless. "I do not care for you. I care for my family and my friends. I also care for the people of our planet even though—if I am not mistaken—that should be your place."

Harley glared at me fiercely. "I would care for them if they did not cause me to be held captive for the span of my entire life."

"You were kept in a palace!" I yelled disbelievingly. "I cannot see how you would even be named as a captive."

She turned her eyes away from mine and stared off into the darkness. "You should realize that once you take me to our world we are to be married."

"I have knowledge of this already and I dislike the idea as much as you do." I snapped.

She shifted her eyes to set a sadistic look on me. "Well, once we are married you will need to be on constant alert because I plan to kill you the first chance I get."

I smiled down at her. "Like-wise."

We glared at each other for a moment. A thought occurred to me, we were really close together. Harley seemed to notice this as well.

We continued to stare at each other and something began to stir in my gut but in spite of my intelligence I could not identify it. Harley was even tenser than she had been before.

The feeling in my stomach turned into a burning sensation. Harley looked as if she wanted to speak but she bit her lip. We continued to stare.

Then Harley spoke. "I have a thought." Her voice was soft, barely more than a whisper.

My answer was spoken the same way. "What would that be?"

Harley didn't want to say what her thought was. I could see it in her face and when she did say it her voice was even softer than before. "In a marriage ceremony, you will have to kiss me."

I could not help my glance to her lips. They were close to mine. I nodded. "I suppose that is true."

The burning in my gut was almost uncontrollable. I didn't understand what the emotion was that was causing this within me. An instant reaction to the feeling occurred without my planning.

I brought my mouth to meet Harley's. She responded instantly. Her lips moved against mine and I realized her lips were soft under mine.

I was not aware that I had released her hands until one of my hands was caressing her cheek and the other was supporting my weight on the floor. Harley placed her arms around my neck, not seeming bothered by her hand cuffs any longer.

We kissed for several minutes. Harley was a good kisser, I had to admit. My breathing increased and Harley was pulling me closer to her.

The burning in my gut was now a blazing fire. My hand moved from her cheek to her waist.

She pressed herself closer to me and something changed. There was a connection.

"Seth!"

As soon as Jack's voice had torn threw the ware-house Harley rolled quickly to her former position of sitting on my stomach and she began to choke me again. I was in a state of appall that kept me from responding to her action for a moment.

I reached up and pulled at her arms again. "Let go of me." I choked out.

"Release the restraints, Seth." Harley growled.

Jack was suddenly there and pulled Harley off me. It took several tries because Harley was refusing to let me up.

She kicked her feet and became furious. I was barely able to dodge before her foot flew right past my head. Our moment of intimacy was instantly forgotten.

I smiled. "You are going back to our planet and I'm going to make sure that you are never allowed to leave the palace again."

"You evil, sadistic, black-hearted, stupid bastard!" She yelled at me. "I am going to punch you in the balls so hard the next time a girl goes down on you she's going to taste my fist."

Jack laughed. "That's a nice girl you got there."

Harley's POV

Jack and Seth drug me back to the room. I fought them hard but without my powers I was unable to fight two men. Or should I say a single man and half of one?

As that thought occurred to me I couldn't help but smirk in Seth's direction even though he was unable to hear me.

Jack was about to knock on the door but it flew open before he had the chance. Sara stepped quickly out of the way as Seth shoved me hard into the room. I spun around quickly and shoved him back.

I had the pleasure of seeing fire shoot into his eyes before Sara jumped in between the two of us. "Listen, the two of you need to learn to communicate instead of fighting the way you do. I am aware that neither of you are pleased with the idea but you will soon be named husband and wife therefore you cannot go about trying to kill each other all the time."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh fuck your logic, Sara."

"Don't you talk like that to my sister!" Seth shouted.

"Fine then how about I talk to you that way instead?" I snapped. "You are a fuckin—"

"Enough!" Alex screamed from across the room.

Everyone froze and stared at her. Alex huffed loudly and brushed some of the hair out of her face. "I think we need to all calm down and get a good night sleep before we go off to get your ship. I also think that Seth and Harley should have some time to talk in a non-hostile environment."

"I think you'd be safer putting us in a boxing ring." I mumbled.

"Harley!" Jack snapped. I realized that it was the first time he had ever spoken my name. Jack took a second to control his voice. "I don't understand what's going on with your life but I do know that you are not going to get anywhere with smart ass comments like that."

I glared at him but remained silent. Why was everyone so against me? It was just as Jack had said—they didn't know a thing about my life. They didn't know the hell I'd been through.

I sighed. "I'm going to sleep." I walked over to the bed and flopped down onto my stomach. I listened as everyone said "good-night".

They all thought they were so fucking perfect while trying to save two separate planets. What the hell did they know? Our world didn't need to be saved it needed to crash and burn.

I laid in bed thinking about our world as Alex and Sara walked about doing whatever they wished. I could remember the time when I thought that I would finally be free of my retched life.

I was sitting at my window—one with bars made of the same materials as the handcuffs of course—when the ash started. The sky had become black a long time ago but this was a first. I stood and gripped the bars tightly.

I felt a smile slide across my face as I watched people in the streets stop and stare. My father entered my room in a hurry. He had a furious expression.

"Harley, are you doing this?" He growled. The creases on his forehead were becoming more pronounced than usual.

I glared at him. "What now you think I control weather?"

My father became enraged—he didn't allow back-talk in his kingdom—and he struck me upon my cheek. Rage shot through me like white lightning but before I could think to attack my mother ran into the room.

She was wearing a bright blue dress that was tight around the stomach and chest. Her blonde hair was a mess from her sprint across the palace. She touched my father's shoulder lightly. "James, please, Harley has no ability over the climates of our world. This is the end we have already foreseen coming."

King James calmed at the Queen's touch. "Victora, you are correct. I suppose it was only my wishful thinking against the idea that made me place blame upon my eldest child." The King turned to touch my mother's cheek softly. "You are currently my favorite wife."

I rolled my eyes at him. It is custom in the royal family to marry more than once. My mother had been my father's first spouse but he was momentarily sporting around six others as well.

My father has thirteen children. Two boys and eleven girls. I however was the only one older than twelve and the most powerful of them all. Of course I was also the only one who had never been outside of the palace gates.

Queen Victora smiled kindly at him. "The people are in need of their gracious king to calm their worries. Also those scientists are beginning to claim that they have a solution. It would behoove you to hear their words."

King James kissed her lightly on the mouth and left the room. My mother frowned at me. "You must learn to hold your tongue child."

"Mother, he—" I started to protest.

"You are the only thing keeping me from being completely in his favor." Queen Victora said viciously. "Every time you speak out of turn you disgrace not only I but our entire family line. I have learned not to expect much out of you but the least you can do is comply for a few moments of the day."

I glared indignantly. "Why is it that you always side with him, Mother? You of all in this country know what he has done and still you stand by him!"

"He has done that to keep you from being executed!" My mother snapped. "You should be grateful!"

"Grateful?" I asked in shock. "My windows have bars! I have never been outside the palace walls! I am being blamed for everything that goes wrong and you say I am to be grateful!"

It was at that moment was when the fire struck. There was a large crash and it knocked the Queen and me to the floor. I glanced at the window and sucked in a breath of shock.

Fire was shooting through the sky and crashing into houses. People were running about the roads in fear. I ran to the window and smiled brightly.

I was going to get my wish. There would be extinction for our people. The thought was so pleasing I didn't mind that this included myself as well.

Of course that was before Seth and Sara came to ruin everything I had had to look forward to.

At Seth's name my thoughts snapped to the ware-house. The way he had held me and touched me wasn't the rough and cruel way I had thought him only capable of.

Seth had been gentle and kind. I admit that I had started the kiss with intentions of tricking him but once it had happened everything went wrong.

I suppose that was just one more thing Seth had ruined.

Alex POV

After I was sure Sara had fallen asleep, I went to sit on the bed next to Harley. I knew she was still awake. "Harley?"

She didn't open her eyes. "What?"

"Why do you hate your planet?" I asked her timidly.

Now her eyes flew open. She focused on Sara in the bed next to her. After she realized the other child was sleeping, Harley looked up at me. "Why do you care?"

I smiled tightly. "I just want to understand."

She watched me for a moment. "I have greater abilities than any being on my planet. The people that were supposed to love and support me wanted me dead over their own fears."

"What kind of powers would make them feel like that?" I asked.

"I can host the life of any living thing or creation within my body. I can give the life if I see it fit to give. For instance if someone was dying, I could give them life again. I can shift molecular structures. I can send my thoughts but I cannot receive any. I can hold on to any living creature and use the charges of their own body to immobilize them. I can touch an object and know all that it knows."

I blinked quickly. "That's how you fixed Jack's cab."

Harley only nodded. "The list is longer but we don't have time for it all. Needless to say when the people showed fear of these, my father kept me locked away. He ran painful tests on me to see what I was truly able to do and the people loved him for it. I begged him to stop and I even pleaded for death, but he never allowed it."

I stared at her. Harley was staring off into space as if she were no longer in the room with me, but somewhere else. "He said it would be a waste. He forced me to train with military; he wanted his daughter to become a weapon. And again the people loved him for it."

She seemed to remember that I was with her and she focused on me. "I hate them because of the way the used me. I hate them for fearing me. I hate them for loving a man who tortured me. They marry for money. They kill out of fear. The people of our world are heartless beings and I hate them for it."

I stared at her. She was a girl who had had bad things happen to her all her life. She was kept alive in hopes of being used. Her own father had used her. I swiped a tear off my cheek.

"You should get some sleep." I whispered. I reached out and flipped off the lamp. I lay in bed all night but barely slept a wink.