With Justin at the controls and Jennifer sitting next to him, they moved their ship closer to the Liaperian's location in orbit around Earth. They were fortunate that Tane had given them a clue as to their whereabouts. Czarina stood behind them, anxious to find the lieutenant. As they drew closer, Justin turned to Jennifer with a solemn look.

"Stay here, Jennifer. I don't want to see a repeat of what happened earlier with Tane," Justin sternly told her.

"Justin, you know I'm capable of taking care of myself," she protested.

"I know that but this isn't an ordinary situation. Lieutenant Hunter's life is at stake and in the end, so is Czarina's. If he dies, the secondary prophecy will never come true. Besides, we need someone to stay with the ship," Justin reminded her. "Plus I don't want to see you lose your temper over what happened. We both know what's already occured."

Jennifer opened her mouth to protest but instead clenched her teeth and nodded in reply. Justin quickly left the controls and Czarina followed him to the back of the ship. Jennifer pushed a few buttons, overriding the controls to the Liaperian's cargo door.

"Take care and bring him back alive," Jennifer called out to them.

The two glanced back as they hurried out into the depths of enemy territory.

00000

Shzar stood on the bridge, carefully watching the planet outside the window. He thought about Tane and how he was doing with the cats down below. When his comrade appeared behind him, Shzar quickly noticed the worried look on his face.

"What happened down there?" he demanded.

"There were more than what I had planned to face. We're tough Shzar, but not invulnerable. I had to retreat. What happened with the prisoner?" Tane explained.

"He's dead," Shzar flatly replied.

Tane deeply exhaled, wondering how things were going to go now. They had to catch not only the cats by surprise but the two robots from the encounter. Their reverie was soon broken by a soft beeping of their console and they hurried to see what it was.

"We have intruders. The feline's ship has docked in our cargo room and there's two figures in the corridor," Tane mused.

"Where are they headed?" Shzar wondered.

"Look like the interrogation room. They must be trying to rescue thet prisoner but their search will be in vain since he's already dead," Tane replied.

Shzar smiled for he knew he would have another chance to inflict some pain. Tane returned the smile as they hurried out the door.

00000

Justin and Czarina knew exactly where they were headed once as they ran down the corridors. They had been through this particular ship, and others like it, many times before.

'I pray that he is not already dead,' Czarina thought.

They ran up to the door and the feline found the control panel and fiddled with them for a long couple of minutes before the door finally opened. They carefully walked inside, not knowing what to expect. A lingering odour of feces and urine filled their noses as Justin's stare soon came to the table. His heart dropped as they ran over to the lieutenant and looked at him. Blood and urine were dripping onto the floor as vomit had begun to pile up beside his head and feces threatened to overflow underneath him. Puncture wounds adorned his body, indicating that samples had indeed been taken and they were accompanied by several cuts from a blade. His wrists and ankles showed signs of severe chafing from his metal clasps.

"Oh no," he quietly said.

The look on Czarina's face was pure agony once she saw what they had done to the pilot of the Big Guy. It was obvious that his genitalia had taken the brunt of the external torment and they knew that there was no doubt that his internal organs were fried. Justin wanted to throw up for it was the worst that even he had ever seen. He gingerly stood next to him, feeling his neck for a pulse and his heart jumped.

"Czarina, he still has a pulse! Let's get him off of here!" he called to her.

She hurried over to the console, where she found the button to release the restraints before heading over to the table. Justin took notice of the wires entering both the penis and mouth before gently turning him onto his side. Feces spilled out of the body, leaving behind the wire entering his anus.

"We'll have to cut them and get them out later. We don't have time now," Justin ordered.

"You won't be taking him anywhere! He's ours now and you've lost this world!" a familiar voice called out to them.

The two turned to find Tane and Shzar standing at the door. Czarina climbed onto the table above the unconscious pilot and began to growl. Justin stood between them and the Liaperians.

"You came after all, despite knowing that he could be dead. You trained him well for he didn't give us any information on your whereabouts," Tane mused.

"He is a good man but not for the reasons you believe. You see, he didn't even know Jennifer and I were here," snarled Justin.

The two aliens narrowed their eyes at each other before noticing that another creature had replaced the woman on the table. They grew scared for they recognized her now from previous escape attempts of others they had captured and knew she was a formidable opponent.

"You! You're the one who helped all the others escape!" roared Tane.

"You had the chance to capture me and countless others yet you failed to do so. You are truly pathetic creatures," she growled.

Tera leapt down and climbed to her two feet, stretching her wingspan to its full length. She advanced on the two, the rumbling emitting from the depths of her stomach. They backed away, unsure exactly what to expect before she jumped them. She sunk her teeth into Tane's arm as her tail whipped around Shzar's neck. The one screeched in pain while the other gasped for air. Justin held back, knowing Tera was intensely irate but kept a gun in hand in the event she need another set of eyes.

After a few more seconds, she released Tane and brought her tail around, with Shzar's head still nestled within its grasp and cracked their heads together. They fell to the ground in a heap as Tera stood up, spitting the blood out of her mouth before wiping away the rest of it. She stormed over to the console and grabbed one of the wires.

"They think this is fun to torture people with these? Let's see how they feel about it!" she growled.

"Tera, don't do this! You're only wanting to kill them this time because it became personal!" the feline ordered her.

"How many more have to suffer because of us, Justin? Several people like Lieutenant Hunter have already died because these sadistic brutes thought they were us," Tera demanded.

"If that's the way you truly feel later, then I can promise you can get your vengeance. Right now, let's get just Lieutenant Hunter out of here," Justin sternly replied.

Tera remembered about the lieutenant and sighed. She threw down the wire and hurried back to him. They quickly cut the wires and gently lifted him off the table. Within that short of time, his already faint breathing became ragged. This greatly worried the two as Justin checked his pulse again, which weakened.

"We're not going to make it back to the ship in time," Justin groaned.

A shot flew over their heads and they two looked to see Tane had managed to climb to his feet and he was not happy.

"You are not going anywhere! I'll kill the both of you and that precious Jennifer of yours too," he yelled.

Justin climbed to his feet and aimed his gun at the alien. He fired as Tera cradled the lieutenant's head in her lap, racking her brain for ideas but she could think of only one.

"I am so sorry for this. Please forgive me," she quietly said.

She placed a hand on the necklace around her neck and yanked it off, placing it on the lieutenant's chest, over his heart. Lifting an arm out of the support in her wing, she had pulled out a small bag of a light blue powder. She opened it, smelling it before placing it into her mouth. Tera slowly changed back to a human as she leaned down and locked her lips onto his, holding the necklace in place against his body. A gasp filled the cat's ears and he closed his eyes once he realized what was happening. He fired directly at Tane again and hit him in the other leg. He ignored the ramblings as he twirled around to find them locked in an embrace and hurried over to them with a worried look on his face.

"Czarina, do you realize what have you done?" he insisted to know.

As she released Dwayne from the caress, it took her a moment to answer him as she turned to face him.

"Yes, I do. I just saved his life," she said. "Now let's get him back to the ship to get him cleaned up."

Justin rolled his eyes as he hurried over to them. At the nearby console, the cat configured the controls to take the ship away from Earth. Czarina quickly transformed back into a pterodactyl and gently placed the injured Dwayne onto her back where they rapidly hurried back to the shuttle.

"We'll be back for you! We know your face now!" Tane yelled after them.

The two ignored him as they continued to run.

TBC…