"Kay?"

Her eyes didn't even flutter, lids heavy, a voice echoed in her ears, familiar.

"Kay, you with us?"

She tried to respond, felt her vocal chords tighten to say something to the voice, to let him know she heard him.

"Kay?"

A small noise, barely audible, nothing more than a hum, finally managed out of her throat.

"Thank god," she heard the voice whisper. She fought hard, commanding feeling back into her limbs, demanding that heavy muscles awaken from her slumber. She needed to move, to be awake. Everything had gone wrong. She needed to get to Jitar. Her struggle was only visible by the quickening of her breath and the vocalization of another, soft, panicked sound.

"It's okay Kay, breathe, you were tranquilized with a dose meant for that thing, you've been asleep for days, I thought you'd never wake up."

"Ahh—," she breathed, her voice cracking before she could even make out a syllable, "Ahdolff—," she huffed heavily, twitching her hands, fighting with her body to obey her silent screams to move.

"Yeah, yeah Adolpho, I'm here. Shh."

Kaylin felt a hand on her brow, pushing her hair away from her face. Adolfo wasn't dead, Jitar hadn't killed him. But where was she? Where was Jitar?

Finally, her eyes fluttered then squeeze shut. The light stung violently at her eyes like angry wasps. It was too white to be the sun.

"Wwwhere?" she finally breathed.

"Ahh," Adolfo's hand moved away from her face and she slowly opened and closed her eyes to let them adjust. The world started coming into focus. First there was a good deal of grey. Then there were brown spots of furniture. And then there was the cool gleam of metal.

She didn't know where she was, but she knew she wasn't where she was supposed to be. This place was too man-made, too high-tech to be any of the homes of the gang members.

"Adolfo," she whimpered and her chest started heaving. Her hand twitched and curled in a fist as she forced one shoulder to lift from the surface she was lying on.

"Shh shh shh, it's okay Kay, you're with me, you're safe, okay?"

Kaylin's head fell to the side and looked over at the man, his uniform, the sigil of a blue circle, four white stars and a red stripe told her entirely otherwise.

She moved again, forcing her shoulders up and forcing her too-heavy body to sit up. Her eyes were already burning, and she didn't truly hear the comforting words that Adolfo was trying to give her. Her gasps turned to heaves and she suddenly felt pain as her muscles tightened.

"I-I-I," she gasped then swallowed down bile.

"It's okay Kay, I got a bucket, right here."

She heard a hollow sound and something plastic was put in her hands. She clung to the bucket for her life and stuck her face into it. Her breath sounded alien as it reverberated back to her ears. A warm hand was gently rubbing her back.

"Let it out Kay, it's alright."

She didn't. While her body heaved, there was nothing in her stomach save for acid, which made her tongue bitter. But having her head in the bucket helped her calm. Her panic subsided, and finally, she took her reddened face from the bucket and looked to Adolfo who now sat next to her on the edge of a bed.

She said nothing; because there was so much she wanted to say that she couldn't decide on where to start. So she focused on her breathing and looked around. She was in a concrete room, perfectly square and a dark grey color. It was cooler than she was used to, and only a little humid. A single blinding light flush with the ceiling lit the whole area. The bed she was laying on was basic but made of metal bars. A wood three-drawer dresser was tucked in the corner, and there was a metal folding chair sitting by the bed, empty. Behind it was a straight rectangle door made of thick metal.

"Where… are we?"

Adolfo's eyes were sincere as he scanned her face. Worry-lines were drawn on his face. Then he smiled, satisfied with something.

"We're, uh, you know that… 'mountain' that is north of the Red Dragon territory with the purple flowers growing over it?"

She nodded. There were no mountains on Neo Australia, none that had been discovered at least. The 'mountains' were no more than large round hills, and the one with the flowers had been called Lilac Mountain, though the flowers not lilacs.

"Well, we're under it."

"For how long?" her voice was slowly coming back.

"You've been out for about two or three days."

"No, no," she said quietly, shaking her head, "how long have you been here?"

"Oh," Adolfo nodded, "I've been stationed here for about, well, since I got here."

"Just you?"

"Nnnnooo….," he said hesitantly, "me and a few others. We were dropped here and told to watch out for something. Had no idea what we were doing since we weren't supposed to stop any of the fighting. But we were told to report here once a month, and to come here if we saw anything strange."

"And… you saw the alien."

"Yeah," Adolfo frowned and looked away from her, "came right into the city and started killing everyone. So… I came to report it, and found out why I was here."

Kaylin didn't respond, still clinging to the bucket, thinking back to what happened.

"Did you bring me in?"

"No, that was another team."

"The… the alien?"

"Locked up further in, down some levels."

Kaylin felt her gut wrench and she didn't want to imagine what was happening to him, but memories of what they had done were flashing and burning behind her eyes.

"They said you helped attack them when they were trying to catch it. I told them, it didn't sound like you. Then they told me that you killed seven people, and I told them it had been a lie to get you here. They told me it wasn't a lie."

"It's not a lie, not entirely."

Adolfo's mouth shut, and Kaylin turned her black gaze towards him, "I killed seven people… and," she gasped, eyes widening slightly, "and I killed Julian," she whimpered, feeling the guilt creep in and her knuckles turned white against the dark grey bucket. Adolfo's hand was on her back again, rubbing it, but there was a confused expression on his face.

"Why?"

"Because he stabbed Tyke," she hissed, sniffing and holding back her sobs. Adolfo frowned but said nothing. She huffed and composed herself. Forcing herself to breathe normally. The silence that descended was heavy and thick, and Adolfo's hand slowly slid from her back. He stood from his seat and moved to the folding chair, folding it up and leaning it against the wall. Kaylin's eyes were on his back as he made his way towards the door.

"How's your sunburn?"

Adolfo stopped and looked back at her. He seemed astonished at something, and then smiled, "all healed, thanks to you."

Kaylin's eyes burned, but she managed to smile.

Adolfo turned and put his hand on the door.

"Adolfo."

He paused.

"Can I see it, the alien?"

Adolfo looked over his shoulder, then walked back towards her, pulling out of his back pocket some handcuffs, "you feel okay to walk?"

Getting on her feet was difficult and she had to insist that she was okay several times. Adolfo put the handcuffs around her wrist and she looked at them. The gleam of the metal as they passed light after light reminded her of the time she walked down a very different hallway, in front of everyone that had ever trusted her, led to a ship to take her to a court for the murders she had committed. She had taken seven lives. Lives of people who were not necessarily bad, or evil, several she hadn't even known, like Julian's wife.

Walking down the tunnel, her head had hung low, her eyes on the ground, just as it was now. But the eyes that peered at her were not people she knew. They were all military; all with the same sigil as Adolfo, all were armed.

She only ever glanced at them as she passed, keeping her head down. She saw the disapproving looks that Adolfo got from his fellows but they didn't stop him. They finally got to an elevator that two men were guarding. They nodded at Adolfo and eyed her, but seemed placated by the fact that the small, thin woman was handcuffed and could very possibly do nothing.

The metal gates were pushed aside and they stepped into an inappropriately large elevator. It was large enough that an elephant could comfortably walk around as it was carried down the levels. It was probably used to carry equipment from one floor to the other. Kaylin lifted her head slightly after the first pattern of light-dark-light passed and saw that outside were several floors, identical to the one she had just left, all guarded, but some had other personnel working, and with a shudder, she recognized at least one combat android.

It also showed her that they had been planning this for a very long time.

She counted seven floors before they stopped and Adolfo opened the gates. He stepped forward and watched her hesitate. He held out his hand to her and smiled gently. She looked at his hand, then his eyes, and stepped forward. His hand went around her shoulder where he supported and comforted her down the hallway. The doors they passed here were mostly glass, but some were metal. And it was at one of the metal doors that Adolfo stopped and swiped a card.

The door opened with a hiss and slid away, gears audibly grinding against the concrete to move the slab. Kaylin waited, then followed Adolfo inside. She watched his back before stepping up to his side. The door took them down a short eight-foot hallway that led to a ninety-degree turn and opened into a room.

Like her cell it was lit by a single light, but there were computers within, a metal island in the middle of the room, which itself was perfectly square, perhaps forty feet by forty feet. And nestled in a corner, just a small space not even large enough to lay down, was a metal-edged clear box. She did not need to see within to know what was inside, and she grit her teeth at a sharp hollow pain in her gut.

Jitar's head lifted from where it was resting on his chest, gold eyes blazing through the smeared glass. He stood within his small prison to his full height and rattled.

Adolfo's hand moved to grip her bicep and led her into the room. The men in the lab coats looked and then protested, stepping up to stop them. But they were not as loud as the man with the gun who stepped away from the wall he was leaning against.

"That's the bitch who cut me!" was the only warning either of them got before stars shot across her vision and she was sent tumbling to the ground. Adolfo and the scientists' voices were utterly eclipsed by the deafening roar from the glass cage.

Angry screams turned to panic as orders were shouted, trying to be heard over a repetitive crashing noise.

Kaylin lifted herself from the ground, holding a hand to her temple, blood flowing past her fingers.

Jitar's eyes flashed at her between the times that he threw his body at the glass with as much force as he could gather in his small space. But it didn't matter in a few seconds. Too-white smoke filled his chamber completely, obscuring him from view. He gave out half of a roar before she heard his body collapse.

The room went uncomfortably quiet save for hissing breaths and growled, barely restrained words, "this woman has saved my life more time that any marine ever had. You hit her again, and we're going to have problems, you and me."

Kaylin turned to look at where Adolfo had the other marine pinned to the wall by his the front of his jacket, his chin jutted forward and lips thinned in a sinister expression. The other marine was trying to struggle, making pained grunting noises before huffing.

"Yes sir."

Adolfo dropped the man, who stumbled, then straightened out his clothes and glowered at him, then at Kaylin, who was being restrained by a scientist as she had attempted to get close to the cage, to see Jitar's crumpled body within.

Her lips thinned and she held back her tears though they burned hot in her eyes. She felt Adolfo's hand on her shoulder and she turned to him.

"You saw it, let's go."

Kaylin nodded, giving a final glance to Jitar's unconscious form and allowed herself to be turned and led away. She was quiet and kept her head down the entire time that Adolfo led her back. He, too, remained quiet until they were back in her cell and he was unhandcuffing her. She rubbed her wrists and then her hand where the melted flesh felt soft.

Adolfo gave a thin apologetic smile and a nod and turned to leave, "I'll bring you dinner in an hour."

Kaylin nodded and sat down on the edge of her bed, eyes on the floor. She heard the door closed and lock, and still she stared at the ground. But she was not seeing the cold slight glossy surface of the concrete. In her mind's eye, she was counting the number of feet from her cell to the elevator, and noting how many soldiers she had seen, and how many of them had cards like Adolfo had.