'Where can you land us?' Heiki shouted towards the cockpit, taking it upon herself to handle the situation. 'We need to not be seen and sneak in.'

'I don't know,' replied the man numbly. 'I could always land you on the roof and you can make your way down.'

'Do it.'

'I have an idea,' Calen said staring out the window. 'I know men.' She turned to Serpantha. 'I know women better but I know what men are like. They love to be the hero and they love to be adored. I can clear the way for you to get in.'

Calen stood up, and using a knife, she began systematically ripping her dress. She first cut off the bottom, making it as short as possible, and then making a cut in the material by her chest, exposing most of her left breast and making it appear as if her material had been ripped. Using the handle of the knife, she gave herself a few bruises, and as a finishing touch, she put a small cut on her lip.

Everyone was shocked, but some showed it more outwardly than others. Venibilles stared wide-eyed, wondering why no one else had said anything.

Calen gave a small laugh, and then made sure her hair was slightly messy. 'What's his problem? You never have seen breasts before kid?'

Venibilles stumbled over words for a few seconds, and then said, 'Yes I have, actually.'

'Your mother's don't count.' Calen retorted.

Heiki would have laughed if anyone but Calen had said that.

The craft landed, and Oriliagh made sure to be the last person the exit onto the roof, quickly throwing a plain gold ring at him and saying with a sheepish smile, 'For your trouble.'

Calen stopped them when she noticed a skylight, and then addressed the two wizards. 'Perfect,' she said. 'Stay back here, I'll signal when I need you.'

They silently obliged as Calen began her performance, kneeling on all fours on the skylight, bashing the glass – she even managed tears.

There was a group of five men below who quickly noticed her, and signalled as best they could without words for her to wait, until they eventually got hold of a ladder, opened the skylight, and allowed Calen to shakily climb down, giving a small smile to Serpantha before descending.

'Is she going to kill them?' Venibilles dared to ask, knowing if this was to be his future he couldn't be too scared to say anything, like the others.

'I imagine so,' Heiki replied, putting her hand on his shoulder. 'We do what we need to.'

'That doesn't make killing people OK.' Rachel said firmly, looking bitterly to everyone around her, before turning to Larpskendya desperately. 'You can't let her kill anyone. Don't. Please.'

Larpskendya's only reply was a look of guilt before Zina caught his attention with a sympathetic kiss, and neither of them said anything. No one uttered a word. What do you say when you know you're going to die? What kind of comfort can be offered, what words have the power to do anything?

'Is this what you do then? Have to choose who to kill? That's all you do.' Rachel's voice cracked.

'If you think that you greatly misinterpret what we do.' Larpskendya replied numbly.

'What do you do then?'

'I'm unsure myself most days,' Serpantha added, a little too dismissively. 'I couldn't tell you even if I wanted to. My brother looks after the general wellbeing of others involved in this war, and I deal with more with individuals, looking after specific cases. I get to travel and meet people – like I did Lyrai, or Heiki.'

'What happened to Lyrai?' Heiki asked, 'You never said.'

'She's not had an easy life and she deals with it in her own way. It wouldn't be fair to her for me to tell you more.'

'It was a cruel act on Heebra's part.' Oriliagh looked to Heiki. 'She was taken as a child.'

'Jesus Christ.' Heiki said heavily.

From bellow, Calen called. Serpantha went down first, and Rachel decided to be the last to descend, wanting to avoid it all as long as she could. She was scared of what she would see.

Calen stood next to a man who laid on the floor, his throat cut, blood splattered on Calen's face and pooling around her feet.

'You can't do this!' Rachel burst, and then turned to Larpskendya, 'You cannot allow this! These are people and you're allowing them to be slaughtered!'

Calen gave a grunt of frustration. 'They're just people, and they're responsible for genocide. They want to slowly unravel people's magic for their own use. I think it's justified to kill them.'

Rachel stood to face Calen. 'You think killing is justified.'

'There isn't another way to do this.' Calen walked away from the puddle of blood, and tried to clean the blood from her feet, in case it made her slip.

Rachel shot a glare to Larpskendya.

'Yes there is.' Larpskendya said, almost seeming reluctant.

Calen's mouth nearly dropped. 'Really? You want to endanger us all because a little girl you haven't seen in years gets angry at you?'

'Calen when the other four come back with reinforcements we trap them in this room and we aren't killing anyone.'

'What about that man?' Rachel asked quietly.

'You're all being obscene,' Calen looked around them all. 'You know my way works but because of a child who knows nothing you want to increase the chances of us dying?'

'I don't think you have a right to claim someone knows nothing given what you've done.' Larpskendya said evenly.

'Not helping.' Serpantha said awkwardly.

'As usual.' Calen quipped.

'Don't you understand I want to help you?' Larpskendya asked. 'I genuinely care about you and what happens to you beyond this point – we want to help.'

Calen laughed, but not from humour, as if she had become hysterical. 'You never cared. You knew what killing my mother would do to me, would put me through – yet you have the nerve to make me out to be evil.' Calen spat. 'You think you can criticize me? You excuse Heiki's actions due to force or manipulation. If I didn't comply with my mother I would have been killed but you don't excuse me.'

'That's because you've done things of your own accord too.' Larpskendya reminded.

Calen shot back, 'This is all I've ever known. I don't know anything else.'

'Which is why we excused you back then. What's your excuse now that you do know better?' Larpskendya asked.

'You have no idea what I've been through.'

'Anyone here could say the same.' Serpantha muttered absently, not wanting to get involved.

Calen paused before saying bluntly, 'You son's name – the one who died because of Griddas, not the useless blonde we have here – was his name Areglion?'

Serpantha froze. 'Who told you that? No one knew he was my son not even Heebra.'

Calen shrugged. 'I believe he said something about you.'

Serpantha took a moment before numbly replying. 'Calen when this is all over you can go into space and live wherever and however you want to because frankly I give up on you.'

'You're beginning to sound like my mother.' Calen laughed. 'I think given you didn't know this you should perhaps reconsider who you offer hospitality to on your planet. But they are victims and I am not.'

'Nothing is that black and white,' Serpantha countered. 'you trusted my father, a stranger, above me. That's why I'm frustrated with you. Is that so hard to comprehend?'

'Then maybe consider why I trusted him. He gave me what I wanted and what I knew I knew nothing of what you had to offer me.' Calen didn't let him reply. 'This isn't the time anyway let's go get your precious other child and the Sprite.'

'Bitch,' Heiki muttered under her breath, holding back her anger.

'Don't take out your anger at the fact your parents didn't love you on me.' Calen replied, looking down on the girl she had once trained, and even been fond of.

'Says the failed Witch,' Heiki responded as calmly as she could.

'Should have killed her.' Venibilles added.

'Can we all stop arguing and just get out of 'ere?' Zina asked dejectedly. 'I wanna go 'ome.'

Without warning, Calen turned and ran, continuing deeper into the facility.

Serpantha was the first to act, moving face to face with his brother. 'If you say another word to Calen I will be the one killing you not Safeke do you understand me?'

'Are we going after her?' Larpskendya asked.

'No we're going to sit here and wait until we die of old age, and we can spend the entire afterlife arguing over whose fault it is that we're dead.'

'Serpantha Rakafae!' Oriliagh interrupted them. 'This is hardly the time, you and I will go ahead to get Calen and your brother can lead everyone else following behind.'

'I'm coming too,' Heiki demanded. 'I can go ahead with a gun – in case.'

'If you hurt anyone I will never talk to you again.' Rachel said, forcing her assertiveness, nearly choking on the words.

Heiki groaned. 'I've hurt people before and I couldn't care less Rachel, this is about survival and you do what you have to.'

'You don't have to kill,' Rachel pleaded with her, putting her hand on Heiki's shoulder.

Heiki instantly hit Rachel's hand away. 'Don't touch me!'

Rachel stood open mouthed, not knowing what to say. She narrowed her eyes and eventually asked, 'What's wrong with you?'

Heiki trembled slightly, holding in tears. 'Just stop it. I'm just…wound up at the moment.'

'Why did you tell me not to touch you?' Rachel asked drawing closer.

'Rachel I wouldn't.' Serpantha told her softly. 'It isn't important right now, stopping my father is.'

Rachel's mind raced back nearly a decade, to a bored stone angel in a Chilean graveyard who had told her not to touch her. Why was Heiki acting like this again? She even seemed to go back to being angry, lashing out at people unnecessarily, and acting as they did when they first met.

'Heiki…' Rachel said dejectedly. Rachel knew Heiki had been trained to kill, but only if it was absolutely needed for self-defence, not if it was an easy way out as it was now. Rachel reached out to try and touch her arm.

'Just get away from me.' Heiki said firmly, and Rachel's arm stopped mid-air in compliance. 'You pick the worst times to do this, Rach.'

'I don't even know you anymore. Who are you? You know everything about me but you won't tell me things. Tell me why you don't want me to touch you you're being ridiculous.'

'I know I am.' Heiki murmured. 'Just forget about all this.'

'Don't you care about me?' Rachel said meaningfully. 'Heiki I love you, you know everything about me. But your deepest secrets, things like your childhood – Serpantha knows, Calen knows, Larpskendya knows, why can't I?'

'Rachel drop it.' Heiki said coldly.

'Tell me!'

'Rachel you didn't grow up like I did – you weren't shipped around from home to home, carer to carer, because no one actually gave a shit about me. You didn't grow up partially deaf and blind, having other children pick on you every day; you didn't start therapy and pills when you were eight.' Heiki's voice grew more frantic as she continued. 'You weren't unwanted, you weren't shunned by everyone, you weren't abandoned by your parents in a park at two years old and admitted to hospital when you were eventually found! You didn't have to be force-fed; I did because I was in such a state.'

'He…Heiki I—'

'Shut up! You didn't have to feel the way I did, and you didn't have to be left and rejected by everyone you ever cared about. If I hadn't been able to fix my sight and hearing through magic, you wouldn't have bothered with me, I don't think Calen would have either. You're such an idiot Rachel, you just don't get anything, do you?'

'I'm sorry,' Rachel retreated.

Heiki only grew more distressed. 'Maybe I don't want you to touch me and you should have the common decency to respect that – unlike everyone else, because when people from school found out I flinched or freaked out when they touched me they'd do it more – like a game – and you're acting like that! And then you have to audacity to say that I don't care. Rachel I…' Heiki drained her anger, and she became choked on words. 'Rachel I love you and I know this is hard for you, it is for everyone, but please I…' Heiki paused. 'I never told you because I wanted you to like me. I didn't want you to think I was any more of a freak than you already probably did. Besides, if you didn't pity me you wouldn't have bothered.'

'That isn't true,' Rachel said sheepishly.

'Yes it is,' Heiki shot back. 'It's obvious why Calen knows, and I told Serpantha because, no offense to you Oriliagh, he didn't have the greatest parents or childhood in the world to say the least, but you…you don't understand what it's like – and I never want you to but…'

Heiki trailed off and began to calm herself, and quietly added, 'And Larpskendya knows because of Toyé – she was the one who originally raised the alarm about me.'

A thick air of silence filled the room.

'This is awkward…' Venibilles said eventually, but then looked down to his feet when everyone looked at him for speaking.

Heiki brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. 'We need to get on with this, don't mind my hysterics over everyone I've ever loved leaving me. You already know I'm crazy – people on earth used to always say I went crazy because I went off my meds when I met Calen. That a dyke like me must want to join a matriarchal lesbian society that wants to kill men. You know how responded? I put them on the front line for defence of Earth.'

'Heiki I know you've been hurt but you can't treat people like you do, you—'

'Rachel open your eyes to what's happening here.' Heiki said emphatically. 'Things can't always go perfect and be done by a moral code sometimes strategy works better and you need to shut up and let things play out until we're safe again.'

Rachel shook her head, wanting to cry. 'I'm done with you.'

'Good!' Heiki sneered, before securing her grip on the gun and running down further into the base.

'Heiki!' Serpantha bellowed, and when she didn't respond he turned to Rachel and said, 'Congratulations on that one, Heiki isn't in the place right now and you just had to push her because her morals aren't perfect. I'm going after her, you all follow on slowly behind.'

No one said a word as Serpantha ran forward.

Her and Calen are practically the same person, he thought. The only difference is Calen knows how to survive in this kind of world, Heiki only knows how to fight.

'What the hell just happened?' Zina said, almost sounding annoyed.

'Let's follow on and get this over with.' Larpskendya replied emotionlessly.

''Ight.' Zina's voice was full of apathy and exasperation.

To Serpantha's surprise, he found Calen and Heiki in the same place, stood next to each other in silence. It was so unexpected that for a few seconds he was caught off-guard, and wasn't able to speak himself. He was about to ask what they were doing when he saw the unconscious woman in front of them, clutching her head.

'What did you do?'

They both turned around in synchronization and said, 'Nothing.'

'Dead?' Serpantha asked.

'No,' Heiki replied, returning to her normal self. 'Injured – I'm not a doctor but I'd say something's wrong with her head. I found Calen down here with her.'

'Ruptured ear drums,' Calen said quietly. 'Lyrai.'

Serpantha nodded. 'That may be for the best.'

'What?'

'Sprites communicate like whales or dolphins; I imagine she let out a certain frequency that would do this to the human in this base – incapacitating them for us. She must have done it just after Calen entered.'

'Damn.' Heiki said approvingly. 'Where is everyone?'

'Following on behind, I ran after you – don't do that again. Ever. Either of you. I don't care how pissed off you get you don't run off in these situations. Gods Heiki I taught you better than that.'

'Can we just get on with this so we all never have to talk to each other again?' Calen said pungently.

'Oh stop wallowing in self-pity and just be decent for once in your life.'

'Heiki!' Rachel exclaimed upon seeing her again and then she looked to the dead body at her feet, 'Heiki…please don't—'

'Rachel listen to me.' Heiki said firmly, shakily asserting herself. 'Look at me. Who do you value more here? I'm not saying one life should ever be more valuable than another but look around – these are the people, with the exception of one, that matter to you. These are the people you love and care about. If we don't do this all these people you know and love die.'

'But they don't deserve to die,' Rachel said, voice quavering.

'These people,' Heiki began heavily, 'contributed and allowed a society that committed genocide, even if it was on High Witches it's still genocide and it's sick. Rachel these are the people who have slowly murdered people for their magic, and these are the people who killed Volüsa's brother, and destroyed Volüsa's life, for no reason.'

'I know,' she replied numbly. 'but this is wrong. I feel sick.'

'Rachel…' Heiki was silent for a moment. 'I know you're strong and you need to be strong right now. Despite all the shit we've been through you still remain a beautiful, loving and forgiving person. I don't think I'll ever stop being in awe of that. We're all bitter and you… you're beautiful. And you deserve far, far more than this.'

'So do you,' Rachel said instantly. 'besides my appearance has nothing to do with anything.'

'No I don't, Rachel. And I wasn't just talking about your appearance.'

'Just please don't hurt anyone else.' Rachel muttered.

'I didn't,' Heiki explained. 'Lyrai did with her whale call or something – it should have eliminated anyone in the area, she cleared the path for us.'

'I suppose we're ready, we just need to go further down and then summon my father.' Serpantha said with visible anxiety.

'You do have a plan then? What are we going to do? What can I do?' Rachel asked almost desperately.

'Nothing,' Serpantha replied with a small smile. 'Just trust me on this and listen, promise?'

Rachel nodded. 'How do we get your father here?'

'Easily. I want to make a deal with him – and I know he's been watching us this entire time, on and off. Calen, Larpskendya is exhausted and I'm saving what little I have to fight my father, send out a signal left by twenty degrees of where you would send it if you were aiming for Ool.'

'Why?' Calen asked, preparing herself.

'That's Orin Fen.' Serpantha said calmly. 'Ool and Orin Fen can both be mapped from Earth, although bare in mind Orin Fen is further away from Earth than Ool.'

'It was that easy?' Calen seemed dejected by the fact. 'It could be mapped from here; it was never even that far?'

'It wouldn't have been easy when we had shields around out planet – it would have taken your kind centuries to break through, but Eric destroyed them all and then Lyrai put up a pathetic protection which we had to take down anyway. Now send the signal, then we'll go to the room Cy found out about.'

'I don't want to confront him,' Calen said sincerely, 'I don't like any of this. I want to go home and I don't even know what that is anymore.'

Serpantha gave a single nod, and then gestured for Calen to send out the signal.

Taking a deep breath, she did.