Sain'ja sat up in the trees along with his friends. All of them were cloaked and currently hunting River Ghosts. However, his mind was elsewhere that day, as it had been for a few days now, although he still managed to be ahead of the other three in their number of kills. He was thinking about the human female who had left before. He didn't think anyone else knew what she had done, and that she was still in the safety of his home, but he hadn't heard from her in a week and he doubted she would've just brought her friends over here and left them alone.

His concern and far-off expression didn't escape the others.

"Sain'ja, are you ok? You've been kind of distant lately," Adahy said.

Fox nods, "You'd normally be the first one to jump in there and fight them all at once."

Sain'ja shrugged.

"Sain'ja, what's going on? What aren't you telling us?" Adahy asked.

If something was wrong, he couldn't keep it a secret forever; they would all know about the truth if they got back to camp and found she wasn't there. Plus, they hadn't even seen one of the other humans yet- dead or alive- when normally they could hunt them down within a couple hours depending on how far away they were. Maybe it would be best if they knew…

Makya grips him on one shoulder, snapping him back to reality. Sighing, he told them how Nina had gone off to leave for the other humans the night before they had left to continue the hunt. They shook their heads, amazed at how stupid she could be for doing this.

"She should know that she's an exception. What does she expect to do once she brings them back over here? They're as good as dead either way, if they aren't already. They're still prey."

"I tried to tell her that, but I only ticked her off and made her more determined to find them. She said they're people to her."

After a moment of thinking and wondering what to do, Sain'ja stood up. "She's my responsibility. She spared me and she saved one of the Elders. Whether she's a complete idiot or not, I should go after her in case she's still alive. If I stay cloaked, I should be able to grab her and go before any Bad-Bloods now it." He began moving away, his decision set.

"Sain'ja wait up," Fox called, following him through the trees.

"You know this is what I have to do, it's my duty."

"We know, we're coming with you."

Sain'ja stopped and looked back at his friends, who had all their weapons ready and moved with him. He shook his head. "Unacceptable. None of you need to get involved."

"Maybe not, but we want to," Adahy added, "If anything, to get a little payback for their assassination attempt." Sain'ja understood how he felt; the Elder that had been attacked was Adahy's own great-grandfather. Still, he didn't think the Elder would like it if he put Adahy's life at risk. Especially against the Super Predator Clan.

"No. That's final."

"We're coming anyway. You might be able to tell us what to do as a hunting party, but this doesn't exactly count," he said with a devilish grin.

Under his mask, Sain'ja rolled his eyes. They were right, yet he still didn't think they should come, but what could he do? "Fine," he eventually grumbled.

They had been moving for a few hours, traveling in the trees near the river- there would be a good opening to the other territory there- when Makya spotted the earth moving a little, he stopped the others and pointed in that direction. After a few minutes, a human hand popped out of the mud, along with the rests of its body.

Colton looked around, making sure there weren't any threats nearby. Since finding himself alone in the jungle, he found the river and always stayed by it where ever there was a nice, deep patch of mud. Then he would sink himself in it- experimenting with Nina's survival technique against the Predators- until he got hungry or thirsty. He always hid his shoes, along with his other equipment, in some plants so he wouldn't wind up with trench foot.

Thinking all was clear, he got out of the mud and began walking toward the tree line to get his pack. Makya jumped down right in front of him, causing Colton to fall backward in surprise. When he deactivated his cloaking device, Colton's eyes widened in terror and he started screaming, trying to quickly scoot away from the Youngblood.

Makya kept walking to him until Colton was trapped between him and the rushing river. Colton didn't have a single weapon on him at the time to fight back with. To his shock, the young Predator leaned a hand down to him to help him get back on his feet.

"Umm, thanks?"

Nina bit her lip as a sharp whip cracked against her bare back for the fourteenth time in a row. Her wrists were bound with rope. The Bad-Bloods had let her keep her earpiece in, but only so she could understand what they were saying- or threatening- during the interrogation. Other than that and the blood that flowed from her fresh wounds, she was stark naked. They had taken her clothing in order to increase her misery.

The leader of the Bad-Bloods whipped her until he had done it twenty times. The hunt for her and the others had been called off right after she had been knocked out- no one wanted to miss the torture this creature deserved. He pulled her by the hair, jerking her head back so she would be forced to look up and face him.

"You can end your pain right now, Ooman. Just tell us the way to get in the settlement without being noticed, and you'll be put to a quick rest."

"Did you try using a map?" Nina asked sarcastically.

Frowning, he let go of her hair and began whipping her again. Other Yautja from the Super Predator Clan cheered him on enthusiastically. Nina began to see black spots dance across her vision and wondered if she would pass out from blood loss or pain soon, but another snap of the whip kept bringing her back, keeping her alert and fully awake for every minute.

It had gone on like this for a few days; Nina would wake up to be tortured, a bucket of ice water would be poured on her to clean her up a bit, and she would be fed a small enough amount of food, just enough to keep her alive- just barely. The interrogations would begin and go on for hours, but she refused to tell them anything. Other Predators would take turns whipping or cutting her, once or twice she had been electrocuted. At nightfall, fatal wounds would be healed and she would be allowed to go to sleep.

After ten more cracks of the whip, the leader kicked her, gladly watching as she breathed heavily. "Do you have anything else to say, pest?"

Once she caught her breath, she smirked, "Two things actually. One; get a breath mint. And two; Have you considered taking anger management classes?"

Picking her up by the back of her neck, he slammed and pinned her to one of the monoliths with all his might. Nina yelped from the impact. One of the others then got the idea to try branding, and picked up a metal rod meant for hanging meat over a fire, and set the tip of it in the flames. The leader gave a nod of acknowledgement as he took the now red hot bar in his hands. Nina could feel the heat radiating from it as he began to stick it to one of her shoulder blades. She braced herself.

A large branch snapped from above and landed in right front of two Bad-Bloods, startling them. They looked around, but couldn't see anyone. Everyone was silent.

A loud whistling sound came from the far right. They looked to spot Corin, now healed and holding his gun. "Mind if I join the party?" He fired at the leader's head than ran off.

The shot hit the leader in the arm. It wouldn't matter much, but it still filled him with rage to know the male had succeeded in landing a blow. Dropping the rod and releasing Nina- who slumped to the ground- he chased after Corin, grabbing his weapons. The other Predator's followed.

"Corin…" Nina shook her head, which was throbbing like crazy, "Corin, no…"

Struggling, her legs wobbling, she used the monolith to support herself up and risked taking a few small steps. I can do this. I have to help him. Once she found she was able to do that much, she tried taking another, only to slip with a painful gasp and fall forward, closing her eyes.

She didn't land on the ground. She looked to see she was leaning forward. An invisible force held her around the waist, stopping her from falling and keeping her up. Small blue sparks flew, and a Predator's arm appeared. With some effort, Nina looked over to the side to see who it was. Sain'ja stood there, wearing his mask and tilting his head to one side, taking in her condition.

Nina looked up at him surprised and hurt. She hadn't expected him to come to her rescue, not after him saying what he felt about her coming here in the first place and her yelling at him in turn. A pang of guilt also hit her hard. She had failed him. She hadn't been able to activate the self-destruct device in time and now he was putting himself at risk for her mistake. Looking back down, she began crying.

Sain'ja watched her; he had never seen a creature shed tears before unless they were truly in pain, but she had dealt with so much worse and he had seen he just seconds ago take on so much torture with a lot of courage and will power. So why did she cry now?

He didn't like it.

He gently picked her up under her knees, then found a large, soft cloth, helping her shaking and fumbling hands wrap it around her nude form so she could cover herself. Looking back down, he saw the self-destruct device smashed and destroyed on the dirt. Nina saw it too and covered her mouth with one hand, turning her face away as she sobbed onto his chest.

Now he understood. He walked away from the camp, carrying her, and once he was far enough, sat against the bark of a large tree. Both his friends and hers had teamed up to distract and fight the Bad-Bloods while he got her out of there and worked on healing her.

Sain'ja brushed away a section of hair that had flopped into Nina's face. She looked up at him. He was being so gentle with her. Wouldn't he be mad or disappointed? As he kept brushing and caressing the side of her face, her eyes started to close. Her body went limp in his arms.

He checked her vital signs and shook his head; he didn't have the kind of equipment she would need to be healed completely and her heart rate was dropping. Sain'ja took out his medicomp. Lifting her body up a little, he pulled back the cloth-which was already bloody- and saw the several cuts from the times she had been whipped. His muscles tensed in fury.

He rubbed some medicine onto her skin, then let her lay back in his lap, holding her head up. She was still sniffling a little in her sleep. He wished he could tell her everything would be fine, but he wasn't completely certain himself.

For someone so strong, he had nearly forgotten how fragile she could be at the same time.

Right now, he wished he could tell her everything. About how sorry he was for allowing her to leave; It would've been for her own good if he had tied her up and had someone look after her while he was gone. About for calling her kind game right to her face. About for his father killing hers and leaving her alone in the world. Sain'ja knew his father never would have done it if he had known she existed. No honorable Yautja would've.

Right. That was another thing he owed her, at least through his father; someone to have watched over her and raised her as she grew up. He swore he would at least try to make up for everything.