Raina stumbled slowly to a stop as a monster's roar filled her ears, her mind, her body. She fell to the ground and Vector tumbled from her shoulders into her arms. She clung tight to the unconscioius Joiner, and some inane part of her wondered if Cipher Nine would be angry with her. Or jealous.

She'd never even know how he'd died.

Seconds passed, and the roar finally ended.

Silence.

For the first time in what felt like a lifetime, the prison was completely quiet. The rakghouls didn't move, didn't snarl or growl. They just stood, waiting.

"Raina." A voice in her commlink. Her father's voice was steady, controlled. "Are you alright? Do you know what's going on?"

Raina didn't say anything. She was too afraid of breaking the spell.

The sound started again, and Raina shivered. But it was just one voice, growing quietly. A few rakghouls shifted, down the hallway. Then another of the monsters, more than twice as large as the others, pushed through the swarm.

"Raina, please tell me you're alright," whispered her comm.

The rakghoul was wearing a tattered white labcoat.

"It's the doctor," she whispered. She raised a hand to touch her commlink. "It's Doctor Lokin. He's here."

Doctor Lokin approached, and she couldn't help shrinking away. He paid it no mind, though. It was weird to see a rakghoul, especially such a large one, fumbling through its pockets, but in a moment there were three vials sitting in front of Raina. One was kolto, the other two she didn't recognize.

Then Doctor Lokin brought out a syringe gun and grouped it wit hthe kolto and one of the other vials. From another pocket, he brought… a spray bottle?

It wasn't time for questions. Raina wasn't sure she could have formed coherent ones even if it were. All she could do was take the vials and apply them one by one, first to herself, then to Vector. The aerosol smelled overwhelmingly bad, but the two injections cleared her mind and suppressed the acid the rakghoul wounds had spread through her identity.

Without waiting for her breathing to return to normal, Doctor Lokin – still in his monstrous rakghoul form – picked up Vector and led the way to the med bay. Raina struggled to her feet and followed.

The swarm was starting to make noise again, growling and snarling and snapping at each other, but not moving to attack. They moved out of the way of the larger rakghoul, and Raina stayed close enough to him that they let her pass, too.

There was a scream from inside, and Raina belatedly keyed her comm and said, "we're coming in."

A shout of, "it's alright! This one's okay!" came from ahead, but the other shouting and screaming didn't stop until Raina entered the room.

She fell to her knees again when she crossed the threshold. After everything, normal gravity felt like too much. It was all she could do to crawl further into the room.

"You should all be as quiet as you can," she managed, not even looking up. "The noise is agitating the ones outside."

Hands grabbed her and pulled her to her feet and further into the room. Her father's hands. The held her up long enough for her to get a look at the room.

It was a standard, pristine medical facility, except that it had been torn apart. Aside from a couple of occupied beds, the slight metal frames and their mattresses were piled beside the doors. The drawers and cupboards of medicine all hung open and mostly empty. Six people were in the room, only two of whom were standing. Two sat against the wall, and the last two lay on beds. Rakghouls littered the entryway, and Raina almost tripped over one as she was taken towards a mattress with no frame.

He tried to lay her down, but she sat. Barely. When her father stepped back to get a look at her, it gave her a chance to see him properly for the first time. He was covered in blood. It was all over him, especially his arms. Why didn't he look wounded?

"She's been bitten!"

Who was that? Raina turned and saw somebody else in a white coat. Not Doctor Lokin. This one was human, and a lot younger. Red-haired and scared. Raina tried to reassure him.

"Don't worry," she said, "it was only claws. I can't even feel them."

For some reason, that didn't comfort the man. That made Raina sad.

"She's been vaccinated," her father snapped. "Now get over here and help her. She's in shock!"

"No," Raina insisted, standing up, "Vector-"

She fell forward before she could say any more. Her father caught her, but it hurt her arms and back.

"By the stars," whispered a voice behind her. Then another pair of hands grabbed her and sat her back down. She tried to turn her head to see the other person, but her father held her head.

"Well, the bleeding's stopped. Officer-"

"Raina. Her name's Raina."

"Officer Raina. Did you have your own kolto?"

"No," Raina shook her head. "Doctor Lokin gave me some." She pointed at the old man, just in case anybody didn't know.

It took her a second to realize that might be a bad idea.

"Doctor- that beast has a name? Why would you call it doctor?!"

Well, there was no need to get hysterical. Raina frowned at the lack of professionalism. She tried to frown at the doctor, but her father still wouldn't let her turn around.

"Doctor Yngran," Darren Temple said, in a voice that was so calm it had to be a threat, "we have absolutely no room for details right now. That rakghoul will not attack you unless you do something that makes me, Raina, or Mr. Hyllus over there angry. Until then, it is your best chance of surviving this."

It got really quiet behind Raina.

Her back was starting to hurt, too.

Doctor Lokin strode over over to them, though, by rights, he should have lumbered, and pointed to Raina's side.

Her side…? Her belt! She took the spray bottle from it and proffered it to the rakghoul. He just shook his head and pointed to Darren Temple.

The old spy wrinkled his nose. "Is that the stuff that's making you smell like a military ration that's been marinating in stale sweat for a month?"

Raina blushed and nodded.

Darren Temple looked at Doctor Lokin. "Rakghoul pheromones?"

Doctor Lokin nodded as well.

It took a reluctant Darren Temple seconds to spray himself down, and then he handed it back to a frowning Raina. Something was wrong, even if she wasn't thinking quickly enough to be certain of it just yet.

Staring at the bottle, she realized what it was.

The bottle was three-quarters empty. There was only enough for one more person. There were still five people in the med bay who hadn't been treated, and…

"Kaliyo!" Raina keyed her commlink again, hoping for some response this time. "Kaliyo, are you there?"

Dead silence.

Poor choice of words.

Raina held up the spray bottle to the rakghoul doctor. "Can we protect the patients without this?"

In spite of his appearance, Doctor Lokin managed to mirror Darren Temple's incredulous look. "We can't bring them with us," Darren hissed. "They'll panic, the ones who can even move. We won't make it with them in tow."

Doctor Lokin nodded in agreement. The first time the two old spies had agreed on anything.

It was just like he'd said earlier, but suddenly Raina realized that her father had never had any intention of saving anyone. The moment the rakghouls appeared, he'd chosen to abandon the mission and save only one person: his daughter.

Raina's hand shot out before she even realized what she was doing, so fast that her ears registered the resounding smack before she properly felt the pain of her wounds.

She glared at her stupefied father and stared down the equally dumbstruck Lokin. "Cipher Nine warned me this could happen," she hissed, "that your experience might get in the way of your morals. Under his orders, I'm taking command of this mission. We're saving everyone, no matter what."

"Raina," Darren said, "Cipher Nine is dead."

"Then that was his last order," she snapped. "Now both of you start figuring something out." Then she walked past them to the others in the med bay, but not without a parting, "and don't let any other rakghouls in here!"

When she reached Doctor Yngan, who was trembling on the other side of the room from Lokin, she looked around at his patients and gave him a meaningful look.

Yngan nodded. "Yes, this is everyone. After the evacuations, we finally had room to breath. It was just the check-ups I could handle and those two I didn't want moved when..." He trailed off meaningfully.

Raina latched on to the important information there. "They can't be moved?"

Doctor Yngan gestured at small tubes in the patients' nostrils and IVs leading to their hands. "I didn't want to risk it." Then something seemed to click and his eyes focused properly on her. "You should be lying down. Kolto only does so much for shock, and those wounds are a full kolto immersion away from being manageable."

Raina shook her head, though mention of her injuries made them throb and burn. "Check on my partner. He's unconscious, took a bolt from a malfunctioning blaster."

The man lookedher up and down before slumping slightly. "At least sit down," he said, and moved to check on Vector.

Leaving Raina to find some way of getting everyone out of the facility without moving two of the patients. Except that wasn't possible. Any way they used to get out would require running and fighting. Doctor Lokin couldn't ferry people out, because that would leave the people in the med bay unprotected. They couldn't spray the two immobile people, because they didn't have enough pheromone left. There wasn't a secret exit or anything. Scorpio would have provided the information, then.

Raina sat down a little too heavily on the floor. She'd gotten used to the low gravity outside, and the normal gravity in the med bay was…

Was…

The grav generator! If they couldn't escape the rakghouls, they'd have to get rid of them. In the med bay and safe rooms, everyone was sheltered from the main generator's gravity. Elsewhere, though… if Raina could get down to the generator and override the safeties, they might have a way of clearing out the rakghouls without risking anyone. Raina would have to go alone, leaving Doctor Lokin to guard the room and her father to keep everyone from panicking, but it could work!

It had to work. And if they could find Kaliyo, if Kaliyo was still alive to find, maybe this mission wouldn't have been a complete waste of life.

That part, even she couldn't convince herself of.

"Doctor," she called. When both man and rakghoul turned to face her, she clarified, "Doctor Yngan. Does the med bay have grav suits?"

The main generator was at the bottom of the facility. The only elevator was near the entrance. The whole trip would take time, far too much time for them to make it back, maybe too much to even get to a safe room afterward. Grav suits would be the only sure way to survive the enhanced gravity.

Doctor Yngan nodded and pointed to a closet in the back corner of the room. "But they aren't armoured, they can't – no, no please don't stand up, ma'am! You're seriously injured!"

Raina ignored him and walked over to the closet. Inside were two grav suits that looked to be in perfect shape. She took out the first one and, over the protests of the doctor, started putting it on.

"Raina," said another voice, hard enough to cut through Doctor Yngan's protests. Darren Temple, now standing beside Raina, stared at her coldly. "What are you planning?"

"I'm going to repair the grav gener- ah!" Raina hissed as her movements pulled at her wounds. She could feel the wetness that meant it had started bleeding again. Not enough kolto and not enough time for proper healing. "Enough gravity should kill the rakghouls."

"And if that suit is damaged or doesn't have enough charge, you die, too. That's assuming your blood doesn't send them into a frenzy."

Them. Raina was trying desperately not to think about going out there again. It was the generator she needed to think about. The plan. Not… anything else.

Both father and daughter looked at the med bay entrance, where Doctor Lokin was growling at approaching rakghouls, keeping the few people left in the facility safe.

"We have to save who we can," Raina said, "and we have to stop the rakghouls before they escape."

"We have to save ourselves," her father corrected. "Lokin can get us out of here, then we hit this place from orbit. Then we figure out what to do with him."

For causing this, he meant. Raina sort of agreed with that last part. Saving them didn't absolve the doctor of having gotten hundreds of people killed.

Including Kaliyo. Which meant Cipher Nine had died, alone and halfway across the galaxy, for nothing.

"We've done enough harm," Raina said, and tried not to grit her teeth as the suit slid over her arms.

"Wait."

Raina stopped. Turned. It hadn't been her father who'd spoken.

"We will accompany you."

Vector was sitting up on his cot, awake and alert. Alive.

Doctor Yngan beat Raina to him by a few steps, but recoiled when he saw the Joiner's black eyes. That gave Raina the opportunity to kneel down beside her friend.

"Are you alright, Vector?"

He didn't nod or react, except to stand and walk towards the suit closet. His normal grace was missing in those first few steps; they were uneven, and he almost tripped, but the awkwardness was gone by the time he reached the other side of the room.

"Hyllus." Darren Temple caught up with Vector as he pulled out the other suit. "Don't encourage her. You're going to get both of yourselves killed. If you're going to leave, just take her and get to the ship."

Vector only put on his grav suit. It took him half the time it had taken Raina, and his leg wound didn't seem to bother him. He was standing beside Raina again in a minute.

"We are ready."

Both Darren Temple and Doctor Yngan tried to protest, but Raina just watched Vector. Something was off.

It occurred to her that the last thing Vector had heard before being shot was that his best friend was dead.

"Vector," she asked again, "are you okay?"

"We seem to have recovered from the guard's attack."

Which neatly dodged the real question.

"Vector," she tried again, "Cipher Nine-"

He started walking away, towards the med bay entrance, and passed Doctor Lokin before Raina cut off and hurried after him. It hurt her back whenever she hurried. Vector usually noticed things like that and took care of everyone.

The air changed as they entered the hall. Raina could smell and feel the rakghouls surrounding the door as much as she could see them. They were everywhere, jostling for position around the door, peering in and looking at the morsels within. Only Doctor Lokin kept them from approaching.

As if thinking the same thing, Vector turned, barely a meter from the nearest rakghoul, and called back, "Eckard."

Doctor Lokin strode to the entrance, in spite of the fact that something his size should, by all rights, lumber. The smaller monsters pulled back slightly as he approached, keeping a full few meters back.

When the doctor came up beside them, he placed clawed hands on their shoulders. It was light enough that it didn't hurt, but the claws felt sharp and dangerous through Raina's jacket.

Then Doctor Lokin roared, loud and long, and every one of the creatures scattered.

Vector led the way before the sound even stopped echoing.

The beasts didn't run far, and they didn't scatter well. Vector actually put a hand on one to push it aside as they entered the swarm. Raina wiped away tears and followed, stun baton gripped tight.

An Imperial did her duty. No matter what. Rakghouls leaned close and she breathed in their breath. Vector wouldn't talk, so she was forced to listen to the rakghouls' gurgling, purring sounds. She touched more than one, pushing past in the narrow hallways.

Eventually, Vector asked, "Kaliyo?"

Raina couldn't speak. She was passing within kissing distance of a rakghoul with what looked like strands of hair in its teeth. It was all she could do not to throw up, but she shook her head and hoped that would be enough.

It was almost reassuring how calm the creatures were when they didn't think there was meat nearby. Still, Raina waited until they'd gotten some space before saying, "we lost contact while you were unconscious. I... think she would have contacted us, if she could."

Before then, Raina would have thought Vector couldn't make facial expressions, except perhaps when his eyes were a more normal colour. Now, she realized how wrong she'd been. Vector's normally impassive face contorted in a mixture of disgust, anger, and despair. For the first time, he really seemed to focus on the rakghouls, but it wasn't with the same fear as Raina felt. Vector watched them with a look of pure hatred.

His voice, when he spoke, was still disturbingly emotionless. "The good doctor will answer for this." Then he set his shoulders and continued on towards the facility entrance, where the elevator waited.

Looking at the rakghouls, so close and so many, Raina wasn't sure what she would do if he decided not to take the elevator. If he went on to the ship, would she be brave enough to keep going without him?

Or would she be like her father?

The rakghouls shifted as one, turning to face the direction of the entrance. As one, they moved, and Raina almost screamed, almost swung her stun baton at them.

But they weren't attacking. They ignored Raina and Vector entirely, surging past like a grey river. Raina pressed herself against the wall while Vector stood amidst the stampede, and for almost a minute they watched the creatures pass them by.

Then, as the war cries faded down the halls, Vector spoke.

"Kaliyo."

A part of Raina wanted to believe it, if only to explain what had turned a simple walk through enemy territory into… whatever had just happened. Her heart was pounding so hard it made the gashes on her arms and back ache. Still, she couldn't let herself believe yet. "Vector," she whispered, "Kaliyo is-"

"No," Vector interrupted her. Again. He took a step across the hall and took her hand. "Kaliyo."

Then she felt it. That tangible sense of connection, that unique combination of rebellion, spite, and egotism that meant Kaliyo was somewhere close.

Instinctively, Raina reached out for the fourth of them, trying in vain to feel Cipher Nine out there somewhere. There was nothing. Of course. Even if he'd still been alive, he'd be too far away for the two of them to sense.

When Vector let go, all Raina could do was nod. Kaliyo was there, at the front of the rakghoul horde, and they had to save her.

They ran. It hurt. The grav suit, inactive, rubbed against her wounds even in the low gravity. She wasn't sure what they would do when they reached Kaliyo. Without guns or backup or the pheromones Doctor Lokin used, there wasn't a way to save the cutthroat.

"Do you hear?"

Raina almost asked, "hear what?" Then she realized.

Blasterfire.

She tried to run faster. Vector, in his graceful way, stayed just a step ahead of her. He guided her, in a way, showing her exactly where to step to move as fast as possible, even with the low gravity and dead weight of the suit and gashes in her arms and, worst of all, the knowledge of what they were running towards.

Under her gloves, her knuckles were white on her stun baton.

The blasterfire got louder, and the roaring and screeching of rakghouls came back into earshot. Except, something was off. There was a lot more blasterfire than Kaliyo could account for. Had she teamed up with some of the guards?

Raina could hear Kaliyo's response to that idea, and apparently the ensign's imagination had finally picked up enough profanity to properly emulate the rattataki. Her face reddened slightly, as much as it could, with how much blood she'd lost today.

"Stop." Vector spoke so softly and stopped so suddenly that he had to grab her and pull her back as she passed him. Raina let out a startled and pained scream as her arm twisted and her wound ground against the grav suit's metal. It might have been worth it, though. A flurry of blaster bolts flew down the hallway she'd been about to cross. Harmless, since Vector had made sure she wasn't in their way.

She turned to t hank him, but he was already speaking.

"We are sorry, Raina. Are you alright?"

That sounded more like the Vector she knew. Through the pain and the fear, she found herself smiling. "I'm alright, Vector."

It was a lie. Her arm was wet again, blood pouring out of the re-opened wound. Still, she was alive, and Vector hadn't meant to hurt her.

She peeked around the corner, then drew her head back quickly. There were a lot more blaster bolts where the first ones had come from.

"I think every rakghoul in earshot is already hear," she reported. "And whoever is with Kaliyo, they brought guns that can do the job."

It still wasn't the most efficient way of saving the prison. Who knew how many people were going to be killed in the direct conflict?

"Vector, what do we do?"

"We wait." The man leaned back against the wall, watcing the red streaks blur throug the air less than a meter away.

"But we should help!"

"They will be successful, with or without one stun baton," Vector said. Then he looked down the hallway they'd come from. "It seems you were incorrect."

Raina turned to follow his gaze. Her heart sank.

There were more rakghouls. All she could do was press herself against the wall until they passed.

Except they didn't. They slowed as they approached. They looked directly at her and Vector. Five of them spread out to surround the two humans.

But they couldn't be after her again. Doctor Lokin had made her spray herself. Vector, too.

She whimpered, but held out her stun baton and stepped forward. Her heart hurt, her back hurt, her head hurt.

Vector put his hand on hers.

"Ensign," he said softly, "you are very brave, but you should give us the baton."

He took it from her so smoothly that she didn't even resist.

The rakghouls crept closer. The blasterfire, mere meters away, didn't faze them. It lit them up, half of them glistening red, half shadowy grey. Every one hungry and horrid.

Without another option, Raina unholstered her blaster.

"Please stand back," Vector asked. One of the rakghouls made a questing swipe, and Vector countered the move smoothly, scorching the beast's hand. It growled and leaped back. "We need to move freely."

That was a good idea, but the halls were too narrow for her to take more than a step back, now.

An idea occurred to Raina. She glanced up at the high ceiling. There was another option.

She turned on her grav suit, activated zero-gravity, and gave a small hop.

It was disorienting, floating towards the roof, but it gave Vector enough room to drop into a proper fighting stance, and it gave Raina an excellent vantage point.

It was… very disorienting. She tried to aim her blaster at one of the rakghouls as it leaped at her friend, but there were black spots in her eyes. She fired, but the shot only hit the ground. Her fingers wouldn't squeeze the trigger again.

Vector dodged so quickly. He was hard to keep track of. They all moved so quickly.

Then she hit the ceiling, and the metal suit dug into her back. It hurt, but Raina didn't make a sound. She didn't do anything.

Everything was too dark…

"Hey! Hey, floaty! Get down here!"

Raina started awake, feeling worse than when she'd – she'd fallen asleep!

A second's flailing and yelling ended abruptly when her shoulder wound brought her back to her senses. She was in the air, floating in a grav suit, and Kaliyo was yelling at her.

Gentle hands pulled her to the ground and reactivated her gravity. Her feet hit the floor with a slight wobble, but then she was safe.

Raina looked around at a crowd of faces. "H-how long was I…?"

"Just under four minutes," Vector said. "You missed little."

Five rakghoul corpses on the ground said otherwise.

"Yeah, whatever," grunted Kaliyo, rapping knuckles on Raina's helmet. "Gimme your hand. Vector says we're doing touchy-feely crap to check something." Then she reached down and wrenched Raina's hand up. When Raina gasped, Kalyo rolled her eyes and bobbed her head at one of the helmeted figures. "Give her some bloody kolto, I'm not babying her through this."

Somebody stuck a med-gun into Raina's shoulder and there was a hiss as kolto pumped straight into her system.

"Bug-boy-" Vector took Kaliyo's other hand.

The feeling of them flooded through Raina. Kaliyo's anger and indignant protectiveness, Vector's calm and drive, and… there was…

"Cipher Nine!" Raina's eyes burst open. He was alive!

"We already informed you of this," one of the newcomers said, a little petulantly.

Kaliyo waved a dismissive hand.

Raina didn't know what filled her with more relief: finding Kaliyo, sensing Cipher Nine alive, seeing reinforcements, the kolto now running through her system.

"And," Raina asked, looking at the man who'd spoken, "who are you?"

"They're ex-Intelligence. Boss sent them here to help," Kaliyo said. She grinned, knowing she'd interrupted what the man had been about to say. "I found them on the way to the ship, figured they could make themselves useful."

"There are too many of them," Raina said, looking around at the twenty or more soldiers.

"Nah. I figure we got most of the raks on the way in. Right, bug-boy?"

Raina shook her head. "No, I mean, the way to get all the rakghouls. For sure. We have to overload the gravity generator in the base of the prison. We don't have enough grav suits for everyone, though."

One of the people in black stepped forward, a man not much larger than Raina. "Sounds like a good plan. We can raid the safe rooms and activate the generator as clean-up procedure. You, however, need to leave."

"Leave?" Raina couldn't help but feel indignant. "I can help."

"Yeah, no," Kaliyo said. She pulled off the helmet of Raina's suit. "Get this thing off. We're leaving these glory hounds to it and you're getting back to the ship."

"I don't-" Raina cut off as Kaliyo pulled off her sleeve. Not because it hurt, which it did, but because a stream of blood poured out for about five seconds. Raina watched it all pour out, splashing onto the floor in slow motion. Then she looked up and caught Kaliyo's eyes.

"I'll go wait in the ship."

"With the med shit."

"With the med sh- medical supplies."

They got the rest of the suit off together, and Kaliyo led Raina back towards the prison entrance, yelling and gesticulating the whole way. That was alright. It calmed her. It sort of calmed Raina, too.

When they'd first arrived, it had been a short walk from the ship to the facility. Going back, it felt quite a bit longer. Kaliyo didn't help, but then, she wouldn't unless Raina collapsed again.

It took the ensign until the ship's entry ramp before she realized Vector wasn't with them.

"Kaliyo," she said softly, "would you go keep Vector safe?"

"No," said the rattataki flatly, pulling her into the ship. "Now hurry up. Boss is gonna kick my ass when he hears the shape you're in. Do me a favour and don't tell him anything if we can patch you up before he's back."

The gravity change made her light-headed again, but Kaliyo got her to the med bay and hooked her up to the kolto machine. "Immersion when I get back," Kaliyo said, and turned to walk away.

"Where are you going?"

Kaliyo looked back at Raina like she was stupid. "I'm going to make sure the rest of those idiots don't get killed. Now sit still and shut up."

Then she was out the door.

Five seconds later, she walked back the other way.

"I need a new commlink," she snapped. "Shut up."

Raina smiled. It took another minute for her friend to find the comm and get out of the ship, but she wasn't worried. Vector and Kaliyo had come through for her today. So had Scorpio, and even Cipher Nine, in a way.

Raina lay back on the medical bed, sinking into the sheets as best she could with the gashes that pressed against them.

Everything was going to be alright.

_

Author's Note

This is the end of "The Rescue Mission", the companion piece to, "From Patriot to Iconoclast". That's not to say there won't be more companion pieces, but this should be the last you see of Cipher Nine and the crew of the Sanguine End for a while. I can only hope that I did justice to these characters and wrote them even half as well as I like to imagine. Any advice, complaints, or requests would be welcome, because I write all of this in the hopes of one day being a decent writer, and I'll never manage it without plenty of help.