Chapter 15: Falling Apart

In the town of Kayu, Holline was doing an adequate job of keeping Zala thoroughly distracted. The brute was going completely on the offensive, preferring to put down his opponent before pursuing his real targets. He felt that the quicker he dealt with the red-headed young woman the quicker he could chase down the assets.

He threw in a right hook towards Holline's head, but the young woman swiftly reacted by throwing up her left arm to block it, managing to do so with ease. Zala looked to Holline's arm and his own, noticing that his strength was waning. Regardless of that, he continued, throwing another punch towards Holline with his left hand.

Holline scoffed and simply swatted that hand away with her right hand, and without missing a beat, she leapt up and kicked Zala right in the face. As she kicked, she flipped back and threw two rapid Ki blasts down at the brute as she moved away. Both blasts crashed into Zala's body, while Holline dropped back to the ground. As she landed, she immediately took off in a charge towards Zala again.

He was too busy swiping at the space in front of his face, trying to get rid of the effects of her attacks, so he was oblivious to her movements. Holline stepped up onto a crate outside of a small house, jumped up onto a wall, and then onto the roof of the house, and managed to get herself above Zala again. She jumped off the roof towards him and punched down on his face.

Zala stumbled, having to set a foot back to steady himself, and his knees almost buckled. Holline dropped beside him and quickly spun around to kick Zala's back leg out from underneath him, so he started falling back anyway. But before Zala hit the ground, Holline stopped her spin and threw he hands forward, firing a pulse of Ki that threw the brute back into the air again.

His body flew in an arc and was likely to cause some damage wherever he landed, but Holline jumped up and flew towards him again, phasing right above him, only to hammer him down into an open space on the ground. Zala smacked down on his back and Holline landed a few metres away. She couldn't help but smirk as Zala struggled to get back to his feet.

"Had enough?" Holline asked, taunting him.

Zala scoffed as he slowly sat up, looking towards the girl again. He wasn't amused. However, there was something on the horizon, something that turned his small scoff into a light chuckle. There was the amusement.

Holline's smirk faded, and she frowned, as the rest of her senses kicked into gear, and she could hear something approaching. She followed Zala's eyes and turned around to see a helicopter, coming towards the town.

While on approach, the Helicopter started to turn so that it was facing side-on, and Holline saw a bunch of soldiers standing at the edge, with their weapons ready. Her eyes widened as they opened fire upon her. Holline started darting from side-to-side, in a zigzag motion, doing her absolute best to avoid all the gunfire.

The helicopter was lowering while the soldiers continued to shoot, and once it was about two feet from the ground, most of the troops on-board departed and the helicopter ascended again. However, at this point, all the gunfire had stopped. It allowed Zala the time to get back to his feet, and he started to walk towards the redhead again. Holline didn't move, perplexed by the sudden halt of gunfire.

"Hey!" a male voice yelled from in front of Holline, amongst the group of soldiers.

Holline didn't move as the man stepped forward, but he wasn't looking at Holline. He was looking past her, towards Zala.

"Where are the assets? What's going on here?" the man, asked. He was fully decked out in tactical gear, with rolled up sleeves, and short hair that was greying at the sides.

Zala had stopped walking, confused about the man who was addressing him.

Meanwhile, standing in the middle between the group of soldiers, and the brute, there was Holline. She could tell that the man, for the moment, was focused on Zala, and that probably meant that Zala was distracted too. Also, the soldiers were all unlikely to open fire in this situation. She had to take her chance, and act fast, and that she did.

She powered up, flaring her aura, and she threw off a strong pulse of energy that emanated from her whole body. It was enough to blow Zala and the soldiers off their feet, and back to a safe distance. As a bonus, the ground around them shook and all the soldiers began to lose their footing, with some even falling down.

Not only that, but the wave rippled through the air and was strong enough to have an effect on the helicopter above them. Whoever was piloting clearly started to lose control and the helicopter went into an abrupt turn, as if falling. During all the commotion, the soldiers on the ground that were still standing opened fire on Holline again.

That was her cue to exit, although as she darted towards the houses and rounded a corner she was just clipped by a bullet, and it managed to splatter a little bit of blood on the wall behind her. She hit the wall as she rounded the corner and stumbled slightly but managed to stay up and quickly rushed on.

"Go after her!" the greying soldier shouted to the troops behind him. "And fan out, I want those assets found!"

Then he approached Zala, who was just pulling himself back to his feet.

"And you! Tell me what's going on, now!"

Outside of the town, down the mountain path that led towards the neighbouring villages and Rinjin, #17 was still very much engaged in conflict with Avure and Dole. But his goal had never truly been to fight and beat them. He was simply wasting their time and stopping them from helping their ally in the town. It was mainly Avure that was fighting with #17 anyway, with Dole not offering much in the way of contribution.

#17 jumped up above Avure and flipped as he moved, the slammed his foot down on the top of Avure's head, which sent the man smacking into the ground, flat on his front. Following that, #17 flipped away, landing right in front of Dole. The small man took a step back.

"Are you going to make any effort?" #17 asked the mohawk man.

Dole panicked and went to draw his gun, but #17 easily slapped it out of his hand, then sent his knee crunching into the gut of the smaller man. He doubled over and fell to his knees on the ground, then fell into the fetal position, gripping onto his gut.

Avure had taken this time to get back to his feet and broke into a charge, rushing for #17. The Android knew what was going on, smirked, and he jumped up over Avure, managing to flip and kick him in the back of the head as he did. That sent Avure continuing forward, but his run was out of control, and he stumbled towards Dole, who still lay on the floor, and he inevitably crashed right into him.

"Ugh, get off me, man!" Dole exclaimed, struggling to breathe and push his large friend off.

Avure managed to roll himself off onto his front. He pushed up and broke into another charge towards #17. The Android just sighed.

"I've wasted enough of your time," #17 muttered, and he raised his hand, ready to call an end to the fight, but something caught his eye.

It was a helicopter coming through the valley, towards them.

"Huh…" #17 said, "that's new."

Immediately, the rapid-fire machine-guns mounted on the side of the helicopter, and on the front, opened fire on the android.

"Oh crap!" #17 exclaimed, as his eyes went wide, and he found himself struggling to dodge all the intense gunfire.

The soldiers started to descend from the helicopter as it hovered over the mountain path, continuing to fire on #17. Once the soldiers were on the ground, they all started to open fire too. Avure and Dole were a little lost, confused, and uncomfortable about everything that was happening all around them.

A woman rushed up beside them and grabbed onto Dole's arm, forcefully. She turned him around, so that he was facing her.

"Where are the assets?" she asked.

"Um… they're in the town, with Zala, Zala has them," Dole said, hoping that was exactly what she wanted to hear, even though he wasn't entirely sure where they were. "Are you the ones Zen sent?"

The woman wasn't given a chance to answer as a voice came through her communicator.

"Captain," a man's voice said.

"What is it?" she asked.

"We're in the town but the assets aren't here," the man replied. The woman looked up at Dole, who simply went wide-eyed. "They're gone," added the man on the other end.

"You!" she said, poking Dole in the chest. "You failed your mission."

"I… I… we… um… I didn't… oh God," Dole stammered, unable to get control of himself.

In the meantime, #17 was getting increasingly frustrated with the helicopter and the soldiers firing on him. He yelled as he powered up an energy barrier to block from the gunfire, and he used that time to power up a Ki blast with both hands that he fired at the immediate moment he dropped the barrier.

The blast sailed towards the helicopter, and all the soldiers, including the captain, Avure, and Dole all watched as it happened.

"Oh no," the captain said, followed by a yell of "GET DOWN!"

The blast hit just below the helicopter's blades, blowing up that mechanism, and they slowed to a halt almost immediately, sending the helicopter spinning and falling into the valley.

Android #17 took that as his best moment to turn and head towards the town, knowing that Holline could probably do with an assist. At the same time, Avure and Dole saw all the commotion as their best chance to get up and rush away from the scene, to safety, away from the soldiers that were angry at them, and away from anyone that could beat them up.

As the situation settled, and the soldier got back to their feet, it allowed the chance for the captain to take in everything that had happened and reassociate with her surroundings.

"Shit," she said to herself as she saw the smoke rising from the valley, where the helicopter had crashed. She looked around at her soldiers as they were shaking off the intensity of the whole situation. And then she noticed that Avure and Dole were gone. "SHIT!"

"All of you! I want you to spread out and comb this area for the assets, and for the failures," she ordered.

Holline winced in pain as she rounded a corner, behind one of the smaller houses. She fell against the wall and looked down at her right arm, which was where the bullet had struck her. It managed to go right through, fortunately. Although, that didn't mean she wasn't feeling any pain. Had she not been focussed on getting away she would have been able to defend herself against something simple like a bullet, but everything happened far too quickly.

She could hear the soldiers getting closer and knew if she could get them isolated, in a place where she had complete control, then she would deal with them properly and efficiently.

Meanwhile, back in the opening of the town square, Zala remained standing alongside the greying soldier from before. Both seemed to be sizing each other up. Remarkably, despite being the smaller of the two, it was the soldier that had complete control over the situation. He had rank over Zala.

"Your failure here today will be noted, and more," the man said, looking up at Zala.

The larger man huffed and clenched his fist, trying to be imposing and threatening, knowing that there were consequences to his actions. He glared straight down at the soldier.

"You know what happens next," the soldier added, reminding Zala of the promise that Teki made. "There's no way you get out of this situation. None of you."

Zala couldn't bear it any longer. He knew exactly what he had gotten him and his friends into, and he saw no way out of it. He snapped and yelled as he punched the soldier in the face. It was a punch that probably could have crushed the soldier's skull, however Zala's power had worn off enough so that the punch did very little.

The soldier simply stumbled back and fell onto the ground, with a trickle of blood coming from his nose. Zala cursed and turned away, running almost immediately after he punched the man, knowing that he couldn't hang around. He pulled out his communication device as he ran out of the town, away from danger, into the trees.

It was true. They had failed their mission. They didn't have a lot of time. They needed to act fast. Zala needed to find Avure and Dole.

Holline remained hidden amongst the houses, eventually finding a space to pause for a moment. She backed up against the wall and released a deep breath, taking another chance to inspect the damage to her arm. Yes, the bullet had gone all the way through, but the blood and the wound still weren't appealing to look at. She cursed under her breath, doing her best to remain quiet, but she wanted to try and cover the wound somehow. She wasn't going to get that chance, as there were soldiers closing in. She could hear them.

She ducked down and found a small gap to look through. She could see the soldiers as they passed through, moving rather quickly, not worried about the noise. Fortunately, Holline was well hidden for the moment, but as she stood up, she came directly face-to-face with one of the towns people that had been staring out of their window.

Holline very nearly jumped out of her skin, but just about managed to remain calm and quiet. The person mouthed a silent "sorry" and then pointed out a path for Holline to follow. The redhead gave the woman a thumbs up and slowly moved on.

As she continued, keeping quiet and low while simultaneously trying to move quickly, the helicopter passed overhead. The noise of the blades wasn't very helpful, it made listening out for soldiers very difficult. She backed up against a wall again, glancing across and noticed a small gap that she could see through, into the town square.

While there wasn't too much to see, Holline did notice that the soldier who had previously come forward to speak with Zala was still standing there and seemed to be holding onto his face. However, Zala was nowhere to be seen. Granted, Holline couldn't see too much anyway. She just started to assume that meant Zala was one of the people looking for her.

She started to gingerly move closer to the edge of the gap, hoping to scout some more space and see if she could spot a clear exit route. If she could get out of the town and back to #17 without being spotted, then they would surely be able to take the soldiers out together. Even with the helicopter.

She just had to tackle the hardest part by herself.

Holline started to move around to another small opening and stopped to take a couple of breaths before darting out and hiding behind one of the shopping stalls. However, as she got into cover Holline spotted another soldier, standing fairly close to the other one, talking to him. She kept a mental note of that and looked ahead to the path that led down towards the town exit. The path that would lead her to #17.

And it was unguarded. If she could move swiftly enough, she may be able to get out of there unnoticed.

Taking one more look behind her to see if there were any soldiers trying to sneak up, Holline knew she had to take a chance. She took another deep breath and very quickly darted out from cover again, and rushed across the square, hoping to dive into cover behind the fountain before anyone else could spot her. But she wasn't successful.

"There she is!" a voice called out, from atop the roof of a house.

Someone had spotted her.

Holline cursed under her breath but continued to move. The two soldiers in the square turned around and the greying soldier, with his bloody nose, called out to his team.

"Get to the square! Stop her!"

The man on the roof began to open fire and was shooting towards Holline's feet, which was enough to throw off her movement and cause her to stumble. Her legs got tangled and she fell against the fountain, managing to fall against her arm, which sent a sharp pain through her gunshot wound. She slumped down as the helicopter rapidly moved into space in front of her, and the soldiers moved forward to surround her. They all had their guns at the ready.

The greying one moved directly in front of Holline, gun at the ready, and stepped up. He towered over her as she sat, with her back against the fountain. She knew that with one wrong move they would open fire.

"Where are the assets?" the soldier asked.

"The what?" Holline questioned, doing her best to play dumb.

The solider immediately smacked the butt of his gun against the side of her head, cutting her.

Holline groaned and winced.

"I won't ask a second time," he threatened.

Holline sighed and looked up, but all she could really pay attention to behind the soldiers was something rapidly flying through the side of the helicopter. There was a small explosion and all the soldiers turned around to see what was happening, which meant they were distracted. The engine of the helicopter began to malfunction and the whole thing started to drop.

The soldiers scattered, and Holline jumped up, letting a pulse of Ki erupt from her body which knocked the grey-haired soldier directly in front of her off of his feet and flying back in a heap on the ground.

The soldiers had started to retreat towards the town's exit as their helicopter was going down, which seemed uncharacteristic for people trained for combat, but due to the nature of their mission, being caught was not an option.

This meant that Holline was left to deal with the helicopter by herself. Now that she was back on her feet, she prepared herself to catch and stop the helicopter from crashing into the town and causing any more unnecessary damage.

However, she didn't need to do anything at all. The helicopter seemed to stop all by itself and then suddenly it was sent spinning in a circle before being launched out of the town, down into the mountainous valley below. And then Holline saw Android #17 hovering in the space where the helicopter had been.

He quickly turned and dropped to Holline's side.

"Are you alright?" he asked, moving to help her.

Holline pushed him off gently and stepped away.

"I'm fine, but we need to stop them," Holline said, eager to pursue the soldiers.

"They're not going to hurt anyone else," #17 said, stopping her by grabbing her arm. "Did you get those two to safety?"

"If they listened to me then yes, they should be hidden," Holline said, pulling her arm out of his grip.

"You're hurt, we should get that taken care of," #17 suggested.

"I'll be fine," Holline said, brushing it off.

But then she remembered something. Something that she had been putting aside for the entire conflict.

"Wait, my mom. Kiera. My grandpa!" Holline exclaimed. "We need to go!"

And with that, she took off into the sky, blasting away back to her own hometown as quickly as she possibly could. #17 joined her, and as they flew the quick way back to Rinjin, they passed over where the soldiers on the mountain path had encountered #17.

The woman soldier that had spoken to Dole looked up as they flew past and then looked down into the mountainous valley below as the smoke was rising. Another soldier moved up behind her.

"Captain Griffin, what shall we do?" he questioned.

Captain Griffin sighed and grumbled to herself.

"Call for them to meet us at the extraction point, we're going to wait here for Sergeant Abrams and the rest of his team," the captain replied, without even looking back at her comrade.

Just then, before the other soldier could do anything, the sound of more people coming along the path was heard, as Sergeant Abrams - the greying soldier - and his troops were jogging down.

"Captain," he said, just a little out of breath as he stepped up beside the woman. "They took out our helicopter."

Only then did he notice what the Captain had been looking at. The other helicopter was down also.

"What's the plan? We group up and take them on again?" the sergeant asked.

"No," Captain Griffin replied, "we can't risk anyone finding out who we are and who we work for."

"Right," Abrams replied, breathing heavily. So, what's next?"

"We're heading to the extraction point," Griffin said, looking over the valley, but then she turned around and looked right at Abrams. "Get a message back to the boss. Tell him they failed."

Rinjin Village

Holline landed back in front of her home with a loud crash, kicking up dust as she dropped down with a hand on the ground to steady herself. She was eager to get back there and didn't think to control her speed or power, although there was no damage caused. #17 dropped down moments after her, but the redhead was already heading straight towards the house.

Kiera had been standing outside, waiting for Holline's return, knowing there was not much else she could have been doing at that time. She perked up upon seeing her girlfriend approaching, but there wasn't exactly happiness on her face. It was relief. However, her reaction was tempered by something else.

"Holline, you're ok," Kiera said, running down the garden path towards Holline, ready to meet her girlfriend in an embrace.

Holline held up her hands, as if to stop Kiera, but the blonde practically stopped herself as soon as she reached the redhead. She immediately noticed the injuries that Holline had sustained.

"Oh my God, are you alright?" Kiera questioned, her eyes darting all over Holline's body, examining as best as she could.

She couldn't get over the state of her girlfriend. There was blood all down her left arm, coming from the gunshot wound, which didn't look very nice at all, but then there was the blood that had run down the side of Holline's face as well.

"I'm fine," Holline said, brushing it off and gently pushing Kiera back. "I want to see my mom. How is my grandpa?"

Holline looked straight into Kiera's eyes as she asked her question, with her brow furrowed, purely in serious mode.

"It's… it's not looking good," Kiera revealed.

Holline inhaled sharply, basically gasping.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Kiera opened her mouth to answer, but it seemed like she couldn't find the right words, or she didn't really know how best to handle the situation. She didn't want to upset the girl that she loved.

Holline had heard enough and quickly moved past Kiera, running up the path and entering the house. #17 stepped forward, watching Holline enter the house while Kiera remained standing in the same spot with her head towards the ground, with tears in her eyes.

As she entered the house, Holline went straight to the living room and saw that her grandfather was laying on the couch, and her mother was kneeling on the ground beside him. She was holding the older man's hand in her own, and she was sobbing quietly. Standing up beside the couch was one of the town's doctors, Dr. Short.

Her grandfather appeared to be unconscious and Holline started to worry that he was already dead, but after that initial shock she did notice that he was still just about breathing.

"How is he?" Holline asked, making her presence known.

Anna turned around quickly when she heard her daughter's voice, and just like with Kiera outside there was clearly relief on the mother's face, but shock at Holline's state.

"What happened to you?" Anna asked, stifling her sobs.

"It doesn't matter," Holline said, stepping forward and putting a hand on her mother's shoulder as she looked over to the doctor. "What's going on with my grandpa?"

"Holline, the injuries Nevis has sustained are just too severe," Dr. Short explained, "maybe you should take a seat."

"Just tell me what I can do to help," Holline snapped.

"There's really not much we can do here. He's struggling to breathe and the trauma he has suffered is far too…" The doctor paused his explanation and sighed. "I don't think he can come back from this. Had it been much sooner, then… maybe, but with his age, it's just not looking good."

Anna sobbed softly again and Holline could feel a lump in her throat.

"I have ideas," Holline said, defiantly. "We could take him to the Capsule Corporation in the West City, they… they have advance technology, they can check him and heal him."

Holline had said everything so quickly, clearly starting to panic.

"Holline," Anna said softly, placing her hand on her daughter's, and trying to get her to calm down.

"Wait," Holline said to her mother, practically snapping it, and she turned back to the doctor. "Well?"

"If you moved him now, I don't know how that could further impact his condition, but it won't be good. We would probably never get there in time," the doctor explained.

"Ok, then I'll go and get Senzu beans. They'll help. I can be there and back in… I don't know… an hour?" Holline said, practically questioning herself due to her own condition, but determined to figure out a way to fix everything.

#17 was now standing in the doorway at this point, with Kiera just a few feet in front of him, and he seemed like he was ready to move out and do something, should he be required to do so.

"He doesn't have an hour," the doctor said, sombrely. "Holline, I think you should take this time to be with him and your mother, take this time to say goodbye."

Holline's eyes started to water more as she looked at the doctor, but then she scoffed with a fake smirk.

"I don't want to give up on him, I won't, not when we have ways to help him…" Holline said.

"Holline, please," Anna said, softly again, hoping to get through to her daughter.

Holline let out a sob and dropped down beside her mother, on her knees, and looked at her grandfather as he lay with his eyes closed. He looked very pale, and there was bruising and scarring on his head. It was only the staggered movement of his chest to signify that he was barely breathing that stopped Holline from believing that he was already dead. It truly looked dire.

But that reality was coming, and Holline could do nothing to stop it now.

Holline really couldn't accept that she was losing her grandfather, even as she sat on her knees, with the tears welling up in her eyes and she watched his breathing getting slower, and slower. She put her hand around her mother's shoulder, and they held each other close, and Holline finally allowed herself to cry. She bowed her head and let the tears flow freely.

The doctor bowed his head out of respect and stepped away.

It was far too late for anybody to do anything. Nevis slipped away.

Anna moved forward and cried beside her father, holding onto his hand, and placing it on her face, hoping to feel his warm, reassuring, loving touch again. But he was cold.

Holline looked up and stared at him for a moment, but then stood up and wanted to go somewhere but it was like she couldn't quite find where to go and just stumbled around the immediate space around her. The tears were streaming down her face and all she really saw was Kiera standing before her. She rushed towards her girlfriend and practically fell into her arms, wanting desperately to be sucked into her warm loving embrace.

Kiera put her hand on the back of Holline's head and gently stroked her hair, while the redhead just cried into her girlfriend's shoulder. #17 wanted to go and comfort Anna, but before he could move there was a thud outside the house. He stopped and turned around, walking back up the hallway, looking straight out through the still open front door.

Noca had finally arrived. He rushed along the garden path and entered the house, jogging up to #17, but he immediately noticed the sombre atmosphere, and there was a sadness on #17's face.

"What is it?" Noca asked.

#17 swallowed and sighed, shaking his head as he stepped aside for Noca.

The young Saiyan's mind was swimming as he contemplated what could have happened. He frowned, inched forward slowly, and peered around the corner into the living room. He could see Holline and Kiera embracing, and Anna on the floor beside Nevis. Noca didn't need an explanation, maybe he would need to hear some details, but for the moment he immediately understood why the atmosphere was sombre.

He looked back to #17 who just bowed his head. The Saiyan sighed, with his jaw clenched, and he slowly stepped into the living room and approached Holline and Kiera. He gently placed his hand on Kiera's back as he stepped up beside her.

"Hey," he said, quietly, almost in a whisper.

Holline looked up as soon as she heard Noca's voice. Noce was shocked to see her looking as upset as she was, it was new to him.

"Oh, Noca…" Holline said, through sobs, as she moved out of Kiera's embrace and hugged Noca tightly.

Noca immediately put his arms around Holline and looked over to Kiera, meeting the blonde's eyes. He was shocked, he had no idea what he had missed, but he could tell it was something bad.

"I'm sorry…" Noca said, softly. "I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner…"

Holline continued to cry.

"I couldn't sense any of you. When I finally got Kiera's call I flew here as fast as I could when I realised that my instant transmission wouldn't work," Noca explained.

#17 reacted to that information.

"Good point," he said, and then he turned around.

"What?" Noca asked, turning, still with one arm around Holline.

"Something was obviously affecting this area. You couldn't sense them inside, and nobody inside could sense what was going on either," #17 explained. "Those guys must have been using some special tech to cause it."

"Maybe they were holed up somewhere, perhaps we could find them," Noca suggested.

"I'm gonna have a look, see if I can find something," #17 said, "I'll be back when I find it."

He quickly turned away and headed straight out of the door, taking off into the air and beginning to scout the area.

Meanwhile, Holline had finally managed to stop herself from crying and pulled away from Noca slowly, wiping away her tears and realising that she was still filthy and covered in her own blood, and in a lot of pain. She winced and looked at her arm, which drew Noca's attention again. He finally noticed her condition.

"Oh, shit. Holline, are you alright there?" Noca asked, taking her hand gently and looking over her arm.

"It's not a big deal, I was just shot. The bullet went right through," Holline explained, but as she went to pull her arm away from Noca she winced again. "Ok, maybe it still hurts."

"Let's get you cleaned up," Kiera said, taking Holline's hand and attempting to lead her away.

"Wait," Holline said, and she turned to face Noca again. "You need to get out there."

"What?" Noca questioned.

"I told Yaiko and Sofia to hide and wait for you," Holline replied. "Hopefully #17 can find whatever's stopping us from sensing things and then you can find them that way, but we're going to have to hide them somewhere else."

"It was Alpha, wasn't it?" Noca asked, basically knowing the answer.

"Yeah, them, and some people from our past," Holline said.

Noca nodded, knowing who Holline was talking about.

"Ok, then I'll go help #17 and then I'll find Yaiko and Sofia," Noca said as he started to back away, "are you going to be ok handling everything here?"

"Yeah, we'll be fine," Holline said, smiling weakly back at Noca.

He smiled back and then nodded to Kiera, as if telling her to look after Holline. Kiera returned the nod. Noca turned and rushed off out of the door and took to the sky. While he did that, Kiera helped Holline get cleaned up and then the young couple, along with Anna, and the Doctor, would start to get things sorted, with regard to Nevis and the next steps.

It didn't feel right for Noca to just leave Holline behind to deal with all of that, it was certainly going to be a difficult situation for everyone involved. For the moment though, Noca had something else to handle, but he knew just how important it was to be back with his friend again as soon as he could.

#17 found the area that the attackers had been using as their makeshift camp, which wasn't too hard to find. It was just across the valley and higher up, making for a good vantage point over Rinjin. There were no signs of the attackers returning, nor did it look like they really had any need to return. #17 couldn't help but think to himself that it was a shame they didn't look over Kayu as well, maybe nothing bad would have happened to Holline's family that way.

The campsite was pretty bare. There wasn't much left behind, aside from some packets from the food they had been eating, and there was the slightest trace of a fire from the previous night, and a pair of binoculars. Other than that, nothing important was left behind. #17 glanced around before his eyes fell on a place where it looked like a few rocks had been moved. He scoffed and walked forward.

Before he could get to the rocks Noca had touched down in the campsite too. #17 turned around swiftly, eager to see who it was.

"Oh, it's just you," #17 said, relatively relieved.

"Yeah, I just thought I'd help you, otherwise I may not be able to find Yaiko or Sofia," Noca explained.

"Why are you so eager to help these kids? Aren't they the ones who've been accused of some terrorist attacks from last year?" #17 asked.

"They've been made the scapegoats, but I can't deny their involvement," Noca replied.

"Who are they to you?" #17 asked.

"It's complicated," Noca started, "but they used to be a part of Alpha and…"

"So, that's what brought the attackers here, they were just trying to get what's theirs," #17 stated, as if implying that they should have been allowed to take Yaiko and Sofia.

Noca frowned.

"They're different, they're not androids," Noca explained, "but it's clear that Omega is doing something different."

"And it still somehow involves you, huh?" #17 questioned, with a scoff.

Noca sighed and nodded.

"I can explain everything I know, and everything that happened last year, but for now I really just need to find them and make sure there's somewhere safe for them to go," Noca said, getting serious, showing that he really didn't want to be wasting time.

#17 nodded and turned away, heading towards the moved rocks. He moved them back to where it looked like they had been before, based on the marks left behind on the ground, and there was a small black box behind one of the large ones.

"Bingo," #17 said.

It was about the size of a gaming console, and there were a few buttons on it with a small display. #17 threw it over to Noca.

"It'll probably be worth taking to Capsule Corp. or something," #17 suggested.

"Sure, they can figure out how it works," Noca said, "but for now," and he pressed the biggest button on the device.

The screen switched on, showing the Alpha logo for a moment, before changing to a different kind of display screen. Noca quickly figured out how to turn the device off and then looked up at #17.

"Well," #17 said.

Noca turned around and looked down towards Rinjin and nodded. #17 stepped up beside him.

"Yeah, I can sense everyone again," Noca said, but there was a frown on his face, and he seemed upset.

#17 placed his hand on Noca's shoulder.

"They're family to us both, you know that right?" #17 said.

Noca looked back to the Android and nodded.

"And I suppose… Yaiko and Sofia are like family to me as well," Noca said.

"Then let's go help them," #17 said and he took off into the sky but immediately stopped and turned back to Noca. "But I can't sense them, so you'll have to lead the way."

Noca scoffed and smiled weakly, then jumped into the air and flew towards the mountains again, following his senses towards wherever Yaiko and Sofia were hidden.

Somewhere in the Southern Mountains – Near Kayu and Rinjin

Yaiko and Sofia managed to keep themselves hidden, although still relatively close to the two towns. They had found themselves a cave to hide in up along the mountain path. Sofia was seated inside the cave, on top of a large rock, just waiting. She had her hands clasped together in front of her, with her head down, and her right leg was bouncing up and down. She was nervous.

Yaiko wasn't inside the cave with Sofia at that moment, he was waiting just outside of it. He was standing at the edge of the path, looking over the valley, with his headphones on. His music may be mostly loud and aggressive, most of the time, but it helped to calm him in tough moments. Although, in their present predicament, there were no calm feelings between either one of them.

Sofia's bouncing leg was beginning to annoy her, and she kept forcing herself to stop, to no avail. She looked up to see that Yaiko was standing in basically the exact same spot he had been in since they arrived at the cave, and she felt that it was a silly choice. That wasn't helping her nerves. Frustratedly, she got up from the rock and moved towards the entrance.

"Yaiko, come on, you shouldn't be standing there out in the open," she said, quietly, but with a stern tone.

However, she had failed to notice that underneath his hood, Yaiko had his headphones on. She sighed and moved closer.

"Yaiko," she said, louder.

Still, no response. Sofia huffed and walked right up to him and took his headphones down for him.

"Hey!" Yaiko said, reactively, trying to snatch them back as they were taken from his head.

"Sorry, I just wanted you to listen," Sofia said, trying to calm herself, knowing that she had maybe let her nerves get the better of her.

"I wish you would have listened to me," Yaiko snapped back, clearly angry about something.

"What?" Sofia questioned, shocked by his tone.

"We shouldn't have left the town, we shouldn't have left them to deal with that for us," Yaiko said, getting himself riled up about the situation.

"We need to stay hidden," Sofia said, again, sternly, but with a newfound softness.

Yaiko shook his head.

"I always follow you, I always listen to you, and I try to do everything that you want me to," Yaiko started. "It was you who always told me to stand up for myself, to fight harder."

Yaiko looked up at her again and scoffed.

"But now we're running and hiding," he said, shaking his head and turning away into the cave.

"Yaiko, I don't want to run, but for once in my life I didn't want to fight either," Sofia explained, walking after him.

He had stopped moving and when Sofia reached him, she got in front of him and put both of her hands on his shoulders, but he was still looking away from her.

"I thought we had found somewhere to be safe and to live some sort of normal life," Sofia started, "but as long as they're looking for us nothing will be normal."

Yaiko didn't say anything, he knew what it meant. He knew that fighting Alpha was a near impossible task, and that meant they would never be able to settle. Not for good, anyway. Sofia knew it too. She sighed and her head dropped, but then Yaiko perked up and turned around to face the cave entrance again.

"Noca's here," he said.

Sofia looked up and moved towards the entrance with Yaiko. They could both feel Noca's approach, but when they looked out, they could see two figures approaching. When they both landed, they saw that it was indeed Noca, and he had brought with him the stranger who had helped them with Holline.

"Hey, are you both ok?" Noca asked, with clear concern in his voice.

"Yeah, we're ok," Sofia said, looking back to Yaiko.

The teenager just nodded.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there to help, it was all planned in a way to make sure I didn't get involved, or at least it seems that way," Noca explained.

He was still holding the device by his side and Sofia noticed it.

"That's how they blocked energy sense," Sofia said, pointing at the device.

"Yeah. Have you seen this before?" Noca asked.

"I have, but not in use. It was just a prototype when I last saw it," Sofia said.

"Well, I'm going to take it over to Capsule Corp. so they can have a look at it and see what we can learn, but for now I need to figure out what happens next," Noca said, looking up at both Yaiko and Sofia.

"I guess there's no going back to Kayu for us now," Sofia stated, sighing again, and moving over to lean against the rock from before.

"I just want to take down Omega," Yaiko said, clenching his fists.

"Believe me, so do I," Noca said, "but it's not that simple, not when he's got the King on his side."

"Where do we hide now?" Sofia asked, frustratedly.

"I don't know," Noca said.

"I may have a suggestion," #17 said, finally finding room to speak up.

All three of them turned around to face #17 as he stood near the cave entrance, by himself, with his hands in his pockets.

"Where?" Noca asked.

"It's somewhere well out of the way, it's definitely isolated, and it's safe," #17 explained. "And you'll be well looked after."

"Well," Noca said, eager for #17 to just come out and tell them.

The Android scoffed and shrugged.

"Kame House."