=====A=====

By this point, climbing atop the support beams of warehouses was second nature to Robin. Never mind all the training Batman had put him through, the sheer number of times he found himself stalking gangsters from the shadows near the ceiling meant that he could just about tell which construction company made the building by now. Though this time, as Robin crawled past fluorescent lights and came to a stop at a crossbeam, he wasn't stalking gangsters.

Down below him, rifling through crates, were a handful of large reptilian men in high-tech yellow armor. Gordanians, hopefully some of the last still wandering around free on Earth after their mothership blew up. While most of the surviving main force had been captured in D.C., there had been a scattering of life pods that rained down on the Earth shortly thereafter. It seemed like every government and organization was scrambling to find them, whether to keep them contained or to find a way to exploit the alien tech for themselves. Something Robin was sure the Titans would have to deal with down the road.

But that was a problem for later. Right now, their job was to get these interstellar slavers behind bars. That's why they worked with STAR Labs to set up this particular honey trap their targets had fallen into. The Gordanians that had been fast and smart enough to hide from the authorities so far had been raiding tech labs, no doubt searching for a way off the planet. So Robin let it slip to certain contacts of his that STAR Labs had figured out how to make interstellar Zeta Beams that could jump between solar systems, and that the prototype was being stored in a particular warehouse in Taos. After that, all they had to do was wait.

Though it would be useful if STAR Labs actually did make such a Zeta Tube, Robin mulled, watching as the aliens finally found the massive arch covered by a tarp in the back of the warehouse. After all, we know it's possible because-

He cut off that thought and refocused on the scene in front of him, the Gordanians clustering around the tarp. The lead one pulled it off to reveal… a simple metal arch. Lined with flashbangs. Robin's mask deployed a set of shades over his eyes and earbud into his ears before he pushed the trigger on his belt, setting all the stun grenades off. With a blinding flash and deafening crack the Gordanians nearest the arch went sprawling to the ground, while the ones further away stumbled. These aliens were pretty tough.

As his protections pulled back, Robin heard Aqualad's voice on the comm. "Go."

An instant later there was a blur that swept through the warehouse, knocking each of the still standing Gordanains down as it moved past them before it stopped, revealing Kid Flash. Robin was already dropping as the aliens staggered to their feet, landing on one's back before striking with his escrima sticks. The alien crumpled from the strike, and Robin leapt off to launch towards another one.

Even as he rolled and took down another Gordanian with a sweep, Robin still remained aware of his surroundings, as he was trained. He saw the pair of aliens furthest from him getting to their feet and pulling their staff weapons up, taking shaky aim at him. The young superhero was already moving, turning his sweep into an evasive flip while pulling birdarangs from his belt. Their first two energy shots missed, and the next few went wide as the birdarangs knocked the staffs out of their hands.

They didn't have time to pick them up either, as moments later the aliens roared in pain as electricity sparked off their bodies. A few moments after that they collapsed to reveal Aqualad standing behind them, waterbearers outstretched and already pulling water towards them. The Atlantian moved forward to meet the aliens closest to him, newly formed water maces crashing through defenses and armor.

The team kept up their momentum, bouncing from one target to the next. Stunned as they were from the flashbangs, the Gordanians couldn't mount a meaningful defense against them. Aqualad bore the brunt of the assault, Robin stuck to his flank and took opportunities, and Kid Flash ducked in and out of the fight with quick blows. It was over in seconds, and soon enough the trio were surrounded by unconscious aliens.

However, as Robin went around tying them up, The one furthest away from them stirred. He looked up just in time to see the Gordanian push a button on their armor, and a pair of stiff wings and vents folded out of their armor's back before roaring to life. The alien shot into the air and towards the open doors of the warehouse, out towards the New Mexico desert..

As the Gordanian cleared the doors, Robin called out to their fourth member. "We've got a runner!"

"I see them."

A moment later an arrow shot out from nowhere, hitting the fleeing Gordanain in the side. It didn't seem to hurt them and the alien didn't even notice he was struck, but the arrow latched on to his armor before it shot a tether at the nearby crane. That end hit its target and a second later the line pulled taught. Suddenly the Gordanain had turned into a tetherball, their own thrusters causing him to wrap around the tower until it slammed into the side, knocking them out.

Robin let out a low whistle. "Nice shooting, RA."

There was a slight sigh over the comm before one of the upper windows of the warehouse popped open and a rope dropped down, a figure sliding down with it. "I don't think that works for me." Red Arrow said as he landed next to them. "Just stick with Red Arrow."

Kid Flash grinned at their new/old teammate. "Come one man, that was just like old times. Well, minus the aliens, but you know what I mean."

Red Arrow grunted, folding his bow back up and stowing it. "Putting these slavers behind bars is better than the low-level crooks the League wanted us to focus on back then. But…" A small smile. "Yeah, I guess I missed this."

"Hopefully, this is the last of the Gordanains." Aqualad added.

Kid Flash put his hands behind his head. "Eh, they weren't that big of a deal. Compared to the supervillains we usually deal with these days, these guys are a walk in the park."

"Perhaps, but the issue is them dividing our attention." Aqualad pointed out. "We have been running with a split team for weeks now, and if something truly threatening appeared I worry we would not be in a position to handle it."

Robin made a face. "Guess it's a good thing that the Silver's been helping keep up appearances, huh?" While the machine collective was mostly focusing on their reveal to the public along with the genomorphs, they also had one of their own piloting Jacob's Amazo body to help keep up appearances. The official line was that Machina, Starfire (oft seen in hologram form), and Superboy were helping ease the new groups into society. Robin had mixed feelings on that, but the League of Shadows finding out that the Titans were suddenly missing two of their members would probably be worse. "Still, we're running into issues as is."

"I thought you brought me in to help with the manpower issue." Red Arrow pointed out. "What else is giving you trouble?"

"To be honest? Logistics." Aqualad said. "Machina handled most of the manufacturing, data, finances, and connections of the Titans. He made sure that the rest of us have access to his tools and programs, but we simply can't use them like he could. We could ask the Silver for more help, but I am not familiar enough with any of them to trust them with the Titans' information."

"Alright… do we know anyone that could do what Machina did?"

Kid Flash let out a laugh. "Dude, no one does what Machina did. Batman's the closest, and there's no way in hell he'd make that kind of time for us. Unless Mach left another parting gift we haven't found yet, the best we're going to get is having Robin here sit at the console 24/7."

What Kid Flash meant by 'parting gift' was the packages they had received about a week ago, something that had come as a surprise to all of them. Jacob had apparently made a number of 'final' messages and data, saved on flash drives, to be delivered if he ever went missing for long enough. He had likely set them up to automatically go out after long enough of not checking in. They were also personalized, each Titan receiving their own message from him.

Robin's was pretty short and simple; he had already grilled Jacob on everything the man remembered from his home universe, and the two of them… didn't interact much outside of the Titans. As such it was mostly general platitudes and well wishing. Still, the last part had stuck with him.

'Dick, if there's one piece of advice for me to give, it's this: Don't let the mission consume you. Don't forget you have teammates to rely on. And remember that trust is a two way street. Do that, and you'll become the leader I know you can be.'

Leader… that bit actually caught him off guard. He hadn't thought about the leadership of the team for a long while. Though he had been a little resentful all those months ago when he wasn't selected to be team leader, even then he couldn't deny Starfire was good at it. She knew how to rally the team, had a good tactical sense, and was never afraid to lead from the front. He still thought he could have done better though, and had kept note in all the ways she was lacking; too willing to go in without a plan, preferring to fight through a problem rather than subverting it, and just not always seeing the bigger picture.

But as time went on and the team found its footing, Robin had started to see things a bit differently. Whenever she ran into something she could handle on her own, Kori turned to the team. Whenever one of them advised her against a course of action, she listened. And when something went wrong, she talked to them, both as their leader and as a person. Kori didn't look to her teammates and expect things off them, like Robin always thought a leader should.

Kori looked to her teammates and trusted them.

At one point Robin would have thought that kind of trust was reckless. But now he wasn't so sure.

Robin was snapped out of his musings when Red Arrow remarked. "Well, I've been working solo for a while now, so I've got some experience in procurement and analysis myself. We could try switching off."

Robin shook his head. "It'll help, but a whole superhero team is a different beast. Hell, if I remember right, the All Star Squadron had the U.S. military doing this for them." His brow furrowed. "And I think Doctor Fate did it for the Justice Society."

"Huh." Kid Flash said. "Guess that makes sense. They didn't have Zeta Tubes or computer networks back then, so they had to use magic instead. Pretty useful if we had that now, actually." He then winced. "Well… I guess we technically do since we have the Helmet of Fate lying around, but…"

"The what?" Red Arrow asked.

Aqaulad made a face. "It is the helmet which the Lord of Order Nabu is bound to. Putting it on transforms the wearer into Doctor Fate… at the cost of becoming a prisoner in their own body."

"It's a no go." Robin shook his head. "Machina tried negotiating with Nabu for months, but the guy wouldn't budge on his next host being permanent. Which sucks, because even if we didn't need logistical support, having a sorcerer on the team would be helpful." After a second he looked sheepishly at Aqualad. "No offense."

The Atlantian was not offended. In fact, Aqualad was contemplative for a moment before he said "I… may have someone who can help with that." That got everyone's attention, and he continued. "My thaumaturgy teacher, the one I see whenever I return to Atlantis. I've mentioned her before, and she's recently graduated from the Conservatory. She's… aware of what I do on the surface, and she's quite talented at the craft, not to mention her organizational skills. It may be a good idea to simply hire her, if not add her to the team proper."

KF raised an eyebrow. "So, what, are we each pulling someone in now? Robin got Red here, and now you're bringing in your teach?"

"I wouldn't phrase it like that, but if you have someone in mind…"

KF shook his head. "Nah, I'd have to think on that one. But if you vouch for her, I've got no problem if you want to give her a shot."

Red Arrow was less convinced. "I don't know, bringing in an unknown is risky. Even if she's a competent mage, that doesn't mean she'll work with the team, or be good for our line of work." He looked at Robin. "What do you think?"

Robin glanced between him and Aqualad, the latter of which was also looking expectantly. If Robin said no, he knew that Aqualad would drop the matter. Hell, he could tell that the Atlantian was almost expecting him to. Robin also knew that the reason Kaldur had been hesitant to bring this up was that his teacher wasn't just his teacher. That alone should have been enough for Robin to be against it.

And yet… Kaldur had asked anyway. He knew the reason Robin would object, but he thought it was worth trying. He genuinely thought his teacher could help.

Trust is a two way street.

Robin didn't trust this person. But he trusted Kaldur… and maybe, that should be good enough for him too.

"I'm with KF. Let's give her a shot."

"This is dull."

Standing at the computer console, Noah held in a sigh. "Well, perhaps you didn't have to join me then?" He said, not bothering to turn and face the woman behind him. The room was a small one, with little more than a few chairs, a couch, and the terminal he was at. The whole room was depressingly drab, as you'd expect from any space owned by the government. Would that he could be back in his lab doing this, but this building didn't have any external connections. Hence why he and his 'companion' had snuck in through an underground entrance he had bribed the right people to learn about.

This particular building was one of the U.S. government's secret backup data centers, something he had managed to stumble across sometime back. In fact, it was during the job where he had been hired to crack the secrets of the alien tech that held his current techno-parasite. Before he had gone looking for the Fatherbox, he tried finding any information the government still had on the device from their previous experiments. Not that it helped him any, but he had made sure that there was an easy way back in if he ever needed it.

From behind him, there was a huff. "Need I remind you that you were the one who didn't trust me to be alone at your home base." She pointed out.

"I meant join me at all." Noah retorted, finally turning to look at the woman. "I know that my group is hosting you until you get back on your feet, your highness, but surely my coworkers have hospitality more to your liking."

The woman lounging on the couch like she was some kind of royalty was very tall, toned, and had raven black hair that cascaded past her lower back. She wore a dark fur coat that was loosely draped over her shoulders, along with a white blouse and dark pants. She also had bronze-orange colored skin and near solid purple eyes.

Komand'r, as she had named herself, had been found in one of the life pods that had fallen from the spaceship over D.C., which the Light's agents had managed to reach before the authorities did. She claimed to be the leader of the aliens that tried to flatten the city, and given how the few Gordanians (the reptilian aliens) they had picked up responded to her commands, it seemed she was telling the truth. She also claimed to be Starfire's sister, though they had no way of confirming that.

What Noah was certain of though, having spent a day or two with her, was that she was an insufferable brat. She had only been foisted off on him for a day, and the woman had done nothing but make demands of him and bother him while he worked. All while giving him that condescending stare she was giving him now. "They certainly thought so too." She remarked.

"And you decided to leave them and hang out with me because…?"

"I didn't like any of them." She gave a dismissive wave of her hand. "Your Luthor fancies himself a King, but he lacks the spirit of a warrior. Just from talking to him I could tell that he thought such things were 'beneath' him, the fool. Ra's on the other hand is an old warrior, but thinks too much of himself and his ideals. He doesn't remember what a true fight is like, and feels emotions other than fanatical devotion are a distraction."

How'd she come to these conclusions? Noah wondered. The alien woman had only been with them a few weeks, which seemed a bit fast for her to-

Actually, Noah realized he didn't care. "What about Savage then? From what I've heard the two of you should get along swimmingly."

The woman barked out a laugh. "He certainly seemed to think so. Wasted no time regaling me with his exploits. 50,000 years of Conquests and feats, over nature, nations, and people." She smirked. "And women, as he seemed fond of pointing out."

Oh for fucks sake, Savage. Once again, Noah found his low standards still failing to be met,"You don't believe he's immortal?"

She snorted. "The strange thing is, I actually do. And I believe that true immortality was the worst thing that could happen to a man like him. I have never seen arrogance so… indolent. Every venture he claims to have taken part of has ended catastrophically, and yet he is so assured of his eventual victory that it means nothing to him."

Noah grunted as he turned back to the console. He couldn't really comment on her point of view, but he didn't particularly care for the neanderthal either. Honestly, like her, he was really coming to find most of the Light insufferable by now. He had joined because he thought he was joining some kind of Illuminati that manipulated the world from the shadows, and while that was kind of right, he could now see how fractured their egos really made them. Honestly I would have fit right in back when my parasite was controlling me, he thought ruefully. The only one he could actually stand was the Brain.

Did that make him feel a little bad for hacking the cyborg's chemical life support to influence the Brain into letting Noah into the Light? Well, no, but he was still the only one Noah could stand to be in a room with.

Definitely not something he could say for the woman grumbling behind him. "To be honest this whole world is a disappointment. A chaotic, backwater mud ball. Honestly, letting the Gordanians enslave you lot would do nothing but improve the place."

Noah's eyebrow twitched. "My deepest apologies, princess," He said, his voice dripping with scorn. "That none of us are up to your standards of lizard space barbarians. I promise that if you give us the chance, we too will become advanced enough to try attacking a backwater mud ball… before also failing miserably due to a couple of stupidly dressed teenagers and a pile of nanomachines."

"Watch your tone, peasant." Noah glazed back to see that Komand'r had sat up straight, her eyes narrowing. "Do you think I don't see what you are? A pitiful little man who desperately wants to rise above his station? Someone who thinks he can sit back and get everything he wants if he's just smart enough? Cleverness is no substitute for true strength."

He turned fully to face her. "Oh, is that what you call what happened a few weeks ago? True strength? Because from where I'm standing it looks like you cocked up a simple retrieval mission so badly that you lost most of your men and a carrier ship, all because you just had to go full force to satisfy your sister hate-boner. A little bit of patience and forethought could have gone a long way, but no. All your strength ended up useless, and now all you can do is fly away." Noah smirked. "Oh wait, you can't."

That last comment was a bit of a shot in the dark, but analysis of all the video they had gotten of her over the past few weeks pointed to something: unlike her sister, Komand'r never flew. And Noah suspected that was because, for whatever reason, she couldn't. And given the hateful rictus she presented moments later, he knew his guess was on the money.

Komand'r rose to her feet, her violet eyes starting to glow balefully. "I have killed men for far less of an insult than that." She said, her voice low and menacing. "What makes you so sure I won't do the same for you?"

"Yes, I can see you throwing a tantrum over that." Noah said with a smirk. "But you're not going to, because you still need the Light's help to get off this mud ball, which you're never going to get if you kill me. So, are you going act with 'true strength', or are you going to let me do my goddamn work in peace?"

The two stared at each other for several long seconds, Komand'r's whole body tense, and Noah affecting an air of calm. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, fully aware of how easily the woman in front of him could kill him, but he let none of it show on his face.

Finally, Komand'r relaxed, and she let out a sigh. "I am going to the washroom. Hopefully you are done with this drudgery by the time I return."

He watched as she exited the room, her heels clacking against the hard floor in a swift beat as she left. He waited a few seconds as he technopathically tracked her phone moving away before he allowed himself to relax. This part of the building was pretty much empty of people, so he didn't worry too much about her running into anyone. Now with her out of the way, he could resume his watch for the incoming data dump.

Once a month the facility got an update to its data stores, dropped off via courier and loaded in through a terminal on the other side of the facility. Once Noah had set up a good system for getting into the building without a trace, he had made it a habit of coming here on the day of the upload. A few cleverly placed backdoors let him get regular updates of classified data, courtesy of Uncle Sam.

He didn't have to wait much longer before he got the notification that the data transfer had started, and he got to work. His hand worked alongside his technopathy, smoothly copying the data while spoofing any trace that he was there. It was only a few moments work before the contents were starting to fill his portable data drive, so he decided to take a look. It was possible that there might be data on recent events, after all.

Sure enough, there was something of interest, but not what he was expecting. It was from the lab where the alien artifact had been tested in, no less. It looked like they still had the Mass Oscillation Array they had used during the government's original tests, and it was picking up strange readings for the past few days at regular intervals. The researchers had no explanation for it.

Noah hummed before he shrugged and opened the data file with a mental command. He had gotten something of a crash course in quantum waveforms over the past couple of months; it was the basis for how his technopathy worked after all (as well as the basis for the Undernet). And it was what his passenger operated off of. And Machina's nanites. A curious set of coincidences, that. Well, Noah didn't expect he would gain much from looking at raw data, but he might as well-

Noah felt a sudden lurch as his passenger suddenly surged against his control. It grasped onto that waveform data, and the information surged through Noah's senses such that for a moment he could see the bands of energy dance in his vision. They twisted and bent until he felt… something like a call, a yearning to respond.

With a force of will Noah crushed his passenger back in line, and the hallucination ceased. He let out a breath through grit teeth before muttering. "And what was that about?"

'It is familiar. Important.' His passenger intoned. 'Made by someone using Tek-al.'

That drew Noah up short. While the alien lifeform wasn't big on explaining itself, Noah had eventually picked up from context that 'Tek-al' meant technology. Not just that, but specific technology, like the Beetle or Machina. Things that had some kind of connection to the entity itself. He took a moment to check that Komand'r phone was still in the washroom before he said "What does it mean?"

'It is a signal. A long range call for any Tek-al to respond.' It replied. 'The wave frequency increases with each iteration. The source is getting closer.'

"...Something's coming." Noah reasoned. "The source of Machina's nanites and the Beetle. The Light will be very interested to know about that…" They already had contact with one advanced alien race, but the Light was nothing if not opportunistic. They wanted to get their hands on as much alien technology as they could, and had a number of plans to do so. But if it was coming right to them…

'We must reach them first.' His passenger interrupted his thoughts. 'Only we can control it. Only we deserve it.'

"...I'd have to actively hide it from them." Noah pointed out. "At the very least, if there's a signal, the Brain is going to figure something out eventually. Why should I?"

'You have seen that the Light is feeble minded, blinded by its own small vision. You have heard that the Light is dissonant, unable to come to a consensus. You know the Light is doomed to ultimate failure, any victories it achieves will be undone by its flaws. They cannot be allowed to squander the Tek-al. We must control it first.'

The entity was trying to manipulate him. Blatantly, even. It was a step up from how it behaved when Noah first shackled it, but it was still incredibly obvious as far as attempts went. It wanted the technology for itself and was willing to tell Noah whatever he wanted to get it. And yet, that was the problem; it knew what Noah wanted to hear.

Because as far as Noah was concerned… the entity wasn't wrong.

It was something that had been growing in the back of his mind for a while now. The thought that if he didn't have to put up with the other Light members so much, he'd actually get somewhere. He recognized that they were all powerful people in their own right, and access to their resources let him do so much more, but he was starting to doubt they would ever come together like they needed to. It was all idle thoughts, of course, as there was nothing he could really do about it.

But now, looking back at that signal data, he wondered if all he needed was just a little edge. "Maybe it would be for the best if I held this back for a bit." He muttered.

"Good to know."

Noah whirled around to see Komand'r right behind him, a smug smirk on her face as she stood minus her shoes. "How-?!" That was as far as he got before her hand wrapped around his throat, lifting him clear off the ground. "Hrgk!" he managed to get out, his hands clawing uselessly at the hand holding him.

"I left the device you gave me in the washroom. I do have some basic sense not to trust something you can easily track, after all." Komand'r looked at him with disdain, though a small smirk made its way onto her face. "I wonder, if I tell the others about your betrayal, do you think the Light will put a little more effort into getting me what I want? I'll settle for my sister in chains if that's all they can offer."

She wasn't actually giving him the chance to explain himself, instead just slowly tightening her grip on his neck. What was worse, part of her hand was over his restraint collar, and he felt part of it crack under her thumb. Noah's passenger was quickly starting to slip from his control, and the thing was bound to do something stupid that wouldn't help either of them if he let it.

Komand'r, heedless of this, pulled him closer. "You know, I suppose you did have a point about patience. All I had to do was wait a few minutes out of sight before you muttered something incriminating. I bet you're cursing your 'cleverness' now."

There were a lot of things Noah was cursing at the moment. One of which being himself, for relying too much on his power to keep track of her. Though he had plenty more for his parasite for getting him into the habit of talking to himself. But that would have to wait, because he only had a few seconds before he'd pass out from the pressure on his neck, at which point he was as good as dead. Even if she didn't kill him herself she'd tell the rest of the Light what he was trying to hide, and the idiots would probably believe her.

Unfortunately, he didn't have many options at the moment. In fact, he only had one. A recent backup plan in case things really went wrong. It was a particularly terrible plan, especially with his passenger rapidly slipping its bonds. But that was also what decided his action for him; if Noah didn't trigger it, the entity would do it for him, so Noah had to do it first. With a thought, Noah sent a signal to the small piece of tech that was attached to a small holster under his left pectoral.

He let out a a gurgle of pain as metallic pincers dug into his flesh, forcibly connecting to the nanolattice under his skin. It then started to spread under the surface of his clothes, a patchy blue and black material that flowed in hitching motions. It was an ugly, malformed pattern, but it managed to slip underneath Komand'r's fingers and give his neck some relief. At the same time, the material spread over the hand that was grasping the woman's arm… and then continued until all of her forearm was also covered with it.

Komand'r looked at the limb holding him up, seeing the spreading dark material covering it. "And what kind of trick is this?" She asked, clearly not impressed.

"Oh those are just some repurposed nanomachines." Noah grit out. "They used to form a battlesuit, but the whole system's kinda busted right now."

Komand'r snorted. "And I'm supposed to be afraid of a broken weapon?"

"Yes, actually." Noah's grit teeth turned into a grin. "I haven't been able to do much with it, but now it's a vicious little thing. One that's now latched on to you."

"It won't stop me from snapping your neck."

"No, but if I die, they're programmed to burrow into whatever they're attached to. Like anyone with hands on me. And even with how tough you are, they'll have no trouble getting into your bloodstream."

"...and what happens then?"

Noah was starting to get light headed from the pressure on his neck, but he continued. "It's necrotizing, starting with your extremities. First it'll wither your feet below the ankle, crawling up your legs till you can't stand. Then your hands at the wrist, withering your arms till you can barely crawl. Then soft tissue goes next, like your nose," A realization popped into his head, and a giggle forced its way out of his throat. "And then your tongue, I suppose."

"Are you trying to frighten me with that description? Because-"

He continued on, ignoring her. "The next thing you'll lose is your left eye, followed by your right. Your ears, well, I'll try to keep them but no promises. At that point you're blood will start to thicken due to all the waste floating in it but-"

"Enough!" She shouted. "I have been threatened with horrible and painful death before, and you're ranting is not-"

"No!" He yelled back, grinning like a mad man. "You'll live and I'll tell you why! It's so that when you go crawling back to the rest of the Light, they and the rest of your lizards will see you as a helpless, withered husk. You will live, knowing that whatever little respect you may have had is gone. But that's not all! I'll use my last thoughts to set up a little retirement package for you! You'll be taken care of, till the end of your miserable days. As an object of pity."

"...You're bluffing."

"You want to make that call? Go right ahead. Leave one of us dead and the other crippled, neither of us getting what we really deserve." Somehow, his grin grew wider and he pulled himself closer to her. "Or you can put me down, and we can see where this relationship goes."

Komand'r was silent, her eyes glowing malevolently as she studied Noah. He stared back, eyes wide, heart burning, and ready to follow through on his threat in an instant.

Komand'r opened her hand, the material snapped off of it as she pulled the limb back. Noah dropped to the floor, the man gasping for air as he landed in a heap. He dragged in air through clenched teeth, looking up to see Komand'r leaning down, putting her face close to his.

Then, a vicious grin of her own crossed her face. "You. I like you."

=====A=====

A/N: Why do I always end up doing almost no writing for weeks, then writing half the chapter 2 days before I publish it? How is this how I've come to write things?