When Rika found Chaz he was already on his way to being half dead. The entire area of that corridor had become a genuine crime scene, visible dents in the wall, shards of a broken weapon on the floor, blood just about everywhere, and the required dying body just off to the side. Raja was also in his own designated spot, completely out of touch with the world. Pieces of metal clinked under her shoes when Rika entered this environment as if in a dream.

It made her battle with Mieus seem no more deadly than a hair-pulling contest. The moment her eyes fell upon Chaz Rika offered a little squeak and ran to him desperately, skidding to her knees on the floor. His injuries were not just bad, they were far worse than that; they were grotesque and cruel. He was unconscious, thank the light, but there was blood simply pouring out of his shoulder and his arm was twisted and set to such a degree as to suggest multiple fractures. Bone jutted from one of the breaks in his arm. Rika felt her last meal try to rise at the sight.

"Oh gods Chaz, you're bleeding…" She cried softly as she tried vainly to staunch his blood loss. She didn't have anything at all to do it with save her hands, but that was hardly practical and only a short-term solution. She looked at the youth's face drooped down peacefully onto his armored chest, slightly askew. There was hardly any colour or pigment left in it, making Chaz three or four shades paler than he usually was, accentuating the sudden dark circles under his eyes. If he ran out of blood then he was dead.

She had to use something to apply proper pressure to the wound. Rika removed her bloody hands from Chaz for a moment and tore a great swatch of cloth from her long pink dress, ruining the garment forever but creating a good long length of firm bandage. She pressed it hard against the wound and began to wrap it around his shoulder tightly enough to nearly cut off the circulation, which was exactly what she wanted.

The fact that Chaz had not awoken during the tampering of his injuries was a very bad sign. She didn't want him to wake up and experience the incredible pain ready and waiting for him here, but she was absolutely desperate to have him look at her, to speak to her, to have him acknowledge her presence. Rika wanted him to know that she was right there with him, trying to help.

She attempted to bring him around or at least lessen his injuries somewhat with a nares technique. Generally techniques like those could not heal real physical wounds, not like some priestly or esperine skills could, but it allowed those touched by the technique some temporary strength and fortification. It was enough to keep a person going while wounded just enough until the danger was dealt with, then proper medical treatment could be administered. It was Rika's hope that her nares would be enough to awaken the boy and paint a little more colour back into his cheeks.

Against all odds Chaz stirred. His eyelids fluttered softly and then his brow furrowed, the young palman letting out a low groan. Pale, washed-out green eyes looked up at Rika in general incomprehension, a look which made the girl's heart want to break. There was such pain in those eyes, she could hardly begin to imagine how he felt. He closed them again and whimpered, trying hard to swallow down the pain. It felt worse than when he had first blacked out, switching from an acute to a dull, draining agony. "Rika…" He sobbed pitifully.

"I'm here! I'm right here, Chaz!" She exclaimed back to him, taking him by the hand that was not yet mangled. Even that seemed to hurt him a bit though, as the boy winced. Maybe it was from the effort of having to breathe in around a chest full of broken ribs. It wasn't enough, Rika wanted to throw her arms around him and hug her love but she was too afraid of hurting him even more.

"Rika…" Chaz repeated and Rika realised that her fiancé didn't even know she was there. It was as if the pain had blinded him even though he could still see. Okay, it was not time to panic. More than ever it was time to keep a level head and remain perfectly calm, even though Chaz was dying, even though her every action could mean her loved one's life or death. It was an awful lot of pressure for just one girl to handle, but Rika was very resourceful. She wiped away her tears then paused, hesitantly brushing Chaz's own tears gently off his face.

First she assessed his injuries properly. His wounds were localized in his sword arm, his arm snapped in three different places and horribly bruised. She stripped him of his armor plating and found that many of his ribs had been broken as well. The wound that was killing him, however, that was the terrible part. He was bleeding all over the place and already her makeshift bandage was soaking through. It wouldn't hold out for much longer.

Chaz's only hope was for her to wake up Raja. Rika moved over to him and grabbed the dezorian bishop by the front of his robes, hauling him up into a sitting position and then leaning him against the wall. She tapped him on the cheek, shook him lightly, but when no response was established she tapped and shook him substantially harder. Raja was in the deepest sleep she had ever seen, not even a nares on his battered body would bring him around.

In the end the only thing she could do was let Raja droop back onto his spot against the wall and rule him out to help. The one time that his priestly abilities could have made the world of difference and he was unable to lend a hand! Fresh tears of desperate frustration prickled anew. She didn't know what to do. She had already done all she could and it was nowhere near good enough!

"Raja, please! You have to wake up! You have to save Chaz!" Rika shouted then against her better judgement she slapped him. It wasn't a hard slap, it was just very brisk, and it should have been enough to bring her elderly friend around. It wasn't. There was no use.

"Hello? E-Excuse me?"

Rika let go of Raja and glanced up when somebody with an unfamiliar voice spoke to her. It wasn't Raja, it wasn't Chaz, and it certainly wasn't anybody else she knew on this space station either.

It was the golden android she had run into only a few minutes earlier up along the corridor. The numan girl didn't know what to say to him because they were supposed to be enemies, but fortunately the last thing the android wanted to do was fight, judging by the look on his face. He was holding a girl in his arms. Mieus. Rika couldn't help but notice the flecks of palman blood along his arms and predominantly his hands.

There was a fearful quaver in the wren-type's voice, as if he were about to cry, or panic, or both. He sounded just like she herself did, then. "Please help me. I can't seem to get her to wake up. No matter what I do she won't respond. I-Is she dying? Please help… she's the only thing I have left…" Warren pleaded.

She was hardly sympathetic to his plea. Well, maybe a little bit. Mieus was simply deactivated and leaning safely against his chest, while Chaz was critical and dying and, well, she just didn't have the time for anything else but her own problems. Rika stood, yet instead of moving over to Warren she went back to Chaz and knelt by his side protectively. "I'm busy! Can't you see that? My fiancé is seriously hurt, what are you going to do about it?"

She started to cry and she couldn't stop herself anymore, she had exhausted all her options and now all that was left to be done was to wait for Chaz to pass away. It was heartbreaking. They were going to have such a happy life together built upon all the sacrifices they had made, but just one boot to the foundation had been enough to send it all crashing down. It had only been a dream.

Somebody took her by the hand and gently squeezed. Chaz had two arms, after all. Only one was broken, the other merely weak. "It's okay, Rika. Really, honey, it's okay…" He said to her in a dried-up whisper, hoping to make her feel better. Rika stared at Chaz in surprise. He was facing his death and he worried about her? It was too much for her heart to bear.

Warren silently considered Rika's position for a few moments, then he walked over to the edge of the corridor and very carefully set Mieus down by the unconscious Raja. As she was now she wasn't disturbing anybody or being violent, but gods, Warren just wanted to see her open her eyes again. He picked up the discarded medical bag by the straps and made his way over to Rika and Chaz again. He knelt.

"In that case let me help you. I have a fair amount of medical training when it comes to treating palman bodies. In return could you please, please look at Mieus for me? You're bound to know more about android repair than I do." He requested. In addition he also knew exactly where Chaz was wounded and what to do about it because he had caused those wounds in the first place, but he was not about to tell Rika anything about that. If he were lucky he might even have all the tools necessary as well.

Rika had some knowledge about what to do when an android crashed, yes. When Wren or Demi broke and were unable to take care of themselves it was usually she who had to make the required repairs. She probably could fix Mieus if she put her mind to it, but she was loath to allow Warren to touch Chaz. She was extremely wary. "I can't trust you, you are a servant of Siren. You're probably the one who wounded Chaz in the first place." She said coldly.

Ah, so she had suspected that. Warren did not admit it or refute it; he merely ignored the speculative comment. He turned to Rika and regarded her in a serious fashion. "Being a servant does not alter the fact that I dislike seeing people die. My views on bloodshed are my own. I think I can save this lad if you give me the chance. You will just have to trust me. You have Mieus' wellbeing as my collateral. That is enough to keep me tame for the moment."

He opened the flap of the medical bag by unlatching the buckles and began to remove some very official-looking surgical tools and supplies. They involved some very suspicious little knives and needles. What choice did she have left? Without Raja this android was Chaz's only hope for survival. Rika leaned over and touched Chaz gently on his whole shoulder to get his attention. "Chaz? This android here is going to help you, so please hold on for just a while longer. Is that okay?"

Chaz stared at her with absolute puppy-like trust, then looked to Warren and finally realised that the android was there. He was filling a syringe with some sort of cloudy liquid, flicking the shaft of the needle a few times to coax all the air bubbles up to the surface. Excess liquid squirted out of the tip of the needle as he gently depressed the air away. Chaz didn't like the look of that needle and especially the one who was holding it. "Nuh… no…" He answered, making his decision clear.

But that wasn't really an option anymore. Rika felt like she was just about to give her fiancé away to none other than Mephistopheles. "What is that?" She asked, referring to the dreaded needle. Some small part of her protective intuition kept telling her that it might be poison.

And, in a sense, she was kind of right. "Quintamate, highly concentrated. In general it's a very effective painkiller, blocking out all the pain impulses received by your friend's brain here. Administered intravenously it can also create a marked improvement in dopamine and endorphin production. It will stop the pain but Chaz will be pretty much away with the faeries for some hours after this shot." Warren explained calmly. He did not go into the safety issues concerning the intravenous issue of such a drug. There was no time. Already he was removing the hunter's belt from his waist and cinching it tightly about the boy's upper arm.

The numan girl noticed the android's use of Chaz's first name. That was odd. He stretched the boy's well arm out in front of him and handed the extra length of belt out to Rika. She held it firmly, causing the cephalic vein in Chaz's arm to stand out starkly against his skin. Warren hovered the tip of the syringe only millimeters above the hunter's flesh. Rika realised that he was waiting for her go-ahead. She hesitated. "Tell me what you're going to have to do with him." She ordered.

"This will numb him to the procedure, then I will attempt to repair the damaged veins, and then I will clean out and close the shoulder wound. He may very well require a blood transfusion, so please do not stray too far away from this area. I may need you here for a sample. After that I will suture the cut and splint the broken arm. That is everything I am prepared to do for him." Warren smiled. "Nothing too difficult at all." He told her reassuringly.

Rika gave in. "Alright, do what you have to do, just please be very careful with him. I'll go have a closer look at Mieus."

"Thank you. You have my gratitude."

The needle went in and Chaz groaned, but it was only a tiny groan which ended up as a sigh. He closed his eyes and that was the last substantial peep Rika heard out of him for quite some time. Warren removed the tight tourniquet when the shot was delivered and got right to the job at hand. He worked with a quiet eagerness which was parallel to Siren's enjoyment of android repair. There was not that much of a difference between them after all, at least in certain areas. Rika watched him for a minute or two just to make sure Chaz was okay and then finally attended to the fallen Mieus.

Of course, Mieus wasn't anything like the androids Rika was used to fixing. She appeared so palman, all of her metal parts were deep down on the inside and far beneath her skin and flesh. There were no access points that she could see either, at least, none that she could visibly find. Rika wasn't about to go ahead and remove her clothing to look for them either. Without an access point to her hidden machinery the girl wasn't quite sure what to do; she had come to a dead end.

What to do with a machine you couldn't tamper with at all? Rika leaned over the android girl and pressed an ear close to Mieus' head, listening extremely carefully with her super sensitive hearing to the slight sounds of her working machinery. All androids emitted a very weak hum to some varying degree, depending on their type or state of being. It had helped her to repair Wren or Demi three years ago when they were not conscious to answer her questions. She listened very carefully now, trying to block out the sound of Warren working on Chaz and the light clink of his surgical instruments.

She was positive she heard something there, so Mieus was definitely not deactivated. She sounded a lot like Demi did when she had been moderately damaged, quietly and peacefully repairing her inner workings while in emergency hibernation mode. Mieus would wake up again, though Rika couldn't accurately predict when. Warren had no reason to worry or panic over her, she'd be back to normal soon enough. Rika straightened up and looked over to Chaz again. The major was threading a long needle with what looked like spider-silk, thin and silvery and almost not-there.

"She's fine. All you need is some patience." Rika reported and walked over to stand behind and slightly off to the side of Warren. She placed her hands on her hips. Chaz was still awake, opening his eyes now and then for a few moments at a time, but he was not panting or gasping or whimpering anymore. It seemed like the android was right; Chaz had been completely immunized against the pain.

"Looks like I'll already have plenty of patients at the rate I'm going." Warren joked rather tastelessly to himself as he finished the repairs on the veins he had slashed apart. It was rather difficult to manage the clamp and sew at the same time, but he coped with it. The surgical silk was a godsend, though the android half-wondered why the doctor had kept a stock of it hidden in his quarters. Probably to mend his old socks, he supposed.

"How's Chaz doing?" Rika asked, beginning to feel a little useless. She wanted to do something special for the hunter but all she was reduced to doing was standing there like an idiot. She kind of wanted to go back, wake up Hahn and bring him down here with the others, but Rika feared that the very moment she left the area would be the time Chaz would need her the most.

"I only gave him a small dose of the quintamate and already it's affecting his system far too severely. He doesn't have sufficient blood to dilute the drug. He may enter hypoparalysis." Warren said softly yet bluntly, refusing to sugarcoat the factual truth. His dosage had been correct for a boy Chaz's height and weight, but he had not taken into account the accelerated blood loss due to altitude sickness. His heart was working faster than was normal and that was a terrible thing.

"What does that mean?" Rika demanded, feeling sick herself.

"His heart and lungs will stop. What is your blood type? Does it corroborate with Chaz's?"

Rika had to think about that. He was palman and she was numan; she had never needed to consider to differences in their blood composition before. Seed had engineered her to be the new and improved matriarch of the palman species, by that logic it made sense that her genetic compatibility issues would be minimal, if they existed at all. Seed had been a practical biologist. Rika hoped that she could trust him. "We are compatible. Hook me up, take as much blood as you need." She ordered firmly.

"I must close his wound first, front and back. Sit beside him, I will be with you in a few short minutes." Warren replied as he threaded and sterilized a new surgical needle. Doing this without antiseptic or a conventional anaesthetic was extremely dangerous, but Zonderling's common cigarette lighter and the infirmary's quintamate would just have to do. It reminded him a bit of his time spent as a field medic, only they were not lying in mud and bombs were not going off all around them. Times had certainly changed. The war was over.

The golden android sewed accurately and fast, faster than any palman doctor could hope to achieve. He cleared up the fresh blood with gauze from the medical pack and there was no extra seepage; the silk was holding good and tight. When the wound healed the silk would simply dissolve. It was perfect, really. He tied off the silk and bandaged the wound, pinning it up and then he was done. Warren gently laid Chaz back against the wall again.

"I am going to have to stick a needle into your arm as well, do you understand?" Warren explained as he packed away the bloody gauze and used tools. This time he took out two different needles with sort of a screw to them and a length of clear tubing which was connected to a simplistically designed hand pump. Artificial fangs for a vampire with no more bite.

Rika could already see how the blood transfusion would work. The needles would go into both their arms and the tubing would be connected via the screws, while the pump held by Warren would manipulate blood flow. She nodded to the android and he began to set up the contraption himself, inserting the first cannula into Chaz's arm using the very same vein he had injected into before. The needle was longer and much thicker than the last time, so Rika had to turn her head and look away.

He held the cannula in place using some tape and connected it to the tubing, then it was Rika's turn to undergo the treatment. Nervously she held Chaz's hand with the needle inside. "Try to relax. This will only take a second to install and you will feel no more than a tiny pinprick. Continue to look away if you want but please do not tense up." Warren advised as he tied the tourniquet and got other things prepared.

He sounded just like a doctor and for some reason Rika found that slightly amusing. "Why are you helping us? You're against us and your master ordered you to kill us. Isn't helping against your strict orders? I don't quite understand." She breathed with her eyes squeezed tightly shut, anticipating the sting of the syringe.

"Neither do I." Warren replied honestly. "Currently neither my master nor my partner Mieus are aware of what I am doing. If I were caught the consequences would be severe, but I do not intend on being caught. Lass, I was taught to always help somebody who desperately needs helping. It has become part of my nature now, periodically overriding strict orders. I do not always do the right thing, but eventually I make the correct choice in the end." He reflected for a moment or two. "Even if it is not a good idea."

Rika didn't quite buy it. She knew androids and they were rarely so sincere, save for Demi. "I thought you were doing this for Mieus' sake, so I'd take a look at her for you." She remarked.

"Well, that is also a major factor, yes. Thank you again for that, by the way. If it makes you feel any better or more resolved you can believe I don't care a whit about Chaz and am only doing this for myself and Mieus. Despite this treatment we are still enemies." Rika heard a slight whispery sound, as if something were filling up with air. "If I see you again in the presence of Mieus or my master then I will have no choice but to kill the both of you."

There had been the tiniest hint of patronization in Warren's tone. Rika didn't like it. "Are you going to put this needle into me or not?" She demanded curtly.

Warren chuckled. "I already did about a minute ago."

The girl started and immediately opened her eyes, glancing at her arm. Just as he said there was a tube in her arm funneling blood directly into the body of her love. Warren was holding the length of tubing above their heads to keep the flow running smoothly and using the hand pump to coax the blood along. Rika didn't know what to say. "Oh… okay then." She murmured at last.

There was silence while the major took a little over a pint of blood out of Rika and transplanted it into Chaz. At some point Rika began to feel a little tired, like she had stayed up all night and all day and her limbs felt heavy and cold. It was just slight anemia taking hold, nothing more. Time crept by slowly. Eventually Warren screwed Rika's cannula shut, drained the tube and sealed Chaz's needle too.

"There, that ought to do it. Any more and you won't have the strength to walk back to your spaceship." Warren smiled as he deftly drew the needle out of Chaz's body and covered the tiny hole with a bit of gauze and some tape. He did the same to Rika and the girl had to admit that she barely felt anything more than a sting. The tools were packed away and the android moved on to the next order of business. "Your friend should be just fine. I'm in a hurry so I can't do anything about his ribs, but I can at least splint his arm before you go on your way. Hey, lad! Are you feeling any better?"

Chaz looked up and smiled stupidly at them. Off with the faeries, right, but he did seem much healthier now.

"We'll need to use something tough and solid for the splint." Rika chipped in and then looked about for something matching that physical description. Unfortunately Zelan was pretty sterile and tidy, stuff was never left lying around. Rika's eyes fell to the empty scabbard hanging against the side of Chaz's hip. It was made of very stiff leather and rather long, about the length of his arm. Perfect. The scabbard wasn't completely rigid but it looked like it would have to do.

She moved to unbelt the object from his waist. "Chaz, I'm just gonna borrow this sheath from your sword for a little while. You won't lose it, we're going to set your arm so it can heal." She explained slowly. Chaz just stared at her in doe-eyed wonderment, then he giggled mindlessly in reply.

Rika removed the sheath and handed it to Warren who accepted it without a word. He switched sides to where he was kneeling beside Chaz and inspected the broken limb, lifting it up very carefully. Meanwhile Rika glanced about and noticed Chaz's discarded guardian blade lying lonely amidst metal shards on the floor. She stood and moved to pick it up; there was no sense in losing such an irreplaceable weapon.

"Don't touch it."

It sounded like a low, dangerous death threat. Rika froze. For a second Warren appeared like a mirror image of Siren or of Forren when he was in a particularly bad mood, but then the storm clouds cleared and he smiled bashfully in apology. "… I'm very sorry. Nobody here is armed, save for my hands here and your gloves of course. I'd appreciate it if we kept it that way. Don't give me a reason to attack you."

"I was only going to pick it up. This is Chaz's prize weapon." Rika protested tiredly.

Warren shook his head. "I have two values in my programming right now, my orders from Siren and my desire to help you. Currently the former is overridden by the latter, but if you arm yourself any further that adds value to my prerogative to obey Master Siren. Please do not change it."

Rika left the weapon where it was.

The android tore away the red sleeve of Chaz's clothing and performed a series of realignments which would have been excruciatingly painful if Chaz hadn't been numb and mostly unaware. Warren set the bone as straight as he could and tied the splint to the arm with some preliminary binding, taking a few minutes to suture the last open cut where the fractured bone had poked through. He covered the rest of the arm with tight restrictive bandages and when he was done he delicately placed the limb back against the boy's front.

"This is only an extremely basic treatment. Take him to a real palman physician as soon as possible and they can fix him up properly. I can give you some more medication for his pain but use it sparingly; that stuff is very dangerous in large or frequent quantities." Warren said as he packed up his things and rose to his full height.

He was going to be okay. Rika breathed a deep, profound sigh of relief. Help had come from the most unlikely place and she was so very, very grateful that it did. She watched Warren go and check on Mieus in the hopes that she might have woken up in the interim. She hadn't, but her partner didn't seem that concerned anymore. Warren actually trusted Rika for some strange reason, though she supposed it couldn't really have been that strange because she had trusted him right back.

Warren didn't think it wise to dawdle any longer. "Alright, it's time for you to go back to your ship. You have nothing more to prove here. Leave Zelan and never come back." He requested as he hauled the unconscious Raja up to his feet. To him the bishop was as light as a feather and it was easy to toss him over his shoulder and carry him that way.

Rika had to protest. "We can't leave. What about Rune and Demi and Wren? I can't go back to the ship without knowing if they're alright. Zelan is Wren's space station, that siren-type had no right in taking it away from him!" She announced, making her refusal quite clear.

"Oh, there are so many things wrong with that statement that I don't know where to begin." Warren scoffed and smiled at the same time, amused. "I don't want to start an argument with you, but please take my advice. If you stick around here for much longer all the work I've just done for Chaz here would be for nothing. If you care about him then think about what is best for his wellbeing. Go back to your ship and leave, I'll even help you move your friends if that's what you want."

Damn this infuriating android! Why did he have to be so… so difficult to hate? It was so very aggravating, especially the fact that he had a point. Chaz meant everything to her, absolutely everything. His safety was important and they would be of no use to anybody if they ended up dead.

The PA system clicked on and an automated voice temporarily filled the air; the cold soulless voice of Zelan. // "Life support system deactivated. Life support at fifty three percent and dropping. Total deactivation in minus sixteen minutes." //

"… Sounds like Master Siren is pulling out all the stops to terminate his targets." Warren said, making a casual observation as they both glanced up in reaction to the sound. He looked directly at Rika now, who was beginning to feel increasingly unsure. "There you have it. Even if you stay what else can you do here but die a cold and breathless death? Your ship has life support, you should go to it as quickly as you can."

"My friend Hahn is up the corridor too. I'll go get him, I at least can't leave him behind!" Rika exclaimed as she took a few hasty steps away, passing by Warren and Raja.

"I'll take this one to the ship and you go ahead then! We'll both come back afterwards to get Chaz! What's the name of your ship, lass?" He called as the girl ran away from him. His orders from Siren screamed at him to chase her down like a terrier and kill her, but he resisted. If he could get away with it scot free then he would continue to resist.

"It's the Landale! You can't miss it! It's the biggest ship in the hangar!" She called back and then she moved out of earshot. Warren was left on his own to his own devices, and it would be so easy for him now to complete the task and the orders his master had so explicitly set him out to accomplish.

He hurried off in the opposite direction and made his way directly to the spaceship hangar. Raja bumped heavily against his armor as he moved, but when he got there it was easy to sniff out his destination. The Landale was like a giant locusta trying to blend into a swarm of monsterflies, big and hulking and simply not fooling anybody.

The android didn't possess the code to break the ship's security lock, so he could not get inside. Warren climbed the ramp and laid Raja gently up against the hull, then he turned around and left the hangar to go get Chaz. Rika was back and waiting for him grimly with the young hunter, a partially conscious and grumpy Hahn leaning heavily against her side.

He appeared to be in some considerable pain too. Hahn glared at Mieus then Warren suspiciously. "That little minx there broke my jaw." He complained through clenched teeth, trying not to move his mouth too much.

They had already wasted more than a third of their oxygen and time. This was just another repeat of last night, complete with all the confusion and fear. The only difference was that they were not all together anymore; their team had been split straight down along the middle. Rika prayed for the safety of the androids and Rune, yet she also felt like a betrayer for not doing more and evacuating with her own hide intact.

"We… we're going to go back to the ship and wait for the others there. I'm sure they'll show up eventually. If not we'll go, I can fly the Landale in a pinch, but let me be the first to tell you that we will be coming back." Rika warned. Warren nodded his understanding with that infuriatingly kind smile on his face and then easily lifted Chaz right off his feet and the ground.

"Hi Rika. You got taaaaaaaaaall…" Chaz giggled to Warren, poking his nose childishly as the android mimicked a sigh in patient tolerance.

"Alright Hahn, let's go." Rika murmured with a coaxing nudge and together the party of four made the last trip to their ticket home. What a failure of a mission. They had put so much planning and hope into it and it had all gone balls up anyway. Rika kept picturing Rune, Wren and Demi's faces, knowing that she was about to leave them all behind. She was saving Chaz, Raja and Hahn, but it still did not feel like nearly enough.

There was not enough time for them to walk. Hahn kept wincing and breathing hard as he limped quickly beside Rika, his chest a heated fire that was still burning bright and strong. He really wanted to hurt somebody, to get some kind of revenge for his wounds and his mouth. He kept his eyes on the android in front of them who was carrying Chaz. Who was that again? He didn't have a very clear idea of what the hell was going on.

And as Warren retraced his steps to the spaceship docks, surrounded by enemies and with a wounded boy in his arms, he began to reflect whimsically on the past half hour or so. Frequently his actions contradicted his desires, and his desires contradicted his actions. He had been so precise in wounding Chaz almost to the point of expiration that it made absolutely no sense to perform a hundred and eighty degree turn and patch up the damage he’d caused.

Why had he done that? Why was he doing this, and for what reason? Well, the best he could figure was that essentially he hadn’t wanted to wound Chaz in the first place, and the very first chance he had Warren had fixed up his terrible mistake. Becoming Siren’s servant had been his last shot at life and he was rapidly becoming to trust and respect the siren-type, yet for now he only really trusted himself. Inevitably that would change in the near future.

If Warren really wanted somebody to help Mieus he could have taken her right back to Siren, but he hadn’t. He had trusted Rika instead. Maybe all he was searching for was a valid excuse to help Chaz in the end.

Raja was miraculously awake when they returned to the entry hatch of the Landale. He was standing up and rubbing his forehead as if he had a truly apocalyptic headache. “D-Did anybody catch the number of the iceberg that hit me?” He groaned as Rika and company came to a halt in front of him.

Without answering him Rika let go of Hahn and entered her team’s access code into the number panel of the vehicle. The hatch slid open to allow ingress and Rika maintained the reins of control, distributing orders to everybody around her. “Okay Raja, you go on and get inside. Hahn, you’re not as wounded as you think you are. Take Chaz off this wren’s hands and lead him into the ship with Raja. I’ll join you in a few minutes; I just gotta tie up one loose end first.”

The men just stared at her in confusion or incredulity. “Go on, move it!” She snapped and that was like a kick in the pants for Hahn and Raja, shoving them into action. The bishop stumbled away into the spaceship, muttering about finding some headache medicine. Hahn winced as he stood up straight and took custody of the drugged-up hunter. Chaz couldn’t stand properly under his own power so Hahn treated him like a blind drunk friend, lending him a spare shoulder to lean on.

When Rika’s charges were safely away in the spaceship the numan girl relaxed and focused back on Warren standing there, now empty-handed. The atmosphere was becoming almost unbearably thin. She only had a minute or two at the most. “I’m not stupid, you know. I’m aware that you were the one who tried to kill Chaz.”

“It’s very fortunate that you managed to incapacitate Mieus when you did, then.” Warren replied as he opened the medical pack he had kept with him slung over his shoulder. He continued to talk as he searched through it. “I will give you my current supply of quintamate and some spare syringes. It is enough for a month’s worth of regular use, but only give some to Chaz if the pain becomes too much for him to bear. Fifteen units should do the trick. Here.”

He gave Rika a small case containing half a dozen vials of cloudy liquid and a handful of empty syringes sealed in airtight plastic satchels. She accepted them from him and for a moment her hand came in contact with his, which was icy cold and covered in Chaz’s dried blood. A feeling of revulsion washed over her but she ignored it. “Thank you.” Rika said quietly.

“You may be a filthy layan, but I do hope you can get out of here safely. If we meet again what I’ve done here never happened; I will be nothing else but your enemy.” Warren smiled at Rika. “Please take care of yourself, you and your bairn. Goodbye.”

Briefly he gave a little wave then turned and walked down the ramp, leaving the spaceship hangar. Bairn? What did that mean? Rika didn’t quite recognize the word. It wasn’t important; he was probably just referring to Chaz. The pink-haired girl had one final look around in the vague hope that Rune and the others might be running into the hangar at the last minute. All she could see was Warren calmly leaving the area.

With a soft frown Rika retreated into the Landale and closed the door behind her.

Rune, Wren and Demi had to take care of themselves, now.

†††

Mieus' repairs reached their completion and at last she stirred back into consciousness. Her head ached, sending a constant flow of pain impulses directly into her positronic brain. She voiced acknowledgement of these impulses as a soft, breathy moan. Somebody touched her when she made that noise, startling her into opening her eyes. Immediately she wished that she hadn’t; the impact earlier had mistuned her optical sensors.

She blinked a few times to fix her vision and the brightness was switched down to more manageable levels. “Thank goodness.” Somebody said from above her. “I got back here just in time.”

"It's you…" Mieus sighed weakly and struggled to push herself further up against the wall. Warren helped her up carefully from where he was kneeling. Mieus blinked again. Warren smelled like smoke and blood and melted metal. The front part of his armor was ruined, scratched, and lastly he had a particularly large hole in both his side and his shoulder.

“Good morning, Mieus.” He said brightly to her. “Did you sleep well? I missed you.”

She started, trying to jump to her feet, but Warren held her by the shoulder and kept her sitting down. “W-What happened to you? Where are the layans? Is Master Siren alright? Oh… you must be in such pain…” She hummed, touching his chest that was no longer warm from Chaz’s nathu attack.

“I’m fine, I don’t mind the pain. It feels pretty good. I am more worried about you, darling. How is your head feeling?”

“Tell me about the layans.” Mieus protested stubbornly, trying to get up.

“Alright. I have already taken care of your targets and mine. There is nothing more to worry about, you are safe now. With our targets neutralized we should go and make sure Master Siren is alright. Would you like to come with me or do you need to rest here longer?”

“Were the layans cruel to you?” The android girl pressed, remembering her last exchange with Rika before she’d been manipulated and had fallen unconscious. It was rather hard to believe that sweet little Warren had taken out all four targets easily while she was away.

Warren cocked his head, puzzled. “Huh? What do you mean?” He asked.

“Nothing. Just… I’d be very upset if anything bad happened to you. I'd take it as a personal insult. Master Siren gave you to me, so you are mine.” Mieus admitted, running her hand up along the sword scratches in his arm.

“Then you were not insulted.” Warren replied, taking Mieus’ hand from his upper arm and holding it in two of his own. After a moment of bashful hesitation he leaned down and kissed the top of her hand. “That really is the nicest thing anyone has said about me for a very long time. Mieus, I’m starting to think that maybe I-” He stopped, cutting himself short.

“You what?” She asked, having a very vague idea of what he was about to say but not quite believing it. It was silly, especially coming from one android to another, but she still wanted to hear it anyway. She half-smiled, amused and at the same time anxious.

The major laughed nervously. “I’m not sure. I don’t really know what I was going to say. Maybe parts of my vocabulary are flawed as well.” He was regretful to the fact that he had killed the moment, but it was time to press on. He let go of Mieus and stood again, offering her his hand. “Come on, Master Siren may need us.” He said.

“Yeah, yeah…” Mieus sighed and accepted his offer of help. Maybe she was a little disappointed, but it didn’t matter.

They left together, down the once again lifeless hallways of Zelan where no living thing could survive. Nothing at all.

By that token Siren had probably already won.