“Why… why is there an Imperator after you, Molly?” Ourellia asked as she frantically paced the floor in front of the human’s cage. “Who are you, and why does he care so much?”

“I-”

“He said you were the pet of Princess Rhionne.” Ourellia continued, obviously talking more to herself than Molly. “But that can’t be true. If you were a pet to the Imperial family, surely they would have had you chipped.”

“Ourellia…”

“But his badge was real enough.” Ourellia murmured. “So for some reason there’s actually an Imperator after you.”

“He’s my friend.” Molly said softly when Ourellia paused long enough for her to get a word in.

Ourellia turned and knelt by the cage. “He’s your owner?”

Molly sighed exasperatedly and ran a hand through her hair. “No! Look, Ourellia, I know this is hard for you to understand but I don’t have an owner!” Molly paused and rubbed the back of her neck. “Or… or at least I didn’t.”

Ourellia blinked and bit her lip. She hated the devastated look on Molly’s face. “Look, Molly… I… I want to help you, really. It’s clear that you aren’t happy here with us, whether Cae wants to see it or not but… There’s a lot of people in the city right now… How am I supposed to help you find a single person in all that?”

“His name is Vanser Nix!” Molly said, placing a hand against the barrier between herself and the Titan woman.

Ourellia’s face scrunched up in thought. “That helps but it’s still not much to go on…”

Molly suddenly leaned back and slapped her forehead. “I’m an idiot. I know someone you can take me to who will be very visible and easy to locate, although it might be hard to get close to her…”

Ourellia’s eyes narrowed. “Who?”

“Diblique.” Molly grinned. “The tol-bot player.”

“What?”

“Yeah.” Molly shrugged. “She’s my friend too. You could get me to her.”

Ourellia was silent for a moment as she digested this new piece of information. A part of her brain wondered if maybe Caetyr was right, that perhaps Molly was telling stories to amuse herself. But, then, she remembered the call from Nonik. Nonik was definitely not a human making up stories to amuse herself, and she had told Ourellia that an Imperator had been looking for Molly.

“All right…” Ourellia said slowly. “I’ll buy that. Unfortunately, I have no idea how I’m going to get you to a top-twenty Tol-bot player without being pounced by a dozen security guards before I get a foot into the Stadium.”

Molly shrugged. “Just drop my name.”

“Right.” Ourellia rolled her eyes. “That should work. We have to wait until Caetyr’s left though, I don’t want her trying to stop us. So just sit tight.”

Molly nodded enthusiastically. The prospect of getting back to her friends made the cage seem a little less claustrophobic than it had before. “Right. Thank you so much Ourellia.”

Despite the unease she felt at going against her girlfriend, Ourellia smiled. “No problem Molly.”

*.*.*.*

The roar of the crowd thundered through the Arena as Dibilique faced off against Iron Maiden for the fourth round of their semi-final match. Lenya tried to control her heart rate, but it was a useless endeavor. She could feel the adrenaline rush through her body. In her mind, there was only a single thought that repeated endlessly on a loop. I’m only one battle away from the championship match. Not only was she as close to the championship as she’d ever gotten before, but she was ahead in rounds. All she had to was beat Iron Maiden in one last round, and she’d move into the final match of the tournament.

A sudden hush fell over the crowd as the Diaititi ascended to the observation platform above the battlefield.

“We will now commence with the final of the four standard rounds.” The young woman’s amplified voice rang into the crowds. “Let the Space Round begin!”

The arena floor flashed with pixelated lights as the holographic game pieces began to coalesce into being. Dibilique wasn’t paying strict attention to that, however. She was far more interested in the mission specifications.

The scenario she and Iron Maiden found themselves in scrolled past her eyes on her control panel. A massive metal structure floated in the air above them. It looked like a serrated wedge of steel, lined with several ports and lines of light and color.

It was obviously a space station. It was an old-style of station that hadn’t really been in use for several centuries, but that’s what it was.

Dibilique nodded. It was going to be a standard attack or defend scenario. She would hold the role of the defending station, while Iron Maiden was tasked with capturing it from her or destroying it within a certain amount of time.

The scenario finished loading, and both Dibilique and her opponent signaled they were ready to begin.

A second later, the scenario began and a flood of reports flew across Dibilique’s control terminal. Scouting beacons reporting the incoming attack.

Not that Dibilique wasn’t already aware of it. She only had a few moments to react and erect her defenses before Iron Maiden’s fighters entered the vicinity of the station. Unlike other ambush-style scenarios, neither side were given much time to prepare before the battle was joined.

Warning klaxons went off across her control panel. Dibilique’s fingers flew across her console as she scrambled defense fighters.

By necessity, Iron Maiden had more wings of fighters than she did, but Lenya also had the gun turrets and missiles from the defenses of the station itself.

She watched as the first squadron of Iron Maiden’s attack force reached the base. Screaming sparks of light that represented missile salvos impacted against the topmost side of Lenya’s station. An entire bank of her defense turrets were suddenly vaporized.

Dibilique growled in frustration, which was only slightly alleviated when her own weapons impacted against Iron Maiden’s fighters, forcing them to fall back from their attack.

Dibilique glanced down at the timer on her control panel. It would be another thirty seconds before her defense squadrons could enter into the fray. Until then, she’d have to make do with the station’s own defenses.

An explosion rocked across the arena as the Maiden’s forces executed another strafing run along the side of Dibilique’s station.

Suddenly a control on Lenya’s panel lit green and she smashed the button aggressively. A second later a full squadron of a dozen defenders shot out of the station’s hanger bay and into the combat zone. Iron Maiden’s ships peeled away in order to fall back and deal with this new threat.

For the moment, her station was in relatively little danger as Iron Maiden reacted to the new threat Dibilique’s defenders represented. She wasn’t about to sit back and relax, however, as Lenya was fully aware that Iron Maiden had another squadron of attackers on their way. Instead, Lenya used the momentary reprieve to begin as many repairs as she could and ready another squad of defenders.

Her current squad was taking a rather brutal beating as it was, and likely wouldn’t last much longer. They were doing their job of keeping Iron Maiden’s ships busy, but Lenya knew it wouldn’t be long before Iron Maiden’s attention turned back to her primary goal.

Another flash of light as one of Dibilique’s ships exploded, causing a roar of approval from the crowd. There wasn’t any time for Iron Maiden to celebrate, however, before her victorious ship was decimated by defensive fire from the Station.

Lenya smirked across the arena at her opponent.

The round preceded like this for some time, with neither Dibilique nor Iron Maiden gaining a clear advantage. At least, not for very long. Dibilique was worried though. Iron Maiden had wounded her station considerably and there was quite some time before the round would be over. She was worried about keeping her station intact, and her defensive squads were spread thin.

Another explosion seared through the stadium as one of Iron Maiden’s heavy assault ships finally succumbed to the heavy fire that almost an entire squadron of Lenya’s ships had been laying onto it for several minutes.

The crowd cheered as the debris of the ship scattered across the space scape as the hologram pixelated and disappeared.

Dibilique’s celebration was short lived, however, as red warning lights flashed from her command console. She looked down in disbelief at the reports she was receiving, only to look up again as a plume of fire erupted on the side of her ship.

Suddenly, a holographic viewscreen appeared above the main action. It showed a group of Iron Maiden’s fighters flying into the side of her space station and towards the main power core. Lenya’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open at the completely reckless tactics that Iron Maiden was displaying.

However, she couldn’t fault the efficacy as the invading ship fired on the very heart of Dibilique’s space station. The attack caused a chain reaction, evidenced by the multiple explosions across the entirety of the station’s hull. The split-screen view disappeared as the invading ship flew free of the space station’s death throes.

On top of everything else, Dibilique wouldn’t even be given the satisfaction of taking it down with her.

The entire stadium lit up as a massive holographic fireball erupted in the center of the Arena. The station disappeared in the center of that fireball.

There was a sudden chill as the holographic space scape disappeared. It didn’t last long, though, as the spectators erupted in cheers.

Dibilique felt her heart sink. She’d been so close to clinching their match, and now they were even in the score again. What was worse is that Lenya now faced a prospect that frankly terrified her. Their match would go to a tiebreaker. She’d have to face Iron Maiden in hand to hand combat.

*.*.*.*

“What is this stuff, anyway? It’s good.” Charlotte asked as she took another bite of the piece of spiced vegetable she held in her hand.

“Well that specifically is a jigand. It’s a root that was brought to Vorsha when the colony was first founded.” Vanser explained as he slid a piece of meat off the skewer in his hand and tossed it into his mouth.

On their way to the stadium, they’d passed by a gaggle of street vendors. This wasn’t terribly surprising, of course. The Tribute bought people to Vorsha, and where there were people there were potential customers.

This particular vendor had been selling kebabs. Charlotte was sure that the Titans had a different word for it, of course, but it was chunks of meat and vegetables alternating on a skewer. A kebab by any other name…

Vanser had offered to buy Charlotte one of her own, jokingly she assumed, but Charlotte had declined, being content to share. She was currently propped up in the front pocket of his jacket.

After purchasing their meal, the two of them slowly meandered their way towards the stadium where the semi-final match between Dibilique and Iron Maiden was under way.

There was a loud, insistent buzzing noise and Vanser stuck the end of his skewer in between his teeth so he could use both hands to dig his data pad out of his pocket.

A few quick taps on the screen showed him the alert that had appeared on his screen.

“What is it?” Charlotte asked, idly sucking her fingers clean.

“Hm.” Vanser grunted absentmindedly, “Looks like Iron Maiden defeated Dibilique in the space round.”

“Which means what, exactly?” Charlotte sighed exasperatedly.

“It means they go to a tiebreaker round.” Vanser explained. “Which means hand to hand combat between the two of them.”

Charlotte blinked and tried to remember which player was Iron Maiden. “Was Iron Maiden that one that Lenya beat at the very beginning of the tournament?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.” Vanser chuckled. “She wasn’t happy about it either.”

Charlotte sighed and leaned against the lip of Vanser’s pocket. “She was pretty big too, as I recall. You know, for a Titan.”

“Yeah.” Vanser agreed. “She is. For a Titan.”

“Think Lenya can beat her?” Charlotte asked.

Vanser was quiet for a long time as he chewed a piece of jigand and thought about his response. “She could.” He admitted. “After all, no one expected her to win in the first round but she pulled that off. Iron Maiden has been pretty distracted this tournament as well. I don’t know too much about how much combat training Lenya has, so it’s hard to say. I um… I do know that Iron Maiden is pretty handy in defending herself.”

Charlotte looked up at Vanser curiously. “Sounds like you have firsthand knowledge.” She mused.

“I never tried to assault her, if that’s what you’re implying.”

“Do you know who she is?” Charlotte asked.

“Nope.” Vanser responded.

“Hmm…” Charlotte’s eyes narrowed as she scrutinized the giant face above her, what she could see of it anyway. “I don’t think I believe you.”

Vanser shrugged, which momentarily knocked Charlotte off balance. “Well, if I do, maybe I’ll introduce you sometime.”

“Right. I’m sure that will go well.” Charlotte muttered. “She’d probably crush me.”

Vanser chuckled. “You’d be surprised.”

Charlotte was silent for a long time. “Vanser… do… do you think Molly is okay?”

Vanser winced. He’d been hoping to distract Charlotte away from her worry.

“I… I hope so.” He finally responded. “I mean, I wish I could tell you for certain that nothing bad has happened to her. Or at least nothing worse than being having a tracking chip implanted in her back. But the truth is that I don’t know.”

He sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know if this will make you feel better or not, Charlotte, but most Titans find the idea of hurting a human to be abhorrent. We don’t take cruelty to humans lightly and many people caught doing it have been sent to penal colonies for it. So, I mean, I don’t know anything more than you do about the women who took Molly, but I have to hope that at the very least they’re not hurting her.”

Charlotte nodded, her throat suddenly feeling constricted.

“And I promise you this.” Vanser continued. “If they have harmed Molly, then I will do everything within my power to see that they pay dearly for doing so. Okay?”

Charlotte swallowed. “I… I know you will Vanser. You know, it seems silly now to think I ever thought you meant to harm Molly.”

“Well, to be fair, I thought the same thing about Lenya.” Vanser smirked. “Come on, the Stadium is just a few streets away. If we hurry, maybe we can catch the tiebreaker round.”

*.*.*

Molly impatiently paced the length of her cage. Now that she had a hope of getting away, Molly found the wait to be interminable. She felt hope for the first time since Caetyr had taken her away from Charlotte, and she desperately wanted to hold on to it.

“Where is Ourellia anyway?” The young woman muttered to herself. “Caetyr has to have left by now.”

Her eyes watered as she thought again about how she might soon be seeing Charlotte again. She hoped her friend was okay, that she wasn’t still scavenging for crumbs on the dirty floor of that hotel bar. Molly hoped that, somehow, Lenya had found Charlotte and that her friend was at least safe.

She didn’t want to think that Charlotte might have fallen into the same predicament that Molly herself had, although she was well aware that it might very well be the case.

Molly cut that train of thought off before it could go any further. She didn’t want to think of Charlotte sitting naked in a terrarium, with a tracking chip stuck in her back, being reduced to nothing but a plaything to some giant being.

No, Charlotte was okay. She was safe with Lenya. She just had to be. And soon, Molly would be back with her again, and everything would be okay.

A shadow fell over her and Molly sighed with relief. Finally, Ourellia had come back for her. She turned around and looked up.

“Hello little girl.” Caetyr smirked, her long blue hair brushing against the top of the cage. “How about you and I have a little talk?”

She reached into the cage and wrapped her fingers around Molly before the little human could even think about escaping. Caetyr’s fingers pinched her roughly between them and Molly let out a small gasp of pain.

“Sorry little Molly.” Caetyr simpered as she lowered Molly into the pocket of her coat. “I didn’t mean to be rough, but I need to be quick about this.”

With that, she turned and left the room. And then, she walked outside.