Zhan sat on the pad he’d been using as a bed for several days. He was hunched over, forearms against his knees, staring at the floor in front of him.

He found himself with a lot to think about, and not much of it was particularly pleasant.

Sophia and Lysis had had a talk with him, and it had left him with more questions than answers. He pressed his fingers to his temples to his forehead and sighed as he played the conversation in his mind’s eye once more:

“How can you not be mad about this Cap?” He had asked Lysis furiously, pointing up at the Titaness in question. Pryvani sat in front of the desk the three of them were standing on, watching the entire conversation with a sad, disappointed look on her face. “She lied to us, for who knows how long? It’s… All of it! It’s all been just a game to her.”

“That’s not true Zhan!” Sophia interjected before the Captain could respond. “She was not the one who started this whole ‘goddess’ mess.”

“Oh like that matters!” Zhan spat back. “She willfully participated in it.”

“Is that what you think?” Pryvani, who had been silent up until this point, finally spoke.

“Yes.” Zhan shouted up at her. “You’re a fraud and a charlatan Pryvani, and you’ve been duping thousands of people for who knows how long.”

“Okay,” Pryvani sighed, rubbing her face wearily. “I’ve tried to give you space, but I don’t have the time or the energy to soft-foot around you anymore. So, I put it to you Zhan… what would you have done?”

The young human blinked, completely caught off guard by the question. “What?”

“What would you have done in my place?” Pryvani repeated, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms over her chest, doing her best not to loom over the little people. “You’re 17 years old, and you have just had the burden of an entire civilization of thousands of people suddenly dropped onto your shoulders. Not only that, but they think you’re a god, and it’s a belief they’ve held for generations, even before you were born. You never asked to be worshipped, but too bad, it’s your responsibility.

Zhan gaped at the Titaness, too stunned by her line of questions to respond.

“So, oh newly fledged divine being Zhan… what’s your choice? Do you tell the truth and throw the entire culture into upheaval, or do you lie and play along even if the guilt of the lie- a lie that you never created, let me remind you- eats at your soul little by little, year after year?

A few seconds of silence passed, before Zhan found his voice.

“Well… I…” The small man stuttered, even as he stared wide eyed at Pryvani. “I don’t know.”

The Titaness sighed and shook her head. “That’s what I thought.”

She pushed back from the table and stood up. Zhan unconsciously watched her body rise in front of him as her shadow fell over the desk.

She suddenly felt like a goddess to him again, and he withered slightly under her gaze.

He expected some cutting remark, or rebuke. A parting shot to make him feel even lower than he already did, but it never came. She merely gazed down at him for a moment before her eye softened. She sighed deeply, and then turned and walked away, leaving him alone with Lysis and Sophia.

Zhan’s knees suddenly buckled and he fell back on his sleeping pad.

“See what I’ve been trying to tell you now?” Sophia asked gently, laying a hand on his shoulder. “I won’t say that Pryvani always made the best choices when it came to Avalon, far from it, but she hasn’t been some spoiled brat playing with living dolls either. She’s just tried to do her best with a situation that was unfair all around.”

Zhan nodded, but didn’t really trust himself to speak.

“I think that’s enough talking for now.” Lysis observed. “Why don’t you try and get some sleep Zhan, you’re not quite at one-hundred percent yet.”

“But…”

“I’ll make it an order if I have to.”

Zhan sighed. “Yes Captain.”

But he hadn’t slept. Not a single wink. He kept running the entire conversation over in his head, again and again. But every time he kept coming back to the same question

What would he have done?

And if he was completely honest with himself, he didn’t have a clue.

Much to his chagrin, Zhan couldn’t help but think of all the times he had prayed for things that, in retrospect, didn’t really matter. That some girl he liked would agree to go for a walk with him, that his team would score the winning goal, or that he’d find the money he needed to buy something he “desperately” needed…

Then he thought that he was just one of literally thousands of people all doing the exact same thing.

Now, granted, Pryvani likely never heard the vast majority of those “prayers” but that was really beside the point. How often did she help the people of Avalon? And, more importantly, how often was she ever thanked for that help?

That realization stung a bit, when Zhan realized he was just as guilty as the rest of them. Perhaps more so. After all, she had personally saved his life and had he even bothered to thank her for it? No. All he’d done was yell at her. Sure, he’d had a right to be upset, but at least he’d been alive.

People had always begged the Goddess to forgive their sins… could Zhan do any less?

*.*.*.*.*.*.*

“Will you hurry up with that?” Trell snarled as she loomed over the young man in front of her. The young man who was furiously typing away at the stolen data pad she’d acquired earlier in the week. He was attempting to nullify the security alarms that monitored the perimeter. Trell was currently supervising while Greno kept a lookout for any guards on patrol.

“I’d be able to work faster if you and Greno weren’t constantly breathing down my neck!” Dorok snapped irritably “If hacking the administration building’s security system were easy, you’d have done it yourself.”

Trell blinked, startled by his suddenly belligerent attitude. She had to admit, however, that her respect for the little yanker went up, but only a little. Nevertheless, she decided to get off his case. At least for the time being.

“Can’t wait to get out of here…” She heard him muttering to himself as he peered at the small screen. “First thing I’m gonna do is find that little slag Naskia and I’m going to take her idiot human boyfriend from her and crush him in my fist. See if he’s so tough without a hologram projector…”

“Wait,” Trell’s interest suddenly perked. “What did you say?”

Dorok cringed at having been caught talking to himself. “Oh uh, it’s how I was arrested. This girl Naskia… she and I had a misunderstanding…”

“You mean when you tried to rape her?” Trell asked, arching her brow wryly.

“No that was a different girl actually. Not… not that I actually raped anybody, of course.”

“Right.” Trell smirked

Anyway… long story short, I stole Naskia’s human to give to this other girl and-“

“The one you tried to rape?”

“I DIDN’T RAPE HER; SHE WENT BACK ON OUR DEAL!”

“What are you two blabbering on about in there? Hurry it up!” Greno growled from where he was standing watch.

“Calm down idiot,” Trell hissed at Dorok. “Do you want to get us caught?!”

“Sorry.” Dorok muttered sullenly, bending his head over the screen again. “Anyway, the point is the, um, Naskia’s human attacked me.”

There was a rather pregnant pause before Trell felt the need to speak up. “…So? Why not just squish the little rodent?”

“Well… he got ahold of my holo-projector and made himself a Titan sized avatar…”

Trell snorted. “You know, when you make up a story, it doesn’t really work if you make yourself seem more pathetic.”

“But it’s true!”

“Sure it is.” Trell snickered.

Dorok shook his head and went back to his work. They sat in silence, the only sound from Dorok tapping at the screen of the data pad in his hand.

“There. Done.” He announced. “I’ve disabled the tracking sensors along the outer perimeter. We should have a clean break.”

“Good.” Trell signaled to Greno and the three of them slipped out of the room where they’d been hiding and began making their way to the border that marked the edge of the penal colony compound.

Of course, the second they stepped over the line alarms began blaring.

Greno grabbed Dorok by the collar of his shirt and lifted him off the ground. “I thought you said you disabled their security!?”

“I…I did!”

“Obviously you didn’t!” Greno’s grip shifted to around his neck and he began to slowly squeeze Dorok’s windpipe.

“We don’t have time for that.” Trell snapped. “We have minutes until they start after us, we need to move!” Without waiting for a response she took off running in the direction of the place where she and she alone, knew the ship would be meeting them. The two of them would either follow or they would get caught, she really didn’t care which.

With a grunt, Greno dropped Dorok none-too-gently to the ground and then ran after Trell. Dorok took a moment to catch his breath, and then he started running as well.

Behind him, Dorok could hear the sounds of the guards mobilizing in response to the prison break.

Trell ducked low in the sparse covering provided by the sickly looking patch of weeds, violently pulling Dorok down after her.

“Where’s Greno?!” She snarled in the young man’s face, pulling him closer by his shirt collar.

“I don’t know!” The young man whined pitifully. “I-I lost him back there somewhere.”

Trell shoved him away with a growl. She glanced through their cover to see that the guards and security drones were still perusing them, although now with much more caution. The badlands weren’t exactly safe territory at the best of times, and certainly not in the dead of night.

As if to emphasize her thoughts, she heard a beastly howl in the distance.

“Come on.” She muttered finally. “We need to move fast, we still have another six hundred units or so to get to the spot where our ride’s going to pick us up, and we don’t have a lot of time to get there; and believe me, they will leave without us. “

“I never should have agreed to do this.” Dorok muttered sullenly. He clumsily pulled himself to his feet only do be shoved back to the ground by Trell putting a boot on his chest.

“I would love nothing better than to leave you here, you worthless lump, but you know too much. So you have two options either you go with me or I leave your corpse behind!”

“With you! With you!” Dorok cried frantically, eyes widened in panic.

“Too bad.” A voice growled from the shadows. “I would have loved to do the job myself.”

Trell looked over her shoulder to see Greno standing behind her, his weather beaten face half hidden in the dim light.

“Oh you made it after all.” Trell remarked mildly.

“I did. Got these.” He held up a pair of blaster pistols before handing one to Trell. “One less guard chasin’ us now.”

Trell nodded but didn’t respond. Instead she glanced towards the knot of searching guards. “Come on. We gotta get moving.”

She picked up a stone from a pile by her feet and chucked it as far as she could in the opposite direction from where they were about to run. She watched with a satisfied smirk as the group of guards whipped their heads towards the sound of the falling stone and took off running in that direction.

She turned back to the other two and nodded towards their destination. “Go!”

The three of them moved as quickly and as quietly as they could, occasionally glancing back over their shoulders as they ran to see if they were being pursued.

Dorok huff and gasped for air as they ran full tilt for whatever landing zone Trell had been instructed to meet their transportation. His lungs burned and every muscle ached and screamed for him to stop and rest, but he didn’t dare. For one thing the guards would surely catch up with them and for another, Trell and Greno would kill him to keep him from talking and not bat an eye doing it.

It’s amazing what the fear of an immediate death can do for someone’s stamina.

Still, he prayed that they would reach the pick-up site soon.

Suddenly the air around them exploded with bright flashes of light. Instinctively, they all dove to the ground to avoid the spray of incapacitating discharge that was being fired from the guards’ weapons.

“Looks like yer trick with the stone didn’t convince ‘em fer long!” Greno rasped as he hefted his pistol and fired blindly in the direction of the guards. He didn’t hit anything, but it did force them to seek cover.

“Keep moving!” Trell yelled grabbing Dorok by the scruff of his shirt and hauling him back to his feet.

“I hope this ship of yours isn’t running late!” Dorok yelled over the noise of the firefight. He let out a rather undignified yelp as a stray blast impacted on the ground by his feet, sending up a shower of sparks.

Trell didn’t bother answering, even as she let loose a barrage of cover fire from her own weapon. In the dim light she saw one guard go down after being struck in the forehead. It was hard to be certain but Trell suspected it had been the guard she’d stolen the data pad from.

She didn’t have time to ponder that thought just then, however. A thunderous sound above them informed her that her ride actually was on time.

Surprisingly enough.

The bluish white glow from the craft’s engines lit up the scene and the displaced air from the stabilizers was throwing up a cloud of dust and grit.

“Ride’s here Greno!” Trell shouted over the din. “Time to leave!”

Greno fired off a few last shots before turning and dashing for the opening hatch on their escape craft.

Trell was the first to arrive. She was instantly dismayed, though not terribly surprised, to see the craft being piloted by the two idiots who’d proven themselves incompetent during her last venture.

“Pleasure to see you again, Trell.” The lead pilot muttered.

“Wish I could say the same.” Trell snapped back snarkily, even as she hauled Dorok into the ship. “You’re not going to decide to land if a human tells you to, again, are you?”

“Hey!” The co-pilot spoke up. “That wasn’t our fault, see, because-”

“Save it!” Greno shouted as he climbed on board and punched the button to activate emergency seal on the door. “Get us off this slagging rock!”

“You got it, big scary man.” The pilot muttered as her fingers flew across the control panel.

There was a momentary lurch as the craft launched away from the group before the inertial dampeners kicked in and gravity righted itself again.

“You’re going to have to get around the orbital security satellites.” Trell reminded the pair of pilots tersely. “And if anybody comes on the comm telling you to stop, please don’t listen to them.”

“Will you let that-” The pilot’s exclamation was cut off as the ship suddenly lurched sideways.

“Under fire from the satellites!” The co-pilot informed them.

“I never would have guessed.” Dorok muttered from where he was huddled in the corner, looking slightly green.

“Initiating evasives.”

“You got any weapons on this tub of scrap parts?” Greno growled.

“Not as such, no.” The pilot responded. “And, please, do me a favor and don’t distract me while I’m trying to keep us from dying.”

“We were told this was going to be a stealth pick-up.” The co-pilot added. “Didn’t know we’d have to deal with the entire security force of Rura-drecking-Penthe.”

“If you want a job with no surprises, go legit.” Trell muttered as she looked out the view port. “How much longer until we make it out of their range?”

“About three minutes!”

The ship lurched again

“Getting a little too close for my comfort here.” Trell snapped tersely.

“Relax!” The pilot shouted back. “We’ll be clear in a few minutes.”

“We won’t have a few minutes!” Dorok shouted. “Get out of the way.” Roughly he shoved Trell to the side and seated himself at a navigation terminal. Trell resisted the urge to kill him long enough to see what he was up to.

“If you activate some kind of alarm system…” Her voice carried a note of warning.

“Are you worried about them figuring out we escaped Trell?” Dorok snapped back. He felt a sort of reckless detachment. It didn’t really matter what he did right then. Either they would get away or Trell and Greno would have a few minutes to kill him before being captured. Beyond that, they couldn’t really threaten him.

His fingers flew across the control panel. This was something he knew he could do. He’d been surprised down on the surface. He hadn’t expected them to have a triple redundancy in their security systems, but this time he was on the lookout for such tricks.

“Hang on…” He muttered tensely. “Al…most… got it… There!”

“The satellites have been disabled.” The co-pilot voice carried a note of awe. “The kid did it.”

“Don’t relax just yet.” Trell warned. “There’s still a patrol ship on our tail.”

“Relax” The pilot muttered. “We’ll be out of their range in about a half minute.”

Each second of that half minute felt like an hour to those aboard the rickety vessel. Then, suddenly with a lurch the tiny ship rocketed away from the moon and out into the vastness of space.

They were safe. For the moment anyway.

“That was a good job with the satellites, kid.” Greno growled, his large hand pushing down on Dorok’s shoulder. “I guess that makes up for your screw-up with the alarm system. Guess you’ll get to live. For now.”

“I didn’t screw up!” Dorok whined. “It’s not my fault that-” He glanced up at Greno and the menacing scowl on the man’s face reminded Dorok that he wasn’t in any position to be correcting anybody’s perception of events.

“Th-thank you.” He said instead.

“Okay where are we heading boss?” The pilot asked after breathing a heavy sigh of relief. Maybe Trell was right with her crack about going legit. These back-alley jobs were going to be the death of her. And the pay was not good enough to be worth the risk.

Without saying a word, Trell leaned over the pilot’s seat and typed in a string of coordinates into the navigation console.

“There?” The co-pilot wondered. “Talk about a backwater station. Why were you told to go there?”

Trell rolled her eyes. She must be being punished. It was the only explanation. Fand was punishing her for her previous failure by forcing Trell to work with these fools again. “If you weren’t told, then you don’t really need to know, now do you?”

“Nice to see you’re as pleasant as you’ve always been Trell.” The pilot responded conversationally.