The heels of their shoes clicked on the tile floors of the hotel hallways with a staccato rhythm. The sound almost seemed to mock Rixie, as if it were a counter ticking away the time that Alex had left.
She glanced down at the data pad in her hand, the pet-locator program displayed prominently on the screen.
“We need to move faster!” She snapped, concerned panic coloring the electronic tone of her voice.
“I’m going as fast as I can, dear.” Pryvani huffed, walking nearly two strides for every one of Rixie’s.
Rixie bit back the retort that had risen in her throat. Getting mad at Pryvani would only waste time. Unfortunately, they had no way of knowing exactly how long Alex had been missing. They’d only realized that Pryvani’s purse had been switched for a cheap replicated knock-off a few minutes ago.
As soon as the discovery had been made, they’d both leapt into action. They’d wasted several minutes in going back to their suite because, thanks to the theft of Pryvani’s purse, neither of them had a data pad with which to activate Alex’s tracking chip.
Rixie silently took back every awful thing she’d ever said or thought about that chip. While she still loathed the fact that they’d even existed, and that Alex had felt the need to have one implanted, she couldn’t deny the fact that if Alex was going to be found, she would need its help to do so.
Rixie glanced at the image of the map in her hand, and turned right at the next corridor.
She could only hope they would find him in time.
*.*.*.*.*.*
Alex’s entire body was on fire with pain.
He’d felt, dimly, the feeling of weightlessness as his cloth and leather prison had entered in a free fall down the garbage chute, followed by the agonizing impact that had rattled his broken and battered body.
He was no medical expert, but he guessed that he had on broken arm, one broken leg, and several cracked ribs. His head pounded, and if he was actually able to see anything in the pitch-black darkness , he would be willing to bet his vision would be swimming as well.
He had no idea how long he’d been laying there, but the air inside the purse was becoming stuffy, and the temperature inside was getting increasingly warmer. His body was soaked in sweat and he was sure it wouldn’t be long until he either passed out from lack of oxygen, or dehydration.
“Help…” His voice rasped a pitiful little gurgle that he could barely hear himself, let alone anybody on the outside. “…Please…”
Was this how he was going to die? Alone in a garbage bin?
Suddenly the world shook around him. A cacophonous noise filled the air around him and sent his little prison tumbling end over end. The disturbance lasted only a second or two, but his body felt the effects for several minutes more.
After everything calmed down, Alex probed out with his good arm. He realized with shocked horror that the walls of the purse were narrower than they had been before, and he felt an oppressive weight slowly settling on top of it, and consequently-him.
It was at this point his mind was finally able to make sense of the terrifying noise that had rattled his world the moment before. It was a sound he was familiar with, he’d heard it almost every night that he’d worked as a bartender back on Earth.
The sound of glass and metal knocking into each other. Someone had dropped a bag of junk on top of him.
He was being buried alive in garbage.
*.*.*.*.*.*
“Damn! I lost the signal!” Rixie barely resisted the urge to throw the data pad against the wall in frustration. She frantically turned about, trying to regain her link to Alex.
“Come on!” She snarled, her fingers turning white as she gripped the edges of the device. “Come on you stupid piece of- There! Got it back! He’s this way, come on!”
“Go on!” Pryvani hurried to keep up. “Don’t wait for me, your legs are longer. I’ll catch up!”
Rixie nodded and hurried down the corridor, shedding the cumbersome shoes in the process.
Rixie followed the map on her data pad, leading her through the corridors of the hotel and down towards the lower floors, until she found herself away from the places guests were usually allowed.
Then she found herself in front of a large door that was utilitarian gray in color and marked “Staff Only.”
And it was locked.
“Oh no.” Rixie growled, banging on the door as hard as she could. “No. NO! OPEN THE DOOR DAMN IT!”
A few moments later, Pryvani arrived to find Rixie trying to break her way in by ramming her shoulder desperately against the implacable steel door.
“Rixie stop!” She cried, pulling the taller woman away from the door. “You’ll break your shoulder!”
“I don’t care!” Rixie yelled desperately. “He’s back there, and I have to find him!”
With a feral roar, she slammed the side of her closed fist against the door’s metal surface.
An impressive bang reverberated through the corridor, but the door remained unaffected.
“There must be another way in.” Rixie muttered desperately. She glanced down at the datapad in her hand. “Come on you stupid piece of junk, show me another way.”
“There isn’t, dear.” Pryvani spoke softly.
“How do you know?” Rixie snapped.
If Pryvani was affected by the other woman’s tone, it didn’t show on her face. “I’ve spent more than enough times in these hotels to know them back to front. The layout is the same for each one.”
“I don’t accept that!” Rixie growled. “I can’t accept losing him because of some stupid door. I will take it off its hinges if I have to. I’ll break a hole in the fucking wall!”
“I’m not saying you should dear.” Pryvani replied. “Just that sometimes brute force isn’t the answer. Excuse me, miss?”
Rixie realized that last hadn’t been directed at her. She turned to see Pryvani sauntering over to a young woman in the black uniform of one of the hotel’s cleaning staff.
The young woman was watching the two of them, mouth hanging open in shock, and not a little fear. After all, there was no possible way she hadn’t heard Rixie venting her rage on the wall. “Y-Yes?” She stuttered. “How can I help you?”
Pryvani put on her most dazzling smile.
“I don’t mean to be a bother…” Pryvani glanced at the nametag on the woman’s shirt. “…Renna- but I’m afraid I’ve lost something extremely important to me. My purse, you see, which was very expensive in its own right, of course… but it also had something very valuable inside and-Silly me!- I accidentally put it down the garbage chute.”
“Garbage chute?” Rixie growled.
“And so, darling,” The heiress continued, ignoring Rixie for the moment. “I was wondering if you could do me a little favor and let us in there for just a moment so I could get it back?”
“You’re Pryvani Tarsuss!”
“Yes dear, I certainly am. Now… the door? Please?”
Renna reached for her key card, but then stopped. “Oh, uh… I mean it’s really not open for guests… I don’t know if I can…”
Pryvani preemptively put her hand on Rixie’s shoulder and dug her nails in, just a little. She could feel the muscles in the taller woman’s arm tightening. “It’ll just be for a second, I promise.” She said softly. “Then we’ll be out of your hair, and we’ll be sure to tell the manager how helpful you were to us…”
“Oh well…” Renna bit her lip. “Okay. I don’t really see the harm anyway; it’s just garbage back there.”
Pryvani felt Rixie relax, slightly.
Renna stepped between them and swiped her key card through the doors lock. A second later the indicator light turned green and they heard the door unlock with a loud thunk.
Rixie barely managed to resist the urge to bowl the smaller woman over as Renna opened the door for them.
They stepped into a large, barely lit room. The walls were bare cement and steel and the ceilings were covered in wires and duct work. Standing in neat little rows, each underneath a chute, were massive bins filled with garbage bags.
Rixie walked down the rows, glancing at her data pad every few steps. Her heartbeat quickened as she saw that the signal was getting stronger.
Then she stopped in front of one of the bins.
“Here!” She called back to Pryvani, who was walking alongside Renna a few paces back. “Find me something to climb on, so I can get inside!”
“Inside?” Renna gasped. “Is she really going to jump into a pile of garbage? Over a purse?”
“As I said, dear.” Pryvani’s voice tightened as she fought to keep her expression neutral. “What was inside it was very valuable.”
Rixie found a large plastic crate and dragged it, loudly, over to the bin. Without even the slightest hesitation, she climbed on top and jumped in to the garbage bin- beautiful red dress and all.
“Did she really…?” Renna’s sentence tapered off as she was treated to the sight of Pryvani Tarsuss, one of the richest women in the Empire, shedding her shoes and dashing full tilt to climb headlong into a bin full of garbage.
“What could possibly have been in that purse?” She muttered to herself incredulously.
Rixie dug frantically through the plastic bags and piles of trash, barely acknowledging when Pryvani dove in beside her.
The two women threw the trash aside, in their mad search for Alex.
Rixie caught a flash of grey fabric out of the corner of her eye and threw the plastic bag that was obscuring it out of the way, heedlessly. She vaguely registered the sound of glass shattering against the concrete floor.
She snatched up the purse and tore it open.
“He’s here!” She spoke almost faint with relief. “Thank goodness he’s here!”
“Is he alright?” Pryvani asked anxiously, crawling over to peer into the purse.
Rixie shook her head. “He’s still breathing, but he looks like he’s in horrible shape.” She felt a fiery hot rage building inside her, but tamped it down. Now was not the time.
“Let’s get him out of here and back up to the suite.” Pryvani whispered quickly. “Then we can get a better idea of how he’s doing.”
Rixie nodded. “Right.”
Holding the purse as if it were made of glass, Rixie carefully made her way out of the bin, and then helped Pryvani down. She gently passed Pryvani the purse, who took it just as carefully.
Rixie quickly picked up the bag she’d chucked out of the way and threw it back in the bin, and Pryvani picked up her shoes. After doing so, she handed the purse back to Rixie.
“Thank you so much, dear.” Pryvani mumbled, reflexively pressing a credit chit into the young woman’s hand. “You have no idea how grateful we are to you.”
The two women quickly made their way out of the back room, leaving a stunned and bewildered Renna in their wake.
“That… was strange.” Renna muttered. She then glanced down at the small bit of plastic in her hand.
Pryvani, unknowingly or not, had just handed her a thousand credits.
*.*.*.*.*.*
The two of them hurried back to their suite. Once there, Rixie cut the purse open around Alex, rather than risk injuring him further by moving him more than she already had.
She looked down on him, sitting in the ruined scraps of Pryvani’s purse. He was pale, covered in dirt and sweat, and his limbs were laying at odd, unnatural angles.
“Where’s Brinn when I need her.” Rixie muttered desperately. She’d had the basic medical training that all officers received, so she could see much of what was wrong… but it was a different matter trying to set a broken bone of someone smaller than your finger. She was absolutely paralyzed by the fear that she might cause him further injury.
“I’ll go get Zhan.” Pryvani suddenly dashed out of the room and up to her bedroom.
She shoved the door open, startling Zhan out of the light doze he’d fallen into on her bedspread.
“Pryvani?” He muttered sleepily. “How was the party?”
“Horrible.” She responded shortly. “Did you have any medical training in the Watch?”
“Um, a little…”
“Good!” Pryvani gently snatched him from the bed. “Come with me.”
Meanwhile, downstairs, Rixie had noticed Alex was starting to come around.
“Alex?” She whispered. “It’s okay, you’re safe now…?”
“Rixie…?” The small human muttered, his eyes opening slightly.
“Yes, Alex.” Rixie wiped away the tears of relief. “It’s me.”
“I…?” Alex’s eyes suddenly snapped open and he looked over at her, as if seeing her for the first time.
She watched in confusion as his face drained of all color and his eyes widened, right before he began to scream uncontrollably.
“Alex!” Rixie jumped back, startled. “What’s the matter?”
“No!” Alex yelled, curling into a ball. “No! Stay back! Stay away! Don’t hurt me, please!”
A-Alex?!” Rixie backed away, not knowing what else to do. “Alex, what’s wrong? It’s me! You’re safe now! Please stop, you’re going to hurt yourself!”
“NO!”
Rixie watched, horrified, as Alex thrashed about on the tabletop, screaming at terrors only he seemed to be able to see.
“What’s going on in here?” Pryvani cried, stepping into the room.
“He… he just started having a panic attack!” Rixie said helplessly, backing all the way to the opposite end of the room. “As soon as he saw me, he…”
“Put me down there.” Zhan responded.
Pryvani lowered him to the tabletop.
“Both of you get out of here!” Zhan commanded, his voice carrying a tone of authority neither of them had heard him use before.
“But-?”
“Now Rixie!”
Rixie bit her lip, but nodded. Without another word, she and Pryvani stepped out of the room.
As soon as they were clear, Rixie turned to Pryvani.
“I need a pair of holo-projectors.” She told the heiress. “As soon as you can get them here.”
Pryvani’s opened, but after a moment she shut it again and nodded. “Consider it done.”
Zhan watched Alex carefully. As soon as the two Titanesses had left the room, he’d calmed down slightly. He was still breathing heavily, and occasionally thrashing, but the full blown panic had seemed to pass.
Cautiously, he took a step towards the older man.
“Alex…?” He whispered. “It’s… it’s Zhan.”
Alex didn’t react. He just lay on the tabletop, shuddering as if from a chill.
When he was close enough, Zhan knelt next to Alex and began to carefully run his hands over him, making note of the injuries he found. He only had a basic knowledge of medicine, but he knew how to identify and set a broken bone.
Of course, he didn’t have anything to set it with. That could be a problem.
He glanced at Alex again, and realized he’d fallen unconscious once more.
“Pryvani!” He called out, carefully.
A titaness leaned her head into the room, but it was Rixie.
“He has several broken bones.” Zhan said. “And I don’t have anything to set them with.”
Rixie hesitated, biting her lip uncertainly.
“He’s… he’s unconscious right now.” Zhan told her. “I think you can safely come in.”
Rixie nodded and ducked out of the room. A few minutes later, she returned with several long scraps of cloth and short sticks that were, in reality, titan-sized toothpicks. She set the bundle down next to Zhan and then quickly backed out of the room again.
Zhan gathered the items and set about making splints and bandages for Alex’s injuries. They’d be rudimentary at best, but they would suffice until they could get him to proper medical treatment.
Outside the room, Pryvani appeared. She carried with her a pair of box-like devices.
“They aren’t state of the art by any means.” She told Rixie in a hushed voice. “You’ll have audio and visual only, nothing tactile. But they were all the hotel could get on such short notice.”
“They’re fine.” Rixie said shortly. “Thank you.” She took one from Pryvani set it down on the floor in front of her.
“Of course dear.” Pryvani said, before taking the other into the room where Zhan and Alex were.
After getting the okay to enter from Zhan, Pryvani crept into the room and, as quietly as she could, placed the second projector onto the table beside where Alex was laying.
“I’ve treated his wounds as best I can.” Zhan told her. “But I’m not a doctor.”
“Thank you.” Pryvani said with a smile. “You are amazing. Now, let’s give them a moment.”
As soon as she got the device positioned correctly, she grabbed Zhan off the table and crept back out of the room.
“All set Rixie.” She said as she retreated up the stairs.
Rixie took a deep calming breath, and then turned on both machines.
The lens on the small device whirred to life, shooting out a beam of colored light that slowly resolved into an image of Alex.
Blinking back tears from her eyes. Rixie crept over to the form and knelt down beside it.
“Alex…” She whispered gently. “Alex, it’s me… You’re safe now…”
It took a few minutes, but eventually Alex stirred. He slowly blinked his eyes, and looked up at her.
“Rix?” He muttered. “What…?”
“Don’t move.” Rixie told him gently, reflexively moving to put a hand on his chest, which passed right through him. “You don’t want to aggravate those injuries anymore.”
“You’re a hologram.” Alex observed, looking at her. “Why….? Oh… oh god…”
His eyes widened as he suddenly remembered everything that had happened.
“Rixie… I’m so sorry! I couldn’t control it, I mean I knew it was you but… you were so big, and I felt so small and helpless and I just started panicking, and I knew there was nothing to be afraid of but I just couldn’t stop it… I’m so sorry Rixie.”
“Shh…” Rixie shushed him gently. “I know Alex. I’ve seen it before. You don’t have anything to be ashamed of. Okay?”
“But…”
Rixie shook her head, placing her hand over his forehead and wishing he could feel her. “Alex. It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure this out.”
“How?” Alex asked desperately. “How can I live if every time I see you, or another Titan, I start flipping out?”
“I don’t know.” Rixie answered honestly. “We’ll think of something. I’ll live in a holosuite if I have to. But in the meantime…”
Rixie took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“In the meantime, I think you need a break from living in a world of giants.” Rixie felt her throat close, but she forced the words out anyway. “And the only place like that available to us is Avalon.”
A lot of focus on Alex in the comments, but nobody talking about Pryvani giving a 1000 cred chip to someone with a gambling addiction. I’m hoping that it’s the catalyst for more interaction between her and Sam. Maybe Sam will reveal his full name to her, with some recognition on her part, which will lead to her wondering what exactly the humans are doing in those events…
She doesn’t have a gambling addiction as far as I know, unless I missed reading between the lines there. She blew that one week on one bet, and I assume she could barely make ends meet as it was. Like I say, maybe I’m missing something, but if were her, that’d be enough to keep me from gambling for a long time, if not forever. (Considering I’m me, and not her, I wouldn’t have gambled in the first place, but that’s besides the point.)
We were shown early on that a portion of her paycheck is being deducted to pay for something. It is heavily implied that she is paying off gambling debts. We can infer this because she blows a week’s pay on a bet. I do believe she has a problem, but I’m not sure if it’s gambling or peer pressure.
We know she’s paying off debts, likely gambling ones, but we’ve only SEEN her gamble once. And that was at her friend’s nagging insistence. So, does she just not have a backbone and is unable to stand up to her friend? Or does she actually have an addiction that needs to be curbed? Time will tell!
In the first prologue chapter Renna felt a familiar tug in her abdomen when passing by the casinos and only resisted going in with heroic willpower. And when Renna and Nyli were together Renna mentioned having a system. It’s safe to say that Renna has been gambling more than she should. As for whether or not it’s an addiction, I’d say yes, although it appears to be a relatively mild one. What she lost for not betting on Isamu was a day’s pay, not a week’s, but Renna still started crying over it. The implication is that Renna’s financial situation is so tight that even a day’s pay is more than she can afford to lose. Yet she still gambled it away in a single bet.
To say I’m excited for when Rixie doles out the asswhoopin’s would be an understatement! It sucks that this had to happen right after Alex and Rixie confessed their love for one another! I guess Alex’s ridiculously good luck had to end someday…
I think Alex is just shell shocked. Its an isolated incident – horrible one at that but he will recover. He is a tough little dude.. I agree with the others about revenge on Vasha…btw what she did was MUCH worse than what Trell did to him…Waiting and biding one’s time for the right opportunity would be better than instant retribution (as much as I would like to see it). Vasha is very powerful and connected, you can’t simply come up to her and punch her in the face, or knife her, or shove an open tear gas canister into one of her orifices, or….(okay I have been thinking about this waaay too much. 🙂
Oh crap, I didn’t expect Alex would be so traumatized as to develop a phobia generalized to all Titans. This is going to be a tough time for the pair of them, and may exasperate his feelings that he doesn’t deserve someone like Rixie if they can’t be together in the same room.
As cool as hit his chapter was something that surprised me one was Alex being a bartender back on earth. When was that mentioned? I don’t remember.
I also am wondering is Renna the same waitress that was in the beginning of exile? When pryvani was having dinner with Sargent Avery ?
The waitress from the beginning of Titan: Exile is not Renna. She’s named Ntyalone. Not to mention that their personalities are quite different; Ntyalone seemed to regard Darren sorta like a disease-ridden rat, while Renna treats Sam more like a cute little hamster.
Apparently the Empire has more than one waitress 😉
I think it was mentioned in the very first Titan story, as well as in Pandemic.
In the original Titan story Alex tells Sophia that he was a bartender in chapter 21, when they are surrounded by Trell worshipers and Sophia is hoping Alex has leet fighting skills from his life back on Earth. And in Titan: Pandemic Alex mentions working at a bar after his sparring match with Izzy in chapter 28.
To be honest I had totally forgotten about both of those. Well remembered, soatari!
KazumaR1 is right. Revenge is a dish best served cold…and Rixie should be colder than Vasha when that pink-haired beeyotch gets what’s coming to her. 😈
Well that’s a surprise. I figured Renna would meet Pryvani via the purse, but I didn’t expect a PTSD subplot for Alex.
Wow, I totally did not expect that panic attack. Still, it made sense. I hadn’t thought of it before, but Alex may have been as reckless as he was because he never fully acknowledged the dangers of an oversized world. And now he got to experience some of them firsthand.
With Rixie gone, will Pryvani have another bodyguard? I think it’d be foolish not to, given that she’s basically in enemy territory, but Pryvani doesn’t seem to like having them around.
Aww poor Alex….
As much as I would like Rixie to pop Vasha’s head off like a top, it’s best she take Alex back to Avalon so he can heal physically and mentally. Any confrontation Rixie has with Vasha would probably end badly for Rixie since she would not be thinking straight.
And personally, with Alex and Rixie away, we get to see how Pyvani and Zhan’s relationship develops on their own, assuming Zhan doesn’t go back to Avalon, which is unlikely if Pryvani wants to keep him safe.
Broken bones will heal but a broken mind may never recover. Poor Rixie, she did nothing wrong and she’s feeling all this. She’ll make Vasha pay, what Alex felt she’ll feel triple or whatever multiplier she can dish out. At least they might know who did it, Vasha might want to be careful. That is if Alex’s description of the woman can help her.
His panic attack sadly is much worse than Niall who is afraid of being swallowed, Alex is afraid of giants. By the way, shouldn’t I get an email if I subscribe to this site, at least telling me there’s an update. Now I just check every day to see if you guys have posted anything new.
At least he’ll see Brinn and Sophie, not much consolation but it’ll do.
I don’t think Alex needs to describe his tormentor : he knows who Vasha is, doesn’t he ? Even if Pryvani didn’t tell him about her, wasn’t he sitting on Rixie’s shoulder when Pryvani talked to Vasha, early in the evening ?
Check your spam folder. I had to add the sender to my contacts to get it to appear in my inbox.
Damn poor Alex, and poor Rixie, I will commend her for immediately thinking of the holoprojectors rather than being despondent over his reaction.
While his mental health is important he should probably point out just who did this to him. Not that Vasha wasn’t already on their shit list but Rixie does need to know who she’s going to kill.
Speaking of which I’m rather lost on Vasha’s plan at the moment, just what was so valuable in Pryvani’s purse that it was worth a snatch and grab?
Best I can tell, it was Pryvani’s data pad.
I love this one. But what about the sovereign one.
Oh ! I didn’t expect Alex to flip out at Rixie like that but it does make sense unfortunately. Bones will heal on their own given time, but his mind ? That’s gonna be tough. Niall had nightmares for weeks (months ?) after all. It’s sad for Alex and Rixie but it feels “right” if you know what I mean.
I’m surprised Pryvani doesn’t have at least a basic “human first aid” kit wherever she goes, especially since she travels with Zhan now. She knows what her enemies are like with Humans (at least her mother through Trell) : you’d think she’d be more prepared than that.
After Syon and Vasha, does that mean Pryvani too is not as smart as we’re told ? The way Avalon was hit so hard on her watch hurt her hidden genius status quite a bit already.
I don’t think Pryvani really knows how or who Vasha is. If you remember she was surprised at discovering that Vasha was one of the sponsors of the human fights. Even though she was her roommate at college, she did not get the true depth of the woman (or lack of it)
Pryvani was never propped up as a hidden genius though. I’d say she’s more or less equal to her mother in intelligence, perhaps a little less intelligent than Syon considering how many back up plans Syon has. There are plenty of smart Titan females like Lyroo, Aisell, and Naskia. They just don’t have Pryvani’s money and resources.
Poor Alex. And poor Rixie. That will be tough having them split up. I do not know if I would expect Avalon to necessarily be safe, although danger would be coming only from humans, since we got rid of Trell. Still it has been a very violent place in the last few months, and Alex is not fit. Sounds like it could still be dangerous.
It looks as though there will be a new wave of business for Kiri. She could develop quite a profitable practice, with her expertise now.
How will Pryvani handle Vasha re: the disappearance of her bag from her table while she was sitting there? I am sure she will not accuse her of anything directly, but a woman at the level might be quite verbal about her purse ring stolen. And Alex will have to tell the ladies that Vasha was the one who hurt him and stole Pryvani’s data pad. That could be an interesting conversation.
Nice chapter. We are wondering how Pierce is doing, too.
I expect Renna will lose her job when Pryvani makes her comments to management about her great customer service. She had better get Sam out quick, while she still has access… But that thousand credits will help with her gambling debts, and maybe she won’t have to go back to waiting tables for that creep.
Oh I don’t think so. Would the management do that after such an esteemed guest like Pryvani complimented their employee?
Renna will score big points with the management for that.
Why would Renna lose her maid job? That job has a supervisor who is far nicer than the scumbag who supervises her waitress job. And given how the hotel is shown to cater to the super rich, complete with bending over backwards, she’d get complimented if anything.
Exactly. Compliments, plus they’d be more willing to do her a favour.
About making a fuss about her bag getting stolen, I doubt Pryvani will do anything like that. She already told Renna that she put the purse into the garbage chute herself by accident, so suddenly saying “my purse got stolen” would make her look like one of those spoiled brats who blame others for their own mistakes. Besides, what good would it do? It’s not as if Vasha is going to admit anything. All that’d happen is that Vasha would promise a full investigation, followed by either not actually doing anything or blaming a scapegoat.
Wait, were you thinking that Renna is going to get fired because as a temp worker she’d make a good scapegoat?