Molly was numb.

It had been several days; even by the way the Titans knew it, since her trip to the vet. In that time Molly had barely acknowledged her giant captors. Especially Caetyr. This in turn frustrated the blue-haired titan woman.

Molly bitterly recalled the way Caetyr would reach into her enclosure and snatch her up, regardless of how Molly felt about the ordeal.

“Hello Molly, how are we feeling today?” Caetyr asked cheerfully as she held Molly in the palm of her hand.

Molly rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“Still being stubborn, huh?” Caetyr sighed regretfully, even as she gently petted Molly’s hair with her fingers. “That’s okay. I know you’ll come around eventually.”

Molly wanted to scream and yell and demand to be released. To be returned to Lenya or Vanser, but she knew that Caetyr would smile that arrogant, infuriating little smile of hers, and would all be for naught.

So for now, Molly would just have to endure the humiliation, and wait for a chance to escape.

Eventually, Caetyr grew bored with the silent treatment and Molly was returned to her cage where she slumped against the back wall and tried not to succumb to the sense of despair that had been growing in her chest ever since she’d had the tracking chip implanted in her back.

She sat like that for several minutes, lost in dark thoughts before a soft tapping on the glass wall broke through her reverie.

Molly looked up, afraid that Caetyr had returned for a second go at breaking Molly into a good little pet. However, instead of Caetyr’s oddly blue eyes, Molly found herself staring into Ourellia’s amber colored orbs. Seeing Ourellia there was an improvement over the alternative, but only a marginal one.

The Titan wore a soft smile and her eyes were sympathetic.

“Hi Molly.” She whispered softly, her voice barely breaking through Molly’s glass prison.

“Hello Ourellia.” Molly sighed. She’d decided that her vow of silence only extended to Caetyr, because Ourellia was at least willing to try and have a conversation with her.

“Still feeling down, huh?” Ourellia murmured.

“It’s not ‘feeling down’ Ourellia.” Molly snapped irritably. “You and Caetyr are keeping me caged up, and you expect me to be happy about that fact. It’s absurd.”

Ourellia sighed. “I know, you’re not happy here Molly. But, believe it or not, Caetyr isn’t trying to be cruel to you.”

“Well, on that front she’s failing in a spectacular way.” Molly growled.

Ourellia winced. “I-”

“Please Ourellia.” Molly stood and stepped up to the front of her cage, placing her hand on the glass wall in front of Ourellia’s face. “Please, you have to let me go. I might die in here.”

“Oh…I…” Ourellia shifted uncomfortably.

“Please, Ourellia!” Molly repeated desperately, banging her fist on the glass wall. “‘No one likes a sad human’ Remember? Please, I miss my friends. Help me see them again.”

“I, uh…” Ourellia looked over her shoulder as if afraid Caetyr was suddenly going to come storming into the room. “I… oh… Okay Molly. I’ll do my best to convince Caetyr to let you go.”

Molly sighed, but nodded. It wasn’t quite what she wanted, but it was better than nothing. “Thanks Ourellia.”

*.*.*

“How could Molly having a tracking chip implanted in her back possibly be considered a good thing?” Charlotte asked sharply as Vanser dashed across the hotel room to where his data pad was being stored.

“Because, my dear Charlotte,” Vanser said as he grabbed his data pad. “If we can get ourselves that data, we can likely use that very same tracking chip to figure out where she is.”

“You have access?” Charlotte grinned. “Vanser, I could kiss you right now!”

Vanser’s ears turned red and he chuckled. “I don’t have access myself.” He explained as his fingers flew across the touchscreen on his data pad. “But I know someone who might be willing to help me out a little.”

On the final keystroke a holographic screen projected into the air from his data pad. A loading pattern of shifting colors flew in front of their eyes and they waited for the call to connect through.

After a minute, the pattern abruptly disappeared to be replaced by the confused looking face of a young man with curly blonde hair and sharp green eyes. He wore a plain shirt and a confused looking expression on his face.

“Imperator Nix?” He asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously. “What are you calling me about?”

“Ghage!” Vanser exulted cheerily. “I was wondering if you can help me look up some information on a pet human in the tracker chip database?”

Ghage’s mouth pressed into a thin line. He carefully adjusted the glasses that hung from the bridge of his nose. “I might be able to help you out, but it depends.”

Vanser’s smile faltered. “‘It depends’?” He asked incredulously. “On what?”

“Well, for starters, do you own the animal in question?”

Charlotte bristled at Molly being referred to as an animal, but managed to hold her tongue. They did need this guy’s help, after all. There was no sense in antagonizing him.

“Not exactly… no.” Vanser admitted, scratching the back of his neck self-consciously.

“Hm, I see. Well…” The young man shrugged. “I’m afraid there really isn’t much I can do for you, Imperator. Tracker files are protected under the Private Information Act of 1984. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help, Imperator. Good day.”

“It’s uh… it’s for a case I’m working.” Vanser said, desperate to keep the man from hanging up. “Finding this particular human is going to lead to a very big breakthrough for me.”

Ghage adjusted his glasses again. “Well, that does change thing, potentially.”

“So you’ll help?” Vanser grinned.

“Of course. May I see a copy of the warrant you were issued for release of this information?”

Vanser’s grin faltered. “Um… warrant?”

“Yes.” Ghage’s expression didn’t change. “Your warrant. Obviously if the information you are seeking is vital to some case file you are pursuing, you must have petitioned the courts for a warrant for the release of this private information, which I remind you is protected under the-”

“‘Private Information Act of 1984.’” Vanser finished sullenly. “Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have that warrant handy at the moment.”

Ghage looked over his glasses at Vanser condescendingly. “In other words, you do not have a warrant at all…”

Vanser cleared his throat, and shook his head. “Look uh, Ghage… the truth is this isn’t for a case I’m working.”

“Shocking.” Ghage replied sardonically.

“But it is a personal matter.” Vanser continued, ignoring the sarcastic response from the pad jockey. “I have to find this human. Can’t you help me out, as a personal favor?”

Ghage’s mouth pressed into a thin line and his eyes narrowed again. “I’m sorry Imperator, but I’m afraid you used up all your ‘personal favors’ when you were pursuing Syon Fand.”

“And she turned out to be treanous!” Vanser protested.

“True.” Ghage acknowledged. “But at the time you were following up on a rather dubious ‘hunch’. Had you been wrong I could have lost my job right along with you. Thankfully, you were correct. This, however, does not seem likely to have as happy an outcome and I’m therefore unwilling to risk my career on it. Have a nice day sir.”

With that, the connection abruptly ended.

Vanser sighed and slumped back on the couch.

“What a dweeb.” Charlotte sniffed disdainfully.

“It’s frustrating.” Vanser agreed. “But looking at it from his perspective, I can’t really say I blame him. He could lose his job if he tried to help us and the wrong person found out about it, after all.”

Charlotte snorted contemptuously.

“Come on, you need food and so do I.” Vanser smiled sadly and gently rubbed her back with his finger. “Let’s go get something to eat, and after that we can stop by the arena. Lenya got us a ticket to her match against Iron Maiden. They’re probably well into at least the third round by now. Shall we go see what she’s up to? It’d get us out of this room for a while, anyway.”

*.*.*

“Caetyr, you have to face facts, she’s not happy with us and I doubt anything we do is going to change that.” Ourellia sighed, leaning against their kitchen counter. “We need to figure out where she came from, and take her back.”

“Nonsense.” Caetyr waved her hand dismissively. “She’s just being stubborn. Remember, she was wild. Of course it’s taking her time to adjust to being a properly kept human. She’ll get used to it, and after that she’ll understand how much better her life with us is.”

Ourellia rolled her eyes. She loved Cae, she really did, but sometimes her stubbornness would drive Ourellia insane.

“I’m not sure it’s going to be that simple. I don’t really think she’s wild at all, Cae.”

“What else could she be?” Caetyr replied, taking a sip of her drink and leaning against the island counter in the center of their kitchen.

“I think she was telling the truth about having an owner.” Ourellia responded with a shrug.

“She wasn’t chipped.” Caetyr reminded her.

“True.” Ourellia acknowledged. “However, that’s not an uncommon thing outside of the city. The Tribute’s going on so there are thousands of people from all over the Empire swarming around the city right now. Rules and laws about chipping are not as strict in other colonies, or even in rural parts of Archavia. Is it so hard to believe that some family travelled here with their pet human and she got lost?”

“No it isn’t hard to believe at all.” Cae said with a shrug. “But assuming that were the case, how exactly are we to find this alleged rural area owner? As you said, there are thousands of tourists all over the city right now because of the Tribute.”

Ourellia shrugged. “Well, gee, I don’t know; we could try at the hotel attached to the bar we found her in. Ask if maybe anybody reported a missing human. Or, and this is just a crazy idea, we could actually listen to what Molly has been trying to tell us. The beautiful thing about humans is that- unlike say, shaars- they can talk.”

“Oh stop.” Caetyr rolled her eyes. “Look, fine, you want to play sleuth and see if you can discover Molly’s secret origins? Fine! But just remember that as far as the law is concerned, she belongs to me and I will decide what will be done with her.”

With that, Caetyr grabbed her drink and walked out of the kitchen.

“She’s so stubborn!” Ourellia growled, staring at the door her girlfriend had walked out of.

Her pad beeped and she clicked the answer button reflexively.

“Hello?”

“Ourellia!” The voice on the other end sounded relieved. “It’s about damn time you pick up. I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for days . Don’t you ever check your messages?”

Ourellia glanced at the contact information and realized it was Nonik from the tavern. “Sorry Non, I’ve been a bit busy recently. What’s the problem?”

“Actually, I was going to ask you the same thing.” Nonik’s voice responded sardonically. “Did you know you have an Imperator tailing you?”

Ourellia snatched the phone up. “ What?!”

Ourellia’s eyes widened and her heartrate raced as she listened to Nonik tell her tale. Finally, she hung up her call and stared at the blank screen of her pad.

“Shaka…”

*.*.*

Lenya wiped the sweat from her brow. The buzzer in the Arena sounded, which indicated an end to the third round. She’d managed to secure a win in the Land round which meant she was currently ahead of the Iron Maiden with a score of 2-1.

Not that she was willing to count out one of the greatest players in the game’s history just yet. Iron Maiden may be facing an uphill battle currently, needing to win the next round just to force a tie-breaker round with Dibilique; but if anybody could pull of such a feat, it would be Iron Maiden.

Especially since the next arena they’d be facing off in was the Space round. While of course Iron Maiden was phenomenal on any of the battle fields, the space arena was perhaps her best.

Fortunately, Lenya reminded herself as she grit her teeth and watched Iron Maiden step down from the player’s dias and towards the player’s area, it was her best too. Lenya also recognized that she might have a slight psychological advantage, having beaten Iron Maiden once already in this very tournament. It was fitting, she thought, that they’d meet again in the semifinals.

Unfortunately, Lenya also had the small mental thorn in the back of her brain. It was hard to focus on the game in front of her when Molly was still missing, and they really were no closer to figuring out where she was. Lenya could only hope the human girl wasn’t in any danger. Despite Vanser and Charlotte’s assurances, Lenya still held herself responsible for Molly’s predicament. And that would likely be the case until they brought Molly home safely.

She shook her head. She needed to stay in the game. This was as close as she had ever come to the championship, who knew if she would ever get this close again? Dibilque decided that if Iron Maiden wanted her record-breaking championship, she wasn’t going to get it easily.

As she turned towards the player’s area on her side of the Arena, Lenya knew that she would have to give Iron Maiden the fight of her career. And who knew, maybe this was Dibilique’s year. Maybe she would topple one of the greatest players in the game.

After all, she’d already done it once.