Ourellia shrunk back from the blazing look of anger that suddenly appeared on the tol-bot player’s face as she charged towards her. For a moment she wondered if this was a good idea at all.

“Le-…Dibilique wait!” The man who had left the stadium with her called out, but Dibilique ignored him. Her eyes remained laser focused on Ourellia.

“D-Dibilique… I- my name is Ourellia Ley and I need to talk to you about…”

“Not here.” Dibilique snapped, grabbing Ourellia roughly by the shoulder. “Come with me.”

Ourellia was practically dragged back through the press gauntlet and towards the stadium. Reporters and journalists continued to yell questions at them but were ignored completely as the three of them walked back into the stadium.

“Come on.” The man with them said, withdrawing a small plastic card from his pocket. “I know a place we can talk in complete privacy.”

“Let me get out of this costume quick.” Dibilique said, hoisting a bag onto her shoulder and disappearing into the player’s changing rooms.

Which left Ourellia standing awkwardly with her friend.

“It is you!” A small voice piped up, startling Ourellia. The pocket of the man’s jacket rustled and a human head and shoulders popped out. The little human had a mop of dark hair and an angry expression that could probably melt steal.

“You’re the giant bitch that took my friend from me! You almost stepped on me! Where the fuck is Molly? Is she with you?”

Part of Ourellia was relieved. “You… you must be Charlotte.” She murmured, keeping her voice calm. “Molly will be happy you’re safe.”

“No thanks to you!” Charlotte snapped.

“Is she okay?” The young man asked.

“You must be the Imperator that was looking for me.” Ourellia observed.

“I knew that bartender was lying.” He muttered sourly.

“I…I’m sorry, Molly told me your name but…?”

“Vanser. Vanser Nix.” The Imperator replied, the smile on his face not quite reaching his eyes. His mouth opened as if he were about to speak more, but just then a young woman- presumably Dibilique- emerged from the changing rooms. She wore a jacket with a large hood and dark glasses over her eyes, presumably so Ourellia wouldn’t be able to blow her identity later.

It was a short trip back to the Red section of the stadium, and soon they were standing in the private viewing box.

“This is where you watched the match from?” Dibilique muttered, awestruck. She shook her head, as if remembering why they were there and turned back to face Ourellia.

“All right, talk.” The player snapped angrily. “Where is Molly.”

Ourellia swallowed nervously. “I don’t know where she is but I know who she’s with. Or at least I think I do. Look… after we took Molly from the bar that day, yeah we tried to make her a pet. But Molly was miserable. She missed all of you, and… well, me I couldn’t stand it anymore. I wasn’t sure I believed her when she said she was friends with Dibilique, but…”

“We don’t need your life story, where is Molly?” Charlotte snapped and Ourellia noticed she had climbed from Vanser’s pocket and onto his shoulder.

“I was going to bring her here.” Ourellia sighed. “But… well… my girlfriend took her first.”

“The blue haired girl?” Charlotte observed.

“Yeah. Her.”

“So why haven’t you called her, tried to figure out where she was?” Dibilique asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Ourellia bit her lip. “I was hoping that if I could find you it would help me convince her that Molly wasn’t just making up stories. That we don’t need to take care of her because she has somewhere else that she belongs.”

“Call her.” Charlotte growled. “Find out where she is and if she plans on doing something stupid.”

Ourellia nodded and grabbed her data pad out of her pocket. Her fingers flew across the screen as tried to connect with her girlfriend.

*.*.*.*

It took her a long time, but eventually Molly managed to climb to the top of the pocket where Caetyr had shoved her.

“Where are you taking me?” She shouted up to the Titan woman who was hurrying down the street at what felt to Molly like a blistering pace.

“Away.” Caetyr muttered shortly. “Away from Ourellia. Can’t believe she’d betray me like that. You belong to me, she had no right…”

Molly bit her lip and her heart pounded in her chest.

“Caetyr… Cae please… listen to me.” Molly panted, struggling to hold on to the lip of her pocket prison as the coat it was attached to was jostled by Caetyr’s movements. “Please… You- you have to take me back to my friends.”

“I do not.” Caetyr responded. “You belong to me, and you do not have friends.”

Molly tried a different tack. “Can’t you see how unhappy I am?” She said. “Doesn’t that matter to you at all?”

“You will learn to be happy with us.” Caetyr responded shortly. “You’ll see, in time. We’ll keep you safe, and fed, and you’ll be happy. Why can’t you just understand that?”

“Because…” Molly sighed. “I wasn’t meant to live in a glass box. I need open spaces and fresh air. I need to be able to move around where I like.”

“It’s not safe.” Caetyr insisted.

“I need to be with my friends.” Molly continued, despite the Titan’s attempt to interrupt. “My friend Charlotte might still be lost, and if she is then I have to find her.”

The Titan shrugged her shoulders. “We can help you find her, if she is so important to you. Ourellia plays at that bar all the time.”

“What about Ourellia?” Molly asked, suddenly having a bolt of inspiration. “She was about to help me find one of my friends-”

“And betray my trust!” Caetyr snapped.

“How is she going to feel when she sees you’ve taken me away?”

Caetyr blinked and stopped short. She looked down at the small woman in her pocket. “What… what do you mean?”

“‘No one likes a sad human.’ That’s what she told me. She was going to take me to my friends. How do you think she’ll feel about what you’re doing right now?”

“She… she’ll get over it.” Caetyr muttered. “Once she sees that you’re safer with us.”

“Am I?” Molly asked pointedly.

Caetyr hesitated, but after a moment her hand dropped into her pocket and gently scooped Molly into her palm.

“What do you mean… of course you’re-”

“You’re keeping me prisoner in a glass box, cut off from my friends and every one that I care about. I’m telling you right now that unless you try and find a way to get me back to my friends I’ll… I’ll stop eating.” Molly crossed her arms over her chest.

Caetyr rolled her eyes and smiled condescendingly. “That won’t last long.”

“Try me.” Molly spat. “Cae… do you love Ourellia?”

The Titan woman blinked, confused by the sudden topic change. “Y-yes… of course I do.”

“And she loves you, yes?”

“She’s said as much.” Caetyr shrugged, and smiled sardonically. “So I assume so.”

“And if she broke up with you, you wouldn’t try to keep her prisoner, would you?”

Caetyr rolled her eyes. “Nice try girl, but they aren’t the same thing. For one thing, Ourellia isn’t a pet.”

“Neither am I!” Molly spat angrily. “She was ready to take me back. Do you think she’ll be happy with what you’ve done here?”

The smirk melted off of Caetyr’s face and a small sliver of doubt poked at the back of her mind. Could Molly have been right? Would Ourellia really be that upset over… over a human?

It didn’t seem possible and yet Caetyr’s mind wouldn’t let go of the idea either. Her pace had slowed to a walk and she became lost in her own mind as the idea chased itself around in her head.

The sudden beeping of her pad was the first thing to snap her out of the trance.

Hastily dropping Molly back into her pocket, Caetyr quickly dug out her pad and turned it on without looking at who the caller was.

Ourellia’s grim looking face filled the screen and Caetyr involuntarily swallowed at the angry expression her girlfriend was displaying.

“Cae.” Ourellia began without preamble. “Do you have Molly with you?”

Caetyr briefly considered lying, but knew there was no point. She narrowed her eyes defiantly. “Of course I do.”

Ourellia sighed. “Cae, you have to bring her back. I’ve found her friends and… and they’re worried about her.”

There was a muffled, angry sounding voice in the background but Caetyr was too surprised by the revelation that Molly’s ‘friends’ were real to pay attention.

Still, she wasn’t ready to give up that easily. “If her owners were really concerned for her they wouldn’t have been so careless with her. She didn’t have a chip, remember? Legally, she belongs to me now!”

“She’s not happy with us!” Ourellia growled exasperatedly. “I don’t understand why this is so important to you!”

“It just is!” Caetyr spat back. “Molly belongs with me!”

Ourellia sighed, and she seemed to deflate. “Cae… I don’t know where this strange new attitude of yours came from, but to be perfectly honest… I don’t like it.”

Caetyr’s eyes widened, her heart started beating a little faster. “But-”

“I’ll tell you one thing, Cae… I’m not sure if I can be with you when you’re like… this.”

“Wh-what are you saying?” Caetyr whispered.

Ourellia’s jaw tightened. “I’m saying you have a choice… you can have Molly, or you can have me. You can’t have us both.”

For a long time, Caetyr didn’t speak she merely stared, mouth agape and eyes glassed over as she tried to process this information.

“Caetyr… where are you?”

The titan woman blinked and seemed to come back to herself. “I um… I’m a few blocks away from the house.”

Ourellia shook her head and sighed. “Go back to the house. We’ll meet you there.”

“We?”

“Yeah. I’m bringing Molly’s friends to come get her.” The blonde titan’s eyes narrowed. “Aren’t I?”

Caetyr swallowed and nodded. “Y-yeah… sure. If, you know, if Molly has somewhere safe to go then… then she doesn’t need to be with us, right?”

Ourellia smirked. “Right.”

*.*.*

As she ended the call, Ourellia rubbed her forehead, suddenly feeling very drained.

“That could have gone badly.” She muttered.

“It still could.” Charlotte spat. “I don’t trust either of you as far as I can throw you.”

Ourellia shifted uncomfortably. “I know. You have every right… but, look, whether you believe me or not I am trying to make this right. And Caetyr… she… she didn’t understand.”

“Talk is cheap.” Charlotte snarled. “Let’s just go get Molly before that blue haired witch changes her mind.”

Ourellia stiffened but bit her tongue. She could understand Charlotte’s anger. After all… if someone had taken Caetyr away from her, well…

The group filed out of the Tarsuss viewing box. Ourellia hanging at the back of the group. She stared at her feet as she walked until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t beat yourself up too much.” Dibilique muttered quietly. This… well it takes some getting used to, and we all make mistakes. Trust me; I’ve made quite a few myself.”

Ourellia snorted. “Sure you have.”

“No really. I used to work with TETH.” Dibilique shook her head. “This one time, we found out about some humans living on this farm…”

*.*.*

Molly watched Caetyr’s face as the call from Ourellia ended and the screen on her data pad went blank. Part of her was elated that she would soon be reunited with her friends. She was also overjoyed that Charlotte was okay- because that certainly couldn’t have been anybody else’s angry shouting she’d heard in the background.

At the same time, Molly was aware that she wasn’t out of the woods yet. Even as Caetyr turned around and began walking back to the home she shared with Ourellia, Molly knew there was no telling what the giant woman might do in the time it took for Ourellia to get there.

Quite frankly, Molly was not prepared to call herself “safe” until she was back with Vanser or Lenya, and preferably whichever one Charlotte was with.

So she watched Caetyr’s face carefully, fully conscious of the Titan woman’s finger wrapped around her body. For the moment, they were loose, just enough to keep Molly from falling to the ground below, but she was aware that they could tighten at any moment.

Caetyr didn’t say a single word until they arrived back at her home. She stepped into the entryway of her house and then crossed over to the couch. She sat down and then set Molly on the small table in front of her. Molly chose to take the fact she hadn’t been returned to the glass cage as a good sign.

“So I guess this is it.” Caetyr sighed. “You’re going back to your friends.”

“It’s where I belong.” Molly responded. “Or at least as close to where I belong that I can actually get.”

“I just wanted you to be safe.” The Titan mumbled. “I… I thought I was doing the right thing.”

Molly sighed. She wanted so much to be angry right now. She wanted to be able to yell and say that Caetyr deserved every negative emotion that she was feeling. Charlotte would have been able to. Charlotte would have been able to tell the blue haired woman where to shove her tears.

But Molly wasn’t Charlotte.

“Look. Cae…” Molly began, but then looked down at herself. “Um… I don’t suppose you have something I can cover myself with?”

Caetyr blinked, and then nodded. She got up and left the room. A minute later she returned with a small square of red cloth that looked and felt like silk.

“Here…” The Titan muttered, handing it down to Molly. “You can have this.”

“Thanks.” Molly muttered, wrapping the cloth around her body in a rough toga. “As I was saying… I’m glad you took me away from that bar. I would’ve preferred staying with Charlotte, but… What I mean is that she and I were probably not going to survive very long there, scrabbling for food like rodents. So, I appreciate that much at least. Where you went wrong is that you assumed you knew what I needed better than I did.”

Caetyr shrugged. “Humans need Titans to look after them. If it wasn’t for the fact that Ourellia found the Titans that look after you and your friend, you would still be staying here.”

Molly shook her head. She had hoped that maybe Caetyr had learned something from all of this. Clearly she’d been wrong. Despite all that, Molly still couldn’t summon a lot of anger at Caetyr. It just wasn’t her.

The door opened and Ourellia walked into the room. Molly’s heart leapt when she saw Lenya and then Vanser follow soon after.

And then… She saw the small figure peeking out of the pocket on Vanser’s jacket.

Charlotte. Molly had been right. She had recognized the voice in the background of Ourellia’s call. It was Charlotte, right there. Charlotte was okay.

“Molly!” Lenya rushed over and carefully plucked her from the table. “Thank the Emperor you’re okay.”

Lenya carried Molly over to Vanser and deposited her into his hand where Charlotte was already waiting.

Before she could even get a word out, Charlotte had rushed over and pulled the smaller woman into an embrace so tight Molly began to feel she might just pass out.

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” Charlotte practically sobbed into Molly’s ear. “I never gave up hope. I knew we’d find you.”

“I knew you would too.” Molly replied softly, wrapping her arms around Charlotte’s back.

“Wait a minute.” Charlotte muttered, and Molly felt her poking at her back. “What is that?”

Molly bit her lip. Charlotte had found the scar from where the vet had implanted her tracking chip.

“It’s a tracking chip.” Vanser explained. “They don’t normally leave scars, but when they do it’s unmistakeable.”

“So they did put a tracker in you.” Charlotte observed. She sounded calm, but Molly knew the signs of a slow boil when she saw one.

“You did what?!” Lenya snapped. “You put a tracker in her?”

“Of course we did.” Caetyr rolled her eyes. “And if the two of you had been responsible in the first place this entire mess could have been avoided.”

“Cae… don’t.” Ourellia begged.

“If You’d taken care of Molly properly then you would have been able to find her right away. She would have been safe and Ourellia and I would have never-”

“Shut up!”

Caetyr’s eyes widened and she turned towards Charlotte. Surprised by the outburst from the human.

“Did you just…?”

“You bet your giant fat ass I did.” Charlotte yelled. “You talk a big game about keeping Molly safe, so why wasn’t she returned to us the moment she told you there were Titans looking for her?”

“She didn’t believe me.” Molly said. “She said I was making up stories.”

“Of course she did.” Charlotte growled. “Because she arrogantly assumed that she knew better than you did. She didn’t listen because she didn’t care about your safety. She just wanted a cute little pet. And if you were miserable, well, that hardly mattered to her. Isn’t that right, big girl?”

“The only thing I cared about what keeping Molly safe.” Caetyr insisted. “Humans need titans to look after them. That’s why you’re with them, isn’t it?”

She pointed at Vanser and Lenya.

“They’re our friends.” Charlotte insisted. “They listen to us!”

“Well… most of the time…” Molly muttered quietly.

“But you wouldn’t get very far without them, right?”

“That’s not true either.” Lenya spoke up, though her voice was quiet. “I’ve seen it for myself. Humans can survive without Titans to help them. Even Molly and Charlotte managed to survive for a while when they got separated from me.”

“Due to your own negligence!”

Lenya’s eyes hardened and she leveled her best glare at the blue-haired woman. “Shut up. I’ll admit I haven’t always done what’s right for humans, but I will not stand here and be lectured by some idiotic little girl. So here’s what’s going to happen: You are going to transfer Molly’s tracking data to me. After that we’re going to leave and you will never see any of us again.”

Caetyr’s mouth twisted into a frown. Her mouth opened as if to protest, but then she saw the disapproving glare on Ourellia’s face. Caetyr remembered what her girlfriend had said earlier, and all the fight seemed to drain out of her.

“Very well.” Caetyr muttered, reaching for her pad. “I’ll transfer ownership of Molly to you.”