“Molly? Are you okay?” A voice whispered. It sounded faint and far-off. “Can you hear me?”

The voice seemed muffled, and for a moment Molly couldn’t quite understand the words that were being spoken. With a herculean effort, she managed to pry her own eyes open. Above her a face slowly came into focus. Long dark hair, brown eyes and a concerned expression.

“…Charlotte?” Molly groaned.

“Easy there kid.” Charlotte murmured gently as she helped her friend to sit up. “You took a nasty spill. Are you okay?”

“Head hurts.” Molly muttered. “But I think I’ll be fine… and…” Molly fell silent and turned to face her friend, as if suddenly realizing she was there.

“Charlotte!” Molly gasped, grabbing the other woman’s face frantically as if to make sure that she was actually there, and not an hallucination. “It’s really you!”

“Oof! Hey stop!” Charlotte spluttered, grabbing Molly’s wrists and pulling her hands down. “Yes it’s really me, all right? Now knock it off before you put one of my eyes out or something, sheesh.”

“Sorry.” Molly gasped, rubbing the side of her head. “I’m just so glad to see you.”

The redheaded woman looked around. They appeared to be in what looked like a giant hotel room, similar to the type that Vanser had camped out in during their journey. “Where… where are we? What happened to me?”

“It’s okay. You fell out of that cop’s pockets when those two guys stalled him.” Charlotte explained.

“But… he must have found you. That’s why you’re here, because he got you back from that thief.” Molly muttered, rubbing the side of her head.

“Thief?” Charlotte’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “Wait, you don’t mean…?” She point across the room towards an enormous bed where a titanic form made a landscape from the blankets and sheets. A form that was snoring softly, while being completely oblivious to the two humans and their conversation.

“Oh no…” Molly muttered, distraught. “Charlotte… we have to get out of here!” The pale woman took ahold of her friend’s hand and tried to pull her away, but Charlotte wouldn’t budge.

“Molly, what is wrong with you?”

“Charlotte, you don’t understand. We have to get away while we have the chance, while she’s still asleep. Hurry, before she wakes up.”

“Not much chance of that.” Charlotte shook her head, resisting Molly’s attempts to make her follow. “She’s only been asleep for a couple hours.”

“That will give us plenty of time to get away!” Molly responded desperately, tugging futilely on her friends arm, even as the motion made her head swim.

“Why would I want to?” Charlotte asked incredulously. “Lenya’s been great. She’s been looking out for me.”

“Because she wants to sell you!” Molly barked. “Now let’s go!”

“You hit your head, kiddo. You ain’t thinking right.” Charlotte murmured in a soft, though slightly condescending tone of voice. She reached out to take Molly by the shoulders, intending to guide her back into a seated position.

“Don’t ‘kiddo’ me!” Molly snapped, slapping Charlotte’s hand away. “Vanser was protecting me, and trying to save you! He wanted to get you away from her!” Molly jabbed her finger towards the sleeping titan across the room. “She’s nothing more than a common criminal, and she’s going to sell you to some lowlife.”

Molly curled her knees to her chest and sniffed miserably. “And now she’ll sell me too…”

Charlotte rolled her eyes “That’s ridiculous. It’s that cop that wants to put us back in the pet shop.”

“Vanser would never do such a thing!” Molly hissed.

“Oh wake up, will you?” Charlotte shook her head. “That guy is just a putz with a badge, hyped up on his own authority. He doesn’t care a lick about you, sweetie, which is why we’re much better off with Lenya.”

“That’s not true!” Molly snapped angrily. “Vanser has been nothing but nice to me ever since he rescued me from the floor of Titan Station. Which is where your precious Lenya left me, by the way.”

Charlotte’s eyes widened and her mouth worked soundlessly for several seconds until she managed to find her voice. “That… that was an accident. She didn’t mean to… how could you know that? You should have been frozen, like I was.”

Molly shrugged. “According to what Vanser said, somehow my… freeze-pod…thingy got deactivated. Probably when she dropped it. I don’t know. All I know is that I woke up at ankle-height to a bunch of giant aliens and I’m lucky that I wasn’t stepped on.”

Charlotte was silent for a moment. “That must have been scary.” She murmured softly.

“It was.” Molly admitted. “But only for a minute, then I fainted. Vanser picked me up after that.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re safe now.” Charlotte continued, pulling Molly into a side hug. “And don’t worry, Lenya will take care of us.”

Molly shook her head, but didn’t say anything. She still wasn’t convinced that the Titan slumbering in the bed across the room didn’t mean them harm. But, she wasn’t going to tell Charlotte that. Not yet anyway. Molly would just have to keep an eye out for an opportunity for them to make their escape. Then she’d have to find some way of contacting Vanser.

How, she wasn’t sure, but that was a detail for later.

There was a soft groan across the room, and Lenya sat up in her bed. The red haired titan blinked her eyes and stretched her arms up above her head with a yawn.

“Morning.” Lenya muttered. “I see your friend is awake. How is she feeling?”

“She says her head hurts, Lenya.” Charlotte responded. “But she seems to be okay. She’s just a bit bruised up, is all.”

“Well.” Lenya smiled and pulled herself out of her bed. “I am glad to hear that.” She crossed the room quickly and knelt down until she was at eye level with the two humans.

“I’m very glad to finally be meeting you, Molly.” Lenya said, smiling kindly at the smaller woman. “My name is Lenyalana, but you can just call me Lenya or Leny. Everyone does.”

Molly swallowed nervously and tried to stop her heart from racing. She didn’t trust the titan woman, and having her that close made Molly more than a little nervous.

“S-sure.” Molly stuttered.

“Relax.” Lenya murmured. “Nobody’s going to hurt you, now that we’ve gotten you away from that Imperator.”

“Vanser was nice to me.” Molly whispered, pulling her legs in tight against her chest again.

“I’m sure he seemed that way.” Lenya sighed rising back to her full height and walking back across the room. “But trust me; he was just trying to keep you quiet until he could get you back to that pet shop. Or somewhere else where they’d be able to sell you.”

Molly shook her head stubbornly but remained silent. She could see that both of them had their minds made up and until she found a way to get herself and Charlotte out of this situation, no good would come from antagonizing their giant captor further.

“Now then.” Lenya muttered, standing to her full height once again. “We need to take advantage of the fact that the Imperator has probably lost our trail.” She lowered her hand, palm up, down to the surface on which the two humans stood.

“Wait, what are you doing awake anyway?” Charlotte asked. “I thought you told me Titans needed like twenty hours of sleep?”

“I just needed a nap. There’s something I need to do and I only have a little time to do it.” Lenya replied evenly.

“What are you planning on doing?” Charlotte asked, pulling the reluctant Molly to her feet and dragging her along towards the open hand.

“Oh I know just the place for us to hide out for a bit.” Lenya chuckled, as a wide grin split her face. “And trust me: that Imperator will never think to look for us there.”

*.*.*.*

“Next!”

Nissa Fell watched, already bored with the process, as the next Tol-Bot competitor shuffled up to her table to register for the tournament. The man was large; broad shouldered and tall. He wore a long brown coat with the collar turned up, and tight hat that concealed his hair. A white scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face completed the ensemble that was clearly designed to hide his identity.

Of course, they all dressed like that. Nissa had long since gotten over the novelty of being surrounded by a bunch of people dressed like they just walked out of an espionage story.

“Name?” She asked, her voice was dull with boredom.

The man cleared his throat and a muffled sound that was almost a word came from his scarf.

“Could you repeat that, sir?”

Another muffled noise. This time Nissa could tell the word was two syllables, at least.

“One more time, sir?” She sighed, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

The prospective competitor’s eyes narrowed and he glanced around furtively, as if expecting to be pounced on at a moment’s notice. Finally, when he’d apparently decided it was safe enough, he quickly lowered his scarf and spat out the name of his Arena persona.

“I said The Mountain!” He quickly covered his face, and glanced around to make sure no one had been looking.

This time, Nissa did roll her eyes. That explained it. The Mountain was a first-time Tribute competitor. The rookies tended to be a bit more paranoid about their identities. Apparently they assumed the journos and camera jockeys were just waiting to spring out from behind a garbage can and reveal the long held secret identity of some backwater colonial player.

Still, Nissa verified his identity via thumbprint and handed him his competitor’s pack. Included was his I.D badge, lodging assignment and the tournament itinerary, among other necessities.

“Thank you, and good luck.” Nissa repeated for what was probably the hundredth time.

The Mountain nodded and slinked away, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.

Rubbing her temples, Nissa reached over for the next information packet in the pile by her elbow.

“Next!”

The next competitor to step up was a woman with short red hair and pale skin. Her eyes were concealed behind a pair of wide glasses with opaque lenses. She was dressed in a black leather jacket and a wide brimmed hat.

“Name?” Nissa repeated in the same dull tone she’d used with The Mountain.

“Dibilique.” The woman said softly. Nissa was at least thankful she’d had the sense to leave her mouth uncovered.

“Excellent.” Nissa muttered after verifying identification. “Here is your entrant’s packet and all the information you’ll need. Good luck in the tournament.”

“Thank you.” Dibilique muttered, bemusedly.

As she stepped away, she heard the start of the conversation occurring with the next competitor.

“Name?”

“Iron Maiden.”

Eyes wide, Dibilique glanced over her shoulder. Iron Maiden was a tall, statuesque woman, dressed completely in black. She wore large concealing glasses that were even darker than Dibilique’s own, and a hood over the rest of her head. The only part of the woman’s face that showed was her dark red painted lips.

Dibilique shook her head and kept moving. It wasn’t like she’d never seen the Iron Maiden up close, after all. For that matter, she’d competed against The Maiden before.

She had lost, but that was hardly a surprise.

Dibilique shook her head and moved to a secluded corner of the room. She glanced around briefly before peeking into the pocket of her jacket.

“You two okay in there?” She asked the pair of human women who were concealed inside.

“Yeah, we’re okay Len.” Charlotte assured her.

“Good.” Lenya nodded. “I’m going to head straight to my room, and then we’ll see about getting some food.”

She closed the flap of her jacket, leaving the two humans in almost complete darkness.

“Will you stop worrying?” Charlotte hissed to Molly, who was still visibly shaken. “I keep telling you Lenya isn’t going to hurt you.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” Molly muttered. “But Vanser’s probably worried about me.”

“Doubt it.” Charlotte muttered, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back against the leather wall of Lenya’s jacket pocket. “If we’re lucky, he’s written both of us off and gone home.”

Molly bit her lip and looked away. She felt angry tears begin to well in her eyes at her friend’s words, but managed to keep the caustic retort she wanted to spit back at her friend under control. It wasn’t Charlotte’s fault, after all. She didn’t know Vanser. She hadn’t seen the way he’d been concerned for Molly’s safety and well-being. She’d only had the word of that woman to go by.

Molly resigned herself to being patient. She was certain that Vanser would come for her. And he would rescue them both.

In the meantime, she would stick close to Charlotte. It had been a miracle the two had found each other again, regardless of the circumstances behind that reunion, and she wasn’t willing to risk the two of them being separated again.

*.*.*.*.*

“So this is how the Tol-Bot champion is accommodated, huh?” Vanser remarked dryly, looking around the suite that the tournament organizers had set aside for Rixie.

“Yeah.” Rixie chuckled, setting her bag down by the door with a soft thud. “What were you expecting? A golden bathtub, my own butler and an indoor serenity garden?”

Vanser shrugged. “Well, something more than… this.” He gestured to the small entry room, which contained a desk, table, a couple chairs and a small vidscreen. Through a door lay a modest bedroom and bathroom. The only further amenities were a food prep unit and a small balcony overlooking the city. On the balcony outside, Thyllia sat with Alex and the latter was trying to teach her how to play Rock Paper Scissors.

Rixie shrugged. “It’s better than some of the other competitors. You should have seen the room I had my rookie year. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t stand up straight in it.”

Vanser chuckled and sat in one of the chairs.

“I know that look.” Rixie muttered, studying the expression on her friend’s face. “You’re stewing.”

Vanser shrugged. “I lost the trail on that woman, Rix. And I don’t know where to start.”

“You put a Watchout at the spaceports right?”

“Yeah.” Vanser snorted. “Of course I did. First thing I did when I landed on the planet.”

“Then the best thing you can do from this point on is keep your eyes peeled.” Rixie sighed, taking a seat next to him. “The Tribute is a good place for somebody to get lost in. Odds are good she’s lurking about somewhere, hiding in the crowd. It’s what I would do, if I were her.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself if something happens to that girl, Rixie.” Vanser groaned, as he pushed himself to his feet and began to pace along the floor.

“Yeah.” Rixie muttered morosely, staring out through the door to the balcony where Alex and Thyllia were playing. “I know the feeling.”