(Author’s Note: Speical thanks to D.X for the renders and the edit for this chapter. Also, I’d like to take a moment to point you all in the direction of our chat room! It is a very friendly place to hang out and a lot of very interesting discussions take place form time to time! Also, D.X, OHH, JS and myself are known to pop in from time to time. Feel free to make use of it!

Dann)

“I was starting to wonder if you were going to throw me to the wolves, Darren!” a very stressed Eyrn Fitzgerald said as she eyed the tiny human sitting on the petite titan’s shoulder. For once, Eyrn was amazed to find another adult Titan relatively close to her own height. In fact, even with her elegant high heeled shoes, the blue haired woman Darren was riding with didn’t look more than a few centiunits taller than she did.

“It’s b’cause you’re impatient.” Darren chuffed, as he sat crouched on Pryvani’s shoulder. They approached the meeting point where Eyrn was leaning against a store front with her arms crossed and a dissatisfied look on her face.

“Miss Fitzgerald, I do apologize for my tardiness, I hope I haven’t caused you any undue stress.” Pryvani approached Eyrn and extended her hand in an Earth-style hand shake, something she felt Eyrn would be familiar with.

Eyrn eyed the woman’s hand for a moment; for all her time on Earth she had never really shaken anyone’s hand. There hadn’t been anyone large enough for her to do so. But the gesture was not lost on her.

“It’s okay,” Eyrn’s tone relaxed a great bit as she shook Pryvani Tarsuss’ hand, when then dawned upon her was in fact the hand of Pryvani friggen Tarsus, billionaire!

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed talking to your friend here, my only regret is that I have to return him so soon, there is so much more we could have talked about.” Pryvani smiled, and reached to allow Darren a platform to step onto.

Eyrn stuffed a laugh deep down into her gut, but her smile betrayed her. “Oh don’t let him hear you say that! Geeze, his head will grow so fat I won’t be able to shut him up for a week!”

“Shaddap you!” Darren grumbled as he hopped onto Pryvani’s hand, only to be delivered to Eyrn’s. He leaped to it gingerly, kicking her thumb for good measure.

“Oww!” Eyrn grumbled.

“Oh, it did not hurt ya big baby!”

“You might have….” Eyrn lied.

Pryvani chuckled, covering her mouth as she did so. “Darren has told me a lot about you Eyrn, he speaks quite highly of you in fact.”

“Does he now?” Eyrn beamed as she peered down at Darren with a wicked look.

“You can’t prove anything.” Darren grumbled, batting away Eyrn’s finger as she attempted to tussle his hair.

“My little Sarge loves me, isn’t it cute!” Eyrn tittered and mushed Darren to her cheek suddenly.

“Gak…quit it ya over stuffed she-devil!” Darren wiggled, but eventually surrendered to Eyrns hug.

Pryvani once again found herself unable to contain her laughter. “I wonder if you have a bit more time to spare Eyrn, there was something I wanted to show you before you two went on your way.”

Eyrn looked about; there were store fronts and people of various shapes, sizes and species littered about the crowded promenade. “Um, did you want to find someplace more comfortable?” Asked Eyrn.

“There is a canteen down the way, we could talk there?” Pryvani offered, extending her hand in the direction of the canteen.

“Ok.” Eyrn nodded, setting Darren on her shoulder, who for his part responded with a bitter grumble and a few choice words.

As the two walked, there was a bit of an uncomfortable silence. Eyrn had heard quite a bit about the great Pryvani Tarsuss, but so far the media darling was nothing at all like she had expected. She was calm, coherent, and sophisticated. Pryvani carried herself with a very dignified air, and gave off a presence of confidence and authority that was hard to deny. She wasn’t dressed absurdly or ridiculously, and there was no entourage following her around like there appeared to be every time she was on the broadcast feeds.

“How have you been adjusting to things Eyrn?” Pryvani asked as they walked.

“Oh, I think I’m into the swing of things. The hype seems to have died down, I don’t get approached for pictures or asked silly questions nearly as much. But, you know every once in a while I still get the celebrity treatment…I…well not like you I imagine but…” Eyrn trailed off, smiling sheepishly to prevent herself from rambling off even more.

“Twat’s been taking classes on the college level, blowing past them like a pro.” Darren interjected, almost feeling sorry for Eyrn.

“How is that coming along?” Pryvani asked as they rounded a corner down a straight row of shops and boutiques.

“Mostly introductory courses I can’t really pick just one…I’ve never been given so many options before.” Eyrn shrugged.

“Have you considered writing? Maybe politics?” Pryvani asked off handily.

“I don’t think I’m cut out to be a politician, and I’m only just learning the written language here…I’m hardly good enough to write a book just yet.” Eyrn blushed. “Besides, what would I even write about? I don’t know enough about this place to write a paragraph, let alone a book.”

“Well, write what you do know. There are few around with your knowledge of earth and humanity.” Pryvani said with a ring in her voice. “Of course, I hear you have a flair for the dramatic, you could consider acting?”

Eyrn laughed, snorting just a bit when she did. “Oh hell what did this man tell you!?” Eyrn turned to face Darren, narrowing her eyes.

Darren simply went wide eyed and raised his hands surrender style.

“I’ve seen your matches, you’re quite animated in the ring.” Pryvani said with a smile.

“Heh, would help if I had even the slightest idea how to play the damn game – naw, that’s Darren’s gig…and speaking of that I THOUGHT we were supposed to keep that a SECRET Mr. Avery!?” Eyrn spoke through gritted teeth.

“Oh, darling there is not a whole lot I can’t find out if I dig deep enough, besides there is only one human player in the league…it stands to reason you, would be the one he plays alongside.” Pryvani shrugged.

“I…suppose,” said Eyrn in defeat.

“See, blaming me fer nothing!” Darren teased.

“Well, it’s still likely your fault…it normally is!” Eyrn defended with a raspberry sent Darren’s way.

“Gat’danget woman I don’t need a shower!”

The trio arrived at the canteen and took a seat at a nearby empty table. Pryvani’s relatively placid and unremarkable attire did a decent job keeping the prying eyes off them, besides there was enough hype around the Tremarla Station. The Grand Tribute was close at hand! The Emperor himself could have walked down the street and hardly anyone would have noticed; the only thing on people’s mind was Tol-Bot.

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” Asked Eyrn as she lowered Darren to the table surface.

Pryvani took a moment to compose herself, she pulled a small data pad out of her side bag and placed it before her. Carefully, she set her hand atop it and looked from Darren to Eyrn. “Eyrn, have you done any digging into your past, by any chance?”

Eyrn was stunned to be asked such a question and responded with a slight shake of her head. “Honestly, I haven’t put much thought into it. I figure my parents died when I was 12.”

“Haven’t you found yourself even a little curious as to where you came from, who you are? What brought you to Earth in the first place?” Pryvani’s said with empathy in her voice.

Eyrn wrung her hands together, she could feel Darren’s eyes on her, checking in his own way to see if she was alright, for all the trouble they gave one another, it was comforting to know they could count on each other when it came down to the rough.

“I don’t know Miss Tarsuss, I’ve thought about it, but then I always get fearful. What if I don’t like what I find? I’ve come to accept a lot of injustice in this world since I came here, I don’t know if I could handle finding out I was part of the problem.” Eyrn’s eyes drifted to Darren, who was watching her like a hawk.

“You were just a kid, even if yer folks were a bad sort, you’d of had nothing to do with it,” Darren said, reassuring Eyrn with a gruff nod.

Pryvani looked down at the pad in her hand. She frowned for just a split-second, then looked back up to Eyrn. “It’s not easy living past the name your family leaves you. But…say they were poachers, how would that change who you are today? Who you have been?”

Eyrn shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I would feel like a hypocrite, I don’t know if I’d be able to look at myself the same way.”

Pryvani pushed the pad forward, but kept her hand on it. “Would that change what you’ve done?”

Eryn shook her head.

“Of course, there stands just as strong a chance that the people who are responsible for your stay on Earth were good, kind and benevolent people too, right?”

Eyrn’s eyes fell to the data pad, she looked up to Pryvani momentarily then back down at the pad, drawn to it like a fly to a lamp light.

“Is that?” Eyrn asked, feeling a sensation of cotton in her mouth.

“How’n the hell did you….” Darren asked, jaw agape.

“It took a lot of digging, there was nothing linking you to your family in any records I could find, as you seem to pre-date the imperial DNA archive. That meant we couldn’t tie your DNA to any family line in the records. It came up inconclusive, there were far too many possibilities; as generations go by, it becomes harder and harder to find a definite match, especially when we have no starting point.” Pryvani began, slowly taking her hand off the pad.

Eyrn simply stared at the data pad. “Then how….”

“A while ago, there was a data stream pirated from Earth. I’m not sure by who, exactly. This stream contained all digital information from the planet, in every language, from every nation with access to their information super highway. Now, it occurred to a tech savvy associate of mine that there just might be something hidden in the depth of this data stream about a certain classified individual. It took a lot of digging, but we were able to come across this.” Pryvani swiped her finger over the pad, seconds later a picture of a very old piece of metal appeared on the screen. There was Archavian writing sketched onto the surface of what looked to be a small fragment of a vessel.

“Well I’ll be….they didn’t even let me see this one, this is top-level stuff,” Darren looked up to Pryvani.

“Our computer systems were able to download the encrypted files; you shouldn’t take that as an insult, our computers are far more advanced.” Pryvani removed her hand from the pad.

Eyrn didn’t make a move, she only continued to stare at the screen. “What does it say?”

“It doesn’t say anything really, its serial numbers, every ship has them, they’re an identifier.”

Darren sprung to life, looking to Eyrn suddenly. “Like a license plate!”

“While imperial DNA data banks may have come into effect after you were born Eyrn, the imperial navy registration data bank existed as long as domestic and private space travel was possible. My contacts were able to determine that this hull fragment belonged to the Anisykos, a small science vessel flying out of Sperikos, registered to Melini and Forsetti D’Talma,” Pryvani smiled. “Your parents.”

Pryvani flicked her finger over the screen, bringing up an image of two young Titanss. The man was a stout man with a scruffy unshaven face, a bald head and a warm compassionate smile; he was a gruff and weathered looking fellow with strong hands and dark black hair. Beside him was a slender woman with long chocolate brown hair, deep hazel eyes and a spirited and youthful smile. They were standing in the hanger of a launch bay beside a rustic but hearty looking shuttle.

Eyrn reached out and took hold of the data pad with shaky hands, she swallowed repeatedly, her eyes immediately caught in the bewitching gaze of Melini, it was as if looking in a mirror, their eyes were nearly identical.

They were the kindest looking folk, taking Eyrn off guard and assuring her almost instantly of their benevolent nature; if looks could tell a story, there was no way these were poachers.

“Were….were they….” Eyrn said, her voice raspy and dry.

“Forseti was a xenosociologist, a scientist who studied comparative alien cultures. He was most known for his early work on family structure in Terran humans. Melini was a xenobiologist, she studied the flora and fauna on earth, as well as human evolution. Eyrn, your parents were early pioneers in their field. They were not poachers, they were scientists.”

Eyrn was still speechless, all she could do was stare at the picture in front of her, she hadn’t even noticed Darren crawl up her arm to her shoulder so he could get a look at what was on the screen. “You got yer mothers eyes.” Darren remarked with a smile.

“The D’Tamlas had one daughter, born on Sperikos. They named her Nellery Nerine D’Talma. She was born on the seventh day of the 11th month, in the year 1085.” Pryvani reached out and took hold of Eyrn’s hand. “That would be you.”

Eyrn looked to Pryvani suddenly, a mixture of shock and confusion, and a little bit of wonder. “Nellery?”

“Nellery?” Darren repeated.

“It is not a very common name now a days, very classy, vintage if you will, sort of like my own name. You won’t find very many who go by it,” Pryvani nodded.

“Nellery….” Eyrn mouthed.

“Kinda…sounds like….”

“I know what it sounds like!” Eyrn snipped.

“Side Salad, hold the Nellery.” Darren snarked.

“Ha…ha…ha.” Eyrn groaned.

“Cheese Wiz and Nellery please.”

Eyrn shot him a look.

“Crispy, crunchy Nellery with salt…”

“I will flick you!” Eyrn smacked her hand down onto the table and glared Darren’s way.

“Sorry, I’m done, I’m done.” Darren chuckled with a relaxed sigh. “…peanut butter and Nel…oww!” Darren groaned as he tumbled over, receiving a fast hard flick to the shoulder from his titan companion. “Abuse!”

“Oh, that did not hurt you, you big baby!” Eyrn teased.

“It might have!” Darren protested.

Pryvani shook her head and laughed.

“My name sounds like a vegetable, I get it!” Eyrn rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

Darren stood up and rubbed his shoulder. “Danget, you hit like a linebacker Twat…”

“You’re lucky, I had half a mind to get a new puppet for the Grand Tribute!” Eyrn pouted.

“Bah, good luck to ya, wouldn’t get far without me on yer good looks and charm!” Darren laughed boisterously.

“Don’t flatter yourself my little marionette, don’t forget who pulls your strings!” Eyrn bragged.

“Eyrn, have you put any thought in to what you’d like to do once the tournament has concluded?” Pryvani interjected, though amused at Darren and Eyrn’s chummy antics.

There was a pause as Eyrn looked back down at the image on the data pad on the table. “You say they were scientists…explorers?” Eyrn peeked up at Pryvani, she had a curious look in her eyes.

“Your parents are responsible for the discovery of countless new forms of life, and the establishment of the Terran Conservation Act. It was their work in the field of human studies that lead to the realization of the damage titan influence was having on earth’s development. They were passionate revolutionaries of their time, some of the first Titans ever to dare to challenge the belief that human beings were simply intelligent animals.” Pryvani said.

“How did they get left being…I mean…stuck on Earth…why were they abandoned?” Eyrn asked, running her finger over the picture, as if she could feel the soft chocolate hair of her birth mother, or the scruffy black beard of her father.

“Best guesses point to a system failure in the Anisykos’s gravitic thrusters. It’s hard to know for sure what happened, as the mystery of the D’Talma’s disappearance was exacerbated by the loss of Sperikonean records after the planet itself was devastated.”

“Devastated?” Eyrn asked.

“Not a fun story,” Darren said. “I’ll fill ya in later.”

“It’s believed the D’Talma’s were studying human beings and their ability to adapt to colder climates when the evacuation order was given. Over the course of a human solar year, Earth was stripped of any and all Titan influence and presence. Forseti and Melini were likely reluctant to leave and would have put off their departure as long as possible.”

“They knew they’d never be able to come back,” Eyrn said, looking down.

“When the time came for them to pull out, the evacuation was all but done and over with. They would have sent out a distress call when the Anisykos failed to take off. It’s likely they were given a timeline for pickup and set themselves into cryostasis so they wouldn’t run out of supplies.

“A Titan family would devastate the natural resources of a small island like Kodiak, they probably didn’t want to take resources away from the people they were studying,” suggested Darren.

“It stands to reason they rigged the pods to supply yours with the most auxiliary power just in case years turned into decades…and the rest is history.” Pryvani said, though there was no joy in her tone anymore.

“Why…would they wait so long…why would they just leave us there?” Eyrn asked, quiet, low and ghostly.

“Deep space travel was relatively new back then. Subspace communication took a lot longer, as did space travel itself. And the Terran Evacuation Act resulted in a lot of confusion. Nothing like it had ever been done – so it’s possible the request was lost. Time and weather buried the Anisykos, masked its homing beacon, the hull deteriorated, but remained intact enough to form a cavern, backup systems began to run out of power, and as they planned your pod survived the longest.”

Eyrn took a breath, she found herself coming back to Pryvani’s original question — what did she want to do? She still wasn’t sure she knew. “Scientists eh?” Eyrn smiled weakly.

“I’ve included on that pad their entire library of work, their dissertations and the books they wrote, updated into modern Archavian. Maybe reading up on their work will give you a bit of inspiration?” Pryvani said with a reassuring tone.

“Maybe.” Eyrn shrugged.

“Looks like we both got something to think on now.” Darren commented, sliding down Eyrn’s arm and hopping onto the table.

“What’s that?” Eyrn asked and sent Darren a confused look.

“Perkyni over here offered me a job, Sheriff of Nottingham sorta job…looking over a colony of humans on her private moon, quelling insurgencies and helping establish a stable government’n competent law enforcement.” Darren shrugged. “Real serious gig.”

“Heh, right up your alley eh?” Eyrn smiled, though her eyes betrayed the concern she felt. That didn’t sound at all like a safe job, in fact it was all too similar to the life Darren lived back home.

“Haven’t said yes or no. Gotta think on it.”

“Mmhmm.” Eyrn nodded.

“Besides!” Darren piped up. “We got a tournament to win Twat, I ain’t come this far to lose now!”

“We, Sarge…we didn’t come this far to lose now…”

“That’s what I meant.” Darren dismissed.

“Well, Eyrn I’ve left my personal contact information on that pad, I hope once you figure out what you want to do you will give me a call. I’d be glad to connect you to whomever you need, anything I can do to help…you know.” Said Pryvani. “And Darren, I do hope you won’t keep me waiting too long on an answer.”

Darren nodded. “I’ll be in touch.”

“As will I.” Eyrn added.

“Wonderful.” Pryvani stood, she extended her hand once more to Eyrn and shook it, then bowed to Darren cordially. “I look forward to hearing from you both then!”

As Pryvani turned to walk away, the gathering of a crowd began to become more and more evident, though for once not a soul seemed interested in either her or the wild girl. Pryvani looked around with mild curiosity, clearly not the least bit affected by the presence of a mob of people. “Odd, I wonder – is something happening I don’t know about?”

Eyrn, not quite as confident around crowds as Pryvani scooped Darren up protectively and held him in her hands at her stomach. “I don’t know….”

Darren pushed Eyrn’s fingers aside and kicked at her for good measure. “Danget Twat leggo! I can’t see!”

“There she is!” one voice said eagerly.

“That’s not her, she doesn’t make public appearances!” A doubtful woman replied.

“I disagree! Puny Titan clearly doesn’t recognize the mighty Iron Maiden like I do!” An exuberant Ler shouted.

Eyrn stood on her tiptoes as the crowd gathered, filling every open space in the canteen. Soon there was hardly standing room, submitting to Darren’s protests Eyrn placed him on her shoulder, though kept one hand nearby just in case.

“I still can’t see a thing, yer too dang short!” Darren pouted.

“Quiet, I have other places I can stuff you if you keep complaining!” Eyrn grumbled as she searched for a better place to stand.

Pryvani had seemed to just disappear into the crowd, having grown quite skilled at pushing her way through mobs of people over the years.

“Hold on tight.” Eyrn warned then ducked under a tall man’s arm as she made her way to a concrete half wall that held a small garden on the edge of the canteen. Swiftly Eyrn hoisted herself up and shimmied along the raised platform, then pulled herself up a large tree that sat in the middle of the atrium garden.

“Like a friggen spider monkey.” Darren laughed.

“Always think on your feet, right Sarge?” Eyrn winked then looked about for any signs of the source of all this excitement.

“I don’t see anything.” Darren shrugged.

“There…over there!” Eyrn pointed.

Through the mob of fans, Eyrn and Darren caught a glimpse of a black figure of a woman in a robotic skin tight body suit as she quickly moved away from the mob. It was clear the champion had been trying to discreetly move from one location to the other without being spotted, when someone likely spotted her and attracted a crowd.

“That’s the champ eh?” Darren looked onward, even from a distance the Iron Maiden lived up to her name.

“They say she doesn’t talk…ever…just silently watches you through that faceless mask the whole match.” Eyrn whispered.

“I hear she ain’t a person at all…just a robot.” Darren whispered back.

“Think we can beat her?” Eyrn asked nervously.

“Twat, let’s worry about getting to her first. Lotta good players standing between us and her.” Darren sighed, not taking his eyes off Maiden. “Felltree, Hierophant, Executioner, Dibilique, Masticator, Deliverance, Tank, those are just a few…some of the best players in the game, we gotta beat them first.”

“She looks so…ominous…so cold and careless.” Eyrn shivered.

“Under that mask she’s flesh and blood Eyrn…remember that. Flesh and blood.” Darren nodded, looking to Eyrn.

“Right.” Eyrn nodded back.

“But damn hell does that mask creep me out.” Darren chuckled.