Alex climbed across the shelving units in the dusty warehouse, trying his best to both keep pace with Rixie and not accidentally get ahead of her. He was still cursing himself for accidentally distracting her with Greno, though he was sure she hadn’t realized it was him. So he vowed that he would only move when she did, and not cross into her line of sight again. 

Common sense told him he should just stop and wait for this all to be over, but he knew if he did that he’d end up doing something even dumber than he already was. 

It was just how Alex’s mind worked. 

Still, he couldn’t help but admire Rixie as she carefully moved through the warehouse. She looked like a jungle cat stalking her prey. Each and every movement of her body was perfectly timed and she never seemed to make an errant step. Her weapon was at the ready and her bearing suggested that every sense was on high alert and ready for danger. 

Alex assumed that she had to know he was there, there was no possible way she didn’t. He figured she’d resigned herself to the fact that Alex would do what Alex was going to do and nothing short of locking him up in her pocket would change that. 

And that would be rather counterintuitive. 

There was a rustling sound from the next column over and Alex peeked over a group of boxes. He saw a pale and sickly looking young man crouched down behind a box taller than he was. He had a terrified look on his face and Alex was sure he was very close to wetting himself. 

Rixie’s posture had tensed at the sound and she glanced at where Alex was standing, asking him an unspoken question with her eyes. 

Alex nodded and pointed behind him towards where Dorok, (or so he assumed it to be,) was hidden. 

Rixie winked and put her fingers to her lips, signaling silence. She cautiously peeked between the shelves near where Alex was standing, until she was able to spot her quarry as well. 

Rixie grinned savagely and crept down the length of the shelves, being careful not to make a sound. 

Alex watched Dorok carefully, looking for any sign that he could hear her coming. He didn’t seem to be able to. Frankly Alex wondered whether he could hear anything over the sound of his own panicked breathing. 

Rixie came around the corner. 

“Freeze!” She yelled and raised her weapon. 

Dorok did anything but. With a frightened yelp he shot to his feet and dashed down the alleyway between shelves. 

Rixie raised her weapon to fire but shook her head with an annoyed grunt. She hated shooting people in the back, even convicted felons. 

She holstered her weapon and dashed after Dorok. 

Alex scrambled to keep pace, admiring Rixie as she ran. Even after all this time the sight of a living being as large as Rixie moving as fast as she did… it took his breath away. 

Rixie’s boots thundered on the concrete as she dashed after Dorok. The young man was trying to keep ahead of her but she could hear his wheezing gasps as his body started to give out. He hadn’t looked like the athletic type and this seemed to prove that suspicion correct. 

Rixie was gaining on him. At the last second he ducked to the side and dashed in a different direction, momentarily throwing Rixie off. She skidded to a stop and turned in the direction he’d gone, but she’d lost sight of the little man. 

Rixie palmed her weapon again, keeping it at the ready as she moved through the shelves. She was aware that there were many places that Dorok could be hidden. 

Alex slid to the edge of the shelf he’d been running across. He bent over and leaned against one of the boxes, gasping for breath. Living with Rixie had certainly left him in the best shape he’d ever been in, but that was still nothing compared to the athletic ability that Rixie possessed. 

Of course, she was also twenty times taller than he was. Which Alex considered cheating. 

“Dorok Melaskah!” Rixie called out, cautiously looking around for any sign of her quarry. “Come out peacefully with your hands empty and where I can see them.” 

“Okay, I’m coming out right now!” 

Rixie’s stance didn’t relax a millimeter as she watched the young man appear from behind one of the warehouse shelves. 

“Hands!” Rixie barked. “Let me see them.” 

Alex saw it before she did. A long thin black tube in Dorok’s hands. He tried to cry out, to warn her but he wasn’t fast enough. Before either could react, Dorok leveled the weapon at her and fired. 

A long thin wire shot out of the tube, the prongs on the end of it buried themselves through a weak point in her armor and into her flesh. A millisecond later, arcs of searing hot lightning jolted her body and sent her to the ground screaming. 

Her weapon fell to the floor and skittered away across the concrete, sliding under one of the shelves. 

Alex wasn’t thinking anymore. He started running. Running towards the grinning idiot holding the taser on Rixie. He didn’t have a plan he just ran until the shelf underneath his feet stopped. 

Then he jumped. 

Thanks to the blessing of the titan-friendly gravity, he sailed through the air, and landed on Dorok’s face. He gripped the young man’s sallow skin and went straight for the one weak point he could reach. 

The eyes. 

Dorok cried out in pain and rage as Alex’s fist connected with his eye. The human only managed to get a few good hits in before Dorok gripped him between his fingers. 

With an aggravated yell Dorok ripped Alex away from his face and flung him sideways, not even sparing the human a glance when his body impacted against the wall and fell to the floor with a sickening thud. 

Unfortunately for Dorok, someone else had noticed. 

Rixie had dragged herself to her feet, despite every nerve and muscle in her body being on fire with pain. She had regained her senses just in time to see Alex make his suicidal attack, and she’d seen every second of it- right up until Dorok had flung him away. 

Right now, Rixie only had one thing on her mind. She had to make sure that Alex was okay, and nothing could possibly stand in the way of her doing so. 

Unfortunately for him, Dorok was in her way. 

Once he’d composed himself, Dorok turned back to the Imperator, only to see her back on her feet, with a look of murderous rage on her face. 

Rixie’s vision tinted red as she let out a feral scream of pure anger. She lunged at the young man who had caused her so much pain in the last two minutes. Without even thinking about it, her fist shot out and connected with his jaw, sending him sprawling on the ground.

But that wasn’t enough for Rixie. She grabbed him by the back of his shirt and hauled him back to his feet. Again her fist lashed out, connecting with Dorok’s midsection and causing him to double over. He fell to his knees and Rixie kicked him in the jaw. 

Dorok stumbled back, howling in pain with blood leaking from his jaw where he’d bit his own lip. He spat red flecked foam onto the concrete and glared at Rixie. 

He let out a frustrated growl and ran straight towards her, perhaps thinking he could intimidate her and force her to back off. 

It wasn’t a good plan. Rixie squared her shoulders and braced her legs. When Dorok was within arm’s length, she grabbed his shirt and pulled him in close before lifting him off the ground and slamming him back into the concrete with a rather sickening thud. 

Dorok lay there stunned for a moment, and Rixie started to move away from him and towards Alex. 

Dorok coughed and rolled over before pushing himself slowly to his feet.

He tried to creep up behind Rixie, but his wheezing gasps of pain weren’t helping his to be stealthy. 

He stumbled forwards. There was a flash of light and an electric whine as Dorok went for his weapon. 

He tried to thrust upward, aiming for the small of her back. This time, however, Rixie was ready for him. At the last second she whirled around and caught his wrist in her grip and bent the stun prod back on him. She heard a snap as his wrist broke, causing him to scream in pain, but Rixie didn’t let up. 

Inch by inch the hand holding the stun prod was bent back, until the deadly end of the weapon was turned back on Dorok. With a feral yell of pure rage, Rixie pushed down with all her strength, shoving the stun prod into Dorok’s chest and holding it there while he cried out in agonizing pain. 

All conscious thought had been driven from Rixie’s mind by the image of Alex’s crumpled form. All that was left was a burning hate-filled desire to see the man who had done that to Alex suffer. 

And she made him suffer. 

After several minutes the stun baton popped and hissed as it burned itself out. Dorok’s limp body fell to the concrete with a sickening thud. His eyes were wide and his mouth slack, as if he were permanently surprised. There was a charred black wound in his chest where Rixie had pressed the baton to it. 

With a snarl Rixie kicked him away and stumbled over to where Alex lay on the concrete. Carefully she knelt and examined his still form. 

She was relieved to see he was still breathing. It was shallow, but he was breathing nonetheless. 

“Rixie… you okay?” He wheezed. 

“Never mind me, Alex.” Rixie whispered as she knelt and gently ran her hand over Alex’s body, checking for serious injuries. “I thought… What did you think you were doing?” 

“Something stupid.” Alex groaned, wincing as her fingers brushed across areas where he’d been hurt. “As usual.” 

“Well, at least you’re aware of it.” Rixie muttered wryly, as she slowly worked her fingers underneath Ale’s body and gently lifted him, being careful not to jostle him too much, and keeping his spine immobile as much as possible with her fingers and thumb. 

“I’m just glad you’re okay Rixie.” Alex muttered. “Nothing else matters besides that. 

“Alex…I-” 

Rixie’s eyes widened in shock as she felt hot metal penetrate the base of her neck. She tottered forward, her sentence cut off in the middle, forever to be unfinished, before collapsing to the ground in front of her. She had just enough presence of mind to twist so that she landed on her back, and not on top of Alex- who rolled out of her open palm and onto her stomach. 

Out of the corner of her eye, up in the storage loft above her, she caught a glimpse of a grizzled, weather beaten face grinning in satisfaction. Greno brought the barrel of his gun up in a mocking salute. 

“Rixie!” She heard Vanser scream her name, but it was as if it were from far off. The sound of her own heartbeat and ragged breathing in her ears nearly blocked everything else out. 

She gasped for breath and tried to yell for help, but all she could manage were a few croaking gasps. After a few minutes she heard the thunder of footsteps coming closer and could only hope that it was Vanser and their team… and not Greno. 
Then Officer Jani was there, hovering over Rixie; her expression a mix of shock, anger and confusion. She quickly turned to another of their back up officers, who were coming up behind her. “Call a damn med-evac! Now!” 

She turned back to Rixie, brushing the sweat matted braids out of her face. 

“Hold on Imperator. The med team is on its way. I’m going to stay with you. Okay?”

Rixie gasped out a choking cough.

“Don’t Imperator, don’t try to talk.” Jani pressed a clean cloth to the wound and put pressure on it to try and stop the bleeding. 

A moment later Maltak was kneeling beside her with Dyarnis, hovering behind. 

“Medvacs on their way, but we have to get her out of here. This area isn’t secure.” Maltak nodded towards Dyarnis, who positioned himself at Rixie’s head while Maltak moved towards her feet. 

“This isn’t proper procedure for this type of injury!” Jani protested, keeping her hands pressed against the wound. 

“Rule number one Jani.” Maltak reminded her. “Get to safety.” 

“Aye sir.” The blonde haired young woman repositioned herself. 

“Ready?” Maltak asked. The other two nodded. 

On the count of three, the two men lifted Rixie, mindful to keep her neck and spine as immobile as possible. They carefully carried her out of the warehouse, with Jani walking alongside to steady her neck and tend to the wound as best she could. 

Once they were outside of the warehouse and at a safe distance, the three officers carefully lowered Rixie onto a makeshift mattress made out of their own jackets.

After recovering from the initial shock of the fall, Alex had been knocked out but now he was able to pull himself free from under Rixie’s hand and carefully crawled out onto her torso and into the bright sunlight. 

And there he saw something out of his worst nightmares.

Blood was leaking from a hole in Rixie’s neck where there shouldn’t be a hole in the first place. Officer Jani was attempting to staunch the blood with a ripped sleeve from her shirt, but it still shook Alex to his core. 

Her whole body was trembling and convulsing underneath him, and every so often raspy coughs would issue forth from her mouth, causing more blood to leak from the corner of her lips. Her face was ashen and her eyes were unfocused. 

Without really thinking, Alex crawled up her torso, moving as quickly as his injuries would allow. He climbed over her breasts without a second thought. 

The other Titans paid him no mind, they too focused on Rixie. 

“Where the hell is that Medvac?!” Maltak yelled into his comm unit. 

Alex stood at the peak of her bust and gazed up at her face. Eventually her gazed rolled down to him, which he took as an encouraging sign. 

“Oh god Rixie…” He wailed. “Oh god…” 

He dashed up to her shoulder, giving the wound in her neck as wide a berth as he was able, and climbed up her cheek until he was able to look directly into one of her pale green eyes. 

“Her pulse is weak but regular.” Jani reported from above him, speaking into a radio. “But I don’t know how much longer that will last.” 

Alex fell to his knees on Rixie’s cheek. “Rix… listen to me…” he pleaded. “You gotta hold on for me, okay? I need you to hold on. Do you hear me?” 

Alex had no idea if his words were getting through to her but they spilled out one after another, until he couldn’t have stopped them even if he wanted to. “You have to hold on, okay? You’re going to be fine. This is not going to take you down you’re too fucking stubborn. Understand me?” 

“Imperator Vanser, do you read me?” Dyarnis’s voice rumbled above Alex, but it might as well have been distant thunder for all the attention the human paid. 

Rixie let out another gurgling, raspy breath that wrenched Alex’s heart. “No damn it!” He yelled, furiously. “You don’t get to die from this, got it? You can’t fucking die. I need you, okay?!” 

“I need you…” Suddenly Alex felt himself shaking and his vision blurred as his eyes stung from his own tears. “God damn it Rixie, I can’t live without you. Not You the Titan or You ‘my owner’ …YOU! I… I can’t do this without you…” 

Alex’s entire body trembled, he was still wracked with pain from when Dorok had thrown him against the wall, but it was a distant second to the pain he felt at seeing Rixie’s wounded body. 

“Please… Don’t go.” Alex felt drained all of a sudden, as if he were willing all of his strength into her. “Just… just hold on.” Above him, Officer Jani was pressing her hands to the wound in an effort to staunch the bleeding, but at that moment all Alex could see was the sickly pale face of the woman who’d come to mean so much to him. 

“Rixie I… I love you…”

The eye before him widened in surprise and Alex realized there was wetness on his hands. He looked down to see there was a tear forming in the eye he was looking at. Another harsh sound erupted from Rixie’s mouth as she tried to talk. 

“Don’t Rix.” Alex pressed his hand against her cheek. “Don’t try to talk. It’ll only make things worse.” 

He watched as she brought her hand to her mouth and wiped away the trail of blood. Then, as Alex looked on in stunned silence, she used her bloodstained finger to form letters on the concrete beside her. 

“I… I don’t…” Alex shook his head in frustration. He’d managed to pick up quite a bit of the Archavian language in his time with her, normally he’d be able to translate it fine, but his mind couldn’t seem to focus long enough to read the words being formed in front of him. 

“Listen little one…” Jani whispered from above him. She had tears running down her own cheek. “The med team is here. It’s time for her to go.” 

“No!” Alex yelled. “I’m going with her!” 

Gently, the blonde Titaness pried Alex away from Rixie long enough for the paramedics to load the wounded woman onto the stretcher. 

“Don’t worry…” She whispered to the distraught Alex. “We’ll go in the ambulance with her. It will be okay.”

“Please…” Alex whispered. “What… what did she write?” 

“She…” Jani cleared her throat and tried again. “She just wrote one word…”

“Love.”