Darren caught up to Tapp and took hold of her by the shoulder, spinning her around to face him in one solid movement. He was out of breath, where she seemed able to run a marathon if need be.

“Just where do you think you’re going to sister!” Darren scolded his voice gruff and assertive as if he were speaking to a recruit.

“Puck off!” Tapp glowered, butchering the very slang she had heard Darren use all too often.

“It’s Fuck…not Puck.” Darren gave his drill sergeant act a rest as he grinned wildly.

“That’s what I said!” Tapp gave Darren a look that could freeze hell and backed away from him several paces. “Ohh just go away. Leave me alone.” Tapp hissed and turned, she looked ready to take off again.

They had run for several moments and neither of them recognized their surroundings. The dense crowd of titans had dissipated likely all watching the LumLar match of the century, giving the humans a lot more room to move. They stuck to under the tables and used cover as best they could. Those titans who were still around were too engrossed in what they were doing to take much notice to what was happening at their feet.

“Look, you can throw a tantrum back at home’n chew me out all the way there, but this ain’t the time nor the place fer yer foolishness. Yer gonna get us killed out here Tapp, cut it out alright!?” Darren took the chance to catch his breath and tried to close the distance between him and Tapp as slowly as he could.

“I’m not a dullard you know. I know what you all think of me. I don’t need your pity, and I don’t need HER charity!” Tapp faced Darren with hostility, daring him to step forward.

“What’er you talking about…how do we see you?” Darren knelt over a bit to stop his head from spinning. He could run…but Tapp was like an Olympian. She forced him to sprint as fast as he could, which was taxing.

“You all think I’m stupid!” Tapp hissed bitterly.

“We do not…yer just acting stupid, there’s a difference.” Darren’s tone became more and more diplomatic as they went on.

“I’m just like you, I am. I’m smart too. I can do things. Why should I be owned? Why am I any less? I can read words, and I can speak well. I was taught things. I am more than a fancy tupp in a guided cage.”

Darren stood straight just as Degu caught up to them. He, like Tapp, seemed alright to keep on running.

“Oh, there you are! Why did you run off?” Degu scolded with a displeased expression.

“Both of you just…just go away!” Tapp eyed both Darren and Degu like cornered prey and sprinted off in the opposite direction.

“Danget mop-head!” Darren scowled and took off after Tapp “Princess get back here…no one said you were stupid!” Darren shouted as he chased after.

“What’d I do? You told me to follow you!” Degu took after them both.

***

“So the strange green paper was an invitation?” Hedyn asked as he followed closely after Keeran.

“Looks like it.” Keeran spoke softly as she trailed after Zdrizl, the ler they had been instructed to meet with.

It has taken some convincing, and even after presenting the musky smelling green parchment, Zdrizl didn’t seem convinced of Keeran’s determination to meet with the overseer.

“You are not the sort we usually get you understand.” Zdrizl spoke quietly as they moved farther and farther back through the crowded night club, from one room to another, past all sorts of people from all walks of life.

Hedyn swallowed uncomfortably as he noticed the longer they followed the unsettling ler, the more secluded their local became.

“Isn’t it rude for a ler to whisper?” Keeran asked, ignoring the man’s direct statement regarding her intentions.

“They dislike shouting.” Zdrizl stated, as he moved through an automatic door, the lighting grew dimmer and dimmer as they began to leave the more populated area of the club.

“I see.” Keeran looked back to Hedyn, who was practically walking on her heels. “Can you believe it? We are here. We are actually here.” Keeran whispered in excitement.

“When addressing them, it would be smart to remember that.” Zdrizl grumbled as he stopped, still not facing Keeran.

“Got it. No yelling.” Keeran smiled confidently.

“Anything else we need to know?” Hedyn asked anxiously.

“Plenty, but just keep your puny pink lips closed and sit where you are told. Have your offering ready.” Zdrizl looked back finally, sending both Keeran and Hedyn back a few paces. Their immediate reactions to their first close up sudden and instinctive.

Zdrizl’s eyes were missing, only open dark holes where his prominent ler eyes once sat greeted them. Along the sides of his neck were green, almost fluorescent, scales in a zig-zag pattern down his side tracing a pattern close to his heart.

“If you offend them…you must pay the price.” The ler spoke softly, seemingly watching them carefully even though no eyes were there to gaze upon them.

“I…I got it….” Keeran swallowed and nodded, reaching out to grasp Hedyn’s arm nervously.

“The overseer welcomes you to the feast of plenty.” Zdrizl nodded and proceeded through the final automatic door. “For the hive….”

***

Aisell focused on the combatant before her, without even enough time to wipe the sweat from her brow. Her white creamy skin was brown from the kicked up mud and sand, mixed with a good portion of her own red blood for good measure. Her hair was matted and damp from mud and sweat and her eyes stung, but her resolve was as strong as ever.

“You run like a coward! Face me!” Ler-Tonga bellowed as he pivoted around to face her once more. Each and every time he charged at her, Aisell would back away and side step, using her superior reach and stride to her advantage.

It was an effective strategy for wearing her opponent down, but did little to overcome his immense strength advantage. Even exhausted a ler could easily overpower a titan. The claws, teeth and grit was simply icing on the cake in the shadow of the Ler’s real advantage; physical prowess.

“She’s not doing too bad!” Eyrn bounced atop Bedra’s shoulder as she watched the match, she had caught the fever along with the rest of the crowd and had begun to cheer and jeer rather than ho and hum over her friends safety.

“Take it easy eh? You’re not as light as you look!” Bedra groaned as she readjusted Eyrn’s position.

“Sorry.” Eyrn winced innocently. “Get em’ Aisell! Shove that tail down his throat!” Eyrn shouted.

Lezah and Aehzay watched with much less anticipation and enjoyment, carefully watching their sibling with pained expressions.

“She’s going to buy herself a month in the hospital!” Lezah shouted, looking to Aehzay for a brief moment before looking back to the match.

“Actually she’s doing kind of awesome. She’s rocking that gorram Lizard.” Aehzay smiled warily without looking away from Aisell.

The crowd erupted in a sea of cheering and angry disdain as Aehzay and Lezah screamed in unison, Lezah reaching forward helplessly towards her sister.

Aisell stumbled back and grasped the side of her face, fighting to remain on her feet. Her opponent charged her and she had gone to pivot to the side and back away, the sharp whip like tip of Tonga’s tail made contact with her cheek, slicing into it from right beside the corner of her eye her left eye, down across the bridge of her nose down to the bottom corner of her opposing cheek.

Aisell let out a pained scream and clutched her face, somehow keeping her attention fixated on Tonga, but rather than charge her and end the match, the house champion did what he did best, and began to pander to the crowd, cheering, boasting and mocking Aisell as she clutched her face in agony, blood dripping from between her finger tips down her face onto the wet mud below.

“You cheating son of a mud lizard!” Lezah cursed as Aehzay held her back. “Get him Aisell! Tear out his reproductive glands and make him eat them! Skewer him and roast him for supper!” Lezah leapt and clawed at the air against her sisters’ hold.

“Take it easy killer! You’re going to end up distracting her!” Aehzay struggled to keep Lezah from breaking free and running onto the field herself.

“Let me go Zhay! I’ll bite off his glands myself!” Lezah spat. “Fight fair you coward!”

Tonga circled his besieged and battered opponent, though he was clean of viable physical injury himself, the champion did look quite spent. The two nostril holes at the end of his snout were flared and open wide, his eyes were dilated and focused and his breaths were heavy and fast.

“You have managed to impress me puny titan female. It is a shame you are made of soft fleshy meat like weak titan you are!” Tonga shouted as he bellowed a deep powerful laugh. “Weak, scrawny sac’s of meat!”

Aisell pulled her hand hesitantly away from her face. She could surrender…walk away while she still had the ability to do so, but all she could think about was Luke. Luke alone and frightened on Titan Station, surviving on the scraps she left behind. Luke struggling to teach himself a whole new alien language based solely on his brief fleeting interaction with a terrifying world hell bent on killing him. Luke alone and afraid as a beast-like scilith attempted to make a meal out of him. He had overcome so much to get so little. His obstacles made hers’ seem trivial. If he could survive all that, if he could hold on when things truly were impossible, she could sure as hell do this!

“I’ll show you what a weak scrawny sac of meat can do you glorified bottom feeder!” Aisell looked towards Tonga and kicked up a wet clod of dirt at his face.

Tonga growled and clawed at the mud at his face, hissing and snapping violently. “Irritating whore!”

Luke had been willing to take risks, Luke never played it safe. She felt ashamed for what she had done, for refusing to allow him to play by his own rules. He had been willing to take risks because he understood, for a human, it was all or nothing.

Aisell knew what she had to do; she had to fight like she was human. She had to put it all on the line, like she was fighting for her very survival, just like Luke. She had to be willing to take a risk, no matter how foolish.

Aisell wasted no time, with all she had she charged at Ler Tonga, with a loud and confident shout.

***

Darren caught up to Tapp, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her towards him.

“Ah mean it Princess! Cut it out b’fore you get yerself killed!” Darren snapped and held on to Tapp’s arm as she struggled to free herself, and she was a lot stronger than she looked.

“Let me go. Get off me. I will not go back. I won’t. I am not an accessory; I’m not a novelty item. I won’t be kept around for anybody else’s amusement!” Tapp turned round and promptly slapped Darren across his face with a loud sharp clap sound.

Darren groaned. His cheek stung wickedly, but he held on none the less. “Just where will you go then Hmmm!?” Darren motioned before them to the strange unknown and intimidating beyond. “Where’ya gonna run off to!?”

“I don’t care, anywhere but here. I don’t need them, I don’t need you. I don’t need to be fed, I don’t need to be dressed. I don’t need to be looked down on!” Tapp screamed as she twisted and pulled and strained to free her wrist from Darren’s hold.

“It ain’t pretty but there ain’t nothing else to do! It fucking sucks is what, but running off t’get yerself killed won’t do no damn good Tapp!” Darren shouted back a lot of pent up frustration was starting to release, oddly enough he felt a lot in common with what Tapp was saying.

“What makes them so special?! What makes them so damn important!?” Tapp clawed at Darren’s wrist, when he didn’t let go she slumped over, going limp as if to just give up.

Darren caught the limp woman and supported her, he soon however found her arms around his neck, her face buried in his chest.

“Tapp I….”

“We look the same, we talk the same…we want things…we have dreams…we feel happy, sad, angry, we laugh, we cry! Why are we not important?” Tapp spoke through stuttering breaths.

“I don’t know….” Darren spoke softly.

“This place you keep talking about, where we have cities and build things and drive big machines on wheels, and send people to other planets and create life…how can it be real if all we are is glorified fashion accessories!” Tapp began to sob openly.

“I don’t know….” Darren spoke softly.

“Why do they hate us…what did we ever do to them…why did they do this to us…what wrong did we do to deserve this?” Tapp asked softly, honestly, desperately.

“I don’t know….” Darren sighed and held the back of Tapp’s head, stroking her hair gently.

“I hate them…I hate them all…all of them!” Tapp sobbed.

Degu watched from a distance, he had never heard Tapp speak like that, he’d never seen her so vulnerable and open. Her words made him feel uncomfortable, he hated her for what she was saying, he wanted to scream at her and tell her she was wrong.

Bedra was kind to them. She did everything she could for them. How could Tapp feel that way about her? How could Darren not stand up for Bedra and Eyrn?

Degu balled his fists and stared down at the ground. There was so much he wanted to say in retaliation, so much he would let them know, had he been given the chance.

“I don’t want this anymore. I never asked for any of this.” Tapp offered weakly as Darren comforted her.

“Neither did I Tapp…none of us did.” Darren sighed, that was only a half-truth for him. Unlike Tapp, unlike any of them, he had been given a choice, one he was starting to wonder if he had made to hastily.

Neither Darren nor Tapp took notice to the shadow that engulfed them until it was far too late, both of them looked up to see a hideous figure of a man looking down on them with a sick toothy grin from ear to ear.

“Looks like I struck the jack pot!” The gruff voice boomed. Bright green veins in his neck glowed an almost fluorescent color.

Darren narrowed his brow pulled Tapp off of him, keeping her close by his side.

Tapp let out a frightened scream and huddled next to Darren, too frightened to speak.

Darren eyed Degu, who poked his head out from behind the chair leg he was hiding behind.

‘Run.’ Darren mouthed, before looking back up to the menacing giant before them.

“Where I come from, it’s rude’t scare a lady.” Darren spoke, flatly.

“Is that so?” The robust man looked down with a condescending and snarky look on his thick face.

“Just go away!” Tapp screamed and lashed out boldly.

“Shhh.” Darren hushed her but kept her close.

“Awww, I’m not such a bad guy!” The man spoke as he bent over to scoop up the two humans.

Darren and Tapp were not given much of a chance to flee before they were scooped up and pressed together in a tight fisted grip. Both struggled in vain but were stuck good.

“Saved me a couple’a cred on you two! It must be my lucky day! They will be pleased!” The large titan laughed as he shoved the two humans into his pocket, patting it proudly as he trotted off the way he came.

Degu watched the man leave, backed himself up against the chair leg and looked around hopelessly. He had to get to Bedra and the others…where ever it was they were!