Nyx held the other boy at gunpoint, following Saedah. She had to shush the boy several times before she gave up. He wanted to know who they were and what they were going to do with them. Were they were going to die? Stomach wounds like that were killing blows. He'd seen it before. His brother was going to die. Were they going to kill him, next? Did they kill his sister, too?

Sister. Saedah was not going to like that one bit.

While Saedah watched over the process, the arm retrieved bullet fragments and repaired the kid's body from the inside.

Hours later, Saedah exit the room, blood up to his elbows and a smudge on his brow.

"I am no Mac." He told Nyx. He knelt to eye level with the kid. "What's your name, boy?"

"Tamas Quade. You can call me Tam." He croaked. Saedah had to fight a vision of an older boy in an Akumini Guard uniform dying, gasping for breath with a crushed windpipe and surrounded by slave cells. The man he had killed so long ago, Thomas, suddenly bore Tam's face.

"And his?" Saedah asked hoarsely, nodding toward the room.

"Rines." Tam's throat tightened around the name. "Is he…" The boy couldn't finish the question.

"I did everything I could. I'm not the best at this, but I think he will pull through." Saedah put a hand on his shoulder. Tam's face had morphed through Saedah's reply, first with the knowledge that his brother was dead, then in relief, then in wide eyed disgust at finding the blood-stained hand on his shoulder. "How old are you two?"

"I'm twelve, and Rines is thirteen." He said, glancing again at the door to his brother's room. Saedah knew kids grew up quick on Phaenna, but those boys looked to be in their late teens, with patchy, straggly facial hair and strong jaws. They shouldn't even be out of their baby-fat, and yet they looked just as fit as Vector.

"Now, who was it that ran around the back?" Saedah's tone was stern.

"Sayza. Our sister." Saedah closed his eyes, sucking in a breath, and nodded his head.

"Is she hurt?" he asked, eyes hopeful.

"She got to the bikes." He wasn't going to admit that he had shot at a fleeing girl. That he had actually shot a fleeing girl. "Who will she be bringing back with her?"

"Likely no one. She's got nuthin but enemies in town. It's why we're all the way out here." The boy spoke with venom in his voice. "She just ran out on us!"

Well, that wasn't exactly what he had expected, but he should have. Phaens were ever Phaens.

"She told us we had to protect ourselves, or you'd be killing us! Then she just left. She used us!" He winced as he gestured and jarred his shoulder. "It's how our Pa always said it'd be, but floods if I'd listened." He went on, but dropped into a local dialect that Nyx couldn't understand at all. Saedah, for all his time there, could barely understand one word in five with how fast the boy was rambling.

"Hey. hey," Saedah growled, shaking the boy. "Slow down, and in common if you can."

"Sorry." He mumbled. "Just didn't expect it. I shoulda. It's how everyone is. But Ma taught us diffrunt. Ma wasn't from here. She taught us family; blood this, and blood that. And Sayza just goes and leaves us for dead!"

Saedah shook his head.

"Well, how about I look at that shoulder, then." He unbandaged the wound, obviously Nyx's doing, and was happy to see that it was a clean shot. The bullet miraculously missed hitting bone and traveled cleanly through the meat of the kids deltoid. As long as it didn't get infected, he'd only have to worry about scars. "There isn't much I can do, other than clean it up. I'll give you some medicine, and I expect you to sleep for a while. Can you manage that?"

"I can manage. Won't be the worst thing ta happen." He grinned at the pair and narrowed his eyes at Nyx. "What are you, though? Can't say as I've ever seen someone lookin like you." He pointed at her, and stared openly at her fronds when she removed the shirt from her head and doused herself with water from a nearby pool.

"I am a Pteroi. I would imagine that there are two reasons you have never seen someone like me. First, we don't like to leave Pterois. Second, it is hot and dry here. Our skin is sensitive to both." She showed him some of the cracks and the boy winced.

"Yea, that looks like it hurts." He scoot away but continued to eye her. "What's with the fat hair though?" The boy squawked when Saedah plunged the needle in his good shoulder, even being as gently as he could, there was little to be done about the sting from the medicine.

"Better to get it over with, yeah?" He smiled at the indignant boy.

"You said medicine. Said nothin' about no needles." He tried to scoot back, but Saedah grabbed a fist full of his shirt.

"You will take what you deserve for firing on me. Understand?" Saedah channeled Dirge, bringing the bloodlust to his voice. His head tilted to the side as he gave the kid a red-eyed stare. Tamas stopped breathing and nodded slowly. "Perfect." Saedah released the kid and smiled as though nothing had happened. "Now, that was to kick-start your healing process. This should be only a scar, at most, in a few days' time. The next is for pain and to help you sleep. I need you in bed before I give it to you."

"Ok…" The kid's eyes darted between Saedah and the room holding his brother. Saedah noted it, of course.

"You want to go see him first?" Saedah asked, back to being nice. The kid, suspecting a trap, nodded slowly and jerkily.

"Come on, then. I have a lot of things to do." He looked at the water for the first time since descending the stairs. "Nyx, did the door up top shut behind us?"

"Wasn't sure how to do that." she said, waving the gun. "That's why we've been here, covering the stairs…" She said, as though he should have known as much.

"It's the button at the bottom of the stairs that says 'Open' and 'Close'" He pointed to it before following the kid into the first door. Nyx's striped cream and red cheeks darkened as a blush burned her cheeks.

Nyx was pacing. She knew she was pacing. She didn't need the brat to point it out every ten minutes. Saedah had never been gone overnight. She had been stuck in that cave for two weeks, waiting to be found out while he went back and forth between the city and the cave nearly every day. He'd never been gone more than five or six hours.

It was approaching sixteen hours at that point. Night would be well and cold above them.

"Not like you can go lookin' for him." Tam groused from his bedroll.

"Leave off Tam. She's just worried." Rines hissed, but his voice echoed around the chamber, reminding her that she was below ground.

"She's makin' me dizzy." Tam had picked up a sour attitude. Saedah said it was likely from the trauma of being shot and abandoned by his sister, not to mention watching his brother nearly die. Rines seemed perfectly fine, though. He was mentally and physically whole, if not a little sore, and he was the one who had nearly died.

"-ny idea how hard it is to find a desert in the galaxy?" A deep, aggravated voice echoed in the chamber. Nyx lifted the pistol, ducking behind a stalagmite as the kids scrambled into one of the rooms. "Any idea how long we've been looking?"

"Two weeks?" Saedah's sardonic voice followed closely behind.

"Oh, blessed heat." A female sigh, then Saedah was visible on the stairs.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Hey, it's clear! I brought friends... supposedly." Saedah added the last part as though he could have just as easily made a huge mistake, walking into the camber ahead of his companions.

"Yeah… friends!" Troache bellowed in the cavern. Saedah covered his ears and looked behind him with venom in his eyes.

"She's not deaf, you idiot, but I may be now." Saedah grumbled, continuing down the stairs.

"Hey, mom!" Nala squealed, launching off the stairs into her arms.

Nyx stood shocked.

"You came." She whispered, looking between Nala and Troache.

"Well, yeah. We've been looking for two gods damned weeks. You could've given us some kind of hint other than 'crashing on a desert'. There's a lot of desert in the galaxy."

"Where's everyone else?" Nyx asked, catching a glimpse of Saedah ducking into the med closet. He did that a lot. She'd been keeping track of the medication, and had determined which one he'd been taking. The stuff was dangerous and he was eating it like candy. Even still, she'd seen him in the ring, dosed. She knew about addiction. She'd seen it ruin many lives throughout her career as a rising Maven.

This wasn't the time or place to address it. Soon enough, she could talk to Mac and get him real help.

"They had their own problems spring up yesterday." Troache said through a yawn, drawing her attention back to the conversation. "They had to call off the latest 'Saedah manhunt' for a bit. The Triad's stirring up more trouble with trade routes in the neutral zones." Troache waved his hand to banish the thought, "But it's good to see you."

"Not as good as it was to see you," Saedah responded before Nyx could reciprocate the greeting. "Nyx, you will never guess what these two Sun-blinded fools did."

"What are you?" Tam asked, wide eyed, looking at Nala from around the doorjamb.

"Kids?" Troache asked, both eyebrows disappearing into his hairline. Nala and Tam were looking at one another as though neither had quite seen anything so odd. Troache was looking at her much the same way, though he had reason. "Not again, Nyx. I ain't doing it." He pointed at Nala as though the girl was explanation enough.

"Not mine this time." She waved a hand in Saedah's general direction while Troache relaxed. "They were at the wrong place, at the wrong time, doing the wrong thing." Nyx glared at them as they strolled from the room. Tam made a circle around Nala. Nyx couldn't help but think that Tam was a boy who would benefit from an education. He was curious, and showed a genuine interest in everything not on Phaenna.

"He shot us." Tamas quipped, pointing at Saedah. "Then brought us here, to Cave Home and fixed us up, so he's not so bad." Nyx choked on a laugh. Saedah only rolled his eyes and removed his heavy jacket. Troach and Nala shared a look and regarded Saedah with calculating eyes. Saedah didn't notice their stares. The metal of his left arm gleamed in the lamplight as he flexed his fingers and rotated his wrist, watching how the parts moved.

Cave Home was the name Rines had given their hole. Saedah had sat up with them the night after their meeting, going over their educational history. He'd finally caved to Tam's incessant questions and told them the story of how he found and built a home out of the cave. Saedah left out names such as 'Ghosts' and 'Conclave' in his tale, but the boys soaked it up nonetheless.

Saedah had needed a place outside of town to operate during the drug smuggling days. Some scavengers had made the cave a den of sorts before Saedah liberated it from them. After that, it was used as the central hub and medical center for his gang. The goods stashed in the lower caves, the ones that were presently feeding and healing them, had been there for years since his last mission on Phaenna.

The praise and adoration in the boys' eyes had Nyx smothering a scoff.

Saedah started going to town the following morning. Nyx woke to a note and a missing Saedah their third day in Cave Home.

It took Saedah almost a full week to gather the materials from Phaen merchants and traders. The day after his last acquisition, he spent nearly a full day tinkering on a heap of shining metal, plastics, hoses, circuits, and a bunch more objects Nyx couldn't fully identify. That night Nyx had cooked a fairly basic stew from the non-perishables stored in the hideout, thanking Vector with every fiber of her being for the cooking lessons. When she took Saedah a bowl, he was polishing a limp metal arm. The shoulder even had a ball joint. The parts that would connect into the meat around his shoulder sprouted tiny hair-like follicles.

Startled by her presence, he looked up. She forced a small smile and made to pass him the bowl of stew.

"That is probably a bad idea." He said, frowning at the bowl. Nyx didn't miss the quick flick of his eyes to the piece in his lap.

"When?" She asked. He'd been checking the calibration on the medical devices in the first room repeatedly, almost maniacally. She had known it was coming. She had simply hoped that he would choose somewhere cleaner to do it, and preferably with a real doctor on hand.

He underwent the surgery just minutes later, despite her protests and promises that Citram might actually gut or skin her this time. That had been just over a week ago. She could still hear the sound of the saw on bone. She could still see, hear, and smell it all. She doubted she would ever forget. She certainly never wanted to spectate such a thing again. The next morning, when Saedah had woken was just as bad. Saedah could handle a lot of pain, but everyone had a limit.

"These two…" Nyx was pulled from her reverie as Saedah pointed between Nala and Troach then threw his hands up like it wasn't worth saying. Troache and Nala took up the story.

Apparently, the two had actually gone through all the appropriate channels to enter the planet. Saedah, in what Nyx was coming to know as Saedah's normal mentality, was pissed about the restrictions placed on an already-struggling people. He interrupted the story regularly to voice that thought.

Troache and Nala had been staying at a run-down inn in the city nearby. They had, by some miracle, seen the crash site on entry and hoped their search was finally over. Of course, the fact that the planet belonged to the Triad meant the two had to play it safe.

"So, we try to play it safe, right?" Troache explained that he had taken to the streets. He wanted to listen for word of their passing and plant a few vague, unassuming questions. They'd been there two days when Saedah had found them by complete accident and pure dumb luck.

The only reason Saedah was able to find the pair started with Nala, of all people. The female had made the mistake of lounging in the cool-room when another patron started getting handsy with her. Troache threw the poor bastard through a window when the male refused to take 'no' as an answer.

It just so happened that the poor bastard had been good friends and a personal guest of the Triad head goon in charge of this district of the Finis Steppe on Phaenna. The place was crawling with Triad soldiers within minutes. It was not hard to spot a Bault and a Neofei in a sea of Phaens, and they quickly had a proper fight on their hands. Saedah, just leaving a rebel support recruitment meeting, saw a perfect opportunity to break out the chaos stick. At that point, he had been completely clueless as to the reason for the conflict, but any reason the Triad had of causing a scene was enough cause for Saedah to interrupt it.

"Then this guy," Troache pat Saedah's arm, "Comes out of nowhere with about seventy half-pint Phaens, all wrapped from head to toe in sheets, swinging dark-damned mop handles around and gave the soldiers a beating they aren't likely to forget any time soon." Troache laughed and Nala jumped in to add her own bit.

"We were just as surprised to see him as he was of us. Then, as soon as Saedah had us clear, all the rebels just vanished." She did the 'poof' sound and fluttered 'magic fingers', "Like a magic trick! One second there were people fighting everywhere, the next, nothing but soldiers sprawled across the square. I don't think the soldiers ever really knew what hit them." The three spent nearly the full night in the city to make sure the Triad soldiers would not take it out on the whole populace.

"Oh, don't misunderstand. They will try to take it out on the whole city. But the people are fed up with their tariffs and taxes and regulations... It's making it impossible for families to eat." Saedah discreetly tilted his head to the kids tinkering with a project Saedah had given them. Tam and Rines's father had been killed in a dispute over food rations. Their mother had 'mysteriously' died shortly after. Saedah and Nyx had their suspicions, and they both knew the boys were intelligent enough to suspect foul play, as well. "They just needed to be organized before we could come back here."

"And we are really organized." Nala grinned in her excitement. Nyx noted the 'we' and wasn't sure she liked taking this task on. "The rebels took one of the poor sods, and got him-." Saedah stood up quickly and cut her off. He frowned down at her then turned, pointing at the furthest door of the rooms. The kids had obviously stopped to listen.

"C'mon, we can shoot! You've seen us shoot!" Rines was complaining. Tam just looked at the four elders quietly. He stood and went to the room without complaint, waiting at the door for Rines to join him. Nyx pinched at her lower lip, knowing that one would need to talk soon. Rines, however, was having none of it. "You know we can help!"

"I said no, Rines, and I mean it." Saedah rubbed his forehead with his right hand and put his prosthetic hand on the boys shoulder. "Look at me. Look at your brother. See the concern there?" Saedah was speaking too quietly for Tam to hear and you could almost see his ears grow with the attempt to listen.

"Yeah." Rines had seen a very real difference in his brother since he woke.

"That isn't because he's afraid for himself. That's because he lost his Ma, his Pa, his sister, and he thought he lost you." Rines scoffed. "No, Rines. Think about it. If Tam had taken the bullet here," He tapped the boy's stomach, " And you had to watch his blood drain out. You had to watch him go limp. Had to watch his breathing get shallow... He thought you were dead. It's not a terrible thing to want to grow up tough. That's something you've had to do here. It's not a terrible thing to want to help. But it is a terrible thing to lose your family, or throw your life away trying to prove something. It's not the dying that's hard. It's living."

The boy looked at his shoes and nodded. Saedah wasn't sure if he really understood, but it would do for now. For the time being, it was enough to watch him walk to join his brother in the room, away from the conversation of fighting. The boys closed the door behind them.

"Now," He said, sitting down at the table, "Let's talk about hitting them where it hurts."