The kit ended up passing out, most likely from exhaustion from all the crying she'd just done.

It had broken both of their hearts, to see her in such distress and unable to do anything to alleviate it. As it was, the crying was probably hurting her throat and undoing whatever healing she had managed so far, but there was also no way that she should bottle up such pain either, that could end up causing other, different problems.

But it especially upset Sho'ta that he couldn't take care of both of them at the same time. The kit clearly needed him more at the moment but the scent of his mate's distress was making him want to climb the walls. They had never faced a situation like this, even in all of their years of peacekeeping. They had learned, on missions together, how to control their instincts and scents even though it had been hard.

And in cases where there were injured or distressed civilians to tend to, it was usually all hands on deck, keeping everyone too busy to worry about the other until the crisis was over and they could finally breathe. But in this case, locked up without resources and only a single kit to tend to, there was nothing for Z'shi to do to keep himself busy. So all he could do was sit there and fret.

Sho'ta had ordered him to eat, the stars knew that they needed to keep their strength up, but that had only taken a few minutes to accomplish. He'd even managed to feed Sho'ta while he held onto the kit, both of them knowing that the kit wouldn't be up for eating, most likely, after this emotional storm passed.

Once he was certain that the kit was just sleeping and not struggling to breathe or anything, he growled softly, "Come here, Z'shi."

Z'shi startled from his position of keeping an eye on the hallway, giving their surroundings one last hard look, before moving over and sitting next to him. "What's wrong? The nestling?"

Sho'ta wrapped his tail tightly around Z'shi's wrist, using his mate's steady presence to calm himself. "Sleeping. Exhausted from weeping, I think. I don't believe she's hurting any worse than she already was."

Z'shi shuffled closer and carefully draped a wing over both of them, giving a soothing hum. "Her scent?"

Sho'ta inhaled slowly, trying to get a handle on all the different scents. "She's mostly calm now. Tired with hints of lingering pain, probably from her injuries. Relief and sadness, from when she discovered the amulet. But mostly, just deep, deep exhaustion."

Z'shi left his wing where it was as he reached over and started tidying her hair from where she had torn at it in her attempt to find her amulet. Taking a moment to lean over and nuzzle Sho'ta's temple, he muttered. "What are we going to do about this little one? I know that there is probably kin waiting for her back on Terra, ones who desperately want her back. But my heart is latching on hard. It's going to be hard to part with her."

Sho'ta gave a gentle purr, carding his hand discreetly through Z'shi's feathers in a comforting gesture. He admitted quietly, "I don't know. Several things about this situation just don't make sense. As reprehensible as it is to me, I can understand why slavers would kidnap kits instead of full-grown Terrans, if even kits are strong enough to take down a Cresica."

Z'shi growled, "I know that you're not condoning the capture of chicks, but even the thought of it makes my blood boil."

Sho'ta ran his hand gently up and down the kit's back to soothe them when they stirred, most likely roused by the ire in Z'shi's voice. "Mine as well, and I will rend them apart for it. But it doesn't make any sense. If they were kidnapping younglings, why did they only kidnap a single one? Did she stray too far from safety? But that doesn't make sense either, because why would they be content with only a single specimen? It would be too big of a loss on their part."

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Z'shi frowned, clearly trying to reconcile the discrepancies that Sho'ta had pointed out. Finally, he said hesitantly, "There could've been more. Originally."

Sho'ta hummed thoughtfully. "True, there could've been more. But what are the chances of a kit surviving conditions that are intense enough to eliminate the adults of the species? And not only that, but Terrans are known to be spacefarers, even if they do have a reputation as savages. So why doesn't the kit know Common? She's clearly intelligent, so some of the stories about Terrans being unthinking brutes can't be true, or not entirely so. Even if she was an anomaly, I still can't see a savage society selling off a child just because they're different. Increased intelligence would only mean a greater advantage, so if she truly is more intelligent than the average Terran, she would've been a treasure without price."

Z'shi frowned. "What are you getting at, Sho?"

Sho'ta sighed, keeping his voice low so that he wouldn't disturb the kit. "I don't think the kit has any kin. Based on how she appears to have been neglected to the point of not even knowing Common, I can only come to the conclusion that she's been abandoned, for some reason."

Z'shi was silent for a long moment, his eyes pinning rapidly as he seemed to fight down his emotions. His voice was hoarse when he spoke. "Does she smell like she's dying or diseased?"

Knowing that Z'shi didn't mean it badly, Sho'ta shook his head. "If she is, it's an unfamiliar strain to me. She smells healthy enough, aside from the scent of her injuries, like a kit stretching toward maturity but not there yet. But the most telling thing is that there's no kin scent on her."

Z'shi sucked in a breath and Sho'ta nodded grimly. Even if Terrans weren't a scent-based society, Panteras were. Sho'ta's nose was keen enough to pick up traces that many others, even of his own species, had missed. One of those things was the scent transfers between kin and clans. Although they suspected that the kit had been abducted for a handful of lunar rotations, kin smell usually lingered for at least a full solar rotation if not more. So the fact that he couldn't smell any kin claims on her meant that she was alone in this galaxy, something that was absolutely unfathomable to either of their species.

Sho'ta reached out and laced his hands with Z'shi's, not caring in the least if their captors were watching them. This was much too important to botch at this point and what did he care if they knew that he and Z'shi were a pair or not. He offered his mate a rueful smile. "I know that this is the worst possible timing, that we've spoken about kits someday and how we're taking care of Shen right now. Not to mention our jobs are clearly not the safest of jobs, even at the best of times, well, not counting our other positions. But Z'shi, when this all shakes out, if she's truly alone."

Z'shi leaned over and gave him a light kiss, before pulling back and giving him a crooked smile in return. "Sho, love, my stars and moons and galaxy, if you hadn't agreed to adopt her if she doesn't have kin, I would've divorced you and adopted her myself. I know that we said that we should wait. But this kit here and now? She needs us. And I think that we'll find that we need her too. So yes, if the stars align, and this nestling ends up needing a home, she is ours." He let out a soft chuckle. "To be honest, I know that both of us were already thinking about kidnapping her anyway, so this just saves us the trouble of that."

Sho'ta warned, although his heart was not really in it, "It will be a lot of work. We won't be able to just give her back at the end of the day, like we do with our students."

Z'shi just nuzzled his temple reassuringly. "All good things are worth the effort. After all, how many lunar rotations did it take for you to finally notice my courtship of you? I had almost given in to despair by the time you realized that I liked you."

Sho'ta shrugged cheekily, although he knew that his expression was most likely extremely fond. "How was I supposed to know that you had bad taste in mates?"

Z'shi was reaching forward to tweak his ear in reprimand when the kit shifted, murmuring something softly under her breath. The sound was still hoarse but at least recognizable as words, even if the language was unknown.

Their teasing immediately halted, both of them turning to soothe the kit back into a peaceful slumber. As their hands brushed lightly against each other, they glanced at each other, expressions soft and warm. Yes, they had never expected to find a kit languishing in a cell in the middle of nowhere. But somehow, it seemed like she had been right there waiting for them all along.

Their kit.