The Ratway

"I hate my life."
"Captain-"
"And until you find coffee, and prove that you're here for a reason, I hate you too," She grumbles, glaring down at the radar that was showing them a nice, clear path. Still, they jumped in bad condition, and there aren't all that many potential stops, considering that they're sudden 'criminal' state would have them avoiding any main docks and lawful cities for fear of scanning devices. They can't go for long, and the need serious repairs.

That narrows down their likely locations rather nicely.

She presses in a few keys on the control panel in front of her, activating the comms system and reporting back to the Main Vessel they were currently docked into to update them with a few concise codes. That done, she spun around on her chair and crossed a leg over her knee. "Miranda! See if Yui can manage to make me some kind of, passable, coffee alternative before I do something stupid. Positions people."

"Henry," She continues with barely a pause, sliding over to the piloting station as Lea rushes off for the rails and Ethan groans and moves for the security systems, "Plot a route for Ostiri in the Laradus system. We're going to catch that bastard."

---

"Holy mother of-"

The muffled cursing rises from the underworks with a thick smell of burning plastic, and Taro lets himself slump against the strut bar in sheer relief as he gets a glimpse of the clear air-space behind them, the foreign looming planet before them. It's nearly enough, in those split few seconds of staggering thankfulness for the Pilot's ability to do these kinds of things whilst drunk, for him to forget about their intruder problem.

Until the burst of shocked laughter breaks through from the vents above them, accompanied by the furious screeching of a cat - after which the laughter turns into a yelp. "Fuck! Don't do that," A clang sounds above them and Taro wheels around, looking up for the closest entry point, weight balancing for a solid center of gravity should this turn into a scuffle-

And then a young man who can't possibly be over eighteen years of age drops ungracefully from the shuttered vent - the grill still spinning around on the floor - with a cat clutched to his side with a rather scratched up arm (clearly courtesy of the cat in question). He proceeds to ignore its squirming attempts to free itself as he looks quickly around the crew, clearing his throat and offering a shaken grin.

"So, you guys are insane. I can't believe you just, sorry, was that an Empire official you were sassing at?" He asks after a second, making absolutely no move at all bar raising his free hand in a placating gesture, peering out from the long black hair that's curtaining his face. "Gotta say, that's impressive. Though, uh, where are we? You know, I thought this was, empty, or, not... Ah, going anywhere. Probably good you did, but at the same time? not my fault. Seriously. I had no idea that any of that was going to happen."

"I swear I didn't do anything horrible to make them chase me. Don't shoot me?"

Taro stared in resigned disbelief.

"Why do you have a cat?"

"Right away, ma'am." Miranda nods quickly. She doesn't look up from the control pad in her arm, typing away as she walks off.

Henry looks up to the captain, His glasses slightly askew. He fixes them before speaking. "No offence intended here, sir. But is it wise for our team to be the one to hunt down this crew? You obviously have history with the captain and it could effect your ability to complete the mission."

---

"You." Yuki rounds on the young man. His finger is straight as he points, his eyes are holding a dangerous fire. He walks closer to the stranger and grabs him by the shirt, lifting him up and completely ignoring the cat. "You are in big trouble. Big, big, big trouble. You have now gotten us into trouble and I don't like trouble. So that is why you are in the biggest of troubles." He began to drag the young man behind him as he made his way to the underworks. Mori would help scare the living shit into this guy.
"As soon as we land and get supplies, you are leaving this ship. In fact, we are tying you to a pole with a lovely letter to the empire and for any one of the criminals to turn you in for a fee." He looked back to Senna. "Big trouble, young man!"

----

Elizabeth watches after the captain, then turns to the pilot and Taro. "I didn't sign on for this."

"I did!" Abby pipes up with a grin. "Adventure, romance, adorable kitties! Who could want anything else?" The young girl yelps as the make-shift bandana is ripped off her head. She clutches her hair tightly, afraid that some of the strands had been pulled out.
Elizabeth waved the garment in front of the girls face. "This is a shirt and it is my shirt. Please refrain from wearing my things from now on."

Abby just pouted.

"No offence taken, but I'm going to disagree with you," Satori says with a sharp smile as she keys in some adjustments to the steering panel, watching Miranda as she walks away without pausing over the panel. "See, the thing here is that, solely because I have experience with this man, I might actually be able to catch him. If I didn't know that Captain at all, I wouldn't stand a chance. Now, Henry, if it pleases you, which it should, because it pleases me, plot us a route. Ostiri, Laradus system." She repeats, somewhat cheerily as she finishes up the system checks,.

Cheerily in a way that means if they don't get moving with a route in the next, say, five seconds, she's going to be utterly enraged and a single decaffeinated beverage away from swearing herself hoarse at Yuki's long-gone, damnable rear end. She fires up the engines and started the detachment process from the docking ship, practically throttling the steering controls.

She and Yuki, oh they were going to have a very serious talk about bounties and morals and everything in between right before she cashed in his rather delightfully amped up bounty and splashed out on a new pair of boots.

---

"Okay, hey, hey, just-" Senna starts, trying to pry the man's hand from his shirt - and then redirecting his attention instead to the far more plausible route of instead just keeping his footing as he's bodily dragged away from the bridge - he shoves the cat away, seriously, one thing at a time, and then just does whatever he can to slow the process; wherever they're headed, he's decided that they can have their talk right here, yeah, seems good.

"Not a criminal. I just, borrowed something, briefly, or... Long term, now, I guess, because that's kind of far away behind us. Hey, here's an idea, you let me show you the reason they want my head and I'll trade you my, uh, metaphorical head for the thing I stole that they're after? Because right now, my life's in your ah, grasp, and I'm sure you'd rather be holding a shiny thing instead," He said with a cocky grin, somehow looking confident and full of himself even when he'd being physically hauled down a dingy hallway. "Better yet, I'll tell you what it is, if you don't, ditch me at first port. I'm sure a bunch of space-pirates as crazy as you lot would be able to find a buyer."

---

"Not to mention that we're safe enough in orbit here that you can go and sleep off your alcohol levels before we need to land," Taro adds onto Elizabeth's pointed phrasing with a twitch of a smile. "You did well, considering, especially considering, but I'm going to suggest you're at least properly coherent before you have to explain how much you drank to Mori."

His fingers are jumping where they rest over his crossed arms, tapping out a haphazard pattern that only becomes more irregular as he falls quiet, watching Abby closely, "Before you do, how far, did the jump take us, exactly? I'm assuming that it shaved some time off our expected travel?"

Henry nods his head as he turns back to the controls before him. He presses a few buttons, swipes across the screen above them and the coordinates are set. He spins his chair to face Satori. "Route is now inputed." He pauses for a moment. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Miranda returns at that moment with a jug of chocolate spiced coffee. She places it down beside Satori and stands off to the side, her communication pad pressed against her chest. "Yui requested that you drink all of it and..." She sighs softly. "Enjoy the delicious flavour that is chocolate with your caffeine."

---

Lily frowns as she spins on her chair. Back and forth, back and forth, never going fully around. Her eyes are constantly scanning the crew; their computers and their movements.
She takes her job very seriously. She doesn't even trust herself. A issue that results in her spending twenty minutes each morning scowling down at her reflection.
Damn girl on the other side of that mirror. To predictable.

She turns to her team, allowing her chair to come to a complete stop. "What are our preparation orders, if we have any that is."

---

Yuki pauses, his eyes betraying his curiosity. This boy said shiny. Something shiny. Yuki likes shiny. Shiny had gotten him into trouble on many occasions.
Shiny had also gotten him into bed with Satori on a number of occasions. Shiny was good.
But he couldn't be distracted by Shiny now. They had the damn empire after them, and thats something that he couldn't risk, not this close to pay day. Not with his own illegal cargo on board.
No, Shiny would have to wait until after- Wait, did this boy call them Space Pirates?

"Hey, we're not space pirates. We are simple-" He frowns. "Nope. You are not doing this. Nope. Get your butt down to the underworks. You can talk to the grumpy man himself about shiny- I mean... Just walk." He grabs the boys shirt again and pushes him away once more. He presses the call on his communicator to connect him with Moi.

"Issue here. Stow away. On route to your location."

---

"Ahh.. The jump took us too..." Abby frowns as she tries to remember. "Its a safe planet." She finally offers after a moment, her grin wide. "Its not even charted in most los. Its just for people with... less than legal intentions. Don't worry, its safe. By now we're apart of the... The thingy and they always check the thingy with new ships or-" She made a sound of an explosion.
"And that'd be us by now if e weren't all illegal and shit."

Elizabeth's hand drags down her face. She really doesn't have enough patience for this crew. She takes a deep breath and mentally counts to ten before speaking. "Ye, thats wonderful, but how far off course are we?"

Abby gives a cheeky grin and cows behind her chair. "We may be closer but very far off the origional route. And by far I mean... we may have to fly in a leftward direction for a month or two."

Thats it. Elizabeth seriously is over this crew. She quits. In her mind she is quitting so hard and making her way onto a nice, legal ship where they can actually cook and care about personal belongings.
"Abby-"

"I'm sorry!" She exclaims loudly. "I panicked! We can always warp drive closer and..."

"I really don't think thats an option of that damn plastic has anything to say."

The younger woman looks so crestfallen that Elizabeth can't help the forgiving sigh that escapes her. She just shakes her head. "Just- Go sleep this off. We'll figure it out when you are less... drunk. I'll see what I can do about lessening Mori's anger towards you."

Abby offers the older woman a small smile as she stumbles to her feet. "Right. Thanks doc." Her legs continue to shake as she makes her way past Elizabeth into the first corridor she see's. The other woman places her hands on Abby's shoulders and turns her around.
"Right." The pilot grins. "Thanks, Doc." She walks off to her bedroom.

Elizabeth turns to Taro, her face showing just how fed up with all of this she is. "Seriously. I quit."

"Dead sure," Satori says, flashing Miranda and appreciative smirk as she grasps at the jug, managing somehow to take a swig right as she pushes the ship into acceleration without spilling a drop. And then she groaned in sheer enjoyment of the concoction. "Miranda. When you see her next, tell Yui that she's single-handedly spared the crew from my irritation. And that she's amazing, and I'll do whatever she wants in return for continued supplies of this," She says with a wave of the jug before she sets it down to make a few speedy alterations on the panel, eyes snapping back to the controls.

"Also you, brought it, and- Actually, while I've got you here, just before we really get into things, do you think you could find Sora and Lea wherever they're hiding and between you and the genius somehow turn the spectrometer readings into a report I can actually make sense of? You're terribly efficient, so we'll be placing bets on the time that takes while you're gone. Then we're good, that's, it."

She takes another swig from the jug and turns to a quick inspection of the panel readings she already has access to. "Lily, you and Jack could get started compiling some information on the weaponry easily available on Ostiri, anything that we have on the database on Yuki, try and match whatever the long-range scanners managed to pick up on his crew, even go through the security feed that HQ transmitted us, see if you can dig up anything useful on the others, because you're going to have to deal with them all at some point, hopefully soon. You'll have to grab him from the back docks. If you're not up for intel, you can go and see what's taken him so long. And is that doubt, I hear, Henry?" She inquires, raising a brow in a perfect arch as she spares a second to grant him with a sidelong look. "We've done crazier things than chase down a minor criminal. This is a cake-walk, my friend."

---

"And you're sending him to me?" Mori asks, eyebrows jumping up in disbelief as he scans his eyes over the completely fried jump-engine, smoke pouring out the vent and, yeah, this is going to take a fucking long time to fix. "Now's not the best time, for that. You deal with it, or he'll probably never get out of here. Or," He decides, rocking back onto his heels and breaking off momentarily when he accidentally touches the burning hot freaking metal casing, "Fuck, ow, Hell, I swear to fuck- Okay, or, you drag him down here and I make him fix this while we watch."

---

"You have any idea what this is worth?" Senna tries, attempting rather poorly to come off as aloof when he's stumbling and tripping because he's getting shoved around. "Hey, lay off, seriously, you need to hear me out, this thing could power an entire city for years, indefinitely, even, tell me that's not something you want. No more fuel stops," He says, grinning up at the captain again. Also, they get their hands on me and I'm dead, and that's, heavy, man. You don't want that on your hands."

---

"Sounds like a pretty solid plan, considering," Taro says, a little vaguely, and he shakes his head before huffing out a helpless laugh. Two months. The breath turns into an actual laugh, as sharp around the edges as it is, and he quickly lifts a hand to cover his eyes - it's less amusement, more sheer relief and the desperation for one, single thing here to actually make sense. It's like the crew had a problem with straightforward logic.

"You know," He continues when he's finally drawn himself back under control, bar the occasional chuckle "I actually believe that it might be safer for you to quit, at this rate," He leans back heavily against the metal column, sending a dry, amused smile her way. It's actually staggering, how relived he is, because this is potentially another two months of time, two months, that they need to correct their route, that this mess up has bought them-

He goes still, and all the colour abruptly drains out of his face, smile turning into something forced and strained. "I need to, speak with Yuki. He needs to make a call, this wasn't a planned jump, and I'm not meant to, inform- I'll be a moment."

Miranda makes sure to jot each request down in her to do list, ranking the orders by importance. First she'll find Sora and Lea and get their readings on the situation before re-writing the report into more common terms for the captain. Then she will hand the report in and find Yui to relay the Captains praises on the coffee.
She made another note to find an intern or delaying recruit to fetch Satori more coffee. The Captain would need her fix to keep this chase up.
The PA Nods in farewell to the captain and the navigator before making her leave.

She could already feel the tension headache forming. This was going to be a long few days, she just knew it. Luckily she had coffee, pep pills and a work ethic that made most people shudder. The combination intimidated most, as was evident as she walked through the corridors of the ship. The crew moved out of her way, never once faltering in step. Miranda was always a woman on a mission and did not deal with interruptions well. She was strict, hard and rarely smiled. The only ones who had even managed a smirk out of her was Jack and Lily. The two together could get up to come weird antics that could make even the most stoic laugh.

As per her calculations it only took a few minutes via elevator to come to Sora's department. It was more of a room really, full of Tech from all kinds of planets. Each one had been carefully dismantled, rebuilt and studied to its full extent.
The man was a genius when it came to technology and would not sleep until he had accomplished what he had set his mind it.
This had caused problems, as an over tired Sora seemed to enjoy walls, the floor and any other surface he could bump into or fall on. But he always got the job done.

The young man was currently sitting behind his workbench, his portable computer lying open next to him as his new installment to the systems ran over possible routes that the Warp drive took the Ratway.
The man himself though was hidden behind his visor as he counted softly to himself, dismantling a rather impressive looking piece of weaponry.

"Sora. The captain is requesting a report when ready." The young man nearly fell off his stool at the sound of the female voice. For all his capabilities, the man was still unable to properly speak to a member of the opposite sex. A rather amusing observation.

"Mi-Miranda." He stuttered, trying to regain what little dignity he had left. He cleared his throat and pushed the visor up onto his almost white blond hair. "Warn a guy, would you?" He laughed nervously.

Miranda fixed him with a stare that showed that there was no room for pleasantries at the moment. "As soon as you are able, of course." She continued. "Is Lea around here?"

"Le-Lea? Yes- I mean she was. I mean..." He gave a nervous laugh. "I'm not sure where she is at the moment. Let me just..." He moved quickly, almost ran really to a box on the wall. The top half was a blank screen, while the bottom contained numbers and floors. He pressed a button. "Computer. Where is the location of Lea?"
"Just a moment, my master." A sultry, camp voice came over the loud speaker, turning Sora's face bright red. He looked over to Miranda, embarrassed.
"Just a moment." He told her before grabbing hold of his communicator. "Lily! Stop messing with my things!" He snapped loudly. His only reply was a loud hysterical laughter. "I mean it!" Sora continued. "This is unprofessional!"

"Oh God. I wish I could have seen your face." The security member continued to laugh. "I should have filmed it."

"Lily!"

"I'll fix it. I'll fix it. Oh my God." The girl continued to laugh before the line went silent. The next time the computer spoke it was back to its normal, english male voice.
"Lea's Location secured. Visual supplied on screen."

------

"Yes Sir, ma'am, sir!" Lily salutes the captain, a wide grin on her face. She turns and makes her way out of the cockpit and down the corridor to the room designated for security officers. A room full of computers, screens and all kinds of machinery Liy had no clue how to use.
Thats why she Jack. A man who was like putty in her hands. It was fabulous.

With the grin still in place, Lily collapses into her chair and relays the captains orders to the other members of the crew. "Jack, you're on security footage. I want to know every person to enter and leave that ship since it first docked. I want faces, facial recognition, full body scans, heck I want every single detail you boys can pull on these individuals since birth. I want to know every single move they have made so we can figure out their next moves and how best to combat them." She turned to the other male in the room. "Ethan, you're on security detail for our next stop. Ostiri. I want the planetary defences, the distance of their scanners. See if Sora has something to combat them. I want a detailed report, ya here. No dot points this time boys."

She turns back to her own computer, already adding what information she had gathered from Yuki. He appeared to be the ring leader and so she would solely focus on him for the moment. At least, that was her plan, until Sora's panicked voice came through the communicator.

Yeah, it was going to take her a few moments to calm down after that one.
------

"I don't doubt you, you know that." Henry told her with a small smile. They'd been through too much together for any real doubt to fill his mind. They were a team, though somehwat disfunction, they worked well together. He couldn't ask for a better partner when it came to combat, political speakings or even just drinks down the pub.
He admired her and her work, though he'd never tell her that for fear of her ego. He'd never hear the end of it.
"I just worry. This seems like a petty mission for a crew of our caliber."

------

Yuki's internal struggle was now leaning more to one side then the other. The damn gem could save a fuck ton of hassle in the long run, and the younger fucker knew it. The captain just wanted to smash his little head in. Not only had he lost his best booty call paron, but he now had the empire on his tail, he was off course and they wee being branded fucking pirates.
He did not sign on for this.

Only he kind of did. And he found himself not minding so much. But Mori would mind, and so would Elizabeth and the people he worked for.
The only one who wouldn't mind was probably Abby. She'd think it was 'So friggin cool!'

Yuki let out  loud sigh and stopped walking. He turned his full attention to Senna. "Explain to me now why I should keep you on board. The Prize, whatever it is sounds good but you have to be able to do something other then just steal stuff. Can you cook? Do you know how to work this Gem... Thingy? Anything? Can you fly?"
He was begging for the young boy to throw him a bone here.

---

Elizabeths self pity soon turned to concern as she pushed herself off the console she had been leaning on. Her full attention turns to Taro. "Before you go off searching out our impulsive captain, I'm going to need you to breathe and calm down. You're god with your composure, but the mask is falling. If you want to walk through these halls and not be accosted by worried crew, the you need to focus on something less strained and more practiced and real."

They always slept back-to-back or side to side, depending on their exact situation; always in a way that they were touching and would immediately feel if the other moved or startled awake without having to rely on slower forms of communication. Tonight, it had been a call for the first option – too many entrance points and yet enough segregation from noise that they wouldn’t need as many contact based alert spots to know whether or not the other was moving.

She can feel Luke breathing, the slight movement of his back against hers with each expansion of his chest. She can see the blocked up doorway across the room from herself. Every safety measure they could take was secure, there wasn’t any immediate, perceivable threat, they’d been lying here for hours and yet, she can't sleep.

Hazel shifts minutely and her cold fingers tighten around the handle of the shiv, shoulder, hip and elbow pressing uncomfortably into the cracked concrete of the floor as she forces herself to completely still, to listen. No sounds, no sirens, no footsteps below them. She exhaled quietly and let her eyelids slip closed.

It had been steadily more strained over the past year, the food supplies either interrupted on route to the prison or intercepted and hoarded by the same prison guards that were meant to be serving them out – instead, making a point of enjoying an extremely basic but rather plentiful spread of food through the impenetrable gates and security walls of the guard houses. Not to mention that it could be hard to even reach the distribution zones, with groups of teamed up thugs trying to keep the supplies to themselves – only interfering when they finally decided that it was a little out of hand. The guards didn’t care what they did to each other within the designated prison zones.

It was definitely out of hand, right now – the open courtyards leading to the security checkpoints nearly impossible to traverse without some kind of trouble. It meant that there were alliances forming up between dangerous people everywhere, faster than she could keep track of.

Which is beginning to be something of a problem, considering that Luke and herself had designated to keep out of their games.

She stiffens slightly, eyes snapping open once more as the slightest sound lifted from the silence. It's barely noticeable, but out of the ordinary enough that she's immediately alert, any chance of sleep eradicated. Again, closer, this time, the quiet scuff of a leathery shoe against the worn concrete in the hall outside what had likely been an office before the zones changed – the far door barricaded, the other simply closed. She moves quickly, one hand reaching across to close on a pre-determined point on Luke’s arm to be sure that he wakes quickly, knowing there's a threat-

And the door burst open, three men, one of them has an actual steel knife, for fucks sake, how the fuck- and she's on her feet in seconds flat, already moving, ducking to avoid a swing from Scar-Face as Knife and Co went for Luke.

Their mistake.

She twists to the side, brings her knee up as the dark-haired prisoner bears forwards to slam him directly in the ribs - but he's apparently made of bricks because he doesn't do more than flinch before he bears forwards and a twists a handful of copper hair, eliciting a sharp noise, and hauls her around before dragging her back. She snaps her arms up to grab at his wrists, scrapping for a moment to get a good enough hold because he's laughing, his reeking breath hot against her face- she finally manages to get a grasp and in one single movement pits her weight against his hands and shoves back against him to throw him off balance before rolling forwards and slamming his forehead into the floor with a rather final crack.

She immediately jumps up and wrenches on Knife’s shoulder to grab his attention, jolting to the side to dodge the retaliatory slash, and it’s just enough to get the man to risk putting his side to Luke. That's all the opportunity that Luke needs, which is good, because it’s all he’s going to damn well get.

---

"Don't tell me about masks." Taro says - and it doesn't matter, not really, because Yuki knows more about what's going on than she does, knows at least in the vaguest of ideas why that it might be a problem for them to suddenly jump like that, but he winces slightly at the frustration in his voice, shaking his head and laughing once in apology, eyes dropping down to examine the floor, "I think we have fair cause to be worried, don't we? The Empire is on our tail, after all."

---

"Yeah, I can fly, need a backup pilot?" Senna asks with what would almost pass as a smug smile, slivers of casual confidence leeching back into his stance, and he scuffed a foot at the floor, peering down the long hallway – and this was better, not being dragged off to whoever was swearing their head off over the comms just seconds ago, he’s not interested in that one bit, “Not, the best flyer, mind you, but hey, a guy can only log so many hours without his own ship. I won’t crash, but my landings, need work,” He cheerily points out, flicking a gaze up along the metal walls, reaching out to brush his fingers down the grating of a vent. “And actually, I can cook; can make one hell of a meal out of next to nothing, but that’s that, no fancy shit skills, if you’re sure you really wanna discount the fact that I just broke into one of the most secure empire vaults, but I’m happy to bargain for my life,” He grins slyly and folds his arms across his chest, stance shifting as he leans back against the wall “So, Captain Charming, head on a platter or arse in the kitchen?”

---

“Wow,” Lea says, and drops her spanner entirely, staring up at the projected screen in open astonishment, “Wow. He’s red. You’re red, like, we’re talking red red, tha’s red red.” She insists, staring unabashedly through the screen. “Miranda, Ma’am, look’it his face! Hilarious!” She grins widely and shoves her safety goggles up onto her forehead, the tight strap making her cropped hair stick up in all directions as it was forced up.

“So what can I do you for? Captain after reports already?” She quizzes, crossing her legs where she sat. She's wearing a dark blue mechanic’s bodysuit which she’d left undone from the waist up, sleeves tied around her narrow waist with a white tank clearly showing the sports crop she wore underneath it, and by the mostly clean state of her clothing, she's not in the middle of something desperately important. “I can get on that now. But he’ll have to let me near his precious machines,” She says, grinning and leaning back on her hands.

---

Jack throws her an amused smile before spinning around in his chair and firing up a few programs to scan through the footage of the docks from every available angle, the scanning systems already filing through the identity of the pedestrians, passengers, the stock suppliers- and he reaches out for the mug on his left. “That I can do, so, think we’re going to jump after them?” He asks, leaning back in his chair and casting her a curious glance as he keys in a few commands without even looking.

“No dot points,” Ethan repeats mockingly with a smirk to himself, the edge of dark frustration simmering back a little with lily's presence as he turned his attention back to the screens; already going through their database and launching a program to go through the new intel.

Of course, they both stop what they're doing to appreciate Lily’s cruel genius; Jack trying to keep a serious face as Ethan’s own lights up in amusement.

---

“A petty mission? It would be, if it was just to catch a thief, and it would be if it was just about tracking down someone smuggling a criminal, but I happen to know exactly what it was that the thief has, and I’m telling you right now, it’s not petty,” Satori explains quietly, mindful of the other low ranking members of crew attending the stations around the bridge, rapping her fingernails against the edge of the control panel as she scrolls through the supply numbers, mentally calculating the figures they didn’t have the time to process earlier, “This could set us up for life, if you needed some commission incentive.”

He moves fast, his own shiv disappearing into Knife's side. He can hear the crack as it connects with bone. He can feel the sickening feel of flesh beneath his blade and the blood... He can smell the blood. God its a smell he missed.
His eyes have yet to adjust to the darkened room, but he doesn't need his eyes anymore. All the other senses have awoken, each one crying out for more. More blood. More pain. More Death.
Theres already one down, the smell is different from Knifes. But theres still the sound of boots. Theres another. Perfect.

Luke twists the shiv, pulling it free as he slides behind the man to make a clean cut at his throat. More... More...
He lets the man fall away from him, but not before grabbing the actual knife in his hand. He turns quickly. Feet are scuffling. His shiv goes flying. He can hear the grunt as it connects with another being. Where? He can't be sure. All he knows is that the man is five feet in front of him.
He rushes forward, his shoulder connecting with the mans chest and sending him back. He reaches down and finds his old friend buried in the mans stomach. He rips it free.
He doesn't allow the man any movement as he raises both the knife and the Shiv and brings them down. They cross over each other as he slices through the mans neck.
He feels the spray of the veins opening. The warm, metallic taste of the blood on his body. His tongue sweeps out, collecting the taste on his tongue.

He remains frozen, breathing slowly as he tries to come back to himself. He wants more. Needs more. His body is humming, alive with the adrenaline. If he kept going now he wouldn't stop, wouldn't want to stop until every living being was dead.
But then there was Hazel.

The only person in the hell hole worth knowing, worth saving. Her smell, though tainted with copper and dirt, was still sweet. A smell that brought back memories of warmth, of trust, of the need to protect.
Her smell reminded him of the man he was, the man who he came to this place as.
A man of honor, loyalty and protection. A shield for men when they could not shield themselves.
But he craved the blood, the feeling of death. He feared that one day her smell would not be enough.

He speaks, his voice cracking under the pressure. "Are you injured?"
----

Elizabeth's only reply is a curt nod. She finds words no longer needed, as Taro seems to be dismissing their conversation. She finds it frustrating that every time he nearly opens up, he shuts himself off.
Though she supposes this time was her own fault.
"I'm going to go Prep the bay for our guest. If I know the captain like I believe I d, I believe we'll have a new crew member by tonight."

She offers the cyborg a parting smile before stepping out of the cockpit.

---

Yuki raises a single eyebrow as he watches the boy in front of him. A boy he believes is actually flirting with him. Usually he wouldn't mind, but considering the situation that he's in it does make the captain worry about the young thieves mentality.
"Both. You're arse in the kitchen when you're not needed in the cockpit. You wil report to Abby for orders. She is your senior. She'll probably be sleeping of the booze right now, so instead we'll be taking a nice visit to the doctor." He grinned at the boy. "Won't that be fun?"

---

"Stay away from my machines!" Soras voice shouts down to her, his face becoming redder. "You're worse than Lily!" He quickly rushes back to his work bench, keeping a trained eye on the female. He doesn't trust anyone near his machines. He especially doesn't trust people who know how machines work around his machines.

Miranda doesn't react to the young mans frantic behaviour. Instead her attention remains fixed on the woman on the screen. "Access granted. I need the reports as soon as possible so I may simplify them for the captain. Should Sora prove to be a problem, I believe he has some rope stored in one of his boxes." She bows her head and makes her leave.

Sora watches her back, then looks at the screen. He repeats this motion a few more times before looking back to Lea. "Touch anything you're not meant to and I will hurt you."

---

"I know we will." Lily replies, though her face never leaves her screen. Pages upon pages of results appear for Yuki, which means more reading work for her. This boy has gotten into a lot of trouble over the years.
She sits back with a sigh as the pages keep rolling in. She turns her attention to Jack. "The captains in edge, which isn't a good sign. She hates being beaten, no matter how small the battle. She is going to want to catch up with the crew as soon as possible if not only to capture its captain. The thief and the stolen goods are just a consolation prize she wont complain about."

---

"No incentive needed captain." Henry smiles at her kindly. "I just anted to make sure I knew where your head was at." He pushes away from his panel motioning for one of the lower level crew members to take over for a bit. Ge stretches tall, having been sitting in that chair far too long.
"I'm going to grab more coffee. Need more?"

"No,"

Her tone is clear, clipped and precise as she watches him standing stock still, visibly shuddering with the exertion of holding himself back, and she doesn't move bar to bend her knees where she stands, ready to circle, to dive backwards - she trusts him implicitly, but also knows that right this second he doesn't trust himself - is still trying to drag himself up through the mindless haze of blood, and so they're trapped in a tableau of every single time they've done this comedown, of every test they have, with one of them standing on the edge of a plunge and the other within reach of violence. She slowly tucks the shiv back into the strap around her bicep, and lets her feet shift audibly against the ground, breaths even, eyes locked on Luke.

"Are you?"

She sees another near imperceptible shudder crawl along his skin - but she can't see any injuries, doesn't even suspect that he's hurt in the slightest, but it's a way to force him to focus on his own body, what his muscles are doing, where the tension is on the verge of snapping, gives him a way to control it - and for a long minute she stares at him, solid and unrelenting, crouched and every muscle tensed to spring if he makes the wrong move.

She knows the aftermath, and she knows Luke, and she knows the aftermath because she knows Luke, and there's always a moment of struggle before he'll actually be able to see her and register entirely - there have been times where it didn't quite pan out the way they'd like.

There's blood seeping across the floor from the still bubbling slash in the man's neck, and an ache burning dully in her forearms where Scar's hands had been, red marks rising up underneath the dirt and the film of sweat prickling against her skin. Luke's still wrenching for control and they need to move, need to leave before someone else takes this as an opportunity. The other prisoners are like sharks, and they're going to converge wherever there's blood.

They can't afford for him to throw himself back into a fight so soon.

She can't, at any rate, because he might not come back.

---

"Free medical care? Yeah, not about to turn that down, then report to Abby, got it," Senna says with a flash of a grin, shoving his hands into his pockets and following along after the captain, and now that he's allowed and not being bodily lugged off down a mysterious corridoor to some kind of terror, he's taking the opportunity to mentally map out the ship, gait easy and while he might still be on the ready for, well, a sneak attack or something (because pirates, that were willing to launch in circumstances like that, fucking hell, they were clearly insane). Might be a small ship, as far as they went, but he's not really thinking about the halls, more like, how many doors are here? And, just where might that vent lead? how quickly could he get up there if he needed to, and where might he be able to conceal himself?

It's not necessary, really, hopefully, maybe, unless his cooking skills don't meet the standards of space pirates and they decide that he'd make a more valuable ransom to the empire than he would a stowaway chef-gone-pilot, but then, hey, he might as well live it up while he can. The fact that he's still got hold of the gem might even buy him his life some point later, so he's pretty set to roll with whatever he's landed himself into.

Not to mention, he still needed to find that dumbass stupid animal before it managed to crawl off and land itself in an industrial fan or some shit.

---

"She just gave me permission to touch rope," Lea points out with a devilish grin, dusting off her hands and straightening up, reaching in to disconnect the video call but hesitating a moment, "so maybe let's not fight about what I can n' can't touch, or I'll actually make it a mission to touch everything you got stashed down there," She bent down to laugh at his expression and then closed the call.

Sora was just too fun to mess with, sometimes. Everyone had to have their own personal call of comic relief, and well, maybe a few of them messed with him a little, but he was theirs to mess with, and that made it okay. Somehow. She replaced the parts she'd been adjusting and started for Sora's department.

---

"Yeah, beat her at chess once, thought she was going to take my head off, probably would have if she wasn't too drunk to aim," Jack says, amused, but his eyes stay on his work. They're going to have a hell of a lot to do, if this is the kind of reporting that she wants already, now and the idea of a lunch break feels light years away.

---

"Where would I be without you?" Satori asks, hands dropping to her lap as she turns in her chair, considering the man with a small smile, "Decaffeinated and angry, comes to mind. You keep me sane," She said with a shake of her head, turning back to the control panel - she's too worked up to do anything other than contribute in some way, sure, they can't really get moving fast yet, but she's fidgety, immensely frustrated, and the best way to keep a handle on that is to do something.

Blood. Bubbling. Shimmering. Taste of copper. Feel of slime. Life force. Power.Hands, holding two sharp weapons. No distinct injuries. Feels so good. More. Need more. Focus. Taste. acceptArms, tense and ready for battle. Shoulders the same. Feel. Control it. Feel. Obtain. Feel.
Legs. Stained from sudden movement. Tense from current position. Wet. Cold. Beautiful. Hurt. Pain. Wonderful.
Chest, Solid. Heart; Hammering. Fear. Why? Hate. Kill. Save. Love? Need. Control. Control. CONTROL!
He continues the mental checklist, flexing and stretching each muscle that he was able to. With each area free of injury he began to relax. His mind was slowly letting go of the need to see more blood, taste more blood.  He couldn't afford to let it take control. Not now.  He needs to find the control. He needs to be stronger. This isn't earth. This isn't a battle with men and women of honor. This is a war of egos. He needs his mind. He needs the strength of strategy and focus.

The seconds turn into minutes as the Ex-militant tries to break free from his battle haze. He knows that he won't be able to, at least not completely while he is still in this room. Not while the memory is still fresh.
His legs shake as he stands slowly, concealing the shiv in its holster at his side. The newly obtained knife still seized tightly in his hand. His body is still humming. He knows from experience that it will be days before it stops. He pushes any thought of actually sleeping tonight to the back of his mind. But Hazel, she needs sleep. He can protect her while she sleeps.

He needs her to take control of the moment. He needs orders. He needs her.

---

Elizabeth raises a single eyebrow as the captain escorts the stow away into her bay. "I was expecting you to hold out offering him a position a little longer."

"Kid has a silver tongue, Lizzy." Yuki grins at her, placing his hand on Senna's back as he pushes him into the room. Truth be told, he really didn't want to keep someone of such high profile on board. But he couldn't throw the thief to the wolves either.
Even if the wolf had absolutly amazing legs.
He knew what it was like to have no one, and the ship already had enough mismatched misfits as crew, one more couldn't hurt right?

The doctor rolls her eyes in reply to the captain. She motions for Senna to take a seat on the bdas she collects her equipment all together. "Then maybe the 'kid' should be the one talking the alliance off our tails."

"Yeah, I don't think anyone alive has the skill for that." Yuki sighed sadly. He rubbed the back of his head. "Alright, I'm gonna leave the two of you alone I have..." Panic briefly passes over the captains face. He clears his throat. "Yeah, I gotta go. Look, let me know the results and just... He's in your care now, alright?"

Elizabeth watches in astonishment as Yuki flies from the room. She looks back to Senna slowly. "You better be worth all this trouble, because I am not playing mother for anyone. So lets be on our best behavior for all our sakes?" her smile is truly terrifying as she starts her scans.

----

Sora looks around his workshop in panic. Bolts, circuit boards, clips and... gah! It is a mess! Lea would break her neck if she came down here now and he really didn't want to deal with that.
Not that he cares about Lea mind you. He just doesn't like the paperwork. Yeah, paper work was what he hated most of all. With all the lines and regulations and....
Mess! So much mess!

The young analyst begins to run around his work space, clearing a path to one of his better computer. It is at the back, and though there were consoles of easier access, Lea always said this one was her favourite.
Not that he cares about pleasing her. It just means less bitching. Which means he could ignore her.
Yeah, ignoring people was good.

He lets out a loud yelp as he slips on a loose screw rolling around on the floor. He slid back, the mechanical pieces in his arms going flying as he fell slowly. Another sound escaped his lips as he lands on the ground.

---

Lily falls into silence as she reads through the information on the Captain of the other ship. Petty charges of thievery, B&E. Orphan. Street Rat.
There is really nothing here that would profile him as a people smuggler. There is also nothing to explain how he got the ship in the first place.
Gambling was not uncommon among the poorer classes, or the richer classes for that matter. But they never won enough to do more then get a few meals for a few weeks.

No, something wasn't adding up and she does not like it when things don't add up.
"Somethings wrong about all this. Are you guys feeling that?"

"Get down the hallway, go left, four doors down on your right there's the fire escape stairs. We're going down there," she said, sinking down into a fluid crouch to strip search the bodies for weapons, anything useful. She comes away with a boken off shiv, made from stone, a short cord from one of their hemlines, and silent steps over to the door, cracking it open and peering out along the hall - there's footsteps again, ranging out from the corridor on their right, and she makes a sharp gesture for him to fall in as she steps out and slips into a run. They need to go, and they need to go now before the group coming up behind them catches up and they either get a shiv to the back or they all die, and then she has Luke's knife at her throat. Not appealing, and not something they have time for.

They're fine until they hit the bottom of the stairwell, because there's someone there already and she picks up speed and drops down at the last second to slide along the floor and twist out with her legs to knock his feet out from underneath him, flipping up and on top of him and slamming her elbow down into the hollow of his throat. He's dead on impact, and she spits out a curt order for Luke to meet her at their 'safe house' in prison district three if they get split up. Theres no sentiment or emotion there, just a plain and simple command, and she knows that it's likely the safest way to get through to him while she's still distinguished from the haze. They're not seperate yet, though, and she ducks forwards with a flash of blood-red hair through an alleyway that likely used to be a warden walkway. They're going to have to go around the checking points because while the guards don't tend to intervene, there's no reason at all that they won't suffer for it if they're in a bad mood. Best not to risk it.

---

"Best behaviour, yes ma'am," Senna says with a quick grin, leaning back on his hands and not at all interfering with a single scan - or whatever the hell she's doing, because he hasn't actually seen a doctor for like, well. Ever, actually, if he's honest with himself, because the people on the streets that flawh around forged medical licences and claim to be discount practitioners probably aren't really meant to be going near anyone in the first place. "I swear if I've brought some weird disease or whatever on board, it wasn't my fault, seriously, it's the cat. Feral cats are, ah, yeah, but hey, it was gonna get trampled. So how'd you end up on a pseudo pirate ship as a medic? You look like high class lady, if you don't mind me saying. Something about the way you're ah, glaring, and smiling? Screams your vocab's about twenty times bigger than mine."

---

He can see where Yuki is through the feeds, and turns quickly down the next hall in time for their Captain to come bolting around the corner. He grabs his shoulder, and despite the fact that he's not actually in the throes of panic here, his chest is tight enough that his breaths are short and sharp - nobody else is in the hallway, anywhere near them, so he doesn't bother trying to cover it up. "If you don't establish contact in the next ten minutes we're going to have far more than the alliance to worry about, and it's not something that's going to happen in a week, I mean that we're going to have a lot of trouble in less than an hour," he says quickly, quietly, "and I can't make those calls, but unless you'd like to be shot out of the sky we need a reason we're so off track and we need it now. They don't-- take well, to people acting outside of strict instruction, and I don't want- I mean," he snatches back his hand like it's been burnt, and winces slightly, gaze flitting over Yuki's shoulder.

---

Lea snorts from the doorway, and crouches down to nudge Sora over, sticking out a hand to offer him help up, a grin easing over her features, "What is it with you analyst types and bad coordination. I swear, you'd last half a day in an actual engine room, before you tripped into somethin' important. Looks, ah, neater than before they, hey?" She adds, and this time she's definitely teasing him, "Showing off for your sexy AI girlfriend?"

---

"The part where they inexplicably have an entirely unregistered, unrecorded ship, or the part where some bunch off small time thieves with no connection at all," Ethan starts, tipping his chair a little and resting his feet on another so he could tilt back and look at her again, "To anything else that's going on, manage to get here in the exact window of time that it takes our vault-breaker to get out? It's a little suspicious," he agrees, reaching for a handheld holo-tab and pinching up some data, "We don't have the whole story. We don't have half of it."

"I'm thinking we have only the beginning, and that isn't going to help us in the slightest." Lily sighs as she sits back in her chair. The balls of her palms rub at her eyes as she groans. "This is ridiculous. There has to be more.Some kind of footage we're missing, a com-link that hasn't surfaced! Something!"

---

"Shut it, Lea." Sora growls at her as he dusts himself off. A blush spreads over his cheeks quickly, causing the young man to turn away. He rushes over to his latest project and quickly replaces the goggles over his eyes.
"Try not to break anything." He mumbles at her, his focus now completely on the dismantled weapon before him.

---

"We tell them the truth." Yuki tells Taro as he grabs the other mans arm. "Theres no point in lying, I have a feeling they'd find out."
He leads the way down the hallways and through the bends until they reach the Captains quarters. Its there that Yuki lets go of his companion and digs through his desk to find the communicator.
Files go flying, followed by old disks and Pads until the communicator finally surfaces. He makes the cal, feeling like he might be sick.

---

"Thats because it is." Elizabeth tells him like its a fact, she doesn't even look up from her scans. "And I came to be on this ship much the same way you did. As an escape." She smiles at him sweetly as he places the scanner down. "Well, everything appear to be in order. You'll be required to visit again within the month for a follow up. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

----

The orders are simple, spoken clearly and laid out firmly. They are something easily remembered, words that are expected to be followed.
The blood pounding in Lukes ears, the rate of his heart beat, the ache settled deep within his bones now have a direction. A meaning.

He moves quickly, each step an acceleration to the goal ahead. His vision tunnels as a map is imbedded into his memory. He knows the steps, every outline of this god forsaken hell. He doesn't need to think beyond the desired destination, his body already knows the way. The danger is in that. He knows the way, his memory supplying the path. A memory of a time when he wished no harm on anyone.
Today the case is not the same, and he knows it will play out differently.

Every movement, every breath that does not belong to him or the female anchor is a threat. Each kill is easy, to the point. Maybe he will feel guilt about it later but for now the blood and the pained breaths only fuel the fire already engulfing him. Alarms ring in his head as the death toll increases, but the hunger only grows.

Luke feels free. No longer held down by the burden, the self loathing that fills him on the daily. No, this is his freedom, his life line.

It isn't until he reaches the safe house that he realises how much he needs it. He needs more. His body is itching, twitching for more. He doesn't care where it comes from, who it is that feeds the addiction. By this point he is far too gone. Faces no longer hold the emotional attachment that they once would have. They all fade into a same, unidentifiable category. Prey.

He feels rather than see's a body entering the safe house behind him. He feels, rather than hears the shaken breaths, the relief and is that... fear?
His features contort, giving way completely to the murderous blood rage fueling his every move. He turns, facing in their direction before he strikes.

The knife is clasped firmly in his hand as he slices. The prey is quick though, avoiding his strikes in an almost familiar set of movements. Movements that give room to memory.
This was a dance they had performed before.

He gains the upper hand, forcing the other body further back as his weapons gets closer and closer to his main goal.
The prey is losing. The prey is... stopping, pressed against something hard. A wall.

His knife swings out once again, stopping short of slicing against the throat of his victim.
He pauses that way for a long time. The only sound is their combined breathing and the blood still pounding in his head.

Her back slams into the wall, hands snapping up to grab Luke's arm at the wrist and forearm as the blade slashes forwards, all of her strength pitted against his own, because while he's suddenly frozen solid, the edge of the knife is scraping at the skin of her throat and this can go either way, can always go either way - if he doesn't get a hold of himself now, if he can't come back to himself, there's not much she's going to be able to do against his full strength, can't do more than delay the inevitable. And the inevitable is fucking sharp. Still, none of this crosses her face and she doesn't try to talk him out of it, doesn't do anything more than say his name just the once, tone perfectly flat and even and quiet despite her harsh breathing and the strain going into making sure he doesn't press even the barest of inches closer.

Hazel tries to hold dead still apart from tilting her head up and back to buy her enough room to heave in a quick breath, not trying to fight him off or slip to the side so as to not provoke him or send his threat levels through the roof, doesn't say anything else - another word could either yank him back or snap him out of the hesitation, and they don't exactly have room for that. It's taking too long, this time though, and he's far too close to actually landing the last blow. There's nothing to do but wait, so she forces her breaths to steady and even out, just looking straight at him, unflinching and alert to the point that every nerve ending is alight with tension.

".... Luke...."

It's coming from a far off place. The whispers of a name so familiar from a voice he knows.
He knows that voice and who it belongs to. The memory is there, crowded behind the rushing of blood in his ear. He needs to focus. He needs to remember. He needs too....

The knife drops with a dull thud to the ground. Luke looks up slowly, his face one of horror as he meets Hazels eyes. He steps back quickly, shaking as he glances down at his hands, at his body. All he see's is the red of others and he cannot remember at all how it had gotten there.

His control had slipped again, getting weaker and weaker by the day. He had nearly killed Hazel, if the blood streak on her neck was anything to go by he was very close to killing her.

Luke rose his eyes slowly once again to take in the female before him. He opened his mouth to speak and only a croak escaped.

The barrage of relief is overwhelming, and more that just for her sake, because it's worse nearly every time and while she can handle it, can always fall back into step each time this happens it's not the same for him. Life has taught her to always be prepared for everything to fall apart with less than a moment's notice, and she trusts Luke more than she could ever trust anyone, but that doesn't mean that she's ever going to be caught off-guard by one of his episodes - it's always a possibility, can snap down without warning at the slightest provocation if they're not careful. Every single time this happens and there's even a scratch on her that wasn't there before his mind shuts off, if she can't hide it in time or there's no option to blame it on an earlier skirmish, it takes longer and longer for him to trust himself around her.

He's staring at her, can't even get a word out, and the look on his face is at once something she wants to forget ever seeing, to find a way to erase, because it's not his damn fault and she's fine. Feels like barely a nick, and she'd be able to take far more than that if it came with the prize of Luke coming back into himself. She lets herself relax, and even though she's nowhere near it - still high-strung with the smell of metal and sweat and blood in the air, the faint sting across her throat (wants to swipe her hand over it to see if the scratch is bleeding, but is abjectly refusing to acknowledge it) - she still makes her muscles go loose to display that she's not on the defensive, as if she's not ready to fall into action.

"I'm okay," Hazel insists instead of anything else, the first thing she'd usually say just to make sure that it's that assurance that hits his ears as early as possible; speaking steadily and quietly, reaching out slowly to rest her hand against the side of his face - lightly, with no pressure, a movement easy enough for him to yank back from if he needs to, but still an open display of trust, because like this there's multiple ways for him to take advantage of the opening, but he won't, not now. And the only problem now is making sure he knows that she believes that. Her eyes flicker over to the saferoom door - needs to secure it, slam the bolts into place, check for the possibility of someone else having been in there before them. She releases a quiet breath and swipes her thumb over his cheek, eyeing him carefully with a small furrow of concern between her brows. "We're safe."

His eyes close slowly, his hand closing around the one on his cheek. He presses in closer to the comfort, taking a moment to just breathe in the warmth she offers. "Yeah..." His voice is barely a whisper as he reaches up with his free hand and drags it over the cut on her neck. He had done that to her. Slowly, he takes her hand from his cheek and drops it. He doesn't deserve her comfort. He hurt her and she offers him comfort? There's something very wrong with that. "From them."

He steps away from her and turns towards the door, bolting it up tight. He knows there is no point in arguing to stay on the other side of the door. They've played that out many times and each time Hazel would call him an idiot and drag his arse back in. She'd tell him to stop the self-pity party and man up. 'Whats done is done', she'd say, 'I'm not dead.'
But he'd never made her bleed before. That had been new. Why did she stick with him?

Without a word Luke made his way to a corner and sat down. "I'll keep watch." he told her softly. "You sleep."

She tilts her head with a faint frown, watching as he crosses to the door and drags each bolt into place - still apparently with the goddamned mindset that he's locking them both in, not locking the others out - but she's not going to fight with him now, knows how to pick her battles and even if she does want to bring that up to tear apart (and she does) now isn't the time, not so soon after the fact, at least. He needs to sleep - that much is obvious, but it's also not going to happen while he's still running on the after-effects, and, again, it'd be asking too much of him to suggest that he try. But at the same time, she's not damn well content to leave him to mull over it and make this seem worse than it is (has to believe it's not that bad just to stop thinking about it herself), so she crosses over to sit just to the side of him, leaning back against the wall and kicking her legs out enough so that she can bump his foot with her own, giving him a look because she's not buying it, and she's not going to take any of his bullshit.

Because he's not the only one here, and she's not going to let himself put some kind of invisible wall between them just because he lost control. It happens, it's going to happen again, and she doesn't want to sit through this every time because as well as she can keep it out of her voice,off her face, it's exhausting to watch him do this to himself every single time. There's never been a situation they couldn't salvage and the same is true here.

"Don't need to. You look like you could use it though," She points out dryly, shaking her head to stop any possible protest before it happens. It's just an honest comment. She shuts her eyes regardless, leans back against the wall and, to make sure he doesn't sit there and potentially stare, she tugs forwards her overcoat collar to obscure her neck even a little. "We'll need food soon," Hazel adds thoughtfully, "Will need to stop through a checkpoint."

Luke scoffs as he glances off to the side. Going through a check point looking like he does never ends well. Unless they find something to scrub off at least some of the blood then he's headed straight for the basement.
The basement is something he's grown to be quiet familiar with. Its like a boss level on a dungeon crawler except you play at level one. Everything is out to kill, maim, rape or eat everything else. The only means for escape is to hide in a corner near where you were dropped off and hope that you're remembered when your confinement is up. Its dark, its harsh and its man against man. Its really not something he wants to experience again.

He looks back at her slowly. "I need to get a hold on this Haze. I nearly couldn't come back this time." He had nearly killed her. He wanted to kill her. He could still feel the hum, the guilty want pulsing through his vains at the thought. "What if the next time I can't?"