Relived that the shopkeeper wasn't going to start any trouble, Chares went to browsing the shelves. Since there were two of them now, he'd need more food... He picked up a couple of bread loaves and meat packages, and then his eyes fell on a small dagger. Frey didn't have a weapon of her own, so maybe buying one would be a good idea.

He brought his things to the counter, already digging in his pocket for money, and the woman finally caught sight of their faces under their hoods. A Jovian and a Mercurian? Now there was an odd sight.

"Aren't you an interesting pair..." she said with a slight smile, though she did accept his coins. He wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or embarrassed by the commentary, and decided to not give her a response at all. 

"Come on, we're going..." he said to Freyja, grabbing his bag to leave before the cashier could see that she had flustered him.

Frey observed the choices, noticing that this shop seemed to have a pretty good collection of items. Was there anything she could use? She did bring all the money she had with her, the only reason she had snuck into a ship was so there was no record of her ever purchasing a ticket anywhere. Perhaps she could pay Chares back for his trouble after all… though she had no idea how to explain why she wouldn’t just buy a ticket in the first place.

Finally deciding not to show that she in fact possessed some money, she waited as he completed his transaction. It seemed like he was getting a proper weapon for once.

She was slightly alarmed when the woman behind the counter recognized her as Mercurian, and turned away as casually as possible. That woman would probably remember her face now, since she already noted the unusualness of their being together. Well, hopefully no one would come looking for a while.

She followed Chares quickly, eager to leave before trouble came.

“So… is that all?” she asked, suddenly itching to get back on the ship.

With a moderate bucking and rocking the partially already ramshackle spaceship of the young Venusian eventually arrived at the targeted space station and got ready for the landing.
A critical look eyed the surface of the station from above and checked whether there were enough supplies and nourishments, looking for the number of people she would have to attack and weighing whether or not the whole effort of this action would even pay off properly at the end.
 
The initially harsh look gradually softened and the eyes turned into a more relaxed and obviously more content shape, the mouth, in the meantime, transforming into a faint yet unpredictable smile. Granted, it surely wasn’t the most beautiful place existing in the universe, let alone the cleanest one she has seen so far, however, for a small raid and a small hunt it would nonetheless always make a more or less neat location.
 
Free garages, only a few guardians, distracted ones at that, civilization rate basically zero. The probability of having an even better starting situation was, truth be told, below 0.0001%.
 
“Well, then let’s get what belongs to me,” she muttered with a cheeky smile on her face, turned off the auto-pilot, targeted one of the garages and pulled the brake forcefully. Her head approached the cockpit dangerously fast, the hair, packed in a braid, flying towards the windows with lightning-speed.
 
“Whew, what a ride we had again!”
With the hands ultimately breaking away from the steering wheel, Amara fixed her hair and stood up, adjusted her clothes to the right positions and stretched her arms and legs. Five…ten…fifteen minutes? In her head, she already imagined how long this trip would take on the whole.
 
If she could beat her latest record of three minutes this time?
 
Confidently her hands reached out for the MG4 on the left and the small revolver on the right side of the door, the bayonet already stowed away behind her belt and the machine-gun now tied around her shoulder as well.
 
Casually Amara kicked the door open with her right foot and approached the men in front of her garage with the revolver in her hand, her movements controlled and quiet, hoping the guards wouldn’t notice her and her gun ahead of schedule.
 
As it turned out, however, precautionary measures of any kind were completely in vain: Two of them were only playing in the sand and the other one was already practically sleeping. How pathetic and careless!
 
Perfect for her, though.
 
Gingerly she put the revolver aside and to the bayonet, crept up on the sleeping guard and eventually pressed her right hand against his mouth in no time at all, hoping to silence him for a few minutes.
Single noises of his voice were audible, however, broke off quickly the harder she pressed against his mouth, the words she whispered to him ultimately putting him to silence entirely at last.
 
“Either you’ll be quiet now or you can spend your last few seconds with listening to the metal ball driving through your head.”
 
His eyes widened in panic and the voice became silent, Amara’s mouth turning into a broad grin and the mouth shaping a friendly ‘Thank you’ to the now more than awake guard in her arms.

She continued marching to the two other colleagues of the security guard, whipping the revolver out of the belt again and slowly targeting the left of the two men.
 
“Good morning, Gentlemen,” she said loudly and with a powerful voice, a creepy smile on the face and the gun directly aimed at the head of one of the men. “I see we’re inhabitants of the same planet, how convenient – then I’m sure you’d love to help your fellow Venusian out!”
 
“So…would you mind giving me all the supplies stored in this station?”

"P-pirate!" The guard that was being threatened by Amara's gun said. His sword fell out of his hand in fear. The other soldier looked nervous, but kept his grip on his weapon. This pirate had guts, trying to rob an entire station. But he could recognize what kind of gun she was using, and it certainly wasn't laser based. If she shot someone, the bullet would seriously hurt, and the risk of complications were far higher because of the metal bullet. There was a reason that metal ammo was technically illegal on Venus...

"H-hey, calm down, okay? There's no need to hurt anyone," he said. "Just put your gun down and we can talk..."

Behind Amara, the once sleeping guard was now discreetly inching towards a communication device mounted to a garage wall.

_____________________________________________________________



"Yeah, that's it," he said as they walked back to the garage he'd been assigned. "I don't think the shop keeper will cause any trouble, she just seemed nosy..." Chares frowned. "It's like she has nothing better to do than get into strangers' business. Oh yeah, and this is for you." He pulled the knife out of the bag and held it out to her. The blade was covered in a leather sheathe, and the handle hinted that it was more of real weapon than his makeshift sword.

"If you get into trouble, you can at least defend yourself now." Daggers were pretty intuitive to use, even for someone like her.

Frey was surprised when Chares offered the knife to her. She’d thought he’d purchased it for himself, but now he was giving it to her? Not only had he let her hitchhike on his ship and fed her, but now he was also equipping her with a weapon? The guilt of the truth weighed down on her. He had no idea that she was a fugitive, or soon would be if she wasn’t already.

“Thanks,” she accepted it, though hesitantly. If he knew the truth, he certainly wouldn’t be doing this to her… For a moment, she was tempted to spill everything. “To be honest, I’m not much of a fighter at all… Computers are more my thing. Obviously,” she added with a self-conscious chuckle. She might be able to stab someone if she caught them off guard, but that would be the extent of her capabilities. She wasn’t even sure she could hurt another person in such a violent way unless her own life was threatened.

"I'm not asking you to start stabbing anyone," he said with a laugh. "Sometimes just seeing the knife is enough to deter people. It scares the cowards off, at least." It had a 0 percent chance of changing the mind of a trained guard or soldier, but nine times out of ten, a pickpocket or robber would move on to a weaker looking target if you were obviously armed.

When they returned to the ship hanger, he was relieved to find their- wait, his vessel- in one piece. He went to a panel on the hanger wall, and flipped a switch. The garage door started to descend, closing them off from the rest of the station. 

"Each garage has beds and a bathroom, so you don't have to stay in the ship if you don't want to," Chares said. It'd be pretty hard for both of them to sleep comfortably in the ship with only a single bed inside.

She was glad to be able to get back to the hangar in one piece, though her mind was still troubled about the potential of Mercurians arriving here and that shopkeeper back there remembering her face. However, she couldn’t exactly tell Chares they couldn’t sleep. He was probably tired, and she had snuck into his ship, so it wasn’t like she could tell him where to go and when.

“Oh. Beds sound cool, and a bathroom even more so,” she replied, trying to sound upbeat. “What time do you plan to leave tomorrow?”

"In about 8 hours..." Chares said, stretching his back as he opened the ship's hatch. That was the regulation for pilots moving freight. They needed to log at least 8 hours of rest for every day travelling, and Chares was really looking forward to his eight hours of sleep. "If that's alright with you. Unless you need to get to Mars faster?"

--------------------
Further off, in a different area of the station, a smaller, sleeker looking Mercurian vessel made a landing. Two people disembarked and headed for the local guard station. They were less than 5 and a half feet tall but they were dressed in thick blue winter coats with Mercury's emblem marked on the back, and their faces were covered with a set of thick snow goggles and face masks. Metal badges pinned to their chests marked them as higher ranked than the average officers. Their pulled up hoods covered most of their hair, and they wore black gloves and boots.

Dressed like they were, most wouldn't have taken them very seriously, until their eyes fell on the belts around their waists, holding what looked like miniature guns and folded up batons.

The Venusian guards, looking almost like primitive knights compared to them, perked up when they reached the station.

"Er, state your business!" the guard said. 

"We're here on the authority of the Council of Mercury," one of the officers said, speaking fluently in common language, though with an accent. "We have a lead on a planetary fugitive that brought us here. Are you aware of any suspicious activity in this area? Unscheduled cargo vessels or unauthorized persons?" 

"N-not that we know of..." The officer sighed.

"Then we'll have to request a list of all vessels currently parked here, along with all records of traffic this past 24 hours."

"But we'd have to get permission from our supervisors back on Venus"- The guard was cut off by the officer sliding his badge on the counter between them, letting him take a good look a the royal symbol on it.

"In case you've failed to realize it, we're on a bit of a tight schedule. If this fugitive slips away because of your insistence for paperwork, I assure you that I'll make sure that Queen of Mercury knows exactly who slowed us down."

"Let me get that for you right away!" The guard stumbled off to find the right files, and the officer re-pinned his badge to his coat.

“No, it’s okay, it’s your ship. I’m just the hitchhiker, remember? I don’t want to mess up your schedule,” she said as casually as she could manage. Eight hours was a long time. The Mercurian soldiers would have certainly found out about what she did by now and started the manhunt. Should she slip into another ship that was leaving here? Chares was so nice, he was actually probably better off without her. The last thing she needed was for him to get dragged into her mess.

After that, she retreated to the bathroom and her own bed, trying to stay awake. She needed to wait until Chares slept and then maybe sneak out of here to assess her options. Even if there were no other ships leaving for the night, she’d still need to keep watch for any approaching Mercurian vessel.

Unfortunately, the bath, the long journey, the tension, and the full stomach were too deadly of a combination. With the bed being as comfortable as it was, a quick nap soon turned into a deep sleep for Frey.

Hours later, Chares was also deeply asleep in his own bed, though he left the ship doors open in case Freyja needed to get in for something. And as the two slept unaware, the Mercurian authorities closed in on the garage.

The two officers had gotten the information they needed, and had been checking each and every garage for the one Chares had parked in. After matching up his shipping company's name with his assigned garage, they were given permission to open the doors.

Chares woke up with a surprised snort when the grinding of the huge metal doors started up, and he stumbled out of bed to go to his ship window. 

"What the"- he mumbled, waking up a little as he rubbed his eyes. Who opened his garage door? He quickly grabbed his discarded clothes and searched for his sword. Whoever was trying to steal from him would be in for a fight...

From Freyja's position in the garage, she could see the two officers slipping in under the cover of artificial night, their guns drawn as they looked around. They hadn't spotted her yet.

She stirred when she heard the doors of the garage rolling up, momentarily disoriented. Was it time to go already? She rubbed her eyes and peered out the window of the room she occupied, and her heart instantly froze at the sight of the Mercurian soldiers, her planet’s emblem clear as day on their backs. There were only two of them, but she couldn’t just assume that was all that had been sent. They stood between her and the ship, and so she could not warn Chares. Even if she could, she doubted that explanation would have gone down very well.

Frey calculated all the possible scenarios immediately and deduced one thing; Chares was about to find out the truth about her in a few short minutes. And her best bet was to slip away now, before these Mercurians spotted her. She gathered her things, grabbed the knife Chares had bought for her, and crouched low beneath the window. She needed to get out of the garage, but she’d need an opening. Praying that the officers would go towards the ship first, she waited for a chance to bolt.

If they split up and each went to both living quarters, she was going to be in trouble, but at least then she’d only have to deal with one of them. Perhaps she could get the jump on him.

The soldiers turned on a set of flashlights attached to their weapons, and then crept over to the ship's open doors. They flanked each side of the door, and then after one signaled with a hand gesture, they darted inside the ship itself. 

Even from Freyja's position, she could see through a window that the lights had been turned on inside, and there was some kind of struggle going on in the ship's living quarters. Muffled yelling could be heard, and a few shouts of Mercurian language were audible. They were referring to a Jovian and something about shooting again, though details were still muddled.

Both soldiers ended up going to the ship, so Frey crept out as silently as possible from her quarters and began edging toward the garage door as soon as the officers disappeared into the ship.

She had almost opened the door when the lights inside the ship turned on and she heard sounds of struggle coming from there. And yelling. In Mercurian. Shooting again?!

Her heart plummeted as she realized that they might hurt Chares for this. Or worse, they could kill him. Mercurians were cold-blooded—almost quite literally—and they wouldn’t be opposed to killing a random transporter of goods from another planet if it meant getting information. Since he was no one important, they could always stage it like an accident. How long would it even be before his loved ones figure out he was even gone?

And all this because he’d been kind enough to a stowaway. He’d die—or worse, get tortured—not knowing who she was and why this was happening to him.

Frey closed her eyes. She couldn’t let that happen. It was not right.

It was her sense of justice that had brought her into this predicament in the first place. Forsaking it now would be negating everything she’d done up until this point.

She pulled out the small disk holding all the data they were looking for and went back to her room, stashing it between the furniture and the wall in the most inconspicuous way and the darkest corner she could find, then darted toward the ship, her knife in hand.

Without thinking about it twice, she burst through the door and aimed the knife toward the nearest officer’s neck in a threatening manner. “Stop right now!” she called out.

She’d never killed anyone before, but she suspected if she needed it to survive, she could figure it out. After all, like Chares said, knives weren’t hard to use.

Chares and the second officer, who were now struggling for the gun, froze at Freyja's voice and looked at her. The one she had by knife point was slowly lowering his weapon, realizing how bad of a position he was in. The ship walls and floor had a few plasma burns on them from errant shots, and some objects were knocked askew from their very short fight, but other than that, it was in one piece.

The Mercurian officer near Chares recognized Freyja's face, and glared from behind his mask.


"You have quite a bit of nerve threatening your own people, traitor. That will be another felony crime on your record." He spoke in her language, further confusing Chares. "You only dig yourself deeper into the ice the more you fight against us. We are strict, but not unreasonable, Freyja Asynja. Come back with us." The man's tone was so calm, a sharp contrast to his earlier actions.

Chares tore the gun out of his hands and tossed it aside, and then pointed his sword at the officer. 

"What are you saying?" he demanded. He sounded harsh, but he was actually terrified, and a part of his cheek was marked by where a shot had scraped him. "Why did you break into here? I didn't do anything to you guys!"

She was surprised to see the state of the ship. If the fight continued further, it might receive more damage, and even if Chares didn’t get killed or imprisoned, he might never be able to go back to his old job.

But what really chilled her to the bones was the Mercurian officer staring directly at her. At this moment of time, Frey was almost sure her life was over. She should have never come out. She had a clear path to freedom!

But at what cost?

Saving her own skin without a care for another’s life was what the Mercurians would do. She had risked her life to stop their cold, ruthless way of living, and if she ran now it would all be meaningless.

So she steeled herself and glared back at him. “Save your speeches. I know I’m going back to die. And I’ll come peacefully but only if you leave this man alone. He has nothing to do with what I did. He doesn’t know anything, either. I took advantage of him—he wasn’t helping me. If you insist on punishing him, too, I swear I will kill your friend and make your life very difficult.”

She looked at Chares when he spoke and noticed the gash on his cheek. “Chares! Are you okay? It’s going to be alright. It wasn’t anything you did. They’re… they’re here for me. It’s just a misunderstanding. We’ll just all go and leave you alone, okay?”

She turned back to the officer, hoping he would agree to leave Chares without dragging him into this.

"I'm fine..." Chares couldn't help the shock that crossed his face as Frey talked down the officers, and then admitted they were connected to her. All this time, he had thought she was just someone who needed a free ride, but who was she really? Was anything she had said true? Governments didn't go after people who just wanted a change of scenery, so she must have done something to warrant being chased. 

She lied to him, and he fell for it. His arm wavered, and then he lowered his sword. The officer relaxed and picked up his gun.


"We care nothing for the Jovian, as long as you kept your mouth shut around him," he said, agreeing with her terms. "But if we find out that he knows any information he shouldn't, we will have to take action." It was rather clear what action they would take. "Lower your weapon, and we will escort you back to the cruiser with no further charges."

As the officers moved to secure Freyja, Chares watched with mixed emotions. He should feel betrayed, angry even. She had used him and he could have been killed because of her. But... this felt wrong. Frey (if that was even her real name) must have been desperate to do what she did, and Chares was no stranger to that. Was he not technically a fugitive himself?

And as stupid as he felt about it now, he'd quickly become used to her presence. Did he want to just let these two drag her off just to go back to aimlessly drifting through space, alone?

His eyes narrowed, and his grip on his blade tightened. No, he didn't. With a fury he didn't think he possessed, he slammed the handle of his crude sword into the back of the officer's helmet. Before the other one could react, he slammed him with the flat of the sword. They collapsed, unmoving on the floor. Chares' heart was hammering, but he focused on the next few steps. They had to dump these guys off and pull out the station before anyone investigated. There wasn't time to panic over what he'd done.

"Help me drag them out the ship, we're leaving now." Chares left no room for argument in his tone, and he was already hauling one Mercurian over his shoulder.

She was about to lower her knife when several things happened that she did not expect at all. Out of all the possible scenarios she could have calculated, this ranked approximately at chances being lower than minus a thousand. She didn’t even really comprehend what was happening when the first officer crumpled to the ground, and then the other one followed suit, faster than she could blink.

And then suddenly there were two knocked out Mercurian soldiers on their feet.

“What… how…” she stammered as Chares told her to help him drag them out. “Why did you do that?!”

If these two ever came to, they would target him as well now. She had dragged him into her mess, the last thing she ever wanted.

“Do you realize that they’ll be after you now too?!” she said. “We can’t just let them go now; they’ll report you to the Mercurian authorities and you’ll be a fugitive too!”

"Well I guess I'll be a fugitive of two planets then," Chares said, moving to the ship's hatch. "I'm not any more scared of Mercury as I am of Jupiter." He dropped the officer on the floor and checked him for any more weapons. He found an electronic device that looked like a communicator, so he pocketed it for later. 

"Hurry up and get your stuff, or we actually will get caught. Or do you want to get dragged back home?" He picked up the second body and dumped him on top of his partner, dusting his hands off after. "We can get to Mars by sometime tomorrow if we leave now."

“Wait, what? You were already a fugitive too?” Frey was unable to keep up with all these sudden changes and the dropped bomb about her new companion. She opened her mouth to ask what Chares had done in Jupiter that had made him become one, but realized now was probably not the time. On the bright side, maybe this made them even? After all, neither had been honest about their situation back home. She felt less guilty about not telling him she was a fugitive.

She wanted to protest—being chased by officials from two planets seemed like a terrible idea for him, but she had no idea what she was supposed to do with these soldiers either. Taking them and dumping them on an asteroid didn’t seem any better than killing them. They didn’t have a choice.

With a frustrated grunt she dashed out to retrieve the disk she’d hidden and the rest of her stuff from the room she’d occupied, then went back into the ship.

“Fine, let’s go. And let’s hope we don’t piss off the Martians too, or at this rate we’re going to run out of planets.”

Was she seriously acting surprised? How else did she think he had gotten off his planet during this pseudo war? "Well I'm not the one who tried to stowaway in someone else's ship, am I?" Chares might have been a runaway, but he'd made sure that he didn't incriminate anyone else in the process.

He entered the cockpit area and shut the door, leaving Freyja to resettle in the living area. The weapons he had taken were on the seat next to him, though he had n intention of shooting them anytime soon. A merchant on Mars might offer to buy them though. Mercurian technology was always in high demand with someone, and he could use them as bribes to cover his ship's trail once he reached port.

The trip was silent, Chares not in much of a mood to speak after being lied to and almost killed in some political crossfire. He wasn't even sure what to say anymore, to be honest, so he tried not to think at all.

They'd get to Mars soon, and then he could just pretend this had never happened.

It was nearly evening when the ship approached the red planet, surrounded by two smaller, lopsided moons that acted as capital cities. The port he was scheduled to drop his cargo off at was on Mars itself, and Chares guided the ship into a familiar orbit with a myriad of other visitors. The station below would radio him when there was space to land, and he descended below the atmosphere without issue.

The port city of Mars was almost old fashioned looking after seeing the rest stop and Mercury's technology, with most of the structures made of cut stones, sanded down wood, and ceramic clay. Most of the mechanical equipment was disguised to fit with the image the government liked to present, making the ships that landed and took off stand out like beacons. In the distance, a thick wood bordered the city, covering all but the pinnacle of a temple further up a mountain.

"Welcome to Port Aries," Chares said as he opened the door between the driver's seat and the rest of the ship, though he didn't sound very happy and his eyes failed to meet Freyja's. He could already see a pair of soldiers approaching to check the ship over, dressed in layered armor and strange masks that covered their faces. After a long few moments, they gave it the clear and allowed the port workers to unload.

Abandoned. That was how she felt. There were all of these people bustling about the busy port city, and somehow she seemed to be isolated with a loneliness she had never before known. She still didn't understand where she was going, only that she must leave. That was all the Temple Elder communicated about her fated journey. She must leave Mars. How—how—could she leave Mars?!

Xihe halted again, feeling that wash of panic rush over her. Wasn't the temple her home? Didn't she belong there? They took her in when she had no where else to go. Yet they had cast her out... She was a toddler again, watching her mother disappear down the stairs, not even realizing that she would never see that face again.

The robes were hot and uncomfortable; there were so many more layers to her outfit now that she was not in the temple. She represented them, they told her. Her appearance had to be perfect, because she was an apprentice of the great Huo Re Temple. She had a future ahead of her, and she must behave in a way that would not dishonor all those who had raised and trained her. She could feel sweat beading on her temples, and knew it was inappropriate for a priestess-in-training to be over warm. She could almost hear the rebuke from her teacher: "This is a sign," he would say, "that the lady's mind is not in harmony."

Well, at least that was true. Her mind was not in harmony today.

Xihe resisted the urge to run her fingers through her hair. It was styled even more elaborately than usual, because she was among unknown people. She couldn't even enjoy the novelty of being outside of the temple, interacting with those other than soldiers, seers, and servants. Xihe didn't know the first thing about leaving her planet, but she had been left here to do just that, with her copious luggage checked in a terminal until her departure. It felt like she had been wandering for hours, with absolutely no idea of what she must do.

"You look lost, sweetie," boomed a voice she had never heard.

Xihe squealed slightly as she bumped into a strange man's broad back, her nose scratching against the rough fabric of his outer tunic. She backed up, almost tripping over her many-layered skirts when she realized there was another man standing in her way. He grinned at her, and she felt that sense of alarm rising. She had never talked to anyone without the presence of elders and chaperones. When her dark maroon eyes met his, she felt immediately shaken to be so close to someone. It was too unfamiliar.

He reached out and grabbed her shoulder, steadying her small form but only increasing her discomfort.

"What is a fine lady like you doing here? Shouldn't you have an escort?" he asked.

The other man stepped closer, laughing as though his friend had just told some kind of joke. The fingers squeezed her shoulder tighter, and her mind went blank. She only gaped at him, terrified, unable to move.

Marlene Trudeau

Wanted for fraud

Celeste examined the drawing right below. It was quite magnificent, she had to admit. Truly, the artist had managed to capture the essence of her beauty. She really ought to congratulate him, but given the circumstances, she would rather it had not been that accurate.

Making sure no one was looking at her, she tore the poster down. That was probably the tenth one today. Note to herself: it is not wise to mess with a general's son. For sure not on Mars, out of all the planets! Dignitaries on Venus were a different story; they were far more likely to actually ignore the whole deal instead of admitting they were taken for fools. But here? Not so much. They wanted blood. What was their justice system like, anyway? She was afraid they would execute people for far less.

Talk about biting off more than she can chew.

She did try to disguise herself slightly, but she wasn't sure it would be effective. She wore her hair in a ponytail, and she was actually wearing a long-sleeved shirt and pants for once -- surely the general's son had never seen her like that. She had made sure to be as lightly-dressed as she could around him, after all. Still, she was afraid she would stick out like a sore thumb with her blonde hair; a hood would have been good but she did not have any of the kind.

She reached into her pocket - she did not have much currency left. She had already mailed as much as she could to her family back on Venus. Of course, it was very risky to mail valuables, but Celeste figured that the very notion that no one would be stupid enough to do so, actually turned it to a decent idea. Her mother would probably roll her eyes again, but as always, if only for her son's sake, she would accept the help.

But she really had to leave the planet, and soon. Things were no longer looking good for her here. She probably could afford a ticket, and she obviously had fake identification with her, but what if authorities checked outbound passengers personally? The whole deal had taken a larger proportion than she would have imagined, after all.

She headed towards the port; she would have to figure things out there. Perhaps she could find another foolish man there to take her away with him. Preferably rich, might as well make a profit out of the deal, but at this point, she would make do with any given opportunity.

Was he really going to throw back the whole stowaway thing in her face now? Frey fumed as they moved again after dumping the officers’ bodies out of the ship. Chares didn’t demand for an explanation, which was surprising after how he’d almost gotten killed, but she was too happy to not have to share the information. After all, the less he knew, probably the better. Even if she knew it was too late to un-involve him from this… Even if she left him, would the Mercurians keep hunting him down? Would one day she find the news that he was dead, and know that it was all her fault? Would she wonder if her name was the last curse on his lips before he left this world?

Her guilt weighed heavily on her all the way to Mars, but she couldn’t really find a good solution. There was no undoing what had happened now. Chares was a fugitive whether he liked it or not. And now she wasn’t so sure it would be fair of her to just leave him to fend for himself. If she turned herself in, would they pardon him or forget about him?

Unlikely, the Mercurians weren’t known for their forgiving trait.

Either way, Mars distracted her from her thoughts when they arrived. The planet looked so… prehistoric. Pretty much the contrast of Mercury. How could they live in this backwater planet? she wondered.

She didn’t know what to do when they landed. Was this goodbye? Should they separate and try never to think about this encounter again? Chares finally reappeared from the cockpit and said the first words he had said since they left the rest area, and she did not know what to say to that.

As the workers began unloading the ship, she peeked out into the bustling port and stepped just outside the ship to look around the planet better, stretching her muscles while she was at it. That was when she noticed a girl dressed in fine clothing and wearing a strangely complicated hairdo sticking out among the others, not only because of her appearance, but also because of what was happening to her. She seemed to be hassled and intimidated by a man, and obviously looking terrified. Her annoyance flared, suddenly finding a channel to release her frustrations from the long journey full of silence and guilt all the way here.

She’d been wanting to yell at someone.

“Hey! I’d suggest you leave the lady alone,” she told the man in Martian as she strode closer, armed only with her fuming expression, her brilliance, and all 5'3" of her height.

A voice rang out across the market, immediately catching the attention of the two men surrounding Xihe. It pulled her from her moment of terrified distraction. She tried to twist forward, pulling her shoulder away from the unfamiliar grasp, but the fingers dug deeper around her thin frame. Xihe winced at the pain, tears pricking her dark eyes. She had never been treated like this before—it was close to heresy to place even a friendly hand on a priestess. These were strangers to her, but they were Martians who should have understood the unspoken rules!

Of course, the girl could not know that these men were not Martians, but workers unloading ships from other destinations within the solar system. Her interactions with people had been so limited that she was mostly unaware of the differences. When she looked up towards the speaker ordering her assailants, it didn't even dawn on Xihe that this young woman was not from Mars despite her clearly foreign appearance.

"You should mind your own business," the one holding her shoulder replied, his tone careful and tinged with a sinister impression.

"We're just having a talk with our friend here," insisted the other, moving closer. Xihe shuddered at his increased proximity.

"No, they're not! I don't know them!" she spoke up suddenly, voice shaking. She hardly recognized her own speech; this wavering, high-pitched panic sounded so different from the intonations of predictions and incantations.

The other one holding her shoulder tightened his grip, and she squealed a sharp intake of breath. He had his other hand on her arm now.

"Don't worry, we can fix that."

Well, here she was. And that was about as far as she had thought. What next? It was not like she could just simply walk towards the first person she caught sight of and ask them to take her along. Unfortunately, even cute looks would generally not cut it to securing a free ride with a stranger, and those that would agree could easily end up being less trustworthy even than her.

Some ruckus caught her attention, and her breath momentarily caught in her throat. They hadn't possibly found her already? Hiding near the corner of a nearby wall, she watched the scene unfold - there was those two guys and... was that a museum exhibit? No, wait, it seemed to be moving. It was decidedly a girl, on closer inspection. But why was she dressed like an exhibit in the first place?

Apparently she did not quite appreciate their company, but that did not seem to bother them. The sight made the blonde girl feel uneasy. As a younger teen, she had been on the receiving end of such behavior, especially from the so-called elite, before she decided she was better off playing along and using this to her advantage. She could do the same and divert attention from the poor girl, but she could not afford to bring attention to herself right now.

But another girl intervened. A quick glance at her could confirm she was not a local. Celeste was still unsure whether she was brave or insane, or possibly a combination of the both, as she demanded that they leave the other girl alone. She continued observing for now.

When Freyja left the ship, Chares at first assumed she had finally left for good. She was on Mars now, she probably didn't need his help doing... whatever she needed to do badly enough to piss off a whole planet. And it was best he forgot about her and moved onto the next job. It stung a bit to not even get a goodbye, but maybe he deserved it for the attitude he'd been giving her for the last set of hours.

Chares sighed and walked towards the door. He might as well check to make sure she hadn't run into trouble. His eyes caught a flash of her white hair among a group of men, and he just barely picked up her voice above the crowd. Chares cursed.

"Can't she last one minute by herself?" he growled, stepping onto the dock itself. He locked the doors behind him and flipped up the hood of his cloak, and then began elbowing his way through the crowd towards her.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that these men were definitely not just ‘having a talk’ with their ‘friend’, even if the girl didn’t quickly protest the claim. Frey could see the fear in her eyes, hear the panic in her voice, and felt her own blood began to boil. Injustices were happening everywhere. It wasn’t just in Mercury that people took what they wanted without any regards for anyone else or whom they hurt. And she had had enough of this nonsense.

As the men’s manhandling of the girl escalated, she whipped out her knife fast, sticking its pointy end under the neck of the man who wasn’t touching the girl yet. “Tell your friend to unhand the lady, or things are going to end up very unpleasant for you.”

That was twice in one day she’d threatened someone’s life now.

She was getting good at this.

For a moment, Xihe was almost certain that there was going to be a fight between these strange people that she didn't know. She squealed and ducked her head when the woman in blue brandished a knife and whipped it towards the man farther from her. Her body trembled at seeing such violence in a form other than a vision, channeled as part of her duties as priestess-in-training. She expected to hear screams and see blood, neither of which she wanted to experience.

But the unfamiliar hands loosened their grip on her. Xihe quickly wiggled free, stumbling on her long robes as she tried to get away. She didn't know where to go, so she only managed to put a few steps distance between her and these strangers.

"Take it easy, lady..." the man was saying, evidently unwilling to sacrifice his friend or at least acquaintance.

The other man took shallow breaths, trying to keep his neck clear of the blade.

The one who had tried to hold the dark-haired girl spoke now, his eyes surveying the situation. "Maybe you should put that away before we have to find some military enforcement personnel here."

"Oh I don't think that's necessary, right boys?" It had taken a bit to work his way through the port crowd, but now he was right behind the conflict Freyja had gotten into. Chares practically loomed over the man that had spoken last, face half hidden by his hood.

"I'm sure we can part ways without any trouble." All he could see was a little girl being cornered by some thugs, and he wasn't about to stand for that either. "Leave." Chares didn't even have his sword with him, but he'd learned that sometimes all you needed to scare people was a convincing attitude.

The arrival of the tall, intimidating figure knocked all the wind from the duo's sails. The one not currently held at knife-point looked uneasily at the other and backed away, clearly hoping that the pale-haired woman would let his friend go; although he was not willing to stick around and possibly get himself in a similar situation.

Xihe looked up at the cloaked man, shocked by his height. She had seen many tall Martian warriors, but only within the temple—and usually seated before her or bowing respectfully as they knelt upon the floors of woven rushes. She didn't really think of herself as "short", but that was now a feeling she understood as she glanced at the hooded stranger. Her curiosity was roused slightly in this new scenario, although given what had just transpired the dark-haired girl remained extremely cautious and distant. Only her dark red eyes traced their forms, wondering who they might be.