The construct smashed through the door and tackled Spider. Both tumbled over the conveyor belt and into one of the ship's exposed datanodes. The beam of light and information melted through the series 4's chest plating with ease, killing the machine in an instant. Spider rolled aside, but not before the superheated energy could cut into the plating over his ribs.

He jumped to his feet and shook off his burning tactical armor. He stomped out the fire while his R.Nano sealed the gash in his side and rehardened into new armored bands. In a moment he was good as new except for a ringing in his ears.

He scanned the adjacent hall with his blue hard light visor, tracking the movement of the troopers beyond. A squad of three approached from the west, another three entered from the other side of the causeway. He thought of X-Ray vision and the heat blobs displayed by the infrared sight of his visor switched in an instant. He could see the circuitry and vents running through the walls, as well as the transformers and power switches. Spider set his pistol to high-yield high-density rounds and fired. The bullet penetrated the wall and cut through a cluster of power relays.

Spider ducked around a column as an explosion rocked the hallway. Dashing through the smoking rubble, he switched yield and density back to his preferred settings. He plowed into a burning trooper, shattering flexsteel and bone. Low yield rounds broke against his armor like flies against a shuttle's glass shield. Spider's visor tracked the movements of the oncoming troopers while he scanned the area for more combatants. Satisfied, he fired three times and added three more bodies to his tally.

Once the Core AI had caught sight of them, Cheshire was of little help. Troopers and legionnaires arrived through every egress into the gunnery in waves. They weren't trying to stop Spider and Raven from destroying the ship's gun controls. They focused on one thing only, their capture. The Pale Garden suffered heavy losses, but continued their assault undaunted. If the enemy wanted to dash themselves against an immovable wall, who were they to stop them?

Spider and Raven would have gladly cut them down, but Renegade's warning that the ship's Primus was on the move with the CEO had required a change in tactics. Raven was ready to give chase, but Spider knew they would be dragging the ship's entire contingent in their wake. He decided the two should split up, fight on the move and converge on the Primus from multiple angles. The added bonus was the more distance they kept from each other, the less persistent the ringing in their ears.

The ringing was what concerned Spider as he burst into a stairwell at the end of the hall. A voice whispered to him; bodiless, insisting, and increasingly difficult to ignore. It ordered him to comply, ordered him to bow down, ordered his complete surrender. Spider punched the wall, focusing on the sudden sharp pain lancing through his fist.

"Your name is Liam Marcus," Spider said to himself. "The Pale Garden took your brother, framed you for capital crimes, and made you a monster. They ruined your life." The pain and the affirmation helped push back the whispered orders. "You will never serve Lady Belladonna. You will destroy her."

The R.Nano in his system made Spider an exceptional weapon, but that weapon was created to serve The Pale Garden. T.Nano made the troopers compliant soldiers. R.Nano was meant to make the test subjects stronger versions of the troopers, but that strength made them resistant to the siren's call. Usually Raven and Spider could ignore the little voices, but, so close to the very commanders they were driven to serve, resistance was a battle of will. The ship constantly communicated and coordinated with its troopers. It produced a low frequency signal, a buzzing in their ears.

Spider shook his head to silence the diminishing ringing and ascended the stairs three at a time. As he ran, Spider allowed himself to hear The Pale Garden's comms chatter. When no longer suppressing the R.Nano in his blood, Spider became a part of their information network. He listened long enough to find what he sought then blocked the info before the Core AI could try to crack his nano. Cracking nano was a specialized skill, but Spider operated under the assumption that anything Renegade could do a persistent AI could manage.

The philosophy had kept him one step away from Belladonna's bounty hunters for years.

"Sounds like the target is on level CB, quadrant 2," Spider said. He stopped, pressing his back to the wall. He'd passed level CB four floors ago.

"I'm enroute. Ran into some trouble," Raven said over their private link.

"What kind of trouble?"

"Nothing I couldn't cut my way through. Just can't seem to shake the voices in my head."

"Focus, kitty litter. It's the Primus. Either she's strong or there might be two onboard."

Raven growled. "Did you just call me 'kitty litter'?"

"If the smell fits," Spider said with a shrug.

"Look, you hairless ap- oh, I see what you did there. It's helping."

"Wait, what? I wasn't trying to help." Spider chuckled. "Stay focused, Raven. Don't let them get to you."

The door on the landing above opened and a heavily armored legionnaire entered the stairwell. Spider laid down a stream of suppressive fire, forcing the soldier back through the door. With his left hand he primed a mine to explode on impact, and threw the explosive at the portal. Spider dove down the stairs, an explosion backlighting his deft feat. He landed in a rough tumble and dropped a second primed mine over the railing. Almost to the door to level CB, a second explosion rocked the stairwell.

"I'm on CB. Let's do this." Spider threw open the door and left the smoke filled landing behind. "Remember, the CEO is top priority."

"I know the job, Spider."

"Yeah. You know, but do-"

"Spider, I got this."

"Freeze!"

Spider spun around to stare down the twin barrels of an energy cannon. He raised his hands slowly, scanning the area for targets. There was no one in the immediate area save for himself and a maintenance clone armed with an energy cannon, a weapon powerful enough to burn through Spider's armor bands. The clone's eyes darted around, framed by streams of sweat. However, his hands were steady.

"Umm, Lord Scorpion, is that you?" the clone asked.

Spider stared at him, confused and trying to hide it. The clone lowered his weapon and dropped to his knees.

"I'm sorry, my Lord. I didn't realize you were aboard. Please forgive me. The fugitives are here and Diva-12 ordered everyone with weapons training to join the search... did I do the right thing? I wasn't sure."

"You didn't," Spider said.

In a blur of speed he grabbed the clone's wrist and shot him through the hand. The clone screamed and dropped the cannon. Spider covered the man's mouth and slammed him against the wall. The clone's eyes rolled to the back of his head, but a rough shake from Spider kept him from losing consciousness.

"Give me a reason and I will kill you," Spider said. He listened for sounds of approaching troopers with hearing amplified by R.Nano.

"I'm so sorry, Lord Scorpion. Please spare me," came the clone's muffled words through Spider's hold.

"You know me?"

"Not personally, My Lord, but I've served on your ship. I... I'll never forget the first time I saw you. You looked exactly the same, only younger."

Spider's heart quickened, his mind chasing multiple thought trains at once. People always said the Marcus family features were strong. As children Liam and Lance had been mistaken for twins, as Lance was large for his age. Scorpion had been Lance's callsign during their time as freelancers. To a simple minded person, like a low ranking clone, the brothers could easily be confused.

"Where will I find the Primus?"

"She's going to secure her cargo in Diva-12's nexus, My Lord."

"On this floor?"

"Yes, quadrant 3. Please don't report me, Lord Scorpion. I was trying to bring glory to this ship."

Spider struck a blow across the side of the clone's head. He lowered the unconscious man to the ground with undue gentleness. Spider took medical grade nano from his kit, and sprayed the foam into the clone's gunshot wound. He snatched the energy cannon without really seeing the hall around him. All he could see was his brother strapped to a gurney being carted away from their cell. Liam had been too sick from the R.Nano infusion to stand, let alone help Lance. The attack on the Pale Garden facility happened while Liam had waited in vain for his brother to return.

The renewed ringing in his ear was a warning. He was losing focus. Spider slapped himself with jarring force.

"Focus. You have a job to do."

He observed the clone on the ground. The Pale Garden didn't give T.Nano to its clones or officers of lieutenant Legionnaire rank and higher. Everyone else was a slave with his will subverted.

"You're no flower," Spider whispered to himself, "you're a weed, choking this garden from the inside."

Spider ran for quadrant 3. The longer he stayed in war mode the stronger the pull on his nano. Neither he nor Raven had dared stay under the full sway of their R.Nano for more than 180 minutes. Three hours. The strength of Diva-12 and the ship's Primus were too great to tempt even that boundary.

They needed to grab the CEO and get off the ship as soon as possible.

"Got 'em!" Raven said over the comms.

Spider ran up a flight of stairs and through a sliding door, onto a catwalk overlooking a wide assembly hall.

At its center stood a statue of Lady Belladonna upon the throat of a vanquished soldier. Crushed between her fingers was a bull, the symbol of The EC, small and impotent. Spider felt the primus's presence before he saw her. Two of her personal guard scanned the room for trouble. Two more held Angelique Farnsworth between them. The Primus backed away from something just out of his line of sight, her golden armor pristine in the chamber's complimenting lighting. Her bearing was proud and arrogant like every The Pale Garden officer, but she lacked the confidence of a warrior.

The absence of a weapon on her person spoke volumes about her character.

"You killed my canamarian," said a familiar voice.

Spider'd heard it over Singapore's comms when The Pale Garden took control of the ship. She called herself Xavier.

"He wanted a warrior's death," growled Raven. "I gave him one. He deserved no less."

"He was mine. I determine what he deserved, not you."

"He wasn't one of your clones or a mindless trooper. He was a canamarian Knight, a warrior of Canamar. You couldn't own him, he already belonged to his people."

"Sounds like you admired him, a canamarian. Ridiculous, coming from a felarnian."

"A true warrior honors his enemies in life and in death," Raven said.

Xavier laughed derisively.

A silver clad trooper came into view, a Pale Garden lieutenant legionnaire. She was helmetless, short spiky hair capping her head. Raven wasn't far. He looked like a blue and silver hulk compared to her average height. Though she backpedaled, she didn't seem intimidated by the massive size difference. Like the primus, she didn't carry a gun.

"One of your noble warrior caste honored the canamarians by destroying Canamar. Unless honor translates to something else in felarnian, your people know nothing of it."

Spider took a sharp intake of breath. Raven and Renegade had one button which made them lose their temper. They weren't triggered by the affront to the warrior caste. They were infuriated by their father's legacy. The cowardly act of eradicating a planet under the guise of peace fell on his shoulders and history would always remember the Felinus name as one bereft of honor. Scott and Patricia were heirs to a dishonored line, reviled by their own people.

The roar of Raven's Plasmatic Edge, the weapon of his father, was an expected sound. The roar of Xavier's was not.

"Come, felarnian. Lord Scorpion has four edges, claimed from felarnian warriors who believed themselves his equal. I will have your blade and the hand that holds it." She did a flourish of whirling slashes, reminiscent of a young man Liam had mourned but never truly believed dead. "Lady Belladonna will see that he is not worthy of his place at her side."

Raven covered the fifteen feet between them in a flash, his blade crashing against hers in an angry thunderclap. He attacked with ferocious chops that would have felled a less skilled opponent. Her parries couldn't match his strength, but employed swift riposte that kept Raven from overpowering her. They danced about the room, her speed and skill met by Raven's own considerable speed as well as his strength.

He backed Xavier towards one of the hall's long tables and struck with a savage upward cut. Xavier backflipped to the opposite side and he cleaved through the table, melting through metal like butter. The table sustained a five foot scorch mark, the heat from the blades intensifying one another.

Raven leapt the table and Xavier cartwheeled out of the killing path of his edge, slashing his leg as she moved. He cried out, but the attack only fueled his fighting spirit. He pursued her around the room, striking at every opportunity, on the offensive with no thought of defense or safety. Raven had always used his rage as a weapon, but he faced an enemy who appeared to have trained specifically to fight him.

Lance had once told Liam a weaker swordsman can match a stronger opponent with finesse. He'd spent years perfecting a style that allowed him to compete against felarnian warriors who would always have the size advantage. Spider watched his brother's technique in action and knew, without a shadow of doubt, the identity of Lord Scorpion.

"You're good, but my teacher has made me a match for your people's brute force," Xavier taunted as she dodged one of Raven's attacks and thrusted forward with her own.

He deflected her swift strike and countered with his own, grazing her ribs. She screamed at the pain and took two short steps back followed by a third, covering an impossible twenty feet. Xavier swatted at burning pieces of fabric on her armor. By all rights, she should have been out of commission. Instead, her side sparked where cybernetic augments protected her organs. She tore a section of smoking armor free and rolled aside as Raven fell upon her with a new torrent of blows. This barrage was different.

Spider was no student of swordplay, but he recognized Raven's shorter strokes and quicker recoveries. He'd changed his style, and Xavier was hard pressed to adjust.

"Every form has a weakness," Raven explained. "A true swordsman masters multiple styles to close the gaps!"

Raven feinted at Xavier's unarmored side, only to deliver a devastating cut at her over extended wrist. His blade of burning plasma hit her but rebounded off. In his shock Raven was slow in defending against her sudden rejoinder. Four thrusts put holes in his side and gut. He fell back, fighting defensively for the first time.

"It's Liryc Steel, your edge is useless against it," she bragged. "I've filled my gaps well."

"Don't kill him, Xavier," shouted the Primus from across the room. "Our mistress would have him alive if possible."

She and her entourage mounted stairs to an upper area overlooking the main floor. The air between them and the battle rippled with heat. The battleground had grown too dangerous for spectators. Raven's R.Nano would compensate for the temperature. Spider assumed Xavier's cybernetics did the same.

He mirrored the group's movement, hoping to avoid alerting them to his presence. Primus could sense their troops and Spider had no way of knowing if that connection included him and his experimental War Nano.

They stopped directly beneath him. The Primus gestured for her guard to watch the perimeter while she leaned against a short glass wall and watched the sword dance. Her troops did as instructed, leaving the CEO unmonitored. Spider watched her work something slim from the placket of her blouse. He was happy to see she wasn't the type to wait on a rescue. He only hoped she was smart enough to wait for the right opportunity.

"Renegade, I'm going for the CEO," he said over the comms, confident Cheshire would keep Diva-12 from zeroing in on his signal.

While Raven danced with Xavier, Spider made his way to the edge of the catwalk. The drop to the platform below was over twenty feet, Spider jumped with a combat knife in one hand and the energy cannon tucked under the other. He landed behind a guard with a heavy thud. The trooper spun at the sound, Spider ducked under the barrel of his shotgun and struck. The serrated edge of the knife scraped the guard's clavicle as Spider buried it in the man's heart.

Spider rolled aside as a hail of medium yield shot filled the air, peppering the dying guard as he fell to the floor. Spider fired the energy cannon, burning the armor off the second guard's legs and taking him off his feet. As the guard fell forward, Spider blew off his head. The third guard fired round after round as he advanced, filling the air with shards of kinetic ammunition. Spider threw up his shield, but not before his shoulder was shredded by buckshot.

Nano spilling over the damage, Spider registered the position of the other immediate threats. He ignored the pain, ignored the voice in his head. Spider drew his pistol, and crossed his arms to fire to his left while keeping the shield in front of the incoming fire. He rushed towards his attacker, counting the number of times the shotgun was fired.

The weapon clicked empty as he entered melee range with the third guard. Spider smashed the energy shield against the guard's helmet, the overwhelmed personal generator failing. The hard light shattering. Driving his elbow into the guard's chest, he fired up under his chin where his helmet's protection was at its weakest.

Wounded, but not out of the fight, the fourth guard fired his shotgun one handed. With no shield Spider dove out of the line of fire. He raised his weapon and electric feedback slammed into him like a sledgehammer. Spider screamed as fire surged through his body like a rushing tidal wave, pulling him under and drowning him in pain. Through blurred vision and paralysed limbs Spider watched the Primus step into view. The air around her rippled with atmospheric disruption. Her hands were spread wide, and her baby blue hair flitted as arcs of electricity played about her body. Her eyes glowed with a celestial fire.

"Lady Belladonna named me Primus, and bestowed a flicker of her power upon me. Before me you are nothing but an upstart legionnaire, a peasant before a baroness." She raised her left hand, and Spider was lifted off the ground on searing ripples of electric current. "Primus Khophine said you ran from her on Planet Caucasus, and Primus Persephone was punished severely for letting your ship escape her blockade. To think I didn't have to chase you. To think you simply came to me. Within our mistress's garden my flower will be raised above all others."

Spider found it hard to see, or think. His world was pain. She wasn't attacking him, but the nano coursing through his blood. He could barely breathe.

"What is this about? what do you people want?" the CEO asked.

The Primus turned to Angelique, and her grip on him ended abruptly. He sucked in lungs full of air, willing his limbs to obey his commands.

"Why have you gone through so much to bring me here?"

"Lady Belladonna has requested an audience with you. She has much she'd like to discuss."

"Who is this Belladonna? Why does she presume to summon me like this? Surely she realizes I am of an entirely unagreeable disposition after the ordeal I have been through."

The Primus laughed.

"Who are you to presume you are above summoning?"

"I am the CEO of The Earth Conglomerate, the greatest nation mankind has ever known."

"Lady Belladonna rules over a vast garden whose roots are buried deep inside your EC and far beyond. You, an elected official, are nothing in comparison to what she holds in her iron grip. Look at where you stand and know with one stroke she could crumble your entire economy or bring war to the heart of your collection of worlds. You are a politician. Lady Belladonna is a queen."

"And you are clearly a fanatic," scoffed the CEO. "I'll give this Belladonna one thing, she sure inspires loyalty."

"You can mock, but you have no idea."

"No, I think you have no idea. She wants to intimidate me? I'm intimidated. But that won't force my hand. I make no decisions that threaten the EC's bottom line. I have very few attachments and even fewer vices. I can't be swayed."

Angelique stood before the Primus, handcuffed and unarmed, and appeared the superior of the two women in her defiance.

"Lady Belladonna will like you, but first you must learn your place."

The remaining guard wasn't idle while the women spoke. He checked the vitals of his peers, but his demeanor said what Spider had already known. They were dead, beyond the help of any nano. He came over to Spider and gave him a rough kick to the ribs. It hurt, but it also got Liam's heart pumping. The pain helped chase away the immobility. The guard cocked a round into the chamber of his shotgun and pressed the barrel to Spider's nose.

Spider heard footsteps approaching, but didn't dare turn his head to see. Instead he waited until the newcomers came into view.

"Primus Ngata, I've brought the doppleganger to you," said the ship's Core AI from the body of a series 4 construct. With her were four new troopers and a woman dressed in a fashionable tunic suit. The machine's display looked down at Spider and back to the Primus. "I will direct reinforcements to this location. We are out of the range of other Garden ships, but I will send a message confirming the capture of the fugitives as soon as signal is detected."

"Ah, Diva-12, I commend your timing," Primus Ngata said. She applauded the machine. "Now, Madam CEO, while you meet with m'lady this woman will accompany you."

Ngata referred to the woman standing with the construct. Spider couldn't see her face until she stepped forward to shake Angelique's hand. The women wore the same face. A doppelgänger, a clone altered by surgery and gene therapy to be the exact match of a target. It was a rare procedure which was dangerous for the clone and banned by the Combine of Galactic Governed. Spider had never seen one with his own eyes, but had always assumed he could recognize the difference. He was wrong. Even under the enhanced scrutiny of his combat visor the two women were identical.

"So you people intend to replace me?" asked the CEO. Her words were indignant, but without fear.

"Only if you force us to. Lady Belladonna is a fan of your work and hopes to keep you as the head of The Board of Directors for as many terms as possible."

Renegade: Everything is set on my end. Singapore is ready to disembark.

Spider: I'm in trouble here. Seven combatants have me pinned, a-

The shotgun barrel pressed roughly into Spider's round nose.

"Keep whispering, scumbag, and I'll put a hole in your face."

Spider wasn't yet at a hundred percent, but believed his anger had restorative properties. He listened to the roar of two plasmatic edges crashing against each other, and the blood rushing through his ears. He thought of the Pale Garden and the shadow world it represented. Agents, companies, and planets, all in league with a warlord hellbent on recreating all things in her image. A hidden universe devoted to a madwoman. Spider had spent the last couple of years hating them for the death of his brother. Now he knew Lance was alive, an instrument of Belladonna's will, and his hate grew into a more intense flame.

He willed that fire into his numb body.

With a thought of his PSG his visor synced with the nano coating Spider's arm, and a display of the device's recharge cycle appeared before his eyes. He swept his eyes across the troopers before him, careful not to move his head. They all carried low yield small arms that wouldn't do more than dent his armor. The shotgun against his head was the only weapon posing a threat, but that threat was a significant one. Spider remained still, but he mentally prepared for his next move.

"Ms. Ngata, how does this man fit into my abduction?" asked the CEO with a gesture towards Spider.

Spider was in a unique position to see her work at her bonds while all other eyes were on him.

"Are you familiar with the Va Pu fable The Lost Galaxy?" asked the Primus.

"Yes, it shares many plot points with the Earth classic Moby Dick."

"That man is our lost galaxy or white whale." Ngata chuckled. "Providence has brought you both to my ship. The question is whether your association is coincidental or evidence of unexpected alliances."

"I have no affiliation with this man."

"We'll know soon enough. I have a w-"

"Prim... Pri... Primus, I am experiencing a system wide anomaly," The Core AI interrupted. Her Low-Face flickered in rapid cycles. "Unknow... unkn... unknown elements are interfe... inte... interfering wi-"

The Low-Face vanished in an explosion of yarn balls and small fish. In its place was a low resolution house cat. The construct purred and looked around, the cat image brushing up against the display screen. The troopers stepped back from the erratic machine. The construct meowed and fired on a white tinted trooper. The trooper dropped to the ground, clutching his smoking stomach. One of his peers moved to help him while the other two trained their guns on the malfunctioning series 4. Spider felt the pressure of the weapon at his head ease as the guard standing over him instinctively moved to protect the Primus.

Seeing a window, Spider acted without hesitation.

Up in an instant, he bent his body in a way that would leave him bruised once the adrenaline and nano wore off. Grabbing the shotgun by barrel and stock, he used the weapon as leverage to toss the guard over his hip. Spider turned the weapon upon its owner and at such close quarters the kinetic rounds ate through the trooper's armor as if it were merely a cotton fiber weave. He raised the shotgun and fired on the others, filling the air with volleys of death. The construct hissed and fired upon itself.

He didn't waste time watching the results of his handiwork. Calling on nano enhanced reflexes, he spun around and brought his weapon to bear on Primus Ngata.

He wanted to squeeze the trigger, wanted to turn her unarmored head into a wad of bloody meat and bone, but his body refused to heed his desires. Spider's finger hovered over the trigger, frozen by muscles that had betrayed him. Ngata grinned, one hand pointed at Spider, the other drawing out a golden blade forged to look like a barbed rose stem. She stalked towards him, completely at her mercy.

"You are nothing, a nuisance, a fly in an otherwise pristine garden," she said as she drew closer. She gestured with her hand and Spider threw the weapon aside, his hands her's. "Feel my disdain for you."

"Fuc-"

She closed her hand into a fist agonizingly slow, and lightning danced through Spider's body. The pain rolled towards his chest from his fingers and toes, building in intensity until it was white fire. Again Ngata made Liam scream.

"You will learn to ask permission before you speak." She let him drop to his knees, clutching at his chest. His organs were aflame and breathing became a struggle. "Then you will learn to beg at the feet of your betters."

Spider's visor filled with scrambled images as his brain was a jumble of incoherent thoughts. She was beside him, her unique blade pressed against his shoulder, but he was blind to the world. He felt the point penetrate his armor like a needle from a hypogun. The pain made it impossible to think straight, impossible to grab her by the throat and squeeze the life out of her.

"Let's begin your LESSON!" the last was said as she drove the blade through the muscle and deep into the bone. Spider tried to fight against the agony, but was powerless against her. "Does it hurt? My thorn is coated with a nano neutralizing toxin. That extraordinary nano will be hard pressed to heal this damage. Whether Xavier defeats your friend or he proves victorious, my victory is all but assured. There is no use struggling. I have you right where I want you."

"Ms. Ngata, tell your mistress that she will need to make an appointment like anyone else," Angelique said.

"It just occurred to me that you've been trying to be a distraction. I'm not sure why I didn't notice before."

"I'm not sure either."

A single shot rang out, loud and sharp. Low yield, high velocity. Primus Ngata collapsed to the ground, inches from Spider. A look of surprise forever etched into her face. Blood spilled from her eyes like crimson tears. A small exit wound smoked just above her left eye. Beside her was an assassin drone, its payload delivered, its systems powered down. The paralysis gripping his body rapidly faded as the light left her eyes.

CEO Farnsworth rushed to his side and, with the assistance of her doppelganger, helped him to his feet. Spider winced through the pain in his arm, acutely aware he was unable to move it. The doppelganger looked frightened and confused. The CEO looked stoic, cold even. Spider could see in her eyes someone who had killed enough to be unaffected by the emotional impact. He expected to see that look on the faces of soldiers. Seeing it in the eyes of a politician gave him pause.

"Are you okay, Madam CEO," he asked.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that question, Mister..."

"It'll be best if my name didn't appear in any reports, but I suspect you'll learn it before this is all done," he explained. "Spider. Call me Spider."

She studied him for a moment, then nodded. Spider didn't pick her brain, though he wondered what she thought of his words. Instead he grabbed his pistol, hobbled to the glass wall and sighted down his arm at Xavier. His interference would infuriate Raven, but they had Farnsworth, reinforcements were closing in, and Spider was in too much pain to care. Unfortunately he couldn't get a clear shot.

Raven was covered in smoking slashes, most of his tactical vest in burning tatters spread about the floor. Xavier didn't look much better. It was clear she was equal part human, and machine, though only a portion of her cybernetics consisted of Liryc Steel. Parts of her skin had blistered from the immense heat and patches of fur on Raven's head had already burnt away.

"I can do this forever," Xavier shouted over the clashing of their blades. "But I can see you're getting tired."

"I am tired," Raven admitted to Spider's surprise. "I don't think my hand can handle this game."

"I don't play a game. This fight is to the death."

"Surely," Raven snarled. He deflected an attack, pushed off of her blade, and back pedaled. "Spider, you ready to go!"

"You're kidding, right?" Spider asked over his staticky communicator.

"Good." Raven advanced with a flourish of his edge and switched hands, his grip on the blade drastically different. "Playtime is over."

The two swordsmen charged into a mad cascade of sparking edges. This clash was different from the previous, with Raven holding the advantage the entire exchange. Xavier learned what Spider had forgotten. Raven fought right handed to challenge himself, but his dominant hand was his left. It was a testament to Xavier's skill that she wasn't immediately cut down, as all of her timing was adjusted to match a style and tempo which Raven no longer utilized.

Raven feinted an attack to her side only to feint again, and strike a crippling blow down her spine. Xavier's legs buckled in exaggerated slowness as her cybernetic limbs went idle from degraded signals. Raven struck her mechanical arm off at the shoulder, and deactivated his weapon. She didn't scream or rage, she merely laid her head to the ground and waited for the final blow.

His hand smoked and blood bubbled from blackened cracks in his palm. The ancient felarnian warriors who created and perfected the art of the plasmatic edge had never intended for their deadly weapon to be used in such a drawn out battle. Their sacred weapon was meant to be a double edged sword that tested both warrior and opponent.

Recollection of his brother's studies on the felarnian warrior caste flooded Spider's mind. Lance had always admired the ancient felarnian warrior. It was ironic that Liam would lose his brother, and become brothers-in-arms with one.

Raven left her on the ground, refusing to give her the warrior's death. He gestured toward Spider and the two CEO's with a cocksure grin on his face. Spider shook his head and made a mental note to ridicule Scott about his mangy look and the missing patches of fur. He gave the real Angelique Farnsworth a strained smile, sweeping his arm out before her in his best imitation of a high society gentleman.

"After you, Madam CEO," he said, eliciting the slightest curling of her grimset lips.

"Umm, I don't know what's expected of me... do I go back to the clone barracks?" The doppelgänger looked upon Spider and Angelique with childlike expectation.

The CEO crouched down and claimed one of the dead trooper's pistols. She tore the sleeve from the clone's tunic and handed it to the woman. "You're going to cover your face, and come with us."

"Okay." The doppelganger did as instructed with a smile.

"I see an unexpected business opportunity, Mr. Spider. I trust we can come to some sort of agreement in the realm of confidentiality."

Spider nodded. Angelique Farnsworth was truly an impressive woman who had saved his life as much as he'd saved hers. He understood how she kept The Board of Directors, human space's most powerful people, under her thumb. Her tenacity would also keep her on Belladonna's radar.

The three joined Raven at the door. He stood tall, towering over them all, but Spider could see the tremors causing his hands to shake. Hooked to his belt was Xavier's cybernetic arm, with its liryc steel plating, as well as her plasmatic edge. Spider patted his friend on the shoulder, and took a deep breath. There was still work to do. They weren't home yet.

The trip back to The Singapore was far less eventful than Spider expected.

At first he'd assumed it was due to the ship's loss of leadership or the Core AI's call for reinforcements sending troops in the wrong direction. Then he began to fear an impending ambush. Neither him nor Raven were in any condition to fight much longer. He wasn't certain Ngata was the only Primus onboard and he knew he wouldn't survive another encounter in his current condition.

The truth wasn't made evident until their party passed a barracks where troopers were being held prisoner by constructs and service drones controlled by a familiar low-res house cat.

When they reached the launch bay, smoke filled the air, emergency lights flashed, and security klaxons blared. The Pale Garden Trinity Cutter fighter craft were aligned in long rows of slagged wreckage. The chamber had been turned into a crater-filled landscape. Spider and Raven led the women from cover to cover and past blasted bodies until they reached Singapore's loading ramp. The ship opened as they approached and closed the moment they were aboard.

ALL HANDS, PREPARE FOR EMERGENCY CLOSED DOCK TAKEOFF. LAUNCH IN TWO MINUTES AND COUNTING...

Two men, one of whom was named Benji, emerged from a makeshift barricade armed with assault rifles. Benji secured the cargo bay door while the other took up a defensive position beside the CEO. Spider listened to the ship countdown, and thought of his own ticking clock. He'd set a timer on his visor to track their time in war mode, but Primus Ngata's attack had reset his system. In retrospect it was a miracle his R.Nano hadn't retreated deep inside, and left him defenseless.

"Madam CEO, we have to get you secured before the ship enters the vacuum."

"This is my assistant. She stays with me."

"Of course, ma'am, but we must hurry."

"Please, lead the way."

The three left in a hurry and Benji followed after a curious look at Spider and Raven. Spider knew the war mode made them look more machine than man, but he found it amazing that most people didn't recognize them as Liam and Scott. Once they were alone, Spider slumped against the hull and wrapped himself in the cargo netting. Closing his eyes, he listened to the sound of his body hating him for the abuse it had endured.

Singapore took off with a bulkhead rattling jolt then violently broke the skin of Diva-12's thinned gaear shield. Unsecured cargo skidded and tumbled about as Singapore pulled away. After what seemed like an eternity of teeth rattling turbulence, they were finally away from the pull of the much larger vessel. The ride stabilized, and Spider breathed a deep sigh of relief.

"We need to power down before we exceed our operational limits... maybe a reset will kickstart the healing process. Universe knows we need it," he said.

"Speak for yourself," Raven growled.

Spider opened his eyes to see Raven attempting to apply bandages to his damaged hands. He shook his head, seeing no point in arguing with the stubborn man.

Renegade entered the cargo bay in a rush. Spider realized he must have looked like he felt because she'd given the pair a visual assessment and rushed to his side. She opened the medical kit she'd brought and connected a scanner to her datapad. Her grim expression gave him pause.

"There's something in your bloodstream suppressing your nano's first aid response," Renegade said as she moved the scanner wand across his body.

"Thought you said the R.Nano was nearly undetectable," Spider chuckled, his voice weak.

"It is, but I'm your doctor. I know what I'm looking for. Now be quiet, and let me find what's poisoning you."

She swept his arm, hovering over the rose stem blade which Ngata called her thorn.

"It's the blade," the two said in unison.

"If you knew that already, why didn't you say anything?" she growled.

"I don't know..."

"You're going into shock, you idiot."

Pepper's words, the feel of her hands poking and prodding, Scott's rough concern, the pain, the relief... it all faded.

His last thought before blissful nothingness took over was of his grandfather's front yard and pretending to be fighter pilots with his little brother.