Errend stood behind Derek's old chevy, willing himself to blend in with the shadows cast from support pillars and the other parked vehicles. He watched Aiya and Derek embrace, feeling a strange mixture of emotions pass through him.

He made sure to let them pass, not allowing himself to hold or dwell on any of them. But he was surprised to find jealously as one of the emotions. He had never thought that possible. Could he even truly love?

He was so confused. He'd been taught that letting himself feel emotions for longer than the milliseconds it took for them to wash over him and dissipate would lead to disaster. Yet what had happened on the train last night defied all he had been led to believe.

Aiya had found him on the brink of losing control. His anger had taken over, and he'd been unable to stop it. When she had said his name, voice full of worry, confusion and fear, it had torn at his insides.

He had refused to turn around to see the look of disbelief and terror on her face. He knew his body must have been crackling with energy, and even if she hadn't been able to see it with the naked eye, she definitely would have been able to feel it.

Yet like so many times before, she had surprised him. The woman was a nut case at best, but her heart was bigger than any humans he had ever met.

Turning from the embracing couple, Errend rubbed his face and closed his eyes as his thoughts remembered the impossible.

On an instinctual level, she had to have known he was dangerous at that moment. Catastrophically dangerous. But it hadn't stopped her from coming to him, placing a timid hand on his white knuckles and kneeling to stare intensely up into his eyes, asking, "How can I help?"

Errend's composure almost faltered in the dim light as he remembered her eyes, almost glowing ice-blue gazing so compassionately into his.

Something had passed between them at that moment. Some unsaid understanding, as if her luminescent eyes read the emotions of his suppressed soul.

Without words, without hesitation, she stood and pulled his head to her chest, wrapping her arms protectively around his head and shoulders.

Feeling and hearing her heartbeat, a steady and calming rhythm, and smelling the faint smell that was Aiya mixed with her favourite coconut oil and peppermint to ward off bugs, soothed him in a strange and almost magical way.

As the anger drained from him, he felt one, then two, then a steady flow of tears run down his face. The energy he had gathered fizzled into nothing as his anger turned to heartbroken sobs, and for the first time since his parents had abandoned him at the Holy House, Errend let himself cry with abandon.

He had woken many hours later as the sky had begun to lighten to find his head resting in Aiya's lap, her hand on his hair, as she leaned against the wall of the train under a window beside the table from the night before. Her head was propped against a chair, and surprisingly she dozed.

When he tried to quietly pull away to rise, she woke. Her eyes seemed a little darker this morning. A little deeper blue as she looked at him, a hauntedness was lingering there.

Errend knew then that nothing would ever be the same between them. He waited for the questions, the accusations about his hiding information, anything really, but she just stared at him. He briefly wondered if this was how people felt around him, looking at a blank face expecting something but getting nothing.

He hadn't meant to keep any secrets. He had tried to explain the day they encountered the Skullets. It just hadn't worked out. Then his time had run out.

When he finally did rise, she still didn't say anything. So Errend quietly said, "Thank you, Aiya, " and had left her sitting on the floor of the dining car staring at nothing but looking like she had seen everything.

The sound of Grayson's voice brought Errend back to the moment. He turned to watch Grayson face off with a lanky young man called Daniels that had little respect for Grayson.

It was curious to see Grayson want to rip a man a new one and be completely unable to do it.

Listening to Daniels ask for everyone's weapons then Aiya laughing in his face before calmly say no, created an anxious knot in Errend's gut. This wasn't going to end well if Daniels pushed the issue. Promises had been made.

Errend was debating engaging in the conversation, intending to keep the peace, when he heard Derek speak up.

"Aiya was promised she would be allowed her crew and our weapons. We can leave, man. This place isn't exactly the bat cave I imagined anyways."

Errend knew Derek was saving Aiya from herself. She wouldn't have been so diplomatic or calm about it. She didn't take kindly to being told one thing then being asked to do the opposite.

She strangely took verbal promises far more seriously than any other human adult Errend had ever met. He hadn't decided if it was childish or noble. Yet then again, in today's world, a verbal promise was sometimes all that was available.

"I was not informed of allowing anyone inside armed. Who made this promise?" Daniels posed the question to Grayson like it was an accusation.

Grayson had decided to be the bigger man finally and shrugged at Daniels, saying, "Fucked if I will waste my breath. Call upstairs twerp and find out."

Daniels's face transformed into an ugly sneer, but he turned anyway and headed over to a phone built into the rock wall of the parking lot.

After some hushed conversation, Daniels returned, looking furious. Someone had just stolen his fun. Errend had to fight the emotion that struck him then, and the smile that would have graced his lips vanished before it ever existed.

The words that left the man's mouth, however, made Errend's blood run cold.

-----------------------

Aiya watched the jackass named Daniels strut back to everyone. He was pissed, but his eyes held something she recognized all too well. This man was a sadist at heart and was going to find a way, one way or another, to cause pain today.

"I have confirmed this promise, " Daniels said the word like it made him sick, "and you are all allowed to carry one weapon each on your person along with your essential belongings."

Daniel paused here for effect and then said, "But the freak goes up in electro cuffs and a collar." The glint in his eye was too much. He would find a reason to use the cuffs, even if for no other reason than to see Errend spasm in pain from 80 000 volts coursing through his body. And there was no doubt in Aiya's mind he was talking about Errend. Especially after last night.

Aiya's mind spun with a zillion things she wanted to do to this sick man but settled on one thing, making sure he didn't get what he wanted.

"No. If you need to shock someone, you can shock me. Or am I not your type, big boy." She gave him a knowing smirk.

Aiya heard Derek groan and her brother curse. They didn't like this idea, but if she were right, the man Daniels would feel obligated to agree, and no one would get tasered.

"Look, Errend won't do anything if my getting hurt is the cost. And I am the one who gives orders, so consider it a way to guarantee we all behave, Ya? Or do you only like putting tall, handsome men in cuffs?"

Aiya's eyes were ice, but she let her smirk grow just a fraction as she saw Daniels's face contort.

Daniels's face looked ready to explode. His nostrils flared, and he seemed to suck in all the air around him. Aiya had a feeling this hero complex of hers would soon be coming back to bite her in the ass.

However, she hadn't been wrong. She'd found the right button. All the guards glanced at each other, exchanging looks. Yea, Daniels was a sick duck for sure, and they all knew it.

His pride wouldn't let him do anything but deny his desire to cuff Errend for personal reasons and not actual orders. Aiya would bet that the order had been his alone and not from the people in charge. They just hadn't specifically told him not to.

"What the fuck, Aiya!" Marvin was at her side, and he was pissed too.

Bloody men! Aiya thought.

"It will be fine, Marvin." Aiya didn't dare whisper more because she knew Daniels would hear. She would explain later.

Recently, well, for about a month now, Aiya had started to see things. At first, she thought it was just stress and being overworked. Or she was finally going insane, and that was not something she had been ready to deal with.

Last night on the train with Errend, though had shown her otherwise. Something in her was changing. She had no idea what or how, and honestly, it scared her so bad she felt physically ill, but what she saw in Daniels was clear to her right now. She knew what she was doing.

She had planned to bring it up with Marvin on the way here, but sleep had claimed her. So they would talk, and hopefully, he wouldn't think she'd finally cracked for real.

Daniels was still flaring his nostrils like a bull wanting to charge, not yet seeming able to speak.

Errend magically appeared, like he always, out of nowhere and quietly said, "Aiya, thank you. Again. I..." she turned to see the agony that was still in his eyes from the night before and shook her head to silence him.

She knew how badly he wanted to go inside this damned facility, it poured from him in waves, but she also knew having to let these people cuff him, chain him again, would destroy something inside him that he seemed to be only now finding.

Not wanting to reveal anything to the onlookers, the guards or her team, she didn't address Errand directly but instead said a little too loudly, "Honestly, I am the real threat here. I could tell everyone to start shooting, and all hell would break loose. It doesn't make sense to cuff one man who has no control over our team when they could cuff the one person with all the control. It would seem stupid not to really." She met Daniels's eyes, challenging him. "I keep my guns, though. Both of them. My hands will be cuffed, so it shouldn't scare you."

Daniels finally seemed to calm down. He, for some reason, had decided the situation was funny. Or perhaps he liked her attitude. It didn't matter. The result was the same.

Daniels took two strides and wrapped her wrists in tight electro cuffs. Then he made sure the one around her neck was snug, almost too snug, and she had to fight back a moment of panic as it felt like she couldn't swallow properly or breathe right.

She made her face remain calm, somehow, then controlling her breathing forced herself to calm down completely. Glaring at the smug man in front of her, she inclined her head, saying, "So, are we ready now, Princess?" And prayed she was right that he wouldn't taser her.