[sylvanSpider]

Marco was, for all intents and purposes, blind. He sat back on his haunches, legs spread and bent at the knee, torso hunched over the empty space, both palms pressed to his eye sockets to try to help them water. Completely oblivious to all that was happening around him, including the decapitation and subsequent regeneration of his fellow recruit, he leaned his head back, keeping his hands where they were, fingers slightly curled with tears running down his cheeks. He'd cast his eyepatch aside, left eye seeing sunlight for the first time in months but his vision – and visions, for that matter – were a blurred mess of headache and dizziness.

The twins were as oblivious to Marco as he was to them, both their sights trained on the lizard. Roek cracked his neck, smirking, “Ah, I see. Ye think we're just gon'ta let ye walk all over us like that? Look around, lizard. Yer outnumbered, an' two of us are on the galaxy's most wanted list. Wanna know why we're on that list, lizard?”

Damon cracked the knuckles of his right hand on his left palm, and again his left on his right, also taking a step toward the lizard, extending his hands, balls of flame emerging in both palms, “Et's because we're dangerous. Very dangerous.”

“We're takin' Marco. Yer right about that. But we're also takin' the lass. We've reason t'want 'er aboard, innat right, Damon?” Roek said this without looking to his twin, his eyes keeping contact with the reptile's own.

“That's right. We'll give ye t' the count o' three t'run. After that? Well, Cook might be pleased t'see a new type of meat introduced. Pre-cooked.”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

“It took everything,” Qi'an murmured, “In an instant. And then it took again...” Her voice was soft, trance-like, but it didn't stop her back from straightening, the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end at the touch of Ilan's hot breath. The shiver running down her spine was not one of discomfort, or fear. Rather, it was one of anticipation and she found herself leaning back into the man now draped over her, her hands deftly reaching up to take his, her fingers lacing with his.

I can show you love...he said.

The pair remained statuelike, in an embrace fit for art, motionless save for the rising of their chests. Both could feel the electricity, the static at the tips of their hair follicles, on their fingertips, in every beat of their warm-blooded hearts. A tear, too, emerged from Qi's eye as she could feel Ilan's on her shoulder, through her shirt. “But will you?” Qi asked, her heart catching in her throat, “For how long before you leave?”