We left at dawn with a pack full of scent bomb prototypes. Tu’ver had run analysis on the Xathi attack patterns, and he reported a high probability that Fraga was most at risk for the next attack, after Duvest. I hoped we got there in time to help. It’d be nice to do more than pick up the pieces.

Maybe the scent bombs could work as a sort of peace offering between the humans and the Vengeance crew.

I didn’t want a repeat of what happened with the mob in Duvest. I’m sure Leena didn’t either.

I didn’t expect her to defend me like that. A few days ago, she wanted nothing to do with me or any of the Vengeance crew. I would have thought she’d side with the humans in a heartbeat.

She surprised me. That’s all that Leena did, it seemed.

Surprise me.

Now she was walking beside me. She hadn’t spoken since we left.

She had this look on her face like she was trying to solve a problem that either had too many solutions or none at all. It was nothing like the expression she wore when she worked.

“You okay?” I ventured.

She chewed on her bottom lip.

I wasn’t sure she would answer me at all.

“It’s just strange,” she said after a few moments. “I keep thinking about the anger and the hate of the people that attacked you. It was like they were a different species from me.”

“Are you sure?” I chuckled. “Have you seen yourself when you’re angry?”

She whirled around to look at me, but she didn’t look mad like I thought she would. Instead, she looked pale and fearful, like I’d just told her she was a monster. In fact, I practically did.

“Bad joke,” I said with a sad smile. “You’re nothing like those people. You’re a little firecracker with a lot of drive and passion.”

She was less sure of how to react to that, but at least she didn’t look so horrified anymore.

“I am angry a lot,” she murmured so softly I almost didn’t hear her.

“Maybe. But it doesn’t stem from a place of hatred and fear,” I shrugged. “Face it, Leena. You’re a good person whether you like it or not.”

I definitely regretted my decision to keep our relationship professional. I was sure that was why she turned so cold to me back at the lab. Again, I was taken aback by just how little I really knew about her.

In the last two days, I’d seen her be almost mechanical in her emotional range, completely break down, reject personal connections, and crave physical connection. I didn’t know who this woman was at all. And the more time I spent with her, the more I became convinced that she didn’t know who she really was, either.

Or maybe everything I’d seen was just more constructed layers, and the real Leena was even farther down.

I wasn’t like her. I didn’t go out of my way to pick everything apart to understand all of the details and inner workings.

I was a point-and-shoot kind of guy. Give me an order, I’d follow it.

It’s not my job to question things. It was my job to get this mission complete.

I knew exactly who I was. I was the muscle. I was a damn good soldier.

I’d like to think I was a pretty okay guy, too.

The chirp of a navigation unit drew me back to the here and now. Leena fumbled for something in her back pocket and pulled out a little black box. It chirped once more.

“What you got there?” I asked.

It was strange of her to be carrying her own nav unit. Jeneva had given me the one she programmed with the safest route to Duvest. I was using it now to get us to Fraga.

I didn’t even know Leena had swiped one for herself. Probably to make sure I wouldn’t get us lost. That seemed like something she would do.

She didn’t answer me.

Instead, with her gaze still fixed on the nav unit, she made a sharp right and hurried off into the forest.

“By the systems,” I grunted before rushing after her. Again with this srell? You’d think she’d have learned not to run off into the murder forest.

I couldn’t see her through the thick foliage. Panic squeezed in my chest.

“Leena! Where the srell are you?”

“I’m right here. Calm down,” came her reply.

I followed her voice, feeling significantly less worried and twenty times more pissed. I picked up the pace until I saw her. I grabbed her by the forearm, probably more roughly than I should have, but I needed to make sure she wouldn’t run off again.

“Do not tell me to calm down,” I said firmly. “You’re making my job more difficult than it has to be every time you run off without a word. Do you not understand how dangerous this place is?”

She fixed me with a steely gaze. Under the weight of her cold eyes, I was tempted to apologize, even though she was clearly in the wrong.

“Of course I understand,” she snapped.

She tried to wrench her arm out of my grip, but I out-muscled her. I could probably snap her arm like a toothpick. Not that I ever would.

“So, are you deliberately trying to get yourself killed?” I demanded.

“No,” she scoffed.

“Are you trying to kill me, then? Believe me, female, there are better ways to do that,” I continued.

She narrowed her eyes. “Can I have a list?”

Now it was my turn to scoff. “I would like to see you try,” I challenged. “Seriously, what were you thinking, running off like that? I would have thought the Luurizi and the hologram trap would have been enough to curb that incredibly annoying tendency.”

She flinched a little at the mention of the hologram child.

“There’s something I need to pick up,” she said, avoiding my gaze.

“Oh!” I exclaimed. “Is that all? Well, thank you for that incredibly informative answer. I’ll just let you go about your business!”

“Your sarcasm leaves something to be desired,” she said, giving me a blank stare.

“Your honesty leaves something to be desired,” I fired back. “Tell me what’s going on, or else I will throw you over my shoulder and carry you to Fraga kicking and screaming.”

She wanted to argue. I could see it in her eyes. Eventually, logic must have won her over because she sighed.

“Fine. I need to go to a nearby Quake station,” she explained.

When she didn’t say anything more, I prodded.

“Full disclosure. Right now. Or over my shoulder you go,” I warned.

She glared at me but kept talking.

“Quake stations are university run. I did all of my research in a university lab. All university run locations share a single data server. If I go to the Quake station, it’s likely that I can recover my research,” Leena explained as if it wasn’t the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard.

“You’re going to risk your life, mine, and potentially the lives of the people waiting on these prototypes for your research?” I asked.

I was sure I was missing a piece of the puzzle here.

“I’m sorry, I can’t let you jeopardize the mission in this way.”

In one quick movement, I scooped her up. I didn’t throw her over my shoulder like I’d threatened to. She didn’t struggle as much as I expected she would, either.

“This research could save Mariella’s life,” she blurted. “And mine,” she added in a voice so quiet, I almost didn’t hear her.

I immediately stopped walking and set her down. She stood facing me with her arms crossed over her chest, but there wasn’t as much fight in her as there was before.

“Explain,” I demanded.

“My sister and I,” she began.

She paused, searching for the right words. Or talking herself up, so that she could get through it.

“We have a genetic defect. An illness. It is very rare, and, as of right now, is untreatable and incurable.”

“Oh,” I said, my body softening towards her. “Leena, I’m so sorry.”

She didn’t seem to hear me. She continued to explain in that mechanical, bare-bones way of hers.

“Our mother had it. It killed her before she turned fifty. She told us her mother had it as well, but little else. It targets white blood cells first. It makes us more susceptible to illnesses. Then it slowly shuts down organs. It’s why I became a chemist in the first place. It’s why Mariella became an archivist, to keep searching the records for clues. We were supposed to work together to find a cure. But one day, Mariella decided that wasn’t how she wanted to spend her life. I’ve been working on my own ever since.”

Tears glimmered in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.

My heart broke for her. I couldn’t imagine what it was like to carry the weight of something like that on her shoulders.

“Oh, Leena,” I reached for her slowly, but she shifted away.

She wasn’t ready to be touched yet. I understood now that she shrunk away from others when she felt vulnerable.

“That’s why I am the way that I am,” she said, staring intensely at a spot on the ground. “It’s not fair of me to get close to people when, in a few years, I’ll start showing symptoms. It’s not fair to someone to have to watch me go through that with no power to stop it. And it’s not fair of me to ever want children. I couldn’t live with myself if I passed my cursed genetics on to a child of mine.”

I’d gotten it all wrong. Leena didn’t shove people away to protect herself, she thought she was protecting others. I closed the space between us in one step and wrapped her in my arms.

She didn’t resist. Instead, she let her head rest against my chest. I felt her small body shake with the sobs she’d been trying to hold in for who knows how long.

I didn’t say anything, I just let her cry. I think that was all she really needed.

I kept my eyes on the forest as I ran a hand through her hair. I couldn’t think of a worse time for some terrible beastie to attack.

After twenty minutes or so, Leena straightened up. She pulled away from me, but not roughly.

“Let’s go,” she said, her eyes still red from crying. “I’ve wasted enough time.”

“I’m right behind you,” I said with an understanding smile.

Her faint smile back was all I needed.