The harbinger's mighty body was shaking.

The storm outside was everything the scientists had promised and more. When Rhys had been a young boy, attempting to prove that he was as strong as his father, he and the other boys had played on the edge of death. Kol-Eresh had been the youngest boy there as they stayed out of the gates of Jos Gharo until the guards literally had to drag them away.

It was a battle against their own weakness. Rhys recalled the memories with fondness. Standing pressed against the cliff, holding on the blades stuck into the fortress' outer wall, trying not to get swept up by the winds that were powerful enough to make them crawl back to safety.

The game had been hard and unforgiving. Every year one of the players died, but it didn't stop the others from going out there again. It was one of the first things Rhys asked from young warriors who wanted to join his crew – whether they had played the game or not. Those who hadn't, who had never dared to risk their lives to prove themselves, didn't make the cut.

The few meager minutes he'd spent outside the Gech had nearly killed him.

It was hard for Rhys to admit, but even he had been pushed to his limits.

He looked at the bodies on the floor and Quinn's face as she slowly knelt down beside her sister, tears running down her cheeks.

"Is she –?" his fated asked, her voice breaking.

"Barely clinging to life," Rhys replied, not wanting to give Quinn too much hope.

It was painful to watch Quinn run her fingers over her sister's ice-cold face, wincing when she found it to be as cold as Rhys had back in the ship.

"So she's still alive," Quinn said, looking at him pleadingly.

He didn't know what to say. It was impossible for him to do anything that might hurt Quinn, but she needed to know the truth or it would have hit her all the harder if things went wrong, which was the most likely outcome.

Rhys crouched down next to them, pressing his fingers against her neck, looking for a pulse.

"In the broadest of senses, yes," he said. "I need you to understand that she's in a bad way, Quinn. When I brought you into the Gech, you were all but frozen and I was scared of losing you. She is much, much worse. Your sister needs a miracle."

Quinn stared at him, her beautiful blue eyes wild and determined.

"Alright," she said firmly. "Point taken. Now tell me how to make that miracle happen."

"There are no guarantees," Rhys added.

"I accept that," Quinn said, pulling the heavy coat from her shoulders and wrapping it around her sister's lifeless body. "I just want you to know that I will not stop trying until Cassie is cold as... I was going to say cold as a corpse, but that's not right. I can't stop fighting for her until she draws her last breath. Help me save her."

She didn't need to ask. Rhys already knew he would have given everything to spare Quinn the heartache of losing the one person she loved most in the world. There were reasons other than mere compassion, though, and it was lying on the floor right next to Cassie.

Rhys couldn't shake the feeling that it was all connected somehow and that the female's fate was his responsibility. There was an ominous sense in him that said it was his fault Quinn's sister was in that state.

"We need to get back to the fortress," Rhys told his fated. "The Gech is not a safe place for her, nor you. It's getting worse by the hour and soon it will be minutes. We need to make it back. Only in Jos Gharo could she stand a chance."

Quinn nodded, reaching for his words like a lifeline.

"Yes," she said, wiping the tears away. "I'll get the Gech moving at once."

Rhys looked at his fated, gorgeous in her fierceness. Her entire body was shaking, wrecked by spasms now that she'd given the coat away. The harbinger desperately wanted to suggest that she take it back and keep warm in the fur, but Quinn was right. Without it, her sister would never make it back to the fortress alive. It was nothing short of astounding that she'd lived so far.

Just one of the clues that led Rhys to believe that there was something sinister going on.

"We need to get her upstairs," he said. "I'll tie this one up."

He pointed to Dolor. Some color was returning to the warrior's face which made Rhys glad. He had no sympathy for the man but he had some pressing questions he wanted to put to him and it was no use to the harbinger if Cassie's fated died before telling him what he needed to know.

Quinn watched with a small frown as he propped Dolor up against one of the many pipes and pillars in the Gech's lower floor, tying him up.

"Are you sure we can leave him here?" Quinn asked, looking worried. "It's absolutely freezing in here and you say it's going to get worse."

"Much worse," Rhys said without any mercy, glancing at his fated. "This asshole tried to kill your sister."

"I know," Quinn said, a dark shadow flashing over her face, "but I'm not sure if I'm ready to murder him for it."

It reminded Rhys sharply that they were, after all, two very different species. If he didn't need Dolor to talk, he would have thrown the man out into the storm without a shred of pity for him.

He decided not to share that particular piece of information with Quinn, but he'd found the couple wrapped together in the small ship. Not in a romantic, loving way. It was clear that the female had been trying to struggle loose, to get warm or just get away.

He had never doubted the fated bonds and Rhys wasn't about to start now, but there was still such a thing as madness. It was becoming very clear to him that Dolor was nothing short of completely insane. Yet it seemed to him there was a reason there somewhere, a sense of purpose that he needed to discover before Dolor had outlived his usefulness.

"He won't die," Rhys told Quinn. "The diadon will keep him alive. Come. Your sister needs to get warm, or as warm as it's possible to get in this."

He lifted the unconscious female into his arms and climbed up the ladders to the elevator. Quinn watched their progress with concern, clearly trying to listen to her sister's breathing, but it wasn't audible.

"Stop thinking about it," Rhys warned her, seeing Quinn never taking her eyes off her sister. "You're not helping her by imagining her dead. All we have to do is keep moving forward, like we planned before. Everything that helps us helps her and vice versa."

With difficulty, Quinn nodded, pressing her lips into a thin line and forcing herself to look away.

"I have an idea," she said quietly, trying to focus on something else than her sister dying. "Idea on how to get the Gech as close to Jos Gharo as possible without one of us sitting in the harness."

That was the best news Rhys had heard in a while. It almost made him believe that the entire ugly mess would have a positive ending if he didn't still have that nagging doubt that there was a piece of the puzzle he wasn't seeing.

"Tell me," he ordered her.

"I was thinking," Quinn explained, "that the Gechs are made to look for water and food, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay. So what if I somehow manage to convince the program that there's an underground water reservoir right next to the stairs of Jos Gharo. As close as I can make it without the harvester literally breaking down the front gates. Like that, the Gech would move there on its own. Much more gracefully than one of us could walk and we'd be free to focus on surviving."

"I think that's a good plan," Rhys said as the doors of the elevator opened and they stepped into the control room. "Can you do it?"

"I think so, yes," Quinn said, looking at Cassie again.

"Leave her to me," Rhys said. "Go."

Quinn sat down again, taking a deep breath and starting to work on the Gech's main program. The idea wasn't bad at all the more Rhys thought of it. He trusted Quinn to do everything she'd promised even if he couldn't shake the fear that they were going to damage the fortress.

The harvester began to shake around them again, growling as Quinn was trying to make it believe in something that didn't exist.

Rhys checked on Quinn's sister. The female was still lifeless, her empty eyes staring into nothingness as if she'd frozen solid. While Quinn wrestled the Gech, Rhys went over to the hatch they'd found the food in and retrieved some emergency medical supplies. They were nothing compared to what Jos Gharo had, but it was something.

He injected Cassie with adrenaline shots and boosters to make her body fight for itself. After long moments, nothing happened. The situation of the female remained the same and it was getting more and more clear to the harbinger that it was a hopeless, lost cause.

He looked at Quinn, trying her best to keep it together, but Rhys could still hear the muffled sobbing coming from her as she attempted to save someone who was beyond saving.

There is no other way.

Rhys knew it was dangerous beyond anything. He wasn't a healer, nowhere near qualified to do the procedure, but there was only one thing that could have saved Quinn's sister at that point. The female was more ice than human at that point and nothing in her system was capable of combating the damage already done to her.

"Yes!" Quinn cried out, jumping up from the seat.

The Gech stopped rumbling and started moving again. The floor shook as it stood up straight and started walked purposefully. They were going home, but Cassie's time was up.

"How is she?" Quinn asked, coming closer.

The smile on her face was heartbreaking.

"Is it alright now?" she asked, the hopeful glint in her eyes piercing Rhys' body like a blade. "We're on our way. It's bad in here, I know, but we can do it. I know we can make it. I made the Gech touch down right next to the stairs. With luck, we should be able to jump to the stairs and then –"

"She's dying, Quinn," Rhys said. "She's almost gone."

The smile fell from his fated's lips.

"No."

"Quinn..."

"No! Jos Gharo is right there! The ETA shows twenty minutes! Rhys, please..."

He stood, bringing his fated into his arms, feeling her shake as sorrow took her.

"There is one way," he said quietly.

Quinn pulled away, staring at him with such emotion in her eyes Rhys knew he couldn't fail. If he let the young female slip away, Quinn would never look at him the same way again. He knew that she was goodhearted enough to appreciate him trying, but just as certainly it was clear it would be all – just appreciation.

Rhys had never tried to prove himself to anyone else but himself. Sure, the admiration and fear of other Nayanors flattered and urged him on, but it wasn't why he'd fought his way to where he was.

Now Quinn was changing all that. The harbinger had never ached so much to see the light of love in her eyes, to be the hero to her. Even if he had to risk losing her love.

"I won't promise anything," he said. "I've never done this before and there are a thousand ways it can do wrong. There's a reason why this isn't the first thing we do to females who arrive on Luminos.

"Come with me. Your sister's fated has hurt her enough. Now he can save her by giving her the diadon."