Klowix had told her not to go down without a fight, and Bethany didn’t intend to disappoint him. She screamed, kicked, writhed, and scratched, anything she could to break free or injure her captors. Eventually, they seemed to decide she was too much trouble conscious, and she felt a dull blow to the back of her head.

When Bethany awoke, it took a few moments for her to remember where she was and why. Her head was throbbing and she still had a slight ringing in her ears. She lay still, pretending to be asleep, as she did a mental inventory of her body. Her left ankle was aching, but it didn’t feel broken. She could feel dried blood on her back from a few painful scratches, though she couldn’t tell how deep they were.

Bethany finally opened her eyes to see a dim room. She was shoved in a corner while about five men argued viciously with each other.

“We should kill her now!”

“No, he’ll have it up in a few minutes.”

“We may not have a few minutes – trust me, none of us wants Klowix to catch us with her.”

“We need to make an example, that was the whole point – let them see a filthy human killed on live feed, see how many will stay here after that.”

Bethany closed her eyes again. She was in more trouble than she’d thought. She had to escape now, before they decided to kill her sooner rather than later. She wriggled a bit, only to find that her arms were tied behind her back. Worse, there was something sharp jabbing into her side, and she couldn’t get it out.

She peered down, trying to see if she had a shard of broken glass or something to worry about. She saw nothing but a small tear in her dress. Bethany suddenly remembered Culip, her hands clutching Bethany’s dress for a moment before she was taken away.

Culip wouldn’t just let them take her, not without fighting back. The others had been fighting back and losing. Culip was smarter than all of them, though; perhaps her way of fighting back was to give Bethany a chance to save herself.

Bethany tried to twist her hands free to see what the mystery object Culip had left her was. Unfortunately, though they had used simple rope and not the metallic binding string that law enforcement officers on Telion often used, it was thick and tight, and she couldn’t get it off.

She tried to control her breathing and think. Klowix said that panic could kill you as surely as the enemy could. If you let your mind get away from you, you were lost.

Bethany glanced around, looking for something sharp.

A sixth man entered. “Bad news. They’re blocking the frequency, they probably realize what we’re trying to do. I can get it back up, but it’ll take a few hours.”

This gave Bethany an idea and she coughed weakly. A few heads turned towards her, and she slumped against the wall, pretending to be weaker than she really was. Gathering her resolve, Bethany pinched the sensitive inside of her cheek in her teeth, and bit as hard as she could. She could taste blood in her mouth and bent over, coughing as hard as she could.

When they saw the blood, one of the captors came to her. “We can’t have her dying now, not if we want to put her death on the live feed.”

Bethany started wheezing and choking.

Hands quickly untied her and pulled her onto her side, roughly shoving a bundled-up coat under her head. Bethany choked for a bit more before quieting, nestling her hands in front of her as she let her breathing ease up.

“Should we get a doctor?”

“No, she seems fine now. Humans are so weak. She probably won’t last long; but then, she only needs to last a few hours.”

Bethany closed her eyes, pretending to have slipped into unconsciousness again. She had what she wanted; her hands were untied.

She listened as the men went back to the other side of the room and back to their discussions of how best to kill her. Bethany risked opening her eyes a fraction, but only saw their backs to her.

Carefully, she reached into the rip in her dress and brought out a small disk. She cupped it in her hand, looking at it for a moment before closing her eyes again, trying to remember what it was. She knew she’d seen something like this before.

The memory suddenly came back to her. Klowix had stowed these all over the house – emergency beacons, he called them. If Bethany could get this in contact with something electronic – anything – it would steal energy from it and send out a distress signal to every soldier on the planet. More importantly, it would also send it to Klowix’s personal T-screen.

Bethany risked another glance at her captors. She didn’t see anything electronic. The room seemed devoid of anything that could help her. She took a deep breath, holding in her fear. She just needed to get the message out. Only once she’d done that could she could give in to fear.

She tentatively called out to them. “Hello?”

The men ignored her.

“Please… I need something to eat. I have a medical condition. If I don’t eat, I could lapse into a coma and die.”

That got their attention.

“No way Klowix would have chosen a defective one.”

“He’s not that far gone.”

“What if he has? This is the only one we’ve got.”

“Get up!” One of them finally yanked Bethany to her feet. “Come on. You’d better not be lying to us.”

Though it turned her stomach, Bethany leaned on him for support, as though she was too weak to walk by herself. He brought her through to a tiny, dirty kitchen. Wherever they were, the place obviously hadn’t been used for years.

He shoved her toward the fridge, and Bethany stumbled, clutching the beacon in her hand. She put her hand against the fridge, as though holding herself up, pressing the beacon against the cold metal. It warmed at once, and Bethany let it fall to the floor. It had done its job. Klowix was on his way.

“You want food or not?”

Bethany opened the fridge and grabbed the first thing her hands touched – some kind of fruit that must be unique to Telion, because she’d never seen it before. She sank down at the table and ate mechanically, waiting. How long would it take Klowix to get to her?

She should stay in this room, if she could. The beacon would have auto-destructed after sending out the signal, a safety measure against it being discovered, and it would have sent this room as her exact location. Klowix would come directly here, and she wanted to be waiting for him.

“I’m so tired.” She let her head sink onto her arms on the table.

Her captor grunted in disgust and kicked a chair out of the way on his way out, muttering about how weak humans were. Bethany kept her breathing deep and even, in case one of them came back, counting the breaths. When Klowix got the message, he wouldn’t wait. He’d take the fastest hover and come at once. How far away was he?

“Ha! All right, girl, enough sleeping, let’s get this show on the road.”

Bethany’s insides went cold as someone dragged her up. They must have gotten the live feed working. Now, it was time to kill her. She was dragged into a plain room in front of a battered old camera. One of the men had a knife in his hand.

Bethany was terrified. What if she’d sent the signal too late? What if Klowix didn’t arrive in time?

“Wait, what’s that?”

The knife moved to hang loosely at the man’s side as he listened. Bethany listened, too. She could hear the faint zooming sound of a hover approaching at top speed. Despite everything, she smiled.

She looked up into the eyes of the men surrounding her. “You should run.”

Suddenly, the world exploded.

Klowix burst into the room like a summer storm. His eyes were blazing. He had a laser in each hand – not one of the little defensive lasers he’d left at the house, but powerful, military-grade lasers, which were glowing a menacing red as they prepared to fire.

Bethany was thrown aside as her captors made defensive moves. She knew Klowix well enough by now to stay down and out of harm’s way.

He was magnificent. With one shot, he blew a man’s head off entirely. Even as another tried to tackle him, Klowix twisted and kicked him in the stomach before dispatching him with a quick shot to the chest. Another ran at him, and Klowix shot him at such close range that his body turned to mist with the heat of the laser.

Those who remained switched their tactics from attack to escape, but Klowix cut them down just as quickly. He was a god, as glorious as he was terrifying. His face was hard and set, and showed not an ounce of mercy. The men fell like broken toys, gone before they knew what was happening.

By the look on Klowix’s face, Bethany thought they should be glad their deaths were quick. She thought she’d seen him angry before, but she realized now that she never truly had. This was more than anger; this was lethal rage flowing smoothly from his twisting body. The thugs who had kidnapped her were paying the ultimate price for their actions.

It had only been moments, and the whole thing was over. Bethany found that she was squashed into a corner, trembling.

“Come.” Klowix held out a hand, his eyes flickering around the room, looking for any more attackers. Bethany knew there weren’t any more, but she couldn’t seem to get her mouth to work to tell him that. “Come!” He gestured impatiently, but Bethany couldn’t move.

Klowix crossed the room swiftly and crouched down in front of her. “Are you badly hurt?”

Bethany managed to shake her head. That was all he needed. Klowix picked her up in one smooth motion and carried her away through the hole he’d blown in the wall. The cuts on Bethany’s back pulled painfully, but in seconds, Klowix had her lying on the back seat of the hover.

Bethany could hear the screeching sound of emergency hovers approaching and chuckled under her breath. Of course, Klowix had the situation resolved before they even arrived. He must have flown at light speed to get to her so fast – a good thing he did, too.

Klowix glanced back at her every few seconds, checking if she was ok. Bethany wished he wouldn’t. The hover was going so fast that she feared they’d crash if he was distracted. Her voice still didn’t seem to be working. Klowix was talking to someone on the coms, ordering a doctor to be waiting.

The hover came to a smooth stop and arms reached for Bethany. She screamed and scooted back against the opposite side of the hover.

“Bethany, it’s ok, they’re doctors, let them look at you.”

Klowix reached a hand in for her, and she slowly took it, letting him help her out. They weren’t home like she expected – of course they weren’t. Their home had been blown up by maniacs.

She finally found her voice. “Are the others ok? Beoli, Snia, Lizzy…?”

“They’re all fine. You will be soon as well. Just rest now.”

Bethany’s eyes didn’t seem to want to close, so she stared upwards as she was loaded onto a stretcher and quickly carried to an unfamiliar bed. She didn’t recognize Dr. Yie. Bethany wondered who the new doctors were and where Dr. Yie was. The doctors poked and prodded her as Bethany tried to curl up into a ball. She just wanted to sleep. She gasped in pain as they gently pulled her dress off her back and it got caught in the dried blood.

Klowix swore and Bethany heard a piece of furniture go crunch.

“Just lie still, Bethany. We’ll have this fixed in a blink.” An unfamiliar female doctor leaned over her, holding a metal object in her hands. The doctor held it over her back and pressed a button, passing it over Bethany’s wounds. Her back felt very hot for a moment, and another moment later, the pain had gone.

“There you go.”

Hands helped her lie down on her back, and Bethany watched in astonishment as they passed the implement over every scrape she had. They all healed instantly.

They swiftly replaced it with another metal contraption, this one round and glowing. It hovered over Bethany and sent a jet of orange light at her forehead. She flinched, but all she felt was a little shock, then the pounding in her head was gone.

The doctors worked on her like this for about fifteen minutes, and by the end of it, Bethany felt filthy and in need of a shower. The healing devices hadn’t gotten rid of the dried blood and grime, and she was tired, but otherwise perfectly fine.

The female doctor spoke up. “She needs rest. She’s been through a lot. I suggest you let us put her to sleep. We can get her cleaned up and back to familiar surroundings, and she can get the rest she needs without fear.”

Klowix approved. “Do whatever you think is best for her health.”

“Klowix.” Bethany didn’t want to be put to sleep. What if she closed her eyes again and more attackers came out of the darkness?

He came over and stood next to her bed. “You will be fine. I promise you, Bethany, such a breach in security will never happen again. It never should have happened. I underestimated them, and you paid the price. Now, they will pay the price.”

The look on his face was positively dangerous, and Bethany wondered just how many protesters he was going to kill while she was asleep.

She looked up at him. “Stay with me?”

Klowix looked like he was going to protest – clearly, he wanted to vent his rage on someone – but one of the doctors gave him a stern look, as though warning him not to upset her. Klowix nodded. “I will do as you ask.”

Only then did Bethany let the doctors approach her with a mask to put over her face. Within a few breaths, Bethany felt herself drifting off.

Bethany awoke slowly. She was so warm and so comfortable, she didn’t want to open her eyes. A sudden sound made her jerk fully awake, as fear caught up with her. Had Klowix dealt with all the people behind this? Were there more, waiting in the shadows for him to be gone, to get another chance at her?

She looked around, but the room was dark, obviously nighttime. She couldn’t see Klowix anywhere. Panic seared her throat as Bethany saw something moving on the other side of the room. The form came towards her swiftly, surely, as though it knew they were alone. Perhaps the guards Klowix would have placed around her were dead.

Bethany’s eyes were drawn to the shadow figure’s hands. It was holding something. She tried to move, to run, but her body didn’t obey her commands. She imagined she saw the shape of a laser, lifting up to shoot her, to finally end her life.

She screamed.