The impact sounded like it was far enough away, but it still made Kat wince.

Her first reaction was immense relief that they were both alive and unharmed. She was glad for that, because it showed she had her priorities straight. But right on its heels, another thought came, unbidden and unwelcome. Had she messed up?

Kat had never been in a real battle before. Fought, quarreled, dueled, sure, but not like this. There hadn’t been armies involved. War was for warriors.

Soros read all that from her eyes before Kat could push the doubts away.

"Little one," the commander said, his eyes telling her everything about his priorities. "I ask you this one last time. Would you promise me to stay away? I could have a shuttle carry you to safety in two minutes."

"No," Kat said, thinking it was one of those moments when a person's life was at a crossroads. "I will stay here, with you. I will help if I can."

She wanted to pick the right fork in the road. One that would allow her to live with herself after this was all over, for better or for worse.

Every little thing she'd read about the Corgans made her add, "And if you try to have one of your warriors carry me away against my will, my screaming will draw the attention of the enemy, I can promise you that."

She grinned, seeing the way Soros' lips twitched into a smirk.

"If we live through this, I will bring you back here and not let you out of my bed for weeks," he growled, sending a sweet pulse of pleasure through Kat's body. "Alright. I will let you fight. Stay away from the worst clashes. Not only for your safety, but because that is where I will be. And Turian will look for you by my side, thinking I wouldn't let you out of my sight."

Kat smiled even wider, seeing how right the clan lord was about Soros, since that was exactly what he would have wanted to do. To keep her right where he could keep an eye on her.

"I'll be fine," she promised him. "Get me a receiver and a gun and I'll be gone."

She didn’t intend to be in anyone’s sights.

* * *

Equipped with a transmitter with a straight line to Soros, Kat turned on her cloak and took off. She looked at Soros giving her last visible position a regretful look before leaving for the battle. Dolon Hall was shaking around them, and his presence was badly needed.

The new gun had a nice weight in her hands. Kat's fighting instructors had always recommended a heftier piece, saying that if it ran out of shots to fire, it could be used as a blunt weapon. She had never really tried that out, but this occasion seemed as good as any.

She ran down the halls, dodging the Corgan warriors, looking for a place to set up watch where she would have an overview of as much as possible. Trying to avoid running into anyone and making too much noise was like some very weird obstacle course, and Kat supposed it kind of was – only usually those didn't come with an actual threat of dying. This time, her prize would be staying alive.

As soon as Soros was out of her sight, Kat's mind became free of his presence. Being around the commander was like being under the influence of a drug. The entire world shifted into perspective with him in the middle. Her attraction to him was only a small part of it.

You’re in deep, Kat, she told herself with the slightest roll of her eyes.

Kat wondered if Corgan warriors actually felt fear like normal people did. They said that the two most militaristic species in the galaxy, the Brions and the Corgans, had scourged that emotion from their warriors. She didn't believe it entirely, but there had to have been a grain of truth to it.

The realization hit when she ran around the corner, having to stop so suddenly she almost toppled over not to run into a dying Corgan.

He was lying on the ground, three feet away from her, with another warrior's sword sticking out of his stomach. In her shock, Kat didn't even understand which one of them was on her side – the man dying or the one who’d put him in that position.

All she saw was the stony determination on the dying man's face, refusing to give in to the pain, or to the inevitability of death. He simply struggled until his final moment, and even his last breath was calm instead of an agonizing scream.

The other warrior pulled his sword free and hurried on without Kat figuring out which side had just gained a life and which had lost one.

She knew only two things. One, Soros had been right – the men fighting over Dolon Hall were not the crazed crooks or thieves she was used to hunting but the real thing.

Two, much better news for her, was that neither of the warriors had turned their heads towards Kat.

They hadn't heard her.

Palian technology is a wonder, Kat thought. None of them have it. This is my advantage. This is Soros' advantage. I need to find Turian.

Taking off again, Kat knew in her heart that she was being reckless, but she couldn't help it. Between the options of cowering in a corner somewhere, waiting for the bad men to go away and actually pulling her own weight – it was no choice at all.

I've had worse odds, she told herself as a joke. Hundreds of tons of ice are more than a match for any of these guys and I managed that. I'm fine. So fine.

She didn't believe half of it, knowing that all of the warriors at Dolon Hall had passes Soros' test, but it improved her mood.

"In a shitty situation," her favorite teacher had once said. "Despair is the first step towards dying."

Kat had always kept that in mind. It had helped her through the worst of her days, never giving up until every opportunity to fight had been exhausted.

Unfortunately for her, every corridor and hallway in the damn place looked the same. Kat sighed. Her body hadn't protested against Soros' idea to spend the last hour before the battle seeing how much they could exhaust one another, not one bit. But now she was wandering aimlessly, with no real idea of where to go, and her thighs were still quaking a little.

Sure, she'd studied the map of Dolon Hall for a bit when preparing to come after Soros. Kat had assumed that basic knowledge would be enough and that she'd have her ship provide more precise schematics if she needed them.

Now she was alone, without their support and far from Soros. Every second, there was a chance that someone would run or stumble into her, but Kat had never felt farther from the world.

And then luck struck.

Two warriors rushed past her. They had approached so quietly that Kat had only had time to throw herself flat against the wall to dodge them.

Both stopped.

"Did you hear that?" one of them asked, motioning for the other to be silent.

Kat resisted the urge to throw her hand before her mouth to muffle her breathing. That would have been a motion too and the Corgans were standing so close she could smell the sweat on their skin.

Fuck. I wish there was a way to will myself not to breathe for the next few minutes. Evolution got this breathing shit wrong. In danger, we should be able to be quiet, not pant like scared bunnies. This would be of major help right now.

But of course there was no way for her to not breathe. From under the long hood of her cloak, Kat watched the warriors stand so still she would have taken them for statues if she hadn’t known better.

Both looked even tougher than the average warrior, with wide shoulders and vicious features. They were tall and moved well together, that much was obvious. And again, she wasn't even sure whose side they were on. It was hard to tell, because Soros wasn't a clan lord whose allies wore his colors.

The hallway had somehow emptied, as if something was pulling the warriors away. Kat didn't want to think of what that was. It could only have been a major fight going on somewhere, which meant that Soros would be there as well. She forced herself to not imagine the danger he might have been in.

He can handle himself, she told herself. I know he can. I've seen it. He just needs to, one more time.

"It's gone, Romod," the second warrior said.

"Hush, Challen," the first snapped back, holding up his hand.

Kat tried to back away even more, but there was no way to retreat into the wall. Her body was beginning to shake from the exertion of trying to stand perfectly still. It was like the exercise where she had to simply hold out her hands in front of her without moving an inch. Seemingly simple, but not really.

And clearly, she had been overconfident. Not every warrior was able to hear her over the ruckus, but this hallway was almost empty and the men in front of her clearly weren't your ‘average’ elite warriors.

Just her luck.

It seemed like an eternity had passed before Romod lowered his hand, a deep frown on his face, when in fact it had only been seconds. Kat nearly let out a sigh of relief.

"You heard it too, right?" Romod asked tersely. "Footsteps."

"I did," Challen said. "What do you make of it?"

"I don't know," Romod admitted. "A presence we can't see. It stinks of Palian technology to me. Who would use that in Dolon Hall?"

So Turian hasn’t gotten the word out about me…

"The commander?" Challen offered, moving dangerously close to where Kat was standing.

She was inches from his body, close enough to smell his breath, for her cloak to almost brush against his dark, golden-etched armor.

"No," Romod shook his head. "He would never use such sneaky tactics."

The way he spoke of Soros… Kat had already opened her mouth to call out to them and say who she was, when he added, "That bastard wants to meet us face-to-face. You heard our lord. He isn't a man to stab us in the back or walk unseen. All the worse for him, then."

What? Kat was so stunned she nearly betrayed her position.

If she had understood them correctly, Turian had something sinister planned for Soros. Not that it should have surprised her. Were they going to use his warrior pride against him? Rage surged forward within Kat.

Those fucks. I won't let this happen. I will find Turian before you two find Soros.

"Might be one of his subordinates then," Challen offered.

"Perhaps," Romod said, still looking suspicious. "But we have no time to chase ghosts. Turian wants us with him. Time to go."

Turian, Kat's mind rejoiced victoriously.

Had fate finally smiled at her? Could it be that simple? All she had to do was let the two warriors leave and then, very carefully, follow them. She could alert Soros as soon as she had even an inkling of where Turian was.

Corgan clans were very much like a hydra. If you cut off their head, they were momentarily weakened, only to rise up stronger a moment later, two heads taking the place of one. But that period of confusion was all that Kat and Soros needed.

Romod and Challen started to move away from her, speaking between themselves with hushed tones.

Kat only dared to move when they were almost at the other end of the hallway. She shook her limbs and then ran after them on her tiptoes. The Palian device covered her body all the way to her boots. It was quiet, but not non-existent.

She had been afraid that she'd lose the warriors after they rounded a corner, but they were there, walking fast but not running. Kat slowed down, following with careful steps, trying to determine where they were. She felt like in a children's game where the pursuer could only see you when you moved. Every time one of them looked behind, Kat froze in her steps.

Can they hear me? she thought. Could they know I'm still here?

She couldn't believe it. The material under her boots was so soft that it was almost like she was walking in socks. How could they possibly hear that?

Kat heard the message when it came in.

"Captain Romod," the comms sounded. "We need you on the Plateau. The Commander is falling back, but they are not breaking ranks. Lord Turian wants you to push forward, use this chance before he slips away."

"Understood," Romod replied tersely. "I will be there soon. Keep the pressure on him until then."

If it was possible for a comm link to sound hesitant, it did.

"Yes, Captain," the voice finally replied. "But you should know the men are reluctant. It would help if one of the guards was leading them."

Guards, Kat thought. These two are Turian's bodyguards? I don't know if I'm in more luck or more trouble. No wonder they heard me.

She knew enough about Turian from her readings and from what Soros had told her. Turian was a paranoid bastard who only surrounded himself with the best of the best. That meant that the men walking in front of her had to have been the best warriors Dolon Hall had supplied for Turian’s clan in their lifetime.

"I said I'll be there," Romod snapped back. "What is wrong with them anyway? We are Corgans. We are not reluctant to fight our wars!"

"Yes, Captain," agreed the comm. "But it's the Commander. No one wants to face him."

Kat felt her heart skip a beat. Not only did it mean that Soros was still alive and fighting, but that he was striking fear into the hearts – the many hearts - of the enemy – and not just any enemy but battle-hardened warriors capable of conquering worlds.

She felt ridiculously proud and not a little turned on. Soros’ promise about the bed sounded better and better with each second.

We're not there yet, she told herself firmly. No celebrating until we've won. I still have to find Turian.

"The Commander is nothing but a man," Challen barked into the comm. "He bleeds, he can be wounded like all of us. Tell those bastards to find their spines or we will rip them out when we get there."

Lovely people, Kat thought as the comm fell silent, trying to reassure herself that they were wrong and Soros was not just a man.

They kept going through hallways that were growing increasingly silent. Kat was starting to get a bad feeling about it all. She could no longer even guess where they were, but they seemed to be going underground. Kat had no idea what lay beneath Dolon Hall. It wasn't on any map she could find and Zoey Swann hadn't provided her with one.

The trap didn't occur to her until it was too late. Romod and Challen turned another corner and she kept walking, lulled into false security by the fact that they'd been strolling together like that for a long while now.

Challen's charge took her down. The warrior ran into her clumsily, nearly missing her, but it was enough to throw her off her feet. And if she had managed to sidestep him, Romod was by his side. They came at her together like a moving wall, knocking her to the ground.

She grabbed for her gun, but they were so much quicker than she. Feeling the shape of her body underneath him, Challen took two tries to pull her hood back.

"Turn this off," the warrior growled at her, smiling. "If you don't want me to cut off your pretty, floating head."

Gritting her teeth, Kat obeyed, making sure they didn't see the motion itself.

She was caught but not broken. She would live to fight another day.

"Now," Romod said, pulling her to her feet. "Let's go and see our lord."

Or not.