Zan shot across the room at Marcus, aiming a punch directly at his stomach, but Marcus blocked it with his metal arm and jumped to the right, kicking Zan as he passed by.

  The impact sent Zan flying into the desk, which broke and crumpled against the wall. Zan got back up holding a broken table leg as a weapon and unched himself at Marcus.

  The pair cshed, blocking and deflecting each other’s attacks while attempting to nd their own. Zan jabbed at Marcus with the table leg, but Marcus jumped back and kicked it out of Zan’s hand. Zan caught his leg and yanked upward, sending Marcus falling back into the wall next to the doorway.

  Aneeta watched from the hall as Marcus kicked at Zan with his other leg before jumping to his feet and going back on the offensive. Zan fell back, giving ground step by step as he and Marcus traded blows.

  Marcus caught Zan on the left side of his head, then kicked him in his right side so hard that he flew through the doorway and smmed into the door to Aneeta’s room across the hall, denting it upon impact.

  “My door!” Aneeta said, backing away as Marcus stepped out of the room. Zan got to his feet with blood streaming down his face, but the fury in his eyes was undiminished.

  Marcus leapt towards him, but suddenly a thick steel pipe about four feet long smmed into the side of his head, sending him crashing into the wall next to Zan.

  “Not on my ship!” Andre said, holding the steel pipe as if it was as light as a wooden stick. “No matter the reason, I won’t let anyone hurt an innocent girl on my ship.”

  “Not you too,” Marcus said, holding the side of his head and grimacing as he regained his bance, then raised his left arm, a bde sliding directly out of his wrist.

  “I sacrificed half my body for the power to fight Seynians, and I’ll be damned if I just sit back while you all welcome their princess into our ship. It doesn’t matter to me whether she’s innocent or not; if she’s Seynian she’s gotta go.”

  He ran towards Zan and Andre, who were standing side by side down the hall.

  Zan braced himself, then caught the bde between his hands, stepping to the side as Andre stepped forward and swung the pipe like a bat, catching Marcus in the forehead.

  The pipe bent, but left a gash across his forehead.

  It wasn’t enough though. Marcus grabbed the pipe with his metal hand and yanked it away from Andre, then swung it at Zan, who managed to duck, then jump back before he was hit.

  “Crap,” Zan said, as he and Andre backed away from Marcus, who now held the pipe in one hand, his bde extending from the other.

  Then Zan remembered something, and his eyes fell on the door to Rey’s room behind Marcus.

  “Andre, hold him for at least five seconds.”

  Andre nodded, then ran forward and unched himself at Marcus as Zan followed close behind him. Marcus swung the pipe down, but Andre braced himself and caught it with both hands above his head. He fell to his knees under the force of the blow, but didn’t let go, his muscles straining. Zan leapt past him to the right as Marcus raised the bde extending from his left wrist to block him, but Andre rolled to the left, pulling his bde slightly out of range.

  Zan kicked off the wall next to Aneeta’s room and shot through the door of Rey’s across the hall. She was still on the bed, holding her shoulder in pain.

  “I need more energy! Quickly, give me your hand!” Zan said, sliding to his knees by her bedside. Her eyes went wide and she fell back against the wall beside her bed, startled.

  “If you want me to win, give me the strength I need!” Zan said, reaching out his hand to her.

  “What do you mean?” she said. She had no idea what he was talking about.

  “You- you don’t know what you are?!” Zan asked, shocked once again. “Fine, just take my hand!”

  Rey was scared, but if this would help in any way, she couldn’t ignore the person who was fighting for her. She reached out and took his hand, feeling the vast emptiness within him the moment they made contact.

  It was a strange feeling, one that couldn’t be accurately described in words.

  “Open yourself to me, allow me to take your energy!” Zan said, grasping her hand tightly.

  Marcus appeared in the doorway.

  “What do you mean?!” said Rey, panicking.

  “Just try! Allow your energy to flow into me!”

  Marcus heard him and leapt towards him from behind, aiming the tip of his bde at Zan’s heart.

  She shut her eyes. She felt connected to him, but there was still something separating them, something stopping her from falling into his void. She realized that she had to stop holding back.

  She let go, and felt her energy spilling into him, flowing between their hands. It was a truly strange and terrifying feeling that sted a single, brief moment.

  Zan caught the bde behind him with his left hand, stopping it instantly.

  “Thank you, that was more than enough,” he said calmly, releasing her hand. He turned and looked at Marcus as he got to his feet. Marcus swung the pipe in his other hand, but Zan caught it and ripped it away, then grabbed Marcus by his throat and threw him into the hallway.

  He walked out the door, keeping his eyes on Marcus.

  Marcus got to his feet, grinning.

  “Now the real fight begins,” he said.

  Andre y at the end of the hallway, unmoving. Zan readied himself and advanced holding the pipe.

  “HA, you think that can beat me? I’m a cyborg,” Marcus said, raising his bde. They leaped at each other, but Marcus’s bde sliced clean through the pipe and down Zan’s torso. Blood exploded from the wound, and Zan colpsed to his knees, the pipe cttering to the floor.

  “Ha, ha ha, hahaHAHAHA,” Marcus began to ugh as he grabbed Zan’s torn shirt and lifted him into the air with his right arm.

  “It’s over,” he said.

  Aneeta sank to her knees, her eyes filled with horror.

  “No, you’ve just left me no choice,” Zan said under his breath. He reached up and tapped a small panel embedded in the skin on the right side of his neck, almost hidden by his light gray hair.

  “Removing twelve limiters.”

  His eyes snapped open and he grimaced in pain. Marcus swung his bde at his neck as fast as he could, but it was too te. Zan caught the bde and snapped it off with his bare hand, then cut the front of his shirt off so that he could drop to the ground.

  Marcus stepped back, but Zan stepped forward and kicked him with incredible speed, sending Marcus flying into the wall so hard that it dented the metal.

  Marcus stumbled forward but was immediately caught in the side with a kick that sent him flying down the hall past Andre.

  “You never stood a chance,” Zan said, advancing. “I hired you so that I wouldn’t have to use this power, but now you’ve forced me.”

  Marcus unsteadily got to his feet only to have Zan knock his feet out from under him. He tried to scramble down the hall towards Andre, hoping to use him as a hostage, but Zan grabbed his right ankle and swung him against the wall.

  The breath knocked out of him, he lifted himself up on trembling arms, but Zan grabbed him by the throat and held him against the wall. He tried to punch Zan with the remainder of his left arm’s bde, but Zan used the broken bde in his hand to impale his palm and drive it into the wall, immobilizing it.

  “It’s over,” he said, stepping back.

  Andre groaned and opened his eyes.

  “Are you alright?” Zan asked, as he sat up.

  “Yeah. After you got past him he whacked me good with the pipe, but it’s my knees that hurt the most. I think they broke when I hit the floor. But you look worse than me! You’re bleeding a hell of a lot!”

  Zan realized that he was right, and nearly colpsed from the pain he suddenly became aware of. Aneeta rushed forward and caught him.

  “What should we do with him?” Aneeta said, looking at Marcus, who was slumped against the wall. “He won’t stay down for long.”

  “Knock him out and tie him up,” Zan said in her arms. Aneeta set him down and disappeared around the bend in the hall while Andre kept an eye on Marcus.

  Zan reached up and touched the side of his neck again.

  “Adding twelve limiters.”

  His hand dropped to his side.

  “Where’s May?” Zan asked.

  “Control room. Had to leave someone there.”

  After a minute, Aneeta returned with a small, white cloth that she held under Marcus’s nose until he breathed in. The moment he did, the strength drained from him and he fell asleep.

  She sighed and looked back at the others. Zan was still bleeding heavily, Andre had likely broken his legs, and Rey was still hurt in her room.

  She held back tears and focused on performing first aid on Zan, then Andre, and finally Rey. May appeared and helped her carry Marcus to his room, where they secured his arms and legs so that there was no chance of him causing any more damage.

  Zan had a deep gash that ran vertically from his right colr bone to the bottom of his ribcage.

  Alone in his room, she cleaned the wound and sealed it shut.

  “Why did things go so wrong,” Aneeta said quietly.

  “Sorry. It’s my fault for misjudging him,” Zan said.

  “No, I’m more to bme for not noticing,” Aneeta said.

  “No you’re not- ow.”

  “Sorry! Can you still feel this part?”

  “No, just a sudden headache.”

  “Oh…right. ‘Cause you removed limiters. You shouldn’t have removed that many, you know. You could’ve won with less.”

  “I wanted to make sure. And besides, I could’ve removed twice as many and still had a thousand left.”

  “That’s not the point…”

  “I know. I’ll be careful.”

  “Actually, come to think of it, it looked like she gave you energy. Is she a container too?”

  “Oh, yeah I forgot to tell you. She’s a really powerful one as well. But she didn’t seem to know it. Maybe no one told her for some reason. I wanna find out more about her, and whether our contact knew who she really was when he set this up.”

  “What do you think we should do with her? She didn’t seem very enthusiastic about being returned. I wouldn’t either if I was going to be forced into an arranged marriage. I mean, that’d totally suck!”

  “I don’t know. Maybe we should just let the Alliance handle it all once we get back. We’ll be in huge trouble for sure, but we’ll be alive. Or maybe we can just drop her off somewhere-”

  “All done. Thankfully it was just a flesh wound; nothing that won’t heal over time, though it’ll probably leave a scar. Be thankful you didn’t lose an arm or something.

  “I should check on Rey now. I fixed her arm, but I want to make sure she’s not hurt elsewhere.”

  “Thanks. For treating me.”

  “Of course.”

  ***

  “Okay, other than your arm, you only have a few bruises, so that’s a relief.”

  Aneeta helped Rey put her clothes back on, then sat down on the bed beside her.

  “Um, this might seem like a strange question, but…do you know what a container is?”

  “You mean something to put stuff in?” Rey asked, confused.

  “So you really don’t know anything about converters and containers. How did they raise you? Never mind. I can try my best to expin it all in the next chapter,” Aneeta said.

  “I don’t really know what you’re talking about…”

  “Don’t worry about it. For now, I wanted to apologize.”

  “What for?”

  “Marcus passed by me in the hall on his way here, and I didn’t realize what he was going to do. I knew he had a grudge against the Empire, and probably hated you, but I didn’t…I didn’t think he would try something…”

  She started to cry, holding onto Rey’s shoulders.

  “That’s not your fault,” Rey said.

  “It is though! I should’ve realized…I’m sorry.”

  This was a situation Rey was unfamiliar with, and she had no idea what to do.

  “It’s alright. I’m alright,” she said, holding Aneeta close to her.

  “Sorry,” Aneeta said, pulling away. “I’ve got to go help the others, so…you’ll be alright staying here, right?”

  “Yes.”

  Aneeta smiled and got up.

  “I’ll be back ter to tell you about containers and stuff,” she said, wiping her face and leaving the room.

  Rey looked down at her shoulder.

  She got my clothes wet.”