Vell didn't think she could stand another cycle on the desolate hellscape that the Kaltons had stranded both her and her partner Hal Jordan upon. Even for a human the temperature would've been high, let alone for a heat-sensitive Bekkorian like herself. Because of the heat, she was forced to periodically submerge herself in water to ensure that her skin stayed hydrated. If she went over three hours without full-body contact with water, she could shrivel up and die in seconds. Hal on the other hand, seemed to be doing fine as long as he simply consumed a small amount of water every now and then. Vell started to become jealous of his biology, including his species' ability to sweat in order to combat heat.

Before she embarked on her latest fishing trip, Hal offered Vell a sack he had woven using vines, roots, leaves, and anything else he could find in the immediate area. At first, she assumed that Hal found the thing lying around somewhere, but after watching him work, she discovered that he created the bag out of materials around them. She understood the making of weapons like spears and bows, but something as simple and as uninvolved in combat as a sack took her by surprise. Her people weren't known for their ingenuity, just for their aggression and barbarism. A great debate between thinkers on Bekkor was whether they discovered science themselves, or it was given to them or taken from a visiting species.

Currently, heaved over her bare back was this aforementioned bag bursting at the seams with recently caught fish. She had done so much fishing lately that she had to start looking away from camp to find any meaningful populations of the sea creatures. What was strange to Vell was that Hal had been hard at work fortifying their camp, and it seemed to her that the harder he worked the more he ate. Unlike humans, Bekkorians are more dependant upon water and sunlight to provide them with nutrients. They still needed to eat to survive, but the amount of food they required tended to be a set limit per day and didn't change with how much physical work was done. She wanted to make sure that she was satisfying his human biology, so she snatched as many fish as she possibly could before it became dark.

As she trudged along the beach, she felt the heat begin to fade away from her skin and see the sun begin to dip towards the horizon. Vell needed to get back before the sun sets completely, because she would be basically blind at night time; a trait universal to all Bekkorians, who thrived underwater amongst bio-luminescent fish, minerals, and coral to light the way for them.

Before too long, Vell had returned to the now unrecognisable camp. Around its perimeter were a series of torches which spread light evenly around the internal structure. The fort was made of wood fastened together using vine rope. The open cave that the pair slept in during their first night served as the back half of the fort, and the front half was covered by the new wooden fortifications. The building was castle-like in design; it possessed two towers and a wall running between them.

The Bekkorian swiftly ducked under the gate and yelled at Hal to indicate that she was back. Quite frankly, she was amazed that one human was able to do all of this in the time it took for her to catch a hundred fish. Vell was dead certain that she couldn't have done this in a whole year. She never had anything to admire about Hal's species until now...and it made her smile.

She entered the cave half of their fort, placed the sack of fish onto the ground next to the fireplace, then planted her hands on her hips as she glanced around for her partner. The fort wasn't the largest thing Vell had ever seen, and there was no interior space...so Hal should be inside this cave unless something was wrong.

Slowly, her attention was drawn to one of the cave walls. It seemed to...shudder. She squinted at the stone in confusion. Suddenly, with a roar that played havoc with Vell's sensitive hearing, a figure leapt outwards from the wall, hands up as if to mimic talons. Vell didn't move a muscle; her eyes, however, were widened to the brim in surprise.

"Eh? Eh!?" Hal's voice urged. The figure stood frozen in place as they waited for a more significant reaction, but it never came. With a sigh, they brought a hand up and wiped it down their face. Vell thinned her lips as Hal swept the mud off his face and flight jumpsuit, which allowed him to blend into the cave's walls. "Well I thought it was pretty cool. Heck, it even worked at first." He said to himself.

Vell scooped up a large waterskin that Hal had made using some hide of an animal Vell had hunted, raised it over Hal's head then unfastened it. Its contents poured out over Hal's body, completely drenching him from head to toe. His hair now soaked and clinging down on his face, Hal blinked steadily at Vell and sighed. "Asshole."

The Bekkorian snorted in amusement. "Ceir sojf, kee'lavah."

In the following minutes, Hal had huddled himself closer to the central campfire inside the cave in an effort to dry his clothes off while he cooked some pieces of fish for his dinner. Vell was sitting on top of the front wall, kicking her legs back and forth like an excited child as she munched cheerfully on raw fish. As blood, guts and slime were flicked all over, she was reminded of her childhood on Bekkor. She lived in one of the sixteen 'out-zones' that the planet was primarily comprised of. These loosely-defined, anarchical states were extremely primitive and comparable to human development during the middle ages. There, life was short and violent; made so by disease, famine, raiders, and deadly animals. However, separate from the out-zones, the seven prime cities were all greatly advanced in terms of technology and, to deal with the enormous rate of overpopulation that their infrastructure and natural resources could not satisfy, sealed themselves off and banished undesirable individuals to the out-zones.

Vell grew up in an out-zone, and it was only by chance that Vell's mother sold her to a servant trainer that she was taken to live in the prime city of Bsgrdd. She thought that all the world lived the way she did in the out-zones, but she discovered that the minority of the prime cities possessed a monopoly on space travel, advanced weapons, engineering, medicine, science, construction, societal structure and security. Despite being more 'civilised', the primacy was just as violent as their out-zone brethren. They were ruled by Emperor Lords who waged open war on all the other primacies, as well as upon their own populations in some cases. Many would venture into the out-zones with advanced pulse cannons and armour to kill for sport. Even the few well-armed out-zoners, with forged metal swords, axes, chainmail and wooden longbows, stood no chance. Even without primacy recreational hunting, out-zone life was made short and harsh by diseases, cutthroats, barbarians, predatory wildlife, religious laws, and the lack of medicine. In short, the conditions were almost exactly like Europe in the Middle Ages.

Vell learned from a young age that the only way to survive in relative comfort was to take as much as you could and disregard anyone who isn't on your side...so she didn't really fit in with the primacy and its rules. Before too long, she managed to escape her slave driver and found living as an outlaw much more appealing to her than adhering to the violence-enforced rules of the Emperor Lord of Bsgrdd.

Here, on this island without technology and civilisation, Vell felt at home for the first time in a long time. It also seemed that without language, Hal and Vell actually got along. It made it apparent to Vell that their differences were a result of their cultures and not of their biology, but she still wasn't sure about it. Thinking about Hal made her both at ease and anxious for some reason. It was paradoxical, and it confused her. She wanted him, but at the same time she wasn't sure if it would work...and these thoughts have plagued her for some time now. For a human those questions are as commonplace as the relationships that spawn them, but a Bekkorian was not meant to think in that way.

Now, instead of being able to voice her frustration, she was forced to think thoroughly about them in her own headspace. It made her shift uncomfortably.

Having gorged the fish clean of meat and edible matter, Vell proceeded to use pieces of its thin bones as toothpicks to dislodge any straggling chunks caught in between her large, sharp fangs. For some reason, her thoughts turned to her mother who she had despised for years even before she sold her. The sudden questions of 'where was she now', and 'was she still alive' found their way into Vell's conscience against her better judgement. She did her best to shake these feelings loose before a faint rustling in the distance grappled her attention.

Her ears twitched and she snapped to attention. She heard something else...slow footsteps in the sand. Vell tossed the fish remains over her shoulder, vaulted off the fort wall and landed almost silently on the beach. She sent her eyes across the terrain and saw nothing but darkness beyond the torch line. However, after further focus, she could barely make out two red orbs twinkling like rubies in the night. The eyes floated closer, and the organism they belonged to became illuminated once it closed in on the perimeter of torches. It was Mortess, although he was no longer clad in simple hunter's furs, but instead a range of armour pieces made from hardwood.

On one arm was shield made of a similar material. All of these pieces of equipment seemed to be made with incredible precision, almost appearing to have come off an assembly line. Vell could tell that Olengurr was responsible for their creation, seeing as Mortess' people were somewhat similar to Vell's in their value of brawn over brains.

"You seem to be under-dressed for combat, pale one." Mortess said in perfect Interlac. Vell recalled in the memory transfer that the Kalton initiated, Mortess found and saved a dying alien who crashed on his homeworld. Seeing as the being was from the local star system, they were somewhat similar in the grand scheme of things. Mortess managed to learn Interlac from this visitor as he treated his wounds, and the visitor learnt the native tongue from him. Before long, he repaired his ship and left, and Mortess told no one of his encounter of alien life.

Vell cocked her head. "Are you here to fight or stare?"

"The eager are always the first to die." Mortess threatened as he swung his stone axe through the air in taunt.

Suddenly, Hal came charging out to investigate the sounds of voices. In his hand was a wooden spear with a sharpened stone head. "Shit. Come on, Jordan...come up with a plan. You know...one that doesn't involve just standing here talking to yourself."

Vell made the first move in charging at Mortess like a bull. She threw a furious punch at the K'Tullian hunter, who barely managed to raise his shield in time. There was a deep crack as Vell's fist saw its target with superhuman force. The blow sent Mortess stumbling backwards, but the Bekkorian didn't relent there. She pounced after him and sent a powerful front kick into the shield. The kick was much stronger than her punch, and propelled Mortess through the air and onto his back at least three metres away. The shield had flown out of his grip. Before her adversary had any time to react, she leapt onto the downed Mortess and thrusted a clenched fist into the centre of his hardwood breastplate.

He growled in pain as the armour cracked and he received a decent fraction of the blow's impact directly onto his ribcage. Vell slammed her elbow into Mortess' face, spraying blood onto the sand. However, the panther-like humanoid bared his teeth in a smile. He pulled a spherical object from his belt and struck it against his breastplate. The friction ignited a short fuse that was affixed to the hollowed-out coconut-esque fruit. Vell had no time to react, and also foolishly assumed that it wouldn't hurt her.

The primitive device popped with a rather pathetic explosive force, but it wasn't the explosive that was intended to affect her; it was what the explosion spread. The pain that Vell felt was unlike anything she had ever felt before. The fact that she didn't have anything on to prevent the payload from directly touching every inch of her skin didn't help either. Her flesh was singed with a wild sting, as if something was melting her flesh. Being Bekkorian, Vell absorbed water through her skin which was more porous than human skin. This unknown poison was grinded so finely that it passed into her skin and directly screwed with her biology.

The last thing she remembered was Mortess' laughing as she became overcome with incapacitating dehydration. She tumbled off his body and collapsed into the sand, writhing and gasping. Everything became a timeless blur after that. Vell was aware only of the changing colours of the sky as she desperately tried to crawl to the ocean. She could move nothing but her left arm, so she spent what was hours clawing at the sand. Sometimes she would move an inch forward, sometimes she would only succeed in disturbing the ground around her.

When she finally had a vague perception of what was happening around her, she was embraced by the feeling of ice cold water around each part of her body. Her eyes slowly focused and she found herself finally in the grips of the ocean. Vell sent her eyes up and noticed a layer of fine salt floating at the water's surface. She had no idea how much time had passed, but she knew it had been a while since her immune system managed to absorb some energy from the water and expel the cause of her pain.

Cursing to herself, Vell swiftly swam around the salt cluster and leapt out of the sea and onto dry land. Her skin still stung from the unexpected attack and her muscles wobbled as she walked, but regardless she pressed into a sprint towards the camp. The place was untouched, but when she entered, it was plain to see that Hal was gone. There were signs of a struggle.

"Grakk..." Vell muttered to herself. "Kee'lavah, ek wpme tq."

———————————————

"This isn't good. Not good at all." Hal Jordan said to himself. He was tied with his arms behind his back to a burly tree with thick, cable-like roots. Not too far away, Mortess and Olengurr were eating some cooked animals. Well, Mortess was eating and Olengurr was pushing the pieces of meat through the thin membrane on the surface of his face and breaking it down into base nutrients that his liquid form could absorb.

They were baiting a trap for Vell. As displayed by her scuffle with Mortess the night before, she was more than a match for his already superhuman physical ability. Whatever substance they hit her with took her out of the fight, but Hal deduced that they had more planned when Mortess knocked him out and took him prisoner. They wanted Vell to come to them, on their terms. That way, she'd be off-balance worrying about Hal instead of the fight. That was the whole point of this...to make sure Vell was in the worst position possible and that meant Hal needed to be alive so she could be desperate to save him. When people are desperate, they do stupid things. He had to admit, it was a pretty good plan.

Hal watched in disgust as Olengurr shoved another creature into his head and his natural acidic properties bubbled its flesh. "Man, that's just gross."

Mortess glanced at Hal for an instant, then looked back to his food. He said something to Olengurr, then the pair chuckled.

"I can totally tell you're talking about me, by the way. I'm not an idiot. Well...actually, that's a lie." He called. Unseen by the pair of Yellow Lanterns, Hal had managed to slip one of his stone arrowheads into his hand and was attempting to grind down on the thick rope that had him affixed to the tree. "I had a pretty good thing going before, you know. Hot alien girl who didn't like wearing clothes was fishing for me every day, we'd sleep together every now and then, it was awesome. So thanks for ruining that. Probably the best vacation I'll ever have."

Hal had to be careful...mask his motions so Mortess' keen eyesight couldn't spot that he was cutting himself loose. He couldn't let them both get the jump on Vell. She'd just charge straight in as usual, and they'd be ready. He could see lined up on a log the same pellets that Mortess had used on Vell back at their camp. There were at least seven of them.

Suddenly, there was a faint shifting in the bushes, and Mortess' ears stuck straight up. Olengurr appeared concerned and alerted, but Mortess continued eating his meal without a care in the world. Before long, a small insectoid creature the size of a dog pounced out of the foliage and stared at the two Yellow Lantern test operatives with its multiple bulbous eyes.

Olengurr was repulsed by the animal, but Mortess looked to be amused by the thing. He tore his current meal in half, then offered one piece to the bug. It cautiously eyed the food before slowly treading forward. With lightning speed, it lunged forward and snapped up the chunk of meat in a single bite. Mortess' booming laugh seemed to shake the ground itself.

Hal sighed, frowning. The more he watched them, the more conflicted he became about this whole thing. When he and Vell started this pursuit, he wouldn't have hesitated to kill them both if they warranted it, simply because they worked with Sinestro, a known fascist dictator and terrorist. Sinestro sought to impose his will onto the everyone he thought needed it; to control crime and evil through fear. He didn't ask if people wanted his help, he would force them to take it. He was one of the Corps' most decorated officers until Hal exposed and ended his illegal despotism of his home planet Korugar.

Hal was beginning to think maybe that using the whole 'guilty by association' play was too much like how his old foe would peg it. Sinestro wanted to remove the GL Corps and replace it with his own peacekeeping organisation because he believed it was ineffective; all Green Lanterns would be executed or imprisoned on his watch. He wasn't going to give anyone a chance. Hal wasn't going to turn into him, no way.

Mortess petted his new insect friend with gusto as Olengurr stood from his seat on the log and moved off, out of sight.

With reluctance, Hal continued grinding down his binds. His eyes lanced around the enemy camp, which was in the middle of the forest instead of inside a cave. This was most likely a tactical move; they set up where Hal and Vell would have least expected it. He needed a weapon...like Mortess' axe. Where was it?