***AUTHORS NOTE***

This chapter contains slightly mature themes and violence that may disturb some readers.

***END AUTHORS NOTE***

While the ship migrated its way to the Broadway Theatre, Baaul taught me a few things. One was how to hold the knives if using them for hand to hand combat. I was to keep it level with the ground so that way if someone I was punching doged my fist, it was likely that he would eat some sharp metal.

Next was my mask. Because my vision was different than theirs, the mask was able to add a few different features. I had night vision as well as echolocation. If people were hiding from me, I could see them even through walls. Nifty. The mask was a major component in all of my new toys.

To use the cannon on my shoulder I had to use the mask. It targeted what my eyes were locked onto and fired when I blinked. Baaul had said the mask could literally pick up my thoughts and fire that way, but I was having issues with the concept so he adjusted it. My bow also used the same locking tech with the mask. This was actually much easier for me to use because I was used to playing virtual reality games that were very similar. Yay for being a gaming nerd for once!

He pointed to a small round device built into my gauntlet. It was like a metal ball, about the size of a ball bearing on a car. My very own cloaking device! I nearly shit myself when he showed me I was translucent! If I was still enough, I could become entirely invisible. This was too fucking cool!

I wanted to show Baaul some actual moves before we got there and ask his opinion, but we ran out of time. A small beep notified us that we were there and when I looked out of the navigation window I could see the theatre from above as people started pouring out or whatever show they were watching. I had never heard of it anyway. They were oblivious to us because of the ship's cloaking device.

Baaul navigated the ship low enough for us to hop onto the roof and used his wrist device to autopilot it up high enough so as to not risk it's whereabouts being discovered by a low flying pilot. That would sure to damper someone's day.

He started to make his way toward a door that obviously led inside and I reached for his arm. "Wait! I think we need to approach this a bit more cautiously."

"What do you suggest?"

I motioned to the electrical wires to the building. "Are you familiar with computer viruses?"

Baaul turned his head curiously and I knew he was looking the term up with his mask. "Yes."

"We should look into taking the cameras down. Possibly even the power. If you think about it, the only way they could have gotten all of them is if they had a way of tracking them and getting them all into one area where they were taken down quickly. You said it's likely they are sedated, so they could have used a toxic gas or tranquilizers. They were clearly prepared for you guys which means we can't just waltz in..." I placed my hands on my hips while I thought out loud. "We don't want to repeat the same mistakes. So I think we need to be a step ahead of them this time."

"If we can find an ooman computer, I could try to overload it with Yautja data. It will likely register as a 'virus' and accomplish this goal." Baaul nodded, seemingly impressed with my plan.

"Can you access Xai'an's mask? Possibly get a layout of where-whoa..." As I spoke I was suddenly shown a video that wasn't my own vision. I had no doubt I was suddenly seeing through Xai'an's eyes and I had no idea how I did it. "How is this happening?"

"You're Xai'an's mate. When I put in the request for your armor the ship recognized you and must have given you a direct link to all his connections. It is customary for mates."

My head nodded slowly as I tried to listen, but the sensory overload was almost too much and I had to force myself to sit down and focus at one thing at a time. Excuse me that I chose Xai'an over Baaul. It amazed me to see things through his eyes. For one, he was so damn tall that it almost made me dizzy to watch it. Secondly I could tell just how graceful he was with every movement. I always knew he was quiet, but to see him move through his own eyes was amazing.

The footage started out with him entering the door Baaul had tried to open and I watched as he carefully observed the guests down below. His mask picked out the differences between them and the workers, saving fragments of speech that he seemed to find worthy. It gave me chills now that I knew exactly how he acquired them.

He moved silently around, taking in every hallway, every room, the door that should have been a bathroom and even where every camera was located. Bless the big sexy bastard.

Behind the door was no fucking closet. Just like she had suspected. The hallway screamed government money as well as that damn elevator. Unease started to gather in my gut as he got in with the others. It was simply too easy...

Then when the doors locked and gas started to pour in, taking them out one by one. I tried to fight for him because Xai'an clearly couldn't, but it was just a fucking recording. There was nothing I could do because it was already done. I watched as Xai'an helplessly fell to his knees and then onto his back. Then I heard a woman's voice as a team of five men gathered over him to lift him. I counted the pair of legs.

"Put the others in the containment rooms. This one is the one I want."

"Fuck! This thing has got to be over 400lbs!" One of them grunted with the effort. He didn't seem like a small man either. Xai'an's head rolled as they lifted and suddenly I could see her.

She was around my age with a fake tan that would make Donald Trump envious. Her bright blue eyes were deceptively inviting because nothing could hide the venom in her botox lips. I watched her strut up to Xai'an's body as they placed him on a gurney eyeing him like he was a piece of meat. It lit a rage inside of my chest.

"Look at him...he's magnificent, isn't he?" Her words purred out of her like a sleazy man looking at his favorite whore. If she was speaking to the men around her, they didn't seem to share her beliefs because no one said anything. "I can't wait to see what he looks like underneath all that armor."

"Oh, this fucking bitch!" I struggled not to scream because I knew we were still technically in hearing distance, but it was a fucking effort! The disgusted rage I felt as I watched this fucking little twat run her powder blue nails up Xai'an's arm was maddening. I had never wanted to not just kill, but fucking butcher someone before actually meeting them before, but I guess there was a first for everything.

"Take care with the masks. We know it controls a lot of their high tech gear. We don't want to activate any nasty surprises-"

The recording shut off, leaving me back to my own and it took me a second to realize that Xai'an had been unconscious for a while, but the mask had kept recording until his mask was removed.

I was looking at Baaul again and I struggled to not scream out of frustration. To let my raw unfiltered rage take control of me and go storming in there to cut that blow up fucking Barbie's head off!

"The rage you feel...you truly accept Xai'an as your mate."

I closed my eyes and nodded while I counted to fifty. "I said I loved him. Maybe it's some hero complex. Maybe it's a form of Stolkholm, but yes, I love him and I'm going to fucking enjoy beating that bitch's ass!"

Baaul nodded. "Share the footage with me so I can see if I can get any useful information."

"How do I do that?"

He showed me and while Baaul watched I continued to breathe and count. I was trying to calm down but it wasn't very successful because I kept seeing that woman touching Xai'an. Kept seeing her eyes eat him up like she wanted to straddle him like a ride. Xai'an was mine, damn it!

"There is a computer near the back. Top floor." Baaul suddenly said behind me, making me jump. "Still your heart."

I frowned up at him. "I just watched someone drug, eye fuck and touch my man and you want me to be calm?"

"Xai'an is no 'man'. He is not-"

"I don't give a fuck about details right now, Baaul!" I hissed up at him. "All I know is that she's got Xai'an and doing exactly what I feared would happen and more if he got caught!"

I started to cry and I hated myself for it. Nothing ever changed when you cried. I blinked up at the orange hued dark sky. Light pollution always stole the beauty of the stars.

"Oomans are emotional creatures."

"Baaul...just shut the fuck up. Even you would be pissed if someone tried to hurt someone you cared about. You just don't understand it because you have no one yet." I took in a deep shuddering breath and looked over at him.

He cocked his head to the side while he watched me. I think he might have been waiting for me to say something else but I just walked toward the door. I was going to get Xai'an out.

Don't get me wrong. I was still furious, but yelling at Baaul like he was a moody teenager was somehow grounding. I could do this with a level head. First though...

There was a man dressed in a god awful red pencoat uniform running a vacuum over the stairs. Someone that worked for the theatre. The only reason he hadn't heard the door open was because he was bobbing his head to the music he was playing from his ear buds. It was loud enough for me to hear it was some kind of rap. Not that trendy crap that's going around, but old school rap. From the 80's or early 90's...he was also high as hell gaging from that smell.

I motioned for Baaul to wait because I knew his solution would be to just kill the guy. I wanted a more peaceful solution. This guy definitely had no idea what was going on and he didn't deserve to die. So I moved around him while he grunted out pathetic attempts at the lyrics to follow the power cord down and around the stairs. I pulled it out, silencing the vacuum. As predicted, the guy jogged down the stairs to inspect what happened, giving Baaul enough time to make his way down undetected.

I followed him as he went straight for one of the rooms Xai'an had gazed into for a few moments. It was an office of towering papers and little space. Whoever this office belonged to was not an organized person. You couldn't even really see the furniture that was in there.

Baaul was unphased as he strolled up to the desktop on top of the desk located smack dead center. I walked around to watch him pull a cable from his mask and push it into the computer tower and change shape so it fit the USB slot. Neeeeat.

"Your guys tech never ceased to amaze me." I whispered to him. I didn't want to be loud and risk curious heads to come investigate.

Baaul said nothing as he focused on his task. His claws effortlessly running over the plastic keyboard while he worked. I tried to pay attention to the various files he was working into, but gave up after they started changing into a mixture of numbers and letters. I wasn't a computer techy.

A soft growl eventually made its way to his chest. "Nothing here about below, but I can shut off the cameras."

I nodded. "Do it."

He did. He also mentioned that once he removed the wire from the computer, the data he left would fry the motherboard, so there would be no trace left of anything of non-earthly origins being in there. That was for the better anyway.

I glanced at one of the cameras mounted to the ceiling as we left the room. It was one of those round glass cased ones. The ones that you'd easily miss if you weren't looking for them. I had a feeling that they had the ability to see past the cloaking. It made sense as to how they were so prepared for Xai'an and the others. If so, it's possible they already knew we were here. If we wanted to disorient them, we needed a distraction.

My eyes landed on a little red box on the wall and I smiled. Fire alarm. Man, I had always wanted to pull one as a child, but a teacher once told me that if you did, it released a black ink on you so everyone knew who pulled it and you'd get in trouble. Damn her, I believed her.

"I'm going to pull the fire alarm Baaul. Everyone will rush out of here. Then we can make our way to the elevator. Do you have anything to keep the vents closed? Just in case?" I motioned to the fire alarm.

"No, but I do have something that will absorb any gas. It's also possible that if we turn on our breathing units, it will prevent any gas from getting through." He reached into a compartment on his hip and pulled out a silver tube. He pointed to the top and showed me how the thing vacuumed air inside of it.

"Breathing units?" I asked and froze when my mask flashed "ACTIVATING BREATHING UNIT". A thin fluorescent layer slowly started to form over my body. It was slow enough for me to know that even if Xai'an had engaged his, it wouldn't have helped. He had been on his knees in less than 10 seconds. This was taking close to 30. I was counting.

"Pull it." Baaul said after activating his own. I guess we were as ready as we ever would be.

I pulled it and came away with clean hands. Fuck you, Mrs. Gale!

You always see in the movies that when a fire alarm is pulled, the overhead sprinklers turn on, drowning everything. That wasn't true. It simply had the alarm because the sprinklers had sensors in them that recognized the gases put off by fire.

Within moments the doors started opening and the next show of the night was marching out in a rushed manner. Orderly, but rushed. My mask was able to pick up several accelerated heart rates, mostly female, and a few words of irritation for those who missed out on their show.

As soon as it was starting to get a bit chaotic with all the people, Baaul and I made our move. He had to carry me down since I couldn't hop floors like he and Xai'an could. It never ceased to amaze me how strong these guys were.

The door was locked this time, but Baaul twisted the handle and broke it. I remembered when Xai'an opened it, it was unlocked. It gave me hope that they were not expecting someone to come save the others.

The hallway was just as Xai'an had seen it. A short wide hall, tall enough for Baaul to stand. Before moving forward though I observed the area. I doubted I'd catch something that Xai'an hadn't, but you can never be too careful.

Then I saw the keycard reader just on the other side of the door. That's odd. Why hadn't there been one on the other side? If it wasn't there to grant entry...then what was it there for?

"Baaul. Look." I pointed to the silver box. "What do you think that's for?"

His dreads whipped over his broad shoulders as he looked behind him to the box. He reached for his wrist device and pulled out a wire again. "We will find out."

Then he grabbed a dagger from his hip and slammed it into the wall, trying to dig the box out enough for him to rip it out with his hands.

Wires held the box suspended like tendons and I watched as Baaul hooked the wire to his wrist device. When I asked why he used his wrist device this time instead of his mask, he had simply said that the mask was too powerful. Good enough for me.

Suddenly I had a map thrown in front of me. A blueprint really. It was nothing like the layout of the theatre and I realized that Baaul was hacking into their system, gaining information about the facility below us. I directed my mask to show me where Xai'an was because he was my primary goal. The mask highlighted a room six floors down.

"You will go to Xai'an. I will take care of the ooman army." Baaul said as he continued to fidget with his device. "I've shut down all of their cameras, their computers, and their lights. Their system is now mine, but we will only have about thirty minutes before they can get it back. We move now."

He pulled the wire back out of the swiper and we ran to the elevator. I pressed the down arrow. "What about the others?"

"I will get Yerin'an and the UnBlooded's. Once I have them secured, we will gather their tech and trigger the destructor countdown."

The elevator doors closed and though I couldn't feel us going down, I saw the numbers over the door glowing as we descended. "The bomb?"

Baaul nodded. "The gas should not hinder you like it does us since you are human. I will keep this device. If you run into trouble, page me and I will come to you once I get the others. Once their breathing units are activated I doubt even their gases will get through and then the oomans only effective weapon will be gone."

I nodded and the door glowed 'LL6' just before it opened to a dark hallway. I could hear people rustling around as they tried to work with only an occasional glowing orange flash of light from the emergency lights.

"Fight well, little warrior." Baaul said softly as he pushed me out into the hall. I wanted to tell him I wished him well, but the doors closed before I got a chance to.

I was officially on my own. Which made me nervous. I guess I didn't realize how much I depended on him to give me courage.

"We need to get the power back on! The sedatives on the alien will wear off within the hour without it!" A man said. He was standing over one of those reception desks peering down at the small petite dark haired woman. "How the fuck does a government facility that's worth billions get a power outage? For fucks sake! Patricia is flipping out! Do something!"

"I am a secretary, Tharp! Not an electrician!" She snapped back.

I would have stayed to listen, but that brief mention of Xai'an had me moving. He was down here!

'Don't worry, babe, I'm coming!' I thought to myself.

I knew I was going to have to help kill as many of these people as possible, because logically, they would all be a risk of trying to stop us from leaving. The fewer of them there were, the less we'd have to worry about, but I also knew I needed to find Xai'an first. If I started killing these people now, they could swarm me and keep me from reaching him. They'd probably try to flee with him to another location.

Moving passed them, I followed the map toward the room Xai'an should have been in. I felt even more sure when I saw a man in full tactical gear standing right outside. His posture reminded me of the man who had stood by like a doll while Danny was shot and killed. For a second, I saw him as the same man and it's what had me running up to him, a blade in my hand.

My footsteps weren't light because I was human and without training, so he heard me, but he couldn't see me in the dark. He watched as if a man his size would be coming after him, leaving that thick neck exposed and I slashed with all my strength. I was amazed at how easily it went through his flesh and at the amount of blood that literally spewed out. His eyes were wide as he tried to see his killer, but I merely stepped out of the way and let him fall in a gurgling mess.

I just killed someone.

Holy shit...

I just killed someone that had never hurt me.

And the part that bothered me...was that it didn't bother me. Maybe I was in shock and it would hit me later...but I doubted it. Did that make me a sociopath? That I could kill someone so easily and not feel regret or remorse?

"What the-!"