She entered into chaos.

The room was full of moving masses of bodies flowing in grim panic. On the side, separate from the congealed mass, was Baham. She made her way to him as if in a daze. “What's going on?”

“We've been found,” Baham said shortly. “Most likely, the battle against Alya and Nihal was a test to see if our base was nearby. We fell for the trap.”

She turned when she heard Saiph's voice calling out through the mayhem - “Everyone, in position!” There was now a reason to the movement, a purpose to the pushing. She made her way to one of the seats in the front – she knew enough to be able to help. She called up the Crux to get a better view of the situation.

There were people down on the ground before the Argo, staring up at the building. She only recognized one face – Alphard. The rest were unknown to her.

“Dammit, Ara, what the hell are you doing here?!”

“I have five on view, Saiph,” she said only, enlarging the image for him to see. “The Ret says they're Alphard, Nihal, Alya, Altair, and Hoedus II.” She pulled up each of their stats and put that up, as well. “Alphard is A Level, while Hoedus is B and Altair C. Nihal and Alya are D Level.” She checked over Alphard. He was carrying something... something large. A weapon? She pulled up the Ret and searched while Saiph cursed at her. “Alphard has something called Ophiuchus.” She read quickly. “Shit – it's a weapon... a laser. The thing was specifically designed to cause massive destruction, enough to destroy an Altar of the Seraphs.” Whatever that was.

There was more cursing from around her, however, so she supposed it meant something to them. “Deneb,” Saiph snapped, “get the Scutum online. Now.”

“Right.” Deneb's hands flew over the console in front of him.

Ara quickly checked the Scutum. It was the shield for the Argo. She left that to Deneb and rechecked the visuals. Alphard was raising the weapon. “Get ready for impact,” she said grimly, tensing.

“All hands steady,” Saiph snapped. “Baham – the Sagitta. Feb, watch the Eridanus. Deneb, dammit!”

“It's up,” Deneb said, just as Ara's screens shone eerily, so strong she had to close her eyes. There was a bang, a rumbling sound that didn't quite reach her, like a movie screen. She rose her hand in front of her eyes.

“Sagitta ready.” Baham's voice reached above the noise, a calm wind in the middle of a hurricane.

“Aim.” Saiph's voice was terse. Ara gave a moment to wonder at him. How could he change so much? He was a warrior now, a man in the middle of a battle. He couldn't be the same man who had thoughtfully brought her clothes.

“Targeted.”

She focused back on her screens, the light fading with every second. “He's preparing to fire again,” she noted. Strangely, there was no panic. Adrenaline was pumping, pumping, pumping, and her heart rate was up... but she wasn't afraid. She trusted the Argo and its crew. She didn't even give a thought as to what said crew was.

“Eridanus secure,” Feb cut in.

“Scutum okay,” Deneb added. “Ninety-five percent.”

“Damn straight,” Saiph muttered. It was such a human statement that it momentarily shocked Ara.

“Alya's doing something,” Ara informed the group. The woman was moving oddly. Ara couldn't quite make it out. She called up a closer shot. Immediately Ara was shown a larger image of the woman; she, too, seemed to have a weapon, though it was a lot smaller. At her hips were two dagger-like weapons. “She has a weapon, as well.” She ordered the Ret to check the weapon in its database. The information showed up mere seconds later. Alya's weapon was beginning to glow. “Hydrus. A smaller version of the Ophiuchus. Its beam is smaller – more focused.”

“The angle,” Saiph demanded. Ara understood what he needed.

She checked it with the Ret – math was never her strong point. “From her point – which is 24.5 meters right of the center of the Argo from our position – eighty-eight degrees North, thirty-four degrees East, from our position.” She quickly rechecked to confirm, not trusting herself completely. “Reconfirmed,” she said shortly. Would he understand her?

“Deneb.”

“Already on it.”

“Pictor set. What weapon?” This from Regulus.

“Coma Berenices.” No hesitation.

Ara refused to look the weapon up on the Ret, concentrating on the people below her. “Firing,” she said, then found herself covering her eyes again. Her thought processes were oddly narrow; she found herself speaking shortly and succinctly, just like the others.

“Shit,” Saiph snapped suddenly. “They're trying to create holes.”

“Shield overall ninety percent,” Deneb told the room at large, studying his screens as intently as Ara had been. She turned back to the enemies, not remembering turning her head to stare at Saiph. “Area of Hydrus attack – down to sixty percent.”

“Fire the Sagitta at Alya,” Saiph ordered.

“Understood.” Baham's voice was still calm.

“Alya is preparing to fire again,” Ara informed them.

“Baham,” Saiph barked.

“Countdown – five, four, three, two...”

“Alya firing,” Ara said.

“Coma Berenices ready,” Regulus told the room at large.

“Aim the Berenices at Alphard,” Saiph told him. “Baham!”

“Ready to fire.”

“Fire,” Saiph said grimly. There was an immediate light, a slightly different color – more blue, when the enemy's weapons had shone green-ish. Ara couldn't see anything past the light, so she had to wait to see what was happening with Alya. She expected that the woman may be using the chance to fire, but she would have had to dodge. For some reason – maybe because of all the television shows ever made – she didn't think Alya would have gone down that quickly.

Sure enough, Alya was off further to the left, aiming with disturbing care. “Alya aiming – Alphard firing!” she shouted.

“One area of the shield is down to fifteen percent. It may survive Alphard's blast, but-” Deneb's warning was cut off by Alphard's attack, but everyone knew what he was saying.

“Regulus,” Saiph barked.

“On it,” the red-head said grimly. More blue lights shone on Ara's screen, a multitude of lasers that seemed to change direction in midair, chasing the enemy as he attempted to dodge. Ara saw Alphard and Altair fall beneath a laser.

“Wait – where's Nihal?” Ara asked the room at large. “Shit.” She searched for him.

“Baham?” Saiph demanded.

“Fifteen more seconds,” Baham informed him.

“Another thirty-eight seconds for the Berenices,” Regulus told Saiph. “Power now at fifteen percent.”

“I can't find Nihal,” Ara told the room. “He isn't here. He must have snuck around – he could be in the base.” The thought made horror skitter through her.

“Shit,” Saiph muttered. “Feb, send your screens on the Eridanus to Deneb and find Nihal. Destroy him. That's an order.”

Feb grimaced. Ara feared it was a bad idea to send Feb alone to deal with an enemy – who knew if she wouldn't join him? - but she trusted Saiph. She would stay here and help as much as she could.

“Eridanus okay,” Deneb said, then, “shield area down to two percent.”

“Hoedus II is headed to that area on the shield,” Ara said quickly, then named the area. “Altair and Alphard seem to be all right despite the hits they took. Alya firing.” Which meant she would open up that area and Hoedus would immediately be entering. A terrifying thought.

Saiph realized the same thing. “Regulus, Baham, continue attacking. I'm going to meet Hoedus.”

“No!” Ara argued without thought. She took a moment to look at him. “Please – take someone with you. Once the hole is opened, Hoedus won't be the only one trying to enter.”

“She's right,” Baham said, his calm voice sounding much more assured than her breathy, slightly panicked one. “Take Deneb. Ara can take over his duties. She knows enough about the Reticulum and screen logs.”

Saiph hesitated, but only for a short moment. “All right,” he agreed. “Deneb, send your information to Ara and come join me.” He jumped down from his seat and ran quickly from the room. Ara watched him leave, fear a tight ball in her chest.

Then she turned back to her screens and watched as the shield broke.

<<<<<*>>>>>

The next half-hour seemed to last days. Alphard was targeted constantly to keep him from entering, but Alya had managed to get in. When Altair disappeared from the screens, Baham left, as well. Regulus and Ara were left alone in the Pyxis.

They managed to keep Alphard out of the base. When Altair and Hoedus II came out, they only stayed a few more minutes before leaving. Regulus cheered as soon as their backs turned, but Ara couldn't begin to relax until she couldn't see them on her screens anymore. She wondered what had happened to the others and feared the worst.

Regulus, once he'd calmed from his rants to the air (“yeah, that's right! You better run!”), turned to her and glared. She sighed inwardly.

“Just what were you doing, messing with the Reticulum and screen logs while we were gone?” He seemed truly angry that she had learned to help out.

“I was thinking I could help,” she told him.

“Think again. You're weak. You're only here because our leader doesn't want too many... civilians harmed.” She most definitely caught the slight hesitation before the word civilians. She wondered if he, too, had been about to say humans. God, she wanted to know just what these guys were.

“I know compared to you I'm weak, but I can still help. I'm not going to just lie on my ass when I can be helping you guys.” Ara stood slowly, prepared to meet with an attack. Feb had turned those eyes on her before.

“You don't belong here in the Pyxis with us,” Regulus snapped.

“Yes, I've been shown more than once just how welcome I am here.” And because she was tired of it, sick and tired of not belonging, she walked out.

<<<<<*>>>>>

She sat on her bed and stared at the floor, hoping Saiph and the others were okay but just... not willing to leave her room. She didn't want to go out there again. She didn't want to not belong. She kept trying so hard to fit in, to help however she could. She didn't nag them about anything – the most she'd asked for were clothes and martial arts training. That's it. Was she truly hated so much simply because she was a human?

She looked at the clothes Saiph had gotten her and stood. In the bag were five pairs of jeans, three of which would most likely fit, one that would be too tight and one that would probably be loose. There were six shirts, two plain colors, two with quotes, and two with pictures. All of them were t-shirts. The heating – also suspiciously invisible – made that perfect. She blushed when she saw underwear and bras – and blushed harder when she saw that the bras were all too small. Apparently Saiph thought she was a C-cup. He should have aimed one higher.

She hated how she wondered what Feb's size was.

She quickly changed, feeling oddly choked up as she read one of the t-shirts. 'Hope brings only flickers of joy.' He even had a note saying that the quote reminded him of her.

God, where did he even find these things?

She smiled at the quote, though, and thought of Nigel, Night... and her new love. Yes. Hope made joy a painful thing. Too bad it had fed itself inside her, infesting her soul. She wanted Saiph's love... hoped she'd one day have it. There was that flicker of joy, followed by a crashing pain as she thought of Regulus and Feb. Of the secret, the huge secret, that created an unbreachable gap between them. Thought about how he'd apparently been about to destroy that gap by telling her...

Now she was worried about him again. Too bad she was in too much of a martyr mood to go out and see if he was okay. She thought briefly of Nash – and froze. She knew he hadn't been there after Deneb left to go after Saiph. Where... where had Nash gone?

Now she had to leave – Nash could be hurt.

She cautiously made her way out of her room, looking around. There was no one around. She went to Nash's door first and took a moment to laugh at the monkey dancing on a centaur's back before knocking. Then knocking again. If he was in there, he wasn't answering. Somehow, that didn't seem to be him.

She was really worried now.

“Nash?” she called out, trying to gain a response. “Nash?” She turned away from his door and hurried down the hallway. There was no one there. Everyone had gone to the cafeteria, she supposed. It would be the logical place to look for Nash... and would be impossible to avoid if she wanted to search through the entire Argo. She sighed in resignation. Nash had been kind to her from the start. She would look for him...

And check up on Saiph.

The hallway was disturbingly empty, her footsteps echoing eerily on the floor. She stopped for a moment and studied the walls. The light was there, spread out evenly. No lights that she could see. Damn. She was back around to wondering.

Not vampires. They weren't vampires. Aliens? She thought about the alien theory. It matched everything the most – maybe the ages meant what they looked like according to humans.

But why bother figuring out how old you look to a human when you aren't going to interact with them – beyond, of course, some shopping? And what about that last conversation? It made no sense that they knew about vampires... unless somehow, dramatically and fortuitously, they had the same legend on their planet. For some reason she doubted that.

And what about these doors? Monkeys and dragons and rats. She thought about the others and concentrated on the other pictures. A hunter and a dragon. And Saiph had been called Orion. Orion – the constellation of the hunter. And with Nash's monkey was a centaur – Sagittarius?

Just what did it all mean?

She sucked in a breath when she realized she was wondering again. If she showed herself, will Saiph have changed his mind? Instead of telling her, would he...

And what should she do? Act as if the thought hadn't crossed her mind, or demand a decision? Should she just ask about Nash? And what if Nash truly was injured? Or what if he wasn't... and she reminded Saiph... and seeing her showing up and asking questions about Nash would remind him... change his mind? Make him rethink his decision? But... hadn't she decided that she just didn't care anymore?

She only cared now because Nash may be in danger. She didn't want to forget until she could find him. Yes. That was all. No other reason. There couldn't be another reason. She couldn't be afraid of this anymore. She was going to have to deal with it eventually. There was no more use fighting it, was there?

“No,” she whispered to herself. “There's no other reason to it than that. It's for Nash... and to know that Saiph is all right. As long as he's safe... right?” It would have to be enough, she reasoned. Because she would never have anything else from him, no matter how much she wanted it. He was too much a warrior and not enough... well, he was something, but a human he was not. And she had no idea what he was. He and the others didn't trust her. She wasn't wanted here. She had helped during that enemy attack, and still she was shunned.

When had she gotten on that particular subject? Gods, she was sick of this. It was ridiculous. She was treated as if she herself were an enemy. She had taken over and done not only a job usually regulated by one of them but also took up Deneb's, as well – and Feb's! She had just proven that she could carry her weight in this group.

Damn, this was depressing.

She found her eyes on the floor and sighed at herself. She thought she was onto something with these constellations, anyway. What were the others? She remembered a Pegasus on one of the walls. Was that a constellation? She hadn't seen any crabs or rams or anything, but she was fairly certain that there were a very, very, very large amount of constellations out there.

And hadn't Regulus had a lion on his door? Leo. Wasn't that for August?

Or was it all coincidence?

Maybe she was onto something. She should try to look at them again, see if there were any more she could recognize. She wondered if the Ret could be used to look up human information. It was certainly advanced, and had bothered to give out human years... or “age” and “years”. Whatever the difference was. Hell, maybe it was their original language, said “ah-gay” and “Yay-ars”. Right.

She looked up from her feet and started. She had to move quickly to catch herself as she tried to stop on such short notice.

But Feb smacked her down before her feet could find proper footing.