(( Continued from here ))

A large man practically bulging with muscles and clearly armed to the teeth made his way casually around the space port as if on patrol for something. It was clear, however, that he was not one of the security guards as clearly pointed out by the actual security avoiding him at all costs as well as the clothing he wore wasn't even comparable to a uniform.

Various weapons were donned on his body, ranging from hunting knives to energy burst one handed rifles. They were all strapped tightly to his waist, chest and thighs which emerged from the crude and worn leather clothing that seemed to hug his form in the right places. Mostly just the vital points where it was likely to be more than just leather padding which allowed him to move around rather quickly and unhindered by anything on him.

What was the most obvious sign of his differentation from the local security was by not only the way he walked, but his body language and the way he seemed to ignore everyone yet pay attention to each one he passed with incredible detail. To anyone aware of the social structure in the order of this planet, noone would make the mistake of crossing such a person the wrong way. Mercenaries seemed to be entirely unpredictable and usually sat outside the law, not because of their social stance, but because the law was likely to turn a blind eye at someone who would decimate the local law enforcement without warning if looked at the wrong way.

It was at that point, he noticed Dhana leaning against a wall off to his right. He looked directly at her, noticing the wanted poster right next to her of which she seemed to be oblivious of showing a picture perfect match. Everyone near him seemed to quickly shuffle much further away and the security has fast-paced their way back inside to pretend there was something more important to take care of. This practically left an empty lot aside from Dhana and this man.

"You." He spoke out suddenly in Dhana's direction as he paced quickly towards her, pulling out one of his hunting knives. "You are wanted by any and all authorities for a rather large bounty."

His gaze subtly pointed out the wanted poster next to Dhana while he closed the gap between them at surprising speed. With his free hand, he quickly snatched up Dhana's bandaged arm by her wrist premptively as he spotted the device wrapped around her fingers. The knife came up just as fast to slice open the bandages with a little too much force to send a light cut up the skin of her arm.

She was unaware of the man or the reaction people had towards him as she leant against the wall. She was also unaware of the obvious posters of herself within the spaceport. She had never been on any of them before, and thus, reacted like anyone else would who is not used to living a dangerous lifestyle.

Currently, she was going over the events that had brought her to this place. So far, she hadn't taken a closer look at the paperwork her father had provided not feeling comfortable with doing so in the public eye, after all, she hoped to find the mystery of her culture hidden among those files.

Lost in thought, she did not see the stranger come towards her until he spoke to her. She looked up with a suprised expression on her face, which soon changed to a frown as he pulled a knife out.

"Violence isn't the answer"

She assured him as he revealed that there was a bounty on her making it quite obvious that she had picked the wrong piece of wall to lean against.

He moved too fast for her to do anything but let him grab her wrist. In response, rather than shouting for help, the jewel in the middle of the device started to glow. She had told him the truth, violence wasn't the answer and if it meant going with him quietly just to avoid him using violence, then that was what  she was willing to do.

Fear could be seen in her face as she watched the knife slice through the bandages and cut into her skin. As the bandages fell off it revealed that the bandage wasn't there to cover up an injury but rather, to cover up a tatoo. The blue swirling lines of it soon turned bright red as the small amount of blood touched them, almost as if the blood had brought the symbol to life.

The tatoo had been on her wrist ever since she was young and her father had covered it up with different bandaids, bangles and other interesting things, passing on to her the information that it related to her home planet, but rather than explaining what the tatoo did he had explained that it was like an id tag, something that her race would identify her by and that that was something she didn't want.

It was after she had been given the device that she had noticed the tatoo glowed whenever she used the device, thus deciding that covering it up like you would an injury would, would not get her any unwanted attention, many believing the device was battery powered.

At the same time as the knife cut the device reacted. While she wasn't a believer in violence, her sense of self-preservation took over and something akin to an electric charge left her jewelled hand travelling up the knife and into the large man. She pulled away from him, hoping to get clear of him before the charge hurt him and before he was able to hurt her.

The man raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised at the intricate tattoo design around her arm underneath the bandages, something of which he didn't seem to expect anything of the sort. It was also noted down about her reaction to him cutting off the banages being more concerned about her safety than keeping what she was obviously hiding a secret. He seemd to take this to interest, especially when it lit up about as long enough until the burst of energy penetrated his knife sending a quick and sharp wave of pain up his arm.

He held a slight look of surprise mixed with something else as if he anticipated that from her. A nice cut up her arm, while his arm was in quite a bit of pain, not that it was shown much by his face or body language. It was obvious he was tolerant of quite a bit of pain, yet wasn't one to laugh it off and tempt fate for it to keep coming. A quick movement sent his knife up to her hand to pierce through the crystal looking part of the device and her hand. He figured she'd heal up the wound, the device didn't seem important enough to keep in tact if it was a danger to him.

Before it did penetrate anything, it would be noted that there was a change in his eyes, as if he was being held back. It was made even more obvious when the tip of his knife stopped with precise handling a millimetre or so away from the crystal. A frown came down on his face and he sighed, almost throwing the knife back into its holster while he pushed her arm back down to examine the design of the tattoo more closely.

"You're worth far more alive than dead to my client." He finally spoke up to reveal his motivation behind this. His words showed no intention of him being anything other than a mercenary claiming his bounty. "So it seems you're not a very religious person after all."

Without wanding, he sidestepped quickly, throwing her to the ground probably a little too hard. The wall she had been leaning against exploded in a shower of mortar and the man fired an energy burst at their unexpected attacker with a quickly drawn single handed rifle. He flew back a few metres, going into a limp roll on contact with the ground as he died on impact thanks to the large smoking cavity in his chest.

"Damn mercenries. Always live on the poverty line 'cause they can't read a bounty properly."

She didn't notice that the tatoo suprised him, still struggling to pull away from him, least either would get hurt more. Not that she succeeded, she wasn't a fighter and he was obviously a lot stronger than she would ever be.

The moment he moved the knife towards the jewel, she froze and looked at him. The expression on her face was one that would have most people pitty her.

"Please.. "

She begged him. She didn't want to hurt him but the jewel hadn't stopped glowing, a sign that she didn't want the device to be destroyed and was on the verge of sending a larger shock up the man's knife if it made contact with the jewel. A slight look of relive appeard as he stopped milimetres away from the knife's tip piercing the jewel.

"Thanks"

She whispered, letting him move her arm to get a closer look at the tattoo. Whoever he was, maybe he would understand that violence really wasn't the way after all.

His statement that his employer prefered her alive worried her. Before she had the chance to ask who his employer was, or reply to his statement on her religious believes though, she felt herself thrown to the ground. Too fast to do much else but make sure she didn't land face first, she landed on her arm. The explosion which followed made sure she stayed on the ground rather than trying to get up and running, which, no doubt, any smart person would have attempted.

Instead, she stayed on the ground even after the world went quiet again, contemplating playing dead but realising that it would not do. She wasn't dead and whoever the guy had been, he had not meant to kill her.

Slowly she raised her head a bit, looking around for him going pale when she saw the dead man, before finding her original problem and smiling slightly. He didn't have to safe her. Even if his employer wanted her alife, that did not mean he had to risk his own life to do so, instead, he had and she appreciated it, a lot.

A hand dropped down, grabbing Dhana by the shoulder firmly and lifting her to her feet with little effort. A smile formed on his face while his eyes glazed over slightly. While focused on Dhana, they didn't exactly seem to be looking at her, his concentration apparently on something else. Unexpectadly, he burst out laughing, reaching up to his ear and taking something off before placing his concentration back on the young girl in front of him.

"She's loud." He commented to Dhana, acting as if there was a third person present or she was aware of what he was talking about. He bent down slightly, placing his hand behind his back and lowering his voice significantly. "Between you and me, she only gets this way when she cares about something. Dunno what she sees in you though."

He holstered his gun and put his earpiece back on before reaching out and taking another look at Dhana's arm, this time slightly more gently. His gaze held a firm concentration while he let his mind wander over the intricate design, possibly attempting to discern if it meant anything in a language or were just rune-like symbols. After some time, he spoke up again, a hint of concern in his voice.

"You'd be best not hanging around in public places like this. I'm sure that guy on the ground over there wasn't the only one." He pulled out a small pouch from the back of his waist, unravelling a fresh bandage of which he wrapped around her arm for the dual purpose of hiding the tattoos and making sure her light wound wouldn't get in the way. "I'm only doing this as a favor to an old friend, but she wants you with her until you get off the planet. I've already turned down what seems like one of the first requests to hunt you down and we both know the next one all bets are off."

"Ouch"

She complained as he 'helped' her get up.

she had no idea why he started laughing or what he meant by his comment that 'she' was loud. it was only as he put his hand to his ear that she became aware that he was wearing some form of communication device there.

"Who?"

She asked, not really expecting an answer, after all, he didn't seem like the type to give that type of information out. His next words embarrased her. Dhana herself didn't know what anyone saw in her. If people only saw what she saw in herself instead of seeing something else, then there would not be a dead body close to her now and she'd be able to enjoy life. Instead, she seemed to have woken up in a bad dream which was fast spiralling towards nightmare level.

Realising that he really didn't mean any harm, she didn't object to him studying her arm. She did however take the opportunity to ask the question she never got around to asking due to the explosion, and this time, she wanted an answer.

"You said I wasn't religious, what makes you think that?"

She listened to his warning, frowning as he oh so casually mentioned the dead guy. Killing him had gone directly against her believes that everything could be dealt with without the use of violence, and killing was one of the more violent acts.

"It seems you are a true friend to her"

She stated as he finished wrapping her arm with speed and experties which showed that he was used to dealing with injuries.

"Do you know who is trying to find me?"

She asked, showing that she had no idea why anyone would want her at the same time as giving away that without help, she would be one of the easiest targets ever.

"Not a clue." He stated honestly, ignoring her question about religion. He was already well aware of the design and device as well as her choice of dress having religious undertones and was never one to be too deeply involved in such things. "But by the looks of things, I'm beggining to understand why Hawkins wants to keep an eye on you. We Fixers have no distinction between good and evil, justice and immorality on our work. However being used as pawns in such conspiracies go against our ethics."

The man frowned, looking around for any possible danger. He was being much more talkative than usual, but figured the girl could use a little insight on the social structure of things. While it wasn't in his top priority to keep Dhana protected from who was after her, wandering around this city without a clue of what was going on would likely put her in a worse position than being claimed as a bounty. On top of that, he owed a favour to Eseen, which was now being exploited to the fullest extent over the voice com he had with her.

"Head to the hospital Hawkins went to, keep off the main streets and out of the back ones. You wont find safety in numbers or seclusion around here, regardless of your bounty." He took out a rifle, shoving it into Dhana's waist tie. "Use that as your first defense, they'll be expecting your device like I did. I can keep an eye on you from a distance but I have other matters to attend to."

He began walking away, pausing for a moment to turn around and inform her of something else.

"Give the gun to Hawkins when you get there, she'll make sure it gets back to me." He added one last comment before turning around and continuing to walk off. A trail of words were spoken as he went out of hearing range seemingly spoken to the other end of his ear piece. "You like to push the point don't you? We're even now, hell you probably..."

His lack of knowledge of who was after her did nothing to help, his revelation of the name 'Hawkins' however, perked her interest. She looked at him now with a better understanding of who he was. He was Eseen's friend.

She rolled her eyes at him. The idea that no matter where she went she wasn't going to be safe didn't appeal to her at all. Yet, as Eseen's friend, she trusted his words enough to know that he was most likely right. 

She didn't bother telling him that she had no idea of how to shoot the gun, it would be redunant anyway, she had no intention of using it in the first place. While he most likely had a point in regards to the device on her hand, she wasn't willing to take it off yet, prefering to keep it where it was. It was, to her, primarily a healing device, something he might not know about. The fact that she had sent a small electric charge into him just showed that the device was capable of far more than just healing, including providing a personal shiled for herself if things really did go wrong.

"Thank you for everything"

She thanked him. She meant it, she was greatful for the help he had provided her with.

"Definatly"

She agreed with his advice to give the gun to Eseen when she met her again.

She watched him walk away talking to someone, presumably Eseen, before she turned and headed off towards the hospital, keeping away from both the main roads and the back alleys.

In this manner, she knew it would take twice as long to reach the hospital, quite possibly longer seeing as her sense of direction wasn't that great.

The gun on her felt stupid. She looked silly with it. It would most likely scare the good and innocent people on this planet while not doing terribly much to stop any nasties seeing as she knew how silly she looked carrying it, certain that they would equally see how silly it was.

The streets she picked made the trip seem even longer. Ontop of that, the warning the guy had given her had been a good one as she found out rounding a corner. There, blocking her way, was someone with a gun pointed at her.

Her first instinct was to frown at the gun, then realise she had one of her own but also realised that a) she wasn't going to be fast enough to pull it out, b) had no idea how to fire it and c) that would be the violent option she didn't like anyway.

"Can I help you?"

She asked instead, only to be told that she could by doing exactly what was asked of her, which started with holding still. That, she had no problems with and did so as a second person approached her, the first person still holding the gun pointed at her. Though, as the second person reached for the hand that held the device, she, without moving, reacted in a defensive manner.

The device they had tried to take of her glowed very brightly as electric current travelled into the hand trying to remove it from her. It didn't take long before the current had finished coursing through the person infront of her and found its way back to her ending up with both of them being thrown away from each other by the sheer force of electricity built up between them.

The fixer stood on a nearby rooftop, surveying Dhana's situation. He simply shook his head when the girl ignored his instructions and used her hand device. If anyone was watching both him and the scene below, they would also see him cringe right at the point of Dhana being flung backwards by the power coming from her own device. This wasn't because he was sympathetic, it was because there was a voice in his ear forcing him to be.

"You've already exhausted your favours. There's a point where I gotta draw the line, Hawkins." He spoke calmly to seemingly noone in particular.

The female voice yelled over the intercom.

"Relax, she's fi-"



Randon almost fell over clutching his ear at the interruption before chuckling again. He was used to this from her when they worked together. Fortunately for him, the volume of her voice was turned down drastically over his earpiece. Back in the day, she had her mind on the job at hand, just like now. Except the difference was, they were next to each other.

He was aware the woman knew how to be silent like a cat, so much so that sometimes he could swear she had inherited the physical features of one. But she had the wonderful ability to possibly make you bleed to death through your ears if you pissed her off.

"Hawkins, my instructions were clear, I was to bring Dhana to you safely."



Randon smirked, finally some incentive. He wasn't the slightest concerned about the gargle cutting Eseen off, knowing her injuries she would have likely overworked herself or finally the staff at the hospital managed to get close enough with a needle to get her to shut up. The fixer knew there was no contract, but knew while others of his profession weren't all too trustworthy, Hawkins' word meant more to him than a signed piece of paper.

He pulled out a hook from his belt, jamming it into the concrete floor of the building he stood on before quickly standing up and taking a leap straight off. The rifle attatched to his thight quickly flicked off, an energy pulse fired instantly, hitting one of the men Dhana had incapacitated. The blast hit him straight in the chest, imprinting the body into the walkway while crushing his entire chest cavity before leaving deep burns, killing him instantaneously.

The next man caught on quickly, aiming up frantically and firing at the rapidly falling fixer. Randon flipped to his side, avoiding the bullet with superhuman agility which sent him into a whirlwind like spin as his descent continued. It would be noted at that point, at the edges of the spin, something shiny and metallic seemed to dance around the spinning fixer.

By the time the gunman realised what he was staring down, Randon had landed in front of him with one knee planted in the ground, holding a knife sideways against his other knee with his head bowed down. The gunman reacted quickly, aiming at the fixer's head and pulling the trigger. Something which seemed to have no effect as the trigger simply fell off the gun, clinging on the ground.

Randon stood up slowly, towering over the bewildered man and staring him eye to eye. At that point, the gun dropped to the ground, not out of fear either. Actually, only the front half hit the ground. The other was still in his hand, and remained there had his hand slowly peeled off his wrist cleanly. A wide eyed look of fear crossed the man's face when he realised what exactly this fixer had done, remaining in that position as his body slowly peeled apart. At first cleanly and then messily, leaving a crumpled and cut up bloody corpse on the street.

"Looks like you're stuck with me again for a bit." Randon commented while turning to Dhana, a surprisingly cheerful moodswing from the slaughter he just committed.

It took her a bit to sit up, looking at the device stunned. She didn't know enough about its capacity as a weapon, something which she had just found out in a rather painful way.

Randon's comment made her look at the scene infront of her, turning pale as she did so before looking at him, then quickly turning away and vomiting. The sight of the chopped up man was too much to handle. 

"Did you..?"

she started to ask when she had finished, looking at him. She didn't want to finish the sentence. She didn't want to know that two people had just lost their lifes to his hands. She didn't want to know that he had done it to keep her safe. This sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen. No-one was supposed to want to stick guns in her face, it wasn't like she was someone important or dangerous anyway.

Eventually she resigned herself to the fact that there was nothing she could do about the past, instead, got up unsteadily.

"Thank you"

She then looked around rather disorintated before looking back at him.

"Which way is the hospital from here? I"m lost"

She admitted to him. There was a reason she didn't travel much and it had nothing to do with people wanting to kill her. She just happened to get lost in new places.

As soon as Randon set foot into the room Eseen was occupying, there was a flutter of movement from the bed and almost a blur of light blue. She slammed her fist into Randon's face, sending both of them sprawling to the ground in opposite directions. Eseen's shoulder pulsated with sudden pain upon impact which shot through her entire body, causing her to lose balance and slump over. In the mean time, Randon had been caught completely off guard by this and fell over partially by surprised, mostly by the weight behind the impact.

"What the hell was that for?!" He complained while getting himself back onto his feet, clutching his jaw.

"DHANA WAS SUPPOSED TO GET HERE SAFE AND SOUND!" Eseen yelled back in distress. She was already on her feet and favouring her injured shoulder. At that point, three nurses rushed in and tried to sedate the woman completely as the previous injection had only calmed her down. "I'm fine! He deserved it! Dammit!"

She was hastily shoved back into her bed, with only minimal verbal protesting due to her knowing about how much gunshot wounds hurt and that she was weakened from the previous surgery combined with the drugs used. Once back in bed, she rolled over onto her left side to keep any pressure off her right. The previous action taken had aggrivated the wound and tore a few stitches open which showed thanks to the blood soaking through the gown.

She was glad she hadn't stepped into the room before their friend, especially as Eseen seemed to have developed a sudden need for violence.

She frowned at the display, though moved out of the way of the nurses as they did their best to calm Eseen down. Once Eseen was back in bed and the nurses had moved away from her a bit, she requested the nurses to give the three of them a moment alone, which, after throwing Eseen a worried look, they agreed to.

No sooner had they left that Dhana sat on Eseen's bed next to her, putting one of Eseen's hands into her own.

"I'm here now, safe and sound. If it wasn't for your friend though, I wouldn't be here  yet, I sorta got lost"

She smiled at Eseen, totally ignoring the fact that if it hadn't been for Randon, she might not have managed to get here at all. It was a fact she didn't want to think about and didn't want to worry Eseen with.

Still smiling and holding Eseen's hand, the device started to glow again, giving off a feint glow as it started to travel up Eseen's arm. Dhana hadn't needed to hear the nurses explain the condition Eseen was in, she had seen how weak Eseen was without that help and had decided that she could do with a bit more energy, something that the hospital could not provide, something to help her recover faster.

Eseen shut her eyes while the warmth from the glow spread slowly up her arm, nullifying the pain in her shoulder. She took a deep breath while it spread over the rest of her from there, enjoying the calm feeling it brang, something which she was having trouble doing herself after being on edge for so long.

Her hand rotated around slightly and took ahold of Dhana's hesitantly. She opened her eyes and looked into the girl opposite her, a sheepish smile forming on her face as an unspoken thankyou while her cheeks slowly turned a light shade of pink. The Fixer's eyes shut halfway while the effect the device was having on her made her realise how much she had pushed herslef to exhaustion.

In the mean time, Randon had gotten over being smacked in the face, still rubbing his jaw slightly. He knew that one was going to leave a mark. While he was physically stronger than his old friend, she seemed to be quite a bit tougher and was quite familiar with how rough she could be with some of her targets if deemed necessary. He was all to aware she wasn't one to be taken lightly if crossed the wrong way, despite her appearance.

When he spotted the device being used, he reached over to his rifle. Gripping it tightly, he took a few steps forward to get closer to the hospital bed and Dhana to assess the situation more carefully. He had encountered the nature of the device before now and the nature of the girl was obvious, but it was still offputting when both times he had seen her use it weren't exactly friendly. His grip relaxed suddenly when he spotted Eseen holding onto Dhana's hand somewhat affectionately.

"Ohh..." Randon pointed out vocally as it dawned on him the reason why his friend had taken apon herself to keep this girl protected at all costs. Knowing her, this revelation was somewhat, no, completely unexpected, regardless of Dhana's gender. Eseen caught him eying the pair off out of the corner of her eye and slid her hand away from the girl's, face once again becoming a deeper shade of red while she shifted uncomfortably. It occured to her it seemed to happen a lot lately.

"So, Miss Hawkins got herself a girl?" He spoke mockingly, with a taunting smile on his face.

"No, it's not like that.." She paused, unsure what to say as an excuse. It was made increasingly hard by her own realisation that, yes, that's exactly what it is.

"You do remember how dangerous it is for someone like you to take up a relationship right?" He spoke with some change of concern in his voice, completely ignoring that she appeared to be falling for another girl. Something which Eseen had picked up and would ponder later. This didn't seem to show on her face which was still deep red and avoiding eye contact with Dhana. "Not only that, but this one seems to have the entire galaxy after her. I just figured you took it so seriously because of how unfair it seemed."

A frown showed on her face as she watched Randon reach for his gun. There was no need to do so, yet, he felt the need to. While Eseen had managed to hurt him, or at least, Dhana assumed so, out of the two, Eseen was worse hurt explaining why Dhana had gone to her side rather than arguing about the need for violence with Eseen and helping her friend recover instead.

She smiled at Eseen's silent thank you watching her for a bit and ignoring the coloratin of her cheeks. A few moments later, the glow simply faded but her hand did not leave Eseen. Partly because she felt comfortable here, partly because she felt tired.

Thus, she listened to the two silently, smiling at Eseen's denial of what was happening. While she hadn't expected anything like that when her father had first sent Eseen to look out for her, over time she had grown to quite like the fixer but would take the impending relationship as slow as Eseen wanted to especially knowing that this would be Eseen's first physical relationship.

At Randon's comment on how dangerous a reationship would be for Eseen, she looked at him with a calm, assuring smile on her face.

"I'll take good care of her, I promise"

She calmly told him the exhaustion she had caused herself earlier showing through in her voice.

In response to Randon pointing out the obvious to her about a Fixer being far more vunerable in a relationship, Eseen merely layed back and closed her eyes. Even accepting this danger, she still was trying to not accept the possibility of something forming between her and Dhana. Her entire life, she didn't need or want anyone else interfering, it was just her and her ability to make things explode.

Even before, when she'd catch the comments thrown her way by the other Fixers about her and Randon being that close, she had just rolled her eyes and ignored it. Sure, he was closer to her than she'd let anyone else, but that was because they watched each other's backs and kept each other alive. Something you can't turn a blind eye to. Even so, in the few weeks she had known Dhana, the girl had managed to get somewhat closer than she wanted. The worst thing was, she had let her.

"So you're sure about this?" He asked politely, leaving a few moments of which she could give time to think and respond before speaking again. "Very well then, I'll let the fee slide. You owe me a favour later on though."

Eseen lay there a few more minutes after he left before slowly opening her eyes again, turning to Dhana. There was a slight moment of hesitation and then she reached an arm over to Dhana, taking ahold of the bandage. She paused again, making eye contact with Dhana as she attempted to unwrap it carefully as she was already aware of how much the girl actually protected it.

"I need to see it for myself." She spoke gently in an almost questioning tone. "I think I've seen the design somewhere before..."

Throughout the conversation between Eseen and Randon, she sat next to Eseen, never relinquishing the hold she had on her hand. Though as the two talked, well, as Randon talked, she became aware of what was happening. Her father had mentioned Eseen having her own reason to protect her and Dhana now found that the reason was simple. Eseen was attracted to her.

She also knew that breaking the woman's heart was a no-no, and after Randon left, she contemplated the meaning of this relationship in its fullest form.

Eseen's movement snapped her out of her thoughts as she unconsciously pulled away from Eseen, only to relax her arm and let Eseen unwrap the bandage, flinching a bit towards the end as the bandaged pulled away from the freshly healed cut.

As Eseen looked at Dhana, she'd see Dhana looking suprisingly consciencious and unsure of herself, something which Eseen wouldn't be familiar with coming from her.

The intriquit design which wrapped itself around her wrist was now a plain shade of blue, indicating that it had been tatooed into the skin a fair while ago, now scarred only by the thin red line, the leftover of Randon's curiousity of the same subject.

"Where did you see it before?"

She asked, wanting to know.

Eseen's eyes widened slightly as she glanced over the tattoo. There was no mistake that she had seen it before and hoped she would never see it again. She frowned while the memories resurfaced of the design which imprinted itself so vividly on her mind. If any of her other comerades had seen this, they wouldn't hesitate to kill Dhana on the spot, something which, while she didn't want to admit it, had crossed her own mind as well.

"A few years back, there was a massive rebellion thrown up on this remote planet. Or at least, that was the toned down version of it was. The truth is, it was a full scale war. The military hired a ton of us fixers, I'm talking thousands here. Only a few hundred of us got out alive and half were dying of one thing or another." She closed her eyes and sighed, annoyed at the amount of energy it had taken to speak out a few sentances.

"Truth is, we were sent in to take out five men in charge of this unexpected army. The guild had felt it was beyond their control and the mercs refused to work with each other. The men held devices similar to your own, but it didn't occur to me until I saw the design. The difference was that it travelled up both their arms and across their chest." While she described this, she unconciously traced her finger up Dhana's arm beyond the design she had while she remembered the symbols.

"Randon was one of the first wave of us to go in, he got banged up pretty hard. Probably one of the luckier ones, doesn't remember too much of it. The rest were swept up in some kind of massive wave generated by their combined use of the device. The males were hung in the air while their skin was torn gradually off by some invisible force, you could hear the screaming for days." She choked up slightly while she let the memoried come back without letting them overwhelm her.

"They took the rest of the women through conditioning of some sort, individually placing the device to our heads and doing something that killed most of us as if they were looking for something. Those of us that did survive were tied down and began being marked in different places with some kind of ritual knife." She raised her hand to her left ear, pushing back her hair and ear to show Dhana a similar design of hers that ran partially down her neck and seemed to run up the rest of her scalp which was covered by hair.

As she spoke, Dhana went pale. She hadn't expected to hear what Eseen had gone through and was suprised that Randon hadn't killed her outright, hell, she woudln't have blamed him. What was even more suprising was that he had saved her life AFTER he knew what mark she bore.

She felt sick as Eseen continued, eyeing off the device on her hand. Her father had given it to her a few years back on her birthday, said it was hers to have, her birthright and had told her to explore its potential by thinking about what it could do while wearing it. He had kept that it could be used as a weapon of the magnitude Eseen told about from her.

Suddenly, she reacted. Taking off the device, she threw it against the far wall, tears in her eyes looking at Eseen.

"I.. I'm sorry.. "

She stammered. She had no idea who they had been nor why they slaughtered innocent people like they had, knew she had nothing to applogise for, yet felt in some way responsible for what had occured.

The Fixer displayed a light smile at Dhana's reaction to this. Not out of appreciation for driving her to tears but of her display of hatred for the device from what she had heard of the key use it had in causing unforgivable horrors to others. Her hand slowly moved over to the hand Dhana had previously wore the device and gripped it gently. Eseen knew from this reaction that this girl could be trusted, regardless of her connection with those who she held unspoken vengence for.

"Dhana, I've seen what you can do with the device. You've used it to help people, give them your own strength and heal their wounds. As someone who has witnessed and even caused atrocities, I know first hand that it isn't the device that's evil. It's what you do Dhana, you help people and regardless of what you do, throw it away or use it for good, it wont change what it's been used for. But throwing it away wont help anyone." Eseen reassured the girl, a glimmer of wisdom beyond her years shining through her eyes.

"As I said, they seemed to be looking for something and given us these tattoos on different places. I was probably the lucky one only having had my head shaved to place over the left side of my head. Many others were depraved in any which way they could think of. The men seemed to somehow have read our minds and got out which of us were 'pure'." She pursed her lips and sighed again, while not entirely happy with this memory, she was still somewhat glad she had gotten off mildly.

"Then after, I don't know how long we were there, we all woke up one morning in our holding cells and they were gone. We were rescued by a band of mercenaries who finally agreed that strolling into a former warzone on a rescue mission wasn't something suicidal. The few fixers that did survive the first wave had noted the women missing from the field of mutilated corpses and Randon managed to convince together a rescue operation."

Eseen let out a long drawn out sigh and relaxed a bit more in her bed. She knew she needed rest and was over-exerting herself, but she felt these things had to be said. She herself wasn't too sure why exactly Dhana was being hunted like so, but had a good inkling that it had something to do with this event. There was no way five men armed with such devices could not be connected to a hunted girl who donned the same tattoo markings.

"You've seen me heal with it. You haven't seen me hurt people with it.. "

She pointed out, memories of her doing that flooding back to her along with the revelation that what the men had done to the fixers was something that she, to some extend, was capable of.

She didn't look at Eseen as she bandaged her wrist up again. She didn't want to see the design anymore. She knew it was placed there during her childhood when her mother was still around. Now she just wished that she had never received it.

"How could anyone be that cruel?"

She asked, still feeling sick at what Eseen had told her. Eventually, she got her courage up again and looked at Eseen, unable to phantom how she had managed to survive through the ordeal or how she had managed to deal with the memories and scares it surely left.

"You didn't know about the tattoo when you took the job, did you?"

She asked, almost certain that she didn't. Did her father know what had happened to the fixers? She didn't know, nor could she ask him now that he was dead

Eseen layed back again, shutting her eyes while she slowly succumb to the overwhelming exhaustion. She had allowed Dhana to cover up the tattoo again. While she didn't exactly approve of it, having a different idea all together of the meaning behind them, she wasn't in any position to protest. Her eyes opened slightly again as she attempted to answer the girl's questions.

"I already know what you're like. Even while it's frustrating sometimes, you always want to try and use it to help people. I know you couldn't use it to intentionally hurt someone just for the sake of it." She placed her hand over Dhana's again, remaining comfortable in the bed and only turning her head slightly to look at her better. "No, I didn't know anything about you when I took the job, all I got was your name and where to find you."

The fixer gave Dhana another smile for some further reassurance before closing her eyes again. She knew this girl knew little to nothing about her own heritage, not to mention, neither did herself. It also made sense that if the girl was going to stick with her, she picked up and understood what exactly she done as a fixer to prevent any problems down the line.

Moments passed and it wasn't long before the darkness seemed all too welcoming. Her breathing slowly became deeper and drawn out while her hand over Dhana's relaxed. It wasn't long before Eseen was fast asleep.

She watched as Eseen drifted off to sleep, amazed at how much trust Eseen had in her. Her addmittance to not knowing about the tattoe made sense though, no-one in their right mind would have taken the job and not gotten rid of her.

It got her curious though, did her father know what happened to the fixers and not mention it or was it just an oversight?

Her father.. she suddenly remembered that she had his paperwork with her and while Eseen slept, she started looking through it.

Over the next few hours she learned about her people, about how they believed that the gods must be apeaced by the sacrifice of one born to one of their pristesses and an outsider, something her father had mentioned briefly.

There was more information though, information that showed her that she had started training at the temple, for in order to get the tatoo she had, she would have had to train there. It gave information on how the design increased as the acoloyt progressed in their training.

She found no mention of the fixers or the war which had been waged on her home planet, though an image of one of the monks made her stare at it for a while. After a bit, she folded the picture up and hid it on her body. If Eseen woke up or chose to look through the papers, at least, she wouldn't be confronted with what Dhana feared was a man with identical tatooes to the ones who had put Eseen through hell.