The obsidian was cold below his knees and the darkness seemed to squeeze in around him from all sides. Hundreds of eyes watched him from the recesses of darkness, just outside the firelight where their eyes would glitter with the fiery hatred that they so readily bestowed upon him.

His hands were not bound, but he still knelt hands clasped before him knowing there was nothing he could do. A spear was held to his back at all times, and Sunny, though small for her race, could easily tear him in half if she wished.

He was on his own.

And he was going to die.

General Kazna stood over him in the darkness, her deeply colored carapace seeming almost black in the light from above in comparison to where the fire flickered over her left side.

Another attendant scurried from the darkness and whispered something in her ear.

She nodded and let them go, turning her head back to the dancing flames.

It was then that Sunny moved forward, her head held high, though he could sense the trepidation in her footsteps, quiet and hesitant across the floor.

"Mother."

"Yes Chalan?"

"What is going on here.... If you were in league with the Tesraki, why did I have to sneak onto one of their ships?"

Adam tilted his head to the side listening intently as the traitor spoke.

Kazna turned to look at her daughter, eyes narrowed slightly, "You were not privy to this information, and nor did you need it."

Sunny crossed her arms, both sets, and somehow the gesture seemed strange in comparison to the other Drev, "Well, seeing as your plans have almost succeeded, it wouldn't hurt to tell me. Besides, after all that I have done, don't you agree that I deserve your trust?"

He kept his head down, trying not to look too interested in their conversation.

"What is there to tell you? We recently bribed the Tesraki into helping us, thought that was 'after' you stowed away."

"How could we bribe a Tesraki? We don't have the money to do something like that."

"I found a.... sponsor of sorts."

"A sponsor!" Sunny stepped closer to her mother, "What do you mean.... Who!"

General Kazna sneered, "A scientist. He has agreed to help us win this war in exchange for human subjects. We capture humans and we trade them to him. In return he supplies us with weapons and other necessary items."

He was almost surprised at how shocked Sunny looked, as if she hadn't been told any of this."

"What? But he's a scientist, why would he need our help to find human subjects?"

"You of all people should know how hard it is to find humans." Kazna hissed, "Besides, they generally tend to travel in packs, so getting one on their own is part of the struggle. Now that we can capture them in droves, it is no longer needed. We receive our revenge, and he gets his humans. Everyone wins."

His head was down, and he could only really see them out of his peripheral vision. But it was almost as if he could see a look of disgust on Sunny's face.

"Mother, It is not my place to question your judgement but-"

"No it most certainly is not!"

The two of them were facing each other now, toe to toe, Sunny's meager seven feet going up against her mother's near nine feet, towering over her bigger and stronger.

Sunny did not back down and continued her voice stead, "This.... Revenge... doesn't this go against everything you taught me, everything father stood for. Wouldn't this be dishonoring his memory-"

Sunny didn't get any further, as, with a loud THWACK, Kazna backhanded her daughter across the face.

Sunny stumbled to the side holding her head, arms flailing to keep her balance. Inside, Adam felt his hackles go up as a sudden bout of anger overtook him. Sunny stood a few feet away now, rubbing her face, her head down.

Adam should have been happy to see her hurt, but there was just something about the general that lit a fiery pit of hate within him. Even he could see that she was using Sunny, playing on a lifelong dream of acceptance and a hope for love, all to make her do something she herself saw as heretical and cowardly.

Kazna was using Sunny, and didn't even have the honor to respect her afterwards.

Sunny stood slowly on her back straight, her eyes glowing with golden fire.

Adam wondered if Kazna could see what he saw.

One day that would come back to bite her.

"You will not question my motives!" Kazna spat, "You will not question my honor. I may have allowed you back into this clan but that gives you no right to disrespect me."

Sunny wiped her mouth, and when it came back there was a streak of orange blood on her hand, "Of course, not, General." Sunny said.

Her voice was cool and even, but the way it held suggested something else, almost a mockery of the word, though he wouldn't have been sure.

General Kazna turned away, and as she did he saw Sunny's hands tighten.

General Kazna raised her hands as she stepped into the middle of the room. Overhead, the light was just beginning to fade, the last orange rays of sun slowly melting back over the black obsidian as if, pulled, like a curtain through the small window slit.

The room grew dark as if they were being plunged underground, lit now, only by the blue orbs and the central fire.

Metal scraped across the ground shedding sparks.

He closed his eyes.

"On this day today, we take revenge for the death of our fallen. On this day we take up the spear against those that have invaded our lands." She motioned to him with one long hand, and he was thrust forward by two strong hands, as his guards bent him forward exposing the back of his neck to Kazna and her waiting spear.

"Let this sacrifice be the first, but let it not be the last."

She raised her spear high overhead.

Adam lifted his chin, refusing to simply guess when death was coming.

The spear began its downward stroke.

"You're a COWARD mother."

The spear stopped, and general Kazna froze, turning in wide eyed shock to where her daughter stood on the other end of the circle, spear held at the ready.

***

"We cannot move up our production tables, as it is already months if not YEARS behind schedule." Another shadow darkened his alcove, and Krill was shocked to see a tall human shape pass in front of him. Under his translation, he could hear it now, their guttered hissing and humming language.

"And whose fault is that." Dr. kedd snarled.

The human turned, allowing a small bit of light to run over the side of her face. Long dark hair pulled back in a bun, thick glasses, bags under her eyes. His eidetic memory knew that face instantly, one of the missing humans.

Dr. Katie Quinn

"Your fault! This is your fault and it always has been. I only agreed to help you after you promised no one else would get hurt and we could do this safely, by the book." She sounded close to tears.

"I am sure there are plenty of other doctors to replace you." Dr Kedd hissed, "I only allow you to be where you are because you agreed to help me."

"To save my own life and the life of others. I had no idea you planned on bringing back operation steel eye."

The Gibb hissed, "General Kazna wants an army, and she wants it today."

Dr. Quinn crossed her arms, "I won't help you do that."

"You will or there will be consequences."

"Then I guess there will be consequences. The Steel eye project should never have made it out of the Beta phase. It will take years if not DECADES to make it safe for use on humans. The sheer agony alone of direct nerve links to the armor should make it completely impractical, not an issue to solve with opiates and meth!"

"You grow flippant for someone whose life depends on this job."

The woman brushed a strand of hair back from her face, "Then maybe I would rather die than be your pawn."

"And if you die, who will be here to observe the ethical treatment of my patients. After today we will have more than enough, more than two hundred subjects to work on. Do you really want to leave them defenseless and helpless in the hands of a doctor who doesn't have your.... Scruples."

Dr. Quinn went very quiet, "I may be able to turn them into weapons, but you will never convince them to fight for you."

Dr. kedd's antennae vibrated with annoyance and anger, "They will be too drugged up to know the difference."

Dr. Quinn's face twisted into one of contempt, "Do you know the difference between steel eye, and your own experimentation? The thing that made something as horrible as steel eye work, while yours is failing."

The Gibb barely seemed interested, looking down at the desk to peer over his notes.

The woman straightened up angrily brushing a strand of dark hair from her face, "Those people, all of those people involved in operation Steel eye were volunteers."

Dr Kedd continued to Ignore her for the most part.

"The volunteers, the soldiers, they may have been used, and they may have been lied to, but they agreed to participate thinking it was for the greater good. Even when they were in pain those soldiers agreed to fight for the GA and the UNSC. These people never agreed to anything you have done to them, and no matter what you do, that is going to come back and bite you. These people have only ever known freedom, and they aren't likely to bow to your command just because you drugged them."

Dr. Kedd adjusted his notes, "All the motivational speeches in the world are not going to change the fact that I require soldiers, and I require them by the end of the day." He tucked the papers under his arm and spidered past Dr. Quinn towards the door, "Now come, and remember to keep that sort of thing to yourself, otherwise I will have no choice but to punish you."

A sliver of light spilled into the room as the door opened, and then closed slowly.

Krill stood stiffly in the darkness, his head spinning.

What had he just seen?

Had he really been talking to the culprit this entire time without knowing it.

He had postulated that it would be a nonhuman medical professional with contacts in the medical field, but he hadn't even stopped to consider how perfect doctor Kedd fit into that category simply because he had seemed so helpful at the time.

His head continued to spin as he tried to crawl his way forward out of the little alcove.

It was a little tight, and with the shelves around him, he had trouble moving forward. He wondered how he had managed to get back here without knocking something over, and just as he was thinking that, his shoulder bumped lightly against a crystal glass jar on the shelf, sliding it forward and nearly knocking it to the floor.

Out of reflex, Krill reached out to steady the falling jar, catching it in his four hands as it fell, passing into the light, and almost dropped it again as he saw what was inside.

A sloshing clear liquid and two human eyes suspended inside, the optic nerve still attached, unseeing, unblinking, yet still staring.