"It was. While it lasted."

[inset]

Just before dawn . . .

Below.

Rayn lays very still, barely breathing, afraid to move. Afraid to do anything to end this moment. The velvet quiet. The maroon-tinted comfort of the cave. The heat from the waning embers of the fire, nothing compared to the heat of his slow, long exhalation as he breathes down the dagger tattoo on her neck. She knows this night was so precious, so fleeting, especially with the end so near. And so when the voice comes from the distance, calling her name, there is no surprise. Still, tears erupt unbidden from her eyes, mourning the night’s broken magic, forging a piece of it forever into her heart.

Dawn . . .

Below.

Rayn walks outside. Weapon pointed.

"All right, I’m here!"

A figure comes at her through the rain.

"I knew you were!"

Meena runs into her arms.

"I also know we don’t have much time. More TriSenate troops and mercenaries hired by the Council are flying in."

"It’s a feeding frenzy. They smell blood."

"They’re all trying to see who can first claim the prize, you. And when the rain lets up--"

"The hunt will begin. Good."

"Good?"

"The more people who see the end the better. Let’s go."

"What about him?" Meena says with a slight cough and smile.

A blush sweeps Rayn’s face. Of course she knows. She probably dreamed the whole thing.

"I left him a note." It said, One last gamble. So maybe, until tonight. If not, good-bye.

Above.

Shi follows Tyran down the hall.

He grins, "You heard him."

"He’s delirious." She grabs his arm. "Why don’t you want this?"

"Why should I?" He raises his cane and points it at the Tomorrow Room. "Won’t help me."

"You know I’d change that if I could."

"And because I’m tired of the great plan and trying to live up to him just because he thinks I’m him. Cloned or not, it’s not true. I’m me and I’m tired."

He walks away. Shi’s cheeks dot red with anger.

"Poor Tyran thinks it’s harder on him because he’s just a clone. I wonder how you’d feel if you were just his child!"

He turns.

Shi faces him, "A random mix from the genetic wheel and a not very imposing-looking one at that. Not the golden boy, the future!"

"Everything is expected of me!"

"Well nothing was expected of me!" Her tiny voice screeches, "I was ignored, practically forgotten. But I was there all along listening, observing, absorbing. I’m more him than you ever were."

"Good." He walks away before adding, over his shoulder, "But I still want her dead. And just because I’ve let you get some power around here don’t forget, Onar’s still in charge and I am his commander. The commander!" He heads to the shuttle waiting to take him below.

Morning . . .

Below.

Meena leads Rayn back to Sanctuary. "We sent scouts to both camps -- Myles to the TriSenate troops, Kindra to the Council mercenaries. Neither have come back."

A breathless Myles runs in. He sees Rayn and runs to embrace her, lifting her off the ground. She smiles awkwardly, blushing. He strokes her hair, kisses her cheek, then puts her down.

"Kindra’s been captured."

Rayn heads out.

"Where are you going," Miles asks. "Their numbers are great. We must get you out of here!"

"There’s nowhere left to run. And it’s a good day to die."

Rayn looks back into their stunned faces, then smiles.

"Or at least to stage a death. Come on."

Above.

Onar spills from his chair, knocking it over, and crawls towards his desk. His door opens.

"Tyran?"

"No, Shi." She almost adds, The child that isn’t you. Daughter of the wife you didn’t love. And the one who came running as soon as you needed her. She tries to help him back. He pushes away and keeps heading for his desk with every hard, labored breath.

"Tell your brother. I was wrong. You must kill her. Mala forgive me, you must kill her daughter!"

"You don’t know what you’re saying."

"No, I do! We can’t interfere with nature like this! We’re not ready."

"But if we don’t--"

"Then what will happen is meant to be. Help me over, I’ll make it my last official decree."

He reaches out. A pain in his chest. He crumples. Shi goes to him. But he’s still reaching for the decree pad on his desk. Even a scribble would be deciphered and instantly downloaded and disseminated, no going back. He motions for her to get it.

She doesn’t move. She backs away crying, "I’m sorry. But I believe in you. And I won’t fail you, even now!"

He looks at her one last time, shakes his head, dies. Shi backs all the way to the door and screams.

Midday . . .

Below.

The mercenaries and Council guards gather in a small valley amidst mountains of overhanging ruins. From a peak Myles and Rayn look down. Meena’s fellow gypsy-healers spread out behind the circle of posted guards girdling the camp. Each uses their varying degrees of telepathic ability now to help make the guards lax, and later to help them all believe what they see.

Rayn and Myles focus on Tyran’s shuttle and its one guarded entrance.

They sneak down the most obscure way, knock out two guards, and take their black Council uniforms. Two more pairs knocked out and they are at the shuttle. Dressed as guards, they nonchalantly walk to the door, smile at the last pair under the sun visors that obscure all but their smiles, and enter. There in the shuttle bay reclining in a chair in an open cell is not Kindra, but Tyran.

"You were expecting someone else?"

No, actually.

They run up into the ruins. Those that see them fire. Shots blaze from everywhere until the whole area starts to shake and the ruins threaten to avalanche and crush them all. Tyran puts on his communicator.

"Stop!"

He pulls out a laser-sling and waits. Movement. The scythe-like beam fires directly under the nook Rayn had been hiding in. Myles screams. She falls to the ground at the edge of the camp.

Pushing herself up she sees Tyran strolling towards her. He fires around her.

"I thought you were supposed to take me alive?"

He aims at her.

"Kill me and still have my body for the tests? I won’t give you the satisfaction!"

She leaps up and throws out a ticking metal ball, a chemical bomb. She aims her laser-bow at it.

"So how many get to go with me?"

A single jerk of her finger even in death would set it off. The troops back up.

She fires.

The bomb goes off just as she hooks her belt to the thin tether she hung from above. She hits the release and flies up, dropping as she goes the pint of blood and tissue she had extracted at Sanctuary -- to provide the slim traces of DNA that would be expected after the shower of organic-unfriendly chemicals.

The explosion takes out one entire tower of ruins, piling them down on where she stood.

Tyran scans. No life-signs.

Just then Shi’s shuttle lands. She storms out to Tyran.

"What have you done?!"

"Followed orders."

Rayn watches the failed ambush from above. It worked! Now I just have to really find--

A boot kicks her hard in the back and she tumbles off the peak and down to their feet.

She looks up at the booted figure sliding down the tether. Kindra!

Kindra laughs and hits a sonic buoy. The noise breaks the gypsies’ concentration and the guards grab them and Meena. The boom also knocks Myles loose from above. He falls and the uniforms snatch him up. A guard seizes a bruised, broken Rayn and pulls her up. Her eyes turn on Kindra.

"How could you?! You were my best friend . . . you stuck by me through everything else."

"Who says? All those times you thought I was teasing you, I wasn’t! Always, everything I wanted, you had and threw away. Power. Position. I overheard Krachi during the war. I knew for years -- from a big Council family, rich, upper-level, no accent or past to hide. Nothing to live down. Then medals, job offers . . ." Kindra looks briefly at Myles. ". . . and men. Now I’ll have more money and power than anyone but me can imagine! And--"

She goes over to Tyran. They kiss. He smiles. "Anyone can be bought."

Rayn, earnestly, "Kindra, I’ll forgive you if you let the others go."

Kindra’s cockiness falters, other emotions bobbing underneath. She nods.

The guard aims at Rayn’s head. His weapon is shot away from above. By Rozar. Tyran fires his sling. The mountainside where Rozar was standing collapses in on him. Rayn screams.

Tyran knocks her unconscious. Shi motions. The guards around him raise their guns ever so slightly in his direction. Shi whispers in his ear, "Like you said Tyran anyone can be bought. Besides, things… have changed. No scene, you’re still the Commander. You always will be. I promise."

He swallows hard but doesn’t move.

"I know I’m right about this. I have to be." Shi turns to Rayn. "Bring her."

Next Week - Episode 13: Predator, Now Pray