Heart's Desire
by
 Cheryl Roberts

Disclaimer: This is a work of adult fiction containing scenes of erotic nature. If you are under the age of consent in your particular jurisdiction, proceed no further. The Power Ranger characters belong to Saban International and are being used without their knowledge or consent. No profit is being made by the author on this story. The inspiration for the Skyborn came from Marvel Comics _Star Wars_ Annual #1 (1979--I think), and the mating fight was influenced by Anne McCaffrey's _Dragonflight_ This story takes place in Ranger continuity just before Ninja Quest.

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"I got it!" Kimberly shouted as she made a diving leap after the frisbee which sailed passed her. Her friends laughed as she tumbled (albeit gracefully) to the ground in her failed attempt. "Rocky, your aim stinks!" Kim grumbled as she got up and brushed herself off. Then, she went to retrieve the plastic disk.

"It's the wind," Rocky replied apologetically. The six friends were enjoying a rare afternoon picnic in the park. The weather had been horrible of late, and so had Zedd and Rita. However, the sun was bright, the sky was blue, and there wasn't a putty in sight.

"Coming at you, Tommy," Kim called out as she let the frisbee fly. The disc went wide, and it was Tommy's turn to grumble as he chased after it.

"Sorry, Tommy," Kim called out. As she watched Tommy bend over, Kim felt her pulse quicken, and a sigh of longing threatened to slip out. _Boy, does he have a cute butt!_ She would have liked nothing better than to run her hands all over his tush--among other things. She wished Tommy wouldn't wear such long shorts (or such baggy swim trunks for that matter); she would have enjoyed getting a better look at his yummy body. Kim shook her thoughts aside; this really wasn't the place for them. Still, it was almost as if she couldn't help herself. Tommy was really carbonating her hormones of late.

Kim had been thinking about a lot of things lately--and not just her physical attraction to Tommy. She had been giving their entire relationship much thought. Kim knew that, deep down in her heart, Tommy was the one for her. She had never felt so strongly about any guy she had ever dated before. Her grandmother used to tell her that when the right boy came along, she'd know. _"Your heart will know, without a doubt."_ Her grandmother used to tell Kim the story of how she met Kim's grandfather--they had met as children. Gramps, as a boy, used to tease Gran and pull on her braids. Gran's family moved away, and it was years later that the pair were reunited, fell in love, and got married. Kim used to cling to that tale, dreaming of her Mr. Right.

_But what if your heart makes a mistake?_ Kim wondered. Her mother and father had thought they loved each other, but now they were divorced. How could you know for sure? Was what she and Tommy had simply a high school romance? To Kim, it was something more. Her fondest wish was to be with Tommy forever... marriage, a family... but that was for later, after school--and after Zedd was no longer a threat. For now, she wanted to enjoy every minute she could with Tommy because she knew how precious that time was. When one went into battle daily, there was always the possibility of not coming back. That tended to make one appreciate life a little more.

"Heads up," Tommy hollered, letting the frisbee fly. Kim knew she loved Tommy; she longed to tell him that, but she wasn't sure if she should. He was always very affectionate, and at times she glimpsed a deeper emotion in him. She lived for those moments when she could feel the depth of his feelings; she savored the warmth and security she felt at those times, but those moments were fleeting. It was like he would open himself up a little bit then pull back, as if afraid of being vulnerable. Kim couldn't understand it. More than anything else, Kim wanted to hear Tommy say those three little words to her. She wanted to believe them with all her heart....

"Ow!" Kim yelped as the frisbee clipped her head just hard enough to make her lose her equilibrium. She landed hard on her bottom, to the merriment of the others.

"That's what you get for sleeping on the job," Rocky chortled.

"Well, it's your fault I can't stay awake," Kim shot back; she wasn't about to admit to daydreaming in the face of Rocky's laughter.

"My fault?"

"If you wouldn't have had us over to watch that Science Fiction double feature last night, I might have gotten some sleep."

"What was wrong with those movies? They're great," Rocky retorted.

"_War of the Worlds_ was fine...." Kim replied.

"...but you have to admit that _Pirates of Alpha Centauri_ was pretty cheesy," Aisha interjected.

"I had alien slimewads running amuck in my dreams all night long," Kim complained as Tommy helped her up.

"You okay?" he asked, kissing her temple. Kim smiled up at him warmly.

"I'm fine. Thanks."

"I'm really sorry. I was aiming for Aisha, but the wind took it," Tommy explained.

"The wind has really picked up since we've been out here," Kim agreed, brushing the hair out of her eyes.

"There must be a new front blowing in from the mountains," Billy observed. However, the air currents continued to gain in velocity and the temperature began dropping in spite of the perfect conditions. It happened so suddenly that the six knew that it was no natural phenomenon.

"Couldn't Zedd have given us the rest of the day off," Adam sighed as the six pulled in closer, assuming a defensive formation. Then, without warning, he collapsed.

"Adam!" Aisha gasped as she and Billy caught him.

"What happened to him?" Tommy queried.

"I didn't see anything blast him," Rocky said.

"He appears to be asleep," Billy assessed.

"This is too weird," Kim murmured, scanning the area for further danger.

"Let's get to the Command Center...." Billy began, then he, too, collapsed.

"Billy!" Kim yelped.

"Hey, I thought I saw some sort of beam of light...." Aisha went down in mid-sentence.

"I can't get through to Zordon," Tommy reported, frantically trying to activate his communicator.

"What do we do now...." Rocky crumpled to the ground. This time, the beam of light was more noticeable.

"Maybe we should split up," Kim suggested, grabbing Tommy's hand and giving it a quick squeeze.

"So it doesn't have a concentrated target? Good idea...."

"Tommy, no!" Kim shrieked as he fell at her feet. She only had a moment to realize that she was the only one left before oblivion claimed her as well.

~*~

"Oh, my head," Kim groaned as consciousness returned. It felt as if white hot knives tore through her skull. Her acknowledgement of her pain was brief before her surroundings demanded her attention. The park was long gone. Kim found herself laying in the midst of a muddy road, and around her was a world gone mad. She heard explosions and saw flashes of flame. People were running everywhere, screaming in pain and fright, but they were not human. She had never seen anything like the terrified beings who raced about her. It took Kim a moment to realize that it wasn't one race of beings but many races--some humanoid, some not.

"Where am I?" she wondered as she picked herself up to avoid being trampled. She looked around in confusion. Around her, buildings exploded. The sky, choked with thick clouds of smoke, was filled with flying craft manned by armored beings. Kim turned in the direction from which the beings were fleeing. Huge, hulking insect-like creatures lumbered down the streets. The obsidian-carapaced monstrosities reached out for the hapless denizens, caught them up in enormous pincers and deposited them in wheeled cage-carts. Kim had seen enough. She didn't know where she was, how she got there, or where her friends were, but she did know that she did not want to wind up in one of those cages.

She hurried down the street in search of a hiding place. Others had the same idea, but the sky-based soldiers used their weapons to demolish any likely cover, sometimes before the refugee reached the shelter, but most times after. The victims either went up in flames or were squashed by debris. There was no time to think, simply react, and Kimberly was caught up in the tidal wave of bodies that surged down the street. Suddenly, the crowd shifted, and Kim found herself laying in a gutter. There was plenty of debris in the trough-like construct, and she quickly pulled it over herself.

_,Somebody get me out of this nightmare!_ Kim felt like crying, but she had to keep her cool. She hadn't been so scared since before she received her power coin. Where was she? Where were Tommy and the others? She reached for her communicator but found it missing, as was her morpher. _Great, just great!_ Above her, she heard the shriek of one of the sky-sleds, and she cowered lower under the garbage. The sound seemed to be hovering directly above her; then, it flew off, and Kim realized that she had been holding her breath. She was tempted to take a quick peek, when she heard the rumble of the multi-legged horrors--heard their impossibly loud chittering--drawing closer. Kim held her breath again. If she could just stay still....

Then, she heard a plaintive cry. It sounded so much like a small child, that she peeked out in spite of herself. As she feared, a fallen child (at least, it looked like a child) lay crying in a pothole in the dirt road. It struggled to get up, but it kept grabbing its leg as if something hurt. Kim couldn't stand by and let the helpless thing be captured or trampled. She scrambled out of her hiding place and dashed into the street. The child was solidly built--about twice as big around as she was; she doubted she could lift him. Maybe if she had her powers... yet, she managed easily. Kim chalked it up to adrenaline. Cradling the frightened being, she dashed towards the safety of the gutter, her own fear giving her the extra speed she needed. Still, it wasn't enough. A wickedly spined pincer closed around her midsection. Kim pushed the child towards the drainage ditch. To her relief, the insect-creature seemed not to notice.

"Let me go!" she shouted, seeing to her own safety. She kicked and struggled to break free. The claw held her so tightly that the spines ripped into her clothes and threatened to do the same to her flesh. Kim was forced to cease wriggling lest she rip open her middle. The creature hoisted her high then tossed her back; she landed in the midst of a tight press of bodies in the cages.

~*~

Kim tucked herself into a tight ball in order to survive the bumpy ride better. She managed to work her way to the outside wall of the cage so she could see what was going on. She was somewhat surprised by her fellow prisoners. Upon reaching the cage, it was as if all the fight had gone out of them. No one moved (not that there was much room to move); no one spoke. It was as if they were already dead. Kim had the sense that the others knew what sort of fate awaited them and that there was no avoiding it. It did not instill her with confidence.

From her place next to the bars, Kim surveyed the world she had been dumped on. The sky was a deep blue, almost violet color, and a pair of shining suns hovered beyond the clouds of smoke. The land itself was barren--no signs of vegetation that Kim could see, but there was moisture. The layer of grime from the muddy road with which Kim was coated was testament to that. The buildings that hadn't been reduced to rubble looked rather unsophisticated; she couldn't see any signs of technology except for the sky-sleds. The hulking-insect thingies were hauling the body-ladened cages out beyond the buildings, across a flat, rocky plain. In the distance, Kim saw what appeared to be a large ship of some kind; the bug-things were headed directly for it. Kim caught a glimpse of cages being unloaded. Armored goons separated the captives into groups, and it appeared as if they were putting restraints of some sort on each individual.

"No way," she murmured, a sinking feeling stirring in the pit of her stomach. As her cage drew closer she could see that the restraints consisted of collar and shackles. She had been captured by slavers. _All right, don't panic. Just be ready,_ she instructed herself. _Everyone else has surrendered; they won't be expecting any resistance._ Kim braced herself to move as soon as she was free of the cage; however, the conveyance was abruptly up-ended, and she tumbled out with the other bodies and was unable to get her bearings for a moment. The next thing she knew, she was being shoved around roughly. One of the armored slavers began poking around as if he was feeling her up.

"Get your hands off me, slimewad!" Kim snarled, slapping the hands away. She had never let Tommy touch her like that (although, she often thought she'd like to); she certainly wasn't going to let any alien creep get away with groping her. To Kim's surprise, the armored guard fell back as if she had landed a round-house kick. She hadn't used that much force. Kim barely had time to wonder about that before the guard recovered. Undeterred by her resistance, he grabbed Kim by the hair and continued his inspection.

"I said, don't touch me!" Kim kicked out again, catching the guard in the midsection. The being went down as if Tommy had taken him out. Kim assumed a fighting stance, flush with her success. She had never felt so strong before--it wasn't like the rush of being powered up, and it was more than just adrenalin. At the moment, Kim felt as if she could take on the entire crew of the slave ship.

A second guard hurried over, brandishing a weapon. He hit a control on the silver wand, and a gleaming metal lash flashed out, biting into Kim's back. Stunned by the pain, she went down. She had been kicked by putties. She had endured energy blasts, but she had never felt anything like the metal coil which struck her. However, the pain only served to strengthen her resolve to break free. She waited until the guard came closer and kicked out with all her might. He went flying. Another slaver rushed over. With a fierce "ki-yai," Kim slammed the base of both her hands into his jaw. His head snapped back as if she had broken it. Kim had no time to wonder about that. She was free, and she dashed away from the corral as fast as she could.

In spite of her somehow-augmented speed, she didn't get far. The whip-wielder recovered from her kick, turned a control on his device and lashed out again. This time, the flail was a beam of energy. He caught Kim across the back, the beam searing her. Kim went down with a strangled cry; the only thing keeping her from passing out was the stench of her burned flesh. While she was on her hands and knees, the guard came up and slapped a collar around her neck. Kim felt as if a lead weight had been placed on her shoulders. It was as if all the energy which enabled her to resist so strongly had been sucked out of her; she could hardly move. She felt merely human again.

The whip-wielder came forward and pulled Kim to her feet. Then, he ripped her dress down the front and tugged it down around her waist. Kim closed her eyes and gritted her teeth as he reached for her bra. Kim bit back a scream as the elastic gouged the wound left by the energy whip. With a forceful tug, he ripped the undergarment off her. Then, the guard ran a gloved hand over her breasts. Tears streamed unbidden down Kim's cheeks as she was forced to endure the mortifying procedure.

_Stop it, please!_ she begged silently. Even worse than being touched by the alien was the fact that her body was responding. Her nipples were hard, and her sex was wet. She started to struggle again, trying to pull away from the hand; however, the guard raised his whip, his thumb on the control. Kim forced herself to remain still. She could get through this a lot easier than being whipped again. Then, to her further horror, the guard used the butt of the whip to lift up her dress.

_Not there; please, not there!_ Her body trembled with her tears as the guard ripped her panties off and placed a hand on her mound. Kim prayed he wouldn't do anything else. She was suddenly grateful that Tommy and the others weren't there. She couldn't have born having her friends--especially Tommy--see her like this.

Apparently, the guard was satisfied with his inspection. He barked something unintelligible to the first slaver who had handled Kim. The other grunted a reply, then Kimberly was dragged over to another pen. She did her best to slip her dress back on before shackles were placed on her wrists. Once secured, she was tossed inside.

The occupants pulled away from her as if to say they didn't want to be associated with the troublemaker. That was fine with Kim. She didn't want to get to know her cellmates. Kim curled in on herself once again (which was quite painful due to the state of her back) and numbly watched as the slavers sorted the rest of the captives. She finally determined that they were being sorted by gender.

Finally, the last of the cages was unloaded. More slavers appeared armed with lethal-looking spears. Kim assumed they were a high-tech version of a cattle prod because the guards began herding the captives into the ship. Kim felt a bubble of panic welling up inside her as she was forced along.

_If I'm taken off planet, how will the others find me?_ Assuming, that is, that the others were on the same planet as she was. There was no indication that any of the others had been transported to the same destination. If Zedd was behind the attack in the park, he would have split the team up to demoralize them and make it more difficult for them to pool their resources to escape. _Don't worry; Zordon's scanners always find us no matter what dimension Zedd sends us to. He and the others will be able to locate me no matter where these goons take me._ With that thought firmly entrenched in her mind, Kim allowed herself to be swallowed up by the ship's hold.

~*~

Kim sat in a corner of the slave yard staring intently at the far fence. She pondered for the umpteenth time how she might get over the barrier. She had lost track of how much time had passed while on the journey to wherever this new planet was. The ship had made several stops, and each time new slaves were added to the hold until Kim thought that the sides of the ship might bulge out. Many hadn't survived the trip. Her new "home" was a world with a tropical climate. Lush vegetation in a riot of colors surrounded the fences. The air was heavy with humidity that seemed to sap the strength right out of the prisoners. Even so, the nights were surprisingly cool. Kim had gotten used to huddling next to her fellow captives in order to share body heat at night.

The pens were open to the air. All day long the sun beat down on them unmercifully. When it rained, they were soaked. Kim never found herself appreciating a bit of a breeze so much in all her life. As for a means of escape, there was no way out that she could tell except over the wall. However, the transparent barrier offered no hand holds, nothing on which to get a grip. If an inmate happened to find a way to scale the wall, the top was protected by an energy field. To any who attempted escape in that fashion, death was brutal and swift. Kim had seen one of the male captives fried in seconds until nothing was left but ashes. However, Kim had already discovered that the energy field did not extend indefinitely. The leaves of a nearby tree hung over into the yard and remained unscorched.

Kim might have been able to manage the jump if she hadn't been wearing her slave collar. She had studied the device very intently during her days of captivity. Once the prisoners were dumped in the slave pens, the manacles had been removed. On each collar were three lights; one remained lit all the time, while the other two only came on when the guards touched buttons on their control devices. The yellow light indicated that the tracking function was in use (one afternoon, she had noticed that her yellow light was on and that the guards were monitoring her movements, and she had seen them do the same with other slaves). The red light was for punishment mode (another slave had been disintegrated immediately after her red light had come on). The green light, the constant light, indicated that the gravitational compensator was working.

Kim was particularly pleased with that last discovery (Billy would have been proud). Actually, it had been the cheesy movie Rocky had made them watch that had enabled her to put the clues together. She had a basic grasp of physics--thanks to Billy. She knew about the gravitational differences between the Earth and the moon. She figured out that the reason she seemed to have almost superhuman strength on the previous planet was because its gravity was less than Earth's. She had felt "normal" again when the collar was put on, so the collar had to do something to cancel out the effects of her being from a world with higher gravity--which also meant that the world she was on had to have less than Earth-like gravity.

However, with or without the collars, Kim felt certain that if Tommy were there, he could have booster her over the fence without difficulty. Kim wished Tommy was with her. She wished any human being was there. She would have liked to have someone to talk to. None of the other captives spoke a tongue that made any sense to her. She had made one friend and had attempted a kind of sign language with her. The woman had resembled a walking cat with four extra limbs and a monkey-like tail. However, she had been removed from the pen shortly thereafter--sold, most likely--and Kim never saw her again. After that, she made no further attempts to fraternize.

She tried for a while to observe her companions--see how many different species, behavior patterns... the sorts of things Billy would have loved to hear about, but there were simply too many different species. Kim eventually concentrated her efforts on learning what she could about her guards. That would be the most productive, if she ever found an opportunity to escape.

The most obvious thing about her captors was that they wore their armored spacesuits--helmets and all--all the time. Initially, Kim wondered if it was because they were completely incapable of surviving in the jungle environment; however, that had proven not to be the case. One afternoon, a belligerent prisoner had knocked one of the guards' helmets off. Kim had been unable to get a good look at the man's face, but he hadn't started to asphyxiate or show any adverse signs from being exposed to the atmosphere (the red light had made short work of the offender). Kim finally decided that the suits were merely for protection from the captives and uniformity. It had taken some doing as all the guards were roughly humanoid, but she had managed to distinguish different body types (more than just height and weight) among her captors. The other remarkable thing she had noticed was that all the guards wore collars similar to the ones worn by the captives--at least they all had little green lights. That suggested to Kim that the guards were not native to this jungle world either. Could it be that the guards were slaves, too?

Kim's mind returned to the here and now--not that there was much going on in the present. The sun was high in the sky; the heat and moisture were at their zenith of the incredibly long day. Kim had learned to put the passage of time out of her mind. Her days had slid into a blurr--like a heat shimmer. Eating and sleeping became the be-all and end-all of her existence. Ultimately, it was all that mattered in the slave pits. She had learned to "behave" herself; early on, she had been a target for the guards' attention due to her resistance on Purple Sky (as she called the first world she had been on). If she was anywhere in the vicinity of trouble, she felt the heat of the lash, and she had learned by the example of other prisoners who had less patience than she. After a while, the guards stopped paying attention to her as she had taken to sitting docilely in her corner. Outwardly, she had submitted, but inside she did all she could to will her way out of the fence.

The afternoon lull was suddenly disturbed by the appearance of the guards and "the hose." Every afternoon, the armored goons would take the hose and spray the captives with a heavy liquid. It was too thick to be water, but it wasn't sticky or anything like that. The bath always signaled the arrival of what Kim had determined to be the Overseer. As Kim anticipated, the water had barely cooled on her skin when the Overseer arrived.

Unlike the guards, he wore no armored suit; in fact, he wore very little. Kim guessed that he was a native of the jungle world; he was the only being she had seen who wasn't wearing a collar. The male was tall, probably close to seven feet, and lithely muscular. His head was completely bald, and Kim saw no other traces of body hair. Even from a distance, his skin seemed to have a leathery consistency, and the color oscillated up and down the blue-purple end of the spectrum. His head was angular and narrow, almost diamond shaped, and the features were somewhat reptilian. His teeth made Kim think of a vampire's fangs, and his ears were pointed. Feet and hands were bird-like, and she had discovered that what she had thought was a leather cape was actually a pair of wings attached along the arm and the back. Kim had occasionally glimpsed large pterodactyl-like birds flying overhead; she now knew that they were the denizens of the planet. As she had noted, the male wore little save for an ornate belt around his waist and a very colorful loin cloth which trailed to the ground. The costume left his wings free and his forked, prehensile tail unrestrained.

The Overseer's arrival meant that more slaves were to be removed from the pens. That always made Kim nervous. At first she had thought that they were being taken for some form of punishment; however, on occasion, one or two would come back, apparently none the worse for wear. Judging by the motions and the sounds of the tales being related to the others, Kim decided that the slaves had been taken to be sold. As much as she hated the pens, the thought of being sold terrified her. At least she was familiar with the routine in the pens, and it would be easier for Zordon and the others to find her if she stayed in one place. Kim was suddenly startled from her musings by the approach of the Overseer and two guards. She shrank back fearfully. The winged male appraised her carefully. He was so close that Kim could see that he didn't even have any eyebrows. He was well bedecked with jewelry, though; in spite of her anxiety, Kim couldn't help but observe that his species must have really been into body piercing.

The Overseer made a motion to the guards then walked on. One of them grabbed Kim's arm and hoisted her to her feet. She nearly put up a fight; however, the second guard held the energy whip ready. Kim had no desire to feel the whip's bite again, so she allowed the manacles to be placed on her wrists and took her place in the line of chained slaves.

_Maybe this won't be so bad; I'll get to see more of the complex and get some exercise,_ she told herself. It did little to dispel the knot of fear in her stomach.

They didn't journey far. The slaves were led away from the pens and past the only building Kim had ever seen: the barracks. They walked past the obsidian, seemingly windowless structure and across a rare open tract of land. At the bottom of the slope, Kim saw a large oval of concrete or other surfacing material. There was a large construct in the center of the ellipse. Surrounding it was the landing area for the slave ships. That was good to know; if she could get out of the pens and steal a spaceship....

_Right. How would you fly it? Would you know where to go?_ Kim didn't want to wind up lost in the far reaches of space. She heard a roar overhead and looked up to see a pair of guards in a skysled monitoring the somber procession. _A skysled would do me more good, if I could figure out where to go._

She pushed the thoughts of escape aside and tried to concentrate on her surroundings. As they hit the tarmac, she felt the trapped heat burning the soles of her feet. From the hill, the ships seemed to be all over the area, but up close she found that most of the things on the hill side of the landing area were buildings--probably hangar bays and more barracks. The skysleds and other craft in the sky seemed to be heading to the far side of the construct she had glimpsed.

Kim only had vague memories of her arrival on the jungle world. It had been night (she did recall the three huge moons in the sky) and it had been cold. Besides, she had been so grateful to get out of the ship's hold that she hadn't really cared where she was as long as it was on the ground. However, she did recall walking through something that reminded her of an empty football stadium. She strained to see what might be their destination and saw the stadium looming before her. She barely had time to gaze upon the architecture; a guard tapped her with the butt of his whip-device, and Kim immediately fell back in line, wanting to appear as meek and defeated as the others. Even so, she tried to take in everything, not knowing what might prove useful.

As the prisoners were led into the arena, Kim found her football stadium analogy even more apropos. Two sets of stands rose up on either side of a grassy area; both "end zones" were open. The far "end zone" opened up on a landing platform, and the near end housed the auction platform. Kim had to leave off speculating on the stadium as the slaves were forced onto the stage. There was another winged being already in place; he was more colorfully and elaborately dressed than the Overseer. His feathered headdress almost made Kim giggle.

_The Auctioneer?_ Kim wondered. Auctioneer and Overseer conversed; Kim strained to hear, not that she could have understood what they were saying. At one point the Auctioneer gestured to a place in the near-stands; it was what Kim would have called the royal box. She could picture Caesar or some such figure reclining on the pillowed couch as he watched the gladiators fight or the Christians being fed to the lions. Presently, the box was empty. Kim surmised that the auction couldn't begin until the person who was to occupy the box arrived. That gave her some more time to check out the rest of the arena.

The stands were rapidly filling. Fliers of every size were landing in the stands, and the area in front of the stage was filling up. Were the beings on the field the bidders and the ones in the stands mere spectators? Or were the beings on the field the agents for the ones in the stands? Kim had no clue. Several of the ones on the field spoke to the Auctioneer; he nodded, and they were allowed to come up on the platform, ostensibly to inspect the slaves. This gave Kim her first glimpse of the female of the species. They dressed similarly to their male counterparts--no upper body clothing and flowing loin cloths. To Kim it seemed that the women were more than amply endowed. Wouldn't that cause problems with aerodynamics and flying? Kim observed that the females' skin tones covered the green-blue end of the spectrum. The females, she noted, enjoyed the same love of jewelry and body piercing. The main difference between the males and females seemed to be in headwear. The males wore the ornate, feathered headdresses, and the females wore veils which draped over their bare heads and covered their faces.

Indeed, the persons on the stage had come to take a closer look at the offerings for the day's sale. Kim prayed that no one would pay her any undue attention. She didn't think anyone would; after all, she was so much smaller and thinner than any of the other captives. She hoped they thought her too sickly looking or took her collection of welts to mean that she was too much trouble to bother with. After some discussion with the Auctioneer, the group left the platform. Then, a sounding of a horn announced the arrival of the occupant of the royal box.

The slaves were suddenly forced to their knees and their heads forcibly bowed. Still, Kim struggled to catch a glimpse. The important personage was female, her skin a lush emerald color. To Kim, her fangs appeared more pronounced than any that she had seen thus far; the woman looked fierce. She had to be as tall and broad as the Auctioneer (the other females she had seen were slightly smaller than the males), and she was definitely all female.

_Their queen?_ Kim wondered, but she wouldn't have figured it to have been a matriarchal society. She hadn't seen any deference from the males towards the females. If anything, she would have taken the veils to have meant that the females had the lesser place. It really didn't matter, she supposed. The person they had been waiting on had arrived; it was time to start the proceedings.

The slave at the beginning of the chain was unfastened and brought forward. A trapdoor opened in the platform; Kim dubiously studied the apparatus which came up. It looked like a high bar apparatus: two poles and a cross bar, however, restraints extended from the four corners, and the whole unit was atop a turn table. Kim did not like the look of the thing at all. The hapless prisoner was herder forward. Quite unexpectedly, the being began struggling. Kim hadn't seen any fight from that female before, but she could sympathize with the sense of panic. Her struggles weren't such that they required the whip; the guards were able to keep her under control as they dragged her forward. Then, what little remained of her clothing was stripped away, and she was placed in the restraints until she was displayed spread-eagled for all to see.

_No way. They can't... I won't... oh God, don't let them do that to me!_ Kim screamed in the privacy of her mind. She tugged fitfully at her chains (but not enough for the guards to notice); if only her collar was deactivated. She could probably break free then....

Suddenly, the proceedings were interrupted by buffeting winds and the roar of an incoming ship. Kim wasn't sure, but the Auctioneer looked rather annoyed. All heads turned to watch as the ship settled in and the cargo bay doors opened. A new batch of slaves was unloaded. Kim didn't remember being driven out in small groups, but that's how this new shipment was being forced out. Before each group was allowed forward, the guards sorted through the throng as if in search of something--or someone--in particular.

The small batches were paraded across the field, to the delight of the crowd. They seemed to enjoy it when one of the prisoners would resist; the stronger the resistance the more the spectators seemed to like it.

_They would have loved me,_ Kim reflected ruefully. The groups were herded across the field until they reached the royal box. The guards made their obeisance, then one of the slaves was brought forwards, as if for royal approval. The queen would nod, then they group moved along. Initially, it seemed to Kim, that the specimen selected was the largest and strongest of the group, but that wasn't always the case. There was one male presented who was very slender and petite, but he was absolutely gorgeous with gold-white hair that trailed on the ground and shimmering violet eyes. From another group a female was selected. Kim decided that the guards were presenting the most attractive slave from each group for their queen's pleasure. Sometimes the queen showed no interest in the offering, nodding the group on. Other times she would gesture, and the slave would be taken aside. At one point, she sent one of her attendants down to have a closer look before rejecting a slave.

It was a lengthy process, and Kim's body was tired from straining to see what was going on. At last, the final batch of slaves reached the royal box, and a commotion broke out. The prisoner selected for display was putting up a fight. From all Kim could tell, the individual was putting up a fierce battle. Her heart swelled, and she felt a kind of pride for the captive, even as she pitied him or her. Additional guards rushed forward from their positions in the stands. Whoever it was, was quite a warrior; even the queen had risen, taking notice. The crowd, which had been roaring with delight, began to quiet down upon noticing the queen's reaction. Amid the jumble of inarticulate shouts and growls, Kim heard words she understood.

"Let go of me! I won't let you do this to me... I won't... !" Kim's breath caught in her throat. English! Another human! And to quicken her heart further, the voice, though raw from hard use, sounded familiar.

"Tommy?" she gasped, hardly daring to believe. She strained anew against the chains which held her in line. Part of her prayed that it was Tommy, and yet part of her hoped it wasn't. She couldn't bear the thought of seeing Tommy as a shackled prisoner... or see him endure the bite of the lash. At last the guards had a handle on the struggling captive. He was shoved to his knees before the royal box. One alien grabbed a shock of thick brown hair and pulled the captive's head up. Tommy's dark brown eyes glared up at the queen with a darkness Kim had only seen when he was Rita's evil Green Ranger.

"Tommy, no," Kim murmured. His face was bruised as if he had been punched, and she could see where the whip had been used on him. He was collared and manacled as she had been. Kim understood his desire to be free; it would be even greater than her own since Tommy already knew what it was like to be another's helpless slave.

Even as Tommy was on his knees, he continued to fight. One of the guards was about to use the whip on him (Tommy saw it coming and didn't even flinch) when the queen screeched out a command, raising her hand as if to say "halt." Kim held her breath as the green-skinned female motioned her assistant forward. The assistant had Tommy pulled to his feet. She walked around Tommy, occasionally touching him. The assistant (to Kim) seemed puzzled; it was almost as if she didn't know what to make of Tommy. Kim began to think that this race had never encountered humans before. Considering all the species she had seen in the pens, she had been the only human.

"Keep away from me," Tommy snarled dangerously. The female paid him no heed and proceeded to inspect him. The attendant fingered the tatters that had once been Tommy's shirt and ripped it from his body.

Kim's bit back a gasp. She had never seen Tommy look so dirty and unkempt; he sported several days worth of razor stubble, and his hair was a wild mess of tangles. He was barefooted, and there was little left of his ragged jeans. Kim's pulse quickened. Tommy had never looked so good to her, and apparently, he looked good to the attendant, too. For she called something up to her queen, who nodded and motioned that Tommy be held with the other selections.

Tommy, however, was having none of it. He unexpectedly relaxed his body, catching his guards by surprise. Then, he swiftly lashed out, kicking the attendant aside. The slavers seemed stunned by this for they suddenly released Tommy. He dropped back into a defensive stance, ready for whoever might attack him.

Kim felt fear raising up within her. The crowd in the stands was deathly silent. The queen, who had resumed her seat, was standing again, and there was no mistaking the fire in her eyes. Kim had the sense that striking one of the queen's attendants was akin to striking the queen herself. Even as that thought gelled in Kim's mind, she noticed that the queen had taken wing and descended upon the field. The Auctioneer hurried up to her and handed her one of the guard's control boxes.

"No!" Kim shrieked in spite of herself. She knew that the female was going for the punishment button. She threw herself forward, struggling to break free of the chains. She was blind to everything but the thought that she couldn't let the alien incinerate Tommy. She couldn't bear the thought of seeing him writhing in agony; she couldn't watch him die. She kicked and screamed and thrashed around, causing as much of a ruckus as Tommy had. Her commotion drew all eyes to the stage. "Tommy!" she screamed.

"Kimberly?" Tommy gasped, and Kim's eyes finally met his. His were full of surprise, and Kim detected a flash of hope. She meant to show him the warmth of her love; however, she saw her own fear reflected back at her in Tommy's eyes. "Kim, look out!" Guards were approaching with activated energy whips. Kim did not cower before them this time; she wouldn't cower while Tommy was watching.

As the lash bit into her back, Kim noticed that the queen had observed the by-play between the two prisoners. She was still angry, but Kim thought she saw a glimmer of curiosity. In spite of her pain, she was relieved to see that the queen returned the control box to the Auctioneer. Instead, she picked up a whip.

"No, don't!" she cried out, fearing what was to come. Instead of activating the whip, the alien cracked Tommy in the head with the butt end. Tommy went down, the end of the flail stained bright red. "Tommy!" Tommy's crumpled form was the last thing Kim saw before her own world went black.

~*~

When Kim came to, she was laying face down in the dirt of her favorite corner of the slave pen. Her back felt well cooked by the energy whip. She tried pushing herself up, but the pain was too great to move, and her head still rang with the blow that had rendered her unconscious. Then, she remembered Tommy, and she forced herself to sit up. Where was Tommy? What had the aliens done with him? Kim pressed herself as close to the dividing wall between the male and female pens as she dared. Surely they would have tossed Tommy in the pen... unless, of course, the queen decided to do something else with him.... Kim struggled to her feet. It was late, but the three moons were high and full in the sky, providing plenty of light. All the other slaves were asleep. That made it much easier for her to survey the denizens of the neighboring pen. All she needed to do was find an area where there was plenty of space.... She imagined that the males would disassociate themselves from Tommy much as the females had with her. After scanning the yard once and not finding what she was hoping for, Kim finally spotted a space in the muddle of bodies, and huddled in the center of that space was Tommy.

Kim's heart leaped for joy, but how to get his attention? Calling out was no good; it would wake the other slaves and alert the guards. Kim wandered along the stretch of fence. If only Tommy would wake up and look her way, but that was highly unlikely. She wasn't sure if he had even come to or not. While she was walking, Kim stumbled over a depression in the ground. She landed in a hole that was nearly the length of her body. She tried to think what could have made such a large impression, then she recalled a rather large, dinosaur-like creature who usually slept near the fence. She had been among those taken to the block earlier. As Kim picked herself up, she realized that her right foot was partially under the fence. The barrier didn't extend underground! It was almost too good to be true. Yet, there it was. Kim kicked her foot around to dislodge some of the dirt on the other side. The soil shifted easily, and soon, Kim had her foot sticking up on the other side.

Suddenly, Kim heard the sound of one of the patrols. She settled down in the depression and pretended to be asleep. Even so, she surreptitiously dug at the ground at the base of the fence. When the guard was gone, she began digging in earnest. A good portion of the night was gone before she had loosened enough dirt to allow her to squeeze under the fence. It was an exceedingly close fit; the bottom of the fence scraped her raw back, but Kim didn't care. She wormed her way into the men's yard and carefully tiptoed through the throng of sleeping bodies until she reached where Tommy lay isolated.

"Oh God, Tommy, I've never been so happy to see you in all my life," she sobbed quietly. She rolled Tommy over so she could look at his wounds. There was dried blood on his forehead where he had been struck by the whip handle. Kim tore off a bit of what remained of her dress, and using her saliva, tried to clean the wound. "Come on, Tommy, give me a sign, huh? Moan, move, do something!" she pleaded anxiously. He had a pulse and was still breathing, but Kim was still worried. Finally, he began to stir; Kim was so happy that she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly--which wasn't a smart move.

"Ah! Not so tight," Tommy groaned as the flash of pain from his back brought him around.

"Sorry," Kim murmured, loosening her grip. She smiled down at him with happy tears brimming in her eyes.

"Kim? It's really you? I wasn't seeing things earlier?" Tommy asked hopefully. Kim helped him sit up.

"It's really me," she confirmed.

Then, they both asked simultaneously, "How'd you get here?" The two took turns telling their tales. Their experiences were remarkably similar--from being zapped by Zedd's ray to winding up on strange planets and being captured by the slavers.

"Man, am I happy to see you," Tommy sighed. He touched Kim's face gently. "I was so afraid I'd never see you again."

"Same here," Kim murmured, nuzzling her cheek against his palm. It was Tommy's turn to give Kim an emotional hug which aggravated her wounds. She flinched but tried not to moan.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. He leaned forward to get a better look at her collection of criss-crossing welts. "Your poor back." When he sat back, Kim caught a glimpse of protective anger flashing in his eyes.

"Yours isn't in much better shape," she pointed out. "How's your head?"

"Awful. I had been conked on the head once before, and that winged bitch nearly hit the same spot."

"Tommy?" Kim gasped. She had never heard him talk like that about anyone before, and his eyes were so dark once again. His anger frightened her.

"I can't help it, Kim," Tommy apologized. He glanced away from Kim even as he took her hands in his. She noticed that his hands were shaking.

"What's wrong--besides the obvious, that is?" she asked softly. "It's the thought of being a slave," Tommy confessed reluctantly. "I know you probably don't like the thought any better than I do; it's just that I can't... it was one thing when Rita made me her slave. I was under a spell; I had no choice--I couldn't even think for myself. It was like it wasn't really me, but here... I'm still myself. I have choices: resist or obey. I don't want to obey; I don't want to surrender, but I don't know how long I can keep resisting. Sooner or later, I'm afraid the pain will break me, and then what?"

"I understand, Tommy. Maybe I don't know what it's like to have been Rita's slave, but I have seen what you've gone through. I've felt your pain and anger, if only a little bit. I don't want to give in either, but I'm already at the stage where I'll do just about anything so as not to be whipped again."

Just then, the sound of footsteps caused the two to fall silent. "It's the patrol," Kim hissed under her breath. "We can't let the guard see that I'm over here."

"Get down; I'll cover you," Tommy ordered. Kim quickly lay down and pulled into a tight ball. Tommy wrapped himself around her and sort of on top of her. Kim pressed up against him as tightly as she could. In spite of her fear of discovery, she was very aware of the warmth of Tommy's body against hers and the sound of his heartbeat in her ears. Kim scarcely dared to breathe; it seemed like an eternity before Tommy said, "All clear."

"Thank God the sentry wasn't using the collar's tracking device," Kim sighed as she uncoiled herself.

"Is that what the collars are for?"

"Among other things," and Kim went on to explain about the punishing mechanism and her theory on the gravitational compensators.

"You never cease to amaze me," Tommy said, kissing her brow. "Billy would be proud of you."

Bringing up Billy's name made Kimberly think of the others. "Do you think that maybe Billy and the others will wind up here, just like we did?"

"I don't know, but it seems likely. If we're in here long enough...."

"Tommy, we've got to get out of here as soon as possible," Kim said anxiously. "Because of what happened in the arena today?" Kim nodded. "You didn't see the look in the queen's eyes. We really pissed her off and aroused her curiosity in a bad way. I'm not even sure why we're still in the slave pens. I have a really bad feeling about what's going to happen to us if we don't get out of here."

Tommy had to agree. "It's too bad we don't have our powers. We could jump that fence as if it was a hedge runner."

"If the collars were disabled, we could probably do the same thing--if I'm right about the gravity stuff," Kim added.

"Why don't we try," Tommy said brightly. "Try what?"

"Disabling the collars."

"How?"

"If we could find a rock or something...."

"Maybe over by the fence where I crawled through," Kim suggested. She stood and helped Tommy to his feet. He wobbled unsteadily, a wave of nausea crashing over him; his knees nearly gave out.

"Oh man," he groaned as Kim steadied him. "I bet you have a concussion or something," Kim murmured. "You're in no shape to be jumping over fences."

"Doesn't matter. We're as good as dead if we stay," Tommy reminded her. With Kim's help, Tommy was able to stagger over to the partition.

"You sit down; I'll hunt up the rock," Kim instructed. Tommy was in no shape to dispute her. Kim sifted through the chunks of clay and loose soil. She doubted she would find a stone large enough to do them any good. It would be careless of the slavers to leave such an obvious weapon where a desperate captive could find it. However, as she was rooting around, she cut her finger on something sharp.

"Ow!" she winced, popping her finger into her mouth.

"What is it?" Tommy queried.

"I don't know, but it's awful sharp." More carefully this time, she dug around until she unearthed a palm sized stone. Holding it up in the moonlight, she and Tommy saw that it was rounded on one end and chisled sharp on the other.

"Looks like you dug up a fossil or something," Tommy mused, "but that should do the trick."

"Before we start pounding on these collars, we should think this through," Kim cautioned. "What if we start tinkering and set off some kind of alarm to alert the guards? What if there's an explosive device in the collars to prevent captives from doing what we're going to do?"

"It's a risk we'll have to take," Tommy said with quiet sobriety. It went without saying that they were damned if they tried and damned if they didn't. "If I'm going to die on this stupid planet, I'd rather go out with a fight, you know?"

"I know," Kim replied with equal seriousness. "But you're right about needing to think this through," Tommy continued. "Okay, we get over the fence. Where do we go from there? The spaceport and steal a ship?"

"I've already thought about that; I don't think it would work," Kim answered. "We wouldn't know what to do with a ship if we got one. We have no idea where we are or where Earth is or anything like that, and I wouldn't want to risk getting marooned in space or blasted to bits or...."

"Good points," Tommy murmured.

"Besides, the spaceport is the first place they'd look."

"That leaves the jungle then." The two looked out at the dark foliage beyond the barrier. "With the tree coverage, they wouldn't be able to use the skysleds. If we could keep to the trees, they'd have trouble finding us on foot."

"What direction should we take?"

"It doesn't really matter at this point--as long as it's away from here." With that settled in their minds, they went to work on the collars. Tommy offered his to Kim first.

"This way, if it explodes or alerts the guards or something, you can always roll back under the fence, and I'll take the heat for it," Tommy explained.

"No way. We're in this together," Kim said with grim determination; however, she knew they had to start somewhere, so she began tapping the stone against Tommy's collar. He slipped his fingers between the metal and his neck to help cushion the blows. Kim noticed him wincing more than once, and realized that the pounding wasn't doing his head injury any good. She tapped at various places on the device, trying to find something that would give. The collar was solidly made. Kim was about to give up when the stone struck something that sent out a shower of sparks, and the green light suddenly died.

"Whoa!" Tommy gasped as his senses reeled.

"What?" Kim asked anxiously.

"Man, that was weird. It was like I had a stuffy head, and it suddenly cleared--like the stuffiness had been sucked out by a vacuum cleaner."

"Do you feel any stronger?"

"Yeah, the lead weight on my shoulders isn't there any more. You did it, Kim!" Tommy impulsively grabbed her and gave her a quick kiss.

"Come on, let's get to work on my collar," Kim insisted. "We can wait and do that once we're out of here," Tommy said. "I can toss you over then jump. This way, if an alarm did go off somewhere, we can get a head start on the goons." Tommy attempted to stand and failed.

"Right. You're in no shape to be tossing anyone anywhere," Kim corrected as she caught Tommy. "Tell you what, disable my collar, and I'll toss you over then jump. In this lighter gravity, I should be able to do that." Tommy did not argue. He took up the stone and followed Kim's direction to find the collars weak point. One good hit was all it took, and Kimberly experienced the same clearing rush that Tommy had.

"Wow," she gasped, shaking her head to clear it.

"Let's get out of here," Tommy suggested. "You got it," Kim agreed, and she helped Tommy over to the spot she had picked as a likely escape route. It was slightly to the right of the tree whose leaves dangled over the yard.

"You're sure you can do this?" Tommy wondered. "With your muscle power, all you'll need is a little boost," Kim said. "I'll need a running start to get over on my own."

"I'll aim for the tree branch and...."

"I wouldn't," Kim suggested.

"Why not?"

"Think about it. Isn't that a little too obvious an escape route?"

"I bet the tree is booby trapped or something," Tommy agreed.

"Just go straight over," Kim recommended. As she cupped her hands to position Tommy's foot, she frowned.

"What is it?" Tommy asked.

"I wish the moons weren't so full; there's almost too much light." Tommy glanced skyward. "Maybe not. Look." Kim looked up and saw the bank of clouds that was rolling in. The wind was already picking up. The storm would be upon them soon.

"Let's clear the fence while we can still see," Tommy said

"Right."

Tommy stepped up into Kim's cupped hands, and jumped even as she heaved with all her might. Tommy fairly soared into the air and executed a neat somersault, clearing the energy field with room to spare. His landing, however, left much to be desired.

"Are you okay?" Kim called out softly.

"I will be once the world stops spinning."

"Hang on, I'll be right there."

Kim backed up as far as she could, amazed to find a narrow path through the sleeping prisoners. Taking a deep breath, she sprinted forward. Like she was performing a vault, she hit her mark and flipped herself into the air. Her small size and the lighter gravity carried her well above the double threat of fence and energy field. She twisted about in mid-air and landed with much more grace than Tommy had. Tommy applauded her performance.

"Come on," Kim insisted, and the two disappeared into the night.

~*~

Long into the night and into the following day, the two ran. Scarcely had they reached the cover of the trees when the storm hit, making the jungle even darker than it had been. As with all the storms Kimberly had experienced since arriving at the holding pens, it was as fierce as it was cold. Still, she and Tommy continued moving. By mid-morning the rain had stopped, but the fugitives did not. Kim knew that Tommy's head injury had to be bothering him, still he said nothing, refusing to rest. Finally, about mid-day, the exhausted pair all but collapsed.

"We can't sleep here out in the open," Tommy groaned. He struggled to get up again, but couldn't.

"Stay put; I'll find us something," Kim directed. She helped Tommy over to one of the trees and propped him up between a pair of roots. "I won't go far." Giving him a quick kiss, she wandered off in search of shelter. She didn't have to go far. In what had once been a streambed but was now overgrown with thick foliage, Kim found a small cave. She had nearly passed it by, but had been tripped up by a gnarled root. Taking a fallen branch, she poked into the recess to make certain that it didn't already have an occupant. When it proved to be clear, she hurried back to Tommy.

"Tommy, I've found...." The words died on Kim's lips as she noticed that Tommy was sound asleep. She tried waking him, but he didn't budge. "Damn." It wasn't fair. She was just as tired as he was. _Yeah, but you aren't concussed._ Taking a deep breath, Kim caught Tommy up under the armpits, and praying that her strength would hold, dragged Tommy to their hiding place. She was just able to get him inside when her muscles gave way. She did her best to make him comfortable, then she snuggled up against Tommy and promptly fell asleep.

~*~

_"Ai-yi-yi, Zordon; none of these readings make any sense!"_

_"Keep trying, Alpha. Scan every known frequency. We have to find out where Lord Zedd has sent the Rangers."_

~*~

With the tail end of a dream flickering in her mind, Kim awoke, feeling a faint pain shooting through her body. She dismissed it as nothing and rolled back over, placing her head back on Tommy's chest and nuzzling deeper into his protective embrace. She didn't want to wake up; she was perfectly content to remain snuggled up against Tommy. The warmth of his body was comforting, and the rhythm of his heartbeat was soothing. However, the flash of pain returned. This time she was unable to ignore it as Tommy groaned and shifted beneath her. Reluctantly, Kim wiped the sleep from her eyes. As her bleary eyes started to focus, she saw the shimmer of a faint red light against Tommy's throat. Kim's grogginess fled as she sat up with a stifled gasp.

"Kim, what is it?" Tommy murmured as he, too, was roused by the annoying flash of pain.

"They're trying to activate the punishment mechanism," Kim said in a frightened whisper. Tommy sat up and noticed the glow about Kim's neck.

"We must be just beyond their range," Tommy observed. In the darkness, a faint yellow glow was also visible.

"They're trying to track us as well," Kim added. "We've got to get these collars off." "Did you bring that stone with you?"

"No, I didn't think to."

"That's all right. There's bound to be plenty of things around here we can use," Tommy assured her. The two crawled out of the cave and located another sharply pointed rock. Kim found the seam where the ends of the collar met, and using the stone as a lever, she pried the collar apart. Tommy removed hers just as quickly.

"Mm, that feels wonderful," Kim sighed, rubbing her neck. She looked at the sundered metal bands. "Now that they're off, what do we do with them? We can't just leave them here."

"Let's find some place to dump them," Tommy said. "We could toss them in a river or something then run off in a different direction."

"Let's hope we find that river quickly," Kim agreed. The two set out at a slow jog; it was all the faster Tommy was capable of going, although his condition was much improved from the previous day. From time to time, Kim glanced down at the lights on the ruined collars. They still functioned, but the glow was greatly diminished. She wondered if that was due to their moving out of range or damage to the device in removing it.

As they hurried along, Kim spotted some familiar looking fruit and was reminded of how hungry she was. She and Tommy managed to shake a pair of orbs down from the tree. The sickly yellow melon with it's thick skin had been a staple of the diet in the pens. She once thought that she would be happy if she never saw the pungent fruit again, but now she bit into her share eagerly.

They had slept for the better part of the afternoon, and it was drawing close to sunset when the two found a break in the foliage. Their speed had tapered off as the day's travel had taken its toll on Tommy; however, that was all that saved them. For had they been moving at a less cautious pace, they would have plunged into the ravine that suddenly yawed open before them.

"Whoa, watch that first step," Tommy joked grimly as Kim pulled him back. The two approached the rim with greater care and peered over. The rock walls were pitted with ledges and hand holds, and at the bottom of the abyss was a silvery ribbon of water.

"Just what we ordered," Kim mused. Together, they tossed the collars over the edge and watched as they vanished into the river below.

"That ought to confuse our pursuers for a while anyway," Tommy remarked. "What do you mean, for a while?" Kim queried. "We can't be the first slaves ever to escape from the pens. They probably have other methods of tracking runaways--like dogs or something."

"Too bad they have to come after us."

"Yeah, but it's not good for the slave business to let escapees get away." "Good point. Besides, even if the guards were inclined to be lazy, that green witch would keep them after us. Assaulting her attendant or whatever really ticked her off."

"How was I supposed to know?" Tommy said defensively. "I was trying to get away."

"I know that you didn't purposely get the queen mad," Kim replied gently. They both had to keep their cool if they were to survive.

"I didn't mean to snap," Tommy apologized. "I know. We're both tired and stressed out. Come on, we should get going before the posse catches us." Kim stood and stretched. "Which way should we go?" She glanced down to see Tommy gazing up at her with a dreamy expression on his face. For some reason, it made her blush self-consciously, and she wondered why he was looking at her like that.

"Too bad we can't go straight," Tommy murmured, sounding a little sheepish as if he just realized he had been staring.

"Across the ravine? Why?"

"If we got across, we wouldn't leave a scent trail for the dogs or whatever sniffing devices they might have," Tommy pointed out.

"It's too far to jump," Kim remarked, gazing out at the expanse. "Right here it is, but maybe further up or down stream...." Tommy leaned out dangerously far over the edge. Kim had to resist the urge to pull him back. "Ah ha! There we go."

"What is it?"

"See that tree growing out of the side of the ravine about a hundred yards up from where we are?"

"You mean where the chasm narrows?"

"Uh huh. Look across to the other side. There's a ledge directly opposite the tree." "You aren't thinking...."

"The tree extends about halfway into the narrow gap. We scoot out as far as we can on the tree then jump over to the ledge. There are plenty of footholds so we can climb up and down the sides of the cliff."

"I don't know, Tommy. Are you sure you're thinking right? That's still a pretty fair distance. We could miss the ledge."

"If we do, the worst that happens is we fall into the river. What do you say?" Kim regarded Tommy thoughtfully. He had a point about losing their scent, and if they were to remain free they were going to have to face some risks.

"All right. We'll try it," she agreed, "but after we've rested a little longer."

~*~

Kim shivered and sought to burrow tighter against Tommy, but instead of his smooth, hard body, she discovered herself cuddling with a blue-eyed ball of fur.

"What the...?" she gasped, drowsiness swiftly fleeing. The days since they had crossed the ravine had become a blur, much as the days in the slave pen had, except that the days were not wanting for excitement. Kim and Tommy were constantly on the run. The jump across the chasm had only bought the pair a brief respite; the slavers had quickly found their trail again, and when they weren't fleeing their former captors, the two were combating the jungle and its denizens. The days were long, and the rests too short; however, they had not wanted for food or water (clothing and shelter were another matter). In spite of the danger and the hardships, Kim had never felt more alive, and she had never felt more secure in her relationship with Tommy.

There was little time for conversing or simply enjoying each other's company; they were either too busy running, or hiding and praying they wouldn't be found. The first few days had been the worst when Tommy's head injury had not yet healed. Kim had shouldered the burden of keeping them alive. That had been a good thing ultimately, for when Tommy had finally recuperated, Kim did not feel herself leaning on him. He was not the leader and she the follower (as she sometimes felt happen with the team); they had become equal partners. Even more than that, sharing such a precarious existence had brought them closer together.

Kim found that they didn't need to talk much--a look or a gesture was enough to convey meaning. In sharing their nights, though they did nothing but sleep, they bonded together more deeply than they had ever before. Although Kimberly hated being frightened, tired, and dirty all the time, she wouldn't have traded her time with Tommy for anything.

A snuffling sound disturbed Kim's heartfelt musings. She pushed the walking furball away from her and looked about for Tommy. This wasn't the first time she had woke up alone; Tommy tended to be an early riser. _You're just so cute when you're asleep; I hate to disturb you,_ Tommy had teased her. Kim wondered if there wasn't some gallantry underlying his comment. While she didn't mind the extra sleep, she knew he was just as badly in need of it as she was. Kim sat up and stretched. No doubt she'd find Tommy in a clearing not too far away working on a kata. She shook her head; how could he have the energy to practice katas AND trudge through the jungle?

As Kim worked the kinks out of her neck, the walking fuzzball returned, this time with some friends. Kim had no idea where the creatures had come from; one day, they just appeared, but they seemed harmless enough. To Kim's annoyance (and Tommy's amusement) the beings had taken a strong liking to her. They were forever following her and pestering her, sniffing and snuffling and....

"Hey, get out of there," Kim snapped as one of the furry mites wandered up between her legs and was trying to become more friendly with her. She wouldn't have let even Tommy go poking around there (if he was so inclined)--at least, not for another couple of days. She could hardly wait; she was really getting tired of having that sour fruit-whatever-it-was three and four times a day, but she couldn't in good conscience let the fruit go to waste. It was just that the cottony lining of the pod was perfect for her needs right now... which reminded her that she had better scare up another pod while Tommy was distracted elsewhere. The thought of trying to explain it to him made her blush.

~*~

With the basic necessities of life taken care of, Kim decided to go look for Tommy. He had been gone an awfully long time, and she hadn't heard any ki-yais for some time. With her downy friends close at her heels, Kim followed the traces of broken leaves and kicked-up soil that Tommy had left behind (she was working hard on renewing her tracking skills--she had had trouble earning that merit badge). Kim concentrated on blocking out the natural sounds of the jungle--the cry of the birds, the rustle of the leaves in the breeze, the chittering of the insects--so that she could pick out the unnatural ones: Tommy or the slavers. Her mind so set on filtering out the noises that were supposed to be there, Kim almost missed something that hadn't been there before: the sound of water. Then, she heard an exuberant "yee-ha!" and a mighty splash.

_Tommy's found a pond?_ Kim's heart leaped joyfully. The thought of a body of water--of being able to take a bath--was wonderful. She hadn't been remotely clean since the last good rain storm... which had caused the mud slide that she and Tommy had gotten swept up in. Kim hurried forward eagerly. She no longer heard the sounds of splashing, but it couldn't be too much farther. Tommy wouldn't have wandered out of shouting distance (just in case of trouble). Kim came to a thick wall of vegetation and saw where the branches and vines had been disturbed. Even in her anticipation, she exercised caution. It wouldn't do to startle Tommy and accidentally get kicked or something. It also wouldn't do to advertise their position to any slavers that might potentially be lurking about. Kim made her way through the brush carefully, taking special pains to allow the greenery to settle back in place behind her.

As she parted the last layer of leaves, Kim found herself looking on a pool of water. The sky above the lagoon was uncluttered by vegetation, giving the water a rich turquoise color. The swimming hole was surrounded by thick blocks of stone, reminding Kimberly of an abandoned quarry. However, the boulders seemed to have been standing around the water for a long, long time as they were heavily encrusted with moss and other plants growing out of the cracks and crevices. The water was still, save for an occasional ripple stirred by the breeze; Tommy must have concluded his swim. Kim searched around and found him stretched out on a slab which hung above the water like a diving platform. Tommy was facing away from Kim; one arm dangled in the water, making tiny waves. Kim smiled as she stepped forward to join him. She only made it a few steps before she stopped in astonishment. There, on a stone not too far from her, were Tommy's tattered shorts. Kim felt the heat rising in her cheeks as her gaze darted up to take in Tommy's reclining figure. He was completely naked!

For a moment, Kim couldn't move; she could scarcely breathe. Suddenly, it seemed as if the jungle had fallen silent; the only sound she could hear was the pounding of her heart. A spark of excitement surged down her spine, igniting every nerve ending in her body. With breathless longing, she let out a sight. "Tommy...."

She knew she shouldn't look, that she should just turn around and go back the way she came, or even slip into the bushes and make some noise to give Tommy a chance to at least dive into the water, but she couldn't help herself. Her eyes were irresistibly drawn to the powerful, lean lines of his body. She started at his his beautiful long brown hair plastered to his tanned shoulders; from there it was easy to follow the contour of his back until she was brought up short by the sudden whiteness at his waist, and the pale swell of his bare bottom held her entranced.

Kim's mind was brought back to their afternoon at the park and how much she had wanted to run her hands all over Tommy's bottom. That feeling was magnified a hundred fold. His cheeks looked so smooth and soft; her palms itched with the desire to find out. Tiny droplets of water glistened on his backside, and Kim licked her lips unconsciously. His bottom looked so perfect, so ripe... like a tempting piece of fruit that you couldn't wait to bite into....

Kim suddenly realized that her face wasn't the only part of her that was getting hot. She felt an intense throbbing between her legs, and she noticed that the thin fabric her bodice felt very confining. Her fingers started towards her breasts, to ease her pulsing in her nipples; however, she was distracted by the racing of her heart and the heaving of her chest.

_Settle down,_ Kim scolded herself. _For goodness sakes, so you've finally gotten to see Tommy's bare butt. No big deal. It's not like Tommy was laying on his back so you could see his...._ Kim's mind went numb as Tommy groaned, stretched, and rolled over. Where her eyes had been fixed intently on Tommy's ass, they were now fixed on his groin.

Kim wanted to look away even more desperately than she had when staring at his behind, but it was just as impossible. The eyes were inevitably drawn to the pale patch of skin where the tan line ended; even more compelling was the nest of dark brown hair, upon which rested Tommy's... manhood (Kim could hardly say the word "penis" in the privacy of her own mind). Kim wasn't quite sure what to make of his organ. From where she stood, it didn't look to be terribly large, but it wasn't exactly small, either. Kim had glimpsed larger bulges in Tommy's uniform than what she was seeing now; that probably meant he wasn't hard at the moment. For some reason, she found that thought a little unnerving. Even so, she yearned to get a closer look, she had never seen a... penis before. She wondered what it would be like to touch it; the thought had stirred both her curiosity and her desire. She ran her tongue over her lips once again.

"Kimberly!"

Tommy's surprised yelp startled Kimberly out of her reverie. She had completely forgotten herself. Even as she whirled around, she heard a splash. She fled back towards the wall of vegetation, hot tears burning her already flaming cheeks. She choked back a small sob as she fought to get away.

"Kim, wait," Tommy called out, and she heard the slap of his bare feet on the stone. "I'm sorry, Tommy, I didn't mean to...." The words just wouldn't come out of her tight throat.

"It's not your fault. I should have known better...." he apologized hastily. Kim felt his hand on her arm. She struggled to break loose. "Let me go; please," she entreated.

"I didn't mean to embarrass you," Tommy said softly, refusing to release her. "I didn't think. It's just that the denim really chafes when it's wet, so I thought I'd let my shorts dry while I swam, and it felt so good sunning myself on the rock that I completely forgot about the fact that I wasn't wearing anything and I wasn't alone. I'm sorry."

Kim finally surrendered. She took several deep breaths to calm herself. Really, she was being very silly. This wasn't the worst thing that could have happened to them. After all, how many times had she daydreamed about seeing Tommy naked? Well, now she had. Considering their present situation, something like this was bound to have happened sooner or later. Kim's right arm brushed up against Tommy's hip, and she realized that he hadn't stopped to put his shorts on. Her body pulled taut.

"They're still wet," Tommy murmured sheepishly, sensing in the way that they had come to know each other what her unspoken question was.

"I guess it doesn't really matter," she mumbled in reply, and it didn't. She had already gotten an eyeful, and nothing could change that. Still, she was afraid to turn around lest she start to stare again.

"Would you like to go for a swim?" Tommy offered as Kim began to relax a little. "I don't know," Kim demurred.

"The water is just perfect... nice and warm...." Kim bit her lip indecisively and glanced back over her shoulder at Tommy. He smiled invitingly.

"It feels heavenly to be clean again."

That proved to be an irresistible sales pitch. "All right," she acquiesced. She started to turn, but Tommy stopped her. "Wait a sec," he advised. In spite of his words, Kim did turn in time to see Tommy dive into the water. "Better?" he sputtered as he resurfaced. Kim simply laughed. However, as she stood on the same stone Tommy had dove off of, she felt a knot of nervousness settle in her stomach, and she toyed reluctantly with the makeshift ties that held what little was left of her dress together.

"You don't have to, if you don't want to," Tommy said, again understanding her dilemma. Kim sighed and smiled gratefully. She might get brave enough to go skinny dipping one day, but not today. _Not for another couple of days,_ she reflected ruefully, thinking that she was going to have to have a sour snack sooner than she would have liked. However, the thought of being clean outweighed her dislike of the pod-fruit. Taking a deep breath, she dove in.

"Mm, you were right," she said with a blissful smile as she shook the hair out of her face. "This feels absolutely wonderful!" When Tommy didn't answer, Kim glanced over and noticed his intent gaze and the faint blush which colored his cheeks. Puzzled, Kim looked down at herself to see what he was staring at. It was immediately apparent; the thin, faded pink fabric was almost translucent and clung to her every curve like a second skin. She might as well have been naked. Kim blushed, too.

~*~

"Oh!"

Kim woke with a start, her heart beating like a frightened rabbit's. Cold sweat trickled down her back and between her breasts. God, what a nightmare, she groaned silently, dropping her head into her hands. She had dreamt that the aliens had finally caught up with her and Tommy and had taken them back to the slave pens where the winged-witch waited for them, grinning with malicious anticipation at the punishment she had planned. That fang-filled smile had burned itself into Kimberly's brain. She couldn't shake it.

"Tommy?" she murmured plaintively, desperately wanting a reassuring hug, but she realized that Tommy was gone.

It was no small wonder that she was having nightmares. Since the afternoon at the pool, she and Tommy had known barely a moment's rest. Not only did they have ground pursuers, now there were searches in the sky as well--and not just slavers on skysleds. The winged natives had joined in the hunt, which meant that the trees were no longer safe. The nights had become as dangerous as the days; the fliers' night vision and natural ability to detect heat was as acute or greater than the slavers' tracking devices. On more than one occasion the two were forced to sacrifice a night's rest so that they might find a concealing cave or even a hollow depression that they could cover with damp vegetation. Many were the hours they spent huddled in the cold and total darkness. However, there had been brief respites, but those were filled with distractions which concerned Kimberly almost as much as the aliens did.

Kimberly found it difficult to put the memory of Tommy sunbathing out of her mind. Every time she closed her eyes, she could see him lying naked in the sun. More than once, she had been tripped up during their trek for paying more attention to the way Tommy moved... the way his muscles rippled... than to where she was going. It was difficult to sleep next to him at night; it was so hard to resist the urge to run her hands over his body while he was sleeping. Her dreams... wild, wonderful, erotic... she would wake up with her body burning with the memory of Tommy's touch; it would be all she could do to resist soothing the throbbing of her sex, and apparently, she wasn't the only one having trouble with wet dreams.

More than once she had been awakened in the middle of the night by Tommy moaning in his sleep. One morning, she had woke up and heard Tommy groaning--it had been the strangest sound. Thinking that he was hurt, she had searched for him and found him masturbating. Almost as soon as she realized what he was doing, she turned and walked off. For the rest of that day, she had been unable to meet his eyes, and she prayed that he wouldn't find out that she had seen him. She wasn't always able to keep from getting herself off; however, she wouldn't do it as soon as she woke up. It made for a long, frustrating day, but she'd wait until after Tommy had gone to sleep, when she was sure he wasn't going to catch her. Sometimes, when she was masturbating, she would stroke his hair or his chest. The frequency with which that happened concerned Kim. Things had moved way beyond simple adolescent daydreams; it was arousal so complete and so powerful that she didn't know what to do about it. She and Tommy needed to talk about it, but she had no idea how to bring up the topic.

As her heartbeat started to return to normal, Kim found herself wishing that she had had a wet dream last night instead of such a frightening vision. Kim shivered. Unable to feel any lingering trace of Tommy's warmth, she knew he had been up for quite a while. Kim crawled out of their makeshift shelter and glanced skyward. It wasn't quite full light yet. That seemed to be the safest time for them to move: the gap between the changing of the guards. Kim looked about to see if she could determine in which direction Tommy had headed off; she couldn't seem to tell. He had taken more care than usual in covering his tracks. Then, she heard Tommy moan; it seemed to come from the right.

At least one of us had sweet dreams last night, she mused. She hesitated before heading after him. She didn't want to interrupt Tommy if he wasn't finished. However, she heard Tommy groan again, and it did not sound like an indication of pleasure. Quickly and quietly, Kim slipped through the foliage. The groans grew louder, and she could hear other noises--noises which brought her heart into her throat--as she drew nearer: breaking branches, the thud of blows, the hum of machinery, and the jabbering of alien tongues.

"Tommy!"

Kim burst into the clearing to find Tommy and two slavers engaged in battle along the side of a pool. Her exclamation distracted Tommy and his present opponent momentarily, but the second alien was ready. He slammed the base of his staff into Tommy's head. Tommy went down, splashing senselessly into the pool.

"No!" Kim shrieked, diving into the water. The water was unusually clear, and Kim was able to see her stricken companion. She wasted no time in wondering about his condition; she quickly got his head above water. As she tried to drag him to shore, she felt something tickling her feet. Suddenly, she couldn't budge Tommy; something had ensnared his ankles. Kim tried to prop him up against a fallen limb so that she could dive under to free him. What she discovered, terrified her. It wasn't a plant but some kind of tentacled creature that had Tommy. She could see its gaping maw of teeth down at the bottom of the pond. Trying not to panic, Kim tugged and pulled at the limb which held Tommy. The surface of the tentacle was covered with needle-like spines which bit into her hands. Red clouds formed around Kim's hands and Tommy's ankles. More appendages appeared from underneath the maw. However, before the limbs could entangle her or Tommy further, something blasted into the water, severing the creature's grip on Tommy. Suddenly, Tommy's limp body was hoisted from the water. Kim quickly shot to the surface, out of reach of the tentacles.

Kim saw that the larger of the two aliens had Tommy by the neck. She jumped out of the water and launched herself at the slaver holding Tommy. She was able to catch him unaware, and he dropped his prize. His companion swung his lance at Kim; she nimbly leaped over the swing. He continued prodding at her, and she continued back pedaling. The slaver was moving her away from Tommy; she couldn't let him do that. Tommy still wasn't moving.

Kim spared a look over at the second alien even as she dodged another blow. The second armored goon was bent over Tommy, his lance on the ground. Kim backed away, then, rushing forward, she leaped and flipped right over the slaver's head. She hit her landing and came up running. Her opponent shouted a warning to his companion, but it was too late. Kim's flying kick caught him squarely in the back, and the alien went plunging into the water.

As Kim paused to catch a breath, the slaver resurfaced. His helmet had come off, but Kim barely had time to glimpse the bulbous layers of flesh that comprised his face before the guard was pulled back under the water in a flurry of pinkish tentacles. The pond's surface regained its placid sheen all too quickly.

"Oh-my-god," Kim gasped, taken aback by what just happened; however, a moment was all that she could spare, as the remaining slaver came charging at her. Kim reached for the lance left by the unfortunate alien. Just as she positioned herself protectively over Tommy, he started coming around.

"Kim...." he moaned, sputtering and coughing up water. "Tommy, stay down," Kim snapped. She glared fiercely at the slaver still threatening them, holding the lance ready. It was Kim's turn to draw the alien away from Tommy's position, but she was on the defensive as the creature stabbed at her. She parried and blocked his thrusts, but she knew he was only toying with her. Kim had the feeling that, if she could have seen his face, he would have been smiling in triumph, and she had a flash of the winged witch from her dreams.

Kim attempted a couple of feints of her own as she plotted out her strategy. She knew there was no way she could match the slaver in a close quarter fight; in addition to superior size and strength, he knew the weapon, and she didn't. Her advantage lay in her agility and quickness. If she could lure the alien away from Tommy long enough for him to clear his head and help her....

"Kim, what are you doing?" Tommy gasped. At the sound of his voice, the alien swung around.

"Buying you some time," she retorted. She could see that the alien was torn; which prey to follow: the smaller, armed one or the larger, injured one? His choice was obvious as he turned towards Tommy. "Hey ugly, over here!" Kim picked up a rock and heaved it at the slaver. The guard ignored the first stone. Kim continued the barrage, but the rocks just bounced off the armor. Determined to keep the creature away from Tommy, she rushed forward and jabbed the bayonet-tip of the lance in the seat of the slaver's pants.

THAT got his attention. He whirled around so quickly, that Kim barely had time to leap out of the way of his thrust. She back pedaled towards the break in the trees but tripped over a fallen branch. Seeming to sense her terror, the alien lowered his weapon and charged. Kim scrambled backwards, trying to regain her footing, but in doing so, found herself backed against the trunk of a tree. Her attacker's triumphant cry seemed to paralyze Kim.

"Kim, no!" Tommy screamed.

Tommy's shout snapped Kim out of her funk. The slaver was practically upon her, intent on running her through. Kim did the only thing she could think of. She braced the butt of her lance against the tree and thrust the lethal end towards her attacker. The slaver saw what she had done, and recognizing the danger, pulled up. However, his foot caught on the same branch that had tripped Kimberly up, and he fell forward.

Kim screamed as the slaver lunged towards her. She tried to get out of the way, panicking. The tip of her weapon easily pierced the armored suit. Purple ichor sprayed all over her as the body continued forward. The helmet came loose as the body struck the tree, and Kim found herself staring into the slavers' eyes as the light died in them.

"Kimberly!"

Tommy was there in an instant, pulling the dead weight off her, yet it seemed like an eternity. Kim could not tear her eyes away from the dead man's face even as Tommy was forcing her to her feet.

"We gotta get out of here," Tommy insisted, trying to get her to move. "There might be more of them out here."

He was right. They had to get away. Only, Kim would never be able to run away from what happened here. She gazed up at Tommy blankly. He looked back at her with concern. She turned away, unable to bear his gaze.

"Right," she murmured numbly. Tommy grabbed her hand and all but dragged her towards the break in the ring of trees. However, he stopped just as they reached the jungle's edge.

"Wait here," he instructed. He hurried over to collect the alien's lance, then approached the skysled. With a mighty heave, he thrust the lance into the sled's control panel, shorting it out.

As she watched him spear the mechanism, Kim's body began to tremble violently. The horror of what just happened crept in under the shock: she had killed the slaver. It had died because of her... at her hands... its blood was all over her....

"Come on," Tommy said, catching her arm on the run, pulling her along as they fled into the jungle once again.

Kim followed after Tommy, moving only because he was dragging her. Her mind was paralyzed with shock and fear. She felt a darkness swelling inside her, a coldness that bubbled up from the bottom of her soul. He terror continue to grow, gripping her heart with icy fingers, rising her throat. She fought to push back the black tide, but the pressure mounted until she could no longer contain it. Kimberly screamed, the sound torn from the depth of her being.

"Kim, what is it? What's wrong?" Tommy asked anxiously. He stopped running and looked around, fearful that the slavers had found them again.

As soon as Tommy released her hand, Kim crumpled to the ground in a violent fit of trembling. The cry kept coming and coming; she couldn't control it. She curled in on herself, wrapping her arms around her legs.

"Kim?" Tommy dropped down beside Kim and tried to uncoil her. Suddenly, Kim leaped to her feet and started running. Her screams gave way to deep, gasping sobs, and tears blurred her vision. Branches tore at her as she fled deeper into the jungle. She didn't care. She just had to get away. Away from the slavers. Away from Tommy. Away from herself.

"Kim, stop!" Tommy called after her, giving chase. Kim plunged on blindly, breaking through the foliage suddenly and found herself tumbling down a steep hillside. Instinct took over, and she tucked as she rolled. She finally stopped at the bottom. Then, she threw up. She was still sobbing and heaving when Tommy caught up with her.

"Easy does it, Kim," Tommy murmured soothingly, stroking her hair. He pulled her onto his lap and tried to keep her from retreating into herself again.

"Don't touch me," she cried hoarsely, struggling to pull away from him. How could he bear to be near her after what she had done?

"I'm not letting you go until you calm down," Tommy said firmly but gently.

"Calm down? How can I calm down? I killed him!" she shrieked in spite of her raw throat, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

"I know, Kim; I know."

"Is that all you can say?" she raged. She started fighting Tommy, struggling to break away. When that didn't work, she started hitting him. All the while she ranted and cried. Tommy let her vent, waiting for her to wear herself out; however, she only managed to work herself deeper into a frenzy.

"Kimberly Ann Hart, THAT IS ENOUGH!" Tommy shouted, shaking Kim by the shoulders. Kim's eyes went wide at his tone; she had never heard Tommy sound like that--so cold, so angry... it frightened her. He looked so stern as he glared at her that she shrank back with a whimper.

"You're hysterical," Tommy continued in his usual warm tones. "I was afraid I was going to have to slap you or something to get you to settle down. I didn't want to do that." Kim shivered and snuffled as Tommy pressed her close. "It's going to be all right."

"How can you say that?" she gasped, feeling the edge of her hysteria returning. She looked down at her hands; they were clean, yet she swore she could almost see the purple stain to match the splatters on her legs. "You didn't feel his blood spattering all over you. You didn't see the light go out of his eyes. You don't know what it's like knowing you took another person's life...."

"Yes, Kim, I do," Tommy answered so quietly that Kim almost didn't hear him. She stared up at Tommy in puzzlement, and he couldn't meet her eyes. His tone was so serious... it almost seemed like self-loathing. "On the way down the hill, I spotted a small stream; it's not too far from here. Why don't we get you cleaned up and then we'll talk." Kim was about to protest that she didn't think she could walk when Tommy cradled her in his arms and lifted her up.

As Kim rested in his arms, shuddering, she noticed that Tommy's steps seemed unusually unsteady. It slowly began to seep in that Tommy had been hurt in the fight with the slavers--his head again. Kim glanced up and noticed the trickle of blood meandering down the side of Tommy's face. Guilty tears stung her eyes. She had been so wrapped up in her own pain that she had forgotten Tommy's; however, she hadn't the strength to offer to walk on her own. Fortunately, as Tommy had said, the stream wasn't far.

Tommy all but collapsed beside the creek. Kim knew she should see to his head injury, but she was seized with the urge to be ill again. She turned away from Tommy... she didn't want him to see her be sick. However, while she was doubled over, she felt his hand against her brow, splashing it with the cool water.

"Here," Tommy said and offered her a handful of water. Kim felt foolish, like a small child, but she sipped the liquid gratefully.

"God, Tommy, I'm so sorry for losing it like this," she mumbled, drawing in on herself, but not as tightly as before. She found she really did want him to hold her. She didn't want him to let her go.

"It's all right; I understand," he assured her with a timid smile. Then, his smile fell. "I wish I could have cut loose with all my guilt and anger and everything instead of having to keep it bottled up."

"What do you mean?"

"There was something that happened during my capture that I couldn't tell you about before... I was too ashamed," Tommy admitted, hanging his head.

"Did you kill somebody, too?" Kim murmured, sensing the answer.

Tommy merely nodded. "I didn't mean to," he said when he could find his voice. It sounded to Kim as if he was still trying to convince himself of that, and she noticed that he was shaking with the force of his emotions.

"What happened?"

"It was during the prisoner inspection, where they were trying to figure out which ones were the girls and which ones were the guys," he began tremulously. "Something inside me snapped. It was like I couldn't endure it. They couldn't do that to me. You know?"

"That's when I started resisting, too," Kim responded. She placed a shaky hand on his arm.

"I got into it with one of the guards. We started out sort of boxing and wound up wrestling. We had each other in headlocks. I wasn't holding back, Kim; I was fighting all out. I didn't even realize that I was unusually strong; I mean, I felt like I did when I'm morphed, but I thought it was just adrenalin. We were struggling together and--I don't even know how it really happened--I remember sort of twisting my arms then I heard the snap. The guy went limp in my arms. I broke his neck.

"Man, Kim, I went cold inside when I realized what I had done. I know we've trashed putties and destroyed monsters, but they're different somehow; it's not like they're real people. With the slaver, it was different; he was a real person, and I had killed him. I was shocked, numb, sickened by what I had done. While I was reeling, the other guards overpowered me, shackled and collared me. Every time I fell asleep in the hold of the ship, I heard that sickening crack and saw the body go limp. I thought I'd go mad if I didn't get out of that hold."

Under her hand, Kim felt Tommy's trembling. His head was still bowed, his face hidden by his hair, but she felt his tears when she touched his cheek. She couldn't ever remember seeing him cry.

"Tommy, you were fighting for your freedom, for you life," Kim said softly. "And so were you," Tommy declared firmly, finally looking her in the eyes. It was such an unexpected move that Kim was startled. "You were fighting to keep both of us alive."

"Tommy, yours was an accident. I deliberately set that lance up."

"Kim, the slaver would have skewered you without a qualm; you had no choice. It was him or you. I'm just sorry it had to come to that," Tommy sighed heavily. "I should have done more...."

"Tommy, you were hurt. I saw the blow that knocked you into the water; it wasn't your fault," Kim insisted. She couldn't understand why Tommy was trying to take the blame for her actions.

"Yes, it was."

"Tell me how."

"Because of what happened with the guard, I think I've been holding back--subconsciously. I've been afraid of killing again. Think about it, Kim; with my skills and the lighter gravity here, those two shouldn't have been able to take me down. If I had been fighting them like I do putties, I should have had them. Instead, I held back and got myself knocked silly, leaving you to save my butt once again--this time with more serious consequences."

Kim didn't know what to say. She wanted to ease his pain so badly, and just as badly, she wanted Tommy to ease hers. Neither said a word as they clung to each other. The tight embrace lasted until both tears and trembling subsided.

"I want to go home," Kim sniffled at last.

"So do I," Tommy agreed, looking soberly into Kimberly's eyes. "We just have to hang on and do what it takes to survive until Zordon and Alpha can find us." The steadiness of his gaze was a little unnerving, but Kim understood what he was trying to convey: even if it means killing again. She swallowed hard and nodded. The thought made her shiver, and she leaned into Tommy's embrace once more.

Completely drained by the events of the day, Kim began to drift off; however, as sleep started to settle in, she felt something tickle her leg. She glanced down and noticed that the little fuzzballs had returned.

"Your friends are back," Tommy observed with a small grin as he watched one of the tiny creatures sniff at Kim's legs.

"Stop that," Kim said, trying to shoo the animal away. It had started licking her leg.

"The little fella certainly has taken a liking to you," Tommy teased gently. "Can't say as I fault his taste."

Kim brushed the furball aside; however, it quickly returned to lapping at the purple stains on her leg. "Oh, that's so gross!" Kim complained. The second time she tried to move the creature aside, it snarled and snapped at her, revealing a mouth lined with razor sharp teeth that nearly split its body in two. Kim let out a startled yelp and hopped off Tommy's lap. She wound up stumbling into the stream as she tried to get away from the deceptively cute hairball and wound up on her bottom. The beast seemed afraid of the water, for it backed away. Kim waited to see what it would do. When it did not approach, Kim ventured onto the bank, shivering with cold.

"I really didn't need that," she groaned.

"You'll dry out soon enough," Tommy assured her. The furball approached warily, making snuffling noises as it drew closer to Kimberly. Suddenly, it stopped. It no longer seemed to be interested in Kim; instead, it turned its attention to Tommy.

"What in the world... ?" Kim murmured as she tore off a precious strip of her dress, soaked it, and started cleaning the blood from Tommy's face. All the while, the fuzzball watched intently.

"Wait a minute," Tommy murmured.

"What?"

"Are you finished with my head?"

"Pretty much. Why?"

"I want to try something. May I have the rag?"

"Sure." Puzzled, Kim handed Tommy the bloody scrap. He wadded it into a ball and threw it towards the hill. The furry creature scampered after it eagerly.

"The blood," Tommy said. "It was attracted by the scent of the blood, like a shark."

"You mean that little thing was some kind of scavenger?" Kim muttered, feeling a little queasy.

"It's possible. It wasn't interested in you once you washed the blood off your legs," Tommy remarked. Then he paused thoughtfully. "But that doesn't make sense. Those critters followed you around constantly for nearly a week, yet you had no open wounds. You weren't bleeding or anything."

"Yes, I was," Kim answered in the same quiet, knowing way that Tommy had assured her that he understood her feelings of having killed the slaver. Kimberly now knew why those creatures had been so interested in her, and they would be back. Tommy was going to have to know why. However, at the moment she was so exhausted--physically, mentally, and emotionally--that she didn't have the energy to be embarrassed about it. It was a fact of life that Tommy was going to have to get used to. Furthermore, she was so tired that she could only muster the barest flicker of amusement when Tommy, upon making the connection, blushed scarlet to the roots of his hair.

~*~

"It's no use, Zordon. I can't break through Zedd's spell."

"I feared as much when you discovered that their minds resonated on the same wavelength. It will be up to the Rangers to...."

"Alpha? Zordon? Where am I? What's happening? How did I get in the Command Center?"

"Adam! You're back!"

"This is too weird. Just a second ago I was on the...."

~*~

"Quick, Kim, over here," Tommy directed in an urgent whisper. He dove head first through the thick foliage, and she quickly followed.

It had been slightly over two months since they had played frisbee in the park (Kim had biology to thank for the calendar), and it had been three days since they last had a decent break. Three days... that had been when the fuzzy scavengers had left, and the slavers had been on top of them almost immediately thereafter. Kim figured her furry friends had given away their position. However, since they had been found, they hadn't been able to shake their pursuers. The armored aliens were using a new type of tracking device; in appearance it resembled a metal detector. Neither she nor Tommy could determine exactly what it used to track them, but none of their previous tricks at avoiding detection could fool the device.

"I don't know how much longer I can keep going," Kim panted. She brushed the hair from her eyes and gazed concernedly at Tommy. As she took in his smudged face, matted hair, and sun-browned body Kim felt a lump form in her throat. Why was it, she wondered, that Tommy's physical presence most strongly affected her whenever they were in the greatest danger? It was a distraction she could ill afford, but she couldn't help herself. Perhaps it was because during those moments, she felt the closest to Tommy.

"Same here," Tommy agreed, also gasping for breath. Kim suddenly realized that he had caught her staring, and she blushed as she looked away. Briefly, she wondered if Tommy had been looking at her as intently as she had been looking at him; she hoped so. Oh, how she wished that he would! However, this wasn't the time for hopeless dreams and desires.

"What are we going to do?" Kim asked, finally finding her voice again. "Every time we find a hiding place that gizmo of theirs sniffs it out. Nowhere is safe."

"Maybe we could get one away from them and see what makes it tick," Tommy suggested.

"If you were Billy, I'd say that'd be a good idea," Kim sighed.

Tommy looked wounded by her words and opened his mouth to issue a rejoinder, but he paused instead. "You're right. We wouldn't have a clue as to what to look for, would we?"

"No, we... oh God, Tommy; they've found us again!" True enough, the two could hear their pursuers tramping through the lush vegetation. The slavers' incomprehensible speech was growing ever louder, and they detected the blips given off by the tracking device.

"We have to make a break for it," Tommy said grimly.

"I can't, Tommy; I have nothing left."

"We have to try, Kim; we've come too far... we've been through too much to get caught now. Please. You can do it; I know you can."

Kim took a deep breath to steady herself. She knew Tommy was right. She couldn't just give up now. "All right."

"Good. Let's stay low until we can find a bit of a clearing and maybe get our bearings," Tommy advised. Kim agreed with a silent nod then, practically crawling on their bellies, the two wriggled their way through the underbrush. They crawled single file with Tommy taking the lead, and Kim found herself staring at his backside. There was little left to his shorts, and what there was of the denim had been worn pretty thin.

_Stop it,_ Kim chided herself. Her throat felt tight, and her pulse was racing--and it wasn't from fear. _What is wrong with me? I never used to be this bad about scoping out Tommy. I mean, I've drooled over him before, but not like this._

Kimberly was so engrossed with her racing hormones and troubled thoughts that she failed to note that Tommy had pulled up and was crouched next to a dark patch of ground. She continued forward in her crawl until she bumped into the rear that had so captivated her. Tommy overbalanced and fell forward, disappearing into the hole he had discovered.

"Tommy!" Kim gasped, careful to keep her voice down. She scrambled to the edge of the black mouth that had swallowed Tommy up.

"I'm okay," he called back up. Kim tried her hardest but couldn't catch a glimpse of him.

"How far down are you?" Kim queried. She lay flat on her stomach and reached down as far as she could. She had the sense that Tommy was still out of her reach.

"Too far--you'd need a rope or something to haul me up."

"Great. How am I supposed to do that with these slimewads breathing down our necks?" Kim snapped.

"Next time, watch where you're crawling," Tommy shot back.

Kim felt hot tears sting her eyes. This time, Tommy was right. She should have been paying more attention to where she was going. "I'm sorry," she murmured dispiritedly.

"I didn't mean to snap," Tommy called back quietly. "Actually, maybe it's a good thing I found my way down here."

"What do you mean?"

"Come on down."

"Are you out of your mind? Those detector thingies can trace us even in caves; we'll be sitting ducks in this hole, and even if the aliens missed us, how would we get out?" Kim demanded.

"This isn't just a hole; it's a tunnel. I can feel cool air coming from somewhere," Tommy explained. "Even if they track us down here, they can't follow; it's too narrow. I barely fit. The tunnel makes a sharp turn right about where I'm standing; the aliens wouldn't be able to shoot around a corner, and unless they have a map of every tunnel on the planet, they won't know where we'll come out until we do. At the very least, we can catch our breath down here."

Tommy's explanation sounded reasonable, but Kim wasn't too sure. She really wasn't fond of tight, narrow spaces. She wouldn't call it claustrophobia exactly, but she preferred having a little more room to work with. However, as she debated what to do, she became aware of the blips drawing closer.

"I hope you're right," she muttered, sitting on the edge of the opening. She lowered herself in carefully, clinging to the roots that poked their way out of the sides of the hole. She didn't want to come crashing down on Tommy. When the roots ran out, she tried to brace herself on the sides of the walls. Up above, she heard footsteps in the clearing they had just vacated. Tiny dirt clods showered down on her head, and she prayed that she was down far enough that she couldn't be seen. Suddenly, she felt something beneath her feet.

"I have you," Tommy hissed, as aware of the danger overhead as she was. "I'll lower you down." Tommy eased her down, turning her so that her back was pressed up against his body. Kim felt herself shivering with excitement; she hoped Tommy interpreted it as being from cold. As her feet touched bottom, she leaned up against Tommy for an indulgent moment; she was somewhat surprised by the heaving of his chest, he was breathing so hard.

"Slide down into the tunnel," Tommy instructed, whispering in her ear. The warmth of his breath caressing her ear sent a chill racing down Kim's back. She was excruciatingly aware of his nearness. Another shower of dirt shook Kim out of her reverie. Still, she eased herself down Tommy's body slowly, savoring the hardness of him under her hands as she lowered herself. If only she could have been facing the other direction....

Kim's legs disappeared into the narrow shaft followed quickly by the rest of her body. She inched her way further into the darkness; she had to make room for Tommy before the slavers decided to start taking potshots down the hole. Even as she was skooching forward, Tommy was easing himself in after her with some urgency. It was pitch black in the narrow confines, and Kim hoped the tunnel opened up soon so she could get to her hands and knees and turn around. The two continued their awkward crawl (Kim was grateful the welts on her back had finally healed) for what seemed like hours until Kim felt the tunnel dip downwards. Suddenly, she slid forward and landed flat on her bottom.

"Tommy, watch out...." she cautioned, but it was too late. Fortunately, the tunnel had also widened, and she was able to scramble out of the way--mostly. "Oompf!"

"Sorry."

"'S okay."

"Man, my back...."

"Mine, too. Any idea how long we were at it?" Kim wondered.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Probably not." Kim yawned. "Do you think we're far enough away to take a break?"

"Well, I haven't felt any heat flashes in a while...."

"Tommy, why didn't you tell me they were shooting down at us!" Kim gasped; she hadn't even realized....

"What good would it have done except to worry you?" Tommy asked.

"They didn't hit you, did they?"

"I think they might have singed my hair a little on the first attempt, but after that... nothing major. I think we should be all right for a little while."

"Thank god," Kim sighed as she all but collapsed. Tommy settled down next to her. She fitted herself into her usual sleeping position; she scarcely lay down when she felt the tears welling in her eyes. She brushed them aside. There was no reason to cry; they were out of danger for the moment. However, the strain of the last three days, combined with her other distractions, had new tears replacing the ones she had just gotten rid of. Shortly, her body was trembling as she sobbed silently.

Tommy said nothing; however, Kim felt his arms tighten around her. One hand stroked her hair as the other gently massaged her arm. Tommy was always so patient with her crying fits. He never teased her or scolded her. He simply held her until the emotional storm had passed. Being able to let it all out every now and again was probably the only reason she hadn't totally lost her marbles.

Finally, her tears subsided. "Thank you," she murmured, snuffling. She uncurled herself and gave Tommy a hug.

"Hang in there, Kim; we're going to get out of this somehow," Tommy said reassuringly.

"Tommy, I had another dream last night," Kim began diffidently.

"About Zordon and Alpha?" Tommy queried, suddenly alert. "Uh huh." She felt funny mentioning the dreams. They were probably nothing more than mere wishful thinking; still.... "In it, they got Adam back."

"That's great!"

"Tommy, you don't really believe that somehow I'm making contact with the Command Center through my dreams, do you?" Kim asked; Tommy's tone sounded so hopeful....

"I don't really know, Kim, but I want to believe it. I think part of me has to believe, because it's the only way I can hold on to the hope that our friends will find us."

~*~

"Tommy, I see light up ahead," Kim declared, elated. The two had drifted off into an unusually deep sleep and had slept much longer than they would have liked. Still, they had felt better able to continue on after their naps. Kim had taken the lead as they resumed their crawl; she had felt a little uncomfortable knowing that Tommy was in a position to look up her skirt (not that he could see anything in the darkness). While she hadn't voiced her reluctance, Tommy pointed out that it made sense for her to take the lead. "If the tunnel gets too narrow, I'd wind up blocking the way, and then your only way out would be back the way we came, and I'm sure the slavers are watching the entrance to this tunnel." Even so, it drove Kim to distraction to think that she could feel Tommy's warm breath against her bare bottom. Zordon and the others just had to find them soon; if they remained on the jungle world much longer, there was no telling what her hyper-active hormones would have her doing.

They had been crawling for hours, it seemed, and Kim had nearly given up hope of seeing daylight again when she spied the faint glimmer.

"That's great. Is there anyway for us to maneuver? I'd like for us to change places."

"If I lay down flat, you can probably crawl over me," Kim suggested. At first, she had thought about challenging his decision; she was as capable of taking the point as he was, but then she reconsidered. With light in the tunnel, Tommy really would be able to see up her dress. Once they were repositioned, the two headed once again toward the increasing illumination. As they drew nearer to the exit, they realized by the intensity of the light that the opening was not shielded with any sort of vegetation.

"Let me have a look," Tommy suggested. Kim remained where she was, just in case Tommy had to draw back in quickly. It took him several moments to adjust to the light before sticking his head outside.

"Well?" Kim prompted anxiously.

"The good news is that there are no slavers or fliers in the immediate vicinity."

"What's the bad?"

"That we're faced with an open stretch of land. No cover," Tommy reported. "What do you think?"

"I think that if we don't get out of this tunnel soon, I'm going to start screaming," Kim said in clipped tones. The dark, narrow confines were really starting to get on her nerves. She hadn't wanted to admit it to Tommy, but for the last hour or so, it had been all she could do to keep from cutting loose. As it was, her body was trembling. She felt Tommy's hand on her shoulder.

"Kim, why didn't you tell me?" he asked. "It wouldn't have mattered. The tunnel was our only option; it wasn't so awful in the wider areas. Just this last stretch was kind of bad."

"You're something, you know that?" Tommy said affectionately. Kim felt his lips brush her brow. "Come on; let's get out of here."

The two emerged from the shaft cautiously. As soon as Kim was able to see, she saw what Tommy meant about their surroundings. It was as if every tree and bush had been uprooted. There was no cover of any sort. Ahead of them was what appeared to be an abandoned settlement; however, it had been razed long ago. There was only one structure partially standing; if Kim didn't know any better, she would have sworn it was a church, although she couldn't have said why. Beyond the ruined village was another open tract of land which dead ended at the base of cliff.

"Not very promising, is it," she murmured. "No, it isn't. It looks as if the only way out of this valley is by climbing the cliffs," Tommy observed.

"That's just great. The fliers will be able to pick us off easily. There's got to be another way."

"It'll have to wait 'til later. We've got company," Tommy murmured, spying in-coming fliers.

"Damn, how'd they find us so quickly."

"Come on, let's head for that big building," Tommy urged.

"Isn't that a little too obvious?"

"It's the only available cover. Maybe there's a cellar or something. And maybe we can spot another hiding place from there."

"Oh, I hope they didn't spot us on the first fly-by," Kim murmured. Taking each other's hand, the two sprinted across the grassy expanse. They were able to make it into the shadow of the walls before the fliers made their next pass. However, their moment of elation was brief; on the ridge above their abandoned tunnel they saw the arrival of the silver suited slavers.

"Oh God, Tommy, we're trapped," Kim murmured fearfully. "Come on; there has to be some place we can hide in here," Tommy suggested.

"It doesn't matter where we hide; they'll find us with those tracking devices." In spite of her protests, Kim began hunting around the ruined building. The more she looked around, the more she became convinced that they were in some kind of temple or church.

"This appears to be some kind of holy place," Tommy murmured, echoing her thoughts. "Maybe they'll respect the sanctity of the temple or whatever."

"Yeah, right," Kim retorted dubiously.

"Hey, under here," Tommy said brightly, nearing the dais. He approached what appeared to be a ruined altar. The table stone had fallen of its supports, and Kim observed that the surface was crisscrossed with scratches, and the gray stone was blotched with dark stains. It gave Kim the shivers to think what might have taken place on that stone. Tommy was shifting debris around to get a better look at what might be a hiding place. He pulled back a section of lattice work and revealed a depression in the platform under the altar. It appeared to be a trough of some sort; it wasn't very deep, and it was littered with bones and white powder.

"Tommy," Kim began in a nervous whisper. She flashed him a terrified glance. He heard it, too: the sound of skysleds landing. In short order, the blips of tracking devices and the sounds of heavily booted feet crunching the dry grass hit their ears.

Tommy quickly rolled into the narrow space in the floor and pulled Kim in on top of him. Before settling down, he tugged at a decaying bit of cloth--an abandoned cloak or section of carpet--and threw it over Kim. He nodded to the lattice work then lay down. Kim covered herself with the moldering remnant then replaced the grating. There wasn't a moment to spare as the first of the seekers entered the building.

Kim held her breath and strained her ears, trying to determine what was going on. She wished she could see. The sanctuary was silent, not even the whisper of the breeze disturbed the stillness. The sounds, when they came, were all the more magnified because of the unnatural quiet: footsteps, the hum of machinery, guttural voices, the sound of debris being overturned... and the loudest of all was the heart beating in her breast. The noises continued to grow... the hunters were drawing closer to the dais. It was only a matter of moments before they reached the altar. If only they could have set the top stone back in place....

The scrape of a heavily booted foot against the step sent a quiver of fear down Kim's spine, and she gripped Tommy's arm more tightly. She thought it impossible that her muscles could pull any tighter, but they did. She felt as if she would snap at any moment. More footfalls neared the dais, their echo reverberated loudly in Kim's ears, almost drowning out her gasps for air and the drumming of her heart. She bit her lip in anticipation of the moment when the stones around their hiding place would be pushed away and the grating ripped up. She could almost feel the cold metal of the gloves as she imagined a beefy hand wrapping itself around her neck. Closer... there it was, one of those maddening blips that wouldn't give them a moment's rest! Closer... the footfalls... Kim could almost see the slaver kneeling down to investigate the grating; she could almost hear his breathing as he bent over their pitiful hiding place.

Kim's eyes went to Tommy's face; in the faint light she could see that he looked as terrified as she felt. He sensed it, too. They were as good as dead. In that moment, Kim understood why her heart had sounded so loud in her ears; it wasn't just the throbbing in her chest, but Tommy's as well. She hadn't realized but Tommy was gripping her arms as tightly as she gripped his. Overhead came the shrill cry and flapping of wings that announced the arrival of the fliers. It was all over.

_It can't end like this; it just can't! Oh God, Tommy, there's so much I wanted to tell you. So many things I wanted us to do. I wanted us to be together forever, and now... I never even got to tell you that I love you._

Suddenly, Kim didn't care what was going on in the dilapidated building. All that mattered was telling Tommy how she felt.

"Tommy, I...." Her mouth formed the words but no sound came out. Kim stifled a moan of frustration, and tears welled up in her eyes; however, when she glanced up at Tommy, he was smiling down at her, his own eyes moist. He freed a hand from her arm, and carefully brought it to where his fingers touched her lips. Kim held her breath as she felt Tommy's other hand move up to cradle her head, and then....

Slavers, fliers, their desperate situation--all concerns vanished from Kim's mind as Tommy pulled her close and his mouth descended on hers. The fire his soft lips ignited on contact rapidly consumed her. It was a kiss unlike any he had ever given her; his probing tongue sought hers, found it, and engaged it in a sensual embrace. It seemed to Kim that Tommy was opening himself to her, releasing all that he had previously held back--his passion, his love... and Kim could do no less than give as fully of herself. With her mouth, with the intensity of her response, she sought to tell Tommy all those things she never had the courage to tell him before. In that moment of fiery rush, Kim knew that Tommy loved her as deeply as she loved him, and if by some miracle they survived the search, things would never be the same for them.

Slowly, reluctantly, Kim's consciousness drifted down from the impossible heights to which Tommy had suddenly swept her. As she regained her senses, the first thing she was aware of was the beating of her heart--both their hearts. The rhythm and intensity seemed to be almost identical. Kim hadn't realized that her eyes were closed; she was almost afraid to open them. She wanted the memory--the warmth of their emotions--to linger as long as possible.

"Kim," Tommy hissed.

As he said her name, it was barely more than a breath, yet it flooded her senses. At first, Kim hadn't realized that he had spoken. Then, reality came creeping back in, and she was astonished that Tommy should have spoken at all.

"Listen," he instructed with a lift in his voice. Kim concentrated on listening, trying to hear what Tommy had heard. All she perceived was silence. At first, she was puzzled, then, Tommy's point dawned on her. Silence! The slavers, the fliers... they were all gone! There wasn't a sound in the ruined building, not even the breath of the wind.

"Tommy?" she murmured hopefully. It was a trick. It had to be some kind of trap to get them to reveal their hiding place.

"Wait," Tommy advised.

Kim had no problem with that; at the moment, she didn't ever want to leave their tiny hiding place. She was perfectly content to stay wrapped in Tommy's arms, their hearts pounding together, his breath warm on her cheek. She snuggled more comfortably against him, her heart brimming with joy.

On to Part Two