AN: I felt the need to edit this chapter, so it is a little better now. Thanks sooooo much to everyone who's reviewed. Please, continue to pick at all the gritty details that I'm screwing up on! Lol.

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When I walked into my room I smiled a little, finding Tyce curled up on my bunk. He was sleeping, even though the lights were on dim and there was more than a faint glow cast about the narrow, enclosed room. It didn’t look like there was going to be enough room for the two of us, but I figured we’d work it out somehow. Then again, I was starting to think that he’d be able to sleep anywhere, so maybe I’d just roll him onto the floor if I had a hard time getting to sleep because of the limited space available to me. But honestly, the odds were good that I was looking forward to sharing my bunk.

I sat down next to him, smoothing back his dark hair and tracing along the outside of his ear. Slowly his eyes opened and he groaned a little.

“Nnn, where am I?” he asked softly, his voice still ragged with a thick coat of rust. I wasn’t entirely sure that his eyes were even focusing on my face, but he appeared to be studying me intently.

I quickly dug a bottle of water out of my pack, the one I’d thrown so carelessly to the floor while Lasia and I were struggling to help our newly acquired charge to lie down. I opened it for him as he slowly sat up.

I gave it to him and he sipped it, nodding to me. “Thanks...”

“Pace,” I supplied for him and he nodded again, briefly.

“Pace, that’s right. I heard Lasia call you that in the Jeep. So,” he said, looking away almost shyly and taking another drink of the water I’d provided him. “You were the one who pulled me out of that tank.”

I smiled shyly. “Yeah, I saw you in there and I just knew I couldn’t leave you there. Besides the fact that I was robbing Ashton and I figured while I was stealing a few files I might as well help myself to whatever else he left laying around.”

He laughed, but it was incredibly rough, almost evil sounding. It sent chills down my spine. “While you’re there you might as well take what you can get. Didn’t think you were a thief though. You in the guild?”

“Na, I was always too scared of organized crime,” I said almost brightly, bringing my knees up to my chest and hugging them as I sat facing him on my bed.

It was something of a joke among young non-human criminals my age, the thing about organized crime. I wasn’t sure if he would get it or not. I was incredibly used to speaking with kids my age who were into the same types of activities I was. Sometimes it didn’t occur to me that there were times I should keep my mouth shut about such things. If Tyce hadn’t been involved in the guilds or the gangs spanning the galaxy he probably wouldn’t understand my inside jokes and I would only make myself look like an idiot, cause they were all I knew. Or worse, he could try to turn me in for whatever meager award I was worth for being involved with the guilds and the resistance.

To my slight surprise he did laugh, and this time it was less rough, less intimidating. “Probably wise on your part. I was in the Pirate’s Guild when I was thirteen or fourteen and my handler turned me in so he could get a piece of the bounty on my head. I spent three weeks in slam.”

I laughed because he sounded amused by the fact that he’d gotten the shaft at such a young age. “Oh yeah? You still any good at being a buccaneer?” I asked, pulling my pack onto my lap so once again I could dig into it, finding snacks for us to chew on. I thought about letting my leg brush his while I stretched them out, and pretending it was incidental, but found I didn’t have to guts to do anything so daring yet.

Tyce only smirked at my comment, drinking his water, taking a long pull off it. “Na, I left that life behind a long time ago. Moved on to things I was better at. Well, not that much better at I guess. I did end up in a loc tank in a crime lord’s office, didn’t I?”

I almost giggled. “Yeah, I was meaning to ask you about that. How did you end up in that tank?”

He slowly shook his head. “I honestly don’t remember. I remember a bunch of explosions. I was on a ship, we were being attacked. Then the next thing I knew I was standing in a tank that was slowly filling up with green goo. So, how’d you do it? How’d you get me out without hanging me? I had a chain around my neck, and I remember seeing you break the side of the tank with an axe.”

I shrugged as if it had been no big deal, offering him the first handful of chips out of my bag. “I’ve done a bit of hacking with the resistance, learned a whole bunch about computers since I joined up with them. I got on Ashton’s office unit and found the program controlling the pulley that chain was on, got it to release. Then I busted the tank with the fire axe, used it to bust your chains off too.”

“Serious? You must be pretty strong then. Well, you’d have to be I guess. For the most part you hauled my ass out of the building on your own, didn’t you?”

Again I smiled shyly, glad for the praise as Tyce’s intense gaze never shifted from my face. “Dragged is a better word. You were semi-conscious, so you helped a little. Actually, the first thing you did when I broke your chains open was take off running. You didn’t get very far, ran smack into a security guard and somehow made him shoot himself instead of you. After that you collapsed and I had to drag you the rest of the way out.”

“All by yourself?” he asked, sounding a little amazed.

I nodded, crunching deliberately into a chip. “Yup, all by myself.”

“You’re not human then,” he concluded, cocking his head ever so slightly in challenge.

Well, that cat was out of the bag. “You’re right, I’m not. I’m Rysen,” I answered carefully, wondering what he would think of that. Females weren’t feared as often, but with all the urban legends about my kind it was still a risk to tell him that. But heck, if the fact that I was a thief didn’t bother him...he had been a pirate at one point.

“Hmm,” he growled pleasantly. “Rysen, huh? I suppose I should’ve guessed that. There aren’t many females left of the Rysen, are there?”

“Only two that I know of, and no males. The last one, Dominic T. Conte, was declared dead today. He’s been missing from Slammer Six for like four months or something, and he’s suspected to be dead for such and such a reason. I’d like to say it’s too bad, but from what I’ve heard the guy was pretty nasty.”

Tyce nodded, biting into a chip. “Yeah, I’ve heard of him. They say that humans could be hypnotized by staring into his eyes too long, cause they were so black, and he was so horrible, that it was like looking through a window directly into hell. That was how he managed to escape so often from slam, guards would let him right out before he’d kill them. You believe that, Pacey?” he asked, and after a shiver ran down my spine I realized he was teasing me. Yet somehow I couldn’t quite bring myself to laugh.

"I don’t know, all I know is that I’ve seen some pretty bad things, some really bad people, and I still haven’t seen anything that compares with him. I’m glad I never met him.”

A weird little smile crept over his face briefly, but was gone before I could really read it. I wondered momentarily what he’d been thinking about before he spoke again. “Yeah, I’m glad you didn’t either. Listen, Pace, I’m feelin’ kind of tired again. I know this is probably your bunk, so if you want to use it to take a nap or something, I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“That’s okay,” I said softly, still a little freaked out, but soothing my nerves by mentally counting my in-breaths. “Go back to sleep. We’ll work something out tonight.”

I got up as he laid back down, and placed the bag of chips on a shelf where he could easily find it if he got hungry. I turned off the light on my way out, pausing in the doorway to look at him one last time.

“Pace?” he asked, and for the first time I realized that I’d never enjoyed hearing anyone say my name as much as I did when he said it.

“Yeah, Tyce?”

“I know this is really stupid, but do you think you could lie down with me for a while? I’m—I’m an aquaphobiac. I have a pretty serious fear of drowning, and when I can’t feel anything around me, I think I’m back in that tank. I tend to get a little violent and go a little crazy when that happens, as I’ve discovered.”

I smiled, walking across the room in the darkness and finding him by touch. He pulled me down next to him, drawing the covers up and around me as I laid down with my back pressed against his front. He slung an arm around my waist to keep me from falling over the edge should I fall asleep too, and then we faded into silence.