The Ark was nearly fixed and the Sol Dragon was already completely repaired. It had been about three weeks since their battle with The Khrist. The Ark was waiting on final repairs and checks to leave planet Whitmore and the Sol Dragon was waiting on them.

Alex had thought about leaving The Ark to go aboard the Sol Dragon but he stayed because his new partner felt more comfortable aboard that ship. He really didn't love her but he wanted to be near her. She made him feel comfortable. Not being around a woman in two years ever since Zeila had left him. Feeling needed by this female rogue. It was a welcoming feeling to him.

She, on the other hand, was desperately in love with him. After hearing of all of his missions and seeing his picture different places, she had fallen in love with the new rogue icon that was The Red Fox. She had feelings of remorse too for him after hearing about the layline's treachery. She knew that Fox had been left heartbroken and she was hoping that she could be right there to fill the gap. Just to be near him was enough to light a fire in her very soul and make her loins quiver with delight.

Knowing full-well she would have to break his shell and get his mind off Zeila to have any hopes of being with him, she was going to use everything in her feminine arsenal to have him. Even if that meant, in the near future, sticking a gun to his head. She always got what she wanted.

Both Alex and the female rogue were in the Captain's Cache when in walked Egan. He walked over to the two and said, "Well, final checks are cleared. I believe that introductions are in order."

Alex looked over at his new found partner and said, "A little late for introductions isn't it?"

"Don't patronize me!"

Looking around, a little confused, he wasn't patronize him. He was just stating an obvious fact. Of course, Egan was a pompous jerk so Alex just shrugged it off.

Egan introduced the female rogue. "Red Fox meet The Emerald Swan."

The female rogue walked up to Alex and pressed her body to his. "Pleased to meet you."

She was being seductive again. She couldn't help herself. She wanted the Red Fox, badly.

Egan just watched on in intrigue and said, "We just call her Emily for short."

Alex rolled the name around in his head as she rolled her body around his. Not just to remember the name but to analyze it. Study it. Emily? It didn't fit her. She was too strong and forceful to be named Emily. He decided to tell her too as she continued to writhe around him. "Emily? That doesn't seem to fit you."

Batting those green eyes of hers at him, "Why? I think it's cute."

Rolling his stone blue eyes, Alex came back with, "Yeah I know. That's what I mean!"

Just smiling again, Emily began to caress his body with her own. "well baby, you can call me anything you want."

Alex just pushed her off slightly saying, "You know what? Zeila tried this with me and it didn't work. If she couldn't seduce me you sure as hell can't!"

Again with that traitorous slime, Emily thought. She thought of a counter-measure to it though, "Yeah, but could your precious Zeila do this?"

No sooner did she say that, she tripped him down to the ground and got on top of him missionary style holding his hands behind his head.

Alex struggled a bit to get her off but she just leaned in on top of him with this sly smile and said, "The more you struggle the more I like it!"

Alex got really offended by this forcefulness of hers. He finally got enough strength and flipped her over his head and got right back up to his feet. He stood tall over her and yelled down to her, "Don't ever do that again!"

Back-flipping right onto her feet, she calmly said, "You don't tell me what to do lover. You still have your heart on saving your demon queen. Well…" Emily cut herself off and pulled a big handgun from her hip. It was even bigger than Yellow Wolf's large revolver. It had a long barrel with a cartridge loading system on top. A red, rust color much like the Scorpion sub-machine guns Alex had found on Whitmore two years ago only this was a dark, sandy red. It didn't look like she should be able to lift the giant handgun but she managed it like a professional. "This is one princess who isn't going to sleep beautifully and let the man do all the work." She walked closer to Alex with her gun still pulled. "If I get the shot to blast her brains to Hell and gone, I'm going to do it! Maybe I finally free you of that witch's damn curse!"

Alex stared her down. "I'm not cursed! I made a mistake a long time ago and I am going to fix it! Not you or even the entire G.U.A.R.D is going to stop me!"

Emily put back her gun and said, "Finally, you're showing me you have a set!" She pushed past him with a little disappointment. She would have to wait for another opportunity to get him in her clutches.

An engineer suddenly came rushing into the bridge. The engineer was breathing heavily but calmed down a bit to tell them, "Final checks are complete Admiral Egan. We are ready to leave."

Egan was thrilled. "Good!" He went over to one of his pilots. "Start preparing engines for full thrust take off!"

"Aye sir!" The pilot said.

The engineer then said, "Oh, and sir, there's a message for you from G.U.A.R.D HQ back on Earth."

Walking out of the bridge, Egan pasted the engineer saying, "I'll take it in my quarters."

The engineer saluted him and left the bridge with a "Yes sir!"

The pilot Egan had talked to fired up all the thrusters on the ship and was getting ready to take off. Alex wondered if the Sol Dragon knew. He went over to a communication console and pushed one of the buttons. "Galleon, you there?"

Galleon was indeed on the other line. "What is it Fox?"

"You do know that The Ark is getting ready to take off, don't you?"

"Of course Fox."

Alex looked away from the console a little embarrassed. "Good."

The main thrusters on The Ark kicked again with tremendous force and suddenly Egan's voice could be heard throughout the entire ship. "Take off now!"

The pilot agreed and began to turn The Ark skywards. The Sol Dragon went right with it being a little faster in its maneuvering. The Ark suddenly blasted for outer space with the Sol Dragon not too far behind it. If the battleship were to get too close to the thrusters of the massive ship, the Sol Dragon would go down in flames very easily.

Both ships were soon in outer space breaking through the atmosphere with ease. They both blasted out into the inky blackness of space like two fiery arrows shot into the night sky.

When both hulls of the ships had cooled and both ship were jetting through the cosmos at a steady pace, Egan entered the command center of The Ark. He went up to the two rogues and began to relay his message from G.U.A.R.D. "Well Fox, looks like you're getting right back into the swing of things."

Alex along with Emily could only gaze at him with these confused looks on their faces.

Egan's face twisted into this hateful snarl. He was upset about Alex not laughing at his very unfunny joke. "You have a new mission."

Alex could only think of one word to say. After all, he had just escaped Whitmore and everything was in perfect harmony. "Naturally."

Trying to look important as he spoke, Egan came off more like a two-bit actor trying to deliver his lines and was having a difficult time saying them. "You are to go to planet Slag and stop a universally threatening -" trying to think of the right term to make the mission seem more expressive than it really was but all he could think of was, "thing."

Alex could only throw him a cocked eyebrow along with Emily.

Suddenly, Galleon's voice came into the room. "Admiral, I almost want to dare you to be less descriptive."

Egan looked around the Captain's Cache as did the rest. "How did you hear me?!"

On the Sol Dragon all Galleon could do was smile. "I have ways."

Alex smiled too and said, "I suppose you know about my mission too?"

"I do. Your mission Red Fox is to take your new partner and carry out a covert reconnaissance mission on planet Slag at drilling plant 14."

"So where does the 'universe threatening thing' come in." Alex asked.

Galleon stood firm as he relayed the mission to Alex the way it should have been done. "General Brimcore and Lord Romadus are believed to be in the operation of a retrieval mission. They are unearthing - something under ground. They've been drilling and digging for close to three weeks now and Command wants to know what they're after.

You will be air dropped down to the planet surface along with The Emerald Swan and capture any intelligence you can from the drilling plant or practically anywhere you can find it."

Alex's brow curled with confusion. "You mean just us two?! That planet must be like a fortress if both Brimcore and Romadus are there!"

Galleon straightened up a bit more. "That's correct Fox. That's why they want you and The Emerald Swan going on this mission. Your both fairly well trained in infiltration tactics and covert combat. Both of you are good 'scouts'."

Emily swayed over to Alex and held his arm tight to her chest. "Just you and me baby."

Alex shoved her off and began to talk to Galleon again. "With all due respect sir…" Alex cut himself off and looked over at Emily. "I don't think she should go on this mission."

Emily's eyes grew large with disgust. She was shocked to hear that come out of his mouth. After everything she had shown him that she was capable of he had the pure audacity to talk about her like some common soldier.

Before she could voice her opinion though, Galleon voiced his. "Fox, it's not my choice. It's Command's! I know throwing women into the mix of things complicates them for you but orders are orders Fox. I wish they hadn't even thought about that but they know you're on the Ark along with her and they want both of you on the mission. They need to know what Brimcore and Romadus are after."

Emily's temper was sweltering to a boiling point. She walked up to Alex and finally was able to give him a piece of her mind. "How dare you even think I'm some lowly common grunt! They need me! You need me on this mission and that's that! I'm going whether you like it or not! Your mind is so filled with that witch of yours that you don't even know what your talking about!"

All the time Emily was talking, Alex's anger was sweltering as well. With every word out of her mouth, his rage peaked a little higher until she was finally done and he was too! He slammed his hand hard onto her throat and pushed her up against the wall! He strangled her there with her feet off the ground. "You listen to me! If I hear one more horrible word about Zeila come out of your mouth again, I will make sure you'll learn to hate me!"

Emily looked down at Alex in surprise of his actions and she was a little taken off guard by him. She would have never expected this honorable man to do this to a woman. She just could not understand the burning love he had for Zeila and she really didn't care.

Reacting fast, she threw up her legs around his arm and grabbed a hold of his wrist. She then brought her boot heel down right on top of his shoulder which forced Alex to let go of her. He yelled out with some minor pain and grabbed his shoulder. As fast as lighting, Emily then swirled both of her feet in front of her planting both of them directly into Alex's jaw line.

Alex spun like a top and was on the ground in seconds. He was down, face first, and she got onto his back. Wrapping both arms around his neck, pulling back hard on his head, she lowered her mouth to his ear, and whispered softly, "I bet it drives you up the wall not having the slightest bit of control over me. I am nothing like your precious Zeila. No man tells me what's right and wrong. What to say or do! Nobody ever grabs me without my permission! I still love you anyway."

She then gently kissed his ear and started to get off of him. Before she got her one arm over his shoulder though, he grabbed her wrist and swung her to the ground and in one fluid motion; got back to his feet, pulled on her arm, and drove his foot into her throat. She was now his prisoner.

Alex was breathing heavily and was not happy. "If you want to go fine! If something happens to you -" Alex wanted to tell her he didn't care about her but that was not the case. He did care for her. She was a rogue agent and he could tell that she, like him, probably had a bad childhood. He wanted to lie to her but he had lied about his feelings once before and he knew how that scenario would play out. He then finished with the truth. "I don't want anything to happen to you." He said as he got off of her.

Emily could barely manage to get air into her lungs he was putting so much force down onto her windpipe. Her breathing was ragged and her brain was losing oxygen fast.

When he got off of her, he was ashamed of himself. He didn't want to attack her but he was starting to get strong feelings for her. He didn't love her but he cared about her. Like a brother cares for his sister. He turned to look at her as she was still gasping for some air. He looked at her with this sad look on his face. "I'm sorry. I just don't want you to get hurt."

He had only known her for a short time but was starting to respect her. He knew she could take care of herself but not against demons of the caliber of Brimcore and Romadus! He wasn't sure if he himself would be able of fighting off power like that.

Yet again, Emily was shocked that he had violently put her down once more. She held no bad feelings toward him though. She couldn't. He had just admitted to her that he did care for her and it was a step in the right direction. He wasn't where she wanted him but he was getting there. Patience was not one of her virtues but she figured she could wait him out. She would have him no matter what. It would just take longer than she wanted.

Not wanting to approach him with anger, she figured a more loving, gentle approach was in order. She walked towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He jumped a bit anticipating some kind of retaliation attack but instead just heard her say, "See, you do care about me."

"Well of course, You're my partner I guess. I'll just have you know that I don't have much luck with partners."

She began to rub herself against him again. "I'm not like the others."

Pushing her off again, he really couldn't stand her seductiveness anymore. He just wanted to be friends with her. As much as she wanted to be with him, he only had true undying love for one and it wasn't her.

Both looked over at Egan who was almost drooling over them. He had his hands clasped together and was rolling them around in a sweaty display of anticipating vulgarity.

At this point, Alex desperately now wanted to be on the Sol Dragon. This Egan was too much for him to bear. Alex walked out of the control room disgusted at Egan's demeaning actions.

Following close behind Alex, Emily was brightly smiling leaving Egan wondering what he had done knowing both of them had left because of him.

Besides, they both knew the mission. It was a simple one and an almost on-the-fly mission at that. Get in, find all the information you can, and get out. Simple, or so they thought. Little did they realize how bad the mission was actually going to turn.