JaKaelath left the camp in a fury. Once she was away from the patrols, she just wandered. There was no reason to head to Vault #20 now, and she even wondered if she needed to go back to Vault #6. Soon, the decision of where she was to go next would be made for her.

  Whereas the first time she left, everything seemed hopeful, now, it felt like everything was falling apart. Francesca, dead, Kragon, too far gone, Drookan, distant and gone, her camp, the people she grew up with, isolated from her now as long as Kallian was there, Kallian, the man who cold-bloodedly killed Francesca.

  With all the anger, the loss swirling in her mind, she didn't even see them coming.

  Before she knew it, she was surrounded by 6 armed Ponu in containment suits, the White Guard. Then "One" stepped forward. "We watched you, almost sniped you from a distance before we noticed you were a Ponu, you're from that camp, come with us."

  "I am not going anywhere with you!" JaKaelath yelled.

  Before she knew it, "Three"'s energy whip wrapped around her legs, bringing her to the ground. The White Guard wasted no time in getting on top of her, restraining her.

  Her cries were silenced as they covered her mouth.

  "Take her back to that vault we passed, Vault #20; she could be of value to us."

  JaKaelath's eyes widened. What were they planning on doing? Her eyes close.

  When she is able to open them again, she is startled by the sounds of screams. She is on some type of transport, as far as she can tell.

  She is tied up, facing the open entrance of the transport; the sight outside shocks her. A Sky Reaper, angry, dragging one of the White Guards in his containment suits as the Sky Reaper emerges from what looks like a Ponu vault, Vault 20, she guesses. The Ponu's containment suit is torn, ripped open, exposing his entire upper half. He is pleading not to be dragged out into the open. Seconds later, his body begins to twitch, the sickness that affects male Ponus.

  The others rushed back into the ship and closed the door. "Two" angrily shouts, "

  Start the siren!" A piercing sound is emitted. outside, both the Sky Reaper and the male Ponu were on the ground writhing in pain. The Sky Reaper, desperately holding his ears, which are dripping blood, the male Ponu writhes in pain from the sickness. Moments later, both are dead.

  "One" looks at "Two", "We don't have the numbers to lose people like this, you should have scanned the vault, do you not see it looks like it's been broken into! You are here because you are supposed to be the smartest Ponu on Geeryo Island. Don't make stupid mistakes, especially when so much is at stake".

  "Two" fumes internally but nods in submission to her leader.

  The metallic sphere appears. The Geeryo man and Geeryo woman appear.

  "One" through "Four" all kneel along with the White Guard in their containment suits.

  The man, looking slightly uncomfortable, with a cough before he begins. "Is the situation under control? We can have no more of these...issues" The Geeryo woman interrupts "What we also want to know is why are we back to a vault, you were outside the camp with Kallian, why go back, especially when..." she looks at her male colleague..."we have so little time."

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  "One" says "We found something interesting."

  Before she can continue, another hologram begins to flicker into existence.

  The Geeryo man and Geeryo woman seemed shocked. Soon, the hologram takes the form of Victoria Hawksworth. Both gasp.

  She looks around with a smile that could only be described as sinister. "So, we knew we would find you on the net eventually. You've been very naughty. In a moment, the metallic sphere emits a signal, all the Ponu, "One" through "Four" and the ones in the containment suits, all eyes glow. They are now under the direct control of Doctor Hawksworth.

  For JaKaelath, bound on a row of seats, this is frightening; she has heard stories of Ponu's eyes glowing, how they became ruthless killing machines under direct control of Geeryo. She wonders if her eyes will soon glow too, her free will gone, perhaps forever. She turns her face away.

  Victoria looks at the Geeryo man and Geeryo woman. "You were told not to go on this mission alone. You took valuable assets away, from the looks of it, the ship is falling apart, you've lost soldiers, only captured 1 scavenger laying over there, and you..." gesturing towards the geeryo male "...look like shit."

  The geeryo female interrupts, "We still have time, please, we cannot let what he did go unpunished, we will bring him in so he can pay for what he did."

  Victoria ends the direct control, and the Ponu eyes stop glowing, "I want to hear what your Ponu has to say about how things are going".

  "One" steps forward, "We are close to capturing Kallian. He barely escaped our first assault. We have lookouts around the camp he went to now, it should be easier to assault than the first one. We need to be sure, we don't have time to risk him escaping and going to another red band camp. We halted because we have someone who can give us intel."

  She points at JaKaelath, who turns over; now Victoria can see it is a Ponu dressed as a scavenger.

  One continues, "We don't know all yet. She seems like a Ponu who has broken her conditioning. We came here to vault 20 to place her in the pod, to recondition her, then she will be susceptible to our ...to your mind control. She will gladly give us all the intel on this camp to make sure our next move is decisive."

  The face looks vaguely familiar to Doctor Hawksworth, but she can't place it.

  "A scavenger Ponu? Send me her bio-scans, her genetic makeup record as soon as you finish. Reconditioning takes years to be done properly, at a minimum," Victoria says

  "Two" interjects "Yes, but we believe that as a Ponu she has already been conditioned, so it's just a case of reconditioning key parts of her mind. It will be accelerated and..." Two looks over at the bound JaKaelath with a sadistic grin..." and very painful for her to have so much conditioning done in so short a time, but it will give us the result we want".

  Victoria smiles, letting Two's insolence go, for now. "I will let this play out. I am interested to see the result".

  "One" gives the signal, and JaKaelath is dragged from the transport into Vault 20.

  "Two" continues, "oh, and one more thing, we may soon be close to discovering where the cave city is."

  Victoria gasps softly, "Dana". "One" looks shocked as well at Two's revelation.

  "I have been tracing info requests sent up to our satellites still in orbit....your satellites still in orbit, their tech person is good, she's been masking their location, but...with the transport's computers hooked into the Vault 20 systems, we should be able to locate them.

  Victoria looks pleased. "The moment you do, obliterate the cave, use the orbital bombardment satellite....something good may come from this after all." Her hologram disappears as the geeryo man goes into a coughing fit.

  Later inside, JaKaelath's scavenger clothes have been removed. She has been placed in the Ponu suit again. She lies in the Pod, unable to get out. Looking through it at the smiling, cruel faces. Slowly, she begins to lose consciousness, and she wonders if this is the end of her life as she knows it. When she awakes, will she be nothing but an instrument to hurt the people she loves? A tear rolls from her eye.