The Captain and the General looked at each other and then looked at the pitiful looking man in front of them.  This was the rat?  He looked like a fresh breeze could blow him over and yet he was supposed to be the man sent by the bosses in the mining industry to  uncover proof that there were more prosperous veins out there? 

The team had returned not long after noon with their capture target and had taken him to the interrogation room/war room/general meeting room (most places tended to be multi-purpose when facilities were lacking).  As the man's adam's apple bobbed up and down in his throat, they both turned to Han Huan and Xu Lin questioningly.  The former shrugged. "His name is Chu Ning," Xu Lin mentioned. "The papers were not forged, but the I.D. was."

"I can explain!" said the man, his nervous disposition echoing in his voice. "I got a little drunk and gambled a little too much and before I knew debt collectors were hounding me! I didn't know what to do! They threatened me at work and I lost my job. They came after me at home and my wife left me! I went to the authorities, but they refused to help me! Then I heard that a cousin had found work here, he's an ex-con, needed to take what he could, so I stole his papers and managed to purchase I.D. online. But I freaked out when I got here, ran into the woods only to fall down this hole and couldn't find my way out!"

"What was your job on the Home world?" The general asked.

"Ah I was a Nose," he said, almost proudly, but the men and women about him just seemed confused.  "You know, a perfumer?  I created scents, though most were for household use."

The Captain looked mildly amused, his face twitching.  "That's actually an occupation?" Xu Lin asked, cluelessly.  All eyes fell upon her.  "What?  I just thought they took scents from flowers and mimicked them."

The man's eye's sparkled.  "Actually, it's a little more complicated than that," he said and began to give the girl a more detailed explanation.  As the trapped girl looked for an excuse to flee, the General called over Song Jian.

"I say we give this one to your mother," she proposed.  "He sounds like he'd be happier in a lab anyway and it might free your brother up should he wish to join the army."  Song Jian nodded in agreement.  The woman's eyes slid over to her unusually quiet son.  "By the way, what happened to him?"

"Ah, he had an epiphany when underground," Song Jian replied.  He caught Zhang Min's eye, who turned his fiery red face away sharply.

"Really?" Cheng Ju questioned, thoughtfully.  "Perhaps I ought to send him underground more often."

"That won't be necessary," Song Jian said, coldly.  The woman looked at him for a long moment then simply shrugged.

****

In the rapidly cooling waters of the lake as it reflected the colours of dusk, two youths were enjoying the taste of the others lips as they moved against each other.  Their tongues danced and their hands roamed, the contrast of cold water against heated skin clear beneath their fingers. 

"We should get out," Slate suggested between breaths.

"In a moment," groaned Willow, not willing to be apart from his lover for even the moment it would take them to get to the lake's edge.  Slate lifted him and felt the boy's long legs wrap about his waist as he carried him slowly out of the water.  Their lips continued to press against each other's, nipping, suckling, savouring.

"What did you tell your parents?" Slate asked.

"Everything," Willow said. 

"Everything?" Slate questioned, one brow slightly raised. 

Willow laughed, lightly.  "Well, perhaps not everything." Even he was wise enough to know that certain things should not be shared. His lips began to wander over Slate's face, peppering him with light kisses.

"How did they take it?" Slate asked.

"Not so well," he admitted.  "They were worried for me that you were a cave person, it's not unheard of but such relationships do not usually last and there are never children."

"I am a man," Slate replied with a kiss.  "Children weren't going to happen between us anyway."

Willow laughed.  "I think they actually accepted that part a little better," he admitted, although it was more likely that this son of theirs who had always been a little different to other children simply could not shock them anymore.  "I'm sure they might try to change my mind, though."

"I understand," Slate sighed.  Relations between men were rare amongst his people also.  Most people married for the sake of having offspring, though relationships were never usually forced and love was often a factor.  But divorce was unheard of, both forest and cave people tended to wed for life.  If Willow were to choose him, he would give up the chance of a 'normal' relationship with a forest girl and children. "I don't like it though."

"Don't worry," Willow told him before giving him a lingering kiss upon his already swollen lips.  "I could never be parted from you, I need to be with you.  I didn't understand why before, but feeling like I may never see you again was too painful. Like someone had carved my heart out filled my chest with muddy water."

Slate buried his face into Willow's chest, the memories of his own pain at being separated filled his eyes with burning tears.  "No matter what, I will always come back to you," he murmured.

Willow pulled away a little from his embrace, causing him to look up at the boy in his arms.  "Slate," Willow said, in his clear and honest voice.  "I love you."

****

Han Huan followed the Captain and Vice-Captain onto the ship, but not before taking a last look around the planet.  Although he would be back in 25.4 years, the view would have changed, as would the people, but he wouldn't have.  He sighed.  That was just the way his life was.

He plucked at the odd bracelet on his wrist, a device Slate had called it.  Something to remember them by.  He wasn't sure why the boy had wanted him to have it, but looking into those deep black eyes, he found that he could not refuse.  Perhaps it was a good luck charm?

One day, when he took his last breath, he would question his thoughts at that moment.  But he wore the device until he closed his eyes, just in case...

****

After so much time living in denial, Amber was still unable to give up Slate in her heart. It just felt wrong to not imagine him by her side as her husband, as the father of her children, though she was less concerned about having offspring, she wouldn't have to share him should she prove barren. Seeing him give the forest boy the warm and loving expressions that should have been hers angered her, but she had chosen to give him one last chance with a hug projecting all her feelings in that touch when they had rescued him and the Outsider. Still he had spurned her and chosen the forest boy instead! Choosing a male and one not of their kind, could their be any greater rejection?

In a madness driven by anger, desperation and jealousy, she had done something foolish and had ordered him to marry into her family. She had done this in front of the barracks for all of the hunters to see once he had returned from his duties on patrol. His comrades had been shocked and saddened for while they didn't approve in their hearts of Slate's choice, it was not their way to force marriages on others. "I think you best leave for home, young miss," the Lead Hunter had suggested, politely.

Basalt, who had been talking to the Lead Hunter about some security matters, had apologised to Slate before gently and firmly guided his sister on her way.

"Brother, why will he not love me?" Amber wept as they neared their home. "Why can he not see that I am the only one for him!"

"Do you really want him so much?" Basalt asked. He could not see her obsession as love.

"Yes," Amber replied, the dark madness swirling in her black eyes. "It is our destiny to be together!"

Basalt sighed then glanced about them and saw that they were very much alone. The corners of his lips curved upward ever so slightly, almost unnoticeably. "Come with me." He lead her down into the depths, far below their village home, though it did not take so long to arrive there. He lead her to a place beneath the hot-spring baths, a place he had discovered some years before. It had become his secret place when he wished to vent and scheme, a side he had never shown to others.

Amber glanced around. The rock beneath their feet was hot and seemed as black as their eyes against the backdrop of the slow moving river of lava oozing several metres drop from where they stood on the cliff. "Brother, why are we here?"

"Are you certain that you wish to capture that man?" Basalt asked, his tone firm and serious. "No other man will do?"

"No other man will do," Amber repeated, firm in her conviction.

"No matter what it takes?"

"Definitely."

"I can help you," Basalt drawled. Amber shivered suddenly feeling like this man before her was not the man that she called brother. "But you must agree to it and do exactly what I tell you, whenever I tell you. Even should it not make sense."

Amber thought over it for a moment, a doubt of concern welling inside of her, but her need to be Slate's woman crushed it flat. "I agree," she said, finally. "What must I do?"

Basalt's face broke into a rare, smile that was clearly very cruel. "First, you must die." With those words, he pushed the girl he called sister off of the cliff and into the swirling lava, ignoring her terrified screams and waiting until the echoes faded to silence.

The System felt please with himself. Finally he had a new tool to use. Now he had discovered the one keeping him from his new body in the actual world, he could move forward with his plans. He had met him before, of course, in other worlds, but as he had been unable to locate the sacrifice in this world until recently, he had not been certain that this was the one thwarting his plans. Stopping him from bonding with the female protagonist during the cave in's he had planned had finally provided the clarity he required. Now he just had to gather all of the players into a world of his choosing and lead them to the final act. And he had just the one in mind.