Why didn't I check? Why?

Because I was too busy looking for him everywhere else...

Before she could say another word, the door behind her burst open. Smoke filled the room, choking her with a bitter stench.

She reached for her blaster, then froze as three targeting lasers hovered over her heart, letting her know exactly what they'd take out if she moved.

Slowly, she held her hands up so that they wouldn't mistake her intentions.

Through the hazy smoke, three Sentella members stormed inside. And there was no mistaking the anger that was plainly evident in the way they carried themselves.

Dressed in matching black battlesuits and helmets that obscured any identifying features, the shortest one grabbed her by the arm and hauled her away from Kere, then slammed her into the wall so hard, she saw stars. The next tallest Sentella member pulled his helmet off.

He had short blue-black hair and dark eyes rimmed with black eyeliner. Eyes that filled with tears when he saw the condition the prince was in. "Darling? Oh my God... what have they done to my baby?"

Darling blinked as he heard a familiar male voice. One that was thickly accented, yet lyrical and refined.

At first he thought he was dreaming... until he saw the last face he'd ever expected to see again.

Maris.

Tears fell down Maris's cheeks. He lifted his wrist to speak to the others through the link in his cuff. "We've got him, and he's alive. But he's hurt really badly. I need Syn here immediately. Tell him to run." Tenderly, Maris cupped his face in his hands. "What, in the name of the gods, did they do to you, sweetie?"

What hadn't they done to him?

Darling stared at his best friend in total disbelief. Are you real?

But he still couldn't speak past the painful ball under his tongue.

A distorted Andarion curse rang out from the man who stood behind Maris as he came closer to inspect Darling's condition.

Hauk. Even with the voice distortion that cloaked Hauk's real identity, Darling would know that giant hulking form anywhere.

Or was it someone else? Darling wasn't sure if he could trust his blurry eyesight any longer.

It wasn't until Nykyrian, Caillen, Nero, and Syn entered the room that he finally believed this was real and not another delusion.

Even though they were swathed from head to foot by their black uniforms, he knew who they were. He'd fought beside them for too many years not to recognize the way they moved and stood.

After all this time, they'd finally come for him...

He choked on the muzzle as tears filled his eyes and stung like hell as they fell down his bloodied cheeks.

Syn let out a foul Ritadarion curse the minute he stepped in front of Darling. He repeated Maris's words. "Dear gods, what have they done to you?"

Maris moved back to give Syn room. "I don't know. Damn them for it. Bastards! Every one of them. I hope they all roast their nuts in hell's hottest fires."

Nykyrian grabbed Zarya whose eyes betrayed her terror at the giant size of him.

Almost seven feet tall with his boots on, Nemesis's lethal carriage had made grown assassins piss their pants. He completely dwarfed Zarya. "Where's the release for the prince's chains?"

"I... I don't know."

Syn snarled as he tried to break the chain around Darling's neck with his bare hands. "We've got to get him down. Fast. He's hurting so badly that his jaw's quivering and it's damaging him even more." He cupped Darling's cheek in his gloved hand and held it so that Darling couldn't move it anymore. Then he wiped some of the blood off Darling's chin. "Hang on, buddy. Just a few seconds more and we'll have you out of this."

Shoving Zarya into Jayne's custody, Nykyrian came forward. His anger was palatable as he grabbed the cuff around Darling's neck and ripped it in half with his bare hands. The snapping metal was the most glorious sound Darling had ever heard.

For the first time in months, he could breathe without it cutting into his throat.

Nykyrian moved to Darling's right wrist to break that chain, too. He froze when he saw Darling's missing finger. Cursing, Nykyrian gave Darling's hand a light squeeze before he tore the cuff open.

The moment he was free, Darling started to fall, but Maris caught him against his chest and held him in a tight hug. "I have you, baby. Don't worry. No one's going to hurt you now."

Nero snapped the cuff on his left hand with his powers.

When Nykyrian reached for the muzzle, Syn grabbed his wrist and stopped him. "I'll have to surgically remove it."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. The fucking bastards left it on him so long, it's grown into his throat. See the marks?"

Though they were currently hidden by the black crash helmet he wore, Nykyrian had scars on his face from when he'd been a child and a different kind of muzzle had been used on him. Like Darling's, his muzzle had been left in place for so long it'd grown into his skin.

Nykyrian cursed again.

His breathing ragged, Darling barely heard them as he held on to Maris with what little strength he had. Never in his life had he been more grateful for his best friend's appearance.

"I've got you, Darling," Maris whispered in his ear. "Through thick and thin, brothers to the bitter end. No one's going to hurt you again. I swear it."

Syn gently touched Darling on the shoulder. "I'm going to knock you out, okay?"

Darling nodded. Please make the pain stop. He didn't care if Syn's dosage killed him so long as it made his body numb.

Syn pulled out an injector from the deep pocket on his left leg, then shot it into Darling's arm.

Over Maris's shoulder, Darling locked gazes with Zarya who'd been cuffed by Jayne. He saw the horrified agony in her amber eyes that were filled with tears.

I didn't know what they did to you, she mouthed to him. I'm so sorry.

Did she really think that mattered to him now? After all he'd been through?

Go to hell, bitch.

The last thing he heard before the drug knocked him out was Nykyrian's angry order for the rest of the Sentella members. "Kill them. Every fucking one who breathes. I want them hunted down and ripped into pieces. Take your time and make it hurt."

Nero inclined his head to Nykyrian. "I'm going to help end a few lives." Then he left the room.

"Save some for me, boy," Hauk called, following after him.

Caillen placed his hand on Darling's head. "I plan to find a few of them to party with myself. I'll meet you guys back at the ship." He made an even quicker exit than Nero and Hauk had.

Jayne grabbed Zarya by the hair, and held her for Nykyrian's inspection. "You want to kill her, or can I do it?"

Nykyrian considered their options and the bloodlust that lay beneath Jayne's tone. The hyshian lived to kill.

But not that one.

Not yet.

"Save her for Darling. He deserves the honor of killing at least one of them. And since she was the last one in here..."

Jayne sighed in disgust. "Damn, boss. You take all my fun away." She shoved Zarya back against the wall. "Be grateful, 'ho. There's nothing I love more than a good, long skinning."

Ignoring them and swinging Darling up into his arms so that he could gently cradle him, Maris wept over what had been done to Darling's now frail body. He'd been so beautiful and strong before...

Now, he looked like a walking corpse.

What they'd done went beyond inhumane. For the first time in his life, he wanted blood from another human being. "Have you ever seen anything like this?" he asked Syn.

"Not in a long time." Syn glanced over his shoulder at Nykyrian. "Nemesis has been through worse, and for a lot longer period of time."

Maris glared at that woman as true hatred filled him. "How could you!"

"I didn't-"

Jayne backhanded her, then shot her in the chest. "Don't worry," she assured Nykyrian as he took a step toward her in protest of her actions. "I didn't kill the bitch... yet. It's just a good stunning to shut her up before I yielded to the desire I have to gut her."

Nykyrian shook his head. "I'll carry Darling," he said to Syn. "You get the woman."

Syn put the injector back into his pocket. "You won't hold it against me if I accidentally drop her a few times on her head, will you?"

"Not at all."

"I knew I loved you for a reason." Syn went to retrieve her.

Maris stopped Nykyrian before he took Darling out of his arms. "Will he be all right?"

Syn was the one who answered. "Physically, I think I can fix most of it. Mentally..." He glanced at Nykyrian and paused.

Nykyrian snorted. "Yeah, I'm still severely fucked up. I own that fact. It's not like I can hide it." He cleared his throat before he continued. "But to answer your question, Mari, there's no telling. No one comes through torture intact. You've been around us long enough to know that. After mine, I was like an animal for a long time. Some days, I still am."

Syn tossed the woman roughly over his shoulder. "Ditto. I was certifiable and alcoholic until my sister-in-law verbally kicked my ass and made me realize what I was doing to myself. I can't believe I'm going to admit this outside my head, but thank the gods for Kasen. Anyone ever tells her I said that and I'll deny it, then kill you."

Sick to his stomach, Maris allowed Nykyrian to take Darling from him, and lead him back toward the hangar. He wasn't as optimistic about his friend as they were. He knew Darling better than anyone, and before this had happened, Darling had been surfing the edge of paranoid insanity.

Every time he'd seen him, Darling had become more and more silent and sullen.

More unpredictable and defiant.

The ongoing hatred and rage Darling kept for his mother and uncle had blazed in his eyes like a tangible beast that wanted blood, and that repressed fury had scared Maris to the point, he'd expected Darling to lash out at them and kill them for it.

Would this push him over the edge?

It's all my fault...

"If I'd only found him sooner," he breathed.

Jayne rubbed his arm with a kind caress as she walked by his side. "Don't go there, Mari. But for you remembering the woman's name, we'd have never found him at all."

Perhaps.

Yet looking at Darling's condition, it was hard to see any kind of bright side. They'd torn him up so foully.

So cruelly...

How could anyone do this to another human being?

I wish my fighting skills were honed and up to date. Had they been, he'd hunt them down and make them regret their vicious brutality. But he'd walked away from his training years ago, and while he did work out to keep his lean muscles defined and was occasionally Darling's sparring partner, he no longer had a warrior's build.

Even when he'd possessed some of the best fighting skills in the universe, he hadn't wanted them.

Unlike his brothers, Maris had never enjoyed hurting other people, especially not for sport or practice.

However, tonight, he understood the need to taste and let blood.

Please be all right. He wouldn't be able to live if anything happened to Darling. He knew that.

Darling was his entire world. He always had been.

And as he watched Nykyrian carrying Darling on board their ship, a bad premonition went through him.

By their actions with this, the Resistance had awakened the devil himself and there would be hell to pay for it. Not from Maris. Not from the Sentella.

But from Darling.

If there was anything in this universe Darling truly hated, it was being a victim. Having his hands tied so that he couldn't fight back.

It was an unforgivable sin where Darling was concerned. And contrary to popular thought, Darling was one of the most skilled fighters out there. Maris would even run him up against Nemesis/Nykyrian.

Once Darling regained his strength from this, he would become the very god of death and retribution that Hauk had proclaimed him as a joke. No one suspected that darkest side of Darling existed, but Maris knew and it scared him to the core of his soul.

Take cover, bitches.

The right hand of retaliation was about to come calling. And it was going to be brutal.

There would be no escape or sanctuary. Not for any of them. May the gods take pity on all who came into Kere's path because he knew Darling wouldn't.