By: Axle and Zandra

Axle sat staring at Aztec contemplating his words, and visibly furious with him. Under normal circumstances, she never allowed others to see her emotions, but this was different. She had bared her soul to this male, and now he was trying to make her decisions for her, assuming he knew what was best. She leapt to her feet, eyes blazing, tail lashing wildly behind her, ready to fight for what she wanted.

It wasn't that initial reaction that disturbed Aztec, but the sudden calm that fell over Axle an instant later when she retook her seat. The look in her eyes moments before told him he might have stepped over a line that could cost him his life, now, she seemed utterly unconcerned with him. He looked up into her eyes and was met with a completely blank stare. Her gaze was as empty as that of a wax statue. Her body was entirely still, having lost all outward indications of her thoughts or feelings. He could do nothing but shiver from the deadly cold that coursed over him at her sudden change. For a moment, he feared that something inside her had snapped, leaving a mindless shell, but then she spoke.

Her voice was frighteningly calm, almost robotic, not betraying a modicum of the anger that was coursing through her veins. "Very well, then. I’m terribly sorry to have wasted your time, Your Highness. I shall arrange for you to retrieve your motorcycle as quickly as possible. I am sorry to have detained you thus far. Is there anything else you need, Your Highness?"

Axle had transcended anger, and moved on to an emotion that no words could describe. Everything inside her was a jumble of mixed emotions, all of which were at their peak intensity. It was one of those few moments in her life where she truly feared she might lose control of her bestial side, enhanced by the Plutarkians, which she had worked so hard to conquer. She had only felt like this once before, and had nearly killed three that were very near and dear to her in the heat of the moment. She did not want to take the slightest chance of losing control now that it would be so much easier for her to kill the Saturnite with her bare hands. Instead, she waited patiently for a response, not trusting herself to say anything more than absolutely necessary, or even meet his gaze. She looked in his general direction, but more over his head and to the floor behind him.

Aztec remained silent, shaking his head in response.

The Martian grappled with her mouth to form the words she wanted. Finally, she managed to speak, but her voice betrayed her emotion now, emerging from her throat as cold as ice, and as formal as the most highly trained diplomat. "I hope Your Majesty will forgive me if I am unable to assist you in this endeavor. There are several tasks, which require my immediate attention. I am, however, certain that Stone will be quite willing to guide you. If you will excuse me, Your Highness…?" Without saying anything else, she bowed, walked around the stunned Saturnite, and slammed the door shut behind her. Aztec was left to contemplate her words in a silence that could easily have driven a deaf man mad.

As Axle marched down the hall towards Stone’s room, her mind whirled with dizzying speed. Only twice before had she dared to bare her soul. She did not enjoy reliving her past, and carefully guarded all details from others. What Slash had said to her the night before hadn’t been the only reason that she’d shared her secrets with Aztec. As with Stone and Stoker, she had felt it right, somehow, that he know, and she had come to trust him. Nevertheless, this time she had made a mistake. Truthfully, she was angrier with herself than with Aztec. She’d never before misjudged anyone. She found it impossible that she could’ve been deceived by him, and was still searching for the cause. But, beyond all that, she’d allowed herself to care for him, making one of the worst mistakes of her life.

The irate Martian traversed the familiar path to Stone’s room after exiting the den, not truly conscious of where her feet were leading her. When she found herself standing before the door, she shoved it with great brutality. The defenseless door promptly gave under the assault, its knob thoroughly embedding into the dry wall.

Paying no attention to the damage she had wreaked, Axle crossed the room with two strides. She opened the hidden door leading to the lab where Stone attended to his more sensitive work. She was the only other person that knew about this underground lab. It was here that Stone had managed to unlock the secrets of her past. It had taken them years, but they’d managed to open every door the Plutarkian scientist’s mind-bender beam had closed. Stone had been there to help Axle cope with the painful memories of the years of her captivity, and past as they had come flooding back to her. Turning to lock the door behind her, she continued on to her final destination.

As she descended the winding metal staircase that led two stories below ground, Axle’s mind whirled about, never settling on one thing for more than the briefest of moments. All she wanted was to get as far away from the source of the turmoil as possible. The things Slash’s spirit said never entered her mind in her consideration of what she was running from. The two instances were now such polar opposites in her reckoning that they could never be connected as far as she was concerned. Stone’s lab was really the only place she could successfully be alone, and her instincts had led her here trying to find the peace she needed. As she got closer, the sounds of Stone’s ‘fiddling’ drifted up to her ears. Pleased that he was there, she nearly ran the rest of the way, realizing his presence meant that she could get him to get rid of Aztec sooner rather than later.

When she opened the door at the foot of the stairs, Axle once again found herself momentarily awed by the most technologically advanced lab on Earth. There were large machines, whose functions she wasn’t entirely sure of, along every wall, and three lab benches arranged around a central examination table. The benches were covered with vials and instruments in an almost cluttered manner, but Axle knew Stone could instantly find anything he needed. The only color came from the concoctions themselves, or the displays and lights of the machines.

Axle paused just inside the open steel door, and leaned against the facing. She watched Stone work, her mind wandering over the life that had shaped the man standing before her, in yet another cheap, random attempt at calm. She knew many people would pity the hardened man for the tragedies he’d seen, but he was just another victim that needed no pity, as far as Axle was concerned. She gave him no pity, expected none from him, and he returned the sentiment. Their friendship was based upon this mutual trust and respect.

Because of his physical appearance, Stone had never been accepted by normal humans. He had been an outcast even before his birth, when ultrasounds showed something unusual and undeniably wrong with the child. His parents were encouraged to abort the fetus, and try for another child, but they would hear nothing of it, and Stone had been born only a few months later. The attending medical staff had thrown both mother and child out mere hours after the difficult birth. Fortunately, his parents weren’t like others, and had accepted him instead of locking him away in an institution as their physicians and family strongly recommended. It had cost his father a comfortable job in the family law firm, and made the happy couple social outcasts, but they were more interested in their son than a social life. They sheltered the boy, giving him the best of everything, trying to hide the cruel nature of mankind from their beautiful baby boy.

It was quickly discovered that despite his physical ‘deformities’, Stone was gifted with the strength and intelligence rivaling that of ten grown men. He was carrying his end of political conversations with some of the greatest intellects when he was only a few months old, and was breezing through the most complicated mathematical computations by age three. However, his interests lay in science and the greater mysteries of the universe, not to mention his passion for anatomy and physiology.

His brainpower made it impossible to hide the fear and hatred of others from him. His parents couldn’t keep tutors for Stone, because they were afraid of the child. No man or woman could stand the intimidating intellect of a three-year old capable of discussing the newest medical treatment theories, and critiquing the most radical concepts of astrophysics. No children played with him because their parents refused to allow it. So, Stone spent his time trying to amuse himself with the lab equipment his parents acquired for him. However, he never found himself lonely, or out-of-place. Instead, he enjoyed the solitude he was forced into.

Disaster had ripped Stone’s world apart when he was only six years old. The neighborhood had grown overly protective of their children after Stone’s temper first reared its ugly head. He had knocked a tree down in anger over loosing his newest and favorite tutor, and several of the neighborhood children were nearly crushed by the branches as they were walking past. Fearing that Stone would go crazy and kill their children, the neighbors formed a committee to force his family to move. The committee came for a visit one evening to make their ‘request’, and one of them hit Stone’s father, Marc, when he told them flat out that he would not be leaving. Before anybody knew what was happening, every man in the group was beating on Marc. When his wife, Nancy, brought out the gun to protect her beloved husband, they had attacked her as well. Nobody knew how it happened, but suddenly the house was on fire. Having been beaten severely, Marc and Nancy never made it out, and Stone was left alone in his front yard sobbing, watching everything he’d ever known and loved burn to cinders, as the neighbors walked away.

Stone vowed that day that humans would pay for what they had done to his parents, and denounced his species. It wasn’t until five years later, when the Plutarkians arrived that he was given the chance to fulfill his dark desires. He was the first to offer his services to them. The Plutarkians, never ones to pass up a possible asset, especially another mad scientist, no matter how young and inexperienced, greeted him with open arms. They had given him tremendous freedom and power from his first day in their employ, recognizing the boy’s genius.

However, it wasn’t long before the suffering Stone witnessed being inflicted on other races became too much for him to bear. No matter how much he wanted to get back at his own kind, he couldn’t stand to see innocents suffer for his own gain. He started smuggling equipment out of the labs. Before too long, he managed to amass enough equipment to set up a lab stocked better than any other he knew of. He even managed to get some extra office supplies; which were notoriously hard to come by in the Plutarkian Empire. That was when he turned in his resignation. His superiors had not been happy about it, but saw no harm in turning loose a measly human who couldn’t even fight them, not to mention one as young and seemingly unimportant as Stone. He never let them find out about his strength, so they felt they had nothing to fear from him. Besides, they had already gotten quite a bit of work out of him, including some wonderful new weapons, and a databank of information on where to start in their attempt to buy up the Earth.

Once Stone was on his own again, he’d had to find something to do to take up his spare time. In order to keep him from causing them trouble, the Plutarkians had seen to it that he would never suffer from any monetary shortage, so his only concern was his time. Still not wanting to deal with humans, he started offering crime lords from all over the galaxy his medical services. These were people that would accept him no matter what he looked like, and would pay him plenty of money for his services, and his silence. Using the network of contacts he’d made while in the employ of the Plutarkians, he managed to keep up with the technological advances of the universe. The money the crime lords paid him, in addition to the generous ‘retirement’ plan of the Plutarkian empire, was more than enough to keep his lab stocked with any new equipment he desired, as well as see that he got the best of everything.

Despite all his contacts and new clients, Stone had still been alone. In fact, Axle was the first real friend he’d made since his parents died. She had come to assassinate one of his clients, the first person ever to slip past his security systems, and had been badly injured before she could take out her mark. Stone refused to allow anyone to die in his facility, and spent hours trying to repair the damage inflicted by her mark’s bodyguards. Her injuries had been severe, and had taken months to completely heal. During that time, the two had conversed often, and come to know each other very well.

Now, Axle was the only one that knew Stone’s heart, and the only person that he truly trusted. The two galactic outcasts were better off with one another, and they both knew it. Stone didn’t have the skills to defend himself from the beings that would come after him to force his hand, but she did. Axle didn’t have the skills to repair heavy damage to her cybernetics or her physical body, but he did. Furthermore, they understood each other, and could talk openly together. But, the final bond had formed once Stone had helped her regain her memories.

As Axle stood in the doorway of Stone’s lab, she suddenly realized her thoughts had come full circle and she snorted in disapproval. Stone had noted her entrance long ago, but opted to let her make the first move. He knew trying to talk before the recalcitrant woman was ready would get him nowhere. However, he couldn’t keep himself from commenting on the situation any longer. "Heard what happened. I ain’t taking him nowhere, ya know." Axle started to argue with him, but Stone was at her side before she could speak. "You’re not arguing with me, bosslady. I may deal with the ‘scum’ of the universe, but they’re all decent enough people when it comes right down to it. At least they don’t betray the trust of their loved ones. I will not help self-righteous royal pricks who think they get to make the decisions for everybody because of who they are. I won’t do this. Don’t even bother asking. I’ll talk to the guys outside, make sure he gets out of here in one piece because I love you. I know you still care for him on some level, but I’m not taking him anywhere myself. He hurt you, and that I will not forgive."

He looked deeply into her eyes with an intimacy that had grown comfortable for the two of them over the years, and put his hands on her shoulders. "You’re like a sister to me, Axle. You know I’ll do anything for you, and I’ll do it your way. Just let me handle this thing my way, alright?" When she met his gaze fleetingly, he smiled. "Besides, if I get anywhere near him, I’ll end up relieving his shoulders of the burden they have to carry."

Axle smiled and laid a hand on Stone’s arm. She appreciated his attempt to lighten the mood, but not even his humor could lighten her heart this time. Her smile quickly faded as she skirted around him, and walked silently across the room. It was hard enough to keep herself composed without having him up in her face with that look that told her he understood, and a break down would cause lose her no dignity in his eyes. But, she would lose her own sense of dignity if she allowed it. She had to get away from that face, and pull herself together again. She stopped to glance at a familiar picture clipped to the front of an incubator; it was of Stone’s parents. He’d carried it with him all his life. It showed the happy couple holding their newborn son. He had once idly pointed out that it was the only picture ever taken of the three of them together. As far as he knew, there were no other pictures of him in existence, certainly not any of his parents.

Axle picked up the photo, and traced the outline of the two figures with her fingers as though in deep thought. Stone moved closer, but was stopped suddenly when she whirled to face him. Her voice was distant, and chilled. He saw something he couldn’t describe in her eyes, something that worried him. "Ya know, I used to watch kids play with their families. I watched my own parents lavish attention on my brother, and remembered a time when they’d done the same for me, when we’d been a family. I should’ve still had that life. I wondered for years what I’d done wrong. Then, I found Slash, and with the other street kids, we created a real family, without the whole fake ‘I-love-you-because-we-share-blood’ thing. We really cared about each other. Thought everything was gonna be fine, especially with Slash there, ya know?

"After I lost ‘em, it got real hard not to hate everybody. There wasn’t anywhere I belonged, so I gave up. Let myself be made a captive in what should’ve been my home all along." She paused to put the photo back on the incubator. When she turned back around, her face was a mask.

"The word ‘family’ didn’t mean shit to me by that time. I’d lost the only real one I ever had. There wasn’t nothing left for me, the way I saw it. I was a walking zombie, until something got in my way, then I was a raving lunatic. After a while, I got tired o’ bein’ treated like a prisoner, so I left to find a place where I could end it all in peace.

"That’s when I ran into Stoker, and he gave me the chance to use my skills and get my revenge. He tried his best to get me to trust the Freedom Fighters; to make ‘em my family. The gods know I laughed it up with the best of ‘em, and not a single one of ‘em ever suspected it wasn’t real, ‘cept Stoke. But, they didn’t mean nothin’ to me. I kept up my front for their morale, that’s all. Stoke was the only person I trusted; the only person that knew the real me.

"Well, he was until I met you. I got two great friends, and I wasn’t about to ask for more after what I’ve seen. After losing so much, well…fuck, ya know what I was like before. I didn’t give a shit ‘bout nothin’, and was sure as hell that I didn’t need nothin’ else but my bike and my blades." She looked up from the crack in the floor that had held her attention throughout her speech. "I’d convinced myself I was happy up ‘till a coupla days ago. It was easier if I didn’t have nobody around to get caught up in my problems. But, I fucked up, Stone. I fell for the damned fuckin’ bastard."

Stone looked at her, tears welling up in his eyes. But, Axle’s jaw was set, and her eyes entirely dry. It astonished him that after all she had been through, she could still manage to maintain such a stoic expression. He assumed that she didn’t allow this to draw a single tear from her eyes because she saw them as a sign of weakness, and because letting Aztec make her cry would be giving him way too much power over her. Stone had only ever seen her cry once before, and that was last night. He dropped his head for a moment, and drew a deep breath to regain his own composure, knowing she would resent it if he showed her any pity.

When he looked back up, he saw something in his best friend’s face that he never imagined he would see there – raw pain. Always before, Axle had responded to pain with violence and anger, it was the only thing she’d ever learned, but it seemed this was too much for her to consume. This had driven her beyond the point at which she could retain her hard fought for control, leaving her unsure, and somehow vulnerable. He walked towards her, and cautiously put his arms around her. Initially, she drew back, fighting the reflex to fight him off, but she gave in in the end. Stone drew her close, attempting to somehow draw her pain upon himself, knowing that it could never happen.

Suddenly, she broke away from him, screaming at the top of her lungs. "What the bloody hell was I thinking? Quajah! How could I be so fuckin’ stupid!" Her tail lashed wildly, and she struck out at anything in her way. More than a few of Stone’s chemicals found a new home on the floor, and every glass bottle was broken before her tirade ended. Not once did she stop screaming, she barely even paused for a breath, and Stone could do nothing but watch. Several times he had encountered her strength, and knew better than to get in her way when she wasn’t in complete control of herself if he didn’t want to risk broken bones.

Finally, an exhausted Axle stood at the far end of his laboratory, panting from the exertion, tail and ears hanging limply. She looked directly into Stone’s eyes, and collapsed to the floor in a hysterical bundle. Stone was at her side in an instant. He carefully bundled her up in his arms, offering support the only way he could at that time, hoping his warmth and love for her would be enough to help her get it back together.

It wasn’t really just because of Aztec that Axle was crying, but for everything she had refused to cry for in the past. All the years of suffering she had seen found their release in this one act, at this singular moment in time. Never before had anything truly broken through her defenses, and it was doubtful that anything after this would. But, now, physical exhaustion lent a hand in allowing her to finally relieve some of the anger, and heartache that she’d stuffed away to deal with at some unknown time in the future. This was that time, and Stone was glad he was the only one there to see it happen. He knew words would do no good, so he just held her in silence.

When she finally stopped, Axle slowly realized that Stone was cradling her in his lap like a little girl, and that she was actually glad for the first time in her life that she wasn’t alone. She pulled back from him hurriedly, and leaned against the cool metal of the wall, not wanting to need him, not wanting to need anybody, knowing that he would understand, and wouldn’t try to force her to accept his comfort. She pulled her knees to her chest, and wrapped her arms around her legs.

Stone had never seen his friend this upset, and his heart ached for her. This was the first time since his parents’ deaths that he’d felt so completely helpless, and confused. All he wanted to do was take every ounce of suffering upon himself, and give her the happiness that she so deserved, but had been denied. But, he knew he could never do that. Even if he could, Axle would never allow it. The way she saw it, she deserved everything that had happened to her. She only lived to make the lives of her friends easier, and to keep them from suffering, even if it meant suffering for them. He wished he had more experience with other people, and knew the words to help her. As it was, he could only hope his presence would somehow help.

When she finally looked up, the pain that had etched deep creases into her brow only moments before was replaced by the ‘icy mask of death’ that had hidden her from the world when he had first met her. He had given the look that name himself, and it was one he had hoped was gone forever. She hadn’t worn it in nearly a year and a half, and it greatly concerned him that it had returned now. Perhaps what worried him even more was that the look penetrated into the depths of her eyes, as well as her face. Always before you could tell something about her true self by looking into her eyes. But, now, they were as empty as glass, as cold as her face.

Axle’s voice was hollow, but clear and easily maintained. "Stone, I’ll ask again. Will you take Aztec to retrieve his bike? It’s nearly a day’s ride down the old highway. Among other things, he doesn’t even know the way. There’s no telling whether he can handle himself. Besides, those snipers ain’t gonna let him pass without a fight, and you know it. I’m not in the mood to have the other half the galaxy on my ass ‘cause I got the Saturnite crown prince killed."

Stone stared at her in disbelief. The sudden lack of emotion had him truly perplexed. He had never claimed to understand the forces driving her life, but he had always been able to count on her to react rationally. She seemed to have lost even that now. Returning to her old stubborn self, and determined to do whatever hit her first.

When he did not respond fast enough, Axle took matters into her own hands. "Fine, then. If you don’t wanna go, I’ll go myself. Easily done. Be back in less than an hour." She started to get up, but Stone pushed her back down. Her eyes blazed at him in defiance, but she backed down quickly.

"Even more unlike her usual self…," Stone thought. "No, I’ll go," he said. "I brought Blue in this morning, and talked to those snipers. They know who you are, and they’ll leave you alone. I’ll be back soon as I can." He reached over, and embraced her one last time. "I do love you Axle, and I’ve always thought of you as my family." He left her sitting in the floor and went up to see to Aztec.

As he walked upstairs, he fought to contain his anger. He knew he would not be able to stop himself from verbally assaulting the Saturnite prince once they were where Axle could no longer see them. He knew the parts of last night’s ‘meeting’ with Slash that Axle had left out, and he intended to share them with Aztec. Maybe once the male knew that something in the cosmos had put them together, he would straighten his ass out, and realize that he really wanted to be with Axle, and that she really wanted him, and that no amount of danger should come between them. He just hoped that he would be able to control his own temper enough to keep from beating the guy within an inch of his life. It wasn’t often that somebody pissed Stone off, and lived to tell about it.

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