"Q, what the hell is happening?" Denum demanded. "They understand we're human...right...don't they even sense what we are."

"We do." The male said. "You are...from the wall place...the numbered children."

"Why are you helping us?" Aireio breathed.

"You help us," The woman informed, motioning to Q. "Give Prince."

"You can't give him to your Prince!" Aireio cried.

"No, no... she means that you gave her the Prince," Q informed.

"When?" Red asked with a frown.

"Ho-ly shit." Denum's eyes shot wide. "No way."

"Wow... Red, you are so dense," LiSen giggled - still being cradled by one of the Silvers.

"You're a Silver!?" Aireio cried.

"Yes," Q informed, as if the answer was obvious.

"And a Prince!?" She continued.

"I guess I am," He shrugged.

"What, a Silver!?" Red gaped.

"Jesus Christ, we had one at the facility!?" Denum burst. "Since when!?"

"Fourteen years!" Red shot back.

"No way!" Denum blinked at Q. "What the hell were they doing with one."

"Trying to figure out how to kill it better and faster." Red replied.

"You're both dense," LiSen sighed. "How do you think they kept getting DNA to merge ours with?"

"Wait a second, you said that kid was your brother!" Aireio pointed out.

"Luda?" The woman piped up in shock. "Luda is alive!?"

"With how he was killing everyone else, he might be the only one left alive." Red replied.

"DNA...they were..." Denum blinked and sank down to his knees. "With...Silvers?"

"They do not tell them anything." The male told the female- looking very displeased. "They know nothing."

"They planned to use them as weapons against you," Q told the man. "Because their weapons do not work."

"Why do they need weapons?" The woman asked. "What have we done to them?"

"They cannot use them like this!" The man said firmly- looking over Red and the others. "These are not weapons!"

"They don't know anything about us." Denum murmured quietly to LiSen.

LiSen looked up nervously as a woman with her hair done up approached and he was gently scooped up, before being placed on a nearby rock.

She pulled up his pant leg and gently removed the bandages on his leg, looking like an adult playing a game of operation as she picked at the small bandage delicately with her large hands.

"Appah, they need a place to rest," Q addressed the man.

"Here, where the men do not find them." The man replied as he turned to Q. "You are hurt, aren't you."

"We found him in a tube...he was all rigged up to machines and crap." Red frowned- that's right, Q had bee in pretty bad shape himself when they found him.

"I am tired," He admitted, before pulling back his sleeves and showing the pin-prick red dots that went up his arms. "My Malu is not controllable. They were using liquid to stop it."

"Malu is what you call your powers, right?" Aireio asked. Q nodded. "They were drugging you to keep you in there, because they knew you'd be able to get out if you fought them."

"It seems so," Q replied.

The medic called to one of the children, who came rushing over with a bowl of some mashed violet thing. "Berry," She told Denum, holding up the bowl for him to smell. "No harm." She scooped some up and put it in her mouth. "See?"

She then scooped up a large clump and dropped it on LiSen's wound, rubbing it in. LiSen gasped - but not in pain, more in surprise at the sudden cold.

"Oh wow... that stuff is numbing it completely!" He breathed.

"Not surprising, most of the stuff out here is poisonous to human beings." Denum remarked.

"So they were harvesting from you and giving...what were they trying to make us into Silvers?" Red asked Q.

"They were trying to make it so we're able to fight them," Aireio informed. "Like Q said, their weapons have no effect on Silvers... so they were trying to make us into weapons. Telling us the Silvers were bad and that they killed people..."

"We kill no people," The Queen informed. "Only defend ourselves." She turned toward a group of Silvers that were about Q's height. "Kamairya, Rathi! Please show them to a place to sleep."

Two forms moved out of the crowd. Like Q, they could have passed as tall humans if it weren't for their tails and their wings, which were hidden behind long curled black hair.

"It has been a long time," The boy said, moving to hug Q. "We worried about you."

"The land weeps less." The girl said to Q with a nod before turning to Aireio and Denum. "Follow."

She lifted a set of slender fingers and beckoned them.

"I'm not going anywhere." Denum put his arms around LiSen.

"You may bring him," The medic informed as she finished wrapping a long, thick blade of some kind of greenery around LiSen's wound.

Aireio moved over and scooped her brother into her arms, holding him close.

"Are you going with them, or will you stay with me?" Q asked Red. "I can tell you're tired."

"And so are you." Red replied as he watched the others walk off with the two younger Silvers.

Denum looked around- his eyes cold and un-trusting. He didn't like this place. It was too closed in, just like the facility. But even that aside, they were surrounded by potential threats to their health. All the eyes on them- glinting silver in the dark. And those whispers- constant and not voices, but thoughts. These people just seamlessly went from vocalized conversation to telepathy- both just as natural for them. He could feel them reaching out to him and kept his guard up to keep them from invading his mind.

"I am," Q confirmed as the Medic came and shooed him to the rock, before setting him on top and pulling his shirt over his head gently.

"I am Rathi," The boy introduced, smiling softly. "Quarrel is my cousin. Our mothers were sisters."

"Quarrel?" Aireio asked.

"I think you called him 'Q'," Rathi hummed. "I am not sure what a 'Q' is."

Red drug himself to his feet and walked over to stand beside Q.

"So he's one of you guys." Denum mumbled.

"One of us." The girl said- almost in correction. "You, me, Rathi-"

"We're not Silvers!" Denum cut in. "Why is everyone trying to get in my head!"

The girl blinked and looked at Rathi in confusion.

"We aren't Silvers, either," Rathi informed, turning to look at Denum. "We're half... and technically, so are you."

"I'm a human being." Denum said firmly. "Just like LiSen and Red."

"Uh, and me?" Aireio offered with a snort. "I don't think they're trying to insult you, Denum. Why are you so freaked out? They've been nicer to us here then they've ever been at the Facility."

"I don't know a thing about these guys and neither do you." Denum said. "Can't you feel them snooping around in your head too!?"

"I don't have any mind powers," Aireio reminded.

"We do not 'snoop' in other people's minds," Rathi said, looking at his sister with a frown. "That is... the word I am looking for?"

"Impolite?" LiSen offered.

"Yes, that's it," Rathi agreed.

"They're reaching out to you." The girl tried.

"Reaching for what?" Denum demanded. "They can't just ask like normal people?"

"You don't understand," She sighed, "They aren't doing this because it inappropriate...here there is an open mind."

"No on is trying to poke around in your mind," Rathi continued. "Just welcome you..."

"Please forgive us," LiSen pipped up, tiredly. "We are used to such things being an invasion in privacy."

"We understand," Rathi assured.

They came into a room and the three humans paused in the open entry-way in awe.

There were crystals lining the walls, glowing brightly in the moon light that spilled in through cracks in the ceiling. They lit up the room with a dim blue light, revealing netting that was hooked all over the place, holding many sleeping Silvers.

"If you would be more comfortable on the ground, there are beds made of soft leaves that we use for smaller children," Rathi explained.

"We aren't children." Denum mumbled.

"No, you are Irma." The girl said before leading over to the nets. "I think the hurt one would be better up here."

"I'm staying with him, you be careful carrying him around like that." Denum said.

He blinked at the crystal standing beside him. It was really bright- the glare making him squint. He reached up and touched it. Wow, it was actually warm and he could feel it vibrating lightly against his fingertips. At first the tingle was just in his fingers and palm, but then it seemed to ghost up his arm and felt it wash over him. What were these things.

"I'm always careful with him," Aireio snorted, following Kamariya as she carried LiSen.

"We call them Shashin," Rathi told Denum. "But sometimes just Shasha. They light our way in the dark and comfort us when we are in pain. The humans... when they were brought here, they were very interested. Assah says they think this is the source of our minds. That it gets into the water we drink, giving us power."

"So your powers aren't naturally occurring." Denum frowned. "Then again, Crystals do occur in nature."

He yelped in surprise when Rathi lifted him up and set him in the netting beside LiSen.

"Our minds do not come from crystals," Rathi chuckled. "You should rest here."

"Sounds like a plan," LiSen yawned, stretching out.

"I will try to find you better cloth to wear," Rathi hummed. "Cloth without numbers."

"You are not just numbers to us." Kamariya smiled at Aireio as she lifted the girl up next.

Denum crawled closer to LiSen and wrapped his arms around the Asian boy. He could almost hear the hum of thoughts hear and wished things would quiet down.

"Focus on me instead," LiSen breathed, clearing his own mind. "Focus on my thoughts only."

"Thank you," Aireio told Kamariya, smiling slightly.

Denum sighed and closed his eyes- drifting over to LiSen. Things were much quieter and less foreign than the community murmur.

"Will you three need anything else." Kamariya asked. "You will rest well here."

She looked at Rathi and nodded- it almost looked like a signal.

"We're good, thanks," Aireio yawned, rolling onto her side and curling up.

Denum's eyes opened as the crystals actually dimmed around them- breaking his concentration from LiSen.

LiSen opened his eyes and looked up at Denum tiredly, the silver one seeming to glow.

Denum sighed and nestled down with LiSen again- reaching out to him with his mind. LiSen just seemed to belong here. Denum didn't feel that same kind of calm around all the Silvers, in their native land.

Still... having LiSen beside him was comforting. They'd been close ever since they were introduced - LiSen was a good three months ahead of him in The Facility, but they'd connected anyway.

The dark-haired boy closed his eyes again and curled up against Denum's chest, relaxing completely. At his back, Aireio was already snoring.

Kamariya and Rathi stood watching them for a long while until even LiSen and Denum were breathing softly with sleep.

"They will come for them." Kamariya told the other in their native tongue.

"If not for them, then for Quarrel," Rathi agreed. "We need to be ready."

--

The medic kept clicking her tongue as she lathered berries on to each of the small pricks up and down Q's body. The teen remained calm, although the berries were extremely cold.