"I want to know more," Kyla finally said. She was sitting, now, in the twin of the captain's chair, her skirt draped artfully about her legs, dripping to the lush, red carpet. "I've always felt... something. I'm not certain how to explain it--"

"Trapped?" Fire-Eater supplied, feeling sympathy and understanding.

Kyla, eyes wide, nodded her assent. She glanced at Cage, who was still sitting (rather uncomfortably, at that) on the high, wide bed. Every time she saw him, it felt like no less of a shock. It was like looking into an impossibly strange mirror...

Looking back to Fire-Eater, she replied, "well... something like that. It's like... like I've never been in control." Which, if it was true, was something that didn't bear thinking of. She'd always been the favored girl, and therefore was given so much responsibility--even to the point of being named the headmistress of the house... at least when the true headmistress was away. There wasn't a situation that she hadn't run across that she wasn't able to handle with confidence, even this one, here, tonight. Fire-Eater wanted earnest curiosity, naievity, but expected sincerity. Kyla gave the former two, and even the latter to a certain degree. It was true, after all, that she'd always felt an undercurrent of being the manipulatee, rather then the manipulator, but it had been nearly intangible, until tonight. Seeing Cage's face solidified her fears, bringing clarity to memories that she'd thought were only dreams... and all of this, her fears and doubts and worries, boiled down to one person.

The captain had gone on. "You're not far from the truth, Kyla. The world is never what it seems..." Then she leaned closer, as if taking the young woman into her confidence. The captain was good at this... drawing Kyla in even despite her urge to rebel, to seek a way to turn the situation around. She didn't like being the one on the outside of a secret. She didn't like this. Fire-Eater smiled, again the sympathetic look belaying the coldness of her peculiar spectacles. "Things can change, however. I'd like to meet with you again, somewhere more... secure." She lifted a hand to quell Kyla, who had been about to object. Her room was, after all, the most secure in the house. Surrounded and embedded with warding spells, most of which had been performed by a powerful mage--or by the headmistress, herself--there was no safer place to be, as far as the young woman was concerned. Fire-Eater seemed to think otherwise, however. "We can work on this. There is a way to seize control of your life, to gain freedom. However... that depends on you."

"Of course," Kyla finally said, quelling any arguments she might have had. She may have wanted to turn the tables on this woman, but she also desperately craved what was proferred. Freedom... the word rolled sweetly in her mouth, and she even whispered it aloud, causing Fire-Eater's sympathetic smile to turn victorious.

That smile fell away when pounding resounded at both the window and the door, starting in unison. Kyla jumped; everyone else stood smoothly.

"It's Guardy," Ahvi said, blowing a bubble of... something, and nodding to Crank, who was still standing by the window. "You can smell 'im a mile away."

The girl quickly unlatched the wooden shutters to reveal a man, ghostly white against the night, framed in Kyla's window. How he'd managed to get there was nearly beyond her. There were no lattices or pipes, and the walls below had been spelled to prevent traction, after one dubious occasion involving a heart-broken, drunken young mage... but that was a different story. Kyla stood now, too, her heart beating. She wasn't looking at the window anymore, however, but the door.

Even if sound could not get out, it could still come in... and now one of the girls was shouting from out the oak panels, "Mistress, it's Aleka--an early return, she wants to see you!"

"Errant has detected an anomaly in the region," Guardian was reporting, his face curved very faintly in a frown. "A rogue of some kind."

"Shit, another one?" Ahvi cried, her bubble bursting over her face and leaving a sticky green film behind. "If it's the same one I'm gonna kick his ass myself!"

"No," Guardian said shortly. "This one is different. More powerful. We need to leave, now."

"Shit," Cage said, looking immediately to Fire-Eater.

Kyla glanced nervously at the door, from where more noise was issuing. "He's right, you need to leave. Mistress Aleka will not be happy with me..." But how could she get them out the door when it was being blocked with the other women of the house?

The problem was solved for her when Fire-Eater took eight quick strides to the window ledge and waved her crew on. Guardian dropped out of sight, then Crank followed. Ahvi was just stepping up to the ledge when the captain turned and said, "tomorrow, outside the secondary entrance of the Specus, two hours past noon."

Kyla nodded dumbly, and then the older woman was gone from sight. Cage was the last to exit, his left leg bent on the sill, and he cast a look over his shoulder. Kyla caught it, and they remained quite frozen again--only for a moment, and then he was fitting himself out the window--

And then he froze again.

"Oh Kyla, honey," a voice issued across the boundary of the closed door, sultry and not in the least muffled by the enchanted wood, "what's got you locking the door? Got a man in there?" Kyla turned, slowly, ignoring the fact that Cage had not moved. The voice went on, "open up a tad and let me have a look, hmm? I promise I'll be good."

From the window, Cage gulped again, this time with raw fear--or something like it--welling up in his gut. "Get your ass down here, cowboy!" Ahvi shouted up, her hands cupped around her mouth. "You want me to drag your sorry tail out of here, or would you rather find a phone?"

The coppertop didn't answer--in fact, he didn't seem to so much as move.

"Something's wrong," Guardian said, looking up for a moment.

"No kidding, scrapheap," Ahvi replied. Crank elbowed her in the ribs and she gave a little screech, but otherwise stayed quiet. Instead she went to work, delicately trying to remove bubblegum from her face and failing miserably at trying to remain dignified about it.

"What should we do?" Crank asked, waiting for Fire-Eater's command.

The captain thought a moment, frowning when Cage disappeared from view, back into the room. The anomalous program was certainly responsible for this, but how, she wasn't certain. "Guardian," she finally said, drawing on him yet again. The machine nodded and was headed up the wall immediately.

"Hey, no fair!" Ahvi exclaimed, green scum forgotten. "Why does the machine get all the fun? I'll bet Cage's getting his ass whipped right now! Can't we go save him?" As if she had any intent other then to gloat about it, afterwards.

"No. Take us out, Malice. Guardian will extract Cage from the situation... we'll deal with this from the real world." It felt like a cowardly thing to do... but so close to the next dragon run, Fire-Eater didn't want to take any more risks then were necessary. They did, after all, have a hunter machine still at large, and irritating another rogue program was the last thing she wanted... especially one that might be a native of Vere. With that thought in mind, she lightly placed a hand on the dragoness' shoulder, while Crank gripped her elbow on the other side. Ahbreviaka, sighing with disgust, narrowed her eyes a fraction in concentration, and then they were gone.

From back at the window, Guardian cautiously placed one hand on the sill, and then the other. Half-extended tentacles clamped into the brickwork around him as he maintained a semi-transformed state... his indecision apparent in his very appearance. He could snap into his human form or his natural one instantly, depending on the situation. Peering carefully over the ledge, his eyes glowing faintly behind his mostly opaque glasses, Guardian looked to see just what the situation was.

Kyla had drifted back to the door, and Cage stood in the middle of the room. Both appeared to be in some kind of dream-like state... and soon the reason for this became apparent. The young woman slipped the thin chain from its cradle, and then pulled the door open. Immediately, another woman--this one a good half a head taller then Kyla, and fairer skinned--swept into the room. Her hair was like fire, an unnaturally glowing shade of mahogany and orange. Her body was swathed in nothing but layers of silk--opaque and sheer--in iridescent shades of teal and purple. She sauntered into the room, first giving her full attention to Kyla and then--with dark desire burning in her eyes, to Cage. She was the anomaly... though Guardian hesitated, now, to call her a rogue. There was something that didn't sit right with that definition.

Cage quivered as the woman slunk up to him, tremendously aware of how vulnerable she made him feel. She was 'mistress Aleka', as the girls of the house called her, and she was, in a way, the reason that he wasn't still trapped by the Matrix. He knew her, though he had told himself for over a year that she didn't really exist. But she was here, now, and she looked very real.

Her full lips turned up in a razor-sharp grin as she closed the distance between them. "Mm, so this is where you've been hiding," she said, her voice low. Cage would have scrabbled away, but he felt frozen in place... and then she was standing up against him, her hand tracing the line of jaw, her other arm encircling his waist. "My little Kyle-boy," she murmured, her smiled turning devious. Her hand moved around his neck, then to the base of his skull, and she pulled him gently towards her. Trying to try to resist, Cage felt consumed by her kiss--when she eventually pulled away from him, he was left standing dumbly, his thoughts muddied and unable to form coherently. A small part of him screamed in terror, far in the recesses of his mind, but he couldn't do anything about it. Aleka was still holding him... too close, but not close enough.

Guardian's clothing and flesh gave way to metal and white-silver alloys as he decided on how to act. Obviously Cage was under some kind of compulsion, though how, he could only guess. Things were going on that he didn't understand, but now was not the time to ask questions.

He vaulted into the room, tentacles swaying as he snatched at the program's arm with one clamp, and plucked the human by back of his shirt and seat of his pants with two others. He'd sling Cage over his shoulder in a fireman's hold and be out into the street in a few seconds. Vanar was already plugging himself in to pick them up.

The tentacle that he'd used to move Aleka's arm was met by a surprising resistance. The woman was grasping at Guardian's tentacle with her other arm, her body pressed against the human's and feet dug into the carpet for extra support. "How quaint," she said, her eyes lidded as she slowly pulled Guardian's limb from her own. "I'd always wanted to meet one of your kind. Quite the set of tentacles you have!" She snickered, taking the appendage in both hands, drawing him closer.

Perplexed, Guardian used two more tentacles to pry her hands off of him. This was not going according to plan. He had underestimated her strength, or maybe her stubbornness, for it took more effort then he'd expected to free his limb, and the program didn't seem in the least worried about the clamps that were digging into her arms. "Tsk," she said, trying to pout around her smile, "don't like being the subservient one, hmm?" She allowed him to hold her arms away from her body, but in doing so, looked completely tasteless. "However you want, then," she added, and winked.

Guardian processed all of this, and quite suddenly was certain that he felt embarrassed. It was an alien sensation... he didn't usually deal with these kinds of situations, and so, had never had access to this particular emotion. He didn't know how to react to it, and so he panicked. He threw a yielding Cage over his shoulders and dropped Aleka's arms, then retreated rather quickly to the window.

The program rubbed her arms with her wrists, then followed after him. "Leaving so soon?" She asked, watching Guardian hurriedly duck through the window. "Hey!" She called, leaning out the window whilst the machine leapt to the ground, "you've got my Kyle-boy! Make sure you bring him back in one piece!" The machine and human were met by another man, and the trio suddenly disappeared.

Aleka sighed, then hauled herself back into the room. She turned to Kyla, who'd been watching the whole thing from the doorway, unmoving except to shut the wooden panels. "They go so fast," she complained, then gestured with a finger for the younger woman to approach. "...at least you won't run off on me, will you, Kyla dear?"

"No, mistress," the human replied, her voice low and dreamlike.

"Gooood," Aleka purred, bringing Kyla's head to rest against her breast. She'd come here earlier then was expected, foregoing stops along her usual, secret route, deeming to check the rest of her collection later. The girl was one of her most promising possessions, and the program had been aware from the beginning of when Kyla had become unstable. She was not willing to let this one go, not like her other prize... Stroking Kyla's hair, Aleka led her back to the human's bed. She could decide how to deal with this situation later... for now she was determined to keep the girl distracted enough that even thinking of freedom would be impossible.