Disclaimer: All jokes made at the expense of tall female characters come from a place of love, as I myself am a Tall Female Character (wait that's not right-)

"Are you not happy?"

Hana lifted her head from the armrest of the cold, smooth hard light chair. "What makes you think that."

"You seem…somber."

Their exchange resonated through the massive room, bouncing off the high ceiling and the smooth floors, both an identical shade of ice blue. The entire 'house' Satya had constructed was like that, and felt more like a crystal castle now than a cozy little home in the outback. And it was only growing bigger, and further removed from the outdoors, with each passing day. Satya toiled at it like it was her only purpose. Each day she added another hallway or chamber. The place was starting to feel more like an anthill than a house.

Hana glanced out one of the high, arched windows of the room. Satya's designs for the rooms had started out smooth and flawlessly symmetrical, but as time wore on they'd devolved into jagged and almost cavernous layouts. "Just miss going outside, I guess."

Satya pursed her lips and stared at her for a long moment. Then she broke out into a grin, exposing two rows of pearl-white teeth that seemed a lot pointier than Hana remembered. "Oh, Hana, why in the world would you want that? You know it isn't safe out there. And I have a promise to Ana to uphold, to protect you from any harm." She strode over to Hana and picked up the plate on the table before her. "You've barely eaten."

"I just ate this morning. I'm not hungry yet."

"You must eat. You are scrawny enough already." She picked up the spoonful of stale, dry cereal Boss had acquired in a trade in Junkertown. Hana turned away, keeping her mouth closed as Satya tried to force it on her. "Why must you be so difficult about this?"

"Because I–guh!" Satya shoved the spoon into her mouth. With her other hand she moved Hana's jaw from side to side.

"Chew and swallow."

Rolling her eyes, Hana swallowed, then stuck out her tongue to prove that the food was gone.

"Good. You will thank me for taking care of you like this when you are not dying out in the desert."

Without responding, Hana got up from her seat and walked away. "Hana?" Satya called after her. "Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna go hang out with Boss."

Satya watched her walk away, the spoon dissolving in her hand.

The long hallways of their bizarre desert castle threw the sound of her footsteps back at her as Hana sought Boss out. The place had so many rooms – there was absolutely no need for the vast majority of them. Yet Satya kept compulsively building them, almost as if she couldn't resist colonizing the outback in her own way.

"Vanessa?" Hana called, peeking into the various chambers as she passed them by. "Ness?"

Hana? Boss called from somewhere down the hall. Are you alone?

"Yes?"

Boss appeared in the hallway. "Hey!" She lingered suspiciously close to the doorway she had stepped out of. Hana had known her long enough to read the look in her eyes. She was up to something.

Hana approached her with a raised eyebrow. "Hey…?"

A scratching noise on the smooth floor drew her attention to the doorway. Suddenly a massive red and brown lizard shuffled out of the room, flicking its forked tongue as it studied Hana with beady reptilian eyes. Hana stared back at it. "That's a lizard."

"It's a monitor lizard." Boss was smiling, implying that the presence of a giant lizard in her room was actually intentional and not an Australian freak accident. "It started following me while I was out scouting. I think it thought I was dying, maybe because I smell like death or something, and it was gonna eat me once I keeled over. Then I fed it one of the crickets I caught, and now it thinks I'm a food dispenser. Either way it seems like it's sticking around."

"You do realize Satya's not gonna go for you keeping a giant lizard in the house, right?"

"I'll just keep it around for a little while. If she finds out I'll let it go." She knelt down to the monitor and grinned at it. "You're a cute little guy, aren't you? Yeah, you are…"

Hana couldn't help but smile a little at Boss' antics. She bumped her hip into her on the way by, garnering Boss' attention. Boss immediately hopped to her feet, grabbed Hana around the waist, and planted a kiss on her lips.

"Whoa, hey!" Hana pushed her away. "Not in front of the lizard."

Boss burst out laughing. She waved her arms at the monitor. "Get out! You're cockblocking me!"

The monitor instead camped itself out in the corner of her room, where a flood of sunlight filtered through one of the large windows. Hana did her best to ignore it as Boss pulled her down into her bed. Hana assumed her usual position of sitting practically on top of Boss, with one leg on either side of Boss' waist, a position the other girl seemed to love. They linked hands, and Hana leaned down to give her another smooch.

"So how were things while I was gone?" Boss asked.

"Boring, as usual. Satya tried to force-feed me, so I guess that was something new."

"Man, and I thought Ana didn't always have the greatest maternal instincts." Boss wrapped her arms around Hana and pulled her down in for another, longer kiss. Hana tried to get into it, but her thoughts on the discussion at hand were distracting her. That and the freaking lizard staring at her didn't exactly help to set the mood.

She broke their kiss a bit prematurely. "I'm starting to wonder if it was a good idea to keep someone around who was raised by the company that wanted to keep me as a slave."

"Yeah, but I don't think Satya wants to turn you into a slave. I think she's genuinely terrified of losing you and doesn't know how to act on it the right way." Boss reached up and stroked her cheek with the back of her hand. "Some people are just like that."

Deep down Hana knew that was probably the truth. Satya had said herself that she had no idea how to uphold a friendship. Still, though…

Boss brought Hana's hands to her mouth and kissed the backs of both of them. "Maybe at some point you can sit down with her and really just talk it out. Let her know you appreciate that she's trying to protect you, but that it's making you really unhappy. She might not listen, but it's worth a try."

Hana stared at her for a few seconds. "Why should I take advice from a girl who likes it when I sit on her?"

"Hey, I can be a bottom and still dispense valuable advice!"

Hana silenced her with a kiss. She felt Boss smile against her lips as she pulled Hana down onto her chest. She was just beginning to tune out her own thoughts and get into the mood – then she heard a telltale clicking of heels just outside the door. Sure enough, a few seconds later a voice followed. "Hana? Where are you?"

Boss had already started to hike up the crop top Hana had made out of the remains of her Vishkar bodysuit. Upon hearing Satya's voice they rushed to separate from each other. Boss tossed her blanket over the monitor lizard still lounging in the room's corner. By the time Satya entered the room Hana and Boss were sitting cross-legged opposite one another on the bed, making pretend small talk.

"Hello, Hana." Satya was kneading her hands into the fabric of her dingy dress. Her eyes searched the floor rather than the faces of either girl.

"Hi." Hana angled herself a bit toward her, but not completely. Boss was mostly focused on the slightly-shifting blanket in the corner of the room.

"May I speak to you? Or are you busy?"

Hana shrugged.

Satya cleared her throat and took a few steps toward her. "I realize you are unhappy with this arrangement. I am trying to protect you, but keeping you locked away from the world is not good for your physical or mental health. I know this."

Hana shrugged again.

"I am very new at this, Hana. I have never been in a position of actively caring for a dependent life." Satya finally met her stare. "But I have meditated on it, and I think I have finally arrived at a satisfactory compromise."

That drew Hana's attention a little more. "What kind of compromise?"

"Come with me."

Hana glanced over at Boss, who waved her on. She got off the bed and followed Satya out the door. Satya strode onward with great purpose. Whatever she was planning on proposing to Hana, she must have been pretty satisfied with it.

They rounded a corner, into a newer part of the 'house' that Hana had yet to spend much time in. Satya led her to a jagged doorway that more closely resembled the mouth of a cave. There she paused, and instead merely gestured for Hana to go in ahead of her.

"What? What's in h–oh my God!"

There, in all its wretched Junker glory, sat her mech. Its twisted leg was unbent and appeared fully operational. It even looked like someone had polished it. "My mech! I thought it got lost at Vishkar!"

"It did." Satya stood beside her, wearing a tiny smile. "I retrieved it."

"You went back to Vishkar?"

"I needed some supplies. Nothing they won't miss."

"I…can't believe this. I thought it was gone forever." After all she had been through with it the old power loader very nearly felt like a friend. It had been her shelter in the early days, her defense at the prison, and her means of transportation virtually everywhere.

The moment she climbed back into it she felt instantly reconnected with her pre-Vishkar self. They tried so hard to take away who I am. But that part of me, it's all still here.

She ran her hands over the control panel. "Thank you, Satya. You have no idea how much this means to me."

"It still functions, correct?"

Hana started it up. It growled to life, smog chugging from its exhaust pipes. She carefully navigated it across the room. It moved without hesitation. "Yeah, it's perfect!"

"Good. You will need it when you accompany Vanessa on her next run into Junkertown."

Hana's head snapped up. "Wait, what? You want me to go with her?"

"That was my compromise, actually. I will give you my blessing to leave this place as long as you do so in your mech. And, er, preferably never by yourself."

Hana punched the air with one of the mech's arms. It still had all its destructive force behind it, easily enough to defend herself against some ragtag Junkers if need be. "All right. That's fair."

Satya laid a hand on the metal of the mech. "But…you will be careful, won't you?"

"Definitely."

"All right. I trust you." She folded her arms and shifted her gaze outside the room. "Some time apart will probably be better for us, anyway."

Hana did not vocally agree, though on the inside she certainly did. Spending months cooped up with the same person could drive you to the point of wanting to smack them over the most trivial issues. She was more than ready to put some temporary space between the two of them.

Hana opened the back hatch and leaned out. The license plate Roadhog had made for her was still welded to the truck bumper on the back of the mech, and even though Satya had apparently made an attempt to clean it, soot from Junkrat's explosives still permeated the crevices of the metal. With a sigh she reached out and touched the rusty metal. "Roadhog made me this license plate. And all this soot is from Junkrat's stupid homemade bombs."

They hadn't heard from either of them since the day Hana had watched them walk away. After one recent trip into Junkertown Boss had brought back with her a rumor that the pair had been spotted on international news, apparently for some big-time robberies in a few different European countries. The accounts from the Junkers were conflicting, though, so Hana had no idea what to truly believe.

At Satya's lack of response Hana reached over and ran a hand over one of the softly-glowing boosters. "Boss made these for me. At least she's still here."

"Did you ever notice the defense matrix?" Satya said then. "I installed that."

"So that was you? Why?"

"I thought perhaps the technology could be useful to Vishkar."

"Was it?"

"They had no interest."

"Psh. Their loss." Hana extended the defense matrix in front of her. She should have known it was Satya's handiwork. It was flawless.

After testing it out, Hana then steered the mech over to the doorway. "I wonder if Boss would want to go back now. I know she was just there, but…"

Satya did not answer. She let Hana walk away, allowing her a good deal of space before following after her.

Being out in the sunshine again was infinitely refreshing. Hana spent a long while just sitting the mech cross-legged in the sand, turning her face to the sun. The arms of the mech were clasped together in front, with Boss draped across them.

"Hey," Hana said at one point, "Nessa?"

"Hm?" Boss sat up a little.

"I'm glad you're here with me."

That brought a smile to the other girl's face. "I'm glad to be here."

"Bet you never thought your last Junker recruit would turn out to be your most loyal one, huh?"

"Or that that sweet, baby-faced new recruit would end up being the toughest person I've ever met."

Hana flushed a bit. That seemed to have been Boss' intended reaction, for her smile evolved into a grin and she leaned back on the arm of the mech with her hands behind her head.

In a burst of spontaneity Hana jerked the mech's arm. The sudden movement sent Boss flying into the sand a few meters away. Sputtering, she brushed the dirt off herself and lobbed a fistful of it at Hana. Hana blocked it with the defense matrix.

"Oh look at you, Miss Big Fancy Mech Pilot." Boss leaned against the leg of the mech. "But, uh…why're you hitting yourself?"

"Huh?"

Boss disappeared. A moment later the mech started bopping itself on the 'head' with one arm. Hana exhaled, trying to look annoyed as the mech drummed on itself. Her façade was broken when the mech started "dancing" – or more like stomping in a circle while wildly swinging its arms around. Hana plopped her forehead down on the dashboard, trying to conceal her smirk, and let Boss continue to screw around with the mech. It hopped through the sand like some kind of massive metal rabbit, forcing Hana to hold on with all her might to avoid falling out. "You are such a nerd," she yelled through her poorly-contained laughter.

Finally the mech settled down, and Boss appeared in front of it, still wearing that cocky smile.

"All right," Hana sighed, "that was funny."

"Don't throw me into the sand again, bitch. I'll do worse next time."

"Oh, so tough." Hana leaned the mech down to her level, as condescending as possible. "Pretty hard to be intimidated by someone who's kissed my butt, literally."

Boss kicked the leg of the mech. "You said we wouldn't speak of that."

With a giggle, Hana scooped Boss back up and brought her close to the cockpit. "Okay, fine. Let's just go to Junkertown, then."

"You gonna tell everyone there about our sexual exploits?"

"Just a few people, probably."

"Just a few? Damn, girl, I want everyone to know I'm fucking Hana Song. I'll shout it across the whole outback."

"And I'll throw you across it." Hana started the mech up, holding Boss high in the air to prove a point. Boss squirmed with laughter. "C'mon you big dork, we're going to Junkertown."

What was now called Junkertown was vastly different from the relatively organized old prison-dwelling community Boss had tried to establish. It was more like an actual town now, though a garishly dystopian one – abandoned buildings taken over and rebuilt with shoddy plywood and scrap metal, the streets little more than sand with handmade signs stuck into it, everything covered in graffiti and various painted warnings to outsiders. Some of the Junkers seemed to prefer open-air dwellings to the crumbling buildings, or perhaps simply weren't allotted that luxury. Tarps propped up on rusty poles popped up occasionally on the side of the pseudo-roads, almost always with a Junker watching them from within, a weapon in hand, ready to defend the dingy scraps they had amassed in their sad little dwelling. Boss passed them with nary a glance. Hana followed her lead, trying to ignore them.

"Don't the Junkers hate you?" she'd thought to ask at one point. "At least the ones from the prison?"

"I guess they're over it. Or maybe they don't remember me. I don't know. I've seen some familiar faces around here, and they always act like they've never interacted with me before."

"I guess as long as you have stuff to offer…" Satya's hard light goods were extremely popular in the crime town, Boss had said back when she'd first started trading with them again. The Junkers either didn't know or didn't care how fragile the items were. The fact that Satya could make nearly anything gave their little trio a huge advantage when trading for more mundane but necessary items like food and water. It was definitely the reason they were able to thrive out in the desert, away from the rest of humanity.

The mech attracted attention. Hana paused at a sound behind her. The sand obscured footsteps, but she could definitely hear something. Boss was on it in a second. Drawing her machete from its loop on her waist, she darted around behind Hana. Hana clumsily turned the mech in time to see two Junkers backing away from them. Hana recognized one of them – it was the animal-skull-wearing Junker that had once guarded the prison. Their skull was filthy, as was the rest of them – they really looked worse for the wear. They had also seemingly undergone more mutations. Their nails had blackened and grown out to full-length claws, and the excess hair on their body had all but consumed them. They more closely resembled a cheap horror movie werewolf than a human being now.

"Stay away from us." Boss jabbed the machete toward them. The Junkers backed down. As they moved Hana noticed the skull-wearing Junker had to adjust the skull to prevent it from slipping – their neck was pathetically scrawny now, and under the fur it appeared their body was just as skeletal. The other Junker didn't look much better. He was covered in scars and had a glassed-over eye. He looked far too old to be out in this mess.

"They look like they're starving," Hana whispered as she stepped in close to Boss.

"Yeah, everyone's starving out here. Starving for whatever they can get out of you."

The sack in the cockpit of the mech, full of items they'd brought in the event of finding a friendly face to trade with, had a bit of food in it. Off the top of Hana's head she knew they had a bag of matthi – some sort of spiced Indian crackers Satya had apparently procured while she was borrowing supplies from her questionably-still-so employer. They also had some crickets, and the sinewy meat of a rabbit that Hana and Satya couldn't quite chew through.

Before Boss could stop her Hana reached in the bag, pulled out a handful of crickets, and leaned out of the mech to offer them to the other Junkers. The look on Boss' face nearly stopped her, but she went through with the offer anyway.

The animalistic Junker scampered over to her. They looked down at her hand, and then up at her face, clearly hesitant.

"Take it," Hana said. "It's a – a gesture of good will."

That was all the encouragement the Junker needed. They grabbed the bugs out of Hana's hand and dropped half into the palm of the older man. He stuffed them in his mouth and devoured them in one go. The skull-wearing Junker, however, hunkered down a few meters away. Facing away from the others, they removed their skull to eat. A cascade of strawberry blonde hair fell past their shoulders. They devoured the crickets just as rapidly as the man they were with. Then they sat on their haunches, licking the claws of their fingers.

Boss was still staring at Hana, but she did not say anything.

As soon as they had devoured their offering, the two Junkers started to approach Hana again. For the first time, Hana saw the face of the skull-wearing Junker – it was a girl, and a young-looking one at that. She couldn't have been any older than eleven or twelve. Her mouth was full of fangs far larger and more animalistic than Hana's had ever been, to the point where they were clearly malforming her jaw. But it was her flesh that was the most horrific in appearance. The majority of the skin of her face was simply missing, as if it had been torn, or melted, right off her skull. Her nose was little more than exposed cartilage, and there were holes in her cheeks that led right to the inside of her mouth.

Boss' expression changed upon seeing the Junker's face. She still held her weapon out, but it was with a much less aggressive stance.

"You've been through a lot," Hana murmured, "haven't you?"

The girl opened her mouth, but instead of words, all that emerged was a weak, airy hiss, like escaping steam. The man simply grunted, apparently not much for talking, either.

"We don't all have to be assholes here." Hana avoided looking at anyone in particular when making her statement. "Just because we're Junkers doesn't mean we have to be cold-hearted criminals all the time."

The young girl Junker looked her up and down, an unreadable look in her eyes. Then she dashed off through the sand, into one of the tarp-huts a stretch away from them. The man followed her.

Hana's eyes slid briefly over to meet Boss'. Quickly looking away again, she said, "I couldn't help it. They were starving."

Boss nodded. "I know. That's who you are."

The girl returned a moment later with something in hand. She held it out to Hana.

It took Hana only a moment to recognize it. "This is…Ana's mask." With cautious hands she reached out and accepted the weathered gas mask. "This is what Ana was wearing the first time I met her. When she was just 'The Wastelander'." Back when the prison fell Ana had mentioned it disappearing from her cell. This must have been the Junker who took it. Looking at the girl's face, Hana could see why she would want to keep it covered.

"I didn't have anything left of her." Hana tucked the mask carefully into her bag. "Thank you. This means more than you know."

It didn't take long for the girl to have her precious animal skull back on, and as soon as she did she scurried off. The man followed after her. Once they were some distance away he said something to the girl. Hana could only pick up the words "be more careful" and "strangers". I wonder if he's looking out for her like Ana did for me.

After traveling a few more minutes, Hana couldn't resist looking the mask over again. She paused the mech, drawing Boss' attention. "Hm?"

Hana affixed the mask to her own face. It smelled like dirt, probably because it was lying in it for who knew how long. The lenses over the eyes were tinted, reducing some of the sun's intensity on her dry eyes, and preventing bits of flying sand from scraping them. Huh. No wonder Ana wore it everywhere.

It didn't seem to filter out all of the sand and dust in the air, but Hana had to assume the filters hadn't been changed in ages.

"Uh, okay." Boss rubbed her chin. "It does hide your baby face. Maybe around here that'd be a good thing."

They wandered the sandy wastes for a long while after that without coming across a single other Junker. "Where is everyone?" Boss eventually said. "Usually there are Junkers scattered all over the place…"

Something exploded in the distance. A flurry of sand kicked up like a tornado from whatever had just happened, raining down and then calming again. "Huh, must be someone over there at least." Boss climbed up onto the mech. "Wanna check that out?"

Hana steered the mech toward the noise. It was an odd-sounding explosion, not really like a bomb. It almost sounded more like something heavy had made impact with the ground.

A Junker in nothing but shorts and a backpack appeared on the horizon. He was running towards them – away from the odd explosion. "Hey, what's going on?" Boss tried to ask him, but he did not stop to answer them.

"Maybe we shouldn't be heading that way after all," Hana mumbled through the mask.

"Yeah, maybe not."

They hadn't even managed to turn around when something sprang up into the air, propelled by a stream of jet smoke. "Oh shit!" Boss ducked behind the nearest boulder, then gestured for Hana to join her. Hana crouched the mech down beside Boss, but it was poorly hidden behind the comparatively small rock.

The thing – human? Omnic? Something else entirely? – landed not far from them, kicking up the same burst of sand that they'd seen a few minutes before. This time when the dust settled Hana was able to get a decent look at it. A tall, menacing figure in a shining blue suit of armor with jagged, pointed metal wings loomed over the wreckage of Junkertown's center. Its upper face was obscured by a helmet's protruding golden visor, one that conjured an almost bird-like image. The lower half of its face appeared human, not omnic.

"I know someone here has answers." The voice of the armored figure was husky but distinctly feminine, with an accent that was not Australian, yet sounded somewhat familiar to Hana's ears. "I am not leaving until I get them."

Hana slipped out of the mech to duck as low as possible to the ground. Boss laid her body over hers, covering her as best she could. Hana hoped the other girl couldn't feel her trembling. Oh God, please don't be someone from Vishkar.

The figure stomped through the sand with heavy footfalls, wielding some sort of heavy-duty-looking weapon. The helmet obscured their eyes, but Hana could see them scanning the landscape. When they turned in the direction of Hana and Boss their disposition changed. They swooped over and landed in a torrent of thrown sand right beside them.

"You there," she all but shouted at them, maintaining a rigid, unwavering posture as she stood over them, "What do you know about a woman named Ana?"

The question caught Hana off-guard. Ana? Why does she want to know about Ana? Unless– She reached up and involuntarily touched the mask on her face. Oh no. This lady must think I robbed Ana and took her stuff.

She pulled the mask off and tried to think of something to say. Before she could think of an explanation the woman seized her by her jacket collar and pulled her clean off the ground. "Answer me!"

Boss grabbed Hana by her hips and yanked her out of the stranger's grip. "Who's asking?" she hissed.

The woman stared at them, her expression unreadable through her visor. Then she reached up and pulled the helmet off, tossing her hair and, in the process, fully exposing her face to them.

Hana gasped. "You're…Fareeha."

"Whoa, what?" Boss stared up at the woman in disbelief. "Ana's daugher?"

She bore a tattoo similar to Ana's, but Hana wouldn't have needed that to know this woman was Ana's daughter. They shared an uncanny resemblance in the face, especially in the eyes – Ana may have only had one, but it was always alight with emotion, even when her outward demeanor seemed apathetic. Fareeha was apparently the exact same way. Despite her confrontational posture, from her eyes Hana read not aggression or malice, but desperation. Anger. Maybe a little hurt.

"So you're familiar with my mother," she said. Even her tone was like Ana's, leading the listener to give her the information she desired while carefully refraining from revealing too much of her own hand.

"We know her," Hana replied. "She was with us up until just a couple months ago, when she told me she was heading back to Egypt to find you."

The woman clenched a fist. Her teeth were exposed in a snarl, but it was not directed at Hana or Boss. "So it's really true. All this time she was lying to me."

"She never went back to you?" Hana frowned. "She said she was going to…"

Fareeha reached into a small pouch strapped to her waist and produced a fistful of yellowed papers. "I've been getting these weird letters from someone claiming to be her. In one of them she mentioned the Junkers. I had to figure out what and where you guys even were – it was my only lead. And now you're telling me my mother really was here, that she really is still alive, but now she's disappeared again and I have no idea where she is." She crushed the papers in her armored fist. "Ugh, why is she always like this?!"

Unsure how to respond, Hana and Boss both stared at her for a while. Eventually Boss said, "So is your Dad, like, super tall, or…?"

Fareeha cut her off with a sharp exhalation, as though she'd heard the question a billion times before. Hana shook her head curtly at Boss. Boss shrugged.

"I'm sorry Ana didn't show up in person to tell you about herself," Hana said. "If it makes you feel any better, the night before she left she spent the whole night telling me about you. She's really proud of you."

"She doesn't even know me." Fareeha crossed her arms. "If she cared about me at all she wouldn't have screwed off and let me think she was dead for five years."

"That's, uh–" Boss cleared her throat, garnering the attention of the two other women. "I mean, that's not necessarily true. My parents think I'm dead, and it's not because I don't care about them. I just…don't know how to go back to that life after everything I've been through out here. I feel like letting them think I'm dead might be for the best."

"That's different. You're the kid. It'd be a whole different story if your parents faked their own deaths and left you, their child, all alone."

"I guess you have a point."

"Ana told me she didn't know what to say to you after all these years. I walked in the night before she left and found her crying over a picture of you." Hana held Ana's mask in her filthy gloved hands, running her fingers idly over its scratched surface. "She loves you so much." Her eyes narrowed a bit as she stared down at it. "I mean, you are her real daughter."

Boss must have picked up on her tone. Out of the corner of her eye Hana caught the other girl looking over at her with a slight frown.

Fareeha apparently didn't miss it, either. With a huff she said, "Oh you can have her, Junker. I'm done with her games." She cracked her back and glanced up into the hazy sky. "Ugh, can't believe I actually thought she might be where she said she was for once in my life. I wasted all this time and fuel flying out to an radioactive explosion zone just to get told she isn't even–"

"Rwaurgh!"

With a heavy clang something struck Fareeha in the back of the head, knocking her down into the dirt. Her collapse revealed Satya behind her, panting. In her hands she wielded what looked like some sort of beat-up oxygen tank from God knew where.

"Oh my God!" Hana covered her mouth with one hand. "You knocked out Ana's daughter!"

"Ana's daughter?" Satya dropped the makeshift weapon to the sand at her feet. "I thought she was brutalizing you! I saw her grab you and shake you!"

Boss knelt down beside Fareeha. The woman was sprawled out in the sand, unresponsive. With two fingers Boss searched for a pulse in her neck. "She's alive, but yeah, she's out cold."

"Why are you even here, Satya?" Hana tried not to snap at her, but largely failed. "I thought you were guarding our house!"

"I know, I–" She wrung the fabric of her dress. "I just couldn't let you go without checking on you. I teleported here just to keep an eye on you from afar. I wasn't going to intervene, but then I saw this woman seize you, and I…"

"You decided to knock her out with a gas tank," Boss finished. "Totally understandable."

"…I am sorry, girls. I should have trusted you." Satya knelt beside Boss and looked Fareeha over. "I suppose we should bring her home with us until she is well again?"

"Who's gonna carry her?"

A few minutes later Hana had the woman tied to the back of the mech with ropes and the winch from the truck bumper. Fareeha's large size combined with the weight of her armor slowed the mech down considerably. "Jeez," Hana mumbled as she pushed the control sticks as far forward as they would go, "how did Ana pop out such a huge freaking kid anyways? She was only a little bit taller than me…"

Satya was eyeing Fareeha as they walked. "Nice symmetrical features," she murmured to herself at one point, "ugh, except for that tattoo."

"Yeah, she's surprisingly, uh…" Boss cleared her throat. "In the presence of my girlfriend I'm not at liberty to finish that sentence."

Hana rolled her eyes, a little smile crossing her lips. Boss just loved using that term. They'd never even technically made their affair an official thing, but one day Boss used the g-word while talking to Satya, and then it started slipping more and more into their conversations. It was fitting for what they had, she supposed, although sometimes they felt more like an old married couple than anything else.

It took them forever just to reach the teleporter Satya had constructed for herself. "How long were you following us, anyway?" Hana asked. Satya shrugged meekly, her silence quite telling.

Hana managed to squeeze the mech through the teleporter without losing Fareeha in the process. Boss emerged just behind her, and then Satya closed the path up behind them. They found themselves in Satya's chambers. After dismounting her from the mech, Hana lay Fareeha down on Satya's massive bed. The three of them gathered around and stared down at her.

"So…" Boss said, "what now?"

"I suppose we should simply let her rest here until she awakens…"

Something dripped off the bedsheet, leaving a tiny, pale blue splotch on the spotless floor. Making a face, Hana opened her mouth to say something about it, but stopped short when she saw Boss and Satya staring at a trail of splotches leading back to where the teleporter had been.

Carefully, Hana rolled Fareeha onto her side. "Oh."

A crack across the surface of one of her wings oozed with the translucent liquid. It had a strong smell to it, like…fuel. "Oh no."

"What's that?" Boss leaned in beside Hana. She must have picked up on the scent as well, because she quickly answered her own question. "Is that, like…the fuel she mentioned?"

"The fuel she mentioned not having a lot of after wasting it all traveling here."

Satya remained quiet. Hana struggled to sit Fareeha up enough to try to gauge just how empty her fuel tanks were. No more fuel dripped out. "Hm. There's nothing else coming out."

"Great." Boss ran a hand through her hair and exhaled. "Where are we gonna get jet fuel or whatever out here in the freaking boonies?"

"Ungh."

Hana and Boss both jumped back as Fareeha's hand settled on her forehead. She slowly pulled her eyelids apart, groaning low in her throat as she did so.

Hana attempted a nervous smile at her. "Oh, hey…feeling better?"

She sat the rest of the way up and looked around, blinking several times. "Where the hell am I?" Her tone took on a note of panic. "What did you do to me?" She immediately reached for her weapon, but Hana and Boss stood in front of it.

"Our friend Satya thought you were threatening us," Boss explained, her tone far too casual for the look on Fareeha's face. "So she, uh, knocked you unconscious."

"My...apologies." Satya nodded at her. "Although I am not sorry for defending my charges. I am under strict orders to ensure the safety of these girls – your mother's orders, actually."

Fareeha snatched up her helmet and put it back on. "Whatever. I got what I came here for, which was basically nothing. I'm taking off." She got up off the bed, spurring another few droplets of fuel to drip out onto the floor. That gave her pause. "What's this?"

"Oh, um…" Hana looked to Boss. Boss shrugged.

"Oh my God." Fareeha straightened up. "This is my jet fuel!"

"Oh, is it?" Boss' acting could not have been worse. Hana dragged a hand down the side of her face.

"You sabotaged my fuel tank!" Suddenly Fareeha rushed at Satya, pinning her against the far wall of the room.

"I most certainly did not!" Satya pushed her off. Either she was a lot stronger than Hana realized or Fareeha wasn't really putting her full strength into it, because she stumbled backward at Satya's push. "How dare you accuse me of such a thing!"

To Hana's surprise, Fareeha's scowl eased just a little. "…Sorry," she said, lifting the visor on her mask so her eyes were visible. "If the roles were reversed I guess I would have attacked you, too." She exhaled sharply as she turned away.

Satya brushed the dust off her dress and huffed.

"So I don't know where we'd be able to find jet fuel around here." Boss stepped between them, subtly breaking up any potential escalation of the situation. "It takes Satya a while to build up enough energy to craft a teleporter and she just used one, so we can't just–"

"Teleporter?" Fareeha interrupted. "I thought the Junkers were just a glorified biker gang."

"No, we're survivors. And Satya's got all sorts of cool talents."

Fareeha looked Satya up and down. Satya wrung her hands and stood as tall as she could. "If you've got all these talents, why are you living out in this hellhole?"

Satya folded her arms, somehow managing to look down her nose at Fareeha despite the other woman's significant height advantage. "It has its charms."

"Is that why my mother decided to run away here?"

Satya shrugged dismissively.

"Maybe someone in Junkertown would know where we can get jet fuel," Hana piped up. "I mean, it's kind of a long shot, but…"

"The omnium probably has all sorts of fuel and stuff," Boss added. "Maybe not jet fuel, but probably something that could–"

"Or she could remain here until I can construct another teleporter." Satya didn't even let Boss finish. It was like she was just waiting to voice her suggestion.

Fareeha sat back down on the bed, her elbows on her knees. "How long will that take?"

"Oh, she can usually built them pretty quick," Hana said, "maybe like a day or–"

"A week," Satya said.

Hana raised an eyebrow. "A week?"

"Perhaps two weeks."

Hana glanced over at Boss. Boss returned her look. Neither of them said anything – partly because Hana, at least, had no idea what to say. Her teleporters didn't take that long to make. What the heck was she up to?

"Two weeks?" Fareeha took her helmet back off to massage her temples. "I can't miss that much work! Is there any kind of transportation that comes through here? Or where's the nearest airport?"

"There's no transportation around here," Boss said. "We're in the middle of the desert."

"Well then I'm going to call for help." She produced a cell phone from the same small pouch that had held Ana's letters. "Someone from my squad will be willing to come get me, or…"

Neither Hana nor Boss needed to ask why she trailed off. The rural outback, especially in the wake of the nuclear explosion clearing every last sane person out of the area, was a complete dead zone for both wi-fi and phone service.

Fareeha tossed the phone onto the bed. "Okay, well, someone will come looking for me. It won't take two weeks."

"Yeah, uh," Hana nudged Satya, "can we maybe talk to you for a second? Privately?"

Satya looked over at Fareeha. The other woman was staring down at the floor, ignoring them. "Um, all right."

She, Hana, and Boss all stepped out of the room. Hana quietly closed the door behind them.

"Two weeks?" Boss folded her arms. "Since when?"

Satya did not make eye contact with either of them. "…What do you mean?"

Hana pursed her lips. "Satya, no offense, but you're really, really bad at being sneaky."

"Sneaky? I am not being sneaky!"

Hana folded her arms alongside Boss. The two of them stared at her with bemused expressions. Satya tugged at the neckline of her dress.

"You know you can just be honest with us, right?" Boss said. "We're not gonna judge you for whatever you're trying to do."

Satya looked to Hana, seemingly for confirmation. Hana nodded. With lowered eyes she said, "…I grew excited at the possibility of having someone of my own age around to associate with." She ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it back and away from her face. "That's all."

"Did you purposely damage her fuel tank?" Hana asked.

"No, I swear I did not." Her eyes widened. "You must believe me, I lied about the teleporter but I would never intentionally sabotage an innocent person."

"Okay, I believe you."

Satya's hair fell back in front of her, shielding her from the two girls staring her down. "I acted impulsively. I am setting a terrible example for you girls." She continued to fidget a bit. "I was simply excited by the prospect of having a new friendly face around. I mean, not just because of her face…though it is nice…"

Hana tried to get a feel for what Boss was thinking about the subject. Before she could garner any information from her, however, Boss leaned back towards the door to Satya's bedroom. "So, it's really gonna take you two weeks to build that teleporter, huh?" She spoke loudly, easily loud enough to be heard through the door.

"What? No, I just wanted to buy some more time–"

Hana immediately caught on to Boss. "Wow, it could even take you three weeks? Or more?" She raised her voice as well. "Well I guess Fareeha will just have to stay with us until then. We can take care of her. And maybe you two will hit it off." She punctuated her statement with a wink.

Satya shook her head. "Girls, no, we cannot–"

The door opened. Fareeha loomed in the doorway, her gaze sweeping over each of the girls in turn. Satya froze, her hands quivering slightly as she clutched them together.

"Sorry Fareeha," Hana spoke up, "it's gonna take a while to build this teleporter. But in the meantime you're welcome to stay with us!"

"Satya's really nice by the way," Boss chimed in, "and cool. Just sayin'."

Fareeha was still studying Satya. Her dark eyes held no malice – rather they appeared to hold more intrigue than anything else. "I guess this was my own stupid fault for flying out here without any backup plan," she murmured. "When I got the letter from Mother I just acted without thinking."

"It shouldn't take that long," Satya cut in. "I can most likely have you back in a day or two, I swear."

"Wait, a day or two? I thought you said two weeks."

"I can do it faster than that."

"I see." Fareeha massaged the back of her neck. Then, with a tiny chuckle, she added, "This is going to sound weird, but I was almost warming up to the idea of a two-week vacation from work. And a chance to see where Mother was living all this time." She shrugged her broad shoulders. "Ah well."

Satya blinked. "Wait. You want to stay here?"

"No, no. It's fine." Fareeha waved her off. "I'll go back."

"You should stay a while!" Hana looked up at her with wide, pleading eyes. "We can tell you all about what happened to us and your mom over the past couple months."

"How about you stay for, like, a few days at least?" Boss asked. "We can catch you up on stuff. Then you can go back."

Fareeha eyed them for a moment. "How do I know you're not just gonna knock me out again?"

"Don't we look trustworthy?" Hana mustered her best innocent smile. Boss did the same.

"You look like you'd sell me out for a good shower."

Both girls couldn't help but laugh at that. Surprisingly, Fareeha cracked a smile as well. She's not half as intimidating as she looks.

"Come on." Hana gestured for Fareeha and the others to follow her. "Let's hang out in the living room for a while. I'll tell you everything there."

The living room of the house-castle was basically the only "homey" room in the whole place, and that was largely because it had real, actual furniture scavenged and traded for rather than solidified light shaped into chairs. Fareeha immediately took up residence on their torn-up couch, laying her feet on the far armrest so as to take up the entire length of it. Hana and Boss settled into the dingy loveseat they'd scavenged from an abandoned house. Satya dragged over a chair to join them. Hana thought about offering her a spot on the loveseat, but it was really only meant for two people. Satya did not complain, though. She took a seat beside them and continued studying Fareeha, who was visibly trying not to acknowledge that she was being stared at.

"So how did you come across my mother out here, anyway?" Fareeha eventually asked.

"Well, it's kind of a long story," Hana replied, looking to Boss. The other girl seemed content to let Hana tell the tale.

"I'm gonna be here for a few days at least. I have time for a long story." She sat up a little, her eyes alert and searching. "Besides, I want to know everything you know about her. It might give me a clue where she is now."

"Okay." Hana inhaled, stalling to think of a good beginning to her tale. "Well, when the omnium blew up I ended up all alone – my parents…" She trailed off, as Fareeha seemed to get what she meant without her having to say it outright. "Anyway, these two guys found me, and they showed me to where they were staying. It was an abandoned old prison building. My very first walk through it I came across this scary-looking person in a cloak with a gas mask on, cleaning a sniper rifle with a rag. They looked up at me, and I was terrified."

Fareeha simply listened, paying clear attention to every word Hana said. Satya was listening curiously as well. Hana had yet to fill her in on all the tiny details of her life before Vishkar. This was the first she was hearing of some of it.

Hana smiled wistfully as she recalled her first real encounter with Ana. "She seemed so intimidating, but then she was so nice to me. We went out for a supply run together, and she wouldn't talk to me at first, but she couldn't stay quiet when I called the Junkers my friends. She warned me to be careful around them. She told me I was too naïve to be hanging around people like them. And then she said, 'Hana, you are so much cooler than my real daughter.'"

"What?"

Hana grinned. "Just making sure you still were paying attention."

"Did she mention me at all?" Fareeha feigned a casual tone, but it was clear she was genuinely concerned about the answer.

"Oh yeah, all the time! She told me that you were in the military, and that you wanted to protect people like she did."

Fareeha turned to stare up at the high ceiling of the living room. "Did she…" Her voice was low, a murmur. "Did she sound like she was proud of me?"

Hana nodded enthusiastically. "The last night we spent together she told me you were brave and strong, just like she raised you to be. I guess she didn't really want you to follow in her footsteps, but even still, when she talked about you she couldn't have been any prouder." Hana swallowed the complicated ball of emotions that settled in her throat and chest. She's been without a mom longer than I have. Ana is her mother, not mine.

Fareeha remained quiet. Hana leaned over to try to get a look at her face, to gauge her reaction. Suddenly Fareeha sat up. She dragged the back of one hand across her eyes and jumped up off the couch, storming off. "Wait! Fareeha, where are you going?" Hana pursued her to the doorway of the living room, where Fareeha paused. "Are you okay?"

Fareeha's hands balled into fists. She did not turn around.

Uncertain how to proceed, Hana reached out and lightly touched the thick metal armor encasing Fareeha's body. That spurred Fareeha to turn around, and as soon as she did, Hana saw that her eyes were damp.

"I just…" Fareeha ground her teeth. "I thought she was dead! All these years…"

"I know. I'm sorry." Hana laid a gentle hand on her arm. "Do you want to hear the rest of the story? We went through a lot, and it's pretty interesting – or at least I think it is."

Fareeha sniffed, making a momentous effort to hide her tears despite it being pretty damn clear that Hana saw them. "All right. Tell me the rest of the story, Junker."

"It's Hana."

"Right, okay. Tell me the rest of the story, Hana."

Hana led her back to the couch. "All of the stuff at the prison was nothing compared to when we got kidnapped by an international megacorporation and transported to India..."

"What? You did?"

"Yeah, it was crazy! Me, Nessa, your mom, and the guys we were traveling with were trying to get a boat out of Australia, when all of a sudden this huge freaking army of people shows up with all these weapons and stuff…oh, but I didn't tell you about how the prison fell, which got us looking for a boat in the first place, sorta. So we were in the prison with all these nasty, scary criminal types…"

Fareeha listened intently as Hana wove her story semi-chronologically, like a very rough, winding river with several chunks missing due to memory damage. Boss filled in some of the missing spots, and when they came to talking about Vishkar Satya added in some information. They remained gathered there for hours recounting the tale, with Fareeha occasionally asking questions or making commentary. It didn't take long for Hana to realize that, although she was Ana's daughter, Fareeha was different in a lot of ways. Unlike her mother, who tended to be more elusive and reserved, she didn't shy away from making her opinions known. But like her mother she had a warmth to her eyes that grew only more evident as Hana relayed their entire story to her.

"My God," she uttered once Hana had summed up all that they had experienced, "you've been through a lot."

Hana shrugged. "Yeah."

"Knowing all that I really can't blame you for attacking me out there. I'd be attacking everything that moved, too."

"Well we are usually a bit more civilized than that," Satya replied. "That was an atypical situation."

Fareeha rubbed her head. "Well for someone who doesn't usually do things like that you've really got an arm. Uh, I mean–" Her eyes flicked to Satya's prosthetic arm, then away from it just as quickly. "I didn't mean–"

Satya chuckled. "I understand."

"I beat a guy up with that arm before," Hana couldn't resist adding in.

"Mhm, and I never could quite get that blood stain off." Satya examined her forearm. A few darkened splotches were still visible on its otherwise bright white surface.

"See, aren't you glad you stayed to talk to us?" Boss shrugged at Fareeha. "We're pretty interesting."

"Yeah, I guess you are." Fareeha crossed her arms and smirked. "But I was in the military, so I've got quite a few stories of my own."

Hana perked up a little. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

Fareeha started to say something, but cut herself off. Something in the distance, getting closer, was making a bizarre noise. Boss flew off the couch and took off running – but it was too late. Fareeha raised an eyebrow as she stared out into the hallway. "Is that a lizard?"

"What?" Satya got up to follow Boss, but Hana cut in front of her.

"Stay here, we'll be right back!" Hana slammed the living's room door behind her as she ran out.

With Hana and Boss gone, Satya and Fareeha were left in an awkward silence. Fareeha cleared her throat and tried to find something interesting to stare at. Satya crossed one leg over the other and examined her fingernails.

After it became apparent than the girls were not immediately returning, Fareeha made a small noise in her throat, attracting Satya's attention. "So, um…" She still managed to avoid looking directly at the other woman. "My mother told you to look after those two girls?"

Satya nodded.

"That's a pretty high compliment. She doesn't trust people very easily."

"I am not sure how much she trusts me, in all honesty. She all but threatened me into the arrangement."

At that Fareeha smiled a little. "Yeah, that sounds like her."

They both laughed. Then Satya said, "Well, for all her…oddities, she seems to have raised a pleasant enough daughter."

"Heh, uh, thanks." Fareeha sat up a little straighter, still looking around at anything but Satya. "You know, this place isn't too bad. Maybe I found a new vacation spot."

"Well, you are welcome here anytime."

The living room door flew open again. Boss and Hana slinked back into the room.

"What was going on out there?" Satya asked. "Is everything all right?"

"Oh, yeah." Boss waved her off. "Yeah. It was, uh, nothing."

"Did you get the giant lizard out?" Fareeha said.

"Lizard? There wasn't any lizard." Hana's reply came a bit too quickly to be believable, but she had to follow up on it. "I, uh, left Ness' jacket on the floor."

Fareeha raised an eyebrow. Her lips parted slightly, as if she were about to protest or question the girls further, but to Hana's relief she backed down.

Boss didn't waste the opportunity to change the subject. "So, uh, anybody hungry?" She looked to Fareeha. "We've got a solar-powered kitchen that can cook stuff. According to Hana and Satya my cooking is pretty good."

Fareeha looked to Satya. "You don't mind me taking some of your food–?"

"Not at all. We have enough."

"Well then I guess I'll join you guys." Fareeha climbed up off the couch. She paused in front of Satya. A warm, easy smile graced her lips. "Thanks."

Satya's shoulders tensed as she stared up at the other woman. "…Of course. Think nothing of it."

With that Boss led Fareeha off to the kitchen. Satya watched them walk away, and only once they were gone did she seem to notice Hana was staring at her.

"What?" she sputtered, quickly pretending she was observing something else.

Hana smirked at her, saying nothing.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Oh, no reason."

With a frown Satya reached over and took Hana's face in both hands. With her thumbs she pushed Hana's grin down into a neutral expression. As soon as her hands left Hana's face, however, the grin returned.

"So," Hana said, "you like her?"

"Fareeha? She seems all right."

"Just 'all right', huh?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing."

They stared each other down for a minute. Hana couldn't help but let a tiny smirk form on her lips again. "So when's the wedding?"

Satya scooped her up and threw her down onto the couch. "I will not hesitate to invoke my sisterly privilege and put you in your place," she said as she plunked herself down squarely on Hana's back.

"Ahhh!" Hana squirmed beneath her. "All right, all right, I surrender! You win!"

"Hm." Satya examined her fingernails. "I am awfully comfortable here. Perhaps I do not feel like getting up."

Hana faceplanted into the couch cushion. "I'm dying," she murmured, the clarity of her words lost in the old couch's fabric.

"Sorry? I didn't catch that."

Hana sighed. "I said 'Satya is the best and coolest person I know, and also the best sister, even though I'm an only child so she doesn't exactly have any competition there'."

"Ah. That is what I thought you said." Satya climbed off her, then offered Hana her hand. Hana slapped it away and got up herself. The two of them tried to scowl at each other, but it didn't take long for the scowls to dissolve into snickers.

"Come on." Hana pushed Satya forward a step. "They're waiting for us."