"You poor thing," Kira whispered.
She reached deeper with that same sense that allowed her to pull the essence out of matter, hoping for a connection that would lead her to the ones who'd taken Jin.
She found nothing but isolation so stark and deep it had warped the soul of whoever this had once been.
"Soul bound," Finn said from the opposite side of the android. "It must be destroyed."
Kira didn't move, her fingers separated from that chaotic mass by a few millimeters of metal.
"It wouldn’t be a mercy to allow it to live," Finn told her. "It will never rest. Never feel. All that lies in its future is endless madness. It can't be saved."
"I know."Kistreamed from Kira's fingers, wrapping around the ball of energy and smothering it.
It struggled, its energy fluttering against her senses as it fought to survive.
With a final flex of herki,Kira ended it.
She rose, her face carefully blank as she tried not to think about what she’d just done.
Killing in that fashion was different than when you ended someone with a blade or laser fire.
Her hands clenched as she took a deep breath, pushing the feeling aside to be examined later.
"What was that?" Raider asked as she walked past him toward the hole in the wall.
"Tuann stuff."
Raider glanced at Finn's stony face.
"We call them soul bound. They are mad creatures deserving of our mercy."
"Soul bound, huh?" There was speculation and an understanding Kira refused to acknowledge as Raider stared at the side of her face.
Kira ignored the two, carefully listening for any signs of hostiles before diving through the hole. She landed, on guard for an attack that never came.
There was a thud, then a second one as Raider and Finn ducked out after her.
Raider nodded his head at a prone body to their right. "What do you want to bet they went this way?"
Kira started forward with a sense of resignation. "There's no point in betting when it's a sure thing."
Raider jogged after her, Finn next to him.
"Really wishing I had a weapon right about now," Raider muttered.
Kira snapped off the dangling gem in her earring and pressed a button. A long thin blade extended out of it, forming a knife.
She tossed it to Raider. "Happy now?"
"Ecstatic."
*
Ashort while later, Kira held up her hand as they reached an intersection. She looked down one corridor and then another without the faintest clue which direction to take.
More than anything, she wished Jin was here. She wouldn’t even complain about his smart-ass comments or his ridiculous antics.
At least he’d have some idea what to do, which direction to take. He’d hack the security feeds or use any one of a dozen methods to get a lock on Elise.
