They landed in the dust fields a few miles from the outskirts of town in order to access Mi's secret tunnel. It was common sense not to try and enter the city the normal way while smuggling in an entire airship worth of girls. Adam had admitted he wasn't even sure they would make it in on their own, not with Clayton and the rest having surely radioed to the city militia that the Forlorn would be making their return soon.
So, Mi's tunnels were the only way they could enter without encountering a battle. They needed Mi, anyway, to organize escorts for all the girls as they returned home. Only a very small handful were actually from the city, with the rest being from random settlements and even nomad groups that were scattered far and wide across the dust fields.
"Mi's not gonna like you draining all his resources like this," Helga said. "You'll be taking away around twenty men and twice as many hoppers."
"I'd use Silver's ship if I didn't think the militia would be scouring the dust fields looking for him," Adam replied. He looked out over the bannister of the airship at where the Forlorn were helping to unload the girls and the injured Forlorn, and ready them for the long walk to Mi's base. The women were all still weak from being kept in cages, and the injured couldn't even stand. The Forlorn scurried around, trying to find anything that could be used to carry those too weak to move.
"We should go help them," Bo said, pushing away from the banister and heading for the ladder meant to give access to the top deck by bypassing the chaos of the underbelly of the ship.
Helga, Khan, Bo, and Adam approached the crowd of Forlorn and women from behind. Helga and Khan peeled off to help one of their own who cried in pain as their comrades tried to get him on his feet. Bo and Adam continued on, coming to where the majority of the rescued women huddled together. There were so many injured of both the women and the Forlorn, that Bo wondered if Mi really would be upset about the drain on his resources. His stores would be empty after this, and she knew how hard it was to obtain many of the medical supplies without groveling to the militia.
Bo leaned toward Adam. "Maybe we should just risk the airship," she said, low.
Adam shook his head, and gave a small smile. "It's fine. The whole reason we stockpile supplies is so that we can use them, right?"
"Right," Bo said, sighing and looking over at the airship as they finally unloaded the last of the women and injured, and the attention turned to letting everyone know where they were going and what to do.
A few feet away, one of the girls swayed on her feet and started to crumple. Bo took a step forward, but before she got far Adam had already launched forward to grasp the girl around her waist and support her. Her head lolled, but after a few seconds she blinked a few times and her legs took her weight again.
"Thank you," the girl rasped, rubbing her forehead. "I'm not used—" Her words stopped as her eyes met Adam's face. She stood frozen for a moment, but then shook violently and her skin blanched to a grayish pallor.
"What's the matter?" Adam asked.
The girl's mouth moved, but no sound came. It took her a few seconds before she could find her voice. "Alien," she gasped out. "Alien!" She repeated the word until it turned into a hysterical scream, and the girls around her all whipped around to stare in horror at Adam. The screams of alien swept through their ranks. Adam let go of the girl and backed up, his hands out in a plea of peace, but it did no good. Weak as they were, they scrambled away on feet or hands and knees.
Bo stared at the sudden panic that swept through the crowd. She had become so used to the slight blue tinge under Adam's skin, that she had practically forgotten that it might be seen as odd by some others. His long canines were mostly hidden and his long blonde hair did much to disguise him as fully human. Yet, here these girls leapt away from him with screams and fear in their eyes.
Bo reached forward to grip Adam's shoulder, and he spun toward her. His own panic echoed in his eyes, and she felt him shivering under her hand. Anger flared out of nowhere in Bo's chest and she glared at the girls still whimpering and pressing themselves as far away from Adam as they could.
"Shut up!" Bo shouted. "Where was your fear when he was rescuing you? You see his blue skin and somehow he becomes a monster—" Adam gripped her shoulder and shook his head.
"Leave it," he said.
Bo's fists shook as she tried to control the anger that she felt toward the fear that pressed down on them from all corners. She snatched Adam's hand and pulled him with her as she stalked through the crowd. The girls parted around them as quickly as before, but the Forlorn watched them walk with sad eyes and even some anger that echoed Bo's own.
Bo led Adam into the airship and slammed the door shut on all the faces that stared at them. She spun on the spot and growled in frustration as she tried to get all her energy out by pounding the side of her leg with her fist as she paced back and forth.
"Ungrateful! Horrible! Brats!" she said, fuming.
"They've been through a lot, Bo," Adam replied. "Of course they're going to be scared and overly sensitive."
"But to do that?" She swept her arm toward where the girls were probably all crying now. "You risked your life, and the life of your men, to save them. You went down there and broke them free of those cages and fought to get them to the safety of the airship. Without you, they'd still be under the horror of the judge. Yet, the thanks they show is screaming at your face?" Angry tears pricked her eyes and she turned sharply to look away from him before he could see them.
Adam exhaled. "They have no reason to trust an alien. In fact, I seem to remember a certain girl almost killing herself multiple times just to get away from me in the past."
Bo glared at the wall but refused to rise to his bait.
She heard Adam adjust his weight. "Look, Bo. They've been taught to fear my kind since their birth, and with good reason for the most part. How are they to know that I am friendly? Especially when they've spent years locked away in dark rooms and fed fear by a madman?"
Still facing away from, Bo let the tears fall down her cheeks. "It's just not fair!" she said. "I spent two years erasing that kind of fear in the minds of the people of my village. I gave up my life, I gave up you, to do that. And yet I step outside my village and find that the hostility and fear as still here. It's as if all I did was for nothing. I couldn't..." She gave a mirthless laugh. "I couldn't keep you safe at all."
She felt Adam's arms wind around her sides, and he pulled her back to his chest. She leaned into him, but still couldn't look at him while she had tears in her eyes. Instead, she stared at the wall, but held onto his arms that encircled her waist.
"You didn't waste those years," he said. "You changed the minds of an entire village. You created a place that would accept a half-alien on a planet that should hate my guts. That is more than I could have ever asked of you, Bo. You created a home for me. Someplace that I know I can belong. Someplace where I can know I will be safe and happy with you."
Bo bit her lip. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be doing this," she said, swiping at the tears. "Those poor girls were tortured and terrorized, and I shouldn't have yelled at them. I'm just... just tired."
Adam leaned down to kiss the top of her shoulder. "We'll just work harder to make sure they are safe. I don't need them to like me or trust me. I just want to get them back to their homes."
"Of course," Bo said, finally turning in Adam's embrace to face him. She tilted her head up for a kiss, which he gave. As he pulled away he laughed and wiped his cheeks.
"You got tears all over me," he said.
Bo narrowed her eyes and sighed. "Seriously? This is how you're going to treat this moment?"
"Better than crying like some whiners."
"I will not feel bad smacking you, do you know that?"
Adam laughed again and placed his hands on either side of her face to wipe off the tears with his thumbs. "Don't worry, I'll stop teasing you."
Bo rolled her eyes and pulled away from him. "Sure, sure."
"Hey, if you don't come back here for another kiss I might be tempted to tell Helga and Khan about the great Bo crying into the arms of a man."
"Oh my gosh, shut up or I will seriously slug you!" Bo protested. But a smile already played across her lips as she walked over to give him his requested kiss. She still wasn't used to feeling that slight charge of electricity under his skin after so long apart, but it felt exactly like she remembered. She broke their kiss and shoved his chest.
"We'd better get back out there before they leave us behind," she said.
Adam nodded, but didn't move immediately. "Thank you, Bo. For all of it," he said. She knew he wasn't just talking about rescuing him from the screaming girls, or finding him again.
"Stop, or I'm going to cry again. And I'm sure you don't want your totally fearful girlfriend turning into a water fountain."
"That would not be the best," Adam said, holding out his hand for Bo to take.
They opened the door to the airship and stepped back out into the harsh sun. The Forlorn had already moved the women and injured into the tunnel opening to protect them from the heat, and everyone was only waiting for the leader to head out. Adam looked toward Khan and gave a nod. That was all it took to set everyone in motion. The injured, supported by the able, walked with the women into the shadows of the tunnel. Bo and Adam took up the rear, watching the backs of the people they saved but could not be close to. It still hurt to know that they would never see the Adam that she did, but she knew she could not hold it against them when even she had once feared him.
They entered the dark tunnels, and Bo gripped Adam's hand even tighter. Whatever fear and anger they had to face, they would face together. Two years had been long enough—too long—and she wouldn't let anyone tear her away again.