This strange woman in black lead Shae to the aircraft hangar by some mysterious passageway...straight through a wall. They made their way towards a rusty transport shuttle that looked like a rusty chicken, then Shae was ordered up through the bottom hatch of that small craft.

When Shae elbowed her way inside the dank-smelling aircraft, her eyes flickered to how everything was rusty and worn. She could feel the grit of it beneath her palms as she pushed into the floor. A pipe seemed to be perpetually leaking steam near one of the walls. The cockpit space was small: just two pilot's seats, and three passenger seats curved around a small round table.

"Ava!"

Shae scrambled faster into the craft, and Ava jumped up from one of the passenger's seats, running up and embracing her friend.

"Ava, what happened?"

"Eh. These guys apparently don't know how to do anything gracefully." Ava turned around, and Shae noticed that Jungkook was strapped into one of the passenger's seats and slumped over as if he'd passed out. There were handcuffs on his wrists.

"What happened to you?" Ava asked, registering the red marks that were showing up on Shae's neck and wondering who's ass she was gonna need to kick for it.

A new voice interjected over the scene, far more polite than expected, "Yeah, so I'm not actually gonna hurt you or anything, I just said that so you wouldn't ask questions when we're pressed for time. Anyway, I hate to ruin the party, but if you ladies wouldn't mind taking a seat? Then we can be off sooner."

"Not even a proper introduction?" Shae asked.

"Where are you taking us?" Ava asked suspiciously.

"And why is Kookie here?"

Ava laughed nervously, "Well, that's another story...."

"My Name's Lilith." The small woman stripped the mask from her face and the robe from her head. Shae and Ava couldn't help but feel a little relieved. This feisty little woman was frowning. Short, dark brown hair curled down around her tanned face. Her inked brown eyes looked more sorry than scary. No weird stun guns or magic runes were in sight.

"The short version of things: I'm a former escort from Earth, too. I miss Cheetos and Florence and the Machine, like, a lot—but I got stuck living here, and sometimes I kinda like it." Lilith flickered a smile. "The crew I was serving as an escort when I first got here...they're all dead. Now I do my own thing, and design specialized combat gear. That's my story."

Little Lilith leaned over and poked her head down and out of the hatch.

Shae and Ava exchanged curious looks, both of them shrugging at each other with dopey frowns on their faces.

"Que cera cera, my friend," Ava said in an amused voice.

Shae giggled back. "What will be will be."

Lilith didn't seem to notice the best-friend exchange. As she popped back up out of the hatch she muttered, "Oh good, right on time."

The Lilith stepped back again from the rusty circular hole in the floor. The sound of another body moving up through the opening made Shae and Ava take a few steps back as well.

At the sight of Jung Hoseok's messy red hair, Shae gripped Ava's arm tightly.

"What the--" Hoseok scrambled quickly through the hatch when he saw who was inside, his palms regaining their faint green glow. Shae noted that he looked like he'd just been through a cyclone, with his messy hair, bruised knuckles and puffy, bloodied face. Before Hoseok could get up from his knees...this tiny woman in black jumped onto his back and slammed a tiny pen into his neck.

In a few seconds, Hoseok fell onto his side with a heavy thud, his eyes fluttering. In a few more seconds, he was snoring.

"She did the same thing to Jungkook," Ava whispered in awe at Shae, who nodded slowly.

"Woah." Shae's eyes were wide.

"Yeah."

Lilith didn't seem to notice their awed whispers. "Now, help me strap this guy into one of those seats. He's kinda heavy. All that muscle."

They couldn't help but oblige her. Once Hobi and Jungkook were looking like the punch drunk twins, both properly cuffed and strapped into their seats, Shae asked, "So, you were Hobi's escort today... weren't you?"

Lilith nodded. "Yeah, I was. Anyway, I need you both to strap in now. One of you'll have to sit in the copilot's seat."

"Don't look at me," Ava said, hands up. "I ain't about this whole flying thing." She walked back to strap herself in next to Jungkook, who was now drooling into the black upholstery. "Delightful."

Shae strapped herself nervously into the copilot's seat, as Lilith began flicking switches on her control panel.

"Brace yourselves, ladies. We might be in for a bumpy ride."

____

Lilith ended up parking the chicken-legged spacecraft outside of a dive-bar style rest stop attached to a floating asteroid just off-planet from where the city of Era remained, and the chaos of the gala was suddenly so far away. 

The asteroid was crowded with dingy old fighter jets and salvage transport ships. When Shae looked out the window, there wasn't much to see beyond grey rock and fat old guys turning crushed up metal cans into golf balls to T-up and hack out into space.

Lilith piped up, "I'll snag us some grub. Don't step off the ship, please. And don't try to wake those two up. I'd like to keep things testosterone-free, so we can all talk some sense for a bit. That anesthesia should keep them both out for a while."

Lilith was gone and returned in a flash with the closest thing Ava and Shae had smelled to greasy fast food since arriving in Era.

"They're better than French Fries. Get ready." Lilith gave a quiet smirk then started divvying the oily goods, including off-pink soft ringlets that smelled like heart attack heaven.

Ava held a ringlet up to her eyes. She took a nervous bite.

"OHMAHGAHSH IT IS!"

At the sound of Ava's shouting, Jungkook flinched in his seat and Hobi mumbled in his sleep, "...but I wanna be Ringo this time...."

Shae giggled.

After they indulged in this space age fast food for a moment, Lilith started, "So. Here's the scoop. In case these fools have neglected to tell you, the two of you have been recruited by one of the most formidable fortresses in Noon Mool."

"Okay." Ava sipped her drink.

"And Joon's not been the worst leader in the world, as surprising as that may be. But."

Shae licked her greasy fingers as she pulled the folds of her giant midnight blue ball gown around her comfortingly.

"Something's wrong with Noon Mool at the moment, ladies. Or, someone. They've a rat, I can smell it, and...unlike Jung Hoseok, I'm not 100% convinced that it's Kim Namjoon. I'm not saying it isn't, but I have my doubts. He can be a grade-A arrogant ass, but I think there's someone else pulling some shadowy strings, somehow."

Lilith held her cup in her small hands, sipping at the bubbling liquid. "The fortress I first got recruited for, it's toast now thanks to Petra and her goons. That was four years ago, but still... she's just gotten even more awful since then. I agreed to this whole being Hoseok's escort for the day in disguise because, honestly, I wanted a chance to reach out to you two and maybe help prevent what happened to me from repeating itself. Also, I've been creeping on you through my sources, and you seem pretty cool."

Ava and Shae exchanged awed looks.

"Sources?" Ava wanted to be cool enough to have sources.

Lilith waved her hand dismissively.

"I don't know anyone from Earth around here, and I spend alotta time around sweaty, arrogant dudes--which is a lot less kinky than it sounds." Shae and Ava giggled nervously. "Anyway, I think there's still time to fix things with Noon Mool, but if things do go to hell and a hand basket, this is my friendly little PSA...creepy as it probably sounds coming from some stranger who kinda abducted you outta a shit show of these guys' own making." She rolled her eyes over at Hobi and Kookie's drooling, sleeping bodies. "But I wanted you two to know that someone who isn't caught up in all Noon Mool's mess is rooting for you, and here for you if you need help. Like, seriously."

Lilith got up from the hangar floor and started scrounging around inside of an open-mouthed box between the pilot and copilot's seat. She came back to the circular table where Ava sat elegantly in her chair and Shae on the floor with her midnight blue ball gown crumbled around her, eating.

The small woman held up two tiny little wrist bands--like the ones that Joon and his crew were always wearing, except these were translucent and colorless.

"They'll disappear when you put them on, unless you try to use them. Yoongi helped me to design them. Granted, he didn't know what I planned to use 'em for." She stretched out a hand, giving one to Shae and one to Ava. "If you ever find that you need an emergency exit, no matter the sitch, call me. For real."

"Uh... thanks." Shae eyed the small device that she took from Lilith. Ava did the same.

"Ok, that's all I wanted to say. Time to get your crew back home before someone loses their shit completely. And by someone, I mean Kim Namjoon." Lilith laughed, and the free playfulness of it made Shae and Ava both feel the genuine reassurance of this random, knowledgeable, empowered young woman...who really seemed to be on their side in this crazy Noon Mool mess.

Whatever side that was.