They waited until nighttime (only alerted by the alarm going off on Khan's watch, since the sun and moon were distant dreams in the concrete grave) before picking their way to the stairs that lead to the door. Most everyone was asleep, except Mi and a few of the Forlorn who were either on duty or were just too high-strung to close their eyes. Adam nodded to each as he walked by them, and when he reached Mi he made sure to whisper a few words. Bo had no doubt it was about keeping an eye on Khan, who was currently still pouting at his exclusion from the venturing group. His only solace seemed to be Esme, who was also being left behind. He kept by her side, and Bo caught them whispering up a storm as the others climbed the stairs. She waved to them, but they were too busy being wrapped up in themselves to notice. Bo laughed to herself at the young love. At least there was happiness still in the world somewhere.

Helga opened the door and let in a breeze of cool night air. Bo closed her eyes, breathing it in deep. She had never missed the taste of grit and dust on her tongue until now. The bunker had been suffocating, and Bo thought she'd rather be stuck in a sandstorm than stay a minute more in the dank concrete tomb.

Their small group walked to the hanger and retrieved the airship from its place amongst the smugglers' vehicles. They had surprisingly been kind enough to refuel the ship, and as far as Bo could tell as she climbed on board, they hadn't stolen anything. Perhaps the smugglers weren't as much of human trash as she had originally thought.

Silver spent around fifteen minutes prepping the airship for launch, during which Adam took the opportunity to tell the smugglers' leader where they were going. Bo saw the annoyance flash across the leader's face, but once Adam pressed a valuable high-power pistol into the man's hand, he was more receptive to their plan. She saw the man nod at Adam and pocket the pistol. They'd basically bought their way out of the camp they had to buy their way into. Bo returned to thinking of them as human trash.

After a few more minutes, they were finally in the air and heading away from the smugglers' camp. The tents were so well camouflaged that Bo couldn't even see them after only one minute of flight. She was glad Silver knew the way back, because she wondered if she'd ever be able to find the place again if it was her navigating. Thankfully, she was free to forget the camp and wander around the deck with the wind in her hair. Adam eventually came to her side and held her hand as they leaned over a bannister and stared at the passing stars as the wind whipped in their ears. Helga slept behind them in a chair, a rifle wrapped in her arms. Bo nudged Adam's arm and jerked her chin at Helga, a smile on her lips. Adam glanced over his shoulder and shook his head.

"She's fierce even asleep," he said.

"Reminds me of me when I was that age," Bo said, raising her eyebrows. "The girl you knew back then would probably have had a rifle surgically added to her body if she thought she could."

"True. You were pretty prickly back then."

"Thanks," Bo said, flipping her hair over her shoulder proudly.

"I'm just worried that this life, always being on the run and fighting, is making her too hard," Adam said. "Her past is dark, and I wonder if she hasn't had enough time to fully heal-"

"Sh!" Bo interrupted.

Adam's eyebrows drew together and he placed his hands on his hips. "What are you doing?" he demanded.

"I said 'sh'!" Bo said, her voice a loud whisper. She shoved her hand over Adam's mouth, which made him splutter and shove her arms away. But she was already walking past him, her ears straining after the sound she had heard while Adam was speaking.

"Are you being serious now?" Adam asked, keeping his voice a whisper. He glared at her, but she was too focus on figuring out what the strange sound was to care. It had sounded a bit like a girl yelping, but Helga was still asleep on the chair and Silver's voice was too raspy and deep to ever have the clarity of what Bo had heard.

"Care to explain what's going on?" Adam asked, after Bo paused for a moment to try and relocate where she had heard the noise.

"I heard a noise."

"Okay?"

"It sounded a bit like a person..." Bo's eyes strayed to the place where the door was. "Do you think maybe someone was onboard and we accidentally left with them?"

"Well, that would be awkward," Adam said, but she could see that he was actually a little bit worried now. They both approached the door to belowdecks, and Adam reached out to open it. As his hand turned the knob, Bo held her breath, her hand straying to her pistols without even realizing it.

Before the door was even all the way open, they saw a body standing at the top of the stairs that led to the decks below. Bo whipped her pistol out, aiming it at the body and switching the safety off all at the same time. She hadn't realized how little she trusted the smugglers until right now.

"Woah woah woah! BO!" A familiar voice squeaked. Bo blinked once, and then she realized that the person hiding behind the door had long dark hair and olive skin that she recognized. Khan.

"What are you DOING here?" Bo shouted, lowering her gun and sighing loudly. "Adam told you stay behind with the others!"

"Yeah right, like I was going to do that," Khan protested, but he still stepped onto the deck with a sheepish slump to his shoulders.

Adam closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Did you at least let Mi know that you'd left?" He started to shut the door and Khan's eyes widened in panic.

"Wait, don't close that!" he said, rushing forward with his hand out.

"What? Why?" Adam asked, peering into the even deeper darkness of the stairs leading belowdeck.

"Um, well... Esme was getting a panicked in the tight space, so I was coming up to crack the door to try and help her..." Khan said.

"You brought Esme?" Bo gasped. "What were you thinking, Khan?"

Khan opened his mouth to explain, but before he could get any words out there was the sound of someone bounding up the steps. Esme appeared a moment later, out of breath and leaning over to catch it. She looked up at Adam and Bo, both staring at her, and slowly closed her eyes.

"Sorry," Esme said.

"Did Khan drag you along?" Bo asked, glaring at Khan who looked offended that she would make him the badguy here.

"No, not really," Esme replied. "He just told me that he couldn't stay behind. He was worried about you all, and said that he couldn't rest if he wasn't there—"

"Esme! That's enough. Don't need to relate our whole conversation," Khan said, laughing nervously and edging toward her with his hands out.

"Oh. Sorry," Esme said. "Well, he told me he wanted to come. And I wanted to go with him."

"Why?" Bo asked.

"I wanted to help. I'm tired of being a damsel in distress."

Bo couldn't fault her that, though she was still annoyed that they would sneak on board when Adam had given them orders to stay behind. But they were already too far away from the camp for it to make sense to turn around and drop them off. So, for better or worse, they were part of the group. And now Silver and Helga had noticed their stow-aways. Helga's wrinkled nose revealed that she was on Adam and Bo's side of this argument, and even Silver looked surprisingly disappointed that Khan was onboard. Bo would've expected the older man to rejoice that his little apprentice was with him, but he merely looked at Khan with an unreadable expression and flattened lips while he gripped the steering mechanisms. Khan seemed to sense this disapproval from his newest mentor, and for the first time looked truly sorry.

Adam sighed and shut the door to belowdecks. "Well, there's nothing we can do about it now. Just try to be helpful and not get in trouble."

"Of course!" Khan said, perking up now that he had gotten his way. He saluted Adam and then waved at Esme to follow him over to where Silver stood with the ship controls. It took a few minutes for Silver to warm back up to Khan, but after that it was if nothing at all had happened. Silver showed Khan and Esme all the controls and joked with them.

Helga raised an eyebrow. "I bet you're wishing you'd made me second in command, huh?"

Adam rolled his eyes. "You've done just as many boneheaded moves, Helga."

Helga shrugged, heading back to the seat where she'd been napping before. "I'm just offering, in case you're interested."

Adam shook his head, but wound his arm around Bo's waist. She pressed against his side, watching the motley crew they'd somehow assembled. "Maybe Clayton and Aston have a good idea going, what with their strictly trained militia men," she said, smiling.

Adam groaned. "Don't tempt me."

Bo turned to press a kiss to Adam's cheek. "No, I think yours is better. They're humans, not robots. That's why we're going to win."

Adam smiled, but she saw a sadness behind his eyes. "I hope so," he said under his breath.