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"But momma! I don't want to!" The cry was becoming all too familiar in Jakob's household.

"I'm sorry, Jakob, but it simply isn't possible for you to come with us!" his mother was getting tired of repeating herself. "We'll only be gone a week, and you'll get to stay with Lucy. You liked Lucy, remember?"

"I hate her daughter though!" Jakob whined. "Molly's a filthy pervert! I want to stay with someone else!"

"Well you'll just have to make do."

Jakob folded her arms and pouted. This was going to be one of the worst weeks of his life.

Jakob arrived at Lucy's house just before dinner to find Vaahn and Jas already there. Vaahn had been a little too energetic on the way over, and so to remind him to behave on the sleepover he'd had his backside warmed very thoroughly by both parents. Lucy introduced the Medicalos to the sleeping arrangements - an inflatable bed had been put on the floor for the boys, whilst Jakob would be sharing Molly's bed. Jakob resumed pouting at the news, whilst Molly was far too busy crying on her Cornerstool to comment.

"Alright you four, let's get you all downstairs and I'll sort dinner. Come on Molly - no, don't pull your panties up!" Lucy paused to apply a dozen hard swats to an already very, very sore bottom, causing the Y-repressed child to resume her howling before removing her clothes altogether.

"No-o m-momma! P-p-please don't!" Molly's cries fell on deaf ears.

"You were very fond of naked little girls, Molly, so you of all people should appreciate this! If you prefer, I could try something else you were very fond of..."

It was an empty threat, but it got the point across. Whimpering and refusing to meet the gaze of her guests, Molly was marched out of the room with the other Rejuves in tow.

"Dinner and a show!" Jakob said with a smirk. "This could be a fun week for me."

"If Lucy asks for a volunteer from the audience, I'm pushing you forward." Vaahn chuckled.

"So I'm thinking of taking music lessons." Jakob announced between mouthfuls.

The conversation had come up because of the guitar in Lucy's living room. It was a very old instrument, but kept in excellent condition. Vaahn revealed that he'd learned to play it toward the end of his second cycle. His brief attempt at trying to play it now, which was done with permission, produced something far from musical.

Vaahn's fingers moved of their own accord whist he ate, trying to force his muscles to remember the positioning for chords. He shook his hand as if to take away the idea and picked up his knife again. "I hate having to relearn things over and over. The only plus side is it seems to take less time each go round."

"I learned how to play piano." Molly offered from the sidelines of the conversation.

"Nobody cares." Jakob shot back.

Jas, who was developing a good instinct for trouble, quickly steered the conversation away from the looming argument. "So Jakob, do you like any music besides metal?"

"Not really. Nothing else is worth listening to."

Vaahn rolled his eyes. "Spoken like a true aficionado."

"Well I like softer music myself. Orchestral stuff mostly." Jas added. "That said I do like classic pop."

"What era?" Molly asked.

Once again, Jakob snapped at her. "Mind your own business!"

Jas' ears twitched and his mouth set into a frown. "What is your problem, Jakob?"

Next to him, Vaahn held up his hands and announced, "I'm out. I'm not involved. Don't talk to me."

Not that anyone was listening to him. "What's my problem? She's a freak!" Jakob answered Jas' question, pointing an accusing finger at Molly. "She raped and almost murdered a kindern girl! She's a pervert!"

"I'm sorry for what I did." Molly answered.

"The hell you are! We all know you'd do it again given half the chance! I wish we could drag you off to a Kyyreni world; they know how to deal with monsters like you, right Vaahn?"

"I'm. Not. Here." Vaahn answered firmly without looking up from his plate.

Jakob, momentarily put off by Vaahn's strange behaviour, chose to go back on the offensive. "Nobody likes you, Molly! Nobody cares about you! You're the reason I didn't want to stay over here! Why don't you do us all a favour and go kill yourself? It'd make the galaxy a better place for everyone!"

A long and deafening silence descended over the table, then came the sound of Molly desperately trying not to cry, followed very quickly by her failing to do hold back the sobs. The girl squirmed out of her chair and ran bawling into the living room.

Vaahn looked up from his plate and glanced at Jas, whose mouth was already forming a question. "Lucy is in the next room, and has very good hearing." He said quietly.

"Then why didn't she come in?" Jas asked.

Vaahn's gaze drifted to Jakob, whose expression was slowly shifting from anger to anxious. "She just wanted to see how far it would go, so she could really land Jakob in hot water."

On cue, Lucy's authoritative voice drifted in from the next room. "Jakob, come in here please."

Looking increasingly anxious, Jakob hopped off her chair and entered the living room. Molly was sat on one end of the couch, wringing her hands and trying not to blub. Lucy was stood up staring at the seven year old Medicalos, her eyes as welcoming as gun barrels.

"Jakob, would you care to explain why you felt justified in bullying my daughter?"

The girl stared down at the floor as if she expected the answer to be lying on the carpet. "I... I just... I mean..."

Lucy put her hands on her hips. She did not raise her voice, but somehow that made it worse. "You know what you did was wrong, don't you?"

"Yes'm." Jakob replied feebly.

"Yet you did it anyway?"

Jakob nodded in reply. She didn't know what else to do.

Slowly, deliberately, Lucy sat herself down on a wooden backed seat near the corner and beckoned Jakob to come to her. The seven year old, realising what was coming, barely stifled a yelp of panic.

"I have heard a great deal about you, Miss Romanov, and very little of it is good. Ever since you were Rejuvenated you have been nothing but selfish, spiteful and rude. Whenever there's an argument in school, you're involved. Whenever there's a fight, you're involved. You expect everyone to bend over backwards for you, and you throw a tantrum when it doesn't happen. Your parents have been very lenient with you because they understand nobody wants to be a Medicalos, but I think it runs deeper than that. I think you're rotten to the core, young lady, and I know exactly how to deal with that."

Stood in the middle of the room, Jakob began to cry. She could have handled being yelled at, but Lucy's icy calm exterior cut through her like a knife. "M'srry." She mumbled.

"If you think I believe that, you've got another thing coming. Over here young lady. Now."

The walk across the room was agonising for Jakob. As she reached Lucy's side the woman gripped her gently but firmly and called out to the boys in the kitchen. "Jas! Vaahn! Come in here please! I want you two to sit beside Molly whilst I help Miss Romanov here learn the error of her ways."

Without ceremony, Jakob's jeans were brought down around her ankles. Her panties followed soon after, and after a futile attempt to resist the Medicalos girl was put over Lucy's lap with her bare backside displayed to her fellow Rejuves.

CRACK! The sound of Lucy's hand clapping against the girl's backside made Jakob yelp, shocking her far more than the pain.

"You should just be thankful you're not a Penitatas!" Lucy scolded as her hand came down again. "If you were, I'd be giving you a [i]real[/i] spanking!"

With that, Lucy began the spanking proper. Her skill at reducing a naughty Penny to tears with just a hand spanking was well known in Hard Timer circles, and now the spiteful Medicalos was learning that first hand. The constant [i]SMACK! THWAP! SMACK![/i] of Lucy's hand on Jakob's backside was quickly joined by the girl's pained bawling.

"Please Stoooop!" Jakob cried, though any Penny could have told her begging for mercy would not help. Each smack caused her reddening backside to jiggle and her legs to kick involuntarily. It did not take long for the girl's rear to be turned an even shade of crimson all over.

When she was satisfied the Medicalos had learned her lesson Lucy asked, "Well, Jakob, what do you have to say for yourself now?"

"I-I'm s-s-sorreee!" The girl sobbed

"I should hope so!" Lucy replied. "When your parents get back I'll be telling them about this, and it'll be up to them if you need a reminder. Oh yes, Miss Romanov, your parents CAN and WILL punish you for acting like a spoiled brat, so you just keep that in mind!"

Satisfied the girl had learned her lesson, Lucy allowed Jakob to pull up her pants and rub the ache away. She put a lot of effort into not meeting the gaze of the other three Rejuves, who had been given a very good view of her backside throughout the ordeal.

"Go on upstairs the lot of you. I trust you can play quietly for an hour or so unsupervised?"

Upstairs, Jakob was in no mood for playing. She focused instead on lying on the bed and sulking whilst Vaahn, Jas and Molly played board games.

"s'not fair." She mumbled for the [i]nth[/i] time.

Vaahn shook his head in disbelief. "Jakob, you've been in more fights this year than I have. Three in one week is a record even I haven't managed, and I put a kid in hospital!"

"I don't [i]want[/i] to go to school!" Jakob replied. "I didn't ask to be Rejuved, and I certainly didn't ask to end up as a seven year old girl! It's not fair!"

Vaahn merely snorted at the outcry.

"Jakob, I sympathise with you, I really do." Jas smiled at the red-faced Medicalos. "What happened to you was awful, but you have to admit you do have a problem with your temper."

The words "I do not!" could barely get out of her mouth fast enough. Realising how stupid she'd just made herself look, Jakob hid her face in her arms and sniffled. "I just want my old life back... but it's gone forever. Osif is dead, my home's burned down... I've lost everything."

"And nobody else in the world could possibly know what that's like." Vaahn grumbled, picking up the dice and rolling them with far more force than was needed.

Jakob looked up, opened her mouth to speak and thought better of it. She rolled onto her side and tried to ignore the ache in her backside whilst the other three finished their game.

* * *

Night had fallen, and in an unremarkable office building across from the police headquarters, the evening shift of the Penitatas Observation Unit was logging on.

One of the operators, a middle aged man named Nicholas, settled into his chair and flicked through the inbox of updates. Everything was quiet. Everything was always quiet. In the cubicle behind him two of his co-workers were planning their weekend whilst signing off. He half-heartedly listened to their conversation, waiting for a pause in the flow so he could pester one of them to fetch him a coffee.

When the pause came, he had more important things to discuss. "Eric? Come here a minute."

The young man in question came over. "What's up?"

"This." Nicholas tapped the screen to zoom in on one of the security feeds. It showed a dark orange hovercar pulling into a Penitatas neighbourhood. "There's no ident on this guy. Think it might be trouble?"

"Maybe... you checked the database?"

"Not yet; the computer should do that automatically, shouldn't it? Never seen an official vehicle enter the grid without being ID'd by the system..."

Nicolas hit a few keys, bringing up the vehicle registry and performing a quick search. After a second or two a translucent green identity code appeared over the vehicle.

"There it is." Eric announced. "Unmarked security patrol."

"So it would seem..." Nicholas scratched his neck thoughtfully. "So why didn't that come up right away?"

Eric shrugged. "Anything else you need me for?"

"No, it seems not. You have a good night."

Nicholas reduced the feed and began reading through the reports of the day shift, all the while trying to ignore the nagging feeling in his head that something wasn't right...

The hovercar roamed the streets for hours, stopping at irregular intervals, sometimes for minutes, sometimes longer. It reached its final stop around midnight. Sat with her engine off, anyone who paid the car any heed might have spotted two figures inside; a pair of Kyyreni with short, burnt orange fur. Their flesh, what little of it was exposed, was blackened and burned by long years under an unforgiving sun.

"[You sure this is the right house?]" Growled Ozkaa.

"[Positive.]" His brother, Rieg replied. "[Our worm was thorough; the child is registered as Nalya Potopiev, but little Nalya only appeared on the system about a week after Jakob's lucky escape. Icaran Security was informed she's having a sleepover here.]"

Ozkaa sneered. "[Why the hell couldn't he have given us the address right away?]"

"[Some sort of complication. The girl wasn't where she should have been.]" Rieg glanced over at the house, confirming the information on the slate in his hand. "[This is the right place though.]"

"[Well get going then.]" Ozkaa replied.

"[No, I want you with me this time; she's got a soldier babysitting.]"

Ozkaa nodded, reaching into the glove box to draw out a compact laser pistol. "[Let's get this done.]" He spat. "[I don't want to spend another minute longer on this backwater planet.]"

* * *

Lucy awoke to the sound of footsteps in the hall. Slipping from her bed she opened the door to find Molly walking past her door. The Penny girl jumped in fright.

"What are you doing out of bed?" Lucy hissed, not wanting to disturb the other children.

"I-I need the bathroom!" Molly replied urgently.

Lucy nodded and waved the girl on. The child had issues with bed wetting, and was still trying to regain full bladder control. Even with her diaper, nobody wanted her having accidents in the night with guests over.

After Molly had relieved herself, she loitered outside the bathroom, watching her mother's bedroom door cautiously. Being up late was normally forbidden, and so she was relishing the unexpected freedom. She considered slipping downstairs and helping herself to a cookie or some other treat, and as she daydreamed her eye was drawn to a shadow at the top of the stairs. A hunched humanoid, a strange blend of lion and wolf with dark orange fur was cast into focus by the glow of the bathroom light. A long, thin knife was held in one hand and a snub-nosed firearm in the other. The intruder stared at her with large dark eyes, utterly devoid of pity or mercy.

"MOMMA!" The girl screamed, and that was the last thing she ever did. It took the Kyyreni less than a second to cross the hall, and without a moment's hesitation he slammed the dagger into Molly's terrified face.

Lucy burst out of her bedroom to find weapons fire coming the other way. The Kyyreni intruder levelled his pistol and let fly with a burst of energy shots, shooting even before he'd drawn a bead on his target. She did not think - thinking would have killed her. Lucy's body moved with a purpose, left hand gripping the firer's wrist and right arm coming round in a well-aimed blow to the elbow. There was a sharp crack and the Kyyreni dropped the weapon with a howl. He tried to stab her in retaliation, but his blade was still jammed firmly into Molly's left eye. He released the weapon and threw all his bodyweight into a tackle, driving the ex-Marine off her feet and slamming her into the doorframe.

"[Ozkaa! Get up here! Kill the bastard!]" Rieg yelled, punching and kicking and biting as he fought to overpower the female in front of him.

Through their door, the three Rejuves watched in shock. Vaahn's mind began to race, his long dormant warrior instincts surging into life once more. He flung himself forward, scooping up the pistol from the floor and turning on instinct toward the stairs as Ozkaa emerged.

Ozkaa froze, staring down the weapon barrel. "[You... you're Kyyreni?]" He carefully lowered his half-raised pistol, extending his free hand toward Vaahn. "[Why don't you give me that weapon, lad?]"

The Penny shook his head. The gun trembled in Vaahn's hands. "[No.]" He whispered.

"[We don't want to hurt you. We just want the girl.]" Ozkaa reached out slowly as he spoke, careful not to break eye contact.

"[I won't let you.]" Vaahn's reply was barely able to pass his lips. He started into the eyes of the dark-furred Kyyreni in front of him. His mind flashed up images of another lifetime, a time of blood and death and slaughter. He pictured orange-furred Kyyreni raping and murdering their way through farmsteads, torturing prisoners to death and laughing at their screams for mercy. He recalled the things they'd done, thing that had turned even his hardened stomach. That evil had a name, and it was Daysider... and he was staring right at one.

Ozkaa's fingers were almost touching the weapon barrel when Vaahn squeezed the trigger. The energy bolt punched through his chest and sprayed boiling blood out the exit wound. Both firer and victim yelped in shock, but Vaahn recovered and put three more shots into the intruder.

"[NO!]" Reig screamed, finally gaining enough purchase to break Lucy's grip. He slammed the knife into her side and threw himself at Vaahn, digging the knife in just below the sternum and carving upwards to open the boy's throat.

"[Son of a bitch!]" Reig spat, reaching down to recover the pistol. Lucy came at him again despite her wounds, smashing him off balance and rescuing the weapon herself. Without a moment's hesitation she levelled the gun and blew Reig's head off. She limped to the stairs, breathing hard and trying to keep upright as she peered over the banister at the bloody remains of Ozkaa. Satisfied he was dead, she allowed herself to collapse to the floor.

Less than ten seconds after Rieg had breathed his last, four armed security officers kicked down the front door. Their leader emerged at the top of the stairs with an almost apologetic look on his face, whilst his men tended to the children.

"Surveillance reported a suspicious vehicle in the area, and when your silent alarm went off..." the man trailed away, ashamed at his failure. "Come here, let me see that wound."

"It's nothing, tend to them." Lucy tried to sound brave despite her wounds. She turned towards the children and froze, as if only now seeing what had happened.

Jakob was kneeling next to Molly's body, shaking and whimpering as she tried to come to terms with what had happened. Jas was stood over Vaahn and sobbing openly. Vaahn himself was crumpled in a pool of blood, the size of which was extremely alarming.

"We need to get you all to a hospital at once! Come on, there's no time to waste!"

* * *

By 10am Matt and Chloe were in the hospital stood over Vaahn's bed. Jas was sat beside the young Kyyreni boy, holding his hand. It was obvious the Aspatrian had been crying a lot; eyes were red and his face fur damp.

"How is he?" Chloe asked softly, feeling fear rising in her chest. Lying in the bed, Vaahn looked like a corpse. However, as if to prove he still lived, the boy's head rolled toward her as she spoke. With a trembling hand, Vaahn reached for a small datapad beside his bed and struggled to type into it.

"I am fine." The datapad chirruped a moment later.

A Drakonian doctor approached the family and flashed Vaahn an encouraging smile. "Hello young man! I'm so glad your parents are finally here; I've been waiting to give the good news for an hour!"

Vaahn's eyes flickered open. "What?" His speaking pad asked.

The doctor nodded to Vaahn's parents. "Young Vaahn here had his vocal chords severed by the knife attack. Thankfully, our nano-lathes will allow us to repair the damage completely. The poor boy will probably have a sore throat for a few weeks, but he should make a full recovery with no lasting damage. Why, there won't even be a scar!"

"That's wonderful news!" Matt answered, but Vaahn was trying to type once more.

"I would like a scar."

The request left the gathering puzzled, though Jas seemed to understand. "Scars are a symbol of bravery, strength and endurance. A badge of honour."

The Johansson couple exchanged looks. Matt looked toward Vaahn and asked tentatively, "are you really sure that is what you want?"

Vaahn gave a barely perceivable nod. "It matters to me." He typed.

"Well, I suppose it can be removed later if needs be." Chloe conceded.

Vaahn smiled and closed his eyes once more. "Thank you."