"Kyle let go of me!" I hissed at him as I tried to wriggle free of his hold.

"No," said Kyle stubbornly, "not until you calm the hell down."

"Let me go to him, Kyle!" I pleaded, "let me save him!"

"It's too late Wanda," Kyle said, his voice steady, making some deep emotion, "there are too many of them."

My body wracked in sobs, and Kyle let me cry myself out.

The van had been waiting directly outside the store when Sunny and I emerged with our shopping. Ian was nowhere to be seen, and when we climbed into the van we found only Kyle, who explained what had happened, and grabbed me before I could run towards where the flashing lights of Seekers' cars could be seen. He slammed the van doors shut and flicked the locks before pinning me to the ground.

"We have to go home and warn the others," Kyle said when my sniffs began to dry up, "they'll bring all of the seekers down on us, we have to move."

"Not Ian," I almost wailed, "he wouldn't!"

"Anyone can do anything, Wanda," said Kyle, "he's not Ian anymore."

Kyle climbed back into the driver's seat, with Sunny riding Shotgun. I curled up in a ball on the floor of the van amongst the neatly packed boxes in the back of the van, allowing myself to indulge in my sorrow, if only for a little while.

A little while was all the time I was allowed, we pulled up beside our moving truck, and Sunny and I disembarked, instead we climbed into the moving truck, which we would drive all the way home.

Delicate little Sunny volunteered to drive the truck, and I agreed, but only because my eyes were still puffy and I didn't think I would be able to focus sufficiently on the road ahead of me.

We drove straight to the big entrance under the cover of night hoping to unload the truck and return it to it's more secure hiding place before dawn.

Kyle had beaten us there. The van was parked underneath the small outcrop of rock. Sunny pulled up next to him and the two of them began to unload the truck.

I remained in the passenger seat with my knees tucked to my chest and my arms wrapped around them.

"They're back!" I heard Jamie's voice echoing through the corridor as he came to help us unload the trucks.

I heard more people coming to help us, all of their voices happy at the return of the raiding party.

"Where are Wanda and Ian?" Jamie demanded, clearly having just looked around and spotted our absence.

"Wanda is still in the truck," said Kyle, "and Ian...Ian..." He trailed off, unable to tell everyone that the unthinkable had happened and Ian was gone. Gone. Because survey they would shove a persistent soul inside him, most likely a Seeker, who would rifle through Ian's memories in the same way that I had tried to search Melanie's memories.

There was a sharp intake of breath through the gathered humans as they realised what had happened. I didn't care if they thought he had taken the cyanide pill or not. Ian was gone and that was all that mattered.

I felt very empty. Pet had never experienced grief such as this. Perhaps the closest thing was the morning for her mother that I experienced after insertion. But Pet had never really lost someone in the way I had lost Ian.

To my surprise, it was Jared who opened the truck door. It struck me that must've experienced a very similar emptiness to this after Melanie was taken.

"Come on Wanda let's get you something to eat," said Jared, offering me a hand.

I shook my head but realised that he probably couldn't see this movement due to how violently I was trembling.

Jared didn't wait for me to answer verbally, instead, he scooped me into his arms and pulled me away from the truck.

"I'll put her to bed," said Jared to the gathered group. I caught a glimpse of Melanie's concerned face before Jared carried me away.

I didn't notice where I was being taken until we arrive at the red and green doors of the room Ian and I shared. I was placed down on my bed, and I immediately curled up into a tight ball, trying to make myself as small as possible. I often slept this way because as soon as Ian was asleep he was prone to spreading out across the mattress, taking almost all of the available space.

Someone sat down beside me, but it wasn't Jared, as he would never smooth my hair back from my face in this calming manner. It was my hand that did this, or rather my old hand, Melanie was here.

"Mel," I whimpered.

"I'm here Wanda," she said in a smooth calming voice.

"Mel I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry-"

"Wanda none of this is your fault."

"No, I did this to Jared, I made him feel like this," I whimpered.

"Wanda don't think about that now," she tucked some strands of blonde hair behind my ear, a gesture that calmed me.

"I can't not think about it," my eyes were thick with tears again, but I didn't try and hide them. Melanie would know that I was hurting even if tears were absent.

"It's not your fault Wanda," said Melanie forcefully, "Ian wouldn't want you to blame yourself for things that are out of your control, you know he hates it when you do that. You bought me back to Jamie and Jared, you weren't the one to take me."

I bit my lip, unable to argue with Melanie's logic.

"Ian isn't gone just like I wasn't gone," she continued, "even if they put the worst seeker imaginable in him then he won't go because going would mean he's lost and Ian hates losing. You know that."

I did know that. And I also knew that the souls would not subject Ian to any physical pain because that would be too much of a waste. They would not torture him with knives or blows in the way that humans would. They would torture him by making him bring us in, by making him be the one to assimilate his family, to have Sunny and I shipped off-world to the furthest possible planet.

But Ian would fight, perhaps harder than even Melanie had because Ian had everything to lose. I would fight for him too because with him gone I had nothing to lose.