Butler, Octavia - Dawn

People who favored action sided with Peter. People like Leah and Wray, Tate and Gabriel who were biding their time, waiting for more information or a real chance to escape sided with Lilith.

There were also people like Beatrice Dwyer who were afraid of any kind of action, but who had lost hope of ever controlling their own destinies These sided with Lilith in the hope of peace and continued life. They wanted, Lilith thought, only to be let alone. That was all many people had wanted before the war. It was the one thing they could not have, then or now.

Nevertheless, Lilith recruited these, too, and when she Awakened ten more people, she used only her recruits to help them. Peter's people were reduced to heckling and jeering. The new people saw them first as troublemakers.

Perhaps that was why Peter decided to impress his followers by helping one of them get a woman.

The woman, Allison Zeigler, had not yet found a man she liked, but she had chosen Lilith's side over Peter's. She screamed Lilith's name when Peter and the new man, Gregory Sebastes, stopped arguing with her and decided to drag her off to Gregory's room.

Lilith, alone in her own room, frowned, not certain what she had heard. Another fight?

Wearily, she put down the stack of dossiers that she had been going through in search of a few more allies. She went out and saw the trouble at once.

Two men holding a struggling woman between them. The trio was prevented from reaching any of the bedrooms by Lilith's people who stood blocking the way. And Lilith's people were prevented from reaching the trio by several of Peter's people.

A stand-off-potentially deadly.

"What the hell is she saving herself for?" Jean was domanding. "It's her duty to get together with someone. There aren't that many of us left."

"It's my duty to find out where I am and how to get free," Allison shouted. "Maybe you want to give whoever's holding us prisoner a human baby to fool around with, but I don't!"

"We pair off!" Curt bellowed, drowning her out. "One man, one woman. Nobody has the right to hold out. It just causes trouble."

"Trouble for who!" someone demanded.

"Who the shit are you to tell us our rights!" called someone else.

"What is she to you!" Gregory used his free hand to knock someone away from Allison. "Get your own damn woman!"

At that moment, Allison bit him. He cursed and hit her. She screamed, twisted her body violently. Blood streamed from her nose.

Lilith reached the crowd. "Stop," she called. "Let her go!" But her voice was lost in the many.

"Goddammit, stop!" She shouted in a voice that surprised even her.

People near her froze, staring at her, but the group around Allison was too involved to notice her until she reached it.

This was too familiar, too much like what Paul Titus had said and done.

She stepped up to the knot of people surrounding Allison, too furious to worry about their blocking her. Two of them caught her arms. She threw them aside without ever seeing their faces. For once she did not care what happened to them. Cavemen. Fools!

She grabbed Peter's free arm as he tried to hit her. She held the arm, squeezed it, twisted it.

Peter screamed and fell to his knees, his grip on Allison released, forgotten. For a moment, Lilith stared at him. He was garbage. Human garbage. How had she made the mistake of Awakening him? And what could she do with him now?

She threw him aside, not caring that he hit a nearby wall. The other man, Gregory Sebastes, held his ground. Curt stood beside him, challenging Lilith. They had seen what she had done to Peter, but they did not seem to believe it. They let her walk up to them.

She hit Curt hard in the stomach, doubling him, toppling him.

Gregory let go of Allison and lunged at Lilith.

She hit him, catching him in midair, snapping his head back, collapsing him to the floor unconscious.

Abruptly, all was still except for Curt's gasping and Peter's groaning-"My arm! Oh, god, my arm!"

Lilith looked at each of Peter's people, daring them to attack, almost wanting them to attack. But now five of them were injured, and Lilith was untouched. Even her own people stood back from her.

"There'll be no rape here," she said evenly. She raised her voice. "Nobody here is property. Nobody here has the right to the use of anybody else's body. There'll be no back-to-the-Stone-Age, caveman bullshit!" She let her voice drop to normal. "We stay human. We treat each other like people, and we get through this like people. Anyone who wants to be something less will have his chance in the forest. There'll be plenty of room for him to run away and play at being an ape."

She turned and walked back toward her room. Her body trembled with residual anger and frustration. She did not want the others to see her tremble. She had never come closer to losing control, killing people.

Joseph spoke her name softly. She swung around, ready to fight, then made herself relax as she recognized his voice. She stood looking at him, longing to go to him, but restraining herself. What did he think of what she had done?

"I know those guys don't deserve it," he said, "but some of them need help. Peter's arm is broken. The others... Can you get the Oankali to help them?"

Alarmed, she looked back at the carnage she had created. She drew a deep breath, managed to still her trembling. Then she spoke quietly in Oankali.

"Whoever is on watch, come in and check these people. Some of them may be badly hurt."

"Not so badly," a disembodied voice answered in Oankali. "The ones on the floor will heal without help. I'm in contact with them through the floor."

"What about the one with the broken arm?"

"We'll take care of him. Shall we keep him?"

"I'd love to have you keep him. But no, leave him with us. You're already suspected of being murderers."

"Derrick is asleep again."

"I thought so. What shall we do with Peter?"

"Nothing. Let him think for a while about his behavior."

"Ahajas?"

"Yes?"

Lilith drew another deep breath. "I'm surprised to realize how good it is to hear your voice."

There was no answer. Nothing more to be said. "What did he say?" Joseph wanted to know. "She. She said no one was seriously hurt. She said the Oankali would take care of Peter after he's had time to think about his behavior."

"What do we do with him until then?"

"Nothing."

"I thought they wouldn't talk to you," Gabriel said, his voice filled with unconcealed suspicion. He and Tate and a few others had come over to her. They stood back cautiously.

"They talk when they want to," she said. "This is an emergency so they decided to talk."

"You knew that one, didn't you?"

She looked at Gabriel. "Yes, I knew her."

"I thought so. Your tone and the way you looked when you talked to her.. . You relaxed more, seemed almost wistful."

"She knows 1 never wanted this job."

"Was she a friend?"

"As much as it's possible to be friends with someone of a totally different species." She gave a humorless laugh. "It's hard enough for human beings to be friends with each other."

Yet she did think of Ahajas as a friend-Ahajas, Dichaan, Nikanj. . . But what was she to them? A tool? A pleasurable perversion? An accepted member of the household? Accepted as what? Round and round. It would have been easier not to care. Down on Earth, it would not matter. The Oankali used her relentlessly for their own purposes, and she worried about what they thought of her.

"How can you be this strong?" Tate demanded. "How can you do all this?"

Lilith rubbed a hand over her face wearily. "The same way I can open walls," she said. "The Oankali changed me a little. I'm strong. I move fast. I heal fast. And all that is supposed to help me get as many of you as possible through this experience and back on Earth." She looked around. "Where's Allison?"