So, it's a really interesting dynamic that the writers portrayed in History Rhymes, with Nolan not being very warm or kind to Irisa in the beginning of their relationship. This piece explores that a little, so it's completely separate from the other one-shots as it doesn't make much sense in the context of them. I'm going through a bit of Defiance withdrawl at the moment, and anxiously awaiting news of either its renewal (please!) or cancellation. Enjoy!

It had been two months since Nolan had rescued the little Irath girl from a cult, and then the E-Rep, and they were both struggling to collect technology from the fallen Arks. Nolan figured it was probably a dangerous, but potentially lucrative endeavor, and he had to admit to himself, if to no one else, that it seemed like an adventure—and if there was one thing he loved in this new world, it was adventure.

As for Irisa, she stayed fairly quiet for the most part, aside from the occasional nightmare. Nolan was still reconciling his hatred of the Votans with his new charge, whom he didn't necessarily like but felt a strange sense of protectiveness over. Several of the people he had met advised him to drop her off at the nearest brothel and collect the payment, but he couldn't do that to a child, not even a Votan one. So here he was, traveling the Badlands with a little girl, searching for tech that fell from the sky. It was almost surreal. At least she came in handy when there were small crevices to explore that he couldn't get to. They had made out somewhat well, with Nolan's military background giving him an advantage over the other Hunters.

He hoped that somewhere along the way, he would find someone else who was willing to take care of her. Dragging a kid into every seedy bar and brothel to gain intel about the next Arkfall was really killing his ability to cut loose. He couldn't exactly leave her alone at the bar while he went upstairs with a working girl; who knew what could happen to her there. Especially because he tended to frequent human hangouts, and there were people out there who would take their hatred out on a child. Not that he blamed them for their hurt and anger, but he wasn't going to allow her to be harmed while under his care.

He was headed towards one such place now, a hole-in-the-wall in North Dakota where he hoped to find something to drink and maybe a repair shop nearby. He had scraped up enough cash to buy a shitty, tired old roller and the thing was in need of care constantly. It was only going to get worse from here on out, as winter was firmly here to stay in the northern hemisphere, as indicated by the several inches of snow that crunched beneath the tires.

The town was nothing special, of course, just a small trading post settlement with barely enough people to keep it alive. The ones who did live here, of course, gathered at their local bar. Some things will never change, he thought. It was almost comforting.

He parked the roller in front of the establishment and killed the engine. Motioning for Irisa to do the same, he climbed out and stepped into the bar. It was fairly lively for five in the evening, with men and women ordering drinks and bar appetizers and playing pool, but not crowded or too loud. He leaned up against the bar counter and helped Irisa climb onto the stool beside him. Once he had attracted the bartender's attention, he ordered whiskey, straight, and "a water for the kid." He wondered if she noticed the guarded stares she was getting from some of the other patrons.

The bartender, an older woman with dirty blonde hair and wrapped in a sweatshirt, came back with their drinks. No point in being objectifying in towns like these, everyone was just trying to get by and no one would stiff her on tips just for not living up to the beauty expectations of the Old World. Nolan asked her if there was a repair shop somewhere in town.

"Yeah," the bartender replied in an accent that gave away that she had lived in North Dakota her whole life. "On the other side of the town. It's called Karl's, it's not hard to find."

"Thanks, ma'am," he replied. "Also…" he trailed off, to see if she would bite.

She did. "Yeah?"

"We're out here looking for Arkfalls. Any news on that front?"

She smiled, the action making the crow's feet at the corners of her eyes more pronounced. "You're in luck," she told him. "One crashed yesterday, only an hour's drive from here. You'll want to get there very soon though—word's already spread, and other Hunters will be crawling all over it."

"Guess we'd better get a move on, then. Maybe we can make out with something tonight," he paid and tipped her and exited, Irisa acting as his tiny shadow.

"Yesterday" wasn't exactly lucky, from an Ark Hunter's perspective. "Yesterday" meant that others might have already picked the ship clean. He normally tried to get info from those with the tech to detect the next Arkfall before it happened, but he doubted that anyone operated in a little town like that. Still, it was worth a shot. Even if they made out with one or two items, it would at least be worth the trouble.

…

They arrived at the fallen ship a little bit after six-thirty, and Nolan could not see a trace of anyone outside of the massive wreck. Didn't mean that there wasn't anyone inside, or that others hadn't it made it there before them, but it was a good sign. He was glad that North Dakota was pretty much the ass end of nowhere right now.

He parked the roller under the cover of a cluster of trees, fairly confident that it would last him until he could get it to the repair shop tomorrow morning. Besides, if they found anything, he would actually be able to pay the mechanic. Which was important.

He cast a sidelong glance at his small companion. She put on a brave face, but her arms were wrapped around her and he could tell that she was trying not to shiver. He had to admit, it was bitter cold out. The thought crossed his mind that he should look into a thicker coat for her, and then shook his head. Why was he so concerned? It was freezing, but it wasn't like she was going to die of exposure anytime soon.

"Let's go, kid," his voice traveled to her over the howling wind. As expected, she said nothing but followed him to the wreckage.

Nolan was always amazed at the sheer size of these things. He supposed that they had to be, as they were carrying entire populations of the Votan races, but it was nevertheless daunting. He ducked underneath a mangled mass of metal that led to an opening under the Ark, then pulled himself up into the Ark proper. Irisa scrambled up beside him, her smaller frame making the movement a little bit more difficult.

They looked around. Everything obvious had been taken—Terrasphere, all of the tech in the pilot's cabin, and many of the computers that had once kept the aliens in hypersleep alive. Those computers weren't worth much, but they were at least something if the pair couldn't salvage anything else. Nolan listened for the telltale signs of others in the Ark, but was confident that there was no one.

They traveled deeper into the craft, until Nolan realized that he had been walking alone for a few meters. He glanced back, and saw that Irisa had stepped up to one of the hypersleep pods, looking into it with some kind of morbid curiosity. He sighed quietly and got closer.

She was looking at the body of an Irathient teenage girl, her eyes serenely closed and her head tilted to one side. The scene didn't sit well with him. It was uncomfortable, thinking that those aliens looked so much like his charge.

"Irisa, come on," he called to her. She tore her gaze away from the body and stared at him with eyes too big and green to ever pass as human, but took hurried steps to catch up to him.

"There's nothing we can do to help them," he said softly, trying to give her some kind of explanation. He felt like he had to. It was a strange feeling to him, the slight gnawing of remorse in the back of his brain. As a soldier, he had to separate the Votans from being anything other than "The Enemy," and now that he was caring for a Votan child he had to face the reality that yes, these really were sentient beings, with families and lives and goals, not so unlike humans themselves.

He raked the beam of his flashlight over the large enclosure of the main hall of the Ark, until its light reflected off of something that blinked on and off, emitting a soft blue glow. He approached the source of the tech, and realized that he was staring into a tiny window at the end of a sharp-edged tunnel of twisted metal of what looked like another room—a room that was probably totally unexplored due to it's difficult location, and probably held several thousand scrips' worth of Votan technology. He looked at Irisa, who met his gaze unblinkingly.

"Think you can get in there?"

She stood on her toes to peer into the treacherous-looking tunnel, then looked back at him and nodded. He grinned, and was happy to see her give him a half-smile in return.

"Alright," he picked her up and held her to the mouth of the tunnel. She climbed in, crawling further inside on her hands and knees.

"Okay," he started. "Just see what you can find in there and shout it back to me. I'll tell you what's worth picking up. And be careful. That metal will cut right through your skin."

He watched as she gingerly picked her way through the tunnel, and dropped into the room.

"What can you see?" he called to her.

"It's cramped. The crash really wrecked it," she responded. "I think it might be a medical bay."

Nolan inwardly celebrated. Medical devices fetched quite the price anywhere. The Ark creaked ominously, but they were used to it, especially in recently-crashed Arks. "See if you can find a glowing blue cube, with Indojisnen chracters. It's an Indogene Emergency Kit, used for when Indogenes have to make emergency repairs to themselves. They can get really expensive," Nolan told her. He listened to her move around the tiny enclosure, lifting wreckage and placing it back down. The Ark continued to make soft, eerie noises, and sway almost imperceptibly back and forth. He could hear the wind pounding against the outside of the Ark, wheezing through the cracks in the walls and even making its way to him.

"Nolan, I think I found somethi—ugh!" Irisa was cut off by the ship lurching further into its crashed position on the Earth. Her legs gave way beneath her, and she landed on her hand and knees—just in time to see a ceiling panel dislodge from its precarious position and come crashing down on her back.

Nolan heard her cry out in pain as he too, tried to regain his balance after the violent, unexpected movement of the Ark. His heart jumped into his throat. "Irisa!"

He peered into the tunnel, but the room was blocked off from his view by a large piece of scrap metal that had dislodged and cut off the path to the medical bay. "Irisa! Are you alright?"

She didn't answer for a few moments, but then, "I'm trapped. There's a piece of the ceiling on top of me." Her voice wavered with the fear she was trying not to beat back down. Crap! How was he supposed to get her out of there? Nolan's mind raced with the options he had. One, he could stay and try to find the tools necessary to pry the tunnel open enough to fit himself through and hope that he could lift the ceiling panel on his own. Two, he could leave and get help. Three, he could wait and hope that some other Ark Hunters—hopefully friendly ones—would arrive and help them. Four, he could always just—

"Nolan?" Irisa's voice was timid. He must have stayed silent for too long. "Are you going to leave me here?" The quiet fear, expressed so simply, drew him from that exact thought. He felt ashamed almost immediately. It wasn't as if it was something he was seriously considering, but it did cross his mind. What did that say about him?

"Of course not, kiddo," he tried to assure her, forcing a lighter tone to his voice to cover his guilt, hoping that she didn't catch his hesitation. "I just have to figure out a way to get you outta here."

As much as he hated Votans (and, if he was being honest, Iraths in particular), he couldn't just leave the little girl to die alone. After all, they had come this far together, right? What would have been the purpose of risking it all to get her away from the E-Rep if he just left her here?

He ran over the options in his head again. Leaving to get help seemed like the only intelligent choice at the moment—but how could he leave her when he had just promised her that he wouldn't? He sighed.

"Kiddo?" At her acknowledgement, he continued. "It's getting colder by the minute out there, and if we stay in here for too long we risk some serious damage to our bodies. So I'm not going to be able to open up the tunnel and lift the ceiling panel on my own in time." He hoped that she was following his logic. "In order to get you out before both of us freeze, I have to leave and get help." He waited, but she didn't answer him. "I don't think that we're that far out of hailer range from the town."

"Don't go," came her soft plea.

"Irisa," he tried to reason with her. "It's the only chance I have to get you out of there alive." He waited for that information to sink in. Finally, she responded with a quiet, "Okay."

He took that as permission to leave the Ark and find the promised help. "I'll be back soon. Just stay calm," he told her before running through the main passageway as fast as he could, ducking under the entrance, and sprinting to the roller. He prayed to every god he could think of that it would start without issue, and last at least until he could get within hailer range. It would be just his luck that it would break down before he could, though.

To his immense relief, the roller roared to life and he swung out into the clearing, pushing the machine as fast as it could safely go. He didn't want to risk sliding on the ice and crashing. Every now and again, he would check his hailer, testing to see where the range was. Finally, during one such test, he heard static come over the system instead of the deafening silence he had experienced previously. He punched in the frequency of the Lawkeeper's office, hoping that the man would help him without asking too many questions.

"Lawkeeper O'Connell," came a bored-sounding voice over the static.

"Hello, my name is Joshua Nolan. I'm an Ark Hunter, and my traveling companion is in grave danger. We're willing to pay for your services," he blurted out in a quick succession of words, trying to bypass all the unnecessary introductions to save time. He hoped that the man on the other end of the line understood him.

"Where are you located?" came the response, suddenly all-business.

"I'm traveling back towards town, but the Arkfall is about twenty-five miles outside of town," Nolan explained.

"Alright, stay where you are. We're tracking your coordinates now. We'll come to you," O'Connell told him. Nolan slammed on the brakes but kept the roller on so that the office could track him.

"Got it?" He asked after a few moments, his anxiety level too high to wait for the response to come on its own.

"Yep," the Lawkeeper replied. "Keep calm. We're on our way." With that, the connection died and Nolan was left in silence again. He considered turning around and racing back to Irisa to tell her the good news, but thought better of it. He needed to be here to lead the Lawkeeper to her. Nolan closed his eyes and let his breathing even out for several minutes. He wouldn't be any good to her if he was panicking when O'Connell arrived. He almost couldn't believe how worked up he was getting about this. How many Votans had he killed in the war? What was so different about this little girl? He figured that it had something to do with the fact that not only was she just a child, but she had also been tortured by her fellow Votans, and she was born on Earth. She was different from the others.

Nolan wasn't sure how long it was until the Lawkeeper's vehicle's headlights crested over the hill, but he couldn't deny his sigh of relief when they did. O'Connell pulled up to his roller, and rolled down his window. Nolan did the same so that they could speak to one another. He noticed that a young-looking, male deputy peered at him from the passenger seat. O'Connell asked him how far away the wreckage was.

"About fifteen miles from here," Nolan replied. He started up his roller, but the Lawkeeper held up his hand to stop him from driving away.

"Before we go ahead, I just want to remind you of your promise of payment," O'Connell said.

Nolan almost couldn't believe that the man would bring this up while someone was in serious danger. Almost. This new world really exposed how self-serving people could be. Nolan didn't have the energy nor the inclination to argue with him or make up a plausible lie, so he just told him, "We found an Indogene Emergency Kit. If you can get her out of there, you can have it, no questions asked."

"Her?" O'Connell asked, his eyebrow raised with interest.

"She's just a child," Nolan snapped, aware of the Lawkeeper's unstated intentions.

"You brought a child into an Arkfall?" The deputy asked incredulously.

"Yes, yes, I know, I'm a terrible caretaker. Listen. You'll get your payment. Just help me get her out of there before she freezes to death," Or worse, Nolan mentally added on. Just because there were no other Ark Hunters there when he left didn't mean that they couldn't have gotten there by now.

O'Connell rolled his eyes but nodded to his deputy in the passenger seat that they were going to help him out. Nolan started driving across the tundra, checking his rearview mirror to make sure that O'Connell was still following him. The guy might be a jerk, but if he was going to help then Nolan couldn't afford to lose him now.

…

This time, instead of parking under tree cover, Nolan pulled right up to the ship. He was inside the Ark again before he even stopped to check if O'Connell and his deputy had gotten out of the car. He waited impatiently in the main passageway for them to catch up, then led them to Irisa as fast as he could. It took some time, as he couldn't remember exactly where the ruined medical bay had been, but he made it without too many wrong turns.

"Irisa?" he called out tentatively.

"Nolan?" She answered. The sound of her voice sent a shiver of hope through him. He was worried that they might have been too late. He wasn't sure how much air she had access to in there, and it must have been close to zero degrees Fahrenheit at this point, and she was still severely underweight, despite Nolan's best efforts to keep her on a regular meal schedule. Add to that her lack of a real winter coat, and…

Well, he was just glad she was still alive.

"I brought help," he told her. "They have the tools to open up the tunnel. It's going to get pretty noisy in here for a while, but just hang tight, okay?" His voice was kindly, although taut with worry, and the sound of it surprised even him.

"Okay," she said bravely. He was impressed at the control she was showing throughout this whole ordeal. She was quite mature for her age. Hell, she was more mature than some people his age—he could imagine that most people wouldn't be this calm in a situation like this, but she was handling it surprisingly well. Must have something to do with spending your entire childhood being tortured by cultists.

He turned at the sound of footsteps coming closer. O'Connell and his deputy entered the anteroom, brandishing some low-tech equipment that resembled something Old World firefighters would use to pull wrecked cars apart with—the jaws of life. He had seen them on the news once, during a segment about a fatal car accident, when he was a boy. Nolan suspected that at one point they were just that.

The deputy fired up the tool and it made a faint whirring noise. The claws opened and shut over the first piece of offending metal that stood in between them and Irisa, which was crushed underneath the force of the equipment. O'Connell helped his deputy pull the tool backwards, dragging the metal to the side of the tunnel. As a result, a tiny sliver of light could be seen through the hole.

Nolan was totally at a loss as to what he should be doing. He wasn't used to standing around and waiting while someone else handled the issue. It seemed wrong. He felt like he wasn't contributing to his charge's rescue at all, despite being the one to bring help along. Of course, he was also the reason that she was trapped in there in the first place…

O'Connell and the deputy moved on to pull aside another large sheet of metal, which made the hole slightly larger, about the size of his head. Maybe the best thing was to just keep her talking. He wasn't sure how hurt she was, or if she had suffered from oxygen deprivation. She hadn't said anything since he announced that he was back, which wasn't unusual but was still worrying. He moved closer to the entrance of the tunnel.

"Irisa?" He said cautiously. He felt O'Connell glance at him curiously, but he wasn't going to entertain his nosiness.

Her reply was strained and breathy. "Yeah?"

"Are you hurt?"

"I don't know," she answered. "A little. I can't move, I think something cut into my legs."

Damnit, Nolan thought. He hated what he was going to say next, but he didn't want O'Connell to think that he was going to go back on their deal, or that there was never an Indogene Emergency Kit at all.

"Did you manage to get the kit?" He asked, and cringed. Now was not the time, but it had to be done. Her answer came after a moment's hesitation.

"I'm sorry," she began. "I didn't have time—I mean, I was going for it but-" The guilt and shame leaked into her voice. "I can get it once this sheet of metal is off of me," she offered as one last-ditch effort to apologize for her assumed failure.

"No, kiddo, it's fine. Don't worry about it," he told her, trying to ease her conscience. His own guilt at how he'd used her willingness to repay him for rescuing her to manipulate her into retrieving things for him like a dog flared up in that moment. He would have to tell her later that her worth wasn't tied to what she could procure for him. He wasn't going to hold her rescue over her head so that she would do what he wanted.

O'Connell stopped what he was doing. "No kit, and we don't help the kid out of there," he warned.

"I'll get it for you once there's enough space for me to get through. You'll get your pay," Nolan replied in a low voice.

O'Connell set his jaw and went back to work. An hour later, there was a space large enough for Nolan to fit himself through. Smaller than what Irisa went through going in, but she was still trapped beneath a piece of the Ark, so Nolan had to wriggle himself through the tight fit and pull her out. He hoisted himself up into the tunnel and made his way carefully to the other side, where he was forced to drop onto the floor headfirst as there was no way to turn around and land on his feet. He braced his arms in front of him so as to break his fall, and landed heavily on the silvery-blue tile of the medical bay with an unceremonious grunt. He picked himself up, but was unable to stretch to his full height due to the low ceiling. He spotted the kit in the corner of the room and snatched it up, placing it near the entrance to the tunnel so that he could grab it before they went back.

A large piece of the ceiling had fallen out of place due to the change in the Ark's position, and hung from the ceiling at a forty-five degree angle. Behind that, another panel had fallen out completely, and Nolan guessed that was where Irisa was trapped.

"I'm here, kiddo," he said. "I'm going to pull this panel up, but you have to crawl out as fast as you can. I'm not sure if I can hold it up very much or for very long."

"Okay," she said simply.

Nolan grasped the edge of the panel and heaved, straining under the weight of it. He pulled it up at least half a meter off of the floor, and could hear Irisa scrambling out from underneath. Once he saw her pull herself out fully, he dropped the panel and it landed with a booming noise that shook the Ark. Irisa still lay on the ground beside him, and as Nolan checked her over he could see why—two large gashes still bled through her pants on the backs of her calves. There must have been something sharp on the ceiling that sank into her legs when it pinned her.

He reached down drew her up onto her feet. Her eyes were glazed over with pain and exhaustion, but other than the cuts she seemed to be okay. He thanked whatever gods were out there for that small mercy. No permanent damage from lack of air, no frostbite.

"Alright. I know it hurts, but I'm going to have to send you through that tunnel again. I'll be right behind you, don't worry." He lifted her to the tunnel, and watch her crawl forward a few lengths before throwing the emergency kit in and following her. They squeezed through the tunnel together, and the deputy caught Irisa as she came out on the other side. Nolan dropped the emergency kit on the floor once he'd reached the end, then jumped out himself. He stood to find the deputy wrapping the Irath girl in a wool blanket in the corner of the room.

"There you go," Nolan said to O'Connell, gesturing to the kit. "All yours."

He walked to where the deputy was holding Irisa's tiny hand in his own, trying to warm up her icy fingers. The deputy smiled at her, but she seemed too out of it to return the expression. She glanced up when Nolan came by.

"Thanks," he said sincerely to the deputy. The other man nodded.

Nolan crouched so that he could look Irisa in the eye. "We're going to go back and get those cuts checked out, and then we're going to get a warm meal and sleep tonight. But we still have to find something to trade for all that," he explained to her. "Can you stay here with the deputy while I find something?"

She looked a little distressed and began to pull away from the deputy to walk with him, but the man pulled her back. "Listen to your dad," he said warmly.

Nolan shook his head. "I'm not her dad," he said, his voice firm. He didn't want the deputy to put any sentimental ideas in her head. They wouldn't be together much longer, and it would be easier for them both if they didn't grow too attached.

"Well, obviously not biologically," the deputy replied. "But I'm adopted. I know what it looks like when someone parents a kid that isn't their own."

Nolan narrowed his eyes. "Clearly you don't," he said, an edge in his voice. The deputy looked like he wanted to say something to that, but thought better of it and turned his attention back to Irisa. Nolan walked back into the main passageway to scavenge some of the computers they had passed by on their way in, faintly angry that the deputy had challenged him on his assertion that he wasn't her father.

...

Later that night, once they had visited the doctor and had a meal consisting of warm soup, Nolan hummed an Old World tune while Irisa drifted off to sleep beside him. He reflected briefly on the deputy's words. It wasn't the first time someone had mistook his concern for the girl as fatherly concern, but it still made him somewhat uncomfortable. He had spent years hating and killing Votans. Just because this one was different didn't make her special.

Still, he couldn't help the affection that seeped its way into him when he looked at her. Maybe he was just getting soft. He hadn't had a family in some time now. Maybe it was time to build up those bonds again.