Colors of the Wind

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek nor do I own Sailor Moon. I do own my original characters and the idea for this story. I haven't seen it anywhere else and have been working on the idea for this since early 2010. No infringement is intended.

Dedicated to: My friend occultkat for the inspiration for this story and my sister Sam for the fingerless gloves that made typing it possible.

1. Absolute Zero

She was silent as she watched them leave her behind. She knew there was a good reason for it, had actually planned for it to happen, but it still didn't prepare her for the actuality.

It hurt. It hurt far more than she had ever thought it possibly would or even could. She was alone once again, alone with no one but her own thoughts. Thoughts that wouldn't be for her betterment, even if they would be for the others. This was the only thing that would keep her going for years to come. She had a purpose, a goal, a reason for why this was happening.

It didn't change the anguish that stayed strung across her soul. The absolute zero within her that sobbed silently like a small child that had been left to die in the bitter cold without even a tree for comfort and no water besides the frozen crystals that would continually fall around her stationary form. The memory of any warmth stolen from her mind by the mindless expanse around her no devoid of any feeling at all.

But…

It was worth it. Though that would not become permanently true for far longer than she cared to think about.

2. Alien Armpit

Out of everything she was setting out to do this was the worst. Seriously, if she was going to be watching her princess's family through the ages until she died, then she didn't ever want to be stuck on diaper duty ever again.

But the chances of it happening were greater than her chances of escaping it successfully were.

Lovely.

3. Alloy Orange

She ducked the ray of light that shot out over their heads and lifted the small form in her arms higher from the ground, clutching the whimpering child hard to her chest. She didn't worry about leaving bruises behind, the consequences of dropping the child were what worried her far more. She kept the others in their group in her mind, making sure that none would be left behind. She knew that she wasn't the leader of this group. On the contrary, she was nothing more than someone who would always follow. She could never be a leader and she never would be. It wasn't something that she resented, though she had seen others in her long life who had resented their place in life. She was more than content with her role in life and had always been so.

In a way, she had been born for this duty: to watch over those younger than her, but never to be the one in charge. She followed her orders to the spirit as well as the letter. It was more than just duty, it was her life. She was just fine with that and she always would be.

She continued to listen to their pursuers as they slowly fell further and further behind. She followed the teen in front of her as she dodged out of the path they had consistently been following for the last few kilometers. She kept the teen in front of her, following directly in her footsteps so as to confuse anyone that might have caught any part of their trail. It was highly unlikely though as the final person in their group was following them, carefully obscuring their trail even further. She didn't worry that they would be found.

She trusted her liege with all her heart and soul and he had never let her down before. She didn't see him taking the time to let her down now.

4. Almond

He was silent as the bowl was placed before him. It was fluffy and green with slices of other things within the leaves. He wasn't sure what everything was called anymore, it had been so long since he'd been able to think of food as anything but what they could scrounge and even longer since he'd actually eaten more than a few crumbs. He, as well as the other teens in their group, had made sure that most of the food had gone to the children, the youngest first. They were older and wouldn't require as much; at least that was what they told the children when they were asked if they were going to eat.

The colors in the bowl were all different from what he was used to eating after so long. The only color that he even recognized was a small sliver of white-brown, darker on the inside of the slices than the outside. They looked like a few of the nuts that one of their group had found on a foraging mission. They hadn't been very palatable, but they had been edible and so they were gathered and added to their supplies, what meager ones that they had.

"Is everything all right?"

His eyes slipped away from the small portion of salad in front of him up to the cook. He nodded slowly and then reached out with his fingers to eat the food in front of him. He was slow and methodical about it. He hadn't thought to use the utensils provided. Such implements had been used for other things by their group during That Time.

"I'm glad that you're able to keep that down. The Captain was worried, but I told her that she didn't need to worry at all. It's one of the preferred recipes to give those who haven't been able to each much more than Leola root broth for some reason or another in this sector."

He listened to his current host ramble on about this or that thing, not really paying attention to what he was saying as he focused most of his abilities on eating slow enough to not upset his stomach. He wasn't sure what it was about the cook who was even now talking about other dishes that were more than popular in this sector or in the next sector as well, but he made him feel safe. As if he could trust this man with not only his own life, but with the lives that he was looking after as well.

"Well! I'm glad that you're enjoying the salad! I know that you won't be able to eat much of the rest of my menu, not yet anyway, but this is certainly a step in the right direction!" the lion-like man in front of him beamed at him as he gathered the now empty bowl and the small fork from the table and carried them off into the kitchen to clean.

The young man sitting at the table didn't rise or follow the other man with anything other than his eyes. He didn't know this man, didn't think he would have had a chance to know him if things had been different. But there was something there, something that reminded him of another.

5. Amazon Rainforest

She wasn't wild about leaving them like that, but she knew that if anyone had a chance of finding help, then it was her. She wasn't going to let any of their hard work go to waste, even if a large part of that work had already gone wrong in that it only saved a handful of them rather than everyone like it was supposed to.

She shook her head and purposefully turned away from the planet that was in front of her. She had already left its gravitational pull, but she wasn't far enough away that she wouldn't be able to see it yet. She still had a little way family, what little of it was here, wasn't even really on the planet yet. They wouldn't be for some time, and that, more than anything else, was what she was grateful for. It was one of the few mistakes in their calculations that were able to give a positive spin on the whole thing. She would know when they did arrive and where they would materialize on the planet. She had already planned for this before leaving the planet's surface and had set up a rudimentary camp with things that they would need and had even been able to set something up that would have food of some kind ready for them when they'd get there.

The planet's surface, at the least the area that they would arrive on, was in a strange forest that reminded her of ones from their home planet when she was younger, much younger. They had enormous trees and some animal life, but didn't really have much in the way of sentient life forms, or if they did, they weren't the kind that lived in the forest or even above ground. She had made sure of the area's safety before she'd even begun to set up a campsite. She wasn't going to leave anything to chance. As a safety precaution in case someone came along, somehow, she had left something behind as an assurance that no one would be able to find their campsite. She may be weak and starving, but she was still in better condition than any of the others in their group, both from before the Accident and after it. She also had resources that would work better at protecting this kind of place than most others did. She'd also left a message behind just in case she wasn't able to get back before they arrived so that they would know what had happened to her.

She continued her journey out of the present solar system and made sure that she kept at least some part of her abilities open in such a way that would alert her if there was anyone close by that would either need her assistance or that would be able to assist her and her family when they finally did arrive. She was heading out to make any kind of allies she could in the hopes that they would be beneficial to her mission. That didn't mean that she would be anything less than cautious about how or when she would approach them. They had already learned what happened when you gave someone power and they didn't use it for the betterment of those in their care.

She had learned those lessons before, when she was younger, but it was one of those lessons that a person seemed destined to learn and relearn throughout their life if they wasn't to be able to trust anyone outside of themselves. Sadly, this time it would take more for her to unconditionally trust anyone with her family's safety. She hadn't had a lesson like the one Kodos the Executioner had taught her in a while and she was hoping that she would never need such a lesson ever again.

6. Amethyst

He wasn't sure why it was that he had taken so long to think things over. Maybe it was because such a large part of his life was gone. No, more than one part. Several parts were missing and all he was left with was the broken remains. He had himself, his mother and his brother's keeper. His mother wasn't handling things very well, but she was at least able to recognize that and moved to get what help she could. Mostly, that just meant that she worked out in the black as much as she possibly could, only staying and working dirt-side when she could no longer handle being so far away from what little of her husband she had left.

Unfortunately, that didn't mean that she was missing her only remaining son the most. It meant that she was missing the sunshine of the Sol System's star as it shone down on the Iowa cornfields. She missed working with plants on her birth planet and missed seeing the sunflowers that she kept at the house turning their heads resolutely after the sun. Just as she had done when her first husband was alive. She did love her son and a part of her did miss him when she was away from him, but he wasn't enough to keep her more than a little aware of what her life was lacking. She didn't ignore him when she was home and she didn't ignore his comms or any of the letters that he wrote her. She answered all of them faithfully and was never one to stop reminding her child that she loved him.

He just wasn't enough.

For the most part, he didn't hold this against her. He had resented her need to be out in the Black for a few years, when it was just him and his brother as well as their keepers. She had left them with her brother, Frank.

Frank wasn't the worst person to take care of children, though he certainly wasn't the best either. His fiancé had left him after spending a few years trying to get along with his nephews. She wasn't ready to be a mother, even if they wouldn't actually become hers when she and Frank married. Frank, of course, didn't take this well. Not many people would, but he didn't take his anger out on the boys, though there were times when it was a near thing. When those times came, Frank would retreat to the garage and work on a car that his sister had left behind.

Frank wasn't the best mechanic, but he was a young man who had lost what he had thought was his whole life because his sister couldn't' handle the death of her husband and so had dumped her children on him when his life was just starting. At first, he'd damaged the car, smashing the window first and then the headlights and then trying to crush the pieces of glass into fine powder. He hadn't damaged much else on the car as anything else would require a lot more to repair. He knew that once he'd worked out his anger he'd feel ashamed that he'd broken something to so beautiful. It was one of the main reasons that he would make sure there was food in the house, lock all the doors and windows and then walk away from his nephews after making sure that they would be able to comm him if there was an emergency. He also let them know that unless there was a genuine emergency they shouldn't try to contact him.

He'd yell at them and ground them and sometimes be set off by the smallest of things, but he never touched them in any way that inappropriate for an uncle. He loved those kids, they were family, but he was younger than his sister and wasn't used to dealing with a baby and a young boy. Sometimes he would lose his temper too fast around the children, but he only threw non-breakable items. After the first few times he almost clipped one of the kids with a wooden toy that had been their father's, he boxed away all the breakable figurines that his sister had left behind and put them in the attic. He also made sure there were little decorative pillows in every room in the house, just in case.

One of his friends had asked him why he was going to so much trouble for kids that weren't even his and that his sister obviously didn't care about. Frank had answered that they were family and family always stuck together. His friend had stared at him for one long moment and then promptly finished his beer and told Frank that he should be prepared to getting called daddy a lot then. Frank had scowled and left the bar, making sure to pick the kids up from the babysitter's down the road and hadn't gone to the bar for several weeks after that. This didn't stop him from instilling in his nephews that he was Uncle, not daddy, not mommy and not 'hey you.'

Frank had wanted children of his own, someday, and his fiancé had wanted them too. She hadn't wanted them so soon, however and wasn't prepared to take care of them for what seemed an indefinite time. When she'd left him, she'd left behind the engagement ring he'd given her on the kitchen table. It was one of the first nights that Frank's two nephews had cuddled around him as he cried himself to sleep. In Frank's hand was a simple band of white gold with an amethyst set in a heart of smaller yellow diamonds.

7. Antique Brass

Kirk looked around at his crew. They were good people, people that he would, and did, trust with his life. He trusted them to do their jobs, regardless of what they thought of the mission, the people they would meet or even what they thought of him. He wouldn't have been able to pull off defeating Nero without them, and he was thankful for their own faith in him, even if it was somewhat dubious at the time. He knew that they had come to trust and respect him just as much as he did them. If any of them had personal issues with one another or not, they were able to keep them from interfering with their work or how they treated each other, which was always professional since that first mission together.

He dismissed the alpha crew when the beta crew came up and he joked with Sulu down the turbo lift before he got off on Deck 5, heading for one of the smaller Observation Lounges. It was slightly larger than his own quarters and had a much better view of the stars that trailed behind the Enterprise in her wake. He would stand there, watching them as they flew by for almost an hour before he would then leave and head for the Medical Bay to harass Bones. Some days he didn't even stop to look out this window for more than 10 minutes before he'd head straight for his friend. McCoy was aware of his habits and could usually tell how his day had gone dependent on how long it took him to come to his office to chat while the doctor finished up his work for the day.

Kirk stopped as he entered the Observation Lounge, surprised to find another in it. He's even more surprised by who it is.

"What are you doing here?" he asks before he can stop himself.

"Just watching the stars go by." Is the answer in a calm deep voice, a voice that Kirk hasn't heard in longer than he's been a member of the Starfleet Academy.

Kirk frowns at him and steps the rest of the way into the room, allowing the doors to close behind him. He stays quiet for the amount of time it takes him to cross the room and stand beside his guest. Both of them are silent for several long moments, Kirk wouldn't be able to tell just how long those moments actually were and he wasn't really bothered by that. For all he knew time had been more or less stopped for this discussion and no time or barely any at all would have passed at the end of everything.

"I see that," he finally said, still a Starfleet Captain even if he wasn't currently on duty. Starfleet Captains were always really on duty as long as they were on their ship and not in the brig.

His companion glanced at him, a smirk crawling onto his face before he looked back out the window. He said nothing, allowing the quiet to linger around them peacefully. Or at least, as peacefully as it could be with someone that wasn't really trusted on a personal level, but was on a professional one.

Kirk glanced at his companion again, taking in the smirk and the twinkle that was in the man's eye. "You're not even trying."

"No, I'm not." The man agreed, "Yet I'm still having just as much fun."

"Why are you here? You can 'see the stars' whenever and wherever you want. Why come here specifically?"

The man continued to smirk as he stared out at the stars they were passing by, not answering. The twinkle in his eye was reaching Loki Level. A level that Kirk had always been extra wary of, but also knew that the ending outcome was usually a better ending than any other, even if it was done in such an absurd or even outright ridiculous way just to amuse his companion. Who turned and flipped a shiny piece of metal to the human captain. Kirk caught the slightly larger than a silver dollar sized piece of brass and looked down at the marking engraved on it.

Captain Kirk slowly bled away to just Jim and he turned and shared a smirk with the man beside him. "So, it's going to be like that. Good."

8. Apricot

She missed them all so much, missed them more than anyone could ever know. She tried, she tried so hard, to stay with them. Her little boys who were still so young, too young to be without both of their parents, especially their mother. She knew that she wasn't helping them, that she was seen to be abandoning them to just about everyone who knew anything about the situation. Except for maybe three people, three people who understood and didn't hold it against her, or at least tried not to hold it against her. They weren't any more perfect that she was, but at least they tried.

She looked down at the letter in her hand, the letter that was actually on paper. Paper that was scented with the delicate aroma of apricots. She closed her eyes and brought the paper up to her face and breathed in the scent, holding back tears the whole time. She remembered so much from her husband. So much that she would never truly be able to move on. It wouldn't matter how hard she tried, it was simply a matter of fact.

One didn't just move on from a Bond with a Senshi, even if the Line was dormant.

9. Aqua Green

Jim glared at everything and everyone around him. He didn't want to be here and he was pretty sure that no one wanted him here. He steadfastly ignored his keeper, she hadn't argued enough against not being sent here and so she was on their side. She should be on his side, she was his after all! She was supposed to do what was best for him at all times and right now that meant being on Earth, not some newbie colony that he didn't even care about! This colony was so young that they weren't even sure if there would be Someone for the planet. It was very unlikely that this planet had held a population of any kind of sentient being in the past as it had mostly been terra-formed by Starfleet. It would take a lot of effort for a Senshi to be born for this planet and it certainly wouldn't be any time soon.

He wasn't here for that, of course, but it was the only reason he could think of for why his current legal guardians were here. His father's sister wasn't a Senshi anymore than Jim's father had been. Their Line had been dormant for longer than any of them could remember, and that was a very long time even with the Line's lives reduced greatly by the dormancy of their abilities. His fraternal aunt was still probably one of the few that would be able to pick up on anything even with her abilities mostly unavailable and/or untrained. His mother's brother, Frank was unable to watch him for some reason that Jim hadn't really paid attention to at the moment. (Why yes when he threw a tantrum it was quite epic and he tended to ignore people no matter what. He'd find out why in an hour or so when he stopped sulking and left his new room. Maybe sooner if he decided to hack what internet access they had and found out for himself.)

Sam had, had to finish some kind of project for school and wouldn't be arriving for another few weeks, two at the most and one and half at the least. Sam's keeper was with him, not that most people would be able to pick up on it, but there was that. He idly wondered where his was and what she was doing. He knew that if he thought about it hard enough she would show up, but he wasn't up for that level of concentration right now. Mostly because he was still sulking and giving off 'stay the **** away from me' vibes. She wouldn't come any sooner unless he needed something and dinner wouldn't be for at least another half hour.

He glanced out his window and down at the small creek that was behind his aunt and uncle's house and listened to it trickle down their little sloping hill as a background music to the sounds coming from downstairs.

10. Aqua Pearl

Kirk wondered if there were any others like him out there. He knew, intellectually and realistically that there were, but he hadn't really met too many others. The few that he had, had been cut more than in half during his early teen years, a few of those connections would still twinge painfully now and then, as if he was still connected to them. The connections, if they were still there and not just a phantom pain were very strained and almost threadbare enough to snap. He hoped that they didn't get that bad for at least a decade or longer as the longer they held out the longer he had to actually function at his, well not best. It was kind of hard to function at your best when you were in a situation like his, but at least almost his best. Or close enough to not be noticeable by anyone anyway. He knew, realistically, that this was more than he should be asking for, but he was used to asking for the impossible. Sometimes it actually happened and if it didn't, then no one could say he didn't try.

He glanced around the bridge for a moment, taking in his crew. Though most of the alpha crew wasn't on duty right now Chekov was and Kirk watched as the youngest member of his crew worked through a few calculations for their navigation. The young man wasn't a boy, no matter what some back at Command would think or say. He hadn't been a boy since that first mission, but there was something else. Something that Kirk couldn't seem to get out of his mind, but at the same time he couldn't place what it was.

"Sir?"

Kirk's eyes snapped up and made contact with his Chief Communications Officer. Uhura was the only other member of the alpha crew that was currently on duty.

"Yes, Lieutenant."

"I've got an incoming message from Starfleet Command, Sir."

"Put it through to the main screen."

"Aye, Sir."

"Captain Kirk."

"Admiral Archer, what can we do for you?"

Kirk listened as he was given orders to meet up with a few of the Vulcan Science Academy ships that had managed to survive the destruction of their planet. The Vulcans had been working on finding a place where they would be able to live indefinitely. At the moment, the majority of them were staying on earth with a few scattered here and there on other Federation planets with deserts big enough for temporary settlement. They were meeting up with them in the Black rather than convening on earth for some reason that wasn't really inferred in their comm from Archer.

Once their shift was over, Kirk nodded to his officers and any other crewmembers he ran into on his way to his cabin. He was not surprised when he found an encrypted message waiting for him. What did surprise him was the title of the message: Aqua Pearl. He locked his door and left a message on his door alert to let anyone know that he was only to be disturbed for emergencies for the next hour.

11. Aquamarine

Comet watched the group behind her in slight curiosity; she wondered what it was they were up to. At the same time she wasn't sure she really wanted to know. These beings that she visited occasionally weren't the sanest, not by any stretch of the imagination, but she still didn't want to know just why they were all gathered around a giant reflecting pool. The reflections were split into several different scenes, none of them portraying the people actually watching them. At the same time, she'd been called here for a reason, separated from her other half and actually put into physical form once again. It was a little much to take in all at once, honestly. She hadn't had actual physical senses in…

"Ah, there you are!"

She turned away from her thoughts and towards the being in front of her, "Yes? What was it that you call me here for?"

The being in front of her pouted, "Now, now, is that any way to talk to someone who has given you such a gift as I have?"

She stared straight at him, not showing any emotion on her face.

"You're just as bad as those blasted Vulcans. They never let me have any fun…" the being pouted even harder, "Though Starfleet captains are the absolute worse. Don't be like them, darling, be fun and spontaneous like me!" The being held out his arms as if to hug Comet, who allowed the hug to continue. They were something like family after all.

"What did you need me for, Uncle?" She allowed a small smile to grace her features for a moment as the hug ended.

12. Asparagus

She used to glare down at the vegetable on her plate. She hated, absolutely hated asparagus. There was nothing remotely interesting about the vegetable except for its strange ability to outlive everything else in a parent's mind about what was good for you. It even stayed when she'd been able to convince her parents that broccoli just had to go. She was never certain just how the dreaded asparagus managed to outlast even the most scientific of her arguments.

She quietly lifted her fork to her mouth and chewed the once hated vegetable. She had been without for long enough that she wouldn't turn away any kind of food as long as she was able to physically swallow it and keep it down. Starvation certainly changed many an outlook on food. Something that children shouldn't be put through was her main thought as she watched a few of her comrades eating formerly detested food next to her. She also looked around the room once again, still eating her food, and took note of the other people around them. There were adults all around them, mostly human though there were a few other species around.

She knew that there were other children aboard that weren't from her group, though there were only two or three of them, if that many. She had met one of them, a young man that seemed slightly stiff, though he was that stiff around everyone and not just her. She had also heard that there was a little girl, the first child on this ship, but she hadn't met her yet. The young man was interesting in that he seemed to have some kind of technology attached to his body in various places. He had been at the Sick Bay at the same time she had started waking up for some kind of check-up or she'd have never found out about it. She hadn't really seen him since then.

"I hope that you are all enjoying your food," the kindly cook asked us.

The humanoid wasn't like any of the races they'd known before coming onto this ship. He had come to visit them when they had each awoken on this ship and welcomed them to Voyager. He had worked with the oldest of their group to find quarters that would accommodate all of them, mostly keeping them together in the same set of quarters or at least next door to one another. He spoke with the captain of this vessel and assured her that he would work with other adults who would be in charge of checking up on them that they were in good hands. More than that, he talked with them and didn't dismiss any of their words without good cause. If he did have something against one of their choices, he would talk it over with them as if they were adults and not frightened children.

That isn't to say that he treated them all like that. There were those amongst their group that were nothing more than frightened children, and those were the ones that he was soft and caring with. She wondered often if he had, had any children of his own before. He was good with them and he had no problems with spending time with them. He had even told them about his own little goddaughter who was also on the ship, though she had come down with an illness that, while it wasn't life threatening for the girl who had it, wouldn't be safe to chance any of the new children catching it. He assured them that he would introduce them as soon as he could.

The children around her smiled shyly at the lion-like man. His food was filling, but not hard on their stomachs as she knew several of the adults that heard about their lunch menu had been worried about. As she looked up into his eyes she recognized a kindred soul that had lived off of nothing but what he could scrape together. He knew what kind of care they needed, but at the same time, he knew that they needed to be in charge of their own needs as far as they could. This man made them feel safe with not only his knowledge, but his choice to help them by letting them help themselves.

13. Atomic Tangerine

Comet stared at him with a dead look in her eyes, "You want me to what?"

"I don't think I need to repeat myself. You heard me perfectly, I know you did because your current form has excellent senses. I had Q look into it and she told me that she was going to do her best just for you because you were going to become her brand new sort of niece. She's the best at dealing with female humanoid bodies. Mostly because no one seems to appreciate my taste."

She continued to stare at him in silence, waiting for him to actually explain what it was he had asked her to do. He stared back at her, a smirk on his face that said he could wait just as long as she could and would most definitely do so just to irritate her. Probably to see what she would do, he'd done things like this before, though not necessarily with her. He was the curious type and always wanted to learn new things. He'd seen all that was and all that is and all that would be, but that didn't take some factors into the equation; mostly how people would react, as there was always the chance that they would do the opposite of what you thought they would or something else that hadn't even occurred to you.

They stood like that for quite a while, the exact timing not being important due to the fact that they were in a location that time didn't really affect unless its inhabitants wanted it to. Finally she let out a sigh and, with a raised eyebrow, conceded that he had won.

"Why do you want me to-?"

"Ah-ah-ah." The being in front of her sing-songed, "You already conceded that I won and that I didn't have to explain the whys."

She let out a huff of breath, "Fine then. When do you want me to head out to do your super-secret-irritatingly-vague thing?" She was slightly gritting her teeth by the end of this. She hadn't wanted to be separated from her other half like this and really wanted to go back. It wasn't a pleasant experience to be like this, even if her current form was 'top notch.'

He grinned at her cheekily, "How's about now?"

There was a flash of light and she was gone.

14. AuroMetal Saurus

Samuel Kirk stared at the people around him in dawning horror. This couldn't be right, it just couldn't! There was no real way this could be possible. No, he was hallucinating! This whole rescue and new planet and ship and everything were really just one huge hallucination that he was having right before he died. Or maybe he really had been rescued, but the medicine they had him on was causing reality to warp to his senses. He's read about things happening like that. It would certainly explain things that weren't explainable otherwise.

"Do you understand?" one of his hallucinations asked. She shook his head and ignored anything they said after that. If you didn't listen to your hallucinations, then they would go away eventually, right? He hoped so.

There was no way he was going to accept the fact that he was over a hundred years into the future, on the opposite side of the galaxy from where he had started and that he was supposed to be dead along with all of his family. He was supposed to have died with a wife, a son and a daughter. His younger brother was supposed to be dead as well after already living to become old enough to be an admiral in Starfleet, something that Jimmy would never have done. Jimmy wasn't interested in joining Starfleet and even if he someday did, he would never have become an admiral by sheer force of will. Jimmy wasn't the kind of person to sit behind a desk and rot away giving order and writing up paperwork, he was the kind of person who would get down and dirty and work with people and things.

There was just no other explanation for all of this than that his mind was trying to come to terms with his impending death or that he was hopped up on some seriously good painkillers. He absolutely refused for anything else to be true.

15. Aztec Gold

She flipped the coin in her hand, never really looking at it as she continued to catch it and place it on the back of her hand. She'd then use the back of her hand to toss it back up and catch it with her fingers before repeating the process again and again. She wasn't really paying any attention to what she was doing, but her hands (or at least one of them) needed to be doing something or she was going to go crazy.

She hadn't wanted to do this, hadn't wanted to be sent out on this ridiculous errand, yet here she was doing it anyway. She wasn't even really sure what the errand was and yet she was doing it. Sometimes, just sometimes mind you, her Uncle could be incredibly cryptic. She was well aware that to humans he was always cryptic, but to the rest of her family he was only rarely this vague. Probably because they didn't spend as much time around one another lately (for them anyway, time was a very relative thing). There were times when he was straightforward, though those hadn't happened any time in semi-recent memory. They hadn't exactly been close to one another before things had started happening in her life and they certainly weren't close now.

It's rather hard to be close to someone when you only saw them every couple of centuries. They usually only saw each other when there were check-ins on how the 'kids' were doing. She sort of oversaw their training after all; well, she and her other half. It was part of what allowed them to stay and watch over what little from their former lives they had left. She didn't wonder much about who was left out there and what they were doing; it had really been too long since she'd had any kind of contact outside of where she trained people for her Uncle.

"Why did I let myself get talked into this? I know that he's got some kind of 'master plan,' he always does. All I need to know is what it is that he expects me to do."

Working with the Nexus was a lot easier than working with other people after all.

Author's Note: This is a completed story that will be approximately 26 chapters. I just have to finish cutting the chunks up and getting them uploaded.