When the lid on top of the bin of Stor-Age opens just a smidge and a rope lowers down, Lucy dares to hope that everyone is going to be saved. Instead, that guy who had been hanging around Emmet—Rex—slips in with a pair of velociraptors.

Wait. Hadn't it been his plan to destroy the ceremony?

Lucy's heart sinks. "Oh no."

"Hey," a glitter-covered Systarian citizen close to the newcomers says, "you look like the heroic type. Are you here to rescue—"

They interrupt themselves with a cry as Rex stomps on their face.

Grinning, he grinds his heel into their mouth. "Don't hold your breath. I'm the bad guy."

Rex and his pets continue to step all over the fallen people mixed in with the pieces of their homes as they walk toward the center of the small space. He's glaring at everyone in turns, gloved fists clenched.

Then he catches sight of Lucy. "Right on top. Good, I wasn't looking forward to having to dig through a bunch of trash to find you."

"What do you want with her?" Sweet Mayhem demands in a voice that's authoritative despite missing her helmet.

Rex doesn't seem to have much respect for authority. He ignores Mayhem in favor of walking over to Lucy and looming over her.

Lucy knows she should be asking a million other questions, but what ends up coming out of her mouth is, "Where's Emmet?"

"Oh, so now you care?"

"What's that supposed to mean? I never stopped!"

He glowers at her and shakes his head.

Based on his hostility, Lucy expects Rex to command his raptors to eat her. Instead he picks up her numb body and throws her over his shoulder as if she's light as a bag of feathers.

Lucy's eyes water at the overwhelming smell of cologne. His vest reeks like it's been drenched in it.

"Grab some spare pieces and then get back to the ship," Rex says to the raptors.

They snarl affirmatives and begin to nose at the wreckage.

Lucy tries to struggle, kick, anything, but only succeeds in twitching her fingers. It makes it all the more frustrating when Rex is able to crouch down to examine some bricks.

"How can you move?" She asks through her teeth.

"I'm still involved in the plot, duh. I can't be lying around this scrapheap. You'll be fine once you're out of this system. Probably."

Rex apparently doesn't find any pieces worth keeping because he straightens up and heads back towards where he came in. Lucy has no idea how Rex begins to scale the rope one-handed since she's facing the wrong way. She can only stare down at the others. Sweet Mayhem's terrified expression is the last thing Lucy sees before she's taken into the ship.

Lucy can already feel her ability to move coming back when Rex crosses the threshold, bit by bit. Unfortunately, they're mostly useless movements like scrunching her nose.

Since she can't act right now, Lucy knows she should at least try to keep track of where he's taking her so she can retrace the steps to get out. It's not easy. The ship is huge and complex in its layout with very few identifiable landmarks and a lot of raptors that could stop her.

They arrive at the bridge. Rex drops Lucy into a chair before going to work plugging coordinates into the ship's controls. In no time at all the stars are reduced to smears of light as the ship hurtles through space.

As soon as she can sit up, Lucy starts to rub feeling back into her arms. The discomfort of numbness is quickly replaced by overheating. Despite the ship being full of warm-blooded velociraptors, it feels like the heater on the bridge is on full blast. She can only imagine it's like that because Rex walks around with his sleeves torn off. After a second of deliberation, she removes her hoodie, leaving her in a black tank, and ties it around her waist.

Rex hears the rustling of cloth and glances away from the controls to look at Lucy. She can feel his gaze lingering on the way her undershirt hugs her breasts in a way her baggy hoodie hadn't. She crosses her arms, realizing too late she's only deepening her cleavage rather than hiding it. Lucy lifts an arm up and yanks her fingers through her pink-and-blue bangs, unnerved by the intensity of Rex's stare.

She clears her throat. "Well, since I have your attention now... you still haven't answered me: where's Emmet? What did you do to him?"

"That's 'cause I don't feel like answering you. He's right where he should be and that's all you need to know."

Rex responds to any further questions about Emmet with smirky, infuriating silence. Lucy decides to change tact.

"Why would you get me out of Stor-Age? Did you suddenly grow a conscience?"

"Ha! Don't get it twisted. The only person I care about is me," Rex says, jabbing his thumb at his sternum. "You're only here because—"

He falters and looks away. The abrupt departure from complete self-assurance gives Lucy whiplash.

"Because..?" Lucy prompts.

He looks back and grins smarmily.

"Because the raptors aren't great to talk to and I'm bored. With the Systarians defeated I have one less major galactic enemy to fight."

"You're... lonely?"

Rex scoffs and itches his stubbly cheek. "I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to. I can't imagine someone like you is great at making friends outside of killer lizards."

That seems to be a sore spot. Rex's entire bearing tenses up.

His broad smile appears forced when he snaps out, "Hey, are you hungry?"

"I—"

"Good, 'cause I'm starving."

Rex turns his back on her and walks over to one of the many machines nearby. Lucy doesn't know what she's expecting—a weapon, probably—but he just presses a button that causes a metal panel to slide away to reveal a mini fridge. So he is just getting something to eat after all.

Throughout their entire conversation, Lucy tried to work up movement throughout her entire body with subtle shifting so that Rex wouldn't realize that she's become mobile again. She eases to her feet.

Rex, meanwhile, crouches down in front of the fridge and starts to rummage through it. The contents of the fridge starts with protein shakes and ends with energy drinks, so Lucy can't imagine why he's taking so long to pick something. Not that she's complaining.

Watching him out of the corner of her eye, Lucy lifts the chair she had been sitting on from the floor. She creeps up behind Rex and holds the chair aloft. Too late she realizes he can easily see her reflection in one of the many monitors around the room. So much for the element of surprise.

Rex cocks his head but doesn't turn around. "Are you seriously planning on smashing a chair over my head right after I offered you dinner?"

"I'm heavily considering it, yes," Lucy says, adjusting her grip on the chair. "Dinner doesn't really make up for the kidnapping thing."

And still, she hesitates. For some reason, she can't get herself to attack him the same way she took out Lord Business' robots or the Duplo aliens. There's something… off.

Rex looks over his shoulder at Lucy and gives her a smaller, subtler smile than usual.

"Aw, come on, Lucy. You wouldn't hurt your special best friend Emmet, would you?"