They awoke on an asteroid in hell.

Argit nudged Kevin gently. He stirred.

"Where..." he saw that he was still in the null-void. He groaned and laid back down. "How did we get here?" He asked Argit. He wasn't sure how he met him, but he knew he was a friend.

"I... don't know," Argit said. He had never seen the null-void before. The only word he knew to describe where he was was hell. He wasn't sure how he had met Kevin either, but he knew he was fond of him.

Argit stood up when he heard the far off sounds of monsters. "We should get going," he said, and Kevin stood up as well. There was a trail of asteroids leading into the fog.

They hopped from rock to rock, looking for shelter.

XxxxxxxxxX

Eventually they found a massive structure. Argit hadn't ever seen it, but Kevin knew it all to well.

"Will we be safe here?" Argit asked, not knowing what the building was.

"It's the prison-"

Suddenly, spotlights were on them. Alarms blared, and immediately robotic prison guards came after them. Kevin turned to run, but the guards caught him.

They were surrounded. They had to surrender.

"Whats so bad about this?" Argit asked. He knew there was worse out there, monsters he'd heard screeching in the distance, giant shapes writhing about half hidden in the fog. Kevin was still worried.

"I don't want to go back to prison. I want to be free and..." "Free to be eaten by monsters?" They has both hands on their heads and we're marching based on the orders of the robot guards.

XxxxxxxxxX

"The food here isn't bad!" Argit said. Kevin didn't agree. "We should have gone in the other direction. Now we're stuck here, and I'll have to spend my fucking life here!" Argit patted his shoulder. He didn't know what other affection humans liked.

They had been given one bar of soap, a toothbrush, and a towel when they got into the prison. The rest they could buy at the small store near the med ward.

Kevin had checked if he still had the money in his account from when he had previously been there. He did. "Should we buy anything?" Argit had asked him. "We? It's my money." Kevin responded.

Now they were running out of time before curfew to shower. They didn't have any time to be embarrassed by their nakedness as they rushed to get clean from the day's events. They retired to bed exhausted. They didn't know what to make of the situation. One minute they had woken up with no memories in the middle of nowhere, the next they were in a prison.

XxxxxxxxxX

The next evening they had more time after dinner to do what they pleased because they didn't argue about the shop at all. They didn't spend time exploring the compound or arguing with other prisoners, as Kevin had spent his time when he was here before. Now they could enjoy the nice, warm showers.

Argit was curious. Did humans look the same as his species under their clothes? He peeked over the divider into Kevin's shower. "Hey!" Kevin pushed him back.

There was no time for them to fight. Someone Kevin didn't really recognize had walked in, and was heading their way.

"So, here's the newbies." He leered at them both, particularly Argit, who was rather small and meek looking. He grabbed the soap in Argit's hand and chucked it across the room.

"Oops, you dropped it." The hulking figure jeered. "No I didn't, you threw it!" Argit said. "Rude," he muttered to himself. He wasn't sure what to do about the situation.

"I'll get it," Kevin said, and he handed Argit his own soap before he wrapped his towel around his waist and strode across the room to where the soap lay on the floor.

While he was gone, the man stared down Argit. Kevin returned quickly, knowing how this situation like this could go in prison.

"Calm down, dude," he told the stranger, eyeing him to make sure he didn't have a knife or anything. "There's plenty of showers to choose from." There were only a few other prisoners showering in the room, and they were minding their own business. He wanted to diffuse the situation. The man stared silently.

Eventually they finished showering and left. The man had just stood there being creepy. At least he didn't do anything. That would have been even worse.

They sat on Kevin's cot together. "That guy was creepy." Kevin said. "Bet prison isn't so fun now, is it." Argit shrugged in response. "At least he didn't actually do anything." He said. Kevin really wanted to convince him to leave, but Argit did have a point. There was food and shelter here, and nothing had happened.

It wouldn't last though. The implication of what could have happened hung in the air.

XxxxxxxxxX

Despite how calm Argit seemed, Kevin wasn't sure either of them wanted to stay in prison. There were times when he wasn't sure of Argit's whereabouts and he felt guilty. He always found him safe and sound, but he knew it wouldn't last. He always feared losing him for good, or finding him too late.

He wanted to plan their escape together, but there wasn't any time where the cameras weren't on them he could think to discuss it. Only when he found a dirty magazine under another prisoner's bed did he get some ideas. He shared them quietly at dinner.

"I want to get out of here." Of course, every prisoner said that. It wasn't suspicious to not want to get out of prison.

"Kevin, you tell me all the time. We're not going to die-" "If you really want to stay here then convince me." Argit wasn't sure what he was getting at. Kevin glanced pointedly at the cameras in the corner of the mess hall. He picked up Argit's hand and kissed the back of it. "I thought you said-"

"Let's discuss what I said in the showers." They threw away their empty dinner trays and headed for the showers. Argit was thoroughly confused.

Kevin had said he didn't like to kiss boys. Why had he kissed his hand? Was it the same reason he kept trying to make him look at the camera? Was he planning something?

When they got to the showers, they got into their usual stalls.

"Let's... make out," Kevin said. It was about as awkward as a preteen who'd never kissed anyone could make it. Argit shot him a confused look.

"Play along," Kevin whispered. Hopefully the sound of running water would mask their whispers. "I want to escape." Argit nodded. Kevin had been complaining for days. It was kind of inevitable he'd try to leave.

"Okay," said Argit, and he stood a bit closer to Kevin. They exchanged a chaste kiss to make whoever was watching the security cameras believe they were not planning a prison break.

"There's a secret tunnel out of here. It's a bit small, but you will definitely fit." He kissed Argit again.

"Where is it?" "I'll show you," another kiss. Kevin was slowly getting used to the whole situation.

"Put food in your pockets and leave whenever the coast is clear. We'll leave at different times tomorrow so they don't get suspicious. Get it?" Argit nodded, they shared one last kiss, finished showering, and then they headed off to bed.

XxxxxxxxxX

The coast was clear. No cameras, no guards, no witnesses. This was the place. He knew Kevin was going to leave later. He didn't want to be left behind, so he took the opportunity.

The tunnel was a comfortable size for him to crawl through. He could go on his hands and knees, and he was making good time. He found the reddish glow of the null-void soon enough. The open air was the same stale air that filled the null-void, but at least it was better than the tiny tunnel he had crawled in. Now he had to wait for Kevin.

The first hour of waiting was fine. He didn't expect him to follow him that quickly, as it would be suspicious. But the second hour made him nervous. Was he okay? The third made him really worry. What if he was stuck? What if he got caught? What if the rock above him had crumpled, crushing him to bits?

Kevin crawled out of the tunnel. He wasn't crushed under a boulder, or caught by guards. He was perfectly fine. Argit threw his arms around him, hugging him tightly.

"You took too long! You scared me to death!" Kevin patted him on the back. He liked having someone worry about him, and he couldn't stop himself from smiling. "Sorry for scaring you," Kevin said. Argit backed up a bit, ending the hug. "I wasn't scared," he said trying to compose himself despite directly contradicting himself from a few seconds ago.

"Let's get going," Argit said.

XxxxxxxxxX

They cuddled up against each other for warmth. The cave barely kept out the wind. The 'nighttime' in the null-void was marked only by a shift in temperature. There was no obvious darkness, no brighter daytime. They weren't even sure if it was nighttime at all.

They weren't going to freeze to death, but the cold air was definitely uncomfortable. They had put Argit's jacket over them both, but it was too small to be a good blanket. They needed to look for supplies of they wanted to survive.

They slept poorly that night.

When the air warmed up, they hit the road. Hopefully they'd find something. As they walked, Kevin talked about everything he missed about earth.

"... And dogs, man, they were great. They were so nice and soft, and they wouldn't judge you..." he smiled at the thought. He had always loved dogs growing up, but he never got to keep one as a pet. One day he'd get one, if he ever got out of the null-void. They kept walking, and Argit listened to his friend talk about things he'd never seen before.

Eventually, they came across some sort of makeshift structure. It looked like the kind of thing escaped prisoners would live in. The walls were made of a mixture of the natural rock formations and miscellaneous materials.

"Do you think it's abandoned?" Kevin asked. "Abandoned?" Argit asked for clarification. He still didn't know every word in the English language. "Is there anyone still living there?" Kevin elaborated.

There was only one way to find out. They tiptoed through the tattered cloth that seemed to signify a door. "Hello?" Kevin whispered. They tried to walk as silently as possible. There wasn't a sound coming from inside the building. Either nobody was there, and there was a reason they left, or someone was there, and they were hiding.

Argit slid his hand into Kevin's. Kevin didn't try to wriggle his hand away, so Argit held onto him tighter. Together, with each other's comfort helping to embolden themselves, they walked through the rooms of the shelter. There wasn't any hallway, but each room had an opening that led to the next. There were four rooms total.

The first room was empty. The second had piles of rusted alien tech, and some boxes of food. The third had a mattress and some sleeping bags rolled up in the corner. The fourth had a dead body.

"Ugh!" Was all Kevin could say. There were flies surrounding the body, and there were so many crawling on the face he thought it was covered with a trash bag at first. "I didn't know there were flies in the null void," he muttered.

Argit let go of Kevin. He tried to poke the body, but Kevin pulled him back. "Don't touch it, there's germs!" He said. "Whats germs?" Argit asked him. "They're teeny tiny animals that make you sick." "Whats teeny tiny?" Kevin sighed. "Never mind."

Together, they poked the corpse with sticks, hoping to see if it was anyone they knew. It wasn't. Sick of the smell, they grabbed all the loot they could find and brought it outside. They had a few more sleeping bags than they needed, so they only took two smaller ones. They ate as much food as they could manage, then decided to carry the rest of it with them in the sleeping bags.

"Are you sure we shouldn't just move the dead guy and stay here?" Argit asked. He'd seen corpses before; what's the big deal? "I'm sure. I don't want his ghost haunting us." Kevin had only seen dead bodies in horror movies. He only associated them with ghosts and he did not want to get haunted. Argit rolled his eyes.

They found a rock within a days walking distance that had a nice cave on the side of it. They could slide down a stiff drop into it and nobody would be able to see the cave entrance from the surface. They placed down the sleeping bags right when the air took on a familiar chill.

"Guess It's night time," Kevin said. He looked out on the blood red clouds that filled the null void. He hoped it wasn't actual blood. He'd had enough gore for one day.

Argit followed Kevin's lead and put himself inside the sleeping bag. He hadn't really seen a sleeping bag before, and he wasn't sure what it was supposed to do.

Their sleeping bags were pretty close together. "We don't have pillows," Kevin said. "Can I see your jacket?" Argit took off his jacket, and handed it to Kevin, who put it under both of their heads. It protected them from the rough floor. Nice. They fell asleep, glad to have some refuge against the cold for once.

XxxxxxxxxX

A few months later...

The monster released a deep guttural growl and Argit felt a chill down to his bones. Where was Kevin? Had the monster found him already?

The rock that protected Argit from the monster seemed too small. He had heard they couldn't see, but they could still smell and hear. He tried to quiet his breathing. He hoped his torn jacket that lay several yards away would provide a distraction.

He tried to turn, but gasped when he felt a pain in his side. Months of sleeping on dirt and stone was paying off in the most unhelpful timing for a muscle cramp ever.

The monster heard him gasp. It pounced, bounding over the rock and onto Argit. It had his arm! It was going to bite down any second now-

He fired some quills into the slobbering monster, hoping the pain of being pricked would distract it long enough for the sedatives to take effect. But it was taking too long!

Jumping onto a nearby boulder, Kevin threw a rock at the beast. It let go of Argit and turned towards Kevin. Luckily, the sedatives had finally began to work, and the beast toppled over.

Argit ran into Kevin's arms. "Oh my god thank you I was going to die and you saved me," he buried his face in Kevin's chest. Kevin hugged him back. He tried to keep his own composure, but it was hard.

"I was so worried," Kevin choked out. Argit leaned back, and Kevin saw that his arm was a bit torn up. "Your arm!"

"I'm fine! 'Tis but a flesh wound!" He shakily quoted something he heard Kevin say sometimes in response to being injured. Kevin laughed a sad laugh.

"We gotta get out of here. It's getting chilly out." They went to the closest of their temporary shelters for the night.

XxxxxxxxxX

"Happy birthday!" Argit said. He'd said this every day to Kevin for the past week. They didn't know the current date back on earth, but Kevin knew that his thirteenth birthday was coming up. It had been Halloween recently, according to some orange and black fireworks he'd seen in the distance. He wasn't sure how fireworks got into the null void, but he didn't feel like asking.

Kevin smiled at Argit. They hadn't been torn apart by monsters yet, and they didn't plan on it. They weren't living comfortably, but they were living.

"I'm thirteen now," Kevin said to himself, "Officially a teen!" He was glad to have reached this milestone. Argit nodded. He had absolutely no idea of his own age, but he was glad Kevin could be happy.

"I heard that guy OTTO found a way out," he said. Kevin's face lit up. "Is this my birthday present?" He asked Argit. After years of talking in the null void, Argit had learned what the word present meant. He'd learnt a lot of words. There wasn't much to do in the null void but talk. He'd also learnt new swears.

"Damn right it is! If he isn't bluffing," Argit said. "He better not be bluffing. I swear to god, I'll kill him if he is," Kevin said, not really expecting him to actually be lying. Why would anyone announce that they found a way out of the null void when they didn't mean it? They'd get murdered by all the people whose hopes they'd gotten up.

OTTO couldn't be lying. He just couldn't.

XxxxxxxxxX

"He lies to us!" It had been a few days since OTTO had left them in the null void, but Kevin was still angry. He thought he had calmed down, but random outbursts of anger over the last few days had proven otherwise.

"That son of a bitch fucking lied to us!" He kicked a rock. Argit sighed. He sat in the dirt, defeated. "What's the point in yelling," he said, clearly also upset. "It's been days."

"Days! And he hasn't come back for us, has he? We gave him the benefit of the doubt, and the fucker left us to rot!" He couldn't stop his rage. "I swear I'll kill him!" He tried to hold back; he didn't want to become a monster. He hated how he looked when he used the powers he'd absorbed from the Omnitrix. Argit knew this.

He gave Kevin a hug. Kevin fell to his knees, hands over his face, trying not to cry. It wouldn't be very manly to cry, and he was officially a teenager now. Argit patted him on the back, not fully understanding nor caring what counted as manly to humans.

"I'm sorry, Kevin. Don't blame yourself, blame me. I got your hopes up-" "No! I got my own hopes up! I shouldn't have trusted that bastard, and now..." he buried his face in Argit's jacket. Argit ran his hands through Kevin's hair. It had always amazed him how soft Kevin's hair was. Did all humans have hair that soft?

"I'll make it up to you, Kev," Argit said, and he gently kissed the top of his head. They hadn't really done anything romantic since they planned their big escape from prison, and Argit wasn't sure where their relationship stood. Still, he wanted to show his friend affection.

Kevin didn't mind Argit giving him a tiny kiss. He liked the intimacy of someone else caring for him. He liked having a friend. He didn't mind Argit petting his hair either. It was comforting.

They went back to their hideout, and Argit made Kevin some soup. They figured there was no more need to wait by where the teleporter once stood.

OTTO wasn't coming back for them.

They sat in silence. Then Kevin said, "So how do you plan to make it up to me?" He was picturing Argit making him a guitar or a skateboard or something. There wasn't much to do for fun in the null void.

"We could... copy what we find in the magazines? They always look like they're having fun," Argit said. Kevin laughed. "I'm serious," said Argit. Kevin stopped laughing.

"We're both boys, Argit. That wouldn't work. Plus we're not married." "Married?" "Yeah, it when they have this big ceremony-" "That's not what I meant. Why do you have to be married to do any of that stuff? And why can't two boys do it?"

"Because It's the first thing you're taught when you get the talk!" "But why?" "I don't know!" "The people in the magazines aren't married."

Kevin contemplated this. "... fine. Maybe you don't have to be married. But you'd still need the right parts and stuff, I think." Argit had a feeling Kevin was wrong, but he didn't feel like arguing.

"Fine. What else do you want as a birthday present?" Kevin sighed in relief. He hated talking about sex. It was gross. He was glad to change the subject. "How about a skateboard?" He suggested.

"Whats a skateboard? Argit asked. "A board with four wheels on the bottom. You can just make one for me with stuff you find around the null void. It has to be big enough to stand on."

XxxxxxxxxX

There wasn't much materials in the null void to make a skateboard, and Argit hadn't ever seen a skateboard before either, but he tried his best. He found some wood and wheels at the same place he and Kevin had originally gotten their sleeping bags.

Apparently the wood Argit had found was too thick, but Kevin said it was fine. "Usually the end of the board goes up, so you can do this!" He mimed making the front of the skateboard go up, but Argit, who had never seen anyone skate before, had no idea what he meant.

"Just show me how to make the thing." He said.

XxxxxxxxxX

Kevin awoke to the smell of smoke, but not campfire smoke. Argit had apparently found some cigarettes while Kevin was asleep, and now he had one lit in his mouth. He was sanding the wood of the skateboard with loose sand and gravel. "Where'd you get that?" Kevin asked.

"The sand was by that tiny pond we drink from how could you forget-" "No, I mean the cigarette," Kevin said. "You know they give you cancer right?" He had heard all his life that cigarettes are bad. Argit shrugged. He didn't know what cancer was.

"Cancer will kill you! Don't you watch..." of course Argit couldn't watch tv. There wasn't any cable in the null void. Kevin sighed. "So how's the skateboard coming along?" He asked. The wheels hadn't been connected yet, but the actual board looked pretty nice. He wished he could get a popular design on the bottom, like he'd seen in stores as a kid, but there was none of that in the null void.

"It's looking good," Argit said, "I found some paint. I'm going to use it to put sand on the top so you don't slip off of it." He smiled, because he also knew something else that Kevin didn't.

A few hours later, Kevin was eating some sort of alien oatmeal outside. He was looking out at the cloudy atmosphere. He always thought he could see shapes wriggling in the distance, but he wasn't sure. He was keeping watch over the camp; Argit climbed up the cliff to where Kevin was. He had the finished skateboard. He handed it to Kevin. "Happy birthday!" He said.

"Thanks!" Kevin said. "Check out the back," Argit said. Kevin looked at the underside of the skateboard. It was painted black, but Argit had arranged small bits of metal in such a way that it spelled '11'. Kevin couldn't help but smile.

"Oh Argit... this is so sweet," he said, grinning at his best friend. He embraced him in a hug. He hadn't ever bothered to teach Argit how to write in English, so he must have copied what he'd written on the lock he wore on a chain around his neck.

He stood up and put the skateboard on the ground. He gently put his weight on it. He gently pushed off, rolling forewords a few feet. It worked!

He tried skating around as Argit watched. He made sure to stay away from the edge of the rock. He tried to do tricks, but he didn't know any. Eventually, he went and sat next to Argit. "Thanks," he repeated again. He considered kissing him, but he didn't.

XxxxxxxxxX

"Hold still!" Argit ripped the old comb through Kevin's hair. "You have to look presentable when we get outa here!" They had rebuilt the teleporter OTTO had had them build. It was finally finished, and they were just about ready to leave the null void.

"You're being such a dick," Kevin said, but he let Argit brush his hair nonetheless. "Your hair has gotten really long," Argit said. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"Nothing! I'm just surprised humans can have such long hair." This made Kevin laugh. "I've seen girls with hair down to their butt. This is nothing. Come on, enough waiting around. Let's get going!" They both stood. Argit threw the broken old comb off the ledge of the rock. They wouldn't need it anymore.

They both sat where OTTO had sat. They made sure not to mess up this time. They had the switch next to them, so nobody had to sacrifice himself. They steeled themselves. They'd been waiting for this moment for years. All they had with them was the clothes on their backs, but isn't that what OTTO had had? Would they need anything more? It was too late now.

They pulled the switch together.

XxxxxxxxxX