Raven was used to being woken at all times of day by her blackbox, but normally it was a panicked message from Nero or the Chief of Security, not an oddly timid HIVEmind.

"I'm sorry for waking you," the AI apologised.

"It doesn't matter, I haven't been having good dreams since the Freddy incident. What is it, HIVEmind?" Raven asked, already getting dressed in anticipation of a day of getting shot at.

"You don't need to get too dressed up Raven."

"Why?" Raven asked as she paused with her tactical belt in her hands.

"I need… to ask a favour."

Raven narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "what favour?"

"It's… could you go to Nero's office, please?" Raven was growing more concerned, why wouldn't Nero have just called her himself?

It was barely 2am as Raven rushed through the HIVE corridors. There was no one around except a security squad who paid her no attention as she passed. She reached Nero's office quickly.

"What is this about, HIVEmind?"

"It's not serious," HIVEmind insisted, "I just… I couldn't leave him."

"What?"

HIVEmind slid the door open. Nero was slumped at his desk, his head rested over his folded arms, his eyes closed peacefully, and his mouth slightly open.

"I couldn't wake him up," HIVEmind admitted with embarrassment. Raven wondered briefly whether that was because Nero was too deeply asleep or HIVEmind simply didn't have the heart to disturb the clearly exhausted man.

Raven let out a breath and smiled slightly, walking over to where Nero was.

"Max?" she whispered, shaking him slightly. He made a small groaning noise but otherwise didn't respond, "what are we going to do, HIVEmind?"

"Could you carry him?"

"No, he's too big and I don't want to have to explain if he wakes up halfway to his room."

"Can't you wake him up?"

"That would be cruel."

"We are in a school dedicated to training criminals," HIVEmind pointed out.

Ignoring HIVEmind, Raven asked "why is he even in here at 2 in the morning?" Nero had always been a bit of a workaholic, but normally he wasn't so engaged in work that he forgot the basic human ability of how to remain conscious.

Getting no answer from HIVEmind, Raven gingerly removed the file Nero had been looking at from underneath him. Opening the file, she saw that the first page was a report from 15 years ago, detailing an attempt on Nero's life that Raven remembered all too well. She grimaced at the details that had been recorded, embarrassed at her 16 year old self; partly because of how willing she was to hurt someone who was to become her most trusted friend, but also partly because she'd been stupid enough to not notice a man with her own rifle pointed at her. It seemed she had found her own file.

"Perhaps you shouldn't be reading that," remarked HIVEmind.

"Are you going to tell on me?" She received no reply. She turned the page and a photo fell out, landing face down on the floor.

She lay the file on the desk, jumping slightly when Nero shuffled slightly in his sleep, and picked the photo up. When she saw what it was she couldn't help blushing and grinning, it showed Raven and Nero standing together, Nero's hand round her shoulder, both smiling like idiots as a building burnt to the ground behind them. Nero's arm was stretched out of the photo, as he had taken the photo. It had to be at least 13 years ago that the picture was taken, one of Raven's first missions as Nero's bodyguard.

The burning building hadn't exactly been part of the plan, but Raven could remember her surprise when Nero hadn't admonished her for screwing up, but smiled and told her "the world's a better place without that ugly thing anyway."

Raven stared at it for a moment longer, realising that she'd almost forgotten it had been taken at all, before placing it back in the file on the desk.

"He'll kill me if I leave him here," Raven said to HIVEmind, and resolved to wake Nero up.

e Nero up.