"You know, this is the third time that ship has crashed on this rock." Kane said as he took a seat in the APC across from Viktor. The Prophet looked… different. Upon closer inspection, Viktor noted the reason. He didn't have that regal look to him like he so often had in the past. Nor did he have the half crazed, go for broke, god is on our side so we can't possibly lose glimmer in his eyes. As the man leaned back and shut his eyes, he let out a sigh. He even had a five o'clock shadow; something that Viktor, and probably nobody else, had ever seen him with.

He looked beaten, downtrodden, defeated – all things that seemed so foreign to the man's personality that it was almost like he was a different person. Most of all, however, the once Messiah looked… tired. He looked physically tired, but more than that as well; mentally and emotionally – a good word for it would be drained. Had he always been like this? Had he always been so drained? He looked like a loyal old dog that had been kicked while it was down. Was this what he was really like when he was alone? When he was able to reflect on everything that had transpired in his history on Earth? He always seemed so powerful, charismatic, and energetic when you saw him, but was that how he really was, or was it all an act; a show put on for everyone that was around him?

"Viktor, if you're going to try and study me, you should probably start with books, and then get a microscope…" Kane didn't even have to open his eyes to know that Viktor was looking him over like some specimen in a lab. He could feel it, and he didn't like it, though he didn't care enough to try and order him to stop. After all, apparently Viktor was a leader now as much as Kane had been near the end. His eyes cracked open as the loading ramp retracted into the floor of the APC and the doors began to close. A final glance outside before the doors closed and he caught one last glimpse of his wrecked warship being cordoned off by his crew and Viktor's forces. The doors then shut and gave a hiss; announcing that the two occupants in the rear bay were now sealed in and the bay had been compressed.

After that, there was silence for a moment, Viktor having looked toward the rear after Kane's quip; figuring he might as well give the man some space. There had to be a reason why he looked as he did. But what was that reason?

"If you have a question, you might as well ask it." Kane said quietly, eyes shut again. The man had always had that odd ability – to know that people wanted to do something or other, and to call them out on it. There was something different about how said it though. Viktor's lips formed a small grin when he realized what it was.

"What, no 'my son' at the end?" The Russian quipped, and he saw a small amused smirk form on Kane's lips.

"I think you know as well as I do that I'm not exactly your father, Viktor." That made Viktor shrug a bit.

"I don't know about that. You might be. I never really knew my father. Mom said he died back in Tib' War Three, when the Ion Cannon blew Sarajevo and half of Europe into the ground." One would have expected Viktor's words to be venomous toward the man responsible for the calamity that killed their father and millions of others, but they were said as if they were simple fact and nothing more.

"My condolences." Kane sat up straight now, feeling somehow compelled to not say such a thing without showing that he truly meant it.

"It's alright. I didn't know him. All I know about him was that he survived everything up to that point. He had a hell of a war record. Was at every major battle of the war on the GDI side – everywhere from that first attack on Goddard where he was a sentry, right up till that fight outside Temple Prime. Even got inside – was on of the troopers that carried that bomb of yours out." Viktor shook his head and actually chuckled, "Put it on the transport, returned to his unit, got ready to make that final push and secure the area, and then… boom." The Russian sighed, and leaned back, even as Kane leaned forward a bit, arms resting on his legs as he listened. "Strange as it may be, I blame Boyle more than you. Fucking idiot."

"He was a glorified money changer, Viktor, not a military commander." To Boyle's credit, he actually hadn't done half bad; at least in the light that most of the time he let his Generals do the planning and stayed out of things. It was those key moments where he interfered that the trouble came from. "And you know, he only survived because that was part of my plan."

"…Not helping your case, here." Viktor said flatly, and Kane laughed, leaning back in his seat, then glancing upward as he felt the entire APC shake – knowing that it was a carryall attaching to the vehicle. "You're not used to that either, huh?"

"Not at all." Kane shook his head, "I know they're safe, but… something about being slung under an over glorified helicopter doesn't quite make me feel at ease."

Viktor nodded in understanding, falling silent for a moment. He was about to speak, when Kane popped up with a question.

"Viktor… how could your father have died in the third war? You were eighteen when I left. It's only been twenty three years, so you're only forty one… if that holds true, that means your father would have to have died… what… in 2059? That's twelve years after the war."

"Mom put me on ice as a fetus." Kane blinked and looked at him, brows raised curiously. "She was seventeen, didn't want an abortion, but didn't want to birth me without someone around to help her raise me, so she had me taken out and put in cryo till she was older. She never did find a new man, but she matured enough to be confident that she could raise me on her own. Then she had me put in a tank until I developed enough to survive outside of it."

"Ah, I see." Kane nodded. He knew the technology existed, but he never expected to meet someone that had actually been through that process. "I tend to think of humanity as fragile, but honestly, I've been surprised many times in the past."

Viktor smirked a bit. "Like with the first five wars?"

Kane raised a brow. "Five? I think your math is off by at least two Viktor."

The Russian grinned. "Oh am I?" He leaned forward, "I think I'm only off by one, if you want to count that little fiasco with Yuri as a different war."

Hearing that, Kane smirked a bit and then whistled innocently, looking away, then back at Viktor, "Been reading my old logs, have you?"

"I don't have much else to do in my down time, and I was dreadfully curious – but then, who wouldn't be? You're immortal after all – that, or you have an amazing doctor."

"Well, he is from the planet Gallifrey." Kane shrugged a bit, an amused grin on his lips.

Viktor blinked and cocked a brow. "What?"

"Nothing. It was before your time. Long, long before your time." Try about a century.

"Okay…" Viktor said at length, then glanced up once more as the carryall lifted off. He was quiet for a moment, and then finally spoke again. "Earlier you said this is the third time that ship crashed. This time makes one… the time Vega drove it into the ground makes two… when was the third time?"

"An incredibly long time ago." Kane blew out a breath. "I'm sure you've seen the logs where I told Slavik that the ship was built at the end of the first war?"

"I have."

"Well… I may have misled him… slightly."

"How slight are we talking here?"

"Oh… just… a few thousand years?"

Viktor's eyes opened wide. "A few thousand years?" His mouth hung for a moment, and then he shook his head, "How old are you that a few thousand years is a slight amount?"

"Old. Really, really, old." Viktor was quiet for a moment, and Kane chuckled under his breath, "The first time it crashed, human civilization was just a blip on the horizon. I was the science officer on board. My brother was the medical officer. Our father was the captain, and our mother was the first officer."

For a moment it looked like Viktor was thinking, then as if he was mouthing something out and counting off on his fingers. Finally he actually said it out loud. "Adam… Eve… Abel… and…" Then he looked at Kane, "Have we been spelling your name wrong the whole time?"

Kane laughed, "No, actually. The Hebrews got it right. But… well, things do get lost in translation. The Church picked on spelling, and I chose another." He shrugged, "But you did hit the nail on the head."

"Did you really kill your brother?"

"Yes, but not over some offering. We got into an argument… we were drunk… our parents had actually died in the crash, along with… well… almost everyone. Seth was one of the other survivors. He was sober for the whole thing and actually goaded us on until we started fighting. One thing lead to another, and… Abel ended up dead. We burned his body, put ourselves in stasis, had the computer monitor the environment around the ship until the planet warmed up a bit, and things just went from there. Over thousands of years and without repairs, eventually the ship was entombed by the natural forces of the earth. We'd crashed in the area that would one day be the Fertile Crescent. You know what happened to Seth. The ship ended up getting excavated and repaired near the end of the first war. I was going to use it then, but never had the chance. I was planning on using it in the second war, but then Vega had to go and crash it."

Viktor listened intently as Kane explained, nodding at appropriate times, but tilted his head and furrowed his brows at the end. "So how the hell did you get it back? GDI had it at the end of the war."

Kane smirked in that devilish way of his. "Remember the Firestorm crisis?"

"Yes…" Viktor nodded slowly.

"Largest. Distraction. In. History."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Not joking at all. I wanted my damn ship back."

"How the hell did you orchestrate that?" Viktor asked, nearly in disbelief. Considering it was Kane, however, it wasn't really beyond belief.

"I was hooked up to his mainframe after the war, in one of his bunkers." Kane shrugged, "Wasn't that hard to overpower the other minds and use Cabal to distract GDI. I used the access and command codes to GDI's own Ion Cannon network to support an assault on the facility with cyborgs from what would become the Marked of Kane. The ship was stolen and then the Ion Cannon used to destroy the facility it had been housed at to make it appear that Cabal had simply destroyed the ship to prevent GDI from using it against him. Then it was cloaked and flown to one of Legion's bunkers – and yes, Legion existed in his early stages before Cabal was destroyed."

"You crafty bastard…" Viktor said softly, shaking his head slightly; Kane laughed at the words. "With the firepower it has, I suppose getting it back was indeed a great priority. It was able to shred those assault carriers and warships like paper." He paused, thinking back to the skirmish at the tower – hell, the tower! "It even knocked down the Scrin Threshold. Our own nukes couldn't even scratch that thing."

"Indeed. For all the power it has though, it's far from indestructible. I will say it's far more battle effective than a GST though."

"True that." Viktor agreed with a nod, "So… that never was a Scrin ship, was it?"

"Far from." Kane reaffirmed, "In fact, it doesn't have any Scrin technology present. The Tacitus isn't a Scrin artifact either. It was just a data matrix in the ship's computer core. Sort of like… a memory chip, really – but with more space. It's actually made from depleted Tiberium."

"Depleted Tiberium?"

"Depleted as in… semi-inert. If damaged it can fuse back together, but it won't start growing. We learned a long time ago, my people that is, that Tiberium crystals, if refined properly, could make excellent storage devices."

"I suppose that answers the other all important question." Viktor shook his head and looked up, "You really aren't from Earth."

Kane was silent then, and leaned back against his seat. "I might as well be, now."

Viktor looked at him then. "Something went really wrong, didn't it?"

"You have no idea." Kane shook his head.

"We have a few minutes, and I'm all ears."

"The long and short of it? I was expecting to return home, take everyone that was loyal to me to a civilization far more advanced than Earth – nearly a utopia."

"And…?"

"I was about a hundred years too late."