A/N: I dont own anything, you know the drill...

"Blackbird 5-2, in pursuit of target."

Barker looked through the viewport of the cockpit, keeping an eye on his objective. He and his people had been pursuing a renegade Titan for the last 10 kilometers. They had a drop into a populated area to try and protect the civilians, when one of their Legion Titans went rogue and started running away.

After clearing out the Remnant Fleet forces, he and a couple others went to find out why a war machine had dashed away. Or stomped away. Legions don't exactly move fast.

Luckily, it seemed like the Titan had started to slow down. Barker started his descent. "Blackbird 5-1, 5-3, begin your descent, form a perimeter around the target. I want to end this without anymore violence. MK-0509 is one of ours, and I want to bring him home."

The other ships followed his instructions, and shortly found themselves landed in a triangle around the rogue Titan. Barker was the first to approach the machine. "Hey, MK, stand down!"

MK responded by turning their Predator Cannon on him.

Barker immediately threw his hands up. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Easy there MK, it's just me, remember? You're a member of the Aces, right?"

MK seemed to hesitate. *Barker is not affiliated with the IMC? Barker is an ally?*

He took a few steps forward. "Yeah buddy, I am. Now, how about you just go ahead and open up. Let us check on your Pilot?"

MK's eyelights swiveled around a bit, before finally settling down on one knee, placing the cannon to the side. With a few clicks, the hatch opened up to reveal...

"A kid?" Barker almost wished he was drunk right now. Sitting in the Legion's chassis was a young child, knees drawn to their chest and helmet sitting loosely on their head.

Barker heard a faint voice come from the hunched form. "Are you the good guys?" And then promptly fainted.

The ex-IMC officer started forward. 'What have I walked into this time?'

-x-X-x-

A couple hours later, Barker and his Aces had set up a temporary operating base on the edges of the settlement they had come in to help. Most of his people had gone about salvaging useful tech, while others made sure the civilians were alright, offering transportation off planet if needed.

And their unexpected guest? Well, they had a medical tent set up, in which the kid was being treated. MK was acting as a sentry, and had only barely been convinced to let the doctors look at the kid, to see if they were injured.

Letting a breath out through his nose, Barker made his way over to the tent. On entering, he saw the kid laid out on a stretcher, a machine next to them reading their vitals. Kid turned out to be a girl, only about nine or ten years old, judging from their size. Grabbing a chair, Barker brought it next to her, deciding to wait for them to wake up.

He didn't need to wait long. After a few minutes, the kid began to stir, and suddenly, their eyes snapped open. Sitting up straight, she turned to see Barker, and immediately yelped, tumbling out of the stretcher.

Barker's only response to the commotion was raising an eyebrow at the kid. Taking a moment, he decided to talk to her. "So, how're you feeling?"

The kid got to their knees, looking cautiously at the older man. She looked around the tent, taking in all the details, before finally looking back at Barker and responding. "Where am I?"

"Just outside your town. My people came in and pushed those bad soldiers out." The girl seemed to accept this, settling to sit on the floor. "You know where your parents are kid?"

At this question, the girl began to tear up. "My parents are dead." Wiping at her eyes with her sleeve, she continued. "The died in a battle a few years back. I was living with my gran. But she was killed too."

Barker dropped his gaze to the floor for the moment. He never liked these emotional scenes. However, he did have another question. "How did you wind up in MK?"

The girl played with the hem of her shirt. "When the shooting started, I grabbed my pa's old helmet, and started running. Tried to find my gran. Saw some soldiers shoot her. So I kept running. Came to the robot. It was standing. Looked strong. So I crawled inside. Put pa's helmet on. Made me feel safe. But then my head hurt. And I felt someone in my head. Felt scared. And then the robot started running."

Barker nodded at her story. Before he had come in, he'd received a casualties report. Apparently Captain Jessop, MK's Pilot, had been killed in the skirmish. Still curious that the Titan linked with the kid. He couldn't imagine how the neural link would affect her, Pilots trained rigorously to handle the partnering of minds. Thinking of the project he and a few others were working on, he turned back to the girl.

"My name is Barker. What's yours?"

The girl seemed to hesitate before voicing her response. "Naomi. Naomi Dens."

He reached out a hand to her, offering a handshake. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Naomi Dens."

Slowly, Naomi accepted the handshake. Grinning, Barker drew his hand back. "What if I told you I could find a place for you to be safe?"

Naomi played a bit more with the hem of her shirt, looking towards the ground. And then, she nodded.