Drev finished the food from the tray Ailee had brought to him and sat back to look at her. "What kind of shifts are you working? All-nighters?"

Ailee sighed. "Some days, it feels like it. What happened, Drev?"

"Other than the flashbacks, you mean? Not much. You don't have to stay."

"I know I don't." She stood up and took a closer look at Taloh's sleeping face, taking the woman's pulse as she did so. Her color was good, pulse was mostly normal... breathing good. Ailee looked at Drev again. "I'll be going, then. Call me if you need to, and Sativa said you were off for the next couple of days."

"She did? Did she say why?"

"Imps. Why else?"

"Ah."

Ailee moved to the doorway, paused for a moment. Then she glanced back at him. "And Drev?"

"What?"

"When she wakes up, tell her from me that she's not to do whatever it is she did to both of you again for a good long while if she can help it."

Drev rolled his eyes at her. "It's not what she did, Ailee. It's what didn't happen because I caught it in time."

"Really?"

"Really. But I will tell her, just the same."

"Glad to hear it."

Drev felt like laughing suddenly, as Ailee left them alone. He loved his sister, but normally didn't see her quite this often.

The graveyard was quiet as she sat there, absorbing the moment as if it was happening for the first time. For her... it was. It was a bleak and dismal day here, and the Kanji on the gravestone nearest to her bench didn't make any sense whatsoever.

"You know, when Grandma told me that dreamwalking was hard, I thought she was kidding. She really, really wasn't."

Startled, Taloh jumped and turned to find a young woman who bore a striking resemblance to Elsie standing there, looking at her calmly. Taloh frowned, finding something familiar in this unknown woman's gaze. "Who are you?"

The woman motioned to the bench. "May I sit?" At Taloh's nod, she sat down and took a deep breath. "This is hard."

"How so?"

The woman motioned to the nearby gravestone. "To see that and know what I know. It's hard. Really now... you couldn't have dreamed of a beach or something, Ari? This would have been easier."

At the use of "Ari", Taloh frowned again. "Only one person has ever called me that, and you're not her."

"No. I'm not." The woman sighed again and looked her directly in the eyes. "My name is Cynthia Destiny McCain Morlan-Mason. Destiny. For everyone but Mason, anyway." She paused again at Taloh's impatient expression. "I know this is confusing, but we know each other. Or will. Or did. It depends on how you look at it."

And that's when Taloh got it, the realization of why this person felt familiar. She glanced at the grave marker and the Kanji made sense: Bree Kimiko. No dates, no commemorative inscription, just the names. "You were her once."

"No. Just the memories. Just like yours of a life you could have had but didn't."

Taloh nodded. It didn't make sense, really, to be sitting here in her sleep with a woman she didn't know but felt like she did. "Why are you here?"

"It's what Bree would have done in my place if she could have."

Taloh looked at Destiny again, at once finding comfort in those words. "Thank you."

"And then she'd do this." So saying, Destiny whopped Taloh on the back of the head. "For making her worry."

When Taloh turned to protest the well-meaning abuse, Destiny was nowhere to be seen. Alone again in the graveyard, Taloh couldn't help but chuckle. Someone out there cared. That meant something.

Taloh opened her eyes to find Drev sitting in a chair reading a hard copy book next to her bed. She laid there, watching him for long minutes before he glanced up and noticed her watching. "Hi."

Drev smiled. "Hello, yourself."

She slowly sat up, glancing at the closed drapes and realizing it was dark outside. "Drev? What time is it?"

"You slept for two days," he told her quietly. "Ailee wanted me to tell you not to do whatever it was you did to both of us again for a good long while. I told her not to worry and failed to mention your sister speaking in 'you already know this' riddle talk."

Taloh blinked, the mere thought of Ailee's reaction to such a think making her want to chuckle. "I'm sorry you saw all that. Other than the shield thing, I didn't know until it was staring me in the face that I knew."

"Hey," Drev said as he captured her hand in his. "You don't have to apologize to me. Not for anything. Understand?"

She stared at him for long moments, perplexed. "Why not?"

"Because now we share something we didn't before," he said, glancing at their hands which were glowing a serene silver on contact. "Glowbug."

She wanted to tell him no, that they couldn't do this, that it was wrong to even consider... but a push, or what could have been a push at least, from thin air, stopped her. It was stirring a very vague memory of a nudge Arvina had given her many times in their youth, and for a moment Taloh could picture her sister grinning wildly and tapping her incorporeal foot impatiently, wanting her to get a move on. Well then... "Drev?"

"Yes?"

"What I said before? About us? Disregard it."

He seemed intrigued. "Any particular reason I should have taken it seriously in the first place?"

She felt like snorting in laughter. "It was reflex. Born of a lifetime of being an outsider. Being able to trust anyone other than Bree is new to me."

He frowned. "Really?"

"Yes. And that other lifetime involving a husband and a family may have actually happened, but not to me. Not to me, or for me." She shook her head, trying to understand it. It made no sense. But then... was it supposed to? "And I think... I like you." When he was silent for far too long, she looked at him again. "What?"

Drev shook himself, trying to find the right words to say, but couldn't think of anything flowery enough. Finally, he smiled and squeezed her hand. "I think I like you, too."

"Do you want to talk about what you saw when we were... I don't know what to call it."

Drev nodded slowly. "Maybe someday, but not right now. It's a lot to process."

"It is," Taloh agreed.

"I do have one question for you, though."

"Shoot."

"Was your life always that insane?"

She stared at him for half a minute before dissolving into giggling hysterics thereby giving Drev his answer.

Ailee was sure they were ready now. Now, if the garrison would just settle down again, they'd actually be able to carry out the plan. She was putting away the training aids and other assorted meeting-related things when one of the other resistance cell members joined her without comment. Soon enough, they were done and Ailee smiled at the woman. What was her name... Rail or Rally? "Thank you."

The woman shook her head. "Don't. It's more that this is my way of thanking you."

Ailee winced internally and picked the lesser of two evils. "For what, Rally?"

"Rala," the woman corrected with a knowing smile. "And forgive me if I don't tell you. It's not important now."

"All right..." Ailee took the materials from her and watched as the woman went to join her husband with the really odd name at the door. She had to wonder what that had been about. Had that one been a patient at some point and she just didn't make the connection? Very strange.

Pettia entered the house through the back door, and was slightly surprised to find her brother sitting at the table drinking caf by himself. "Where's...?" Silently, he motioned to the open door to the living room, and Pettia looked to find Taloh in there, doing some kind of strange slow dance. Frowning, she pivoted to look at Drev. "What is she doing?"

"Acting out some kind of flashback involving a martial art... or she called it a martial art, at least. Tai something." He motioned her to sit down. "Weirdest thing is that I have no idea what spurred it."

Pettia nodded slowly as she sat down. "How long?"

"Long enough. She's gone through six or seven forms since this started." He paused, watching as he sipped his caf. "And I'm not certain that it's all the same type, either. Remember that datapad on Teras Kasi you found?"

"Yes..."

"Looks like some of that is mixed up in there somehow." He turned and looked at her, sighing. "You might as well go, Pettia. She's not going anywhere today. Especially not while having acted out flashbacks."

Pettia glanced at the ever-growing wall of art work behind him, considering what could possibly happen if such a flashback were to happen while at a day care center, and nodded in agreement. "I agree with you there. She remember more?"

"Bits and pieces... and a funny detail involving word pronunciation between languages." At her frown, he chuckled. "Seems her native tongue doesn't have much in common with Basic, and she over-compensated on vowel sounds when trying to say what her name is."

Pettia blinked. "How did she figure that out?"

"If I said I met two ghosts on a dreamwalk, would you believe me?"

"Um... no?"

"Thought as much."

Taloh didn't even pause when he entered the living room. "Is she gone again?"

"Yes. Why are you doing that, anyway?"

"It's relaxing."

Drev chuckled. "Right."

"Something on your mind?"

"Just wondering if you want to go for a walk. See some things."

Taloh gracefully turned in his direction and opened her eyes to look at him. "Which things?"

"You can draw what you see, right?"

"Yes..."

"How about the Garrison perimeter if we were going to walk along the fence?"

"Can you see through the fence?"

"Sure can."

"Then yes." She finished the movement and stood there for a moment. "Mind if I change first?"

"Not at all."

She looked at the Imperial shuttle through the fencing on the other side of the landing pad for a long moment before turning to her companion. "They name shuttles, right?"

He nodded. "They do indeed."

She glanced at it again, considering its appearance. "I think we should call it 'Ploppy.'"

"We have to steal it first, Glowbug."

"Are you always such a realist, or is it just me that gets to hear it, Barkeep?"

"Always, and most often for you."

His comm device suddenly crackled. [Are you going to flirt all day? If you are, please turn your comms off.]

Drev chuckled. "Somehow, I think we're getting on Ailee's nerves."

[Yes. You are. And really... 'Ploppy'?]

"Seen enough, Glowbug?"

Taloh nodded slowly as she scanned the perimeter with her eyes once more. "Yes."

"Then let's go."

Ailee stared hard at both of them as they entered her apartment. "Ploppy?"

Taloh paused and thought about it. "Seems like a good name for a ship. Doesn't it?"

Drev motioned to Ailee's living room and Ailee led them in. He stopped when he saw Darvis seated at her kitchen table. "Ailee, what's he doing here?"

"Using my table to build something. Why?"

Darvis glanced up, saw Drev watching him, and resumed his task. Drev stared at him for a moment longer before taking a seat on the couch next to Taloh. "No reason. And yes, Glowbug, it would be a good name for a ship. Maybe not this particular one, but..." Taloh had an odd expression on her face, as if something was incredibly funny but she couldn't figure out why it was. "Taloh?"

Taloh shook her head slowly, blinked a few times. "It's nothing. Ailee, do you have some paper or something?"

Ailee nodded and went to go find some flimsies. She came back with both flimsies and some pens. "Here."

Taloh graciously took them from her and sat down at the caf table to draw something. Ailee frowned at Darvis and he shrugged in reply. "It's something better shown than explained," Taloh muttered at them.

"Oh," Ailee said as she sat down and waited. "So recon went okay?"

"Aside from wanting to name a shuttle something odd," Drev began playfully, grinning when Taloh glared at him. "Yes." He pulled the comm link off his collar and tossed it to her. "You'll probably want that back."

Ailee caught it. "Probably."

Taloh sat up again and passed the drawing to Ailee, who stared at it. It was a drawing of a ship, deadly in appearance but like nothing she'd ever seen before. "It's a memory. Fragment of a memory, really."

Drev leaned to see and blinked in astonishment. "That thing was called 'Ploppy?'"

"No. Talon. Ploppy was a blooper suggestion." She blushed when Drev stared at her with wide eyes. "Apparently, I was interested in science fiction after not having participated in watching anything from popular culture for a very long time. Doesn't make sense to me, either."

"But you could draw a detailed diagram of that in ten minutes or less."

"Yes. Unfortunately."

Ailee frowned as her brother dissolved into laughter. "What's so funny?"

Taloh shrugged, smiling as Drev got control of himself again and took a deep breath. "It's not. And it is, at the same time. I have this fragment of a memory of a life I didn't live, and I remember a TV show I don't remember watching. You tell me."

Ailee blinked, suddenly realizing there was a whole other layer to this conversation and it had gone right over her head. What had gone on between these two the other night after she'd left them in his kitchen, anyway? "Oh."

It was the first time he'd been back to the bar in a week, but he wasn't here to work today. Sativa still wanted him to be scarce, as the garrison was still on relatively high-alert but had mostly calmed down. For Imperials, anyway. It was better safe than sorry. So, today, he was meeting with Ailee and watching the crowd while she looked over some detailed drawings from Taloh.

"Do you have any candles in your house?"

Drev shared a confused glance with his sister as Taloh came toward them with a panicked expression on her normally calm face. "I haven't kept candles around in a while. Why?" And for that matter, how had she gotten away from Pettia?

She sat down at the bar, sighing. "It's nothing that can't wait. A ceremony I miss, is all."

"A ceremony?" Drev asked. She hadn't really talked about things, had been carefully guarded, and he was taking every opportunity she gave to open up communications all the more. "For what?"

"Freedom from oppression."

That answer only really served to confuse him. "Huh?"

"That is your goal, is it not? To gain freedom?"

Drev blinked. Maybe it wasn't so confusing after all. "Yes. And you need candles to perform this ceremony of yours?"

"I do."

"Then let's go find some." He held out a hand as he stood up from his seat at the bar. "Shall we?" At her nod, he glanced at Ailee. "Don't stay too long." He looked at Taloh to find her staring pointedly at his hand with raised eyebrows. Satisfied, he withdrew the hand. She was making an effort to be normal. Good.

Ailee smiled at him. "Don't plan to." She motioned to Sativa, who was at the other end of the bar helping someone in uniform. "Just going to catch up with Sateen down there before I go."

"Ah." He paused. "Sateen?"

"I read far too much and the nickname stuck. This does not mean you get to tease the woman about it."

Drev chuckled and ushered Taloh out of the bar, thankful to have gotten away without something dramatic happening again. Really, now... candles?

Two hours and seven ceremoniously lit candles later, Drev understood it a little better. They'd been unable to find a stand to her liking, so she improvised with holders. "I still don't get it, but... the candles are nice."

Taloh smiled. "It's about remembrance. Times gone by and people left behind. I figured it was time to observe it again." She motioned to the second unexplained set of candles. "Your turn."

"Mine?"

"Yes. Yours." At his incredulous expression, Taloh grabbed his hand and placed a lit stick in it. "For loved ones lost." She motioned to the candles. Still frowning, he lit it. "For things done that can not be undone." The next one. "For grief. And Pain. And bondage. For things we can not change. For the future." At last all the candles were lit and she caught his hand, blew out the stick. They stared at one another for a long moment, and then she leaned in and kissed him strongly. He did not protest and allowed himself to melt into the kiss.

It was the best kiss of his life.