Summary: People change, but memories stay the same. I want to go back to that place in time where we were all together instead of finding you on that opposite side. What makes one loyal? What makes another a traitor? Tell me your story.

Rating: T

Warnings: Suggestive situations, mild language, Infinity's tacky interior design

Dark Side of the Moon

If you wanted all the perks of an intergalactic counterintelligence group designed to defend youth throughout the galaxy, become a Station Commander. Numbuh Infinity was just the type of guy for milking his salary for all it was worth. To be invited to his office/living quarters was truly a sight to behold if you hadn't seen it yet.

Black leather seating, low iridescent gold lighting and ugly intergalactic art pieces practically ate what was once a military bunk until it regurgitated into something you'd see from a scifi villain's bachelor pad. And that was the nicest way of going about it.

Chad wasn't the type to dance around it and he wasn't afraid to even warn Nigel how tacky the office was ahead of time. Infinity was the mac-daddy of expensive tastes because that was who he was: a fancy pencil-pusher with an even fancier name overcompensating for a fancy office.

Even his stylus was state-of-the-art.

Nigel had to agree with that sentiment. He took in the wall-length windows behind Infinity's desk that weren't really windows. Such a thing was a structural weakness to photon torpedo attacks. Instead they were reflector panels that reversed the image of space outside, giving the illusion that they were windows.

It always bothered Nigel. For someone who spent his days charting out strategic tactical defenses for his team using those very same stars, sometimes he had to visibly ignore it lest he become disoriented.

Thankfully, the data disk on Infinity's desk kept his attention away from it because all eyes were on it and Infinity's next words were tinged with irritation.

"Are you sure you cannot take this mission, Operative Cronus?" he stressed once more. "This is the only time I can approve shore leave back to Earth. Ever. I had figured you wanted to return home."

"Of course I want to return home," replied Nigel, though his brow was pulled down considerably in conflict. "but you're asking me to... I know what they did was wrong, but I used to work with them in the Kids Next Door. I would be..."

Infinity exhaled through his nose. "Emotionally compromised?" It was a good excuse, or perhaps it wasn't an excuse at all. Cronus had always been frank and honest when it came to his job. "I am aware of your history, but I did not expect Theia would draw this kind of response from you."

"She wouldn't do the things you're implying!" Nigel snarled which caused Infinity to step back coolly. "You must have gotten your intel wrong or maybe she was blackmailed, I don't know! I'm sorry Infinity, but this is one mission I'm not taking. Even if I'm allowed to go back to Earth." He would rather live in ignorance than believe what he was hearing. "Lots of things have changed on Earth, I bet. I wouldn't be able to handle all of that. Not with the war going on."

Which is probably why Infinity's next option was Chad. Unlike Cronus, Hyperion was absolutely ruthless on the field without compromising his loyalty to the cause. Personal relationships have never been the driving force nor would it ever. "Would you kindly send the dossier to Operative Hyperion then? He has not been answering my hails."

"I wonder why," Nigel drawled in a deadpan. The older teen had always been notorious for one thing on base.

"Now, now," admonished Infinity. He leaned back in his posh leather seat. "I know you two are not the best of friends, but even I see how invaluable Hyperion is despite his councilor position. He is most likely busy debriefing one of the station operatives and cannot be disturbed."

She shoved him backwards onto the leather couch. That made him grin. "I take it you're not happy with the debriefing then." Her unnaturally hued fingers, tinged in a light blue, ran down his bare chest and that only served to amuse him more.

"Maybe if you got to the actual debriefing, I would," she teased and took a step back from his wandering hands. His cold blue eyes traveled over yellow skin which gave way to green the further toward her limbs and then blue at the tips. That was the typical chameleon skin of the seductive Klynodel race.

They have other interesting perks as well.

She spun around in her small clothes, showing off more of her young adult body. "What's next?" Vesta purred and her skin began to change color. "You humans and your mute colored bodies. How do you attract anything in this universe?"

"Charisma," growled Chad which caused her to giggle when his grin turned predatory. "We're also very aggressive."

"Obviously. Because your sense of imagination is horrible." Once again her skin turned a pale shade and her red and orange dreadlocks shimmered into a shade of gold before she turned completely into a mirage of a human woman. "At least let me shake it up a little. Blue highlights? Maybe a darker skin tone."

He snorted. "I didn't ask you to come here so I can play Barbie with you. I'm more of a vanilla type of guy."

The lock on his door clicked and sounded an alert chime. The only other person with overriding access to his door besides Infinity walked into his quarters and frowned at the state of the two occupants' uniforms... or lack thereof. "I'm obviously interrupting."

"Yeah you kind of are. Vanish."

Despite Chad's dismissal, Nigel refused to move and glared which made Vesta squeak around to hurriedly pick up her uniform. "Sorry Cronus!" she grinned and kissed Nigel on the cheek before winking at Chad. "Bye Hyperion."

The blond young man lazily waved from his place on the couch and she left, leaving the both of them alone once more. Nigel continued to watch Vesta disappear and then raised an eyebrow at his former commander. "Narcissistic much?" he drawled. "Out of all the combinations a Klynodel can offer you and you pick a blond girl."

"Nothing wrong with blonds," said Chad before he got up and started patting his pants down for an I-sig. "Blonds have more fun." And if Nigel asked anyone on base who was the most personable human to hang out with, they'd pick Operative Hyperion, aka the human who was currently looking for an I-sig and failing miserably at it. "Oh right. I forgot you're more into redheads."

His grin returned when Nigel turned a nice shade of purple. Lizzie Devine was such a sensitive topic. You'd think six years would help the emotionally stunted teen into moving on. But then again, Nigel Uno wasn't exactly a normal person, let alone human.

A sound of triumph left his throat when he found his pack of I-sigs tossed haphazardly on his desk and offered one to Nigel. "I-sig?"

"I don't smoke. You know that," he declined with a drawl.

Chad scoffed and stuck one between his lips. "Like they're any harm to anyone." It wasn't like Earth's stuff which really did a number to your body if you chained them everyday. I-sigs kept you on your best physical form when you had no means of compensating for it through field work, which was the case for someone like Chad. Being a councilor and not an operative royally sucked, and he wasn't going to end up like a tub of lard like Councilor Betelguise down on deck five.

That was why Betelguise talked a good game, but Hyperion was always the one to cash in the chips when it came to the ladies... err, well female aliens.

He inhaled the glowing blue lines crossing up the black stick and then exhaled sparkling white smoke in Nigel's direction. "I suppose you're going to add inappropriate conduct to whatever it is you came here for," Chad drawled right on back. "and for the record, it's not promotional bribing if she came on to me."

"That's not what I'm here for." Though Nigel still disapproved. Out of everyone on base, Chad had to go and mess with someone from his team. "I've got an off-base mission for you. Counterintelligence related. Infinity tried to contact you but..." He caught the source of the problem on Chad's desk. The communicator was turned off completely. "...you were in a very important debriefing."

"Almost a debriefing," Chad clarified and took another drag. "You just have a horrible way of screwing up my plans. As usual." He wasn't too thrilled that he was getting another off-base mission from Infinity. Usually off-base missions from him was cleaning up Uno's messes. "So, Infinity is really giving me a proper mission this time? Must be my birthday."

Except Uno was acting really strangely about the whole thing, not to mention the way he was staring at him.

"Listen," snapped Chad. "I know I'm good looking and all, but you're really creeping me out. Just put the file on my desk and go save an indigenous planet or something."

"You're going back to Earth."

Chad almost dropped his I-sig in alarm. "Repeat that." Infinity wasn't really deporting him back to Earth, was he? Because the derelict ship dossier had been sabotaged on purpose by the Armali Teens and there was nothing he could have done about that.

Or maybe Tethys really kept her word and threatened to kick him off base for messing around with her sister. Really, the professionalism of some people. An intergalactic war was waging outside their neutral zone and all Tethys cared about was her personal issues. He should have had her transferred when he had the chance.

Nigel began to pace the length of his minibar, which only served to piss Chad off further. He hated it when Uno paced around. It usually meant he was either trying to explain something he couldn't comprehend, or he was trying to muster up the courage to lie. "It's counterintelligence, as I said before, something you're better at than me. There's a third party faction that's been gaining ground back on Earth the last few years and it's finally caught our attention."

"There are a lot of third party factions back on Earth," Chad mumbled dispassionately around his I-sig. Looks like he'll need another one if Uno keeps releasing bombs like this. "They end up fizzling out and replaced with the next one. What makes this one so special?"

"They managed to capture one of our satellites." Now that was impressive, Chad had to admit to himself. "One probe of our own can launch their technology up at least by ten years. That makes them capable of uprooting both the adults AND the Kids Next Door there."

Ah, so that's the song and dance Infinity is trying to pull. "Let me guess, the leader's a girl and all she needs is a little distraction in the wrong direction." A slow smirk reappeared back on his face. "Of course she is. Not gonna lie, I'm kind of getting tired Kirking it around the galaxy. Human girls? I miss human girls." Sure the universe had many exotic aliens at its disposal, but the call of his own species was like a siren to his ears these days.

And when there's only three male humans in the GKND the last six years, you can bet he was missing the fairer sex.

But then that raised a very important question. "So what is keeping you from taking the quickest shuttle to Earth then?" asked Chad suspiciously. "I figured you'd be accepting this mission yourself for the chance to go back." Uno had every reason to return whereas he himself burnt a lot of bridges getting to where he was now. Who would want to see Chad Dickson resurface aside from his parents?

Nigel seemed more interested in having a staring contest with an alien artifact on Chad's shelf. "I... well, I already accepted the first of a caseload of missions out on the front lines. I couldn't accept it."

The kid was doing the eye-twitch thing. "Lies," he accused. "What's wrong, Uno? Afraid to see what happened to your old sector? I bet that's the reason. You know, not all of them would have made it as a teen infiltrator. You'd be lucky if one even managed. Or maybe you're worried about your little ex? Maybe she's got a dozen boyfriends on the side."

That caused Nigel to snap. "You know what, I can't wait for this mission to bite you right on the ass!" He was cursing. Now that piqued Chad's interest. Nigel tossed the data drive at him, which he caught with his free hand. "It's Theia."

Chad's expression darkened. "What about her?" No one had spoken that name in over six years. Theia. That code name was meant for one person, the only person who turned down a GKND candidacy and then just went AWOL for no reason. He thought he heard the last from her that day.

"It's out of my hands," And Nigel proved it by raising his palms up in surrender and backing away. "I'm in the thick of intergalactic war. The last thing I need is to go down there and find out my team is either decommissioned or on the side of adults. Finding that even Theia can turn against us? I can't handle that Chad. Not now. You wanted to get back on missions. This is your chance."

The door slid shut from Uno's departure, but Chad was more interested in the data drive and brushed a thumb against the button. A bright gold hologram of the dossier appeared and revealed key information about the third faction, self-titled Purnima, and theoretical points about their mysterious leader.

"Purnima," Chad murmured.

"It's Hindi for full moon," her smile was minute, but he could see it as clear as day. "That's what they're chanting about. They're chanting for the Moonbase."

Hopefully building and celebrating India's twentieth treehouse, this time one placed close to the more downtrodden villages, would help the new operatives gather hope for the children there. The new sector, comprising of the finest Indian recruits just recently hot off the Academy, was rallying a group of kids by launching a giant ice cream party for them.

Of course, the launching couldn't be complete without the Supreme Leader there to be in the thick of the celebration. His second-in-command turned away from him after explaining to speak to the new sector leader. All he could hear was a long trail of incoherent words leaving her lips as she spoke Hindi to them. It made him instantly regret ever taking his language translator for granted.

It was a fine time for his language translator to fizzle out at the last moment. When they chanted the word purnima and pointed at him, he honestly thought it was an insult. Maybe if he was nice, he could ask his XO for her translator... or maybe not. They seemed to like her more anyhow by the way they surrounded the young operative eagerly.

"Looks like I'll have to rely on you translating for the rest of the night, Numbuh 362," he sighed and tossed his defunct translator over his shoulder. "Hope you don't mind."

Was that another smile when she turned around? This time he couldn't tell under the cover of night. "Of course, sir."

How long ago was that? Nine, almost ten years?

Chad flopped back onto the couch and ordered the lights dimmed to ten percent. Hopefully it'll help counteract the headache was beginning to form... and the many old and painful memories that came with hearing the name Theia again.

"What the hell happened to you, Rachel?" he asked aloud and rubbed the side of his temple. Why did she surface right onto Infinity's radar again?

Why did she run in the first place when she could have had everything?

Flicking the lines on the I-sig back to life, he gazed at it for a long moment, then decided to tap it out and reach for his datapad.

Over-thinking things was Uno's job. If he really wanted answers, he was the type to go down and take it for himself.