Something I felt like I should point out: John only knows what I knew when I started this fic. That means all his bad assumptions, all the points he gets wrong, tend to be my shitty memory showing up. I tend to do a LOT of fact checking as I go along, because this wouldn't look anything like the Vandread universe otherwise.

I have realized I'm an idiot.

Sure, I've thought that for a long time, especially since everyone else in my peer group was a hell of a lot smarter then me. Somehow, they all thought I knew what I was doing, which was a bit confusing, but I finally have PROOF that I'm stupid.

What am I bad at? People.

What am I good at? Robots and computers.

I can build robots. I'm one of the best engineers in my program at coding. I have all my stuff here, my backpack full of electronics. Well, not here. I think Gascogne has it locked up somewhere in the Reg, but still. I have all my tools and parts in this time and space, and thus can do useful things.

Why aren't I building robots to help out? I WENT TO COLLEGE FOR THIS!

I feel like bashing my head into the wall. A close examination of the wall opposite the bunk and my forehead may or may not show that I already had. What I wouldn't give for some aspirin right about now.

Well, nothing to do now but to wait until I have access to all my stuff again. IF I get access to my stuff again.

I really, really screwed the pooch on this one. I'm not cut out to be the chess-master, cleverly manipulating people from the shadows, though that should be obvious by now. It's amazing what you assume you can do when you've never really tried. Back home, I'd been good at manipulating people, but that wasn't on the same scale at all. So now I'm locked up in a cell, nothing but my own thoughts to keep me company. Confinement, as suits a criminal. Charges include assault, resisting arrest, and criminal negligence. At least murder isn't on that rap sheet.

Yet.

"Never really pictured myself going to jail." I laugh softly to myself. "I'm more the type to go down returning fire."

"Interesting. Yet, you surrendered yesterday, which indicates a difference between your perceived mental state and your actual one."

I snap my head to the side to see Duelo sitting down outside the cell, elbows on knees and hands crossed to make a platform for his chin.

"Jesus Christ, you just gave me a heart attack." I huff. I really need to work on my situational awareness. "What are you here for?"

"You have been unstable recently, and as the only doctor on board, it is my job to cure you." Duelo smiles slightly.

"Good luck." I snort. "Last I knew, there wasn't any cure for being a psychopath."

"Maybe. We've yet to determine if you even are a psychopath, or non-normative mentally." Deulo says in that flat, neutral tone that makes him sound so smart and reasonable. "For now, let's work under the assumption that you're normal."

I shrug. Why not?

"First, I would like to ask you your motive for attacking Meia in the simulators the other day. She claims it was an accident, but that's one peculiar set of injuries to sustain falling around or getting caught in that equipment."

"She was..." Come up with a plausible excuse. "...interfering with what I wanted to do. So, I stopped her."

Duelo marks something down on a clipboard he produces from behind his back. "Hmm. Setting aside what she was stopping you from doing, why did you feel you needed to use violence?"

"I... we were past the point of talking it out." I take a second to reorganize my thoughts. "Either she was going to drag me away, or I was going to stop her from doing so physically."

"Why was dragging you off such a bad thing in your mind? Maybe she had good intentions."

"Oh, she did." I confirm without hesitation. "She had the best interests of the crew at heart. She just didn't have my best interests at heart."

"Ah. So you had opposing goals, and yours is not in line with the rest of the crew's?" Duelo narrows his eyes intently. I get the impression that this is rather fun for him.

"I want what's best for the crew as well: To get back to Mejare and Tarak." I say, dodging the question slightly. "She didn't understand that."

"You say that you both had the same goal, but then you also say that it wouldn't be the best thing for you." Duelo comments casually, scribbling more notes down. "Are you confused by having to interact with the women?"

"Ha." I suppress a sneer. "No, I'm not confused. See, getting to Tarak is the best case scenario for me. No more space battles, no more putting my life on the line for nameless background people, no more staying stuck on this ridiculous starship. Meia just didn't like my plan." Good enough excuse. My plan was to exploit future knowledge, and telling the rest of the ship that wouldn't help. It's close enough to the truth to work with, anyway.

"Okay. Let's change topics. The captain has remarked that you exhibit suicidal behavior. Why do you believe this is the case?"

"I generally don't consider myself suicidal." A lie. I've learned people don't take it well when you admit to that.

"So, you were unaware..." He scrabbles down more. "Tell me, have you ever tried to kill yourself in the past?"

"...Several times." Once successfully. "I got better though, once I got over... er, I was in a relationship, and it ended poorly."

"Relationships on Tarak aren't that common." He muses aloud. "So this might indicate so sort of psychological need for affection-"

"Nope, that one's wrong." I flatly deny. "Sh... er, he asked me out. I saw no real reason to say no." I shrug. "I didn't really return the affection."

"Why is that? Was your partner not suited to your tastes?"

I sit up and look Duelo in the eyes. "Look, I get you're doing the whole psychoanalyze thing, but I've spent years trying to figure this out myself. I noticed a few years ago that I don't form emotional bonds with people. Not anyone. The people close to me are little more than sources of entertainment." I take a deep breath. "I lack empathy."

"You've never felt empathy?"

"No. You know how when someone else smiles, it makes you feel good inside? Or how about, when your friend is in pain, how a little of that pain carries over? I don't get that. I pretend like I do, to appear normal."

"Interesting." He scribbles a bunch more notes, drawing out the silence. "Why do you protect others, then?"

I bite my tongue. I should have known this question was next. "I don't know myself. I think it's a reflex."

"That's an odd conclusion. Reflexes don't generally extend to protecting others, aside from those with delusions of being a hero." He taps his stylus against the clipboard. "Do you believe yourself to be a god?"

"...Hah?" I give the doctor an odd look.

"Or, how about the savior? You seem to see yourself as more important than any number of others, but you do your best to protect them. By most definitions of being a psychopath, you would never have considered helping anyone back on the sand planet, yet you sacrificed yourself to get everyone else back. You claim this was reflex?"

"..."

"We're going to be here all day, Hibiki. Or John. Which do you prefer?"

"...Johnny. It's what I was called back home."

Duelo marks this down as well. "Let's get back on topic."

"It... Look, if anyone on this ship dies, and I mean anyone, WE DON'T MAKE IT BACK." I raise my voice and stand up, almost pressing myself on the bars. "If I let any of those girls to die, everyone would have been screwed anyway."

"Are you not included in the 'anyone on the ship' when you talk of dying?"

A sardonic laugh escapes my throat. "As far as this universe was concerned, I was dead before the Paksis merged our ships. I'm not the original Hibiki, but you already knew that."

"So, in your mind, that makes you expendable." Duelo takes a few more notes, then stands up. "I'll be back later with more questions."

"Uh huh." I say, flopping back down on the slab of metal that serves as my bunk. "Say, what kind of doctor are you? Most doctors have specialties." I say, conversationally.

"Emergency Medical, though I also spent time as a surgeon." He says. "Why do you ask?"

"Neither of those are supposed to teach you to be a therapist." I point out.

"Good point." And with that, he leaves.

Meia, Jura, Barnette, Dita and Zan trek through the seemingly abandoned mission. Pyoro follows along mumbling about how stupid humans are.

Zan looks down at the list of parts they're here to scavenge. "We should head towards the center. That's where the majority of the components we can use are located."

"I wonder where the food is?" Jura comments.

Barnette shrugs. "There may not be any. This place looks like it was abandoned ages ago."

Meia and Dita remain quiet, leading and trailing the pack respectively.

The move from point to point, following Zan's guidance as they find parts. Barnette is forced to carry the majority of the load, much to her continual and loud annoyance.

"I think if we head this way, we'll be able to reach-" Zan starts, fumbling with her notepad.

"Jura, carry your fair share." Barnette snaps at her friend. "Any more and I'll be useless in a fight."

"If you force me to carry anything, I won't be able to use my sword properly. What if we get attacked?" Jura haughtily flings her hair behind her shoulder.

"I'm telling you, I have a gun. If anyone needs to be able to fight, it's me. I have a lot larger effective range than you do."

"But your gun is so dreary and dull, and my magnificent sword is a bright light in the darkness!"

Meia glares back at them, and they resume sniping at each other in whispers.

Zan shakes her head and focuses on the redhead in the back of the group. "Dita?"

The woman in question starts suddenly, looking around herself in confusion for a second. "Zan?"

"Dita, are you okay?" In truth, Zan knows that Dita has NOT been okay. Not since that mission to the desert planet. It's only been few days since then, but it's definitely been noticed by the majority of the crew of the Nirvana.

"Yes, I'm okay." Dita says, though she refuses to make eye contact.

Zan tries again. "You don't look okay. Are things going wrong between you and Hibiki?" Zan had noticed that the other girl had immediately attached to the male, and while she didn't like it given her own crush, she decided to stuff her feelings down in an effort to support her flagging friend.

"He- He's not Hibiki." Dita says piteously. "His real name is John."

"It is?" Zan is taken aback. "He never told me that!"

"But he did tell you some of his secrets." Dita turns away and speeds up slightly.

Zan is having none of it. "What are you talking about?" The shorter girl also increases her pace, her legs pumping faster as the two subtly try to outpace the other.

"At the party, you said you knew of one of his secrets." Dita says.

"Ah..." Zan recalls what the secret must have been, but not the night in question. She didn't hold her senses as well as Dita, it seems. "It's not really a secret. He just has some weird music." Zan decides to spill the beans. Kind of. She might not be thrilled to realize how close to John's thinking she had gotten.

Dita finally consents to look at Zan. "And he told his real name to Meia!" Her face is contorted in pain. "Why didn't he tell me! I promised I'd be there for him if he needed it, but he goes to Meia instead!"

"Wow." Zan glances at the blue haired leader. "So, he... likes her?"

Dita buries her head in her hands. "He pretends I don't even exist! Why?"

Zan lays a comforting arm on Dita's shoulder, only for the larger girl to suddenly tackle the smaller and plow both of them to the floor. The other three member of the party turn to look at Zan and Dita, wondering what the commotion is.

Dita remains a sobbing wreck for the next few minutes. Meia reluctantly calls a break, and the quintet sit down to eat their rations. Pyoro floats around, lazily making observations about how emotional women are, statements that would get him crucified back in John's world.

At least, he was making comments until something grabs him from behind a row of benches, and the egg shaped robot squawks and is dragged away at high speed.

In a flash, Meia, Jura and Barnette are on their feet and chasing after their white companion.

Jura unsheathes her sword, the motion graceful as she plants her feet and starts glancing around furtively. Gone is the high and mighty attitude she usually adopted, replaced by wary watchfulness. Barnette draws her pistol and racks the slide, chambering the first round and holding the pistol low, scanning for the enemy. She backs up right against Jura, the duo instinctively covering for each other. Meia holds her arm in a ready position, spinning in place to see where the distressed robot's cries are coming from.

The cries come from all directions, traveling around them seemingly at random. The three combat ready women track the sounds of the robot, adjusting slightly each time their quarry moves to a new location.

Jura is the first to spot the orangutan, and she immediately brings her sword's tip from the resting posture she had assumed and into a battle stance. The other two notice this and swing to follow the orange ape as it jumps again, this time the three combatants are able to follow the motion.

"Help me~" Pyoro pleads, his voice distorting as he's dragged around the room.

"What is that thing?" Jura asks.

"I don't know." Barnette answers. "It's big and furry, whatever it is."

"Keep you guard up, there may be more." Meia says, spinning around again to check their rear.

There, a man she's never seen before holds a pistol against Zan's head. "Hello, ladies." He says cordially. "How about we allllll put our weapons away and let's have a nice chat, shall we?"

Faster than most people would have thought possible, Jura dashes past Meia with sword trailing behind, staying low to the ground. Why she's so low is answered a moment later as Barnette's pistol bursts to life with a CRACK!

The man with the gun manages to avoid getting shot, but he has to relinquish his hostage almost immediately to avoid Jura's sword. Jura continues to force him back, his voice coming out in panicked gasps. "Wait! Wait! I surrender!" He holds both his hands up and drops his pistol to the floor.

Jura's blade stops with the point barely pricking his throat, an impressive feat for such a long sword. Meia points her laser at him. "Who are you?"

The man smiles easily, though it doesn't quite reach his eyes. "I'm Rabat. And who might you lovely ladies be?"

"Help!" Comes the plaintive cry of a robot being molested by an ape.

"Tell your... thing to let go of our robot." Meia demands.

Rabat sighs. "Utan, get over here."

The orangutan jumps over to her master, egg robot firmly in tow and actively being licked. Rabat reaches over and lifts up Utan, still clutching Pyoro.

"That's enough from you, Utan. Your partner's in a crisis here." He says, placing his hand on top of Pyoro. A sly grin crosses his face as he yanks the robot out of Utans grip and flings it at Meia.

Meia gets clocked by the flying robot. Barnette is the first to recover, bringing her pistol to bear, but Utan leaps up and tackles the green haired girl to the ground before she can get a shot off, before leaping upwards to another, unreachable walkway. Jura dashes forwards, swinging her sword at Rabat, who backflips to get away from the blond. He springs away before Jura can take a second swipe at him.

Suddenly, the entire mission shudders. BC's voice comes over the radio. "Everyone, battle stations! Ground team, get back to your ships!"

Meia gets up off the floor quickly and the trio grabs Zan and Dita before racing off down the corridors. Corridors that have airtight doors that keep descending to lock down. The group is barely managing to remain ahead of the closing doors, and Meia has to slide under the last door to close down to get into the hanger.

However, all of them made it to the hanger, and they each climb into a Dread, with Zan sliding in behind Dita. The four of them slip out of the hanger to find that the AO is seriously crowded. Swarms of small yellow triangular bots flit about, chasing the Nirvana. Larger pentagonal ships release the triangles, then position themselves between the mission and the Nirvana, acting as shields. The mission itself starts sprouting weapons, laser cannons preparing to fire.

None of the four see the red spaceship slip out from another hanger, but they do see how the machines react, a significant portion of the fleet breaking off to follow the new ship.

The four pilots head out to rejoin their fellow pilots, Meia already giving orders over the comms.

The first shot is fired by the robots, once the first of the yellow triangles gets within range of one of the fighters. The shot misses: It soars past both the Nirvana's forces and the Nirvana itself, soaring off into space, perhaps to hit something thousands of years later.

Then the Nirvana's fleet attacks, unleashing a hail of deadly light, hardly aimed for the sheer amount of enemy units made missing a feat in and of itself.

Meia, ever the skillful pilot, swims through the barrage seemingly without effort, the lances of light from both sides never quite managing to tag the Wolfen-styled ship. The woman inside the ship starts tagging the enemies with her own lasers, the blue beams lancing through the yellow machines mercilessly.

Jura and Barnette head back to the main fleet, rallying the others and giving their respective squads more detailed orders. Their squads are to fan out, and try to make a wall to defend the Nirvana. The larger ship had oriented itself in line with the abandoned space colony, and despite how iffy things get in space, the human mind still like to think in up and down, left and right, forwards and backwards. Jura takes upwards with respect to the parent ship, and Barnette takes the bottom.

The yellow triangles come at them at high speed, obviously intending to ram the defenders if they get shot or their lasers don't hit.

The pilots aren't floating in place, and they shoot down and dodge the suicidal robots, with the Nirvana's shielding system taking a bunch of hits.

While he's not on the open broadcast channel, Meia muses that Bart is probably whining right about now. She pilots her craft deftly through one of the pentagons, firing a few shots at it's core before jetting out the other side, detonating the enemy ship and revealing a section of the mission. That section is covered in cannons, and they all swivel to face her.

Dita swoops in, thankfully a bit more focused than she has been recently, and she fires her massive lasers at the mission. The beams scar the surface, melting most of the exposed cannons to slag.

Unfortunately, the beams are nowhere near as strong without combining the Dread with Hibiki's Van, and the laser fail to penetrate to main mission. However the attack does not go unnoticed by the machines. Another significant detachment can be observed breaking off the attack on the Nirvana and swinging around to take on the two lonely ships close to the mission.

Even as the battle continues around her, Meia keeps an eye on the overall progress of the battle. The smallest enemies are easily being chewed apart by the defenders, but it's taking the entirety of the Nirvana's forces to do that. There is no way for the two pilots currently focused on another of the pentagonal ships to get backup. As it stands, the pentagons are probably the Nirvana's saving grace, blocking the cannons on the mission from hitting the parent ship.

If only John was here... Meia catches herself thinking. Yes, she'd internalized his real name, or at least the name he gave. Thinking logically, having him to take out the mission with Dita is the best course of action, but then again... he's not the most sane of people. Would Dita be safe with him, alone?

Then she remembers that Zan is currently in the back of Dita's Dread. If worst comes to worst, it'll be two against one, though Meia's not sure how well that would go. Zan's never had formal training since she's been Reg crew her entire pirate career, and Dita's Dita. Though, it looks like she'll have to risk it. As she looks out over the battlefield again, she grimly reminds herself of how stacked the odds are against them. "BC? I need to ask you a favor."

I look up as the bars of my cell fade away and the cuffs pop off. I had heard the announcement to sortie a while ago, and the ship has rocked a few times since then from impacts. I assume that since I've been released, they can't quite handle the situation on their own. Before I can even sit up, a hologram of BC's face appears.

"You are to report directly to your Vanguard, and then launch as soon as possible." She says curtly. "You are to combine with Dita's dread and destroy the mission."

"Understood." I say, a polite smile on my face. "Heading there now. Though, the Paksis may not let me fly." I stride out of the door before the man turned woman can say anything back, heading down the well known route to the hanger. There's nobody else down here, and the walk through the empty halls is quiet aside from my footfalls. The hangar itself is similarly quiet, and I swing up into my Van-type and settle in the pilot's seat. I close the hatch and let the familiar frosty feeling creep into my spine. The system doesn't boot up though.

"I'm needed out there, Paksis." I say to the empty air. "Don't worry, they asked for me. And I'm not likely to snap this time."

The ice is replaced by fire for a second, then goes back to ice. It makes me want to scratch my back, but I can't afford to twist around right now. I place my hands on the controls and wait for the stubborn sphere to let me do my job.

As the main systems boot up, Meia's face appears before me. "John, have you launched yet?"

"Launching now." I say. "Sitrep?"

Meia proceeds to describe the battlefield. I'll have to slip past the defensive forces and the bombardment of yellow triangles to get to Dita's ship, which I'll have to combine with to destroy the mission.

I look down at my, very very basic controls. My ship isn't built for speed. Even if it was, the Paksis probably wouldn't allow me to use it. I had finally convinced the damned sphere to let me access the audio controls back on the desert planet, but we all know how that went. Instead, I'll have to use the launcher at full force to get me there as fast as I can get there. It'll send me tumbling, but grace needs to take a backseat to efficiency.

Meia finishes off with one last instruction. "Once you've taken care of the mission, you need to eject from Dita's Dread as soon as you can. I'll pick you up and transport you back to the Nirvana myself."

"Got it." I take a deep breath, and mentally tell the Paksis to launch me. My vision darkens around the edges as the blood drains from my face due to the g-forces, but I manage to cling to consciousness as I rocket past the defensive line, on a course towards the mission. The computer immediately lights up to tell me that at this speed, I can't avoid colliding with the large structure without assistance.

"Well, this is going to be fun." I mutter.

Meia confirms John's launch, then focuses back on the fight. By now, the majority of the robots attacking the Nirvana have either been crushed or are being pursued by the pirates who are defending the Nirvana. Soon, her fellow pilots will finish them off and come back to aid in taking down the mission, at least if John hasn't managed to destroy it before then.

Still, without destroying the mission, things look bleak for the crew. Meia had seen manufacturing equipment inside of the pentagon she's be inside, and the others had sealed up the triangular ports with replacement units already. If that wave launches, there's a good chance they'll all be overwhelmed.

From the cluster of robots that had swarmed the other ship earlier, bright lights start streaking out in all directions.

Meia pilots her ship in that direction, curious as to the source of the lights.

It turns out to be a small suit of armor, roughly like the Vanguards the men developed, but it vaguely reminds Meia of the orange ape from inside the mission. Behind the suit is a red ship, probably belonging to Rabat. The suit of armor is launching the most impressive and the most wasteful barrage of destruction Meia had seen in a while. It's effective though, and as she watches two of the pentagons die along with countless yellow triangles. The hail of destruction eventually stops, and Dita swoops in to destroy the cannons mounted on the surface of the mission before they can fire.

Both Meia and Dita slow down and hover near the red ship, the ape suit returning and entering the vessel.

Meia get's pinged over an open channel. "Hello, ladies. Come to dance?"

"That was an impressive show. I came to see what the lights were about." Meia answer curtly.

"Well, know you know. Would you be so kind as to aid me in killing these things? I'm afraid I can't take out a space colony all by myself."

"We've got the situation under control." Meia responds, then switches frequency. "Dita, John's en-route. Combine with him and take out the mission.

A pause. "Do I have to?"

"Yes." Meia's voice leaves no room for debate.

The mission looks a lot bigger up close. For most of the uncorrected flight over this way, I've been idly wondering if this was some roundabout plot to off me in an accident, but before I got so close the only thing I could see was the mission, Dita swooped in, grabbing my Vanguard, and combined with me.

This is when I got an unpleasant surprise.

I'm grateful the Paksis deigned to allow us to combine. It saved me from smashing into the mission at high velocity, after all. However, unlike when Gascogne was in the cockpit with us, our current passenger isn't... cooperative.

"OW! Get your elbow out of my face!" Zan is panicking, and all her flailing isn't exactly helping, nor is the fact that I have not one but two girls sitting in my lap, Zan on top of me, and Dita on top of her. "Why are you even here?" I ask with resignation. "Dita, can you just hurry it up and blow up the mission?"

"I can't, Zan's struggling too hard to aim." She says, for once not gushing over me and focusing on the task before her.

"Zan, calm the fuck down." I hiss at her. "You're being a nuisance."

Her response is to continue screaming and flinging her limbs into my face. When her elbow hits my gut, I decide enough is enough. I wrap my right arm around her throat, sticking my right hand into the crook of my left arm's elbow, and tighten my grip. This hold is designed to cut off the flow of blood to the victim's head, knocking them out. It also can kill someone and cause brain damage, so it's not a good idea to use for fun. Zan eventually stops struggling so hard, then slumps as she finally loses consciousness.

"There we go." I sigh.

Dita twists around in her seat, her expression unreadable. "Mister Alien?"

"Yes?" I release the limp form of Zan, and focus on Dita.

"I'm sorry for being such a pain." She begins, tears starting to well in here eyes. Her features soften as well, as she starts to revert back to her usual super emotional self. "I wasn't trying to make you hate me."

I hold up one hand to get her to stop and shake my head. "No, Dita, that was my fault. I'm not really that nice of a guy, so it's my fault." I put my hands back on the triggers, and start adjusting them to aim at the mission.

"But-"

"No, really. I didn't realize just how badly I was hurting you by ignoring you." I cut her off. "I'll apologize properly if I get the chance, but right now we need to take care of the mission."

Dita, suddenly a bit more cheery, turns around in her seat and starts piloting again. I quickly aim the beams at the core, engage them, and wait as the charge builds and releases, twin beams lancing through space and cutting through the mission as if it was made of paper. Before I have a chance to blink, the huge station explodes, blinding me temporarily as my eyes adjust.

My ears work just fine though. Meia's voice comes through the radio. "Dita, eject John immediately."

"But, I need to talk to him!" Dita protests.

"That's an order." Meia says.

"Meia, there's no eject lever." I sigh. "It's up to the Paksis to decide when we separate."

"Then get it to separate you." Meia finishes. "Now."

Unfortunately, I know the Paksis, and how much it wants us all to get along. It probably sees this as a good time to get us to make up. I can fix that... "Dita, I apologize in advance."

"Huh? What do you m-" She twists around to find my fist flying at her face. It sends a spike of fear down her spine, which is enough to get the Paksis intervene.

Meia's Dread comes to get me as I tumble through space, the controls refusing to work despite the Vanguard still being active. The Paksis continues to make it's displeasure known as I drift in somersaults, ice making it hard to breath as my lungs chill.

Therapist strikes again, MAN VERSION. Also, I managed to make almost a full forty percent of this chapter not about me. It's a new record.

And a bit of trivia. Rabat is a contraction of "Rat Bastard." You're welcome.