Author Note: This chapter is pathetically short, but hopefully full enough of snappy dialogue to satisfy. I gave up on this story for a bit because the character of Khase Adams and the other OC's from the first story were carried over into the book I'm writing because goddamn they're such great characters. So it's hard to write for Khase Adams, because she became Khasee Aiden and is, you know, part of a completely different universe. I got the plot for this story all figured out though, so it'll get finished. But it'll take a while, since I'm working on a different, longer, more complex story with literally the exact same character. Anyway, there's the update on both this story and the reason that I dropped off the face of the earth. Please enjoy the absolute savagery that Roland brought to this obnoxiously short chapter.

"Okay, so I modified the message a little bit." Roland said, his avatar reappearing and flickering slightly.

I had finished dressing Lasky's gunshot wound and was about to give him some strong ass painkillers, but Roland's statement stopped me. "What? Why? How did you modify it?"

Lasky grabbed my arm. "Give me the goddamn painkillers, Adams."

I waved him off. "In a second. Roland, what do you mean?"

Roland shifted and put his hands behind his back. "Well, I sent out a distress signal saying that someone had taken the Captain hostage. Not the ship. But the Captain."

"But WHY?" I almost shouted.

"Because you need to take him and get out of here. You can't barricade yourself in here. They'll get through in no time, and you'll be screwed when they do. Take the Captain, go down to the loading bay, get on a ship and get out of here. Go somewhere far away for a while. Leave him somewhere he'll get found eventually, and disappear." Roland said, with a certain harshness in his voice.

I squinted at him. "Why would I do that?"

Lasky grunted. "Give me the pain killer, and I'll tell you why. As we walk to the loading bay."

I glanced at him, then quickly did what he asked. "Okay, now tell me why we're going to do that."

Roland facepalmed. "I genuinely wonder how she survived past infancy, sometimes."

I flipped him off. "Fuck you."

Roland made a different rude gesture back. "You wish."

"You two are getting on my last nerve. Honestly." Lasky growled, getting up slowly, to his feet, as the pain meds did their magic.

Lasky gestured at me. "Barricading yourself in here won't be a lasting distraction. They'll cut through the door and shoot you on sight. It'll be over, and they'll be free to go find the Chief. But if you take me and get the hell out of here and we hide out somewhere, they'll have to come look for me and that'll take a significant amount of manpower away from whoever they send after the Chief." He gestured at the door. "Let's move."

I shook my head. "Now I regret shooting you in the leg."

"I hope so!"

"What I mean is that I should've shot you in the arm. I'm probably going to have to carry you at some point."

"What do you mean at some point?"

"When I run out of pain killers."

"Are you serious!?"

"Uh...I might be."

"Honestly, Adams!"

"Will you two just go?" Roland shouted, throwing his hands at the door. "Go, for fuck's sake!"

"Why are you guys helping me?" I demanded, grabbing Lasky's arm and throwing it over my shoulder to help him walk.

"Because you're helping the Chief. And you've basically covered my ass. And we're friends, and I don't really want to see you get shot for treason." Lasky muttered. "But ask me again when you're out of pain killers."

"I'll pass on that."

"Personally, I'm curious to see how all this pans out. That's why I'm helping. But yeah, friends, the Chief, don't get shot, all that." Roland said, shrugging.

"Thanks. Asshole."

"So you're shooting people, but I'm the asshole?"

I opened my mouth for another blistering retort but didn't get the chance as Lasky started limping towards the door, dragging my ass with him.

"I'll respond to that eventually!" I managed to shout as Lasky dragged me through the door I had completely forgotten to actually disable.

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I threw Lasky unceremoniously into the back end of a Pelican. "Don't move."

"Oh, of course. It's not like I got shot in the leg a few minutes ago."

I half turned to say some shit, then decided against it. I sat in the pilot seat of the Pelican and stared at the console. "I have no fucking idea how to fly this."

"How is that possible?"

"While you learned how to fly shitty rust buckets like this, I was learning literally every part of the human body and thousands of ways to treat any illness or injury and learning to do it with style. Get out of here with your condescending bullshit."

Lasky rolled his eyes and dragged himself to the cockpit. "Get out of my way, Adams." I moved slightly and ran into him, knocking him off balance, and he grabbed my upper arms to stay upright. We grappled for a moment until he pushed me into the passenger seat and fell into the pilot's seat. "Goddamnit, Adams."

I held up my hands in a gesture of surrender.

Lasky glared at me. He put the Pelican into gear. "Okay. Next stop, whatever the hell the nearest planet is." He threw a look back to me. "So what's the next part of your plan?"

I winced. "Well, my plan never really went beyond barricading myself in the bridge of the Infinity."

Lasky growled out some choice profanity. "So you shoot me in the leg and now you expect me to come up with a plan too?"

"I expect nothing from you than to shut the fuck up and let me think!"

"Oh yes, because thinking has done so well for you so far."

"I swear to god I'm going to throw you out of the back of this fucking Pelican."

"No you won't. Because if you do that, there's no one to fly this and you'll end up floating off into space, drifting, until you die of dehydration or, perhaps, choking to death on your own bullshit."

I jabbed a finger at him. "Okay, that was a good one. I'll give you that."

"Thanks." Lasky fired the thrusters on the Pelican, but backwards, so I fell forward and hit my face on the dashboard thing.

"Fucking FUCK Lasky I shit fucking swear to GOD-"

"On a scale of one to 'getting shot in the fucking leg', how much did that hurt?"

"I'm really going to enjoy that part about dropping you off on some godforsaken planet and letting the UNSC have you. What's that wasteland planet Tanaka is from? The one that got completely glassed? That sounds like a great place to drop you off."

Lasky gave me a disgusted look. "Anytime you're done talking shit, I'd be happy to help brainstorm a plan."

I squinted at him. "Your part of the plan is pretty much over once I throw you out of this trash can of a vehicle."

Lasky sighed. "I meant, what are you going to do once you've done that? What's your plan? Turn yourself in and go straight to a horrific military prison?"

I leaned back in the chair. "Well, there's that. There's also disappearing, changing my name and my face and living another life."

Lasky threw a glance at me as he maneuvered the Pelican out into open space. "Both of those options means you lose." His gaze became one of concern. "Specifically, you lose Thel."

I sighed. "Yeah, I know. But what else am I supposed to do?" I shook my head. "I just fuck things up for him anyway. He's refraining from furthering his superior bloodline because of me and god knows I'm not fit to raise any fuck trophies."

"Fuck trophies. Nice."

"Blow me."