A/N: Thanks for your patience as I work on my backlog of days.

Check out Dragon Ball Z: The Space Train for my other work alongside my lovely coauthor Feraligreater.

Prompt 12: NEPTUNE

River leaned back against the seat of her jumpship, eyes steadily fixed on the big blue planet in front of her. She held them in a loose orbit as Clementine worked to fire the scanners off, pulsing across the planet and back to her Ghost as they slowly circled it.

"Readings are fine," Clem said, sounding a bit dissatisfied with the answer. "Keep orbiting. We need to do a full sweep."

River hummed agreement, as they arced around the planet. They'd be here a half hour at least, which was fine - Neptune was silent as it spun in space, not too bad a neighbor.

"You guys alright out there?" came Aurora's voice from the comms.

River tapped the screen. "Yeah, we're fine. No Pyramids, no Calus."

Except that was the exact second Clementine pinged something. "You might wanna take that back."

As they rounded Neptune, River had a clear line of sight to the edge of the solar system. There should have been hundreds, thousands of stars. Millions. But, out in front of her? There was a pervasive darkness that blotted out the bright lights. All the hairs on her body seemed to stand on end as she leaned forward, trying to get a closer look. "Oh, God."

"Trajectory looks like Neptune," Clem said, nearly buzzing with anxious energy. "They're a long way off, but they're hauling ass. We need to finish up and get home."

"Got Pyramids on the horizon," River reported back to Aurora as she gave the ship a little more speed. "We're finishing the scan and we're heading home."

"Guardian, disengage. Return immediately." That was Ikora.

River traded a look with her Ghost, and gritted her teeth as she pushed the ship faster. "We're halfway through. I'll swing us around the backside, complete the scan, and use its gravity to slingshot us home."

Ikora was louder, this time. "Guardian, you need to return to the Tower now. We don't have a bead on those ships. We can't protect you."

"Clem says I have time, so I have time," she said, simply, and turned the volume off. "We do have time, right?"

"We should!"

As they swung around the planet, using their momentum to fly out of its orbit, Clementine sifted through the last few scans. "Hold on, I think I got something. Something's beaming radio signals into space."

"Meaning?"

"It means life," her Ghost said. "It means something is alive down there and transmitting signals."

River put the throttle to max, turned back on the comm to Ikora's secure channel. "Alright, I know I'm in trouble. But I think it was worth it."