This chapter takes place after Chapter 42 in SFTD.

Tygan wished he could have approached the situation earlier better, but supposed he'd gotten what he had asked for. At least, in part.

As he entered his Lab, he turned around to make sure Celosia made it in alright. He... would have liked to think he could have predicted that all of the Rulers would have a bad reaction to seeing him in his lab coat. At least that way he could take responsibility. Said coat was over his arm right now. He'd put it back on when he needed it again.

Celosia walked in, ducking under the doorframe. Upon seeing the inside of the lab, she squinted her eyes, but didn't seem perturbed otherwise. Still, Tygan wanted to make sure. "Celosia, are you absolutely sure you are comfortable with me examining you in here?"

She continued walking in, ambling as she looked around. "It's... familiar, in here, but not by much. Just the smell and some of the supplies. Vahlen's lab had different aesthetics to it. For someone like Vel'kiin... I still don't think she could come in here. Smell is very important to Berserkers and Mutons. It would probably bring back the memories regardless of how it looks."

Tygan nodded, folding up his coat and putting it on a free spot on one of the counters. He almost wondered if there was some way he could help that and make the Alien Rulers more comfortable, should they ever have to be in his Lab. If he could accommodate Eliza, he could accommodate them. "If you are certain you will be comfortable... I must also apologize again for—"

"I appreciate it," she interrupted him with, "but repeated apologies don't do anything. I take you to know what you can do in the future to avoid that?"

Even if the statement had been somewhat dismissive, Tygan didn't begrudge her for being curt. It was just in his habits to be apologetic. He nodded. "I do. Now..."

Before he even began, he watched Celosia set her eyes on the greenhouse that took up the rest of his Lab that wasn't reserved for his primary trade. She started walking towards it. "Is this where you are housing your plants?"

Figuring they could always get around to what he wanted to do afterwards, he followed after her. "Indeed. ADVENT themselves had pioneered a type of light that could mimic—"

"Can I go in?"

As Celosia looked back at him, it was hard not to see the thinly-veiled anticipation in her eyes. Seemed she had found something that they could both get into. He offered her another nod, trailing behind her as she made her way into the greenhouse.

The inside of the greenhouse was one of Tygan's favorite places on the Avenger. The various smells of the plants he was cultivating all blended together, along with with pervasive scent of wet earth. Plants lined the aisles, and at the very back was the tree he'd grafted multiple branches onto. Fitting its roots into the limited space had been interesting, to say the least. Celosia was looking around, almost swiveling in place. He was sure she'd be spinning around to look at everything if not for her anatomy. She bent down to look at their potatoes, running her hand over the soil. "... so strange," she began. "An enclosed space like this is suitable for their life?"

Tygan came in behind her, checking to make sure the readings on the status report were alright. "Yes. The lights in the ceiling mimic the light that our sun gives off, allowing the plants to grow without being exposed to the outside. A watering system keeps them hydrated—the only problem I face is managing the roots of the tree."

"Of course, of course." She walked to it, looking up at it for a long moment. "—am I seeing this correctly? Did you graft other branches onto it?"

"Yes. Admittedly, I was not the one to come up with the idea." There was a space at the back for Tygan to come up next to her and he took it. "Sherry, one of our soldiers, was the one to inform and teach me of the practice. From there, it was a few interesting missions later until we had a respectable collection of branches. I admit, I would not think trees so accepting of foreign branches."

Celosia chuckled. "You would be surprised what the plants on my home planet accept. If you grew some species close enough, they would conjoin and exist symbiotically. Of course, that's even without a little help from us. I can tell the plants have been treated well."

Towards the end, Celosia's voice tinged with a painful nostalgia, and her hands dropped to her sides. Tygan was left to wonder at what he should say. It was clear Celosia was homesick, but how to comfort her? He didn't want to offer physical comfort and startle her. She had every reason to mistrust him, as well. He looked towards the chimera tree. "... is there something you would like to say?"

She sighed. "There's too much for me to mourn over. I want to move on, but even when I try to lose myself in what interests me... I can't help but find my old friends. My subjects. My family." She went quiet for a minute, then smiled ruefully. "... look at me. You just wanted to glean some ideas from me and even were kind enough to let me look at your greenhouse, and here I am stewing in my gloom. Not very mature of me, is it?"

Calmly, Tygan readjusted his glasses. "I think it's only natural to linger on the past and anything that reminds you of it." Maybe a bit of empathy would help. "... I find myself dealing with that when I find myself working, sometimes." He looked to Celosia, who motioned for him to continue. "I... worked for ADVENT, in my past. In one of their earliest gene clinics. Despite the time that has passed since my exodus, whenever I go to work, I find myself thinking of it all again. It is pervasive, no matter how much I wish to move on from it. I don't think you 'immature' for continuing to linger on what must've been a large part of your life before you were taken."

Celosia was silent for a bit. The quiet was broken by the sprinkler system activating, dousing the plants in moisture and starting to further increase the humidity of the room. Before she spoke, she extended a hand under one of the sprinklers, looking away from him. "I wasn't exactly taken from my home, unlike the others. I don't suppose you'd like to hear my story since you shared yours?"

"Go ahead, Celosia."

She nodded. "Vel'kiin, Shazara-Ta, Rodin... all of them had been taken from the planets they had rightfully ruled. I had a different path. When ADVENT came, my servants and allies fought claw and nail to ensure my escape. I had intended to die there with them, but they could see that if ADVENT took me, it would be a fate worse than death. So I absconded from my country and went into hiding with the servants that remained for a year."

Her tail flicked, and she sighed. "In one of our relocations, we discovered one of ADVENT's Gates. It was clear that we would not be able to rally and win on my planet, not with the odds so stacked against us. I had better chances escaping to one of ADVENT's more recent conquests and allying with them there, on a planet they were less established."

Celosia's eyes lidded. "ADVENT... watches their gates heavily. We had a patrol coming upon us, and my servants made the decision for me. They merged with the Gate, sacrificing themselves with the speed at which they had to adapt to do so. It was either linger, get shot, and make my people's sacrifice for nothing... or plunge myself into an unfamiliar planet for hopefully a better shot at striking back. And I would not disrespect my court—not when they are the only reason I'm standing here today." She chuckled bitterly. "A certain lot of good it did me when I stumbled into the facility that they were holding my cohorts in. Vahlen, for all of thirty minutes, had been a savior to all of us. Clearly she felt she had to change that."

Celosia sharing her story like this was humbling, to say the least. Tygan barely knew what to say. Everyone's stories always seemed to be more tragic than his, more justified than his working at a gene clinic—and for what reason? Because he was invited? Some part of him knew that refusing would make him suspicious, but even still...

Having left his datapad out in the Lab proper and with nothing else to do with his hands, Tygan idly rubbed the edge of a nearby planter. Nothing to do but focus on the last part of her story, because at least he had something to talk about there. "... every time I hear of the crimes of my predecessor, I cannot help but wonder what inspired her to such lengths. It..." He pressed his eyebrows together. "It astonishes me the decisions she has made. You say she was your savior at first—what possessed her to change that fact? Had she kept things diplomatic and worked alongside all of you, I estimate we would be much farther ahead in our fight against the Elders."

Celosia crossed her arms. "You're just saying things I've already thought over—not that I don't appreciate the mutual horror, of course. I know Vahlen. She faster put us in containment and began to experiment on us than ask us our names. Well, I would say 'faster' if there was any competition—I don't think she asked us at all. We were all already weak from having been captured and kept locked away. Wasn't much to her to simply change where we were contained."

Vahlen's many crimes simply further brought in an emotion that Tygan didn't deal with all too much: anger. He gently gripped the edge of the planter. "The fact that I am left to deal with the destruction caused in her wake further incenses me towards her. None of you ever deserved such wanton cruelty. I can only hope that I can approach things better than she ever did and make you and your companions feel safer whenever we must interact."

"The fact that you're hoping and worrying at all makes me feel calmer." Celosia's hands dropped again. "I know the others vehemently hate her and anyone who looks like a scientist. But I... I just want to move on. I can't spend my energy hating and hating when there's the real possibility that I'll never see her again. Don't get me wrong—I will despise her until the day I wither away and die, and should the Great Mother enter me into Her halls, I will continue to denounce her. But my time is far better spent thinking of those I love and concerning myself with winning this war. With doing what interests me." She took in a deep breath. "So would you hold a grudge if I asked to stop speaking on this? Maybe more, maybe later, but I'm in a greenhouse full of Earthen plants and I'd like to get a better look at all of them."

Well, that wasn't too hard a request to honor. Even if he had more to say on Vahlen, he'd let Celosia get lost in his greenhouse. He'd get around to the examination later. For now, he could simply stay with a kindred spirit. "Of course, Celosia."

Her smile came back. "Thank you, Tygan. I'll try to put in a good word with my partners—you don't seem at all like Vahlen and you deserve them knowing that. They're the greatest friends I know."

"I would appreciate such a gesture."

"Ah, yes." She turned to him. "Afterwards we can get started on that little examination, if you'd allow my to mentally prepare myself. I trust you won't do anything invasive."

"I wouldn't dream of it. I find that I can learn what I need to from my live subjects via surface observations and a few questions."

This time, her chuckle was soft. "A fan of getting to know people, hm?"

That had to be some sort of joke. But, without anything to reply with if it was and the need to maintain his persona, he simply went with the dryest answer he could think of. "It's easier to learn from those on the table when they aren't either dead or frantically resisting you. I've no experience with the latter, of course, and I don't desire it."

"Well spoken."

Celosia looked back to the tree. Soon enough, she would have her questions, and Tygan would offer the best answers he had. But for now, they shared a moment of comfortable silence in the pleasant heat of the greenhouse.

Perhaps, Tygan mused, he should get out of his Lab more often.