Tabitha spent most of the night reading the essay he'd received. He smiled and frowned at specific sections and mouthed the words on others. As soon as he got to the end, he turned it over to read it again.

The letter marked "Courtney" sat on the bedside table to be delivered at breakfast. But, in his mind, Saturn could already see its recipient doing the same thing late into the night.

And that was fine. He was happy for them.

Tabitha neatly folded, then hid, the note after his third read-through. "I wish you were still on the dig," he said as he shut off the light. "I'd love to have sent something back."

"I don't know if I could risk it again even if I was," Saturn admitted. "But I'm glad it worked out and you were able to get an apology."

"It's amazing." He smiled at the note's hiding place and then over to his roommate. "Thank you again for doing this."

"Mm." Saturn settled more into his cot and watched the shadows that stretched across the ceiling. "You didn't seem surprised by what was in it… I suppose you two must have been close."

"We've been friends for about a decade," Tabitha explained. "Colleagues for over half of that."

Saturn did some mental calculation. "But with the age difference…?"

"He was one of my professors," Tabitha explained lightly. "He used that position to recruit a lot. I was just a particularly good candidate, and we meshed well, so eventually I ended up as his right hand." He pulled his blanket up. "How about you? How did you end up with Cyrus?"

"We met, moved in together… stayed that way for 7 years," Saturn said, his voice a bit tight. "Galactic was 5 of those."

"Oh! So you must be close too," Tabitha said with a smile that was apparent even in the dark.

"I thought so."

"I'm headed to a new assignment tomorrow," Tabitha offered. "I'm not sure who I'm under, but I might get a lucky placement! And, if I can speak to him-"

"I know what you're thinking," Saturn said, "But I can't see him being… enthusiastic about that."

"Risk averse?"

"Often," Saturn agreed, lightly. "I also mean you won't be passing anything like that even if he did decide to do it."

"I know the length is… a lot," Tabitha said, "It's really just Maxie being himself."

"Cyrus being himself isn't the sentimental type. Or the apologetic type."

"But he knows that you survived," Tabitha pointed out. "That should mean something, shouldn't it?"

"I'm sure it does," Saturn said. "But I'm not sure what considering us dying was part of the plan."

"Ah…" Tabitha chewed it over. "Well, we can always hope he had a change of heart."

Saturn took a moment to breathe in and out. "We can."

The pair were quiet for a long while. Before they fell asleep, Tabitha asked, "So… considering how everything ended… what do you think he'll do?"

"I don't actually know." Saturn smirked a bit to himself. "Feels just like the old days."

It had been nice to sleep in, relatively speaking. The sunrise didn't matter much for areas of the facility that didn't have any windows, but it was the principle.

This was a small consolation considering he was back under who he now knew to be Lysander. The dig had been constant work, but there'd been an energy to its efficiency that wasn't unpleasant.

Back in the lab, the way that Lysander loomed over the grunts seemed to leech into the air, and he did nothing to stop the way the translator barked his orders. The grunts worked with their muscles tight as they waited for the next one. Not that it would matter much to anyone else. The bombs dutifully began to appear regardless of moral.

Saturn didn't so much ease into the change of pace as resign himself to it. There were hours more at his console that day, and it was best to ignore discontent as best he could. And, of course, also hope that the atmosphere of Galactic hadn't been anything like this.

Two hours in, he rubbed his eyes and reached for his schematic. He pulled it over and found that a note card had been laid on top of it.

How did you survive

It could have been a prank, and it would have been almost comforting to dismiss it as one. But he'd seen that small, neat handwriting so often that it was practically ingrained in his mind.

Cyrus had found him.

Saturn surreptitiously looked around, but didn't see anyone who hadn't been there before. Evidently he took too long doing that because when he turned back around there was another line on the card.

Respond.

Saturn wetted his lips and then wrote:

When you got swallowed, the chain snapped and Palkia escaped. Everything went back to normal. How are you doing this?

Saturn tucked the note card so that it barely peeked out from under the schematic. He went back to work to avoid suspicion.

After a period, he felt what he would have sworn was a wave of frustration. He glanced over at the note card that had moved back on top of the pile of papers. In his mind's eye he could see Cyrus gripping his pen too hard as the vein in his forehead pulsed.

I see.

Saturn scrawled back Is that all? and firmly put the card back in his hiding place. He fully expected that it was, and was a bit surprised to see the card had moved again when he next turned around.

He was less surprised to read Be in the front of the cafeteria at dinner.

I can't guarantee that Saturn replied. It's not like I have rank here and can make people move.

Figure it out.

Saturn continued to watch the note card as often as he dared. It stayed tucked away for the rest of the shift.

He didn't owe Cyrus anything.

It was the other way around, actually. If it weren't for Saturn's management, encouragement, and frankly babysitting at times, Cyrus would never have gotten anywhere. Especially not to Spear Pillar. Which kind of made everything his fault but that was not the point right then.

It'd been nearly a year and a half since Cyrus had tried to kill them all. Suddenly he was back and couldn't even be bothered to answer a question. There was no reason for Saturn to rush and weave his way through the halls. If Cyrus had (somehow) figured out how to find him, he should by all rights also be able to do it again at what had become their usual seats.

And yet…

Saturn slid onto the front bench. He panted as he pushed back a feeling of victory.

He was pathetic.

Mars certainly thought so as she took a spot next to him. "Making it easy, then?"

"He asked me to." Saturn got up to get his own food now that there was someone to guard their place.

"Wha…" Her voice dropped down to a hiss, "You actually spoke to him?"

"In a way."

She scoffed and pointed at him with her chopsticks. "You're getting sucked in again."

"I know, I know." He sighed as he headed into the line to take his tray.

And, just when Saturn had finally made it to the front, there he was.

Cyrus controlled the air in the room when he walked in, and it was only by his grace that anyone else was allowed to breathe.

The guards stepped up to usher the grunts away and let Cyrus get his food first. Saturn should have moved with them, but now there was eye contact and he had become anchored to his spot.

Cyrus leaned down to get his tray, and as he straightened back up he moved close enough to whisper straight into Saturn's ear.

"I'm working on it."

Saturn was forcibly pulled back. He received a slam to the head, and a spot at the end of the line, for his audacity.

Cyrus had already turned to collect his food as if nothing had happened. After a look at the crowd where he may or may not have seen Mars, he walked out.

Saturn's ear rang for the rest of the night. But he could still hear those words just as clearly as when they'd first been said.