It was a whole year by the time Tucker got his new big job. In that time, he was given multiple jobs regarding the aliens given they were comfortable with him for some reason. During this time, he took Kaede on a few missions, and while she was grateful, she was still for the most part, in a depression.
She maintained her happy face around Tucker but she wasn't to good an actor, so he could tell something of Kaede wasn't there. It was her seventeenth birthday where it was most prominent, what should have been a happy day was weighed down by the fact she was celebrating with less people than she was supposed to. Don't get her wrong, she was still happy Tucker was there for her.
Which is why, when Tucker was given orders to go on a long term mission with a crew, he decided to bring Kaede along. It might do her some good to get to know more people. They were to oversee the excavation of some alien artifact so it was a low risk assignment. Also a plus. At this time, Kaede grew up to 5'4 (which Tucker constantly teased her about) and her hair had grown down to her waist. Her fashion sense stayed the same, that being primarily black with pink would be the colours she usually wore.
Both Tucker and Kaede boarded a transport and it took them to the excavation site, which just so happened to be a desert. Kaede wiped her forehead of sweat as the two approached the site.
"Why can't we ever go somewhere nice?" Kaede wonders aloud. "If its not a desert, its a frozen wasteland."
"Hey, not my fault you wear black all the time along with that hat." Tucker comments.
"This is all I have to cover up my horns!" Kaede reminds him. "I'm stuck with wearing it when I'm in public." Not that she minded that much. She liked the hat and guarded it like a keepsake. Still made dealing with hot weather frustrating.
"I dunno. Couldn't you try putting on bows or something?" Tucker asks.
"Thats... actually not a bad idea." Kaede musses. The two arrived to see soldiers surrounding some kind of ancient structure. Among those soldier was... "Donut!?" Kaede exclaims.
"Hey guys!" The lightish-red soldier greets. "Man, I didn't know you guys would be here. Small world."
"Oh hey, its this guy." Tucker unenthusiastically says.
"Donut! Its so good to see you! How have you been!" Kaede exclaims.
"I've been just dandy! Haven't seen any of the other Blood Gulch Crew in awhile, so this is great!" Donut replies.
"Tell me about it." Kaede says.
"Say, you're sure sweating a lot and you just got here." Donut comments.
"Yeah. Strange request, you wouldn't happen to have a ribbon on you or anything?" Kaede asks.
"I actually do." Donut says.
"Should have expected that." Tucker comments. Donut hands Kaede a light blue ribbon. She wastes no time taking off her hat and wrapping the ribbons around her horns. After pocketing her hat, she looks to Donut with a smile.
"Thanks, I feel better already."
"No problem. Just goes to show, you should bring some toys anywhere. Who knows when one will be useful." Donut replies.
"Yeah... can we just get to dig site?" Tucker requests.
"You got it!" Donut replies before cheerily leading them towards said dig site. From there, Kaede could see plenty of people taking great care with the ancient structure and looking for a way inside without damaging anything.
"When'd you guys start?" Tucker asks.
"A few hours ago. Not much has happened in that time." Donut explains. "We've check the entire exterior for anything special, but came up empty. We're now looking for a hole to get inside and spray our search in there."
"Bow chicka wow wow." Tucker mutters.
"So, what did you need us for?" Kaede asks.
"Some aliens will be arriving soon, so they want a mediator between the two." Donut explains. "That'll be you Tucker."
"Tight." Tucker responds. "Why me though?"
"They were more comfortable with you ever since you had your alien baby." Donut explains.
"But Juniors dead. How am I still in between?" Tucker questions.
"They heard you had him and cared for him when he was alive. That was good enough for them." Donut answers. A large, blocky, ship appears in the sky.
"That them?" Kaede asks.
"I dunno. I thought they would come in their cool looking purple spaceships." Donut explains. A pelican comes from the larger spaceship and lands near the sight. A man in brown armour with a helmet design Kaede had never seen before steps out along with a few aliens and more men. One of the men who was studying the temple, stops and runs over towards the newly arrived group to talk with them.
"Maybe they were just hitching a ride?" Kaede suggests. "You didn't say anything about more men, though."
"Thats because we're not supposed to have more." Donut says. Right on cue, brown armour shoots the guy talking to him though the head.
"Don't leave anyone alive!" He shouts to his subordinates, who begin their attack on the people still studying the temple.
"Take cover!" Tucker shouts before the gunfire commences. The three run behind some temple debris with Kaede covering them with her invisible arms. As soon as they're safe, Tucker and Donut return fire. Kaede looks around to see the researches shot down without mercy. These people were serious. Grabbing Donuts magnum, she helps in returning fire. During the gunfight, she is struck with the urge to kill using her arms rather than her gun, but she ruthlessly suppressed it. It was her DNA talking and she knew it would not bod well for Tucker and Donut if she lost it.
The attacks were rapidly approaching their position. It looked like they had enough man power and weaponry to take the three of them down. Speaking of weaponry, Kaede hand never seen some of those guns before. They were mostly of a purple rounded design and shot lasers of all sorts, she wasn't to confident that her arms could block those.
"Ahhh! They're coming closer! If we're REALLY unlucky, they'll be coming up to our rears!" Donut exclaims.
"We should take cover in the temple!" Tucker exclaims.
"Didn't you say the researchers were still looking for a way to open it!" Kaede exclaims. "This isn't like in movies were we'll figure something out in three minutes when trained scientists couldn't do it in whatever amount of time."
"Well, its better than sitting here and waiting to be killed." Tucker says, with that, the three ran towards what looked like the main structure of the temple. As they were getting close, an explosion blasted the three apart.
Getting to his feet and looking around, Tucker found Kaede unconscious but Donut was no where to be found. Crawling over to Kaede, Tucker shook her awake.
"Kaede, we have to keep moving!" Tucker urges.
Looking him in the eyes, Kaede replied "Nyu?"
"Fuck." Tucker breathes. This was gonna be a lot harder without Kaede. During that year after Blood Gulch period, Nyu still made appearances in Kaede's body. The first time, she was confused as to why she wasn't in Blood Gulch. Tucker had explained to her that they had to "move away." and after almost 2 hours of charades, in which Nyu was trying to ask where everyone else was, he explained that they all moved to different places. Nyu cried for the rest of that day. When she did inevitably return, she seemed to have made peace with it on some level, though that came with its own problems.
Nyu saw Tucker as the only family left in the whole world, so tried to pamper and keep him happy at every turn which predictably led to disaster. She started a fire trying to cook him something, she walked in on his showers to help wash him, and this one time she walked in on him master-bating only to "help" him by having him grope her breasts. It took all of Tuckers self control to NOT take advantage of the situation and put a stop to it before Nyu got out of hand.
Though her failures depressed her, Nyu was determined to get it right and only tried harder to do so. It leas to her making an actually decent meal one day, she was making progress.
Another explosion went off, to which Kaede shielded Nyu with her body.
"Nyuuuuuuuu!" Nyu screamed, hands covering her ears.
"Stay down Nyu!" Tucker yells before pulling out his sword. The temple then opens in front of two.
"Nyu?" Nyu questions.
"Oh yeah! The sword is also a key! Haha a knew my sword was bad ass. Come on Nyu." Tucker says before running with Nyu inside. Once they are in, the gate shuts behind them. "Thank God. We're safe." Tucker breathes. "Whatever happened to Donut?"
"Nyu." Nyu perks up at the mention of Donut.
Recovering from the explosion, Donut runs around the other side of the temple. Looking behind himself, he is surprised Kaede and Tucker haven't followed.
"Oh no! They must have been captured by those men!" Donut exclaims before taking a more confident posture. "Looks like its up to double 0 Donut to save the day!" Looking down, he spies some kind of purple metal ball in the sand. Picking it up, he examines it. It looks like a grenade, maybe he could use it.
The ball began to hum and in a flash of light Donut was gone.