Boron is right about one thing. Rumors do spread fast around here. I can barely walk down the hall without someone asking me about the mission and wanting to find some way to help. Which is good, really. They need something to do, some way to feel useful, and the thought of a rescue mission gives everyone hope. It also means that I have less work to do to prepare, because my family is only too eager to gather random supplies and check weapons we might need.

Of course, the down side of this is that, at the pace things are moving, we'll be ready to leave by tomorrow. I don't know if I'll be ready for that. I refuse to let anyone see it, but I'm tired. And not he 'I missed a few hours of sleep the other night' kind of tired, either. This is the type of tired you only get through recovering from serious injuries on a regular basis. I think my body's used up whatever reserve energy it had and I feel like I'm running on empty.

I don't want to delay this mission just for me. Gold could get hurt or killed any day while he's working for mom. It's not safe to leave him out there any longer than I have to. Still, I know it's dangerous to go on a mission while I'm like this; not just dangerous for me, either. It's dangerous for anyone working with me if I'm not at the top of my game. It's dangerous enough even when I am, I think. So, despite my own impatience and despite how badly I want to get Gold back, I send a message to everyone's holo-pads. The official date we leave for the mission is in three days. That should be plenty of time for me to get the team together, prepare them, and hopefully finish healing.

After I send the message, I pull up the mission roster once again. The first few names are obvious: myself, Platinum, and Agent Washington. All good fighters, all strong and skilled enough to take on Gold. The next name comes with a bit of an explanation. Yttrium knows how to safely deactivate Gold's chip, even if mom has modified it. Next up is Doc. Of course, if things go according to plan we won't need him, but it's best to be prepared. Normally I would prefer to bring Rhodi along, but he doesn't have any armor. It won't do for the team's doctor to become a liability.

And then there's the last name on the list. Private Dick Simmons. I don't know too much about him, but Nick said he's the right choice. I trust my brother's judgment. Still, I want to talk to him myself. It pays to be cautious, especially when his entire job will be to protect Yttri. I can't take chances with my sister's life.

It's early morning, so I assume Simmons will be in the mess hall like everyone else. I frown. I don't like having conversations like this in such public settings. It confuses things if other people are allowed to interrupt, and it's hard to be calm and persuasive with so much noise around. My best bet would be to get him alone some time later and talk to him then. In the mean time, I need to check our armory.

The armory is right next to the hangar, so I pass through there on my way. As usual, Iodine and Beryllium are hanging around the ship. Io's reading a manual on engines while Beryl sits in the pelican's cockpit, pretending to fly. I know Nick's been trying to teach her when he has the time. He says she's gotten pretty good, at least at the simulations. Maybe someday, when this is all over, she'll be able to get her pilot's license. I smile at the thought of such a real, normal future for her. I want that for everyone here.

I reach the armory and step into the small room. Boxes of grenades are piled in the corner, mostly flashbangs but with a few small boxes of frags and plasmas mixed in. One wall is lined with weapons of human design, another Covenant, and the third is covered in stun and paint guns for training. I see a few from the last category are missing and assume Tinu is training with the kids. She's always liked working with them. I wonder if she'll become a teacher some day.

I shake off these musings and turn my attention to the task at hand. I need to pick which guns will be best for fighting Gold without hurting him. The paint pellets in the training guns only work if the armor's set to training protocols, so unless Gold forgot to switch his armor to combat mode after his last round of training, I don't think they'll be very effective. Too bad, I think. That would have been useful. I then turn my attention to the stun guns. I know from experience that most of them aren't very powerful. I doubt they could stop Gold, even if he wasn't using armor. Except for one.

"This looks promising," I say, picking up one of the guns off the wall to examine it. It looks sort of like a human assault rifle, with some distinctly alien elements to the design. I've practiced with this one in training before, though never against a real opponent. Yttri designed it. It's sort of her specialty, merging the strongest elements of both human and alien technologies. This one combines the Covenant use of plasma with the human tendency toward projectile weaponry. It fires a low-powered plasma blast encasing a pellet designed to administer an electrical charge. Yttri claims it has enough power to stop a charging brute. That should at least slow Gold down. It's probably our best bet.

I count the guns on the wall. We have four total. Should be enough for what we need, I decide, placing the gun back where I found it. That's one for me, one for Wash, one for Tinu, and one for Simmons, I count off in my head. Yttri won't get one, but she won't be fighting anyway so it shouldn't be a problem. It's almost too convenient how well it works out, and I'm torn between feeling thankful for the luck and waiting for something to happen to mess it up. I suppose it doesn't matter. It'll be a huge piece of luck if we get to use the guns at all anyway.

I leave the armory and head back into the hangar. Yttri should be in her workroom by now, so I decide to head there. I want to see if she has any new gadgets that might help on this mission. Also, according to Nick, there's a good chance I'll find Simmons there. I can't imagine why, though. Yttri doesn't normally let people hang around while she's working.

Yttri glances up from the blueprints through a veil of dark, curly hair. Normally she would tie it back, but not today. Today she's content to leave her hair where it falls. It serves as the perfect shield for her wandering eyes as she fixes them on Simmons.

Something's seemed off about her cyborge friend all day. She's already caught him staring at her a few times. Really, though, that isn't very unusual, she thinks. At least he's been better about it than the teal guy. She'd only ever caught him staring at her butt. At least Simmons has the decency to be looking at her face when she catches him.

So, no, the staring isn't what's strange. Neither is the nervous fidgeting. Simmons has always twisted his fingers together and shifted his feet and struggled to maintain eye contact when speaking to her. That's just business as usual. The nervous stuttering is the same as well.

Really, it isn't one particular thing that catches her attention. It's all of them together.

Yttri knows that none of this is really new. Simmons has acted like this since she first met him. This is just the first time she's really paid attention to it. She doesn't know why Simmons behavior bothers her. It hasn't affected his work at all, except for when he dropped that wrench on his toe while handing it to her. Yttri still isn't sure what'd happened. He hadn't been using the mechanical arm, so it couldn't have been a malfunction. She remembers that her hand had accidentally touched his when she'd reached for the tool. Maybe I startled him or something, she guesses.

Yttri stops suddenly, an annoying realization creeping into her head. She's spent the past three minutes staring and thinking about the cyborge when she's supposed to be working. She growls quietly, angry that she's let herself become distracted, and forces her eyes back to the table. She doesn't know why the sim-trooper has been occupying her thoughts so much today. She tries to tell herself it's because she's been designing his new arm, but she knows that's a lie.

She glances at Simmons again from behind the curtain of hair. As she expected, he's staring right back at her, unaware that their eyes are meeting. He's wearing normal clothes instead of his armor, so for once she can see his face. She can practically feel his eyes tracing over her hair as he tries to make out the shape of her face from where it's hidden. His gaze is oddly distant. Yttri smiles. He must be thinking about something as well.

Yttri tries to turn back to her work, but her eyes linger on a tiny scar on his chin, the thin line of pink cutting through a few freckles. She wonders where it came from. Had one of the blue soldiers caused it? Or maybe a freelancer? Or was it an accident of some sort? She opens her mouth to ask before stopping herself. I don't have time for this kind of nonsense, she scolds herself. I have to get back to work.

Yttri looks back to the blueprints on the table. White lines on dark blue paper form a rough sketch of a robotic arm. The sketch is surrounded by notes about materials and wire configurations. She struggles to keep her eyes on the table for a few minutes before giving up. This clearly isn't working, she thinks.

Yttri turns away from the worktable suddenly and strides toward Simmons. If she can't keep her attention off of him, she's at least going to get some use out of it. She grabs his arm and rolls the sleeve up past his shoulder without a word. Simmons jumps and starts to blush at the touch, but doesn't pull away. "Need some measurements," Yttri mutters in explanation.

Simmons nods, trying to swallow the lump in his throat.

Yttri runs her fingers over the skin of his shoulder where it connects to the metal. It's scarred and uneven, clearly not the work of a trained surgeon. She wonders if he cares, if it bothers him that the job was done so poorly. She frowns. It bothers her. He shouldn't have been stuck with such a poor quality repair just because someone else didn't know what they were doing.

Yttri's eyes narrow as she notices a slight reddening of the skin where it touches the metal, a sign of abrasion. This isn't right. There should be some sort of rubber cushioning here, not just skin on metal. There probably isn't even any internal reinforcement to the joint, she thinks bitterly. She has no doubt that it hurts. This is beyond sloppy work. Whoever did this must have had no idea what they were doing. She supposes that she can't really blame them, though. The man who Simmons said did this didn't have any sort of training. He couldn't have known the deeper repercussions or the damage this could cause. As long as the mechanics worked, he probably didn't care.

That's what happens when you think of people like machines, a small part of her mind whispers. You start to forget that they can feel pain, that they're fragile.

Yttri looks up at Simmons. He seems embarrassed. She wonders if he even understands what's wrong with this. "Does is hurt?" she asks. She makes sure her voice stays detached and professional, despite the anger burning inside her.

"Sometimes," Simmons shrugs, once again refusing to look her in the eye. She doesn't know why, but it irritates her that he never looks at her when they talk. "It's not that bad, though," Simmons adds.

Yttri shakes her head. He's gotten used to it; accepted it as normal. "It shouldn't cause you any pain," she explains. "If it is, that means it could be causing further damage."

Simmons nods. "I know," he says. "I-it gets really sore sometimes, but I can manage. It's no big deal."

Yttri scowls and drops the arm, letting it fall to his side. "Once I get the parts, I'm fixing this," she tells him.

"You don't have to," Simmons says quickly. "Really, I'm used to it."

Yttri shakes her head. She's not going to leave this up for discussion. "It's one thing for your arm to be outdated. It's another thing for it to hurt you. I'm fixing it." She says the last sentence with finality.

Simmons looks like he's going to argue but is stopped by the door opening behind them.

I hold back a slight sigh of annoyance as I step into the room. Nick was right. Simmons is here. I guess I should stop being surprised by the fact that all my siblings are smarter than me.

I look at Yttri and realize she's wearing her 'someone touched my toolbox without asking' scowl, which makes me immediately fear for Simmons life. Yttri is very protective of her tools. The look, however, seems to be aimed at the universe in general and not Simmons himself, so I think he has a good chance at survival. I wonder what happened to make her so upset.

"Simmons," I say from the doorway. I don't really want to go further into the room. It feels like I've interrupted something, though I'm not sure what exactly.

"Y-yeah?" he asks, dragging his attention over to me.

"I need to talk to you," I say. "Alone. Could you follow me?" I half turn toward the door as I finish, looking back to see if Simmons will follow.

The red haired soldier looks at the mechanic for a moment. She's standing in front of him and his back's to a table, so there isn't anywhere for him to go. After a moment of silence makes it obvious that Yttri doesn't plan on moving, Simmons sidesteps awkwardly around her. The blush on his face only deepens when his human arm accidentally brushes hers. He mumbles something about coming back later before walking toward the door.

I watch the exchange curiously. I think I can see some of what Nick meant about them. It's confusing, though. Yttri doesn't seem to be acting like herself. Yttri normally doesn't let people help her, not unless it's someone like Iodine who she's worked with for a long time. She doesn't even like people hanging around in her workroom. She must really trust this guy, I think.

Simmons keeps glancing back at Yttri as he leaves the room. It's only once we're out in the hall and the door is closed behind him the he turns his attention to me. "What did you want to talk about?"

I pull my mind back to the conversation at hand, reminding myself that I can ponder Yttri's odd behavior later.

"I'm sure by now you've heard about the mission we're planning," I start. When Simmons nods, I continue. "Nick suggested you for part of the mission. I need to know if you want to go with us."

"Does it matter?" Simmons asks. "I mean, even if I don't want to go, won't you just order me to anyway?"

I shake my head. "This mission could be dangerous," I explain. "I won't demand that you risk your life. That's your choice."

Simmons shifts his eyes away from me for a second. "I- I don't know," he says after a moment. "I'm not really the best fighter. I probably couldn't help you much anyway, and I- I'm just not sure…" he lets the sentence trail away into silence.

I nod. He doesn't want to say that he's not willing to risk his life for people he doesn't really know. I understand. I hadn't really expected he would. Still, I need someone for this job. If Nick really thinks this guy's the right choice, I have to at least try to convince him.

"If things go according to plan, you shouldn't really be in the fight. I just need someone to guard Yttrium."

Simmons eyes snap up to meet mine. "Yttri's going?" he asks.

I nod, silenced for a moment by the level of concern in his voice. "We need her to deactivate Gold's chip. The problem is, she's not a fighter. Even though she won't be involved in the actual fight, I want someone there to protect her, just in case anything goes wrong."

Simmons looks back at the door behind us, silent and thoughtful. Eventually, he turns back to look at me. There's something in his eyes, something I can't place, but behind it I see determination.

"I'll do it," Simmons says. "I, uh, just need to tell Sarge first. He's still my CO. I should let him know if I'm going on a mission."

"Of course," I say, nodding. Even though they're not part of any formal military anymore, I understand that a habit like that would be hard to break. Besides, I don't want to disrupt whatever team dynamic they have in place. It's worked out for them so far.

Simmons turns and starts walking down the hall. He pauses after a few steps and half turns back to face me. "Thanks. For-for trusting me with this. I know you care about your family and… Just, thanks."

"As long as you understand how important this is," I say. "No matter what, you need to protect her."

"I will." Simmons glances at the door again. "Believe me, I understand. I won't let you down."

I nod again before he sprints off down the hall.

So, I tried a little something new with the Simmons and Yttrium scene this time. Most of the ones in the past have focused on Simmons and what he's thinking, so this time I made it from Yttrium's perspective. I'm still not quite sure how it turned out. A few parts felt like I was hovering on the edge of 'stupid teen romance' territory. Those kinds of emotions are fine for Simmons, since he's an awkward little nerd, but they just won't do for Yttri. Still, I think it turned out okay in the end. Anyway, feel free to tell me what you think, and thanks for reading!

-J