Two months earlier.

"My spectrometer readings are looking good" said Specs, her eyes locked on the tool that gave her her famous nickname.

"Good like dat ass!" Krayonder's eyes, on the other hand, were wandering inappropriately. At a brief, but deadly, glare from the newly appointed science officer, he jumped back, "I mean good like... the trash! Yeah! It's really good that we talked those bugs into recycling instead of just like... eating everything, man."

Everyone on the Starship could have argued that point, but chose to leave well enough alone.

Up liked his starships like this - the occasional bickering between crew-mates reminded him of the siblings he never had growing up, but just like those siblings he never had, he knew they would have each other's backs if any outsider ever threatened to put apples in their candy baskets on Halloween or kill them.

And aside from Specs and Krayonder (which was really getting ridiculous, February was running a betting pool on how long it would take for them to get together), it was quiet aboard Starship 15 A-2. Their adventure was over, Junior dead and Dr. Space-Claw fired. Specs was proudly promoted to their new science officer as February and Bug decided to take a few days off to get to know each other. Tootsie and Megagirl were off doing the same, planning a visit to Farm Planet and figuring out if it would be possible for them to have children. And Taz...

Up didn't really know what was going on with Taz. That had been true for a long time, really, ever since he had been sliced in half, hot dog style, not hamburger. He had used to be able to read her like he could read his enemies - he always knew where they were going to strike next before they did. Sometimes he could swear that he could think Taz's thoughts - he knew what her favorite color was before she told him it was red, he knew that she thought his ass looked big in his new commander ice fishing shorts, and he knew that she really preferred eating chicken to eating turkey...

But now he never had any idea what she was thinking. She sat on the plaid and striped patterned sofa in the Starship living room (a cast-off from the Space-Claw family annual space garage sale to raise money for the foundation to save starwhales) and played with her switch blade, examining her reflection in it and occasionally stabbing the sofa (which was luckily made of extremely durable spaceotter fur that knitted together seconds after she stabbed it). Two years ago, Up would have known that this meant that she wanted to eat angelfish sandwiches for dinner. Now he had no idea.

He didn't even know if she liked angelfish sandwiches anymore.

He didn't even know if she liked him anymore.

He didn't even know if he liked her anymore.

She was always screaming at him, hurting his feelings, ripping his mustache off. She never used to act like that. At least not towards him. He didn't know if he liked it - the old Up had loved how Taz was always willing to take on every challenge, always willing to scream at and fight anyone who got in her way.

He just never thought he would be the one to get in her way.

She looked up at him and met his eyes. He thought he saw confusion there and realized he had been staring at her for far longer than was appropriate. He knew he should look away - he had seen Taz stab countless people to death just for looking at her in a way that she deemed inappropriate and he knew he had just done that. Sure enough, she was raising her knife and pointing it at his heart.

Up couldn't help it - the old Up might have been able to stand a stab directly to his heart, but now that was all he had of his humanity - he ran as fast as he could and hit in the first place he could find: under February's bed.

Where of course, he found February and Bug. He had always wondered what they did together and now he had far far too good of an idea.

"Sorry," he muttered, scrambling out from under the bed, "Just, uh, just... lookin' for my spare moustaches!"

"It's okay Up!" said February, seemingly completely oblivious to the fact that she was only wearing an elaborate headdress of some kind, "You're welcome here anytime!"

Bug turned a slightly deeper shade of orange, "Sorry, Up, there's some sort of drug in my saliva and it does weird things to February... can I explain later?"

"Uhh.. yeah! Of course son! Let me just... get outta here!" Up finally managed to free himself from under the bed and ran for the door.

Taz was waiting outside. "Up," she said - Up could never be sure of anything anymore, but it seemed like her voice was shaking slightly - "Can we talk?"

Up was just grateful he wasn't bleeding to death on the floor, "Why, of course Taz!"

She nodded slowly, and led him into her bedroom.