Forgive meez. I'm listening to Rolling Star by YUI while writing this :D

Trust me. The song kicks ASS!

ooo

"So... What did they want?"

"What else? They wanted to know what I knew..."

Rika sighed. "They're keeping a closer eye on me now..."

I laughed. "I bet. How did you get out this time? Or better yet, how did you get out last time?"

A moment of contemplation.

"And none of that 'not worth explaining' crap."

She smiled. "I can slip through the barriers, as you already know."

I broke another piece off of my dinner, which Rika and I were currently sharing. She was sitting on my cot, and I, on the floor.

"Okay, this has been bothering me since I saw you in the interrogation room," Rika stopped explaining, shaking her head. She held out her hands, a reflective wall of energy projected out. "Please... fix your hair..."

I laughed. It had been scattered around and messed up so many times earlier, from when they tossed me into the room, to when they tossed me back in here. I ran my fingers through it, doing what I could to get it to its natural state. "It's been a rough day and they don't exactly provide mirrors here..."

Rika laughed. "You're lucky I can use my powers in this place."

"Speaking of, that's what's bothering me. How can you use them in a place like this? Wouldn't they have put some lock on them so you couldn't escape?"

She put her hands down, the reflective wall disappearing. "You would think," she sighed. "They can stabilize your Omnitrix, but they can't lock something up that's internal. They could put me in an aretusiz, but that wouldn't stop me from verbal incantations."

"Aretusiz?"

"Uhm..." She tapped her lower lip with half of the stick of dinner I gave her. "...Straight-sweater, I think."

I laughed. "Straight-jacket. You were close." I took another bite from my half of the dinner. "So, what was that back there, anyway? Did... did you realize I wasn't such a stuck up jerk and just had to save me?" I laughed a little harder.

"Hey, don't look at me, Mr. I'm-going-to-look-all-devilish." She smiled. "You truly fit the part of criminal, Mr. Tennyson."

I shrugged, a smug smile on my face. "Hey, what can I say?"

"Don't get too cocky. You're still stuck in this hell hole."

"So are you..."

We both sighed.

"Hey... at least I can visit you...," Rika admitted quietly.

I looked up. ".....Why me?"

"Whut doo yu meeen?" she asked, her mouth a little occupied with the sticky, glowing crap we had to call food.

"I mean, why not your brothers? Or anyone else locked up here? You called me a stuck up jerk! I assumed that meant I wasn't worth your time let alone a longer sentence for escaping."

She shrugged. "What can I say? You're addicting."

"Addicting... That's probably the only thing I haven't been called in the last forty-eight hours."

We both laughed.

"You give too much conflicting information, Rika. Really, make up your mind because you're confusing me. One minute I'm some stuck up jerk that didn't save your planet, the next, I'm addicting and... and..."

"All right, don't flatter yourself." She rolled her eyes. "We have a lot in common. Well, common interests. Not so much the whole... Omnitrix deal."

I looked at my wrist for a moment, then back at Rika.

"Not many aliens here speak your language, or any of the ones I do."

"Which, might I add,"—I swallowed what I had in my mouth—"you don't speak very well..." She didn't have an accent when speaking English, but whenever she spoke in her language, her native accent came flooding back. I guess it wasn't entirely true that she didn't speak English well...

"Hey! We have some translation gaps. Not my problem! I speak English fluently, to the best of my ability! Ara ter colotorga aslis! So shove it, Alien Boy!" She poked what was left of her green dinner at my chest.

I blinked, my eyes wide. "O-o-okay... Sorry." I put my hands up defensively. After a moment, I used my hands for support to stand up. Once on my feet, I turned around and sat down on the cot, only a few inches away from where I was sitting down. I kept a few inches between Rika and I.

"What are you thinking about, Alien Boy?" she asked quietly.

"...A lot, really... There's so much going on, yet so little I can do about it."

She nodded, her head hung low. She had a small piece of the food left, and she twirled it around between her forefinger and thumb before holding it out for me. "You want it?"

I looked at it for a moment, realizing I had finished what little I had. I nodded and took the piece gratefully. It was gone just as fast. "I think this food doesn't sustain me enough."

"It was constructed for the first species to ever become a prisoner in this hell hole. They didn't require much substance... They stuck to it, even when humans and other demanding creatures showed up."

I used the nail on my pinkie to clear whatever green goo was left in my teeth. "How do you know so much about the universe when you, yourself, haven't even traveled anywhere beyond your own solar system?"

"I'm a princess. An eturae. I have to know."

Eturae must mean heir.

"Here. Look at me."

I turned my head towards her, looking into her eyes.

She giggled. "Your eyes glow, have you ever noticed that?"

I paused for a moment, blinking a few times. "...They do?"

"...Back to the point." She placed a hand on each side of my face. "You can see for yourself."

My vision went blurry, then I saw nothing at all. Nothing but a white glow. Then, I could see a landscape, and hear Rika's narrative.

"My brothers and I were under strict rule ourselves. We had studies, both indoors and out." The scenery changed as she spoke, from a large library to an absolutely incrediblegarden. "We also had to pick apart atoms and molecular structures. It... it was all apart of figuring out the purpose of existence.

"We had to learn about other species. Since we were protected, royalty, we were only allowed to leave the planet if we were meeting with other celestial rulers or if we were visiting our neighboring planet, the Elemental Beings' home world."

"...So, you and your bothers are basically the last of your species?"

She removed her hands from my head and my vision returned. Her expression was solemn. "No, not technically. My brothers and I are a species of our own, but we are related to those we looked after. Our DNA was so similar to theirs, it wasn't worth picking bygone from bygone. Speaking of..." Rika pulled her legs up onto my cot, sitting cross-legged. She turned so she was facing my side and told me to do the same, so I was facing her.

I did.

"Hold out your hands," she told me.

I did that too.

She turned my hands over so my palms were up, then put her hands on top of mine, her palms down. Then her eyes began to give off a glow. "Ha," she laughed, her eyes still glowing.

"W-what are you doing?" I asked, wondering if I should pull my hands back like my life depended on it.

"I'm scanning your DNA's molecular structure. Our species DNA is almost exactly the same. Futunlnato!" She laughed again.

"Futunlnato?"

"Sorry...," she interrupted her laughter. "I meant, uhm... Incredibly?"

"Incredible, close."

"Ahh." She pulled her hands back. "Your human DNA has only a few different markers than the Elemental Beings. The only differences are our skin color, the shape of our ears, and the fact that I posses powers and you don't. Well, you do, but it's all harbored in the Omnitrix, not flowing freely."

I smiled. "What are you getting at, Rika."

"We're genetically compatible."

I blinked a few times. "The whole point of that was to see... if we were genetically compatible..."

She nodded. "Not a big deal. I was just curious."

"Curiosity can get you into trouble, Rika."

After a moment, I repeated what I'd said in my mind. That sounded terrible; especially combined with the previous subject, and the tone in my voice.

Rika giggled. "Wow, I don't think I've ever seen a human be able to fit his entire foot inside his mouth." Her applicable thoughts thereafter would've followed, If that is, in fact, the correct coined phrase on his planet... Pretty predictable, though I would never be able to tell for sure.

I rolled my eyes. "I still don't think things over before doing or saying something," I mumbled.

She nodded. "It's noticeable." A light blush came over her light-blue features.

Another moment of silence. "Rika..." I looked over at the Omnitrix for a moment. "Do you think you could possibly help me out a little?"

She looked over at me, then traced my gaze to the Omnitrix. She immediately picked up what I was asking for. "Oh! Oh, hell no," she told me with a smile. "Plus, if I do, chances are the guards will put another one on next time they get their hands on you."

"Chances are, if you do, I would be gone before the guards even noticed the stasis shield is off."

Her eyes shifted from me to the other side of the room, a hint of sadness in her eyes.

Did... she not want me to go?

"...Never mind. I'll deal with it. Life in prison isn't so bad," I lied.

"Ben, don't downplay it. You and I both know this sucks. Sucks ass. Life in prison isn't worth the joy ride you took to get here. And damn it if I'll be the person to set you free while I'm still stuck here! You're my only motivation to staying alive in this place. Just knowing that every morning I get to escape my five-by-five cell to see you, a face I can trust, keeps me going. Otherwise, it's pointless. I, like you, am not allowed time out of my cell. I might survive otherwise...

"I'd only been here a day or two, in your time, before you showed up. Word reached sector R-4823 that The Great Ten had finally been locked up. Some where incredibly relieved, others were fearing if he was locked up, what state will the universe be in now? Others said he had what was coming to him... I didn't know how to feel about the whole thing, and I still don't."

I sighed. "Rika..." I tried to reach a hand out to comfort her but she jerked her shoulder away.

"No...," she whispered. "Not anymore. I'm done taking others' pity. I'm a princess, I get that enough from my subjects. I don't need it from you too, Ben Tennyson." She looked back towards me, light in her eyes. "Plus, you're too cute for such a solemn expression."

I laughed, my eyes closed. "If anyone knows how to make a guy feel better in times like this, it's you."

"Academic award, right?"

"...Academy, but yes, I see your point."

We both smiled.

I'd truly found a friend in the strangest of places. I could depend on her... I could talk to her, something I wasn't even able to do with Mother, Father, or even Gwen or Kevin. I felt strangely comfortable around her. No subject seemed to be a touchy subject (except for the destruction of Rika's home world, or the subject of the emotion sadness or anger. Neither of us liked that.) It was all so easy, and it all came so naturally to me.

...I liked it.