"What are you staring at?"

"Nothing."

"Mmm… looks like someone's jealous."

"Am not!"

"Are too."

"Shut up!"

"Would you guys quiet down? You're drivin' me up the wall!"

Hearing these voices, I woke up and slowly realized what I was doing.

Dammit!

In falling asleep, my head had dropped to the side on the aqua soldier's shoulder. Although it had actually been quite comfortable, I jumped and brought my head up quickly.

"I'm awake!" I gasped, cricking my neck.

Church chuckled. "Good going. You woke her up."

I looked to either side of me and rolled my eyes exasperatedly. Tucker was gazing at Wash with a smug smirk on his face while the Freelancer looked about ready to explode in anger.

The two said nothing, but I glared at Tucker.

"Stop being a dick!" I whispered, perfectly aware that everyone in the tank could hear me.

"What?" Tucker shrugged, his satisfied little smile still aimed toward Wash. "Looks like you had a nice nap."

"Shut up."

"Aw, come on, Ells," Tucker grinned, his eyes still on the gray-and-yellow soldier. "You even scooted against me when you were cold. Don't be ashamed."

Wash growled, and I groaned.

"Tucker," I glowered. "Shut your trap or I'll punch it in."

He kept smiling. "Empty threat. You like me too much."

"You think I'm bluffing? Remember the last time you pissed me off?" I flicked the small scar before his eye lightly. "I didn't hesitate beating you then."

Tucker opened his mouth to respond when Church cut him off.

"Oh, look at this, guys," he said emphatically, pointing to the dashboard. "Looks like we're getting close."

I looked away and saw the direction in which we were heading. Most of the time we had been driving, we had followed the Puma across relatively flat and dry terrain. However, the AI trackers were leading us to the edge of another large forest. The Reds and Blues stopped their vehicles at the edge of the greenery, the trees too close together for the vehicles to go any farther.

"A forest again?" I groaned, glad to change the subject. "Unbelievable."

"Come on, let's go," Wash said, stepping out of the tank the instant it stopped.

We all congregated at the edge of the forest, peering into the darkness uneasily.

"Damn, the forestry is even worse on this side of the planet," I commented to the others. "There's no way we can go in there with the tank or the Pu—Warthog."

"They're sneaky," Church said with an irritated sigh. "They know they can't be found easily all the way over here."

"My question is why they haven't left yet if they want to stay away from us," Wash said, frowning. He was still pissed off. "They should be halfway across the galaxy right now. It's a wonder the AI trackers led us to someplace on this planet."

"Maybe they're having technical problems," Grif suggested, lying lazily in the Puma. "That would definitely stop them from leaving."

"They have all these AIs on their side," Simmons replied, shaking his head. "They would be able to help fix the ship in about two seconds unless they crash-landed on the planet or something."

I interrupted them. "Let's not jump to conclusions yet, guys. Let's just be careful in this investigation, considering we don't have all our weapons and stuff."

We gathered all the equipment we had and left Sheila in the company of the Puma. She was not happy about that until we decided to let Caboose stay with her. We felt safer leaving him behind anyway. O'Malley had already jumped inside him before, and, though I hadn't seen it, that was an event I could definitely live without experiencing.

The rest of us trudged into the forest with our equipment, straining our eyes to see a flash of white or black armor. I tried not to show how nervous I was; the different shades of Red and Blue didn't exactly blend in with the greenery.

For once, we were all quiet. The only sounds I could hear were each soldier's feet crackling branches and leaves. It wasn't normal. I couldn't even hear any alien animals or bugs going about their daily lives. It was as if… as if they had abandoned the area.

Suddenly, I heard a noise. All of our heads turned in the same direction as we peered through the darkness, our weapons at the ready. I could hear distinct footsteps approaching us; we had a human visitor. I glanced worriedly over at the others as I held my gun up, ready to shoot at a moment's notice.

From the darkness of the forest, a black-armored soldier appeared before us. I glanced quickly over at Tucker just to make sure that the person who approached us wasn't him, but he was standing not three meters from me, his armor completely aqua. I heard Church gasp from behind me. The soldier appeared in front of us, any weapons tucked away but arms crossed and hip jutted to the side. I recognized the gesture. Church had taught me that move back when we had been trying to deceive the Director.

"Buenos dias, cockbites."

"T- Tex?" Church stammered. "It's really you?"

"Of course it's me. It's going to take a little more for me to die, I guarantee it."

Church was about to put his weapon down, but Wash stopped him.

"Hold on a second," he said, his eyes never leaving Tex. "We don't know that yet. Even if it is Tex, she might have O'Malley. Meta might be close by. This could be a trap."

"Would I do this if it were a trap?" Tex asked, now irritated. She ripped off her helmet and I instantly recognized her face. It was really her. Church let out an undignified squeak of amazement.

"Where's O'Malley?" Sarge demanded. "How do we know he's not with you?"

"My radio's off," she said simply, and showed us her radio to prove it.

"H—How the hell…" Church trailed off, his hands shaking. "What the…"

"Listen," she said. "It's really damn stupid for you idiots to be out in the open like this. Meta could find you any second… and if I hadn't gotten you first, you'd probably already be dead. I'll explain everything once we find a safer location."