A/N: So so so so sorry for the delay on this chapter. I'm the worst. I spent the week visiting my girlfriend and didn't do any writing, and then spent the past couple of days working and sleeping and dying of a killer headache.

So, I'm super super sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter out, and I'm sorry it's such a short chapter. But things start happening soon, I promise.

Anyway, please review and stuff! Enjoy :)

I do not own Pitch Perfect or any of its characters

Stacie was kissing her. Her hands were tangled in Aubrey's blonde hair, pulling her closer.

"God I love you," Aubrey whispered.

"I lo-"

Aubrey jolted awake at the sound of her alarm.

Stacie wasn't there. She hadn't been there in over two and a half years. Aubrey closed her eyes and counted to ten before she swung her legs over the side of the bed and headed for the bathroom.

The dream had been getting more and more frequent these past few weeks. She put it down to the fact that now Beca and Chloe had started dating, they could barely keep their hands off each other. Not that Aubrey minded. She was happy to see Beca so at ease and comfortable with someone, and Chloe was a nice girl. It was just seeing them being so couple-y reminded her of how alone she felt now Stacie wasn't around.

She shook herself out of it. She had too much to focus on to dwell.

"Morning boss," Amy said, passing her as she went into a bathroom. "Hey, I need to switch rooms with someone?"

"Why?" Aubrey asked, still half-asleep.

"Because my room is right next to Beca's, and I can't listen to her having sex for another night," she said.

"Can we do this after I've showered please?" Aubrey asked, closing her eyes momentarily. This isn't how she'd planned on spending her morning.

"Fine," Amy said, heading back to her room. "But if I hear a single noise while I'm getting dressed, I am barging into your shower."

"Please do not do that."

The subject was raised again when the Bellas met for their morning meeting.

"Look, I'm not saying they aren't adorable," Amy said, her hands raised in defense. "I'm just saying that I don't need to hear it."

"I've had to listen to you banging sergeant Bumper Allen for the past six months," Beca said, her cheeks tinged with red.

"Yeah, but we're hot," Amy said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"And you're saying Chloe and I aren't hot?"

"How about you just take my room, Amy?" Chloe said, sensing the conversation was about to head onto embarrassing territory. "It's a few doors away from Beca's, which means you won't, um, hear us." It wasn't like Chloe to get embarrassed easily, but she had only known these girls for a few weeks.

"Do we have anything else to discuss other than my sex life?" Beca asked, eager to move the conversation along.

"Yes, actually we do. Now, as we known Lily managed to get her hands on one of the Malician's guns the last time we encountered them. She's spent the last few weeks figuring out how it works. Lily?"

Lily, who had been collecting the gun from her room, returned, the weapon in her hands.

"So I've discovered something interesting about this weapon," she said, her voice barely louder than a whisper, so all the other girls had to lean in to listen.

She raised the gun and pointed it at Beca, before squeezing the trigger.

Beca jumped and swore, but nothing else happened.

"Dude, what the fuck?!" Beca said, clutching her chest. "Why?"

"It won't fire, because it responds to Malician DNA," she said, a hint of excitement in her voice.

"Why didn't you just point it up in the air?" Beca asked, still trying to catch her breath.

"So what does this mean, Lily?" Aubrey asked, ignoring Beca. "Why would they add that to the guns?"

"My theory is that they didn't add it. Someone else did. The fact that you can't use the guns if you don't have Malician DNA means that when they inevitably drop their gun with excitement, whoever they're fighting can't use their own guns against them. They aren't smart enough to develop this kind of technology themselves," Lily said. "Someone is developing weapons for them."

"But why?" Beca asked. "Surely they're not asking for weapons. They don't need them, they're deadly enough."

"I don't know," Lily said, "but it's making me nervous."

Later that morning, Beca and Aubrey had to attend their weekly meeting with Boston and the rest of the squadron's sergeants and their seconds.

"I just wanted to say," Aubrey said as they waited for Boston's arrival, "you and Chloe are really cute together."

"Thanks," Beca said, smiling. "I really like her."

"I can tell," Aubrey said. "And I'm really happy for you. And I know Stacie would be too."

Beca reached down and put a hand on her arm, squeezing lightly.

"You're thinking about her a lot too?" Beca asked.

Aubrey nodded. "A lot of dreams lately," she said.

"Yeah," Beca said. "Me too. I've… I've been really missing her."

"Me too," Aubrey said. She opened her mouth like she wanted to say more, but the room fell silent as Boston walked in.

He asked the teams for news, and Aubrey and Beca told him about what they'd found out about the Malician's weapons.

Boston managed to find something negative to say about their information, before moving onto other groups.

Beca mumbled a few swear words to Aubrey as they listened to C team give their report.

The squad was halfway through listening to Bumper and Jesse report when Boston's Boss, Chief Higgins entered the room.

They all stood and saluted before returning to their seats.

"Can I help you, sir?" Boston asked.

"Around an hour ago, this ship was spotted on our radar," he said, without preamble. Quick and to the point as always, Higgins was. Aubrey liked him a lot. Higgins tapped on a few keys of Boston's computer, and the image of a slightly burnt out ship was projected onto the screen.

"That's one of our ships," Aubrey said, before realizing she was interrupting the Chief.

"Correct, Posen," Higgins said. "It is the model of ship we use to transport criminals and traitors to and from exile. "Over the past three or four years, a lot of them have been going missing."

"What?" Beca said, her mouth suddenly going dry.

"Stop interrupting," Boston said, looking truly uncomfortable.

"It's okay Boston," Higgins said. "Several transport ships have gone missing, this is the first one to resurface. I need a team to volunteer to investigate."

"We'll do it," Aubrey and Beca said, simultaneously.

"I don't think-"

"Very good Posen. Be ready to leave in a few hours," Higgins said, cutting off Boston.

Both Beca and Aubrey were thinking the same thing as they returned to their team to brief them.

Stacie could be on that ship.