Catalina had always hoped to visit her best friend's dimension, but certainly hadn't expected it to occur when she almost died.

Of course, it would have been at the hands of Warlord Shank who, of course, had also survived the explosion.

At the time, though, Catalina was both trying to reconcile herself with the fact that yes, she was going to die.

Death hadn't exactly been a foreign concept to her. Both of her parents had died just after she turned eight, and it was during their burial that Suzee had first appeared. The sole occupant who wasn't wearing the black mourning clothes, standing by herself, Suzee certainly stood out.

For a week, Cat remembered, she was just there. Neither could talk to the other. Not until Catalina's dream of her parents-it still both ached to remember them, even their dream selves-telling them they loved her. Suzee had appeared then, too, introducing herself.

Somehow, they'd been able to communicate immediately afterwards.

Their minds were linked, through the same sonic vibrational frequencies. Which meant that they could speak mind to mind, but Catalina never did. It was too difficult to direct her thoughts at another person. So, she spoke aloud. She always "heard" Suzee's voice in her head, as distinct as though she'd spoken out loud. Catalina never confused Suzee's voice for her own-something she was always grateful for.

Catalina remembered how she had tried to avoid talking to Suzee in front of others, but on Yensid, this sort of mental connection was quite common, and Suzee would forget that Catalina would likely be viewed as a nut job if she started talking to someone no one else could see.

Besides, Suzee always had something to say, and helpful advice to give. So far, people thought that Catalina was immature, maybe still coping with the death of her parents, and certainly got annoyed when she'd begin a statement with, "Suzee says."

But she hadn't been locked up, and she could still talk to her friend when others were around, instead of waiting until nighttime or in a bathroom stall or when she had a rare moment to herself. If others just thought that Catalina was immature, so be it.

She rather thought it had caused her to develop thick skin.

At the moment, being physically restrained by the Spung overlord, her thoughts were a mix of, "Grozit, I don't want to die, I really don't want to die!" and, "Well, maybe I'll see my parents again..."

"I'm going to bring you over," Suzee said, almost calmly, but her gills moved the way they did when she was nervous. Even through the fabric of the deep blue outfit Suzee had chosen to wear that day, Catalina could make out the ripples. It was an undeniable tic she had, even when all other signs pointed to Suzee keeping her cool. It was also something that Catalina had only begun to notice a few years into their friendship. "The explosion will tear the dimensional fabric, and I can pull you through."

Hope, mixed with doubt that her best friend could actually achieve such a feat, combined with dread at leaving her own dimension indefinitely (well, it had to be better than burning to a crisp...) rushed through her.

"If you c-can," she managed to get out.

Warlord Shank hissed, tightening his hold on Catalina.

"Of course I can," Suzee replied, flipping her shoulder length hair. "Hold tight."

Then, there was light, and tugging, and suddenly, the spaceship was replaced by a room. The room was empty, just as it had been moments before when Catalina saw her best friend there, but now, she stood there.

There was also an arm still wrapped around her. A Spung arm.

Shank's arm.

"Grozit!" she murmured, shaking the hideous thing off of her. She rolled her eyes. "Really, Suzee, you had to bring Shank's arm with me?"

Suzee grinned. "We can find some use for it. You okay?"

"I...I think so." She looked down at her hands. They were fine. She didn't feel any pain, either. There was a mirror, she noticed, and although it wasn't very long, Catalina could see enough of her body to determine that not only was her face and hair entirely unscathed, so (somehow) was her uniform.

"It worked," she murmured. "And... I'm in your dimension?"

Suzee shot her a "duh!" look. "See? I told you it would work!" Suzee was, admittedly, at least a bit gloating as she spoke, but as she had saved Catalina's life, perhaps she was allowed to. "I knew when the protomix blew, it would tear the dimensional fabric just enough to pull you through."

"Yes, you were right." Catalina rolled her eyes. "Thank you, Suzee. I'd be dead if it weren't for you."

But then, her friend's attention focused elsewhere. "You...you can see me?"

"Yes, of course we can see you!" Commander Goddard answered, sounding annoyed.

"Harlan...Rosie...you can...?" Suzee trailed off.

"Sure, you're standing right there," Rosie quipped.

"Cat! They can see me!" Suzee practically squealed.

Now, it was Catalina's turn to gloat. Her face broke out into a wide grin. "Oh! They won't be able to call you imaginary anymore!"

"Cat?" Harlan's face changed as he focused on that one word. "She's safe? She's alive? She's alive!" he nearly shouted.

Suzee gave a nod, and the whole mood changed in the Compost. Her crewmates had been crying-she could see the tears on their faces-but now, now they were joyful. They were celebrating the fact that she wasn't dead after all.

"Cat, c'mon, where are you?" Harlan continued, looking around, as though hoping that Catalina would suddenly appear next to Suzee.

Well, technically, she was there...in a sense. It was all very confusing, no matter how many times Suzee tried to explain it. Their mental link meant that Suzee was present fully in her dimension, but she was also semi-present in Catalina's. While Catalina could only see her best friend in her mind's eye, Suzee could see all of Catalina's surroundings.

Which was why Suzee could suddenly interact with everyone on the ship without noticing a change in scenery. Either she was highly distracted, or the fact that the Christa was physically present, rather than just there in their shared mental link, didn't trigger warning bells in her mind.

"Cat? S-she's right here-why can't you...oh no," Suzee trailed off, having realized what Catalina had suspected after appearing in Suzee's room.

Suzee hadn't just brought Catalina over to Yensid.

She'd switched places with Catalina.

"No...no..." Harlan looked like he was suddenly in one of those old horror films, and Suzee was the killer. Catalina giggled freely, knowing he couldn't see her or hear her. "Don't tell me-you're...?"

"That's right, genius." Suzee hesitated, just for a second. Catalina snickered, knowing that Suzee was savoring this. "I'm Suzee."

"You're Suzee?" Harlan repeated. "Catalina's imaginary-invisible friend?"

Catalina sat down on Suzee's bed. "Oh man, this is great. I need some popcorn, Suzee. This is better than a holofilm."

"Yep," Suzee answered, and Catalina rather thought this remark was directed at her as well as Harlan.

"You're really Suzee?" Radu spoke up, staring at her in utter disbelief.

"Yes. I'm really Suzee," she replied, patiently.

Catalina shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Grozit. I knew that they didn't think you were real, Suz, but this?"

"So let me get this straight," Bova piped up. "You're Suzee?"

"Hard to believe you guys were flunking out," Suzee quipped, turning away and pulling down her hood. "Yes. I'm Suzee."

Then, Rosie came to face her. "Well, b-but but Catalina...I mean...?" she began, clearly flustered.

"Oh, she's fine," Suzee said, in a much gentler voice. "I saved her with a transdimensional interstation molecular polarity reversal. Not bad, if I do say so myself," she added.

Catalina rolled her eyes. "Yeah, they're never going to understand that."

"It's great!" Radu joined in, smiling. "Uh, what's a transdispacial...?"

Suzee heaved a sigh, not unlike when she was trying to explain some difficult concept to Catalina. "Okay." She pulled Bova and Rosie so they were standing in front of each other. "He's Catalina, and she's me. So, the ship exploded." She clapped her hands to illustrate this. "And in order to save Catalina's life, I had to pull her out of this dimension. And then I got yanked here in her place moments after the ship blew up."

"Yeah. Um, sorry about that," Catalina murmured.

Suzee gave her a quick mental look to show that there were no hard feelings between them.

"So, Catalina's safe? In another dimension?" Bova asked. "In a world we can't see?"

"Yeah," Suzee confirmed.

Thelma piped up, listing a bunch of minor systems that the aftermath of the sister ship's explosion had taken offline.

Catalina wondered about this. They had separated before the sister ship exploded, so why were there any problems with the Christa? Then again, the Christa had wrestled control out of her crew-the crew she had bonded with-to take them to her sister ship. Was it possible that the problems they were facing was the Christa mourning for her sister ship?

Commander Goddard was obviously in no mood to hear about these issues.

The next few moments were rather a blur. Not because of any loss of a connection with Suzee, but because one moment, Suzee was conversing with Harlan and Ms. Davenport about blowing up the ship being the only way to switch them back-and the next, they were being fired upon by Spung.

Elmira, through Suzee's persuasion that bordered on coercion, momentarily stopped the attack. But not for long. Catalina sat bolt upright as the crew tried to navigate through missiles, finally deciding on a blind hyper jump. She felt as on edge as if she was really there, so much so that she couldn't find the words to reassure Suzee that everything would be all right.

She watched as they found their way into another planet, and were struggling to crash land. Even though Catalina could feel that Suzee was all right-because if one of them died, the other would know-she felt the connection waver, then drop.

Catalina waited in the empty room, feeling the silence for several minutes. Loneliness washed over her.

She's still alive, Catalina told herself. Suzee will fix it. She'll be back by tonight, maybe tomorrow, and we'll figure out what to do next. We can switch back, probably, because who wants to be on some strange planet with Harlan and Ms. Davenport when her parents are right there?

In the meantime, Catalina would wait. She was, after all, still alive.

After taking a deep breath, she opened the door.

Author's note:

I finally had the chance to rewatch the first episode of season two. I remembered a fair amount, considering the last time I saw it was over twenty years ago, but upon watching again, I realized that what I had written needed to be redone in order to conform more closely with canon. So, that's what I'm doing. The subsequent chapters will also be tweaked to reflect canon.

Thoughts? Enjoying this? Please let me know!