This one is a tad shorter than usual, even by my standards. But I felt this made more sense than the initial planned chapter for this section, given what was written out before, and sometimes less is more.

Anya didn't know what she had expected from the other tenno, but torturing her marine hadn't been it. She supposed it wasn't a surprise coming from Ira, but she had at least thought Reya would do what she had asked and not let anything happen to Stock. Now she was waiting until she could talk to Reya alone, she wanted to at least know why.

The thought crossed her mind that if she was honest with herself she was as much to blame as they were, and that somehow made it even worse. How could she expect him to understand her reasoning when the ones she had trusted had abused him without even giving him the benefit of a doubt? Tears stung her eyes and she furiously blinked them back, trying not to give in to the part of her that wanted to scream and cry like a child.

Gradually however she became aware of someone standing in the hanger doorway watching her pace and growl like a wounded animal and she stopped in her tracks. She turned an invisible glare on him only to feel every ounce of energy drain from her on seeing Stock. All she could feel at that point was an aching sadness that made it difficult to face him even with her faceplate engaged. She had grabbed onto him and held him as tightly as she'd dared when she had first come out of cryo, but he hadn't seemed to be overly enthusiastic.

Jack had eventually taken a weird brand of pity on her and explained what had happened when Reya had first opened Anya's pod. She had spoken a nearly inaudible "I see" and then turned her back on the frost, leaving him standing in the corridor outside her assigned quarters without another word. And here was Stock, probably the last person who wanted to see her right now, watching her run circles around herself as she tried to figure out what she could possibly have done to produce the result she'd woken to.

"Are you alright, Anya?" he asked.

"Yes—No—Oh I don't know," she sighed, beginning to pace again.

"Want to talk about it?" he asked. She hesitated and he gave her a tired smile. "It's been a long time, huh?" he questioned gently.

"A bit," she said with a shake of her head, "But that's not my problem, Jack told me… Oh, Stock, I am so sorry, for everything, I… I should have been more careful…"

"Ah, it's not your fault," he told her, "It was just a bit of a shock to them at first. I think the only one who wasn't shocked was Boreas, and even he was a bit confused. You couldn't know how they would react."

"I should have anticipated it, it wasn't like they were strangers to me," she whispered, "Especially Ira… I should have known…"

"Anya, I'm fine," he assured her, laying a gentle, if somewhat tentative hand on her shoulder, "It wasn't your fault, and even if it was I'd forgive you. I could never stay mad at you."

"Thanks, Stock," she said softly, "Listen, I don't want to make you uncomfortable and I feel like I've done that already today… Is there some way I can make it up to you?"

"You just surprised me, everyone expected some amount of memory loss," he chuckled.

"Well, there is some…" she admitted, taking her helm off as she leaned against a console and turned to look at him, "Did that happen to the others too?"

"It happened to everybody," he told her.

"I'm sorry," she bowed her head, "I… Don't know what to say…"

"Maybe I do," Stock said. She gave him an uncomprehending look and he continued, "Why don't we take some time, get to know each other again? Maybe we'd even remember all the other stuff and we wouldn't feel like our lives aren't our own. What do you say?"

"Sure, that… That would be nice," she managed a shaky laugh.

"Start today?" he asked quietly, a half smile on his lips.

She smiled and nodded. Part of her still wanted to cry, simply because what she wanted most right then was to wrap her arms around him and finally tell him she loved him, and she couldn't do any of that. There were worse things though. Reya could have let Ira have his way. Waiting for Stock's memory to catch up was a small price to pay for him keeping his life.