"You wanted to talk?" I asked.

"That dead woman is no one of consequence." Nell said.

"What?" I asked.

"The woman you killed is not someone you knew from Earth. They may have look familiar, but she wasn't someone you knew." She said.

"What now? And more importantly, where is your body?" I asked.

"In the Gozen system. Hetty knew Mattias was after her again, so I switched bodies to smoke him out." She said.

"That sounds about right." I said, and then walked away.

"You make it sound like it was the only play." She said.

"Not blaming you, just acknowledging Hetty's flippancy in all of this. The last time we went after Draeger, is the first time you had to kill someone." I said, reminding Nell of the past.

I walked away without a backwards glance.

"Well, that was uncalled for." Nell said, after taking a deep breath.

Star Ocean-

Septum IV-

The ship came out of hyperspace just outside of Septum IV's gravity well. Callen and Sam were in the pilot chairs, while I was on the scanner looking for possible locations for Draeger's base, and possible locations to land. There weren't very many locations to land, but I have found the location of the base: I was able to track Draeger's signature that was on the merc's ship to a location in the southern hemisphere.

"Callen take us towards the southern hemisphere and let me scan it." I said.

Callen piloted the ship to the location and question, and I started to scan…whatever was available. It was a good thirty minutes before anybody spoke.

"What do we have?" Sam asked.

"We hit pay dirt, but I'm not sure about their A.A. measures, or how many are on standby." Is aid.

"Do you think Draeger has the numbers to run this organization?" Callen asked.

"It may not be a big organization, but it would be nice to get a read on what we're walking into." I said.

"That would be nice, but I don't think we'll have the luxury—"

"Orbital defensive measures have been engaged! It looks like we're going in blind." I said.

Callen gunned the engine as a laser whizzed by the location the ship was hovering at just mere seconds ago. Callen made a few snap decisions that Sam was able to keep up with. I scanned the area, finding a landing pad, and, to my great surprise, Drager didn't have A.A. defenses near it as well.

"Must no be expecting company." I said.

"What was that?" Sam asked, looking over his shoulder.

"Unless Draeger has hidden air support, he wasn't expecting anybody to make it this far." I said.

"That's because no one thought to come looking for him." Nell said, entering the cockpit.

"Well, that makes things easier." I said.

"What's the play Deeks?" Callen asked.

"We do this like we did when we went after the Comescu's." I said.

"We go in hot with guns blazing. I like the plan." Kensi said.

"He's going to have armor, so headshots, or A.P. rounds when we go in." I said.

"No headshots. I want to look him in his eyes before he dies, so he knows that it was us who came for him." Callen said.

"That's being a little dramatic, but okay." Kensi said.

"I'm surprised he made it off of Earth." Sam said.

"Hetty has been tracking him ever since he left Earth." Nell said.

"I know it's Nell in there, but can we transfer you back to your regular body after this." Callen said.

"We need to get back to Hetty for that to happen." I said.

"We'll be touching down momentarily." Callen said.

The ship touched down, and we all filed off of it. Callen armed the ship as Nell, and I made our way to a computer. It didn't take long before the bullets started flying.

"Find where Draeger is and find out if there is a way to keep Draeger from escaping." Callen said.

"We could just use her as bait." I said, talking about Nell who is in Hetty body, or sleeve as it's become to known by the general public.

"That's dangerous play." Sam said.

"Draeger has always wanted Hetty." Kensi said.

"Sam's right, Draeger wouldn't have a problem figuring out that it wasn't Hetty in there." Callen said.

There was a breaking the gunfire when I took off running.

"Deeks, wait!" Callen shouted.

"He'll be fine. Let's find a location a inside and wait for Draeger to come to us." Sam said, as the gunfire started to fade into the distance.

About an hour later we had cleared out the base and rounded all the inhabitants in one area. I started to scan all of people, and as I was getting to the last one, a woman, who tried to attack me. Nell shot the woman in both of her legs, and I scanned the body.

Bingo. I thought.

"Kill them." I said.

I heard gunfire ring out, and the woman just stared at me callously, and unflinchingly.

"Do you know what you've done?" she asked.

"We do, Mattias Drager." I said.

Mattias realized the jig was up, but he couldn't move because of Nell shooting his legs out, so all he could do was watch as his hired help was slaughtered in front of him.

"Why did we leave the woman alive?" Sam asked.

"Do I even have to answer that?" I asked.

"You sure?" Callen asked.

"Nell, corrupt the data." I said.

"Give me a moment." Nell said and went over to a computer.

Twenty minutes later, Nell gave a thumbs up, and Callen pointed a gun at Draeger and pulled the trigger—twice.

"Seriously? You pulled the trigger on her?" Kensi asked, as the body hit the floor, and blood pooled around the head and exposed equipment.

"Yeah, why?" Callen asked, checking his equipment.

I nodded at Nell, which got a response from Sam and Kensi. "For real?" They asked.

"Who would ever think Draeger would hide in the body of a woman?" I asked.

"That's not creepy." Kensi said.

"Nell shut it down. I don't want anyone to try to boot this place up after we leave." Callen said.

Nell returned her attention to the computer and looked for any means necessary to shut down Draeger's operation. It took her a few moments, but Nell was able to crack Draeger's firewall and get a look at what we were dealing with.

"What did you find?" Kensi asked.

"Information that we can use later, but most it I can't understand." Nell said.

"Is it separate from Draeger's clone data?" I asked.

"What?" Kensi asked.

"Yeah, he partitioned everything off neatly." Nell said.

"Of course he did." Sam said.

"Kensi." I said.

"Yeah." Kensi said.

I explained to Kensi what clone data was, as Nell, Sam and Callen sifted through Draeger's data.

"Clone data is basically backup information that happens every twenty-four-hours." I said.

"Meaning?" Kensi asked.

"If you were spun back up after dying, all the information the investigators would get is what happened the moment you died. If a person with a back up were to die…"

"The people investigating would have more data to assist their case." Kensi said, putting the pieces together.

"Nell was right, there's a lot of data that we can't make heads or tails of." Sam said.

"Get what you can, wipe the system, and destroy the backups." I said, and then headed for the landing pad.

An hour later, we were in Callen's ship and speeding away from Draeger's base as the self-destruct sequence was about to time out.

"Why are we in a hurry?" I asked, but it went unanswered because I could feel the shockwave from the detonation.

"That." Kensi said.

"Copying and wiping the data while destroying the base is a good way to keeping someone/thing from coming after us." I said.

"Is there anything else we need to attend to, or can we head to the Gozen system." Sam said.

"Nope." I said.

"The Gozen system it is." Callen said, and then headed to the cockpit.

I made my way to the living quarters to reflect on what's to come. I was laying on my bunk for a while when I heard footsteps approaching with great trepidation. With all of the hesitation it can only be Kensi.

"Max, or Deeks?" Kensi said.

What? I thought.

"Yes, to both." I said.

"Oh." She exclaimed and leapt onto me with her knee connected with my groin.

"Ah! She struck the nom des plumes. Mm-hm. Right in the cul-de-sac." I said, through gritted teeth.

Kensi looked at me sideways, not because of the pain, but because of what I said. Then a light bulb went off in Kensi head.

"So what? It would have been better if I pistol-whipped him across the face?" She asked.

"Yes!" I exclaimed.

"What is it with you guys and you—? It—Really, it's not…It's not all that. Trust me." She said.

I stared incredulously at Kensi.

"Problem?" She asked.

"Yes, just need you to ride the wave with me." I said.

"Okay. Where is this wave going?" She asked.

"A little further than the last one." I said.

"How much further?" She asked.

"Right. Except he said your name was Kate." I said.

Kensi remembered the moment in question but jumped forward a little bit.

"Crashing in his spare bedroom, again, are we? Is that the best you can do? You were lucky I didn't shoot you." Kensi said, taking a breath for effect.

"I was just vamping." I shot back.

Next thing I know Kensi leaned in and kissed me on the lips. A soul-searing kiss that has an effect that I was not expecting.

"Hello." I said.

"Are we in the present, or you still strolling down amnesia lane?" She asked.

"Blame Hetty. Whatever she put in my body allows my memories break free whenever they please." I said.

There was a moment of silence as we just laid there, saying nothing, just relaxing in our presence. Which didn't last long because the next thing we heard was.

"Ahem."

Kensi and I looked towards the door to see who had cleared their throat.

"Get your own place." Sam said.

"Love to." I said, as Kensi slid off of me.

Star Ocean-

Gozen system-

We were coming out hyperspace in the shadow of the first planet of the Gozen system. We all took a seat in the cockpit when the beeping started.

"Someone is hailing us." Nell said.

"Brining up on screen." Sam said.

And to no one's surprise, the real Hetty was on screen.

"Hetty." Callen said.

"I take everything has been dealt with?" Hetty asked.

"We just left the Septum system after taking care of your German spook." I said.

"Good. Now get down here and listen to where you four are going next." Hetty said.

"Where is Nell going?" I asked.

"How do you know she's not talking about Nell?" Kensi asked.

"Seriously?" I asked.

"That's irrelevant Mr. Deeks, but I have the next relevant location for the four of you." Hetty said.

"Where do you want to meet?" Sam asked.

"I'll meet you at the dock." Hetty said.

"Roger that." Callen said, and the screen went dead.

Callen took us planet side, and we saw Hetty waiting for us when landed.

"What do need us to do?" Sam asked, as he and Callen stepped off of ship. Kensi and I stayed on the ship because this was most likely going to be a quick visit.

"What do you think we're going, or going to do next?" Kensi asked.

"No clue, but it would be nice if we could get Eric back." I said.

I noticed Sam looking up at me, and I can guess what our next objective is.

"Where to next?" Kensi asked, as Callen and Sam were walking back up the ramp.

I watched as Hetty and Nell walked away.

"We're heading into the Core." Callen said.

"How deep are we going?" I asked.

"The Vulkan system." Sam said.

I let out a sigh of relief.

"Something wrong?" Kensi asked.

"Vulkan is where Eric is being held. Or, at least, where is stack is currently being stored. Where his sleeve is —we're going to have to talk to Hetty about that." I said.

"Off to the Vulkan system." Callen said