Waking up was a lot different when it was to an empty home.

For a moment, Eric simply laid in bed, staring up at the ceiling as his emotions washed down on him. After a few seconds had passed, he let out a long, drawn-out sigh, then reluctantly got out of bed and started his day.

Even though she was gone, he still went through the motions, despite there being no point to them. He still showered, trimmed his facial hair a bit, and dressed appropriately, then stepped out from his bedroom into the kitchen and started to make breakfast.

And even though he knew it was just him in the house now, he still made a second plate of food. Why, he wasn't sure. Perhaps some small part of him was hoping, however much in vain it was, that she would come through the door and join him for breakfast. It was impossible, he knew – she was light years away by now, doing God only knew what.

And all because she wasn't willing to let go of a dead man.

Another sigh escaped him as the thought crossed his mind. Truthfully, she'd been right – if it had been his father, he'd have done the same thing, and made the exact same choice. That didn't numb the ache any, though – it still hurt whenever he thought about her.

"Damn it…" he muttered. Eric pushed his plate of food away, his appetite suddenly leaving him entirely. With yet another sigh, he rose from his spot at the table and began to clean up around the kitchen.

He froze in shock when there was a knock at the door. Immediately, he whipped around to face it, his heart swelling with hope, only for it to fade in just a few short words.

"It's me. Open up."

Eric did his best not to wince as he set the dirty dishes aside, then moved over to the door and threw it open. Rosa was standing there, a dour expression on her face.

"You too, huh?" Eric couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah…" She let out a small exhale, then stepped past him and entered his house. Eric didn't bother to tell her off, instead closing the door behind her and locking it. He watched as Rosa stepped into the living room and collapsed onto his sofa, his brow furrowing the entire time.

"So why are you here?" he asked.

"Truthfully?" she answered. "I have no fucking idea. I needed something to kill the time."

"So you figured you'd come torment me? Is that it?"

"Not exactly, I just… I don't know, Eric. I'm not in a good state of mind, and I figure you're not, either. So I thought, hell, we might as well both go be nervous wrecks together, because it sure as shit has to be better than being a nervous wreck alone."

"You're not wrong…" He shook his head. "I've got therapy today, though."

Rosa turned to him, surprised. "You're going?"

"Don't get too excited, I'm only going because the government finally reimbursed me for the full month, so I might as well. That and because I knew she'd be disappointed in me if I skipped it."

Rosa blinked. "...It's funny, hearing you talk about her. You really like her, don't you?"

"Of course I like her." Eric took a seat next to her on the couch. "That's why I got all weepy and shit when she decided she'd throw her life away."

"Don't say that!" Rosa chastised. "She'll be back soon."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because she's the best out of all the Angels, that's why. If anyone can make it back from this, it's her."

***

Thirteen crept along the ridge of the moon, keeping one hand tightly grasped around her carbon-steel knife as she did so. A lone Iprenian trooper rounded the corner ahead of her, the alien soldier unable to make her out thanks to the darkness and the temporary refractive field being emitted from her armor. The Iprenian crossed by her field of vision, and that was when she pounced, grabbing him from behind with a single gauntlet-clad hand and slipping her blade into the base of his skull, severing his brain stem with a single well-placed strike. He was dead before he hit the ground; Thirteen wasted no time in dragging his body back into the darkness, pausing only to give a glance of disgust at the corpse.

The Iprenians looked like tall, muscular, bipedal wolves more than anything. This one was a lower-ranked trooper, judging by the dark blue armor he was wearing; the Iprenians were a martial culture, and placed a lot of emphasis on the act of fighting. To that end, the highest-ranking Iprenian soldiers tended to wear bright, ornate armor, as a way of showing they weren't afraid to stand out in a battle.

The sole exception to this were the Iprenian Black Ops soldiers she'd encountered a few times, who wore vantablack armor with no rank insignia of any kind, and struck from the shadows. She'd expected to face at least a few of them here; the fact that she hadn't was cause for alarm, as far as she was concerned.

It was also more than a little disappointing, she had to admit. The Black Ops unit had taken down a few of her sisters, and she hadn't quite gotten the chance to personally make them pay for it yet. She'd been hoping to run into a few of them, if only to make an example out of them. Her gaze narrowed as she imagined what she'd do to one if she got her hands on him, how she'd shatter every bone in his body and tear him apart piece by piece, leaving him a screaming wreck before finally letting him bleed out, and-

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"That man is no threat to you. And if you kill him, things are going to get even more complicated than they already are. Believe me when I say that neither one of us wants that. So, please, put him down, Rebecca."

She flinched as Eric's words suddenly flashed through her mind. Her stomach roiled, and she doubled over, clutching at it as she began to hyperventilate. It only lasted for a few seconds before she managed to calm herself down enough to stand up straight and take a few quick breaths. Once her heart rate was sufficiently under control, she shifted, the rifle slung across her front moving to a slightly more comfortable position as she did so. A tired sigh escaped her, and she turned back to the Iprenian trooper she had just killed.

She couldn't see his face through the helmet he was wearing, but she didn't need to in order to know it was almost certainly staring straight up into the sky, unblinking.

A shudder suddenly rocked through her body, and she hurriedly turned away, instead pushing her mind back to the mission. Ducking back into the shadows and activating her refractive field once more, she activated her helmet's Heads-Up Display, and a transparent satellite map of the moon's surrounding area suddenly filled up her opaque black visor. She scanned over it for a moment, honing in on what looked like a metallic structure a few klicks away, just barely hidden among the surrounding rocks.

With the location confirmed, she deactivated her HUD and took off running, the whole time hoping that Eric and Rosa were doing okay in her absence.

***

Eric leaned back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling above him. "I just don't know what to do at this point, Doc," he said, despondent. "I'm so damn worried about her."

Across from him, Doctor Blanche gave him a sympathetic look, followed shortly after by a small nod.

"That's understandable," he offered. "Many veterans feel the same way about their comrades who are still fighting."

"This is different," Eric insisted. "They just… took her."

"You made it sound like she went of her own volition."

"She did, but not really." He lowered his head, staring down at the floor. "They knew she wouldn't refuse if they gave her a chance to meet her father figure again. Even if he's working for them at this point, they knew she'd never say no. And I can't blame her for it."

"Why is that?"

"Because she thought he was dead, like I told you," Eric explained. "If I were here, and I'd just learned the person I cared about the most – the one who I was promised had been killed beyond any reasonable chance of survival – was actually alive… I'd go look for them, too."

"You truly think he's the one she cares about the most?"

Eric stared at him in confusion. "Is that even a question? You should hear the way she talks about him."

"You think she cares more about him than about you?"

"Of course she does, why else would she have gone?"

"So you want her to come back?"

"What's with this line of questioning?" Eric demanded. "Do you have a point you're trying to make?"

Blanche held up a hand in surrender. "Just trying to see what your relationship with her is like."

"It's good, but not as good as the one she has with her father."

"What makes you say that?"

"We just went over this," Eric reminded him.

"We did, but I believe you're selling yourself short," Blanche said.

"Oh, yeah? How so?"

"Put yourself in her shoes. Obviously, she'd want to go find her father. That doesn't mean she likes him more than you."

Eric stared at him. Blanche held up a hand again. "Tell you what, we'll come back to that. For now, I just want to say… these feelings you're having, they're perfectly normal. It's more than reasonable to worry about her… but at the same time, you need to believe in her."

Eric hesitated. "...It's so hard, Doc," he muttered. "I've just… seen too many of my guys die, already. I don't know if I can handle losing her, too. I know that's strange to say since I've only known her for a few weeks, but… damn it, she's made an impact on me, alright. She's my friend, and I don't want to lose her."

"Then have faith," Blanche gently told him. "I know it's hard, but that's all the more reason to do it anyway. Do you really think she'd want you worrying about her right now?"

Slowly, Eric shook his head. Blanche gave him a small grin.

"Then believe in her," he said. "And before you know it, she'll be back."

Eric swallowed nervously. He looked over at the wall-mounted clock, his gaze narrowing when he saw he was only twenty minutes into an hour-long session.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "Hopefully."

***

With a sickening crunch, Thirteen crushed the Iprenian Warlord's windpipe and upper spine into dust, then unceremoniously let his body fall to the ground. He fell in a pile of several others, all of whom were in no better shape. Whether they had been shot, stabbed, blown up, or simply pummeled into oblivion, all the Iprenians she'd come across had died a very violent death. In the past, part of that would have bothered her, since the Iprenian religion told them that warriors who fell in open battle were guaranteed entry into their version of the afterlife.

Now, as she stared at the room full of mangled and mutilated corpses, all it made her feel was sick to her stomach.

Bile rose to the back of her throat, and she did her best to swallow it, shuddering as it was all forced back down. With a long, drawn-out breath, she hefted her rifle and swapped magazines in it, then went to breach through the next door in front of her.

Just as she'd stacked up outside it, however, heavy, lopsided footfalls from behind her caught her attention. Immediately, she rounded towards where she'd heard the noise, snapping the rifle into her shoulder.

She froze when that familiar set of black armor came into view.

It was like staring at a ghost, at least at first. But as Major Miller drew closer, she could tell something was off about him – every step was uneven and unusually heavy, like he was limping, and his body was twitching unnaturally as he moved, as if every single articulation of his own body was somehow against his will. Thirteen tensed as he stopped on the other side of the room, then doubled over, his arms hanging limply at his sides. Idly, she noted that he wasn't armed with any guns, but instead had an ornate-looking Iprenian plasma sword on his hip.

"Major," she announced. "I have orders to bring you into custody, Sir."

For a moment, Major Miller said nothing, simply standing there, still doubled over. Thirteen tensed, pushing the stock of her rifle deeper into her shoulder, her heart pounding in her chest the entire time. She was about to begin barking orders at him when he heaved out a long, uneven breath, and finally spoke his first words.

"Rebecca…" he managed to gasp out, the words coming out with no small amount of force or pain. "...Kill me."