"I'm not kidding. Right into my lung! Check out the scar!" He opened the jumpsuit to reveal the scar, still fresh.

"Seriously, who would have thought to palm a first aid kit?"

"When you are fighting a self proclaimed goddess of murder you basically just assume she is going to try to live up to her name at least once during the trip."

The conversation started to peter out and eventually she asked, "So, do you feel any better?"

Gavin thought for a moment and shrugged. "Cathartic? Yeah. A generally good thing to do? Absolutely. But did it undo the damage? I don't think anything truly can. So I'm just working on moving forward. I'll figure it out from there. What about you? Feel better now that you aren't trying to kill yourself?" Anisa was silent. How would someone even reply to that question? How could one even begin to explain this odd state of mind she has found herself in? Realizing that she couldn't, Gavin spoke for her, "Still too new. Too much to process. I felt the same when I joined your crew. Dean ended up asking me through the stone a question. Maybe you can benefit from it too." He leaned forward and asked, "Are your sacrifices worth the cost?" He leaned back in his chair as this question rested heavy in the air, "I had to admit mine weren't. I had tried so hard to sever myself from my whole past that I hadn't truly been living my life as much as running away from it."

"And so you decided to join up with a cosmic terrorist to change the world. How inspiring." The two turned to face the intruder, the red haired scorpion woman laughing to herself. Anisa narrowed her eyes, feeling something familiar about her. This seemed to earn a slight glare in return as she stated, "It's been far too long, Nisa. But that's pretty typical of you. You get so focused on what you are doing that the rest of us just kind of disappear."

Anisa's eyes widened and her face went pale as she first recognized the golden scorpion shape in the woman's hair and secondly the woman who was once her friend. "Gina?"

She scoffed in response before letting out a sinister smile, "Pandina now. And before you go kill crazy, I was able to reach symbiosis with the Proktota. Turns out not all of us are driven by murder and death. Turns out if you didn't resist and Shawn hadn't been constantly harassing it, maybe it would have been a more reasonable and rational being." Her eyes were harsh and condemning, but eventually softened. "But it wasn't your fault."

Anisa jumped to her feet and spoke to Pandina with a chill, "That won't last. It will slowly take over-"

"My DNA and my mind. Trust me, I know. The Phoenix Emperor and I have been working on this problem pretty much since you stopped showing up in my life." She shrugged and chuckled, "Turns out I was going to get cancer, but the hairpin I had borrowed from your room was an alien who could rewrite my organic tissue. I don't get cancer, it gets a host." Anisa was chilled even further upon hearing about Gina's cancer. Was this something she missed while being held hostage by the alien back then? Pandina glared at the floor and when Anisa stepped closer, she was met with an arm barring her from getting closer, "You don't get to play best friend anymore, Nisa. You were stolen last time, but this time around, you abandoned me. So, if you try to hurt the Phoenix Emperor, I'll show you the might of his Empress. Are we clear?" Before Anisa could respond, she left.

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A voice quietly whispered, "I love gossip. Trinta, can you doodle this, I forgot a camera."

Gavin sighed as he watched the shell-shocked Anisa before stating, "Katsi, it is rude to spy on people and you know that."

A small spiderlike droid crawled through the gaps in the makeshift studio and Katsi's voice came from it, the volume very low, "Well, I'm sorry Gav but she never tells me anything and she has been acting all weird since I almost died."

"You too? We need to be more careful. How is it that Tak has held up better in combat than us?"

Katsi corrected, "Narine now. Her name is Narine."

He nodded dismissively before stating, "Narine is a fricken doctor. I'm an arms dealer and you are a revolutionary. How in the hell are we the ones that almost died?"

As the two began to talk among themselves, Anisa stepped out to find Pandina and get more answers. As she did, she saw Sai talking with her. Without lips it was impossible to see what he was saying, but he seemed to look away in thought. She gave him a brief hug before leaving. Sai sat there in thought as Dean spoke from behind her. "Fresh and free and already back into a situation where there are more questions than answers." She turned to face him, only for him to force something into her hand. He whispered, "The Ziegfried is being kept in lockup, not only for security but because it is too conspicuous for our next mission." She checked her palm and saw the Phoenixian Crystal. She quickly put it into her pocket. Speaking at a normal volume once more, Dean stated, "Everyone has grown so much since the last time we met. I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone once we-"

Katsi tackled him from behind and laughed, "Caught ya! Did you think you could come in here all business and not even say hi?" He laughed nervously and was about to respond when she began to be pulled back to where she came from. Anisa noticed there was a tow cable attached to the harness Katsi was wearing. Tracing it back, she saw Zwei Valk pulling in the cord hand over fist, as if reeling in a harpooned fish. She laughed a little at the sight before her eyes rested once more on her old friend and her new companion and mentor. For a brief moment, she remembered what it was like back then. Before any of this. Doing so only further reminded her that she isn't the girl she once was, and may never be again.