Aurora Lorentis felt like she'd been put through the ringer as she made her way through the gleaming, dimly lit hallways that made up the bowels of the *Fenris*. She ran her filth encrusted hands over her greasy and exhausted face, feeling the edges of her frayed and faded blue hair as she fought hard to stifle a yawn. Nearly thirty hours she had been awake, but to her it felt like a hundred.

"And all from a thirty minute mission," She mumbled tiredly, trying to blink her bloodshot eyes awake, and grimacing when they seemed to fight to remain closed. For her, yesterday started like any other. She woke up, ate, performed any routine maintenance and last minute preparations on the units she had put off the night before, and then waited for go order, expecting to perform any minor cosmetic work and tune ups when the boys got back, before winding down with a glass of wine and the newest of The Fleets guidebook to A.R.M.S. units on her datapad. It was a routine that she'd gone through hundreds of times since she started working for Logan, and, to her, there was comfort in that routine. Safety in the mundane, familiarity with the boring life of a Mech Mechanic.

But yesterday wasn't like any other day. Not when one of her comrades came home in a coffin that was originally meant to protect them. Not when she saw what the machine she helped to maintain did to him. She closed her eyes shut tight as flashes of the grisly scene wormed their way into her mind for what felt like the thousandth time. The crispy black flesh overlaying a splotch of angry reds and oranges from where the Headsman cauterized his wounds. The sickening way his shattered bones protruded from underneath his skin. And the blood... all of that blood. A crimson sea so unending that it was impossible all of it came from Cameron.

It wasn't that she was afraid of gore. Back on her homeworld, she and her father built artillery pieces for a group of separatists trying to break away from the local oligarchy that had taken shape there. It was there that she'd seen up close what her talents were capable of. Her father had forced her to go to the battlefields, made her look at their handiwork.

"To remember the cost..." She murmured quietly to herself, repeating the words she'd heard her father say again and again as they walked through the fog of war, admiring their handiwork. She didn't understand then. How could she? Not many adults could see the world the way her father did, let alone a twelve year old.

Back then, she'd always assumed he meant the cost of victory. The payment of blood and souls taken forcibly from the lives of men too blinded by hatred and greed to see anything other than war. But now, she understood. It was to remember their cost. *Her* cost. The little piece of her that rotted away with every weapon she installed, knowing that eventually, it'd be used to take a life.

'Because that's all that an A.R.M.S. unit was right?' she thought to herself, 'Just a weapon to be used. When you're dead the price doesn't matter. It only matters to the ones that survive. Right?'

"You look like hell, Aurora." A voice broke her from her reflection, causing her to look up with a start. When she did, she realized she hadn't just stayed in place while deep in thought. She'd been wandering aimlessly for however long, only to wind up at the medical bay. Her eyes adjusted, and immediately fixated on the plexiglass window that displayed Cameron's surgery in full view. Through the window, drones flitted around sawing, lasering, and performing all manner of intensive measures meant to save her friend's life. She forced herself to look away, turning instead to come face to face with Logan, sitting on a bench and looking at the ground as if he was trying to stare a hole through the floor.

"I uh... I couldn't sleep," she said, trying to put on a brave face, "Figured I'd try to get some repairs done for when he wakes up y'know?"

"Couldn't sleep? Or didn't want to?" He asked impassively, not bothering to look up.

"A bit of both to be honest," She said, giving a soft chuckle before clearing her throat, trying to change the subject, "How uh, h-how's it going in there? How long has it been?"

"Fifteen hours... And no, no changes since the last time one of you asked me," He said, eyes still cast down, sounding impassive and detached.

She frowned, feeling a bit hurt by his unusual degree of callousness as well as confused. Sure, there were times where Logan could be an asshole. In fact, most of them could be on any given day. But Logan being an asshole usually came with a lot of yelling and swearing, not... whatever this was.

'And certainly not in a time like this,' She thought, her mind flashing back to a time a few years back when she'd caught the Vorlornian Flu and had to be quarantined for six weeks. Logan was there everyday, bringing her food and playing games with her through their datapads. Yeah, most of the time, they'd argue about parts or money or whatever, and yeah, Logan could be the stupidest, most insufferable prick that she'd ever met, but when it came down to it... the guy cared... A lot.

"Hey," She said softly, taking a step closer to him, "You alright boss?"

"I'm thinking," he said, after a few tense moments of silence.

"Thinking about what?" She asked, fighting against her usual instinct to be annoyed.

"I'm... confused... about all of this."

She blinked and scrunched up her nose, raising an eyebrow at his cryptic responses, "Is that just in general or like... one thing in particular?"

This seemed to get a more active response out of him, as he snorted and shook his head, before bringing it up so his eyes met hers. She could see the beginnings of a smile threatening to tweak his lips upward, but they held firm as he spoke.

"I'm wondering why I'm not dead."

This caught her by surprise, causing her face to scrunch up and mouth to go slack in confusion.

"...Elaborate..." She said after a minute of awkward staring.

"Well," He began, standing up with a stretch that made his lower back audibly crack, "Think about for a second... We were on the ground, in the facility. The only one outside was Cameron, right?"

"Yeah?" She said skeptically, "I only know what you told me, and I doubt you'd lie to me about something like this."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," He said indignantly, "Anyways, this other mech swoops in, turns Cameron into a human pincushion, tries to end him with an EMP and then leaves?"

"I mean," she said, contemplating his words, "Maybe whoever was piloting it saw Crusader and figured it was active, and bugged out."

He shook his head, "No, Aurora. Crusader was knelt down, the ladder was descendant, any pilot who's been on the job longer than a week would know that I wasn't in it."

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"Maybe it was a hit."

"Well yeah," He said, "It has all the makings of one."

"Then what's so confusing?"

"Why him?" He said, the words echoing down the empty hall like an audible epitaph.

This gave Aurora pause. Why *was* Cameron targeted? She looked at Logan, who's eyebrows were raised as if he was looking for an answer from her.

"I... I don't know," She said, casting her eyes down as she tried to connect the dots, "Could it be from his homeworld? Ketris? Or someone in the sector?"

"I don't think so," He said , scratching the underside of his goatee, "Those records are supposed to be sealed. And it doesn't make sense. He's not a citizen of EarthGov anymore. He doesn't have any royal claim that anyone would be trying to eliminate him for. And yet..."

Logan stopped speaking, turning away from Aurora and walking to observe Cameron through the window. She followed him with her eyes, trying to see what he was thinking.

"What is it?" She asked, walking up to join him from behind.

"There's something I'm missing here." He said softly, watching the drones work on Cameron's body, "I know I am. I think... I think that other pilot said something through its speaker when he was trying to kill Cameron. I can't be sure. Everything was going on at once and I wasn't exactly picking up on any specifics but I think I heard that crackling sound the speakers on a unit makes when an intercom is being used."

"So if that's true," She said, "Then how do we find out what was said?"

"Simple," he said, pointing with his chin towards Cameron, "We ask him if... *when* he wakes up."

She turned, gazing through the bay window of the operating room at Cameron's body on the operating table. Her eyes slowly trailed up his pale, stitched together body, before focusing on his face. Regardless of how badly he irritated her, she always thought he was handsome, regal even. With a strong jawline and high cheekbones that framed a toned, youthful face worthy of being called royalty. If he wasn't such an insufferable prick, she could see herself even having a little crush on him.

But right now, on that metal slab in the medical bay, he looked so... fragile. Like one of those old porcelain dolls her mother would give to her every year of her birthday. Before the war came. Before the mercenaries hired by the ruling company of her planet rounded up all of the people in her village in order to find out where they were hiding the separatists. Before the answers that were given were not enough.

She closed her eyes, trying to force that part of herself back into the deepest recesses of her brain. She hated thinking about her mother. Hated having to relive the day she found her tied to a post, body half melted from plasma fire. If anything, she hated herself the most, for not appreciating those dolls as much as she could, showing her mother how grateful she was. She never saw the point of them though. Why play with fragile glass dolls when she could play with engines and electronics? At least with those, you can fix them if you break them.

But you can't fix shattered glass. Not all the way. There's always some piece missing, and any attempt to try and fix it only highlights how broken it is, reminding the owner that it can never really be whole.

She wondered if the same was going to be true with Cameron. How much of him was going to be missing when he was finally put back together.

"How is he?"

The voice of Sybil Moore cut through the silence like a knife, causing both Aurora and Logan to turn in unison, regarding the woman. Even in the darkness of the hallway, Aurora could see that she was a mess. She was hugging herself tightly, runny mascara streaking down her face, faded likely from her wiping it away but not gone completely. She no longer wore her official attire of the EarthGov diplomacy, choosing instead to sport a pair of fuzzy pink pajama bottoms and a matching cardigan, buttoned up halfway, revealing a black tank top underneath. It was plain to see she was still a very beautiful woman, but also a woman who felt as deep a loss as they did, regardless of which side of the galaxy she was on.

"He's coming along," Logan said, turning back to the glass to continue watching the gruesome surgery, "Most of the damage has been fixed, but the hard parts still to come."

This statement gave Aurora pause, and she looked over at him quizzically, "What do you mean?"

"I mean," he sighed, "They still need to rethread him."

"I thought he needs to be awake for that?" Sybil asked, beating Aurora to the punch, "Something about priming his nervous system or something, right?"

"Usually yes, but thankfully the initial sockets drilled into the bone are still there," Logan said, "All these drones have to do is make sure they're set in the right place between the metal."

"What metal?" Sybil asked, earning an incredulous look from Logan in the process.

"You can't seriously be asking me that, are you?" He asked, looking at her as if she'd just grown two heads.

Sybil looked between him and Aurora, squinting her eyes, still puffy and red from crying as she shook her head, "I mean... Yes? I don't understand?"

Logan sighed, rolling his eyes, "Over half the bones in his body are little more than fragments at this point Sybil! I don't know what's so damn hard to comprehend about this. You saw him when we pulled him out, do you think that's just magically fucking fixed?!"

"N-No. It's not that, I just didn't think-"

"No... you didn't think," Logan said, not giving her a moment to respond, "Obviously. Otherwise he wouldn't be in this situation."

"That's enough Logan," Aurora said, growling the words out before her brain could catch up to her mouth and tell her it was a bad idea to do so. He whirled on her, eyebrows raised in a mixture of surprise and anger.

"You wanna run that by me again, Aurora?" He said.

She stood her ground, glaring up at her employer as he looked down his nose at her. It was too late to take it back so Aurora figured she may as well be honest than be a coward.

"You heard me," She growled back, taking a step forward. It would only occur to her later the absurdity of how it looked. Her with her blue hair reaching only at his sternum at her full height as she traded words with him. It must have looked like a lapdog trying to buck up to a wolf.

"You're not the only one who's worried. The only one hurting right now. So stop fucking acting like it."

"Where do you get off-" He started to say, but she was quicker.

"I'll get off at the next planet if you keep acting like a moody little bitch, and I'll wish you luck finding a mechanic *half* as good as me when I'm gone!" She bellowed, her voice echoing down the hall as she did. She cut her eyes to Sybil, watching the exchange, gobsmacked at the turn of events. Refocusing on Logan, she sighed, trying to cool her head in order to adequately put her thoughts into words.

"I know that Cam's recovery isn't a sure thing right now. But it doesn't do any good to be an asshole to any of us just because you're upset. We're all part of the team here, even Sybil. We all care about him. We all want him to pull through. And we're all going to sit here until he does. Stop treating us like we're the fucking enemy."

Now it was Logan's turn to be speechless, as he stared at her, pursing his lips into a near imperceptible line. She could see the realization in his eyes though that she was right. Or was it that he was impressed with her willingness to tell him off. When he finally grunted out a response, that confirmed her assumptions.

"Bah," He grumbled, turning back to the window, and exhaling deeply through his nose.

"Sorry," He said after a moment, causing Sybil to give Aurora a look of astonishment, quickly snapping her head between her and Logan as if she couldn't believe that he'd actually said that.

Aurora winked at her, as a smirk threatened to break out across her face, "What was that?" she asked in a sing-song tone, "I couldn't hear you."

"Don't push your luck" he growled back, cutting a glare in her direction, "You heard me perfectly."

"Love ya too, Boss," she said, taking her place next to him and Sybil as the trio watched the surgery reach its apex, each of them silently hoping for the same thing; That their friend would wake up.