Yvian's med pod beeped. Yvain let out a breath. How many times was it now? How many times had she almost died? She knew it was a dangerous life. She knew she wasn't as good at it as Mims. That didn't make her any less tired of getting her ass kicked.

Yvian pressed a button. The pod retracted. She found herself laying on a med table. She was still in her sister's armor. She sat up and removed her helmet. Her sister was sitting cross legged on the table next to her.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Captain Sis." Lissa handed her a beer.

"How long?" asked Yvian.

"Three days." Lissa pulled out a beer of her own. "You were really messed up."

Yvian nodded. "Where's everyone else?"

"Mark's baking," Lissa told her. "The others are... somewhere." She shrugged. "I wanted some sister time. Just the two of us, you know?"

"It has been a while," Yvian admitted. She frowned. "There's more to it, isn't there?"

"Caught that, huh?" Lissa frowned. "Our implants were really throwing stuff out there when we were dealing with the greys, but I thought they calmed down."

"It wasn't a feeling," said Yvian. "You and Mims have been joined at the hip for months. If he's not with you it means there's something you want to talk about in private."

"Fair enough." Lissa shrugged. "But before that, how are you feeling, Sis? You almost died again."

"I know." Yvian savored a sip of cold beer. "You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but..." She shook her head. "I'm just as scared every time."

"That's probably a good thing," said Lissa. "Being scared of death mean's you've still got something to live for."

"I guess." Yvian shrugged. "I'm also really tired of getting my ass kicked. You and Mims don't end up in the pod that much."

"Well I don't," Lissa smirked. "I'm a lot more reasonable than you two. But Mims? He's not that far behind you."

Yvian frowned. The human had spent a lot of time in the med bay. Not as much as Yvian, but close. "Huh. That makes me feel a little better."

"Glad I could help." Lissa grinned. "I don't know what you guys would do without me."

"Die, probably," admitted Yvian. "We'd probably be dead."

"Probably." Lissa raised her beer bottle. Yvian clinked it with hers. "Here's to us not being dead."

"And to my little sister," Yvian smiled. "The closest thing we've got to a reasonable person."

"Damn straight." Lissa finished her bottle in one long chug, then pulled out another.

Yvian's brow furrowed. Kilroy wasn't in the room, but that didn't mean he wasn't listening. She was surprised the Peacekeeper Unit hadn't interjected after Yvian's comment. "Is Kilroy...?"

"I asked him not to interrupt," Lissa told her. "I'm sure he's still listening, though."

"You asked him not to interrupt?" Yvian's brows went up. "That sounds serious."

"It is." Lissa took a breath. "You know how your dream was to rebuild Pixa? Save our whole species?"

"Yeah." Yvian drank more beer. "I can't believe we're actually doing it, to be honest. I wanted it so bad but... I didn't think we'd make it this far."

"We wouldn't have," said Lissa, "if we hadn't met Mark. Or if Exodus hadn't decided to take a chance on us." She smiled. "But here we are. You made your dream happen. I'm really proud of you, Sis."

"Thank you." Yvian hopped off her med table and gave her sister a hug. "I couldn't have done any of this without you, you know."

"I know." Lissa smiled back. "I'm the best." She turned serious. "I was happy to help, but rebuilding the Technocracy wasn't what I really wanted. My dream... It's simpler, you know? I just wanted to be loved."

"You are loved," said Yvian. "I love you."

"I know you do," said Lissa. "You were always there for me, and I remember what... What you did when we were kids. You're the best big sister a girl could ask for." She looked down. "It's just, you were all I had for a really long time. The only person who cared about me. I wanted more, Yvian."

"For the longest time," Lissa continued, "I didn't think I would be. Didn't think I deserved it. Our parents didn't..." Lissa shuddered. "Well. They were monsters."

"I remember," said Yvian.

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"I was good at making friends, but they were always shallow." Lissa took a mournful sip. "None of them stuck by me when things got hard. And the boyfriends, you remember how shitty they were." Lissa scowled. "Lying and cheating and using me. I tried so hard, Sis." Her voice thickened. "I tried so hard and nobody loved me."

"That's not true anymore," Yvian pointed out.

"It really isn't," Lissa agreed. "This whole ship's a family. It feels to good to be true sometimes." She wiped away a tear. "And then there's Mark."

"He really seems to love you," Yvian encouraged.

"He does." Lissa frowned. "I doubted him a lot, you know? I kept waiting for him to dump me. Kept worrying that he wanted you instead. All kinds of things." She hugged herself. "I didn't believe he could put me first or want me the most. He told me he did, but I didn't believe him." She shook her head. "How could he? You know how broken he was. Obsessed with the family he killed by mistake. He's been mourning his first wife for thirty years. How could I compete with that?"

"Oh Bright Lady," Yvian breathed. She'd only been in the pod for three days. What the Crunch had happened? "Did you break up with Mims?"

"No!" Lissa denied. "Of course not! I'm just explaining."

"Oh."

"We had a lot of fights about it," Lissa continued. "I kept waiting for him to end it. I almost... wanted him to? I was so sure he didn't really love me that I just wanted it to be over sometimes."

"I didn't know that." Yvian reached for another beer.

"I was afraid to tell you." Lissa drank. "Not cause it's you. I just... I didn't want to say it out loud. And you know how Mims is. He doesn't talk about his problems." She shook her head. "Kilroy knew. He tried to talk to me a couple times." She chuckled. "He even offered couple's therapy. He's actually pretty sweet for an unstoppable killing machine."

"Yeah," Yvian agreed. "He really is."

"I kept waiting for Mark to leave me. Or push me away or something." Lissa looked up. "He never did. He was patient. He confided in me. Told me things I don't think he's told anyone. I guess after a while it... started to stick?" She shook her head. "I don't know. I guess over time I just started to believe him a little."

"I think he really loves you," said Yvian.

"Yeah." Lissa nodded slowly. "Yeah he does."

They were quiet for a minute. Just sisters drinking in companionable silence. Then Yvian asked. "Sis? Why are you telling me all this?"

"I want you understand," said Lissa. "I want you to know how serious this is before I ask for your blessing."

"My what now?" Yvian frowned over her beer.

"I asked Mark to marry me."

"Oh." Yvian's eyes widened. "Oh! Holy Crunch! Congratulations, Sis!" She grinned, sweeping Lissa up in another hug.

"You're jumping the gun, Sis," Lissa chided. She was grinning, too. "He could have said no."

"No chance." Yvian was sure. She tilted her head quizzically. "What's that got to do with me though? I'm not his Mom."

"I don't need you to speak for Mark, you dolt," Lissa rolled her eyes. "You're supposed to give the blessing for me."

"Oh." Yvian frowned. "Shouldn't that be Yasme, though?"

"Yasme's not my mother." Lissa scowled. "Any more than she is yours. As far as I'm concerned, you're my oldest living relative. That means it's up to you to approve a marriage, traditionally speaking."

"Oh. Cool." Yvian smiled and gestured graciously. "You have my blessing to marry the human. I guess." She thought for a moment. "Does that work, legally speaking? Are you sure we don't have to talk to... you know."

"Parental approval is traditional," Lissa informed her. "It's not legally required. Me and Kilroy set up the laws to be as egalitarian as we could. Anyone can marry anyone they want, as long as they're consenting adults." She scowled. "Child brides are illegal now, though. Anyone caught trying to sell their kid is gonna be in a world of hurt."

"That's good." Yvian debated getting another beer. Screw it. She wasn't feeling up to doing Captainy things today anyway. "Speaking of kids, have you guys talked about that yet?"

Pixens didn't mind interspecies relationships, but interspecies marriage were frowned upon. Children were the reason for that. While other species might be physically compatible, they still had very different DNA. Mims and Lissa would never be able to conceive.

"We have." Lissa grimaced. "I'd like to have Mark's baby, but..." She shrugged. "There are other options. We'll probably adopt."

Yvian nodded. There were a lot of orphans out there. A lot. Slavers in the Confederation took whole families when they could, but more often than not it was the parents that were hauled away. The Peacekeepers had made a special point of taking orphans out of the Confed. Nearly a million of them were on New Pixa, with killing machines acting as surrogate mothers.

"Good for you, Sis." Yvian grinned. "I can't believe you're engaged, now. We're gonna have to hurry up and find the Gate Forge so we can get you hitched."

"Oh, we're not waiting for that," Lissa told her. "We're getting married tonight."

Yvian blinked. "What?"

"Yvian." Lissa gave her a look. "You almost died. We're in the middle of unexplored space, looking for a giant alien artifact that may or may not kill us when we find it. We've barely been out here two weeks, and we've almost died a dozen times. I'm not waiting."

"Ok," Yvian said slowly. "I don't know how we're going to do it though. We're supposed to be dead, remember? And it's not like we've got a priestess on the ship."

"We don't need one," Lissa told her. "Kilroy's going to officiate. The Peacekeepers are all registered ministers. Marriages are one of the things they help out with on New Pixa. As for being legally dead?" She shrugged. "We've got Exodus serving as a witness. Even if we all die here, there will be a record that proves Mark is mine."

"You've really thought this through, huh?" Yvian shouldn't have been surprised. Lissa had always been thorough. "What brought this on?" She frowned. "It wasn't me getting shot, was it?"

"Kind of." Lissa shrugged. "Not the way you think, though. After Mark and I fought our way to the restraining beams and got Scarrend and Kilroy loose, we got in an argument. Mark didn't want me to give you my armor."

"What?" That didn't sound like something Mims would say. "Why not?"

"He wanted to give you his," Lissa explained. "He tried to play it off as tactics, but I got pretty mad. I accused him of not trusting me to pull my own weight. Do you know what he said?"

Yvian shook her head.

"He said he didn't want to lose you," Lissa teared up, "but he wouldn't survive losing me."

Yvian's breath caught. "Aww..."

"Right?" Lissa grinned. "He loves me, Sis. More than... More than anything. It's what I always wanted." She chuckled. "It was a stupid argument anyway. He thought the armor would auto-adjust as long as it got a trickle of power, but once I explained it would have to charge a minute first he gave in."

"I guess it doesn't say that in the manual," Yvian snorted.

"He's lucky I'm an Engineer," Lissa agreed. She frowned. "Come to think of it, I haven't done any engineering in almost a year. I don't need to now that we've got Kilroy and Scarrend."

"We still need a diplomat," Yvian reminded her.

"You really do." Lissa laughed again. She finished her beer and set it down. "Come on, Sis. We've got a wedding to set up."