Beau walked like a new man in the suit, he could feel things, hear things that he couldn’t before like a whole new world had opened up for him and he was only just learning the perspective.

“Glad to see youre adjusting well,” Ryo’s voice was directly inside his minds ear, accompanied by the sensation of soft snowfall at night, Beau blown away a voice could feel like that.

The kid’s broken english was gone, replaced with clear sentiment and the blind, reckless sarcasim only a teenage boy could muster.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Beau admitted, “you were feeling this all along? No wonder you were so irritated…” Everyone around him was different, the soldiers that escorted him were blades and hammers, the humans were snapshots into their past lives. He could almost taste the summer sun whenever he stood closer Jasmine and wide open river when the Alien dr Xant spoke directly too him.

“Oh?” the young man looked at him side eyed, lips never opening to say a word, all thoughts. Ryo had been lasping more and more into ‘telekinseis’ and now that Beau could hear him he understood why.

“so you find it unpleasant?” a genuine question, the level of sincerity was another thing Beau would have to get used to, no more discerning truth from lie. It was as plain as his own thoughts.

“Not unpleasant, just overwhelming…” Beau admitted.

“I’d say you get used to it but,” Jasmine chimed in, “it’s pretty life-changing, I certainly can’t go back to silence,”

Beau shook his head, it was all so new and uncontrolable, he just needed to sit and soak it all in. really get a feel for how the emotions coming in and going out affected one another.

“We can adjust the translator once we are back at the yacht if you feel the input is too much,” Dr Xant reassured Beau, “you might be uniquely sensitive due to your advanced age,”

He heard- no, felt the pair of kids laugh.

“I’m old, but I’m not that old,” Beau corrected.

“Ah, I meant no offence,” Xant bowed his head, Beau had noticed that Xant, despite being completely alien otherwise, felt the most human. That fact bothered Beau more than he would’ve liked to admit.

“You're practically ancient compared to everyone else here,” Jasmine replied, “unfortunately, most of them dont live past 40,”

Beau let out a disappointed ‘tsk’

“All this biotech and you barely live past middle age? That ain’t right,”

Beau felt the soldiers around him shift, it was subtle, like his observation hurt them in some way.

“Oh, about your regalia Sargent Beau,” Xant was quick to change the topic, probably for tensions sake, “The Engine Lord advises that it will not be as durable as galactic standard due to your poorly efficient bodily functions, so your continuous use has been downgraded to an [8 month] duration,”

“So I don’t have to get out of this suit for [8months]?!” Beau exclaimed.

“Not if you don’t want to, the suit is self-regulating but can only process so much of your body waste at one time, I’m sure future iterations will be more efficient in containing your anatomy,”

There was a brief silence between the group as the humans took in the information.

Ryo stared at the suit made for him swinging in captain Rynards grip, classic black with red high lights, as per his request.

“Getting stabbed in the feet in exchange for not worrying about when you’re going to take a piss sounds alright,” Ryo replied off handedly.

Jasmine shook her head in distaste and quickened her pace, Xant following close behind.

Beau gave a small chuckle as Ryo shared a devious grin.

The soldiers stopped just shy of the yacht, standing at attention once their ward was safely in front of them.

“We have delivered you safely to your quarters Namegiver,” the largest of the dino-soldiers growled.

“Thank you Captain,” Jasmine acknowledged, her demenour firm and dignified, “Send Lieutenant Commander Nako my thanks, your escort was profissant.” she bowded her head lightly and raised her right arm up to her left shoulder

The captain saluted with an arm barred across his chest, beating his breast plate once before ordering his small squad of knights to return to their stations. Jasmine relaxed and exhaled, clearly unused to the formalities.

“Namegiver…” Beau repeated in thought, “Is that what they call humans or is that what they call you?”

Jasmine leaned up against a rail, looking for the right words, but grinning from ear to ear.

“It’s my title,” Jasmine explained, “titles are very important to the Aliens, lets them know where in the hierarchy you sit, or how powerful your ‘Freq’ is, but its got to mean something to you,” She tapped her heart, “it sounds a little corny but the more you connect with it the more powerful it becomes. Princess, Your Grace, those titles didnt sit right with me, but Namegiver…” Her light enveloped him, a sort of reverence and respect was demanded of him, but it wasnt out of fear, it was comforting, “Thats a title I would be proud to wear,”

“It’s a good title,” beau nodded, “how’d it come to you?”

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She shook her head.

“I’m not the one who came up with it...” Jasmine replied being coy.

“So who came up with it? Him?” Beau asked pointing at Xant, who flattened his ear in reply.

“Well, maybe you should go down deck and ask Spades for your self?” Jasmine answered.

Beau blinked, and the penny dropped, without another word the man charged below deck to find his partner. Xant sighed and turned to Jasmine,

“Should I brace for a Freq-bomb pulse?”

“Nah,” she smiled, “I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

Beau didnt have to look for them, he could feel them, their aura, presence, Frequency, lifeforce, whatever mambo-jumbo word you wanted to attribute to it. It was like having real-life super powers, or the force

He found Spades lying on a bed beside the golden retriever, she was like running through wet grass on a spring day, bright happy, wonderful and Spades…

Spades felt like a hot day, stuck between the sweat of Louisiana and the arid air of Kandahar, he was old, tired, but the world became brighter when he saw his friend.

“Beau!” Spades ears stood up and Beau broke down.

“Spades you beautiful bastard,” the dog dove in for a hug and the old soldier gladly gave it,

“You can talk! You can hear!” the dog barked excitedly as the translation echoed in Beau’s skull, his loyal friend could understand him, one on one, and still trusted him.

“Yeah boy I hear you, loud and clear…” The memories they had together, the good, the bad, and the truely, truely awful. Spades licked the salt water from his namegivers face.

“Namegiver Beau!” a bouquet of flowers was thrown in if face as Sieglinde crawled over to the edge of the bed. Beau reached out and tosseled her ears.

“Namegiver Beau,” He sniffed with a grin, “How come you dont call me that?”

“Because we are partners,” Spades replied with as deep as a conviction as the creature could muster, “I am Spades, you are Beau, not Namegiver or Friend, Partners.”

Hearing his voice, the final foot of distance between them had been closed, no longer human and animal companion, they were true brothers in arms.

“Partners, I like the way you think, aint none of that fancy stuff between us…”

But their tour wasn’t over yet.

“Spades, We’ve been through hell and back, I ain’t ever leaving you behind again, but we cant relax yet. We got one more mission before we can go home-” Both Seiglinde and Spades ears shot up at the mention of the word home, earth was clearly missed by all, “WE gotta make nice with all these aliens, but after that, i promise, i’ll get us Home.”

The dogs launched an assult on Beau’s face, wet tongues and nosed smothered him with love.

“Hey hey!” he chided while pushing their snouts out of the way, “not in the face okay, everywhere else is fine,”

“Okay!” the dogs replied wagging their tails, Beau gave them both a tossel of the ears before he noticed something off. Seiglinde’s glow was brighter than spades, but not because she was stronger, beaus fingers traveled down her coat and rested over her belly.

He could feel the puppies inside.

“Youre pregnant?” he blurted out loud.

“Yes!” Sigi barked “I will be a Lifegiver soon!”

“Our pups,” Spades added and Beau could barely contain the tear in his eye.

“You’re telling me youre going to be a father?!” Beau could only laugh, “Right, i’m a Namegiver, right?”

“Yes!”

“So, i’mma going to give you youre names, LifeGiver Sigi, and PackLeader Spades,” the pair wagged their tails excitedly.

“What about Friend Kimiko?” Sigi asked.

“I’ll give her, her name when I meet her,”

“Okay!” the dogs agreed, Beau sat back and thought about his own title. He had been through some shit in his life, stuff he was proud of, stuff he was ashamed of, but in the end, it all made up apart of him. What was he going to be moving forward?

He had to keep an eye on Ryo, offer his help to Jasmine and protect the incoming puppies, theyre were all just kids after all.

He needed to protect, guide and fight, like an old jedi knight.

He laughed to himself, he did have the super powers to go with it now, and Master Chef was too on the nose.

(GuardianKnight/MasterKnight/) would do for now.

Ryo stood out on the topmost deck, staring at the world around him, while beau was learning how loud the aliens world was, he was appreciating the quietness of his own mind. He watched the alien engineers work on the fighter craft beyond the makeshift car yard, pumping chemicals in and out of the ships. They were too far away to feel, but they moved like bees in a hive, ever busy and never getting in each others way.

He remembered how everyone moved instantly out of his path as he walked through them, the sense of power had been gratifying in his manic state, now it felt isolating.

He had spent so much of his life pushing people away, now he could command it at will, but was that what he wanted? Its what the shadows wanted…

“Hey!” Jasmine called, the bright pesence interrupting his philosophising. She climbed up the last ladder and crossed the helipad to join him “I was wondering how you got up here,”

“I took the stairs, like a normal person,”

“Yeah right, cause there isnt a million sets of stairs on his ship” Jasmine crossed her arms and leaned on the guard rail beside him, “so what are you doing up here? Besides enjoying the view,” she waved out at the sea of steel.

Ryo thought about telling her about the spaceships, or the engineers walk paths, but that would lead to a monotonous conversation. He didnt want that.

“Promise not to laugh?” he asked, tentatively offering an olive branch.

“Cant promise not to laugh after you’ve explicitly told me not to, that’s like human psychology 101,’ she replied, but he didnt feel any maliciousness from it, she joked alot with Beau, it must have been an Australian quirk. Ryo rolled his eyes and leaned forward on the rail, staring at the alien workshop.

“I was thinking about my own title, I don’t think namegiver suits me…” he admitted.

Jasmine didn’t laugh.

“Ah, do you want someone to bounce ideas off?”

“...yeah,”

“So, what you got?”

He paused, unsure if he should share the names, he wanted something cool but, the act of saying so invalidated the coolness of it.

“Shadow, Ghost, Esper, Umbras…” even as he said it it loud the names made him cringe, but still Jasmine didnt laugh. She was quiet with thought, having had more practise with concealing them, there was flashes and whisperes but nothing concrete he could grasp.

“Phantom?” She offered up, but he shook his head,

“I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel right…”

“Hey, you don’t have to decide here and now,” she tipped her head back to look at the steel sky, “it’s not something you should make a hasty decision on, the stronger connection to your name the more respect it’s going to command.” she returned upright and offered up a smile, “Beau rigged up the theatre room downstairs, were going to watch a movie, wanna join us?”

Ryo hesitated, looking back out at the sea of cars,

“Well, the invitations always open,” Jasmine replied starting to head downstairs, “and I’ll do my best to figure out a name for you, one you’ll like better than ‘Ryo’,”

Ryo’s eyes widened, staring at her in shock.

“How long have you known-”

“Since we first met,” she answered, “it didnt ‘feel’ like your name,”

“... it was a friend’s,” He confessed, “he helped me get out of Tokyo,”

“Good friend?”

“Not really,”

“Well, hopefully you’ll find some better ones,” Jasmine offered, stretching before she started walking back across the helipad, “we’re all on the third deck, Beau wants to watch Independence Day first and I’m going to tell him why its a terrible idea,” she waved absently and began her descent down the deck ladder.

“Itsuki!” he blurted out suddenly, stopping jasmine in her tracks, “my name, it is Itsuki Sugawara…”Jasmine stared back, the vague darkness that surrounded him came sharply into focus, the young, battered man in the night’s snow, “Thank you and, I’m sorry for (lashing out, insulting you, hurting everyone) everything…”

Jasmine nodded her head, a wave of relief swept over the pair of them, warm, summer sun had begun melting the snow.

“Thank you, Itsuki…”

End of Book 4

Continued in book 5: Resolve