Red listened to Dag talk about how nervous he was to see his wife after so many years, but his own thoughts were running to the fact that it was his fault that Dag had missed that many years in the first place. He remembered that moment, when he'd lost it, and because he'd lost it Dag had come to his rescue, literally pinning him down so he wouldn't fight the scandroids to death.

It had been suicide, he known that and went anyway. That's what he'd intended. Dag had known that and tried to stop him. Well, he had stopped him. Dag's metal arm had held him firmly in place and he hadn't wanted to hurt Dag. 

He held up his hand and Dag stopped talking.

"Dag, I'm sorry." He'd never apologized before, not for any of it. For some reason he was compelled to now.

Dag's face turned puzzled. "What for?"

"You're in this mess because of me."

Dag stopped his pacing and sat down. "Red, I'm where I was supposed to be. I wasn't about to let my friend get himself killed." He knew exactly what Red was talking about. 

"You shouldn't have been. Then you'd have been on New Elysium this whole time."

"We don't know where I would have ended up," Dag laced his fingers together as he looked at Red, his silver fingers stood in stark contrast to his brown ones. "I could be dead now, or just ended up in prison later than you."

"Dag, it's—"

"No Red, stop." This time Dag held up his hand, his expression firm. "I am where I was supposed to be. And I don't blame you. I'm the one who chose to remain behind, I got out of that car to stop you. It was my choice. This whole thing was a series of choices made by many people. Maybe I should be asking you if you blamed me? Tell me, do you want to live?"

Red stared at him. "Yeah, I do." Only Dag knew he'd wanted to end everything. Charging all those Scandroids was suicide. 

"That's a step up from the man who entered that prison. You spent every moment trying to get out, and then when you ran out of ideas, you simply turned into a robot."

Red's lips quirked at the old expression. Dag paused for a moment and then snickered himself. When the expression had first been coined, robots were considered lifeless, merely a poor copy of life itself.

But after they'd been developed into autonomous being in their own right it was considered bad form to use the expression. But old habits die hard.

"So, tell me what happened," Dag smiled. "I've been babysitting for days."

"Sorry about that," Red was sorry, but there was very little Dag could have done in any event. "You saw the Commander..."

"Yeah, she was something else entirely," Dag shrugged. "Her androids were helpful though, supplies were nice. It was great eating something besides protein bars every day."

Red shrugged wondering how he was going to get through this next part. "She's two people, there's an AI in her head somehow... Ember had wondered how her piloting skills were so good, even for a human."

"And?" Dag didn't bat an eye. Augments had been everywhere before. Why not an AI?

"It's Lars." Red's voice dropped down to almost a whisper and he stared at the wall. "I thought he was dead. Gone, but somehow he's inside that woman."

Dag didn't say anything for a minute. "Are you sure?" He rubbed his face with his normal hand, tapping his knee with the other. "I mean that's... That's great news. I hope." He stared at Red, trying to read him.

"Its great, I wish we'd had more time to catch up but the other person, the woman, Null, she called herself. I think she wants to kill me."

Dag laughed. "There's a long line stretching out from Neo-Tokyo to New Caledonia, my friend. She'll have to get in it."

"I think she'll just fight her way to the front."

"Ember would stop her."

Red sobered at the thought of Ember. Dag eyed him, an even wider grin spreading on his face. "I knew that girl was going to get to you."

"What?"

"Don't tell me she didn't. I haven't been up here as of late because we've been stuck in our crash couches for what feels like days. I'm a married man, Red. I can tell when a man has gotten some."

"Ok fine," Red leaned back in his chair. "But that's all I'm sharing. I don't want to die today."

Dag leaned back as well. "I'm not asking for details, I'm happy for you. I haven't seen you this alive in ages. You definitely perk up where she's concerned."

"Come on Dag, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her," Red leaned forward again. "She has to make it." He turned to the console wondering if she was still asleep. When he turned back Dag was staring at him, his expression mute.

"What?"

Dag shrugged. "I was just remembering back at the prison when you said you didn't care."

"I said a lot of things then."

"What were things like before the Purge? I've kind of wanted to ask but didn't think you'd ever talk about it."

"You think I'd want to talk about it now?"

"Yeah, feeling guilty and all about me being here," Dag stretched. It felt like ages since the two of them had been able to sit and just talk. It had only been a matter of days. Dag had been his rock in prison, the one person who yelled at him and kept him going. But Dag was going back to his family, at least he hoped he was.

Ember had slid quite easily into that place before Red had realized, and Red admitted to himself that he enjoyed waking up next to her a lot more than being in a cell with Dag.

"I don't know, Dag," he started, thinking of the best way to answer Dag's question. "Everything was set. I knew what I supposed to do. But it was like someone else lived that life. It's not even close to who I am now."

"And who are you now?"

"Honestly? I haven't got a clue." Red rubbed his chin in annoyance at the stubble he found there. He'd looked into a mirror and seen a few flecks of gray there. It had been a long time, he didn't like to admit how much of his life was spent meandering in that stupid prison yard. "I know that guy back then, he didn't know shit about life."

Dag shifted back pulling his long legs onto the bed, so he could lean against the wall. "I prayed to God we'd get out of there eventually."

"Doesn't that piss you off?" Red asked him. "That you were stuck in there so long? I mean Lars and I used to have these conversations, and he asked me if I thought he had a soul, but man, does a god out there allow this kind of shit to happen?" The response was more heated than Red meant it to be, and he forced himself to calm down. It wasn't as if Dag had flipped the switch that caused the Purge in the first place.

"What? You think that I should stop believing because I didn't get my way?" Dag shrugged. "I think I was right where I was supposed to be. We got out, and we're so close..."

"And now I'm going to meet your family." Red looked away, he was never going to not feel guilty that Dag was even in here.

"We'll meet them," Dag shrugged. "Leah won't kill you."

"She should."

"There you go with your death wishes again."

"Ember will kill me now," Red thought again of the tiny woman who kept risking herself time and time again for them. He should be up there with her, right now.

Red glanced back at the console, every second was taking them closer to New Elysium, closer to a place where they should be free to walk the streets without a Scandroid chasing them down. The screen showed hyperspace, with its swirl of white lines where they'd passed stars and galaxies.

Red?  Her voice came through on their private channel. He stiffened. Ember was awake, and she'd reached out to him first.

Dag's eyebrow lifted as he gave Red a questioning glance. "Ember's awake," he whispered to Dag's unspoken query. 

They really needed to outfit Dag with an internal radio. The three of them could bypass the ship's comms entirely.

Hey, he sent back to her.

I've been alerted, ten minutes till I take us out of hyperspace.

You coming down?

No, I'm suiting up. I don't know what's at the end.

She cut off the conversation. Red turned to Dag. "Ten minutes till we figure out what's at the end of the tunnel." 

It was a long wait; the longest ten minutes Red had ever experienced. He felt the shudder as Ember brought them out of hyperspace. 

The Blackstar appeared next to them. "You ready?" It was Null's voice that came over the channel. She was edgy and gave Red the impression she didn't like visiting as much.

Red didn't answer, both and Dag stared at the world beneath them. It was blue-green planet, much like the earth from ancient history. That's where the similarities ended. There was a small ring just outside the atmosphere, a docking station. One large ship was attached to it, while other small ships moved around it. Some descended to the surface, others moved into a circular formation and waited.

Jack had done better than any of them had expected.

"Wait," Red's jaw dropped. The large vessel docked to the right of the ring, it was so large that Red wasn't sure if it was attached to the ring, or if the ring was attached to it. A nagging suspicion burgeoned in his mind. "Is that... That?"

"Yes Sir, that is the Aphelion," Lars responded on the channel. He sounded proud.

"How did you get a Leviathan class..." Red's voice trailed away, Dag peered over his shoulder and whistled.

"Damn, Jack really is in business."

"That's all well and good," Null came over. "Are you ready?"

"We're ready," he heard Ember's voice respond. 

"Follow us," Null came back.

They descended towards the ring. "Fair warning," Null spoke again. "Crawlers will inspect the hull from top to bottom. You'll be boarded, and strip-searched. Even you, Ember."

"Does Jack know I'm here?"

"He's at Ehring Station. But you'll still have to follow procedure like everyone else for the first time."

Red and Dag looked at each other. "Should be interesting," Dag muttered staring at the surface. Somewhere down there their futures waited. Dag glanced at Red, who sat frozen in shock. 

"Is that the ship you flew on?"

"That I flew on?" Red's voice was weak. "It was mine."

Red shuddered, he felt as apprehensive as Null sounded. He and Jack hadn't always seen eye to eye. He knew that Jack was not going to appreciate the fact that he and Ember were together. And he couldn't pretend that seeing the Aphelion out there waiting wasn't the biggest fucking ghost he'd ever seen.

I do have a death wish, he thought as he clenched the arms of his chair.