Dedicated to @AuthorJMColes for being on it! Plus we can't go too long without mentioning the president of the Lars fan club. 

Red shivered as the gloved hands patted him down. He was completely naked and yet they continued to invade every possible cavity they could find. It was too much like what had happened when he went into Helion 7 in the first place. He shook where he stood, doing his best to not lash out. Doing his best to remind himself that this was, in fact, the place where they were going to be free.

But they were doing their damndest to remind him of going to prison.

The water sprayed down the line of naked bodies as they pushed them down, guns pointed at them. Red was sore as he shuffled along. He'd just been cut, they'd all been sterilized to keep anyone from having a child in the prison. Some of them had struggled going in but in the end, it had happened. 

It made no sense to Red at the time. Why waste the energy? The males streamed out bodies wet as they were shoved along a hallway. Poked and prodded, their augments were recorded, some of the more dangerous ones were stripped, but it would have been bad form to kill them outright. The public had lost family members, Helion 7 was a model prison for their own protection.

 Brown clothes were shoved into their hands and they were processed into a slow death.

Red had taken a swing at the guards that day, and Dag had held him back. "Live to fight another day, Red, we'll get out of this," Dag had whispered.

"Fuck this," Red had snapped. He'd been doing something on the outside, in here, he was trapped.

"Red, please man," Dag had pleaded with him.  Red had stared at his friend finally seeing Dag. Dag, his friend who'd stuck by him, Dag who'd just lost his family, Dag who'd ended up in here with him because Red had tried fight off six scandroids at once. Dag, who he realized, was struggling just as much as he was. Red swallowed his anger and nodded. 

It had been the same day he'd first coined his mantra. "My only crime is that I'm flesh, circuit, and bone..."  

They'd been given a short seminar of their rooms, told which cells were theirs, the time of day they opened and shut and shoved them through a large metal door. 

If it hadn't been for Dag at his side, constantly pushing him through, Red wouldn't have made it this far...

The muscles in his arms were tensed and strained as he snapped back to the present. He'd been sprayed down with water upon removal of his clothes. No one said anything as the gloved hands roamed over him. He closed his eyes as he was scanned repeatedly. There was no Dag next to him to tell him to stay calm. He inhaled forcing himself to ignore what was happening.

 I did not escape one prison just to go into another.

He focused his attention outside the window and stared at the Aphelion as it loomed, larger than life just on the other side. The last time he'd left it, it had been at Lars's side, and his whole world had changed. How did it get here? 

He'd remembered every detail of the Aphelion, the Leviathan class vessel was a moving working city full of military people and their families.  It deployed smaller ships from its many bays, and Red briefly wondered if there were any inside. If there were, New Elysium had captured a weapon of mass proportions and Neo-Tokyo had every reason to fear an uprising.

He stared at the nose of the ship. It was from that room he'd spent many evenings having conversations with Lars, his second. He'd kept himself mostly separate from his crew. He knew all their names, but he didn't mingle too much. At the time he was more interested in exploration, not connections. Any time a colony sprang outward, he was thrilled to bring them supplies. Terraforming worlds was no easy task.  Finding worlds they could terraform on the outer spirals was a dream job. 

They'd been guardians of the border, though, no more. The Navy of Neo-Tokyo, not elites, but simply the hands of the invisible grand Houses reaching out into space. And Red had once been content with that job.

I was so full of shit then. I should have paid more attention to what Lars was asking about instead of dismissing him entirely.

First, Lars... And now the Aphelion. It seemed to Red things were moving in a circle, but he couldn't keep up. He began to wonder if Dag and Lars were onto something, this was just too perfect of a coincidence otherwise. 

Just when he thought he would snap from their relentless search the man stepped away and pulled off his gloves.

"Move along," the man handed him a pile of his hated clothes and Red walked slowly away from him to put them on.  

The next room was warmer and he dragged his clothes on as quickly as possible ignoring the stares from every other person in the room. 

Red? You, ok? Ember tuned into his thoughts. He grasped onto her signal breathing a sigh of relief.

I'm good, you?

I'm just outside waiting for you with Dag and the boys. I don't know why they took so long with you. 

I'm sure they had their reasons. The prison was simply to give them the idea that they were now worthless, at the bottom. This felt the same. For some odd reason, he was almost certain Jack had come up with this idea. The thought made Red want to punch him in the face. He might just do it this time...

He ignored everyone else, including the New Caledonians in the room. They weren't his problem anymore, in fact, it was a huge weight off of his shoulders to see them go. 

He moved through the doors and true to her word Ember was standing just outside of it, her hair still damp from being hit with water. Red wondered at that, that Jack would put his own sister through that kind of humiliation. But then again, Mad Jack had always talked about equality for everybody. Apparently, that meant both the good and the bad things.

Ember ran into his arms, and not really caring who saw Red embraced her. It had only been about twenty minutes but it felt like ages to him. 

"What happened in there?" Dag asked with T and Alt in two, they too were slightly damp but the room was warmer.  

"They were pretty thorough," Red responded. A shudder went through his body and he closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and focusing his gaze on Ember. "Did they say where we were going next?"

"I was told to wait here, and anyone with me."

"The New Caledonians?"

"Being shifted planetside soon, Andrea said to tell you to thank you, by the way."

"She can thank me by not setting eyes on me again," Red muttered.

"Red come on," Ember took his hand. 

His grip tightened on hers and he opened his mouth to reply when another ghost from his past appeared. His jaw snapped shut and Ember turned to see what he was looking at.

"Mad" Jack Dawson did not look at all pleased to see Red holding Ember's hand. Red's grip only tightened on hers. 

"Jack!" She let go and ran to him, throwing her arms around her brother. Red wondered that he hadn't seen their resemblance before. Same hair, he could guess her eyes had been the same color before, they certainly were now. 

Commander Larsson hovered behind him, not intervening, not saying anything. Her posture kept shifting between the two beings within. They don't want to be here either, Red noted. 

"Twins," Dag muttered, interrupting his thoughts. "She told me they were twins. She was the weaker twin in the womb."

"Explains a lot," Red stood there awkwardly as Dag suddenly dropped to his knees. 

Dag's hands covered his face as a beautiful dark-skinned woman, her hair done up in braids that hung halfway down her back, approached, tears streaming down her face. It was none other than Leah, she ran to Dag and dropped to her knees in front of him. 

"I knew we'd see you again," she cried as she grabbed Dag's face. Dag froze before he shook himself and wrapped his massive arms around her.

Red stood there in embarrassed silence. T took one hand and Alt the other and Red was reminded that he wasn't the only one here without a welcoming committee. 

He could see what he presumed was Dag's son rushing forward and wrapping both of his parents in a hug. The teen was enormous. Desmond had certainly sprouted, gaining his father's height, but hadn't quite filled out yet.

"Do you think our parents are here somewhere?" T whispered, a death grip on Red's hand.

"I don't think so," Red said back squeezing both of their hands. "But I'm here, Ember's here and Dag's here. We'll figure this out." He wondered who he was comforting more, himself or the boys.

T simply stared at the group, his little shoulders drooping. Red remembered it had at first been his mission to get the boy some help for his spine. He felt guilty about not seeing him as much on the ship, had they really only gotten out of Helion 7 a month ago?

Jack stepped forward and moved to Dag, a genuine smile on his face. "Dag!" He embraced him warmly. Dag had always been the buffer between "Mad Jack" and himself. It had been Red who'd been extremely reckless back then. 

Ember had moved back to stand beside Red, just behind T. Red released both boys as Jack came to stand in front of him. "Red." 

Everything Red had just went through erupted over, the screenings, the unnecessary searches, being separated from the others. The way Jack was looking at him, studying his reactions, he was a scientist through and through. Red's fist clenched and without warning, he swung and connected to Jack's jaw with his fist. "You son of a bitch!" 

Jack dropped like a stone, completely shocked by the hit, but not unconscious. He sat rubbing his jaw as Red loomed over him.

"Red," Ember grabbed his arm and Red stopped, breathing hard, he glanced back at her worried face and let his hands relax.

Larsson had moved forward instinctively but stopped, a big smile on her face. Red had noticed her next as his sensors indicated she was the next threat in the room after he'd hit Jack. 

"Well, that was a pleasant surprise," Null muttered, still grinning, and crossing her arms. "Am I going to need Heisenberg?"