Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Even as Juno Steel packed up his last things to go to war, he couldn't believe it. He’d be leaving Mars for the warfront in the morning, and he was still in disbelief. The warfront had been pushed away from the Solar Planets for decades. There was only occasionally a draft called, and even those unfortunate souls that called Old Town their home hadn’t been drafted en masse in half a century. But it figures that Juno Steel, sharp-shooter extraordinaire, was. However it did seem that a lot of the HCPD’s best recruits were, and maybe — just maybe — that explained some of the corruption.

Juno sighed and sat on his bed. As he sat there looking around the room he’d shared with his twin, he allowed himself to think. The only good thing about going to war was that Benzaiten wasn’t being forced to follow. Juno jolted as the door to his room opened but relaxed as soon as he saw it was Benten.

“Alright, Lady Raincloud, get up. I’m not letting you just sit there and wallow until you have to leave. We’re going out.”

Juno let out a groan but did get up to follow his twin. As they made it out of their apartment building, they found Mick and Sasha standing there. “JayJay!” Mick ran up and hugged him. Juno struggled just just for the sake of it but didn't shake Mick off. Eventually Mick let go and they went out for one last drink together.

Once they were at the Pour and Floor, Ben ordered the first round of drinks for the four of them, and as soon as Mick had his first drink in his hand, he raised it in a toast. “To the ladies of the Old Town Trio!” The other three raised their glasses and then downed them. It was only after the next round of drinks that the four of them started talking.

“Do you know where you guys are going to be stationed?” Benzaiten asked as he looked between Juno and Sasha.

Juno shrugged. “We'll be in training first. I'm being sent to some asteroid near Neptune for that. Did they ever tell you where you were being sent, Sash?”

“Io.”

Mick looked between Sasha and Juno with a furrowed brow. “I would have thought they would have kept the recruits from the same planet together.”

“We are skilled in different areas, Mick. That's probably why we're being sent to different areas for training.”

“That's a very optimistic way to look at it, Juno,” Sasha scoffed.

Juno glared across the table as he knocked his drink back. “What do you mean, Wire? You don't shoot as well as I do. But you scored way above me in planning. I'd bet that’s all there is to it.”

Sasha glared back for a moment before she looked away. “My dads came from Hanuman, in the Outer Rim. They have all of us who come from the Outer Rim going to Io.”

No one had anything to say about that, but it made sense that anyone with strong connections to the Outer Rim would have to go through more vetting before the battlefield. For the rest of the night, the four drank and told stories about happier and better times. It was getting close to midnight when both Juno and Sasha decided that they should head back to their apartments, seeing as they had to leave on the first shuttle out.

Ben and Juno walked back to the apartment in silence. As they made it to the building, Ben broke the silence. “Look at it this way. At least you're going to get away from Ma like you wanted.”

Juno stopped at the base of the stairs leading up to their apartment. “I didn’t want to get away from you, though. I’m going to miss seeing your stupid face all the time.”

“Just look in the mirror, you dummy. My stupid face is your stupid face. We are identical after all.”

“Not the same.” Tears started down Juno’s face.

Ben sighed as he came back down the stairs and hugged his twin. “I know. But I’ll be here waiting for you. And you can always send me a message or call on your comms. If you can figure those out, that is.”

Juno let out a bit of a wet chuckle. “I know how to work my comms.”

Ben shoved Juno back enough that he could look into Juno’s eyes. “Lady Raincloud, the only person worse than you with comms the rabbits.” Ben pretended to think for a moment. “Wait, no, they still are better than you, and they broke the last comms someone left down there.”

Juno let out another wet chuckle as he curled his lip in a tiny smile. “Alright, I get it. I’ll ask for help.”

Ben smiled that Galaxy's Best Smile at him. “Alright, I think it’s time to go to bed, don’t you?” Juno nodded and they pulled apart and started up the steps.

They were silent as they walked into the apartment. Juno looked over the back of the couch to see his mother lying there. A mother that he’d wanted away from for most of his life. Ben was right in saying that getting away from her was a benefit that he’d found to be drafted, but it was the only one. And the worst thing by far was leaving Benziaten here with her. Alone without anyone here to protect him from their ma.

Juno followed his twin into their room and Ben closed the door behind them. “Do you want to share a bed like we used to tonight?”

Juno gave a small nod and in response, Ben gave that smile again. The two of them changed and they shoved their beds together before laying down facing each other. As the twins looked at each other, they both spent the time as they fell asleep memorizing the differences from their own.

The next morning was both slow and seemed to pass in an instant. One moment he was crying on his brother’s shoulder in their bedroom, and the next he was trying to pull Mick off him so he could board the shuttle. He sat alone on the back of the row and focused very hard on trying to forget that they were rising into the sky. It wasn’t long after take off that an older person moved to sit next to Juno

“Are you Juno Steel?”

Juno scoffs but looks over at him, “And what if I am?”

“I’m Puck, I’m going to be your roommate while we’re in training.”

Juno glared at Puck. “How did you even know who I was?”

Puck gives a small chuckle. “I guess you wouldn't remember your poor teacher from your last year at Old Town Elementary. But you and your brother sure left an impression on me.”

Juno took a long look at Falco before his jaw dropped. “Mx. Falco?”

“Ah, so you do remember me?”

Juno nodded as he tried and failed to get his brain working again. Puck left him to think for a while as he watched the stars out the window. It was a while before Juno was verbal again, and the first thing out of his mouth was, “Wait, why are you my roommate? Don’t they have us separated by age?”

Puck shrugged and Juno scoffed again. Thoughts were running around in his head, and he sat back to let them take over. They sat there until they called all those heading to the Neptune Bootcamp to move to another section of the ship so they could go over things before they landed. Juno moved in sync with Puck to the new area with their bags.

As they sat down, Juno noticed it was only a handful of other people that were going to the same bootcamp as them.

Puck looked over at him. “I’m surprised there’s even this many of us off of Mars.”

“What do you mean?” Juno asked, not realizing he had said that out loud.

“They stopped the mass drafting years ago off Mars. Think it had to do with the Kanagawas or the Triad. Doesn’t matter now, but they caused some type of disturbance and killed a lot of Solar soldiers. That’s when the Solar Military stopped using Mars as a mass draft and switched over to how they do it now. They mostly pull from the entry scores into the HCPD Academy.”

“Wait- were you in the academy?” Juno looks over at Puck with wide eyes.

Puck shook their head. “I enlisted.”

“What? Why? You were such a great teacher.”

Puck gave a little chuckle. “Juno, you don’t have to say that. You didn’t even remember me until I reminded you that I was your teacher.”

Juno was about to refute Puck’s statement when someone in the Solar Uniform joined the small group. “Alright, this looks to be everyone. My name is Captain Absolon. I’m over the Neptune Bootcamp. You will be on Neptune for ten weeks before you are deployed to the battlefield. You will be joined by others from other planets once we reach Neptune.”

Absolon continued to talk, but Juno tuned them out. He couldn’t stay focused as they passed a smattering of asteroids. Every second he was getting further from home — and further from Ben. Every second he was making a new greatest distance between him and his twin. Eventually, they were left on their own again when Absolon left. Even as the others started to talk, Juno stayed wrapped up in his head.

Chapter Text

When they reached Neptune, they were sent to their dorms, and Puck had been right; they were one of three people in their dorm. Juno took one of the bottom bunks, and Puck took the bed beside him. The other person took the bed above Juno. There would be others arriving in the coming hours they knew, but it seemed like for now it would just be the three of them.

The three of them unpacked their stuff in silence until Juno ran across something that he hadn’t packed. It was a picture of him and Ben. They were standing in the dance studio, both of them smiling at the camera. Juno could feel his chest constrict as he struggled to breathe. His baby brother was so far from him. He could feel the fear rise through him at his brother being left alone with their mother.

Juno was so lost in his panic that when Puck tried to get his attention there wasn’t any response. And when Puck touched Juno’s shoulder, all he did was flinch before curling up in a ball. Puck backed off before he started trying to get Juno to come back to himself with his words.

It took a while for the soft voice of Puck to pierce through his panicked state. “Juno, you are alright. Your brother is back home. We have time, you can call him if you know his comms coordinates.” Juno fumbled with the comms that had been in his pocket. He struggled with it for a moment before handing it over to Puck.

Their other roommate glared, and Puck could tell they were about to say something when they decided not to speak instead. And Puck was grateful; they knew that there was a fight that was going to happen if they did speak up.

Puck took the comms and opened it to see three numbers listed in the contacts. Puck picked the one labeled Benzaiten before handing it back to Juno. As Ben’s voice came through the speaker, Puck stood and ushered the other person out of the room.

“That kid’s not going to last long on the battlefield if being away from his brother has sent him into a panic attack in less than a day. Got to wonder why children like him enlist.”

“There’s no wonder. Some feel like they have to. Others have nothing left. Even after centuries of fighting amongst ourselves, war still is considered a noble death.” Puck shook their head. “Did you enlist or were you drafted?”

“Enlisted. No one on Mars is drafted anymore. One too many Kanagawas and Triad members got selected. The crazies.” They shook their head.

“Juno was. He was drafted. He’s just barely 19, and he was drafted. I’m not sure why. I haven’t seen him in a decade, but his skills got him drafted. You’re right he may not last long on the battlefield, but it wasn’t his choice to be here either.”

“Damn, so that rumor about enrolling into the HCPD is true then?” Puck nodded. The other person leaned back against the wall. “You seem to know the kid, any idea on why he was brought into the war?”

“Like I said before I haven’t seen him in a decade, but he had a mind for planning as a kid, mostly on how to get into trouble and then back out of it. But truly, I don’t think that’s all.”

It was seconds later that Juno came out of their room wiping his eyes. “We need to go, don't we?” Puck nodded, and they headed to the mess hall to see that they were not the last ones there. Most of the others were sitting around and talking. The three of them went to an empty table.

“I never introduced myself, did I? My name is Ridley Rain. What about you two?”

“Juno Steel.”

“Puck Falco.”

The three started talking and within no time all realized that they were all from Oldtown. Which wasn’t that odd, as Oldtown was full of people desperate enough to enlist. It wasn’t long before they were called to attention for dinner. That night they were let off easy and allowed out of formation before everyone settled down.

When the three sat down after getting their food, it was with Puck and Ridley on either side of Juno. Sitting between the two older people made Juno look even younger and smaller than he was. Some of the others sitting around them started ribbing him, and Juno started poking back at them. It was about to turn violent when one of the Sergeants came by and told them to break it up. Juno didn’t back down, but the others did. Puck stayed ready to break up a fight for the rest of dinner.

At the end of dinner, they were allowed to go back to their dorms, and they chatted for a bit as others started to come in that had landed after them. It wasn’t long after the last one got their stuff sorted out that the lights were turned out. It took a long time for Juno to fall asleep. Even though he was used to sleeping around other people he couldn't fall asleep.

The next morning their training started from the moment that they woke up. It started with a run before breakfast that most of the other people started complaining about halfway through. But Juno did not. Juno may not have been running very fast, but he kept moving without complaint. For two reasons: one, he was used to not eating, food having been sparse as a child, and two, he was focusing too much on his breathing to do so.

They were soon allowed to stop but were not allowed to eat. They had to stand in formation until they stopped shuffling around. It took at least an hour for them to do so, but Juno lost track of time just standing there. When they went to breakfast Juno sat between Puck and Ridley again.

After breakfast, they were directed to the gun range. Once they were all lined up Captain Absolon started talking, “Privates, this is a test to see how much you need to work on. You will shoot as many of the targets as you can in one minute. By the end of training, you should be about to hit over ninety percent of them. Private Andrews, you will go first.”

Andrews looks smug as he steps up onto the firing line. Bragging about being the best shot that has ever been seen. He was handed a blaster and a few moments after a buzzer went off. Moving targets popped out of nowhere, and Andrews barely hit any of them before the next buzzer sounded and they all disappeared. There wasn’t a single comment from their Captain, but it was obvious he was disappointed. It was similar for each person that went up to shoot with only a few of them able to hit more than a single target. And only maybe a handful got more than half of them.

“Private Steel, your turn.” Juno steps up to the shooting line and takes the blaster that was handed to him. The lady focused on the targets as the buzzer went off. He struck each target as close to the center as he could. When the buzzer went off again, he dropped the blaster and handed it back. “Private Steel, good job. You didn’t miss a single one. The rest of you, that is what we are going to be working towards.” It was then that Juno realized that everyone had gone before him. He had been the last to shoot.

Juno turned back to the rest, and everyone was looking at him with shocked looks. Juno smirked for just a second before clearing it off his face as he walked back to stand between Puck and Ridley. Ridley's eyes were bugging out of their head as they said, “Shit, Steel, I can see why they drafted you.”

Juno gave a tiny smirk at that. Then he shook his head and murmured, “It’s the only thing I can do right.” Juno’s whole body slumped at the thought of how much of a failure he was.

Puck put their hand on Juno’s shoulder. Juno attempted to shake him off but Puck just put it back. Which forced Juno to look at him. “What?”

“Shooting isn’t the only thing that you’re good at Juno. No matter what anyone says it’s not all that you're good at.”

“There isn’t anything else.”

Puck was about to respond when Absolon called them to attention and instructed them on what they would be doing next. For the rest of the day, Puck tried to bring it back up that there was more to him than just shooting. But Juno wasn’t listening. Instead, the lady spent time riling up anyone and everyone to dodge the conversation.

That night when they were allowed back to their dorms a few hours before they had to go to bed. A few of their dorm mates went to the shooting range after that morning and Ridley followed suit. That left Puck, Juno, and a few others scattered about. Juno was fiddling with his comms as he sat on his bunk.

“Juno.”

“What?” Juno didn’t even look over at Puck.

“Juno there are other things than shooting that you're good at. I know this. You and Benzaiten couldn’t have caused as much trouble in my class if that big brain of yours wasn’t good at making plans.”

“How do you know Benten wasn’t the one making those plans?”

Puck sighed. “Kid, you and Benzaiten may have tried to pull a fast one on switching places. But Benzaiten used to say all the time that it was your plan. And to be honest, knowing how that brain of yours works now? Yeah, those had to have been you. Your brain can make connections faster than most people can even imagine. Your thought process kid, that’s something else you have going for you.”

Juno just shrugged. Puck shook his head and got up to take a shower. That left Juno sitting there on his bunk fiddling with his comms.

Chapter Text

The next morning was similar to the last: first thing in the morning, they were running. They didn't have to stand in formation nearly as long, though. It was after breakfast that they were split up from the group to work in the areas they needed it most.

Juno and Puck were sent to the obstacle course instead of being sent to the range after breakfast, seeing as they both had been struggling near the end on that first day. “How is this harder than running through the sewers? How?” Juno muttered as the two of them worked side by side in the obstacle course.

Puck was struggling to get up the rope climb beside Juno and almost slipped back down at what was coming from Juno’s mouth. They decided to leave it until they had reached the top of the climb to address it for fear of falling. “Juno, why exactly were you down in the sewers? Didn’t the rabbits almost kill a kid in your year?”

Juno looked confused for just a moment. “I mean probably, but the rabbits weren’t that bad if you knew how to handle them. And the sewers are the best way to get around Hyperion without people seeing you.”

“So you befriended the rabbits?”

“I wouldn’t say befriended is the right word, but they didn’t attack on sight either.”

They were about to start down the other side of the platform when someone came up behind him. “Rabbits? You befriended rabbits? Really? You're just a little girl, Steel.”

Juno’s face started to turn red. And Puck was about to try and stop him when the other man continued to talk. “Rabbits are such a little girl’s animal. You–” The man was cut off with a fist to his jaw, almost sending him off the platform.

Puck moved as fast as he could to restrain Juno. There was no need for him to be caught fighting on only their second day there. Though Puck was worried that it had already happened. As he wasn’t sure where the corporal that was supposed to be supervising them was at.

“Private Steel! Private Smith! Both of you get down here and tell me what the hell is going on!”

Juno looked over the side of the platform to see their corporal as Puck let out a very loud sigh. Juno and the other private drop down off the platform with Puck following behind the two of them.

“Private Falco, continue on.” Puck hung their head and continued down the obstacle course.

Juno stood in front of the corporal as he yelled at the two of them for fighting. Juno was suppressing his flinching each time he turned to yell at him again. Juno guessed he was successful enough as the corporal didn’t bring it up in his yelling. The corporal didn’t yell at them for very long before forcing them to do push ups until he said to stop.

Juno couldn’t keep track of the number of push ups after the first ten. He was sure it was over thirty, seeing as his arms started to burn. Juno had long since gotten used to push ups as punishment as the HCPD favored it as a form of punishment. When Juno glanced over at Smith, he was struggling to continue.

Though the corporal didn’t keep them going much longer after that. As Juno stood he knew that they were going to have to finish the course. Which the corporal confirmed with his next breath: “Now finish the course!” Both nodded and got to it. Juno moved ahead of Smith for only a moment before he was catching up to him. He didn’t say anything. They both didn’t want to have to repeat that number of push ups.

When Juno finished, he saw Puck standing there at the end of it and went over to them. His breaths were labored causing Puck to look at him with worry.

“Kid, do you have asthma?” All Juno could do was nod as he was suddenly unable to breathe properly. “Do you have your inhaler?” That caused Juno to move his shaking hands to his pockets to pull it out, having forgotten he’d had it on him until then. The lady’s hand shook too much to hold the inhaler properly. Puck took the inhaler from Juno, shook it for a moment, before he removed the cap and placed it back in Juno's hands.

Juno managed to take a puff of the medicine and even a second one after a moment. “You better?” Juno nodded as he sucked in deep breaths of air.

“Got any idea on what brought that on? Because I’d like to know when you’re going to kneel over, unable to breathe.”

Juno took a few more deep breaths before speaking. “Sometimes it just happens. Think I was pushing myself too hard there. I’ll not have issues with running and exercise unless I push myself too much. Dust storms also cause them, but that’s no surprise or at least it shouldn’t be.” Puck shook his head. Asthma induced by the dust storms was very common on Mars. Half of Old Town likely had asthma from the frequent storms that weren’t held back properly by the dome.

“Alright, does the military know about this?”

“Yeah, they should. They have my files from the academy. They knew about it for sure.”

“Alright, good. I just don’t want you falling over dead because you don’t have an inhaler.”

Juno gave Puck a small smile as they moved on to the next part of their morning training. Juno didn’t have another asthma attack that morning. They got to go to lunch on time and talk to Ridley. It was after lunch that they were split up again with Juno sent to the range with some of the others that were better at shooting.

“Today all of you will be training with different types of guns to see where you need to improve. Some of you may be taking on sniper training depending on how it goes today. Understood?”

All of them responded with, “Yes, Sir!” Though Juno’s response could hardly be heard. The lady was thinking too much. If he was given a sniper rifle, that would mean that he would be able to see life leave people’s eyes. He hadn’t liked the thought of having to kill people in the first place. Having to watch them die though the scope was something that he didn’t want to experience. At all.

“Private Steel, you’ll be testing with the rifle first. Hop to it.” Juno walked over to where the rifle was laid out. He got into position with the gun and felt around it for just a few moments. It was odd in his hands, and a lot heavier than he thought a rifle would be. “Shoot when you are ready.”

Juno took a deep breath and decided something as he lay there. He would throw his shots. That would keep them from having him use it again. He was sure of it. Juno took one more deep breath and lined up his fist shot just enough off target to still hit it, just not with the same amount of accuracy as when he had a smaller blaster. When he pulled the trigger he was right, he hit the edge of the target. He continued along that same path until the corporal told him to stop.

“You need some improvement but not bad. Take that rifle over to the table and practice stripping it and the other blaster over there down for cleaning.”

Juno nodded as he sat up. He removed the blaster cart before walking over to the table. Lamenting the fact that it seemed like they’d planned for him to be a sniper. It wasn’t surprising in a way. He’d heard them talking at the academy about doing the same thing. He wouldn’t have minded either, but those rifles he knew had a stun setting, the ones issued for war likely wouldn’t. Seeing as the point of war is to kill the enemy.

As he worked the tables around him filled with others taking apart the smaller standard blasters with one or two of them taking apart larger ones that were much more powerful. When he got his back together, he was told to start practicing his shooting with the rifle again until he was told to stop.

So that’s what Juno did. Took shot after shot that was widely off target. He wasn’t sure how long he laid there, but eventually he was allowed to stand and go join the rest of the privates in the mess hall. Juno quickly put the guns away and joined them.

Once Juno had grabbed his tray he searched for Puck and Ridley, finding them sitting in the corner having left a seat open between them. Juno dropped his tray down between the two before dropping down into the seat with a huff.

“Bad day?” Ridley raised their eyebrows as they dropped their utensils.

Juno let out another huff. “You could say that.”

“Did you get into another fight?” Juno whipped around to look at Puck before shaking his head.

“They want me to train as a sniper-”

Juno was cut off by the large man that was sitting across from me. “And that's a problem, how? Snipers don't get as close to the battlefield and are most likely to live. You're mad about that?”

Both Puck and Juno were glaring at the man. Ridley was about to jump over the table when Juno growled. “Juno, don't listen to them.”

“Does the little kid need a babysitter?” the man taunted. And that was the final straw for Juno, who jumped the table and spilled their food everywhere. The man ended up on the ground with Juno on top of him.

“Juno!” Puck rushed around the table and started to pull a struggling Juno off the man. As they pulled Juno away they didn’t flinch at the hits they were taking. They managed to get Juno off the other private as one of the corporals came by.

“What in the world is going on here?” the corporal shouted, causing the whole mess to go quiet. Juno stopped fighting Puck and instead started shaking in their arms.

“The kid jumped the table and just started to punch me! I didn’t do anything!”

When Juno didn’t say anything to his own defense Ridley spoke up. “Yeah right! You were antagonizing him! You could have left it well alone!”

“The kid should be proud to end up as a sniper. He’s an ungrateful little monster!” That caused Juno to start to shake even harder and Puck was starting to worry that he was panicking. Ridley started to explain what had happened as Puck tried to get Juno to calm back down before he either triggered his asthma again or something else.

“Juno, you're safe. Can you take a deep breath for me?” Puck murmured on repeat until Juno’s breaths were closer to normal. By which point Juno was thankfully standing on his own.

“Private Steel, Private McCartney, both of you will be running laps until the end of dinner, seeing as you both decided to start fighting in the middle of it.” Both nodded and followed the corporal out to the running track.

Puck sits back in their seat as two of the kitchen crew come and start cleaning up the mess that Juno had made. One of the two passes a few granola bars to Puck and Ridley. “Give those to the young one tonight. Corporal Schmidt won't let them stop running til after we've closed up for the night.”

“Thanks.” The two of them work though their food and when they go to head back to their dorm Puck hands the bars over to Ridley.

“I've got to go to the infirmary. Juno did a number on me when he was trying to get at McCartney.” It was then that Ridley noticed the little scratches and bruises that were blooming across Puck’s visible skin.

“Shit. Steel really did a number on you.”

Puck shrugged. “I mean it’s no worse than when he was a kid. At least he’s grown out of biting.” They were rubbing at their wrists as they spoke with a far-away look. “Also, if Juno makes it back before I do, help him call his brother. I think that may help him calm down a bit.”

Ridley looked at Puck with curious eyes. “One of these days you’ve got to tell me how you know so much about Steel, Falco. Is the lady’s brother’s number programmed in his comms?”

“Mnn-hm, under Benzaiten.” Puck walked in one direction of their dorm.

Juno did make it back before Puck did, and after he ate the bars, he took Ridley up on helping him call his brother. None of the others around them mentioned that they weren’t supposed to have their comms out without permission. But then again, half of them were also on their comms.

Puck came back in with a few more bandages on his hands, and when Juno noticed he paled. “Sorry about hurting you.” He couldn’t look Puck in the eye as he spoke. Puck placed the same hand they’d been rubbing on Juno’s shoulder.

“Juno, kid, you didn’t do it on purpose. But why were you so mad at McCartney?”

“Snipers, they see the face of everyone they kill. Anyone else? They don’t not as much. Don’t like death.”

“Alright, then why don’t you tell Captain Absolon that you don’t want to be a sniper?” Ridley asked as he dropped down onto the bed next to Juno. Taking notice of the odd scar on Puck’s wrist. It was almost like the imprint of teeth.

Juno was about to say something when Ridley blurted out, “What the crap happened to your wrist, Falco? Does someone have a thing for teeth?” They reached out and grabbed Puck’s wrist, bringing it closer to their face to notice that there were teeth marks on either side of Puck’s wrist.

Puck sputtered for a moment as they turned red. As they pulled their wrist away, they gathered themselves. “No. I do not have a thing for teeth. A student bit me when I was still teaching.”

“You were a teacher?” Ridley’s eyes were on Puck meaning that they missed Juno’s look of shame about the marks. Which Puck was grateful for, because if Juno was confronted about the scars Puck wasn’t sure what he’d do, but they knew it wasn’t good.

“Yes, I was. Loved it, but Oldtown doesn't care for teachers that care too much for the education of the students.” The other two nodded in understanding, having both gone through the education system in Oldtown.

They moved on to talking about other things from Oldtown after that until it was time for lights out.

Chapter Text

Over the next few weeks, everything fell into a rhythm of sorts. Mornings were split between various physical training items and afternoons in the range as they tried to up their shooting scores. Those days that Juno also went to the range were spent with the other privates trying to see if there was a shot that Juno couldn’t make – there wasn’t – and Juno trying and failing to convince them that he was bad with a rifle.

Things seemed to be going well overall. Juno still got into fights and spent many hours running and doing push-ups as punishment. Several of the people Juno was caught fighting ended up expelled from boot camp, but never Juno. He was just forced to do more and more laps and push-ups. On a day about halfway through their boot camp, that all came to a head. The morning had gone as normal, but they were sent back to the dorms due to a windstorm that was making training near impossible with all the dust. All of Juno’s belongings were missing, including the mattress from his bunk.

“What the fuck?” Juno opened his drawer in the end table to find it empty. Juno’s breath was already ragged from having to use his inhaler to deal with the dust, but the panic that was building with all his stuff gone was making it worse. Juno swayed where he stood before dropping on Puck’s bunk.

Puck moved to help Juno calm down as Ridley turned to the rest of their dorm. “Who the fuck took all of Steel’s stuff?”

No one spoke up, everyone looked away from the three. Ridley growled before another private that was close to Juno’s age spoke up. “I think I saw Andrews and some of the others that hang around them come in here during breakfast. I wasn’t sure what they were doing, but they could have?”

Ridley thought for a moment but wasn't surprised by the information; Andrews had been jealous of the favoritism directed to Juno along with his shooting skill. It was logical that he would be responsible for this. “Can someone go get one of the sergeants? Or a corporal. Hell, if you find the Captain that may be good.”

The same private nodded and ran off. Ridley turned back to Juno and Puck and saw that Juno was breathing somewhat normal again. Juno still looked pissed off, which was unsurprising, but he was glad that he hadn’t left his inhaler in the dorm that morning because it would have also gone missing. They all stood around until the private came back with Captain Absolon and one of the corporals. It didn’t take them long to see the problem and have the corporal go gather the tapes from the door to the dorm.

When the corporal came back, it was true that Andrews and his followers had been in the dorm and left with what could have only been Juno’s mattress and his other things. “Corporal Flores, go get Corporal Schmidt. Have him get Private Andrews and the ones that have been hanging around them. I want to know why they decided this was a good idea, and where the hell Private Steel’s stuff is.”

“Yes, sir.” Flores leaves the room again. Absolon orders everyone to disperse for now and stop crowding around Steel’s bed.

Ridley could just barely hear Juno muttering something to Puck but couldn’t make it out. “Private Rain.”

Ridley turned back to Absolon. “Yes, sir?”

“You have the bunk above Private Steel, correct?”

“Yes sir.”

“Is any of your stuff missing?”

“I haven’t checked yet, sir.” All Absolon did was incline his head. Ridley moved to check on their stuff. None of it was missing. Which was surprising since their pajamas had been grabbed by Juno and shoved into his trunk that morning. They were lying on top of their trunk where they should have been. “Steel?”

Juno stopped pulling at his hair as he looked up at Ridley. “Yeah?”

“Did you move my pjs over from your trunk this morning?”

Juno shook his head. “We didn’t have time to, remember? I was going to give them back when we got back tonight. Why?”

“They're in the top of my trunk. Andrews must have had someone from our dorm tell him whose stuff was whose.” Absolon starts looking around at the others in the dorm.

Ridley tuned out Absolon asking the others if they were the ones to provide the information. Mostly because he caught sight of a scrap of paper underneath their bunk. They reached for it and pulled it out, flipping it over to show the picture of Juno and his brother. Ridley stood up and handed it over to Juno. “Found it under the bed.”

Juno took the photo and held it close to himself as Corporal Flores came back into the room. He looked between Absolon and Juno before staring off to the side. “Corporal, what have you found out?”

“Sir, it seems like Private Andrews thought it was best to toss all of Private Steel’s belongings into the pool. Sergeant Miyagawa is overseeing the perpetrators while they pull it all out. She said she would gladly accompany them to your office when they are done.”

“See that she does. I want them all there when they are done. Have Sargent Travers gather a new mattress for Steel’s bunk. You’re dismissed.” Flores saluted before leaving again. Absolon turned back to Juno. “Steel, Rain, Falco, you three can head to the pool and bring back everything when you are ready. I’m sure Sergeant Miyagawa has them under control if you want to go now.”

“Yes, sir,” the three responded before Absolon headed out of the room.

They sat there for a little while longer before Juno decided that he was ready to head to the pool. When they got there, Juno let out a distressed sound at all of his stuff laid out surrounding the pool. Flores was looking at something small that he had picked up with a frustrated look.

“Corporal Flores, what do you have?” Ridley asks as Puck and Juno start to sort through the rest of Juno’s stuff.

Flores looks up at him. “What I suspect to be the tiny pieces of Private Steel’s comms. It doesn’t look like any of the data is going to be recoverable.”

That caused Juno to whip around to look at them. “What? Why? Ben said it was waterproof.”

“It likely would have survived the pool had they not stepped on it and broken it to pieces first. I can have the technical team look and see if they can recover anything from it if you would like me to.” Flores held out his hands showing the three what was left of the comms.

“Yeah, that- that sounds good. Thanks, Corporal Flores.” Flores nodded and pocketed the pieces.

“I’ll get it to them now. I’ll give you an update as soon as I can.”

They spent the rest of the day getting Juno’s belongings back to the dorm. In the end, there was very little permanent damage. Only a few scraps of paper that Juno admitted weren’t that important as long as they were able to get the comms working again.

That night at dinner Flores came over to them right after they had sat down. “First off: Andrews and the others that thought that was a smart thing to do are being discharged.” Flores paused for a moment. “I just came back from the techies. Sadly, they weren’t able to recover anything from your comms. Something about how it was crushed before they threw it into the pool.” Juno dropped his head as tears started to flow, but none of them commented on it.

After that, Juno spent a lot of time just moping in their dorm. He couldn’t remember any of the numbers that had been on his comms — the paper that he’d had them written on was destroyed when it had been tossed in the pool.

During the last week of training, Juno was informed that he was going to be deployed as a sniper. He tried to fight it with Absolon, but he was just told to grow up. Puck and Ridley both started to receive some sniper support training to assist Juno on the battlefield as they were the people closest to him. They were informed it wasn’t normal procedure, but after all that had already gone down with Juno, they suspected placing someone he didn’t know as his support would end up with them needing medical treatment.

Their final night before their graduation was a big deal: they found out where they would be deployed in less than three days. Juno didn’t pay much attention other than learning that he, Puck, and Ridley would be headed to the same place.

The morning of graduation Juno watched the shuttles coming in containing their families, hoping Ben had been able to come. He had told him about it back during their third week when he found out that families could come, but they did have to pay for the shuttle ride and a ticket. Last he’d heard from his twin was that he was still short the shuttle fare, but he was working as hard as he could to be there. They wouldn’t be allowed to see their families until after the main graduation proceedings, but still, Juno had sharp eyes and kept on looking for Benzaiten.

Even as they got into formation for the ceremony, Juno continued to look for the almost identical face in the crowd. He only stayed where he needed to because of the training to stay in formation even as their minds were elsewhere. Juno tried to get his thoughts back on track but was unable to. He was grateful that most of the ceremony didn’t need his participation past keeping up with the rest as he wasn’t sure what part they were in.

Juno was glad the moment that they were ordered to stand still in formation to wait for their family to come up to them. If Ben was there, he would be reunited with him in moments. Juno started to get discouraged as everyone around him stepped out of formation after their families touched them. Juno wasn’t sure how much longer he stood there, but he could feel tears running down his face as he thought that he wasn’t going to see his brother one last time before being deployed. He couldn’t even call him now; he couldn’t remember his comms coordinates.

That was until he was tackled from behind. “Super Steel!” was yelled directly in his ear as the person hugged him.

“Benten?” Juno’s voice broke as he spun in his twin’s arms. As he looked at his twin, his tears came faster.

“I told you I wasn’t going to miss you graduating.”

Juno just hugged Ben to him as he tried to stop the tears. He didn’t want his little brother to see him crying. Ben hugged him back tighter. He wasn’t sure how long they stood there just hugging each other.

“Hey Steel! The rest of us are going to the caf to eat!” Ridley yelled as he walked up to them. The two broke apart and looked back at Ridley.

“So you did make friends while you were here, Lady Raincloud. I thought you said that you weren’t close to anyone the last time you called,” Benten teased.

“Shut up.” Juno shoved Ben before yelling back, “Be there in a minute!” Ridley ran off and Juno led the way through the base after hugging Ben for a much shorter time. When they got to the caf, they got their food before Juno led them over to where Puck and Ridley sat.

“Puck, Ridley, this is my brother Benzaiten. Benten, these two are the thorns in my side, Ridley Rain and Puck Falco,” Juno said as he sat down across from Puck.

“Puck Falco, why is your name so familiar to me?” Ben asked as he sat down.

“I was your and Juno’s teacher when you were in your last year of elementary school.” Puck watched as Ben’s face broke out into a smile.

“Mx. Falco, is that really you?” Ben asked excitedly as Ridley’s eyes almost bugged out of his head.

Puck was about to answer when Ridley blurted out, “You taught Steel? That’s how you knew him?”

Puck nodded before answering. “I did. I’m glad I left a much better impression on you than on Juno.”

Ben glanced over at Juno to see him frowning. “Puck, you didn’t even mention your last name the first time we spoke. The last time I’d seen you your hair didn’t have any white in it. And I thought you’d still be a teacher. You were great at it.”

Puck shook their head. “That may have been true, but the Oldtown district didn’t care about having you guys learn anything. I wanted too much for my students.” They sighed as they looked down at their plate.

It made sense to both Juno and Ben. Mick had been held back, and it was only because of Sasha and Juno that he had ever made it out of the grade and to graduation. Oldtown Middle would have likely allowed Mick Mercury to repeat the grade until he no longer was required to be in school. As it was, he was on his third attempt when he met them.

“Oldtown really needs to get their act together if one of their best teachers decided that they could help more by joining the army,” Ridley declared. The other three agreed, and they moved on to other topics.

They sat chatting about various things about Mars and current events. That was, until Ben asked why Juno hadn’t been messaging him. Juno shook his head before explaining what had happened with the pool. “Shit, what did you do to the idiots that did it?”

“Just be better than them at shooting. . . and not getting what they thought was worthy punishment.”

Ben shakes his head. “Did you get into fights with all of them?” Juno rubbed the back of his head and the other two nodded. “Juno.”

“What? I didn’t fight all of them.” Ben glared at his twin. “ . . . just most of them.”

“Lady Raincloud, you have got to stop fighting people that you need to work with.” All Juno could do was groan as the other two made sounds of agreement. It wasn’t long after that Puck and Ridley bid Juno goodnight and Ben goodbye. That left the twins there to talk for the rest of the night until the family members had to get onto the shuttles to leave. The two just sat there and talked about nothing with long silences where they stared at each other. Before Ben left, he gave Juno another piece of paper with two comms numbers.

“Mine and Sasha’s numbers. Mick broke his comms and hasn’t been able to replace it yet, so we don’t know if he’ll have the same number.” Juno nodded and tucked the paper into the same pocket as his inhaler.

As they hugged one last time, Juno whispered, “I’m going to miss you. I’ll call you as soon as we get settled at camp in a week or so.”

Tears started to flow down Juno’s face as Ben responded, “I’ll talk to you then, Lady Raincloud. Don’t get into too much trouble before then.”

Juno nodded as the last call happened and Ben boarded the shuttle. Juno wiped the tears from his eyes as he watched the shuttle take off, but it did nothing to keep the tears from flowing. Once he could no longer see the shuttle, he went back to his dorm and memorized the numbers written on the paper before tucking it back with his inhaler.

Chapter Text

The next week for the three of them was spent in a cramped shuttle to the planet that they would be stationed on. Juno spent most of that time fiddling with his new kit and getting used to it. The rifle, unlike what he’d thought, did have a stun setting, but it was only to be used sparingly, as it was only there in the case they ran into issues with friendly fire or needing to take someone down for an interrogation. He and Ridley also spent time getting used to the plasma knives. While they had used knives before, it was never of the plasma variety.

As they got closer and closer, their nerves built up, and all three started to grow more antsy. They had just spent the last ten weeks learning about how to fight in the war; now they were going to see it first hand.

When they landed on the planet, they were greeted by one of the first sergeants. Then they were forced to march for several miles until they reached camp. As they went, the first sergeants gave a more detailed brief of what was going on then they had gotten before they left.

When they made it to the base camp, they were greeted by their commanding officer and informed of the plan for the next attack with the rest of the troop. It was during that brief that suddenly there were the sounds of blaster fire combined with bombs.

“Ambush! We are under attack!” one of the Solar soldiers yelled.

Everyone moved and grabbed their guns and other weapons before running towards the sounds of the blaster fire. Juno followed after a moment of hesitation.

As Juno joined the rest, he could spot the Outer soldiers amongst the chaos and took aim. He shot each of them as he got a clear line of sight and squeezed the trigger. Each time he took a shot an Outer Rim soldier dropped. Juno refused to think about the fact that they wouldn’t be getting back up.

Juno also refused to think about the bodies that he was stepping over in order to take aim. They were either dead or dying, and the lady knew if he stopped for even a second he would be laying amongst them. So he continued to shoot and refused to think, dodging out of the way of the blaster bolts that moved past him.

As the battle went along, Juno managed to stay back from the main conflict and away from the oncoming Outer soldiers. That was until someone shoved him from behind. Juno fell forward and was grazed on his left side by a blaster bolt. He wasn’t able to recover his balance and ended up on the ground. He let out a grunt as he placed a hand over the wound. When he pulled his hand away, it wasn't covered in blood which Juno was grateful for. It meant that the wound had been immediately cauterized.

Juno tried to shove himself off the ground but was unable to as the pain was overwhelming. He ended up laying there until he heard something being yelled in an unfamiliar language. It must have been one of the Outer Rim languages because it had some of the same sounds as the language that he’d heard Sasha’s dads speak. He tried to stand up again as the sounds of blaster fire decreased, but once again the pain flared and he was unable to stand. It startled Juno just a bit that he wasn’t able to stand. He’d walked home on broken bones before — surely a blaster set to kill couldn’t hurt that much.

“Steel, can you stand?” Ridley asked as they came up beside him.

“Ung, no.” Juno was grateful that he was able to roll over so that he was facing the sky instead of being face down in the dirt.

Ridley nodded. “Alright, let me help you up then. The blaster wound doesn’t look too bad. At least we don’t have to get a medic over here to patch you up.” Ridley moved to stand over Juno and had him wrap his arms around his neck. “Alright. Just hold on tight. Going to lift you like this.”

Juno barely had the time to nod before Ridley was lifting him up. As the wound shifted, Juno had to hold back a scream. He bit down hard on his lips until he could taste blood in his mouth. But once he was upright it wasn’t as bad. While the wound still throbbed, there was less pain in general there. He wasn’t sure how, but they managed to hobble to the medical tent where Ridley deposited him onto one of the cots.

“Ung, have you seen Puck?”

“I have. They're fine. You were the only one of the three of us to get shot. You’re lucky, in a way. I saw you get hit from behind, but had you not I’m pretty sure that bolt would have struck you center mass and we wouldn't be having this conversion now.”

“Well that’s nice.” Juno thinks for a moment. “If they don’t put me on some high painkillers, can I borrow your comms once they patch me up?”

“Yeah sure. I’ll go let the medics know that you are ready to be seen. It may still be a while. There were some nasty injuries.”

Juno nods, not really listening to Ridley. More about what he was going to say to Ben when he called. There was no way that he was going to bring up the fact that he was injured. That would just worry Ben too much, but he wanted to hear his brother’s voice nonetheless.

It didn’t take a medic very long to come around and treat his wounds. The medic wrapped them tightly and gave him a local painkiller. “You know you’re lucky, private.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you came in with the medical supplies otherwise there wouldn’t be anything I could really give you. As it is, this is probably the only shot of painkiller that you are going to get for this. But I am going to give you something that should help speed up the healing process so it shouldn’t take as long to heal.” Juno looked away as the medic stuck another needle in the area near his wound. “Alright, you are free to go when you are ready. Good luck out there. You seem like you need it.”

Juno didn’t answer the medic. He was still trying to decide what he would say to his brother. He was a lady of action, not words, which meant that thinking about what he was going to say was going to be the only thing that kept his brother from worrying.

It wasn’t all that long before Ridley came back to Juno’s bed. “Alright, so I’m moving you to your bunk and then I’m going to let you borrow my comms to call your twin. That sound good?”

Juno hummed. Ridley helped him to stand but the pain meds had taken the edge off the pain. They managed to hobble to the tent that he’s been assigned. “Me and Puck are going to be here with you as well. Think there are some of the others too, but we have the cots on either side of you.” Juno let out another hum as Ridley helped him down onto the bunk.

Once Juno was settled, Ridley pulled his comms out of his bag and handed it over after putting it onto the dial screen. Juno pulled the paper out from his pocket and dialed in the comms number. He hit call and it rang and rang. With each ring, Juno grew more and more anxious.

“Hey you’ve reached the voicemail of Benzaiten Steel. I’m either dancing or with my brother. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible,” came from the phone followed by the default voicemail beep.

Juno took a deep breath and had to figure out what to say. He’d only thought of what to say when Ben picked up his comms. Not when he didn’t answer.

“Hey Ben. This is Juno. I’m calling from Ridley’s comms. Call me back when you get this. Thanks.” Juno hung up the comms and handed it back over to Ridley before rolling over on his side and pretending that the fact that his brother hadn’t answered didn’t bother him. It was a lie to even himself, but he couldn’t help it.

“Steel, maybe he didn’t pick up because he was away from his comms. Does he do anything around six at night on Mondays?”

Juno thought about it for a moment. Mondays had been the days that Ben said he had a class that ran late. “Yeah, he has a class that he teaches.”

“Alright then. I’ll leave this with you for now. No one I know should be contacting me tonight. I’ll come get you when it’s time for dinner.” Juno nodded as Ridley tucked the comms next to him on the bunk.

For the rest of the night Juno kept on checking Ridley’s comms, afraid he had missed his brother calling back. Even during dinner he continued to check. When it was time for lights out, he handed the comms back to Ridley knowing that he shouldn’t keep ahold of his friend’s comms.

As the days went on, Juno called Ben when he had free time from Ridley’s comms. The pain in his heart that he wasn’t getting an answer from his brother was tearing at him. One night when he was about to make his nightly call Puck noticed that there was another number on the sheet of paper.

“Who’s the other number?”

“Sasha Wire, she's a friend of mine. She’s deployed as well.”

“That was the girl that hung around the two of you wasn’t it?” Juno nodded, having almost forgotten that Sasha had also been in Puck’s class.

“Have you tried contacting her?”

Juno shook his head and typed in the number. The call went to voicemail even quicker than any of the calls that he had made to Ben. Juno left a similar message as the one that he had been leaving Ben before hanging up.

“If only I had Mick’s number.”

“Mick?”

“Mick was my other friend. He’s still on Mars. He would be able to find out why Ben isn’t answering.”

The other two didn’t have much to say to that. There wasn’t an easy way to find anyone’s comms number even when you knew which planet they were on. There were restrictions on finding comms numbers online after high ranking Solar officials were killed by people tracking their comms numbers.

The next morning they moved camp closer to the front line on the planet they were on. There wasn’t anything until they got to their new location. There was a rundown town not far from them that was the suspected location of an Outer stronghold. There was a building that wasn’t too far from that rundown town that Juno was pretty sure was where he would be stationed if they didn’t get ambushed again.

During dinner that night, they were informed of the plans, and Juno wasn’t looking forward to his first battle that he knew he was walking into that next morning. Juno spent most of that night too wound up to try to call Ben. Once he had wound down enough to try, Ridley and Puck had both fallen asleep, and he couldn’t get into their comms without their help.

They were woken early the next morning, and Juno, Puck, and Ridley were sent off to the building with a few others so Juno could get settled before the battle began. He had orders to take out any Outer soldier that came within his sight.

Juno wasn’t looking forward to the battle at all. He knew what he was being ordered to do, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t trying to figure out a way around them. So when they made it to the building, they had little issues as they were no Outer soldiers out and about. Most of the Solar soldiers that had come with the three stayed near the bottom of the building while Juno, Puck, and Ridley went to the top where Juno had the best sightlines.

Juno laid out his equipment and got ready for the ensuing battle. They waited for what felt like hours talking about things that they missed from Mars and telling stories. Then there was a message that came through Ridley’s comms about the fact that they were about to advance and start the fight. They perked up again, stopped chit-chatting, and got ready to fight. This was their first proper battle since joining, and none of them knew what to expect.

They spotted the first of the Solar soldiers and started looking around for the Outer soldiers to come out of the ruins on the other side of the gap. It wasn't long after they watched the first of the grenades fly into the building. As the Outer soldiers came into Juno’s line of sight, he took aim at the least vital place that he could that would at least incapacitate them. He kept his gun off stun, knowing that if he did use the stun setting someone may report it. He didn’t want to kill, not when he could tell that all of them were just trying to survive.

That’s all any of them were trying to do: survive. In a war that was started so long ago there wasn’t anyone alive that knew why it started. It had been almost two hundred years. Juno didn’t think that anyone on either side needed to die because of something that old people almost two hundreds years ago decided was the right reason to start a war.

As time went on, the number of both Outer and Solar soldiers lying on the ground increased, the living not caring if they were stepping on the dead or dying. They were just trying not to join them. Juno was grateful in a way that he was up away from all of that, but he still knew he had watched more than one person breathe their last breath before he shot them. Suddenly, after Juno had switched blaster carts on his rifle for the third time, the Outer soldiers started to retreat.

Juno refused to take a shot once they started to pull back, unlike his compatriots on the ground. They were no longer actively fighting. There wasn’t any reason to shoot them. Juno started to break down his rifle so that they could head back to camp as soon as the call came in that they were allowed to.

While they were waiting on the call, Juno borrowed Ridley’s personal comms and tried calling his brother again. This time there was only a single ring before it went to a different message than Ben’s voicemail. Juno had to resist throwing Ridley’s comms off the building as he listened to it. The only thing it said was, “The comms number you have dialed has been disconnected and has not left a forwarding number.”

Juno handed the comms back to Ridley after he disconnected. The two of them could tell that the message wasn’t good and didn’t try to get him to talk. It wasn’t long after that they got the message that they could head back to camp.

“Juno, come on, we should go eat,” Puck said as they reached camp again. They placed a gentle hand on Juno’s shoulder.

Juno shook him off. “Not hungry. Go on without me. I’m heading to the tent.” Juno stomped as he walked away.

“Go with him. I’ll get all three of us something.” Ridley pushed Puck to go after Juno. They nodded before doing so. They caught up with Juno just as he reached his cot.

Puck watched as Juno faceplants on his cot and just laid there unmoving. Puck walked over and sat down on his cot. “Juno.”

“Go awa’.” Juno didn’t even lift his head off the cot. Puck sighed and leaned forward so he could rest a hand on Juno’s back.

“Juno. You can’t beat yourself up for each battle that you are ordered to kill in. There is just no way to be able to do that and survive the war. You want to be able to go home and see your brother right?”

Juno kept his face pressed in the pillow as he nodded. “Then do what you need to to survive. Nothing more nothing less. But survive. Do it for Ben.” Puck looked over their shoulder when they heard footsteps. It was Ridley coming with their food. “Now get up and eat.”

Juno sat up and took the tray from Ridley. That night was quiet as they got ready for bed after they finished eating and went to bed. But it was the first night that Juno woke up shaking and covered in sweat, unable to go back to sleep. And only the first of many where he saw his brother in the place of the people he killed. His worry about Ben overlapped with the guilt about the people that he had killed.

Chapter Text

Over the next three years, Juno spent most of his time not thinking about what he was doing. In the same way that he didn’t think about what was happening at home as a child. It led to nightmares, but he dealt with those in the same way he always had — without sleeping.

It was just after their first year with the military that Puck was split from Juno and Ridley. Their commanders said it was because having two support people with Juno was unnecessary and against protocol. But they all knew it was the only punishment that ever took in any way. But it didn't keep him from disobeying orders. Juno constantly followed only the bare minimum of the orders he was given. He found if he did that they wouldn’t discipline him harshly or at all. Yet in the two years he had been with the army, he’d been promoted twice.

It was strange to say the least, but it did give Juno a bit more freedom in where he and Ridley were sent. They hadn’t been permanently attached to another unit since Puck had been split from them, which was fine by Juno. Most of them still saw him as the young upstart even though he was no longer the youngest person to be his rank. Though the fact that he disobeyed orders and still got promoted may have led to the discontent that came towards them.

The constant change in where they were attached also meant a lot of time in shuttles, to the point that the military provided them with a small two man shuttle that was strictly for their use. This development led to both of them learning how to fly a spaceship with little issues, though Juno would admit to no one that Ridley was the better flier of the two and often took command of it.

The only other thing that stood out to Juno was that he hadn’t heard from Ben since he’d last seen him back when he’d graduated. He had tried calling him a few more times, but he was met with the same message about the number having been disconnected. He hadn’t been able to get ahold of Sasha either, but that seemed mostly to be her just sending him to voicemail. It was unnerving. He worried about what was happening on Mars, but every time he asked if they could go on leave he was told that they would get it after the next mission. He fought with their commanders about it, but all they did was restrict his choices on missions and give his next commanders a list of horrid tasks that he had to do on base.

“Steel.” Juno looked up from where he had been cleaning his rifle as they waited on their shuttle to arrive at their next deployment location, a tiny planet barely more than an asteroid that was just past the blockades that few were willing to cross at this point.

“What?”

“There’s been word about a smuggler or two that’s been going through the Solar blockade. They say it’s the Unnatural Disaster, or maybe that pair of thieves, Buddy and Vespa, if I remember right. What do you think about it?”

Juno shrugged. He hadn’t been playing much attention to the news cycles. He knew little about the people that Ridley had mentioned. He grunted instead of answering.

“Steel, c'mon, man. You are the only person I talk to. I know you know about all three.”

“Don’t know. If they are, man, then they have balls of steel. Just getting our shuttle through the blockade was a pain, and we are Solar military.”

“I mean that’s true.” Ridley dropped down next to Juno on the bench. “When did you last sleep?” Juno shrugged, unable to answer. He wasn’t sure. If he had slept in the past week, it was in such short stints that they just left him more exhausted then when he’d gone to bed. “You should try to sleep before we reach Pangu. I just looked at the orders we have for it and the missions going to be on the longer side. We'll have to make it to the Solar base camp and then out to where our nest is.”

Juno shrugged again. “Haven’t been able to sleep. You know that.”

“Want me to get your meds? We still have a few days travel. Could help a bit?”

Juno leaned back and thought for a moment. At some point in their travels, he had been prescribed sleeping pills by one of the many military doctors that he had seen. Ridley had been keeping up with them along with his spare inhaler when he kept on losing them amongst the rest of his gear. Juno gave it a long thought, though Ridley was right in saying that it had been awhile since he’d slept, and it had been even longer since he’d last taken the pills. “I guess.”

Ridley let out a sigh and got up leaving to get the bottle of pills. He pulled out his flask as Ridley came back with a single pill in hand. Juno took it and continued to clean his rifle until he started to feel drowsy. Once he did, he went and laid down in his cot in the shuttle. Ridley joined him in his own cot, and they laid there in silence until they both fell asleep.

That night Juno only woke up once compared to the multiple times that he normally would have, and he fell back to sleep much easier than normal as well. When he woke up next Ridley had already gone back to managing their shuttle and making sure that they didn’t run into any Outers on their way.

Juno joined him back up in the cockpit while he tried to shake off the disjointed feeling from taking the pills. “How much longer before we reach Pangu?”

“Few hours. Seems like the autopilot did better than me in getting us there. I’ve pulled out the rations for the morning, eat.”

Juno gave Ridley a mock salute. “You know, Rain, you aren’t the boss.”

“Yeah, you may hold the rank, but both of us know that you don’t give a damn about it. And I promised Puck that I would get you back to Mars in one piece. So eat.”

Juno sighed but went to where Ridley had left the rations. He sat down and ate. He had already figured out that Ridley had lied to get him to take his meds the night before, only because he had spent so much time cursing out their shuttle’s shitty autopilot system. But there was no reason to bring it up. What’s done is done. Just something to watch for later.

After breakfast, they sat together talking about what Ridley had recently caught on the few news streams that they got out there as close as they were to the Outer Rim. The biggest thing was about people that were crossing the blockades on both the Solar and Outer Rim side. There were three that were hitting the news the most, a pair of thieves that had been seen stealing on both Solar and Outer Rim planets. The other was Jet Sikuliaq, better known as the Unnatural Disaster. He had been seen just barreling through the blockades.

“Fuck, is he the same guy that we have orders to kill if we see him?” Juno stared at the image that Ridley pulled up on the screen.

“Mmm, yeah it is. Sikuliaq is wanted by both sides from what I could tell. He seems to be smuggling stuff to both sides. Solar primarily wants him dead because he is carrying weapons.”

As Ridley spoke things rattled around in Juno's brain, making a connection. “Wait, Sikuliaq is the name of the guy behind the whole mess with the Iris of Jupiter?”

Ridley nodded. “Which is why Solar has the shoot to kill order instead of capture. Apparently since then, M'tendere has refused to design new weapons.”

Juno didn’t have anything to say to that. He moved to start checking the charge on their blaster carts making note of the ones that were good to go. Next, he grabbed their guns and finished cleaning them. No need to have their guns to blow up in their faces because of debris that had built up.

It didn't feel like long before Ridley was calling for Juno to strap in for landing. Juno grabbed the highest charged blaster carts and his and Ridley’s guns before joining them in the cockpit. Juno handed them their gun as he strapped into his seat.

“Thanks, Steel. You ready?”

Juno grunted as he screwed his eyes shut because no matter how many times he was in a shuttle for landing, it never got better. Not when he could see the ground coming closer and closer.

“You know, Steel, you won't ever get used to the landing process if you don't have your eyes open.”

“Don’t care,” Juno whined. All Ridley did in response was to let out a manic laugh as they landed.

Once Ridley turned off the engines Juno unstrapped and headed to double check their gear. Ridley joined him not long after. “So we are good just to leave this here. I just got our next orders.”

“Are they for after this mission?”

“Yeah, want to hear the good or bad part?”

“There’s a good part?”

Ridley gave a little chuckle. “I take it as good. We’re getting attached long term to a platoon. Looks like the detail is for at least five or six missions. Apparently they used to have a sniper, but they got killed.”

Juno hummed. “That may be nice. Alright, are we ready to do this mission first?”

Ridley nodded. They got off the small shuttle and headed towards where they could see where the solar flags were flying. They were met at the entrance to the camp by one of the other soldiers and told where they could find the captain. They gave them their thanks as they went into the camp. It didn't take them long to find the captain and were led into a tent to get the further details.

They got their brief before heading out to the location that they were given to wait. “Have you heard from Puck recently?” Juno started to set up his rifle.

“Yeah they said they were still doing good. They said they were moving platoons again.”

Juno shook his head. “Is it closer than us?”

Ridley shrugged. “Think it’s closer to Brahma. But there isn’t as much fighting out that way.” Juno nodded as he finished setting up his equipment. It wasn’t too long after that that the fighting began.

In the years since he had joined the military, he had found when he could use the stun setting on his rifle and not get in trouble. This was one of them: the angle that his sniper nest was at was bad, so he was having a hard time getting a clean shot at the Outer soldiers.

Juno saw bolts raining down from somewhere on the Outer side hitting their soldiers. “Rain.”

“Yes?”

“Do you see where the Outer sniper is?”

“No. Want me to watch the battlefield?”

Juno nodded as he turned his focus from picking out Outer soldiers. It didn’t take him long at all to follow the path of the blaster bolts to where the other sniper was at. He moved his rifle’s setting from stun to kill with a single flick of his finger. Within moments he took the shot and waited to see if any more bolts were going to come from the sniper. There wasn’t after several moments and Juno switched his gun back to stun.

“Sniper’s gone. Watch to see if any bolts come from there.”

Ridley hums as Juno starts shooting the Outer soldiers again. There wasn’t much of a battle left after that though as the Outer soldiers started retreating.

“Do you remember if they asked us to come back for a debrief?” Juno starts to tear down his rifle as soon as it was apparent that the battle was over.

“They did. But then we are free to leave.”

Juno grunted as he finished getting his stuff packed up. They headed back and Ridley had been right; it wasn't long before they were back on their shuttle with some replacement rations.

“Where are we heading next?” Juno flopped down into one of the seats.

“Asteroid 85B. Near where Puck’s at. But not in the same place. It’ll be a few day’s travel. You should take your meds at least one night on the way.”

Juno shook his head. He didn’t want to be dependent on the sleeping pills as nice as dreamless sleep was. It was bad enough that he had to come off the pills that he’d been abusing as a kid when he was going into the HCPD and then the army. He didn’t need to replace that addiction with another. But he did go lay down as soon as they were in the sky again.

His dreams that night were the same as they had been for the last three years: the faces of the people that he’d killed were replaced with those that he loved.

When they reached 85B they were sent directly to where they would be setting up the sniper’s nest. It didn’t bother Juno at all. Less time wasted waiting on someone to give them orders.

“Corporal Steel, just got word. We will have someone else up in the nest with us. Command says they have been on this ‘roid for the last bit. They are going to be giving us a rundown on what's expected of us.”

Juno let out a breath as he looked up at the stars. When Juno doesn’t answer Ridley speaks up again. “Corporal, did you hear me?”

Juno looked over at Ridley. His eyes that had been glazed over held some light now. “Rain, what have I told you about calling me by rank when we're alone?”

“Not to. But I figured as we would have someone with us other than Falco that I should get used to calling you by rank again.”

Juno shrugged, dislodging the rifle on his shoulder. “I didn’t ask for this promotion.”

“You’ve got it though, Corporal.”

“Hell, half the time I’ve got to wonder why they gave me this rank when I don’t follow orders well.”

Ridley smiled behind his back. “I mean, less people have to deal with you this way. And from what I understood they don’t allow a small team like what we have been doing here recently without one of them being at least a corporal.”

Juno shrugged and looked around as they climbed the hill. “When was the person supposed to meet us?”

“Not too long. But you have time to set up. Do you want the information that command gave me?”

“Sure.” Juno knelt down and started setting up his rifle on the outcropping.

Ridley smiled and started down the list of the notes that were given to them. “She’s a sergeant named Alessandra Strong. Ended up with the name Cockroach Strong after being one of few survivors in her teams over the years she’s been deployed. Sergeant Strong has been on Asteroid 85B for nine months now. We’re going to be backup for her ground team in hopefully clearing 85B of the last of the Outer Rim Military.”

“That all sounds about right to me.” A voice comes from behind them. Both of them spun and aimed their blasters at the person. When they recognized the Solar Military uniform, Juno dropped his gun and got back to setting up his rifle. Ridley, on the other hand, kept theirs in their hands.

“Corporal Steel, aren't you going to salute your superior?” the voice asked.

Juno shrugged. “I didn’t think someone called Cockroach Strong would be so uptight about procedures in the military.”

Strong huffed. “How did you know that I’m actually Sergeant Alessandra Strong?”

Juno looked back at her. “If you were Outer, you would have already killed us. If you were anyone other than Sergeant Strong, you would have denied being her instead of just asking. Anything else?”

Strong hummed. “I like you, kid. That attitude isn’t going to get you far in the military, but then again I don’t think you care much about that.”

Juno shook his head. “What can you tell us about this area? Seeing as that’s why command sent you to meet with us.”

“It’s not just the conditions on 85B that I’m briefing you on. It’s the full plan for tomorrow night.”

Juno nodded, and Strong started to go over everything that was going on. The plan wasn’t going to be an easy one to execute as it relied on Juno making sure that he knew all of the faces of the Solar teams that were going undercover as Outer.

“Is there anything that’s going to mark the Solar undercover agents? I wouldn’t think command would be that messy with who’s who. It could get a whole lot of Solar people killed. I’ve watched idiots fire on their friends by accident in the heat of battle. What’s keeping this from becoming a bloodshed for both sides?”

“Private Rain will be acting as your spottor. They have the full list of Solar Military going into battle. But each of our people will be going in with this tied to their belts.” Strong held up a length of blue ribbon. “But if you suspect that the Outer’s have figured out that that is the marker and you do not recognize them then you have the authority to hit them with a stun blast. We’ll make a sweep afterwards to deal with any strangling Outers that have figured it out after the main battle.”

Juno nodded. “Alright. That’s a solid plan. I’m guessing it was your plan?”

Strong grinned and laughed. “How’d you know?”

“It’s too smart of a plan to have come from the brass. They never want me to use a stunner where I can use a killing bolt. But you’ve seen how things can go bad. You’d put the safety measures in place. Also they sent you to tell us the plan. You sound proud of it, meaning at least part of it had to come from you.”

“You’ve got a detective’s mind on you, kid. I’m betting that’s what’s got you on this hellhole mission of being our eyes in the sky.”

“Hmm, maybe. But I do think it has to do with the fact that I don’t miss.”

There was a disbelieving look thrown at Juno from Strong, but no words spoken. Juno just stared back. A look that was getting more intense by the second. Ridley decided that it was their turn to speak up about it as the looks got to a dangerous level. “It’s true. Corporal Steel is great at shooting. We tried to trip him up during training, and it never worked. He just kept on landing the shots including the impossible ones.”

“Alright then. I’ll comms you when we are about to head in.” Ridley nodded, and they exchanged comms codes.

That night they spent time going over the faces of everyone of the Solar soldiers that were going in. During the early morning Juno spent several hours looking through the scope at the coming battlefield. They spent very little time resting but overall they spent the time studying faces.

Then the time came for them to get to work. Strong messaged with the five minute warning before they were headed into battle. Juno’s adrenaline spiked as got ready, waking him from the lack of sleep. It wasn’t long before he was taking shots at the Outer soldiers with the help from Ridley. He kept the blaster on stun seeing as even after he had studied the faces he didn't want to make a mistake.

Everything was going fine until Juno went looking for Outer soldiers that were left standing with his rifle’s scope and came across a tall soldier with too big glasses. They couldn’t be any older than Juno was, and while they had the blue indicator on their waist, Juno knew they couldn’t be Solar. Not with the terrified look on their face as they faced down the incoming Solar soldiers. They were clutching a knife like that was their only life-line, but the most peculiar thing about the soldier was that with each shot Juno made to the surrounding soldiers how the shaking of their body got worse. It was to the point that Juno knew the soldier wouldn't be able to use the knife that they clutched with any skill.

Juno flicked the rifle into the lightest stun setting that the thing had, but it would still leave the soldier out for several hours. Maybe it would be enough for them to get away. Juno wasn’t sure why he was doing it as he lined up the shot and hit them with a graze on their shoulder. They went down hard and then Juno went back to using the strongest stun setting.

It wasn’t long before everything was said and done and they were getting a comms message to cease fire. They were ordered back to the closest camp to debrief. Juno packed up while Ridley watched their backs for any straggling Outer that could sneak up on them.

It didn't take long for Juno to pack up and then they were on their way. The first person that they ran into in the camp was Strong who seemed to have been looking for them. “Alright, I guess you two weren't kidding about Corporal Steel.”

Juno shrugged, he was starting to get tired of everything again. The spike of adrenaline from the battle was starting to war off. He was tired and done with everything. He’d followed his orders and was ready to sleep until he had to go on his next mission.

“Captain Carolyn wants to see you before you go to bed to debrief.”

“Where?”

Strong pointed to one of the buildings. “You can’t miss her office.”

Juno and Ridley headed inside and to the office. They stood at attention for the debrief. It wasn’t long at all, which was a blessing. Just as they were about to leave, the Captain spoke up again. “When were you two last allowed to take any type of leave?”

Juno shrugged, unable to get his mind working on that. ‘We’ve gotten a few days here or there, sir. But we haven’t had any more leave than that since we got out of basic.”

The Captain nodded. “That’s what I was suspecting when I saw your records.”

“Whaddaya mean?” Juno said as he turned back to the captain.

“I mean that seeing you standing in front of me today, Corporal, is clearly someone who hasn’t had extended leave in years. You are supposed to have at least two weeks every fifteen months. There also shouldn’t be as many back to back big missions as you two have had. I’m putting in your orders now, and you will be heading away from the battlefield for at least a month. Any place other than your home planet of Mars that you two want to go?”

Both shook their heads. “Alright then. I’ll have a shuttle back to Mars ready for you in the morning, so go to bed. You'll be leaving your shuttle here. No need for you two to fly back to leave.”

They nodded and saluted before they left. They got ready to go home before laying down. Juno wished he still had his comms to tell his brother that he was coming home.

Chapter Text

“Are you going to be met by anyone?” Juno asked Ridley as they walked down the shuttle bridge.

“Yeah, one of my friends. I hope you can get in contact with your brother while you're here.”

Juno nodded. It had been three years since he’d heard from Benzaiten when he saw him at his graduation. In that time he hadn’t been able to get into contact with him over comms and they couldn’t send mail from the front lines. There weren’t shuttles often enough and they saw it as a waste of supplies. It didn’t help that Juno had spent very little time in the same place either, constantly switching where he was deployed.

They made their way through the shuttle station to where a crowd was waiting for them. Ridley saw their friend and waved to them before saying one last thing to Juno. “I’ll see you in a few weeks when we have to ship back out. You have my number, right?”

Juno grunted affirmatively as his eyes scanned the crowd looking for Ben. Even though Juno knew there was no way that he could be there. Juno watched Ridley join their friend before a voice broke him from his sadness that he wouldn’t be able to meet with Ben until he figured out if he was still living with their ma or not. The voice was yelling his name at a shocking volume. Juno turned towards the voice to see Mick shoving his way through the crowd with a huge grin on his face.

Juno sighed as he started towards Mick. At least he wouldn’t have to find someone to tell him where Ben was. “Jayjay!” As Mick got closer, Juno noticed that he was on crutches.

“Mercury. What the hell happened to your leg?”

“Sold it. Needed the money. Lost my last job and am still trying to get the next thing spun up,” Mick said, a bit breathless.

Juno shook his head and let out an exasperated noise. “Mick, who would take your busted-up prosthetic?”

“Didn’t ask.”

“Mick, please tell me you at least still have one of your legs?”

“I do, I just don’t know where it’s at.” Juno shook his head and let out a little laugh. It had been three years, but Mick was still as forgetful as ever. It was nice to see that not everything had changed.

“Mick, how did you know that I was coming back on this shuttle anyway? I haven’t been in contact with you.”

“I didn’t. I come any time it gets out that soldiers are coming back. Been doing it the whole time you’ve been gone.”

“Why? Just because you and Ben changed comms numbers doesn’t mean that you had to come every time that a shuttle was coming in.” At Ben’s name, Mick’s grin fell from his face. He slumped a little and looked away from Juno. Juno felt cold dread fill his body. “Mick? Is there something wrong with Ben?”

Mick stood there shifting his weight as he thought about something for several moments. He took a deep breath and looked Juno in his eyes before having to look away again. “Um, about that. I don’t know how to say this? I-” Mick cut himself off when he looked back at Juno. He raised a hand to run though his hair.

“Just spit it out.”

“Ben’s dead, Juno. He died three years ago.”

Juno tried to process the words coming out of Mick’s mouth, but his brain had shut off after he heard the word dead. His twin was dead. He refused to believe it. He would know if Ben was dead. The reason he hadn’t been able to get into contact with Ben was that he had changed his comm’s number — not that he was dead.

“What?”

“Ben’s dead. I don’t know why they never told you. I know the HCPD investigated it, but I guess they didn’t have a way to get ahold of you. Ben’s comms was evidence, and Sash stopped answering hers.” Mick’s words started to sink in even if Juno didn’t believe them. The HCPD had investigated what happened, meaning that there had to be some truth to it.

“The HCPD investigated Ben’s death? Are you sure that they had the right body?” Juno’s voice continued to rise in pitch as he talked. His brain refused to accept that Ben was dead. There was no way. “Remember that time in middle school when they declared the wrong person dead? Are you sure that isn’t what happened this time?”

“I’m sure. I saw the body. C'mon, let’s go somewhere less busy, and I’ll tell you all that I know.” Mick reached down to pick up Juno’s bag that he himself hadn’t realized he had dropped, slung it over his shoulder, and led a stunned Juno out of the shuttle port. Juno followed mutely, and Mick managed to get them both onto his busted hovercycle and drove out to Oldtown.

Mick drove until they reached the cemetery at the edge of the dome. Mick got off the hovercycle and helped Juno dismount. He led Juno through the cemetery until they reached a small headstone. It read Benzaiten Steel. Mick leaned against the next one as Juno looked at his twin's headstone. They stood there in silence until Juno made a distressed sound. “He died just days after he came back from visiting me. He’s been dead the entire time I’ve been deployed?”

Mick hummed. “Yeah, that’s just an estimated day of death from what I know.”

“What do you mean?” Juno turned to look at his only remnant of his life on Mars.

“If they had asked me, I’d have said that it was the same day that he’d come back. Your Ma, she shot Ben. It took a few days for them to find him because apparently she had said something about Ben being missing. I snuck in to see Ben not long after thinking that he was just hiding in his room. By that time, the police had already found the body. She kept on claiming it was you. But someone mentioned that it wasn’t possible, but they weren't really sure how to tell the two of you apart. Must have mentioned that I knew you two because the next thing I know I’m being dragged down to HCPD to ID if it’s Benzaiten or Juno Steel that they had on their slab. He’d been dead a few days, but I knew it couldn’t be you.” Mick paused and took a deep breath. “I’d asked if they were going to inform you, but they never did. I tried to get into contact with Sash about it, but she wouldn’t answer her comms. Wasn’t even taking calls from her dads.”

Juno had stayed silent as Mick talked but after he’d mentioned that Sasha hadn’t been taking calls either something in him broke. He could have known. He could have been here for his brother’s funeral. If only Sasha had taken their calls.

“Who paid for his headstone?” Juno surprised himself a little with that question. He’d noticed that it wasn’t the normal affair for those buried by the city, but he wasn’t sure why that was the first thing he asked either.

Mick looked away rubbing his head. “I did. Sasha’s dads helped some, but I picked it out and paid for it. I knew you wouldn't want Ben buried with the city headstone.”

Juno didn’t know what to say to that so he walked up to Mick and pulled him into a hug. Mick wrapped his arms around Juno and let his weight rest against him. The hug grounded Juno back to his body and kept him from floating off. After a few minutes, Juno pulled away from Mick. When he did his brain had caught up to what Mick had said about how Ben had died.

Juno’s blood froze in his veins and his brain stopped functioning. “Ma, she was the one that shot him?”

Mick ran a hand through his heir. “Yeah. Your ma she confessed to it last I heard.”

Juno started muttering too low for Mick to hear as his whole body started to shake. Mick tried to catch Juno as his legs gave out but was unable to. They landed sprawled in a heap in front of Ben’s grave. Mick moved them around so that he could hold Juno as he cried and muttered about how he knew this would happen and that Ben wouldn’t be safe without him.

It was only after the sun started setting that Mick was able to get Juno back onto his feet and back on the hovercycle to take him back into the city. “Do you want to stay with me or do you want me to take you to one of the hotels in Uptown?”

Juno didn’t say anything, so Mick drove back to his place. He didn’t think that the lady should be alone that night. Not when he had just found out that his twin was dead. Mick drove back to his apartment slower than he normally would because Juno wasn’t holding onto him at all.

They made it back to Mick’s without incident, and Mick led a still-shocked Juno into the tiny apartment. Juno had started to come back to himself, but he still didn’t do anything as his brain was still processing that Benzaiten was dead. Mick sat him on the couch as he tried to find where he had left the spare bedding that he had.

Juno watched as Mick dug through his stuff instead of thinking. That was until one of the items that Mick disturbed on his quest was something that he recognized as his twin’s. Juno got up and pulled the item out of the pile and it was Ben’s dance shoes.

“Why do you have Ben’s dance shoes?” Juno’s voice startled Mick from trying to find the bedding and he looked back at him.

Mick let out a nervous sound before speaking. “I stole them. When I realized Ben was dead I took a few things from the bedroom. I’m glad I did in the end. I’m not sure what happened to the stuff that was in your apartment.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that HCPD should have stored the contents, but, seeing as they never reached out to you about Ben’s death, I don’t think they kept any of it.”

Juno held the shoes close as Mick went back to digging through the closet. It took a while before Mick pulled out the spare bedding. When he did, he pulled another box out as well. “Here it is. I think all the stuff that I had that belonged to you and Ben. There may still be other things, but I’m not sure where it’s gotten to if it isn’t there.”

Juno took the box and started to go through it. It was odds and ends, nothing that would have been worth a lot had it not been for the fact that it was all that was left of his twin. There were even a few photos tucked in the bottom. It wasn’t all of anything by any stretch of the imagination, but Juno was grateful to have any of it. “Thanks, Mick.”

“You’re welcome, buddy. Are you fine on the couch?”

“Yeah. I’m sure it’s going to be better than the cots we have,” Juno said as he continued to look through the stuff.

Mick stood straight like something clicked that he had forgotten about. “Alright. Well, if you want to shower it’s over there. I’m going to go get us something to eat for dinner. Anything in particular you want?”

Juno thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. “I dunno.”

“That’s fine.” Mick pulled something out of his pocket. “Here’s the spare key to the apartment. I’ll be back as soon as possible with the greatest food in Hyperion.”

Juno took the key and nodded. Mick hurried out the door, leaving Juno sitting there with what was left of his twin. It was only moments that having the stuff in his line of sight became too much. He shoved it all back into the tote and shoved it behind the couch. He makes the couch as his bed and lays there. Then without anything to do his brain started to loop the fact that Ben was dead and that Ma had done it.

Juno could not stand it so he changed into the only civilian clothes he had and grabbed his blaster before heading out of the apartment. Juno didn’t know where he planned on going, so he just ended up wandering around. As he walked around Oldtown, too many memories of him and Ben came up. They were all painful as he knew he was never going to see Ben again. This meant that going to the Pour and Floor to drink himself into a stupor was also out. So Juno headed out of Oldtown and started looking for someplace that wouldn’t remind him of Ben.

Juno eventually found a place called the Vixen Valley. It wasn’t somewhere that he had heard of beforehand and decided to just go in. It couldn’t be too bad. When he walked in, he realized that it was much more upper class than any place he’d been in before, but that didn’t matter. He could smell the alcohol in the air, and that’s all he cared about.

Juno was greeted by a man that was wearing very little clothing, but that didn’t bother him one bit. The amount of skin distracted him a tiny amount from the pain in his chest. Just enough that something stopped hurting as much. They asked him if they preferred men or women in an odd way, but then he thought about the name of the place and decided it was likely just because of the theme. He didn’t care and said as much. They nodded and led him to a booth in the main room of the building where they sat with another man that was wearing the same amount of clothing as the last.

“What’s your name?” the person asked.

“Juno Steel. And who am I talking to?”

“Whoever you want me to be tonight, love.”

Juno hummed but didn't answer for a moment. “Just someone to talk to and a strong drink.”

“Anything particular?” Juno shook his head. The man smiled and ordered some drinks for the two of them. Once they arrived the man gave Juno his drink and a name to call him by for the night. “You can call me Vince. What's troubling you, Juno?”

Juno took a deep drink before starting to talk about what he had found out. About how his twin had been dead and that had the HCPD or even a friend just answered their comms he could have been there for his twin’s funeral. Vince listened intently, giving the appropriate responses to Juno’s ranting. He also kept Juno’s glass filled.

Juno sat there talking until a tiny woman with some type of snack dust all over her fingers came up beside the booth. She was breathing heavily as if she had run from somewhere.

“Rita, what are you doing down here? Don't Ingrid and Vicky need your help tonight?” Vince looked worried. Juno tried to piece things together but after having had so many drinks made his mind move slowly.

“They did, but I was watching the feeds, and I heard something that sounded familiar, so I looked it up, and I then knew why it sounded familiar, and for once it wasn't because of my streams-” Juno tuned Rita out, unable to follow her as she spoke without seeming to take a breath. He tuned back into what she was saying as she said his twin's name. “Benzaiten, there weren’t a lot of people named that, so I thought to myself that this person is talking about the same Benzaiten as the belongings that you recovered from the HCPD to keep them from throwing them away.”

“What?” Juno’s brain was trying to work out what was being said, but it was said at a much too fast pace for him. At least while he was as drunk as he was.

Rita sighed and was about to start speaking again, but Vince cut her off. “Rita, I think Mr. Steel here is a bit too drunk to follow what you were saying. Please have someone bring over water, and I'll bring him to a side room so you can talk to him as soon as he is a bit more coherent.”

“Alright. I’ll be in room three. I’ve already got water coming over. And you really should have been watching your guest better, Vicky won’t be happy about this.” Rita walked off, tucking her comms into the pocket of her dress. Juno wasn’t sure when she had pulled it out or if it had been in her hands the entire time. However, what she had said about him being drunk was wrong, or at least he thought he wasn’t drunk. She was just hard to follow.

“No, you’re at least a little drunk, Mr. Steel. Though I doubt that you could have followed Rita had you been completely sober either. She can be a lot at the best of times.” There was water placed on the table and Juno took it.

“What time is it anyway?”

“Not late at all, you’ve been here just about two hours, why?” Juno felt the blood drain from his face. Mick was surely looking for him and he still hadn’t replaced his comms or even thought to get Mick’s number.

“Shit, I have to go.”

Vince looked to the side for a moment before muttering something. “Go over to room three and talk to Rita while I run your card and call you a cab. There is no way I’m letting you walk through Hyperion in your state.”

Juno nodded and pulled his wallet out of his pocket, passing Vince his card. The lady then headed over to the room labeled three and opened the door. “You said my brother’s name earlier. What do you know about his death?”

“Nothin’ much. Well, that’s without hacking the HCPD. I was fired not long after the investigation into Benzaiten Steel’s death concluded, and they weren’t giving out things to their secretaries. I can definitely pull up the HCPD records if you want to know more about that though.”

Juno shook his head. He didn't need to know more than what Mick had told him. At least not right now, maybe never. “You said something about his stuff that you had some of it?”

Rita’s face broke into a wide grin. “Yeah! To be honest I never thought I’d find someone that was related to Benzaiten Steel. But I kept everything that I could when I found out that the HCPD was just throwing his stuff out. I didn’t like seeing all that stuff going into the trash when the records stated that he had a brother.”

“I thank you for that. I can’t stay long tonight. I’ve got to get back to where I’m staying. I’ll come back tomorrow and we can talk more about me getting my twin’s stuff back that alright?”

“Of course! Here’s my comms number!” Rita shoved a piece of paper into Juno’s hand. Juno placed it next to the other numbers that he had. “But you can always come back here and ask for me at the front! If I’m not here they can call me and have me come in. I’m just glad that I’ll be able to find you!” Rita ran up and hugged him. It was awkward and Juno was saved by Vince opening the door and saying that both the cab was there and he could have his card back.

Juno pulled away from Rita, tucking the card back into his pocket. He thanked Vince before heading out to the cab and giving them Mick’s address. He makes it back just in time to see Mick’s hovercycle pull up. Even from the distance that he was at he could tell that Mick was upset. So he quickly paid the cabbie and got out, joining Mick by his hovercycle.

Mick turned as he heard Juno approach him. The moment that he spotted the lady his eyes lit up and he yelled, “Jayjay, there you are! I was so worried!” Mick embraced Juno who allowed the contact for a moment before shoving him off.

Mick let Juno go without much struggle and started rambling on about how the first thing they're doing the next day is getting him a new comms so this doesn't happen again. Juno just nodded as they went into the building. When they got to Mick’s apartment, he mentioned what he had found out about Ben’s belongings. Mick smiled big and said that he would go with him to pick them up and allow him to store them in his apartment if he needed to while he was deployed.

That night, Juno’s sleep was more restless than it had been since he had been deployed. He woke several times from nightmares that mostly featured Ben’s dead body. It got to the point that he wished for the sleeping pills that he’d left on his and Ridley’s shuttle.

When the sun started peeking through the window, Juno gave up on sleeping. He sat up on the couch and fought the urge to try and run off to buy something – anything to take his thoughts away.

Juno was still sitting there when Mick came out of his room, one of his more simple prosthetic legs on. Mick made them a simple breakfast before they headed to the shops to get Juno a new comms. Once that was done, they headed across town to the same place Juno had been the night before.

Mick’s eyes went wide as he read the billboard on the building. “What were you even thinking when you came here?”

Juno shrugged before saying. “Didn’t want to be alone.”

“Juno, you could have just said that you wanted to come with me to pick up dinner.”

Juno shrugged as they walked into the building. Vince was standing there at the entrance. “Ah, you’re back. Rita just got in. I’ll take you to her.” They nodded and followed him further into the building.

They were left with the tiny woman who started rambling as soon as she saw Juno. After a moment, Mick let out a breath of air. “Didn’t you use to work with the HCPD?”

Rita nodded so fast that Juno was worried that her head would pop off her shoulders. “It’s how I got all of Mista Steel’s brother’s stuff. The HCPD was just going to toss it all out because no one came and claimed it. You were the person who ID’d the other Mista Steel weren’t you?”

Mick nodded. “I knew Juno and Benzaiten as kids. Other than their mom, I was probably the only person left on Mars that could ID which twin was which.”

That was something that hadn’t even occurred to Juno, at least not consciously. Mick was the only person left who had known both of them. Ben had been popular with his friends, but even they had some issues telling the two apart sometimes. Mostly because Juno was never around them. Mick also knew not to trust what Sarah Steel was saying after all the incidents when they were kids.

As Juno continued to think, the other two talked about moving Ben’s stuff to Mick’s apartment. Which was likely for the best. Juno was sure if they moved it to a storage unit it would be broken into within the year. As the two got done discussing things, Rita led the way back out of the building and gave Mick her address. Juno got on the back of Mick’s bike as they headed uptown.

It wasn’t long before they were stopping in front of a building that landed somewhere that was just uptown enough not to be broken in regularly. Rita wasn’t too far behind them and led them up to her apartment.

“You’ll havta ignore the mess. Got a lot of better stuff to do other than clean. Like watching streams and watching what’s going on at the Valley.”

“No problem can’t be worse than what we grew up seeing in Oldtown,” Mick said as Rita opened the door. And Mick had been right. There was a mess in the small apartment, but at least it wasn’t covered in bugs and food. Juno remembered when they had been evicted from that first building they had moved into in Oldtown. It was disgusting. The biggest thing that could be considered a mess in Rita’s tiny apartment was the piles of stuffed toys all around the room. However, there was the concerning and overpowering smell of fish permeating the room.

Rita went over to one of the three doors along the far wall and pulled it open. “The box of Mista Steel’s is up there. If you could get it down, Mista Mercury?” Mick walked over and pulled the box off the shelf. He placed it on the coffee table and Juno went over to it as he pulled off the lid. Sitting on the top was one of the few pictures of Ben, Juno, Mick, and Sasha. They were standing on the patio of the Wire’s restaurant.

Juno picked up the picture and set it aside as he started to go through the box of stuff. The second thing he pulled out was a blanket that had Andromeda the Chainmail Warrior on it. He pulled it out and put it to his face as he took a deep breath. Tears started down his cheeks as he held the blanket to his face.

“There’s another box up there, Mista Mercury. If you want to get it down.” Mick nodded, leaving Juno to go through Ben and his stuff. As Juno pulled out another picture something seemed to click with Rita again, “Oh let me go get the drive I digitized all the pictures to. I’d almost forgotten.”

Rita ran off to one of the other rooms and there was a knocking sound as she went through the stuff. It wasn’t long before she came back in with a bulky hard drive and added it to the pile from the box that Juno was going through. “It has all the pictures on it that are printed there, along with anything that I could find about the two of you online.”

Juno nodded as he packed up the box. “Is there anything else?” Rita shook her head. “Thank you again, Rita. We should let you be. Thank you for keeping all of this. I am very grateful to you.” Rita hugged Juno again before they left. Once they got back to Mick’s apartment he went through all of the stuff.

Over the rest of the time that Juno was back on Mars, he spent a lot of time looking at all the stuff that Mick and Rita had managed to keep, and spending a lot of time at the Valley getting drunk. Racking up a tab that he knew he wouldn’t be able to pay for, but he would pay it back the next time he landed on Mars — if he ever made it back to Mars. He would worry about that when he got to that point in his life.

Chapter Text

Juno had just barely made it back to the station in time for his and Ridley’s shuttle back out to their duty location. It was only because Mick had broken almost all the rules of the road. Now he was sitting on the shuttle nursing one killer hangover as Ridley talked to someone near them, trying not to get even more motion-sick as they lifted off.

After a while, Ridley stopped talking to the person and turned to Juno. “Alright, why the hell do you smell like you slept in a bar last night?”

Juno huffed, “I didn’t sleep in a bar. Just was there so late that I almost passed out. Mick had to drag me out of bed this morning.”

“That much I gathered, seeing as the two of you came flying in on that hovercycle. Did you two do a lot of partying while we were on Mars?” Ridley was smirking as they spoke. Juno shook his head. “Okay, did you at least get to see your brother?”

Juno shook his head again. Ridley was about to say something when they noticed the tears that had started down Juno’s face. Their face fell as they tried to find the words that they wanted to say. After a long moment, they settled on, “What happened?”

“Ben’s dead.” Juno’s voice was brittle. Ridley was left speechless as tears started to gather in Juno’s eyes. Juno had lost his twin and, from what Ridley had learned from the past three years, the only family Juno cared for. Juno having gotten so drunk made sense. As the tears started to fall, Ridley pulled Juno to them. Juno gripped onto Ridley’s shirt as he shoved his face into their chest. They ran their hand through Juno’s hair as the lady cried.

They sat like that until Juno’s tears ran out and he pushed away from Ridley. They let the lady do so but kept a light hand resting on his arm. “Do you want to talk about it?” Juno shook his head, and Ridley didn't push it. They wanted to, but seeing as there was still a wet spot on their shirt they weren't going to.

The rest of the shuttle ride back to their duty station was quiet. It was only a few days trip, and all of them were spent with minimal communication. When they made it back, they found that they were all soon to be moving to another outpost for what was going to be a big battle.

“Wait, really we're joining up with other teams out on Neith? Haven’t there been a lot of casualties out there?” Ridley asked as the two of them sat with several other soldiers, including Strong.

Strong nodded as a frown took over her face. “The higher-ups think if we stomp them into the ground there they will be able to squash their morals enough for us to win. I call bull shit on that though. We have been fighting for so long already that I don't think one battle will win it.”

No one else spoke up, but a lot of them were thinking the same. It was foolish to think one battle would end the war. It would hurt to think that it would, so Juno didn’t. Hell, he tried not to think at all as the others talked. He was so tired and just wanted to go back to the shuttle. He had his meds there, and if he took them, maybe he would be able to sleep.

Juno was glad when Ridley looked over at him and decided that they should head on to bed. They did so, and Juno took one of his sleeping pills before trying to lay down. When Ridley joined him, they noticed the bottle of pills sitting on the floor next to Juno. They pick it up and put it back with the spare inhaler.

When they headed out the next morning, Strong joined them on their shuttle. Which Juno found out was because Captain Carolyn ordered it. Juno tried to fight it, saying that their shuttle wasn’t meant for a third person, but in the end failed. Once the shuttle was off the ground, Juno headed back to his bunk, telling the other two that he was going to work on his blasters. As the daytime lights dimmed in the shuttle to the night cycle, Strong and Ridley started to talk.

“I don’t know either of you well, but Steel seems different since he came back from leave. Did something happen while you two were away?” Strong asked.

Ridley sighed as they sat back in their seat. “You’re not wrong. His brother’s dead. There must have been some communication breakdown somewhere, or it was recent and they hadn’t been able to get ahold of him. But I’d say the HCPD just didn’t reach out to him.”

“Is the state of things really that bad on Mars? The one place where you aren’t being drafted but the police don’t notify you of death in the family?”

Ridley sighed as they looked out at the stars. “I mean, I knew more than one person who had found out about their loved one’s death first on the news or some live stream. Last I heard, one of the two crime syndicates in the city had the mayor, and the other had at least half the HCPD. It’s bad enough that one of the jails is constantly live-streamed because the Kanagawas own it.”

“Holy crap. I thought that was just something that they simulated?”

Ridley snorted. “Nope, knew a lady that had been in there. They really should have stayed in jail but weren’t photogenic enough for Hoosegow and were released. Was back in a different jail within a few weeks. Likely back out again, but just as likely they were killed.”

“God, Hyperion is really that corrupt?”

“Yeah, the district that Juno and I both grew up in lowered the drinking age to eight for a time.”

“Eight?” Strong’s face was one of pure shock.

“Yep. It changed back not long after, but it was eight for a handful of years, and it’s not like the district that we lived in would have cared if you were eight or eighteen anyway. It was just legal for a while.”

Strong shook her head. She was about to say something when there was a loud crash from the armory room. Ridley was out of their seat in an instant. Strong followed them to the armory and was frozen in place by the sight of Juno prone on the floor with a blaster in his hand. Ridley dropped to their knees next to Juno. Their hands shook as they placed it on Juno’s pulse point.

“Is he. . .?” Strong trailed off, unable to say the words.

Ridley slumped down before they answered, “Alive. Juno’s alive.”

Strong let out a breath of air as Ridley pulled the blaster out of Juno’s hand. “Do you mind helping me?”

“What do you want me to do?” Strong knelt on the other side of Juno.

“Help me roll him over to see if there are any injuries. He may have just passed out. He hasn’t been sleeping well.”

They checked Juno over and found no blaster wounds. “Alright, let’s move him to his bunk because he sure is out of it.”

Strong and Ridley picked Juno up and managed to move him to his bed. Once they had Juno settled in the bed, Ridley went to sit on theirs and noticed that Juno’s spare inhaler was on the ground. They picked it up and was about to put it back in its place when they noticed that the bottle of pills was missing. “Strong, go look in the armory and see if you see a bottle of pills. They’ll have Juno’s name on them.”

Strong nodded and rushed out of the room. Ridley put the inhaler away before he started to tear apart the room. He couldn’t find the bottle and started to pat down Juno’s pockets. He found a lot of things, including the new comms that Juno had said he had gotten on Mars, but no pill bottle.

It was just moments later that Strong came into the room with the pill bottle in hand. She handed it over to them, and they opened it to count the pills. “Shit, I’ve got to call one of the medics. Stay with him while I call.”

Strong nodded and switched places with them, watching as Juno’s chest continued to rise and fall. She could just make out Ridley cursing as they talked to one of the many military doctors that the two had been to. It wasn't too long before they were coming back into the room with a severe look on their face.

“Alright, so, Juno took more of his pills than he should have, which is why he passed out. Called the doc who gave him the pills and thankfully, because Juno isn't on anything else right now, all they will do hopefully is keep him asleep longer than normal. Said that we should probably watch Juno and make sure he keeps breathing, but as long as he does there shouldn't be any other adverse reactions.”

Strong looked back to Juno as she answered. “You want to take first watch, or do you want me to?”

Ridley leaned against the wall, their eyes on Juno as they spoke. “I think it would be better if you took first if only because Juno is used to me being in the room when he gets up.”

“How long have you two been together anyway? I know you said you were both from Mars, did you know each other before you were in boot camp?”

Ridley looked back at Strong for just a moment before turning back to Juno. “No, we met in boot camp three years ago.”

Strong didn’t have a comment for it other than to tell them to go rest in the spare cot so they could reset. They nodded, and Strong pulled out her comms and started to read something. She read through the latest notices and news from both Solar and what little news came from the Outer Rim. As she did, she came across a page advertising about the bounties for some of the more well-known criminals.

Strong decided to look at the list and see if there were any more than Sikuliaq that the Solar government had personally put the bounty out for. If they had, those in the military would be able to claim the bounty if they were responsible for the death of any of them. As she scrolled down the list there was only one new bounty and surprisingly it was attached to Sikuliaq. There was only a single pixelated photo of the person: their only notable feature was a blue ribbon tied in their hair. There wasn’t a name attached either, but the person had been spotted traveling with Sikuliaq which made them a prime target.

Strong was about to look into more about it when Ridley came into the room. “Go rest, I can't sleep. I'll take over watching Juno.” Ridley ran a hand down their face highlighting the bags under their eyes.

“You sure? I don't mind staying up.”

Ridley dropped down onto the cot next to her. “I'm sure. Go rest. We don't both need to be exhausted when we reach Neith.”

Strong refused to move and just glared at Ridley. “If you're staying up, I'm staying up. It’s not like I haven’t done so before, and we’re still a few days away.”

Ridley sighed and sat back, knowing they had lost the battle. The two of them sat side by side in silence watching Juno breathe until the daytime cycle lights turned on in the shuttle. “Do you want me to check our course?” Strong asked as she stood.

Ridley shook their head. “No need. Autopilot’s on set to the same course as the rest of the fleet. It’ll follow them without issue.”

“Shouldn’t we still check it?” Ridley didn’t respond at all. “Rain, I know what it’s like to wait beside someone to wake up. You’re blaming yourself for this, but it was Steel’s choice to take the meds. You cannot blame yourself for something that you could see coming.”

That caused Ridley’s face to twist into something that showed frustration and pain. “You don’t know anything about us, Sergeant Strong. I promised that I would make sure that Steel made it back home, and I plan to keep it.”

“You’re right that I don't know the two of you, but trying to keep a promise like that how you're doing it will just end up with you both killed. To be able to protect yourself first before trying to protect others, that's what’s needed to protect those you love and want to protect. Because if you are never watching your own back, you will be dead and unable to protect them. So get your act together and start acting like an adult.” Strong stood and stormed out of the room. She went to the controls to make sure that the autopilot was still engaged and tracking the others. They didn’t need to get off track now. It would spell the end of the freedoms that Steel and Rain experienced. Even though she was pissed at Rain and worried that those exact freedoms would end up with Steel dead, she didn’t want it to end for the pair.

Strong continued to sit there watching the controls until the ship comms lit up with an incoming call. She was about to answer it when she heard Ridley yell at Juno. She supposed that that meant he had woken up at some point while she had been staring at the controls. Strong let out a breath before yelling, “Shut up! Got a call from command coming in!”

The two quilted down and Strong accepted the call. “SS Fearless, this is Lieutenant Janus on the SS Citadel, calling for a check-in.”

“Lieutenant, this is Sergeant Strong. We are in good condition, the SS Fearless has enough fuel and all the crew is alive. Supplies are good.”

“Good. The captain wants your ship to move to the middle of the formation as we get closer to Neith. I’m sending over the instructions now.”

Strong was grateful that they hadn’t requested to talk to Juno or Ridley yet. “Yes sir. We will apply the updates to the path as soon as we get it. Is there anything else?”

“Negative. SS Citadel over and out.” Strong let out a breath and was glad when they hung up the comms.

Strong sat back as the computer beeped with the incoming message. She sat forward and saw that it was the corrected course, applied it, and leaned back again. As the ship shuttered with the new course she heard steps coming towards her. She turned and saw both Juno and Ridley coming out of their room.

“Did command just order a course correction?” Juno’s voice was hoarse, and he sounded tired even after having slept for so long. Strong nodded, and they started to go over everything that command had sent.

“So they haven't changed our orders once we land?” Ridley asked as they leaned against the wall of the ship.

“Not yet. Seems like they didn't even care that you two weren't on the comms as well. But then again, Lieutenant Janus isn't the brightest.” Strong shrugged as she looked between the two. Neither spoke up, and after a while Strong decided it would be best to skip over what Steel had done and started talking about some of the funnier things that had happened during downtime.

They talked like that on and off for the rest of the trip with some small fights between Ridley and Juno about his meds and why Ridley was hiding them. It was shocking to Strong that Ridley was able to hide the meds without Juno finding them half the time.

Once they had made it to the battlefield, the three of them were sent with one of the other teams’ snipers to one area. They were told they were one of three teams that would be looking over the battlefield. They were given a comms that would be able to communicate between the teams and command. They were going to be staying in that location for most if not all of the battle.

It wasn’t long before they were in the position that they were assigned to, and Juno and the other sniper were both complaining about the condition of the area. “Damn, it fucking stinks in here. I’m pretty sure the sewers on Mars smelt better than this.”

The other sniper nodded. “Same. Sergeant Strong, I think you’re supposed to be working with me correct?”

“Yes, and I missed your name earlier, Private.”

The sniper glared. “I’m Klaudia Daalman. But missing names is what happens when you're late to team assignments. Why the hell was that anyway?”

“That wasn’t on purpose. Our ship had delayed landing due to the number of ships that came in. I’m still surprised that Captain Carolyn didn’t keep them from assigning the teams until after the rest of us had landed.”

Juno and Ridley both looked away from the other two as Juno got set up. As that hadn’t been all of why they had been late landing, yes there were a lot of ships landing, but the altered plans that they had been given days ago had also been given to another ship. However, there was another reason why they were so late landing Juno was out cold from having found where Ridley had hidden his pills, and then Ridley double-checked that Juno hadn’t hidden any pills on him before they left.

“There was a lot. I don’t understand why they have brought so many of us here. Last I heard Neith wasn’t a big battleground.” Daalman sighed as she also got started with her setup.

“It isn’t, but every battle here has ended up with great solar casualties, but with how different the planet is compared to what we’re used to it’s not odd. There’s been a lot of cases of Homesickness too which likely isn’t helping our side. Seeing as we never have lived with it, unlike the Outer soldiers.”

Juno looked over at the other two. “Is Homesickness that common out here? I’ve seen others just get sent back to Solar Planets to deal with it.”

Strong sighed. “They can’t send back whole platoons and companies of soldiers though. I think that’s why they brought so many of us who have been either on leave or much closer to Solar. We wouldn’t be as affected by being so far from Solar as quickly.”

Ridley made a sound. “I wonder if that’s why the Captain sent us home, worried about us developing homesickness before we even got out here.”

Strong looked at the two. “You know, probably. We didn’t do any battles while you were gone. Hell, a lot of the others went back to the Solar planets too. Those who hadn’t had been on leave not long before. I wonder how long this has been in the works.”

The other three shrugged. Juno was the one that spoke up in the end. “We definitely haven’t heard of anything like this before now, but if there’s one thing I know it’s that command will find the shittiest jobs that we can do. Probably why we got attached to the same group as you, Strong. Captain Carolyn is a good strategist from what I’ve heard.”

Strong was about to reply when the comms from command rang. She picked it up and listened for just a moment. She gave a single response before she put the comms back in her pants pockets.

“Alright, they’re about to start on the ground, we need to be ready.” The other three nod. Juno and Daalman rest with their rifles and Ridley pulls out his binoculars and keeps his handgun in his other hand. Strong moves to Daalman’s side and also pulls out a set of binoculars and her blaster.

They waited only a few minutes before they could see the Solar force moving. They had been placed along the far side of the battlefield and could just make out the first shots being made on the other side. However it wasn’t long before the whole open area of the battlefield was lit by blaster fire.

Juno and Daalman took shots as they were called or noticed them. Juno stayed in position even as Daalman had to get up for a moment when the battle lulled. “Steel, you know we don’t have to stay in position all the time right?”

Juno grunted, “You know you should stay low to the ground. Seen some shots on the Outer side that have to be snipers, haven’t figured out where they are yet.”

“Steel, I haven’t seen jack shit like that.” Daalman moved closer to the edge of their hideout, “Where the fuck are you seeing them?”

Ridley was about to say something about having seen them too when Juno pushed himself from prone and tackled Daalman just as the area was lit by a blaster shot. Juno hit the ground hard as Daalman shouted at him. Daalman shoved Juno off of her, all the while complaining about Juno having tackled her.

That was until Ridley noticed that Juno wasn’t moving. Everything went silent, including the battlefield.

Chapter Text

The quiet only lasted a moment before the sounds of war came back even louder and Ridley was frantically crawling over to Juno. They rolled Juno onto his side and shuttered at the wet feeling as he reached for his arm. “Shit, he was shot. Daalman, figure the fuck out where that shot came from and take them out. Strong, call command.”

Ridley started patting Juno to figure out where the blood was coming from. Their hands stalled on Juno’s arm as they felt the blood that was coming through the new hole in the uniform. Their hands stuttered as they tried to determine if Juno was hit anywhere else.

Strong came up beside Rain and shoved them out of the way. “Rain, go help Daalman. If you’re going to freeze up then Steel isn’t going to make it out of here.”

Ridley glared at Strong but watched as she started to tear her uniform to make a tourniquet that she tied around Juno’s arm. As she tightened it down, Juno moaned. “Rain, go! I’ve got Steel,” Strong yelled again as she took off her jacket to press against the spot on his side.

When Ridley continued to sit without signs of moving, Strong growled before barking, “That’s an order, Private!”

That got Ridley to finally move. They moved over to Daalman. They started to call out targets. Occasionally Strong could hear Daalmon retort that she couldn't make the shot which caused Ridley to pause, grumble, and then call out another target. Strong kept pressure on the wound on Steel’s side and hopped to the Solar Sun and back so that they would be out of this battle sooner than later.

Strong wasn’t sure how long it was until the sounds of battle started to recede, but as they did things happened rapidly. Steel’s breathing got so shallow that had Strong not been putting her whole weight on his side she would have thought he had stopped breathing. It was at that moment that the comms to command rang again.

“Rain, come answer the comms!”

“Why can't you?”

“If I move my hands, Steel's not going to make it out of here.”

Ridley pulled the comms off the ground. When they answered, they looked over at Strong with wild eyes. Strong rolled her eyes but focused on Steel below her. Ridley didn’t stay on the comms long, and when they put it down they stared blankly at Juno.

“What did command say?” Daalman asked as another bolt from her rifle lit the battlefield.

“They are sending a medic team up. I think we got lucky with it being Juno who got shot.”

“What do you mean?” Daalman sounded confused as she took her next shot.

“I mean had it been any of the rest of us, they would have left us here to bleed out. Juno, though, he's the best shot that the military’s got. I've never seen him miss a shot on accident. On purpose? Hell yeah, numerous times when he was pissed at command but accident? I don’t think he knows how to miss.”

“That’s preposterous!” Daalman yelled as she pulled away from her position.

The laugh that came from Ridley felt as dead as Juno did to Strong. “Daalman, I’ve watched Juno get startled awake by blaster fire when we spent nights in foxholes. I watched him barely open his eyes and sight the Outer Soldier before shooting without having opened both his eyes. He hit them dead on, too.”

Strong was sure that she was about to watch a fight break out, but it was then that the medic team made it to them. The other two calmed down while the med team worked around her and Juno. After they injected something into his neck, one of them looked over at her. They had something in their hand. “I’m going to switch with you on the count of three.” Strong nodded. “Alright, one, two, three.”

Strong pulled away as the medic pressed down onto the same spot a moment later. Strong felt the feeling in her arms and hands start to return as they continued to work. It wasn’t long before they were putting Juno onto a stretcher.

Strong was about to stand to follow the medics out when Ridley spoke up. “We aren’t to leave with Juno.”

Strong looked over at Ridley, and she could see where they were having to restrain themself from following the medics out. She went over to them and placed her hand on their shaking shoulder. “Steel will be fine. The medics have him now. We have to trust that he’ll make it back alive.”

Ridley shook their head before moving to pack up Juno’s equipment. Strong sighed as she went over to Daalman to spot what was left of the battle. It felt like forever before they were called back to camp. Ridley almost went off on their own, but Strong managed to get them to stay long enough for Daalman to pack up.

They made their way back to camp to see people running around between the shuttles that were still parked. Daalman went off to report to her commander. “You guys should probably do that before you go find Steel.”

Strong sighed. “Daalman’s right, but I’ll handle both of our reports. Go find Steel.”

Ridley let out a breathy, “Thanks,” as they ran off to find someone that could point them to the medic area. It didn’t take them long to get there once they were directed to the main tent, which had been set up near some of the larger ships that had landed.

Once they made it to the tent, they stepped inside to see if they could see Juno. They were about to head deeper into the tent to continue looking when a medic came up to them. “Hey, you injured?” Ridley shook their head. “Then you looking for someone?”

“Corporal Juno Steel, he would have been brought in near the end by a medic team. We were stationed in section thirty of the battlefield.”

The medic nodded. “I’ll go see if they are in surgery or have been moved to a bed. You stay here.”

Ridley nodded and watched as the medic went through the tent paying attention to some beds more than others. There must have been others that came from the same section, but after a few, they lost sight of them. After a few minutes, they came back and motioned for him to follow. “Corporal Steel has not been out of surgery for long. He’s still under but you can sit with him.”

“Thanks.” The medic nodded as they started to walk through the tent and back through to a sectioned-off area. Ridley looked around and immediately their eyes were drawn to Juno. He was hooked up to wires and cables. “Is there an estimate on when he’ll wake?”

The medic shook their head, and Ridley thanked them one last time before going to sit beside Juno. They sat there watching Juno’s chest rise and fall for an uncountable amount of time. They’d watched several medics come in and out checking and adjusting various things. After a while Strong joined them and just sat for a while.

“Rain.”

“Yeah?” Ridley looked away from Juno to Strong after she didn’t continue to talk.

Strong let out a sigh as she looked into Ridley’s eyes. “Captain Carolyn gave me two things to tell you. I’m going to be staying with the two of you for a while longer. I talked her out of having Daalman also with us. That shuttle is cramped enough with the three of us. The second is that we won’t be staying here once Juno has stabilized and can be without medical support. We’ll be heading back towards Solar. There will be one other ship with us. I’m not sure about her plans right now but I think we will be supporting another attempt to clean out an asteroid like back on 85B.”

“Daalman will be on the other ship won’t she?” Strong nodded, causing Ridley to sigh. “You know Juno’s not going to like it. Probably going to be worse with the fact that Daalman wouldn’t listen to him.”

“I talked to her about that. She didn’t think that Juno was old enough for his rank.” Ridley scoffed as Strong continued, “How old is he anyway?”

“Twenty-two.”

Strong hummed, “He’s younger than I thought, but still you guys have been out here for three years and Steel has earned those promotions.”

Ridley huffed as they crossed their arms. “Eh, I wouldn’t say ‘earned’ so much as the brass didn’t want to deal with him half the time. He made it to Corporal in two years. They just wanted him so he could do what we were doing before being attached to Captain Carolyn’s battalion.”

“Still, Daalman’s only been out here for just over a year. That’s why Command wants her to be with Steel, to learn.”

Ridley snorted and was about to say something back when they noticed Juno’s hand twitching. They watched for a couple of moments before shouting, “Hey! We need a medic back here! Corporal Steel may be waking up!” startling Strong.

It took only moments for the medics to flood into the area and force the two to stand against the wall. Ridley watched as they worked. They had no clue what they were doing at all. All they could do was watch. After a few minutes, Ridley heard Juno let out a groan. They perked up and tears started down their face.

It wasn’t long after that single sound from Juno that all but one medic stepped back from his cot and left the room. Ridley and Strong made their way back to Juno’s bedside to see his eyes flutter close.

“Corporal Steel will likely continue to wake for short periods for the next day or so as the healing meds continue to work. He should be up and moving in a few days. Corporal Steel is lucky and should make a full recovery.” The medic grabbed the chart from the end of Juno’s bed and started writing as they continued to talk. “You two should get some rest as well. Steel’s not going anywhere for a while.” Strong nodded as the medic put the chart back before leaving.

“Rain, come on, let's go back to the shuttle,” Strong said as Ridley stalked back over to his seat.

“Nope. Not leaving.”

Strong huffed before shaking her head. “You know what, fine, but I'm telling you there's no fucking reason to keep sitting here and waiting. You will just end up in a cot next to Steel, but whatever. I'll see you in the morning.”

Strong left the medic tent fuming about the fact that Ridley was being stupid about not wanting to leave Juno. She was thinking about how she was going to get Ridley to leave Juno’s side when she bumped into Daalman.

“Staff Sergeant Strong.”

“Daalman. Have you received your next orders?”

Daalman nodded. “I have, and I don’t like the fact that I will be sent with you and the Corporal. Well, if he recovers.”

“Corporal Steel is on the mend. Do you know who else will be with you on your ship?”

“No, Captain Sebastian didn’t tell me. They wouldn't tell me why I’m not traveling in your shuttle either. You know why that is?” Her voice was harsh as she spoke.

“That was me. Our shuttle wasn’t meant for more than two people, and Captain Carolyn still wants me to be with Corporal Steel and Private Rain.”

“Huh, why? Wouldn’t it be better that we are all on one or another?”

Strong shook her head and led Daalman closer to Steel’s shuttle. “I don’t think so. Corporal Steel is a splinter team leader, and so he doesn’t stay attached to a regiment for long.”

Daalman snorted, “Just means that he isn't willing enough to follow orders long enough to be promoted.”

Strong shook her head. “It may be that, or it may be because their skills are so good that they don’t want them attached to one team. How much do you know about Mars?”

“Not much? I’m from Tethys. Know it’s the first planet that was settled once humans left Earth, but I don’t know much other than the entertainment coming off it is wild.”

Strong let out a breath. “Of course, that's all you know. Mars is a planet that the military decided long ago an active draft for wasn’t necessary-”

Daalman scoffed interrupting Strong, “So the kid fucking enlisted, doesn't mean he is better than us who were drafted like the rest of our families.”

“He didn't enlist. They pull the best people from the police academies on Mars and draft them anyway. Steel was 19 and drafted. Hell, he’s only twenty-two. Cut the shit and grow up. Steel made his way here just like the rest of us and had to go through the same shit as us, so grow up.”

Strong walked onto Steel’s shuttle leaving Daalman standing there baffled.

For the next few days, the lady recovered to the point that he was able to get up and walk around. After a while, both Juno and Strong were able to convince Rain to go to sleep while Juno was on the mend.

It was during the last night Juno was in the medic tent that he was told that he would still be on pain meds for a while after he was released. Juno looked at the bottle with numb eyes. The dame tried not to think about the last time he had been handed pain pills, but his thoughts kept on being drawn to the bliss he knew would come if he took enough of them.

Juno’s thoughts were interrupted by someone further down screaming. He shook his head and placed the bottle to the side. He wasn’t going to take them. At least not while he was here. There wasn’t a reason to make the medics think he would abuse them. Juno lay back down and tried to get some rest.

When Juno woke the next morning it was with Ridley sitting at his bedside staring at the bottle of pills. “Corporal.”

Juno groans and rolls over. “What is it, Rain?”

“Do you really think you should be on painkillers? You already abuse the sleeping pills.”

“I’ll be fine,” Juno grunted and took the bottle of pills.

It was moments later that the doctor came in and gave them the briefing on what he should do going forward. Ridley gave Juno privacy as he changed into his uniform, tucking the bottle of pain pills into his pocket. They were soon headed on to meet with Captain Carolyn.

When they got there, Daalman and Strong were already waiting, and Juno’s eyebrows raised.

“Corporal Steel, Private Rain. I was just telling Private Daalman and Sergeant Strong about how well you did in the last battle. While you were injured, Corporal, your quick thinking kept Private Daalman from being injured. The rest of you managed to keep a level head, kept Corporal Steel alive, and kept the others from befalling the same fate as him. That is commendable. A good bit of teamwork there, and it is what I like to see in my soldiers.”

Juno’s shoulders dropped as he let out a breath. He wasn’t sure where Captain Carolyn was going with her words, but it didn’t seem that she was going to reprimand them for what happened.

“In doing so I have decided to give all four of you promotions in rank. One for each of you. You will also be given awards, but all of you qualify for promotions currently and are exemplary soldiers.”

All four of them stood in silence for a moment before Carolyn continued, “You are dismissed. I will get the paperwork with your orders to you as soon as possible and a messenger will bring your new rank designations before you have to leave.”

They saluted before turning to leave. When they made it out of the tent, Juno turned to the other three. “I’m guessing there was a basic brief on what we were doing next while I was out?”

Ridley nodded, but Strong was the one to answer, “The four of us are headed on a small mission. I’m not sure of the details, but Daalman is currently set to go on a separate shuttle from the rest of us.”

Juno nodded, and they headed to the shuttles. Juno slipped off to his bunk and pulled out the bottle of pills. He just sat there staring at it for a while until his side started to throb. He didn’t even think before opening the bottle and taking three pills. He tucked the bottle away before lying down.

As the pills kicked in, his body started to relax, and he let out a sigh before closing his eyes and letting the feeling go through him. His breath started to even out and it wasn’t long before the lady was asleep.

Ridley had made their way back to their room after meeting with the pilot who would be taking Daalman on the other shuttle. They saw Juno passed out on his bunk and shook their head. They sat the package that had been in their hands on their bed before they turned and walked out of the room and joined Strong where she sat at the controls.

“How's Steel?” Strong leaned back and looked at him.

“Out. Did the orders come through?”

“Yeah, we’re leaving now. Is Steel going to be safe where he is during take off?”

Ridley shrugged. “He probably can sleep through it. Fearless doesn’t do the best with landings and takeoffs, but the takeoffs almost always go well enough not to be strapped in.”

“You think that’s smart?”

“I think waking Juno isn’t smart. He doesn’t do well when startled awake. I’ve ended up staring down a blaster more than once when I’ve woken Juno. Well, that or being punched. It’s not pleasant. I’d rather leave him where he’s at.”

Strong nodded and the two strapped in before coordinating with the others around for take-off. They were soon in space and both waited to see if Juno would stir, but when no sounds came from the room. They both relaxed back into their seats.

They talked for a while before Juno got up again and was looking much better than when he fell asleep. He was still a little out of it, but both decided that it was likely because he was still healing from a life-threatening injury that they frankly thought, even with the meds to accelerate the healing, he probably should still be in medical care. Not like the military cared that much about their soldiers after all. All they cared about was whether or not you could hold a gun and shoot, and Juno could do that one even with his injury.

The next few months for the four were relatively uneventful, other than them being shuffled into a newer and slightly larger ship. Frankly, it was only bigger in the fact that it had been made to accommodate four people to be in it rather than two.

The only other thing that was even notable during that time was the fact that Juno was almost constantly injured. Anything from small cuts from a mishandled plasma knife doing the mundane to a few stray blaster bolts to his arms and shoulders during a battle. Juno was more relaxed than he had been in a long time during those few months, but his blow-ups when he got pissed off were getting even bigger.

Hell, he and Daalman had been at each other's throats like rabid sewer rabbits, and it led to fights that had Juno near throwing punches: much like the fight that Ridley was currently trying to tune out, mostly unsuccessfully.

“There's no fucking way that you passed your training flawlessly, Daalman! You can barely make a shot into a building with the damn enemy scope creating a fucking glare so big you could see it from Mars!” Juno shouted as he got up in Daalman’s face.

Ridley let their head hit the headrest as Daalman screamed back, “At least I haven’t been injured in almost every mission! How the fuck did you make it as long as you did if you constantly got blaster holes through your arms!?”

Ridley stood just as Juno growled before yelling back, “If it wasn’t for the damn fact that your scope skills keep on making us a target I wouldn’t! Before you were here I didn’t get injured nearly as much!” Juno was about to lunge at Daalman when Ridley grabbed him about his chest. They went down to the floor with a thud.

Ridley only managed to keep Juno pinned underneath themselves for a moment before Juno got free. Ridley grabbed him and pulled before wrapping their arms around him once more. They managed to keep a hold of him this time even as Juno continued to struggle.

Juno kicked and bucked against Ridley as Strong came into the room. “Daalman, leave now.” Strong ordered as she grabbed Juno’s legs.

Juno continued to fight against the two, and Ridley was worried that they would have to put enough pressure on Juno’s windpipe to make him pass out when a medicine bottle fell out of his pocket. When the bottle clacked against the floor, some of the fight went out of Juno before he resumed struggling.

“Damn it, Juno. Stop struggling, for god's sake,” Ridley muttered as they tightened their hold. Juno went lax after a moment, and when Ridley released him he didn't move. He was still breathing though, so Ridley counted that as a win and looked at Strong who was staring at the bottle of pills.

“I thought he was off the sleeping pills?”

Ridley shifted Juno off of themselves and checked over Juno as they spoke, “Yeah, he is. We dumped the last of them back when we left the Fearless.” Ridley, satisfied with the fact that Juno was just unconscious, picked up the bottle of pills. As Ridley read the label, their face went as hard as stone.

Strong was about to ask about the pills when Ridley handed them over to her. As Strong read the label her whole body tensed. “Pain pills? How the fuck has he been getting them?”

Strong handed them back to Ridley as they explained, “Simple, he goes to the medics. We don't see the same one more than once, and they don't check records well. He's been consistently injured just enough to get more. Fucking hell, should have fucking known too. Juno hates seeing the medics, always fucking has, but recently he's been willing to go when he isn't bleeding out.”

Strong didn’t say anything as Ridley continued to ramble to themself. Everything was making sense about Juno’s mood changes if he was coming off or had just taken the pills.

They were startled out of their thoughts by the ship's comms ringing. They both scrambled to their feet, but Ridley made Strong answer it. Strong just glared at them as she said, “This is Staff Sergeant Strong on the SS Valkyrie, who am I speaking to?”

The answer was immediate. “Staff Sergeant Strong, This is Lieutenant Talfryn with Captain Carolyn. I have the next mission orders for you and the rest of the crew of the SS Valkyrie. You will be heading to Sif and must be there within four Solar Coordinated Days further details to follow in the report that has been sent to you. Understood?”

“Yes Sir. Is there anything else?”

“Not at this time.” The comms line cut, and it wasn’t long before there was a notification of their orders coming in.

Strong opened the file and was looking over it when Ridley let out a gasp. “Go back up.”

“What did you see?”

“The team we’re working with.”

Strong scrolled back up. “You know them I’m guessing?”

Ridley nodded as they read. “I don’t know the Sergeant there, but their Corporal? Yeah, they were in training with me and Juno. They had known Juno beforehand too. I don’t know if they will be able to help with the current situation with Juno, but it’ll be good to see them again.” Ridley tossed a look behind themself to look at Juno. When they looked back Strong hadn't scrolled much further, her eyes locked on it.

“Hey, Strong, what did you see?”

“We're not going to be in a nest. We're going to be down in fucking trenches with the rest. Goddamn, it's been fucking centuries but somehow trench warfare is still a fucking thing. I hate trenches.”

Ridley shuttered, they had been lucky in the past not to end up in the trenches where there were any. Most of the time they were stationed up high and away from them. “Then they don't want Juno and Daalman having rifles, do they? They wouldn't be the best thing to have in the trenches would they?”

Strong hummed in agreement as she looked over what weapons they wanted them to have. “Looks like Steel is to carry a rifle, but Daalman is not.”

Ridley nodded as they pulled out their comms. They quickly typed something before putting it away. They were about to say something when Juno groaned. Ridley turned and looked down at Juno as his eyes cracked open.

“You back with us?” Ridley felt their pockets and turned when they felt the pill bottle. Juno moaned and turned his face away from Ridley.

“Steel, wanna explain the pills?” Strong’s voice was as hard as steel.

“They’re for the blaster burns on my arms.” Juno rolled onto his side before pushing himself into a sitting position.

Ridley didn’t think that was all, but the blaster burns were still so bad on one of Juno’s arms that they weren’t going to fight that. They weren't sure what to say back as Juno got up and walked away.

“Well, that’s odd. I’d thought he’d fight you for the pills,” Strong said as she looked over at Ridley.

“He’s probably got other bottles hidden in our room, and possibly elsewhere. It wouldn’t surprise me at this point.” Ridley dropped into a seat. They reached out to the controls and input the new destination. “I’ll try to talk to him tonight.”

“You want me on standby?”

Ridley shook their head. “I want you to keep Daalman from butting in. You two seem to get along well enough for that to work out.”

As Ridley looked over at Strong, she had a blush on her cheeks. “You like her, don’t you?” Ridley smirked as he spoke.

“Noooo.” Strong's face took on a light blush as she said it.

Ridley chuckled. “Nope, you do,” they patted her on the back as they continued, “You may want to say something to her. You never know what's going to happen tomorrow.”

“I know.”

Ridley hummed as they went back to piloting the ship for a bit. If they were going to make it to Sif in time, there would have to be specific routes planned out for the autopilot.

By the time that Ridley had the best route planned out and set, Juno was asleep. Ridley didn’t wake him, too afraid that they would end up being shot. So instead they looked through some of the nooks and crannies of their room and found two more bottles of pills. Both were only half full, and Ridley tucked them in with their own stuff.

Over the next few days, Ridley tried to talk to Juno about the pills, but Juno kept on avoiding answering anything other than them being for the injuries that he’d received. Ridley knew it wasn’t just that. There were too many bottles that they found with dates around the battles where Juno wasn’t injured. If they had more time before the battle, Ridley would have tried harder to get Juno to confess about abusing the pain pills, but with it being so soon they didn’t want to wind him up too much. He was already wound tight enough.

When they reached Sif, they were met by the sounds of an ongoing conflict a little ways out from where they landed. Juno stayed tense as they met with some of the others before the team that they were going to be in the trenches with. When Puck saw them they looked at them with wide eyes before saying, “Glad to see you’re still alive.”

Juno nodded as tears gathered at the corner of his eyes. Puck pulled the lady into a hug. He leaned into the hug until they were forced to head out to the battlefield. As they marched out to their positions, Puck held back with Ridley as Strong and Juno led the group through the tunnels.

“How’s Juno been?” Puck asked.

“Not good. Found out his brother’s dead, and I’m pretty sure he’s been abusing pain pills since he got shot on Neith.”

Puck stumbled as they processed what Ridley had said. When they got their feet back under control, they looked over at Ridley with wide eyes. “What? Do you know what happened to Benzaiten?”

Ridley shook their head. “Juno’s not said much more, and does it really matter how? Juno’s twin is dead.”

“True,” Puck paused for a minute before their eyes went wide, “You said he was shot on Neith? So you were out there for that big battle?”

Ridley nodded, “Yeah, right after we came back from Mars. Daalman,” Ridley pointed to her, “was the original target, and Juno shoved her out of the way. He almost died, and for our troubles, we got promoted, endless battles, and Juno addicted to pain pills.”

Puck was about to answer when they stopped at their battle location. There was standing water and all of them grimaced. Juno grumbled about how he wished they were back on a desert planet. They got set up and were soon taking turns firing their blasters over the trench walls.

Strong was the first of them to be nicked by a blaster bolt, but she just covered it and carried on firing, cursing all the way. Puck and Daalman both took what would have been nasty shots had the blasters been better charged, but they didn’t even make it through the layers of clothes and protectors on their chests. They provided as much cover fire as they could as groups of Solar soldiers went over the walls of the trenches and charged at the Outer side.

As the light started to dim from the closest star, the blaster shots died down; they received their orders to stop shooting for now but to stay on watch for the night. They were also informed that they would be getting recharged carts sent out to them as soon as possible.

“I wish we could have gone back to get them,” Juno grumbled when Strong informed them of the incoming replacement charts.

“I agree. I hate being in this water. If you have open wounds anywhere, try and keep them dry.” Daalman looked over at the others as she spoke.

They started to talk amongst themselves for a while until Juno wandered off to go to the bathroom. Ridley followed after a moment and stayed back far enough that they would be able to hear what Juno was doing but not see anything. They thought for a moment that Juno had been telling the truth and was just going to use the bathroom until they heard the tell-tale sound of pills in a bottle. They sighed, shook their head, and moved closer to Juno just in time to see him take at least four pills.

Ridley growled as they stomped through the mud, startling Juno into dropping the pill bottle which landed with a splat in the mud. Ridley picked it from the ground before Juno was able to.

“What the fuck are you doing, Rain?” Juno’s voice was as hard as steel. He charged at Ridley trying to get the bottle back. Ridley managed to shove Juno off before he got a hold of the bottle.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Getting high on a battlefield? You’re going to get yourself killed doing shit like this!” Ridley huffed as their chest heaved. “Hell, you could get us all killed! If you missed a fucking single shot, all of us could be killed!”

Juno looked guilty for just a moment before he screeched, “What the fuck do you care! There’s nothing left for me here!”

Juno shoved at Ridley again, and they hit the wall of the trench. They tried to keep the pill bottle away from Juno but were unable to when Juno twisted their arm. Once Juno had a hold of the bottle again, he shoved Ridley into the mud before running away. Ridley tried to scramble up to follow but kept slipping on the mud. Ridley eventually made their way back to standing, but by that point Juno had disappeared.

When Ridley made it back to the others, Juno was tucked against the wall. Ridley was pretty sure he was only pretending to sleep, but he wasn’t going to start anything with the rest of them around. There wasn’t a reason to cause any of the soldiers surrounding them to be suspicious of a fellow soldier. Ridley looked around and noticed that Strong was the only one who was still awake. They moved over to her and leaned against the wall. She glanced at them as they did so before looking back over the trench walls.

They stood there in silence for a while just letting the rumble of other soldiers talking wash over them. That was until Strong’s comms rang. They looked over at her and watched as her face turned to anger as she listened to whoever was on the other side. She didn't say anything on the short call other than a curt ‘yes, sir’ before she hung up.

“What's command want now?”

“Me and Falco, apparently. I'm not sure why, but they want both of us.” Strong said as she put her comms away, grabbed her gun, and moved to wake Puck.

Puck muttered something when they were shaken awake but got up without complaint. The two headed off towards command. It was quiet for a little bit before Daalman stood from her crouch and said she was headed to the bathroom. Ridley nodded and looked at Juno and noted that he was asleep. Ridley leaned against the wall and thought about what they would say to Juno when this was all over.

Just as Daalman came back Ridley heard a blaster shot and looked over the wall to see the Outer forces advancing. They shook Juno awake as Daalman rushed forward to start taking shots over the trench. Juno’s pupils were blown out but he still managed to get up and take shots without issues.

For a while they continued to hold off the outer soldiers, that was until there was the sound of a large bomb through the air. Ridley shoved Juno to the ground as they yelled, “Bomb!!”

The last thing Ridley felt before he lost consciousness was their body colliding with the ground as the fire of the bomb crept across their back.

Juno wasn’t sure what was going on when he opened his eyes, or what prompted him to open them. His limbs were on fire and he let out a groan, causing someone to curse. He looked towards the sound to see someone with bright green hair and what only be an Outer Rim uniform. He tried to get away but it caused his pain to increase tenfold and he let out a scream. His vision started to fade as the person moved towards him. The last thing he heard before he passed out was, “Shit, kid stop moving!”

Chapter Text

Juno wasn’t sure why he was woken from his peaceful sleep. He couldn’t hear anything around him and had no energy to open his eyes. It was calm, so he stayed still and tried to remember what had happened. He had been on the ship with Ridley, wait no, that wasn't right. He couldn’t be on the ship; it was too quiet. So where was he? What had he been doing? Juno wracked his brain trying to remember. He was in a battle, but that wasn't surprising. What had been going on? Then it struck him. He had been woken by Ridley while in the trenches. A bomb had gone off. But that couldn't be it, he didn't feel the wet mud of the trenches. There was no way he was still there.

It was then that Juno remembered the last thing he saw was a person in an Outer Rim uniform. The lady tried to sit up but was forced back into place by a hand on his chest. “Stay still, kid. You’re badly injured, and I do not want to have to re-do my work,” a raspy voice growled. Juno thought about trying to get away, but he was already too tired, and his whole body had started burning when he moved.

Juno tried to shape his mouth into words but was unable to do so. He struggled to do anything and was unable to muster up the energy to open his eyes. Everything around him faded out as he was left with zero energy and passed out.

When Juno next returned to the land of the living, he was able to open his eyes. As he looked around, he noted that he was in a very rundown room. He attempted to sit up, but all that did was send a wave of fiery pain through his limbs. He moaned as he tried to relax enough to see if that would make the fire go away.

Juno heard the door open as the pain started to die down. It didn’t go away, but his thoughts weren't drowned out by the pain anymore. He turned his head to look at the person, and all he could see was the bright green hair. That was enough to make Juno think it was the same person he had seen when he had woken the last time.

“Are you finally back with me, kid?”

Juno tried to talk, but all that came out of his throat was a choking sound. The person sighed as they brought over a basin of water. “You’ve been out for a while. Take it easy.” The person helped Juno sit up, and he had to bite back a scream as he moved. The person eased him back to sit against the wall before bringing the basin up to his lips. Juno drank as greedily as he could, but the person kept it where he couldn’t drink as fast. After a minute they pulled the basin away.

“Alright, that’s enough for now kid.”

Juno let out a whine before clearing his throat. “Why did you save me? Aren’t you Outer?”

The other person sighs. They put the basin to the side before glaring at Juno. “We are all humans, and as a doctor that’s all that matters to me. Outer Rim or Solar, it doesn’t matter. And it seems like the Solar forces didn’t care much for you. You were left to die. And while I may have been wearing the Outer Uniform I’m not well liked by them.”

Juno looked at the woman with searching eyes. “I’m not the first Solar person that you’ve scrapped half-dead off the battlefield, am I?”

“No. And technically, I’m not part of the Outer Rim forces anymore either. So it doesn’t matter that I scrapped you up.” The person goes to grab something before turning back to face Juno. She had a familiar-looking bottle in her hand. She shook two pills from the bottle before handing them to him.

Juno took them and swallowed them without question, figuring at this point if she wanted him dead she wouldn't have saved him in the first place. “Who are you anyway?”

“Vespa Ilkay. Your tags said your name is Juno Steel, that right?” Vespa put the bottle back and grabbed something else.

All Juno could do was nod as Vespa turned back to him. She was holding a very familiar plasma knife. Juno hoped that it wasn't the knife he thought it was - just one that was the same model. But as she came closer Juno could make out more and more details and knew that it was the knife he thought it was. With every knick and scratch where he remembered from the last time he’d seen it be pulled out to do little tasks around the ship.

“Where did you get that knife?”

Vespa squints at the suspension in Juno's voice before answering. “Found it on a body near you. They weren’t alive when I got there. Why?”

“I knew the owner. You said they were dead?” Juno was fighting against the sadness and tears that were building up.

Vespa looked away from him for a second as she ran her hand through her hair. “Undoubtedly. I’ll spare you the details. But yes, they were dead before I found the knife.” Vespa moved closer to the lady and placed the knife next to him, blade off. “You can have the knife if you want it, and if you never want to see it again I’ll make that happen. Just let me know. But kid, let those tears flow. I’m afraid if you hold it in much longer you’re going to pull a stitch.” As those final words were spoken, it was like a switch and Juno started to cry. It started as a gentle flow until he broke into a full sob.

Vespa was unsure how to comfort Juno even after having seen this reaction countless times since she became a doctor. This war took friends and comrades from each other without care, something that Vespa was sure that Juno knew as well, but it was always hard to lose someone close to you.

Once Juno’s tears had dried up, he reached for the knife. He brought it up and pressed it close to his chest like he could fuse with the remains of his friend. It stayed pressed tightly against his chest as he passed out from exhaustion. When Vespa was checking him over to make sure he didn’t pull anything, there was an impression of the knife there on his chest.

Over the next few days, Juno slowly started to recover more and recover his faculties — including taking his first shaky steps to the bathroom by himself. As Juno started to walk better, Vespa asked, “Do you have anywhere to go?”

All Juno could do was shake his head. “Everyone I know is probably dead, and if they left me behind the military think I’m dead too. No reason to go back to the people who drafted me and then left me for dead.” He took the pain pills that Vespa handed him with a sigh.

“Then do you know what you want to do? Can you go back to your home planet?”

Juno shrugged. Before he could formulate his answer, their conversion was halted as a bomb went off too close for comfort. There had been distant sounds of war the past few days, but nothing had been as close as that bomb. As the walls shook, Juno had to balance himself using Vespa’s shoulder. “Shit. We can’t stay here any longer.” Juno nodded.

They grabbed their meager supplies as the sounds of battle got louder. Juno tucked the knife into his belt and kept his blaster in his hand. They made their way out of their little hideout as quickly as Juno could move. Juno realized that they had been in the remains of a bombed-out building. From what Juno could tell, they weren’t far from the battlefield that he’d almost died on.

“Where are we going?” Juno whispered as they leaned against a building.

“We're going to the last town standing on this rock and getting away from the battlefield. Got a problem with that?”

Juno shook his head. Vespa didn't offer any additional response as footsteps came close to them. Juno aimed his gun near the sound, making sure that it was set to stun when he did so. A moment later, someone came around the corner. Juno took the shot, and the person fell over cold. Vespa turned and nodded at him. A few more bodies piled up as they moved through the area to get to whatever town was left standing by the Solar Military. Juno had to take frequent stops to rest his aching body, but it wasn’t as bad as they got further and further away from the battlefield they could hear the blaster shots quiet.

When they did make it to the city, Vespa led them away from the spaceport. “Where are we going? I thought that we were leaving this rock?”

“We are, but we have to get something first.” Vespa rolled her eyes as Juno groaned. She stopped in a secluded part of the alley and pushed Juno against the wall. “You don’t have papers to get off this asteroid. We’ve got to get you a passport because when I went through your shit there wasn’t one, just military papers. No surprise there. But to get you away from here we’ll have to get you papers that aren't from the Solar Military.”

“You know someone on this planet who can make a Solar passport? Not even forgers on Mars could make them convincing enough.”

Vespa seemed amused by that as she let out a mirthless chuckle. “That just means you don't know where to look.” Vespa backed up from Juno. “Come on.” She continued down the alley. Juno had to rush to catch up to her.

Vespa stopped at a ratty old building and looked back at Juno. “Kid, don't you dare speak while we're here. I'll do all the talking.” She shot Juno a glare to punctuate her point.

“What? Why?”

“Because if you don't, I'll gut you before you can even blink. Understood?” All Juno could do was numbly nod as he noticed Vespa had pulled a knife out from somewhere.

As Vespa turned away from Juno, she put her knife back away. “God, wish Bud was here,” Vespa muttered before she pulled the door open. She looked back to Juno. “Stick close.” She started into the building with Juno staying as close as he could.

It didn’t take them long to reach a door that Vespa stopped at and banged on the door. “Open up, asshole! I’ve got your payment!” Vespa continued to bang on the door until a scrawny woman opened the door.

“Stop your banging, Ilkay. Do you want to draw the authorities here?” The woman’s eyes lit up the moment they landed on Juno. “Ah, and who have you brought with you today?” The woman tried to get past Vespa to Juno. Vespa shoved the woman back with a growl.

“The only business you have with him, Farron, is making him a set of papers as well. Nothing else.” Vespa shoved Farron back into the room before grabbing Juno by his wrist and pulling him in behind her. “Close the door, kid.” Juno grabbed the door and shoved it closed as soon as he could.

“Touchy, Ilkay. He must be important to you.” Juno occupied himself by looking around the packed room. There were all kinds of printers and computers shoved against the walls with stacks of official-looking paper stacked up in the spaces in between.

Vespa growled again. “Make another comment, and your guts will be on the floor. Got that?” Vespa had dropped Juno’s hand and pulled her knife out again. It rested against Farron’s neck in the blink of an eye. Farron gulped before nodding. Vespa pulled the knife away but didn’t put it away.

“Information for his papers then?”

“Kedi Ayla.” Vespa continued to rattle off information as Juno zoned out. He wasn’t sure what the name meant but he liked how it sounded when Vespa said it.

Farron got to work as Vespa watched. “You got the other papers ready?”

Farron looked up from where they were inputting information into their comms. “Yes, over there.” She motioned over to a pile of papers. Vespa walked over and picked through them until she found two Solar passports, one with her photo in it. The other had a woman with brilliant flaming red hair. “Are they up to your standard?”

Vespa nodded and pulled off the bag she had on. She pulled out a plasma knife and a bundle of creds. “There’s three hundred extra creds for you making Kedi’s in there as well.” Vespa tosses the items onto the table. Farron nods and goes back to work.

Juno was starting to fidget where he stood but did keep his mouth shut. Even though he wanted to ask who the other’s papers were, he knew if he asked he would not be walking out of the room. He also regretted not listening to Vespa as she gave the information for his passport to Farron. But he occupied himself by noticing details on the work around the room. They were excellent forgeries. He couldn’t even tell them apart from the real deal that he’d seen.

Once Farron was done printing out his papers she handed them over to Vespa. “How does that look?”

Vespa looked over them for a moment before handing them to Juno. “Good.”

Juno didn’t even have his own moment to look at them before Vespa was shoving them out the door. “You can look at them later,” Vespa hissed, “We need to get out of here. I’ve got us seats on a shuttle that leaves in three hours. We need to get you a change of clothes and get onto the shuttle.”

They moved swiftly back across town, and Vespa helped him pick out something in the used store. He quickly got changed before discarding the scraps of his uniform that he didn’t need. He made sure to tuck everything into his new clothes, ever surprised that his inhaler and comms made it through the bombing. He was mad that Vespa had his pain pills, but she hadn’t refused to give them to him yet, so he’d leave it be for now. They arrived at the port, and Juno spent the time as they waited in line reading over his passport. Other than the foreign name staring back at him, the only thing that stood out to him was the birthday that Vespa had chosen. It made him several years younger than he was.

Vespa tapped her passport on top of his, and he looked at it. He took note of the name on it. He screwed his face up in confusion as he noticed the last name was the same as his. And the age that it said Vespa was. It would make her old enough to be his mom. At least, his alias’s mom.

“Don’t look like your mother like that, Kedi.” Juno repressed his shudder as she called herself his mother.

He tried to straighten out his face as the ticket person called for the next person. Vespa stepped up and handed their passports to them. They barely glanced at the passports before handing them their tickets and letting them go. Vespa let out a breath as she led the way into the spaceport and handed Juno his passport. They made it to the next line for the bag check and it wasn’t as bad as Juno expected.

“Alright let's go somewhere quiet and go over our travel plans.” Juno nodded, and she led the way to a secluded alcove.

They talked about their plans until their shuttle was called to start boarding. They were some of the only people on it.

It was only once they were in space that Juno turned to Vespa, “We’re headed deeper into the Rim, aren’t we?”

“Mm-hm, it’s why the shuttle’s so empty. Most people are trying to get away from the fighting, and the only way to guarantee that is to go into Solar. So if they can't, most people won’t leave where they’ve been all their lives. It can be easier to get to Solar that way.”

Juno looked at her with an inquisitive look. “Really?”

Vespa nodded. “If you’re in a war-torn area like the one we just left, Kedi, then you can apply to be a refugee. If you go to a place where the fighting hasn’t reached yet, then it’s less likely that Sol will accept you.”

That caused Juno to sit back and think. The Wires had come from the Outer Rim, Hanuman, to be exact before Sasha was born. He could remember that Sasha had mentioned they had come as refugees. Had they already lost everyone they loved to want to make a new start in Solar? It would likely never be something that he would never get the answer to. But maybe if they went there he could see.

“Where are we going anyway?”

“Yama. We’re meeting up with my partner.”

“Alright. And who is that?”

Vespa looked at him like he had grown a second head. “You’re kidding right?” When Junon shook his head, Vespa growled, “What rock have you been under? I know there's a bounty out for our heads from the Solar Military. Bud laughed about it for days.”

Juno shrugged. “Never was one to watch the bounties. Ridley kept me updated on the news, but I wasn't one to pay attention.”

Vespa continued to stare at Juno for several long moments before she shook her head. “Alright, first off, that's wild that you and your teammate weren't looking into the bounties, seeing as some of them, mine included, could probably pay off any debt you owed and then some. But since you really don't know, Buddy Aurinko is my partner. She's who the last passport is for as well.”

Juno rolled his eyes as Vespa finished speaking. She growled and Juno raised his hands in surrender, pulling at his wounds and causing him to flinch. Vespa noticed and pulled out a pill bottle from her bag. She shook out two pills and handed them to him. He took them before relaxing back into his seat. It wasn’t long until Juno fell asleep. Vespa dropped off to sleep not long after.

Juno was the first to wake and he was sweating even though he was shaking from the cold. He let out a groan as he shifted. He sat still for a moment before suddenly reaching over for Vespa’s pack. Just as his hand landed on it, Vespa’s knife was at his throat.

“What are you doing?” Vespa growled as she pressed the knife into his skin. Juno’s eyes were wide in terror and he wasn’t sure what he should say. “Well?”

Juno was still trying to figure out what to say when his body spasmed from the position it was in. He felt the knife break skin as Vespa cursed and let go of him. She dropped the knife and shoved Juno upright to be able to look at the wound. She was cursing up a storm — at least Juno was pretty sure that the words were curses. He was lightheaded and the words weren’t Solar.

Juno closed his eyes as Vespa pulled her hand away as it was covered in blood. Even after all this time, he could feel his stomach tie into knots at the sight of blood. “Stay awake, Kedi,” Vespa growled as she dug through her bag.

Juno tried to talk but all that came out was a groan. “Don’t try to talk. I don’t think there’s a lot of damage but it’s gonna suck to talk till I have this patched at the least.” Juno didn’t try to say anything and didn’t even try to nod, knowing that it would hurt.

Vespa worked quickly to get his neck patched up and bandaged. Right before she let him go he felt a prick of a needle in his arm. “Damn, that's the last of that. Damn it, what the fuck do you think you were doing?”

Juno cleared his throat and was surprised when it didn’t hurt as bad as before. “Everything was hurting. Didn't want to wake you.”

“Never fucking do that again. I almost killed you.” Vespa’s hand went to her pack and handed him one pill from it. “This is all I can give you for the pain right now after that shot.”

Juno took the pill and swallowed it. “Was that shot one of the healing accelerators?”

“Yeah, it was. Picked it up from the battlefield before I found you.”

Juno sat there in silence for a while as the meds kicked in. He drifted off again.

The rest of the trip was spent in silence other than when Juno asked for another dose of pain pills. He was glad that Vespa never denied him a dose of meds even when he noticed her giving him a side-eye. They made it to Yama without further incident, and Juno followed Vespa through the station and to the outskirts of the city.

“Your partner knows I’m coming right?”

Vespa grunted, and Juno let it be. They made it to a hotel, and Vespa led the way through the back of the building and up to the room. When she opened the door, she greeted the redhead inside, “Elvira! I’m back with Kedi!”

Elvira turned and smiled at the door. “I’m glad that you made it back, darlings.” The voice calmed Juno for some reason, which afterwards caused him to tense.

Juno closed the door behind them as Vespa went to hug Elvira. “God, Bud, it’s been too long.”

Elvira-Buddy-whatever her name actually was said something in response, but Juno couldn’t hear her or Vespa.

Juno stood just inside the door as the two embraced, feeling uncomfortable with the affection. After a few moments, they parted, and Elvira looked at Juno straight on. The look that she gave Juno made him shift as it felt like she was looking into the deepest parts of him. She stepped away from Vespa. “Juno Steel, correct?” Juno nodded. “I’m Buddy Aurinko. My Vespa told me that you don’t want to go home?”

Juno shrugged, “If I went home, I’d probably end up back with the military. They already drafted me once, and I don't want to go back.”

Buddy hummed. “She also said you were a fantastic shot. Is that correct?” Juno nodded again. “Would you like to join us? Do not think you have to say yes. You don’t owe us anything for getting you this far.”

The glare that Vespa sent Juno made him think he only had one choice. “Sure, but I don’t even know what you do. I’m going to say this though: I’m not going to kill anyone for you.”

Buddy gave a full-on laugh at that, which caused Juno to turn red. “Who said anything about killing? A good blaster nowadays has a very functional stun setting. We’re thieves, not killers. So, do you want to join us?”

Juno hummed before nodding. “Sure.”

Buddy smiled before nodding. “Alright then.” Buddy led the way over to the table. “In about an hour, we have a meeting about transport to Solar after our next job. Before then, let's go over some things.”

For a while, Juno paid the barest attention to what was going on. His body was aching again and it was making it hard to pay attention. But he did catch when Buddy mentioned a name that he knew.

“Wait, did you just mention the Vixen Valley on Mars?”

Buddy hummed. “I did, I’d love to see if Valles would fence the diamond that we are going after, but my contact there recently got fired. You wouldn’t happen to have a phone number for someone who works there would you?”

“I did at the very least. I’m not sure if she still works there, but I have her comms number.” Juno refused to think about anything that had happened the last time he was on Mars.

Vespa sighed as she pulled out her comms and a bottle of pills. “Take one and we’ll call. It’s not that late in Hyperion.”

Juno takes the pills that Vespa handed him. He pulled out his comms, opened it up to his contacts, and called. It only rang for a second before it was answered, “Mista Steel! I thought you musta died!” Rita sounded like she was about to start crying.

“Not yet. Hey, I have a question for you.”

“What is it? Are you in need of some help identifying a stream? I’m real good at that, I’ve seen almost every stream in existence. Also, Miss Valles is very mad at you for leaving with that tab that you had.” Juno winced. He didn't even remember opening a tab, but it sounded like something he'd do. Especially after finding out about his death. At least as drunk as he'd been. He dropped his head knowing that he didn't have a dollar to his name now, and he didn't want to know how much the tab was for. He felt the curious and disbelieving looks that Buddy and Vespa were shooting him.

“No, it's not about a stream. If you could put me through to Ms. Valles, I'd appreciate it.”

Rita squeaked before saying, “Sure, no problem!” There were typing sounds for just a moment. “Miss Valles is in a meeting right now, but she said she’d take your call in about ten minutes. For now, she wants me to stay on the call with you which means I get to tell you about my newest favorite stream! The Curse of Impossible! Only the Impossible is Possible! Jennette is unable to do anything that is possible by everyone else and can only do the impossible!-”

Rita continued to ramble on about the stream as Vespa reached over and muted the comms mic. “When were you going to mention that you were in debt to Valles?”

“I didn’t know. When I was last on Mars, I’d just found out that my-” Juno’s voice cut off as it got stuck in his throat. “My brot-” His voice once again died in his throat. He clenched his fist as he tried again but nothing came out of his throat.

Buddy put her hand over his. “Don’t force yourself.”

Juno shook his head and was about to say something when another voice other than Rita came over the comms. “Rita, did you ask what Steel even wanted to talk to me about?” It was a voice that all three recognized, though for Juno it was only on the edges of his mind.

“I forgot to, Miss Valles,” Rita mumbled.

“Rita, we’ve talked about this. You have to get the reason that someone wants to talk to me when they call. But I’ll talk to him. Is he still on the call?”

“Yeah!” Rita chirped.

“Alright transfer the line to me. Go watch the club.”

“Yes, ma’am!” There was quiet on the line as Vespa unmuted the comms.

“Alright, Juno Steel, what did you want to talk about?” Valles asked.

Juno sat up as the other two looked at him. “It’s less me and some others that I have with me. They wanted to talk to you.”

“Alright then. Who’s with you?” Valles sounded curious.

“Buddy and Vespa,” Buddy said.

Valles gasped. “Steel, the last time I saw you, you were drowning your sorrows at the bottom of a glass, and trying to pay with an overdrawn military card. How in the world did you of all people end up with two of the best thieves in the galaxy?”

“By being blown up,” Juno deadpanned.

“Alright. So, Buddy, what do you have this time?”

Buddy launched into an explanation that Juno broke down to understand that they were going to be stealing a genuine Earth diamond. The rest of the details were how Buddy knew it was from Earth.

“Humm, I do have a client that will take that. So you have a price?”

“Of course. Let's remember that we are currently in the Rim, and the price is going to reflect that.”

“Of course. Just get on with it.” Valles sounded so done.

“Sixty thousand.”

“Hmm. That’s about what I can get out of my client. Can you go any lower?” They haggle for a while longer and eventually reach a number that they both agree on. Vespa lets out a breath as Buddy hangs up the comms.

“With that done we need to get moving. We have another meeting here in five. Chop chop, darlings.”

The other two rushed to get ready, and Buddy explained that they were meeting with the Unnatural Disaster to see if he would be their getaway driver and get them across the blockades. “What I want you to do, Juno dear, is just keep an eye out to see if anyone is going to interfere with our meeting. I doubt it, but one can never be too cautious.”

Juno nodded. It wasn’t long before they were making their way down the street to a bar that reminded Juno of the Pour and Floor. He shook his head, trying to free it from the memories. Buddy tapped him on the shoulder as they separated from Juno to meet with a giant of a man.

Juno went to the bar and sat down, scanning the crowd as he ordered a drink. This wasn’t much different than sitting in a sniper’s nest, just he knew he could use a stunner so he was already less stressed. At least, as long as he could keep his memories away from the last time he’d been in a bar like this.

As he ordered another drink, a man around the same age as him sat down next to him. When he called for the bartender with a raise of his hand, Juno noticed a blue ribbon wrapped around his wrist. It made him remember the first battle with Strong that instead of thinking about it he took a long drink from his glass.

Once the man had his drink he turned to Juno and said, “Hello, handsome. Mind telling me your name?”

Juno snorted into his drink as he took another sip of his drink. “You talking to me?”

“Why, who else could I be talking to?” The man smiled at Juno showing off sharp teeth that Juno couldn’t pull his eyes from.

“Almost anyone else?” Juno looked the man up and down, admitting, if only to himself, that the man was beautiful.

“I don't see anyone else here who could match your radiance.” The man leaned in, and Juno felt a hand land on his thigh as his nose was filled with the most intricate of scents.

Juno pulled away with a scoff. “I'm a scared mess, not a pretty lady.”

The man looked offended. “Well, I think that your scars make you beautiful.” The man's hand migrated on his thigh to his pocket. Juno let out a sigh as he grabbed the man's hand.

“Please, if this is a ploy to steal from me, give it up. I don't have anything of worth.” Juno downed the rest of his glass before standing. He leaned over and said into the man's ear, “Nice try though, I'll give you that.” With that, Juno let go of the man and walked over to Buddy and Vespa. Their conversation partner had left and Juno sat down in their seat.

Juno could tell just how well the conversation had gone by how stormy Vespa’s expression was. “Guessing you weren't successful in getting us a ride?”

Buddy nodded as Vespa let out a growl. Juno shrugged and looked at Buddy. “You already have an alternative plan don't you?”

Buddy nodded before saying, “We'll go back to the rooms to discuss what we are doing further. Come along, dears.”

They stood and followed Buddy out of the dingy bar and to the place they were staying. As they walked, a whistle caught Juno’s attention, and he turned to see a green car and the man from before. The man turned and smiled at Juno before bowing and getting into the car. Juno's face turned slightly red as he turned back to find Vespa and Buddy had continued without him. He caught up with them, and once they got to the hotel room, they went over the revised plan.

Chapter Text

Juno stood looking around the grand ballroom. The lady wasn’t sure why he had agreed with Buddy’s plan to have him in the middle of everything. He'd never been in this position and wasn't ready to start. He could still be thankful that he wasn’t in heels, which was mostly Vespa’s doing. She’d said that he wasn’t healed enough for heels.

Juno grabbed a glass as a waiter came by and downed half of it in one go. He heard a chuckle from behind him, and he turned to look at who’d laughed. They were pretty in a conventional sort of way, meaning they were entirely the wrong type of person for Juno.

“First time at a big event?” they asked.

“Yeah,” Juno muttered as he tried to remember the details of his cover story.

“Here, have this. It'll take the edge off all the people around you better than that drink.” Juno looked at them dumbfounded as they held out a small bag of pills. They chortled again before saying, “What? Don't tell me you're one of my momma's friends who doesn't indulge.”

Juno’s comms in his ear crackled to life. “Kedi, don’t you fucking dare take those drugs,” Vespa growled. He coughed before taking the pills. He placed several in his mouth before knocking them back with what was left of his drink. The other person smiled at him.

“What’s your name, handsome?”

“Celeste Riley, you?”

“Aimi Akari.”

Juno’s comms crackled to life again. This time it was Buddy. “Celeste, darling, keep her distracted. She's the daughter of the woman we're here to steal from.” Juno grunted in response. He swept his eyes over the crowd to make sure there hadn’t been a change before turning back to Aimi.

Aimi looked Juno up and down and said, “I’m glad that a lady like you isn't as uptight as the people that my mother prefers I hang around.”

Juno hummed. He wasn't sure what to say. He had never been good with words. Not like Ben. He shook his head trying to focus on what Aimi was saying, but his eyes were caught by people dancing and his thoughts were dragged even further to Benten.

“Do you want to dance?” Aimi grabbed at his hand. Juno pulled away as he shook his head.

“No. I’m not a good dancer anyway. I’ll just end up stepping on your feet.”

Aimi frowned. “You sure? I love dancing, you’d just have to follow my lead.”

Juno let out a growl before barking, “I’m sure.”

Aimi let it go, which Juno was grateful for. The lady was finally able to tear his eyes from the dancers and look at Aimi. She was looking away from him. Juno took the opportunity to scan the room again. As he did, he noticed for the first time that Buddy had entered the room.

Juno turned back to Aimi and was about to say something when a bomb went off. He dived for the floor on instinct. He collided with someone else as he took cover and used his body as a shield. He should have been doing this from the start. His life wasn't worth that of his brother and friends. He should have died saving them, not the other way around. The dame's thoughts continued to spiral as more bombs went off and the smell of smoke filled the air.

“Celeste, hey, we're okay. Take a deep breath for me,” Aimi said as she tried to get him off of her. Juno couldn’t get his thoughts in order as another what could only be a bomb went off. When he did take a breath, it didn't clear his head. All it did was make it feel like his throat was closing up. He could just barely make out someone saying something in his ear. He knew it had to be coming from a comms, if only because the sound was coming from one side.

Juno was lost in his head until he felt a hand on his shoulder. His panic rose, and he whipped around to face the person as he did, pulling his blaster from his holster. His eyes were barely able to focus on the mass of red hair before him. But he didn't have to focus with them so dang close. He wouldn't let someone else die on his watch. He wouldn't. So he aimed and was about to pull the trigger when the redhead wrenched the gun from his hand.

Juno scrambled back, keeping his body between the woman and Ben, wait no, Ridley, wait, that wasn’t right. It didn't matter who it was, he was going to protect them.

“Darling, what you’re hearing is fireworks, not bombs. Try and take a breath for me.” The redhead placed his blaster in a bag. Juno blinked hard and shook his head. He tried to take a breath and coughed as something caught in his throat. “Good, do you know where your inhaler is?” There was another loud bang that caused Juno to flinch.

Juno tried to think about where his inhaler was, but each bang that rang around them restarted his train of thought. He still wasn’t able to breathe, and he didn’t know where he was.

“You aren’t on the battlefield. Look around, and see for yourself.”

Juno turned his head and as he looked around knew that the person had been right. He wasn’t on the battlefield. None of the people around him were dressed in uniform. The building was too fancy to be a battlefield, too put together. He tried to remember what he had been doing.

“Celeste will be fine, darling. He’s just come back from the war on leave. I should have remembered to warn my daughter that there may have been fireworks here.” Now that Juno was calming down, he realized that he did know the redhead. Buddy. He hadn’t been at war in just over a week now. He was supposed to be a lookout. Damn it – he was failing at his job already.

“Ah, yeah, Mom said that she had just gotten in the fireworks. Didn’t think that there would be any soldiers here to worry about,” Aimi said from behind him.

Juno still struggled to take in a breath and remember what Buddy had asked earlier, about his inhaler. He dug around his pocket for a moment and pulled it out. His hands fumbled, and it landed next to Buddy. She picked it up and held it steady as he took a puff of the medicine.

After a few moments, Juno started to take fuller breaths while his body continued to shake. He couldn’t remember what her alias was at the moment, so he settled on, “Mother, can we leave?” He hoped that his shaking hid the flinch as he spoke.

Buddy hummed before she nodded. “Yes. Up you get.” Buddy got up and then helped Juno off the ground. Once he was standing, he looped an arm around Buddy’s shoulders as his legs shook. They made it out of there with little issue, and Buddy dropped Juno into the car that Vespa had procured.

“Sorry for ruining the job,” Juno said as he looked Buddy in the eye.

“Nonsense. Vespa got what we came here for, so a little deviation from the plan happened—no big deal. Life wouldn't be nearly as exhilarating if everything went as planned all the time. Rest now, we'll talk more about it later.” Buddy shut the car door before getting into the driver's seat.

Juno curled up in the backseat and tried to block out the galaxy for a bit. His mind was still flashing with bombs and blaster fire even though he knew he wasn't on the battlefield anymore.

It took until they were on their way to the shuttle port after stopping at the hotel for Juno to stop hearing and seeing the battlefield. He quickly changed out of his dress clothes in the back of the car before joining the others. They had, with the help of Rita, managed to get a semi-direct flight to Mars. Juno didn’t fully understand the complexity of traveling between Solar and the Outer Rim even now, but he did understand that this was a rare thing.

Juno ended up having to lean against the wall as the adrenaline drop combined with his inhaler and the drugs he’d taken left him unsteady on his feet. When he couldn’t lean against the wall, he hooked an arm over Buddy or Vespa and spent as little time as possible with his eyes open.

Thankfully, it wasn’t all that long before they were on the shuttle. They had a small area to themselves which Juno was grateful for when he passed out on one of the fold-down beds.

When Juno woke, he groaned and tossed an arm over his eyes to block out the light.

“Steel, what in the world were you doing when you took the pills?” Vespa rasped.

Juno shrugged. He hadn’t been thinking about it, and he didn't want to. When Juno didn’t say anything, Vespa growled.

“You shouldn't hide anything from your doctor. I already know that you were abusing the pain pills you had on you when I found you.”

Juno lifted the arm off his face and glared at Vespa. All Vespa did was glare back at him. Their glaring match was interrupted by Buddy coming back into the cabin. “Did I interrupt something?”

Vespa shook her head, and Juno turned to look at the wall. Buddy shook her head disapprovingly and sat down next to Vespa.

“How are you feeling, Juno?” Buddy asked.

“Like shit.” Juno rolled back onto his back. “But it’s better than it was. Know I’m not at war anymore.”

“Good, good. Are you feeling up to going over the mission?”

Juno shrugged as he sat up. “Sure.”

Buddy launched into an explanation of what went right and what went wrong. As she got to the end of her spiel, Juno was feeling good until Buddy said, “Now while I can’t say that your panic attack wasn't a good distraction, I do want to keep that from being the outcome in the future. Do you know what triggered that panic attack?”

Juno shrugged. “Not sure to be honest. I’ve not been around much since I’ve been away.”

“Steel, you took some type of pill, didn’t you?” Juno turned to look at the wall as he nodded. Vespa continued, “Did you even ask what it was?”

“No, didn’t have to. Knew what it was from the start.”

“What was it then?”

“Sol.”

“Soloxone?” Vespa asked. Juno nodded causing Vespa to curse. “That may be why you had such an intense episode. Soloxone when mixed with the meds you’ve been on for pain can cause intense anxiety and hallucinations. Doesn’t help that we didn’t know that there would be fireworks. Those things would've caused anyone that’s been on the battlefield to think they were being attacked.”

Buddy nodded along. “That’s for sure. I saw several others around the room reach for weapons when they started. Hopefully, our next job won’t have any unforeseen elements like that. If we do run into other complications that cause you to have flashbacks, we’ll just have to work through them.”

Juno’s jaw dropped as he whipped around to look at Buddy. After a moment he managed to get his thoughts together. “Then you aren’t going to make me leave?”

Buddy shook her head. “No, we aren’t, darling. This was the first time you have done anything of this magnitude. There is a lot to learn, and you aren’t going to learn without making mistakes. You didn’t break our cover even though you had to be blindingly disoriented after that flashback. You did very well.”

Juno nodded before lying back down. Buddy let him be. Vespa got him up after a while and gave him one of the pills from the bottle that she had taken off him originally. She then examined him before helping him do some exercises that she had started back in the shelter.

That was how their days went until they were about a week past the transfer point and firmly in Solar territory. Juno had gotten somewhat used to Vespa giving him his pills when he asked for them, but that morning she refused. Juno growled as he glared at Vespa. “What? Why not?”

Vespa glared back. Juno was about to start shouting when she said, “I can’t give you any more pills ‘cause I’ve run out. I’ve been stretching them as far as I could, to be honest. Luckily at this point, you shouldn’t suffer the worst parts of withdrawal. I’ve been lowering the dose as much as I could to stretch it out.”

“Fuck. You don’t have anything else to give me?”

Vespa shook her head. “Not that’s gonna help with the withdrawal. At this point though, do you still have any physical pain?”

Juno shrugged. “Not really.”

Vespa hummed. “Good. I'll continue to monitor you but for now, get some rest.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” Juno laid down on his bunk, despite his protests.

The next few days were rough, to say the least. Juno ended up sweating through all of his clothes and most of the time could barely hold down water, let alone food. His already disturbed and broken sleep got worse as the nightmares caused by the drugs did. There was also one night in particular where Juno spent the entire night trying to fight against too-tense muscles. Afterwards, things got better to the point that he could eat and sleep regularly. Even so, Juno was still shaky on his feet as they disembarked on Mars.

They made their way to the Vixen Valley and got paid for the gem without issues other than Juno getting the death glare from the woman who stood at Vicki’s side. Juno wasn’t sure what her deal was, and the deal that Buddy worked out for his debts to Vicki confused him.

They stayed in the Valley for a bit talking to Rita and seeing if she would be interested in helping them with their heists. Once again, Juno was pretty sure that Rita’s neck would snap as she nodded. But that was about as far as they got as they needed to head out of Hyperion before they got caught by one of the few competent members of the HCPD.

As they headed out of Hyperion to what Buddy called the Lighthouse, Juno asked her about the deal they had struck. “Why did you make the deal with Vicki?”

“Whatever do you mean, darling?”

“Why did you say that you would take on my debts? My debts coming out from anything you fence to Vicki?”

Buddy shook her head but Vespa was the first to speak. “It’s not from our cut, Steel. It’s from yours. Did you think we wouldn’t split the profits with you?” Juno shrugged.

“We’re a family now, darling. You are going to get paid for each job you do, the ones we end up working with Vicki for just means that you won’t get as much. It’s better to have a way to pay off your debts than letting them pile up.”

Juno nodded dumbfounded and sat back in the stolen car. Family, huh? Maybe, just maybe, they were. But Juno still didn’t know if he wanted to trust her words, but maybe if things continued like this he would be able to.

Chapter Text

Juno stood before his twin’s grave thinking about how his life had changed. He had been on the path to be a police officer, and then a soldier, but now? He was a thief, a conman, no better than the people he was at one point supposed to help put away. But he wasn’t a killer anymore, and well, that was something that he was glad about.

“Kedi!” Vespa called from the entrance of the graveyard.

Juno turned after saying goodbye to the headstone and walked to join Vespa. “Did Buddy get another job lined up for us?”

Vespa nodded but didn't say anything as she walked to the car. Juno followed her, and it was only once they were in the car that she spoke up. “It's on Ganymede. As soon as we make it back to the Lighthouse we're leaving.”

Juno hummed. It had been a few months since joining Buddy and Vespa, and things had been going well. The jobs weren't anything like that first one, and Juno had found that Buddy had stood by what she said: he hadn’t killed anyone since joining her.

They were thieves, yes, but they weren't stealing from people that were like him and Benzaiten, or the Wires, or anyone else that called Oldtown home. No, instead they stole from the people like the Kanagawas, those who had so much money and wealth they wouldn't even know what was missing.

“Is Rita going to be working with us again?”

Vespa nodded. “Yeah, the job’s for Vicki. You’ve grown close to her, haven’t you?”

Juno nodded. “Maybe it’s more like she’s grown on me. I still can’t follow her train of thought.”

Vespa laughed. “I don’t think any of us can.”

Juno huffed before shifting in his seat. They had almost made it to the Lighthouse; it was almost work time again.

Juno got enough time to finish packing for the job before they had to get onto the ship leaving the Cerberus Province. Juno sighed as he leaned back in his seat and tried to ignore how his skin itched.

“Steel, you alright over there?” Vespa growled from her seat across from him.

“I'm fine.” Vespa squinted at him but let it be.

Juno managed to sit still for twenty more minutes before the itchiness got to be too much. He got up and rushed to the restroom.

Juno rested against the wall for a moment or two before reaching into his pocket for a baggie of pills. He pulled a couple out and was about to swallow them when someone landed in front of him. Juno wouldn’t admit that he let out a little screech at their appearance, sending the pills flying as he scrambled for his blaster.

That was until he noted the green hair as the person revealed herself to be Vespa. “What the fuck?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” Vespa bent over and grabbed the bag from where it landed. “Care to explain why the fuck I found you taking drugs in the bathroom?”

Juno growled. Vespa continued to glare at him. After a few moments, Juno did not answer. She took another glance at the pills before tucking them into her pocket. She grabbed Juno by the collar, pulling him away enough to get the door open before shoving him through it. She changed her grip on Juno to keep him in front of her and forced him to make his way back to their seats.

“Let me go!” Juno shouted as he tried to get free. Vespa just continued to shove him. Once they were there, Vespa tossed him as Buddy raised an eyebrow at the scene.

“Mind explaining what’s going on, darlings?”

Juno huffed but didn’t respond as he righted himself in his seat.

Vespa on the other hand took a breath before pulling out the bag that Juno had dropped. “Caught Kedi with this.”

Buddy’s eyes hardened as she looked at Juno. Juno shrunk in his seat and looked away from the two.

“Juno, you should have said something.”

Juno scoffed.

Vespa growled before she dropped into her seat. “I thought you said that the cravings were getting better?”

Juno shrugged.

“Steel, we're trying to help.”

“Never asked you to.”

Vespa growled, but Buddy was the one to speak. “We’re family, Juno. Family takes care of each other.”

“Not in my experience.”

Buddy sighed but didn’t say anything else, clearly knowing that at this point Juno wouldn’t listen. Vespa tucked the pills away as she walked off, and Buddy knew she would be back later. She turned her attention back to her comms but kept an eye on Juno.

It wasn’t long before Vespa came back and sat down next to Buddy to look at the article that she had pulled up. “What’s the news got to say about us this time?”

“Just that they’ve noticed our darling Juno.”

“Have they? Have they put a name to him?”

“Not exactly, this one is calling him our ‘Prodigal Satellite’, but there’s no one else other than Juno that it could be.”

Vespa burst out laughing. It took several minutes for her to stop, all the while Juno glared at her. “I think that’s the worst moniker I’ve ever heard the news give someone.”

“It isn't the best, but there is no mention of his real name. Some mentions of Kedi Ayla and other aliases, but no Juno Steel.”

“That's good right?” Juno asked.

“Mhm, at this point there are no connections at all. Meaning our plans to keep your real name off record are working.”

“Why are we even bothering with it? Both of us are so well known that it’s only a matter of time before they figure out who Kedi is.”

“That may be, but Juno brought to my attention that the army may still want him back. He was their ace sniper. It’s better for now that it doesn’t happen. We don’t need the military tracking us.”

Vespa hummed, and their conversation shifted to less serious matters for the rest of the trip to Ganymede. Once they arrived, they headed to the hotel that they were going to be staying in for the time being.

They went over the plans one last time before getting dressed for the heist. Juno was dressed to be in the middle of the ball with Buddy while Vespa was dressed in a server’s uniform. When Vespa went to leave ahead of the other two, Buddy pulled her in for a kiss before letting her go. “Good luck, my love.” Vespa turned red and nodded before slipping her comms into her ear and leaving.

When they headed out about ten minutes later and put in their comms, they could hear Rita rambling about a stream. There wasn’t anything from Vespa, but that wasn’t odd. She was known to mute her comms during the early part of missions.

“Rita, darling, what is my rule about comms?” Buddy asked as they got into the elevator.

“Not to talk about streams while on a job.”

Buddy hummed and nodded. “Erato, how far out are you?”

“Just got into position.”

“Good. Deirdre and I are almost there. Rita, do you have eyes on the paintings?”

“Just about. Their security system is so old that it’s really slow in getting the feeds to show back here. Give Rita five more minutes and I’ll have them.”

Buddy nodded. “Let us know as soon as you do.”

“Yes, Miss Buddy.”

Buddy took Juno’s hand as they made it to the line to get into the ball. Juno took a breath and tried to calm down. This was only his third mission going undercover at an event like this, but he felt much more prepared than the last two. It wasn’t long before they were in the main hall and Juno was taking stock of everything. He could just make out Vespa in the crowd, but he didn’t let his eyes linger on her.

“Darling?”

Juno shook his head, and Buddy hummed. They went further into the venue, and Buddy distracted another partygoer with idle talk as Juno continued to look around. So far, nothing out of the ordinary.

Rita let out a squeak. “Oooh no. This isn’t good.”

“What is it, hacker?” Vespa asked.

“They moved the paintings. I don’t know where yet. I’ll update you as soon as I do.”

Juno saw Buddy tense in the corner of his eye, but it didn’t seem like the people talking to her noticed. Juno had to hide the wince as Vespa let out a growl over the comms. This truly had already started in the wrong direction.

Juno tried to keep up with what Buddy was talking about with the two women but it wasn’t anything interesting. At least not until he heard one of the two say, “Colonel Absolon should be here tonight. He’s one of the guests of honor.”

Juno’s blood froze in his veins as he tried to catch up to what they had been talking about. The name had to be a coincidence. One woman cackled before saying, “Surely not!? He’s got better things to do now that he’s no longer running that dreadful boot camp on Myrina.”

“Darling, is something wrong?” Buddy put her hand on his shoulder.

“No. I just didn't think that someone of such a high rank would be here.” Juno tried to hide the shake in his voice.

“Me neither, to be honest. But you never know anymore. The war is winding down, and it looks like the Rim is going to surrender any day now,” the first said.

“After two hundred years? I wouldn’t think so.” Juno couldn’t hide his distaste. There was no way. The last news that Rita had given them had pointed to nothing changing with the war.

The other two women hummed and nodded as Buddy tapped out their ‘Okay?’ sign on the inside of his arm. Juno shifted and tapped back the ‘no’ response.

Buddy got them away from the conversation and to a secluded spot with little delay. “We've got a problem. Absolon will know my face.”

“Really? How could you have left enough of an impression on a colonel for them to remember you?” Vespa huffed.

Juno winced. “By being the best shot and a lot of fights. Also, he was a captain at the time. I was at his boot camp.”

Vespa let out another huff as there was more noise on her side. Buddy seemed to be taking a moment to think.

“Rita?”

“Yes, Miss Buddy?”

“How close are you to finding the paintings?”

“I think I've juuust about got them!” There was the noise of her keyboard and then, “Aha gotcha! Found ‘em!”

“Good. Vespa worked with Rita to get the paintings as planned. Juno and I are going to try and keep Juno from being spotted by his old commanding officer.”

Juno disconnected his comms as Buddy did the same. “How is your dancing?”

Juno shrugged trying to repress the thoughts of his brother. He shuddered before saying, “Well enough, but don’t expect me to lead.”

Buddy nodded and led him out to the dance floor. As a new song started Buddy started to lead him around the ballroom. As they danced Juno felt tears come to his eyes. It had been so long since he had last danced, and it reminded him of doing so with Ben.

“Are you alright?” Buddy paused and looked at him with kind eyes.

“Yeah, just reminded me of the last person I danced with.”

Buddy hummed as she pulled him back into the dance. As they continued to dance, Juno kept an eye out for both Absolon and the security moving to the back rooms. Once or twice Juno thought he had spotted the colonel, but it either wasn't him or they weren't close enough for Juno to seriously worry.

Suddenly the music came to an end and Absolon took the stage. “There wasn’t supposed to be a speech by anyone tonight was there?”

Buddy shook her head as she reconnected her comms. Juno followed suit just in time to hear Vespa cursing. “How is everything going?”

“It would go better if the hacker knew her left from her right.”

“It's not my fault that they're so similar! I just get confused.”

Vespa growled, but before she could say anything Buddy cut in, “Keep working on it and be careful. Rita, there aren't any new announcements from the military are there?”

“Uhuh. I can look again but there wasn’t anything this mornin’.”

“Focus on the job for now.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Buddy was about to say something when Absolon started speaking into the microphone. Juno tensed up and lost where he was for a moment, missing part of what Absolon said. His brain caught back up with everything just in time for Absolon to say, “-there is hope for an end to the war. We strive for it every day-”

Juno scoffed and tuned back into Vespa’s fight with Rita. “Hacker!”

“Sorry! They look the same to me! You’re almost there though! That’s the last corner!” Juno could hear Rita typing through the comms. “I’ve disabled the security around the paintings already.”

“Good.”

Juno watched as Absolon walked off the stage and towards the back area where Vespa had gone. He looked around and noticed some of the security heading that way as well. “You sure about that? Security’s heading towards Erato. Could be an issue as Absolon will shoot to kill.”

“What do you mean?”

“The military has the bounties. Absolon had always mentioned that if he ever ran across anyone with a bounty he would kill them no questions asked.”

“How the fuck do you remember that?” Vespa asked.

Juno shrugged. “Hard to forget it when he oversaw the range most of the time and would bring it up. Mostly to keep us from thinking about turning traitor, or so he said.”

Buddy shook her head as Rita gasped, “What happened?”

“An alarm has been set off. I'm not sure how. But I'm working as fast as possible to get them turned back off.”

“Do you have access to the other alarms?” Buddy had her thinking face on. Juno kept his eyes around them and didn’t see anyone paying any attention to them. Most of them were talking about Absolon’s speech.

There was some typing before Rita spoke, “Yep! I have access to everything, bombing, sandstorm, fire, theft…”

Juno saw the idea light up Buddy’s eyes. “The fire alarm, can you set it off with it indicating a fire on the other side of the building?”

Rita hummed as she typed before saying, “Looks like it, Miss Buddy! Do you want me to do so?”

“Yes.”

“Alright! One false alarm coming right up!” A moment later the fire alarm was going off, causing Juno to flinch.

It only took a moment for the party to descend into chaos and everyone to start rushing for the exits. Buddy pulled out her blaster and Juno followed suit. They headed in the same direction as the security members and struck each of them with a stunner as they came across them.

They had just taken out a large group of security guards when Vespa reported, “I’ve got the paintings. I’m heading back to the hotel.”

“Good. Report when you make it out.”

Vespa hummed affirmatively. Juno kept an eye out as they started to retreat to make their way out as well. It didn’t take them long to get out as everyone they ran into was either trying to get away as well or were dealt with a shot from their blasters.

They managed to make it out around the same time that Vespa reported that she had as well. From there they headed in circles for a bit before heading back to their hotel room. As they traveled, they had Rita talking their ears off about several streams as she gave status reports on the security and if they were being followed.

They made it back to the hotel without any people following them, and Vespa crawled through the window not long after them.

“Good job, everyone.” Buddy pulled Vespa in for a kiss before taking the paintings from her and laying them out. Juno looked at them and didn’t know what could be so important about some swirls and globs of paint, but a payday was a payday.

“You think they are the real things?” Vespa asked.

Buddy pulled out her comms and took pictures of the paintings. “Looks to be. Vicki’s contact will be the final call on it. Rita darling, I’m about to send the close-up shots.”

Rita hummed before saying, “Got them! I’ll send them right away.”

“Good, that’s all for tonight. We’ll debrief in the morning. Get some rest.”

Juno nodded as he pulled out his comms before heading to the bathroom to get changed out of the dress. When he went to bed, he could still hear Vespa and Buddy talking in the other room. He tried to fall asleep but wasn’t able to get the visions of war to leave him alone. Combined with the itching that returned any time he didn't keep himself occupied, he was beyond restless. After a while, he couldn’t stand it anymore, tossed on his coat, grabbed his blaster, and snuck out of the room.

Juno walked the streets for a bit, taking in the sights.

“Hey kid!” someone shouted. Juno turned to look at them. “You look like you’re having a rough time. I’ve got something that’ll take your mind off anything that could be bothering you.”

Juno grunted but didn’t even have to think before he struck a deal with the unlikely vendor. As he walked back to the hotel, he took the pills and hoped that he would make it back before the high kicked in. He didn’t need to pass out in the streets.

Not like he was worth much to Buddy and Vespa. He was destroying their profit margins. It would be better if he wasn’t there.

Juno sighed as he took another one and hoped that the person had been right about forgetting everything. His life was just a big mistake. He shouldn’t be here. Ben should be. But he was in a grave on Mars. Because Juno hadn’t been there to protect him.

If what Absolon had said was true, maybe it was the end of the war, but it couldn’t bring Ben back. It was half a decade too late to do that. He didn’t deserve to live when his brother couldn’t. But those thoughts started to dissipate as he made it back to the hotel.

Juno wasn’t sure how long he stood in front of the hotel room door before it was yanked open. He couldn’t get his thoughts in order and so all he did was stare as Vespa glared at him.

“Where the fuck did you go?” When Juno just continued to stare, Vespa cursed before grabbing him by his lapels and pulling him into the room. As soon as the door closed, Vespa growled, “What did you take?”

Juno shrugged, he wasn’t concerned about it. His mind was quiet. That was all that mattered.

Vespa let out a string of curses as she started to pat him down. He struggled a bit, but he couldn’t figure out why she was doing so. Not with his mind so free of thoughts. That was until she found the pills.

“Steel,” Vespa seethed, “want to explain where you got the pills from?”

Juno shrugged before answering, “Bought them.”

Vespa’s face twisted with anger. “So you went out to buy drugs?”

Juno looked away. “Couldn’t sleep.”

“You could have said something. If we don’t know you’re having issues, we can’t help you.”

Juno didn’t react, and Vespa just let out another huff. “Go sleep. We’ll talk more in the morning.”

Juno did so, and Vespa tossed the pills into her bag. She stayed up though, listening for Juno and looking through medical pages on her comms.

Vespa wasn’t sure how long she sat there, as the nights on Ganymede were long, but eventually, she was disturbed by the sounds of Juno rushing to the bathroom and then throwing up. Vespa grabbed her medical bag before following him.

With Juno collapsed against the wall, Vespa sighed as she opened her kit on the counter, “You know Buddy and I would help you get clean, right?”

Juno shrugged and refused to look at her.

“You want to get clean, right?”

All Juno did was shrug again.

Vespa sighed and handed him a nausea pill before packing back up her stuff. “Call if you need anything.”

Vespa was working on getting everything packed up when Buddy came out of the room. “Did you get any sleep last night?”

Vespa shook her head. Buddy walked over to her and pulled her into her arms. “You know we can’t make Juno do anything he doesn’t want to, right?”

“He’s going to kill himself if he keeps on going like this. He doesn’t even know what he took. He keeps at it like this and he’s going to screw it up and overdose and die.”

Buddy released Vespa as they heard Juno come into the room. “Do you guys really want to help?”

“Of course darling. We care about you and I’d hate to see you ruin that mind of yours taking those drugs.”

“You think I could get clean?”

“Kedi, I’m pretty sure you could do anything that you put your mind to. Do you want to get clean?”

Juno nodded and the other two smiled before Buddy said, “Then we’ll help you get clean.”

They sat down in that hotel room to start talking about how they could best help Juno achieve his goals.

Chapter Text

Juno took a deep breath as he set up the rifle under the harsh starlight. It wouldn’t be long before he was lying prone and taking shots as a sniper again.

It reminded him of his time in the military, but this time with a gun that had its kill setting disabled.

“Juno, are you almost finished?” Buddy’s voice crackled through his comms.

“Yeah.”

“Have you seen anyone else setting up?” Vespa asked.

“I think so, but they look to be part of the on-site security, like Buddy said there would be. I’ll take them out first before the main event,” Juno answered as he got into position to start planning his shots. A few of them would be difficult, yes, but nothing he couldn’t do.

Buddy hummed. “We're going to go ahead and go silent.”

Juno hummed affirmatively before the comms went silent. He finished getting set up and started going over the event location again. He couldn't understand why someone would want to do a big open-air event like this. Not with so many expensive relics on display. Not even with the fact that the war was finally over.

It wasn’t long before the first speaker got up on the stage and Juno took aim at the first of the guards that were posted on the other buildings. He shot the guard before quickly lining up his next shot. He took it as soon as possible before lining up the third and final shot to take out the guards. It was the trickiest, if only because he had to bounce the shot three times before it struck his target.

Juno let himself celebrate a little as he turned his focus back to the gathering just in time to see Buddy and Vespa join in the festivities.

For the first little bit, everything went exactly as planned. They approached their target, and Buddy had even gotten their haul before being noticed.

It was actually as they were trying to get away that Juno saw that their target noticed that they were getting away with their haul. He didn't focus on them, though, they weren't a threat to his family.

No, instead he took aim at the security on the ground that were heading towards Buddy and Vespa. He fired round after round, each shot landing on his intended target, clearing the path for Buddy and Vespa.

It wasn’t long before they were clear of the venue. There wasn’t a guard left standing that could interfere with them getting back to the hotel, so Juno started to pack up his blaster as he called Buddy’s comms.

“Hello, darling.”

“I’m headed back to the hotel. Do you think you are going to need any backup?” Juno asked as he slung his bag over his shoulder.

“At this point? No. But if you would set up Plan B.”

Juno frowned. “You think someone is following you?”

“Possibly. Vespa seems to think so.”

Juno hummed. “Alright. I’ll head that way to get set up. Be safe.”

“You too, darling,” Buddy said before disconnecting the call.

It didn’t take long for Juno to make his way to the streets where he was able to blend in with the rest of the people who were fleeing the shots that had long since stopped coming. He went with the flow of the bodies until he found the little alleyway he needed to head down to make it to his second perch of the night. He grabbed onto the fire escape ladder and started to climb.

Juno made sure not to look down at the ground as he moved along the fire escape as quietly as he possibly could. It had been a long time since he had to be sneaky in this way, but it brought back memories of sneaking out of the apartment when he was a child. He had to shake his head and remember he wasn’t running away from his mother anymore, no, he was trying to help Buddy and Vespa - his new family - make it back home safely.

Juno froze halfway up the ladder and tried to push away the thought but wasn’t able to. “Damn it,” he cursed as he continued to climb. He couldn’t think about that now. Not when he still had a job to do.

Juno made it to the top of the fire escape and climbed onto the roof. He got set up looking towards their hotel and laid in to wait, checking his comms as he did. No new messages, and the time told him that it would be at least an hour before he could expect Buddy and Vespa to come through. He tried his hardest not to think about anything and tried to enter the same mode he had always done in the army with Ridley by his side.

He wasn’t able to. No matter what he did, his thoughts either went back to the fact that he saw Buddy and Vespa as parents or to the fact that Ridley wasn’t with him this time, and it was his fault that he didn’t have his friend by his side. Not even watching the people and trying to figure out what they were doing rushing around could keep his brain off those two thoughts.

Juno kept his eyes on the building across the way as he pulled out his comms and dialed a number. It only rang a few times before a chipper voice answered. “Whatcha need Mista Steel? Need me to look up anything for you and Miss Buddy?”

“No. I’m just waiting for them to get back. We had a slight complication. Nothing too big, but now I’ve got nothing to do but wait for them.”

Rita hummed before she launched into an explanation of the newest stream that she had been watching. Juno couldn’t follow much other than one character had cheated on the other with the lead but was just glad that it got him out of his head enough that he could settle down and wait.

Rita continued to talk about one stream after the next until his comms beeped with an incoming call. He looked at it just as Rita said, “Miss Buddy’s calling you. Do you want me to put it through?”

“You can do that?”

“Of course I can!”

Juno shook his head before saying, “Go ahead then.”

“Has anyone suspicious come by?” Buddy asked in lieu of a greeting.

“Nope, are you almost back?”

“Yes, we are taking the last corner now.” As she said that, Juno looked, and as she said, he could just make out her and Vespa. There was something dark on Vespa’s clothes and it made him worry.

“Did you run into trouble?”

“Nothing that Vespa couldn’t handle. We’re both uninjured.”

“Good, I'll stay here for a few minutes and then follow you inside.”

“Be safe.”

Juno hummed and cut off his comms. He stayed in position until he saw the lights come on in their room. He packed up and then had to make his way down the fire escape without looking at the ground. Once he was back on solid ground he let out a breath before he headed to the hotel.

When Juno made it to the hotel, Buddy was sitting there looking over their spoils. “Did Vespa already go to bed?”

Buddy nodded. “I was waiting for you to get back. We’ll debrief in the morning.”

Juno nodded as he dropped his bag on the floor. He headed to his room and dropped onto the bed. He knew he should change out of his mission clothes, but after sitting on a rooftop for the whole day he was exhausted. He hadn’t spent that much time that focused since the war. He’d forgotten how much energy it took.

He wasn’t sure how much time he spent lying on his bed. His thoughts kept being drawn to the war and Ridley. When he sat up and rubbed at his eyes his hand came away wet. He didn’t deserve to cry; it was his fault that Ridley and the others were dead. He’d been the idiot who decided to get high on a battlefield. Ridley was right: he had gotten them all killed. Just like he had gotten Ben killed because he wasn’t there to protect him.

Juno rubbed the tears away before leaving his room. He wanted the memories to leave him alone. He knew that everything was his fault, and there wasn’t anything to be done now. He just wanted to sleep. Surely he would be able to find someone with something that would help with that.

When he was digging one of his smaller blasters out of his bag, he spotted Vespa’s medical bag and remembered a conversation between her and Buddy that he was sure that he wasn’t meant to hear. She had picked up sleeping pills right before they left. He went over to the bag and only had to dig through it for a moment before he found them.

He swallowed a few before heading back to his room and tucking the bottle between his clothes. He laid down, and it didn’t take long for the pills to kick in.

Juno woke up to a knife resting against his skin. He pushed the arm away as he reached for his blaster before he realized it was Vespa. “What the fuck?”

“Where’s the pills?” Vespa hissed.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Juno sat up and placed the blaster back on his bed.

Vespa growled, “The pills that were in my bag. Does that ring a bell?”

Juno shrugged before he shoved passed Vespa and headed out to the ensuite kitchen. He started up the coffee maker as he heard Vespa follow him.

“Steel, I know you took them. Was what you said last year a lie? Have you been lying about wanting to get clean?”

Juno started to shiver as he shook his head. “I didn’t take them.”

Vespa’s grip tightened on her knife as Juno sat down with his cup of coffee. Vespa sat down across from him. They sat there in silence until Buddy came out of the room that she shared with Vespa.

“Either of you two want to explain what’s going on?” Buddy asked as she moved around them to make breakfast.

Vespa sighed before saying, “He broke into the medical supplies again.”

“I did not! You don’t have proof!”

Buddy sighed. Juno has been clean for a while now. Vespa had mentioned that she was starting to think that she could stop carrying the small doses of antagonists to counteract his drugs of choice.

“Steel,” Vespa growled.

“What? I didn’t take anything! I can’t even break into your room without either of you two waking up. How in the world would I get your supplies?” Juno retorted.

Vespa’s face screwed up as she shoved from the table. “They weren’t in mine and Bud’s room last night.”

“Like hell! You have made sure that they were with you since two weeks after I joined the two of you!”

Buddy sighed as she pinched her nose. She remembered that not all their stuff made it back to the room last night. They had all been exhausted after the heist. The medical kit that Vespa carried with her, which was the only one with meds that they knew Juno abused, had been with them the night before, meaning it should have been in their room.

“What are you accusing Juno of taking, darling?”

“The sleeping pills that I picked up right before we left.”

Buddy sighed as she looked back at Juno. It was still too early for this, but it had to be dealt with now. If Juno had been abusing sleeping pills, the same ones that Vespa had divulged to her that she had gotten for Juno, they needed to know now rather than when he passed out because he had taken them. “Is that true, Juno?”

Juno looked away from the two. He mumbled something too low for them to hear anything.

“Steel,” Vespa hissed.

Juno looked to the side as he clutched his coffee mug. “I just wanted to sleep.”

Vespa’s face softened a bit. “Kedi,” Vespa waited until Juno looked back at her, “you need to talk to us. I was going to talk to you about possibly taking sleeping pills to help with the nightmares.”

Juno's face twisted in anger. “Then why are you so mad that I took them? You meant them for me, so what's the big issue?”

“Because you have a history of drug abuse. Seaking drugs of any sort isn't good. Let alone taking them without knowing the correct dose.”

Juno scoffed, causing Vespa's grip on her knife to tighten till her knuckles went white. Buddy put her hand on Vespa’s shoulder and sent a disappointed look to Juno’s way.

“Juno, darling, you know we only want you to be safe, right?”

Juno shrugged and Buddy sighed. “Can you at least tell us where the bottle is?”

Juno deflated before saying, “In my clothes bag.”

Buddy left the room and Juno just slumped in his seat. When she came back she had the bottle in her hand and handed it to Vespa, who got up and went to their room. Juno just sat there as Buddy went back to making breakfast.

Once the breakfast was ready, Vespa came back out, and they ate and went over the mission. After breakfast was done, Juno started doing the dishes. Vespa joined him, and he tried to ignore her for as long as possible.

They were almost done with the dishes when Vespa spoke. “What else should I avoid giving you?”

Juno thought for a few moments before answering, “Nothing, just narcotics and sedatives, those were the only two things I’ve taken in the past.”

Vespa nodded before leaving Juno to finish up. She left not long after to meet their client leaving him and Buddy alone. He got out his blaster cleaning kit and sat down across from Buddy who was reading something on her comms.

“Do you want me to clean yours?”

“Sure, darling. But if you’re doing it as an apology for last night-”

Juno cut her off, “No, it’s just that cleaning has always been able to take my mind off things.”

Buddy nodded and handed hers over to him. He started with it as Buddy went back to her reading. They sat there in silence other than when Juno handed Buddy back her blaster. That was until Buddy scoffed as she tossed her comms onto the table. Juno looked over at her as he finished maintenance on his own blaster. “Did the contact break the deal?”

Buddy shook her head. “No, Vespa massaged and said she's on her way back.”

“Then what's up?”

Buddy sat and thought for a moment. Juno grabbed the rifle that was nearby and started to tear it down to clean it.

“Do you know what the Guardian Angel System is?” Buddy asked as she grabbed her comms off the table.

“No. Is that a security system we're going to have to maneuver around during our next job?”

Buddy let out a mirthless laugh. “No it is not. The Guardian Angel System is a security system of sorts if you want to look at it that way. What do you know of Brahma?”

Juno sat there for a moment trying to remember if he had ever heard of the planet. “It’s a planet a few systems over. Near Ranga and Saraswati. There's an asteroid near it that had a large settlement before the end of the war. I don’t think I was ever on it during the war so that’s about all I know.”

Buddy nodded. “I would expect that the Solar Government wouldn't find use in trying to take a planet that was already a blood bath without their intervention. The Guardian Angel System, GAS for short, is a ‘planetary defense system’ that plays judge, jury, and executor on Brahma's citizens from a floating city.”

“Okay, so it's a horrible thing that needs to be stopped. Is that our next job then?”

“No, I fear we would be killed before we could get anywhere near enough to shut the system down. Not after what had happened some years before we met you.”

Juno let out a frustrated huff. “Then what is your point in even bringing up the Guardian Angel System and Brahma If we aren't going to be doing anything about it?”

“Because, darling, they have just compared you to the Guardian Angel System. Calling you our personal if less deadly Guardian Angel System.”

Juno’s face did some interesting gymnastics as the lady tried to piece together what he was feeling. After a while, he settled on saying, “You said something happened years ago now what was it?”

Buddy hummed. “I'm not as familiar with it as Vespa, but as far as anyone knows someone managed to get in and was caught trying to disable the system. There's not much else known other than his name: Peter Nureyev.”

“Huh, never heard of him.”

“I'm not surprised at all. Brahma never put out a wanted poster for Peter Nureyev. There hasn't been a trace of him since then either. Some say he was killed that day, and others say he got away.”

It was then that the door to their room was tossed open and Vespa strode into the room. She looked between the two of them before asking, “What are you two talking about?”

“Just the newest headlines about us. Juno got a new title today.”

“Is it as ridiculous as his last one?” Vespa asked as Juno turned bright red.

Buddy shook her head, “No the Outer Rim has a much better analogy for Juno than Solar.”

Vespa paused for a second before her eyes went wide. “The GAS system?” Buddy nodded. “They are fucking calling him after the damned Guardian Angel System!?” Vespa's voice was full of fury, causing Juno to shrink back in his seat.

“Vespa, darling, calm down. Him being compared to the GAS is horrific in one way, they also mentioned in the article that they are doubtful it is a person because he's such a good shot.”

Juno huffed. There wasn’t much to say about that. If they didn’t believe that he was human, well at least there would be less suspicion when they were traveling. Even with the war over, forces were rising up that would love to have his skills, and they would force him to kill.

“Still don’t like it.”

“I don't either, darling. But it is what it is. Juno, once you are done with that get your stuff packed. We're heading back to Mars for a bit.”

Juno nodded and Vespa went to pack up the rest of their stuff. It would be a long trip back to Mars but at least once he was back Rita would be able to keep him distracted.

Chapter Text

Juno was sitting in Rita’s office in the Vixen Valley working when her computer let out a ding. Juno continued to work as Rita typed furiously at the keyboard.

Rita let out a gasp before saying, “Mista Steel?”

“If what you’re about to say has anything to do with a stream, please don’t start.”

“Uh-uh, It’s Miss Buddy and Miss Vespa.” Rita’s voice shook, turning Juno’s blood to ice.

“What? What's going on? Did they not get the creds?”

Rita started to cry, nodding her head as Juno cursed. He moved so he could see her screen. His eyes were immediately drawn to the headline: ‘The End of the Greatest Thieves: Ilkay Dead, Aurinko Jailed.’

Juno hit the floor as his knees gave out on him. He landed hard on the floor but didn’t feel it as tears started down his face.

“Mista Steel!” Rita jumped down from her seat as the office door banged against the wall.

“What the fuck is going on in here?” Vicki demanded. Rita let out a squeak as she looked over her shoulder.

“Miss Vicki! Th-they just . . . declared Miss Vespa dead, and Miss Buddy is in jail!”

Vicki’s face fell. “How sure are you about that?”

There was another ping on the computer and Rita jumped up to check the alert. She let out a huff as something took a moment to load.

Juno could just make out the screen as a video started to play. He watched as the scene from Balder showed Vespa falling from a bridge and Buddy froze up, tears running down her face.

Juno let out a curse and tried to keep his breaths steady. He was supposed to have been there with them. It was his fault that Buddy was in jail and Vespa was dead. He was supposed to have been their lookout to make sure something like this didn’t happen. It was his fault. Rita was saying something, he knew, but he couldn’t make it out over the ringing in his ears. He wasn’t sure how long he sat there unable to think of anything other than how it was his fault, but he came around to Rita sitting next to him, holding his hand.

“You back with us, Mista Steel?”

Juno nodded as he tightened his hand around Rita’s hand. “I've been talking to Miss Vicki and she said that I'm free to look into trying to get Miss Buddy out of jail and that your job can be postponed until we get Miss Buddy back. Of course, I'll have to figure out which one they took her to first. But it shouldn't be any different than the other times I’ve helped get you guys out.”

Juno whimpered and Rita hugged him. “We'll get Miss Buddy back, I promise.” Juno nodded and Rita smiled at him. “Alright! Let's get started on Operation Return of Miss Buddy!”

Juno nodded, and the two started to dig. But there was nothing. They couldn't even figure out what prison she was in. There were millions of places where she could have been taken, and Rita couldn’t find a trail.

As the hours turned to days without any signs of where Buddy was taken, Juno spiraled. It started with him drinking heavily again. Vicki had cut him off, but he just moved where he was drinking and started to take any drugs that were offered to him.

It was close to a year before Rita found anything, and that was only after she hacked Dark Matters to find out that they had taken her to a jail between Sol and the Outer Rim.

Rita was trying to figure out how to get a message to Buddy when Vicki came into the office.

“Rita, have you seen Steel?”

Rita shook her head. “I haven’t seen him in a few days. He sent a few grainy photos yesterday, why?”

“Cassandra Kanagawa is out here asking for him. Find him,” Vicki demanded.

Rita nodded before she started to type. “Mista Steel’s been really erratic here recently. He’s not been coping with losing Miss Buddy and Miss Vespa. He’s acting like Good Cop from Bad Cop 12: The Death of Good Cop when Good Cop found out that all of his family was dead but they weren’t, they were just being held in the jail that Bad Cop ran. Well, all but his mother who was dead, or at least that’s what it looked like until Bad Cop 14: Is Bad Cop Good? when she showed back up without any memory. Turns out Bad Cop had hit her so hard that she forgot everything! That was until Good Cop hugged her and she got all her memories back! Oh, I found Mista Steel!”

“Where is he?”

“His comms and the tracker in his shoe are both reading from the Lighthouse, but there’s a sandstorm protected for out there to roll in real soon.”

“Go get Steel. He can’t repay his debts if he’s dead.”

Rita huffed before she jumped down from her seat and grabbed her comms. “You know Mista Steel is more than his debts right?”

“Just go.”

Rita huffed again but rushed out of the office and to her car and headed to the Cerberus Province. It didn’t take her long to make it to the Lighthouse and park next to Juno’s car.

Rita called out for Juno as she unlocked the digital locks. She didn't get an answer, so she started down the stairs and at each door stopped to see if Juno was in them. It wasn’t until Rita opened the door that said ‘Keep Out’ in Vespa’s handwriting that she found him. He was lying on the bed looking at a photo.

“Mista Steel?”

At Rita’s voice Juno fumbles for his blaster before his bloodshot eyes land on Rita. “Rita? Why are you here?” Juno’s voice was thick with unshed tears.

“Miss Vicki sent me to find you. Cassandra Kanagawa came looking for you.” Juno flinched. “I also found where they are keeping Miss Buddy.”

Juno bolted upright. “You found Buddy?”

“Mmhm! It was real easy to find her once I figured out that Balder handed her over to Dark Matters. Their records weren't hard to find either!”

Juno just stared at Rita. He'd known that she was one of the best hackers out there, but not so good that hacking Dark Matters was easy? Juno had heard from others while on jobs that no one had been able to hack them yet.

“Mista Steel?” Rita was looking at her comms as she spoke.

“Yeah?”

“We need to get goin, there's gonna be a dust storm here soon and I don’t think I'll be able to carry you if the same thing happens as last time.”

Juno winched before nodding. He didn’t particularly want to repeat that either, not with them having a chance to get Buddy free. He owed her that much.

They headed to their cars and after making sure all the locks were engaged they were headed back to Hyperion.

When they got back they got to work getting all the information that they could on the prison. Of the four steps to a prison break, they had gotten three of them sorted out: cellbreak, jailbreak, and getaway. The last part, the insurance, was proving to be a bit more difficult. It could wait, though, as they needed to establish contact with Buddy before they could do anything.

Rita had a plan to get into contact, but it took over a week before they could execute it. Juno spent most of that time drinking to cover his worry.

“Mista Steel, stop hovering. You're making it hard to focus.”

Juno backed off for a moment before making his way back to look over her shoulder. “Are you sure this is going to work?”

“Of course Mista Steel! This is a foolproof plan, it's like Mikey's plan in A Sniper in New Texas! He was able to get into contact with Tom by using ancient Earth phones, even though they weren't on the comms systems and it shouldn't have been able to connect. This is so much easier seeing as the prison has unmonitored comms lines.”

“Why? If Dark Matters is running the prison then why are their unmonitored lines? Shouldn't they want everything monitored?”

“Dark Matters doesn't run the prison, they just put people there that they don't put in their prisons. Which is a good thing Mista Steel, seeing had they put her anywhere else it would have been impossible to get her out so soon.”

Juno hummed, and it wasn’t long before the sound of comms rang through the room. Juno turned to watch the screen again to see Buddy looking at the comms. Juno worried that Buddy wouldn’t pick it up before it stopped ringing, but it continued to ring past when it should have stopped.

Buddy laughed before sending a glance back at the camera in the room before she picked it up. “Hello, darlings.”

Juno let out a breath and looked over at the other monitor to look and see how much longer they had before the guards would be back around to where Buddy was.

“Miss Buddy, I thought you were never gonna pick up!”

Buddy let out a breath. “It's good to hear from you. Is Kedi there with you?”

“Yeah, Buddy, I'm here. We don’t have a lot of time. But we've got most of a plan set up. The only thing that's still missing is the insurance.”

Buddy hummed, “I've picked up on a thing or two. What’s the rest of the plan?”

“I've got into all the systems, like Cerberus in A New Plan 23: A Jail-break Plan 5. I should be able to release all the cells at the same time and I've already figured out all the ways to get the doors to open along with the escape pods on the third level. But we hadn't figured out the insurance yet and you always said that was the most important part.”

“It is, as it covers anything that could go wrong, but I think I have that covered. The warden's son is going to be coming by later this week. If he is alone -”

Juno cut Buddy off, “Sorry Buddy, but someone's coming, will talk to you soon, and I'll look into the kid.”

They watched as Buddy got the comms put away before the guard came into the room. They just left her be after asking a few questions. Buddy looked back at the camera before leaving.

Over the next few days, they watch over Buddy while looking into the warden’s son. It didn’t take them long to figure out that Buddy had been right about him being there later that week. When they dug a little deeper, they found that he had the habit of talking to the prisoners on his own.

“Do you think he’ll talk to Buddy?” Juno asked.

“Maybe? He’s not been there since Miss Buddy was brought in. He’s met with all the other high-profile prisoners that were there, and Miss Buddy is the highest-profile prisoner there.”

Juno hummed and later that day they were able to give their full plan to Buddy with Rita being able to hack into the systems to give Buddy a clear path out with the warden’s son. Buddy agreed that it was a good plan, and they were set to go the next day.

The next day, Juno and Rita were crowded around her screens watching as Buddy was taken to the interrogation room and met with the warden’s son. They watched as Buddy talked her way around him, making him relax and dismiss the last guard that was in the room.

That was when Rita started their plan and let most of the rest of the criminals out of their cells. Juno watched as Buddy kept control of the warden’s son and looked around. Once all the guards were busy with the escaped criminals, Buddy moved and took the warden’s son into cuffs, and then Rita opened the door to the room.

Buddy pulled the man with her as she went through the prison and made her way to the escape pods. Luck was on their side as she was able to make it all the way there without running into anyone else. It didn’t take her long to get an escape pod into flight and head to Mars.

Juno leaned back in his seat and let out a breath. He had managed to fix one of the things that had gone wrong because he hadn’t been on Balder, but he would never be able to make up for the fact that Vespa was dead because of him.

When Buddy made it back to the Cerberus Province, Juno and Rita headed out there to meet with her. When they got there Buddy gave Juno the largest hug that he could remember getting. They sat in the bottom room for a while and talked about everything other than the job on Balder, causing Juno’s nerves to skyrocket.

When Rita headed off to bed, Buddy turned to him. “Juno, darling, what is bothering you?”

“Nothing.”

Buddy shook her head. “Don’t lie to me, darling. Something is bothering you.”

“Why are you treating me like nothing happened? I'm the reason why you spent a year in jail. Hell, I'm why Vespa's dead instead of here. It's my damn fault for not going with you.”

Buddy’s face turned to stone. “Juno, it is not your fault.”

“It is. Your plan until Vicki said she needed my help wouldn’t have had the guards anywhere near you guys. Because if I was there, I would have taken them out before they could reach you.”

Buddy got up and walked around to Juno, who flinched in his seat and almost fell out of it. Buddy caught him and wrapped him in another hug.

“Juno, we as people cannot sit there theorizing about what could have been. All it will do is hurt us more than what has happened. And Juno? That's what you need to focus on. What's happened has happened, don't keep looking to the past looking to change things, only look to the past to make sure that you don’t make the same mistake.”

Juno shook as Buddy played with his hair. There would be a lot of work to get Juno to believe Vespa’s death wasn’t his fault, but at the very least Buddy would never blame him for it.

It wasn't long after Buddy’s return to Mars that it became apparent that they wouldn’t be running the huge payout jobs anymore. Juno couldn’t make it by living in Hyperion just on his jobs for Vicki, at least if he wanted to get out of debt anytime before the city ate him alive. He couldn’t stay at the Lighthouse, not with the sandstorm that frequently went through the area, they would be in deep medical debt just for his inhalers that way.

So Juno, with pestering from Rita, opened a detective agency. She joined him working with him full-time and Vicki part-time when needed. His first case as a detective went sideways as the HCPD arrested him, but they were still paid for it, so it was still successful, at least according to Rita.

Buddy in the meantime had opened the Lighthouse as a bar full-time, as she would when they had to spend time in the Cerberus Province. Buddy would still wait at the top of the Lighthouse at least once a week, at least that’s what she said to Juno. But he was sure it was more often than that if the radiation damage was any indicator. Juno worried about Buddy wasting away, but he didn’t have the words to be able to fight with the greatest wordsmith he had ever known, and she was alive and seemed to be normal when he saw her through the comms connections or in person. So he didn’t fight her on it.

Around three years later, Jet Sikuliaq showed up at the Lighthouse and took on watching over Buddy and helping on heists, slowly shedding the last of the man that was the Unnatural Disaster. The jobs he ran with Juno, Buddy, and Rita as support made the wish that Vespa was still alive worse for all that had known her, but they made do. The war was over, they were free, and they all knew that looking back could only lead to wanting something that they couldn’t get back.