As he walked in and around the crash site, there was little to be found. And little trace of Caroline. Of course, that was until he heard something... "Don't move you basterd," he would here a familiar voice say, shaky with grief and uncertainty, "Don't you fuсking move!"

"Alpha told me that you made it out okay. Soon as I was able to, I made my way here." Drake didn't move, raising both hands up slightly, his voice relatively calm, if not slightly uncertain. Though his back was turned to Caroline, he tried turning his face back to look at her, as though he were a convict getting arrested by a police officer. "I can explain everything," he said, his voice more resolute now, "if you don't put a hole in my head right now, even though I know that you want to."

He would see her face, a hysterical mess of emotions. Sadness, anger, regret. Pain. Her hands were shaking violently, and her gun was already wavering. "Why?! Why did you have to leave me there Drake? You know who they are. Or do you? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THEY'VE TAKEN FROM ME?!"

“You’re right Caroline. I had to leave you there.” Drake said, his voice holding steady despite his precarious situation. Tenderly, he decided to turn around to face her, slowly reorienting himself while keeping his hands up. ‘[i]Maybe that wasn’t the best way to start it off, jackass,[/i]’ the voice in his head berated him. Nevertheless, he continued on. “Because I couldn’t get to you. I’m... I’m no super-soldier, not a superhero, or a genius with a thousand tricks up his sleeve. I’m... I’m a smuggler, a pirate, a lowlife. If I’d come to rescue you, I would’ve been shot down, and that wouldn’t have been ideal for either of us.” ‘[i]Alright, cool it hotshot,[/i]’ the voice in his head continued to berate him, ‘[i]you’re trying to get her to understand, not blow off of the face.[/i]’ Drake decided to let that internal muse slide. “So I did what I thought was right,” he said, a time of desperation coming into his voice, “I ran, and tried to get the people that I knew [i]could[/i] sabe you: my crew. I was gonna bring ‘em together, and stage a rescuing attempt with them, making sure to kill that bastard Frontier General in the process.” He looked down slightly, “When Alpha told me that you’d managed to escape, I realized that... I’d made a mistake. With you at my side, those Frontier bastards wouldn’t have stood a chance. Though I had half a mind to go to the station and blow them up anyways... I had to get to you first. Set things right.” He let the last words hang in the air, a genuine feeling of regret echoing out into the woods. Drake had said everything that he’d gone there to say... and now it was her turn to accept his apology, or to turn him down.

She grew more visibly upset, driven by pain. She wanted to scream. She wanted to say to him that that was bullshit, and that he wouldn't have come back. And that left her with a choice. Yet the thing was, regardless of whether or not he was telling the truth, she couldn't kill him. In fact, she didn't want to. She... couldn't. She couldn't let another die because of [i]her[/i] mistakes. It wasn't his fault. It was hers. "I..." She said, at a loss for words, "I can't... I can't..." She shook her head, and dropped the gun, collapsing onto a tree near her. Caroline didn't know what to do...

“Caroline...” Drake started out quietly, lowering his arms into a more relaxed pose as he cautiously made his way towards her. He walked tenderly, as if she would at any second pick up the gun and shoot him on the spot. “This wasn’t your fault. You can blame me for everything. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have gotten into this mess to begin with.” He eventually got over to her, and crouched down beside her. “But all of that’s over now. We both made it out of there alive.”

"No" She started to say, "It's my fault. Frontier wouldn't even be here if it weren't for me. I should've... I should've..." She broke into tears, looking up into the sky as if to curse life itself. The pain wasn't just because of Drake. It was... something else. Something much deeper. "I should've... done more."

“I... there was nothin-...” Drake started to comfort her but stopped abruptly, remembering what she had said to him earlier, when she’d asked him if he knew what she’d lost. Unsure of what to do, he sat down beside her, and asked her, “What do you mean?” He finally said.

Caroline laughed, but it wasn't happy. She seemed... lost. Angry. Hopeless. Tired. She had been through too much. "Tell me Drake," she said, the remnants of tears stinging her eyes, "Have you ever lost someone you loved? Someone you cared about? Do you know that pain?" She paused, looking at the sky for a brief moment. "Multiply that be a [i]million[/i]. And that doesn't even come close." Again she glanced away at the sky, tears running down her face again. "I murdered my own daughter, Drake."

“I...” Drake hesitated, powerful emotions of his own brimming to the surface. The truth was, he [i]had[/i] felt that pain before... but he wasn’t sure if it was the right time to share it. This was something that he’d only ever before told Aaron Sawyer, his most trusted friend. The universe didn’t need to hear about his greatest mistake. But maybe Caroline did. He gulped, pushing back the bile he felt rising in the back of his throat. Even now, all these years later, the memory sickened him. “... my wife committed suicide because of me,” Drake started out, his voice shaky as he tried to push back the emotions rising up inside of him. Caroline didn’t need to know the whole story—only that he understood her pain. “When she went through with it, she didn’t just kill herself; she killed our unborn son too. And she blamed me for everything that had gone wrong in their lives.” He’d run away from her. The situation had been a million times more complicated than that, but in the end, he’d abandoned her when she’d needed him most. When she needed Michael: the dashing rogue who’d give up his freedom for her, she’d been met with Drake: the callous outlaw who yearned for the stars. And the betrayal had broken her. It wasn’t too different from what happened between him and Caroline, he silently reflected. “But eventually I had to come to terms with what had happened. That I’d fu[i]c[/i]ked. That I [i]was[/i] to blame with everything. Before that, I still thought that I was the hero of my story... that I could change if I tried. Now... I’m fine with being a douchebag.” The words were said spitefully, but they weren’t aimed at Caroline. They were directed at himself.

She understood. "I guess we're both shitbags aren't we?" She said while taking a breath, mainly directing the comment towards herself. She put her head back against the tree, and looked up at the sky. She stared at it for the longest time. "You know Drake?" she started to say, "You remind me of my husband. Roughish, charming, handsome. All of it. He left me when my daughter was less than three months old." She laughed at how similar their stories were. "Two sides of the same coin," she said, "In completely different places. Huh." [spoiler]I came up with this before I knew Drake's. Her husband abandoned her, and Frontier came a few months later. Made her kill her daughter with some weird Westworld-style override that made her follow orders. Then they tried to get her to put a bullet to her head to cover it all up. 'Something' (which you will probably find out what it is later) intervened, overriding the override and letting her kill everyone there. She hijacked one of their ships, went from planet to planet, and then came here. So this was recent. [/spoiler]

Drake nodded absently, still haunted by their revelations. Coping wasn’t something that the Captain particularly excelled at, at least, by any healthy measure, so he responded the only way he knew how to. “So... you think I’m handsome?” He said jokingly, looking over at her as an ironic grin spread across his face. It was said as more of a tease than anything else, but clearly he wasn’t quite his normal self yet. He went back to looking up at the sky, and chuckled dryly. “Come to think about it, we [i]are[/i] on opposite sides of the same coin. Y’know, when we first met, and I was shocked to see you... you’re the splitting image of my wife. Hell, you could pass off as her clone, if your eyes were green.” “But... we did end up in the exact same place: right here in these woods, talking about our pasts. Maybe... I dunno... Maybe we ended up here for a reason. To make things right.” Drake leaned back against a nearby tree trunk, and just continued to stare up at the clouds. [spoiler]I’ve had Drake’s story down for a while, but it’s shocking how similar their pasts were lol. This all happened a few years ago, but he still hasn’t exactly recovered from it. [/spoiler]

[spoiler]I know...[/spoiler] "I guess..." Caroline said, idly looking up at the cold sky. Snow started to fall, and everything would soon be covered in white. ------------------------------------ [url=http://example.com]Frontier Command Vessel Andromeda, Concordian Orbit[/url] "Sir," a man said behind the General as he looked out into space, "We've found them." "Have they discovered anything?" The General asked in response. "No sir. The location of the Prometheus and the Atlas is still secure." "Good. Send a small ARES team to secure the area. Nothing too large. Just enough to scare them off. If they were to find it..." "Yes sir." The grunt said, and then he hurried off. The General was left there, silently eying the space in front of him. It was finally quiet, or at least as quiet as it would be for the time. Without warning, his vision started to flicker, and he felt as if he were entering another world. He gasped, looking around. It was cold, snowing, and everything seemed... darker. The General was standing in the remains of a crashed ship. The Andromeda. He heard humming. A voice. Familiar. He walked through the hallway towards the voice, to come across the central reactor room. Only, it wasn't the same. On the walls were strange, black tendrils, emanating from a strange red-black energy that was flowing throughout the room. It was coming from a woman that floated in its center, her eyes closed and her hands manipulating the energy according. She had pale skin and long, black hair. Her face and aesthetic was... beautiful. But he knew her. He knew her for what she was. [i]"Oh child,"[/i] the figure said without speaking, the words reverberating directly in his mind, [i]"Stop now. Your vain efforts to protect yourself mean nothing. Just leave them. Leave them be."[/i] "I can't," the General said, spitting at the ground, "I won't." The figure laughed at him. [i]"Your pride will be your downfall, Prime. You as much as anyone should know that your actions to prevent the future are it's leading cause. Leave. Them. Be."[/i] "Shut up. SHUT UP. I won't sit by and do nothing." She opened her eyes, revealing a strange, red glow. She was angry now, and her voice was heavily distorted as a result. [i]"You have no power. You can't even get me out of your own head, 'General.' Your efforts are vain and useless. Your victory is impossible. And even if you won, it means nothing."[/i] "So be it." The world began to flicker, pixelizing into blackness as his eyes finally adjusted back to normal vision. He was still on the Andromeda, and he was still in the room. But the fact that this was happening again... He needed a drink. ------------------------------- Caroline sat silently for the longest time, looking up at the clouds and sky. "Drake..." she started, "I need you to do something."

"Yeah? What do you need from me?" Drake looked over at her, content with letting the snow fall down upon his face. His jacket kept him insulated, redistributing warmth throughout his body. Finally he seemed at ease, more relieved than anything else.

"I need you to promise me something," she said, "That'll you'll help me kill the basterds at Frontier that took my home. Took my family. Took everything. Can you... can you do that for me?"

Drake looked over at her, his blue eyes simmering with a fiery resolve. The upheaval of dormant memories had jarred his emotions, and now he felt himself furious at those who had hurt Caroline in the past. In many ways, helping her would repent for his own crimes... It's as if he had a second chance. "I'll make them pay," he said seriously, "I promise you."

"Okay..." she started to say, as the searchlight of a newly arrived ship illuminated the clearing. It was painted black, the color of Frontier's strongest division... "Shit. Get down!" And then it fired down at them.

[spoiler]Sorry thought I replied earlier[/spoiler] Drake pressed himself behind a nearby tree, attempting to keep his relatively flamboyant jacket out of sight from the dropship. As it turned out, even on an apology mission he kept himself armed, as Caroline noticed when Drake withdrew his blaster from a holster at his hip. He looked over at Caroline, wondering when, or if, he should bother shooting at the ship.

"That ship's heavily armored," Caroline said, noticing that he had pulled out a weapon, "Unless you have some sort of heavy anti-air artillery, that thing's not going down."

“Right...” Drake looked over across the woods at where he came from. Though the area was obscured by dense foliage, and out of eyesight, his hovercraft was still over in that general direction. There was a chance that they could make a break for it in that rustbucket. He raised a wrist-comm panel to his face, and spoke quickly into it. “Sawyer, bring the Arrowhead over to my coordinates ASAP. We need evac pronto.” Drake gave a reassuring nod to Caroline as he closed the channel, and readied his blaster for whatever enemies crawled out of the ship.

Several robotic units were deployed for the ship itself, along with a small group of ARES class shock-troopers. However, what surfaced from the woods themselves was a black Ogre-class Titan, equipped with deployable missile launchers, a shield-dome, and an ballistic anti-personnel blaster cannon. "Drake," she said, more urgently, "We need to get the -blam!- out of here. Now."

Drake looked back at his hovercraft, and suddenly remembered a fatal detail: the ship only had one seat. If the Arrowhead didn't make it here in time... only one of them was gonna make it out of here. After the speech he'd just given, Drake wasn't particularly motivated to abandon Caroline once more. He kept his blaster low, and quietly called out to her. "I've got a repulser-craft a few hundred meters Northeast of us. If shit goes downhill.... the keys are in the ignition. Only problem..." Drake hesitated, thoughts of self-preservation pushed aside for the moment, "... There'd only be room for one of us. But it shouldn't come to that, as long as Sawyer doesn't take his bloody time with bringing the ship around."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Caroline replied, trying to hide from the Titan. It started to scan the area for life signs, and troops began to comb the area.

“Hey...” Drake called out to Caroline quietly, but sharply enough so that he’d get her attention. His eyes met hers, and for a moment, the glance spoke more eloquently than any words could. It was a look of regret, perhaps remorse as well, but underlying all of it was the fiery determination that drove a man to do stupid things. Stupid, brave things. “Just... thank you. For not giving up on me.” Michael nodded his head in the general direction of the repulser-craft, and winked at her. Then he placed an explosive on the trunk of the tree, and made a bolt in the opposite direction, firing over his shoulder at the horde of machines.