"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.

"No!" Caroline cried, but it was too late. Drake had already created the diversion, and Frontier was falling for it. The machines fired upon where he was, and the Titan fired its missiles. And she ran. Approaching the clearing, she would attempt to enter the repulser craft, checking it for weapons. Anything that she could use to help Drake out. After all, she couldn't just leave him here.

[spoiler]Sorry for complicating this, but can you reply to my reply to Sonic? [/spoiler] Drake threw himself behind a tree, barely dodging the missile, which exploded a few feet behind him, sending snow and dirt flying into the air. He got up, and fired a few shots back at the machines from behind cover, trying to get their attention. With his other hand he grasped the detonator. When the Titan got close enough to the tree, he'd blow the charge, and hopefully crush the Titan, or perhaps several machines, under the weight of the tall tree. _______________ Meanwhile, the hovercraft didn't have much in terms of armament. There was a smattering of random compartments along the cockpit, most of which was cluttered with unfamiliar technology. In the back, there was a disassembled sniper rifle, but it wasn't yet loaded. ______________ Gritting his teeth in anticipation, Drake looked up into the sky, waiting for his crew to come through with backup.

Even as the pair fought for their lives, a screeching noise could be heard iver the chaos as a black ship entered the fray. However, a sloppily painted arrow adorned it's side. A battery of plasma accelerators opened up and blasted the Titan to hell, then a line of baddies as it made a pass [quote]Drake!?!? What the hell is going on??[/quote]

[spoiler]Don't reply to this. It's gonna go me, Kruos, you, repeat for a little while, aight?[/spoiler] "Alpha... It's a long story. Just pick us up and I'll tell you everything." Drake fired at the stragglers, emboldened by Alpha's bombing run. With his prosthetic eye, he tried to find Caroline through the dense foliage and snow, but he couldn't find her. Taking cover behind another tree, he yelled out to her, "Hey Caroline, can you hear me?" He shouted.

"Drake?" She said, abandoning the ship but grabbing the rifle. Caroline tried to go over to him... "Don't you move, girl." A voice said from behind her. It was an assassin, sent by Frontier as an auxiliary. "The General wants you back, you little shit. He [i]needs[/i] you. Make this easy and just obey." ------------------------------ While the Titan was damaged, it wasn't destroyed. It's shield dome managed to absorb part of it. In response, it aimed its remaining missile at the attacking vessel and fired.

The Titan would receive a withering hellstorm as the fighter flew over the Assassin and Caroline's head so fast it'd knock them on their asses. The missile got closer, and closer, until the shimmering orange hardlight field winked into existence and enveloped the explosive and the resulting detonation without any outward damage -a testament to Alpha's craftsmanship-. She frowned as she saw the energy spike that accompanied the assassin's cloaking gear, though she couldn't see it [quote] Drake! You got spec ops down there! Check your six![/quote]