[b][i]Natasha Zhang[/i][/b] 

Natasha Zhang didn’t know what had gone wrong, and she was honest enough to admit that arrogance and overconfidence, and being inflexible had something to do with it. Same for being [i]inconsiderate[/i]. Either way, she tried to make up for lost time and opportunities as best as she could by saying, “All right, folks, I guess it's time to see those of you who aren’t going on the stealth mission off - Make sure to come back and come back safe.”

She didn’t mention the families of the Star Marines, nor did she mention [i]her own[/i] in Quingdao; Natasha already had a suspicion that the Ascendancy would do more than take or harm them, they’d try their best to [i]turn[/i] them against their own lost children. Cruelty was not to be underestimated, nor an arrogant insistence that a dramatic plot was a clever plot - Kherol was immune to that impulse, but Laguna and her ilk were not. 

But Natasha knew that she could not protect her crew from emotional pain, so she decided not to try. It was cruel of her, but also a concession to cold hard reality she did not want to make. So her last action was to look at Maria and Laurey the moment their ‘team’ was able to meet in the cockpit, and joke, “So, Ladies’ night out?”

Chuckling, the Captain then sighed and said, “We’ll be meeting the snitch in some sort of nature reserve planet, according to the notes Joey gave me; and by a nature reserve, basically one of the planets so beautiful that not even the Ascendancy wants to ‘Do a GIll’home’ on them… Yet.” 

[b][i]Ashton and Flame[/i][/b]

“So…” Ashton said awkwardly to Flame as the two stood on the hangar, waiting for departure time and their separation, “It seems they’re splitting us up?”

Ashton did not say that perhaps this should have been Joey’s punishment for their attempt to attack the Ascendancy’s economy. Nor that it [i]felt[/i] like a punishment. That made him sound like a needy guy, and not only did he not want to look like that to Flame, but he had an image to maintain; both of them did. 

For he knew, and he thought Flame also knew, that the two needed to project the image that they were geniuses, that what their kidnappers had told them about their ‘gifts’ was true. That they and the other kids were better off thinking that the Ascendancy had a coherent reason for taking them away from their homes and lives and families, even if it was not a rational reason.

The boy felt a sudden warmth; Flame had embraced him impulsively. For a brief moment, Ashton felt the urge to cry but suppressed it as he brushed the back of Flame’s head, smiling as he did so. All thoughts of pretense left him at that.

“Flame,” Ashton worked up the courage to say, “Do you think it’s okay if we’re not geniuses?”

Flame slumped his shoulders, ended the hug, and said, “I’ve been waiting for you to say it, Ashton.”

Ashton staggered back, shocked, as his boyfriend continued. 

“Ashton, I don’t want to pretend anymore. Oh, sure, there’s a chance we’re still geniuses or savants or whatever,” Flame was gesturing around wildly, not caring whoever saw him, “But I am tired of going around telling everybody, ‘we’re geniuses, we’re geniuses!’. Time to face it, Ashton; we don’t need to feel good about being Star Marines - I just want to retire and plant a garden when it’s all over.”

Flame looked at him a while longer, saw him smile and hug him back, and then say with tears in his eyes:

“You’re right; dad always told me to be myself,” Ashton said. “Once I meet him again, I’ll tell him all about you… If you want.”

“Just knock [i]my[/i] asshole of a sperm donor out if you’re saving him too,” Flame interrupted before giving him one last kiss. “And now, goodbye. I love you.”

“Same,” Ashton said as he and his boyfriend turned to leave…

[@Letter Bee][@Landaus Five-One][@FalloutJack][@Conscripts][@Starlance][@jdh97][@Smike][@Senhara]