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AJ jumped when the ship shuddered, his breath becoming shaky. They'd gotten pretty close to Sienna's ship because to their surprise it had slowed down. 


"W-what's happening, AJ? Why did they stop?" Brian whispered. 


"Hell if I fucking know. Looks like gravity is pulling us in, though. This is not good."


Brian and AJ exchanged fearful glances and Brian knew all AJ was thinking about right now was the fact that Sienna would kill him on sight if she knew he left the Moon and disobeyed her orders. 


"You said she's an Empath like me, right? She probably already knows we are here." Brian guessed thoughtfully, watching as Sienna’s ship inched nearer and nearer to the window. He tried to connect with Nick’s mind and was a little alarmed when nothing happened. He couldn’t sense him at all. It was like when they were on Sienna’s ship the last time. It was as if Nick were….but he couldn’t be. Brian’s face paled at the thought of Nick being dead. The only reason that Brian supposed Nick was still alive was that he felt fine, but what other explanation could there be?


“What are you thinking? Are we gonna try to go after him? Rescue him?” AJ asked, interrupting Brian’s thoughts and startling him a little. 


“I-I don’t know. Something is wrong. Something is really wrong and I don’t like this. I can’t sense him.” 


“He’s not dead is he? I mean, I don’t fucking understand any of this. I thought you could just read minds or whatever.” AJ muttered. 


“Well, yes- in a way I can read minds, but I can also read feelings….emotions. My power is strongest when we are near each other. That’s how I can find him. Our emotions are connected. So whatever he is feeling, I feel at the same time. With everyone else, I can just get a sense of what they feel and I can read their thoughts, but Nick’s emotions can cause anything from happiness to extreme pain or illness. That’s what is worrying me, that I don’t feel anything. I don’t even feel a connection to him. The last time this happened was before he woke up from that coma. So either she’s done something to him, or preventing him from being connected to me. He still doesn’t have his full memory back and she’s screwing with him even more.” Brian explained in frustration as tears welled in his eyes. He tried to reach Nick through telepathy again, but nothing happened. 


“Here’s the thing though, Brian. In case you forgot, there are only two of us. She has a whole fucking army on this ship. So what are we going to do? You said you can’t use your telepathy or whatever to find him. How will we find him?” 


“I-I don’t know…I don’t know. I wish I did.” Brian replied tearfully, feeling sick to his stomach. 


Nick….Please answer me…


There was nothing. Usually when he tried reaching Nick through this way, he could get some sort of feeling or vibration back, even if Nick didn’t know how to respond back. However, right now…Brian felt nothing and that terrified him. 


He only hoped they would reach Nick in time. 




“Brian, when you look up at the stars….what do you think about?” Nick asked him suddenly when they were laying in the sand listening to their fire crackling nearby. The ocean waves crashed gently in reply. Brian sighed and smiled. He was still full from supper and he could fall asleep here on the beach, but knew they had to move into their hut or they could possibly be seen. Sleeping out here was not an option.


“That’s a deep question. I need a minute to think about it. What do you think about, Nick?” Brian asked. He didn’t really have a straight answer to give Nick right away. 


“I don’t know. Sometimes I think about my parents, if I had any. What life was like before all of this. How things would have ended up, who I would be if things were different and I still had them.” Nick replied thoughtfully, stoking the fire with the long stick in front of him.


“I wish I could tell you about them, but I didn’t know them. I didn't really know my parents either. Kevin pretty much raised me on the base just like you, I was on my own like you were.” Brian said as he looked out at the ocean, the moonlight reflecting off of the water. He shivered as he spoke about his parents and didn’t know why. It wasn’t like he knew anything about his family or even Nick’s family, because he was never told where Nick came from. He’d asked Kevin about their parents but he never got an answer. 


“Well, you’re pretty much family to me.” Nick said softly. Brian sat up and they smiled at each other. Brian knew there was more to their feelings than that but neither of them ever addressed it, they did however feel a connection- at least Brian did. He had never felt anything like it with anyone else. It wasn’t like love, but something deeper than that. Brian didn’t know what true love was like to even compare to the way he felt when he and Nick were together. All he knew was that the two of them made sense somehow. 


“I feel the same about you.” Brian told him, feeling drowsy. Nick chuckled and picked up the bowl of water sitting next to him before throwing it over the fire, putting it out. He looked at Brian and just smiled at him, looking at him for a few moments. Brian thought that Nick was going to say something but it was hard to pinpoint what was on his mind at this moment. Brian tried to read Nick’s feelings but Nick wasn’t giving him any indication of what was on his mind. Nick must have noticed the awkwardness because he finally spoke up. 


“Shall we get to bed, then? It’s getting pretty late.” he said, standing and stretching. 


Brian stretched and got up, following Nick down the beach and back to the wooden hut where they slept. It wasn’t an extravagant place but it was enough for what they needed to shelter them. They’d built it together, and it had served them well. 


“Brian?” Nick said when they’d gotten comfortable inside the hut, laying beside one another. 


“Yes?” 


Nick didn’t speak for a few moments, and Brian knew he was trying to find the words for whatever it was he wanted to say earlier. 


"Nick, did you want to tell me something?" 


“Never mind. Good night.” Nick whispered. Brian smiled and closed his eyes, trying to probe Nick’s thoughts again. He could pick up on something but he didn’t know what to make of it so he didn’t say anything and let himself drift off to sleep, listening to the waves of the ocean nearby. There was plenty of time to figure things out later. 





“Brian, are you even listening? I was trying to come up with some kind of plan here. A little help would be good. You have beeen here before and you know her ship, I don’t.” AJ said, bringing Brian back to their current predicament. 


“I do know the ship, I am just worried about Nick. I can’t sense him at all.” Brian muttered exasperatedly. He tried to remember the ship, tried to think of where Nick could possibly be but nothing was happening and he was frustrated. It was as if his mind were simply blank. 


“Obviously something has gone wrong. We can’t just give up-“ 


“I haven’t given up! I just don’t know what the hell to do. What if he’s dead, and we are just wasting time here trying to board her ship? We are dead as soon as she catches us, you know that and I know that. So we have two options, assume that he’s dead and try to get out of here and get killed later…or try to rescue him and risk being killed now. We end up dead either way." Brian interrupted angrily. He felt sick to his stomach as soon as he spoke because it was becoming more and more dire. 


"If we are going to die anyway we might as well try," he added. AJ smiled at him and got up from his seat at the control panel. 


"That's the spirit." 


Brian followed AJ out of the control room, anxious to see Nick again. He just hoped that his fears were not about to become reality.