A/n: Last chapter. I hope I haven't gone overboard on the smush, but you can let me know. :P

Cortes was sitting on the floor of the ship, catching his breath, when the ships lift activated and starting moving down

Cortes was sitting on the floor of the ship, catching his breath, when the ships lift activated and starting moving down. He stood up quickly, picking up the gun from the floor.

On the platform stood a man, Cortes recognised him as a Guardian. He raised the gun, unsure if he would be able to win this without the element of surprise. “You must be her colleague.”

The man made no move to attack, and seemed unfazed by the weapon Cortes pointed at him. He looked across at Alexis’ fallen body, then sighed, and slowly put his hands above his head.

“Guess you’d better shoot me too, pirate.”

Cortes followed his gaze, then looked back up at him. “Did she tell you anything she’d learned from me?”

“Which of your weapons was faulty, what frequency your shields were at, which didn’t help much…” He said all this as he continued to stare at the dead woman.

Cortes stepped closer, forcing the man to look at him. “Anything else?”

“No.” He glared up at Cortes, anger and pain in his eyes.

“You sure?”

“Nothing!” the man snapped. “Now just kill me!”

Cortes raised his arm, and then hit the man over the head with the butt of his gun.

The Guardian slid to the floor unconscious.

“You’ll learn to live with it,” Cortes whispered. He sighed, closing his eyes. He just wanted to get off the Sphere ship.

--

The Saint Nazaire floated through the clouds; now well on its way home. The patroller had been set to autopilot and pointed towards Sphere territory. By the time the Guardian woke up, he and the pirates would be miles apart.

Cortes had been relatively quiet since arriving safely back on board. After he’d been welcomed back by his crew and made sure the ship was set on a safe course he’d retreated down to his cabin. He now sat at the table in the centre of the room. Tian’s engagement ring sat slightly to his left on the wooden surface. He’d thrown away the letter. To his right was a recycled cigar box.

The cigar box had remained unopened for years. It usually resided in a corner of Cortes’ bookshelf, among a few other objects and books he didn’t want to look at everyday, but had never quite been able to throw away.

Cortes stared at the box now, before drawing it in front of himself. He drew in a breath, before slowly cracking open the lid. Inside were many photos, and a few scraps of paper. Notes from, and pictures of people he’d lost.

He pulled out one of the notes, careful not to damage anything in the box. The paper was yellowed more than when he’d last looked at it. Cortes stared at it for a moment without turning it over, much like he had the letter that had turned out to be from the Sphere. This one, however, he knew was real. He felt silly reading it again, but recent incidents had polluted his memories of Tian. He needed to get them out of his mind; he wanted the real memories whenever he thought of her.

He unfolded the letter.

Aran,

We haven’t talked in days. I’d ask why, but I think we both can easily guess the answer. I’m sorry about what happened New Year’s Eve. …Or perhaps I’m not, because there’s no point continuing something that isn’t going anywhere.

But I do want to continue our friendship. That was stronger than our love ever was, and it’s something I want back. I hope it’s something you don’t take as much for granted… but we went through that already…

Aran, I don’t want to loose you as a friend, can we please talk?

Yours truly,

Tian.

If only he’d read this before he’d rushed off to find her, maybe he would’ve spotted a difference between the two letters. Cortes sighed. He knew he would still have gone. Why had he kept the scrap anyway? He let it drop back into the open cigar box.

He picked up the ring, turning it over in his hand. Tian was gone, he should never have believed otherwise. He let that too drop into the box. She was never coming back.

Cortes stared at the box in front of him. Why did he even keep this stuff? Almost everyone inside was gone for good. Perhaps he held some small, unfounded hope that they’d somehow come back. He knew logically they could not, and yet, he had believed the Sphere’s letter. He’d led his crew on a wild goose chase and put them all in danger. He’d let Cheng believe his mother was alive, and then disappointed him.

Again, as in the ship in his mind as he’d been held hostage, Cortes had the urge to throw Tian’s ring, as well as they entire contents of the cigar box overboard. They had done nothing for him but cloud his judgement.

His thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock at his cabin door.

Cortes let out a frustrated sigh. “Who is it?”

There was a brief pause, and then the door creaked open. “Cortes…?” Cheng stood in the open doorway, not quite sure if he should come in any further.

“Cheng…” Cortes suddenly felt angrier at himself than the intrusion. “It’s alright, you can come in.”

Cheng closed the door quietly behind him, and walked over to the table.

Cortes turned his attention back to the open cigar box, seemingly unsure whether he wanted to make eye contact with Cheng or not. Instead, he concentrated on shutting the lid to the box. He didn’t really want Cheng to see everything that was inside.

“Are you okay?” Cheng asked as he pulled out the chair next to Cortes and sat down.

“Yeah…” Cortes nodded.

“It’s just you left the bridge kind of quickly. And after all the stuff that happened…”

“I’m fine,” Cortes reiterated.

Cheng hadn’t failed to notice the cigar box. He also couldn’t help noticing the attention Cortes seemed to be giving it.

“… what’s in there?”

“What?”

“The box…”

“Just… some photos,” said Cortes, shifting uncomfortably. “I put your mother’s ring in there too. Just to keep it safe…”

Cheng stared at the closed lid for a moment. “Photos… like of my mother and father?” He looked up at Cortes.

“Among others…” Cortes trailed off, his throat suddenly dry. The thought had just stuck him: he’d never shown Cheng a picture of his parents. Sure there were those photos up in the tavern. But they were old group shots, grainy and faded. Anything more personal Cortes owned had been thrown away, or put in the small box, hidden away.

Cortes opened the lid to the box, not trusting himself to say anything at that point in time. He looked at its contents for a brief moment.

Cheng hung back, wanting to see, but not wanted to invade Cortes’ privacy either.

After that brief moment, Cortes selected a single photograph and handed it to Cheng. “Here…”

Cheng looked up at Cortes before carefully taking the offered picture. He placed it on the table in front of himself, and just looked at it. In it were a man and woman, holding hands, smiling.

“That’s your mother and father…”

Cheng didn’t say a word. The photograph held his unwavering gaze. Then he reached out a hand, gently touching the picture’s surface. He would never be able to touch his parents for real. He had been too young to ever remember doing so.

Cortes hadn’t shown him the photo until now. It had never even crossed his mind. He’d kept it locked away, when it was something he now knew Cheng needed to see. How could he have been so selfish?

Having both the photo and Cheng in front of him now, Cortes was struck by how much the boy resembled his parents. Especially that intense look of concentration with which he viewed the photograph…

The image of his mother was so sudden and powerful that Cortes had to turn away.

The movement distracted Cheng, and he looked up. “Are you okay…?” he asked.

“You just… you remind me of them sometimes, lad,” said Cortes quietly.

Cheng seemed to think, looking at the photo again. Then he looked back up at Cortes. “Do you miss them?”

“Sometimes… especially after seeing her…” he gritted his teeth, letting that thought trail off. “I don’t know why I believed she was still alive. And I shouldn’t have built your hopes up either. I’m sorry, Cheng.”

“It’s not your fault.” Cheng placed a hand on the Captain’s arm.

“It is… I… I just…” How was he supposed to say he had cared more about Cheng’s mother then he was supposed to?

“You just missed her. I wanted it to be her as well. It’s okay, Cortes.”

Cortes was silent, just staring straight ahead.

“I’m just glad you’re okay…” said Cheng. He hugged Cortes, gripping tighter onto his arm.

Cortes sighed. He put his other hand on Cheng’s back. “Yeah, me too…” He waited until Cheng pulled away. “Hey, thanks for coming to get me. I don’t know if I would have woken if you didn’t.”

Cheng shrugged. “It’s okay.”

Cortes was now looking at the picture again as it sat in front of Cheng. “You know… you’re mother was really smart. Just like you.”

Cheng looked at him sharply. “Yeah…?” He paused there, really wanting to ask for more, but afraid of pushing too hard in case Cortes simply stopped.

Cortes could tell this was what he was thinking. At that moment in time, he simply didn’t want to disappoint Cheng again. “Yeah, she really liked working with all the weapons systems… And you’re father could program them to do just about anything. They really made a good… team.”

Cheng didn’t interrupt, waiting for more.

“We had this ship called the Behemoth,” Cortes continued, “You should have seen what they tried to do with its forward gun turrets. Tian thought it was a good idea to loop the energy back…”

At first he found it difficult to delve even deeper into his memories than he had already today. But as he told Cheng about his parents, really for the first time in any great detail, he found it became easier. Much easier than keeping those memories locked away in a box. And they didn’t hurt so much when he shared them with Cheng.