I stared at his familiar face blankly.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Chal?” It slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.

I heard Andy sigh quietly from beside me at my language but I couldn’t take my eyes off of Chal’s face.

It cracked into a grin.

“Well, I take it you’re happy to see me?” He teased lightly.

I still couldn’t get over the shock of seeing him. I’d assumed he was dead too and my mind span at the realisation. I closed my eyes and lay back dizzily.

“What the hell is going on?” I muttered before opening my eyes again to stare at him again.

It all felt like some kind of fever dream, like when I’d been bitten by a venomous snake on a mission last year and I’d seen my crew sprout wings like a bird. I’d seen them fly around Frida before Cory had got the anti-venom into me and I’d passed out.

“How long have you been here?” I demanded.

“A few months. I’ve been evading the Council for almost forty years now but after the Irision debacle, they started hunting me more violently. They had IA patrols stopping ships in every district and even the dead space wasn’t safe so I had to crash my ship and fake my death again.” He said it so cavalierly like he was used to faking his death.

“So… That’s why we couldn’t reach you? Where did you go?”

“Partially. I called in a few favours and met up with Aquila again. The medBay was still overrun so she asked that I stay and lend a hand.”

My eyes traced his every movement as he spoke, trying to convince my brain that he was really alive.

“And you’ve been here since?”

He nodded.

“I have. I tried to reach out to you before but the Council intercepted our messages. I’m not sure what they did to your wrist monitors but they saw everything.”

I swallowed and glanced at Andy who looked furious.

"That makes sense, I guess,” I muttered, picking at a leftover piece of tape on my hand.

If the Council had been listening in to us ever since we got our wrist monitors back, we were in trouble. I wasn’t sure but I thought I could recall us talking about Chal, Aquila and definitely insulting Councillor Harvey. I hoped with all of my heart he’d heard that.

They’d know the truth about everything that happened. I’m sure we’d spoken about our mods as well. Fuck.

It felt like a frigid hand had reached out and wrapped its fingers around my heart. That meant that if Peggy was alive, and I needed her to be, they’d be able to charge her with everything.

“Are you okay, Aries?”

I blinked and looked around. Andy was watching me with a concerned expression on his face.

“Yeah… Just a lot to take in…” I lied, unable to look him in the eyes.

He’d see my heartbreak and anxiety. I didn’t want to talk about it even though I knew he was aware of how I felt.

“Well then, I may have just made a mistake.”

I looked up at Chal quizzically.

“I pinged your crew to let them know you were awake and ready for visitors.”

The crushing weight on my chest lifted slightly. I could see my crew, make sure they were actually alive.

“They’re coming?” I asked, barely able to manage the hope I was feeling.

“They should be here in a couple of minutes. You’ll hear them coming a mile off, they’re like a tornado spreading chaos wherever they go,” Chal grinned at me and I returned the smile hesitantly, still slightly unable to believe that the others were here too.

Andy and Chal wouldn’t lie to me. I kept repeating that in my head as I waited for my crew to emerge. Chal was right though, I heard them before I saw them.

Footsteps pounded down a corridor and I wiggled into a more seated position.

“Aries!” A voice cried before carefully and gently jumping on me.

Gem barely touched me as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders but I brought my arms up and held her tightly. My heart soared as I stared over her at my crew. They looked so alive. Cory and Cas smiled down at us but I reached out and pulled them closer.

I didn’t care about the pain, I was just so happy to have them there. My heart squeezed, uncomfortably aware that Peggy wasn’t there but I tried desperately to push that aside.

Gem pulled back finally and stared at me, her eyes scanning my face.

“It’s so good to see you all.” I croaked, tears threatening me.

Gem sunk into the chair Andy had recently left and grinned at me. I hadn’t even noticed Andy and Chal leave the room but I realised only my crew were in the room.

“It’s so good to see you! You’ve been unconscious for so long! Cas’ been a mess,” Gem teased, elbowing Cas in the hip.

He smiled down at me gently but didn’t say anything in response. He did look like he’d been struggling. Dark circles rimmed his eyes and he was staring at me like he wasn’t sure whether he was dreaming or not.

“Have you all been here since you were taken?” I asked, taking Cas’ hand and pulling him onto the bed with me.

He perched gingerly next to my legs but didn’t let go of my hand.

“Yeah! Well, we were both taken directly here but you and Cas went to a medship first.”

My eyes scanned Cas’ face.

“What happened to you?” I asked, needing to know.

“Same thing that happened to you. I got caught in the shoot out. They only got me in the leg a couple of times though, unlike you…” Guilt flickered across his face as he spoke.

“Are you okay now?” I asked, staring at his legs and trying to see any sign of lasting injury.

“Yeah, it barely did any damage. I’m basically good as new.”

He smiled lightly at me but he still looked guilty.

This wasn’t your fault. I told him but he shook his head and looked away from me.

Sadness rippled through the room as we fell silent again. I knew all of us were thinking about Peggy and blaming ourselves.

I forced that thought away and made myself speak again.

“So, what’s it like here?”

Gem’s face lit up in a smile.

“It’s great, honestly. It’s kind of like the base, really? Like there’s a school, dorms, canteen and everything but there are also war rooms which are super cool! And everyone’s really nice!”

I smiled slightly at her.

“Are they okay with us being here?” I found myself asking.

Captain Aquila had been suspicious of us before but I guessed that now she knew what we’d been through, she’d be more accepting.

“They’ve been pretty welcoming actually!”

Cas snorted and glanced at Gem.

“Yeah, even though one of us attacked a bunch of the crew and almost got the ship locked down when they first woke…”

My eyes widened and I stared at Gem.

“You did what?”

She laughed and hid her blushing face in her hands.

“Do you need to keep bringing that up? I thought we were in prison again, okay? I was determined to bring some of the bastards down.”

“And didn’t you just,” Cas smirked.

A laugh slipped out of my mouth as I looked at Gem before it died on my lips. For a second, things had felt normal. Like we were back on the base. But then, I’d expected Peggy to chime in with something. It hit me again that she was gone and I found myself unable to talk. Sadness washed over me and flooded the room. She should have been there.