The EKG machine Lex was hooked to beeped with each reading it took. Her bruised face was rapidly healing thanks to healing patches and modified Matyr cells. Kagu was right telling him to visit her yesterday.

It helped ease his guilt a tad bit.

"I’m sorry."

K muttered as he stood above her, watching as her oxygen mask clouded and cleared with each breathe she took.

A nurse from earlier had offered showing him her vitals report but he couldn’t bring himself to look at it.

It was a necessary evil after all.

"She’s healing quickly. When she comes to, Finch will explain everything to her"

"..."

He nodded, giving Lex one last look before leaving the area.

"Khae’el"

Thira slipped out of his lab coat and hugged him.

The doctor has been really touchy with him these days.

"Thira"

"Kagu told me you’re going with the space expedition crew."

"She did?"

Was trusting her a mistake? Stars, did she tell on him?

"It’s so noble of you to still want to protect people even though you’ve been temporarily put off duty."

Sorry Kagu.

"I guess."

"You’ve been through so much in such a short span of time...and yet you still fight"

His hands reached out to trace the lines of his jaw, "you’re my greatest creation, no doubt about that"

———•———

A day left to the expedition, K spent the hours parading the hangars. Partly because he was helping Kagu integrate into the control panel of the ship they had been registered on and the ones, whose tracking ID they’d use. Finch couldn’t care less what K did as long as he didn’t kill any one, human, or put the heritage of the UDF at stake.

"So here’s the plan, I’m going to temporarily freeze the ship’s system to force a delay for our ship so they take off without us"

"Why?"

"To force a delay...so when we take off possibly hours after the other ships, I can send a decoy ship signal that will take the designated route while we go to Nythera"

"Understood"

"You can leave me here, this is going to take a while"

"I can wait."

Kagu shrugged and pointed to a suitable outlet where he could drop her onto,

"Seriously go! Come get me in 0200 hours."

"Fine"

"Also, whatever you do avoid the Admiral, I forged his signature to get this pass"

"..."

"You’re welcome."

"Could have started with that..."

"It’s a boring way to relay information. Bak isn’t really happy with your streak of rebellion. He’d kill you if given the chance"

"Nice reminder"

"Shoo now, I have to complete this."

K huffed, eyed the ship before descending it and heading to the lab. For some reason Shira wasn’t breathing dow0n his neck today like she always would since they met,

"She better not be up to unreasonable shit."

Several soldiers marched past him, some tipping their head in respect some pretended not to see him. The little acts unnerved him but we continued walking regardlesss.

K pushed open the laboratory doors.

Immediately, he regretted it.

"NO."

The shout echoed across the room.

Several attendants jumped. Some had duffel bags in their hands while some held supplies.

K froze. Eyes darting around sharply.

Across the laboratory, Thira stood atop a stool trying to reach a storage shelf. His entire body stiffened the moment he saw who had entered.

"Come."

K slowly looked behind himself.

There was nobody else.

"...hello?"

"Take with you."

The Miwa hopped off the stool and marched toward him. Absolutely furious.

Or as furious as Thira could be. Which wasn’t enough to count as furious.

"No."

"No what exactly?"

"You take supplies with you."

K sighed.

Thira shoved a container into his chest. Then another. And another.

The third one nearly slipped from K’s hands.

"What is all this?"

"Medical supplies. Freeze-Dry food."

"I don’t need this many and I’m pretty sure the ship is loaded with them already"

"Yes you do."

"I really don’t."

"You nearly died three times these past weeks."

"That’s an exaggeration."

"Khae’el."

"..."

"Khae’el."

"..."

"Khae’el."

"Fine. Maybe twice."

"Three times."

"Two and a half."

"Three."

The doctor folded his arms. So he wasn’t completely fine with him leaving the planet, he could have said that when they met this morning...

K looked away.

"You’ve been preparing this the whole time?"

Thira nodded and picked up the fallen can.

"Why didn’t you say something this morning?"

"I didn’t want to come off worried"

The Miwa tilted his head.

"You always go."

K frowned.

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"You’re so strong"

Thira reached up and adjusted the cloth around his collar.

"When people need saving, you go."

The answer came so naturally that K didn’t know what to do with it.

"You come back to me?"

Frankly, K was heading into deep space. But he had never seen Thira this worried...maybe he was good at masking it and was reaching his limit?

K nodded.

"Good. Because if you don’t, I’ll come get you myself."

K grimaced inwardly. If only he knew he was going against orders again. Not to mention even if he didn’t come back, Thira still wouldn’t be able to ’come get him himself’.

Not under Bak’s stiff nose...but he replied anyway,

"I’ll be waiting."

The Miwa held his head, his ring made a sound like multiple people wailing at the same time but it stopped as quickly as it came.

"I’ll be fine Thira."

"Yes. You go back home, I’ll call before you leave for the expedition tomorrow."

"Hm"

K waved at the attendants to collect the fallen cans,

"Return all these, watch over the doctor for me too"

"Yes Sir."

The brunette shyly tucked her hair behind her ears as she cleaned up, sneaking small glances at the disappearing back of K.

"Everyone leave!"

They all nodded and scampered out.

All except the brunette.

"Leave! Not hear me?"

She smiled and sauntered over to where Thira sat.

"Stupid human! Leave!" The Miwa snapped, turning away from her.

"So this is where you’ve been hiding, Kept One?"

Thira head snapped in her direction so fast a plating bone popped off,

"W-who?"

"That doesn’t matter, I see you Kept One."

She bowed mockingly.

"What do you want?"

"You don’t have to worry about that, I’ve gotten what I wanted. I just wanted to see the unfortunate one who caught the eye of the Beast."

"..."

Thira shrunk into where he sat,

"I am not his anymore, do not address me with that vile title."

The woman smiled and nodded. Thira scanned her face, she was indeed one of his attendants. How was she a Vashki? A Miwa to be exact. He had taken precautions to seive out disguised Miwas deployed to Earth.

How did she get past his radar?

"I know the Miwa tribe to be exceptionally intelligent and yet here you are digging one hole after the other for yourself."

Thira hissed, his ring trembling violently. "My matters do not concern you!"

"Giving your ’son’ up to the enemy is not a wise choice, Vae’Thira"

"I’m not giving Khae’el up to anyone"

"Is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep better at night?"

"Leave!"

The attendant chuckled, "you did a good job at hiding him, I’ll give you that."

"What?"

"The Beast approaches, his steps makes no sound but he is heard..." the woman began seizing, her eyes rolling back and froth forming at her mouth, "he is closer today than he was yesterday and he will inevitable arrive, with a flaming sword, he will—"

Her body hit the ground, rigid.

"Oh no"

Thira rushed to her side, his own hands shaking as he rolled her onto her side and checking her breathing and pulse.

They were slowing returning to normal and she was coming to,

"What?"

Her brunette hair slowly darkened to black, it was then Thira noticed a string of bioluminescence disappearing from her neck region.

Quickly, he grabbed a scalpel and made a small cut on her palm. Bright red pooled outQuickly, he grabbed a scalpel and made a small cut on her palm. Bright red pooled out.

"That’s impossible!"

How?

He was talking to a Miwa! He was sure of it! And somehow, she was back to being a human. This was a feat unachievable by any Miwa.

So how?