A Breach of Galactic Protocol

This was co-written by pastelpopsicles on Twitter. She wrote the first draft, I tightened it up and wrote over it. Takes place after A Crack in Time and is the result of a Discord chat where we were both like "hey maybe Elaris is the one that fixes up the loser bot aha how cute would that be".

Quick side-note, since this is taking place in the Game universe and not the Reboot universe, none of the events of "What's A Little Galaxy-Wide Destruction Between Friends?" are canon to this story. In this universe, Elaris learned that Dr. Nefarious was a robot when he attacked Metropolis on planet Kerwan with his swarm of robot bugs.


It was a beautiful miracle of science, how Lawrence managed to teleport an unconscious Dr. Nefarious mere moments before he was tossed into an exploding space station that would've ripped his very atoms asunder and spread him like a thin space dust across three neighboring planets. The butler was used to saving his boss' life at the last second on numerous occasions but this...

This was too close of a call.

"Must you keep picking fights with the Lombax, sir? Might I suggest making an enemy that isn't so heavily armed next time." Lawrence quipped.

Dr. Nefarious, one eye missing from his socket and his jaw hanging loose from his head, remained silent. Static noises dimly played from his glass dome as his body remained draped limply in the backseat of the tiny escape pod, various unsightly fluids lightly dripping to the floor. He looked like a bad Halloween prop that was subjected to at least five different acts of vandalism from bored teenagers.

"Ah, I see. Forgot about the boss battle you had earlier. Silly me."

As he slowly floated around in space in a cramped escape pod with a charred, malfunctioning robot, Lawrence - for the fiftieth time that day - questioned his life decisions and deeply analyzed what lead him to this point.

Maybe he should have pursued his career as a first class bassist somewhere deep in the Solana Galaxy. Perhaps being a butler for one of the ruthless capitalist stockholders of Megacorp was less stressful on the ol' circuits if he still wanted that evil thrill in his life. Better time spent there than in his current predicament, that's for sure.

"Why do I bother..." Lawrence mused out loud, mostly to clear the dead air.

Minutes stretched into hours as the two continued to hover endlessly through space. After growing tired - and slightly unnerved - of the eerie silence, Lawrence decided to keep himself company by turning on the radio. News reports of Dr. Nefarious's space station blowing up along with him echoed on each channel he switched to, even the music channels. Dr. Nefarious's greatest failure was absolutely inescapable.

Lawrence, it seemed, was trapped in his own personal version of Hell. The universe was playing a cruel joke on him. He shook his head discontentedly, hoping to send the universe a sternly worded metaphorical letter with this gesture, and once again peaked to the back seat where Dr. Nefarious lay motionless.

As he stared at the lifeless heap of bolts and metal, Lawrence found it odd how much he wanted Dr. Nefarious to suddenly get up and start loudly complaining about being bored or to scream about why his left arm was ripped from his shoulder. But with the static still playing from his mechanical nightmare of a brain, Lawrence wondered if he was too late on the last minute rescue and if he was keeping company with a broken, metallic corpse.

"Time to start looking for another job then..." Lawrence spoke out loud in a mock chipper tone.

Nefarious didn't answer.


A few days have passed with nothing but the emptiness of space, the quiet hum of an unconscious robot, and a static-y radio playing news reports, My Blaster Runs Hot commercials, and outdated jazz.

A lesser, more undignified man would've been driven mad under these conditions, but Lawrence weathered on with a stiff upper lip. Turns out Ratchet and Clank managed to save the galaxy (again, not at all surprising to the butler considering the current hell that was being inflicted on him) and time was slowly fixing itself.

He never dared ask - not that his boss would give him a satisfactory answer - but why did Dr. Nefarious ever think that using a mythical time machine would yield any positive results? The best it would do is rip the universe apart and kill them all.

As he pondered at the thought, a beeping sound came from the pod's dashboard, a bright red light flashing "LOW FUEL".

Oh dear, he thought to himself as the pod became flooded with crimson. This is the end of the great butler Lawrence and his idiotic sidekick Dr. Nefarious! The stories of their failures will be told alongside campfires and water coolers for years to come!

He scanned the area for any planets or lost ships, coming up with nothing. Almost ready to give into his fate of dying in space, that's when he noticed an outpost on a nearby hunk of what seemed to be a blown up moon, just barely bigger than the asteroid that still haunted his memory banks. He took this tiny window of opportunity - carpe diem as his college chums would say - and made quite a landing, crashing into the moon fragments as the fuel finally depleted.

The pod was completely trashed. It was repairable, but without anything to get it off the ground, it was as useless as the lifeless robot in the backseat. Dusting himself off from the crash landing and adjusting his bow tie, he took the time to take in his bearings. It seems like someone - one of those scruffy, undignified Vullards maybe - took up shop on this desolate moon and soon left when business wasn't up to par.

Lawrence dragged the doctor's body from the trashed escape pod, propped him up against a crate like a store dummy, and then started to comb the area for any supplies or means of contacting another life form. As he dug around the old chop shop (gingerly, of course, as the place was quite dusty and did not pass the white glove test), he could hear a faint sound coming from Dr. Nefarious.

Lawrence instantly poked his head out of the door with a quiet but almost desperate "Yes, sir?", but alas, it was just a broadcast of an older episode of "Lance and Janice". He was displeased - at this point he'll take even the most inane griping from his boss - but at least it gave him something to listen to as he dug around some more.

"Oh Lance! I thought I'd never see you again! I thought you died in that horrible fight with that awful cybernetically-enhanced army of radioactive lizards!"

"Janice my love, the doctors managed to put me back together! Now I'm stronger and more handsome than before! I can carry you away with one arm!"

"Oh Lance!"

Lawrence could only stare in weary, silent resignation as the gross sound of two lovers sloppily making out filled the empty void of the chop shop. He'd try smacking the doctor like he usually did but feared that, in Dr. Nefarious's current state, even that small act of violence would cause him to completely fall to pieces. All he could do was sigh and continue on with digging and dusting. He even did some light rearranging and recataloging, in the off-chance that the original owner came back and decided to admire his handiwork. He found old rusted tools, magazines dating years in the past, and finally, something of importance - the communicator pieces of an old smart phone.

With the tools at his disposal and some rusted parts, Lawrence began working towards fixing his employer's gPhone, which was unfortunately still in his pocket while he was fighting Ratchet and Clank. With his current "occupation", Dr. Nefarious couldn't exactly take his phone to the nearest gPhone store in the event that he dropped it or threw it at a wall in an angry fit - which he did quite often - so one of Lawrence's many skills was how to fix the intricate little tool, keeping the poor maligned smartphone alive well past its normal lifespan. Taking pieces of their recently wrecked pod came in handy, and he didn't think his employer would mind too much.

As he worked tirelessly, he kept an ear open for the Lance and Janice broadcast. If the plan to fix the phone failed, the next option would be to use his boss's own radio signal as a way to lure in any unsuspecting ships. Ripping out his own boss's brains seemed needlessly cruel even for someone like Dr. Nefarious, but it was definitely an option.

"Janice, I'm now a weapon strong enough to surpass Getal Mear!"

"Oh Lance, but will that be enough to stop Marthas, the Witch King?"

"With you by my side, Janice, I fear nothing. Nothing but the end of your love."

After tightening a few bolts, the gPhone was fixed. Well, mostly. The thing still looked like it would fall apart at any minute and the screen was dreadfully cracked, but at least now it could be used to make a couple calls. He nonchalantly scanned through all of Dr. Nefarious's contacts. Finding someone who wasn't dead or wanted them dead quickly became a challenge. Cassie? Dead. Flint? Probably dead. Courtney Gears? Restraining order. Minionbot #2716? Wanted him dead since day one.

As he scrolled through the phone (and swiped away any alerts from his games that he still had a daily bonus active), a catalog of enemies at his fingertips, he found a name he had never heard of. He narrowed his eyes at the name near the bottom of the contact list.

Elaris. Purple heart. Smiley Face. Purple Heart. Swirling Hearts.

Was this person an old friend or coworker of Dr. Nefarious's? They must be important, seeing as there were several heart emojis next to their contact name. Not even Cassiopeia received that privilege.

Whatever the case is, if he didn't try to contact them, he could be calling the chop shop his new forever home and, hundreds of years from now, some hapless space explorer would find their rusted remains and try to write them off as an archaeological curiosity.


'A shooting star fell down to earth, Lightning cracked the sky...'

It was late at night when Elaris's smartphone went off next to her head and woke her up.

She prayed that it would stop as she buried her head underneath her pillow but the cheesy song that she once loved as a college student kept playing, filling her room with crackling dulcet tones. Resigning herself to her fate, she ended up reaching for her nightstand, knocking over a couple Funko Pops in the process, only to find that it was coming from an unknown caller.

'Wow, these scammers are getting persistent,' she thought to herself and she ignored the first call, but it kept ringing. The same unknown caller popped up on the screen, she kept on ignoring them until they disconnected, but then they'd come right back, letting the song repeat itself. Why would anyone want to be contacting her this late?

'Something weird is happening, Something I can't deny...'

It could be a time zone thing, she thought to herself. It's probably early afternoon at best for the caller. Still, she hesitated.

Looking down at her phone as it continued to ring, voicemail after voicemail began to pop up on the screen, flooding her notifications. Why were they so adamant on calling her? Did she miss a shift at work? Did she forget to pay for a parking ticket?

Now the calls seemed to worry her. What if there was an emergency?

'The wind was like a hurricane, Storm clouds filled the sky...'

She couldn't take the song anymore and finally answered, mentally preparing herself to either apologize for any unpaid tickets or give some unlucky caller an earful if they were trying to scam her for the fourth time that week.

"Look, do you have any idea how late it is over here? This better be important or I will call the Polaris Defense Force on you!" she said, on the defensive, sleep slurring her words. Important or not, surely there was galactic protocol that could've let this wait until the morning?

"Oh, I'd rather you not do that, ma'am. My employer would be quite unhappy about it. Well...as unhappy as he can be in his current state, that is."

Elaris froze in place, breath catching in her throat. The voice was extremely professional and had the even tone of the most astute gentleman, but something about the way he talked - carrying the same noble airs as either a member of the aristocracy or the mafia - made Elaris suddenly take this phone call extremely seriously.

"Uhh.. Excuse me?" she responded, her brain reeling.

"I do apologize for not giving a proper introduction. I am Lawrence, and I currently serve under the employ of Dr. Nefarious. Does that name ring a bell for you, ma'am?"

It did, and Elaris could feel her blood instantly turn to ice.

"Either way, I've called to ask a favor of you. I do hope you accept."

She numbly laid down in her bed, looking up at the ceiling with confusion and, of all things, anger. Her and Dr. Nefarious go way back, being the best of friends in high school and college before she moved to the Bogon galaxy to finish her robotics degree and he moved on to transform into a robot and become a terrible scourge of several galaxies.

Dr. Nefarious hadn't contacted her in years, was one of the most renowned criminals in the universe, and now has the audacity to have HIS butler call for a favor?

On top of that, she heard the news of his space station blowing to pieces only a few days ago. There was no way those two lived through an explosion that large. Was she dreaming? Was Lawrence trying to contact her from beyond the grave?

"Are you still there, ma'am?"

"I am. I'm just...shocked. Just give me a moment to process this."

"Completely understandable. Not everyone can say that they were contacted by The Great Dr. Nefarious and his loyal butler willingly."

"Is that what he's calling himself these days...?" Being woken up past midnight did not do wonders for Elaris's mood, especially now that she knew that there was a wanted criminal on the other line. The surreal nature of this phone call was bringing out her temper.

"Why do you need my help? I'm sure The Great Dr. Nefarious has better things to do on his evil genius agenda than bug random civilians with phone calls!"

Oh dear, Lawrence thought to himself as he still had the phone pressed to the side of his head. She caught on. But he can tell that she did have some interest in what he was offering. She wasn't hanging up for one. He cleared his throat and debriefed her on his situation.

"Well you see, ma'am, our station was blown up with Dr. Nefarious taking a nasty bit of damage. Left arm's fallen off, body is all burnt and bumped, you get the idea. Turns out Lombaxes can be quite temperamental creatures. I saw your name in his contacts with little purple hearts so I was thinking you'd be important."

What Lawrence didn't know was that he had used a magic word.

Important.

That word hung in the air and stirred up feelings that Elaris couldn't place names for.

For all of Elaris's life, she never felt like she was important. At school, and at all of her past jobs, she was always the little geeky thing that people made fun of behind her back, the little nerd that would take any bullying with a smile on her face, and usually the first one to suffer budget cuts in her department once she became a working adult.

Not once in her entire career path could she describe herself as "important". That word was reserved for other people. She even left it off her resumes and cover letters.

But apparently she was important to Dr. Nefarious.

She was important enough to keep her a secret from his evil minions and to keep her phone number handy in case of emergencies.

She contemplated as the butler spoke. She sat up again, alert.

"There will be a reward for you if you help us out in any way, ma'am." Lawrence continued, not sure what caused her sudden bout of silence. "Either it be dropping us off in the Corvus Sector somewhere or, not sure if you're qualified, actually repairing him."

So he really didn't know a thing about her, Elaris thought to herself. She was a top robotics engineer where she worked and invented quite a few gadgets and weapons in her life, some which became Gadgetron staples and household names. Not that she saw much of a cut in terms of royalties of course, not that anyone in the galaxy even knew who she was, since she never was an important member of the team, but it was the thought that counts, right?

Still, this all felt so strange and unreal to her. She was desperate to wake up from this whole conversation and go back to living a life of drudgery and mild normality, but she could almost feel a cold and tired gaze from the other end. She stood up from her bed and looked into the darkness that engulfed her room as she tried to place all the pieces together into something that made sense.

Someone she knew who went rouge, tried to turn millions into robots, and almost tore time apart for some silly vendetta...still had her as a contact? Her, an organic life form, or how Dr. Nefarious would put it, a "squishy". She thought he hated all of them, including herself. She was pretty sure any plot that would wipe out all organic life would include her in it.

Hands began to shake. Should she really take the offer in the chance of seeing him again? Would he even remember her after so many years? Would he try to rekindle their old relationship? The phone still in her hand, she continued to contemplate the decision she would make, but then a sharp cough brought her back to reality.

"Still up for it, ma'am?"

"Yes." she finally said. She felt like the entire universe was bearing down on her shoulders as she dragged a hand across her face. "Just send me your coordinates and I'll be over. I promise I won't contact the authorities or anything. Just...trust me, okay?"

"Oh, excellent." he said. If he was happy about her response, he certainly didn't let it show in his voice, which remained calm and even. This was a man who would stare into the Void and the Void would be too embarrassed to stare back.

"But do be quick, seems like he's running on fumes." And with those words hanging in the air, the butler hung up.

As she numbly stared at the phone in her hands, Elaris panicked a bit and began to pace back and forth in the darkness of her bedroom as her emotions instantly came crashing down on her, her brain screaming at every atom in her being.

'I can't believe I just took this offer! Oh for the love of every intergalactic religion out there, are you an idiot, Elaris! What if the others find out I'm helping a super villain? What if I get caught? What if I'm killed?!' All these thoughts rushed through her mind and she clenched her jaw so hard to keep herself from screaming that her teeth began to hurt.

What kept her from ghosting Lawrence and just curling back in her bed and forgetting this entire thing happened was the last thing that was said in that strange conversation. Dr. Nefarious was dying and he needed her help. Someone needed her. She needed to save someone's life. She didn't have a second to lose.

'No need to panic, Elaris. Time to be a professional about breaking intergalactic law.'

With the steely determination normally reserved for superheroes, Elaris immediately fixed herself up three cups worth of insta coffee, grabbed her coat, and rushed out of her apartment and towards her ship, keys in one hand and a thermos full of sweet, delicious caffeine in the other. Her landlord must have found it strange for her to bust out in nothing but pajama shorts, sneakers, and a bulky jacket but to be fair on Elaris, this also wasn't the first time this had happened. At least this time, she didn't have to deal with a building on fire or a loose plasma beast.

Inputting Lawrence's coordinates into her ship, she braced herself for what lay ahead.

"Nefarious, what have you gotten yourself into this time?" she muttered to herself as she shot off into the unknown.


She never was good with meet-ups or gatherings, especially with the guests being an old flame and his butler. The whole ride there was her trying to calm down and keep herself from having a heart attack. She was beginning to regret the many things in her life that brought her to this moment, but mostly, she regretted the insta coffee. Turned out the coffee was a horrible idea as it raced through her veins, messed up her stomach, and caused her anxiety to spike. But at least it kept her alert enough to pilot the ship.

'There's nothing he can do to me, right?' her brain reasoned with her as her hands kept jittering against the steering wheel and her insides turned into molten lava. Lawrence said he's practically dead so he couldn't try to kill her.

But why would he kill her if he still had her as a contact? That's what bugged her the most. He had all those years to kill her or to try to convince her to turn to the Dark Side, but instead he chose to leave her alone. And why didn't Lawrence know a thing about her? You'd think he'd try to brag that he had a past girlfriend in Gadgetron to all of his evil minions.

Maybe, deep down, he still cared enough about her that he wanted her far away from any of his evil schemes. As much as an insane robot scientist could, at least.

As she listened to the radio, a breaking news segment came on.

"There still have been no sightings of The Great Dr. Nefarious (Elaris quickly snorted) and his loyal butler Lawrence. They were last seen fleeing to the Corvus Sector in an escape pod and are, unfortunately, still presumed alive. Any tips will lead to a reward and a pizza party made in your honor, and, if found that you're holding information about his whereabouts, it will lead to a hefty fine, prison time, and wide public mockery. If this reporter could inject his own personal beliefs into this broadcast, we all hate this guy, and we all want him arrested, so please, for the sake of the universe, TURN HIM IN! Anyways, back to your regular programming."

"Hahahaha...great. Just great..." Turning white at the newscaster's remark, she took another shot of her coffee. Her heart was starting to beat at a speed reserved for small dogs.

Why was she doing this? Why did she think this was a good idea? Then she will never start her dream company and instead get locked up with the likes of the Prog twins and Flint Vorselon. She didn't think she could last very long in prison. She was too delicate and prisons never had good wi-fi.

She found herself shaking, maybe from all the stress she was putting her sleep deprived body through or from being out in deep space in a pair of robot printed shorts. So many thoughts ran through her mind that she didn't notice Lawrence trying to hail her ship through a radio call. She wasn't sure if she should feel glad or even more scared that she finally found them.

Better get this done in one piece, she thought to herself. Now all she had to do was play it cool...

"Ma'am...are you alright?" Lawrence asked when Elaris, a tall purple woman dressed in pajamas, practically fell out of the driver seat onto the dusty ground.

"I'm fine! Just fine! Super!" Elaris barked back in too loud of a voice as she tried to pose nonchalantly against the side of her ship with a fake smile on her face. Lawrence gave her a withering gaze as he examined her like a speck of dirt, a thousand different scathing remarks swirling through his head at once. But then saw she was popping open the back of her ship, so he didn't bother asking too many questions and figured it was best to keep quiet.

Deciding that the less time she spent speaking meant the less time spent doing something illegal, she helped Lawrence drag the unconscious Dr. Nefarious and his parts in the back of her ship. Lance and Janice went on making out unheeded as she draped Nefarious's arm across her shoulder and Lawrence took hold of what was left of his legs.

Once they were inside, Elaris's reunion with Dr. Nefarious was very bittersweet. Despite everything, looking at him in that state - broken and practically lifeless - broke her heart. Gently, she reached over and touched his scarred face, letting her fingers follow the gashes made in his brow. She knew what he looked like now - you didn't try to turn a galaxy into robots without appearing in the news, after all - but this deep wound on his face was new.

She didn't really know how to react at that moment. Sadness at seeing her old friend in such a state? Fear that she'll be arrested or killed for helping him? Hopeful that maybe, she could repair him and things could go back to the ways they were before he snapped and went robotic?

Despite knowing it was wrong to feel such a way for such a diabolical monster, she settled for pity.

She must have been staring at him for a while, for Lawrence ended up looking over at her and briskly tapped her on the shoulder, clearing his throat in a quick "a-hmm" noise. He opened his mouth to say something more but had a large plastic tarp, normally used to protect sports vehicles from the weather, shoved into his arms.

"Here. I know it may be humiliating, but hide as best as you can and cover both you and him -" she pointed at Nefarious with a thumb. "-with this. I'll dim the lights back there so you'll be in complete darkness." She paused and started scratching her arms nervously. "You know, if that's alright..." she said, hesitant at how this whole thing was supposed to go.

"I'd prefer this over a death in the cold vacuum of space, ma'am." Lawrence responded curtly.

"Okay. That's uh...good..." she stood in place, gritting her teeth, hurriedly thinking of a plan. "I have a workshop on Kalebo III. I have Gadgetron clearance and a history of randomly showing up in the middle of the night to work on projects so no one's going to find anything suspicious. It's a good place to hide out while I repair Nefarious. I have...NO idea how I'm going to cover this up with the Defense Force but I'll think of something! I promise!"

Lawrence had absolutely no complaints - or, rather, he wasn't saying them out loud - and it wasn't long before her ship took off, with the coordinates taking them to Kalebo III.

With the ship set to autopilot, despite all the coffee running through her system, she allowed herself to get some sleep, resting her head on the nearby window.

'I'm going to wake up and none of this ever happened. This is just some weird dream and I can happily go back to work and finish up that new weapon I was blueprinting,' was the thought burning through her head as she drifted off into a dreamless void.


Sadly, a couple hours later, she found that it was real and that she was definitely still committing grandiose transgressions. She woke up shivering and had her gaze be met with a depressed looking butler.

Letting herself stretch and yawn, she looked over at the map on her dashboard. Oh, great. They weren't even halfway there. Why couldn't committing crimes be faster? Sighing to herself as she sunk deeper into her seat, the butler behind her chimed in with some small talk.

"So ma'am, I've been meaning to ask this, and forgive me for prying into your personal life when I am so very grateful for this large favor you're paying us...but how did you ever come across Dr. Nefarious?"

Sitting up, she turned to face him, exhaustion in her eyes. She wasn't sure if now would be the best time to dive into their old friendship. But, seeing as they had a long ways to go, she immediately decided why not. What's the worst that could happen?

"I went to the same high school and college as him. Weird, right? We were pretty good friends and we invented a lot of things during lunch breaks. A claw to break into vending machines, a gun that would turn anyone into sheep...you name it, we built it!" she said, flashing another smile, one that was genuine and full of warmth.

The smile didn't last.

"As the years went on," she said, nervously fidgeting with her headset, "I noticed him getting more and more bitter. It didn't help that Qwark was constantly bullying him and shoving him into lockers every other day. I thought things would get better once we went to college, but instead things...got worse. Because our college happened to have a great superhero program."

She exhaled through clenched teeth.

"Our bullies multiplied in number and followed us."

Lawrence was in awe over this, even if his expression never changed. He could never picture Dr. Nefarious having any friends or being social with anyone. Lawrence figured that Nefarious's unlikable personality was present in his early years as well. How could someone like Elaris ever show empathy towards him?

"I ended up getting this amazing scholarship at a university in the Bogon Galaxy. I remember telling Nefarious about it and he seemed quite…unhappy about it, to say the least. I knew he was excited for me finishing my robotics degree, but I guess he didn't want me to leave him behind with Qwark. I left the next day without even saying goodbye and the next thing I hear from him is how he created a race of green blobs in a secret laboratory in the swamps of Rilgar. ..."

Outwardly, Lawrence showed no emotion. Inwardly, he winced.

"Honestly, it's been eating at me ever since. Sometimes I wonder if, in some way, I could've prevented..."

She stopped herself, letting her words hang in the air. You couldn't change the past. There was no way to change the past. "...I'm sure he still hates me for not keeping in contact for so long."

"Oh, I doubt that." Lawrence finally said.

"What makes you say that?" she retorted, now feeling thoroughly sorry for both herself and the unconscious monster in the backseat.

"How else did I contact you, ma'am? He even put little hearts next to your name in his phone. He's not known to do that even with his past relationships. I get the feeling he's always been planning to call you back but never could muster up the courage to do so."

Somewhere deep inside Elaris's heart, the ancient remnants of old, unrequited feelings began to stir, like the subtle tremor that came before an ancient kaiju attacked a city.

"I say when he wakes up from his repairs, we ask him how he feels."

For the first time since meeting him, Elaris could hear a bit of an emotion sneak into Lawrence's voice. There was a tiny bit of playfulness at his words when he said 'ask him how he feels', like he was delighted by the notion of teasing his boss.

"I don't know..." She said, looking away. She started nervously scratching the back of her neck. "Maybe he forgot to delete it when everything went down? I'm surprised he never told you who I am. I know he likes to dwell a lot on his past but, you know, him hating on the 'squishies' probably refers to me as well..."

"I can't speak for him but you seem important enough to keep hidden from his evil affairs." he replied.

There was the magic word again. Important. Nefarious thought she was important.

Why did that matter so much to her?

"We can pester him about it when he's fully repaired. Deal?" Lawrence said, extending a metaphorical olive branch.

They both looked over at him, covered in an old blanket with a faint hum of a polka song playing. She still felt a bit of regret wash over her body, but she couldn't turn back now even if she wanted to. Even though she was fearful of what he'd say to her when he woke, she still had a hopeful feeling that he might still remember her or still care for her. She gripped the steering wheel of the ship and nodded.

"...deal."


End of Chapter 1.