Night found Tessa sitting in the far corner of the Hok’s dimly-lit brig, arm laying limp across one raised knee. It didn’t matter that she’d saved the entire crew of the Carl Sagan from the death that had caught up to them in her own timeline, it didn’t matter that she’d saved Izzy or knocked out two Coralate warships and handed them over to the Commonwealth in pristine condition– the brass were still arguing about what to do with her, about what to do with the data, the hardware, the intel they’d found in the satchel she’d brought back with her. Even her beaten, barely functional rig had been dragged into the bay for the techs to crawl over and pick apart, leaving the mine still jutting out of the Hok’s side like the shattered edge of a knife. Everything took a firm backseat to the data and hardware Tessa had brought back, the questions it all raised. Everyone knew the future now, or at least some vision of it, and everyone was terrified.

Tessa looked up as doors whispered open, half expecting a messenger for the brass, an armed guard with orders to shoot her or drag her away for questioning. A better world, Ben had said. Yeah, sure, but for who? The soft and familiar hands of a Phoebe so young it hurt passed off orders to a guard at the door, smiled feebly, nodded, then crossed to the bars, wrapped her hands around them.

“Hey.” She said softly. Tessa cocked her head a little, watched the other woman out of the corner of a single tired eye.

“Hey.”

Looking away, Phoebe sniffed, hesitated. “So. . .” she tried. “You’re a major now.”

“Yeah.”

“Ultima Thila too.” Phoebe swallowed.

“Yeah.” Tessa shifted, turned to regard the other woman with both eyes, the edges of a soft smile. “It was your idea, actually.”

“Mm.” Phoebe nodded, pulling in a shaky breath, hesitating before she forced the words that were hanging like tattered flags from the edges of her soul. “They pulled the. . . the recording from medical. The whole ship is talking about it.” She swallowed again, her voice caught. “I heard that, in your timeline. . . We’re all dead. Me, Izzy. . . everyone.” She trailed off.

“It won’t happen that way this time, Phoebe.” Tessa’s eyes dropped to the floor, smile fading to darkness. “I’ve fixed things. I’ve changed things for the better.”

“Maybe.” Came the hoarse whisper. “But as you said, you’ve changed things. The minute we act on your information, the Cygnans will change tactics and we’ll be in the dark again.”

“The future is meant to be uncertain, Phoebe.” Tessa glanced back up, made a loose gesture. “The information I brought back will win us the war before we lose all of the people that the Coralate butchered in my timeline, but that’s all. It will set things right, but everything after that is still up to us.”

“I know.” The younger woman said softly, then fell silent. In the quiet pause, Tessa got to her feet, crossed to Phoebe’s side, pressed a hand against hers.

“Hey.” Tessa’s voice came quiet. “It’s good to see you.”

“Yeah.” Phoebe managed, then looked up, met the major’s eyes carefully. “For me, its weird. You’ve been here all along, and now there are two of you, but the one I feel like I know is dead.”

Tessa swallowed past the edges of tears, didn’t even look up as the door whispered open again. “I’m sorry.”

“I hope so. I really hope you are.” Izzy stepped up to the bars, half sneered as she looked the major up and down. “I still don’t understand how you’re alive.” She crossed her arms. “When my Tessa died, shouldn’t you have disappeared or faded away or just. . .” She made a frustrated gesture. “y’know,”

“You read too much science fiction, Izzy.” Tessa smiled softly, held the other woman’s stare even as she looked away. “When I came back here, I left my timeline behind. I changed things here, now, in your timeline.” She hesitated, half afraid to put thought into words. “The other Tessa. . . that wasn’t me.”

“You’re right.” Izzy said flatly, eyes flicking back, stare as hard as iron. “She wasn’t you.”

Tessa swallowed, blinked past fresh tears. It was hard to hold the other woman’s gaze, the fierce hatred stabbing from her eyes. Slowly, timidly, like a child, she reached for her old lover, the woman she’d never forgotten, the woman she’d given everything to save.“Izzy. . .”

“Don’t touch me.” Izzy stepped out of reach, glared at her, arms dropping back to her sides. “I don’t know you.” She snarled. “You’re worse than she ever was.” Tessa’s own arm returned to the bars, hands tightening to wet, desperate fists. “That’s right. I’ve read your file, the one in the database they recovered from your rig. You weren’t happy with being born an abomination, an affront to God’s design, no– you had to take it a step further, didn’t you? You had to change yourself more! You had to become a machine filled with alien parts that pervert your body in ways that are offensive beyond words!”

“Izzy,” She hesitated, struggled with words that refused to come. “I did this for you. For us, for all of us.” Another pause, tears dropping free across cheeks. “In my timeline, the blueskins have slaughtered billions, billions! Humanity has been pushed back to one planet, to Earth, and even that has been burned to a cinder. Not even the Martian Vatican still stands. Your Pope’s cathedral is dust in my timeline!” She shouted. “Dust, Izzy!”

“And doesn’t that just make you such a fucking hero!” Izzy shouted. “Big damn Major Eisenherz, hero of the fucking Commonwealth!” She made a harsh gesture. “Did you really think you could just waltz back into the past with a body full of futuristic techware and make everything all better!? Just cozy up to your old love and live life like nothing’s happened!?” She all but spat. “Huh!? Did you!?”

“Izzy, it’s me, Tessa,” She pressed herself against the bars, wiped desperate at tears. “It’s me, the woman you love!”

“The woman I love is dead, Major.” Izzy shot back, tone hard, cold. “I watched you kill her.” Half turning away, the lieutenant shot Tessa one last vicious look, left it to hang frigid and bitter as she turned away.

Tessa’s mouth drifted open, lips hesitating, unable to form words even as Izzy stomped off, slammed a fist against the retreating door before it could open completely. Phoebe’s own mouth worked in the silence as her voice tried to find words, tried to find something to say, anything that might fix the damage that had been done, might give Tessa the strength Phoebe had come to love in her, the strength she associated with her LC. The major closed her eyes, turned away. The tears came silent, thick, one hand hesitating on the bars, dropping as Tessa collapsed into a crouch, hid her eyes with her other hand.

“She, uh. . .” Phoebe tried. “She doesn’t really hate you, y’know.” She whispered, crouching beside the bars, eyes touched at the edges with a moistness, concern. “She’s hurt, confused. She just watched you die, and you’re so different from the Tessa we know.” She swallowed. “And yet...” She shook her head. “And yet, you’re so similar. . .”

“I know.” Tessa sniffed, wiped at her eyes, glanced sideways at the younger woman. “I didn’t plan for any of this to turn out the way it did. I wasn’t even aiming for this point in the timeline, this place. I was trying to get to Earth before the war even started, put an end to it before any of this could even happen, but. . .” She trailed off, shook her head.

“That’s. . .” Phoebe swallowed. “That’s life, though, isn’t it?” The edge of a laugh snuck past her lips, died as she sniffed, wiped at her own eyes. “I mean, nothing really ever turns out the way we plan.”

There was no answer, only silence as Tessa looked away again, closed her eyes. Phoebe hesitated in the pause, wrestled with herself, tried again.

“There is one thing I’d like to know for sure.” She swallowed again, found herself unable to speak again, to put her thoughts into words. “Tessa, if Izzy. . .” The major glanced back again, met the younger woman’s eyes as she hesitated, struggled, looked away. “Did we. . ? Did we ever. . . ?”

“You mean. . .”

Phoebe closed her eyes. “Yeah.”

Tessa turned away again, pulled in a long, tired breath. Phoebe shook her head, hesitated, stood again.

“You know what, forget it, it’s a stupid question, I. . .”

“No, Phoebe.” Tessa stood, caught the other woman’s hand. “It’s not a stupid question.” She swallowed, hesitated. Slowly, carefully, she moved back to the bars, came up against them, reaching, gently tracing a finger along the line of Phoebe’s jaw. The younger woman closed her eyes, sucked in a sudden, desperate breath.

“When Izzy died, you and I. . .” She swallowed, lost suddenly as the other woman opened her eyes, so clear and blue, depthless and staring. Her heart caught in her throat, left her breathless, unable to do anything but caress the other woman’s cheek. “We got a little close.”

“How close?” Phoebe breathed, coming up against the bars, fingers weaving into Tessa’s fingers, palms touching, gently pressing.

“This close.” Tessa whispered, and then their lips met, locked in a kiss that held them both immobile for an instant, locked, breathing into each other, tasting the sun. When they finally broke away again, it was slow, reluctant, necessary. Phoebe closed her eyes, tried to mask tears as they flooded in, poured suddenly through tight-held lids.

“I’m sorry, Phoebe.”

“It’s okay, it’s. . .” The younger woman tried, voice coming hoarse, shaky. “So where. . .” She wiped at her tears, hesitated, managed the edge of a glance. “Where does this leave us?”

“Right here,” Tessa managed the barest smile. “Just this.”

“Okay.” Phoebe tried a smile of her own, nodded once. “I can. . . I can live with that.” She swallowed, turned back to face Tessa fully.

“The future is meant to be uncertain, right?”

“Right.”