Callius was seated outside a newly made garden, surrounded by trees and all sorts of fragrant flowers. The scent reminded him of the planet Vestrea, making him feel more relaxed than he had been in weeks. 

White benches that were replicated to look like marble sat on the edges of the plants. The environmental air around him could barely even be smelt. It brought him slight joy 

A large memorial encarved with with dozens of several names, all signed like the persons signature. But all he could do was drift his eyes towards Ava's and Christopher's. Tears were hard to hold back, but he found a way to keep strong.

His eyes only trailed back a bit to see Brystal walking up towards him. Instead of her, saying something like the admirals need you or what are you doing, she took a seat right next to him. She stayed silent, knowing she did know what to say yet.

She was dressed mostly in all black like she usually was. A long-sleeved, black turtleneck as well as ripped black jeans. Her expression was somber, and barely even readable.

"Like that you decided to put a garden in," Brystal commented, "And Cherry Blossoms........that's a nice touch

"I thought your mother would've liked them," Callius responded.

"Callius.......why did you'd at we had to toast like the Renegades? You disbanded them two months after I joined, after the incident-"

"And yet that type of incident happened again in Starfleet, even after I swore to defend this place," Callum's interrupted.

"Callius.....that's not the point," Brystal explained, "We lost two good soldiers that day. Mason Graham and Katherine Grohl. We let the scavengers get the upper hand by making-"

"I know," Callius spoke up.

"Just let me speak for once!" Brsytal begged him, "They tricked everyone just as much as they tricked your daughter, Amaya into joining them. You lost so many things that day and I don't know how you can handle it all!

Mom  and Dad are gone. I almost lost Jim, the captain of the ship I work on! And I lost all control of myself,  nearly killing the only thing that could save Jim! I'm not you.......and I can't control all of these emotions forever......one day I'm going to burst and breakdown somewhere."

Tears had begun to start to sting and slightly fall down her face. Every emotion and loss she kept inside her had slowly started to break through her. The pain and sorrow that had numbed her body for so long seemed to feel as if it started to unlock its cage inside her.

Callius immediately felt his whole body drop at her words. His stomach twisted into various series of knots, making his heart feel tight. She was right and he knew it.

"That's the thing about the people we love. The more we know and love them.....the more it hurts to see them go. Making you wish they never existed, so you wouldn't suffer the pain you are right now. And there just so much that time will never erase from history," Callius spoke, not daring to stutter from his now uncontrollable emotions.

"Chris and Ava might be gone......but their love lives inside of you. Just knowing they raised such a wonderful woman........that's enough to keep me going through every day.....just knowing that they'd want you to be safe.

Amaya made her choice that day and letting her go......is a decision I regret and reel back in my head thousands of times. I don't want the same thing to happen to you.....you've already suffered enough," Callius told her through watering eyes.

Brystal mustered a desperate grin on her lips before wrapping Callius into a hug. Burying her head into his shoulders, allowing herslef to feel eveyr emotion she kept inside her. The cage had unlocked itself inside her, allowing the free bird to be freed from all the pain. For the caged bird would now sing.

Callius wrapped his arms around her, strongly hugging her to himself. But made sure he wasn't crushing her, instead it was more of a strong hug full of pain that was being freed from them. Everything that had been bottled up inside them began to spill their way out into the world.

They slowly parted from each other, settling themselves back down just as Brystal spoke up, "And so have you, old man."

Callius softly chuckled at his goddaughter calling him out for being old, knowing he wasn't as young as he used to be. The two shared a smile, breathing in the sweet scent of cherry blossoms flourish around them. God, her mother would've loved to have seen this.

It seemed just like the ending scene of one of the movies her mother loved, but she didn't see a feather in sight to be moving in front of her. But she knew that life wasn't perfect and she wasn't some Disney princess with a happy ending. Her life was hard........then again, she pulsing know what other life she'd live other than his one.

She was and would always be the woman her mother and father raised. The people who taught her to be noble, caring, smart, and cunning in all ways. Something that she could always be proud of.....just being the daughter of two heroic people in her life.

"Don't forget that on your five year mission on the enterprise," Callius told her.

"My five year-" Brystal was cut off by another voice.

"Commander! Commander!" A Russian voice came out of nowhere.

Callius and Brystal both turned their heads simultaneously, just to see a a curly haired boy running up to them. Brsytal immediately recognized the young man, quickly getting up from her seat. Chekov halted himself in front go her, gasping and panting form all the running he had done to find her.

"Chekov?"

"Commander! I couldn't find you! I searched everywhere for you and thought you left the main building at some point, but Lieutenant Hale directed me-" Chekov was cut off on his rambling by Brystal.

"Wow! Slow down! Why did you need to find me?" Brystal questioned him.

"Dr. McCoy was trying to reach you," Chekov explained to her.

"Why was he trying to reach me?" Brystal inquired.

"He says the captains might be waking up," Chekov told her, causing her heart to suddnely pound in her chest and her eyes widening.

Issac Merlin watched as his sister tried on her Starfleet insignia onto her gray uniform. The two siblings had been helping with memorial and keeping security numbers a little bit higher than before Khan's attacks. They didn't want to take changes with the same incident happening again.

Cauis was tapping his fingers back and forth on the keyboard, his pace rapid as always. His eyes moving with the screen everytime something new popped up. Lyris sat in a chair watching from afar as William and Imara playing around the records room near by, but Alejandro was quite quiet, only noise coming out of his cup of fruity boba tea.

"Looks...." Adeline trailed off waiting for somebody to say something, turning her body to face the group.

"Great," Issac smiled.

"Marvelous," Lyris answered.

"Gorgeous," Alejandro.

"Looks like any Starfleet Insignia, Senator," Cauis answered, dryly and truthfully. Issac eyes dimmed and slightly glared at the engineer.

"Says you......Admiral Lemuria," Lyris joked, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Don't. Call me that. It has such a weird ring to it," Cauis rolled his eyes, concentrating back to his screen. He had been making the others wonder days on need why he was searching up birth certificates and documents over the following weeks.

Ever since Starfleet lost most of their Admirals, Callius had asked them all to help them. Much to Cauis's dismay the group voted on him being an Admiral instead of his regular job of being an Engineer. Ranking that high at Starfleet was never what he wanted, but that's what the group wanted.

Adeline agreed to be a senator after many of the earth senators fled due to the Khan Incident. She was very excited and abound with restless eagerness to start her new duty. That didn't mean she'd miss decoding and deciphering things 24/7.

Lyris, Issac, and Alejandro were at a stalemate that they're ould be fine with their regular jobs. Issac would still Callius's bodyguard and right hand man, Alejandro would still the Earth Ambassador, and Lyris would still be able to work her small job of helping new students around the academy.

"That's a title I'm going to have to get used," Alejandro joked, making Issac smirk. Cauis visibly eye rolled at the two, clearly annoyed by their shenanigans.

Cauis finally came up on a form he'd been searching for pausing, reading it over and over. His heart frantically pumping his hope and anticipation throughout his body. He wanted this to be true.....everything was fitting like puzzle pieces on a jigsaw puzzle. 

"Helena Ava Joanne Anderson," Cauis muttered to himself, catching Adeline's attention.

"Helena, What now?" Adeline inquired to him.

"I found out who Ava Pike was before the whole Khan incident," Cauis gestured to his computer.

"That's what you've been working on for weeks on end?" Issac asked him.

"Why'd it take you so long?" Lyris added.

"Well, I'm sorry if this took me so long to find one woman in the universe with the name Ava, when many thousands of other women do," Cauis exaggerated, but immediately pointed at younger picture of Ava Pike, "That's her. Her real name was Helena Ava Joanne Anderson-"

"That's a mouthful," Alejandro leaned to look at the screen, peering at the woman's features.

"May I finish?" Cauis asked the group, politely.

"You may," Lyris nodded.

"But her family called her Ava since Helena was her grandmothers name. Says here that she disappeared in 1985 which I can assume is when Khan was taken from his time too," Cauis explained.

"Why have you been looking her up?" Adeline asked.

"Brystal always wanted to know who her mother was. Growing up with no pictures of her mothers childhood or early life made her feel a bit farther from knowing Ava.......but now......I think she should know.....who her mother is. No more secrets."

"Carol! Wait!"

Callum dashed after the woman who's exited the cafe before him. His hand clutching around the blonde vanilla latte he'd just got handed by the woman behind the cashier. He would've asked for a scone or a sweet treat to side with it, but he'd been more focused in getting to talk to Carol.

He needed to talk to her, he told himself that a  dozen times. It must've been awful seeing her fathers head crushed right in front of her. Thought he hated Marcus's guys that didn't mean he had to be selfish.

She was wearing all black. Cardigan, pants, and v-neck shirt. It was different seeing her in something else other than a starfleet uniform while he had found extreme comfort in wearing a buttoned up gray shirt and black sweater.

"Mr. Stewart?" Carol turned to face him at the steps of the cafe.

"Can we talk?? Callum asked.

"Um.....about what exactly?" Carol hesitated.

"Firstly, I'd just like to say I send my condolences to you and your mother on the loss of your father, even though he did try to kill my friends......he was your father. And it's not right for me be selfish and think one way when I could be thinking how you felt about this."

Carol stared at him like she was on the verge of tearing up at his words, "Thank you.....you don't have to if you."

"No, truly I am sorry," Callum told her before cautiously taking a sip of his hot drink.

"I should also thank your friend, Brystal for......defending me when she could've just agreed with the council," Carol spoke up.

"You kidding? Brystal's brain goes a million miles a minute and she knows every right and wrong. You're an amazing person whether or not  your Marcus's daughter. Brystal was right, blood doesn't mean you'll be the exact same person."

"Why are you being so sweet?" Carol asked.

"Because I hate acting like a jerk," Callum told her, "I would beat myself up later in the night if I said something wrong.

Carol chuckled, making Callum's face edge with a smile. The two walked down the busy streets, cautiously avoiding everybody else to continue their conversation. Callum felt a sense of calm inside himself like he wouldn't indeed beat himself up later.

"So.....are you going to stay on the Enterprise?" Callum asked.

"I...I honestly don't know......I was considering quitting Starfleet-"

"Don't!"  Callum immediately said, "You don't have to."

"Honestly, I'm pretty much hated at this point."

"You don't exactly make history being liked by all people," Callum looked her straight in the eye, "Don't  up just because of that. You have an amazing talent that shouldn't be wasted."

"What the Fucking Hell, Leonard?!?"

Brsytal practically yelled at Leonard as she ran into the opening door of the medbay. She almost jumped Leonard out of her skin as his shoulders had tensed up and almost made him drop some of his equipment 

"Sorry about that," Leonard apologized.

"You should've told me earlier today to keep my datapad on me because he might wake up! Otherwise I would've actually worn my Starfleet uniform today! But nope here I am, and I'm wearing a fucking black turtleneck!!" Brsytal began to rant, "I feel ridiculous in this now."

"You are not ridiculous!" Leonard stated.

"Wearing a turtleneck instead of Starfleet Uniform is ridiculous!"  Brystal retorted, straightening her messy hair. Her fingers tangling itself in newly formed rats nests which she tugged out carefully. 

She looked at herself from a datapad, making it a mirror for herself, "If this ever happens again, which I hope it doesn't, tell me to keep my datapad on my at all times."

"Hopefully there isn't a next time of this catalyst happens again," Leonard huffed before reentering Jim's hospital room.

Leonard entered the small hospital room, carrying in a small vial. Jim barely tilted his head to see Leonard make his way back in the room. Spock stood properly and tall, looking at Jim who lay in bed, regaining some strength from his coma.

"Did you catch him?" Jim asked Spock about Khan.

"Ms. Pike did. I helped conducting the blood transfusion with Doctor McCoy," Spock told Jim.

"You saved my life." Jim said smiling, lightly.

"Uhara and Olivia had something to do with it too, you know," Leonard commented, causing Brystal to slightly roll her eyes. She wanted to go over and tell him to shush up, just because of her liking the little bit of bromance between Spock and Jim.

"You saved my life, captain, and the lives of-" Spock began telling Jim, only for Jim to cut him off.

"Spock, just....Thank you," Jim said, softly. He was still feeling weak from waking up from the coma. His eyes still were blinking hard to stay awake. But Brystal's eyes saw a smile almost dance on Spock's lips, causing her to smile.

Never in her life and she knew she'd never see a Vulcan smile, let alone a Half-Vulcan even smile. But for some reason she was slightly wishing she could see Spock smile.

"You are welcome, Jim," Spock replied, noticing Brystal was waiting by the door, taking it as his cue. 

"Speak of the devil," Leonard gestured towards the door. Brystal's eyes were met by Spock's and Jim's from the door. 

Brystal took that as her cue to enter, but Spock and Leonard took that as their cue to leave. Leonard picked up his datapad, gesturing to Spock to leave. Brystal caught Leonard muttering 'lovebirds' under his breath, almost causing her to snicker. 

She instead rolled her eyes, knowing that Leonard just wanted her to laugh for once. Over the course of bee stressing over thousands of things, she didn't smile too much or cried to much when she first got back from The Enterprise.

Jim smiled at the sight of her, "Didn't know you were here."

"Well I was kind of considering I had a lot of shit to clean up with the council," Brystal commented, "Besides I liked seeing yours and Spock's bromance moment."

Jim rolled his eyes, chuckling, "should've known you'd be working your ass off."

"Don't I always?" Brystal said with a teasing smile, taking the seat that was next to his bed. There was one thing for sure, he did look like he'd been through a lot of hell in his coma. She absorbed how he looked, wanting to know if he was okay.

The room was dead silent with only both of them in the room. The quietness was comforting, and allowed her to think of everything she wanted to say. Everything she wanted to tell him, but she put them on hold.

"How you feeling?" Brystal asked.

"Like I was dead for too long," Jim smiled, causing her to smile. She chuckled, lightly, before sighing. Closing her eyes, taking a deep breath.

"I thought I lost you. But I'm glad that you're awake," Brystal smiled, softly. But Brystal had a hard time trying to find the right words to articulate. All she felt was relief that Jim was finally awake, but she still had a great fear that Jim may not share the same feelings as her.

"I shouldn't have lost control of myself and I acted like a total and utter ass to everybody. But the only reason I did was because I was afraid I'd lose someone I'd loved again," Brystal mustered the courage to say the last part.

"I think you just beat me to it." Jim cut in, making Brystal become flustered.

"Beat you to what?" Brystal asked, completely oblivious to what she said earlier.

"Bones made the mention that you visited here every day," Jim said, gently grabbing her right hand in his right hand.

"I don't see where this is going," Brystal commented.

"I'm just saying you beat me to it," Jim said, "To saying 'I Love you'. I tried saying it back there on the ship, but I guess you didn't hear it."

Brystal looked from his hand to his blue eyes, her face growing red. She was in a static shock, not thinking that he would've said those words to her. She was completely speechless with words unwilling to acknowledge that he had loved her.

"You feel the same way as me?" Brystal asked.

"Yes, I feel the same way as you, Brystal," Jim chuckled. A small smile erupted over Brystal's face. She let his words hang in the air for a moment.

"That's nice to know," Brystal said.

"You always looked beautiful with a smile," Jim smiled. He lightly pressed her towards him, giving her a soft kiss on the lips, something they both waited for.

"There's my favorite goddaughter!!!" Brystal hugged Imara Merlin in a tight squeeze after leaving medbay. She felt more cheerful than normal......she didn't know if she was over the moon or just not being herself.

Her goddaughter, barely even at a height of 5'0 yet at her age of nine. But she loved how small the little girl was compared to her, thinking it made Imara more adorable. She didn't exactly care what her friends were thinking what was wrong with her as she entered the records room.

Callum, Lyris, Issac, Olivia, and Cauis all stared in confusion at Brystal's sudden burst of happiness. Callum had almost overfilled his glass of vodka to the brim, which he quickly pulled the bottle up, slightly embarrassed.

"She seems....." Issac looked at Lyris, worriedly.

"Chipper?" Lyris inquired.

"Chipper," Issac nodded.

"What happened? Did the Radiohead singer somehow survive these past hundreds of years?" Cauis questioned, but was playfully elbowed by Olivia.

"Kirk's awake! Why do you thinks she's so chipper?" Olivia questioned Cauis.

"That....adds up," Cauis shrugged.

"Oh! The guy you ship with her for the past few months?" Lyris asked, causing Brsytal to immediately turn her attention to Olivia. Olivia's face lit up in a red hue of an embarrassment. Callum chuckled, nervously, knowing he shipped Jim and Brystal hard.

Brystal didn't if she should be upset or just a little annoyed by Callum and Olivia noticing chemistry between her and the captain. She'd always laughed along with the crazy and cute ships they made on the ship, but this wasn't exactly funny or anything she'd get angry over.

But the way Lyris was smiling, cheekily, and how Issac looked like he'd break into a laughing fit, she knew she'd just have to go with the flow.

"Shipping, huh?" Brsytal asked the two as Imara ran off to find her brother, William.

"More than that!" Cauis exclaimed, gesturing for her to take the seat next to him, "They've been obsessing over your little blind love chemistry. Even going as far as predicting when you'd begin dating."

"Via! Cal!" Brystal yelled, playfully at her friends.

"Can you blame us?" Callum asked, taking a sip of his beverage as he handed Brsytal hers, "I mean you two get along so well! Olivia told me about how he was one of the first people you got to know really well on the ship."

"You two even like Beastie Boys together!!" Olivia exclaimed, sipping down her shot glass of whiskey.

"Beasties Boys?!? That shitty band?!?" Callius asked.

"Hey! That band is not shitty!!" Issac defended Brystal's taste in music.

"Hear me out. They have a good beat, but it's not my taste. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I like Radiohead more than them."

"After all those years of me annoying you with Ok Computer, you admit you like them?" Brystal chuckled.

"I never said I'd admit it," Cauis retorted, handing her his datapad, "Thought you should have a look at this."

Brystal wrapped her fingertips around the rubbery case of Cauis's datapad, seeing the pictures of a young blonde haired girl running through a field of flower. The next showing her on top of the largest branches on a tree, overlooking the world. Just as she saw the next on of the young girl, about thirteen in the next picture by cherry blossoms, Brystal felt as if her heart stopped.

"Is this...." Brystal trailed off, knowing the answer already.

"That's Ava Pike," Cauis gave her a reassuring smile.