"Mark, wait up!" Mark glanced over his shoulder to see Jack walking after him. He said nothing and kept running, his eyes trained on the ships as they landed in the forest. He knew the giant would catch up easily, and he wanted to get to the rescue fleet as soon as possible. They needed to know about the others, they were in trouble!

"Hey!" Mark called again. He waved his arms as he ran into the clearing the ships had landed in. "Hey, I'm here! Hey!" As he approached, the ships opened. People came out and looked at Mark as he slowed to a walk and came up to them.

"Mark Fischbach?" A woman asked. Mark nodded.

"Yes! Yes I am!" He panted. He took a few seconds to catch his breath before he added, "Holy shit am I glad to see you guys. I've been waiting forever!"

"I'm sure you have been," a young man chimed in. "But we're here now." Mark nodded, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you!" Before he could tell them about the others, he noticed one of the younger people amongst them and widened his eyes. "Did you bring a kid on this job!?" The boy bristled and shot Mark a fierce glare.

"Well, Billy's qualified," the woman interjected. "He brought us here."

"Really?" Mark looked at Billy with awed respect. "That's incredible, I wish I was that clever at your age." He turned to the young man. "How did you find me though? I could have been anywhere in Sector D."

"We pinged the Aurora's last known location," the man answered quickly. Mark sighed and looked around, wondering where Jack was.

"Yeah. I-I don't know what happened to her, one minute she was flying fine... the next we were being pulled in by this world's gravity." He realized Jack was probably staying hidden so he wouldn't scare off Mark's rescuers; sure enough, he spotted some of the giant's green hair blending in behind some foliage, and he smiled before turning away to look at the woman.

"Jack keep your head down!" Mat whispered.

"Sorree!" Jack muttered. He fidgeted and tried to keep his pale skin hidden behind the leaves.

"At least your hair blends in," Felix murmured, amused. Jack scowled at Felix.

"Speak for yourself you blonde meatball!" He retorted.

"Hey, quiet!" Nate snapped from Mat's pocket. "They'll hear you."

"Is that necessarily a bad thing?" Felix dared to take another peek. "I mean, they're here, turns out Mark was right; so can they go home now?"

"Not yet," Jack murmured. His chest was being clenched by the invisible claws of anxiety. He didn't know why he was so nervous! Then it hit him; he didn't want to say goodbye to Mark, not yet at least. A wave of sadness washed over Jack, but he tried to bury it. He needed to let Mark go home.

I'll really miss him though, Jack thought to himself. Even if he hasn't been here that long, we've become such good friends... Jack smiled sadly. At least he can go back home and be happy again. All we need to do now is find his friends.

But what happened next was not what Jack expected.

"Do you have any information on this world?" Mark asked. The woman shook her head.

"Afraid not. But we do that you're the last survivor." She smiled. "And that's all that matters." Mark frowned. They didn't know about the others?

"What do you-?" He stopped midsentence when he heard a gun cock. He turned around and, to his shock, saw Billy pointing a gun at him. "Huh? Wh-what are you doing?" Mark stammered. His voice quavered, flabbergasted. What was going on?

"Sorry pal." Billy narrowed his eyes. "It's nothing personal, but... it's kind of personal." The cold fury in his eyes was unlike anything Mark had ever seen before, and in such a young person! Mark took a step back, putting his hands up. But Billy kept the barrel of the gun aimed at him. "I've been waiting for this for a long time," he murmured. "So did my father..." he bared his teeth and gripped the gun harder. "And this is for him." Mark's eyes widened.

"W-wait-!" Behind the bushes, Jack's eyes were wide. Ignoring a stutter of surprise from Felix, he waited no longer and shoved out of the bushes and ran out of hiding.

"NO!" He roared. Startled, Billy and his men backed away as Jack ran in front of Mark and growled, "Get away from him!" Billy was the first to snap out of his surprise and scowled with a growl of annoyance.

"Fine." He waved the gun at his people. "Come on, let's get out of this shitty forest." As they backed away, Billy added to Jack, "You better be careful. You'll keep looking over your shoulder, worrying about me. But you'll be blind to the real threat... Until it's too late." Mark was trembling behind Jack when he peered past his friend, and he realized with confusion that Billy was now looking at him. A growl rose up in Jack's throat, and he took a step closer to Billy.

"Get out of here," he said in a low tone. "And don't come back. You are not welcome!" Mark was hardly aware of Nate pulling him back by the arm as he watched the people he thought were suppose to rescue his friends turn and walk away.

"N-no..." he cried. "Th-they were suppose to- but they- th-the ships...!" Mat put his hand in front of Mark like a wall when the engineer tried to break away from Nate and run after Billy.

"Mark don't," he murmured. "I'm sorry, but they're not the right people to help you." Mark was breaking down. He fell to his knees and collapsed.

"But-but my friends..." When the humanoid aliens disappeared into the forest, Jack relaxed and turned around.

"It's gonna be ok Mark," he murmured. He crouched down and reached for Mark. He rubbed Mark's head with his smallest finger, hoping that it would help. Mark continued crying, but he didn't pull away. "We're gonna find your friends, and you are going home one way or another," Jack continued. Nate was looking at the ground, silent as Mat put his hand close by for comfort.

"What did he mean by "You'll be blind to the real threat until it's too late?" Felix suddenly asked. Jack looked up to see that his friend was glaring down at Mark. Without even thinking he quietly pulled Mark closer as he met Felix's challenging stare.

"Who knows?" He said. "He was probably planning something. Maybe the reason he backed off so easily was because he's waiting for more of his people." He hesitated. "... What was he even? Why did he come here to try and attack Mark?"

"You're asking the wrong person," Felix huffed. "You should be asking him." He jerked his finger at Mark. Jack narrowed his eyes and scooped Mark up to hold him against his stomach.

"Why would Mark know?"

"Come on Jack, you heard him!" Felix exclaimed. "Billy said it was personal."

"He also said that he was doing it for his dad!" Jack's voice was raising, shocked at Felix's accusations.

"Hey, guys," Mat tried to coincide. "Let's just take a step back and-" But neither giant was listening to him.

"Well then why the fuck did he try to kill Mark!?" Felix snapped. "Why would he pull a gun on someone he doesn't even know?" Jack could feel his blood beginning to boil. He knew he needed to take a step back and breathe, but he wasn't going to stand for Felix berating Mark.

"I don't know! None of us do!" His grip on Mark tightened protectively, ignoring a squirm of protest. "How are we suppose to know what that maniac was thinking? And he was a fucking kid, so who knows what the hell was going on through his mind!"

"Well he seemed to know what he was doing," Felix countered. "Which makes me wonder a few things about our so called friend."

"You mean my friend," Jack exploded. "You've been acting like you don't want anything to do with him!" Felix recoiled.

"Stop it!" Mark punched Jack's fist, getting both of the giants' attention. "That's enough!" He snapped. "Both of you are acting like children!" Jack looked down to see calm wisdom in the engineer's small countenance. "I can fend for myself, thank you Jack," Mark continued. "I can speak for myself, I'm my own person responsible for my own problems." His voice was cool and mature, washing over Jack's heated emotions. Jack ducked his head as he realized Mark was right, and embarrassment flooded him. If Mark can keep his shit together, then so should I.

"And I know things have been tense ever since I crash landed on this world," Mark continued, nodding to Felix in acknowledgement. "And I'm sorry that I've caused a rift between you and Jack. But I can promise you I don't know who he was." Mark's voice shook when he continued, "And I don't know why they came, or where they got those ships..." Mark stopped, suddenly hit with a thought.

Nate seemed to read his mind. He weaved away from Mat's hand and started running for the ships. "Jack, put me down," Mark said firmly. Without a word Jack did what the astronaut asked. Together, Mark and Nate ran to the nearest ship to investigate. Nate reached it first and vanished into the gaping door. Mark brought up the rear and poked his head in.

The first thing he noticed was the sharp acrid smell. He immediately gagged at the iron tang of blood and covered his nose. Nate was looking at the floor with a sorrowful gaze.

"They must have pirated the rescue fleet," he said quietly. Mark looked, and then he quickly turned away.

"God, these poor people!" He looked around and headed for the captain's seat. Another body lay strewn in the corridor between the pilot seats. Mark bit his lip and tried to not look at it as he carefully stepped over the corpse and sat in the chair. "The black box is missing!" He told Nate. He heard the man grunt and rummage around. Mark tapped the keyboard and tried to look at the ship data. "There's still fuel in them!" The engineer's hopes rose. "We could use these to get everyone home!" Mark exclaimed. Jack's giant blue eye suddenly peered through the windshield.

"Is there enough for you and your friends to go back to your world?" Jack asked. Mark looked up.

"Yeah!" Mark climbed out of the seat and ran to the open door. Jack turned his head and moved so he could talk to the human face to face. When he saw the body on the floor, his eyes widened.

"Jesus fuck, they killed your people?" He gasped. Mark nodded sadly, trying not to recall the horrible image behind him.

"Yeah." Mark moved aside to let Jack peek in.

"Can you fly it?" Mat walked up to the ships and peered into another one. "They look pretty cool," he remarked.

"Of course I can!" Mark put his hands on his hips and stuck his chest out. "Not only did everyone get basic flight instructions as a trainee, but I also took a few flight classes since I'm an engineer!" Jack pulled his head away from the ship as Nate climbed out of it.

"Guys," he said, "You might wanna see this." Mark hurried in after Nate to see what was wrong. To his dismay, the young man walked over to the body in the corridor and crouched beside it. "Look." He pointed to the dead man's eyes. Mark swallowed down a wave of nausea and forced himself to look at the mangled body.

"It looks fine," he stammered. Nate nodded.

"Now watch this." He touched the eye and moved his finger. A clear membrane was pulled away like a curtain, revealing the eye's true unnatural color. Mark gasped.

"What!" He covered his mouth. "Is that one of the aliens?"

"I think so," Nate said. He got up and wiped his hands. "I recognize him too. He was one of the officers that sent us up into the Space Station." Nate hesitated and added, "And... I've seen this before." Mark's eyes were big and wide.

"You have?" Nate nodded, but he suddenly looked pale. He bit his lip and turned away.

"Yeah... While we were on the Aurora, I made friends with a guy. He was cool, he didn't care about the rules but he seemed like a good man." Nate sighed. "Then as soon as we reached Sector D, I was checking on the nuclear reactor when he..." He shook his head and ended the story there.

"So- wait. The Aurora was... sabotaged!?" Mark's head was spinning. "We were all suppose to die on that ship then, and Billy's come to finish the job!"

"He thought you're the sole survivor," Nate reminded. "He'll be after you. You heard that guy, from the way he was talking his dad died trying to get to you." Nate nodded at the body. "And I think that's him." Mark suddenly felt dizzy. He couldn't take the stench of death any longer, and this news was just too much. He gagged and covered his mouth.

"I need air." He ran out of the ship and went behind to compose himself. Meanwhile, Jack sat up and looked over at Felix. Both of their bright blue eyes were wide with distress.

"You hear that?" He asked. "Billy doesn't have a personal score against Mark. He wants revenge on the entire human race!"