The five commanders stood atop Astrocruiser, surveying the entirety of their crew. Rake leaned against Dawnblade, whose black marks had completely disappeared along with the marks on his skin. Moxin had his arms crossed beside Rake, while Nex stood on the other side of him. Sydni and Maddie each stood on opposite ends as well; neither of them paying much attention.

"Troops." Rake addressed his crew, using Astrocruiser's miraculously semi-functional speaker system to do so. They winced as the sound of static momentarily assaulted their ear drums. Each of them stood atop Spacedock X's main platform, something that encircled the largest portion of it.

"In just a few days Moxin, Nex, and I will be leaving for my home planet in order to take care of some important business. I apologize for being vague, it's just a bit personal." None of his troops could see his teal-lit eyes, something that was already raising brows among his commanders.

"We realize that this means the top three commanders in rank will be absent. Due to the nature of our mission, it is unfortunately necessary." Rake took an awkward moment to scratch at an itch he had on the back of his neck. "After much discussion, we have decided to leave Syfer in charge of the mechanic division and Jacob in charge of the crew as a whole." The crew burst out murmuring. Ignoring it, Rake continued, "Maddie and Sydni will remain solely as defense against any oncoming attacks. We have, after all, just secured our largest bounty yet!" The sudden burst of excitement caused the murmuring to come to an end, some even cheered. Still, conflicting opinions rose as tension built up.

Sydni scoffed at the crew's response, using her momentary displeasure to fuel her powers long enough to carry Syfer and Jacob up. She was having a difficult time getting upset in the right ways with how Rake had been acting recently.

The second that they hit the hull alongside their commanders they each made attempts to explain how royally unqualified the both of them were.

"Why do you feel that you are unqualified?" Nex questioned Jacob as they walked across the hull, the crew fading out of sight the further they walked along. Earlier, Moxin had revamped the oxygen barrier to expand it a bit further, encasing the now-docked Astrocruiser.

"The only people I have ever lead is our squad, and even that rarely ever happens." Jacob protested further. "That hardly makes me qualified to lead an entire army." He threw his arms in the general direction of Rake and his crew.

"You're not wrong, but the fact that you don't want to lead is why Rake chose you. Power-hungry people are the last people he would ever trust." Nex continued walking with Syfer to an entry-point on Astrocruiser where the both of them stopped. That's probably why I'm his second-in-command and not Moxin.

"The worst thing that you could do is try and regulate everyone. Stick with a hands-off policy and let things go. If absolutely necessary, you have those two to enforce your will." Nex tilted his head towards Maddie and Sydni, who were engaged in their own conversation a couple of paces behind the two of them.

While it didn't make him feel any better, it did help Jacob understand. "I wish I were a bit more power-hungry, then," he laughed, only half sarcastic.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." Nex shrugged his shoulders a bit too harshly for it to be genuine.

Jacob's hand collided with his face. "Fine."

Syfer, on the other hand, had been a lot more convincing in talking himself out of the situation. Either that, or Moxin really didn't want to tag along with Rake on his latest venture; the latter was definitely more probable.

In reality, Moxin wasn't all that convinced with Rake's alleged "wild goose chase." The only reason he even agreed to tag along was because his brother asked him personally. Though, with how Rake had been acting recently the thought of going back to their desolate home planet didn't particularly appeal to him. Rake will be fine without me. Moxin reassured himself. I need to stop babying him.

While all of this was going down, Rake climbed back into an abandoned, crippled Astrocruiser. Repairs are going to take forever. He wound up making his way to his room, noticing that Rakaro's name had faded across the walls. They were still scratched, but they had become indecipherable. What was once carnage, was now simply an overly messy room.

Rake activated the lock, the familiar clicking sound resonating across the silence of his room. Other than the skid marks, his private launch bay was in perfect condition. To his surprise, Spectral Menace also remained in pristine condition. As his eyes moved to a different ship in the room, his feet soon followed. He found himself standing in front of a refurbished escape pod, the exact one that he and Moxin had stolen all those years ago. It was a marvel that they were able to fit as many people as they did in it while escaping Red Order. This piece of junk predated even their acquisition of Astrocruiser itself.

Rake heaved a deep sigh and began walking back to his room. He found himself sitting down on his bed in a somewhat meditative position. He attempted to take out the lenses, finding them them impossible to remove. Figures. Rake continued sitting there, clearing his mind. What masqueraded as drowsiness soon overcame him.

"Was there anyone in Astrocruiser?" Maddie questioned, frantically looking around. Carnage surrounded her. What was once Spacedock X was now a barely levitating hunk of metal while Astrocruiser was nowhere to be seen.

"Moxin." Sydni's hands found their way over her gaping mouth. "Moxin was in there." Sydni walked over to the edge and looked down to see the shattered remains of Astrocruiser. "Who could have done this?"

An image of Beetle blasting Moxin into oblivion forcibly slammed itself into Rake's skull as he awoke in a cold sweat, clutching the edge of his bed. A vision? The world slowly came back into focus, a bright teal light once emitting from his eyes fading back into a dim glow.

"I'm so done with this." Rake found himself gazing into a mirror that had been cracked ages ago. Still, some shards of it were large enough to work with.

After a grueling hour of trying to remove the lenses, accompanied by murderous shouting, Rake slouched down beside the wall, utterly defeated. Unwilling to allow himself to feel, Rake forced his mind onto other things. They're probably waiting on me.

Rake wiped tears from his face as he pulled himself up. "I must be cursed," he sighed, leaving it at that as he began walking out of his room.

...

Moxin not coming put Rake in a piss-poor mood. A small part of him was relieved that Moxin wouldn't be able to boss him around on the trip, but he mostly felt betrayed. Although Rake was most definitely not letting this go any time soon, it did make it slightly better that Moxin hooked him up with a sweet new ride: Volton.

It was nearly as fast as Spectral Menace, and quite sizeable which was a feat in itself. Volton was armed to the teeth, equipped with a cozy cabin, and it even had a auto-navigation system adept enough to be able to effectively maneuver at top speed; something Rake was only ever able to accomplish in his own ship due to his razor-sharp Valdorian instincts.

On the outside, Volton was an ironclad gray with a yellow astro-anarchy sign etched on the top. Though the inside contained calmer, more ambient colors such as light-grey and white.

"It's astounding." Rake placed his hand on one of the titanic blasters on the side of it. Moxin stood off to the side, along with Syfer. Nex, meanwhile, was already inside of the ship.

"It was mostly Syfer." Moxin shrugged, unwilling to take any sort of credit; Syfer's face went red in response.

"I'll try not to crash it." Rake winked at Syfer and darted inside with his few carried belongings in one hand, and Dawnblade in the other.

"He's kidding, right?" Syfer sort of just stared as the doors closed. Moxin, on the other hand, was already on his way out of the launch bay.

The first thing that Rake noticed upon entering the ship was Nex, in full armor, jetpack, and helmet strapped over his head.

"What are you doing?" Rake discarded of his bag with no particular care as to where it wound up.

"Oh, this?" Nex made a bulky motion toward himself. "It's nothing, just a little protection. It's just the two of us, after all."

"Uh huh." Rake placed his hands on his hips in a very judgy-fashion.

"It's a nice place, isn't it?" Nex made a frantic attempt to change the subject.

Rake surveyed it for a moment. "It is pretty nice." The cabin was spacious, two bunk beds in each corner merged with the wall.

"Let's get going then, shall we?" Nex motioned to the only other room in the ship, the navigation chairs.

Rake tapped in the coordinates to Valastro on an incognito plane. The exact location of it was a secret cherished solely by Sydni, Moxin, and Rake. Though, Rake wasn't sure Sydni even remembered.

"You know, I can't get over the fact that you're incredibly armed for sitting in a pilot's chair." Rake took note of how uncomfortable his comrade looked squeezing into it.

"I'm the only one here to help protect you." Nex relented. "Anything could happen, especially with someone like you. I just, want to be prepared for anything at any time." Nex continued checking the weapon systems, pretending like he didn't say anything.

You goofball. "I'll be fine, Nex. You don't have to worry so much, really." Even as Rake said it, he knew Nex would never back down. It was just his stubborn, overprotective personality.

"Hmmph," was all Nex mustered in response as he continued running diagnostics, unwilling to take any chances.

Rake kicked in the light-thrusters and they slowly crept out of Astrocruiser, slowly gaining speed as they passed through the massive laser-barrier. A mischievous smile cultivated onto Rake's face as he concocted a devious plan. I know how to get Nex to loosen up.

Rake disabled the center of gravity and centered himself in his chair. "You ready?" Rake ached with anticipation to carry out his scheme.

"Yes?" Nex looked at him confused. Confusion quickly turned into horror as he noticed he was drifting off of his seat.

Before he had any further time to react, Rake kicked in the heavy-thrusters at nearly full-throttle. Nex slipped out of his chair like it was butter and slammed back-first into the wall.