Chapter Text
It was selfish, but, on the first ‘night’ of being kidnapped, Oliver wondered if there was a world where someone else went in his stead.
Maybe there was a world where he couldn't get past all of Lila's swearing and affectionate insults and was just polite, rather than letting her become one of his best friends. Maybe there was a world where, after what Scottie had done, he left the team, they disbanded, and he never ended up in space.
But Lila was stubborn; he had a feeling that, no matter what, she was always going to be there. And where Lila went, he and Aja went (and apparently Tim as well), but… he still wondered. He fell asleep that night with a question on his mind and a guilt he struggled to shake marking his thoughts.
His little thought experiment about a world where someone else took his place came to an abrupt halt when, in the middle of something that hadn't seemed all that bad, the alien pulled Aja out of the group and told her to kill.
The laser guns were… cleaner, in some ways, than normal guns, leaving less viscera, but they made the hole clear. The spot Aja had hit- his head, through the brain, but not quite cleanly, shot at an angle and off to the side; she'd been shaking and barely managing to look at him as she took her time priming the shot, so of course it was just a bit off- was easily visible as the corpse seemed to slump over impossibly more.
And then the corpse was dead, Aja had killed someone, and ice seemed to trail its way up Oliver's spine. No good person would wish these things on anyone else. A good person would act as Lila had, and try to take some of the burden. A good person would wish it had happened to them instead.
But Oliver had never been good, or great, or really the most capable on the team, content to fall into the background, carving out his own brand but nonetheless content in the backseat, content to let Lila take him wherever she pleased, so, when Lila disappeared into the room the alien had designated as Aja's (though it wasn't really her room, even if all the right parts were there. It was the Ship of Theseus, and Oliver had already determined the answer to whether it was the same ship was no), and Tim turned to look at him hopefully, with the same idolizing sort of look he'd given them all when he first met them, Oliver just turned away and didn't say anything at all.
Tim's expression shifted, and then hardened, and he turned away as well, though more pointedly now.
Oliver was good at reading people, and good at talking to them, sometimes even good at comforting them- he'd comforted Aja at some of their other tournaments, and ever since his grandpa Herb moved back in, he'd gotten used to finding ways to help with or at least tolerate his issues- but this was different, because, for once, there was no easy method of getting out of this.
He wanted to comfort the kid like he’d done for everyone around him a hundred times over, but he just- didn’t have the words.
He didn’t cry that night, but it was a close thing.
—
The second morning of their lives being uprooted for a war they knew nothing about to save people they didn’t know, Oliver woke from a nightmare with a jolt. Some half-jumbled mess of the past and present merging into a blurred certainty of fear, if nothing else.
The day didn't improve much from there, as they were dragged into a medical wing and, with cold medical efficiency, had medical implants placed in their arms.
When Tim hesitantly tried to refuse, the doctor Alice had dragged in decided to have him go first, even before Lila, who he'd already had sitting down, pulling him bodily into the chair when he took a step away, retreating like there was anywhere to go.
The hand he brought up to protect his a was easily thrust aside, needle jabbed into his arm, bringing up the first proper panic Oliver had ever seen on his face, more genuine and immediate than any of the times before.
He was still shock-still with that horrified look on his face as he was, not particularly gently, removed from the chair so the next person could sit down.
Aja didn't quite dare step out of line, but she waved him over to her, and, after a long second, he slowly pulled himself to his feet and approached, an arm being looped around him once he was close enough.
Neither of them said anything, even as Aja bit her lip hard enough that blood dripped down it once she was placed on the chair.
It was all over relatively quickly. Oliver wasn’t sure that made the violation of it all any better.
—
A week of lessons and exercises and being pushed and pulled every which way to demonstrate the authority the aliens- the Bureau, they’d learned it was called- had over them, and then they were, for the first time, pulled into something that actually made Oliver look up. The first spot of hope in several days. Aja was quiet from the moment Alice dragged them out, something blank in her eyes stopping Oliver from saying or doing anything about it.
Lila, of course, wasn't stopped by something as little as that, and hovered by Aja protectively, murmuring things to her near-constantly.
This time, Alice didn't take them to the same circular room as before. She took them to a docking bay with dozens of other aliens walking, speaking, working, on a pristine fleet of ships that looked like something out of a movie set, and then inside one of the ships.
Oliver didn't even think of his qualifications as pilot and what this might mean for him until Alice waved over one of the workers to open a ship up, brought them inside, and directed them all to specific seats. “Based off your jobs within the ship,” She explained.
It was almost funny, that he might have expected to be forced to do something like Aja had been, but, instead, she just showed him the controls and gave a quick demonstration of a flight. No killing people, nothing particularly horrifying, and maybe something about that, unto itself, was a bit awful. That he'd gotten off so easily as compared to Aja, all because of a game.
A game that didn't even translate over to real life, it wasn't like it meant anything. Just because he could pilot fake ships didn't mean that he should be trusted with however many tons of metal this ship was made of!
It reminded him of his grandpa Ralph, the way he'd notice things Oliver was getting good at and congratulate him, and then expect that he could trust him with something that was way over his head, asking him to co-sign loans and drive cars without blinking. At least Cami and Oliver's mom kept him in line, though, and he didn't mean it, he just… sometimes thought he did. But Alice? She looked at him, and, fully in her right mind and of her own volition, she believed that he was some kind of action hero, alongside Aja and Lila- and Tim, he supposed, though he wasn't a part of the team in the same way and Alice had said that herself.
He almost felt bad comparing grandpa Ralph to her, because she was a thousand times worse.
But, he guessed, there was something there, at least. She'd shown him how to fly- something he could probably replicate, albeit not super well- and how to get into a spacecraft. That's what Lila had basically told them all to look out for on day one- a way out- and he'd found one. It'd be easy, he told himself.
–
Lila was, for once, shockingly not on board with him.
“Look, all I'm saying is-”
“When they catch you, you know they're going to kill Tim or some shit, right?”
Oliver's mouth clicked shut.
“Sor- look, I just… we don’t have enough information about… things, and I don’t want to do something crazy dangerous while Aja can’t focus on shit, we still don’t know Tim that well, and you’re rushing into things. Aren’t I meant to be the impulsive one?”
“You’re meant to be the one that gets things done,” Oliver bit out, “But you’re- look, Lila, I’m not saying we have to do it right now, but the longer we wait, the more likely they are to, like, notice that we might be able to escape.”
“The more they trust us, the more likely they are not to care.”
“How many more people will they have us kill before that happens?”
Lila was silent, just staring at him, expressions flitting across her face too fast to properly track.
Oliver crossed his arms. “The longer we wait, the less likely we are to be ourselves by the time we get out, and I don’t know about you, but, if we have the choice between maybe making it out of here or definitely doing more unjustifiable things and maybe even starting to rationalize it, I think we might as well go for the former. Like, what do we have to lose that we won’t be risking anyway?”
Lila gave him an unreadable expression. “Look, all I'm saying is to give it a couple days. I'm the one who knows strategy, right? This is just playing a game with some shitty cheating other players, but we've done that before and won.”
“You know, Alice keeps treating us the same way.” Oliver slid out of the chair, glancing back at her with one hand on the door. “Like the game is real. I only ever played because it was fun.”
“Oh, I'm sorry, did you want me to find the perfect fucking explanation for my actions?” Lila stood up as well, eyes narrowing.
“I wanted you to care.” Oliver turned, not allowing her to get in another word, and left.
–
It wasn't like the doors to their quarters were locked, and it wasn't difficult to get one of the aliens to point him towards the docking bay again once he was out in the corridors (all of which looked about the same), and Oliver found that it was relatively easy to make his way to the docking bay area, with only the occasional glance around him to make sure nobody was following.
And one brief scare with someone- an alien he didn't recognise, wearing some sort of hazmat suit, not dissimilar to the person who'd been at the event- asking him where he was going. He mumbled something about just going for a walk, and it looked, for a moment, like they’d stop him, asking if he wanted them to get Alice for him.
His semi-panicked no might have tipped off the average person, but, assuming this was a fairly average alien, they didn’t seem to notice, and he, once they turned a corner, let out a heavy breath of relief, reflecting for a moment that Aja probably would have thrown up then and there, before quickly discarding any more thoughts about Aja that might rise up.
He didn't want to get too into his head and not go through with things; if Lila had decided they needed more information, he could find it.
The door to the docking bay was one last chance to turn back, and one Oliver was acutely aware of even as he didn't take it, pressing the button to open the doors and stepping inside.
A couple of the workers turned towards him at the sound of the door opening, and, while many of them just turned back to their work, seemingly unfazed, there were a couple that continued to eye him as he glanced around the room, taking in all the shining hulls and the vastness of the space itself, seeming to stretch on for miles, though Oliver was fairly certain that wasn't actually true.
Although, with alien technology, you never know.
He glanced at all the ships until he saw the one he'd been introduced to earlier; its design was mainly different than the rest in how it was painted, with brighter oranges and blues replacing the more monochrome designs, but he wasn't going to assume it was the same just because he couldn't tell for sure that it was different.
He hesitated a couple minutes, debating approaching the lone engineer who seemed to be pouring something into a hatch in the rocket's side. There was no point in coming here if he didn't actually get any information other than “nobody will question you wandering in the hallways and into this room, at least not very harshly,” but he still found himself awkwardly shuffling his feet until, finally, he forced himself into motion, approaching the engineer and carefully tapping on their shoulder.
“Fuck!” They whirled around, pointing some sort of wrench thing at him, and he took a step back, eyes widening.
He hadn't realised the translators would pick up swear words, though, in retrospect, he wasn't sure why he'd thought they wouldn't. Maybe it was just that Alice hadn't overly reacted to any of Lila's near-constant litany of curses.
“Sorry,” He mumbled, clearing his throat, “I was just wondering-”
“Nah, that's on me, you just startled me- wait, hey, you're one of those kids, aren't ya?”
Oliver blinked.
In the space of that blink, the alien grabbed his hand, pumping it up and down enthusiastically. “Nice to meet ya, my name's Freak- I know what you're thinking, it's not really flattering in any language. My friends mostly call me F, but, you know, people saving the world can call me anything.” He waved his other hand enthusiastically, though his expression didn't change. Oliver decided that was probably a cultural thing- it wasn't like spider-creatures could really smile, and he was sure plenty of others wouldn't be able to, either, depending on what, exactly, F was.
“I'm Oliver,” He returned hesitantly.
“Right, right! It's great to meet you, if that isn't too forward to say- what'd you need? Unless you're secretly cybernetic under there, I'm not sure there's much i can do for you physically, but-”
“Actually,” Oliver interrupted, “I was wondering if I could look around on that ship?” He pointed to the vessel F had been tinkering with, and the alien turned to it, gave Oliver an assessing glance, and then shrugged.
“Sure, fuck it, why not? I'm assuming we can trust you not to break anything, eh?”
F, Oliver decided, kind of reminded him of his grandpa. Or- maybe a version of him that told a few less stories, but the energy was there, and, for whatever that was worth, it made Oliver feel like he could trust F that much more. He was just some old guy- well, probably old and probably a guy- and seemed comparatively down to earth from Alice, even if he did seem to think Oliver was capable of way more things than he actually was (yet another thing F and Oliver's grandpa had in common.)
“I mean, given I'm meant to be piloting one of these, I'd hope so.” He gave a laugh that was only partially forced, before adding, awkwardly, “By the way, are you like… a guy?”
“Pretty sure,” F chirped, “Unless they changed some of the genders when I was off in retirement.” And he laughed at that, long and hearty, even though it wasn't that funny.
Yep, Oliver decided, definitely a grandpa.
“Now how about you, kid?”
“Yeah, I'm about the same.”
F nodded. “Well, now, son, if you're careful, I don't see any problem letting you look around.” He plugged something into the side of the ship and then pulled a panel open, waving Oliver inside. “Just don't let anyone know I let you in, your Alice is a stickler for the rules, and some of the other fellas-” He jerked a finger towards a group of people talking while looking at some kind of screen. “Have a tendency to hate anything that doesn't follow exact protocol. Tom's always saying that you're doing it wrong if you so much as take one tiny step out of line, just like, you know- well, you probably don't care to listen to my story, just make sure you don't let your Alice catch on.”
“She's not my Alice,” Oliver retorted, before shaking himself. “But, thank you. This is going to be a lot of help in…” Escaping. “Saving everyone, you know.”
“Noted,” F chuckled, “Now, don't mind me finishing topping this thing's fuel off, and I'll be heading off for break in a couple minutes. Whenever you're ready to head out, press this button-” He gestured to it. “And it should open right up for you.”
“Is there an instruction manual anywhere? I was thinking of trying to get myself acquainted."
“In the compartment below the pilot's chair, yeah. Beware, though, that one's a dense read. Would not recommend.”
With that, F closed the door behind him, and Oliver was left alone to poke around inside the ship.
He avoided the controls console and anything else that looked particularly suspicious, and instead beeline for first the manual (which was almost painfully dense), and then the button Alice had said opened a second layer to the ship, in case there were too many passengers on board to fit in the six seats of the cockpit, or the main controls suddenly stopped working, with an auxiliary set of controls placed up above.
He hadn't gotten a look at it earlier, and, now, looking at it, it wasn't anything particularly special, just another room, smaller than the first, with three seats and a set of controls that was a bit less expansive than the main ones, all labeled in a language Oliver didn't… understand, except for the way that, as he looked, it seemed to morph and stretch until, in English, it translated to a loose set of controls; thrusters, gravity, distress signals, and a radio button that he stared at for a moment before clicking it on.
Almost immediately, a song that Oliver vaguely recognised as old people music blared to life. It was fully a song from Earth, too- he'd heard his grandparents listening to it before! He almost wanted to leave and ask someone- ideally F- if aliens had been keeping humanity trapped in that weird bubble thing but still stealing their music this whole time, or if this was specifically designed for the Doxxers, but F had mentioned going on break, and Oliver hadn't even opened the manual yet, so he sat down in one of the seats and pulled the thick cover open to reveal a table of contents that took up several pages on its own.
Much like before, the words seemed to translate themselves instantly. Just like speech had. Whatever was in those implants Alice had given them, he was sure it was the culprit, and he didn't exactly think it was a bad thing to be able to read other languages, he just wished he'd had a choice in the matter.
Regardless, he skipped through the table of contents to the actual start of the book- which was immediately more interesting than most instruction manuals Oliver had read, but, then, he supposed something about the novelty of space would make it more interesting- and began reading, radio, mostly forgotten, still playing its music.
–
He managed to get through three chapters before the door below opened, and he nearly called out in greeting to F, until he heard a voice that sounded distinctively more feminine talking to themself.
“Of course Freak left the music on, he's always forgetting you've got to actually turn the damn thing off,” They muttered, and the radio came to an abrupt stop.
Oliver was frozen, book still open in the middle of the chapter.
“Now, let's get going… only two days to make a full round-trip to McFaddengate-” McFaddengate? “-it's like they want us to work ourselves to death, all because of some kids who can't even fight yet, and, what, a couple of old men?”
Old men? Had they kidnapped someone else as well?
Oliver didn't have much time to dwell on that before the ship began thrumming beneath his feet, and he realised, abruptly, that this thing was going to take off, and he wasn't strapped in.
The vivid image of him being smashed against the hull with blood running down his face didn't do much to assuage his fears as he carefully (but as quickly as possible) slid into one of the seats, book still in his hands, strapping himself into place with a grim sort of urgency.
Two days? He'd fucked up badly, and the only way out now would be to talk to some unknown person who would, at the very least, report him for this.
And even that didn't seem to be much of an opportunity when, without warning, the ship jolted beneath him, thrusting him against the straps holding him to the seat, though they held tight.
And, through the window as the ship launched, Oliver got his first good look at the place he'd been in for the last couple of days, a vast, almost planet-sized monolith with ships and satellites buzzing around it like insects. He wondered if there was any actual planet beneath all the architecture, but he doubted it. Something about these aliens felt powerful enough that he didn't doubt they'd be able to create an entire planet of their own, just because they could.
It was a show of power, and, more than anything, it was effective.
–
“McFaddengate,” it seemed, was a space station that looked pretty enormous, though he wasn't sure if that was just because all space station did or if this one was especially so- definitely larger than the place they'd come from- and where the person driving the ship was intending to buy some kind of weapon, based on what he'd heard them telling someone else over the transmitter.
He'd also, in that time, stared in awe at space until the empty void grew boring, and he found himself reading the manual again.
He wasn't sure if Lila would say he'd gathered enough information, but he'd gleaned pretty much everything he could in that time, now practically feeling like he could try piloting the ship and succeed at it, alongside identifying some of the more common errors, which he'd used to occupy himself when the pilot had left the ship at some sort of checkpoint, and been gone for nearly an hour.
At one point, someone else came on board, loudly discussing his investigations of whether there was anything illegal on the spacecraft and the consequences for having any undeclared cargo, but, to Oliver's great relief, they didn't go up, and he remained undiscovered.
The city the ship was brought to a stop near, landing in another docking area filled with all sorts of different ships- ranging from what looked to be completely normal cars to one clear glass ship that looked both completely impractical and completely awesome- was a relatively compact place, given that it was all placed under a giant dome of glass.
The other most notable thing about it was that, while he waited, he could see one of the screens of the city giving PSAs, most of which were… oddly mundane things like “parking in daytrip parking overnight may result in a ticket” or “keep yourself safe: only people wearing these uniforms speak for our guard,” and other such things, but, on one of them, there was a grainy picture of four old men, labeled, “Dangerous! Wanted! If spotted, report to authorities.”
That unto itself was already kind of interesting- whoever the people were, they were space criminals- but Oliver wouldn't have taken much notice if I weren't for the way that, if he ignored the grainy pixelization… it almost looked like one of the men was his grandpa Herb. And, the more he looked, the more he was pretty sure one of the other men was Aja's grandfather as well, making the other two Lila and Tim's grandfather's, if he was right.
Maybe he was just seeing patterns in nothing, he rationalized, as the screen flicked to its next PSA. But maybe, he'd just discovered something big. Exactly the sort of thing Lila had been looking for information about.
Combining that with the new knowledge he'd gleaned from reading the manual, and the potential ally in F- as long as they didn't tell him they intended to be traitors- he'd kind of done exactly what she wanted, excluding the part where she'd very vehemently discouraged getting on any of the spacecraft.
Honestly, overall, everything seemed to be going well until the alien re-entered the ship and, rather than going to start it back up again, they went up to the loft, Oliver fumbling to unstrap himself from the seat and find somewhere to hide as they poked their head (and his first time seeing them revealed a short, scaled person with three eyes) up into the loft and gave him a look.
“You're so fucking lucky I told them you were my kid,” They informed him, jabbing a finger at him, “And you better have a damn good reason to be on this thing.”
He gaped at them for a moment, mouth opening and closing, before they rolled their eyes.
“Here. Get on down to the cockpit. You can explain yourself on the way- I'm not making this delivery late because of a stowaway.”
As he clambered down, he finally managed to find words- “You knew?”
“Way too late- only once the city guard here detected someone unregistered in the vehicle. I made some bullshit excuse about last minute plans. But it's not your turn to ask questions. Who are you, and did I make a mistake covering for you?”
–
The flight back was bitterly quiet once they finished their questioning and finished cussing up a storm over the whole ordeal- “You fucking dumbass, they're going to kill the both of us for this, fuck you-” ignoring his uncomfortable flinches in their annoyance.
It was awkward, not that it could really have been anything but, and they seemed relieved the moment they were able to dump him out of the ship, give an excuse as to why this wasn't their fault to the bewildered group of engineers who stared at him, and then mumble something about being two hours late and how it was everyone else's fault that they were, before running off and leaving him to fend for himself.
And then Alice was there, grabbing him roughly and taking him out into the hallway.
“Look, it was an accident-”
“Your team has been at a loss without you,” She spoke over him in a clipped tone, “And we have extensive reason to doubt your loyalty, given your disappearance. You understand that this cannot go without consequence, right?”
“I- I mean, I came back?”
Nonetheless, rather than taking the expected turn back to the quarters, she led him down the same path he recognised from their second day, the one that took them into the higher security room where Aja had been forced to… Oliver swallowed.
Thankfully, she took him into a different, smaller room, tugging him inside impatiently, before directing him to sit on a chair in the center of the room.
After a moment of hesitation, he did, half-expecting it to strap him in, and letting out a soft breath of relief when it didn't.
His relief only lasted a moment before she was pulling out a syringe and waving it in front of him, showing off the fluid inside, and Oliver went cold, pulling away from her.
She tsked. “Come on, I wouldn't do anything to endanger you. This is just a simple truth serum, to ensure you're not going to lie to us. It's not as if you have anything to hide.”
He definitely did, but she didn't need to know that.
On instinct, he tried to pull away, but she swiftly jabbed it into his arm, and, once she pulled away, the serum had worked its way into his system.
“Alright.” She smiled thinly, no warmth behind it. “Now, why were you on that ship?”
He waited for the words to force themselves out of his throat, the way he'd always imagined truth serums working, but nothing happened for a moment, so he opened his own mouth, and, slowly, “I was just- curious.”
A jolt of pain slammed against his skull, and he let out a startled cry.
“As I said, this will only be painful if you lie. What's the actual reason?”
“I don't- I was trying to learn more about everything, this whole place, I don't know.”
She tilted her head. “You weren't trying to escape?”
“I was just trying to find out more information,” he hedged, half-expecting that to trip it, leaving him in agony again, but it didn't. Okay, so, as long as something was mostly the truth, it would work. Good to know.
“And was anyone else in your group helping you?”
“No,” He gritted out, “Lila refused.”
Alice looked vaguely pleased. “Interesting. How did you get onto the ship in the first place?”
He clamped his mouth shut defiantly, looking pointedly away.
“I do have other methods of getting information out of you, of course, but this is among the more pleasant. I'd recommend you cooperate.”
He could either take the pain or give away someone that had been nice to suffer whatever fate Alice had in store for him.
“Tom,” He decided finally. He'd just barely remembered the other alien's name and something about him being dislikable.
He gritted his teeth against the bolt of pain that seemed to claw at his skull, like the worst headache of his life.
“Are you loyal to us?”
He could have lied. The pain wasn't unmanageable, and her truth could be useful. But, more than anything, something angry was burrowing beneath his skin. He just wanted to go home. “No.”
She didn't look as upset as he'd thought she would- if anything, she looked almost pleased.
He pushed away the cold trickle of wrongness that made its way down his spine.
—
Aja was the only one who looked happy to see him, expression instantly brightening with relief.
“Oliver! Where the hell were you, it’s been weeks, we thought-” She withered under Alice's gaze, fidgeting slightly. “I mean, we were worried, I just, are you okay?”
Weeks? He stared at her for a moment, brow furrowing, before glancing at Lila, who’d always been his best confidant, the one who knew things, even if she was still mad at him- but she only returned his gaze with a hint of bitterness, saying nothing. A quick glance at Tim- whose expression he couldn't read; he'd only known the guy a couple days. But… there was a blank sort of stillness to it that wasn't encouraging, and something was off about all of this, he realised. Just- wrong.
“I'm fine,” He hedged, before promptly doubling over from the unexpected ray of agony, because, right, the fucking truth serum, and obviously he wasn't fine- thus utterly undermining his words.
“Oliver!” Aja gave him a distressed look, before glancing at Alice. “Did you give him the truth serum?”
“We had to ensure that, whatever he’s been doing, he wasn’t attempting to betray the Bureau,” Alice returned smoothly, “While his loyalty is still in the question, we’ve determined it’s safe to return him to you. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.”
She turned to leave.
“Where was he?” Lila asked. She wasn’t looking at Oliver, flat gaze landing solely on Alice.
“Off on an adventure with one of our pilots. We thought he might have been attempting to escape, but it seems he was just curious.” Her footsteps echoed loudly in the silence as she left.
Oliver worked at his jaw for a moment. “I- I figured I’d investigate-”
“You were gone for three weeks,” Lila cut in.
Oliver spent a moment just staring at her blankly. “No, I wasn't.”
“Three fucking weeks, Oliver. She was talking about getting a new pilot. I- we thought you might have gotten ejected into space somehow.” She crossed her arms.
“You're-” He shook his head. “It wasn't. It was two days, the alien mentioned that, I would have known. I didn't drink anything or eat during that time!”
“Lila-”
“Doxxer huddle,” Lila decided finally, before adding, flatly, when he stepped forward, “Not you, Oliver.”
“Yet,” Aja interrupted, and she'd crossed her arms as well, giving Lila a look.
Oliver opened and closed his mouth a couple times. He- didn't get what was going on.
Tim silently joined the Doxxer huddle, and maybe that was the biggest sting of all. The kid they'd known for under a week was part of things, but Oliver wasn't.
“Three fucking weeks, Aja. And he’s lying.”
“He's our best friend. With truth serum in his system, and you’re one to talk about lying.” Aja's voice was quieter than Lila's, but no less audible.
“And I thought he was dead!” Lila's voice pitched up, before mellowing slightly. “I thought he was dead.”
“We were all afraid of that.” Aja ignored Lila's vague noise of disagreement. “Just because you were grieving-”
“I wasn’t grieving!” Lila snapped, taking a step away from Aja and towards the rooms.
“It’s okay if you were.”
Lila’s glare spoke for itself.
Tim, for his part, crossed his arms, interjecting, “C’mon, we don’t need to do this again. He’s back. That’s a good thing, isn’t it? I don’t see what the problem is.”
“He left us.”
“I didn’t leave you!” Ignoring the supposed Doxxer huddle- if they’d really wanted to keep things private, they should have left the room- Oliver approached, meeting Lila’s gaze directly. “I didn’t leave you. You said you needed more information and I wanted to help. So, I investigated one of the ships! That’s all, the whole leaving thing wasn’t intentional, and, for me it was, like, two days or less! I’m under a truth serum, and I wouldn’t lie to you about this anyways.” He bit his lip, extended an olive branch. “I’m sorry. But I did find something! I think our grandpas are in space as well, they got kidnapped too or something!”
For a moment, some of the anger on Lila’s face seemed to melt out of her, shoulders lowering in a sigh. But, instead of turning towards him, she turned away, pulling open the door to her designated room and slipping inside, door clicking shut behind her.
Aja looked vaguely apologetic. “I’m going to talk to her. Um. Welcome back, Tim, I’m- I missed you, so.” She took a breath, disappeared inside.
And then it was just Tim standing there, awkward and fidgety under Oliver’s scrutiny.
Oliver’s head hurt, and, this time, not from the truth serum.
Tim didn’t say anything for a couple seconds, and Oliver didn’t know what to say, but Tim seemed to shake off whatever it was that was bothering him, and pulled out a phone dented and cracked with use. “I should probably… go in. They haven’t exactly… been getting along, recently. But, you’re right about the grandpa thing, and your grandpa should be able to explain things to you. That’s, uh, one of the secrets Lila was keeping that Aja’s mad about. But, just, here.” He pressed it into Oliver’s hands, the contact Grandpa lighting up the screen.
“What- my grandpa doesn’t know anything about this kind of thing, he barely knows-”
“They came to rescue us,” Tim interrupted, and Oliver swallowed. Right.
So, he’d been right, but he’d been right too late. They already knew about the whole grandpas thing, and, if Lila had mentioned it, maybe he wouldn’t have- he cut that thought off. It was still his fault.
And then an oddly familiar voice was crackling out of the speakers.
“Oh, hey, it's Tim! Hey, Tim, how's the old training been-”
“It's Oliver, actually-” Oliver paused. Did he recognise that voice from- oh- “Wait, arcade faceplant guy?”
“Missing in space kid?”
Oliver winced. “Not particularly missing, actually!”
“Hey, gramps!” Tim leaned in. “Hey, can you put Oliver’s grandpa on the line? Herb?”
“Herb!” Tim’s grandpa stretched the syllable. “Herb, my grandkid says your grandkid is asking for you.”
“Well, how come he couldn’t ask for me himself?” There was the sound of a phone passing hands, and then, much softer, “Hey, kiddo, you gave us all a good scare.”
Oliver winced.
“I’m gonna just head over-” Tim gestured at the room Lila and Aja had disappeared into, “There.”
“‘Kay. Uh- yeah, grandpa, I… Lila said it’s been three weeks.”
“Oh, yeah, see, the thing about that is that space travel is, uh, weird, and, actually, I have a story about that-”
“Focus, grandpa, please?”
“Right, of course, Oli, but, see, time works differently in space, so, while it was only a few days for you and me, because we were in space, for your friends and everyone back home, it was a lot longer.”
Oliver’s brow furrowed. “Wait, so, for mom and everyone-”
“Yeah, for them it’s been a pretty bad month. Don’t worry, though, we’re going to getcha back, it’s just been taking a bit of time, heh, you know how that is. We were actually at a space mall- but, uh, how’ve you been?”
Oliver was silent, just staring at the wall.
“Hello? Did I- Ash, is this thing broken-”
“No, I’m still here, I just…” Tears rose into Oliver’s eyes, and, since there was nobody to see, he didn’t try and stop them. “I’m just kind of stressed. A little scared. I think Lila hates me.”
“Wha- what- no, Oliver, what’re you saying, she’s one of your best friends, no way she’d hate you. Besides, y-you- you’re you, Oliver.”
Oliver smiled a little despite himself. “That’s sweet.”
“Whatever’s happening right now, it’s going to be okay, ‘cause it’s gotta be.”
“You really think so?”
“I know it. Now, look, kiddo, I’m going to be- well, first of all we have to meet the IBS, but we’re not going to let you age fifty years, so you’ve just gotta hold on in there, because, no matter what, we’re gonna get you out of there, and then you and Aja and Lila-”
“And Tim,” Tim’s grandpa chimed in.
“And Tim, you can all go play your game and everything will be alright.”
Oliver cringed. “Maybe not play the game that got us all taken here, grandpa, but all that other stuff sounds good. I’m just… did I mess up? Like, I did something stupid, Lila’s not wrong to be upset, they thought I was dead, and now I’m- I don’t know why I’m saying all of this, I mean, it’s not like you don’t have your own problems, there’s just nobody else to talk to-”
“You can tell me anything you like. Even if I’m still a young’un at heart, I know I’m pretty old these days. You’ve got a whole lot on your plate to deal with for a kid.”
“Yeah.” Oliver took a breath. “Yeah. Sorry.”
“Aw, don’t apologise to me. You- Dale, c’mon, buddy, I know you’re on the run from the cops, but I’m talking to my grandson right now, buddy-”
“If you’ve got to go, you can,” Oliver offered.
“That’d be pretty rude of me, though.”
“It’s… it’s fine. I think I need some time to process everything anyways.”
“If you’re sure. I love you, Oliver.”
“Love you too, grandpa.”
He clicked the power button, ending the call, and placed the phone on the table, staring at nothing at all.
“They were talking about replacing you,” Lila had said, and the words echoed back to him now.
He almost wished they had. That he’d escaped, and somehow found a way back home. Maybe he could live with the self-hatred of having left them all alone in space. At least they might get someone better out of it.