Chapter Text
As Bobby knelt in the lab where he had been condemned, he prayed. Not for his fate to change but for the ease of those he loves. Even in this moment he couldn't doubt how much he meant to his team, his family. He prayed that they wouldn't drown in their grief and that they would lean on each other until the weight was gone and Bobby was just a memory. He fought the exhaustion as long as he could. He didn't want to stop praying, it was the last thing he could do for the people who matter to him, but eventually he couldn't fight anymore. The last thing he heard was Athena's grief rolling through the glass and into his heart.
When Bobby woke up, or thought he woke up, he couldn't see. It was hard to breathe and the more he tried the worse it felt. His instincts had him trying to look around, to sit up and feel for his surroundings, but he was frozen in whatever horizontal state he was in. He couldn't move, and he couldn't see. He felt chilled. He could also hear. A soft machine-like whirring, and the echo of a silence surrounding it. Later came the strange voices. He thought they sounded like words but it was a language he didn't know. The way the words were spoken sounded lyrical. The voices didn't last long and they came and went in unknown intervals. Bobby wondered if this was the real after-life. Not some theatre with your greatest hits, not an endless party with your previously departed loved ones, not even the flames of your worst nightmares. Just an eternity in stasis with soft humming and words you can't decipher.
—
Athena didn't know why Hen had asked her to go to space. She knew how Hen got the invitation and why she accepted. She also knew that Karen refused the offer to join Hen. But why choose her over any of her three co-workers begging for a chance to go to space?
Regardless, she had made a promise to say yes to anything Hen asked her to do together, and when it comes to her friends Athena never breaks a promise. Even if it ends with her being shot into orbit.
As she predicted the adventure was filled with chaos and torment. The only thing more bizarre than the capsule catching fire had to be the spaceship she briefly glimpsed outside the window. It was wide and had an odd shimmer, as if it was flickering in and out of existence. Maybe it was, or maybe the stress of the last few decades had finally broken her psyche because when she was back on solid ground no one mentioned it. The last thing she wanted was to seem like the trip to outer space had knocked a few screws loose but she had to know. She asked Hen about everything she saw, if there was anything particularly bizarre but got nothing in return. She even asked the other three space-goers but none of them gave any indication that they saw a wide, shimmery spaceship.
—
Slightly more than a week later, Tripp Houser's company was going closer to bankruptcy every day and staying as far away from social media spotlight as possible. Everyone was relaxing, letting loose, and putting their adventures in space travel behind them.
They should have known better.
The 118 responded to a fire late in the evening. Buck had brought one of the last residents out of the building, Ravi not far behind with the good news that everyone was safe.
After passing the patient off to Hen for a check over Buck turned and saw a cloaked figure motion frantically, seemingly pleading for Buck to follow. Buck acted quickly and raced over to the cloaked figure.
He looked around, expecting to see someone injured, or trapped or both. Instead he started to feel dizzy and soon fell unconscious.
He woke up painfully slowly. His senses came back one by one, one long after the other. Eventually he became capable of piecing together where he was but nothing made sense yet. The last thing he remembered was passing out at a scene and now he was here in some vast room with mostly white and brown surroundings. He tried to move but he appeared to be strapped down to some ancient, medieval torture device.
Despite his limited mobility he startled when varying sizes of blue aliens slipped into the room. Something that sounded like a form of musical communication emanated from these aliens and another figure was rolled into the room.
“Bobby?”