The ship was not a standard starship like he’d thought, Enzo found as he wandered around trying to find where Cando had gone to. It was custom, that much was obvious in the meshing of tech Enzo had seen from different solar systems, a sort of amalgamation of several different ship models. It was well done, but Enzo was just willing to bet that it had been built in a less-than-professional setting. 

When he finally did find Cando, in a small kitchen down the ladder from the cockpit, he was sitting at a table with his booted feet kicked up on the surface. He was reading a star chart and picking at his teeth with a long, slim knife. He didn’t glance up when Enzo entered, but he did kick out a chair for him, and Enzo took it, eyeing the knife.

What was this guy trying to pull? He wasn’t just a mercenary, he was a mercenary among mercenaries, a pirate; one with a serious grudge against the man who had raised Enzo. Was he trying to kill him? Or ransom him, maybe? Not that Kade would ever pay that ransom, but it was definitely a pirate thing to do. He just did not believe that this man didn’t have ulterior motives. Everyone had ulterior motives - people like them especially.

Sensing his gaze, Cando looked up and rolled his eyes before pointing the knife in Enzo’s direction. “I’m not gonna tell you again, kid, I’m not planning on hurting you. Quit looking at me like I’m prepping you for the oven.”

Enzo rolled his own eyes and pulled out his comm, which, of course, had been destroyed during his fight with the universe’s most fucked up frog. It sparked and hissed at him when he turned a knob, a screw popping off and rolling away just to hit it home that, yeah, he wasn’t gonna be able to repair it. He tossed it onto the table in disgust and crossed his arms. He really, really didn’t want to ask Cando for anything, but how the hell else was he supposed to get in contact with Kade?

“Yes, you can use the comm. Just don’t touch anything else,” Cando said, still looking down at his star chart as he shoved the tabletop holocomm across the table.

Enzo huffed and leaned over to pull up the dial screen. His personal comm had a line directly linked to Kade, but there was no way to call it without the device so he had to settle for dialing into the main ship. Just his godsdamn luck, too, because Talon of all people answered. The asshole took one look at Enzo and smirked, leaning back in his chair and raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, hey Talon. What’s shakin’?” Enzo asked, grinning impishly.

Talon, who got pissed off pretty much any time Enzo opened his mouth, just kept up that creepy ass smile. “Well if it isn’t princess Enzo. You got a lot of nerve calling us after the shit you just pulled.”

Enzo’s own brittle grin crumbled to make way for slightly bared teeth. “What the hell is that supposed to mean, the shit I just pulled? Dammit, Talon, I’m only like two days late. I almost got eaten alive by some kind of mutant frog-shark! I’m lucky to even be alive.”

“My ass,” Talon snapped, but he was still grinning like this was the best godsdamn day of his life. “Everyone knows you sold off your ship and went off to join Cando’s crew. Oh, look, there’s that piece of shit now. Hey, Zarek, long time no see.” Talon waved jauntily and grinned when Cando held up his long middle finger. “Poor Admiral, lost his new pet to his old one. He’s heartbroken, I’m sure.”

Enzo slammed his fists down on the table, which rattled under the pressure. “Godsdamnit, Talon, this is bullshit and you know it. Get Kade - let me talk to him!”

Talon leaned back in his seat and picked a piece of something out of his teeth, flicked it away. “See, kid, Admiral’s been crossed one too many times in his lifetime. He ain’t got time for traitors like you - especially you. You’ve done nothing but fuck up since the second you became a member of this crew. He’s relieved, if you ask me, that he doesn’t have you following him around like a lost animal anymore - why do you think he pawned you off on Terrance? Anyway, he told me and everyone else that if we heard from you we needed to block all of your calls, tell you that if you ever make your way back to us you’ll be dead before your ship lands in the hangar.”

To his horror, Enzo felt frustrated tears pricking hotly at the corners of his eyes. “You’re lying! Kade wouldn’t exile - I mean - he’d never - ugh! Put him on, dammit!”

“Oh, but he would. Proof’s right there in front of my eyes, there’s Cando right behind you and I’ve got a recording of this, the two of you all nice and cozy. You’re even wearing his clothes! Kade suspected that you wanted to fuck the pirate after you defended him last time, and there you go. More proof of your shame.” Talon plastered on a very fake look of sympathy. “What, you still thought that Kade considered you family? Fucking idiot. He told us all how you used to try and call him dad, how it made him want to toss you out the airlock. You’ve got an inflated sense of self-worth, boy, and I’m here to tell you that you’ve been wrong your whole life.”

Enzo gaped, unable to form a single come-back because hadn’t he been thinking these same things?

Talon saw his pain and his grin widened. “He may have cared about you when you were a kid, but once you were old enough to join the crew … well. You’re the same as us, and I’m telling you that he was dead serious when he said he’d shoot you right out of the sky - personally. Best stay away, Terran, if you know what’s good for you.”

When the screen flickered out, Talon’s obnoxious smirk lingering a second too long, it was only Cando’s strong hand grabbing his raised arm that stopped him from smashing the offending piece of equipment into smithereens. He wrenched his fist out of the man’s grasp and grabbed the end of the table, knuckles white.

“Look,” Cando said, holding up his hands in surrender. “I’ve always hated that jackass, too, but that doesn’t mean you need to go around breaking my shit.”

“Shut up, asshole! You’re the last person I want to talk to right now,” Enzo choked, sniffling, reeling in shock. Then, in a move he hadn’t tried since he was ten years old, he took off out of the room to find a place to hide.

Trouble was, this may have been a custom ship but it was still just a star cruiser. There wasn’t much room for a tall, bulky eighteen-year-old to run. Cando found him ten minutes later, huddled in a corner in the engine room and scrubbing angrily at the tears he really wished he could hold back. The pirate didn’t say a word as he slid down the wall to rest next to the newly exiled kid, but he did place a hand on his shoulder and squeeze. Enzo considered shaking him off but was honestly too exhausted to do even that.

“Believe it or not, I know how you feel,” Cando said, dropping his head back to hit the wall with a thunk. “I grew up under Hagen, too, he and my dad. He was like an uncle to me, a second father, and I’ll tell you what - the sun sure shone out of his ass so far as I was concerned.”

Enzo snorted. “Don’t even try and compare our situations - you left! You left, and you slaughtered a bunch of men in your wake as you ran. I didn’t do shit other than almost get myself killed, and for what? Exile. Fuck.”

“Is that what you think?” Cando snorted. “I’m sure I’ve been painted as some psycho on the Hesperia. Makes sense, I guess, but I gotta tell you, kid, you don’t have the whole story. I know what my father did was wrong, okay, I do - but Kade killed him. He killed him right in front of me as my father begged for our lives, and for what? Some snot-nosed Terran kid we were bringing back to Terra anyway. And he took me in after, sure, but do you know what life was like for me? How they treated me, how Hagen treated me?”

In the many times since their first meeting that Enzo had thought about the pirate, he’d never considered what it must have been like for him on the ship after his father had been found out. Now he pictured it, a scrawny fifteen-year-old kid, treated like a pariah for the crimes of his father, probably ostracised in the only home he’d ever known. He supposed he would have left, too, and maybe the slaughtering of the men who had betrayed them was grief-driven. Enzo had done a lot of stupid shit when he was upset, and though he’d never murdered anyone in cold blood he could currently think of one green asshole he probably wouldn’t mind killing at that moment.

“Hagen turned his back on me, same as you, but the difference is you got a clean break - I had to live with his anger for damn near twelve months.”

Enzo, whose tears had dried, dropped his head back and turned so he was staring up at the taller man. He felt small, suddenly, like a layer of him had been snatched away. Cando patted his knee before dropping his hand back to rest in his lap. His pocket rustled and a pink nose twitched out, followed by a long, black body. Echo squeaked and before either of them could react leapt over and landed on Enzo’s neck, where he snuggled in, warm and letting out a near-purr. Enzo didn’t even have the mental fortitude to pretend it wasn’t cute, that it wasn’t comforting to have the tiny warm body pressed against him.

“Traitor,” Cando whispered. Then, louder, “You can join my crew, you know, if that’s something you’re interested in. I know you’re a good mercenary - seen you fighting enough times by now to know you’d be a good person to have at my back. It’s not every day someone saves my pretty ass the way you have. Plus, not gonna lie, I want some of those gadgets you’ve made.” Enzo frowned, opened his mouth to argue, but Cando beat him to it. “Look, it’s better than being alone. Trust me.”

When Enzo didn’t answer, the pirate clapped a hand on his knee and used it to push himself up. Echo squirmed around at his neck once more and then darted up to perch on Cando’s shoulder. “You think on it for a bit, alright? We’ll be hitting my ship sometime tomorrow. You have till then to decide. If you choose not to join us, we’ll drop you off at the next port and you can make your own way from there.”

“Thanks, Cando,” Enzo mumbled, staring at his hands.

“Call me Zarek, kid.”

“Zarek.”

------

Kade sat at the table in his quarters, broodily pushing around his flask and thought that maybe it had been too soon to send Zo off alone. Maybe the intel Talon had gotten from their informant on Deneb had been wrong, lacking. Maybe they’d missed something, and the vault had been more heavily guarded than they thought.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, reminding himself that this was exactly why he had made it a point to never get close to one of his men like this. Mercenary life was dangerous. People died all the time. Still, he had thought Zo’s training had been good enough, thought he was skilled enough, to make it for the long haul.

His door hissed open and he resisted the urge to lurch to his feet, made himself pretend he wasn’t eager for news. He glanced at Talon, standing in the doorway and wringing his hands. “What is it? Did you hear from Zo?”

Talon glanced down. “I’m sorry, sir, we haven’t. But…”

“But what? What happened?” Kade snapped, losing patience.

“Sir, we found his ship.”

Kade’s breath caught in his throat. They’d found his ship, not him. “And? What of Zo?”

“His ship was found on Deneb’s moon a couple of days ago, abandoned. My informant there sent news that she’d seen it in the impound lot. She said…” Talon trailed off, and Kade clenched his fists. “She said that there had been some kind of explosion on the moon, sir. There were no survivors.”

Kade’s fists relaxed and he bowed his head, hunched shoulders shrinking him, making him look older than he ever had. “Leave me.”

“Sir, I am so sorry. I know you care for him.”

“I said leave me!” Kade hissed, slamming his large fists on the table so hard it left a dent in the metal. His stone crackled to life, flickering with electricity.

Talon held up his hands and backed out of the room, holding his sympathetic wince until the doors closed and he could no longer see his clearly broken admiral. When the doors shut with a snick he allowed a grin to stretch across his lips before he strolled down the hall, a bounce in his step and whistling a jaunty tune.