Reboot

Chapter 20

"You were just trying to get people to listen-"

"But I still brushed you off as- as a useless nobody, even after Lucy came to your defense. My scans were wrong. I was wrong. There's so much more to you than can be seen at first glance, and- I'd like to start over, if that's okay."

Emmet gave her a bright smile and held a hand out to her. "I'd like that. It's nice to meet you, General."

She smiled back, taking his hand and shaking it. "Call me Sweet."

Bad Cop glanced up at a soft tapping to see Benny floating in the balcony's doorway. "Bit early for brandy, isn't it?" the spaceman teased.

Bad Cop shrugged. "Had us a little chat with our ex-boss."

"Oof." Benny winced. "Okay, I guess I can let it slide this time then." He settled himself on the other side of Bad Cop's ice bucket. "Other than that, how are you doing? We haven't seen you for a couple days."

"Been asleep for most of it." Benny let out a startled laugh at his admission. "And we had a meeting with the Queen this morning."

"Ooh, what for?"

Good Cop switched out in answer, giving Benny a smile and a wave. The spaceman squealed in glee.

"She fixed your face!!"

"Well, she and Business both did. Hence our 'chat'." He took a large swallow from their glass.

"Still, it's great!"

"Is everyone else alright?"

"For the most part. Lucy's still trying to get her head sorted out- both literally and metaphorically, she dyed her hair so it'll be black again. And all her new memories from when she forgot Emmet for a bit there are still conflicting with her original ones, I think it's still causing some tension between her and Emmet. That and the fact she seems to be into the General." Good Cop raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Oh my."

"Yeah. Honestly I think she's more disturbed by that than Emmet is. He seems pretty willing to take it in stride." Benny clasped his hands together. "And she's not the only one still coming to terms with some revelations about herself."

"Benny...?"

The spaceman got up and moved to sit beside him, pulling Good Cop's arm around his shoulders. "Pretty rude awakening to not realize you've got friends that mean as much to you as spaceships until you think you're about to lose them. I think I was about as panicked as Emmet."

"...Really? You didn't seem like it."

"Astronaut, dude, we're trained to keep our cool in intense situations. I waited to have my meltdown until we were all safely back." He snatched the glass from Good Cop's hand, knocking back what was left in it. "Don't ever scare me like that again."

Bad Cop switched back out, thoughtfully silent, before moving his arm to wrap around Benny's waist and pull him closer. "We don't plan on it."

It was a couple days before Rex had to meet with Watevra. She probably thought she was doing him a favor by giving him time to rest and get his thoughts in order, but it just left him tense and agitated instead. He would have rather just gotten it done and over with.

"I'm not going to say I'm sorry," he told her as he stopped before her throne. "Whatever memories I might have in here now-" he tapped his temple- "you still caused a lot of trouble for the one person in the universe that matters to me."

"I know," Watevra murmured, "and for that I am sorry. Had I realized... A lot would have turned out very differently."

Rex stared at her. He'd never once expected to hear her apologizing to him- not when she'd been the cause of the whole mess.

Not after he'd tried to destroy everything.

"So you're only sorry because you almost destroyed the life of the one who made you?" he couldn't help but needle. Watevra huffed at him.

"Do you have any idea how long it took me to rein the Duplos in? They're impervious to everything, and genuinely thought you all were just playing with them. It took me the longest time to convince them to stop going. But after that... I should have gone with my first instinct and had Mayhem do things the Systarian way. It probably would have put an end to the hostilities that much sooner- but because I second-guessed myself, you got trapped on Undar, and Systar wound up destroyed."

"...Emmet told you all that?" And she'd believed him?

"He did," she confirmed.

"Brat told me he only told you a little of what happened..."

Watevra chuckled. "He told us all the whole story, shortly after you destroyed the Temple actually." Rex let out an annoyed growl. "Are you still going to try to start Armomageddon?"

Rex scratched his chin as he gave her question thorough consideration. "...As long as Emmet's safe and happy, I guess I've got no beef with you." She sagged in relief.

"So no more antagonizing my guards?"

"Well I can't promise that," he said, smirking at her. "Gotta have my fun somehow. But... I can promise I won't do anything lethal to them."

"I guess that's as good as we're going to get from you," Watevra sighed. "Rex. I can't let your actions go unpunished, but I think you've suffered enough as it is. Therefore I have decided that your sentence will be to help with the construction of Syspocalypstar."

That surprised the rogue. "Not jail?"

"Not jail," Watevra confirmed. "As I said, you've been through enough." She smirked. "And you probably wouldn't stay put anyway."

That got a laugh out of him. "Probably not," he admitted. He was starting to like her, he decided. "And what of my ship and my crew?"

"They're here, and they're safe. You can have them back once you've served your sentence. I had Mayhem dismantle your time travel device, though."

That rankled a bit. Then again, this was a better outcome than he had ever thought possible... He gave a stiff nod. "That's... fine. I wasn't gonna use it again anyway."

Watevra gave him a warm smile. "I'm glad. But I won't keep you anymore; I'm sure you've got other things you'd rather be doing."

"Yes ma'am," he quipped, giving her a mock bow before turning around and leaving the throne room. Now he would just have to figure out what to do with himself in the meantime.