"More coffee?"

Ten looked up as Rey placed yet another one of the Module's nondescript white mugs on the desk in front of him.

"Cream, no sugar," she smiled proudly, highlighting her memory of his preference. "See? I'm basically back to my old self already." It was no secret that the past few days of waiting for the creature's next appearance had her more than a little restless. Her memories of Argon were patchy at best but that did little to quench her burning desire to return home and claim her throne. She'd been raised for queendom, and even with all the context gone, that essential part of her being remained.

"The old Rey would be pouring this down the sink, not bringing me another. She'd never encourage my addiction." Ten lifted his current coffee mug and gave it a gentle shake, allowing its contents to slosh around inside. A nostalgic look came over his face as his eyes settled on the words above the door. Food and drink prohibited in laboratory spaces.

"Actually, she'd passive aggressively point at that sign as if she weren't actively eating cheese puffs out of my favorite beaker."

"Okay, we can make that happen. Which one's your favorite?" Rey reached for the glassware drawer, though the smile dropped off her face when Ten didn't return her lighthearted expression, instead giving her a cold, blank stare.

"What is it with you?" Rey threw her hands up in the air as her composure finally snapped. One minute, they were making fun of each other like old times and the next, he refused to even smile at her jokes. She was trying so hard to be sympathetic to his situation, having to live with a stranger in the body of his best friend, but there was only so much secrecy and random mood swings she could handle.

"I know how badly you want to get out of here, but you're not ready, okay?" Ten leaned forward to rest his chin on his hands. "I hate fighting you on this. That's all that's bothering me, I swear."

"That and the mystery creature that's eating all our food." Rey sat down on the edge of Ten's desk, swinging her legs over the side.

"Yeah, and that," Ten let out a tired chuckle before looking up at her in a rare bout of direct eye contact. "I hope you realize this by now, but I want you on the Argonese throne. That's the only reason I don't want you going public until there is absolutely no doubt you're mentally fit to rule. Don't you trust me?"

Rey certainly wanted to trust him. He was Ten – her sweet, harmless Ten – but there were so many gaps in their story he refused to fill in and their planets were at war. It would be unwise for her to just take him at his word.

"No, I don't. Not until you give me some answers."

Rey could see the hurt in Ten's eyes, but she refused to let that show on her face. She could reassure him later. Now, she needed him to talk.

"Who tried to kill me? Why am I here with you instead of in the care of my own government? Where exactly is here?"

Ten paused to think for a moment before answering. "Okay, you're right. I forget we don't have the relationship we did before and I can't just expect you to trust me, so I'm going to show you that I'm on your side. I'm going to tell you everything I know, even though it goes against my orders."

Registering Rey's expectant pause, Ten began to speak.

"Two months ago, your family was attacked. It was publicly blamed on Xenon, but I know my planet wasn't responsible. Aranzar wanted your father in power. I mean, he was a pretty terrible wartime leader."

That comment would've earned anyone else a punch to the jaw, but Rey knew that Ten meant no offense by it. He was the kind of person who wouldn't hesitate to tell you that you had something stuck in your teeth. To a scientist like him, a fact was a fact.

"Besides, whoever managed to kill both your parents and shoot you in the head must've had knowledge of Argonese royal protection protocols that a Xenonite could never get their hands on. It had to have been someone pretty high up in the PSF and willing to kill for their own gain."

"You suspect Gorwin." Rey didn't bother to hide her offense at the suggestion that her trusted mentor would try to kill her.

"You can see why I was hesitant to share that theory with you." Ten pursed his lips. "Gorwin or not, it's more than likely the assassination was an inside job. Your government can't be trusted, which is why you're here in a secret base on the dark side of Argon with yours truly."

"Fine. But that still leaves one question: why you?" There was a time when Ten knew Rey better than anyone else in the universe, but surely that didn't qualify him to hold her here.

"We named our colonies after noble gases," Ten said pensively. Rey could tell he was about to dip into one of his random musings but she allowed him to continue because she'd learned that usually, he ended with an actual point. "We thought they'd be the end of our history of struggle.  Our final destination. And, like most human predictions, that one aged like milk. I mean, we're humanity's best and brightest. We're the ones who migrated to the stars, and yet Earth still owns us because we can't stop fighting amongst ourselves and get it together. Isn't it frustrating?"

Frustrating was an interesting descriptor for a bloody war between the two biggest extrasolar superpowers, but Rey chose not to comment on Ten's word choice. As far as she knew, it meant nothing.

"It is," she nodded. "Anyway, you still haven't answered my question. Why are you here and not some other Xenonite? Or even better, someone neutral like the World Government?"

"The words 'neutral' and 'World Government' do not belong in the same sentence," Ten scoffed. The hostility in his voice caught Rey off guard. She couldn't articulate a specific reason why, but it felt very wrong for him to be so politically opinionated. "All the Councilors care about are the people who elect them. People on Earth. I'd never trust them to save your life."

Something about the protective tone in Ten's voice made Rey forget his earlier questionable words.

"So you took matters into your own hands and dragged me here yourself?" As determined as he was to save her, Rey found it difficult to picture Ten pulling that off.

"Well, not exactly. I had help. From the Circle."

For a moment, Rey stared at Ten incredulously before bursting into laughter. He had a surprisingly good poker face through it all. "Okay, good one. You got me. The Circle funded your rescue mission, the Tooth Fairy brought me back to life and then Santa Claus rushed me here in his sleigh."

"The Circle isn't a myth. They've been around since the dawn of extrasolar civilization, and restoring your memory is very important to them." Ten said earnestly. But this time, Rey saw the mockery behind his eyes.

"To think that I was actually starting to believe you," she scoffed, jumping down from his desk and heading toward the door.

"You have no idea what I just risked, telling you that! I've disobeyed nearly all of my orders." Ten shouted after her.

"Your orders from who? The Circle?"

"... yes," Ten sighed in defeat. He knew how she would react to his answer before it left his mouth. "Don't go."

Normally, she'd find his insistence on her company rather adorable, but now, it just felt pathetic. Ten was awkward and odd and scared of everything, but the best thing Rey remembered about him was that he told her the truth. And now, he didn't even do that.

Yet, before she could exit the lab and get as far from Ten as the Module's limited floor plan would allow, a long, beeping alarm sounded from his computer. The creature was back.