John made his way through the complex with Rei clinging to his neck, the throng of rescued captives, turned refugees, following closely behind. He directed a pair of them to pick up the still unconscious Sandy when they made it to the st pirate defence point, the woman groaning as she was shifted between two of the men he had rescued.

  He continued to move past the fallen pirates, the voices of the refugees increasing in volume behind him as they surveyed the devastation he had left in his wake. The weird blocks his Dig spell made were only topped by the still-burning corpse of the pirate he had set on fire. He made sure Rei couldn’t see the aftermath, the little girl already having seen enough during her time on the run and while in captivity.

  He pretended he didn’t hear the refugees stomping out the lives of the few remaining pirates who were still breathing. He covered Rei’s ears for that; the little girl didn’t need to hear that either.

  Making it to the entrance, he looked at the video feed that the first two pirates had been monitoring, trying to get an idea of what was going on outside. He didn’t spot any mechs at first, leading him to think the battle was still ongoing. That gave him some minor concerns, as most mech combat seemed to only st a few minutes at most, and he had been inside the Grottenburg for over an hour now. Still, he wasn’t going to concern himself too much; the pirates' nce was an assortment of light mechs and vehicles, while the Guards' command nce was full of medium mechs, along with the remainder of his mixed nce. They had a significant advantage over the pirates in terms of weight and firepower.

  Making a decision, mainly due to the overpowering smell the refugees were making in the enclosed area, he opened the door. “Listen, you can step outside for some air, but don't wander far from the building. If you see any mechs coming and don’t hear me give the all-clear, get back into the building. Got it!” He shouted, then stepped outside himself.

  This was the first time he had actually gotten a good look at the cave the pirates had converted into their base of operations. Cave was probably the wrong descriptor for it, as it was only mostly covered by rock on one side, opening up on the other side to a valley between two sheer cliff faces. The base itself would be extremely difficult to see from the air unless someone flew down that valley, which would expin why their dropship couldn’t spot this pce from the high altitude passes it took the other day.

  Hundreds of racks were lined up in the centre of the cave, loaded with cargo boxes filled with the pirates' ill-gotten loot. Alongside those were dozens of broken-down mech chassis, presumably being taken back to Greater Valkyrate for either repair or stripping of their usable components. It was no wonder that Ryan’s Raiders were coming in tomorrow with two Union Dropships to load all of this up. They would need those massive egg-shaped ships to even think about hauling this many things.

  As he was looking at the half dozen Indy Mechs and contempting how they were going to get this all back over to Bckstone, Rei finally shifted a bit in his grasp. She leaned back and looked him in the face, her expression looking both confused and hopeful.

  “Where is Mommy?”

  “She is out fighting the pirates, little one; she will be back soon.” He said, turning his focus onto the little girl. She was small and appeared to be malnourished. Having been forced to live with these pirates for the st year was not doing anything for her health.

  “Were you fighting them too?”

  “Yes, I was, but my mech broke when your mother and I were fighting a bigger one. She helped me take it down, so no need to worry.”

  “Did you protect mommy?”

  “You bet I did! I knew you were waiting here for her, so I made sure she would make it.” He said, ruffling her hair. She started to giggle, a smile forming on her face from his assault. It made him smile, too.

  Aww, she is precious. Damn those pirates.

  Any further questions she might have had were interrupted as the sounds of approaching mechs echoed through the cave. John focused his attention on the entrance, ready to tell the refugees to get back inside. Thankfully, it was unnecessary, as the first mech to come around the entrance was none other than Lucy’s Bck Jack, its battered armour even worse than before but obviously still functional.

  “Look, it's your mother. Wave to her.” John said, pcing the girl up on his shoulders.

  “MOMMY!!!” She squealed excitedly, bouncing around above his head, waving at the still fairly distant mech. Still, she must have noticed and waved one of her mech's arms around back at them.

  “John, Sir. Just to confirm, that is one of yours, right?” A man said beside him. It was the same man whom John had talked to in the first cage.

  “Yes. You are all clear! It’s one of ours!” John replied, raising his voice so the rest of the refugees could hear. Excited cheers rose from the crowd of onlookers, the little girl above his head the loudest of all.

  He just smiled.

  John met Lucy by the jump dder of the Bck Jack, the woman practically sliding down the st twenty feet. The mother and daughter clung to each other, both in tears at their reunion, finally free of the pirates' oppression. She looked up at him after a couple of minutes and stood beside him.

  "John-Sama, I... I... oh darn it. Come here." Lucy said, then wrapped her arms around his waist, bringing him into a hug. "I owe you everything. Thank you... Thank you so damn much." She started sobbing into his chest. Rei, not sure exactly what was going on, mimicked her mother and hugged him, too.

  His eye dampening as well, John returned their hugs, enjoying the moment of their family reunion. There was a lot more work to do today, and tomorrow would bring with it a host of new problems, but in this moment... In this moment, he could be content that he did something good.

  "Mommy, is John going to be my Daddy? I like his beard, it tickles." Rei asked innocently, dropping cold water on the moment.

  "Ahh..." John said, looking down at the two of them. Rei was looking at her mother with an almost hopeful expression, while Lucy had stiffened up, not expecting her daughter to say such a thing.

  She turned to look at John, her bck eyes staring, boring deep into his, her expression saying she was struggling to come to a decision. She sighed, then leaned into his chest again, her hand rubbing his back. "It's a bit too soon to think about that, honey, but... You never know what the future might hold."

  Thankfully, the arrival of the Bckstone Guards ended that discussion for now. The mechs slowly made their way into the cave, all of them beaten to hell, but seemed to be accounted for. Jerome's Spider was missing its other arm this time, and Dar’s Javelin was peppered with holes from taking a volley or two of LRMs. The command nce, consisting of the old man’s Centurion, a pair of Assassin's and a Griffin came in behind them, battered but still serviceable.

  John tightened his hug on the pair of them for a moment, then broke away.

  It was time to get back to work.

  The afternoon progressed rapidly as the Guards and a small army of people from Bckstone scoured the pirate base. The two Leopard dropships kept ferrying things back to Bckstone's starport, first the refugees, then the pirates' stolen goods, though it would take a significant amount of time for those two small ships to do more than put a small dent in the amount of supplies in the cave.

  The two FedCom agents arrived with the first dropship, along with a pair of guards from the governor's office. They disappeared down the cave that led to the Star League cache in an armoured car they requisitioned from the Guards facility. John wanted to join them, but the old man had pulled him aside to get a full debriefing on what had occurred after John's nce had split.

  "You broke another mech? That is two in less than a week!" James excimed, a twinkle in the old fossil's eyes. "I should ground your ass for that, but since it was my idea for you to drive that old trash can, I'll let it slide."

  "Well, be gd I did, else I wouldn't have known about this," John said, then told him about the impending arrival of Ryan's Rebels.

  "Ah, crap. Well, nothing is ever easy. They usually move in a mixed company of light and medium mechs, though who knows what they will bring on a supply run like this. Just one of those Union drop ships would be more than a match for our two Leopards, and they probably have other aerospace assets to boot. Beat up as we are, that is going to be a rough fight."

  "Well, maybe we will get lucky, and there is something in that cache," John said, but wasn't hopeful. If there were mechs or vehicles inside, they had been sitting for over two hundred years. He wasn't positive, but they probably wouldn't just fire right up.

  They continued their discussion for a while, then broke off to continue supporting the looting of the pirates' base. They had no obvious solution to the impending arrival of Ryan's Rebels, and unless Maggie managed to repair either Suzy Q or that Marauder, John wouldn't be part of that battle.

  He briefly considered returning to Bckstone to heal up Freddy and bolster their numbers, but decided against it. Unless they managed to get another mech working, there was no point. Right now, only two people knew he was something other than what he seemed, and the pair of them were working the Indy mechs right now, with Rei riding alongside her mother and Sandy pretending what she saw earlier was an illusion. He hopped on board another Indy mech and started to help load the dropships.

  Evening came and went, and it was nighttime by the time the dropships called an end to their operations for the day. The Grottenburg had dozens of sleeping quarters inside, all ancient but still somewhat serviceable. John chose a room near Lucy and Rei's, and the three of them made a meal of some ration packs that were brought in by the Dropships. It was nice, and thankfully, Rei didn't bring up him becoming her Daddy again. She did jump on his p and pyed with his beard while he and Lucy talked about how things went during the day, but he left her to it, ruffling her hair again and causing even more giggles from the little girl.

  Soon enough, they returned to their rooms, John carrying Rei there since she had fallen asleep in John's arms from all the excitement of the day. He came back to his room and took a quick shower, then y on the bare mattress while going through his thoughts on the day.

  Killed a Jenner, then lost my mech to that Hunchback. I know Alec said they expected me to use my abilities in these worlds, so it is fine from a DEN perspective, but I am getting tired of expining it every damn time. I just wish I could go to a world for once and not have to worry about expining it. Hell, when I return to the DXD world, how do I expin how I am missing an eye? Damnit, man, focus on today, leave the DEN stuff for ter!

  So there is a mixed company of up to twelve mechs coming tomorrow sometime. We don't have the numbers to survive something like that. We should just probably retreat from this position and let them take whatever is left, cache be damned.

  He sighed and rolled to his side. He had been avoiding thinking about Rei and the little bomb she dropped on the two of them earlier. She was adorable, her attitude bringing back memories of his eldest daughter, Heather, when she was just a child. She would ask them awkward questions at what always seemed to be the worst possible moments with guests over.

  Do I want a retionship with Lucy, though? I mean, she is intelligent, a capable mechwarrior, not to mention that she is beautiful to boot. Who am I kidding? I would love to get to know her better, but this world. Can I even come back to it when it is finished? That system thing did say it was a short story, and I don't want to lose someone I get attached to... I don't want that kind of heartache.

  His system beeped just then, a message coming in. He opened it, and the screen dispyed a message from Alec.

  [John, stop worrying about stuff like that. Whether you get to come back here and continue your journey, or we allow you to bring them with you elsewhere, if she is alive by the end of this dive, you WILL see her again. Live in this world as if you will continue to live in it for the next fifty years or more. Now, put some pants on, you have a visitor... or don't. That will be amusing too.]

  "Wha-" John said, but was interrupted by a knock on his door.

  "John-Sama, it is Lucy. May I please come in?"

  Juia_Darkcrest