“Don't bother me ever again,” was the last words Neo ever spoke to Captain, before she disappeared into the rolling crowds of the city.

Captain wasn't too surprised by this. All the other agents that came after her rejected doing such work again after their own adventures. No one else really wanted to put up with the mental and physical strain of this work, and she couldn't blame them - if she had anything else going for herself back then, she would have walked away as well. But that was not the case.

Still, the other agents stayed in contact with her. The bond of this group and what they had gone through, separate incidents but similar in intensity, kept them together and supporting each other. Neo's attitude made her seem above all that though. She came into the crater with a cold and monotone attitude, and left with it intact. How she was like this, and what life events shaped such a girl lingered on Captain's mind. And within her own mind, is where she expected Neo to remain.

But here she was. After being awoken to a knock on the door, Captain found Neo standing outside her apartment, in the wind and rain that was threatening to freeze. The younger girl was looking at her feet, refusing to make eye contact with the woman who's door she knocked on. She had a beat-up bag stuffed to the brim sliding off one shoulder, her Tri-Stringer strapped to her back, and Smallfry sleeping on top of her head.

A hundred questions rang through Captain's mind at once. Why was she out at night, in a storm? Why was she packed like she was running away from home? Was she hurt, chased out? After a pause where neither of the girls spoke, Captain finally blurted out “How do you know where I live?”

Great. Of all the things to start with, it was something accusatory. That would not go over well. She knew Neo's attitude, anything that slightly questioned her or her intentions would be met with hostility and annoyance. But Neo simply kept staring at the ground.

“I asked Agent 2.”

While the answer didn't sit right with her, Captain couldn't prove this wrong. Neo had rejected getting the contact information from anyone else involved in the Crater mission, but it wouldn't have been hard at all to find a celebrity's contact information. Something felt off about it regardless…she wasn't even sure if she had told Marie the location of her temporary apartment in Splatsville. Now wasn't the time to grill the girl, though. That could come later. She sighed, stepped out of the doorway, and gestured inside.

Her living accommodations here were very modest, one could say. A tiny entranceway that opened straight into her kitchenette and living combo room, with a tiny bedroom and a washroom splitting off from it. While it wasn't anything much worse than she was used to now, having a second person here was going to get cramped fast. She turned towards the kitchenette, and flipped on the kettle.

“So, what are you doing out here at this time of night? Did you miss the last train?” Captain asked, watching as Neo threw her bag and Stringer onto the ground, before more gently laying Smallfry on top of the mess.

Neo remained uncharacteristically quiet, not chiming up to express her annoyance at being talked “down to” as she often perceived the slightest concern or criticism to be. Instead, she was fixated on staring out the small window.

“Did you see the sky?” she finally asked.

“I didn't take you for the type to care about the artistic value of the sky.”

Neo scoffed, finally starting to show her personality again. “I'm not. But it's turning pink. Do you know what that means?”

Captain turned towards the window, peering out. The sky looked like a normal stormy night for her, that is, she could barely see anything through the sleet and darkness. Whether Neo was losing it from being outside in this weather for too long, or she was seeing something she couldn't, she wasn't so sure. After all, Neo was surprisingly perceptive at noticing small details.

“If you're not imagining things, then yes, I know what it means,” Captain said, while directing Neo to dry off and find a place to sit, “All the more reason for you to head home and avoid what's coming, then.”

Neo unabashedly took off her soaked and torn shirt, wringing it out over the sink before tossing it onto her pile at the door, landing on Smallfry like an old blanket. Captain looked at her, left in just her shorts and a cropped tank top. “What are you even thinking? You're going to freeze to death. It's winter.”

“Thanks mom,” Neo rolled her eyes and planted herself on the sofa. Captain ignored the comment, and brought over a blanket, tossing it on the girl.

“Seriously, Neo, what are you doing out here alone?”

“I knew you're in this area, and it's shitty out, and it's going to get worse. So I thought I could crash here for a bit. Unless you want to kick me out into the rain. Maybe I'll melt. That's cool too.”

“No…” She trailed off, thinking instead ah, there's the classic Neo snark. “I'm just trying to figure out your situation here.”

“My situation is that I'm freezing cold, and tired, and am being nagged at.”

Captain paused, looking at her. She really did look more miserable than anything at this moment, and so she decided that now was not the time to pry. She slowly nodded, before bringing over the finished cup of kelp tea, placing it on the table next to the sofa.

“You can stay for the night. But you will be telling me what's going on with you in the morning.”

“Whatever you say, Cap'.”

With that, Neo looked like she was about to reach for the cup, but realizing that she was still being watched, flipped over to turn her back towards her.

Stupid girl doesn't even want to show the weakness of wanting a hot drink… Captain looked at Neo for another moment, before deciding to go back to bed herself. Whatever this situation was, she had bad feelings about what was to come.