“Weston! Please keep going.” The female voice sounded from far off. 

“I…fucking…am,” I got out, still inching ever closer to the energy. I was within arms reach of it now, but again, my full attention was brought to the reality based memories. 

—

I woke up to a drilling pain in my brain. My entire skull rattling I tried to clamp my teeth to push through the pain, but I couldn’t move. Nothing could move, not my eyes, teeth, hands, nothing. Panicking I could feel my arms restrained, but even trying to pull at the straps did nothing. My entire body was numb. 

The drilling only getting worse. I forced my mind to calm down. Utilizing Observation Haki everything around me was a jumble as the pain in my head redoubled. Trying to cry out I began to make out the different spiritual energies around me. 

There were four people standing beside me. Strapped to a table there was some nightmare inducing floating surgery thing attacking my head. Using some kind of buzz saw on my skull it was struggling to cut through my cranium. 

I wanted to scream, picturing it all in my mind, but nothing came to me. Instead my spiritual energy pulsed. Unsure what was happening I tapped into that. My own spiritual energy coming alive it began to pulse over and over in my body. 

“What’s happening?” I heard one of the people over me ask. 

“Who knows, change blades again,” another said. As the buzzsawing stopped I felt some relief, but they had a new one attached almost instantly. Again my head was subjected to the bone splitting saw. Thankful for my hardened organs or whatever gave me an extra thick skull I continued to feel my haki grow. Practically alive on its own, my dread reached new heights as another blade began cutting my head. 

Instantly my haki expelled outward. Hitting everyone around me they dropped to the ground and the drilling stopped. A sigh of relief trying to escape me, I still couldn’t move. The machine over top of me, it hovered over my face, but I couldn’t see. 

My Observation Haki extending out more, I began to feel more humanoids heading toward me. I tried bringing up my Hoken, but it was beyond me. Whatever drugs I was under that cut off that part of my mind, were doing their job. 

Using Observation Haki I felt around me for somewhere to go, but I couldn’t move. In a last ditch effort I activated the part of my mind that allowed me to fly. To my relief I began to float. Flying blind I forced my body up. Breaking the straps holding me down I guided my body up to the ceiling. Some alien form of ceiling tile hiding all the pipes and ducts in the room, I flew into the tile, pushing it up. 

Depositing myself above, my mind relaxed slightly. Watching everything around me with my Observation Haki, I urged my body to move. Nothing seemed to work. The only thing I could think of was to wait for the drugs to wear off. 

Eventually someone came into the room. Setting off an alarm, guards and other people ran in. A full search was conducted in the facility, all the while my body became mine again. First I could move my throat, then lips. When I could talk I whispered, “Summon.” 

The blue and black two-tailed beast appeared on my chest. Her fur glowing to illuminate the ceiling cavity around me. “I wondered where you were,” she said. She looked around. “Were you left on that planet?” I nodded slowly. “I told you to kill that sphincter guy. Are you ready to World Escape.”

I hesitated. Gritting my teeth I stopped from saying world escape. I knew I was probably ready to handle DC, but I didn’t want to. I was enjoying what I was doing. Completing quests, going on adventures. I didn’t want to muddle it all down and become someone I currently wasn’t. 

“Not yet,” I got out. She nodded, her own haki saying she expected as much. I wasn’t sure why she didn’t push harder, but I was thankful for it. 

“Rest then,” she whispered. “I will watch over you.”

I wanted to tell her no, but I was hurting. Though my body was numb to movement, my head was splitting. In pain, and unable to do much more than wait, I felt Tabi pur on my stomach. Her body practically vibrating with the force of it. I fell asleep slowly. Drifting off to dreams of things other than this alien world. 

—

“I know you don’t remember me, but I’m here Weston!” The disembodied voice said. 

“Who are you?” I asked, pushing away the memories, but they assaulted me again. There but jumbled as I pulled my body up the pillar to be level with the stone.

—

“Don’t-” I gasped as I awoke. Her face disappearing from view. She had been there a moment ago. A bright face with wide cheeks she had yellowish green hair, or greenish yellow, I wasn’t sure which. Always disappearing in my dreams, I didn’t know who she was. My heart ached every time I saw her though. Unable to hold the image in my mind for long, it disappeared as my Observation Haki told me everything around me. 

“Finally awake?” Tabi asked as she walked up to me. 

“How long was I out?” I mumbled. I couldn’t feel anyone close, and since I was free I guessed their search party hadn’t succeeded. 

“About a day,” she said. “You have a pretty wicked scratch by the way.” 

I felt my head where the drilling and sawing had been going on against my skull. On the left side of my head there was a thin scab running right through my hair. About six inches long it was still pretty tender. I cursed as I sat up. “Careful, this ceiling isn’t very strong,” Tabi noted. 

“Any idea what’s going on here?” I asked, trying to get my mind in the right place. I still felt groggy, but was rapidly pushing beyond the fog. 

“Who knows? These people don’t waste much time. Soon after you Ravagers robbed the place, they were back up and running. There are a ton of experiments going on. From how things look I doubt you lot affected much,” she said.

“Fucking aliens,” I said. 

“You’re the-”

“I know,” I cut off. “I’m the alien. Still, can’t they like, I don’t know, leave poor defenseless invaders like me alone? Trying to do experiments on me right away?”

“You’re lucky they didn’t try to anally probe you, like you always talk about,” she said. I chuckled. “A part of me thinks you’d probably enjoy that though.”

“Let’s not find out,” I mused and looked around. There was no one in the lab below us. Risking it, I picked up the ceiling tile, which was actually a large circle. Looking inside was as my Haki told me. An empty bed, some medical scanners and tools, and that giant floating buzz saw that tried to cut off my topknot. 

“Lets get the hell-” I said, but was cut off as a notification appeared. 

“Ah shit,” I said. I looked back to Tabi. “Any idea where the test subjects are?” 

“I think so,” she said.

“Where?” I asked, and she pointed with her tails. What followed next was a few hours of dodging guards, scientists, and random employees of whatever company this was. Able to watch everything with my Observation Haki it was simple enough to dodge people like a life and death version of tag.

Though I had breezed through quests on other planets. These Jux had proved technologically advanced. Not interested in being knocked out by whatever numbing stuff they had, it had to be pretty strong to negate my Medium Panacea. Either way I moved through halls learning quite a bit as I listened in on office gossip. Most everyone acted like the Ravager attack was expected in their line of work, and were happy to talk about who was sleeping with who. 

When I got to the test subjects I finally had to reveal myself. Knocking out a guard with my Hoken I used a keycard he had to get inside the holding cell. Where I had thought I was moving toward the few alien animals I had seen, instead I found humanoid test subjects. A wide range of species inside the room they weren’t locked away in their own cages, but sat in a large communal holding cell. 

“Who are you?” A woman asked as I entered the room. Dragging in the passed out guard the aliens began to get up and back away from me. 

When I turned to face the speaker I found that it was a female Jux. In fact over half the captives were Jux. Light pink skin, their tentacle hair hung around their head as their haki bloomed with hope. 

“I’m uh, breaking you out,” I said. Disappointed I still sucked at one liners. The aliens froze, then the Jux laughed.

“There is no escape from here,” the lead female said. She had a nice bust and stepped forward, her eyes looking to the guard. “Are you with that attack from earlier?”

“Yeah-No, I’m uh super secret agent sent to save you all,” I said. 

“That’s highly unlikely. You should really give up-”

“Wait, I’m looking for a guy,” I said, cutting her off. Able to see every one of the test subjects, I realized Rock wasn’t there. I had actually forgotten he was with me when the Time pulse thing knocked me out. Now I realized he was most likely subjected to the skull scraping they had tried to do on me. “Short man, veins, long arms, light gray skin. Looks like a veiny dick.”

“He was taken yesterday,” the lead Jux prisoner said. 

My haki pulsed, my Conqueror’s Haki wanting to come out again. Using it to escape was my first time ever using it successfully. Now I felt it calling to be let out. “Where would they have taken him?” I asked, my voice cold. Rock was the best friend I ever had, despite only knowing him for a few weeks. I would hurt anyone that tried to hurt him. 

“Uh probably the genetic alteration-” She cut off as I waved my arm. My Tremor sent flying, the air cracked and the wall beside me splintered and caved in. 

Destroyed in an instant, dust billowed out everywhere as I ordered her, “Take me there.” 

With the show of power it didn’t take long for the other prisoners to realize I had a chance. When a line of guards attacked I used Timeflow to rush toward them. Knocking them out with Hoken and my Tremor Fruit I never felt stronger as I passed weapons to prisoners. Already sick of the place I dragged along the pink skinned Jux as she pointed at which way to go. 

We eventually came to a room that had been close to my own. Inside we found Rock’s corpse. His skull cut open his brain had been ripped out. His body just a husk, I killed the two doctors near him without meaning to. Pushing back my own dislike of killing I grew saddened to find him dead. That was until I heard his voice. 

“Weston?” Rock asked. I turned to see a raccoon in a cage. Standing on its hind legs the raccoon was naked, but out of its mouth came Rock’s voice. “You survived?” 

“Rock?” I asked, rushing forward. Pulling open the metal cage with a nen powered jerk, he skittered out. Standing up in front of me, still naked. “What happened to you?”

“They made me shorter,” he said, his haki sad, happy, and fearful as I hugged him. Picking him up like a small child he grumbled. “And furry.”

“Yep, and cuter,” I said with a laugh. “Gonna have to call you Rockette, now.” 

“Rocket?” He asked, a little hope in his voice. And with the name, memories poured in. Not of my own life, but of movies called Guardians of the Galaxy. 

“Oh fuck,” I said, realizing I was on the path of canon all along. Rock’s body dead, my friend’s brain was now inside that of a racoon. A racoon with it’s head shaved and a penchant for explosions and working on engines. “Fucking fuck.”

“It’s alright, Weston,” Rocket said, misunderstanding my reaction. “What happened to us, anyway?”

I opened my mouth, unsure if I should mention that sphincter asshole. Before I could say anything we heard gun fire outside. The other prisoners happy to be out, were holding off guards at other ends of the hallways. A gas escaping some sprinklers overhead the Jux girl became more fearful. 

“We need to go,” she said. 

“Where?” I asked. 

“This way,” she said. Pointing outside the gas continued to be expelled out there as well. With Rocket on my back I began knocking out guards. The other prisoners following behind me, the gas continued to follow in our wake. The Jux girl led the way. Twisting and turning through the halls until eventually we got to the center lab. 

The largest of all it held a literal spaceship inside. Sleek white exterior to match the interior walls of the room, the space ship was massive. Long tubes and hoses connected to it, there were dozens of scientists around it. 

“Kill them,” the Jux girl said. Fairly certain they had a history. I zapped them all with my Hoken, knocking them out. She moved to a terminal, punching in some numbers and a door in the ship opened up. As it did she rushed inside, me and the other prisoners in her wake. 

“I was working on this ship,” the Jux woman explained. “Its somehow sentient, but I couldn’t get it to work that well. Which was why Ionis had me demoted and was going to use me as a test subject.” 

“Don’t care right now,” I said as we walked through the wide hall in the ship. “How is it going to help us if you couldn’t get it to work.”

“I can do some stuff. At least get us out of the-” She said but was cut off as the ship began to speak. 

“Acceptable bloodline found,” a metallic voice said. Like a robot waking up. The voice raised and lowered until it was set on a more male tone. “Please commence integration.”

“What was that?” I asked the girl. 

“I-I don’t know. That’s never happened before,” she said, hope filling her haki. “This way.” She pointed and rushed forward. A door opened for us automatically. Inside was what I expected. A wide screen at the front was blank, but at different stations near the screen, lights blinked and buttons turned on. 

“Where do we integra-” I said and a large tentacle shot down from the ceiling of the ship. Like a robot’s articulate dick, it snaked down and moved for me. I stepped back, not wanting to get near it as the tip opened up to reveal a sharp needle.

“Please present bloodline,” the male ship’s voice said.

“Fuck,” I said. Doubtful he wanted the racoon, I extended my hand out. The needle pricked my palm and the bridge lit up like a Christmas Tree. Screens coming alive, video feeds from outside the ship appeared, chairs at the stations began to float and the voice all around us spoke rapidly. 

“Bzzg$&(_ Blood found,” it said. I guessed it meant Viltrumite, but didn’t offer anything up. “You are now the captain. Please name this ship,” the voice said. 

I opened my mouth. Hesitating for a moment, then all at once the perfect name came to me. “Shippie McShipface,” I said. 

There was a long pause. I thought I could feel the haki of the ship become disappointed for some reason. Then without a retort it said, “Accepted.” 

—

“It’s me!” The voice said. Snapping me away from memory into reality. 

“Me who?” I asked, weak from the cascade of experiences filling my mind. 

“You named me. It’s Delilah,” the voice said and slowly I remembered a girl named Delilah. A red headed clone of a girl that I had known for a very short but memorable time. 

“Delilah-” I said and the visions shifted to that of someone’s life I hadn’t lived.