She looked around, trying to mask the shock that came over her face. Just an hour ago, her plan had been alive and well in her head, and she had been entirely ready to put it into action. Now, she was glancing around the area in fear, too scared to utter a single word.

Behind her, every single member of the largest army she had ever seen was waiting for their turn to be...assigned. She was keeping them waiting. She knew it was all for her plan to work, but she felt guilty. There were hundreds of them, and she barely knew any of them.

In front of her were her leaders, standing there and casting their long shadows down upon her. She had the feeling that, due to their current location, casting shadows in that direction was impossible, but she didn't pay any attention to that, because it didn't really matter.

They were ready to assign her - to give her a mission that, depending on just how skilled she truly was, would last her the rest of her life. Their expressions were bored ones, which made the whole thing seem like a cruel joke to the army standing below.

And yet...next to her stood her partner. They had only met an hour ago, but her partner was already determined to serve her. Her partner wasn't scared, afraid, or even fearful...she was emotionless. Her bright eyes surveyed the room with a look of emptiness.

"Well?" one of her leaders asked her, "We're waiting. Do you accept your mission?" Her fists clenched, and terror surged through her veins. I'm not ready. I'm not ready. I'm not ready...oh, who am I kidding? I was never ready. She almost felt tears come to her eyes.

I heard about him a few weeks ago. I heard he had been trapped. Stuck. Imprisoned. And I felt sorry for him. How am I supposed to know if he even exists? The only thing to do is try. Even if I die, I can die knowing that I tried to help.

A feeling of bravery suddenly filled her. "No," she muttered, "And I never will be." In that instant, she sprang off of the platform and darted away in an entirely different direction. Her partner followed her, sprinting at an unbelievably fast pace.

A few of the members of the army noticed, but didn't try to chase her - they were too wrapped up in their own affairs, as well as being lost within a huge crowd of those who looked almost exactly alike. Her leaders, however, followed her down the hall.

She knew then that the whole thing was a dumb idea. I'm going to get myself killed...all because I was concerned about the life of someone I've never met. How stupid. How...childish. What was I thinking? She kept dashing down the hall, never looking back.

Her partner was suddenly right next to her, bright eyes pulsing with energy. She was also being chased - her master's leaders were right on her tail. She didn't want her partner to be chased like this - not ever, not now. Her partner's eyes actually looked worried.

The two of them finally reached the docking station in record time. Many ships were just waiting to be driven away to somewhere ever so far away, but she was looking for one in particular. She was looking for the one that practically had her name written on it.

She jumped straight into the ship and right into the front seat. Her partner leaped in after her, landing on the floor next to her. Her leaders were still chasing her, about to steal the ship's controls and most likely end her life. She still heard their screams as she flew away.

She had been piloting ships like this for years on end. As she steered throughout the star-splattered area around her, her partner dashed around and checked the controls to make sure everything was coming along nicely and nothing was wrong.

They soared around for quite a while, her hands pale on the controls. Her partner didn't look worried, but she probably was - the way she was rapidly speeding around gave it away. The two of them were completely silent, too focused to say anything.

She ducked into her target galaxy, narrowly avoiding a passing meteor. Suddenly, the ship's main screen began to glow in a red color. Someone was trying to infiltrate her ship. "Find the infiltrators!" she shouted, feeling more serious than she had ever been.

However, her partner did not obey. She was standing stock-still, occasionally letting off a few sparks. "What's wrong?" she asked nervously, unable to help due to devoting her complete attention to the endless expanse in front of her and her ship.

Her partner clutched her head in pain. Something was inside her head and wouldn't leave. It was...commanding her. Telling her to destroy her own master. She whimpered softly, trying to get the commanding force outside of her head, but it wouldn't go away.

The force commanded her trembling hands to shut off the engine. She began to reach for it, but felt an arm blocking her. It was her master, who had looked away from the galaxy she was now in to help her partner. "Are you okay?" she asked, sounding slightly calmer.

Her partner tried to shake her head, but ended up kicking the control panel and causing parts of it to short out. Her eyes flashed in a terrifying shade of yellow, and in an instant, her master knew what was going on inside her partner's head.

It's them. My leaders. They're looking inside her head and commanding her to destroy our hopes of this plan succeeding. While attempting to man the other controls with her leg, she steered the ship toward her destination, which wasn't very far away.

A debate had been going on inside her partner's head. She was fighting the voice, but it was winning. And yet, at the same time, she was devising a plan to save both herself and her master from dying due to the voice in her head causing her to crash the ship.

She closed her eyes and found herself inside her own head. She saw her master's leaders, messing with things. They were manipulating her circuits and causing her to act strangely. She rushed up to them and pushed them both over, causing them to hit the ground.

She knew they would get up soon, so she hurriedly pushed her way through her own mind, which was filled with memory cards, wires, and all sorts of other things. Finally, she reached a silver object in the center of her head, shaped like a semicircle.

Using her somewhat-sharp hands, she sliced every wire that led to this strange object apart. She felt a large part of her head shutting down as things escaped her field of knowledge. She held her head in pain again, but her master's leaders were then forced out.

The parts of the control panel that had shorted out weren't even responding any more. They were getting closer to their destination, but before she could stop herself, she continuously hit the engine with all sorts of deadly weapons. In response, the engine gave in and exploded.

She screamed, trying desperately to land the ship safely, but failing. Her partner collapsed, eyes rather suddenly turning black. Noticing this, she screamed and watched, helplessly, as her ship headed straight for her target planet at an extremely fast pace.

She tried to pull back, to give herself time to help her partner, but there was no time - she had just entered the planet's atmosphere. The edges of the ship caught on fire as it shot down, down, down...right onto the hard ground, where pieces of it flew everywhere.

She flinched. The ship was almost gone now. Her only hope was to use the last of it for something useful. Holding back tears yet again, she faced the control panel and murmured, "Computer...find me a disguise. Find me the most concealing disguise available."

"Cer...tain...ly..." the dying computer answered hopelessly, searching its databases for information. Finally, a beam of green light shone down in front of her, and a few materials showed up. Pocketing them somehow, she turned to her computer once more.

"Transform," she told it, "Disguise yourself. Someday, I'll get you to function again, but for now, I'd like you to transform yourself into proper living quarters." The computer said nothing, but began to gradually metamorphose according to its user's request.

She walked over to her partner and lifted her into her arms. She looked dead now - like an empty shell. "...No..." she whispered, finally letting the tears out and watching them drop to the ground, "Please don't be dead. Please...don't leave me now..."

Suddenly, her partner's eyes turned red - their usual color. She sat up, shook her head a few times, and waved at her master. She was actually smiling - her master had never seen her look happy. She wondered what had happened, and then abruptly figured it all out.

"Y-you..." she stuttered blankly, "You s-sacrified your...your sanity...for us." She gently put her partner down and looked away slightly. "You lost your mind so both of us could survive. And it's all my leaders' fault that you had to. You...d-didn't deserve this..."

"Hey, don't be sad, Master!" her partner cried optimistically, "I'm fine! Besides, today's a great day! Once the house is finished, let's get ice cream!" It was obvious - she wasn't like she used to be at all. Her master wondered if fixing her was even possible, but at least she had a personality now.

"I've taught myself many things about this species," she told herself, staring off into the distance, "and he's trapped here. The only way I can find him is to act normal. I'll pretend I'm normal. I'll live a normal life. And I'll find him. I'm not going to fail this time."