Once upon a time, Ramirez might have had the upper hand against Adam, but being married to the Saint of Anin, arguably one of the best close combat fighters in the known galaxy, did have its perks, and besides, Adam had been punched one too many times out of the blue in the past few days to fall for it again.

Ramrez threw the first punch, a wild uncontrolled haymaker, unusually sloppy for him allowing Adam to easily sway out of range causing Ramirez to overextend and lose his balance.

The sloppiness of his performance was a testament to just how upset the marine was as, usually Ramirez was one of the most accomplished hand to hand specialists in his marine unit courtesy of neo spartans. But, truth be told, Ramirez hadn't been himself for weeks, and their little run in with Renegade had finally served to put him over the edge.

Ramirez staggered, only just managing to avoid plowing face first into the floor before managing to right himself and coming back around for another two swings, both of which Adam dodged with ease.

Celex and Sunny had just stepped forward to intervene when Ramirez let out a roar of frustration, and tackled Adam to the floor, a move which, while Adam had not been prepared for, he certainly handled with some measure of skill. The two of them went down in a tangle of limbs, but by the time things stopped rolling, Adam had Ramirez locked in a rear naked choke.

At first he was hesitant to squeeze, but when Ramirez tried to dig his elbow into the fleshy part of Adam's inner thigh, he decided that this had gone far enough.

He squeezed

Ramirez struggled

Adam squeezed together, and finally Ramirez tapped out, but only just as he was beginning to feel dizzy, the blood supply to his angry brain finally cut off enough to choke the anger and allow him to see reason.

Ramirez slumped, the fight leaving him as soon as it had come.

The altercation itself happened in a matter of seconds, too fast for most of the people around them to have properly reacted. Many simply looked on in shock and confusion. Sunny was standing off to the side ready to intervene, but seeing Adam had things handled, she had not stepped in.

Celex hovered, also unsure.

Krill Cowered behind the tail end of the shuttle.

Hardly any one expected a rear naked choke to turn into a hug, but that's exactly what happened. With the fight finally drained out of him Ramirez sagged against his friend, and Adam didn't stop him, instead wrapping his arms around his long time friend.

Silence filled the room for a very long time, the two men on their knees in the middle of the shuttle bay.

The shuttle crew turned to their work to give them some privacy.

Sunny and Celex backed down and relaxed.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, lo siento, no sé qué me pasa. No puedo-" WIth every word his voice grew with agitation and frustration, threatening to boil over until

"Woah, hey, slow down. It's okay."

Ramirez pulled back to look at Adam confusion and exasperation showing through the pain on his face, "No, Its not okay... I. I attacked you and I.... those things I said earlier."

He tried to look away, to pull himself away, but Adam grabbed him by both shoulders and forced his friend to stay fast where he was, to look him in the face, "I forgive you." He let that hang on the air for a second before "Yeah, that did kind of hurt, and you were being a bit of an asshole, but I get it. This is the maverick we are talking about."

Ramirez wasn't able to look him in the face.

"Look, we will get her back" His grip tightened with his conviction, "I promise I haven't forgotten about her, and I won't abandon her. You saw what happened back there. Our maverick is still in there, she's still in here and she is still kicking, and somehow we are going to find a way to get around Renegade. I'm not just going to give up on her like that."

Ramirez listened, still looking down at the floor.

"But I can't stop the mission either. Apollyon is coming and we have to stop him or no one else will. The opportunity to help Maverick will show itself in due time., and when that time comes, you and I are going to take it."

Again more silence.

Adam gently shook Ramirez by his shoulders, "But I need you right now, okay. I am going to need you if we are going to do this, and I am going to need you as close to 100% as you can get..... Maverick needs that too because we can't help her if the universe explodes."

Ramirez sat there numbly for a few minutes, but then finally nodded, taking a deep and shaky breath. Adam was the first to his feet, offering a hand to Ramirez, who took it and allowed Adam to pull him to his feet.

"Come on."

Adam began jogging towards the shuttle bay doors, and Ramirez followed close behind, their two minute spat already forgotten in Adam's mind, though Ramirez continued to brood upon it.

What was wrong with him?

Had adam been anyone other than who he was, an action like that might have cost them their friendship, and then he would have lost both him AND Maverick. The thought made him sick to his stomach, but he seemed to be the only one who could feel it as Celex, Sunny and krill all made it to their stations without commenting or even shooting him a glance.

He hovered somewhere behind Adam taking the proverbial copilot's seat as Adam took over from the lieutenant.

The lieutenant passed Ramirez on his way down and nodded, strapping himself into a nearby seat.

Standing next to Adam on the flight platform, Ramirez felt the sudden loss of gravity as the two of them were hoisted into the air.

"This... isn't going to go well." Adam muttered.

"Where are-'' But he was unable to finish his sentence before Adam thrust his hands forward and initiated a warp.

Ramirez knew where they were even before his eyes had time to adjust to Revelation's light.

The feeling he got when stepping into the light of the Maker's system was one of sudden peace, like finally coming home after a long time away. The deep aching in his chest died away somewhat, as if someone had poured a glass of warm water into his soul filling him with a calm heat.

For those who had not yet seen the light of revelation, the moment was a powerful one. Gasps filled the room, and probably the entirety of the ship. Tears wetted eyes, and quiet exclamations managed to part from a few lips.

Celex was the only exception, letting out a rather vulgar exclamation in surprise.

Then again he might have had the same reaction if he had blown up a planet in response to his backstabbing wife's rebellion, blowing her up and a few billion people in the process.

It was certainly the most creative way of divorcing one's wife Ramirez had ever encountered.

Of course, it seemed that Celex's reaction was far more appropriate to the situation, as the moment they appeared out of warp, they were almost immediately surrounded by the entire Maker armada, a glowing wall of ships in all shapes and sizes shedding golden light.

This included ships as big as large space stations, bigger than the Empyrean but clearly not intended for combat purposes.

Then there were the ships like the empyrean, battleships, scouting vessels, light cruisers all in a million different shapes and sizes.

And among them loomed leviathan, twisting churning bodies of multicolor light spinning through the vastness of space in mile-long ribbons. This was not discounting the countless multitude of Maker soldiers floating in the vastness of space as a legion against the darkness, with numbers almost as numerous as the stars around them.

"Ah, shit." Celex repeated, "It's all coming back to me now."

Krill turned to look at him, his orange lenses flashing, "I thought you already remembered."

"I remembered most of it, apparently not all of it." he rubbed the back of his head, "You know, Maybe I should have stayed home."

"Bit late for that." Adam muttered.

And before they could say more their ship was swamped.

The Empyrean let off a little call of distress as her warp capabilities were blocked and they were dead in the water.

A call came up from the docking bay, "Sir! Sir! They're boarding the ship!"

"Let them!" Adam ordered through the coms."

Ramirez wasn't so sure this was a good idea, but he went along with it, following Adam's lead as the man disengaged from the "Captain's seat" and floated down to the floor, placing his hands politely behind his head as a commotion began outside in the main atrium.

"All Empyrean crew members, you are ordered to stand down immediately." Adam said, his voice carried through the ship's booming intercom."

His request was followed albeit grudgingly by the rest of the crew , and it wasn't long before the door at the far end of the room was flung open, and none other than Adham, first man, stepped into the room angelic face flushed with anger and annoyance, standing at the head of what appeared to be an entire battalion of Maker soldiers.

"You!" He said eyes locking upon Adam.

Adam gave a little wave, but Adham's gaze had already taken a turn around the room and landed on Celex.

There was immediate recognition on both of their faces, "YOU." Adham said, and before any of them could react, he pointed his sword at Celex barking a sharp command, "Detain him."

At least eight fully armed Maker guards stepped forward to surround Celex, grabbing him and throwing him to the floor while spears were pointed at the small of his back.

"At least buy me dinner first." Celex grumbled into his beard

Then he turned his eyes back to where Adam and Ramirez stood eyes narrowed.

"This was a stupid move."

Adam shrugged, "That remains to be seen."