"What's Neo-Tokyo like?" Dag's deep but soft voice broke the silence. They were holed up in the pilot's cabin sharing a few protein bars. The food was getting old, but they had nothing else. Ember ate nothing at all, surviving on her ship alone.

They had given her a few breakfasts in prison and she tried to repay the favor in any way she could.

"What's it like?" She repeated flicking a wary glance to Red, who paused midbite to stare at Dag before finishing.

"Yeah," Dag yawned. "I've interacted with plenty of elites but never been in Neo-Tokyo proper itself. What's it like?"

Ember considered the question. The truth was she hadn't thought of Neo-Tokyo at all since she'd been thrown in by her father. She didn't miss it. Except for her mother, grief filled her. Her mother was dead now, a weak minded woman who loved her family, she never could stand up to their father. Ember pushed the memories of her mother away. No point in them now.

"You really want to know?" Again she flicked a glance at Red, who nodded. Red laced his fingers under his chin and leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. All three of them were sitting on the floor, there was only one chair in the room and a cot. It seemed rude for one of them to take the chair right now.

"Ok," Ember drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her hands around them. "You mean nothing to them—"

"Ok, tell me something we don't know." Red laughed, laying back he stretched out on the floor and stared up at the ceiling, taking the last bite of his protein bar.

"Ok," Ember's voice washed over them. "Neo-Tokyo likes to represent itself as the elite. We don't mingle with the lower classes." She caught herself when Dag raised an eyebrow. "THEY," she continued tightening her grip around her legs, "consider the rest of you less than human. It's not just augs—"

Red snorted. "Ok... We got that." He crossed his arms across his own chest, and stared up at the ceiling, he didn't need to look at either of them to know they were both staring at him. He knew it wasn't fair to dump some of his anger on Ember when she was trying to tell Dag what he wanted to know but he couldn't help it. Some of it had been bottled inside for so long it slipped out.

"Red come on." Dag swung a playful punch at Red, he was really curious about how they thought. Dag had come into contact with many from the upper echelons but it was only to receive orders. He understood they felt he was less than them. But Dag always considered the motivations of others how they thought, how they acted.

"It's more than that though." Ember paused. "They understand the need to maintain the illusion of power. Like if you have a dog... a big dog that has teeth, and claws and tears your throat out..."

"So now we're dogs to you." Red muttered still staring at the ceiling. He made an obscene gesture, lifting his middle finger, not specifically at Ember though, then dropped his hand back onto his chest going quiet.

"Red." Dag's voice held a warning as he turned toward Ember. "Ignore him, I really do want to know about Neo-Tokyo."

Red sat up scrubbing his face with his hand. There was an annoying amount of stubble there that was starting to annoy him. He stole a look at Ember only to see her actually fighting back tears. Her eyes, purely robotic still had tear ducts that functioned normally. He crossed his legs, leaning back against the wall. "Sorry." It was a mumbled apology, although he wasn't entirely sorry. He still wasn't sure where to draw the line with Ember. She was from Neo-Tokyo, yet she had willingly sacrificed herself and apparently would do it again.

"...and in order to control that dog, you maintain fear or loyalty." She continued her voice shaking. "You maintain a good living quarters for it, feed it, train it to be loyal, but at the end of the day, it's a dog to you."

"And if it bites you, you put it down." Red sighed, his chest tightened as he ran his hands through his hair again, tugging at it pulling it down over his eye. He looked away from Ember, there was no need for him to hide his disdain for Neo-Tokyo.

"So what you are saying..." Dag ignored Red, "Is that even if some of them do care they don't see us as the same as them." Dag made sure to say they and not you, Ember was one of them as far as he was unconcerned. "But some aren't so bad..."

"Well..." Ember shrugged, "That's one way to put it. Some of them think of you as an "other" not quite like them. You could be part of the family, but not equal."

"Like a pet." Red stared out the window. The ship was flying in hyperspace, from his vantage point everything shifted by in white lines.

"Is that the way they view the rest of humanity?" Dag crossed his arm, the metal arm standing out in stark contrast to his dark skin. His brow furrowed as he tried to understand where they were coming from.

"So what's it living there?"

"Normal," Ember started. 

Red interrupted her before she could go on. "What's your normal? You've just gotten a small taste of our normal for the past seven years."

Ember stared at him, "Well... I get up, go to my job...when I had a job. Oh, wait for the past nine years...I was kept in secret, not dead, but supposed to be. Because..."

Dag looked between them, confusion on his face," I missed something?"

Red's jaw tightened. He'd forgotten already, something he should have already known. Ember was a Vesper and supposed to be dead. It's possible she was just as much as imprisoned as they were. Betrayed by those closest to her anyway. No one else knew her identity here, not even Dag.

He glanced at her, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "What about before that?" It was a peace offering and Ember took it.

"Before that...I trained in the Vesper program. It was... It was wonderful at first. When I got to hit the black I was so sure we'd finally get to see the lower classes. I've always been curious about them."

Red scowled at this, but a look from Dag kept him from saying anything further.

"My father was proud. He had son, his oldest who was perfect...and then there was myself and my brother, Jack. Jack needed implants for his spine. It started deteriorating when he was younger... and well...I was born blind and crippled. We could have been aborted but Mother would not hear of it. She was weak in the body, but from a great family. My father did not sire any children off of her after I was born. He said it was too risky, that we were not getting stronger."

Ember paused and looked up. "Yes, in our society, most of it is keeping up the illusion that everyone is perfect, strong, and healthy. Yet, for the Vesper program...it's made up of cripples...people whose bodies they can alter to fit a ship. That they can be symbiotic with. But they have to have minds...human minds, minds that can be molded."

"Everything is that controlled up there?" For the first time, Ember sensed a bit of sympathy in Red's voice. His expression was different, less hostile and she found she could endure looking him in the eye.

She nodded. "They ripped out the status quo when they brought on The Purge. My brother... Darius, he was dead... He wasn't an aug, he'd never needed to be. But Jack...and I... We both refused to get rid of them and become purely human again."

Red found himself moving closer despite himself. "You would have been trapped in your own body."

"Yes." She whispered staring at the floor. "Honor of the family is everything, to the detriment of those involved. I, said no. I'd rather die than give up my sight, and my ability to walk. I loved my job. Flying, being in the black..."

Red put a hand on her arm, she found herself leaning in to his touch.

"And Jack disappeared... he vanished into thin air. Father said it was the guilt that made him go. Not sure where he is...but I'd like to think he got away. Do you think it's possible he made it to New Elysium?"

Red looked away and dropped his hand. He KNEW Jack Dawson, they even had a name for him. The man was incredibly inventive and skilled. "Mad" Jack had saved his life on more than one occasion. Red had forced him to go to New Elysium or at the time, find a location for it. Jack had gone ahead to find a suitable location with as much of a cargo of supplies they could smuggle in. From the way things were looking, he'd succeeded.

"Anything is possible." Red responded. He pushed himself up against the wall next to Ember and leaned back. "We'll get there."

Dag looked from Red to Ember, he too knew "Mad Jack" but he was startled that Red had yet to mention it to her.

"You know this whole thing sounds like a power struggle in the upper echelons." Dag interrupted before Ember could get in another word. "Think about it: Son of a high family killed, by a virus controlled aug, Father reacts out of grief, declares war on all augs. Even the Neo-Tokyan augs. Does that make sense? How do you get people to just get rid of their augments willingly? Especially if they make you more powerful?"

"Fear." Whispered Ember. "Fear is a powerful weapon."

"And who needed someone to be afraid of augmented humans? You'd think in that society, they'd want to keep the augs powerful and on their side." Dag stopped talking as Ember and Red both stared at him. "Seriously? Who rebelled up there?"

Ember was nodding along. "In our group, I wasn't the only Vesper unhappy with what happened at New Caledonia. We didn't get to see the lower classes much but when we did, some of us realized they weren't different at all. We were very similar in a way."

"...and you guys rebelled?" Red was startled.

"Not at first, there was one, completely distraught over it. He didn't even drop his load on them. He couldn't do it." Ember looked thoughtful. "They removed him because he had kept talking about how wrong it was, to anyone who would listen. He started disobeying orders, refusing to go out to other systems to run warning drills against those settlements..."

"Who was he?" Dag was curious now.

"His name was Adam D'Sheralt."

"Was?"

"Well he didn't last long once they brought him in for questioning. They put him down—"

"Like a dog?" Red finished and Ember frowned at her own use of the words.

"Yes," she whispered. "But it was too late, you see... The idea had spread. Others were talking and..."

Ember's facial expression changed as she received information from her sensors outside of the ship. She stood and allowed herself to be lifted up to her chamber. "Waypoint." She said as she drifted up.

"Waypoint?" Dag looked to Red.

"Furthest point that humanity has ever gone till now." Red looked towards the doors leading into Ember's chamber. When he looked back, Dag had crossed his arms and lifted his elbow. "What?" Red snapped.

"You know what. You two dancing around each other. Like a few days ago, you weren't lugging her body around like a sack of potatoes."

"You know you keep promising to feed me potatoes, I've yet to actually eat one."

"Mad Jack is HER brother?" Dag snapped at Red. He'd put the pieces together. Red shrugged. "That means..." 

"Don't say that out loud anywhere," Red warned. "She's got too many marks on her already. None of it is her fault."

Dag nodded. "Man you sure do know how to pick them."

"I haven't picked anything."

Dag only rolled his eyes at Red. He stood up muttering to himself. "I'm going to go check on the rest of our passengers. It's preferable than watching you two throw out all kinds of missed signals."

"Missed signals?" Red lifted an eyebrow. What had he missed? Dag asked a question and Ember tried to answer it, apparently by giving her life story. It was sad, but missed signals?

Dag only shook his head as he walked out of the door. "Idiot." He muttered as he left.