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Victor sat in one of the cafeterias, staring at the dark liquid in his cup. He'd considered getting something alcoholic--they had that here--but he'd decided not to. He'd done it often enough to know what would happen. After the first glass, he'd keep on drinking until any restraint was gone and he'd do something stupid.

In this case, he'd probably steal one of the shuttles and go after the person responsible for this mess. He snorted at the stupidity of that thought. He didn't need a ship of any kind for that. All he needed was a mirror.

He took a swallow of the cooling coffee and cursed himself. He'd come here to rest and relax away from people, not to let his mind wallow in self--

"There you are."

Victor lowered his cup to see Miranda sit across from him. She'd showered and cleaned her clothes, and her back was straight which meant her breasts were--

He looked into his mug. He had no business staring at those.

"You look like shit."

He shrugged. At least his looks matched what he was.

"Wanna talk about it?"

His head snapped up. "Talk? Are you fucking joking right now?"

She shook her head, but he could see her try not to smile.

"I came here to do good!" The one or two other people in the cafeteria looked at him before going back to their meals. The ship was back up and running, but there weren't a lot of people left alive among the crew. That was in part his fault too.

"I left everything because I wanted to help."

She lost whatever humor she'd had. "Let me get this straight. You thought that helping Tristan would somehow constitute doing good?"

"I know!" He ran his hand through his hair. He'd been stupid. Of course, anything involving Tristan had no chance of resembling good. "I thought I could keep things from getting too bad. I thought if I was there, I could keep Alex from going too far, but then I ended up with that Anders guy and there was no trying to talk him down, so I ended up being a participant in grand-scale piracy and murder. And yes, Tristan is free. Like that's anything close to being a good thing."

Miranda smirked. "At least you're making your mark in the universe."

He glared at her.

"Alright, I get your point. You came here hoping to be the good guy, and instead you had to realize that you were no better than the rest of us."

"If you're trying to cheer me up, you need a different tack." He finished his cup.

"Okay, let me try again. What you want is to do good, right?"

"Not the way you make it sound; coming out of your mouth like that it sounded like it meant be stupid."

She grinned. "I'm a bounty hunter. My definition of good certainly doesn't match yours, but what if I told you that you could still do your version of it? By working with me."

"Are you fucking insane?"

She shrugged. "Depends on who you ask."

He stared at her. There was no way she could be serious. How could she want to work with someone who'd betrayed everything he claimed to believe in? He'd killed, let someone die rather than act to prevent it. He'd known what Alex intended. What else could it be but to let Tristan murder the woman who had tortured him? And he'd wasted time talking, when he should have acted. Done something, anything, to see to it that she faced real justice.

He looked at the empty cup. He wanted something way stronger to numb the disgust he felt.

They'd been right, all those people at the precinct who jeered him. He didn't belong in Law enforcement. Having Simon use him should have shown him how weak he really was.

Oh sure, he'd defied Anders in the end, but that hadn't been about justice. It had been about protecting Tristan, and exacting a bit of vengeance. Victor had already killed too many innocent people by then to be able to claim any kind of moral high ground.

"You don't want me anywhere near you."

Her sigh sounded like annoyance more than anything else. She had every right to be annoyed with him. He was a pathetic example of humanity.

"Look, Vic, I'm not going to claim to know what you're going through, because I don't. I love the life. I loved it the first time I tracked down that piece of shit and beat the crap out of him because he'd stolen from my mom. My path was set from that day on."

He didn't respond, even when it was clear she was waiting for something from him.

"Vic, can you at least look up at me? I hate talking to your hair."

With his own sigh of annoyance, he looked up.

She leaned forward, arms under her breast which only made them more prominent, and he kept glancing at them. Worse was she wasn't even noticing him doing it. He'd seen her parading them on the ship, smirking at all the men who ogled them. But this wasn't a show for his benefit, to distract him.

"You thought you'd do good, and it didn't happen. I'm sorry about that, but you're not dead, Vic. You still have time to do that, to do good, to help people. If we work together, we can go and fix this. We track down Tristan and Crimson, catch them, and--"

"No!" How could she even think that? "Didn't you hear the warning Zeph gave you? Did you see what Tristan left of Anders? Of that woman?"

She shrugged. "I caught him once, I can do it again."

"You didn't see the look in Alex's eyes when he spoke. He might look human, but whatever humanity he had, it's gone. I think... I think he might be worse than Tristan. The two of them together? If you try to get anywhere close to them, the only thing that's going to happen is that you're going to stop breathing."

She leaned back in her chair and Victor breathed a little easier at not having those breasts shoved toward him. When had he started noticing breasts? He'd seen big sets before, but they didn't have this kind of effect on him normally.

She tapped her fingers on the table. "Okay, then we stay away from them. They get a pass. Other people can die trying to capture them. But there are a lot of other criminals out there who managed to escape the Law. Have you looked at the rosters here? The number of prisoners that Justin let loose? Not all of them are going to come back here. We can go after those who run, bring them back here--well, to an actual prison. I have my doubt it's going to remain a prison with that short guy in charge. But doesn't putting criminals back in prison constitute doing good?"

"You're talking about bounty hunter work."

She nodded.

"You do that for the money."

"So? We all have different reasons for what we do. And how is this any different than you being paid to be the Law on that planet you're from?"

"Didn't Alex pay you enough you don't need to do it anymore?" Victor asked, instead of considering her point. "He talked about buying a fleet of ships."

She grinned. "He did. With it I can buy a new ship, make sure it's upgraded properly." She tapped the side of her head. "I've been wanting a new processor to handle on-the-spot logistical calculation. What are you going to do with your pay?"

Victor shrugged. He hadn't thought about it because he hadn't wanted it. He'd planned on forcing Alex to take it back. He didn't help for pay, he'd helped because it was for Tristan. He wasn't a merc.

Except that he was. Technically he was a pirate, but he'd go with merc. Even if he didn't take the money, he'd still be that. A stupid one too, not to take money he was paid for a job.

He felt the bile rise. Blood money. He'd been paid to kill, to let murder happen. He wanted to transfer it to a chip and destroy that, erase any evidence of what he'd done. Stupid again. Shouldn't he make amends instead? How many low-level crooks had he seen get out of jail, apologize to their victims, and then work to fix problems? Not many, but they were out there.

He looked at Miranda and considered what her offer meant. What it would mean to be a bounty hunter, to go around the universe and round up criminals, to take them off the street. To do what he'd joined the Law to do.

It wouldn't be the same. There wouldn't be any due process. He would have to be the judge, but there would be no executioner, so that wasn't a worry. The criminals they'd go after would end up in prison, where they belonged. And if he didn't believe someone was guilty? The only thing he'd be able to do was not take the bounty. Someone else would still go after them.

Was he okay with that?

If he was Law, could he fix that? Not really. He could look into it, find evidence and supply it, but he wouldn't be the one deciding if it warranted reopening the investigation.

So his options were what? Wallow in self-pity and try to go back to something like what he used to have, or be a bounty hunter?

Only one of those ensured he could go after criminals right now.

"Just criminals, right? That means we double check that the bounty isn't just from some rich jilted lover looking for some payback."

She smiled. "Vic, there are plenty of criminals out there with files longer than any corporate expense report. They're the ones who are worth a lot of money. We can double check those and be sure they'll be actual criminals."

Victor found himself smiling as things finally looked better.

"Good, then let's talk to the guy in charge. We need to get back to Mobius. If my ship's still there, I have to sell it and buy something better." She eyed him. "Something with two rooms, because I have to warn you right now. We are not sleeping together."

"No danger of that," he replied, trying not to look at her breasts. "I'm into guys."