"Chrysalis tells me you have parental feelings for Sunset Shimmer."

Bradford glared at the woman across from him.

"The silent treatment? That never worked when I was twenty years younger and surrounded by petulant teenagers, and it is not going to work now when I'm sitting across from an otherwise responsible adult."

"Therapy isn't supposed to work this way."

Luna raised an eyebrow and straightened her back, pushing a hairlock out of the way. "It isn't, is it?" She nodded, humming. "How does that make you feel?"

"Uncomfortable. While I do consider myself her mentor, I never assumed a parental role."

Luna nodded. "Hmhm."

"Furthermore, just because an alternate version of myself did adopt a younger Sunset, I don't appreciate the Commander's jokes about it. That young woman is dealing with enough without others projecting their wishful thinking at her."

"I see."

"I've never had time for a family. Since I joined the Air Force, the military has been my life. I have never sought familial relationships, nor even dreamed about them. Sunset Shimmer was a happy coincidence, and she was well trained.

"I saw her potential as a future member of XCOM. We traveled together, I taught her what I knew, and she's surprised me so far. I'm proud of what she's become, but that is a far cry from being an adoptive parent."

"Very true."

"But even that is not enough, since the Commander teases me constantly about it and Sunset even joked about it after coming from that little trip of hers."

"It must be hard, dealing with Sunset's wishful thinking."

Bradford gave her a look. "I sincerely doubt that's what she's thinking about, or hoping."

"But if she was?"

Bradford was silent and looked decidedly uncomfortable, so Luna smiled. "For what it's worth, I don't think she's seeking that right now. But it does seem to bother you. For someone that spent so much time with an apprentice of sorts, you spend precious little time with her right now."

"The mission has taken over my life again. I spent most of twenty years thinking the Commander was dead, only to find out that the Elders had her in stasis… and she was training the soldiers that we were fighting."

"You hold Chrysalis in very high regard."'

"She's a brilliant tactician, but we've put her in an impossible situation… and I worry about her. She's lost twenty years… for her, it's been just about a year since she lost Sunset… the original Sunset, in any case.

"From her perspective, one day I'm shaved and groomed and quite frankly naive… then a fight… and she wakes up… and I'm twenty years older, jaded… our friends are lost, KIA, or passed away of old age… Lily is all grown up."

Bradford sighed, dragging his hands down his face in frustration. "I think… I think she knows a lot more about what happened after Sunset left the base. I know that thing with the music is just a coping mechanism, but… it's Sunset's music and there's this particular song that... " He trailed off and rolled his shoulders. "Can we talk about something else?"

Luna nodded. "Of course, what would you like to talk about? The last mission?"

Bradford grimaced. "If this is about Sunset again…"

"No, no." Luna shook her head, raising her hands in a placating gesture. "Not at all. It is just a recent development that well… let's just say that those that were watching had a completely different reaction to the final victory than those that didn't."

"You mean celebrating instead of dreading and wondering if our team would make it back alive on the flight?" Bradford snorted. "In a way, it is as it should be. Only a few of us should suffer for the happiness of others. It's not like anyone in this ship is just loitering around. They all work hard and without many of them, this thing wouldn't even be more than a hunk of metal, half buried its original crash-site."

"Everyone in this ship knows, at least, about the sacrifices your troops make every time they go out there."

"Yeah, but to the world out there we're terrorists. Extremists at best. The Elder's control over the population is no joke… these people are spoon-fed lies while our soldiers die. This last mission could have gone wrong a thousand ways.

"Jane could have ended up with a punctured lung. Elena could have been truly poisoned and turned into a giant egg-sack for insect-monsters. If Angel hadn't rolled with that hit from the berserker, her head would be splattered on the wall right now. Annette was put through the grinder and then almost murdered by her old friend," Bradford said as he counted each possible event out with his fingers. "It's insane what we put them through. Even the missions I've gone to haven't been this savage for the most part. And we need to do it at least two more times!"

He got up from his chair and started pacing. "Then we had that new alien… the Specter they called it. It can take the form of those they attack—" He grimaced cutting himself short. "We're waiting on the engineering team we sent there with Wolf to bring back the dead bodies and hopefully we can study them."

He put his hand on the wall, leaning forward to rest his forehead against the cool metal. "It was a goddamn mess. And if the wounds weren't enough to almost kill her, she was assaulted mentally from the beginning of the mission."

Bradford looked over his shoulder at Luna. "Elena reported that Sunset had visions forced upon her several times. That she was conscious inside the copy that was trying to kill them. All of that, on top of the things that happened to her... " He trailed off, gulping and closing his hands into tight fists.

"I've never heard her scream like that. Not twenty years ago. Not before earlier. I don't want to hear it again but—" He looked up at Luna, a bit lost. "—I will send her out again. And again. Her. Twilight. Annette. Until our enemies are destroyed."

He turned around, leaning against the wall and taking a deep breath, which he let out slowly. "Can you imagine… knowing I'd do that without a moment's hesitation… how it feels to be told I could be her dad if I wanted?"

Luna shook her head.

"Knowing that in another time, another place… I had the presence of mind, the-the courage to take someone into my home, as a daughter, that will have to be enough." Bradford took another deep breath, with slow release. "I know that Sunset understands, I just hope it dawns on the others."

"Why don't you tell them?" Luna asked.

Bradford shook his head. "This is confidential, and this is counceling. Opening up can only help… out there… in the real world? I don't have a safety bubble to protect me and others. I must be strong and steadfast, because that is what they expect of me, and I from them."

He looked up at the clock. "It seems my time's up."

"I'll see you next week, Central."

Bradford nodded and walked out of the room, hesitating at the door. "Thank you."

And he was gone.