These were interesting installments. We get more of Andy and Achilles's story in a way that keeps the hurt alive for that pairing, while also keeping me questioning what would it have been like if they had found Noriko to keep her with Andy. Nicky, alone in the Confederate south, hurts my heart, too. My first thought of why him was quickly answered by who better than he. A faithful man on the side of Christians in the Crusades cut down by and with the "heathen" who would become the love of his life. Nicky knows so much about what drove the Confederacy, likely carries guilt and self-hatred for how he held similar beliefs in his original life, but his love of Joe has changed him so much that he knows on every level that the south had to fail in the Civil War. While I understand why Nicky is on this mission without Joe, I am not okay with the separation of the pairing in this way.