A/N: Don't lie. You all knew this quote was coming.

Chapter 9

"Was this the face that launched a thousand ships...?" - Christopher Marlowe

Helen was highly distressed. She had fallen in love.

She hadn't meant to, but it had forced her hand. If only he hadn't been so sweet, and wonderful, and protective, and strong, and humble, and determined, and astute; then maybe she could have fought it off. But he had been, and now she was sitting there watching him abnormally pace about.

She knew she needed to set his mind at ease about the recent... events.

Yet speaking would be a difficult chore. What had happened to all her training? All her control? All her etiquette and poise and rationale?

What would the Order think if they could see her now?

The unsettled quiet that stained the atmosphere grew worse as Antauri was drawn from his thoughts by the uncomfortable shuffling of his mate standing in the doorway to the meditation chamber.

"Yes?" Antauri asked. He turned his calm eyes toward the white monkey who looked back at him with none of her own usual serenity. Instead, she seemed distraught and very reluctant to bring up whatever she sought to talk about.

"I don't mean to bother you," she said. "I was simply wondering if there had been any progress in the investigation about the cause of the..."

She couldn't bring herself to finish.

She also refused to meet his eyes. Antauri wasn't quite sure what to do with this new, timid, and uncertain Helen. She'd always been his rock, his friend.

"There has been some," he said. He did not elaborate though; not until she looked up at him. "I'm afraid it's not very conclusive though. We know that the blast originated close to Nova, but all the systems were working perfectly up until that point. Actually, it appears that the settings were at dangerously low temperatures, so there is really no reason for such a blast - nor no obvious source."

"Oh," Helen said. She turned her eyes from him again and appeared to be thinking hard. Antauri let her have her space.

"I'm afraid," she said hesitantly after a few moments. "I'm going to have to disagree with you on that, Antauri."

The black simian looked at his mate in surprise before indicating for her to continue.

"It's just that... What if the blast wasn't an internal malfunction? We all know how... temperamental Nova can be."

"Are you suggesting that Nova was the cause of the blast?" Antauri asked. The surprise from a few moments before had turned into absolute shock. He was well aware of how little love was shared between the two females but this...

"Well, no. Not the cause. I'm suggesting she was - is the source."

Antauri was really and truly floored. He gaped at the white monkey before him, trying to gauge exactly how she had come to this conclusion. It was impossible, wasn't it? That blast had charred the Training room and shattered the Control room. There was no way that Nova could have created that type of power and used it against her own teammate - her leader.

"Think about it, Antauri. Surely you've noticed the aggressive and - for lack of a better word - heated aura around her, especially when she gets truly angry. And if the temperature was at such a low setting, where else would there be heat? Everything else would be frozen."

"What about Mandarin?" Antauri questioned. He really hated to admit it, but Helen was right on that front. The yellow monkey's aura was unusually prone to actually heating the air around her. But surely such an act of deliberate violence toward their leader was disprovable.

"Someone had to be at the controls..."

"What could make you think that he'd do something so-"

"I'm not saying he did. I'm just suggesting that it's possible. You've seen how aggressive he's become lately, how distant he is, how... power-hungry he is."

Looking at her hurt too much, so he didn't. He realized the futility in arguing such points with her, mostly because he recognized that they were true. Still, to actually believe that Mandarin would deliberately set out to harm one of his teammates, and that Nova would in turn rise up and nearly kill them both... It was too much right now.

He needed to think - to be alone - to get over this shock and hurt so that he could be the objective and calm second-in-command that the others would need him to be now.

He looked back over toward her to convey these turbulent emotions, but she was already gone.

The inside of the Robot was unusually muted. The heroic monkeys inside were oddly reserved and pensive. An unspoken fear wove throughout them all as they stoically waited for any change in their traumatized teammates and tried to fit all the disjointed pieces together.

"You really think she could have done that?" Sprx asked. Silence had never been a comfort to him.

"I'm just stating the possibility," Helen said. She was curled up on the couch, staring at the ground as she gripped her legs tighter to her chest and crushed her chin further into her knees.

The rest of the black-eyed quad all stared off towards the floor as well, trying to come up with some evidence to disprove their female group-member.

"... But how could she have generated such power in so quick a time?" Gibson asked. "There is no conceivable way that simply her anger caused the explosion - and it was an explosion."

"She has great power in her, Gibson," Helen answered; there was an un-earthly glint in her eye that belied her knowledge of mystical things. "She has always been...hot-tempered. It resonates within every particle of her aura. I've watched it increase over the last few months, but I never could have predicted such manifestation..."

"But that still doesn't explain-"

"There are many things in this universe without satisfactory explanations, Gibson."

"But Mandarin would never do something like that," Otto said. His eyes were wide with an innocent understanding Helen wished she could possess.

"Why not?" Helen challenged. "He's become so distant, so short-tempered, so demanding lately, that it's really no surprise he'd put one of you through that."

"But he's out leader," Otto said. "He'd never hurt us."

"Maybe he wasn't trying to," Sprx said. As much as he agreed with Helen's argument, the possibility that it was right was too frightening to believe. "Maybe it was all an accident, or something."

The boys all looked at Helen anxiously.

"Maybe," she conceded.

The hope and relief in their eyes was enough to soothe the guilt for lying to them for now.

The dim lights and quiet did nothing to help the throbbing in the yellow monkey's head. She didn't even really appreciate the fact that she was in her own bed. She hurt too much to move.

Luckily, as soon as she began to, a firm grip helped her the rest of the way.

"Gently now," Helen instructed as she assisted Nova in sitting up. Nova was too relieved to be annoyed by the soothing voice of the white monkey next to her.

"Thanks," Nova said after she'd downed the warm drink Helen gave her.

Helen only smiled and resumed her relaxed position next to her appointed patient.

"You can go now," Nova said after a few moments of stillness. Honestly, if the other person wasn't going to do anything, she'd really rather be alone.

"Actually, I can't," Helen said. "I'm under strict orders to watch over and care for you - despite all protests."

Nova fell back into her bed with a huff, non-verbally showing her disapproval.

"I'm not a baby. I can take care of myself."

"Not in this matter you can't. You aren't allowed to get out of bed, and I'm here to make up for that lack of mobility."

"Wha-Why?"

"Do you remember what happened?"

The yellow monkey answered with silence and by avoiding eye contact. Helen didn't care to respond either and so allowed the silence to encase them once more.

After a few minutes Nova began to fidget around.

"Stop," Helen commanded. "You'll mess up your bandages."

"Well can I at least have a book or something?"

"I didn't know you liked to read."

"Anything is better than just sitting here with you."

"I know we have our differences, Nova, but I at least expect the same respect that I show towards your lifestyle choices from you towards mine."

"So you do have backbone after all. Why don't you ever use it toward your husband?"

"Not voicing my opinions is a choice just as voicing them is. What I choose to do is my decision, and what you choose to do is yours. Yes, I support my mate, and that is a choice. I would at least expect you to respect that much."

"It's not a choice when there isn't much of an alternative. I can't respect slavery based on sexism."

"Nothing has ever been forced on me that I did not allow. Did you know that my species are actually gender-less?" Helen asked. Her voice was harsh and she gave Nova a piercing glare to accent her annoyance.

Nova shook her head slowly, letting the confusion and shock of that tidbit of information overtake her eyes. It was disconcerting to see sweet, little, quiet, demure Helen overtaken by emotion that had been slowly building over the last several months. It really shouldn't have been such a surprise - she'd had nowhere to put all that anger and hurt and abuse she'd been receiving. She had almost no real relationships with any of the others as far as Nova knew, besides the little kitchen encounters and Antauri - and well, the kitchen wasn't really the best place to have deep, meaningful conversations, and Antauri had other duties to attend to that really took up his time.

Obviously she had reached her boiling point.

"I chose to take on the characteristics of the female gender because I enjoy it more," Helen punctuated her point with the erratic whipping of her tail. Her breathing was heavier now and she found that she had gotten to her feet at some point. "I can become a male whenever I so please - physically, mentally - yet I enjoy being a girl more. Yes, they are considered the weaker sex, but I find nothing weak in supporting another being entirely, or liking flowers, or having a better grasp on your own emotions, or even liking brightly coloured, small, fuzzy things. I did not choose to be a female because I couldn't fight."

Helen paused to give a pointed look at the yellow monkey who was remaining uncharacteristically silent. The yellow monkey had a haunted and guilt-ridden look on her face; her posture was slumped and she had her vision tunneled on one spot behind the white female.

"I choose not to fight because I believe in peace," Helen continued. Her voice was beginning to fall back to its usual soft volume, but there was still a tone of urgency and intense sincerity to it. "I chose to join the Veran Order because I believe they understand and work towards my goal in the pacifistic manner that I support. I chose to mate with Antauri and be a supportive and encouraging help because that is what I believe will help him and ultimately lead toward my goal of universal peace. Yes, he fights - but isn't that what exactly what you're doing as well? Why can't you respect my choices that are to the same end as yours ultimately are?"

Nova sat silent still, letting the guilt build as she reviewed her behaviour of the past months in a new light.

Helen waited expectantly when she finished, but Nova couldn't bring herself to answer the accusing questions that hung in the air.

Another silence swept through the room.

"... I do," Nova said.

"I beg your pardon?" Helen asked.

"I... I like small fuzzy things too - and flowers."

"Your room is so bare, perhaps we'll get you some."

"But what would the guys think?"

"You are a strong, confident warrior; what does is matter what they think?"

"It doesn't matter what they think!" Mandarin would have thrown something if there had been anything in arm's reach. "It doesn't matter what they believe. The truth is that I offered Nova some advanced training lessons. She accepted. Then when we were in the middle of it there was a large explosion that originated from Nova's direction."

"No one is denying that claim, Mandarin," Antauri said as calmly as he could manage. They had been going at this for several days now. He hated to push Mandarin so, but they needed answers and so far Mandarin was the only one able to provide them. "But there has to be more to it. For instance, what was the exact origin point of the blast? And why where the temperature settings at such lethal freeze points? We've gone through the remains and it appears that Nova is the origin and the only conclusion from that is that her heating sensors must have overworked - which they would need to from the sheer cold blasting in the room. What possible need could there be to have such settings on?"

Mandarin kept his cold stare on Antauri, even as he switched his attention to the green mechanic who was thoroughly inspecting him and his weaponry for any serious damage.

"Could the blast have messed with the controls, Otto?"

Otto jumped at being addressed but covered it up with his usual goofy smile. The tension in the room had been building to uncomfortable levels (Sprx refused to go anywhere near it as of late) and he had hoped he'd be able to deflect some of it.

"Uh, I don't think so, Mandy," he responded. "Gibson and I are still sorting out the wiring but we're pretty sure it wasn't an internal cause. The blast looks to have come directly from Nova. Which is weird because I'm pretty sure our circuits can't do that. They'd be more likely to fry than anything else. The controls aren't actually damaged that bad - it just looks bad. It's up and running again and looking at the log the temperatures settings were manually set before the blast ever occurred. What kind of training was it?"

"Durability under extreme weather conditions. Raising endurance. Sharpening concentration," Mandarin spat out responses as if he didn't care which option the others picked as long as they shut up about it already.

Antauri frowned. "Few planets harbour such a harsh environment as imitated during this training session. I do not see why it was necessary to—"

"No - you don't," Mandarin cut the black monkey off brusquely. There was a short pause as the orange monkey locked gazes with Antauri. The black monkey returned the withering stare, a bit unsettled by the surprising force targeted at him. Mandarin continued, his voice low and rigid: "And that is why I am the Leader—"

Otto turned to the workbench at the side of the room – shying away from the sudden level of tension between the other two.

"-and you are the Second," Mandarin said, keeping his voice perfectly calm. "This Team has potential to perform great deeds and I shall see to it that potential is fulfilled. For the good of the City - for the good of the Universe." There was the usual zealous fire in Mandarins words as when he usually spoke of their Destiny – but at this moment, the words fell flat and the fire seemed not as much passionate as it was... desirous.

"I see," was the only thing Antauri offered in response.

The Leader's voice turned the slightest bit softer: "I trust you both to aid me in this, as my Second in Command and my ally. We owe it to the City not to squander our abilities, and so I endeavoured to train Nova. How... unfortunate that she proved unready for it."

His voice took a sour edge at the last sentence - however this went unnoticed by Otto as he piped up and his chipper bass voice seemed to wipe away some of the layers of tautness that had settled in the room. "You can count on us, Mandy! We won't let you down," he said and extracted some tool or other from his hand and had a look at Mandarin's singed jetpack.

Antauri crossed his arms. Approaching this without accusing or assigning any sort of blame to the orange cyborg was difficult; Mandarin had reacted badly to both approaches in the past days of attempted questioning.

There was a time when offering criticism wouldn't get him stared down, but Antarui supposed Mandarin never wanted to be caught in such a tight situation as they had when trapped at the Skeleton King's mercy – that he felt a certain amount of guilt for not being able to save the team that unpleasant experience. Antauri likewise supposed this was the reason his friend felt the need to continuously assert his rank through stare-downs and firm berating - however unnecessary doing so seemed to the Spiritual Advisor.

The black monkey admitted that they might all need increased training if his suspicions about the undead villain's true condition proved true (of which he was sure) – but improvements should happen gradually and certainly not at the cost of their lives.

There was a time when they could discuss these things, when he didn't need to ponder how to word his thoughts in order to avoid offending his Leader.

Helen's... theory flared in the back of his mind, but he quickly stamped it out. He gave a tiny shake of the head and turned his gaze back over to his scowling orange friend.

Antauri sighed and made to speak, but then a spark flew and Mandarin yelped in sudden surprise as his jetpack short-circuited and treated him to a delightful electrical shock.

"Whoopsie-daisy," Otto grinned sheepishly and patted his own helmet with a knuckle as a playful punishment.

"Watch it!" Mandarin hissed angrily - but that was a familiar routine: the green monkey was expected to mess up somehow and Mandarin reacted with his usual anger; it was a familiar custom – almost amiable in comparison to the recent days where everybody seemed on edge and reluctant to talk loudly and freely.

"Sorry about that. I'll do my best, I promise."

A shadow of a smile flickered over the muzzle of the orange monkey.

Staring at numerous data screens, trying to find some sort of inconsistency would make anyone's orbs sting after countless hours.

Gibson was thoroughly convinced that there was no such anomaly within these files, and that the whole thing was on purpose. He simply refused to admit to any such thoughts. All the data he had poured over for days all held that the controls had been manually dealt with and the blast was indeed a freak response from Nova's heating cells. That conclusion left him feeling guilty though, as if it were he who had caused everything, and not just the interpreter of events.1

A break would do him some good, but he was nothing if not determined and thorough. Pressing on until he reached the inner recesses of Mandarin's personal log files held nothing out of the ordinary. If anything, it proved his unspoken thoughts all the more.

He was finally ready to call it quits for the day until he came across a peculiar encrypted file. Being a creature of science, he had a natural curiosity and couldn't quite resist the mystery of what lay inside. He was sure it was something very personal (a diary perhaps) that he had no right to hack in to, but maybe it would yield some sort of definite answer about this whole Training Room Mystery.

There was only one way to find out.

The clinking of dishes was more pronounced than usual, or at least it seemed that way. It was the only sound to fill up the air. Not that that was a bad thing, it was much better than the fights that had infected their usual, daily interactions.

"Hey babe, what's shakin'?"

Helen glanced over at the far too chipper red monkey who had wondered in and disrupted the dictatorship of the dishes in noise.

"Just cooking," she said. Disinterest laced her voice yet her posture was stiff, but that was nothing new; they were all on edge these days.

"Need any help?"

"No, thank you. I'm sure you have something else to go do anyway."

"Not really. With the Dueling Duo both out of commission for now training has been suspended for a while. I'm all yours." Sprx threw a suggestive wink at the involuntarily amused female.

"Well then, I guess that's cause for celebration," Helen responded dryly. "What would be appropriate to commemorate the fact that you'll no longer be plagued with daily workouts?"

"Something filling. Something that is the complete opposite of healthy," Sprx commented. He began stroking the air below his chin in an imitation of having a long beard to show he was deep in mock-thought.

"I believe we have some ice-cream in the freezer," Helen said.

"What flavour is it?" Sprx asked.

"I'm not sure - whatever Otto picked out."

"Too bad, I'm in the mood for vanilla." The way he said let her know they weren't actually talking about ice cream. She looked over toward him, taking in his cocky stance, that gleam in his eyes that was Sprx, and the lopsided grin that all combined lead one to implicitly know exactly what the pilot was thinking.

"Should I get the whipped cream out to 'celebrate' then?" Helen asked with an identical smirk curling onto her lips.

Sprx - ever the expert - didn't let his shock show at Helen's innuendo. He did let his eyes rove her form for a few minutes; enough to let her feel them on her.

"I prefer chocolate sauce on my vanilla, actually," he finally answered. Unfortunately, Helen kept true to form and didn't so much as bat an eye at the talk or the leer that accompanied it.

"I guess we can make a sundae then - with the cherry on top," Helen said with a wink of her own.

That knocked the red monkey's professional flirting mask off. He stood gaping at her for few seconds before breaking down into a convulsive laughing fit.

Helen's own laughter followed shortly after, though it wasn't as hard or loud as the pilots. It was enough to disspell the rest of the world for a few minutes.

"Aw, Hel, I thought you grew up in a monastery," he said after he gained control of himself.

"I did - but you forget my purpose. I was raised to be a companion to one of the students - and not just as a sounding board either." Sprx couldn't tell if that was said in brashness or misery.

"Oh? What other kind of companion is there?" he asked in mock innocence.

Helen gave him a stare that clearly said "I know you know what other kind I'm talking about" but decided to humour him anyway by saying: "The kind with benefits."

"Friendship is a very important benefit," Sprx agreed, keeping his mock-serious attitude on the subject.

"Yes, but not just friendship."

That devilish smirk she had stolen from him was back. He could only half see it though, because she was still focusing on the food in front of her. He had to admit: he liked this game. It'd been a long time since he'd had anyone to match wits like this with. He did feel half-guilty for it being with his Second in Command and good friend's 'wife.'

"But friendship is the main part of your relationship, right?" Helen stopped and glanced at him. He was serious this time.

She knew of no underlying cause for this sudden turn in tone; he wasn't jealous and she knew he hadn't taken any of their earlier banter seriously - that much she could tell - but she also knew he was truly curious about this inquiry.

What did she tell him? Yes, that had been the first clause in this crazy agreement of theirs? While that was true, she didn't feel like he needed to know that information. It was an undisclosed and private matter between her and Antauri. She knew that it wasn't a standard or very usual occurrence for those of her occupation, that had been thoroughly drilled into her before she had ever been chosen for a Mystic, but how did she tell Sprx that?

They were the odd pair out, her and Antauri. They were actually quite unconventional, with the whole friendship-over-gratification aspect of their relationship. A friend was hard to come by in a monastery, much less on a team a superheroes. And she was truly grateful for that, she loved having him as a friend because he was one of those rare, truly good beings, and she marveled over her position to help him with whatever he needed. She was also bound to him in a completely non-friendship manner as well though. She was trained to be his (for all intents and purposes) servant, and she held that occupation above any other relationship she formed. That's what she was and she had willingly followed this path. So while they were friends, she held herself in a more meager position than Antauri would ever admit her to be.

She couldn't explain all that to Sprx though. Not only was it private, it was beyond her grasp of knowledge to put into words. What was so important about this that he had to stand there waiting patiently for her to answer it?

"Yes," she finally said. It was flat and devoid of any opportunities to continue this specific line of conversation. She allowed him to take from that whatever he wanted to hear.

Nova was trying to go along with the unspoken yet unanimous decision of acting like nothing was wrong but it was extremely hard to focus on her breathing exercises and the right form with Mandarin right there - close to the control booth.

The orange monkey wasn't saying anything but she could feel all the corrections he wanted to yell at her. He didn't of course, because something was wrong. She didn't know whether to be relieved or ashamed that her leader was somewhat afraid that she'd accidentally, almost kill him again.

Keeping the two strongest (physically and willed) members of the team on bed rest proved to be a challenge no one was up to. Within two weeks sporadic training sessions and meetings and battles were back to being their everyday life. Except there was no talking.

The 'Training Room Incident' as it was referred to in hushed, fearful tones had shattered any meager trust that had been built between the cybernetic monkeys. No one was sure who to believe or what to do to restore what seemed to be missing between them now. They mostly kept to their previous routine of living and pretended they didn't notice anything.

After another ten minutes of the room filling up with the silent cries of stress Mandarin finally left her with a disgusted look on his face, and stormed off to who-knows-where like he had taken to lately.

Nova sighed in relief and allowed her form to relax and began her pre-training exercise once again.

She resolutely ignored the way she shivered when a slight breeze of cool air caressed her as the door closed and how deathly still everything was.

Otto was looking for Mandarin and as most of the others didn't seem particularly worried when they didn't know where he was, Otto had to search their Robotic quarters on his own for any spot of his orange Leader. The mechanic at last found him on the shoulder of the Robot, gazing over the City with a stern, thoughtful look on his face.

As the natural light retreated with the progress of night, the neon-coloured glows of the signs and vehicles and buildings of Shuggazoom City illuminated Mandarin from below, casting him in a sickly blend of green and pale white hues of light.

Otto approached his friend without restraint. The green mechanic didn't get what the others were mumbling about when they thought he wasn't in earshot. Mandarin was just thinking about things. And he was their Leader, the Leader was supposed to think and plan and speculate over what he wanted his team to do. It was a Leader-y thing to do.

"Hiya," Otto salutated and plopped himself down beside the unmoving figure of the Team Leader.

A couple moments passed until Mandarin acknowledged the presence of Otto with a barely audible 'hm'.

"The City sure is shiny tonight," Otto conversed; as per usual not having any trouble in finding topics for small-talk. "Reminds me of the stars in space. Just less bright and less, uh, deadly warm," he chuckled.

He wasn't too surprised when his comments went unanswered. Otto was used to being met with silence or being flat-out ignored when Mandarin found his constant nattering too inane to warrant an answer... but this wasn't the Mandarin that ignored him because he was annoyed with him – this was a Mandarin too lost in thought to even acknowledge Otto's existence. Thinking about important things, no doubt. Important Leader things.

Otto sighed the way a child does when their parents are too busy talking on the phone or signing paperwork to see the really awesome bug their son had put in their bed.

"If you could change anything about the way this City works, what would it be?" Mandarin asked, not moving to see eye to eye with his green team member and his tone of voice indicated that he didn't expect any particularly intelligent reponse to come from Otto.

"Uhhh, I guess I'd want Ice-cream Fridays. Y'know, to go with Casual Fridays," Otto said happily. "And make it so people wouldn't litter so much."

An airship slowly floated across the cityscape. It was a big, fat, and dark shape gently going about its business and not caring about anything but its own course and destination.

"And what if the Citizens would not listen? What if they continued to drop rubbish everywhere?"

"Oh, I'd be kinda sad because it'd make a mess of the streets. We'd risk stepping in used gum and since we don't wear shoes it'd stick to our fur and then we'd have to shave it and I don't think Gibson would like that. He certainly didn't like it when my multipurpose toothbrush-shaver-and-nail-polisher got a hold of his tail."

Mandarin made a grimace. Determined to keep the conversation off of Otto's little tangents, he asked: "What if they wished to keep spoiling the City despite the fact it only served to hinder themselves?"

"Well, it's their own business and it's their City, so—"

"They would continue this misbehaviour because they are short-sighted and can't take properly care of themselves— would that not mean others should step in and correct them?"

"Don't they have a mayor? Or a... king or something. A baron maybe? ... I'm sure they have a baron somewhere." Otto didn't like all these questions. He felt he was being led into places he didn't want to go.

"A human Leader, prone to human weaknesses. Is it not one's duty to step in and correct mistakes when they appear? To guide the humans onto the right path of Destiny?"

"Are we allowed to do that?" Otto asked uncertainly. He knew Mandarin didn't like back-talk and these days it could really set him off. But it was mostly Sprx and Antauri that kept asking those same questions, so maybe Otto would be all-right and if Mandarin wanted to ask some of his own, then Otto could ask as well, right? "I wouldn't know where to start. Destiny is kinda a big thing to tackle."

Until now Mandarin had never turned towards Otto's direction, his eyes - almost dreamily - set on some faraway goal. But now he slowly twisted his neck around and smiled – really smiled.

The sight cheered Otto up immensively – surely Mandarin wasn't plotting or going nutters or whatever Helen thought he was doing when he was smiling as calmly and affably as someone's uncle handing his favourite nephew a newly bought bag of crisps.

"I know my Destiny. I know the Path," Mandarin said; his voice calm and smooth with the iron assurance of somebody who is convinced they're right and if anybody thinks differently they're dead wrong. "All you have to do is follow me without question and the City will be guided to its true Fate."

Otto swung his legs back and forth over the tip of the giant shoulders. "Sure, you're the Leader after all. I got yer back 'cause I know you'll steer us right in the end, Mandy."

The smile on Mandarin's muzzle grew wide enough to reveal an edge of white teeth.

The lights of the City clouded the natural sparks of the stars, leaving only the pallid colours of the cityscape to play across the features of the two monkeys.

A swish alerted him to his visitant. His olive eyes widened a fraction further when he saw that it wasn't the female he expected it to be, but he gave nod of invitation all the same. The yellow monkey silently entered and sat down by the babbling stream as Antauri allowed gravity to grab hold of him once again.

For a while, the stream was the only conversationalist in the room.

"I'm ready to talk," Nova whispered. She met the black monkeys eyes hesitantly but relaxed at his open expression.

"Very well," he said. "What exactly happened in the Training Room that day?"

Gibson was used to having to make sense of results that didn't correspond with each other – that was science; finding a theory to bring meaning to the data you collected, then testing it over and over until you had a working hypothesis based on logic.

It was seldom that he found himself unwilling to test a theory in order to make a conclusion. Usually scientists do not shy away from making discoveries that shake the very core of previous paradigms.

But this time, he was. Because the conclusion he might come to was far too frightening to consider.

The blue scientist stared at the print-outs as if the disbelief in his gaze might transfer over to the paper and whisk away the blueprints on the desk. They didn't make sense to him. That is, he could all too easily translate the calculations and figures and parables into the attributes of the machine they were describing – but what he feared to speculate was the reasoning behind ever having to ponder the product of what the blue-prints described.

It was a prison.

Not only a containment unit for criminals – there were detailed calculations for devices that shouldn't ever be needed to confine convicts: devices to control the mind, to acquire absolute mastery over the body of another being. There were weapons, robots, alarm systems – and their schematics clearly showed that their range should not only be limited to the prison but reach out into the City of Shuggazoom as well.

Cameras to watch, alarms to constrict, robots to enforce.

Gibson rubbed his helmet in desperation; trying to come with any other explanation besides the shockingly obvious for what reason Mandarin would ever have written up these blueprints in the first place.

Scattered over the white and slightly reflective floor lay several hundred pieces of metal, bent into shapes of many different purposes. In the middle sat the mechanic and his Leader. The only sound was that of the continuous clink-clank of them fine-tuning the Super Robot's innermost mechanisms.

They had sat here many times before; Otto rambling away, Mandarin telling him to stop acting like a lunatic – yet secretly pleased for the opportunity to incessantly complain about something.

But now... now there was only the tinkering of machine parts against tools. No childish chit-chatting or amiable grumbling. Just the two of them working to repair what was broken; labouring to improve what Mandarin had deemed ineffective.

Mandarin had never uttered a word of command, but Otto knew his friend required stillness.

Otto wanted silence as well. It was better than the questions.

"What does this all mean?"

"I'm not sure yet. Something though."

"What are we going to do?"

"Do? There's nothing we can do right now. Only wait, we have to see where this all goes, what it means."

"We can't just sit here-"

"What else can we do?"

"Fine, we'll wait. For the record, I don't like this though."

"No one does."

The timer beeped and all the columns began to descend back into the floor. The Hyperforce all slumped from their stiff poses and took deep breathes. All but one.

"No, no, no. You are missing the point again." The orange leader seethed, visibly upset towards the being in the control center. "You must make sure that we all are divided and then try to take us out one at a time. And turn the setting up. We are not all so weak."

"Mandarin, please, there is no reason for such a harsh tone." The Spiritual Advisor spoke up, frowning at his Leader.

"No need? No need? How is she to ever learn how important this is if I do not tell her what to do? If she would just get it right for once I would not be forced to take on such a tone-but then again, I am speaking to one who cannot grasp the basics of combat training."

"It is not that she does not understand, it is just that she chooses to refrain from such activities in an Oath of Pacifism and out of medical reasons. You know that."

"Antauri. Whether she chooses to fight or not is not the issue. The issue is that she cannot manage to correctly monitor the Combat Simulator. I'm afraid that we shall again have to take turns with such a duty while the others train instead. Who would like to take over first?"

"Mandarin. I will respect your decision to release her from such a duty, but I will not tolerate such a degrading manner. She is doing her best and that is all you can ask of someone. She will learn just as we are all learning to work together. Time is the key." Venom started to seep into the normally calm monkey's voice.

"Forgive me, Antauri, I did not mean to offend you. Perhaps you would like a first turn in there?" Mandarin said with an innocent trill.

"It is not I who you need to apologize to."

The black commander turned his back on his leader and walked out of the training room. The rest of the team maintained their awkward silence as Mandarin watched him leave.

"I think... we could all use a break." Nova dared to chime in.

Mandarin whorled towards her, his face unsurprisingly full of rage. "... Very well. Any of you who think that this is all a game and need to rest your lazy circuits are welcome to leave."

Nobody moved.

"All right, Antauri, if you would start up the simulator?" Mandarin called toward the control booth.

A few moments of stillness passed as everyone held their breath awaiting the familiar hum of the columns rising. When nothing happened Mandarin called out again and again until he finally stormed over to the booth. There was no one inside.

"Thank you for defending me."

Antauri stopped pacing and looked over wonderingly toward her. He made his way over to her and took her cheek in his hand, stroking the fur along it. She looked up at him from her seat. "Helen... You are very... precious to me. And I will not tolerate such vile language toward you."

If he hadn't kissed her then she would have said 'I love you.' She could feel the words caught in the back of her throat, held at bay only by his lips sealing hers. They were surprisingly hard to swallow; so she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back - crushing her lips further closed in an effort to keep those awful words back.

She was determined that those sentiments would never be uttered.

It simply would not do.