"…How long are we going to be walking through these plains?" Rachel asked in a somewhat annoyed tone about thirty minutes later, following Mutare up one of the many hills as a strong gust of air blew against her.

"I thought you said you were going to stop asking questions…" Mutare sighed as he continued to walk.

"Just because I say something doesn't mean it's going to be true… Anyway, there's nothing to look at and it's making me extremely bored."

"We should be near the wetlands soon so you'll have many things to look at there."

"Well that's good to know…" she replied in a seemingly sarcastic tone, stepping around a large chunk of stone that was in her way.

A few more minutes later after they scaled up the hill, they eventually reached a large, flat area of land, covered in dense, vine-covered trees and random pools of dark, murky water. Many different shrubs and other types of plants grew from the mud-covered earth here, which to Rachel seemed as if they would cause a few problems while navigating through this area of land.

"This is a lot worse than I thought it would be…" Rachel said, peering through the dense brush. After stepping around one of the strange, tall plants, a lengthy, snake-like lizard slithered across the damp, muddy earth from under the plant and slipped into the nearest pool of water. She soon looked behind her to check if Mutare was following behind, seeing that he was walking behind her. "…How did you get through all of this anyway?" As she continued to step forward, she could feel one of her feet sluggishly sinking down in a puddle of mud. She turned her gaze to her foot, pulling it out and leaping over to a patch of grass that was on the other side of it.

"Well unlike you, I am able to navigate through certain environments a lot easier." he replied, stepping over the mud to follow Rachel. "The armor I'm wearing helps a lot. But if you think that this will be annoying to get through, then you're really going to hate the forest after this."

"For now, I'd rather not focus on that…" she replied as she continued walking, stepping through a medium-sized shrub pushing some thick vines aside. A few more of the lizards she saw before scurried out from under the shrub and away from her. "…By the way, are there any dangerous animals in here?"

"There are a few. However, we won't have to worry about them until the night. Most of the predators here are nocturnal."

"So we're definitely going to need to get out of here before then…"

"Actually I don't think we can…" he said with a sigh. "It's already noon right now, and these wetlands go on for many more miles."

"…um, so how exactly are we going to survive the night?" she nervously asked, stepping through a small pool of murky water. Yet again, she noticed one of the same lizards appear above the water's surface, slithering through the water to avoid her. "I know what we're probably going to end up eating… There seem to be tons of those lizards here…"

"To survive here, we are going to need to find a place with water and tall, thick trees. We will have to spend the night in one of those trees to avoid the predators below."

"That is not going to be comfortable at all…" she sighed. "Why can't we just make a shelter on the ground?"

"Because one of the predators is extremely intelligent and would probably end up eating us while we are sleeping, even if we're in a shelter. All they would have to do is tear down the shelter to get to us."

"Oh… Well are there any predators in the trees?"

"There is none that I know of. I had to sleep in a tree the first time I came through here, and nothing attacked me."

"That's good I guess…" she replied, stepping over a log and stopping there. "Anyway, can we please rest? I'm getting really tired now…"

"You guess?" Mutare he said with a growl, stepping over the log and stopping beside her. He seemed to completely ignore what she said after.

"Well you aren't exactly a friend so I really don't think I would care if you died…"

"Hey, if it wasn't for me, you would probably be dead now." he sternly replied, quickly moving his ears back against the sides of his head.

"…I know, but I'm still thinking about what you tried to do me and Leon the first time we met." she replied in a nervous tone, backing away slightly from him. "…And the fact that you have either killed or assimilated probably thousands of innocent aliens."

"Well you shouldn't be focusing on that right now." he growled. "Because I could just leave you here to die whenever I want."

"Look I'm really sorry but I don't even know why you're helping me anyway…"

"I'm only helping you because I haven't known you very long." he said, sounding as if he was calming down a little. His ears began slowly returning to their normal position as well. "But if it was Leon who got left behind, I would have killed him right after I noticed him."

"Fine…" she sighed. "Anyway, can I please rest now? You kinda ignored me the first time I mentioned it…"

"Yes, go ahead and rest." he replied. "I'm starting to get tired of carrying this piece of metal anyway."

"Thank you…" she sighed, immediately stopping and sitting down on the log behind her. She watched as Mutare placed the chunk of metal beside him, sitting down on the log as well. "…How do you get tired anyway? Aren't you like mostly robotic?"

"This is only armor." he replied, focusing on Rachel. "I am the only scientist in my faction who can make the biomechanical implants and I can't upgrade myself."

"Oh…" she said. After pausing for a few seconds, she soon spoke again. "I really wish Leon was here… I'm so worried about what that demon might do to him if he continues on…"

"Zeku is a very sadistic demon, so you better hope he decides to go back. He doesn't like it when people disobey his orders."

"Yeah… I know…" she sighed. "I figured that out before Leon told me to stay behind…"

"So what did he do to you exactly?" he asked with a slight growl in his voice. "It must have tortured you badly for your ally to make you go back."

"…He did something very bad to me…" she replied, slowly turning her gaze to the ground. "As a warning, he forced me into unconsciousness and I guess he raped my soul or something… No one else could see him while he was doing that… To them, I seemed dead…"

"Figures he would do something like that. That demon is mated with the Demon Lord of lust, so he probably learned that torture method from him."

"…Him?" she asked, slightly confused. "I'm surprised he's not with a girl after all that he did to me…"

"Well the other demon, Deleo, is both male and female, but he is recognized to many as just male. They really don't care about it, being the demons that they are. Anyway, we really shouldn't be talking about them since Zeku could be listening at any moment. He could be somewhere nearby…"

"Yeah, I kinda figured that part out when he seemed to be appearing wherever I went…" she paused for a few seconds. "We should probably be going now…"

Without saying anything else, Mutare simply stood up and lifted the piece of metal back up, soon beginning to continue on through the dense, swampy brush.

As Rachel stood up and begin following behind him, she soon thought of something. "What is that metal for anyway?" she asked.

"What else do you think it could be for besides one main thing?" he replied, growling a bit in annoyance. "It should be enough for me to finish making that biomechanical armor."

"I kinda figured that…" she sighed. As they passed through some more of the brush, Rachel felt her feet beginning to slowly sink down in a somewhat large pond of muddy water. "Why do we have to go through all of this? Couldn't we have just gone around this pond? I hate getting my armor dirty."

"We're walking through a pond so you can easily wash the armor off if it gets too muddy" he growled, continuing to step through the murky water. "I really hope you won't be annoying me with complaints everywhere we go."

"I'll try not to but it really might not work out…" she said as they finally reached the other side of the pond, stepping out of the water and onto the damp grass. "…Anyway, I do have a question for you that I just kinda thought about."

"Ugh, what is it?" he asked, growling slightly as he spoke.

"How are we even going to get off this planet? Do you have some type of ship or something that we can use?"

"Of course I have a ship... How else would I have gotten here? After I'm finished with that armor we can use the ship to leave."

"Also… what about Leon? I really don't want to leave him behind…"

"He's not coming with us. I'd rather he just die on this planet."

Rachel stopped walking instantly after hearing what he said. "Please let him come with us… I'll do anything to repay you…"

Mutare immediately stopped, turning around to face Rachel. "You really like that Grox, don't you?" he asked with a slight growl.

"As a friend, yes…" she replied. "He's like the first alien I've ever made friends with… I really don't know what I would do if he died…"

After a few seconds passed by, Mutare spoke again. "Fine. But you will have to do something in order to help me after we get off this planet. Right when I leave you and Leon at the base, I want you to free Omega and allow him to return back to our base."

Rachel hesitated to reply a bit. However she soon thought of her decision. "Okay, I accept. As long as Leon is safe it is fine with me…"

"Good…" Mutare replied, grinning at her slightly. After he turned back around and continued walking, he stopped in front of a tree and immediately set the piece of metal beside it and began to climb up the tree trunk, piercing his sharp, blade-like claws into the surface.

"Um… where are you going?" Rachel asked, walking up to the tree that he was climbing and looking upwards.

"I'm going to try to look for the tree that I had to sleep in the last time I came through here." Mutare replied, continuing to scale up the tree. "I should be able to see it from up here because it's larger than most of the ones here." In only a minute, he disappeared into the dense canopy.

Rachel sighed a bit and turned her focus back toward the ground, looking around a little while she waited for him to return. After what seemed to be about ten minutes, her attention soon focused towards the sound of something running through what sounded like water in the distance. She began getting nervous after hearing this, thinking that it could be something that would attack her. "Ugh… Why isn't Mutare back yet?" she said to herself, quickly glancing up the tree to see if he was anywhere nearby. However, she didn't see him. She soon turned her gaze to where she heard the running once again. What made her even more nervous was that it sounded as if it was getting closer to her. She soon quickly grasped onto the tree in attempt to climb it, fearing that she wasn't safe at the moment. Her fingers continued to slip off the rough tree bark as she tried climbing up, nearly causing her to panic. She tried more rapidly as she heard the creature approach. After seeing the creature appear out of the brush from the corner of her eye, she instantly noticed a familiar Grox, stopping and looking directly at her.

"Rachel, I told you to not follow me!" she heard Leon say with a growl. "I don't want to put you in danger! You know that!"

She soon slid off the tree trunk, turning around to face him. "Well you leaving me behind caused me to get lost!" she retorted, glaring at him. "I ended up in a place we've never been before, and then Mutare-"

"Mutare? What is he doing here?" he interrupted, his ears immediately flattening against the sides of his head.

"I was going to tell you that he's helping me! He said that he has a ship and he would take us both back to our base!"

"…Rachel you can't trust him! You saw what he tried to do to us before! He's just going to take us back to his base and assimilate us!"

"Just this one time, I know we can trust him!" She soon began to calm down a bit. "Look, even if he is lying don't you want to get off this planet?"

"Yes, I do but… I really don't want us to be assimilated…" He seemed to be calming down as well, slowly moving his ears back to where they were before. "…I guess if he tries then we can escape somehow, but I'm not going to enjoy this at all."

Soon enough, Rachel could hear the rustling sounds of movement in the tree behind her.

"I really don't care what you think, Grox." she heard Mutare say. She soon heard a loud thump on the ground, only to see that Mutare had seemed to have leaped down the rest of the way. "Anyway, I know where my former shelter is now." he said as he focused on Rachel. "This will make surviving a bit easier."

After Mutare picked up his piece of metal yet again and began to walk away, both Rachel and Leon began to follow behind. Rachel soon turned her gaze over to Leon. "…Where did the wolves go?" she asked, just now thinking about it.

"All of the remaining Ke'zuka were killed by one of the wetland's predators." he replied, looking at her as well. "I managed to escape I guess, since that creature doesn't seem to be anywhere nearby."

"I guess that explains why you were running…" she said, smiling a bit as she spoke. "But that's strange though… Mutare said that all the predators here are nocturnal…"

Leon soon turned his focus to Mutare. "Hey, how long is it going to take for us to get to that shelter of yours?" he asked, growling slightly.

"Don't worry, it's not much farther from here." he calmly replied.

After a few hours of navigating through the dense wetlands, Rachel noticed that night was beginning to approach. She was nearly exhausted at this point, since she was unable to rest for the entire time. "…Are we almost there?" she asked, wiping a bit of sweat off her forehead.

"Just a few more minutes and we'll be there." Mutare replied.

"It better be just a few more minutes…" she heard Leon respond in an annoyed tone. "We've been walking for hours it seems."

Soon enough, the three approached what seemed to be a small clearing, surrounded by the dense brush and random pools of water. Looking to the left of the clearing, Rachel noticed an immense tree trunk, which was much larger than the other trees she saw before. As she stopped and looked upwards, she noticed that a somewhat large hole seemed to be hollowed out of the tree trunk a distance away from the ground having one of the tree's thick branches directly below it.

"…So, I'm guessing your shelter is up there?" she asked, looking back over at Mutare.

"Yes, that is it." he replied as he stopped walking, placing his piece of metal down in front of him.

After Leon approached the tree and looked up as well, he laughed slightly and looked back at Mutare. "That is it? I kind of expected it to be more than just a hole in a tree."

"Hey, that hole took me hours to make." Mutare growled. "Just be glad that we don't have to make another one. Anyway, one of you should start collecting wood for a fire. The other should gather some edible food. As a warning, most of the plants here are toxic so whoever is looking for food should make sure it's some type of animal."

"I can go look for the food." Leon replied with a slight growl in his voice. "Only so I can be far away from you for at least a few minutes." He soon began to exit the clearing, disappearing into the dense brush of the wetlands.

Rachel sighed a bit, soon looking over at Mutare. "I'll go and look for some sticks… By the way, can you come with me? I really don't want to get lost again…"

"I guess I can do that." he replied in a seemingly annoyed tone. "I wasn't planning on doing anything anyway."

"…So you were just going to stay here and do nothing while me and Leon do all the work?" she asked, beginning to walk towards the brush as she noticed that Mutare began walking as well.

"Well while I have two enemies here who are forced to help me in order to get off this planet, I thought that I might as well let you two do the work for me." he said with a grin.

"That's not very nice…" she whispered to herself as she began to pick up anything that she thought she could use for the fire.

Soon enough, the skies were completely dark. The only thing that seemed to be lighting this obscure environment was the blazing flames from the newly created fire. Rachel was sitting down beside the fire, waiting for Leon to return from hunting. Mutare was doing the same, although to Rachel it seemed as if he was close to falling asleep.

"…Do you think we should go check on Leon?" Rachel asked, breaking the silence.

Mutare lazily looked over at Rachel. "He should probably be back soon. If he isn't, then we'll go look for him. Although I really wish he would come back soon with some food."

"Yeah, me too…" she sighed. "I'm just a little worried about him since he's been gone for so long…"

"Just try to focus off of it for now. It's not that difficult to do."

"Well it is for me…" she almost quietly replied, turning her gaze towards the flames. As she watched the seemingly hypnotic flickers of the scorching blaze, it seemed like only seconds before she heard what sounded like someone dragging something across the ground behind her. She quickly looked towards that direction, instantly noticing Leon dragging what seemed to be a medium-sized reptilian towards the fire. On closer inspection, she soon saw that the animal seemed to have a beak-like mouth, brown, scaly skin, and a few random feathers around its head and along its neck, as well as on the backs of its slender legs.

"What took you so long?" Mutare growled, looking up at Leon once he stopped by the fire.

Leon released the hind feet of the animal, soon looking down at Mutare. "Well first I had to find this creature and kill it." he replied, sounding irritated. "Then because of its weight I had to drag it all the way back here. It wasn't simple at all."

"Well you could have at least hurried up after noticing that night is here." Mutare sighed. "I already warned you about the predators that are here during the night, and both the fire and the smell of that animal will attract them directly here."

"Let's just stop arguing and eat quickly, okay?" Rachel interrupted, knowing that if they continued then predators would definitely find them.

Leon looked over at Rachel, seeming to be calming down. "…I guess we probably should." he replied, sitting down beside her.

After the three finally finished eating, Rachel leisurely stood up, however she froze after she heard a shrieking call from a creature in the distance. "…What was that?" she nervously asked, looking at Mutare.

"One of the predators." he growled, standing up. "We need to get into the shelter now before it gets here."

Rachel walked over to the tree quickly, soon looking up and grasping onto the trunk. She attempted to climb it, however it seemed to be impossible since her fingers simply slid off. "How are we supposed to get up here anyway?"

As she turned around, she noticed that Mutare had walked over to where she was, soon piercing his claws into the tree trunk and swiftly climbing up towards the shelter.

"Hey, what about us?" she asked as she watched him disappearing into the hole. Soon enough, she noticed what seemed to be a lengthy, metallic rope appearing in front of her.

"Use this to climb up." she heard Mutare say from above. Before grasping onto the rope, she heard the same eerie shriek in the distance, however it seemed much closer this time. She froze in fear after hearing this noise.

"Rachel, what are you doing?" she heard Leon shout behind her. "Get up there before the predators attack us!"

Rachel immediately snapped out of the strange trance she was in, quickly climbing up the tree and eventually safely reaching the hole, sitting down against one of the walls of the shelter and sighing deeply in relief. Seconds later, she moved over to the edge of the hole and peered downwards, only to see that Leon wasn't too far behind. She backed away and leaned up against the wall again once he safely reached the inside. She soon noticed that the rope that Mutare was holding quickly seemed to split up into tiny nanites, speedily returning beneath his armor.

"…So this is it?" Leon asked, gazing around the hole a bit before he sat down beside Rachel. "There is barely seems to be enough room for us all to sleep comfortably."

"Well I wasn't exactly expecting anyone to follow me on my way back." Mutare growled, leaning up against the opposite side of the shelter from Leon and Rachel. "Now, I'm going to attempt to sleep. I suggest you both do the same."

Rachel watched as he sluggishly lay down across the other side of the shelter, soon closing his malicious, glowing eyes in attempt to fall asleep. She soon lied down beside Leon, finding it difficult to get comfortable on the hard, wooden floor. She looked over at him, noticing that he seemed to be glaring at Mutare as he slept.

"Leon, are you gonna sleep?" she simply asked, attempting to get his focus off Mutare.

Leon's gaze slowly turned towards her as he carefully lied down behind her. He then moved his mouth to her ear and whispered. "Mutare will probably attack us once we fall asleep. I think we should just kill him to increase our chances of survival."

"…But he promised to help us." she whispered back, turning her head towards Leon. "Even though he's an enemy, I think he'll at least help us get off this planet."

"He wants me dead, Rachel." he said in a sterner tone, still attempting to be quiet enough for Mutare not to hear him speaking. "I don't understand at all why he agreed to help us. Besides, if I kill him now the Omegas will no longer have someone intelligent enough to reprogram lifeforms and develop new technologies for them. It would destroy the faction for good."

"Please, just don't worry about it…" she replied, remembering her deal with Mutare. She really didn't want to inform Leon about this, knowing he would most likely never forgive her for it.

"…Fine, but if one of us ends up getting killed or left behind, it will be your fault for not letting me kill him."

"I'm sorry Leon… I just think that some people can be given second chances. He may have done a lot of bad things in the past, but he offered to help us get off the planet…"

"I know that. I just don't believe it. Now, that's all I will discuss of it. I'm going to sleep now." Right after saying this, Rachel watched as he closed his eyes.

She sighed, attempting to get comfortable once again, knowing that she shouldn't bother Leon anymore. After she managed to get a bit more comfortable, she closed her eyes and slept.

Rachel was awoken with a jolt after hearing the loud, rustling sounds of movement in the tree branches. She quickly sat up and looked around, hearing the movement continuing to get closer. Upon awakening, she noticed that it seemed to be close to daytime since a bit of lighting filled the area. She noticed that Leon and Mutare didn't seem to be woken up by the strange noise, seeing them continuing to sleep. She was about to simply lie back down and ignore the noise, until her focus quickly turned to a loud thud on the tree limb in front of the hole. There, she saw a medium sized, greenish-brown colored reptilian, having a long, slender body and a large amount of thin webbing that connected its front legs to its sides. Its tail that was now coiled around the branch was nearly lengthier than the rest of it, having the same type of webbing around the sides of it as well. Four jet black colored talons on its back feet and three on the front pierced through the sides of the branch to keep it steady. Her gaze quickly turned toward its head, noticing its long, menacing jaws and its beady, amber eyes. The creature opened its sharp, toothy jaws widely and let out a high-pitched hiss, turning its head towards Rachel after it finished. She quickly moved back and drew out her blaster swiftly, aiming at it as it slowly began approaching.

"Leon, Mutare, wake up!" she shouted in panic, fearing that either she would be killed, or they would be eaten before they could even wake up.

Both of them instantly sat up, turning their focus towards the creature as it shrieked loudly at them. She watched as Leon drew out his blaster as well, instantly beginning to shoot at the beast's head. This, however, didn't seem to be damaging the thick organic armor that covered its face. It quickly shot forward into the hole as it shrieked, managing to bite the arm that Leon was using to shoot at it. Leon shouted out in pain as its fangs ripped through his flesh, dropping the blaster immediately.

"Leon!" she shouted, knowing that he was now in danger. She swiftly held her blaster up towards the reptilian's eye, but before she could shoot its snake-like tail brushed her aside and caused her to be tossed backwards onto the tree limb outside. Her blaster nearly slipped out of her hand, however she managed to grasp onto it tightly as she rapidly sat back up and moved back inside. She held her blaster up towards the creature once again as she watched the beast clawing and biting at Leon as he yelped in pain and did his best to keep the creature from killing him. Her finger slipped over the trigger and she repeatedly fired blasts at the reptile, watching as the blasts managed to pierce through the top of its neck. A loud shriek came from the beast as it stopped its assault and focused back on her. Right as it began to charge at her, she swiftly pulled the trigger a few more times in fear. Two of these blasts managed to hit the creature directly in its eye. It snarled in pain and reared up on its hind legs, pawing at its face with its claws as if it thought that something was now stuck in its eye. Seeing this as a chance to attack once again, Rachel fired a few more shots at the beast, noticing that the blasts sizzled through its soft chest. The reptile gave out one last shriek before its body went limp and collapsed to the ground below.

Rachel watched the creature's body for a few more seconds, soon distracted by the dog-like whimpering sounds coming from inside the shelter. She quickly moved back inside, kneeling down beside Leon. He was bleeding badly, and his injuries seemed severe enough to cause death in only a few minutes. Not knowing what to do, she swiftly looked over at where Mutare was, only to see that he was no longer sitting there. She looked towards the hole's exit, seeing that he was creeping away from them both.

"Mutare, you have to help him!" Rachel shouted, feeling tears beginning to form in her eyes. "He's dying and there is nothing I can do to help him!"

Mutare slowly turned back around, having a slight grin on his face. "Actually, I think I'd rather just let him die." he said, slowly approaching the two back inside the shelter. "Then I'll have one less enemy to worry about."

"Please, you can't just let him suffer like this! You can just use your nanites to help him out!"

"The only helping I would do for him is to end his suffering with death." he growled as he turned his gaze towards Leon's dying body. At this point, Leon seemed to be unconscious.

"…What about our deal?" Rachel shouted, feeling the tears running down her face. "If he dies, I'm never going to free Omega for you! He can just rot in prison for eternity!"

"I really don't care much about that." he said with a devious smirk, focusing his menacing eyes back on Rachel. "I can always get someone else to free him. I only agreed to not kill your little friend just to shut you up. And besides, I'm not killing him. I'm just letting him die."

"…Look I'll do anything else you want me to do! Anything! Just please don't let Leon die!"

"I will only accept one other thing from you." he replied, his smirk growing a bit. "You must join my faction and never even think of returning to that Alliance again. Sure, Leon won't die, but later on he might just have to kill you for being on my side…"

"...Okay I will!" she reluctantly replied. "Now please, save him!"

Mutare's grin soon faded, seeming as if he didn't think that she would accept his offer. He walked over to Leon and knelt down beside him, placing his clawed hand on Leon's head as he released billions of nanites onto him.

Soon enough, Rachel noticed that Leon's wounds rapidly began to fade. After Mutare withdrew his nanites from Leon and moved his hand away, she quickly bent down and wrapped her arms tightly around Leon. She felt his arms wrap around her back as well, now knowing that he seemed to be alright.

"Whenever you two are done with that, we should be continuing to the base." she heard Mutare say as he began to walk towards the exit yet again.

Rachel finally released her grip around Leon, simply smiling as she looked into his bright, emerald eyes. Leon smiled back at her, soon sitting up and preparing to leave the shelter.