Chapter Eleven: It's Official

The door opened and Sam entered the room with Abby behind him. He hadn't expected the sight that met him upon walking in. A gigantic hole was, once again, evident in the apartment wall. Kendra was picking herself off of the ground and the kids were sobbing in the other room. Not to mention three giant indents in the floor that looked almost like giant footprints and a fourth that looked like a giant blade had been stabbed through it.

"What in the name of Eywa happened?" he asked.

"Necromorph Tripod," X replied. Abby began shuddering at the sound of that name. Grover then caught sight of her behind Sam.

"Abby! Are you alright?" he said as he got up to kiss her. She smiled and hugged him.

"I'm fine, Grover!" she insisted as Grover surveyed her entire body looking for injuries.

"We have to look after her," Sam explained to the others. "She knows too much about things that nobody else should know, alright?"

The group concurred. However, their concurrence was shortly interrupted by Ezio and Chester's sobbing. Kendra, who had recovered by now, ran to their room in a hurry. They could hear her trying to hush up the kids.

"It's okay, it's okay. Shhh, shhh. X, I need some help!"

X ran off quickly to join Kendra. Abby was still holding onto Grover tightly. She leaned close to his ear and whispered.

"You're very brave, Grover…"

Grover laughed haughtily. "Nahhhh... I… wait, really?"

"You actually beat that thing. That's brave," Abby replied.

Grover began turning red. He laughed slightly. "Well… you know. It was nothing…"

Abby giggled in an unusually provocative way and kissed Grover passionately.

Sam groaned with irritation. "For the love of Eywa, get a room."

Grover looked at Sam then back at Abby with a smile. "…Okay." He lifted a laughing Abby up in his arms and carried her off toward his dorm. Sam rolled his eyes and walked toward the still prevalent hole in the wall, cringing as he thought about how much this would cost them. There was a flash of light behind him and he saw Milo standing behind Sam with a sniper rifle under his arm.

"Nice shot back there, Milo," Sam commented. "Of course, Abby thinks Grover shot the Tripod."

Milo laughed. "He couldn't have shot it to save his life."

Sam smirked. "It's funny because it's true."

X and Kendra joined them, now with Chester and Ezio in their respective arms.

"That was a close one back there," X said.

"Where do you suppose that thing came from?" Milo asked Sam.

"Well, there aren't many different places where it could have come from," Sam replied. "And if I'm right, we're going to have one hell of a crisis on our hands."

There was a moment of solemn silence between the Xilians, but it was short-lived, as the familiar sound of creaking bedsprings had begun emanating from Grover's dorm. X and Milo burst out laughing, as did Zan, who'd just returned to the apartment and likely had no idea what they were laughing at. Kendra and Sam just exchanged looks, and then rolled their eyes, sighing.

"HE IS ONE LUCKY SON OF A—" began X.

He was able to stop himself just as Kendra shot him a death glare. Her look was one that said "Didn't I tell you not to say that?"

"Ummm… bastard?"

The laughter soon resumed where they'd left off, while Sam muttered the word "Dumbasses…" to himself.