"I just don't know why he's still here."

"Heppik-"

"He is not one of us! We don't know what he's capable of! I find it very strange that he has everyone practically under his thumb!"

Heppik had found Kax by the Galra pod and chose that moment to finally talk about everything. The Galra didn't think waiting till night fall was the smartest to start complaining.

"Why don't you ask him directly?"

"He won't tell me the truth!"

"HEPPIK!" Kax finally became stern, "do not assume that those lies he tells are for you. If you wish to know the truth, then you must address the person directly. Complaining to me will not solve your problem nor will it put you at ease."

"I don't like him…"

"That is something you must work out for yourself."

()

Lance sighed. He'd tried to make his mothers picadillo…

At least it wasn't his sisters…

"Ish' I' SSSHHOO 'OOD!" Radik said with the spoon still in his mouth.

"Don't talk with your moth full," Lance chided, "and I'm glad it turned out."

"Your mom would make this?"

"Hers tasted very different…not sure I can even call this picadillo…"

Every bite, although tasty, was a reminder that it wasn't home. Lance didn't feel like he had the right to complain when these kids didn't even have a proper home, but it still stung.

"Why don't you just go back to your family and leave our alone then?" Heppik asked. Kax paused for only a split moment before sitting back and letting things play out.

"Because I'm needed here," Lance said licking his thumb and wiping a smudge off of Lu's chin.

"No, you're not."

"What did I do to piss you off?" Lance asked.

"You lied."

"what lie was that?"

Heppik bristled, "you said you didn't want your friends to come back because it was dangerous, but you want them to come back even though its dangerous!"

Lance almost laughed.

"That's what you're bothered by?!"

"All the other lies you tell as well when you say things are 'fine' and that everything will 'work out'. You don't even believe your own words! How is any of us supposed to trust you?! How is it that you were able to get everyone one else here to believe you?!"

"Sooo…" Lance looked around, "you all knew I was stretching the truth?"

"Lies are something we have learned to pick up on," Martle said scowling at Heppik, "before we were found by Kax it was necessary for survival. Those like Frea and Radik, who were found as babies, we teach them how in case we're ever seperated."

"That's good…" Lance mumbled, trying to think of the best way to explain himself.

"Never trust a liar," Heppik spat.

"Oh, shut up," Martle spat back, "you-"

"I'm sorry," Lance cut in, putting a hand on Martles shoulder, "the lies I tell are mostly me lying to me. I want to believe I don't want my friends to come because if I think about them never coming back because of something I did, then I'd be depressed all the time…I don't like feeling that way. I like to laugh and have fun with you guys. I want to help you guys in any way that I can. So I tell myself little lies to clear my head and help me focus on things outside of myself. I'm naturally selfish, so I need a little push now and then."

"Not lying now, are you happy?" Martle hissed at Heppik.

"How did you know that?" Heppik hissed back, "you abusing your ability?"

"This is where I'm stopping this," Kax said, "no one is abusing their ability, Heppik. They just chose to trust rather than be afraid. Fear may help you survive, but it won't make you allies."

And awkward and tense atmosphere permeated the cavern. All the kids were glaring at Heppik and he glared back in turn.

"….Happy New Cycle everybody," Lance said trying and failing to bring back the good feeling they'd all had at the beginning.

()

"Lance."

"Mm?"

"….are we not your family?"

Lance looked down at Radik as he tucked him in.

"What do you mean?"

"I thought that everyone who lived here was family…but then you talk about a different family. I thought you couldn't have two families."

Lances mind raced as he tried to come up with an answer to this. Radik was only a cycle older than Lu.

"Are you ok with a story instead of a song tonight?" Lance asked and Radik nodded his eyes never leaving his face.

"Ok," Lance cleared his throat, "so I'm going to tell you about when I was little…about your age. My mom was going back to school and was working a job. The schooling would help her get a higher paycheck where she worked. My dad was working two jobs and both of them would be gone the entire day. My sisters and brothers and I were still too young to be left alone for too long, so my granpap, my dad's father, came over from the old country to help watch us while my parents were busy. He stayed with us for a few years and then went back home. But he told me something when I got really angry with my dad. He'd come home and yelled at me because I'd gotten a bad report at school. School is not cheep where I'm from. And I yelled back and told him that he didn't have the right to be disappointed because granpap was more my dad than he was. Because granpap was home and helped me and I would talk to him, but for almost a year…over a cycle I'd not really talked with my dad.

"Anyway, granpap was furious. He sat me down, after a good swat to the backside, and told me that I was to never speak to my parents like that ever again. Still, I was angry and told him why. Granpap was from a small town on the coast of Ireland, and they're about as superstitious as you get in the modern age. As in the believe in things that aren't real. Fantasy over science, that sort of stuff. But Granpap didn't buy into it all; except for one thing. My Granpap believed in magic."

"But we're magic," Radik said, "we're real."

"Everyone says you're magic because you can do things they can't, but your abilities can be explained," Lance said chuckling, "the magic I'm talking about is the kind that can't be explained. The magic that happens 'just because'. My Granpap may have spit in the face of his pastor because of a changeling argument, but he also would be the first to tell you that magic was 'as real as his right eye'."

"Did he do magic?" Radiks eyes were huge.

"He told me that families were magical entities. You see, magic is neutral. Like your abilities. You can use them to help people and you can use them to hurt people, right?"

"Kax would explode if we hurt someone with them…"

"But it can be used that way," Lance nodded, "same with families. You have good families were the home is a sanctuary and a haven; a place you go at the end of the day and there's a good feeling there. Then there are families where the magic is being abused. Where the family and the home are more of a weight than a healing. And it can change either way. One day magic can be used for good and the next, for bad."

"Why would they use magic for bad?"

"Because not everyone has Kax to teach them right from wrong," Lance said, "sometimes people have to figure things out on their own and they don't do a very good job of it."

"K…but how does this answer my question?"

Lance laughed, "When you come back to the cave in the morning after filling the reservoir with water, do you feel good?"

Radik nodded, "I love it here and I always hurry so I can come back."

"well," Lance bent over and kissed his head, "so do I."