Author's Note: I'll admit, this is a weird chapter today. It needs to be in here for some very important, very specific plot reasons. Granted, I probably didn't need to rant about that book I was forced to read in 6th grade that was just some guy sulking in a ditch with a broken leg. I just did that for fun because no matter how many years it's been, I still hate that book.

For a long time, that was all I thought of when I thought about anthropology. So I was quite surprised when I started looking into what anthropology says actually happened with early humans! Did you know early humans had to fight off hawk attacks on a somewhat-routine basis to save their kids? I cannot express to you how much cooler that 6th grade book would have been if it had been about hawk attacks.

Seo has a very optimistic outlook on early humans. The reality was probably not this nice. Still, this is definitely how Seo would see it.

So enjoy the somewhat relaxed chapter. Next chapter we hit the ground running again.

After the last world, filled with smoke and fire and screaming and war, Seo and Yimi found the silence of this new world almost oppressive. Maybe even ominous.

"There isn't even the buzz of an insect," Yimi said, looking around herself. "And all the trees look so old." She looked back at Seo. "What happened, here?"

"A catastrophe bad enough for Stenman-Hoyer to archive this draft, then go back in time and rewrite it," Seo said, as she rushed around, trying to find what had happened to the metamorphic rock she'd used to get here. It was as if it didn't exist, in this world. "Sorry, Yimi. This isn't going to be pleasant."

Yimi sucked in a sharp breath. "I can handle it," she decided. "If it gives me the chance to release Abozalu and stop you from killing him — I can handle anything."

Seo stepped back, scratching her head, as she realized that rock formation definitely wasn't here. "Weird..." She spun around, grinning at Yimi. "Come on. We better find another deposit of the stuff."

Yimi followed her.

They half walked, half ran through the woods, the silence boring down on them as if it were a living thing trying to smother them. For a few brief moments, Yimi remembered what Seo had told her about how Stenman-Hoyer had force-evolved species, and she began to panic — thinking perhaps the silence really was a living thing, manufactured as some sort of predator, and that it had destroyed all her people!

Then she got a grip on herself, and realized that was silly. Silence couldn't actually kill people. That's ridiculous!

"Why are you bringing me with you?" Yimi asked Seo — just to break the silence, really, and help her nerves. "No, more than that — why do you keep saving my life?" She put a hand against her chest. "We aren't on the same side. We never have been. If I succeed, you fail."

Seo looked up, surprised. "You're my friend."

Yimi ruffled her feathers uncomfortably. That didn't make much more sense than any of the rest of it.

"No," Seo sighed. "I'm guessing they didn't let you have friends. That wasn't part of the deal." She tucked her thumbs into her pocket, eyes fixed ahead of them, a pensive frown on her face. "You know, Yimi, the sad thing is — I've seen evolution in action. This isn't it."

Yimi shook her head. "I don't understand."

"I mean that if you go back to the dawn of mankind," Seo said, trying to mime just how far back it was and realizing her arms didn't stretch that far, "way, way back before even the Slayer existed..." She ran forwards, her hand still outstretched — to better demonstrate. She waved at Yimi from a ways away. "All the way over here!"

Yimi waved back, uneasily.

"So if you go back all the way," Seo continued, as Yimi walked over, "you'd expect to find a sort of dog-eat-dog world. Right? Survival of the fittest! A bunch of hunter-gatherers, and if one gets too injured to walk, he gets cast out and fed to the wolves." She made a face. "Someone wrote a rubbish book about that, you know. A hundred a fifty pages of a man complaining about a broken leg. Now who'd want to read about that?"

"They should have just killed him," said Yimi. Then she hesitated, thinking of her lazy brother. "I mean..."

"But my point is, that's not what happened," Seo insisted. She grabbed Yimi by the shoulders. "Yimi, I was there. I saw it. The real early humans — they cared about each other. They found ways to defend the sick and the weak. They invented tools to help them transport the others. That's what evolution is. Not about 'my genes are superior to yours' — but about the community we build for each other that lets us all survive."

Yimi stared at her for a long, long moment, unable to speak.

Then, in a very small voice, "You have a really optimistic view of people."

"I like to think everyone should get the chance to prove themselves 'good'," Seo said, with a smile. She clasped her hands behind her back, giving a cheery skip. "Otherwise, the world would be a very depressing place. Oh, and I'd be dead. A lot."

"My people are not..." Yimi began. Then stopped herself.

"What? Not good? Sure they are!" Seo insisted. "Away from the influence of that war-TARDIS or whatever it is, they could be brilliant." She clapped her hands. "I mean, you sing to rocks to make them break apart! How neat is that? The best Jenny can do with her voice is break a glass or a sonic lock."

"Jenny?"

"My sister," Seo explained. "She's..." She stopped. Frowned. "Well, I'm not sure where she is, at the moment. Mutajar said she sent Jenny back to the Main Complex. For all I know, she's still there, snooping around and making mischief."

Yimi said nothing — thinking of her own brother. She never realized how much she'd miss him.

"You'll probably wind up meeting her by the end of all this," Seo said, with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Whenever things go pear-shaped and I don't know what to do — she always comes through for me. Best sister ever! Except when I want to punch her. Which is a lot. Don't tell her I said that."

Yimi still said nothing.

At the moment, she thought she might give anything for the chance to see Iporil again and tell him — she was sorry. For everything. He wasn't worthless, like she'd said.

Seo noticed Yimi's expression, and put a hand on her arm. "Hey."

Yimi looked up. Seo's face was like the gentle sun, peeking out from behind the clouds.

"It's going to be okay," Seo said. "You and me — we're going to make everything okay."