Happy Moon Cake Day or Mid-Autumn Festival for us of Chinese descent! I love me some lotus paste double yolk moon cake. Mmmmm.

Guest 1: Six's sense of humor is as dry as the Mojave Desert, but he does have one. I have read Crystal Peak's stories. They are very insightful. I have read nearly every story on this site. There are some really good writers on this site. Too bad not many people care about this fandom or write for this.

Guest 2: When Holiday started bringing out textbooks and lecturing Rex, I was like whoa, she sounds like my mother.

Moongirl1155: There's actually a debate right now in my daughter's third grade class as to how much homework they should have. The teacher wants the class to read 40 minutes a day on top of vocabulary, math, writing, and science/social studies homework every night! I think that's too much. The general suggestion is the amount of homework be grade level multiplied by 10 minutes, so 30 minutes. Even I tell my students that if their homework takes longer than 6 minutes then stop. They don't know what they are doing and need to come with questions the next day. Rex, on the other hand, is being home schooled. So what he's essentially doing is classwork not homework. And I would imagine Holiday would drill him as hard as Six would in training him.

"Written in the Sand"

"Holiday, are you here?"

"Right here, Six. What happened after I left?"

"Rex learned that Zag-RS's voice is a copy of Rex and Caesar's mother."

"…Oh no, how is Rex taking it?"

"He seems… introspective."

"Poor kid. He can't even remember his mother's own voice. He must be devastated."

"Not half as devastated as learning that his brother created the very thing that tried to kill him… and you."

"… Yes… It must be hard."

"Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine. I'm worried about Rex."

"Me too, something's not adding up."

You feel it too, don't you?"

"That Caesar's not telling us everything? I believe I have said that from the beginning."

"Yes, and you were right, Six, to be concerned about Caesar."

"Do you think he wiped out Zag-RS's memory?"

"I… I… don't know. That's why I left to see if I can find any electronic clues left over from the wipe."

"And?"

"Whoever did the memory dump, knows their computer. There's nothing left for me to work with not even a proverbial fingerprint."

"You don't think Caesar did it to hide his involvement in the event?"

"Like I said Six, I don't know. I hope for Rex's sake it wasn't."

"We can't let our feelings cloud our judgment."

"Six, I want to give Caesar the benefit of the doubt. He doesn't seem properly concerned about Rex's well being sometimes… and there are other times when he's over-protective. He wasn't worried that Rex was lost, but he did help me find him in that sandstorm when he told me about the selenium…. I just don't know how to read it. Did you find out anything about him from your… associates?"

"Nothing we don't already know… except he likes fruit scented shampoos."

"Ooo…kay, that's … not… wow, I'm not sure what to say to that."

"Besides he's a wuss."

"Now Six, just because he likes those kinds of shampoos, it doesn't make him a wuss."

"I stand by my original assessment."

"Okay, this isn't getting us anywhere."

"Agreed. I say we dispose of Caesar and make it look like an accident."

"This is no time to be facetious, Six… Oh wait, you're not joking, are you?"

…

"No, Six. We can't kill him."

"…Fine."

"Besides, how does that saying go? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

"So you think Caesar is the enemy?"

"No, yes… oh, I'm not sure. I don't think he deliberately wants to hurt Rex. My gut tells me he does care about his brother."

"My gut tells me that he's hiding something."

"But that does not preclude what my gut says. They are not mutually exclusive things."

"Fair enough. But I'm going to have my eye on him."

"Like you weren't watching him before?"

"More closely now."

"I have been looking into some of Caesar's research. It's fascinating but disturbing in some cases."

"Like?"

"He's trying to find ways to control EVOs by remotely controlling their nanites."

"Like a toy car?"

"More like video game avatars."

"I see."

"He's very close to developing it."

"Why is that disturbing?"

"Well, in some ways it will rob the free-will of the EVO."

"Isn't that good?"

"Well, maybe for the out of control ones, but for EVOs like Rex?"

"I see."

"And even for the rampaging EVOs, I think there's a moral slippery slope there of taking away one's ability to choose."

"I say Caesar's more of a liability than an asset."

"But White doesn't agree, and he's the one whose opinion matters here."

"I know."

"I think we should stop worrying about Caesar. Whatever his secrets are it'll come out eventually. We need to make sure Rex is okay."

"What do you suggest?"

"We haven't been on an ice cream run in a while."

"That's when he was just a kid."

"He's still a kid. And there's no problem a double chocolate dipped cone can't solve."

"Fine, but we're taking your car. Last time, it took me a month to get that sticky spot out of the back seat."

"Deal. Go get Rex and I'll meet you in the hanger."

"20 minutes?"

"20 minutes."