I can't even begin to describe how relieved I am to be home. It may have been barely a day since we went to Empire City, got ambushed and was nearly taken down before finding the opportunity to finally return home. I have to admit the whole thing completely took me off guard but at the very least, I am happy we're back and safe.

'But we almost weren't.'

… I mentally sigh at the thoughts. While yes we are safe, we very well could have not been. So close we could have been killed and the injuries… those injuries are not going to heal so easily. I absentmindedly scratch my gem that was cracked. My god it felt like my whole body was being slowly torn apart while I was awake. The times I tried to go to sleep were mostly from me passing out from the pain. Not to mention my powers and abilities. Using them at ease was out of the question and the moment when I saved that kid… god damn I felt like my whole body was going to rip right in half soon after. I know I passed out from the pain after that but the rest was all I needed to finally get the hell home, with my new companion no less.

Speaking of, it seems the others took to Ace really well. Well, the Gems are indifferent about it but are grateful for the canines actions, especially since I had passed out on the side of the road into a pole. Steven was especially ecstatic about having a new animal around us and was playing around with him for a bit until he figured something else needed to be done as soon as possible.

"Why did you agree to this?" Pearl asks Garnet.

"I lost a battle of will."

"Why exactly are we here again?" I ask. After Steven healed Lapis and I, we went back to our respective homes. I wanted to ask Lapis to come back to my place as a bit of overprotectiveness started to make itself known to me, but Peridot was pretty ecstatic and relieved to have her back so I kept my mouth shut. Still, we were happy nonetheless to be home and took the time to relax. At least I tried to but when the next day rolled around, Steven was pretty happy and excited for something for some reason but I missed the explanation at the beginning because as soon as I got to the beach house they were going into the temple so I tagged along. Now here we are in the burn room surrounded by all the bubbles of the captured corrupted Gems. I have to admit, I never came here before as it never occurred to me to actually look at it but wow is it something else. Not to mention looking at the number of Gems here, just goes to show just how many of these things the Crystal Gems were capturing long before I ever started. While we're here, I left Ace in Steven's house with Lion. They seem pretty alright with each other to be honest. Actually, at first they simply stared at each other for a good long until Lion decided to just lay down and rest, followed by Ace right next to him.

"Here it is!" Steven yells, breaking me from my thoughts and using his floating abilities, he grabs a bubble that seems vaguely familiar. "Gotcha!"

Pearl walks up and pears at the gem in question in his hands. "Is that…"

"It's Centipeetle." He answers. Now the memories kind of come back. I remember he had befriended a corrupted gem monster and tried to make it a friend to us all. He was starting to go somewhere with the creature until she got crushed and Steven needed to bubble her. Of course, at the time I was laid out in bed after I was nearly killed by Sugilite so I only met the gem briefly. "If I can help any of them, I want to help her first."

Amethyst summons her whip before reeling in another bubble but instead of a gem, this one is filled with a bag of Chaaaaps. "Don't forget these." She gives them to him, who gasps in joy at seeing the food item. 'Why are those here?'

"Chaaaaps! They're her favorite!." Steven happily states. 'Oh, that's why.'

"Hm, I wonder if they haven't gone stale in there?" I inquire. The bubbles seal in a gem and prevent them from forming but I'm not sure if it's an energy field thing or a totally sealed environment deal. 'I should experiment with this later on.'

"Okay. You guys ready?" He asks, which we nod. Me, Amethyst and Pearl get ready to attack with me grabbing onto both my pistols, which I got my second one back from Pearl once I regained consciousness. Steven pops the bubble and soon Centipeetle begins to regenerate into her form.

"Better make it quick Steven!" I quickly inform him as the corrupted gem begins to take on a more monstrous form, as per the usual with them.

"Yeah! Come on dude, do your thing!" Amethyst adds.

"Be careful!" And Pearl warns him. With the four of us ready to help, I don't think theirs anything that we need to worry about.

While regenerating, Steven licks his hand and puts it on Centipeetle's gem. The regeneration form seems to go still for a bit until the new form begins to resemble something closer to human. Soon the glowing stops and we finally get A semi-corrupt form for Centipeetle with humanoid arms and legs.

The Crystal Gems gasp at the new development while I let my arms drop and my guns hang by my sides. "Woah." I mutter in awe. It's not exactly a perfect change from the monstrous appearance but its still better than the straight up corrupted look.

"Is it working?"

Finally, Centipeetle turns around and notices the others us, allowing us to properly see her… beak… claw mouth… thing. "Skreeeeee!" '…Still… freaky.'

"It worked!" Seeing as how she no longer looks like she wants to outright eat us, kill us, r spew acid at us for that matter, I'd say this is somewhat in the right direction. Steven goes ahead and grabs the bubble of Chaaaaps.

"Uh, Steven?" Pearl asks as she sees him go over to the gem. I move subtly closer to be ready to help him just in case.

Centipeetle falls on the floor so Steven moves up to her.

"Centi, you're back!" He tries to greet her but he gets a harsh hiss in return. "Whoa! What's the matter? Don't you want some Chaaaps?" He tries to offer the food item but instead Centipeetle angrily squawks at him.

"I don't think that's working." I comment at the attitude from the semi-corrupted gem. She regards me a little as I speak and in fact lets out a pointed hiss. I don't aim fully at her, but my guns are just a flick away from hip firing at her, and this close would mean my aim doesn't have to be deadeye.

"Yeah I don't think she remembers them." Amethyst adds with a sigh.

"Forget the Chaaaaps." Steven goes ahead and pushes the Chaaaaps bubble back into the air. "You remember me, don't you?" He asks her but she doesn't look like she remembers him, if the small confused whine she gives is anything to contribute. "I have a bad feeling this didn't work how I wanted it to work." He sadly says.

I holster my right pistol and pat his shoulder. "Well, she definitely looks a lot better than before. That's gotta account for something." I try to comfort him. This is the most amount of progress we've made when it comes to the corruption so we shouldn't take it likely. He gets a small smile at my words but still looks down, then looks like he has a thought.

"Hmm, possibly not. Oh! Don't go closer!" Pearl begins to say but lightly shouts as Steven begins to move closer to the somewhat confused corrupted gem.

"Maybe she just needs a little extra love!" He tries to come up with a new plan to fix her. While she's still a little confused, Steven kisses Centipeetle's gem but instead of helping her, she begins to squawk in pain.

"Careful!" I quickly pull him back a little and be ready in case she lashes out. Thankfully, she doesn't and instead only seems to focus on covering her gem as she backs up.

"Uh, oops. Ehhehehe." My brother lets out a nervous chuckles at the small blunder.

"Hmm. This is the best we've ever seen it work." Garnet points out and I nod in agreement, my thinking just the same. The most progress we've gotten.

"But it didn't work." Pearl counters, no doubt we don't need progress but a solution to getting the corrupted gems back to the sapient and normal talking selves. "I guess it'll take more than a kiss to heal damage from the Diamonds." She finishes somberly.

"But why? My healing powers are back. I-I should be able to do this." Steven moans in slight confusion at the failure.

"It's alright Steven." Pearl moves closer and attempts to comfort him. "Remember, she's not cracked, she's corrupted, and that's something different, something nearly impossible to describe." She tries to explain to him.

"This has something to do beyond just pain or being broken. This is more… internalized… more like an affliction. A disease or possibly a sever mental disability if I'm going to compare it to human terms." I try to explain as well. Not all mental conditions are inherently dangerous or damning to the person but its still hard to come up with exactly what this in all honestly, which still annoys the hell out of me that I don't know.

"It's sort of like if MC Bear-Bear didn't tear the fabric of his arm, but the fabric of his mind." Garnet tries to also pitch in her own explanation as well.

"Sounds pretty explained to me!" While Amethyst agrees with no one in particular.

"Hmm." Steven isn't fully convinced and lets out a hum at the explanations.

"Steven, I'm impressed with your ability to bring the Centipeetle this far, but it's time to let her rest again." She sadly tells Steven before looking at the purple gem. "Amethyst…"

The purple gem needs no further explaining as she knows what Garnet is implying. I know what she means too but I'm kind of hoping no. "Uh, sure. I'll poof her." She says as she pulls out her whip.

"Ohhhh, aaaaaah." Meanwhile Centipeetle squawks at her reflection in one of the weird vein like things surrounding the room.

"But… She's not a monster anymore!" Steven tries to reason but its not that easy for the seasoned veterans.

"Here." Garnet grabs him and pulls his face against her body. "You don't have to watch."

"No, please!" He doesn't give up that easily and pushes himself off of her before running in front of Centipeetle. I hold my gun close just in case. "She can walk, and talk! Just like you guys!" He shouts at them and referring to the corrupted gem.

"Caaah?" She squawks again. I don't think she realizes exactly how much danger she's in of almost getting poofed.

"See? I helped her this much; maybe I can help her more. I have to try. I made a promise!" Steven almost begs at this point to everyone to not knock her out. I shrug, not really caring whether she stays or not as things could either go good or bad. "Pleeeeeeease?" And just like that he pulls out the big guns and gives them the wide innocent eyes with pouting lips. Garnet did say she lost a battle of wills to him.

His actions work though as the Crystal Gems let out sighs and seem to concede to him. "What are we going to do with her? Let her move in?" Pearl asks. That is kind of something we need to establish.

"Aw yeah! Corrupted roommate!" Amethyst is a little too enthusiastic about this as I make sure to holster my pistols securely.

"Oh Amethyst, be sensitive." Pearl scolds the short purple gem.

Steven lets out gasp like he has an idea or something like that. "She can even stay in my room!" He proposes.

"Ooooh, we're… really doing this?"

"I don't see why not." I answer Pearl as I stand next to her, looking at Steven as he looks relieved to be able to do something for his friend. "Who knows? The little guy might be able to surprise us." I pause and look up towards the dozens of bubbled gems in the room. "Lord knows we need a surprise to help them." I add. Pearl and Garnet look up at the bubbled gems before letting out somber looks. Those dormant corrupted gems were once their friends and allies. We need as much progress made on the cure as we can.

"She can stay un-bubbled." Garnet begins to tell Steven before looking at him seriously. "But you have to understand Steven, please, be careful." She warns him, which he nods. Above all, his safety is most important. Luckily, he nods at the warning, giving us a bit of relief, as well as the fact Centipeetle is no longer freaking out.


A couple hours passed as we led the gem back to the beach house. While Steven and Centipeetle were to try to be reacquainted again, the others were going to keep an eye on them out of sight, just to be sure he'll be alright.

While they were doing that, I quickly introduced Ace to my home more thoroughly so he knows what to expect. More so I made sure to show him my droids so he doesn't freak out at them. He growled a little at them at first but after taking his picture and labeling him as friendly, their docile states let him be alright with their presence. That was just about it with the short time I had so now I'm heading back to the beach house to see how Steven and Centipeetle are getting along. I decide to go from the outside rather than warp so as not to freak out the corrupted gem. Don't want her freaking out when Steven's trying so hard to make things right with her.

"Steven?" I ask lightly as I walk through the front door, taking care to not barge right in or make any loud noise.

"Over here!" He calls out and waves me over where he and Centi are sitting around his little table near his couch.

"Hey." I greet him as I walk up. He nods back to me as I sit down next to him. Centi barely looks at me because she seems to be focusing entirely on drawing from what it looks like. "What's going on?"

"Since Centi can't really talk like us, I decided to try a different way to get her to communicate with us." He explains, then grabs the box of crayons. "Art." He answers with stars in his eyes and holding the box close to him.

"Mm." Centi struggles a little to reach over to the box. Steven simply moves it closer while still staring at me so she can grab a green crayon.

"Drawing pictures… alright. I can see that working." While my knowledge of gem language is… confusing to tell the truth. I can read, write and tell what language the gems write in but the whole thing still feels weird at times. Besides Steven can't read the language and pictures are more straightforward. "What's she drawing now?"

"I don't know." He shrugs as we watch her work. Not long after he finishes saying that does she let out a murmur of completion. "What are you adding?" He asks her. Centipeetle reveals the paper to us to show a crude drawing of both her and Steven holding hands. 'Awww, that's nice.' "You remember we were buds!" He happily shouts at the drawing.

"Yeaahh!" Amazingly she's able to give us some form of legible word to hear, and is happy with what he says. We both smile at her.

"Do you remember anything from before y- I- I mean from long ago?" Steven asks her. Now that's something that we could have some more information on. The Pearl and Garnet may be veterans of the war itself but we could really use more information as to how things went down, especially how the corruption happened in the first place.

"Ohhhh, uhh ahh." Centi begins to think for a second before letting out a squawk and goes right back to drawing some more.

"Nice. She's giving us more to see." I comment as we both watch her.

"Yeeeah." She shows us the picture.

"It's you… in some kind of spaceship? Is that how you came to Earth?" He asks her. I look at the picture too but it's a ship like nothing I've ever seen before. Not like the hand one we saw Peridot arrive in and I can't tell if its similar to the one that she also took refuge in when she was fighting my friends while I was captured by the Iron Kings. Still, Centi continues drawing. "What are you drawing now?"

"She wasn't alone." I comment.

"They look kind of like you. Was that your crew?" He asks her.

"Awhk!" She gives a small squawk in approval.

"You were a captain?!" Steven gasps at the realization that the gem in front of us wasn't a simple grunt but instead had her own command. "That's so cool! I'm sorry, that's so cool, sir!" Steven salutes the earth way to Centipeetle but realizes that's not their salute. "Oh, yeah, you guys don't salute like that. You go like…" He trails off as he tries to do the Gem salute but his stubby wrists can't bend as much. "Mm. Ow, ow! Oh, this looked so easy when Peridot did it." He grumbles at his small failure.

"This is how you do it Steven." I go ahead and do the correct diamond salute that I remember seeing it being done before. Honestly, it feels really weird to do considering who it's in reference to and I don't ever wanna do it again.

"Yeeeaah!" Centi is happy about it though as she lets out a happy shrill when she sees me do it before doing it as well.

"Yeah! Like that that's it!" Steven says before I drop the salute. Centipeetle however continues to repeatedly do the Gem salute a couple times before she squawks and then continues drawing.

"It's you… saluting… You're saluting someone…" Steven voices aloud as she continues to draw out a story. A yellow-orangish gem commands her. "Your commander? She gave you an order… You and your crew... and your ship." She draws her ship and crew again, along with almost a dozen ships as well. "Woah, lots of ships. You flew through space. Towards Earth." The ships converge on earth before they land on the surface and start erecting large gem structures we've seen in the past. "You landed and started building stuff. But then…" It doesn't take a genius to find out what happened next. "The Gem war." Steven gets it as we see the drawings of running gems and small explosions. We see another picture of her and her crew running with the others from Homeworld. "You joined the fight…" It doesn't get better as she begins marking off groups of gems, indicating their apparent demise during the fight. "You and your crew kept going." She then rips the drawing of her away from her crew.

"She lost her crew." I mutter.

Steven nods in agreement. "You got separated, but you were still fighting. Then, new orders from your commander… to retreat." Her commander appears on a cliff and points for everyone to go. The next drawings are of her and everyone running. "Everyone's running, but from what? You don't know. Where's your crew? Where's your ship?! You stopped. You heard something. From the sky, a sound. A song? And then..." The realization is daunting as the bright light just may have been the last thing she saw… before everything went to…

She's sobbing. Tears fall from her gem eye and land on the white crayon colored paper. "Centi?" Steven asks but in her crying she accidentally breaks the crayon she's holding. I let out a sigh and run my hand through my hair. 'It sounds like she was Homeworld gem, and yet even though they're my enemies, I can't help but feel sorry for her. She lost everything.' "That light. Where did it come from?" My brothers question knocks me from my thoughts as this gets her to drawing some more. Image flash through my mind as the symbol she draws is all too familiar. "Damage from the Diamonds."

"So, that's what caused… it." I mutter, subtly referencing the corruption. I knew it was Homeworld that made the attack, but I wonder if it really was the Diamonds themselves that did it.

"Cah! Cah! Bleuh!"

"Whoa!" I instinctively backup while putting my arm over Steven as Centipeetle coughs and then spits out some acids onto the floor. Already, it begins burning through the wooden floor.

"Are you okay?!" Steven pushes my arm away and goes up to check on her. I'm tempted to pull my gun out but instead of looking like she wants to attack, she just looks to be in pain. I move in a little close as well. While she's writhing, Centipeetle falls onto the floor and she lets out a shriek as her left arm reverts to her corrupted form's arm.

"What the hell?"

"You're reverting." Steven makes the assumption. "Here, I'll heal you again!" He then licks his hand and touches the Centipeetle's gem. Unfortunately, this doesn't work as she still seems to stay corrupted, and it continues to progress. "Why isn't it working?!"

"Your healing can only do so much. I don't think you can overuse it on her too much." I try to explain but I'm still a little in the dark.

He looks at me in despair at how futile his efforts are now. "But then how can we help her!?" He loudly asks.

Before I can try to come up with an idea as for what to do, Centipeetle grabs the drawing of the Diamond symbol and shows it to us.

"The Diamonds? What do you mean?" I ask in confusion.

"We don't understand!" Steven is still hysterical about the slowly re-corrupting gem, hoping she can make things clearer. She then lets out another squawk in anger and runs up to the warp pad before she starts hitting it. She's trying to activate it. "It's not working 'cause your corrupted. Where do you want to go?" I look back over at the table before grabbing the drawings she made to hopefully give us an idea of what we need as I hand them to him. "The battlefield? Your ship?" He asks her as he flips through the drawings.

"Awhk!" The ship part gets a positive reaction from her.

"Is there something on the ship that can help you?" We don't really get an accurate reply as Centi screams and slams her fists on the warp pad, likely she wants to go now.

"She's not the patient type, bro. And she doesn't have much time." I comment as she still looks uneasy, more than likely more changing is going to happen.

"Just hold on. We'll get you there. C'mon Marcus!" He grabs my hand and pulls me onto the pad with Centi. I let out a breath of air at being literally pulled in, but might as well finish this and find out where we're going. Afterall, I can't let Steven go alone.


One warp trip later, we are now standing in front of a derelict Homeworld ship that is somewhat similar to the drawing she made for us. Of course, thousands of years of wear and tear with the elements changes the look of it a little. I still grab my pistols and do a quick look around to make sure theirs nothing here that's going to attack us.

As soon as she sees the ship though, Centipeetle sqwaks and starts running to it. "Hey!" I shout as she books it.

"Wait for Steven!" I follow them as Centi continues to let out shrieks and cries, almost like she's trying to call out to someone with the way how she's looking all around. Eventually, she doesn't run forever as she falls to the ground and her whole-body glows again.

"Oh man." I frown at the new body she takes.

"Oh no." He mutters as we go up to her, seeing her now almost completely corrupted form now. This form really does lend to her name as she really does look like a giant centipede, which doesn't do a whole lot to my discomfort to bugs but still. "Where are you trying to get to?!" He asks her as she lays on the ground from having just undergone the major change. She looks around a little from her mouth-eye now before she spots something on the ship. We watch as she runs forward and begins tearing off vines from the ship, soon revealing a door.

"Oh. You want in the door." He assumes and from her frantic tearing of the vines, it is what she wants. He looks at me, "Marcus?"

"On it." In one fell swoop, I pull out both my swords into my hands. With a running start, while Centi is focused on pulling the vines, I move quickly to her left before stepping on some rocks and launching myself along the ship above her.

*Shhhinnnng!*

My swords glide and cut through the vines and leave grooves in the metal where I cut. I land on the ground in a low crouch before my swords disappear. I turn back to them to see Centi looking at the cut vines, then me, before using her still human-like hand to open the door. Or she would if she didn't change one last time, fully turning her to her corrupted form and making her unable to use the palm scanner to open the door. She tries to use it repeatedly as she wails in frustration. Thankfully, Steven gets what she's doing and opens it for her easily enough.

"We're in!"

"Seriously? That easy! Wow Homeworld security measures suck."

"Not the time Marcus."

"Sorry."

"What now?" He asks her, even though I know we won't get a legible answer. We hear more scuttling and squawks but not from our corrupted friend. Looking up, we see two more corrupted gems like Centi. "Other Centipeetles?"

Our Centipeetle crawls up and towards the other Centipeetles before they all begin gladly squawking with each other. I can't help but smile at what this means. "Well, looks like we found her crew." I say as I pat my brothers shoulder. He too smiles at what this means.

"Hey now!"

"Gah!" I let out an uncharacteristically frightened yelp as Amethyst suddenly appears next to us.

"This is my style!" She ignores me and transforms into a centipeetle herself. "Cuuaaaaaghh Can I hang with you, dudes?"

"Amethyst, don't make fun!" Pearl calls out. We look to see her and Garnet walking in.

"I'm not! Ugh!" And just like that she shapeshifts back into herself.

"Its about time you three showed up." I mutter in slight irritation to them at them now showing up.

"You two looked like you were handling it." Garnet comments. Regardless, I'm still a little annoyed at their lack of help, but I shrug it off nonetheless. It is what it is and the very least Centi is back where she belongs.

"You guys were right after all. I couldn't help Centipeetle." Steven sadly tells the others. It wasn't the way how he wanted to help her, but he did help her in the end.

"You brought the Centipeetle back to her ship. You brought her back to her crew. They've been waiting here for her. They didn't want to leave her behind." Garnet tells him in a soft caring voice.

"Wait… how did you know any of that?" He asks them, since it sounds like they have a surprising amount of information on situation while not actually being there to listen to it all.

Garnet pulls out the papers Centi used back at the house. "She told us." Steven tries to grab the drawings before she hands them to him.

"Her drawings?"

"They've actually been watching us." I whisper to him, but he seems more focused on the paper.

"Her writing."

"It's actually decently legible!" Pearl comments.

"Considering she's been corrupted, I'd say that might be alright." I add. A quick look at the papers that they are indeed written in gem language. 'Huh, guess I missed these when Steven was trying to communicate with her.' If I had seen the writing earlier, I might have been able to translate what she was saying to make things easier to understand, but I think we managed well enough considering.

"Wow." He says in amazement. And suddenly Centi is right next to us. 'Wow she can be quiet.' Centi nudges Steven playfully in a loving manner, making him laugh. "You look so happy here."

She lets out a small squawk before she leans over and nudges me too, making me laugh as well as I gently rub her beak. "Haha, okay okay. Happy to help captain." I reply.

"Can we let the Centipeetles stay?" Steven asks the others. Since they are corrupted, the unofficial protocol has always been poofing the corrupted gems and bubbling them so they don't do any damage anywhere or to anyone. He pulls out the big guns and makes puppy dog eyes to get them to agree, just like he did before.

"You can put those puppy dog eyes away, Steven. This ship, it's their bubble now." Garnet tells him as we all look at the group of corrupted gems conversing with each other again, happy to be reunited.

We close the door with the group huddled together, leaving them to their own devices here and hopefully away from others. With this done, we begin to head back to home.

"Pearl! Pearl! Pearl!" Steven excitedly calls out the gems name as he runs up to her to get her attention. "Will you teach me to write in Gem?" He asks her.

"Oh, Steven, it's very complicated. And you won't have much use for it." She replies.

"Oh, c'mon. It'll be us just having a secret language to communicate with each other in. You already know it, don't you Marcus?" He suddenly asks me without us stopping.

"… Sort of. I can understand it well enough, but I wouldn't exactly rely on writing anytime soon." I say as I rub the back of my head. While new memories and powers have made themselves known to me in the past, the ability to understand gem language being one of them, I don't really have experience in writing it down so chances are my writing may look like chicken scratch, or worse than what Centi had used, provided the others critique me on the comparison.

"Oh, how about just a few things then, like, 'Hi. How are you? Where's the bathroom?'" He asks Pearl as he flips through the papers in his hand. His happy demeanor though plummets as he comes upon the last picture. A glance over his shoulder shows that he's looking at the Diamonds symbol. "And… 'I'm sorry.'" We delve into silence from then.

Before we go through the warp pad though, I stop in my tracks as I realize something. "Marcus, what's wrong?" Pearl asks as she notices me. When the others turn around to look, I am staring back at the derelict ship with the reunited crew inhabiting it.

The Homeworld crew of Gems.

"She's Homeworld." I mutter as I turn back to the others. A dark cross look is evident on my face as I tell them. "She… is a Homeworld captain during the war… and the Diamonds corrupted her. Just like with nearly every other gem on the planet." Slowly, I begin walking up to them, my gaze focused on the ground as the realization of how cold the Diamonds really are. "They didn't care… they didn't care about the possibility of friendly fire." By this point, I'm in my own world as I walk past them, muttering still. "They couldn't just leave when they failed… just… one… final attack… no matter the consequences."


The mood of the group was certainly down as we made it back home. As soon as we made it to the beach house, Ace joined me on the pad as we transported back to my house. He's going to have to get used to the travel hopefully soon. Poor boy looked out of it when we appeared back.

"C'mon boy. I got you." I say as I carry him into my house. I haven't really had time to add as much essentials for a dog living here. Still I carry him over to the couch and lay him down carefully on it. "There you go." When I lay him down, he lets out a small content whine and gets comfortable.

For some reason, I spend a little bit of time just staring at him as he lays there. My mind starts to go through different thoughts. 'So… much. So much has happened. For so long its been… a lot.' I let out a deep sigh and sit down on the opposite end of the couch from Ace before letting my head fall back. I close my eyes and resume my thoughts. 'The… cluster… my mom, the rubies, that… thing inside me, Homeworlds forces and their attempts and… then… humans.' My eyelids clench tighter and my fists tighten up. 'Humans… those assholes that came to the alley… the Iron Kings. I tried to compromise and make it so organization wouldn't go after me. I know about them, and they know about me and mine… and they still attacked! They came to a public place and they attacked my family! I swear I'm goi-!' Suddenly, something moves on my lap, snapping me from thoughts. Looking down, Ace has moved himself over and laid his head down on my lap.

I stare at him as he simply lays there, his gentle slow breathing showing his state of sleep. A genuine smile forms on my lips at my new companion. I gently pat and stroke his head as I start to feel tired myself. 'Tired… so tired… of everything…' My head lulls back against the back as I think on options on what to do.

I'm fed up and tired of fighting all the time. I just want to live with those I care about in peace.

Eventually, one idea that may, or may not work. But at this point… I don't care. I'm not angry… I'm just… done. I'll… do it. It may not work but…

"Haaaaaaa." But for now, I let out one final sigh before I drift off to sleep.


Alright, not much to say about this one. Marcus is starting to realize some things and he's going to need to do something that'll hopefully put an end to the fighting on the homefront he's got going on. Whether it'll actually work or not, we'll see.

Things have been somewhat interesting and a little hectic these last few weeks to over a month. For one thing, I've been playing the hell out of For Honor when they released the new Wu Lin heroes so that took up my time a bit. I have to admit I was a little surprised but my mains for the new faction are the Nuxia and the Jiang Jun. A little surprised with the Heavy to be honest I don't really have any in my arsenal so its nice to finally use a heavy hero I like. His versatility and just wide angles of attacks just make playing group games a bit more interesting and fun. However something else out of my control came up and I'm not sure if many of you noticed.

Apparently, an infection/hacker/virus cropped up here on for a bit that just about screwed up with a lot of peoples accounts. Apparently, using a Javascript you simply had to mouse over another persons infected bio and if your logged on, your account would be infected as well, completely changing your bio to something else before it also changed the associated backup email address you'd have and it would be a simple matter for the hacker to request a new password change and they'd know it but not you for your account. That's basically what I got from the posts on Reddit about the situation. Some updates happened a week or two back that said the situation has been resolved and we don't have to worry about it anymore. Still, the whole thing was a bit worrisome and lessened my writing a bit until the whole situation was resolved.

While the situation has been resolved, I want to go ahead and remind everyone that I DO have other accounts on other fanfiction sites and in time I will upload what I have here on this site to those places. However that doesn't mean I'm going to just jump ship from just yet. I have the accounts on Quotev, FictionPad, and Ao3 (Archive Of Our Own) as precaution should things suddenly take a turn for the worst here and I'm unable to write out a warning or notice to everyone. Until a time like that hopefully never comes, lets hope for the best.

Although that may not be because as I was trying to upload this chapter, Fanfiction had a connection issue or whatever that prevented me from uploading at my usual time of day. Fanfiction really starting to push these issues. Though, to be fair it only lasted a few hours of the day so it was mostly just poor timing so I'll give it that.

MADMatt6: Yeah, I'm glad to have finished it as well. Right now, Marcus assumes it's the Iron Kings again without any concrete proof, but he's had a lot to deal with that he just doesn't care. What he'll do next to them will determine whether they'll continue to be nuisance, or finally stop.

Grimlock987: Probably. He's fine with most anime.

ChimaTigon: Thanks.

NJred2000: With the way the story is progressing, that's a high definition along with Steven. As for Marcus and Connie possibly fusing, that's up in the air, just like fusing with the others but either way, it would be awesome nonetheless.

Another thing that has also caught my attention was Red Dead Redemption 2. I really shouldn't be surprised that at least some of you have already played it and it is definitely a fun game for sure. Been playing the hell out of it and it is super fun. Some bugs, as usual with any massively big game, here and there but overall its pretty nice and fun to play.

Anyway, while some games have diverted my attention a lot, the whole hacker virus fiasco being done with, hopefully, has been a massive relief now that I don't have to worry about simply browsing people's profiles and I get infected.

Remember everyone, Quotev, Fictionpad, and Ao3 (Archive Of Our Own) I have accounts under the same name Vendicor so if something happens here to Fanfiction, you can find me there.

Just so you all know, I'm still going to do some of the episodes that came before Monster Reunion, just did a little rearranging with the order of the episodes but I don't think it'll do too much harm.

Another quick thing I feel I should mention everyone, I heard about this massive fire that swept through and devasted thousands of acres up in California. My heart goes out to everyone there effected by this, from those that lost their lives and those that lost their homes. Some towns I heard also got hit hard by the fire so if anyone of my followers or guests that are reading this was hit by the fire in some way, good luck everyone and hope the relief efforts ease up on the pain people feel.

Thank you everyone for your patience and your support. I can't thank you all enough. Go ahead and fave, follow, review, whatever you want to do, but make sure most of all everyone to have fun reading, go in good health, and have a great day.