Location: Pale Palace Throne Room

"What do you mean you lost them!" The White Queen shouted at her security captain. She had woken up to reports of the cells the humans were being kept in having their bars bent and broken. There were entire details of guards turning up dead with their heads snapped off, and to top it all off, one of the windows in her palace was shattered.

"Well…. My Queen, their cells were… gulp empty, showing clear signs of damage… how were we supposed to know one of them could break metal bars?" The security captain said, fear clear in his voice.

The White Queen gave an exacerbated sigh "I could have sworn that new one was so well behaved… He was smarter then he looked, don't you think?

"W-what do you mean my Queen?"

"He flattered me with such convincing false obedience, why, I would say it was almost admirable. It is clear that this one's capabilities are greater than that of your average human barbarian. But that still does not excuse how you failed to notice his absence until morning!" The Queen said anger rekindling in her voice.

"My Queen, what could I have done, the human broke through solid steel bars-"

"Perhaps take notice when entire guard details just disappear from their posts?!" The Queen yelled. She was under risk of losing two perfectly good humans! All because some idiot security captain couldn't notice the practical trail of dead bodies that the escaped one left behind.

Was he just faking his competence all these years? Well, then again, there wasn't much to test his competence against, there hadn't been a break out before, nor a break in. She supposed that's what long lasting peace did to a military, it left them all green horns. Still, this spectacular display of incompetence had to be punished.

"Security captain, you are hereby relieved of duty, return your weapons and armor to the armories, and never step foot in my Palace again" The White Queen ordered.

"But my Queen I-"

"NOW!" she demanded, the now former security captain stepped back in fear, and ran out of the throne room, his career ruined.

The White Queen went back to her throne, and sat down, putting her claws on her temples. Why did such a simple thing have to be so difficult? Just watch the humans, make sure they don't escape, it's not like they are one of the most valuable resources a monarch could get their hands on.

The White Queen sighed, and straightened her posture. "No matter" She thought to herself, they would be back in her grasp soon enough, she just had to find them.

Location: Forests Outside of Whitenest

The regular was marching through the forest, Summer's sleeping form was in tow. He had already contacted the rest of the expeditionary team, they agreed to meet him at a rendezvous point and wait for him, then call the monarch to take them back to the Bunker. However he wasn't out of dodge yet, he was unarmed, and likely well within striking distance of Whitenest armed forces, including those human nobles.

He also had no food with him, however, the survival training he had received as part of the standard regular training course allowed him to be able to identify what plants were edible, and what were not. Strangely there didn't seem to be any animal life that he could recognize, despite the plant life being familiar.

Nothing about this made sense, but, well, nothing really did anymore now did it? Right now though he could not afford to dwell on the nonsensical nature the world had come to, and more as getting as far away from Whitenest as possible. So far he had encountered no bug soldier, and thankfully no human nobles.

As of right now, all he could use was his fists, which were quite deadly in their own right, but they still forced him to get in close to what would likely be a numerically superior foe. He also needed to watch Summer, he did not want to risk having her kidnapped when he was focused on a melee brawl with a group of bugs.

The regular looked at his HUD, 5:43 AM midwest time, so… that was 6:43 AM Virginia time. He had been walking for about six hours now. His genetic augmentations and powered exoskeleton made it all doable, even having gone a night without sleep. He would have more distance to travel if he wished to make it to the designated rendezvous point, but he could do it. This was far from the hardest march he has ever done, and he had Summer counting on him, duty calls.

Location: Dream Realm

Summer watched the various dream clouds float by as she sat on a 'metal' platform. It was quite peaceful, she spent time pointing out strange shaped clouds to herself. There of course was no one around to hear, which in itself was uncanny to her. Ever since the mean white bugs took her to that long time out room, she hadn't seen the rest of the tribe in the realm like she normally would. Probably due to her being too far away.

She was glad that mister saved her though, even if his soul was still messy. She really did not understand how any human lived with such messy souls. Don't they ever get tired of it? She knew she hated it when things were messey, the thought of her soul being that way made her shiver in discomfort.

She wondered how Mister wasn't tired, he hadn't gotten any sleep, and was walking for sooooo long. Didn't he know that it wasn't good to miss bedtime? That's what her mom and Corona told her, and they were never wrong.

Summer sighed, she missed Corona's lullabies, it always helped her rest, without them… there was just an empty hole where they were supposed to be. Would she ever see them again? Mister was nice and all, but he didn't know where they were, she didn't know where they were, and the Tribe didn't know where she was!

Mister said that he was heading towards a ron-day-voo point, which he said was an area where two things meet. Mister said that he had friends that he was going to meet with, and that they knew a way back to his home. Summer didn't want to go to Mister's home, she wanted mommy! But… she didn't know where mommy was, neither did Mister.

Summer curled into a ball, and put her face in the sleeve of her fluffy attire. What if she never saw them again? The thought caused her to tear up, making her sleeves a little damp, but quickly drying, this was the dream realm after all, things just worked differently here.

She lifted her head from her sleeves, tears still streaming down her face. She had to believe that she would see them again, that they would find her somehow. She knew they wouldn't forget her, they promised! They promis-

Suddenly a soft tendril came from behind her, and started to wipe the tears from her eyes. She knew that tendril! Summer whipped around to see Corona looking down at her, the white fluffy dream god showed care and concern in her glowing yellow eyes.

"I have been searching for you, Summer" Corona said, her wing tendrils embracing the little light.

Summer returned the embrace as best as she could, her face was pushed up against the dream god's fluff, as she cried tears of joy.

"We were so worried, Little Light, your parents searched everywhere for you, what happened?" Corona asked, rubbing Summer's back.

Summer managed to tear her face from Corona's fluff to look up at her.

"I-I was searching a c-cave, I th-thought it w-would be fun, but then mean b-bugs wearing white took me" Summer said crying.

"Whitenest..." Corona said with venom in her voice. So that stuck up wyrm calling herself the White Queen thought she could just kidnap her charges! She knew why, she was going to try and restructure her soul, make poor little Summer a new tool for her use. The soul in her may be diminished, but it was still there. The damned wyrm will answer for her crimes at a later date, now she needs to retrieve her lost charge.

"Are you still being held Little Light?" Corona asked.

"N-no, a kind mister saved me!" Summer said, childish glee seeping into her voice.

"He is super big and strong, he even bent metal with his bare hands!"

"He bent metal? With his bare hands?"

"Okay, okay he had gloves on, but still. He is also nice, but I wonder how he lives with such a messy soul, there is so much clutter"

"Hold on, he is an unbalanced one?" Corona asked, surprised.

"Yup, but he isn't violent at all! When he told me to keep my eyes closed so that their glow didn't give us away. I heard weird cracking sounds, which Mister said was him putting all the bad bugs to sleep. Isn't that so nice that he helped those bugs go to bed on time? Even though they took both of us, he still helped them sleep, like you do with your lullabies" Summer said with naivety befitting one as young as her.

Corona just looked at her wide eyed. This sweet innocent child did not know what happened at all. At least the unbalanced one saw the value of protecting childhood innocence, and luckily she didn't have to see that undoubtedly gruesome scene.

Sure… yes, he is quite the nice fellow"

"He said that he was going to meet up with friends of his, and go to their home" Summer said, sadness dripping back into her voice.

"But I don't want to go to their home, I want to go to the Tribe again"

"Don't worry, I know where you are now, we are coming to get you, just, hang tight, I would also like to meet your… friend, does he have a name?" Corona asked.

Summer's eyes widened "Oh no, I forgot to ask, I was just calling him Mister all this time"

Corona chuckled "Heh, oh Little Light… do you have any memories of this 'Mister' so that I may see him?"

"Oh yea!" Summer said, and a dream image of a tall black clad figure appeared, their physical features completely hidden by their uniform.

Corona looked at it intently, "I assume that this is 'Mister'?"

"Yea, I told you he was tall"

"I have never seen a uniform such as his, and you say he is an unbalanced one?" Corona asked.

"Yea, I could almost feel the nightmares scraping against the dreams"

"Hmm… he isn't one of those Entomologist savages, that symbol on his arm doesn't match theirs… and the uniform is clearly not of their make…"

"He's too nice to be an Entomologist, Rona" Summer said, referring to Corona's nickname.

"Hmm, ok, keep an eye on your friend, go with him for now, we will come and pick you up"

"Okay Rona, love you" Summer said.

"I love you too, little light"

Summer forced her glowing yellow eyes open, and yawned. The regular looked down at the little girl whom he was carrying.

"Sleep well?" The regular asked

"Mister, what's your name?" Summer asked

"Oh right, I never told you... well, its Eliat" He replied.

"Eliat... Eliat" Summer repeated twice, seemingly testing the name out.

"That's a pretty name," She said.

"Thanks…" Eliat said

"We are still rather far away from the rendezvous point, it will take us some hours to reach"

"That's okay… we'll make it there eventually" Summer said tiredly, still waking herself up.

Eventually… eventually she would see mom again.

Location: Appalachian Mountain Range, Former State of Virginia

The expedition team was hiking across the terrain to reach the agreed upon rendezvous point, they had been hiking for around an hour. Elijah was acting as a detector for any bugs, so far none yet. He had awoken from his therapy session oddly energized, he had been given a psionic probe for the Godseekers to more easily contact him before he awoke. Apparently they have a duel between a 'void god' and a 'mantis soul god of war'. They had told him that soul gods had the most variety amongst the gods. There being life gods, gods of knowledge, gods of war, gods of magic, etc.

On the other end, void gods had the least variety, literally just being gods of void, with no other defining characteristic, save their own personalities. They had informed him that void gods were the most powerful gods among the four 'godly elements' as they called them. Apparently it was all but guaranteed that the war god would lose, but apparently he still agreed, be that because of arrogance, or just wanting the thrill of a fight, even if impossible to win.

Elijah would be assisting the Godseekers in their attunement for that battle. The Godseekers taught him how to mask his 'soul's signature' as to hide his presence from the gods dueling, and the ones attending to watch. Apparently humans were sought after resources, and they would be able to notice my presence if it was not masked. From what he was told, this war god pissed off quite a few other gods, and the void god challenged him to a duel because of something involving the void god's children, and the other gods were looking forward to his getting beaten up.

He had to admit, he was a little nervous, he wasn't to speak, as the attendees would recognize his language as human tongue. He was to wear especially made white robes, and a golden mask that would let him fit into the crowd. Just to make absolutely sure however, he was going to use an old trick he learned. The trick was basically using his psionics to make him unnoticeable. As in, it would take quite a bit extra for others to even register his existence.

That trick was rather useful in his attempted escape of 492 those two centuries ago. He could be right next to a facility guard, and they wouldn't even notice him. Of course in the end, he failed to get out, but it was worth a shot. In retrospect it was stupid to think that they didn't place nullifiers were ever they could fit them, but at that point, he didn't have anything left to lose, so hey, maybe he would get lucky, unfortunately he didn't…

He remembered how Maxwell's lifeless body bled from the eyes in over exertion. He was a good friend, a good person as well… in the span of less than a minute he was nought but flesh.

No… no, now was not the time to be letting the past get to him. Maxwell was long since dead, letting that consume him wasn't going to bring him back. Maxwell wouldn't want to be the cause that, so he wouldn't let him be. For his sake, and that of his dead friends, he would live past 492. Or, at least he would try.

The expedition didn't notice Elijah's inner turmoil as they hiked through the mountains and hills. He was rather good at keeping it to himself.