The drive home was a long one for Agent Twilight and Courage. The two hadn't spoken ever since leaving the headquarters for Westalian Intelligence. Aside from the passing glances, not a word was spoken. The gravity of the situation weighed heavily on them, threatening to suffocate them underneath the millstone. As for the computer, it sat in the backseat strapped to a seatbelt. Its keyboard was underneath the seat.

Courage rubbed his temples with frustration. The invitation was fake, which he already anticipated, but now he learned that the candy was a ticking time bomb. Hundreds could likely die if Jumping Jack was not stopped. It was too much for a little dog like him to deal with.

"And you are saying that these nanobots are lined with a casing that prevents them from being digested, computer?" Loid asked.

"That is correct, Mr. Loid," the computer remarked, "I appreciate how cognitive you are of the information, unlike the twit sitting next to you."

Courage turned around and gave the computer an annoyed look. Loid ignored the playful jab the device gave instead focusing on the road. "My daughter Anya will be finishing up at school soon. Do you mind if I drove there?"

Courage shook his head. The computer brought up images of Eden Academy. "Ah, so your daughter goes to this esteemed school?"

Loid nodded while not turning around. "Maybe since you will be visiting with us a bit you could help her with some of her homework."

"A tutor. Hm... sounds interesting."

The car turned to the direction of the academy. Courage sat there hardly moving still processing all the information he had been told. He drifted back to him eavesdropping on Jumping Jack and discovering the corpse of Madison. But his mind still lingered on that spider. That wretched arachnid with its sharp teeth and mandibles and inky-black wings. If not for luck being on his side... Courage shivered as he was unable to think about that thought.

Loid finally turned to look at Courage. His blue eyes still had their flair of intensity to them, but they also had glints of concern. He sighed. "I'm sorry, Courage."

Courage broke out of his mental rambling at the mention of his name. He gave the spy a confused stare.

"I am very grateful for you getting the evidence for what we are dealing with. I'm just happy that you were able to escape. I don't know what I would have done or said to your owners if you were killed on the account of me. You must really care for Muriel."

Courage nodded. Loid smiled as he turned his sight back to the road.

"Little dogs like you should not be bothered by the actions that humans cause. You should be happily living your life instead of being caught up in foreign affairs. I am sorry that I scared you about the enemy trying to start a war. I had no intention, but, as you can see, I for one am tired of war. Humans fight each other for such trivial reasons: land, power, glory."

Courage and the computer opted to quietly listen. Loid took a temporary pause from his rant to catch his breath before speaking again.

"Those Westalians have no idea what they are trying to accomplish. They had grown up with privilege and never had to face the hardship of war. To any who think war is something glorious and that you would die for your country...imagine this scenario. You are a child living with a loving, kindly mother, but then one day, you return home only to see that everything is gone. The house is in ruins and unrecognizable. But, worse of all... you find your mother. Your loving, kindly mother who could do no wrong, is lying on the ground. Imagine having a lot of friends, but they all die because some people thought it was for the best of their country. This is why I am doing everything I can: I don't want any child to suffer the pain that I had."

He took one gloved hand and pat Courage's head. "Sorry for getting heated like that. I'm not even sure you understood everything I was trying to say."


Courage nodded. The pink dog may not have gone through something that horrific, but he was all too familiar with losing loved ones. Not a day would go by without him recalling how his parents were stripped away from him by a mad veterinarian who wanted to create space dogs. As morbid as it was, at the least Loid knew what became of his mother. Courage was uncertain if his were still alive. It brought pangs to his gut knowing that, had things been different and he was stronger, his parents would still be here. It was an irrational bout of self-hatred, but the dog would still feel accountable.

"Eden's Academy is coming up, Mr. Loid," the computer announced.

"Thanks, computer. Just remember that when Anya comes in no talk about the nanobots."

"My lips are sealed, sir, on the account that I don't have a mouth."

After spending some time getting a hot shower to remove all the dried blood and possum fur off her body, Yor walked out of the bathroom and sighed. As she dried off, Muriel called her.

"You feel refreshed, dear?"

"Yes, Miss Muriel, thanks again for the permission to use your bathtub."

"No problem, dearie. Your clothes will be in the drying machine for a while. In the meantime, I had supplied you with some clothes. They are not really fashionable for someone as beautiful as you, but it's the best that I could manage."

Yor noticed the clothes Muriel set out for her folded in a chair. It was a plain white T-shirt and blue shorts. For whatever reason, the Thorn Princess had the urge to walk into someone and tell them to watch where they were going, but she shrugged. It would suffice.

After getting dressed, she heads to the kitchen and sees Muriel stirring a pot. "Sorry if the clothes are too tight on you, Yor."

Yor laughed awkwardly. The Scottish woman was correct that the clothes were too tight on her. Too tight as in the clothes accentuated her curves. At least it was just her and Muriel there or otherwise she'd feel embarrassed. "What are you making, Miss Muriel?"

"Vegetable soup," she replied, "I have some vegetables out that I am intending to use. Perhaps you can help me cut them?"

"C-cut them?" Yor asked. After all, she was very adept at cutting...up her targets to pieces and casting them into the sea. But cutting vegetables was entirely different. "I don't know if I'll do a good job."

Muriel smiled. "Don't worry; I'll show you the ropes."

First, Muriel had a fresh onion. "Careful with this, it makes you cry."

"What, is it alive?" Yor stared at the inanimate vegetable with some suspicion.

"Oh, you are funny, Miss Forger," Muriel remarked, "I mean cutting it causes your eyes to water up."

Yor nodded. "Oh, right, right."

Yor stared at the onion for a while unsure on where to start cutting. Muriel hummed a tune to herself while stirring. Sweat beat down from Yor's forehead with the pupils in her eyes dilating. How could something so easy as cutting up a vegetable be so tedious for the dreaded Thorn Princess? She stared at Muriel for a moment. Her back was turned. She sighed in relief. She formed her hands into fists and squeezed. "Miss Muriel had provided me with clothes and a bath, I have to do this for her."

The Thorn Princess grabbed the knife, raised it in the air...and brought it down hard on the onion.

WAM!

Muriel dropped the ladle in the pot. "Was that a tremor?"

She turned to look at Yor. "Miss Forger, are you okay?"

Yor stared back at her with her face flushed in red. Muriel looked down...and saw that the counter was sliced in half. Steam rose up from the rubble to indicate that the event was still fresh. Muriel bends down and pulls out half of the destroyed cutting board. Rummaging around, Muriel recognized the white bulb of the onion with the knife lodged in the middle of it. The tip of the knife also broke off. "Well, would you look at that."

Yor clasped her hands together and bowed. "I-I am so sorry, Miss Muriel, I tried to make up for me bothering you earlier, but I ended up making more trouble for you."

Yor looked at the ground. Tears began to welt in her red eyes. She was more than certain she had ruined her good standing with Muriel. If the woman did not want to see her again at the threat of further destruction, she understood. She felt something patting her crown. Looking back up, Muriel smiled down and pets her head. "Don't beat yourself up like that, Yor, accidents happen."

"Muriel?"

"You wanted to pay me back for earlier, and I do appreciate it, but I won't force you to if it means you'll be sad."

Tears dropped down on the floor in wet puddles. "How can I be like you, Muriel?"

"Excuse me?"

Yor reiterated herself. "I have tried being a good wife and mother, but I do not know what I am doing. I have no experience cooking and I am not as gentle and talented as you."

Muriel took a moment to process the information. "But, Miss Forger, you shouldn't try to be me."

Yor looked up perplexed. "I-I shouldn't?"

Muriel nodded. "From the short amount of time I have since coming to this beautiful country, I have seen that you care so much for your daughter. Your daughter looks up to you an awful lot, doesn't she?"

Yor nodded.

"And you have such a loving husband as well. He's been nothing but polite with me even when it comes to trying to get along with my husband. You are already a good mother; you just need to convince yourself that you are."

Yor looked at the Scottish woman intently. Muriel noticed this immediately. "What's wrong, dear?"

"Sorry. You just reminded me a lot of my mother."

"Oh, I feel honored that you feel that way," Muriel replied, "I am certain she was a loving mother to you?"

"She died a few years ago, leaving just me and my younger brother to fend for ourselves."

Muriel frowned. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry into your personal life like that. Should we maybe discuss something else?"

Yor shook her head. "No, that's okay. I just feel that it is a little silly to ask this."

"Ask what?"

Yor sucked in air and exhaled. "Is it okay..." she began trailing off and darting her eyes around. Muriel patiently waited for her response. "Is it okay that I call you Mom. Or at least a surrogate one."

The Thorn Princess resumed staring blankly at the ground. "Sorry if that was too weird."

Muriel smiled. "Sure, dearie, I like the sound of that."

Yor smiled slowly back. "Still, sorry about the counter."

Muriel, without saying a word, took another onion and placed it on the half of the cutting board. "To start with, just cut the ends off like this."

Yor quietly watched as Muriel began to chop and dice the onion. "Just watch me for a while, and I can teach you some tricks."


"Hey, Bond!"

The big, fluffy canine was the first thing that the young girl saw as she entered the living room. Bond, who had been sleeping by the couch, awoke and wagged his tail at its young master. Courage, the computer, and Loid also entered the apartment room when the big behemoth tackled Anya in a loving embrace and licked her. While putting his hat away on the rack, Loid noticed a pleasant fragrance dispensing through the room. Anya took notice of the smell as well. The two Forgers looked around for the source of the smell and traced it to the kitchen.

It was soup. Made by Yor herself? But she was bad at cooking. And yet, they see that she had a big bowl of the vegetable soup sloshing around waiting to be eaten. She turned to smile at the two. "Welcome home, guys."

"Yor, did you cook this?" Loid asked. He tried to avoid sounding shocked but his expression betrayed him.

"Miss Muriel helped teach me how to cook and there was so much left, she let me take some home."

"Makes sense."

Courage placed the computer in the living room on a table. Yor and Anya walked in seeing the contraption. "Oh, it's one of those screen things that Bondman uses," Anya remarked.

"A computer," Loid clarified, "but yes."

Yor tilted her head. "Why did you bring that in?"

Loid paused. "Oh, I was just taking some work from the office home."

"All the work is inside this thing?"

Courage and Loid looked at each other and nodded. After setting the device's instruments up, the computer began to run. "It is a pleasure meeting the wife and daughter of Mr. Loid."

Anya's green eyes twinkled. "It can talk?"

Yor's face went blank for a while. Without uttering a word, she takes her leave and exits the living room. They shared a curious expression not saying anything until Yor returned with a butcher's knife.

"Is that thing possessed!?"

Courage jumped in front of the computer screaming his head off while Anya stood horrified by the development of the misunderstanding. She tried stabbing at the computer, but Loid quickly shot his hand out taking her wrist in a grip. "No, no. Don't worry about it. The kind of computers that I work with can speak. They are interactive assistants."

Yor lowered the knife. "Interactive assistants?"

"Like if I give it a task it can do it."

Yor dropped the knife to the ground and exhaled in relief. "Oh, okay. That's good then."

Anya looked at the computer with amazement. "Can you give me information?"

"Well, what else would I be good for? Growing legs and taking tap dance lessons?"

"Then that means you can tell me all that you know about peanuts," Anya remarked.

"Look kid, I'm a computer with nearly total omniscience over every subject known to man, not a peanut farmer."

With that out of the way, Loid leaned down to Courage's level and whispered into his ears. "I'll be letting the computer stay here for a while. I don't want your owners finding out about the details of the mission."

Courage shook his head in understanding. Bond approached the smaller dog barking. Courage immediately puts his full attention on the larger canine. He still had the serious aura spilling from him. "Can the future be changed, Bond?"

From Loid and Anya's perspective, Courage was babbling at their dog whilst the latter barked back. It was always interesting to see two dogs having a conversation. You would forfeit anything in the world to learn their language. Courage rubbed his chin. There had to be a way to save Anya from falling from the high plane. From what he knew, the future was certainly not set in stone. Perhaps they could intervene in some fashion.

"And Muriel is alright I take it?" Loid asked.

"Yes, she is. She is a very sweet woman."

The family and Courage sat down to start eating. Anya started off small but went into consuming massive quantities of the food. "Slow down, Anya," Loid said, "have some manners."

"Sorry, Daddy, but this is just really good."

Yor started tearing up again. "Eh? Yor, what's wrong?" Loid noticed his fake wife crying.

She shook her head and wiped her tears. "I'm just happy that you all like my cooking."


After dinner, Loid and Courage waited for Yor and Anya to go to their rooms for the night. The secret agent typed on the computer's keyboard looking up information on Jumping Jack Deen's Candy Emporium. Unsurprisingly, there was scant much information on the candy factory aside from its opening hours and when the trucks would come in to distribute the sweets.

"From your searching inquiries, it would seem like they carry the candy out between 10 am and 7 pm," the computer explained. "It's odd how it seems like this factory practically just popped up overnight."

"Excellent work, computer," Loid replied. "What we should do is prevent one of the trucks from distributing the candy to stores."

Courage nodded. It seemed pretty obvious, but it did make the dog worrisome. But given Loid's status as the #1 spy for Westalian Intelligence, he was assured that Loid knew what he was doing.

"Oh, and I appreciate that you were looking over my daughter's homework, computer."

"The pleasure's all mine, Mr. Loid. I would admit that it was rather tedious to be trying to drill her on fractions. I'll be honest that she is fortunate that I was going easy on her because she is adorable."

"That is my daughter alright," Loid replied. "From the looks of it, at least she knew how to subtract. Even though that was not how you answer the question."

Courage saw that Bond was nestled in a ball of fur sleeping. He barked and growled at different intervals. He would wave his black paws as if running. Courage whimpered. He could only imagine that Bond was dreaming about what was to become of his young master.

"Anyway, Loid," the computer began, "since the enemy knows that you are Agent Twilight by apparently catching your face in a surveillance camera, are you fearful that they could probably do research and find out that you are residing here?"

"I hadn't neglected the idea that they could likely try to target my family. Is it too much to ask you for one more favor?"

"You can ask me anything, Mr. Loid."

"Is there any way that you could follow Anya to school tomorrow? Jumping Jack is planning to activate the nanobots in 2 days. I need to stop one of the trucks from taking the candy to the markets."

"Well...I can't promise that I will be providing the best disguise, but rest assured, I won't let anything happen to your daughter, Mr. Loid."

Loid smiled. "Thank you."

He turned his attention to Courage. "You'll accompany me won't you, Courage?"

Courage thought about it for a moment before nodding.