Mage looked down to Acronix laying on his bed, chest barely rising and falling. His mind failed to process what was there. The tribe leader was covered in bandages, all his armor removed to expose all the injuries he had. His chest was covered in so many bandages that there was hardly any skin shown, and one arm was in a cast while the other was covered in bruises. His left leg was in a cast and the right one covered in more bandages. One of Acronix''s eyes was covered in a patch to heal, and his hair looked matted to his head. His right wrist he normally summoned the Time Matrix on had been twisted so far backwards it was being held in place to heal.

"Who… did… this…?" Mage asked quietly, his words barely announcing to the air in front of him.

Two members of Acronix's squad sat in chairs opposite of Mage, neither willing to look at their Dragon Lord. Both of them had awoken long after Krux had left, and Acronix had already been like that. It'd taken them nearly three hours to drag him to the Time Tribe to get him treatment, and more hours just to disguise the state of the tribe's leader to prevent anything from leaking out. It'd then taken them nearly five hours just to get Acronix basic treatment, and the two were ashamed of themselves as intensely as Mage was horrified.

"Mage?" Harumi opened the door to the treatment room, Lloyd in tow. Monty was with them, with Lulloyd just behind. As the four entered the room, the sight was enough to make Harumi freeze up. Lloyd turned away, while Lulloyd pressed himself up against the wall. Monty's expression went unreadable. Each of them had read the report already from the squad, but seeing it in action was something else.

"Harumi…" Mage whispered, "Is… is he going to be..?"

Harumi walked up to Acronix's side, looking down at his broken body. Without medical equipment, he was being treated by time users, reversing his injuries as much as they could. The severity of them, however, made the process agonizingly slow, and dangerous as well. When she arrived at the bed, Mage reached out and tangled his fingers in the sleeve of Harumi's gi.

"H..Harumi…?" Mage whispered, tears starting to fall from his eyes, "Is… is he going to be… is he going to be okay?"

Lloyd stood beside Harumi, looking over the battered body. Both of them could feel the weight of how dangerous this was. Harumi, unable to answer Mage's question, remained silent.

"W...Why would someone do this to him?" Mage focused towards the beaten form in front of him, "He's a good person, he's… he doesn't deserve this…"

"Nobody does," Monty spoke up behind them, "Horrible things happen to good people all the time. Right now, I'm pretty sure that Krux wanted to send us a message with this."

The other two in the room flinched. All the way back to the Time Tribe, all Acronix had muttered as the name 'Krux' over and over again. While neither had seen the injury, it wasn't difficult to piece together who Acronix had to be talking about. Even more delirious ranting during his initial treatment had led to one of the Mind Tribe members looking into Acronix's memories and confirming that indeed, it had been the Krux this universe knew.

"A message by hurting someone?" Mage gulped, "I know that… I heard that while I was traveling, but I never had it happen to me."

"Well you should get used to it, Dragon Lord," Monty explained, leaning against the wall, "You're a symbol for the world. Anyone you care about is in danger. Thankfully right now, all your friends are powerful people. But if someone wants to hurt you, they'll do it through someone else. If you can't win a duel, kill their support. This sort of thing is going to get pretty common for you if you don't think about it."

Mage withdrew his hand from Harumi's sleeve and looked to Monty with a look of horror on his face. He took a step back from the bed, then looked over to Acronix. The longer he looked, the more he felt tears starting to well up in his eyes. Before Harumi could say anything, Mage gasped and closed his bleary eyes to open them silver. With the power of speed, he was gone from the room and off to somewhere to cry.

"Monty!" Lloyd stomped over towards the ghost, "What was that?! Why would you say that?!"

"Had to be said," Monty muttered to himself, "He's a kid with the power of a god. Wish I knew what that was like."

"You didn't have to say that right now!" Harumi protested, "He's a kid, Monty!"

"You both were kids when you had to step up and fight the Overlord," Monty pointed out, "He has to learn the lesson now that he has to be strong enough to protect people he cares about."

"You can't say that to him while his friend is… dying!" Lloyd found himself unable to say the word, "Just because you kicked it doesn't mean you get to-"

"Get to what?" Monty growled, "Get to tell him what might happen? Skylar just lost half her people. That entire settlement is gone and the Vermillion are organizing themselves. The guards that dragged Acronix here were both nearly cut apart by Krux too. This situation is getting dark, and fast. If he can't handle his friends getting hurt, he shouldn't go flaunting his power and calling him a Dragon Lord."

"...I'm going after him," Harumi stated firmly, "Someone here has to actually care about making a kid cry."

"Just be glad that he isn't actually dead yet," Monty said as Harumi left, "Otherwise we'd have to deal with another you on our hands."

Harumi froze in the hallway, gripping her fists and then opening them to charge Rhotatae discs. They crackled with that black emotion lightning -as she'd taken to calling it- pumped full of rage. After long, harsh deep breaths, she finally forced herself to put them away and make her way calmly after Mage. Lulloyd moved forward and stood directly in front of Monty.

"That, was too far, Monty," Lulloyd raised his arm, "Even if you think Mage should be, dealing with this, that doesn't give you the right to remind Harumi of that! You don't know what she went through."

"You're right, I don't," Monty growled, "Unlike him, I actually died."

"..." Lulloyd turned his head to the side, not wanting to argue further with Monty, "I'm… I'm going to get some guards, to watch over Acronix in case something happens. If Krux was willing to attack his own brother, they might try attacking him here too."

Monty waved his hand, "Fine. We need to talk to Skylar when she gets back from getting healed, so don't take too long."

"Alright," Lulloyd stepped out of Acronix's room and turned back to Lloyd, "Do… do you think, we can still win this?"

"I… I hope so," Lloyd inhaled, forcing himself to think, "We've come this far already. Acronix told me that he didn't want to fight Krux. Right now, it looks like they're escalating this situation faster than we were planning," Lloyd gave Acronix an angry glare, "Let's make sure this wasn't for nothing."

Lulloyd, feeling the anger from Lloyd, nodded, leaving the room to go and get more guards while Acronix lay, clinging to life, hurt by his own brother's hand.

It wasn't hard to track Mage to his room. Harumi had all but learned the layout of the Summit, especially after learning how simple the wheel-spoke design was. Mage had set up his room on the first floor after beginning his squad attacks so he could get moving quickly. The rest of his squad were dispersed into other rooms, likely having heard the news. As she approached his door, she found it slightly ajar. With a small inhale, she steadied herself and opened it.

"Mage?" Harumi asked curiously as she entered, "Are you in here?"

Mage was sitting on the room's bed, only a mattress there with the sheets torn off. He held a chunk of metal she didn't recognize. Mage's eyes turned gunmetal and tore a piece of metal off, then went navy and blew with the power of wind to send the metal across the floor. When it hit the opposite wall by the door frame, he would let his eyes go copper and raise the object up using gravity and hover it back towards him. Several of these metal shards were strewn across the room.

"Yeah," Mage stated lifelessly, "I'm just practicing my elements. My dad gave me this chunk of metal to help me with my 'precision' and 'dexterity,'" Mage made weak air quotes with his left hand, "I need to get better at using them all. I'm still bad at using more than one at once."

"I see that," Harumi noted the shards across the floor, "Is there a reason that you're doing that?"

"Because if I'm doing this, I don't have to think about the people that…" His voice cracked, lifting his head up slightly to show tear streaks on his face, "...that, will get hurt, because of me…"

Harumi's eyebrow twitched, "Do you mind if I come in?" She ignored the fact she'd already entered and gently crossed her arms over her hips, "I'd like to talk a bit about that."

"Mhm…" Mage mumbled out. Harumi took that as a yes and walked over to him. She gently moved his metal chunk and instead sat down beside him. She placed her change of clothes aside, and instead put her hands in her lap.

"I know what he said hurt, and it should. He wasn't trying to be nice. He's not entirely wrong," Harumi said simply, "But he's not entirely right, either. Sometimes people get hurt, yes, but that doesn't mean it's going to be because of you."

"How do you know that…?" Mage leaned his forehead down onto his knees, "Everyone is gonna get hurt around me…"

"I don't know why you'd think that," Harumi continued, "Did what happened to Acronix happen because of you?"

"It happened cause of all this fighting…" Mage muttered, "And I'm apart of it…"

"But you didn't cause any of this, did you?" Harumi pointed out, "And the Twins we're fighting, they probably don't even know you two were friends. Acronix got hurt fighting to help everyone, Mage, not just you. If he said he was going out to fight for you, then maybe Monty would have a point. But he didn't, did he?"

"But, he's hurt…" Mage gripped himself tight enough his fingers turned red, "What… what happens when… when Skylar gets hurt? Or… or dad, or the other leaders, my squad, or… or…?"

"When they get hurt, you make sure you deal with the person that hurt them, and you train everyone so they don't get hurt like that again," Harumi stated firmly, "You can't stop people from getting hurt, only stop them from getting hurt the same way. That's something you have to accept." Mage started to curl up again.

"But," Harumi continued, making Mage looked at her gently, "When you fight alongside allies, that's a risk you take. That doesn't mean you stop having allies, or even friends. Part of having friends is knowing that you'll be there for them. If you're afraid someone is going to get hurt, you be there for them. Everyone around you is strong, Mage. You're around leaders and powerful people. What happened to Acronix, we won't let it happen again. In fact, we're going to do everything we can now to make sure it doesn't. But you need to keep your head up for him. It won't do him any good to see you crying over him, will it?"

"N-No… he'd… probably tell me that the only time you can cry is when it's raining or something weird like that…" Mage slowly raised his head and looked to Harumi, "You… you're sure, they won't get, hurt like him?"

"Not again," Harumi smiled, reaching out with her hand to gently place it on Mage's shoulder, "You can count on me and all of us. We came here to save your world. That means the people in it, too. All of them."

Mage, starting to look better, turned his head away, "How… how can you smile, right now?"

"I've been through a lot of pain, just like this, Mage," Harumi explained, "And what I've found is that every group needs someone who keeps smiling. When things get bleak, they need someone to look up to. That's not normally my thing, but I smile because people like you need to see that. When people look up to you, a smile lets them know everything's alright."

"I… I want them to be able to look at me like that," Mage inhaled, "I want them to see me smiling and know that everything is alright."

"Then hold your head up, smile, and show them it's okay. When you need to cry, find people that you can let that smile down around," Harumi explained, "If you want to be a symbol like that, then be willing to smile, even through the toughest pain."

"I… you, you're really helpful…" Mage pointed out, gently stretching out and fully unwinding, "Do, you have friends too? I mean, outside of the ones here?"

"I have an entire team of friends, they're actually around the same size of the Summit here," Harumi chuckled, "I think you'd like them. Especially the Serpentine. I bet you've never even seen a snake-person before, have you?"

"You… have snake-people?" Mage asked curiously.

"Yep, I have two of them in my team," Harumi paused, "I'll tell you about it, but I want to get some food. Why not come with me so I can tell you about it?"

"Maybe later… right now, I know that, there's someone here that needs help," Mage looked up with a smile, "I'm going to go find Skylar. I think I'm better now. I wanna talk to her a little bit. If she lost all those people she… she needs someone to lean on."

"You don't have to go that far," Harumi explained, "You maybe do wanna talk to Skylar but, that's only if you're sure you're okay. It'd be bad if you broke down talking to her."

"I wasn't hurt… she was," Mage inhaled, "And that means that I need to be here, as her friend. As her best friend." He gripped his fist, "The only way, we'll get through this is if we're together, right? I can't go leaving her out, just because I'm a bit sad someone got hurt."

Harumi considered that perspective. On one hand, if it was being spoken by someone that was trying to push away their feelings, it was a dangerous sentiment that would lead to repression. Then again, that was her speaking more from experience. Mage was still a kid, and he likely wasn't thinking like that. He was pushing his worries aside to be there for a friend, that was it. So she just nodded her head, and as if that was the go ahead for him, he turned and darted out of the room.

"Now where is that ghost?" She growled as soon as she was sure Mage was out of earshot, "He needs to get a lesson in how to talk to kids, for… ugh, what did they say? Dragon's sake?" She paused, "...Why not? For dragon's sake!"

It was only a few steps outside the door that Harumi froze, seeing her least favorite spector standing in the hallway. He tapped his foot, as if he was some sort of impatient parent that'd been made to wait on a kid. Harumi, too stunned at seeing him so quickly, was racing for the right words to say, only for Monty to take that initiative.

"I came here cause Lulloyd and Lloyd forced me to," Monty groaned, "I don't think what I said was wrong. The first thing that people who build up the 'power of friendship' do is break down if a friend gets hurt. He's leading a secret mission to topple a group of invaders. It's not like this wasn't going to happen to someone at some point. He just got lucky until now. He basically went out on a job and made it all the way to the vault before triggering an alarm."

"Aren't you able to possess alarms?" Harumi scoffed, "I remember Uncle Cole saying that he could possess locks for awhile there."

"Cole's a third rate ghost, he's lucky if he even remembers that he can turn invisible," Monty snapped back, "And that's not the point. What I'm saying is if you were coming to get me and give me a peace of your mind, don't bother. I told him what he needed to hear. If you all think that was harsh, then fine. But he's clearly in a position now where getting to see people get hurt is going to happen. He fought in a war already."

"It doesn't matter if he fought in a war, he ended that war, and I'm getting the impression that he was more concerned with Skylar than he was anyone else," Harumi crossed her arms, "You're not going to apologize to him, then?"

"Nope," Monty stretched, "You got a problem with that?"

"No… I just thought Ronin liked kids," Harumi pointed out, "He seems like the guy that's good with them."

"Mage is old enough to fight in a war, no need to see him as a kid," Monty growled, "But… yes, Ronin does have a soft spot for kids. One kid managed to poison his drink at a restaurant we stopped at. He was so proud of the kid for making a poison he couldn't detect, he never even went after them."

"...That's, a little off putting," Harumi shook her head, "Well, Mage is going to talk to Skylar right now."

"Good, she was the one that suffered the most," Monty turned around and began walking towards the closest stairwell,"She got to see them up close. And apparently, she ran into someone named Machia."

"Machia?" Harumi blinked, "I've never heard of them. Was she a Vermillion?"

"Yeah, Lulloyd didn't see to know who she was, either," Monty shrugged, "Probably someone that is new to this place or Lloyd knows about. There are a lot of things about this attack that don't make a lot of sense, though."

"What do you mean?" Harumi moved to start climbing the stairs while Monty hovered beside her, "She intercepted Skylar, right?"

"Not that," Monty shook his head, "Firstly, Machia named herself and the Vermillion. There's no reason for her to do that. Even if she was being stuck up, it doesn't make sense. And there's the fact that she wasn't attacking a trade route. She was hitting an actual settlement of people. As in living, breathing people. I don't get why."

"Maybe the Twins feel they've been pushed enough, and this is them fighting back?" Harumi suggested, "This could just be them telling us that they're done staying in the shadows."

"Why now?" Monty asked, still ascending, "They have an advantage being in the dark. Even if it was just Machia doing, something, then it doesn't explain their actions."

"If this whole thing was to send us a message, then it's a clear one," Harumi shook her head, "They've figured out that we're specifically targeting them and we're not coming from one tribe. They could just be trying to scare us."

"Hrm…" Monty shook his head, "It's like they suddenly switched plans. They have to be operating on someone else's plans. You don't change tactics like this on a whim."

"And what are you basing that on?" Harumi asked as the two finally ascended the stairs, "You're not exactly a war veteran."

"I've worked multiple jobs with other groups," Monty turned to face forward, "When you have two minds in the same place, you get two plans. When one plan stops working, you switch to the other. It's the reason why the cops can't ever pin down what Ronin and I do since we change plans all the time. This looks to me like someone with them decided to change plans."

"Was it KRux?" Harumi blinked, "I mean, ugh, Krux', since we're talking about the one from this world."

"Bingo," Monty led the two to the war room, "Looks to me like the Twins are putting him out on the field. I'm pretty sure they broke him out in the first place and kept him on the bench until now. I've done that before with tagalongs. If he's out doing things, this is going to start going south."

"Once it gets out that Krux' is running around, we're in trouble," Harumi surmised.

"You were in that Time Tribe with me," Monty nodded, arriving at the door to the planning room, "If word gets out that Krux' is leading the Raiders now, then all those guys, Teran especially, will get driven out or worse. Then, without Acronix in the picture, the Time Tribe falls apart. And then that spreads panic through the world. Pretty simple domino effect, all things considered."

"So we need to nip this thing in the bud, and fast," Harumi affirmed, "Which means we need to get their attention and figure out where they're hiding."

"Well, the good news is I didn't come here just to chat," Monty stretched his back out, "There's been some other stuff. I came to get you so we can talk about it. Come on, let's get to the planning room."

Not after too long of walking, Harumi opened the door to the planning room. Inside was Garmadon, Shade, Nya, Lloyd, Lulloyd, and a few guards from the Shadow and Water Tribe. All of them were looking over the new reports that were coming in, and from the faces, it wasn't looking good. Monty walked over to his corner in the room and leaned back, leaving Harumi to take the lead again.

"Harumi," Lloyd started, "This is bad. More settlements were attacked and… it doesn't look like they're taking prisoners. We've taken in some refugees here in the Summit right now."

"More of them?" Harumi moved to the table, leaning over to quickly take stock of where all of the attacks were coming from. Little red marks had been put all over the world map, showing that in the last twenty four hours alone, there had been eight attacks, including the one in the Time Tribe and Metal Tribe. Just from that sight alone, Harumi was counting the potential dead in her head… and starting to balk at the idea of it.

"Your plan is backfiring," Shade spoke up with what sounded like barely contained anger, "The Raiders… Vermillion, I guess they're called now, they killed almost thirty of my people. They're not just attacking trade routes anymore. They've completely blocked off the path. They have these gigantic bikes that launch things at anyone that comes by. They won't move."

"Tanks," Lloyd explained, "The Vermillion back home had tanks as well as bikes. But they didn't have that many to just, throw around. Why are they making such an open move like this? Wouldn't they want to stay hidden?"

"I don't think they're going to keep staying hidden," Harumi pointed out, "I think they've changed their plan for simply scaring people away from villages to scaring people into their villages. Look… look at the map."

The group looked to the large map, and Harumi moved her hand across all of the borders, "All these settlements that were attacked, they're all on the outside of the territories. Most of the tribes are usually in the center or edge of their territory, right? These settlements are close to the edges. If, that's right then that means they're provoking us."

"..." Nya moved over and pointed her finger to a marker on her territory, "This is a small port we established along the river that connects to the trade routes. The Vermillion somehow managed to get over the walls we built there for when the floods came. It was like they were somehow… inside everything."

"That's the thing about them, they did that same trick to us," Lloyd cupped his hands together, "All they need is a suit of armor, a sword, and snakes. They can just launch cocoons filled with those over your walls, and then they break open the Vermillion form inside and then…" Lloyd mimicked breaking a cocoon open with his hands, "They ambush you."

"You said they weren't willing to show they were snakes," Shade pointed out, "Now you're saying they're willing to abuse that fact to attack us?"

"They're changing their plan," Harumi leaned over the table, "They're not trying to just, scare you now. They're trying to terrify you. They want to bring this situation to a boil. They're full out attacking now, just to show how easy it is for them. Whether or not someone sees them as snakes, how do you think a tale of a soldier saying they cut an enemy in half, only for them to get back up, would seem?"

"Like something that would kill the morale of those fighting," Garmadon groaned, rubbing his chin, "This is… troubling. I fear we may have kicked the nest. They were simply doing damage before, now they are taking lives. This situation is getting out of hand."

"Not yet," Harumi put her hand down, "Because they made a mistake by letting us know that they have a plan now. According to what Skylar reported Machia said-"

"Machia?" Lloyd stopped her, "Did you just say Machia?"

"Does that name mean anything to you?" Harumi asked.

"The Vermillion are a hive mind, and while the Twins were gathering power, they assigned three generals to command the hive mind for them," Lloyd explained, "Well, Machia was the worst one. She became Commander Machia by the time Kai and Nya went back in time to stop them… erm, my Kai and Nya," Lloyd smiled awkwardly at Nya.

"Don't stop just because you made an error," Nya narrowed her gaze, "Tell us more!"

"Right," Lloyd hurriedly continued, "Well, according to Kai, he saw the Twins break Machia apart into snakes and feed her into the Iron Doom. I'm assuming it was so they could use those helmets to control the Hive Mind directly. But, now that they plugged snakes into themselves, they don't need those helmets anymore."

"They did what?" Shade gripped the table, "Plugged… how?"

"You don't want to know, like we said, they're crazy," Lloyd shuddered at the memory of the sight, "If they let Machia out, I can say that she was the smartest one. We managed to steal two of the Time Blades, and Machia took them both back in one move. She's not one you want to deal with."

"So they've decided to let a commander begin to lead the army from the front, rather than the rear," Garmadon summarized, "What does that mean for us? How does that help?"

"It means that the Twins are taking a more active role on the battlefield," Harumi began, "And… that means that we need to be more active too. We need to find a way to meet them."

"Are you seeing what's happened when we've met them so far?" Shade stuck a finger to the red marker on his territory, "Are you telling us to throw lives away now?"

"No… but we'll make it look like we are," Lloyd spoke up, "We'll find out where they're operating from, by getting them to show their biggest weapon."

"...I'm not following," Harumi shook her head, "What are you talking about?"

"Okay, it's, there was this video game, Jay was playing," Lloyd explained, "Well, in the plot the bad guy sent forward a ton of his biggest guys to come after the player, and like, you did a bunch of action stuff, and then they used the guys to track where their orders were coming from, to figure out where the main bad guy actually was."

"You're… suggesting that we goad them into sending a big force at us so we can trace back where all their main force is, then?" Harumi asked skeptically.

"Yeah, exactly that," Lloyd pointed to the Metal Tribe, "They're not afraid to attack our squads. Skylar already… learned that. We'll pull back the squads, divide them up again, and then we'll march them out into the open. When the Vermillion attack, we'll drive them off and then have someone follow them when they retreat and go figure out where they're coming from."

"That would be a fine plan, if we hadn't already tried that," Shade growled, "Do you think that we haven't sent scouts to figure out where they were coming from? They disappear. They must disappear into snakes and then just pick up the armor after everything is over."

"Yes, but these Vermillion will be different," Harumi was starting to see the plan unfold in her head, "They're trying to march out and make big attacks, which mean they have to be operating from some sort of base. If they have time to put together tanks, they have to be storing them somewhere… even if we found one of the places that they're hiding, that's enough." Harumi looked up, "If we can lure them out and drive them back, we can finally get a chance to attack them directly!"

"...Let us assume we follow this plan," Garmadon began, "The squads alone are not strong enough to take on the Vermillion, as we have seen. What would give you the confidence to say that you for certain attack them in full?"

"We'll put more than Mage and Skylar in charge of the squads," Lloyd looked to Nya and Shade, "We'll recruit leaders to join all three of them."

Almost immediately, Lloyd could feel the confusion that came from Nya and Shade. Garmadon gave Lloyd a long look, almost as though he'd said something insane. Lloyd, unabated, shook his head and nodded to Harumi to take over. Harumi, seeing what was happening, picked up on it yet again and moved forward to look at the map. She pointed towards the Summit, and all the lines that led towards it.

"We need to give them something big enough to care about, but also strong enough to fight against," Harumi explained, "We won't take all the leaders. Just the leaders that have been attacked outright like this. So… let's see here," Harumi looked up, "You two, Karlof, Paleman, Griffin, Neuro and Bansha," Harumi looked up, "If we use only the leaders that have been attacked, this will look like we've broken up for revenge. If we do that, then we can easily make this look like we are just trying to swing wildly at them."

"So, you want us to pretend like we're marching troops down, out in the open, to openly attack them," Shade groaned, "If they were to figure out what we were doing, it would be all over. We wouldn't be able to follow them when they retreat."

"Only one of you will," Lloyd explained, "If all of you do, that's suspicious. But… Shade, you, Mage and Skylar can all use shadow to follow them, right?"

"Of course I can," Shade, to prove his point, suddenly melted into his own shadow on the floor before reforming as if from liquid, "We pride ourselves in our stealth in my tribe."

"Then that's what we do," Harumi looked down at the map, "We pick three territories, and have them march through. We need territories that will look feasible to be hiding the Vermillion in. Places that would fit within the criteria of being somewhere we'd logically go to look, but not obvious as to what we were doing."

"The Smoke Tribe," Nya pointed to the Smoke Tribe territory in the southeast of the World, "They've not been attacked in this way yet. It's close enough to the Time Tribe territory that it would make sense for us to look there. The entire region is filled with sinkholes as well. It would be a perfect place to hide."

"Nature Tribe," Shade pointed to a territory wedged between the Water and Ice Tribes, "That entire place is a mystery. It's right between an ocean and the ice fields of the Ice Tribe. It wouldn't be unreasonable for us to search there, given that they would have access to the main trade route from there. It's a mixture of forest and jungle, not someplace we'd expect them to be hiding."

"It'd make sense to investigate the Time Tribe as well, given that Krux is involved," Garmadon leaned over the map. Almost immediately, Harumi shook her head.

"Too obvious," Harumi waved her hand, "Both the Smoke and Nature Tribe are in the southern part of the world. We need this to look like a manhunt. We'd need somewhere that's wide open we can look. I'd say it's better to use the Metal Tribe, since that's where Skylar made personal contact with them."

"I can see the logic in that," Garmadon consented, "Fair enough then. Yet we are taking a big risk by doing this. If they were to find out what we are planning, it could all fall apart."

"It'll be fine," Lloyd stepped forward, "We need to make this look like a revenge plot, though. We need this to start as early as tomorrow, if we can. We'll still use the three squads, just augment them with leaders. That way we can make this look feasible. And we'll have them all actually go and search, to add the believability factor."

"It isn't unreasonable for the tribes to go hunting for the Vermillion," Harumi affirmed, "There's no reason for them to suspect we're doing something here. This is us striking back, and doing it quickly so it looks like we lost our heads. This will work."

"As long as I get another chance to go after Machia," Skylar, walking into the room with Mage in tow, stated loudly, "I'm game with anything you all come up with."

Harumi quickly looked over Mage. He didn't look worse for wear, and in fact looked more concerned for Skylar. It was easy to see Skylar had been crying, but that didn't jump out at first. She looked like she'd somehow pushed all of the sadness off, and right now was running on anger. She looked tense, her hair was a bit wild, and her eyes were filled with fire.

"We were just talking about this, Skylar," Garmadon began calmly, "We must strike at the Vermillion now, to hold an advantage. We will redistribute the squads and have some relevant members of the Summit go with you. The goal is to goad the enemy into attacking, then follow them discreetly when they retreat to find their base of operations. We'll use this chance of them thinking they've wounded us to launch a surprise attack."

"...Sounds reckless," Skylar thrust her fist into her palm, "I'm ready for it. When do I leave?"

"We need to gather the leaders first," Lloyd explained, "But we want you to leave asap. If we can move fast we can make this even more believable. We just need to find where the Vermillion are located, and then we can make a strike to finally put some pressure on them."

"Like I said, I'm ready," Skylar growled, "I need to pay Machia back for what she did to my squad… and Nubit."

"Calm down," Monty called out from the corner, "You'll get your chance. Right now let's talk some more logistics before we go charging straight in without a plan."

"I'll do whatever it takes to get me back out there," Skylar growled, "Whatever it takes."

Harumi noticed that Mage was standing behind her, nervously looking on to her. After a bit of watching his curios posture, Harumi gently stepped back from the table and towards him. Garmadon noticed the action, but remained silent. Harumi stood beside him, gently whispering down to him as the room began discussing the details with Skylar.

"Did your talk go well?" Harumi asked quietly.

"She… she was crying, really badly, then she just… just snapped up," Mage bit his lip, "And, just started to say she was getting revenge. I… tried to ask Alacr what was up, but he said he didn't know. I know Nubit's okay but, she might have some permanent damage and… that's not sitting well with Skylar."

"She's angry… it happens, Mage," Harumi mumbled, "Some people deal with this stuff by getting angry. You just, have to let her ride it out for right now."

"...I don't know…" Mage gulped, "She's… she's sounding like, she did when we first met."

Skylar was standing firm, not showing any of the sadness from earlier. She looked completely normal, sans for her red face and the anger filling her muscles. Harumi knew what this was. She'd gone through it herself, as one of the stages in her getting better. She knew that it wasn't a good thing, but she also knaw that trying to tell her anything would likely result in Skylar breaking down further into her own hatred. For now… Harumi knew that she needed to let this ride, or so she felt she should.

"Just, hold on for right now, and when you get the chance, just remind her that everything is okay, alright, Mage?" Harumi whispered, "She'll be okay, she's just… she saw something horrible, and she has to deal with it."

"Mhm… okay," Mage muttered, sounding unconvinced.

"Join us, son," Garmadon called out, making both Harumi and Mage snap to attention, "We have much to plan. But before we do, I have not asked since you haven't come to me… but, are you alright after what happened?"

"Yeah… yeah, I'm fine, Dad," Mage smiled to him, "Sorry I didn't go to you first."

"You know that if you need me, you may always come to me, right?" Garmadon reminded his son, "These are busy times, but you are still my son."

"I… I know, dad," Mage sighed slightly, "It's okay. I'm okay right now. Can… we talk after this, though?"

"Of course," Garmadon smiled in relief hearing that.

With his mind a bit clear, Mage forced himself to straighten up and join the table. Harumi did the same, stepping back into the fray of planning. The tables were starting to turn, and now, they were trying their best to keep it from flipping over. It was now a matter of whether or not they could turn it back before all their pieces were gone.

"Are you sure this… plan of yours, will work?" The elder voice asked, watching Krux as he padded along alongside the newly built tanks, "You are taking a grave risk with this."

"I have proven my loyalty to you by harming the one thing that would tie me to this world," Krux snapped back, "And in doing so, I have struck fear into this land, just as you intended. I am doing you the service that you asked of me. Is now the time to question my plan?"

The younger voice chuckled, "Is now the time to question your plan, brother?"

The elder voice scoffed and rolled his eyes. Krux made his way through the last of the tanks, fully inspecting them. He had relinquished his hold of the Time Blade from earlier, and instead traded it out for a simple sword. When he finished looking through the tanks, he looked to the massive rows of Vermillion in the room. So many were there, right at his temporary disposal. So many he could send out in the world, break up, and order as he needed.

"My plan will not change for now," Krux put his hands behind his back, "We have our spies in every tribe. When they retaliate, that's when we strike. We'll let them make the first move,, and after that?" Krux grinned, "I promise, you two will have exactly what you deserve right in the palm of your hands. Let's see what the tribes have to stand against us, shall we?"

"I really like him, brother!" The younger voice laughed, "It's like looking into a mirror with you!"

"You've made that joke before," The elder voice groaned, "But yes, indeed. We will be given what we deserve. We will rule this land, this world… this universe."

"By your command," Krux bowed, stepping backwards. As he did, the Vermillion began to stir. The sound was enough to drive out all other noises around them.

"Then by our command," The elder voice rumbled, "Proceed, Krux."