"Wishing you a quick recovery, Cotton. I owe you all more than I can ever express. Please, be careful out there. And hopeful we'll meet again sometime?"

Knox's words conjured smiles from both the Umlaut's and the Timbercats.

"Anytime, sword dude. Just promise me you'll come back eventually. I wanna see if you got some really nice riffs in ya." Cotton replied, flinching through the bandaging being done on her scratches.

"I second. You wanna join us for a good pancake eating competition, join us down at our place! We'll be glad to let ya in." Molly Yarnchopper offered gleefully as she watched Yumyan wave his tribe over. "Happy travels."

Departing from Cactus Town and giving thanks to all of who helped and bled to help them, Knox, Lute, Kara and Piercer had all waved their goodbyes to the Umlaut Snäkes and the departing Timbercats as they made way out of the forest and back on track. Back on track to their waiting friends, and back on track to how it used to be.

Almost exactly how it all used to be.

Kara knew deep down it would never be that simple. It was going to take some time.

"Okay, so we fought a group of jerk-headed humans, nearly got eaten alive by ravenous plants, fought in a rock battle against the Umlaut Snäkes, fought alongside the Umlaut Snäkes and watched as Knox leaped off a freaking building and stabbed Nevarr through the mouth..." Lute continued listening off as they walked.

Kara blinked and looked at Knox.

"Seriously?"

"Well, I don't mean to brag but...yes, I totally did that."

Kara chuckled, kicking a nearby stick. "I missed a lot, clearly. Don't let me get kidnapped again, please."

"Don't get yourself kidnapped next time." Knox countered, pointing a playfully accusational finger at Kara, prompting her to raise her hands in defense.

"Fair enough."

"Shh...everybody stop talking." Piercer ordered out of the blue.

The whole group went silent, observing along with the Archerat as his famous ear twitching started off again. He looked towards the sky, squinting his eyes at the sun's ever-present position in the sky. Then his eyes widened.

"Everyone behind the car!" the Archerat demanded sharply in a quiet tone, pushing everyone behind nearby van as they wondered what possible threat lurked about.

"What's going on, Piercer?" Kara asked.

"Keep looking, if we don't come back with something...I don't even wanna go over the list of things Scarlemange could do to us. Let get flappin' faster!" a dreadfully familiar voice rang out faintly from above.

The sound of wings flapping against the wind carried on as Piercer gritted his teeth, his pupils shrinking. He balled his fists tightly, furling and unfurling them until he finally snapped out of his trance on the birds that glided further and further away.

Knox was the first to emerge from behind the vehicle, rubbing his face in irritation. "Those damn Humming Bombers just won't quit, will they?"

"Luckily, they're heading in the opposite direction. Let's just get to the loft you were talking about. I'm getting antsy leaving Amanda and Johnathan in all much suspense, and it's driving me crazy." Kara said in a long sigh.

Piercer was the last to leave from cover with Knox getting his attention to continue forward.

"Come on, pal."

Finally making it to the end of the thick forest of trees, their temporary place of hiding was revealed to them.

"This is it...finally." Knox said to Kara as they approached the two-story loft building. "We just have a few things we left. We get them, and we're on the way to our friends. Your sister."

The group stepped on the street and were just about to approach the building before Lute caught note of something off. Very off.

"That...definitely wasn't there before." Lute pointed out as the group noticed the black vehicle parked on the edge of the road beside the building.

Knox put a finger to his lips and withdrew his katana as he made his approach, finding the vehicle to be empty. The loft windows were all curtained up with no one able to peek inside. Definitely not how Knox, Lute and Piercer left it.

"Let's check the back and side windows...together. We're not splitting up. Not this time. Not even a little bit." Lute said as he and the rest carefully and quietly checked all around the building.

Every single window was curtained.

Knox and Lute had made sure to leave the back curtain slightly open so when they were gone, they could check inside for any unwanted thieves or unfriendly types. Everywhere they went they did this. It was an unspoken rule between them and Kara. And it was fully closed. They weren't mistaken.

"Someone or something is definitely in there. We have to-" Knox started before he was interrupted.

"Are you sure? We can just leave. Like right now. After everything, we're going to risk this?" Lute asked, gripping his machete in one hand tighter.

"No," Kara stepped up to the front door, leaning beside it with her buck knife ready. She very slowly tried turning the knob, finding it to fully rotate. "Door's unlocked. We're doin' this. It's been a long week and I'm itching for a fight. Call it my therapy."

Piercer met with Kara, bow and arrow at the ready. "Just say the word, Knox."

Knox looked to Lute who nodded his head in defeat. With a tired sigh, Knox balled his fist and raised it up, making eye contact with everyone before he motioned it downwards.

Kara swung the door open and left Piercer to aim his arrow inside as everyone readied for a fight.

A green, well-suited frog, small in stature, was seated on the sofa in the middle of the living room. Four similar frogs in similar attire were stationed nearby, leaning against the room walls.

Mod Frogs.

"Uh, I'd advise not to point that thing around at us like that." One of the Mod Frogs piped up.

Piercer threatened seriousness in the way he drew the bow's aim away from cycling at the four Mod Frogs and closer to Mrs. Sartori's chest.

"Easy, easy. Don't worry them, Jamack. I'm just here to talk." the Mod boss claimed, leaning back on the sofa. "So let's talk."

The four frogs that accompanied her flanked her beside the sofa as Lute lowered his machete. "Look, we don't want or need a blood bath, okay? This doesn't need to end with any with any of that." Lute said, looking to Knox who remained silent.

"This won't end with any blood, I assure you. That's why I'm inviting your friend to sit." Mrs. Satori pulled a hand out to Knox as if expecting to accept something in the palm of her hand. Please do give your name, human."

Knox stood in a silence that held an air of anger. "Yours first. Your trespassing on our turf. Only fair."

"Mrs. Satori." the Mod boss gave out in a heartbeat. She leaned her head to one side as if to say 'now yours'.

"Knox." The katana-wielding human was less than thrilled to put any positive energy into revealing it. He moved to the stool in front of the coffee table and found himself straight across from the boss.

"So, how do you like it here?" Sartori asked with a grin, correcting her glasses.

"You're gonna have to be more specific."

"On the surface. Out of the safety of your burrows? Must've been a long time surviving up in a place where you're kind isn't so fondly taken."

Knox exhaled a short breath of laughter. "No burrow is safe nowadays."

"In theory, yes..." Feigning deep thought, Mrs. Sartori looked towards the ceiling and rested a finger on her chin. "But there are some still out there, and they remained untouched. All over the world, I'm sure." Mrs. Sartori got up from the sofa, standing straight on her feet, which prompted Knox to do the same.

"So I assume you think we know burrow locations? Ha, believe it or not, we'd take any chance we could to find one and never come back up."

Mrs. Sartori laughed off the accusation. "No, no. Trust me, that's not it. But good to know regardless. We just wanted you to know that we know you were here. That's it. Some good sportsmanship for us to refrain capturing you all here, am I correct? Because we also know you have someplace else to be."

She waved her Mod Frogs to join her on the way past Knox and his group. Piercer's aim never left the Mod Boss as she and her posse made way through.

Near to the entrance, Sartori stopped and looked to Kara, dragging her sights down to the emerald necklace around her neck.

"Love the necklace, human. Do cherish it for whoever it truly belongs. It seems precious." Mrs. Sartori commented with a grin as she went past with her fellow Mods following close behind, weapons still at the ready.

And with the click of the front door closing, they were gone.

Piercer peered through the window curtains and watched as the black vehicle drove away down the road and out of sight.

"They're leaving." Piercer told them as he put his unfired bow back in it's quiver.

"Let's get going." Knox told them all as he re-sheathed the katana and rushed for the stairs to the second floor. "Lute, pack the leftover food. I'll go up stairs real quick and get some other supplies, but we gotta go. I didn't like the way 'Mrs. Sartori' said all that."

Having said goodbye to their relatively useful loft hideout, Knox and Co. hit the road on their bid to finally meet up with their long-awaiting friends. The day was hitting close to sunset, but the light still shined proudly for them.

Halfway on their journey, they passed by the Lubo's supermarket once more and were met with the same crater within the ground thanks to the Humming Bombers and their ridiculous means to blow everything up.

"Oh look, the place we almost died at." Kara commented. "Before all of the other times, I mean."

And then Blight Street Dr.

They were finally back.

The group rushed down the road and turned the into the forest to where the road ended.

They hurried through the trees and was finally met with the clearing that led to-

"What?" Knox managed to get out, stopping at the sight of their main hideout.

He refused to believe what he was seeing. Knox's knees grew weak at the sight of the old home.

The wooden building was burned from the inside out.

Kara and the rest were not far from behind. Lute stopped in his sprint, speechless at the sight of their old place of refuge. Kara and Piercer were the last. Kara immediately gripped her sister's necklace.

"No...no." she whispered out.

"No..." Kara repeated again, stepping up with a silent Knox as her mind grasped for straws at the different things that could have went down. The different possibilities overwhelmed her thinking.

Images of her sister and friend frantically filled her mind.

"Noooo!" Kara screamed out, collapsing onto her knees against grassy forest floor. She cupped her face with her hands, an uncontrollable sobbing taking over.

Piercer slowly walked up to her, eying the destroyed building as he did. The Archerat kneeled down and wrapped an arm around her shoulder,trying his best to console her.

He knew how she felt.

"I...I'm...it's going to be okay, Kara. It's going to be oka-"

Kara swiveled around and held Piercer close to her in a hug, crying mercilessly on his shoulder as he ran a gloved hand through her hair.

Knox was frozen in place at the sight of the scorched hideout they once called their home. The results of their late return never changed, no matter how much he wanted it too. It was all to unreal.

"I should've been...quicker. This is..." Knox started through the tears that began to finally form.

Knox let go on holding himself up through the anguish and fell to the ground. His hands met the grass, fingers digging into the earth and pulling the blades of green underneath them out of their place.

The force of the ungraceful fall sent his long-hidden necklace out from behind his shirt, the wolf tooth connected to it dangling out freely and in full presence to the weeping that commenced.

And although much more discreet, the internal rage that followed.