Theta looked around the cold room, he longed to use magic to warm himself, but he was a little scared he'd be attacked if he breathed too loudly. Omega stared at him with a look mixed between derision and distaste. The blond boy and brown haired girl seemed the most calm. But the scariest one was the girl without magical powers, she was pretty tall, blonde, kind of pretty as well. But she looked at him with an expression so stony he felt like sinking within his chair.

"Ummm…" he tentatively let out, "When's Epsilon coming?" No one responded to him.

To each other though, they were communicating furiously.

"I don't get it, is this some sort of trap?"- Bart

"If it is we will overcome it."- Katya

"True… but he hasn't made any attempts to escape us, given his speed a year ago, it should be relatively easy. But he wants to talk to Faris, at least, that's what he's saying, and he has no magic wreathed around him. So… let's wait."

"The only reason he's not been beaten within an inch of his life is because Cynthia has chosen to hear him out." The teens turned to glance at Cynthia, who looked at the white haired boy with an impassive silence.

Eventually, Nya, Venka, and Faris entered.

"Epsilon!" Theta cried out in relief, "Help me please!"

Faris looked at Theta with incredulous eyes, "And what the hell do you want…"

"It's Eta and Beta! They're in trouble!"

Faris remembered Beta as Alpha's second in command, the blue eyed individual with great strength and a cautious demeanor. He also remembered Eta as the quick idiot Tartarus scared. "Oh, they're in trouble?!" Faris puts a finger to his lips. "I'm guessing… Beta was punished for the death of those Shade dogs. And, given Mandel's personality, whatever punishment he's experiencing or has been experiencing was horrible enough that at the very least, Eta tried to intervene. And now they're both experiencing an extremely awful situation."

"Yeah!" Theta nodded in excitement, then confusion, "How-"

"I killed the Shade dogs and encountered Alpha and Beta, Alpha was amongst the rebel forces, meaning Mandel has reason to partake in this battle, reason enough that just Alpha wasn't good enough, so he sent Gamma and Delta alongside Alpha. But if he wanted it done competently, it would be more efficient to replace one of them with Beta. This means Beta fell out his good graces." Faris frowned, "And for my next trick, watch me tell you to fuck off." He leaned in, "Fuck off Theta, I don't want to help your 'friends'. Your good doctor nearly killed my best friends, and Gamma killed one of my best friends, the only reason you aren't dead right now is because I know you're burning through magic just to keep sober from Mandel's control magic, and that you think I can save you from his magic."

"What?! But we're-"

"I'm not your family through experimentation, I'm not your friend either, and you don't have my pity, or my empathy." Theta looked mad, truly angry, his eyes began to glow. The teens, held their breath, prepared for any sign of trouble.

"Waaaaaa!" Their faces twisted in confusion as Theta burst into tears. "I'm sbooorrrryyyyy!"(I'm sorry) he wailed, tears and nostrils streaming fluids. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone! Almost none of us doooo!" He continued sobbing wildly. Faris, utterly startled, backed up a bit.

"Uh… I…"

"Faris!" Cynthia snapped, Faris turned to her. "You don't have to be that mean! He's just a kid!"

Faris looked at her incredulously, "Yeah!? A kid who could blow up this room if he was so inclined! And he's one of them! He's the same as Gamma! And Alpha!" The wailing increased in volume.

"I just wanna save my sister!" Theta cried.

"Fuck! Fine!" Faris scratched his head, "This is absolutely stupid, there's nothing saying that saving Beta and Theta will in any way endear them to us or vice versa, or that they won't just attack us after we've exhausted ourselves helping them. Not to mention! This requires something stupid like splitting us up, it's dumb, it's dangerous!"

"Then should we put it to a vote?" Cynthia asked evenly, "I hate Gamma too, but… I don't understand your malice towards Theta, they were our enemies, but that doesn't mean we can't lend a hand and maybe gain potential allies. The longer this battle takes, the more likely any one of us could die like…" She grew silent for a bit, Faris quieted, then scowled.

"Fine… then let's put it to a vote. All in favor of telling Theta to fuck off and continue with business as usual?" Faris was the only one to raise his hand.

Looks like you're alone on this one bud. Damien quipped within his mind.

Shut the fuck up. Faris retorted, he smoothed his face, calming himself and sighing. "Fuck, you know what, fine." He turned to Theta, "You're going to tell me everything you can, and we'll rescue your sisters and Beta, but I swear, if this is a trick, I'll kill every one of you!"

Theta nodded, tears still streaming down his eyes…

…

"So… do we have a chance of pulling this off?" Katya looked to Morgan, who was deep in thought.

"It doesn't look good, Faris is being a little weird."

"You're the weird ones." Faris muttered from behind a closed door.

"...Like I was saying," Morgan continued, "He's being a little weird, but he's right that we can't all go, we have to split up in a way conducive to our team's survival."

"So what's the plan?" Nya prompted.

"For the away team, we need someone strong enough to fight at least one enhanced child one on one, someone skilled in magic decoding, and maybe one good sensor. For the home team, we need to preserve our strength and defending ability, we have the advantage of being part of a siege, and the enhanced children we fought were also injured."

"Yeah, but we're also injured." Bartholomew stammered. "How do we not only defend against the enhanced children and an army with reduced members. That doesn't even mention the fact that we'll have to fight the enhanced children in their home base if we want to try and get to Doctor Mandel and fix them!" He shook his head.

"What, are you scared?" Seya asked, smirking.

"Of course I'm damn scared, look at yourself, you're literally barely keeping yourself together!" Bartholome scowls, "I'm out of high class golems! It doesn't matter if I have the mana, it takes days to prepare a high class golem like Crimson Tiger, Cobalt Valkyrie, and Verdant Dancer, and at least half a day to make a strong mud golem!"

"You've got that sword don't you?" Nya raised her left eyebrow.

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Bartholomew shouted, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I was manhandled, twice! And lost my best golems! I'm already fighting an uphill battle as it i-"

"You think they care?!" Nya interrupted, "Do you think they care whether or not you're strong enough? No they don't! They'll kill you if they get the chance, so you have to fight! Isn't that what you told me!?"

"I'm going to fight!" Bart shouted back, "If they attack I'm going to fight! But I'm not some moron who'll try to go against someone above my weight class if I can help it! Especially when I'm literally down to my last reserves of rock and clay snake golems!" The two began breaking into loud arguing.

"Stop fighting! Both of you!" Morgan shouted, causing them to quiet and glower at each other.

"..." Silence filled the room, until Venka murmured, "We're arguing over the enemy and letting them get to our teamwork, our friendship… do we even want to save Beta, Zeta, and Eta?" More awkward silence filled the room.

"I know I don't." Faris entered the room, holding a large iron tray, on the tray were several dozen tinctures in clear cups. "Anyways, drink this before you fight. I'm going with Theta alone." He raised a hand before his friends could protest. "You guys need to recuperate, I'm in the best shape relatively, both physically and emotionally."

"What? Don't be ridiculous! What can you do alone?!" Nya yelled.

"I'm stealthier for one." Faris smirked.

"Don't joke around like that." Katya continued, "We can't just leave you to-"

"Nah… please do, it's a little personal for me, besides, If this turns out to be a trap, I have a slightly better chance of escaping alone."

"Faris… no disrespect, but a year ago you were captured by Mandel and the enhanced children, and we nearly failed in rescuing you. Whilst your appearance shows that you've likely recovered magical power, maybe even the same, or more than you had before, how much stronger could you have gotten that you think you can fight alone, and even encounter a trap?"

"Well, I did say I don't want to lie to you guys…" He put the plate on a table next to him and sat down. "Take a seat guys, and be… very… very… very calm, please." They sat down, looking at him curiously. Faris closed his eyes, the tension in the air palpable, as he opened them he saw his friends visibly flinch as they saw his eyes. "I'm still me, don't worry, this is a side effect of Yana's attack, I don't know if you remember, but I was the knight apprentice after her. When she was released back into the custody of Ceunon officials, she escaped. And when she escaped, she cast a spell to crush my heart, the act of saving my life was the magical catalyst to help me get some of my strength back, various other things happened, but I'm still here." He reached out to his friends with his mind, they hesitantly reached out, and marvelled that his mind's sound was almost the same as when they remembered, back before Rembrant and the enhanced children.

"Okay… we'll trust you." Nya said.

"Thanks." Faris smiled.

"Um...so…" Venka began, "What are those potions?"

Faris smirked, "So… before I was taken to the capital with Venka, I was trained by Angela the Herbalist."

"NO WONDER!" Morgan shouted, "No wonder you're so good with magic!" He began hitting Faris with questions about Angela.

"Can you calm down?!" Katya muttered.

"Calm down?! I can't Calm down!" Morgan continued excitedly, "Angela THE Herbalist! Only like, a legend amongst magic users, you all know about how she's wanted because she's not a state mage! But she's never been captured! She's too strong! And she's human!"

"...Anyways, as you know, she's called Herbalist and Witch."

"Yeah… witches increase their magical ability temporarily by creating potions and tinxtures, imbuing minor spells to bolster their bodies, normally mages with lower magical ability will take classes on witchcraft and potion brewing, which surprised me since you never took it, but that makes sense now I guess."

Faris shook his head, "I attended a class to see if I could learn anything, their formulas were stupidly dated, and most don't work as well as they need to. So I never took it any heed, most students who can afford not too also avoid the class, as the minor increase in magical ability isn't worth the smell, taste, and potential side effects of the potions."

"Okay, so… you've made potions?" Katya asked skeptically.

"The key to the making of potions is magically treating the ingredients before, during, and after brewing, and of course choosing the right ingredients. He smiled, "Trade secret unfortunately, but yeah, take some for each of you, even if you Cynthia, for you and Manny and Vern. Whilst I don't know whether it will actually let you tap into a reserve of magic, it should at least help you feel and move better whilst you drink it." He watched as his friends took the potions and stored them in their packs.

"Don't you have some for yourself?" Venka asked.

"Course I do, but I won't need as many." Faris smiled, "But anyways, I will be doing this for another logical reason."

"And what would that be? Are you saying we're weak?"

"Nope, not at all, rather, it's been a year, do you remember my fighting style? I remember yours, but it's likely evolved since we last trained and fought together, so any awkward movements would lead to outright awful team work, which we can't afford. It would be better if we were all a team, because then I could try and meld my movements to yours as you use your normal formation, but it wouldn't be a normal formation if we had to split up."

Faris stood up, "Well… what's your decision."

"I'm still a little confused over your volunteering Faris." Morgan began, "You say you don't trust Theta even though he swore in the ancient language, but you're willing to risk your life?"

Faris shook his head, "Yeah, no, I don't trust him, but that doesn't mean I'll let you guys risk that danger, besides, I'd rather tell you 'I told you so after personally experiencing the trap, it'd be inappropriate to laugh at your face otherwise."

Bartholomew broke into a chuckle and even Seya gave off a light smile.

"Jokes aside," Katya began, "are you sure you want to do this?"

Faris smiled, and looked toward Venka, "Yeah, I'll be good."

"Fine…" Venka sighed, "I won't stop him if you guys won't."

"Okay, so…"

"I'm going to talk to Theta." Faris said….