Now Dudley was feeling like he had to make a huge decision. With Jack in his corner, Zero was sure to have the tide turn in his favor. Then again, ULTRA had held it's own and a handful of cities were still out of Zero's hold. For now anyway. He didn't have to wait for long cause Jeremiah had come back after his break.

"Well, I see you followed orders for once.", Jeremiah told him, "There may be hope for you yet."

Dudley felt like he shouldn't tell Jeremiah about his encounter with Zero. It might cause Jeremiah to be less trusting. So after getting back on their vehicles, they headed back to HQ. Once landing in the hanger, Dudley's car was lifted by one of the cranes and placed in one of the parking slots by the wall. Jeremiah's cycle was shifted back into it's cube form and placed in Jeremiah's belt as usual. On the way inside, they were greeted by a couple of patrolling watchmen( a raven and a German shepherd).

"Hey J, how goes the training session of the latest mutt?", the raven asked.

"Don't push it Ralph", Jeremiah warned, "I'm getting there. And that doubles for you Bo."

The German Shepherd nodded. Ralph however was a little more eager to know the details.

"Last I saw your friend here, he was chewing his own behind and having his ex-partner visiting his tree house. J, you work miracles."

Jeremiah blushed.

"Oh I don't mean to boast. You just need to find out what the student's motive is."

Dudley who was fidgeting with his pants again looked interested.

"Motive?", he asked.

"It's the way you work.", Bo explained.

That cleared the air. Bo and Ralph saw that Jeremiah and Dudley had places to be so they followed them down the hall as they continued their conversation.

"Jeremiah, are you and Dudley okay?", Ralph asked.

"What do you mean?", Dudley asked him.

"He's saying he saw the training I put you through", Jeremiah told him, "and thinks that I'm being a little hard on you."

Ralph nodded as Jeremiah continued.

"Listen, while researching your file, I saw that TUFF just handed awards to you, didn't put enough discipline, and furthermore, had the nerve to simply accept you right away for catching one villain."

"How's that an issue?", Dudley asked.

"Well, before I became a secret agent, I had to do a lot of hard things before I was even noticed", Jeremiah stated, "I was a real piece of work. Believe me."

Now why don't we check in on what the ladies are up to shall we? Kitty and Iris were hanging out at one of ULTRA's lounges and having a little girl time. Besides the large comfy chairs, polished coffee tables, and fine display mirrors( for those who were a little unsure of their looks), the place was like any other lounge. Kitty was wearing her regular sneaking suit as was Iris just so you know. After getting into a comfortable position, they started their girl talk.

"Your partner is quite a dancer.", Kitty started, "Was he always like that?"

Iris sighed dreamily.

"He was the wildest party animal I ever came across.", she said as if dreaming of her Prince Charming, "Physically fit, and firm just like I dreamed he'd be. Yet caring and protective like a guard you could rely on. That beautiful fur on his head and that forest of hair on his chest, only the finest. As if it came out of Heaven. But he always could be quite the devil by the look in his eye."

Kitty heard about girls talking about guys but Iris' description was a lot to take in.

"Iris, you and Jeremiah seem close, but you had to have had your share of problems."

Iris' expression changed to one of understanding.

"Oh yeah, we did. And it was more than I could handle. But things do work out in the end. By the way, what about your partner? Did he cause you any trouble."

"You have no idea how much trouble.", Kitty told her, "I'll never forget our first mission. I was tracking Snaptrap after he took the Kruger Rat and then out of the blue, he shows up, and foils my pursuit. I wanted to detain him, but he jumped away before I could."

Kitty remembered that day almost as if it was carved in stone. His springer jump was impressive, but she had a job to do. Iris remembered the day she met Jeremiah too, but we'll get to that a little later.

"I know how you feel", Iris said as she put her white gloved hand on Kitty's, "Jeremiah was a tough one for me too when I met him."

Kitty continued on seeing that Iris wanted to know more.

"As much as I disliked him for messing up my mission, I had to stop Snaptrap. So against my judgment, I took Herbert's word and became Dudley's new mentor and partner. We got caught, but he pulled through."

Iris looked confused.

"That's funny, Jeremiah and I never get caught when we do assignments together."

Kitty looked impressed.

"Really? You get your missions right the first time?"

"Every time", Iris stated, "but we almost didn't several times. I know Jeremiah can be a little harsh at times, but he doesn't mean it. He's just pushing Dudley a little harder than he's used to. No offense."

"None taken.", Kitty admitted, "And I think Herbert was right about Dudley. Sooner or later, he needs to learn to grow up. He does look better in those pants Jeremiah makes him wear. I don't have to keep staring at his undressed behind as often as I used to. Dudley can make you feel like his babysitter than his fellow operative, not make the best decisions, and shirk work now and again, but his heart was in the right place."

(Wow, this was quite a conversation for me to write out, but I do have to have a girl's point of view somewhere, right?)

"Yeah, I won't forget the time Jeremiah protected me from Zero.", Iris told Kitty who looked interested, "He got caught looking at me so his patrol asked who I was so he told them I was his new lieutenant."

Kitty was really interested now.

"So what happened then?", Kitty asked.

"Jeremiah brought me to Hades", Iris told her, "to try and make me his queen, but I wasn't going down without swinging. As much as I fought off his attempts, he decided to just keep me for amusement, but I could tell he had feelings for me. Finally he sent me back to Earth so I could live like I wanted to and I never saw him til he got in trouble. That was when I paid him back for saving me. He could have let Zero's goons kill me in Hades, but he let me live so I helped him when he needed help."

Kitty knew that feeling. Dudley sure had his ways of manipulating her and her fellow TUFF agents, but he did feel guilty enough to try and fix his mistakes.

"So Iris, think we should check on the boys?"

"Yeah, and maybe we could look into Jack's disappearance.", Iris added, "By the way, you're not half bad on the dance floor yourself."

"That I owe to Snaptrap.", Kitty informed, "He may be a small time criminal, but he is a good dance teacher. Dudley was good long before I learned to dance better. Must run in the family."

"I'm sure it does.", Isis agreed as Kitty and her got up and left the lounge.

Dudley and Jeremiah were in a training room working on their hand to hand combat. Jeremiah was doing offensive while Dudley blocked and after about a couple hours, they went to the dressing rooms to change out of their martial arts uniforms and back into their usual attire. Jeremiah was out in a couple seconds due to the Fabricizer, but Dudley seemed to be having trouble.

"Are you putting on the pants?", Jeremiah called in.

"I'm a big boy Jeremiah.", Dudley grouched, "I can dress myself."

Behind the door, Dudley was trying to put his pants on, but found it hard to do.

"How do you put these on?", he asked himself.

"Just put one leg in, pull the pant's leg up, repeat, and zip the zipper.", Jeremiah instructed.

"Thank you Jeremiah.", Dudley grumbled.

About a minute later, Dudley came out and Jeremiah saw something wrong.

"You put your pants on backwards? Well it looks like I'll have to help you fix this.", Jeremiah stated.

Dudley sighed heavily and went back in with Jeremiah closing the door behind him. After a bit, Dudley looked the way he should when he came out again.

"You know, after getting past that dressing part, pants really aren't that bad."

"You'll get the hang of it.", Jeremiah assured him, "Your hand to hand combat needs a little more effort though. Friendly advice: don't look away and don't close your eyes."

Dudley felt like he shouldn't answer that. Jeremiah saw he need time to process things so he chose not to add anything further. So after walking down the hall a ways, they decided to check in on Dorian to see what he was up to. Dorian was working on his cold fusion combination again and it seemed he got it until it blew up again. Dorian rubbed his goggles and turned to see Jeremiah and Dudley enter while his assistants cleared up the rubble the explosion caused.

"So what brings you two here hm?", Dorian asked.

"Just thought we'd pay a visit Doc.", Jeremiah told him, "Any luck on that Gamma and cold fusion experiment?"

Dorian looked a little nervous.

"Getting there. I'm also working on a form of weed seeking drones to help our conservatory department in case the weeds we're studying get out of hand. Other than that, I'm just inventing and building a bunch of stuff we might need. How about you?"

Dudley had wondered away from the other two and he shortly came to see the Heart Communicator that Dorian had shown him earlier. The more Dudley observed it, the more interested he became. He had just picked up one of the blasters when Dorian and Jeremiah noticed.

"Dudley, I wouldn't do that if I were you.", Dorian warned.

Jeremiah headed over and Dudley, startled by the sound, pulled the trigger. The resulting blast bounced around the reflective surfaces and after about several minutes of avoiding it, the blast hit Jeremiah in the back of the head and Dudley was instantly zoned out and all the reality around him turned to darkness. After regaining consciousness, Dudley found himself in a weird place. The grounds were gray and bare like a wasteland and hardly any sound was heard.

"Hello?", he called out, "Anyone?"

But answer came not. Dudley just wondered around til he saw a swing set materialize out of the ground. Dudley didn't know why, but he touched it and the surrounding landscape changed. Now he was in the middle of an elementary school playground where a lot of little kids were playing around. For some reason, nobody noticed him. Dudley reached out to catch a ball that had been thrown his way, and his hand went right through it as if it was air and this happened when kids when he tried to touch them too.

"That's weird. What's going on here?", he wondered.

Then he heard something that made him turn. In front of him he saw himself( as a puppy) and Spike the school bully. Spike was holding Dudley's lunch out of reach and Dudley watched his other self whine and beg Spike to return it, but Spike refused. That's when Dudley saw Jeremiah( as a puppy) tackle Spike and started beating the daylights out of him. From the punches in the face, to the snapping of bones, Jeremiah was putting on quite a display. Dudley couldn't believe this and neither could the other kids who had gathered to watch. After Jeremiah was done, Spike was on the ground with his arms and legs twisted into fatal like positions and was cut, bruised, and bleeding. Jeremiah turned to the crowd.

"Anyone else want a piece of me?!", Jeremiah roared.

The other kids ran off and Jeremiah retrieved Dudley's lunch from Spike's bruised and almost severed hand and returned it to Dudley.

"You okay?", Jeremiah asked in a much friendlier tone.

"Whoa Jerry, you can be pretty scary.", Dudley's puppy self said nervously.

"I just wanted you to be safe.", Jeremiah told him.

Dudley watched as Jeremiah and his younger self hugged then the landscape shifted back to the original gray wasteland and the swing had disintegrated into the ground.

"What was that?", Dudley asked himself before wandering off again, "Was Jeremiah my friend when I was little?"

Dudley continued to wander around, but no matter how far he went, the landscape never ended. And just when he thought he was getting nowhere, a new object materialized out of the ground. This time, it was a broken crown with it's fragments scattered a short distance from the base. This time Dudley was hesitant to touch it. Would it happen again? But unfortunately, his foot stepped on a fragment and the reality around him shifted again. Now he was standing beside Jeremiah( as an adult this time) inside a large Colosseum like court room and Zero was standing on the judge's stand and Dudley thought Zero was going to explode and after seeing the Gemini twins, Zero did.

"Jeremiah, the rules forbid you from returning mortals to Earth yet you have done so willingly."

Jeremiah stood straighter.

"All I am guilty of Zero, is spreading your will while you stay here cowering in the dark."

"SILENCE!", Zero thundered and the whole room quaked, "You will pay for you accusation!"

Almost immediately, Zero shifted into flight form( his wings are red) and was holding Jeremiah by the neck. But Jeremiah countered by twisting in Zero's grip and after the two split apart, Zero tried again, and Jeremiah held him at bay with his own moves. Dudley just watched in awe. Finally, after going several rounds, Jeremiah and Zero parted. Zero looked winded, but he wasn't giving up yet. Jeremiah just stood firmly.

"Since you refuse to pardon my so called accusation", Jeremiah declared with pride, "I will no longer stand as your guardian!"

Just as Jeremiah roared in rebellion, the reality shifted once more into the gray landscape. Dudley was now even more in awe.

"What does all this mean? Did Jeremiah work for Zero like I did?"

Just then, he felt rain drops on his back and the reality shifted to open road in a thunderstorm. Dudley saw Jeremiah( still an adult) running past him.

"Dudley?", he called out, "Wait for me."

Dudley looked ahead to see himself and Peg driving away in a Toyota car. As much as Jeremiah tried to keep up, the car just drove further ahead til it was seen no more. Then Dudley saw Jeremiah drop to his knees and was crying soon after.

"Dudley, why?!", Jeremiah called out, "Just when I came back, you say good-bye. No matter where you are, I'm gonna find you. Please wait for me there!"

Dudley who had been watching all this was now feeling guilty. He remembered this day. The day his mother and him moved out of their original neighborhood in Petropolis and moved to the house they now lived in.

"Jeremiah, I'm sorry.", he said as his own eyes started to water, "I'm so very sorry. If I had known, I would have made Mom stop and pick you up. What kind of person am I?!"

Dudley reached out to try and hug Jeremiah, but just like the other times, Dudley just went through him as if Jeremiah was a hologram. Then the reality started to shift back into the wasteland again. Dudley tried to grab Jeremiah, but try as he might, Jeremiah dissolved back into the ground. Dudley dug and dug til his hands were sore, but the ground just closed the moment one hand left the ground.

"Jeremiah!", Dudley called back as tears ran down his face, "Jeremiah, you can't go! How is it a nice person like you ended up so miserable and I was like everybody else?!"

Dudley just fell to his own knees and cried until he could cry no more. The ground may have been evaporating the tears he was crying, but Dudley couldn't stop.

"How could I have hurt my best friend in the world?!", he wailed.

That was when the reality shifted back into Dorian's lab and Dorian was just putting the Heart Communicator away. Jeremiah looked towards Dudley, but he looked understanding.

"Jeremiah!", Dudley called out and before Jeremiah knew it, Dudley was hugging him around the chest and squeezing the daylights out of him, "Jeremiah, I'm so sorry."

Jeremiah just hugged back as Dudley's tears wet the front of his sneaking suit.

"Just let it out.", Jeremiah told him, "Just let it out."