Chapter 5

"I don't know if you were aware of this when you were both children," Ranaron began, "But Modula's friendship with your fathers grew to disdain and contempt, shortly after you were born."

"It's something we've never really thought about," Lance admitted. "I can't believe my dad trusted that guy, and now he's trying to kill us."

"If they used to all be friends, then what happened?" Ilana wondered. Ranaron frowned.

"I don't know the full story, but from what Modula explained to us Mutradi before the coup, he despised both of your respective fathers because of their gentleness and desire to be liked and respected by the people under them."

"What's wrong with that?" Ilana demanded. "Why would having everyone like you be a bad thing?"

"According to Modula, ideas such as what you just said reveal weakness. Modula despises weakness, as you would expect, and he also despises those who would rather win the favor of their subjects than use their power to strike fear into their hearts and force them to obey. And we Mutradi agree…or at least we all used to."

"What kind of motivation is that? So Modula wants to kill my father and take over my home just because he doesn't like the way my father runs things?! Why couldn't he just be more civil about this and tell him what he was doing 'wrong'?!" Ilana clenched her fists and stared at the ground, furious at Modula what she saw as very poor motivations to ruin her life. Lance took her shaking fists and clasped them in his own larger hands.

"Ilana, relax. Ranaron hasn't told us everything. And it doesn't really matter what Modula's motivations are. We still have to stop him regardless of how he views us." It occurred to Lance that he had never really seen Ilana get this angry before. Sure, she had had her share of frustration, but never pure rage like this.

"Sorry, Ranaron. I promise I won't interrupt again," Ilana said as she relaxed. Lance stepped away from her and let the frog Mutradi continue.

"He saw the fact that both of his old friends had had children as a sign of their further deterioration," Ranaron went on, "But throughout this, so he told us Mutradi, he kept his feelings about the matter private. Otherwise, your fathers surely would have been suspicious. At this point Modula wanted to overthrow the King, but there was something in his mind that prevented him from initiating his treason—his conscience, a sense of morality that told him that murder and civil unrest were 'wrong' and not a desirable way to achieve one's goals."

"And the Hat removed these last mental restraints, correct?" Octus asked. Ranaron nodded, but his story was nowhere near being finished.

"Around this same time, the Rift Gate was being invented by your father," Ranaron went on, looking at Lance as he said this.

"Yeah. I remember how this went; first my dad showed the invention to a bunch of people and used an apple, and then he got an old aircraft to fly through and wind up somewhere else on the planet, and eventually the King trusted him enough so that he used it all the time. But he never left the planet."

"I never got to go through the Rift Gate until we left for Earth," Ilana admitted. "Daddy never let me ride in his private ship with him when he had to use it go someplace far away on another planet." Ranaron nodded, wishing to continue with his story. But at the pace it was going, he knew the teens wouldn't be able to fill in the blanks much longer. Octus, meanwhile, stayed silent, mostly because this had all happened prior to his construction, and therefore he had no memories of these events and only had the testimony of others to go by.

"Although you already know about when the Rift Gate was invented it, I mentioned this to give context to when the expedition took place. Shortly after the Rift Gate was invented, Edward invented a telescope that could see far beyond its predecessors—and it was then that my planet was first directly observed by your people. Of course, we had already known about each other before, but due to the fact that Edward knew so little of Mutrad he decided not to give it a name until he could observe it directly."

"What was the old name for Mutrad? I can never remember," Ilana asked.

"It was previously referred to as Tykos, although Edward discouraged the use of the name. His influence caused it to be renamed to Mutrad," Octus explained. Although he wasn't able to "remember" these sorts of events, he did have some knowledge of Galalunan history programmed into him by the King, most of it being relevant to their mission.

"My people called it Cosov," Ranaron added. "But that is of no importance. The name Mutrad stuck, imposed on us by foreigners. But it is a more fitting name now, I think. But enough about that; the important thing is that after observing Mutrad, Edward set about preparing an expedition to the planet. But then he died."

"Allegedly," Lance corrected him. His father was very much still alive. Ranaron's eyes widened in surprise.

"He is?"

"Yeah, I thought you know that," Lance added.

"Forgive me. The process through which I came back to my old self is still a blur. What exactly happened?" Ranaron asked.

"Shortly after you proposed to give us information," Octus explained, "G3 arrived and injected you with a massive amount of sedative drugs. A large quantity was needed due to your size. The G3 hangar—large enough even to hold Titan—was used to operate on you. Under the guidance of Edward, your body was subjected to a de-mutation process, restoring you back to the way you had been. Lance, Ilana and I did not take part, and the process took several days." Ranaron nodded in understanding.

"I see. Well, now, let's get on with the story, shall we?" Ranaron declared, hoping that there was nothing else that he was left in the dark on. "Various scientists and soldiers volunteered to go on the first expedition to Mutrad. People with all sorts of skills were willing to volunteer, since they had no way of knowing what they would find or what would be needed once they arrived on the planet. Edward had originally decided to go, of course, but after his disappearance and alleged death, the King volunteered to take his place."

"I remember when I was little, and people were marching around the palace. I thought they were angry that Edward died," Ilana chimed in.

"No," Ranaron informed her, "According to Modula Galalunans all over the planet appeared at the palace to protest what they thought was very risky move on the part of the King. They loved him dearly and couldn't stand to see him go. And they were right to be worried; any sort of problems could have occurred, especially with Modula—he had volunteered as well-on board."

"Why did Modula want to go?" Lance asked. "I remember this expedition being talked about, but it didn't interest me. My dad wasn't involved with it anymore, so I didn't really care what was happening outside the Academy," he explained.

"I believe it was the Achillacasus that compelled him to go," Ranaron replied. "It called him to our planet—for its own reasons that aligned perfectly with Modula's desires."

"That's ridiculous. Hats can't talk!" Lance scoffed, but the others ignored him.

"So the Hat is using Modula? For what?" Ilana asked.

"It is not that simple," Ranaron explained. "I must first explain to you how Modula came to possess it, when the expeditionary group first arrived on our planet. We were expecting them. I was around the same age you both are now at the time, but even in my youth I knew that this was the day that everything would change. The prophecy was being fulfilled at last; the Achillacasus had chosen its host."

AN: Sorry if this chapter was a little dull. I had to have all the dialogue set up the scene for the next chapter.

My idea in regards to the expedition that we will hear about in the next chapter came from some of the dialogue in the first episode. If my memory is correct, the King was surprised to see that Modula was leading the coup and asked why he would betray them. Modula claims it was because they "left [him] to die" on Mutrad, implying that Galalunans had been on the planet before the coup. To clarify, this expedition is the first space flight in Galaluna's history to Mutrad; the first time the two worlds have interacted. The King argues that there was nothing they could do to save him, and that they thought he was already dead. But the Mutradi actually didn't actually kill him, obviously…

BUT! Do you really want to hear THAT story first, or another story involving Mutrad, one that's far older (and that our heroes had no idea about)? It also involves the Hat/Achillcasus. Answer my poll to decide which story Ranaron tells first!

Ok, I know the poll wasn't there at first but NOW it is. So please go vote or I'll just have to pick for myself!

Update: Still nobody has voted. I really don't want to have to start PMing people.