"MELIA IS A TELETHIA?" Fiora exclaimed, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"MELLY A DINOBEAST?" Riki echoed, his face scrunched together as he bounced up and down in agitation. Fiora picked him up and he slumped in her arms, a frown covering his furry mouth. Dunban felt a tug at his heart. He knew that the Heropon had a close relationship with Melia; at one point, Riki had been Melia's only friend. There was no doubt that the news would affect him greatly, especially considering that since Riki was charged with protecting the Nopon people as Heropon, he had to eliminate threats like Telethia. Dunban did not want Riki to go after Melia, both for his and Riki's sakes. Unless it was proved that Melia was not the Telethia. Then it would not matter.

Because then it would be certain she was dead.

The though reverberated in his head, rippling into his blood and grinding into his bones. The memory of watching her fall was enough to swarm him in anguish again, and he could not allow that now.

"Melia as a Telethia. At least she is alive." Sharla said, taking a seat on the sofa, a thoughtful expression on her face, though a sadness permeated her eyes.

"Don't say it too loudly." Dunban warned, shutting the door to his suite in the event any passersby heard. Despite the fact that it was two hours until sunrise and most should be asleep, he imagined that there were still a few of the Royal Guard patrolling the hallways, and perhaps a few inhabitants of the Villa still awake from the earlier bomb search. And he did not want to make this news known to any outside this room.

There were dangerous consequences should Melia's ambiguous fate come to light.

Swallowing, he forced down the emotion building in his chest and began to pace. "We have no certainty that Melia has changed into a Telethia." He said firmly, keeping his voice as neutral as possible. "This could be a mere coincidence. There is no proof that Melia transformed into the creature."

Though he hoped it were true. As Sharla said, even as a Telethia, she was alive. And he would find every possible way to change her back to her humanoid form.

If.

His brain reminded him once more of its impossibility. Inside, he knew couldn't allow himself to get his hopes up until there was concrete evidence.

"But, as you said, there have been no other sightings of Telethia in the skies." James argued. "It must be her."

"I'm confused. The Emperor said she couldn't change. Her genetics prevented such a transformation." Shulk sat in an armchair, a faraway look on his face as if trying to connect the dots in his head. "How did this happen?"

The room fell silent. Everyone had believed the same thing. And yet...

"If it is her, and that's a big if," Dunban reminded them and continued, "Something must have changed within her, biologically speaking. That's the only explanation." He tucked his hands into his pockets, letting his eyes fall to the floor. The pressure continued to build in his chest; it was difficult to facilitate this discussion when all he could think about was her. Melia's face appeared before his eyes, contorted in pain. His heart beat quickened as he forced himself to take a deep breath. Memories playing on emotions were a dangerous thing.

"Oy! How do we change her back?" Reyn asked, propping himself against the sofa where Sharla sat. "She can't stay as one of those things."

"Can we do that?" Serenity piped up from her spot next to Tyrea, her voice full of hope. "Can we change the Empress back?"

Dunban saw Tyrea turn her head ever so slightly over her shoulder, but did not make eye contact. But he could tell she was listening from the tilt of her head.

"I don't know."

"Don't you get it?" Tyrea whirled around. "It doesn't matter if we can change her back. If anyone finds out there is a Telethia around, they'll go and kill her."

"We know that." Dunban narrowed his eyes at her.

"Really? Because it doesn't seem like you do."

"Tyrea, we have to make a plan."

"A plan? There is no plan! The truth is that she's dead. Or worse. She's not in control inside that monster."

"Don't say—"

"And how can you of all people act like nothing has happened? You're acting like everything is fine. Like she didn't just disappear. It is not fine! She is gone!"

"Don't you dare assume my feelings on the subject. You will regret it."

His took one menacing step towards her, his voice dangerously low. His blood ran hot, fueling the fury that raged within. How could she think he wasn't deeply affected? His hand clenched into a fist. Standing in front of everyone, relating what had happened, it was killing him. Each time anyone spoke, Dunban relieved the moment of her fall in his mind again and again. His soul felt heavy, burdened by the truth that he had not arrived in time to save her. If he had been there just minutes before...

"Tyrea." Serenity said calmly, putting her hand on the woman's arm.

"What? I'm right." She snapped, not breaking eye contact with Dunban.

Serenity murmured something that was inaudible to the rest and Tyrea looked down. Though clearly not placated, she closed her mouth, and turned back around, reclaiming her previous position at the sill, eyes gazing upward at the darkened sky.

Tension gave way to relief as Dunban resumed his own stance of calm and control. Internally, he knew that Tyrea's anger simply masked her grief. He chastised himself for engaging in a childish fight. They were both hurting; they had each lost someone close to them. Perhaps for forever. He knew he needed time to himself; he imagined Tyrea felt the same.

"Tyrea...is right. No one can find out that Melia has turned into a Telethia. There would be mass panic. And they would try to kill her." James said.

"What if people come lookin' for her? She has all those cabinet meetings and stuff." Reyn pointed out.

"We'll say she's sick. She's sequestered in her suite and only a few can see her." Serenity said.

"How long can that last?" Fiora asked.

"Not forever." Tyrea said and tossed an errant lock of hair over her shoulder.

"Melly never be Dinobeast. Why it happen to Melly?" Riki asked, touching his paws together.

"Sharla. You have experience as a healer. Can you figure out what happened to Melia?" Dunban asked. It would be the best place to start in order to find out if Melia was in fact the Telethia. And if it proved she were, then perhaps the examination could shed light on whether or not there were a possibility of turning her back into a Homs Entia.

The woman shook her head. "I don't have enough anatomy experience."

His shoulders sagged slightly and the hopelessness immediately polluted his blood, traveling straight to his heart. This was not a good start. The room hummed in silence for a few moments, everyone trying to figure out what could be done.

"Melia's doctor, Bella." Fiora said. "Maybe she can help!"

"We can't tell someone on the outside. What if she tells anyone?" Tyrea glanced over her shoulder.

"We have to take that chance." Dunban said. "Serenity, speak to Bella about the situation."

She nodded and glanced at Tyrea, who returned it with a sullen look. Serenity shrugged and exited. A second later, Tyrea followed her out.

"Shulk, you'll need to work with Bella since you know the most about the ether pocket."

"You can count on me."

Fiora squeezed his hand and he turned to her, giving her a small smile. He whispered something in her ear and then left to catch up with Tyrea and Serenity.

Dunban turned to James and Elrich. "Did you find the bombs?"

"Yes. It seems Nae'ell wasn't lying." James nodded.

"Good. At least there's no more threat."

"We'll continue the sweep to make sure we didn't miss any."

Dunban paused. Just the mere thought of that woman made him see red. Everything in him became violent, but he merely clenched his jaw, struggling to keep his composure. The only sign of his internal struggle. "And what of Nae'ell?"

"She is imprisoned in the dungeons below. No one is aware of her presence there."

Good.

No one would be able to save the villain then. And she would not expose Melia's secret (if it were true) to anyone either.

"You two will need to disseminate the story of Melia's illness. As her bodyguards, your words will lend credibility."

"Of course. We will resume our position outside her suite."

James turned to leave but Elrich stayed rooted to his place.

"You will tell us anything you find out. Immediately." Elrich demanded.

"You have my word."

A silent understanding passed between the two men, then Elrich turned and walked out. James shook his head and followed, though Dunban knew James felt the same. After all, the Homs had promised to bring Melia back.

And he'd failed.

Dunban turned back to his friends, masking the blow. "I suggest you all get some rest. It's only a few hours until sunrise, and it looks like we'll have a busy day ahead of us."

Nodding, Sharla and Reyn exited, voices low in conversation as they disappeared out the door.

But Fiora and Riki did not move from their spots. Clearly, they both still had things on their minds.

"Is Melly really stuck as dinobeast?" The Nopon said from his perch in Fiora's arms.

"Riki, I don't know." Dunban sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "This is new territory for all of us."

"It has to be possible, right?" Fiora asked. "We have to be able to change her back."

"We know previously that an intense burst of ether changed the Entia into Telethia. Logically, the ether pocket could have done just that to Melia. But the reason why is a mystery."

"And bird people only changed back when Shulk made wish."

"That's right."

"We don't have a way to make another wish." Fiora said, her face solemn.

"I know."

"Dunban...I'm so sorry." Fiora mumbled.

"It's not your fault, Fiora."

It's mine.

"We all lost a dear friend..."

She nodded, though it was clear she did not believe him. Exhaling, she looked into his eyes, distressed. "I'll head back to my room now. But if you want to talk, just come knock on my door." Gently, she hugged Riki and placed him on the floor. "See you later, Riki."

His younger sister withdrew, glancing over her shoulder at him before walking into the hallway and turning out of sight.

"Dun dun."

"Yes, Riki?"

"Riki not sleeply. Is Dun dun sleepy?"

He was tired. Exhausted in fact, both physically and emotionally. Mentally was another story. The voices in his mind were loud, torturing him with scorn and loathing. He very much doubted he would be able to sleep now, knowing that Melia could either be dead or trapped in a body that was not hers. Sleep would only come with extreme exhaustion of the body and mind; perhaps if he kept himself awake long enough, his mind would shut up and body would shut down, forcing him to rest.

Then he could avoid the despair that threatened to eat him alive.

"Bird people old. Old as Nopon. Maybe Heropon and Homs Hero go read lots of books in bird people library." Riki touched his paws together. "Maybe find way to save Melly."

"Not a bad idea, Riki. Let's go." Dunban smiled down at the furry creature. It was apparent to Dunban that Riki was more that what he appeared to be. Certainly, oftentimes he seemed to be unaware and absentminded, but Dunban knew better. And Riki was a fun companion. The human man followed the Nopon, who bounced out of the apartment, happy to have a task to focus on.

But even as they headed towards their destination, Dunban's thoughts clouded with uncertainty. What exactly were they going to do? And was it even possible to save Melia?

An hour and a half later, the Hero of the Homs returned to his suite and collapsed into his bed, indifferent to the time of day. He had been blessed with a dreamless sleep shortly after his excursion to the library with Riki and it felt as if he could sleep for days. Five, six, seven hours wore on, into the evening and early the next morning. Still, the man did not wake, peaceful in his deep slumber. That is, until a banging on the door startled him out of his coma. He jumped up with alarm and rushed to the door. Swinging it open, he found Shulk, Bella, and Fiora waiting, the former two with dark circles under their eyes. However, there was a buzz of eagerness surrounding the trio.

"Dunban! They figured it out!" Fiora clapped in excitement. The shine was back in her eyes and Dunban felt the tiniest bit of hope invade his heart. With the events of the past 24 hours, it was a gift to see a glimmer of positivity. He only wished that whatever news they brought was not false hope.

Ushering them into the apartment, Dunban returned to his bedroom to shove a shirt on over his sweat pants. "Sorry to wake you, but we couldn't wait!" Fiora called out, though he heard no apology in his voice. He shook his head and grinned. Fiora never failed to make him smile with her exuberance, even though, on the other hand, she could infuriate him to no end. Now was one of those times he was thankful for her presence.

Before Dunban returned to his guests, he paused for a moment. It was the first smile that had graced his lips since that late night/early morning moment with Melia. A rush of memories splashed through him, eliminating the small embers of happiness. He didn't deserve them. Not after he had failed to protect the Empress. He could not allow himself any flicker of joy until he knew with certainty her fate.

And even then, the man wasn't sure he could ever atone for his failing to protect her.

"What did you find out?" He asked as he reappeared in the parlor. Shulk and Bella had taken their seats on the sofa, covering the coffee table with notebook pages, charts, and other mathematical figures. And a few petri dishes, which he inferred must have been tests they conducted. Fiora sat in an adjacent arm chair, fidgeting with her hands, both eager and nervous simultaneously. Dunban took the seat opposite of Fiora to optimize his view of the items on the table.

As his eyes glazed over the copious notes, Shulk said, "Remember when Melia mentioned during her trial in the tomb she had been scanned by some sort of machine?"

"Go on."

"Well, we went over there to look at it. According to Bella, it's this big computer, just like the technology they have here in Alcamoth. And we were able to access some of the internal data banks. General stuff, like when the last login was, who had logged in. We realized that we either had to hack our way in or someone with connections to the royal family could get in. So Tyrea got past the security measures." Shulk explained.

"Apparently, the machine is also a storage for the genetic material of each member of the Royal Family, hence how the program was able to determine what the Empress' genetic makeup was. The scan of Melia's body was saved as data into the computer. Tyrea had it to spit out a small vial of Melia's blood." Bella interjected as she held up a small vial, the red liquid sloshing around in the small glass container.

Dunban didn't entirely understand all of the technical jargon, but he understood the gist of it.

Shulk nodded and continued: "So we ran some tests. First, we exposed a small amount of her blood to a normal amount of ether, like the amount in an ether spell, and nothing happened." Shulk pushed forward a spreadsheet, pointing to the first column of numbers and the second column of identical numbers to demonstrate his point.

A control for the experiment. Dunban gestured for them to carry on.

"And then we exposed the blood to a larger amount of ether. High enough levels like the Entian experienced during the Holocaust." Bella said. "Still no change." She pushed forward two petri dishes: one labeled as the original blood sample and the other labeled as the highly exposed one. They looked identical, as if the blood had not been irradiated in any way. Just as they had believed. Melia's blood was a perfect combination to disallow the transformation.

"So she shouldn't have turned into a Telethia."

"Exactly."

Dunban looked at Fiora, who shook her head, knowing where his mind was headed. Obviously, this was not the news that they had brought to him in earnest. He staved off negative emotions, awaiting for the point of their visit.

"Do you remember when Melia fainted? A week and half ago?" Fiora asked.

He searched his mind. So much had happened in the past few weeks, it was hard to categorize it all by time. But then he recalled the green burst of ether covering Melia, dressed in the robes of an Empress. He had carried her to the clinic, he unconscious body in his arms. His face darkened. She had been through such hardship these past months. And it had come to a violent end. It was unfair.

But life did not deal in fairness. He knew that all too well.

Dunban realized they were staring at him. He had been stuck in his thoughts too long. "Yes. With the Scepter?"

"We thought it was sort of strange." Shulk said. "So we asked James to bring it to us to examine it. And something happened. Well, not when we touched it..."

This was what they were waiting to share.

"It appears the Scepter has a genetic key. It can tell when someone of the Antiqua blood line is holding it and it reacts." Bella said. "I distinctly remember the Empress being rather surprised when I suggested to her that her using the Scepter had brought on the fainting special. Looking back, I believe she didn't even realize she was using it."

"How can you be sure?" Dunban asked.

"We asked Tyrea to pick it up, and nothing happened." Shulk responded.

Tyrea was the First Consort's daughter, but not the Emperor's, who was the inheritor of the Antiqua line.

"To further test, we 3D printed five small silicon discs—" Bella began.

"We didn't have time to 3D print the whole hand. It would've taken forever since there's only one printer working right now—" Shulk interrupted.

"—each was coated in a synthetic epidermis. And we injected each with a sample of the Empress' blood and imprinted her fingerprints on one side. We stuck them to each of Tyrea's fingers and she took the Scepter in hand. We hoped that this would confuse the Scepter into believing the Empress was holding it."

"It did, for about a minute." Shulk grinned guiltily. "But it was enough."

"I believe that once the Scepter had overwhelmed the discs with its energy, it stopped, most likely registering that on a cellular level, anything beyond the discs did not belong to the Antiqua line." Bella said.

"And what did you find?" Dunban asked, now rather impatient, wanting to get to the point.

"During that fainting spell, I hypothesize the Scepter's blast of ether overloaded her blood and changed her genes." Bella said. "That's exactly what we observed happened to the blood encased in the discs."

She gestured to one of the diagrams on the table. There were many before and after pictures of the cells. The after pictures looked much different than before. Tiny dart-like compounds floated in the cells. The insides were a flush blue in comparison to the red of the Homs Entia's. There was an extra circular structure in the upper left part of the cell that did not exist in the Homs Entia cell. And the walls of the cells looked vastly different; the Homs Entian cells were perfectly round while the mutated cells were morphed into ovals with tendrils surrounding its circumference. Bella pushed forward a picture of native Entian cells. The mutations looked highly similar, ovular but without the tendrils, dart-like compounds swimming inside but without the extra circular structure, red instead of blue. Minor differences but overall the same types of mutations..

"Finally, we over exposed the new sample of her blood to ether. And it changed." The doctor handed him a single petri dish. He held it up at eye level.

There was a metallic green scale enclosed.

A Telethia scale.

"The data supports the hypothesis that the Empress' cells underwent some kind of genetic therapy when the Scepter's wave of ether overwhelmed her body. I think the Scepter did more than radiate Ether, but I can't be entirely sure. If I were to hazard a guess, it could be either x-rays or gamma rays, but I would need to run more tests on it. Either way, in conclusion, the Empress is the Telethia you saw." Bella finished, crossing her hands in her lap.

Dunban placed the petri dish back on the table and locked eyes with Fiora. A silent message passed between them.

"How do we change her back?" He asked sharply.

"I don't know." Bella shook her head. "I have never read any instances where Telethia have reverted to their Entian forms outside of the Holocaust. And even that was a mystery."

A mystery only to the rest of the world. But Dunban and the rest of his friends understood what had happened after they defeated Zanza. But there was no likelihood that would ever happen again.

"There has to be a way." Dunban said, keeping the desperation out of his voice. Here it was: proof that Melia was still alive. His heart skipped a beat at the realization. Hope flooded his veins, breathing relief through his body. The obstacle now was reversing her metamorphosis and returning her to her original body.

But at least she was alive and that small glimmer of hope returned, his heart somersaulting in his chest.

"The only thing I can think of as a solution would be to suck out the large amount of ether in her body or inject her with an anti-ether compound." Bella inferred. "It could potentially reverse the process, rendering her a High Entia once more. Though I don't know if her cells will revert to their natural state, or stay in this mutated state. I'm not sure what that would make her. Not fully Entian, but not a Homs Entia."

That would explain why her Telethian form looked different from the rest he had encountered.

"No matter. It is a course of action. We should attempt it."

"But how?" Fiora asked.

Dunban considered Bella's words and an idea slowly formed in his mind. "When we first met Melia, she was close to death because of ether depletion, ironically due to an altercation with a Telethia. Sharla exploded ether crystals through her rifle around Melia's body and she survived. Perhaps we do something similar."

"I can look into it." Bella said, her lips pursed.

"Shulk. Bring Sharla into the conversation to work with you and Bella. The faster we find a solution, the better."

"Dunban, we have to catch her too. And that's not gonna be easy." Fiora raised her eyebrows at him. "She's not exactly...small."

"I actually have an idea for that." Shulk grinned.

"Let's hear it."