"We are here," Kuai Liang told everyone as he and the other six people arrived at the hall of the RWBY and JNR rooms. Initially, Ruby wanted to enter without making much noise believing Yang and Weiss to be asleep already. But opening the door showed that they were both awake and that Nora and Jaune were also there.

Before Ruby could greet them, however, Yang had already jumped down from her bed and ran to hug her, almost tackling the younger girl to the ground. "Ruby! We were so worried! You can't imagine how glad I am that you are alive!". When the moment passed, she then noticed Blake standing behind their team leader with her arms crossed and an unamused expression on her face. "Blake! No, I didn't mean to imply that you are less-".

"Don't worry, Yang. I understand" the cat faunus said, calming her partner. A moment later, however, she was also receiving a hug from Weiss. "Ok… what is going on?" she asked now worried.

After inspecting the room, Sub Zero then asked a follow-up question with a hint of anger. "And where is Tomas?".

Ren had managed to squeeze past the RWBY girls to meet with Jaune and Nora, the later who was now hanging from his neck. "Oh yeah… You guys were not here!" Jaune said.

"Here for what?" asked Neptune as he entered the room carrying Sun with the faunus' arm around his neck. That immediately made everyone forget what they were talking about what Jaune and his team were doing.

Yang was the first to arrive and helped Neptune with Sun's other arm. "You did it!" she happily exclaimed.

"But… what happened to him?" then asked Weiss seeing as Sun was still wearing a tattered and bloodied uniform while also unconscious.

Once everyone was inside, Hanzo closed the door with the other two ninjas inside as well. To say the room was getting uncomfortable was an understatement, but no one complained. "You were right, they wanted to turn him into a robot; a cyborg to be more precise".

Jaune, Weiss, Nora, and Yang then turned to look at Sun's body resting on Blake's bed. "But why?" wondered Nora out loud.

"Who cares! I say we go to that hotel and do some-" Yang began to say while putting her gauntlets on, but was stopped by Ruby mid-sentence.

"Yang! No!".

That shocked all the huntsmen students present. More than a younger sister standing up to her older sibling, they were surprised by the seriousness and even fear that came from her voice. "We had a deal. They helped us rescue Sun, we give them our information, and we drop investigating into Seido Industries as a whole!". Yang and her group then looked at the others and were surprised that they were also on board with Ruby's explanation.

The girl then looked towards Ermac-s direction. "And… I want to apologize if we did something out of line and against your direct orders".

"Me too" Blake then said.

"Same here" Neptune added.

"As do I" Ren finished with a bow.

Ermac did not respond; he just nodded. After that, the room went silent until Scorpion spoke again. "You were mentioning the reason why Smoke is not here. Care to continue?" he asked Jaune.

"Smoke? Oh, Tomas, right… well…" he trailed off and planned carefully what to say next; he didn't want to reveal his forgery to the ninjas after all. "We thought of a lead as to how Seido could be controlling Pyrrha: Cardin Winchester". That caught everyone's attention. "We went to look for him in his team's room, but they told us he was in Vale since yesterday. We went there and discovered that someone tried to kill him by intoxicating him; Tomas saved Cardin, and we got back to Beacon to give him medical care. My guess is that he will be tomorrow's gossip".

Kuai Liang then began to stroke his chin. "… Interesting…" was all he said before pointing at the door with his head, telling his team to leave the room.

Before they left, Yang stopped them. "Where are you going? We haven't told you the details. You haven't told us about what was at The Pyramid" she told them.

Sub Zero then turned around and calmly explained. "You can brief each other. Right now, we must speak with Tomas about him leaving his post. Although I suggest you rest as much as you can; Neptune will tell you why. Good night, and again, thank you all who came with us". With a final bow from the three ninjas, they left the room.

Nora then looked at Neptune. "What does he mean?" she asked him.

"Oh right! Umm… Sub Zero says that they want to tell us the truth!" Neptune answered excitedly.

That shocked everyone who immediately went on to gossip and theorize about what they would learn. All but Nora, that is, who just had one question. "Sub Zero? Who's that?".

Ermac opened the door to their dormitory and thankfully, Smoke was occupied with something on their desk. The gray ninja did not even turn around before he spoke. "Grandmasters, Ermac. I see the mission was a success" he said while continuing whatever he was doing.

"Not entirely" Sub Zero said. "We discovered much about our enemies. We are fighting the Tekunin, but they are being helped by high-ranking members of Orderrealm; not rogue cells as we once thought" he reported but a trace of hostility was present on his voice.

"I see. Now, before you scold me for leaving there is something you should know about".

Hanzo then continued. "We already know about Cardin Winchester being intoxicated and left for dead. Why would you leave your post?".

"Because I found something else!" he said before moving out of the way and showing them many vials full of chemicals and the bottle of spirit he filled with Cardin's stomach contents. "This bottle contains what was in Cardin's stomach. In this world, they'll believe he was intoxicated, yes. But, and I am talking to you Kuai Liang, look what happens when I do this!" he said before putting a drop of a bright green liquid on a glass containing a sample of what Cardin ingested. After a few seconds, the liquid turned blue and purple vapors began to emanate from the glass.

"We do not understand what this means," Ermac said. It wasn't until he and Hanzo looked at Kuai Liang's shocked face that they understood it was a serious matter.

"Adulterated Outworld rice wine…" Kuai Liang said in realization.

Hanzo still felt confused. "Death by poison; it is not uncommon for assassins to use that method, and Sektor was Lin Kuei. It makes sense he still uses their methods".

"That's the problem" Tomas began to explain. "True, Outworld's rice wine is deadly for earthrealmers; we don't have a strong enough liver to process the mixture and it is way faster and effective than drinking gallons of Earth's strongest alcoholic beverages. It however leaves enough time for the victim to clean his body before dying of intoxication".

"So, what is so special about this rice wine?" asked Hanzo.

"It has spores from a rare fungus only found on the Living Forrest…" Kuai Liang said, coming out of his shock. "The spores are deadly if ingested; even small quantities can kill you in less than five minutes. They are also untraceable, and the only way to determine if the spores are there is by adding a compound of Chlorine and copper" he said while pointing at the green liquid.

"And why is it shocking?" asked Ermac.

"Because this is not a standard method used by the Lin Kuei". With that revelation, Hanzo and Ermac were now surprised. "It was a formula devised by me and… Bi Han. We knew that if the formula became public others would start to use it or try and find an antidote. Over the years I've only told two other people about it: Smoke…".

Before the blue ninja could finish, Tomas continued. "And Kuai Liang's dead former apprentice, Frost".

After what Smoke said, Kuai Liang's shock turned into anger. "Don't you dare-!".

"The other members of team CRDL said he was frequently meeting with a young woman who is trained in martial arts, has anger issues, and goes by the name 'Elsa'. Does that ring a bell?" Smoke said, not mockingly, but with wholehearted seriousness. Sub Zero went quiet for a moment, not wanting to think that her former student had, for some reason, faked her death. "I am not saying I am certain she is still alive. I saw the carrier explode. But it is something we should consider".

Kuai Liang then sat on his bed and massaged his temple. "Let's rest for today. Tomorrow we must tell the children what is going on and then we must report our findings. With the information they gathered, we may have a chance to strike back".

All ninjas then nodded in agreement.

"Ineko! Why haven't you cleared the lower floors!" the burly bearded man yelled at the still flooded floors of the complex inside The Pyramid.

"Sub-Lieutenant Ga, sir! Body retrieval is taking longer than anticipated! The Tekunin require more time!" answered his younger partner.

Nervous, Ga then yelled again. "We are ten minutes behind schedule! The commander is already on his way, and I want-!". Ga then heard a booming sound from behind him, and when he turned around, he saw his superior, Hotaru, and his assistant Ryu emerging from the red portal. None of the men said anything, they just stared at Ga. The pure rage on their eyes told the older man all he needed to know, so he wasted no time in following protocol. "Commander Hotaru, sir! Permission to talk!".

"Permission granted…" Hotaru answered almost grinding his teeth.

"We have confirmation that we were attacked by seven people, sir! We know the identity of three of them". Ga then presented a tablet with three profiles. "The first two are the earthrealmers Grandmaster Sektor warned us about; Hanzo Hasashi, code name 'Scorpion', and Kuai Liang, code name 'Sub Zero'. It is, however, the third one which intrigues us; it's-".

"Ermac. The monster born from soul magic created by Shao Kahn to be loyal only to him, I know". Hotaru then looked at the shock on his subordinate's face. "I have received new intelligence recently. Protocols were to be implemented, we just never expected them to act so soon. What about the other four?".

Ga then swiped the hologram and zoom-ins of the other four appeared. "They fill none of the criteria we have of Earthrealm allies of the Shirai Ryu and the Lin Kuei; furthermore, judging by their clothes and weapons, they seem to come from this universe, commander".

"Do we know what they came here for?".

"Scorpion and Sub Zero were found at the Tekunin side of the complex. We believe they were spying. The other five were not discovered until some guards saw them escaping the prison on our section".

That information caught Hotaru's attention. "A jailbreak… do we have an updated inventory?".

"They destroyed the main computer, but the prison guards just finished a manual counting. Only one prisoner is missing".

The identity of the person in question did not shock Hotaru at all. When he heard that there had been a break-in the night of Sun's arrival, he figured it was too much of a coincidence. It also helped prove their theory about Lionheart's relationship with Cinder and her organization, yet there was something off. "Are you sure the ninjas were Sub Zero and Scorpion?". Ga didn't say anything; he just nodded. This proved interesting and troubling; Raiden's arrival in Orderrealm revealed that he was in charge of finding out what was going on in this universe but would he be gullible enough to trust Cinder Fall and her associates as to join forces with them?.

"Commander Hotaru, sir!" a young man in armor arrived and saluted.

"At ease, Ineko. Report" then asked Ga.

"Sub-Lieutenant, the bodies are ready for transport. We need the approval of the commander to take them to the rift portal".

"Lead the way!" Hotaru commanded. On their way, he used the time to keep questioning the Sub-Lieutenant. "How many casualties?".

"The Tekunin are still counting. Ten guardsmen received severe wounds from Ermac. A total of fifteen troopers died during the altercation. Two Lieutenants using the prototype 'Hercules' and 'Brachininae' armors; they were killed by the ninjas".

Their journey took them to an elevator and then to the house they used as a coverup. In the living room, they then found medical experts from Orderrealm performing the autopsies and preparing the bodies for proper burial. "Ineko, get me the forms. I want them back home before…" Hotaru's attention was broken when he saw the name on one of the bodies. The identity of the lieutenant with the giant minigun was unmistakable to Hotaru. "Jugeun…" he said with a low voice as memories of the first time he met the young man came to him.

Hotaru stared into the rainy day the capital citadel was having from his office. A time that for most people from other realms would be an annoyance, was a blessing for Orderrealm. Water was a limited resource and every drop counted. The miracle of rain, however, was not enough to take him out of his anger.

Not a month had passed after the peace accord between the Central Government of Orderrelam and the Seidan Resistance was ratified by the Senate and he was already being called to a public trial for war crimes. He hated that he had warned both the Prime Minister and the Senate about the now public figures of the Resistance using the accord to undermine the foundations of the realm itself, but they instead ignored it 'to finally put an end to the conflict'.

He also hated to admit that he had grown used to a cup or two of wine once every two weeks since becoming the overlord of Lei Chen. He never drank in Orderrealm, of course, it was against the law and one of the conditions for the negotiations to begin was that he stepped down from ruling Lei Chen until the accord was signed, making his guilty pleasure now unobtainable.

For decades had he had done nothing more than put his life on the line to protect Orderrealm and all that it stood for. He had taken down powerful mafias, taken into custody hundreds of leaders from the Resistance, he even helped Grava stop an Oni invasion from the Netherrealm led by the corrupted soul of a former Outworld warlord. But still, politicians had to play politics, and if it wasn't their necks on the line, they were fine.

Three knocks on his door took him out of his thoughts. "Enter!" he instructed as he also turned around and sat on his chair.

Immediately, a cadet stepped inside and saluted Hotaru. "Commander Hotaru, sir!".

"At ease," he told the other man.

"Sir, your…" the man stopped, clearly not liking what he was about to say. "Your… security convoy is ready to escort you to the Senate for… for your trial," he said the last part with disgust.

Hotaru sighed and then noticed the delicate features and well-kept hair of the cadet, a descendant from a noble family perhaps. "Anything bothering you, cadet?" he asked, but the young man just sighed and looked away. "You have my permission to speak freely," Hotaru told him.

The cadet then answered, "Sorry sir, but the law forbids me as a Seidan Guard to speak ill of the ruling bodies as it can be considered treason and it's punishable with death".

Hotaru was surprised by that answer. "Impressive! Then you must have also heard of article forty-eight of the Seidan Guards' conduct manual".

"… Any superior can ask, in complete confidentiality, for the opinions of one of his subordinates and then consider if said subordinate is a threat for the institution or the realm…" he answered, and when Hotaru said nothing and just nodded his head, the boy understood he was free to speak his mind. "Why are you allowing this to happen!? The Resistance doesn't care about Seido, they just want the power to do as they wish! We were so close to finishing this war, and are we supposed to just let them walk over us!? The Prime Minister and the Senate don't care about the realm, so why do what they want!?".

Hotaru said nothing for a long time. He just looked at the boy while touching his fingertips together. "What is your name cadet?" he then asked.

"Jugeun, sir" the young man answered.

Hotaru then got up from his chair and went to a cabinet to find a leather folder with Jugeun's name written in golden ink. "It says here you are from the Salam family; powerful traders from the mining continent".

"Yes sir…" Jugeun answered with disgust.

"Excellent grades, interesting amount of condecorations, good recommendations from many of your superiors…" Hotaru then closed the folder and looked at the man once again. "Why would someone like you sacrifice anything to join the Seidan Guard? You have the money, the power, the brain, and forgive my insolence, but you also seem to be a handsome individual. Why then?".

Jugeun then seemed to have gained back the passion from before. "Because I want to prove myself, sir. I don't regret or sensor my family's status, but I also know that there is more in life than belonging to high society. Also, sir, you helped me make my mind". That grabbed Hotaru's attention. "A couple of years ago, miners and bookkeepers were kidnapped by a Resistance cell. Many told the local guardsmen to let them kill the workers and that fighting was too dangerous; but the captain, who claimed to have been instructed by you, went on to rescue them anyway because it was right. He fought bravely and did not stop until the last miner was safe. He, unfortunately, lost his arm in the mission, but he always said that 'as long as it is for Seido, then it is worth it. Just as the Commander always told us'". Jugeun ended his explanation.

Hotaru looked at the younger man for a long moment once again. He then stored the folder back and went to get something from his desk. When he seemed to have retrieved what he was looking for, his demeanor changed into complete seriousness. "Do you swear for all that we stand and the Elder Gods that the safety of the realm and our way of life is the most important thing to you?" he asked and Jugeun nodded. "Good!" Hotaru said and then stood next to the cadet. He then tied with a golden rope a dark blue gem shaped like a drop to the left arm of Jugeun. "When we arrive at the main hall of the Senate, leave the convoy when you see another guard wearing a gem just like this; he will take you to an officer who will be wearing three of this. You will follow his, and only his instructions. Do you understand?".

Jugeun was now confused, but he also trusted his highest commanding officer. "Yes sir!".

"Good. Then we should be going". Hotaru said casually again as he led the way out of his office.

The memory of his encounter with Jugeun ended as Ga then went on to question Hotaru. "Commander is everything alright?".

"Yes… just remembering. Jungeun was at the Senate for the day of New Order. I knew he would get far he was a good soldier". Hotaru then looked at the other lieutenant's head resting inches away from his neck. "And who is this?" he asked.

"Lieutenant Si Ren, commander," Ga said before letting out a sigh. "Not a sticker for the rules, but he would rather die than betray the Guard. Had many chances to get a promotion, but he rejected them. 'If I die, it will be in the field with my men' he always said".

"You knew him?" Hotaru asked.

"He was one of my instructors".

Hotaru finally finished the last form and gave them to the medical staff. He then faced Ga once again. "Why did you leave the fight?" he asked as he crossed his arms.

"I never got to fight them, commander. Shao Kahn's monster blocked our path; by the time we got out, the cooling container was already broken. It is my understanding that the Tekunin began the Purge Protocol; our men left before being poisoned. Unfortunately, the drones were not ready to fight them either" Ga said referring to the Tekunin in a derogatory manner. "Permission to speak freely, sir!". That announcement caught both Ryu and Hotaru off-guard; nonetheless, the latter nodded. "Do we have to rely on these… machines? They lack instinct, drive, and passion, sir. I believe that if we had waited for reinforcements we would have won. Nothing good has come from those metal monsters ever since-" Ga ranted but stooped when he saw the panicking face of Ineko. He then turned around and found himself face-to-face with Sektor. "G-g-g-g-grandmaster!" he stuttered.

"Please, continue what you were saying Sub-Lieutenant!". Ga said nothing. "Then allow me to present a counterpoint. Thanks to us your daughter's heart is now working properly, and she will not die of young age. Thanks to us, your realm is now a technological marvel. Thanks to us, you can speak with family in a matter of seconds!" he listed threateningly while stepping forward. "Tell me then, how we have made things worse for you!?".

"Enough!" Hotaru said to both. "Sub-Lieutenant, apologize to the grandmaster," he told Ga. Ga then bowed, but Hotaru corrected him again. "No. Truly apologize". Ga then got on his knees and placed his hands on the ground and under his forehead. "Grandmaster?" Hotaru then asked Sektor.

"… Apology accepted" the red cyborg said.

Ga then stood up and looked at Hotaru one last time. "Dismissed!" he told to the man and Ineko. They then bowed and left the room. Hotaru and Ryu then looked at Sektor one more time, but with anger. "Never mind that your ground troops failed; the Seidan Guard underperformed tonight as well. But your precious pet project was defeated despite your promises AND your apprentice failed to kill a teenager. Lord Onaga is not satisfied, as you surely can figure out".

Sektor then bowed apologetically. "Indeed. I have nothing to offer but apologies. The room is ready to be emptied and…" Sektor began to explain but stopped midsentence. Before Hotaru could ask what was happening, Sektor stood up straight once again. "My lords, the memories from one of the units has been retrieved. And it shows the face of one of the invaders!".

Ryu and Hotaru's anger was quickly replaced with intrigue. Without any moment to lose, Sektor's eyes then glowed and he began to project images on an empty white wall. They showed a first-person view of what the cyborg saw, and it was the image of a teenager, most likely, wearing a black mask that covered the lower part of his face, struggling against the robot. The footage continued until the cyborg managed to take the mask off. Sektor then paused the video and zoomed into the teen's face. "Interesting…" Hotaru said while stroking his chin.

"Do you know who he is?" Sektor asked.

"Not at all. But the only person they took was Sun Wukong". Hotaru said to the robot.

Sektor then seemed to understand where Hotaru was going with his theory. "The employee from this morning!".

"This boy must have a connection with Sun. If we find him, we'll know who it is they are working for. Either the Witch has convinced Raiden to work with her, or we are now fighting against a new faction…" Hotaru said while stroking his chin. "Schedule personal interviews with our employees; one of them has to know who this boy is". He ordered as Ryu opened a portal.

On the RWBY dorm, almost no one went to sleep. Yang had at one point been so enraged that her sister had almost died at the hands of the seidan lieutenant that she was ready to march to KHTE's dorm and then turn their skeletons into mush. She stopped once she realized that A: they would most likely turn her into a headless blood fountain before she could lay a finger on one of them, and B: she remembered the constant warnings about the mission being far too dangerous. She also remembered the complete professionalism with which Hanzo and Tomas acted, so they were not at fault.

Bu the events left the girls paranoid for the night. 'What if whoever wanted to kill Cardin came for them for not allowing the boy to die?', 'What if either the Seidans or the Tekunin had followed them back to Beacon?', 'What was out there that they did not know about'. Whatever a couple of hours of sleep they managed to get were not relaxing and they all woke up just as tired as last night.

Over at the JNPR dorm, things were not that good either. While thoughts of a still unknown enemy coming to kill them were not present, Jaune was again falling into a guilt-trip and both Ren and Nora kept having nightmares about one being found dead and the other being turned into a robot. The only people who seemed to have a good night's sleep were Sun and Neptune; although granted, one of them had not even woken up since last night. Neptune, who slept through the night on a sleeping-bag, immediately stood up to check on Sun, still unconscious in Pyrrha's bed.

Jaune sat up and stretched for a moment before noticing their guest. "Still out?" he asked.

"At least his breathing is stable now" Neptune answered.

Ren and Nora woke up soon after, but they were shaken when they heard knocks on their door. Jaune then walked slowly towards it and stood next to the doorframe, ready for anything bad. "Who is it?" he asked trying to sound normal.

"It's Tomas!" the voice of the silver-haired boy said from the other side of the door. "You guys should be getting ready. I also came here for Neptune".

Jaune then looked at the boy in question with a raised eyebrow. Neptune also looked confused but then remembered. "Oh, yeah, open up!". Jaune did as told and they now saw Tomas with his arms crossed and an unamused face. Neptune then went on to put on his shoes and then walked towards the door.

Before they left, Tomas then looked at Jaune, Ren, and Nora. "Kuai Liang and the others will be waiting for you at the library in an hour. Don't be late" he instructed before leaving with Neptune.

As soon as the door closed, Neptune then looked at his guide and started a conversation. "So… where are you taking me?".

"Breakfast!" Tomas answered with a cheerful voice and a smile on his face.

Tomas and Neptune were now sitting on the courtyard, watching the last minutes of the sunrise; Smoke eating a bowl of fruit and Neptune slowly a sandwich. The blue-haired boy was confused by what the other was doing in the first place and then the memories of the other night came back.

Before Neptune could raise a question, however, Tomas then spoke. "Tell me, what are you eating?" he asked.

"Um… a sandwich?" Neptune answered still confused.

"What can you tell me about it?"

"I don't know, man. It's just… a sandwich".

"Well, what can you tell me about where we are?".

Neptune then looked around but found nothing out of the ordinary. "I don't know… it looks… nice, I guess? The statue is really cool… and it is well kept".

"Want to know what the thoughts of that woman were before she died?" Tomas then asked before taking another bite.

The suddenness of the question almost made Neptune choke. After regaining stable breathing, he then looked at Tomas. The silver-haired boy did not look at him back but just explained. "We go through our lives taking things for granted and not looking at them with much appreciation. Ever heard of the phrase 'You don't know what you have until you lose it'?". He did not know where Smoke was going with this; still, Neptune nodded. "Why did you pick that sandwich?" Tomas then asked.

Neptune then looked at his food again. "Because… it was easy to eat outside".

"Ok. I chose this fruit salad because it is the closest, I can get to my favorite food: Bublanina. A pastry filled with various sweet fruits. You have also not noticed that right now it's a warm morning, or that this courtyard looks incredible with this amount of sunlight, or that it drizzled just before sunrise and everything feels slightly wet".

"Ok… those are good things I guess…".

"Now imagine your ability to experience all these good things in life taken away". That made Neptune feel strange emptiness. "The mechanization process takes away your basic senses. But it also takes away your consciousness. Just before that woman died, her true self regained control; but the memories of being a mindless drone bombarded her. Not only that but for a small amount of time, she could no longer feel like she used to. She had no skin to feel, she could no longer smell or taste, every sound was being processed according to specifications, she didn't even have a proper mouth with which to scream. In her mind, she was already a walking corpse".

Neptune never considered that in the first place. "But… did I have to kill her?".

"From what she said, it seems to be what she wanted. The truth is that after the process you can either live feeling as if your body will never move and you will be controlling a computer game for the rest of your life, or you will want to end it all; I know for a fact not many can do the first".

Neptune thought about what Tomas said for a while before asking something he seemed to figure out. "Are you one of them? Is that why Kuai Liang sent you to talk with me?".

Tomas finished his fruit salad before giving a quick smirk and answering. "Congratulations, you figured it out".

Truth be told, Neptune was not really expecting that answer. "WAIT WHAT!? But… but… you don't… you know!" he said while pointing at Tomas from head to toes.

"I was. Then I died and… things happened with a sorcerer. He remade me into a… 'human' of sorts before I was then brought back to life". Tomas then looked at Neptune who seemed to have gone quiet and saw the boy with his mouth hanging open and still pointing at him.

"You… sorcerer… dead… WHAT!?"

"Don't worry about it, we will explain later. The important thing is that you must understand this: if we defeat Sektor and Seido, the people they've turned into cyborgs will be free again; but most will not like what has become of them. Know that there might be a majority who, if they have not died in battle, will ask for a mercy kill" Tomas explained.

Neptune then finally seemed to understand. But there was still something bothering him. "I get what you are saying, but… are you sure they would prefer that? What if they surrender and want to live?".

"Based on personal experience. There will be very few. But those who wish to go on can do it, of course. They'll have to live with a horrible secret, might be seen as greater monsters by society, sure. But they can". After a long silence from Neptune's part, Tomas then continued with a question of his own. "Do you see us as evil?".

Neptune then thought his answer and said it carefully. "I mean… you speak and kill as if it was normal. Don't YOU find it strange?".

"Sadly, that was the world we were born in kid". Neptune then seemed ready to correct him, but Tomas stopped him. "Our world kid, not this one". Tomas then stood up and dropped his empty plastic plate on the trash. "Ready to go?" he then asked Neptune as he turned to look at the blue-haired teen.

"Yeah… and… thanks. It was helpful". They then began their return to the main building but not before Neptune asked more questions on the way. "So… you mentioned you ate the fruit salad because it reminded you of a desert you like, what was it called?".

"Bublanina. Why?".

"Why is it special to you?".

"Ah. It was my favorite dish back in Czechoslovakia. I ate it constantly".

"So… how is… that place different to Vale?".

"Well for starters, Vale didn't get divided because of history and language from the other group of people living there".

"How different could they be? Especially the language"

"My Češi jsme velmi hrdí lidé, příteli" Tomas said, leaving Neptune with an answer and more questions.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

-By my calculations, Smoke would have been born in old Czechoslovakia.

-In the end, he says: "We Czechs are very proud people, my friend" (At least I hope it does, I used translate).