"Eye to eye contact is the best way of communication."

Nikita Gogoat

"Melon. Are you sure we should not go down there to see how they are doing?" Legoshi asked to the hybrid, "I mean, there are five people coming to the house, and they might be dangerous, the people downstairs might be in danger-"

"It is no longer our problem." The hybrid said to the wolf. "It stopped being our problem on the second that old horse fired us."

"But-" Legoshi tried to say, but the hybrid once more cut him off.

"You heard Mr. "CEO and Founder of Beastar Corps". He wants us out of the house, so we are leaving." The hybrid said as he placed yet another of his few belongings into a suitcase, looking like he had absolutely no rush. "So, we might as well leave soon. This means not get ourselves distracted by getting into battles that don't concern us."

Legoshi still tried to protest, saying that maybe Yahya-sama reconsider having them leave in face of an emergency, but the hybrid was not having any of that.

"Legoshi, do we need to do this?" The hybrid asked to his friend, looking him in the eyes. "I don't know you, but I received enough hateful glares in my life to know that the horse will not change his mind about us. Even if we save him from being stab to death, he will not reconsider. He despises us, and he wants nothing more with the two of us. We might as well just forget everything and leave while we still have the chance."

"No use getting in trouble when we are not being paid." Melon concluded as he went back to placing his things on the suitcase. "Yahya can handle himself, he is a big and strong horse who has no problem threatening a wolf half his size just for saying something he doesn't likes."

Legoshi looked at Melon for a few more moments, before accepting that he would not be able to convince him, and he went back to preparing his own suitcase to leave. He made sure to carry the box carrying all of the bugs he captured from the greenhouse. They were of a nice variety, and all of them were healthy, they would certainly make fine familiars. Legoshi even had some ideas of what to do with them.

The wolf convinced himself that there were other mages on the house, and that they could help the Manechesters if there was any problem. They would certainly be more helpful than they would.

Yahya-sama was right, they really lied about their credentials. They were nowhere near as skilled as they claimed themselves to be. They were not able to fight a truly skilled mage. Let alone five of them.

And Legoshi knew, from the way that the cicadas had been chirping in alarm, that at least four of those five mages were very strong.

They wouldn't stand a chance against them.

However, Legoshi still felt like a coward and a bastard for not trying to do anything when those mages could be threatening innocent people.

He wondered what his grandpa would say if he was there...

"Ma'am, are you really that strong?" Nick asked, to what Mrs. Clawhauser said:

"You can bet your fluffy tail I am." She was very serious as she said that. And her son agreed with her.

"Believe me, she is not someone who you want to anger." Josh said, looking at the fox. "She will make you wish you were dead by the time she is done with you." By his side, Gabe confirmed it. He saw himself how strong Caitlyn Clawhauser could be when in a battle.

Nick nodded at the three mages while, by his side, Judy was still looking at the door.

"They have been in there for a while." She said to herself as much as to the four others. They all looked at her, and then they looked at the door she was looking at. A door that led to one of the "coffee rooms" of the Manechester mansion. A room where Ben and his sister both were.

"Yeah, they probably have a lot to talk." Josh said.

"Ben looked so scared..." She said, remembering the look on her friend's face after he stood face-to-face with his younger sister. "So sad..."

There was a silence after those words, and that was when Nick asked:

"Okay, it is pretty obvious now that there is some drama between the Clawhauser siblings. Now, how rude would it be to ask you to give us some explanations?"

Josh looked at his mother at the fox. He had an unusually serious expression on his face, and so did his mother, who casted a glance on the two cops, before looking back at her son, and nodding.

"About as rude as you might think." Josh said as he turned to the fox.

"Remember that enemy that attacked us and tried to frame Ben?" Josh said, looking at the door, while the two mammals looked at him. "He also hurt Penny. And he used Ben to do it."

Judy and Nick both looked at the cheetah with surprise, Caitlyn, on her end, visibly tensed, as it was obvious that hearing about this was not pleasant for her to hear about. It was never pleasant for any mother about hearing how someone hurt her children. Gabe looked sad too, as he looked down.

Josh continued:

"Ben and I have always been pretty special, like practically everyone in our clan. In our case, it was not because we were innovative and skilled with new rituals. No, we have been considered special since we were born."

He then turned to look at the two cops.

"All because of our eyes."

As he spoke that, his left eye changed colors, with the sclera turning black as night as his iris turned neon-blue in color, and it glowed softly as he looked at them with a pupil of a dark-green coloration.

"We were born with special mystic eyes. Me and Ben." He said to the two, as he looked from one to the other with that black eye. "They are called mystic eyes of memory. They have the power to alter other people's memories."

"Wait, for real?" Judy asked, and Josh nodded.

"Yeah. All we need to do is activate them while looking someone in the eyes, and we can change their memories as much as we like." Josh explained. "We can alter existing memories, erase them, even create new memories. We have always been hold in high regard because of those mystic eyes alone. I don't really blame them. When it comes to brainwashing, they are one of the most powerful things you can hope to find. Everyone who we met says that they are first-rate mystic eyes, the kind that other mages would kill to have, and the kind that you can only have if you are lucky enough to be born with them, or if you are willing to pay a small fortune to have them implanted in you."

"They always came in handy when we had to make others forget magecraft." Josh said, his left eye going back to normal. "We weren't really worried about being caught when we could just make someone forget everything they saw just by looking at them."

"Wow..." Nick said, and he and Judy both took in what the cheetah had just told them.

"Wait..." Judy said, looking at the cheetah. "Ben has those eyes too? But, in that case... why didn't he used those eyes on Angus?"

Josh looked at her.

"Why go through all the trouble to make him sign a magic contract? Why not just look on his eyes and make him forget everything?"

That was a reasonable question, and Josh knew that.

"Penny was there." Josh said, confusing the bunny. "She was on the limo Ben took to go meet us to the wedding rehearsal. She and Jace."

"She was in there when they were attacked, and she helped them fight that bastard." Josh explained. "They did managed to push him back, but he was too strong. He flipped the entire limo into them, and Jace ended up trapped beneath it."

Josh's expression was so serious as he spoke that Judy didn't felt like interrupting him by asking what this had to do with her question. Nick too knew, from his years of experience, that it was not a good idea to interrupt a mammal who was speaking when he looked so serious.

It was obvious that Josh was speaking of something hard, and that the two should just shut up and listen.

"He managed to hurt Ben before Penny pushed him back." Josh said, "Then she went to help Ben. But that was a mistake."

"As it turns out, the bastard had his own mystic eyes." Josh said, a bitterness on his voice as he spoke that. "The mystic eyes of usurpation."

"Those eyes allow the one who uses them to take over the vision of others." The muscular cheetah spoke. "Basically, they give you the power to see what other people see. You can use it to spy on others and to gather information. But those eyes do more than just that. They also allow you to take over the mystic eyes of other people. They allow you to activate the mystic eyes of others and force them to use those against their will."

Josh made a pause, and sighed.

"He used them on Ben." Josh said, "Right when Penny was looking on his eyes, he took control of Ben's eye of memory and forced him to use it against our sister."

Judy and Nick both reacted appropriately to this revelation. Judy covered her eyes, while Nick let out a curse under his breath.

"He turned the hypnotic powers of the eyes into a form of attack." Josh said, "He launched an onslaught on Penny's memory. It was like sending a lethal charge of electricity right into her brain... she ended in a coma."

"After this, the bastard ran away like the worthless coward he was." Josh said bitterly, "Leaving Jace under the car, Penny in a coma, and Ben holding her on his arms..."

The two cops processed what they just heard, and Judy managed to make the connection.

"Wait... don't tell me Ben blames himself!" Judy asked, and Josh looked back at the bunny.

"It was his eye that damaged Penny's mind." Josh said. "She has long woke up from the coma, but she still has trouble to remember stuff. And Ben knows that it was his eye that did it to her. It might not have been under his control, but the fact that it was his eye is all that matters to Ben."

Neither of the cops had an answer to that.

"After this, Ben never used his eye of memory again." Jace said to the two of them. "And neither had looked Penny in the eyes... until tonight."

The three mammals then looked at the door, where the two siblings had disappeared behind nearly twenty minutes ago.

"Man..." Nick said, "That family reunion might be way more awkward then I though..."

"Yeah..." Caitlyn said, breaking the silence she had been "It must be... but believe me, both of them have been needing it for years."

Ben looked down. He looked at his own knees as he sat on that sofa. He would occasionally shift his gaze to his feet that rested on the ground beyond his knees, and sometimes he looked up enough to look at the coffee table that laid before the sofa.

He would look at any of them. He would look at anywhere on the room. But he would not look at her direction.

"Ben?" Penny asked, as she looked at her brother, sitting by her side on the sofa as she had asked of him. She didn't sounded mad at him, not at all. However, Ben flinched when she spoke to him, turning his face slightly to the side, as if he wanted to make sure she would be completely out of his line of sight.

Penny said nothing after seeing that reaction from her brother. She only went back to the silence in which she had been for the past fifteen minutes they had been sitting on that sofa. However, she soon realized that this would not help at all. She couldn't just settle for the awkward silence.

Not when she had this chance to talk to him.

That was not why she wanted to come with Instructor Horne.

"Do you remember when we were young?" Penny asked him. "Do you remember the staring contests?"

Ben said nothing in return. She continued.

"We used to just sit in front of each other and not say anything. We kept looking at each other for hours while we tried to reach with our prana and pick up what the other was thinking, do you remember that?" Penny asked him. "You remember how sometimes we had to struggle to keep a straight face when dad told us to be serious? How we kept snickering while we looked at each other until we broke off in laughter and rolled on the ground on that one time?"

Ben took a few seconds to answer, and then he nodded.

"Yeah, I remember..." Ben said, "And then Dad ended up joining us in laughing, and then he took us to the city for ice cream."

"He did?" Penny asked in surprise, looking at her brother. Ben tensed as he heard those words coming out of her mouth, a whimper escaping his throat.

"Sorry... there are some things I still don't remember... sometimes." Penny confessed looking down.

"Penny..." Ben said, his voice sounding strained. He was looking at his knees. His paws were on his lap, and his fingers were clenching into fists as they trembled. However, this was not out of anger. It was out of tension. Out of grief.

Of guilt.

"Penny, I'm so sorry..."

"Ben." Penny said, looking at him.

"I'm so sorry." Ben said to her, "I'm sorry for what happened. I'm sorry for what my eye did to you." Ben said to her. Tears were leaking from his eyes and running down his cheeks, to fall and land on his hands. His voice was becoming more and more strained as he talked. "I should have known he would have tried something! I should have kept my eyes on him and not on you! If I had, I could have stopped him! He would not have been able to use my eye to hurt you! It was all my fault, Penny! I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry..."

Ben was about to start sobbing. That was when Penny placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Ben, stop." She said gently, and the cheetah sniffled as he continued to let out tears. His sister hen said:

"Look at me."

He didn't.

"Ben, I'm serious, look at me." Penny insisted, but the cheetah refused to. He didn't dared to look her way.

"Benji..." Penny said, placing a hand on his face and gently guiding it to look at her own. She found out that Ben had his eyes closed.

"Open your eyes."

"No..." Ben mewled.

"Benji." Penny said, with a very serious voice. "Open your eyes and look at me."

Ben was not use to hear such a serious tone coming from Penny. He was more use to hear it coming from his father, and only when he wanted to make sure his point came across. When someone used a tone like that, Ben knew that they meant business.

That was why he did, very slowly, open his eyes and, for the first time in seven years, he looked penny dead in the eyes.

"Ben, what happened seven years ago was not your fault." Penny said to Ben with all seriousness. "You were not the one who hurt me."

"M-my eye..." Ben tried to say, but Penny was not having any of it.

"Did you activated it!?" She asked him so sharply that it caught Ben completely off guard. "Did you decided that it was a good idea to activate it and use it on me? Did you did it because you wanted to? No, you didn't! HE was the one who did it! HE was the one who hurt me! Just like he hurt Jace, you, Josh, the triplets! HE was the one who hurt us all of those times, and he would have continued to hurt us for the rest of our lives had not been for Marcy!"

Ben looked at his sister, and she looked back at him.

"So, please, PLEASE, stop blaming yourself and beating yourself up for what HE did! Because that was what he wanted! Maybe even more than to hurt me! Every moment you spend blaming yourself is another moment when he manages to hurt you even more. Don't give him this satisfaction. Don't let him hurt you any more than he already did. He is not worth it. He never was. And you never deserved to be hurt by him. None of us ever deserved for that waste of mammal life to hurt us."

For the longest moment, the two siblings looked at each other, until Penny said:

"Please, let me have my big brother back."

Her voice was so quiet it was nearly a whisper. It was nearly as if she was pleading. Ben looked at her, his eyes growing moisty once more.

He broke down.

He hugged her, and he sobbed on her shoulder. She hugged him back, and she just held him as he cried on her shoulder, staining her pullover with his tears and some of his snot, but she didn't cared. She just let her dear brother cry all he wanted.

For five minutes he cried, until all that was left was a soft sobbing, and then only some sniffling. After a while, they finally broke the hug.

"Man, I feel like such a dork when this happens..." Ben said, wiping his eyes and nose.

"Don't feel." Penny said to him simply. She was smiling at him, and Ben actually smiled back at her.

"It's good to see you, baby sis." He said, with all honesty in the world, and Penny smiled back at him as they looked in the eyes.

"It's good to see you, big bro."

As the five mammals continued waiting, all in silence, some of them nearly jumped when the door opened, and Ben and Penny walked out together.

They were both smiling. That was a good sign.

Caitlin walked forward, and stood before her two children.

"So, how you two doing?" She asked the two, and they both shared a look. They looked in the eyes as she hadn't seen the two of them doing in seven years, and they looked back at her still smiling.

"We are fine." Ben said to his mother, and Penny then said:

"We definitely are."

Then Caitlin smiled at the two.

"I'm very glad for this." She said to the two, before pulling them both on a hug.

"D'awwww." Judy said as she watched this wholesome scene, and Nick had a smile of his own on his muzzle. So did Josh and Gabe. As well as...

"Glad everything is fine." Said a voice that made everyone turn to look. Marcy was standing in there, and she was smiling as she looked at the scene as well.

How long has she been there?

"Didn't you went with the others?" Nick asked her, and Marcy said:

"And leave my siblings alone? Yeah, right. I'm not the kind of girl who does stuff like that."

Everyone looked at her, especially Caitlyn.

"Of course you are not." She said, as she walked to Marcy. "You care about your siblings and is always looking out for them, aren't you? What a good girl you are! Come here!"

Caitlin pulled Marcy into the hug, and Marcy blushed a bit under her fur.

"Mom, come on, there are people around!" She said, and Josh laughed at this. It was always amusing to him when Marcy got embarrassed when their mother hugged her.

Judy and Nick, on their end, found this to be wholesome as well.

Judy would even mention how nice it was that Caitlin fully accepted Marcy as a member of her family.

"Of course I do." Caitlin said to the bunny. "Why wouldn't I?"

Judy said nothing in return, and that was when Josh decided it was his turn to speak.

"Okay, Penny and Ben are finally looking eye-to-eye again, quite literally." He said, looking at his twin and younger sister. "So, if everyone agree, I think we should go and check on the other guys. You know, make sure that Mr. Tasty-dish-of-a-horse is not trying to kill that wolf again. Everyone agree?"

Surprisingly, everyone did, including Caitlyn and Marcy. With this, all of them walked across the mansion, with some of the servants giving them directions, and they were soon able to find the rest of their group, all of which were with Yahya and with his old friend, Gosha Drachenwolf.

They didn't seemed like they were fighting. Not at all.

In fact, they were both laughing as they shared a drink.

"And you remember that time on Seacattle?" the wolf said to the horse. "About that time when we broke into the hidden office on our motorcycle?"

"Oh, I do remember!" Yahya said to him, a huge smile on his face (a surprise for Nick, a she didn't thought that the eldest Manechester even knew how to smile, as he usually was always frowning). "I remember how they were about to shoot on Captain Hoofminster and how shocked he was! Do you remember his face? Do you remember how shocked he looked?"

Oh, Gosha clearly remembered. His mouth was so wide that a whole tangerine would have fit inside without touching the sides. The wolf and horse both laughed hard at the memory.

All the while everyone looked at them both as they continued their trip down memory lane, nearly as if they had forgotten that there were other people on the room. Some were looking at them with surprise, as they talked and laughed like old friends. It didn't even seemed that one of them had tried to kill the other just twenty minutes before.

Yahya's family seemed the most surprise of them all at what was happening. Adrian, his wife Carolyn, Chandler, Effie and her husband Charles, even Angus, all of them looked at Yahya with varying degrees of shock, disbelief and astonishment, nearly as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"And the guys? You remember the guys?" Yahya asked, and Gosha nodded.

"Yeah, how shocked they were when we, a skinny wolf and horse on shades and faux-leather jackets started to beat them up like stars of kung fu movies? I mean, there were two of us and nearly thirty of them and we brought them all down!"

"And the guy who compared us to a pair of crazy beasts?" Yahya asked after taking another swing of the fine bourbon on his glass. "Do you remember when he asked us if we were movie stars or beasts? Do you remember? Remember what you said?"

"Of course I do!" Gosha said to him, "I said: 'Bitch, we are beastars'!"

And with this, the two of them burst into laughing once more, with Yahya slamming his hoof on the table as he laughed. Meanwhile, his family continued to look at him as if they just discovered he was an alien from the Alpha Taurian solar system.

"Okay, what's with the shocked expressions?" Josh asked, as he stood near to Chandler. "What, have you never seen your grandfather laugh?"

Still with a baffled expression, looked at Josh and said:

"No."

"So, I see you guys really go way back, huh?" Marcy asked the two of them, and Yahya, on a surprisingly good mood, said:

"You can bet we did. This guy was the first partner I ever had. The only one, for that matter. Saved my life more times than I can count. Of course, I did saved his life a number of times too, but he won't admit it, will you, you Sassy Wolfy?"

Yahya punched Gosha on the shoulder he said that. However, this was not an angry, violent punch. This one was a playful, friendly punch between two pals. Gosha certainly seemed like he didn't minded the punch, even though it did seemed that Yahya punched him the same way Judy somehow punched Nick when she was excited.

"And you won't believe the things he managed to get me out of!" Yahya continued, "From bad situations with drug cartels from awkward meetings with the local police chiefs! This guy could talk us out of anything! And I swear that he was better in gathering information than I could ever hope to be! He could always find out about anything, and he always knew what to do! Not to mention all the times that we escaped almost as if for a miracle! I swear, it was as if... as if..."

Yahya paused, and he looked at Gosha for a few moments, his smile faltering.

"As if you had magical powers..."

All of a sudden, things got awkward in between the two of the friends who were laughing like there was no tomorrow just a moment ago, and everyone noticed the shift. Some of them became uncomfortable with it, and someone thought that it was a good idea to interfere and maybe break the awkwardness.

"So, I understood you two were partners, right?" Josh asked, looking at the two of them. "Kind of like a duo of vigilantes going around and fighting crime? Well, I can totally see it."

He was looking at the two of them as he spoke, but then he focused on Gosha.

"Mr. Drachenwolf, I heard a lot about you." Josh said, and Gosha looked up at him. Judy could notice a spark of apprehension on his eyes, which vanished when Josh added that it was an honor to meet him.

"Seriously, it is such an honor." Josh said, shaking his paw. "Guys, this wolf here is one of the best enforcers on the story of the Mage's Association. He is a real legend. Seriously, I could tell you a lot of stories that I heard about the things he did and the people he saved."

Gosha blushed a bit at this, and said he would prefer if the cheetah didn't. Yahya, however, got interested about it.

"So, you continued to fight for justice, didn't you?" Yahya asked, and Gosha looked at him, but Josh was the one to answer:

"You can bet he did. This guy never turned a blind eye for any wrong thing, and no one could stop him when the mission was to rescue an innocent in danger. He truly is an example to all enforcers."

"So, what you doing here, pal?" Josh asked him, "You came here to lend us a paw on everything? Gotta say, you don't need to. I got everything under control."

Gosha looked at him, and shook his head.

"No, not really. I'm..." The wolf hesitated, "I'm not an enforcer anymore, after all."

Yahya raised an eyebrow as he looked at Gosha, seeing the expression on his face as he looked down and said that.

"Oh, right. You retired years ago." Josh said to him, "So, what you doing here?"

"I came because Legoshi is here." Gosha said to him, "I heard he was in Zootopia and I got worried. He is my grandson, and I have a... a bad history with the Bellwether clan."

"Ohhh, right." Josh said to him. "They still mad with you about Destiny, right?"

Gosha sighed, and simply nodded. Everyone around looked at him as they wondered what the hell the cheetah and wolf were talking about. Yahya too but, instead, he asked:

"So, is Ogami really your grandson?"

Gosha turned to Yahya.

"Yes, he is my daughter's son." The wolf spoke to the horse. "She gave him his father's surname. Legoshi and I have... been a bit distant on the last years. He went to live with his father in Nippon for a few years, but he came to live with Lumia and Tibor in Liondon as he got ready to be their student. I couldn't be with him much because I was... traveling for a bit."

Yahya looked at Gosha, and he noticed his expression when he did those little pauses. This was something familiar to him, as he heard them before. They hadn't seen each other in over five decades, but Yahya still remembered those little things. However, he didn't commented on them.

"What about his mother?" Yahya asked, but he regretted it immediately.

"Leano... is no longer among us." Gosha said simply. There was no need to say anything else.

"My condolences." Was all that Yahya could say, and Gosha nodded at his friend, saying it was alright.

"So, you came for your grandson." Charles concluded. "And you two came for your hybrid son, right?"

"Indeed." Tibor said, as he stood by the side of his wife, who looked back at him.

"Yeah, those two idiots managed to get themselves in trouble, by what it seems. I knew I should not have let the two leave home. I can't believe I let Melor talk me into allowing them to make a solo trip."

"Wait, Horne still lives with you two?" Charles asked, "As in, he lives on your house?"

"Yes, why wouldn't he?" Lumia asked to the horse.

"I mean, living with his parents at his age?" The horse asked, looking at the two. "Ain't that a little bit embarrassing?"

"Why would it be?" Gosha asked, and so Charles looked at him.

"I mean, come on! Still living with your parents past your twenties is embarrassing." The horse said, and some of the presents thought about mentioning that leeching of your wife's family was more embarrassing. Also, Charles seemed to be overlooking the fact that his own wife still lived with her parents, albeit, on is mind, it was justified by the fact that this was the family house and that Euphemia would inherit it one day.

However, Gosha looked at Charles with confusion.

"Past his twenties?" Gosha asked. Lumia, on the other hand, seemed to know what was going on.

"He did it again, didn't he?" She said, sounding annoyed. "That boy is always lying about his age. I can't believe it. He has done it to go to the pubs for a year already."

Everyone looked at her.

"Oh?" Josh said, as what she was saying caught his attention.

For real.

"He always took advantage of the fact he looked mature." Lumia continued, "And so does Legoshi. I guess he convinced him to go along. How old are they claiming to be?"

At this, Yahya showed her the things he found on her son's luggage. She looked at the bag containing the familiar weed for a few moments, before focusing on the fake IDs.

"Of course." Lumia said, "He wanted to try the Animerican beer, so of course that he needed the people here to think he was at least twenty-one."

"Hold on." Euphemia said, "So, your son is not twenty-four?" She asked to the gazelle and leopard, "And Ogami is not twenty-two?"

"Twenty-two?" Gosha asked, seeming genuinely surprised. "Legoshi is sixteen!"

"And Melor." Lumia said, now looking positively pissed. "Turned eighteen just last month."

"Oh!" Josh said, looking at her. "Oh..."

"Hold on!" Adrian said, "Those two are teenagers?"

"Well, technically speaking, Horne is legally an adult." Marcy said, nearly as if she thought it was something that was worth mentioning, for the sake of her brother.

"He lied to my face..." Josh said to himself.

That was when the door of the room they were all in opened, causing everyone to turn their heads on its direction.

"Oh, there you all are!" Horne said as he walked in with his bag over his shoulder. By his side, Legoshi had his own back on his back. "Just wanted to let you all know we are leaving. Josh, you hot stuff, I just want to say that I definitely want to repeat our night together any of those days."

He was smiling seductively at the muscular cheetah as he said that. However, this time Josh didn't smiled back.

"You told me you were twenty-four." Josh said to him, nearly as an accusation. This caught the hybrid off guard. However, he didn't had time to reflect on Josh's change in attitude, for a few animals came forward.

"Legoshi!"

The wolf with bluish fur blinked as he looked at the other wolf.

"Grandpa?"

By his side, came a leopard, whom Melor recognized immediately.

"Dad?" He asked, seeming surprised. Then the female Gazelle came right by his side, glaring daggers at the hybrid, and he dropped his bag to the ground as his surprised expression turned into one of absolute horror.

"MAMA!?"