"Kitty what's 2 times 12 plus 6?" Dudley walked slowly, his eyes closed in concentration. Kitty walked next to him, her expression looked a little more casual and not afflicted by the horrors of elementary school math.
"30, Dudley…" She snickered and the dog opened his eyes.

"Thank you." He looked over at her and smiled friendly. "I am still not good with calculating… Believe me, math got easier as the numbers disappeared."
"Most people say the exact opposite thing," Kitty said surprised. She could remember that she also back then had to calculate things for him but she had never thought Dudley would use the words math and easy in one sentence.

"Is that so? I got to say I had fun with the standard calculus stuff during my academy days."
Kitty stopped in her tracks, her mouth now fully agape.
"What?" Dudley turned around realizing she wasn't following him anymore.
"Calculus, you?"

"Oh, now you are being offensive." He folded his arms and grinned.
"It's just… weren't you the guy who told me that you just got through high-school math because your teacher didn't want to see you in his class anymore."
"Let's put it like that, I had a good teacher." Dudley turned around and waved Kitty to follow him again.

"I like to get to know him." She laughed and ran a few steps to catch up. "Must be some kind of… math wizard."
"I don't know if Isaac would like to be called math wizard." Dudley imagined the scientist with a pointy blue hat and a robe. Dudley had to admit that he would really like to see Isaac in such an outfit.

"Shut up!" again Kitty was surprised but she refrained from stopping this time. "The scientist? The annoyed arrogant guy?"
"He's, in contrast to Ryan, quite a nice guy if you get to know him. I mean Keswick seems to…" Both of them stopped in their tracks this time. They looked at each other. The events of the last hours rewound and played in front of their minds' eyes.

The fight against the lizards, Meternagel's sacrifice, the two of them charging the enemy and putting the rest forces to flight while capturing some equipment that was left back in the hasty retreat. About 30 people would fit into these if Dudley's estimations were correct.
And of course, Keswick, the mental image of their friend more dead than alive in Isaac's arms was torment for them.

"God I hope he's alright…" Dudley sighed and this time it was Kitty who initiated an embrace.
"Me too…" she whispered to him. "Do you think…"
"Let's not think…" he laid a hand on the back of her head holding her closer.

"You could be right." She looked him in the eye and lost herself in these two blue oceans. Their faces moved closer and their bodies were about to form one as a voice yelled from the side.
"FREEZE!"

Kitty and Dudley jumped apart and were both about to grab their gun when they saw who yelled the words. Behind a rock a group of armed teenagers moved their guns drawn to them and quickly let them sink down again.
"Oh… I thought you…" the young rat who had also told them to 'freeze' was Helena. She looked alternatingly between the adults and then turned back to the rest of the group. "Seems like we found catdog's parents."

"First of all, Helena, tone." Kitty put her hands on her hips.
"Yeah yeah, whatever." The rat grinned widely.
"And secondly, where is Nick?"

"Catdog? He…" Helena's smug grin disappeared as she saw the fully extended and razor-sharp claws on Kitty's hand. "… I mean Nick is part of the rearguard with Terry and Annabel they..."
"MOM!" in the moment of realization Nick ran towards her, almost jumping into her arms as he reached her. "You're okay…"

While mother and son hugged Dudley knew he had some business to tend to. Terry stood there looking horrified at him even raising his gun as he stepped closer.
"Listen." Dudley sighed and effortlessly took the gun out of Terry's hand with a yank.
"Lese dont hut e!" Terry tried to articulate through his broken jawbone.

"What? No listen… I…" Dudley took a deep breath. "I came to apologize for attacking you."
"What?" The surprise overwhelmed Terry's mind for a second making him use his mouth in a normal way which granted him a short burst of immense pain.

"Yes, it was wrong to attack you… It wasn't productive and a stupid impulse reaction so. I am sorry, that won't happen again." Dudley reached his hand out toward the boy who winced at first but then looked at it. Slowly he took the offer and they ended up shaking hands.
"Good… now." Dudley nodded and then gestured to the whole teenager squad. "Everybody, we regroup at base."

The teenagers, with the reluctancy that was inherent to teenagers, started marching toward the bunker and Dudley was about to follow them as he turned around again. Nick and Kitty were still hugging each other in an embrace he knew too well. It was a mixture of pain and happiness seeing them like that and it poignantly reminded him that, though his natural place with the two, he lost the chance to be part of this bond.

To be a full member of this family and not the newcomer who was 16 years too late. As much as he had wished to, he couldn't take his eyes off them, and after a while of staring Kitty realized that she was being watched. Without breaking the hug she waved Dudley to them.

"Don't just stand there." Kitty smiled and Nick turned his head to his father.
"Hey…" he slowly said and broke the embrace with his mother.
"Hey," Dudley replied scratching the back of his head. "Look I didn't want to steal this moment…"
"It's okay don't worry…" Nick said quickly. "Let's just get back home… if there's something left."

"We'll see, I hope Sly got himself back together."
"He seemed quite shocked as this pilot died…" Kitty mentioned and Nick looked at her startled.
"The pilot? You mean John?"
"Well, yes, you know him?" enquired Kitty confused.

"He spent a lot of time with grandma… She will be upset." Nick shook his head. "That's sad, he seemed nice."
"He was… in his own unique way." Dudley sighed and tried once again to push the weird thoughts of his mother and Meternagel away. "Let's go back, we don't have all day."
The three of them wandered back to the crater where a worried-looking Kate was greeting Dudley with more worrisome news.

"Look Dudley…" She started and spoke fast. "Sly is on the verge of a breakdown. I need you to help me out here."
"What, why me?" He asked and looked around like there was someone else who could maybe handle that.

"He won't listen to me right now and well, he listens to you… sometimes. No time to explain, come." She grabbed Dudley by the hand and ran into the crater with him. Of course, Nick and Kitty followed her. Out of the three, it was only Nick who saw the pale face of Annabel in the crowd of bystanders.

"For the last time, how did you send a message to them?!" Powers towered over the lizard scientist Seema who knelt in the crater's dust. She had a few new lacerations on her face that corresponded well with the bruised knuckles on the captain's fist.
"Please I…" The lizard begged tears streaming down from her remaining eye.
"I SAID…"

"Sly please." Isaac tried to intervene. He approached Powers with the pose of someone trying to calm a feral animal. "She was under my and Keswick's supervision all the time, she couldn't…"
"Don't get into this Isaac." The captain ordered furiously. His piercing gaze made Isaac look quietly to the ground.

"Now for the last time, I know they are here for you. How did you…"
"Sly…" Dudley walked slowly to his human colleague his hands raised in front of him. "I know the place you're at, calm a little."

"Calm…" Powers pushed Seema onto her back with his foot and then turned to Dudley. "Oh please, explain to me how to stay calm giving the state of things." The captain moved closer to Dudley until he stared him directly in the eyes. Dudley had a hard time withstanding this gaze, he knew it since the first time he had set foot on the Leviathan, Powers was known for being able to simply stare people down.

Normally his gaze was like a ray of pure authority but in that moment Dudley felt that there was something in it, something modulated onto the authority that altered the whole stare. For the first time ever he could withhold it.

"We both know it is not about that." The dog said and imitated a stance similar to the one Powers often used. He crossed his arms behind his back. "Stay focused, don't wander down there."
"Half of our ground forces are defeated, our whole airforce gone. The shuttle was vital for every…"

"You knew that this mission would require a blood toll." Dudley said coldly. "You just didn't expect that we would be the ones paying it."
Powers seemed taken aback by these words he gritted his teeth angrily and leaned closer to Dudley. "What are you implying?"

"That you are afraid that you made the wrong decision at the beginning and now see our crews dying as a consequence."
"How dare you impl…"
"Ten of them died, one of us." Dudley whispered to him. "I don't believe you would start beating up captives because of one of these ten."

Powers averted his gaze to the ground still gritting his teeth. Dudley tried to stick to his posture but on the inside, he exhaled.
"You know how important he was for my crew."
"For the family, yes." Dudley said and dared to lay a hand on Sly's shoulder. The captain grabbed it with his own but not to remove it. He just held it for a while.

"I… I think I need to clear up something." Nick timidly stepped to the two men his head hanging low.
"Nick now is not…" Dudley wanted to interrupt his son but what came then took the wind out of him.
"I think it's my fault this happened…" Nick still looked at the ground and started telling the story of him capturing the vehicle of the lizards and driving around with it in a futile hope to find his father.

Dudley looked terrified at Powers who just stared at Nick during his talk. The human finally pushed Dudley's hand away and was about to step towards his son to do something he would regret later but the dog once again jumped in between. Wordlessly he stared at the captain once again while Powers stared back wanting to get through to Nick.

It was a silent battle and the audience around them was so close to the edge of their seat that they let the silence take a spot among them. It felt like hours as the two of them stared at each other and especially for Nick. He stepped up because he felt it was the right thing, and he had expected consequences but not violence.

It took five minutes of pure agonizing staring. Dudley didn't even blink during this time. Too great was the fear that Powers would use the time to move around him. The burning from his eyes was at the point of being unbearable when the captain yelled. "To hell with it." And turned away from Dudley. Again, the dog took a deep breath followed by an unusual pain in his chest.

Whatever the mechanical heart inside of him was doing, it felt like it wanted to message him something by means of frequency modulation. He realized how his knees were giving in but before he could fall backwards a pair of hands caught him and held him standing under great effort. Nick panted and sweat but he could hold his father's weight and brought him back onto his feet.

"Thanks…" panted Dudley and hit his chest a few times. "These things sometimes glitch…"
"Yes, I realized that…" Nick replied. The tone in his voice was bracing for what would come next.
"What were you thinking Nick?" Dudley said he regained strength after a few breaths.

"I just wanted to do something!" Nick said and stomped his feet on the ground. "All the time everybody said I should just wait and see because we can't do something about it."
"So, you went out there and…" Dudley gritted his teeth and tried to not fall into a rage himself. Nick was truly his son, a deed so dumb was definitely something he had done back then. "This was overarchingly stupid Nick. We can be glad if the people don't lynch you!"

It was the first time Nick looked around, hostility was a word too weak to describe the anger that he encountered. The spectators on the side of the crater did look like they heard his father's suggestion and were ready to build a pyre any minute. Nick started sweating.
"I never wanted…"

"Of course not..." Dudley grimly sighed. "You better stay close to me and mom for a while and we will talk about this again later."
Nick nodded hesitantly and Dudley was about to turn back around to Powers as Nick remembered something. "Dad, there's one thing."

"Don't you think you…" before Dudley could finish his sentence Nick had pulled out a little device which he handed to his father.
"What is that?" the older dog asked confused and eyed the device.
"I don't know, this strange orangutan in a suit gave it to me…"
Dudley's ears perked up hearing this description. An old insignificant seeming memory had hidden in his mind for over 600 years now and would show until this moment.

"An orangutan in a suit you say?"
"Yes." Nick nodded eagerly. "And he said I should tell you something."
Dudley's heart, though mechanical, started beating faster. There was a fear in him but he didn't know what he was afraid about. "What…did he say?"

"Expect the unexpectable. And predict the unpredictable" Nick imitated the weird speech pattern of the ape and Dudley stepped away from him as he did so.
"Isaac!" He called out to the scientist who rushed to him.
"What is it?"

"Can you take a look at this… thing?" he handed him the device. Instead of making the usual fuss about something like that Isaac simply nodded and left.
"What is going on?" Kitty stepped to them seeing the shock in Dudley's face.

"Something awfully weird." Dudley meant and panted holding his chest again. "We should…"
Dudley's racing thoughts were put onto another track as Rob's voice yelled over the edge of the crater. "Kitty!"

Rob ran down to her and Kitty didn't hesitate to meet him halfway ending in an embrace. Dudley tried to keep his composure as well as he could but it was obvious that their reunion wasn't of his liking.
"Dad we should maybe go somewhere else I mean..."

"GUYS!" Isaac's voice was so loud it echoed like an explosion over the empty battlefield. He ran into the middle of the crater threw a holo projector on the ground and opened a bunch of documents visible to anyone. "You have to see this! This is… Nick, you have not altered this have you?"
"I didn't even know what that is!" Nick said defensively.

"Isaac, more details first," Dudley ordered.
"This thing is a data storage, a primitive one but one nonetheless. And it is filled to the brim with delivery documents. I first cast them aside but then took a closer look. The lizards transporting deuterium and tritium in enormous quantities to this facility close to us."

"This odd shaped tower?" asked Kitty.
"Yes, this big lizard base." Isaac nodded quickly and swiped through some documents. "I am suggesting that they have built a titanic fusion reactor inside of it…"
At this moment, just like someone had put a new pair of batteries inside of him, Powers awoke from his anger-induced stupor. "How big we are talking?"

"I had to crunch some numbers but roughly enough to power the whole planet if they wanted to."
"Do you think it would also be enough to juice up the Leviathan for a while?"
"Maybe but how would you transport that energy."

"Oh, I think I have one or two ideas for that," Meliha said grinning. "Just give me a few hours."
"You got one." Powers ordered tensed. "To all you others I think I have an idea to turn this whole thing around. Meet me here in 60 minutes." The captain was about to leave but Isaac still had to say something.

"Captain, that's not all, look at that."
Isaac swiped to a document that was titled 'Survivors'. The inside of the document was just one line of text. 'It is in your hands now.'

Having this in a data storage by the lizards was oddly enough but the fact that made it so terrifying for everyone around them was that the words were written in human language. Dudley stared at the text and multiple shivers ran down his spine. This wasn't supposed to exist.

-Author's note: Well, time for a desperate plan to pull themselves out of this mess. Let's see what it is. As always folks, tell me what you think in the reviews, and stay tuned for more :)-