Doctor Mofuni was thankfully in a much more composed and articulated state of mind after ingesting a few sips of the warm beverage Rob prepared for him.

He and Mofuni had parted on a much friendlier note because of this, which I found both relieving and wholesome. Not soon after Rob ascended the lift and back up into the garage above, Doctor Mofuni was finally ready to hear my case, and I was as intrigued by Mofuni's casual acceptance of me as I was concerned. I didn't like to presume such things, but I had a nick that there still was something wrong with him despite his uplifting remedy.

Nevertheless, I welcomed his hospitality when it was present, and he even poured me a mug of Postum as a humble gesture. Aaron and the doctor had a brief moment of catching up and sharing a couple of laughs as I situated myself upon an open spot on one of the work benches. I also removed my jacket and boots, wearing nothing but my violet body suit, and placed them in the corner after seeing that Aaron had started doing the same thing. It was nice to get some needed air on my feet after today's journey.

Doctor Mofuni took another swig of his mug before walking over and leaning on one of the other workbenches, letting a few more loose laughs trickle out before I acknowledged me again. I wouldn't say the sight of me diminished his spirits, though I sensed a whole slurry of overriding and conflicted thoughts swirling around in his mind the longer he regarded me. That motioned him to pay closer attention to the steam rising from his mug.

"Ah, again, do forgive my conduct a few moments ago, dearest," Doctor Mofuni said remorsefully. "My mind―though brilliant in all rights―has not been a sound place in quite a long time. I regretfully can't always register what happens around me as acutely as a man with my responsibilities should be able to. All that can mostly be attributed to my previous employer, though. There's a lot wrong with me that I have them to thank for, sadly."

"Your assistant told me that you were experimented on before the Combine occupied your planet," I recalled. "Who was your employer?"

Mofuni continued to stare at the blackish liquid in his mug, and a fleeting glimpse of reminiscence could be seen past those square glasses of his―glasses that had been concealed in the breast pocket of his white lab coat prior. "Can't say it was a good one in hindsight, but I knew what I willingly signed up for―like most of my peers," Mofuni said, glancing in my direction. "Aperture Laboratories was more determined than anyone else to make scientific breakthroughs, and boy did they pull some massive strings to make them happen―often at the cost of common decency. Details like that get lost in the fine print within that phonebook of a contract we all had to sign."

Mofuni's gentle face proceeded to twitch violently a few times, though he didn't appear to realise they happened. I crossed my ankles as my muddled feelings for this man steadily turned to pity, and Aaron too dawned a look of ruth. "What did they do to you, Doctor?" I asked.

"Too many things to count, dearest," Mofuni shrugged. "Everything from cafeteria food laced with experimental drugs to blood clots in the brain caused by said drugs. I was one of the first to have been operated on. I came out rather well all things considered, don't you think?" I wondered, looking at me expectantly. His mug then started trembling as the left side of his face dipped for an unnerving few seconds before returning to normal again along with a cease in the hand shaking.

My ears lowered along with my confidence. I had almost blurted out 'It's good that you're still housebroken', but that might not have been true either. Even still, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

Understanding the importance of staying focused, and keeping Mofuni from spiralling into a possible relapse of some kind, Aaron nudged the doctor's shoulder. "Hey, doc, maybe we could talk about your pre-Combine days a little later," he encouraged sincerely. "I made sure Krystal came here quickly to meet with you because she's got a problem that I believe only you have the brains to solve."

Doctor Mofuni appeared greatly flattered by Aaron's words. "Brains. Good brains do I have, do I," he said enthusiastically, followed by another twitch. Perhaps that relapse already started. Aaron's complexion faltered only slightly at that before Mofuni looked at me again with attentive concern. "What's troubling you, dearest?"

I told Doctor Mofuni my entire story.

I told him of my home star system in a separate universe, my stranding in this realm, and all proceeding events before our current meeting in his lab, such as befriending Aaron, the vortigaunt Ben, and the arduous task of unshackling him by raiding the Combine's supply depot out in the ruined city in the Outlands. Mofuni's eyes widened with amazement at this part in my story, accompanied by a wide grin.

"Jumping j-particles! That was you two?!" he exclaimed, nearly spilling his beverage as he swung his mug around. "News of that depot going up in flames spread like wildfire―and pardon the pun I will not! You two must have really loved that vortigaunt to go through all of that trouble just for his sake!"

I took a modest sip of my bitter beverage. "Well, I have a reckless tendency to go to extreme lengths to correct wrongdoings, whatever they may be," I said, the tip of my tail lightly tapping the table.

"Extreme is the best word to sum you up, lassie," Aaron lifted his mug in ohmage before nudging Doctor Mofuni again. "You should have been there, Doc, they sent a gunship after us when we escaped with a scout car. She jumped on that flying monstrosity and blew it to smouldering smithereens with that magic stick of hers. It's a pretty wicked tool."

The mention of an instrument capable of destroying a gunship naturally perked the doctor's interest. "Oh?" he raised his eyebrows, returning his attention to me. "Do you have this magic stick with you? No doubt exotic tech from your home dimension, I presume?"

I set my provided mug aside and decided to humour the doctor with a quick demonstration by unclipping my sheathed staff from my belt and deploying it to full length. "Cerinian specifically," I informed, humouring the doctor a bit further by summoning harmless spurts of fire and ice from the opened spearhead before safely collapsing it all back down to a handy belt-clipping-friendly size. Doctor Mofuni appeared to regard my staff in essentially the same way he had regarded me; intrigued, yet oddly reserved.

"Fascinating piece of hardware you've got, young lady," he said, impressed with my display nonetheless, though I sensed that his immediate interests weren't in my staff like I had expected. "But, this space fighter of yours―this…Cloud Runner. Where might this tracker for it be?"

I had set my backpack down right next to me on the table, so I merely had to reach around to retrieve it from its snug hiding place. I held the hexagonal-shaped device in my hand and clicked a little button, where a small orange holographic began to project above my hand, displaying a set of local coordinates, though they had now changed since I first saw them back at the estate last night. Despite my new location, the Cloud Runner's crash site was much closer than I would have hoped for; about eight miles to the southwest of Red Bay.

I figured the Combine would have salvaged it by now if they found it, but it looked like it remained where I left it, likely in no small part due to its revolutionary cloaking tech a la Slippy's father hiding it from the Combine's gaze. All that was left was to reunite with it and power up her cells, but a proper plan for how to do it had yet to be conceived. However, in Doctor Mofuni's case, I could already see the myriad of radical plans formulating in the doctor's eyes as the hologram's projection glistened in his glasses.

"Great Scott…" Doctor Mofuni said, a wide and ambitious grin forming on his face. "I'm guessing those are some kinds of coordinates to your craft?"

"Precisely," I nodded, with a much less giddiness to my glee unlike the doctor's. "The Cloud Runner is about eight miles southwest from here. If there is a sufficient power source here, I could jog her cells and make her airborne again."

I disabled the holographic coordinates and put the tracker back into my pack as Doctor Mofuni adjusted his glasses. "Dearest, you are almost making me a bit too excited here," he admitted as his mug-holding hand trembled accordingly―though it could have been another relapse of some kind. "Oh, who or what I wouldn't kill to get a look at a true-to-life alien space fighter? The fact that it's just sitting out there just waiting to be found is enough to compel me to seek it out myself! However, in the case of all gold deposits, you gotta excavate the mine before you can get to it. Or you can just steal it from someone else…!"

He laughed the last part with an unnerving shudder in his upper body, a gesture that made my toes curl. "Uh…you good, doc?" Aaron asked concernedly. Doctor Mofuni blinked a few times in surprise like a fraction of time had been lost on him.

"Oh dear…" he lamented, taking another sip of his drink before sighing. "Not drinking enough consistently, that's all," he reassured, shaking his head as if to wake himself from a daze as his demeanour returned to a much more preferred cordial state. "Anyway, what I meant to say, is that bringing your ship here is now one of our biggest priorities. Ain't no way we're gonna let that thing lay out there in the outlands for the Combine to find. But I'm afraid that is easier said than done, like most substantial accomplishments in this day in age."

A surge of tempered hope flowed throughout my veins. I knew getting the Cloud Runner here was going to be a major feat with plenty of ensuing obstacles, but it was enough knowing that a prominent figure like the doctor was onboard to see that my lovely Arwing recovered and restored. "I am ready for any challenge if it means we can get her flying again," I declared with undoubting confidence.

"I'm happy to hear that, dearest, but I fear we've got a few big problems standing in our way," Doctor Mofuni said, his look of excitement dwindling a fair amount. "We're managing at the moment, but our food reserves will dry out within the month if we don't get our supply line restored. And even if we were to send out an expedition to retrieve your spacecraft, we would need a means to tow it. All of our trucks have been converted to run-on Combine batteries, but they have since dried up. They're able to syphon power from the reactors that I have built for the town, but we are strictly using them to keep the lights on and to block any signature that would alert any Combine units of our secluded presence. To say our hands are tied is kind of putting it…well…kindly."

I was troubled to hear this. That rude sentry, Redgie, had mentioned a strain on the food supply when we arrived. While monumentally important my case was to me, I felt compelled to help resolve the current problems plaguing this town. I was seconds away from telling the doctor that I would pledge to help them in any way I could when Aaron suddenly spoke up.

"We've always got problems with the miners, doc. They always come to their senses eventually," he promised. His thoughts relayed to me another rebel settlement, not too far away from here, but this one apparently had a negative reputation with him and the people of Red Bay. Before I could ask for any further information about them, Aaron resumed himself, and the accompanying thoughts also changed before I could get a thorough read on them. "Let's start planning ahead here," he advised. "Krystal can't stay stranded here forever. She's got to get back home, and I'm pretty sure you know how that can be done, can't you?"

That question served as a brilliant way to distract me from all the aforementioned complications facing Red Bay for the moment. Doctor Mofuni's face turned apprehensive, which would have distraught me if his thoughts weren't conflicting with Aaron's claim. "Yes. Sadly, yes," Doctor Mofuni relented, setting his mug on the table. "I do know how to get her back to her universe; I'm perhaps one of the last handful of people on Earth who can, much to my misfortune. If only that naïve stuck-up Rosenberg hadn't disappeared; he wouldn't have had a problem committing suicide if it meant getting up close to one of their tunnelling entanglement displays."

"Suicide?" I asked, disturbed by the morbid implications of required death if it meant my return to Lylat.

Mofuni tapped his fingers nervously on the workbench before swiping his mug for a quick and impulsive sip before putting it back down again with some force. I could see the effort he was putting into keeping himself levelled and composed as he straightened his white coat. "You see, dearest, the technology to generate a rift between our plane and yours is completely possible. It's practically easy. Too easy, if I must say," Mofuni explained. "However, what's keeping me from doing just that is that the Combine hold them down lock and key, not to mention high out of reach. I'm talking about a mile-high out of reach."

I gently set my mug down as I prepared to listen carefully―my ears shifting forward in accordance. "Where do the Combine keep these portals?"

"Do you know of their citadels by chance, dearest?"

"I do. Aaron had told me of them," I said. "They're towering monoliths in the centre of every major city, yes?"

"Yes indeed―the cities that are left, of course," Mofuni corrected. "You see, part of the reason why they're so massive is due to how large their reactors have to be to generate enough power to create and maintain portals between our dimension to the Overworld."

"Such as…the one in City Three?" I wondered, remembering that to be the nearest major city after Aaron had told me yesterday when trying to infiltrate the outland depot.

"Aren't you a quick study," Doctor Mofuni praised. "It's through them that the Combine can stay connected with it, go to and fro as they please, as well as transporting supplies and troops. I could go on all night about how their insufficient grasp on local teleportation is comically small, but what matters is that the portals made by any citadel reactor are more than capable of tuning into your universe's dimensional frequency. I fear that it is only through them that you can make it home, and I have a reasonable inclination to assume that they won't just let you use them if you ask."

"Undoubtedly," I agreed, coming to terms with the new knowledge I had received. While certainly confronted with a plethora of big problems, knowing that forging a way back to my universe was completely achievable was enough to lift a considerable amount of dreadful weight off my shoulders. I was now left with the unavoidable matter of working my way towards that irresistible end goal, but I knew it would likely take a considerable amount of time.

As much as it frightened me, I had to be willing to accept that there was a chance that this would take years to pull off. I was going home one way or another; regardless of the strife, and regardless of what would await me on the other side.

"I am willing to do anything I can to help you and the people of Red Bay in the meantime, Doctor Mofuni," I declared, making the weary old scientist raise his eyebrows.

"I say, dear girl, you've only arrived here but not an hour or so ago," he noted. "You'd commit yourselves to total strangers so eagerly?"

"She's got her mind set, doc," Aaron said, leaning closer to his acquaintance. "I'm beginning to learn that there's little that can stand in the way of what she's willing to do."

I smiled with some modesty, kicking my legs a little. I knew Aaron meant nothing but the utmost sincerity when he said what he did, yet a part of it felt off-key to me. There have been countless moments in my life where I was in the service of others, and sometimes I wished that I wasn't bound to this desire to help the misfortunate and instead focus only on myself and my desires, but I knew that I was better than that―much to my personal inconvenience. There were far bigger and more important things happening in my universe and in this one to worry about a drifting Cerinian vixen.

Doctor Mofuni, intrigued by my informed disposition, looked upon me with interest, and the sly look of an opportunist and formed its way onto his face. "How noble and inspiring of you, Krystal," he said, lifting his mug for another sip. "I am looking forward to working with you in the days to follow.