As Saber walked into the living room, he again felt that he wasn't alone in the seemingly empty house. But now he could sense that this – whoever or whatever it was – was not a Teknoman like Saber had at first feared. But still, there wasn't any indication of who or what else might be inside. It was odd, and Saber quickly decided to use his invisibility powers, just in case whatever he was sensing turned out to be hostile.

As he looked around at the once-familiar place, Saber wondered if it would ever feel normal to him to be there. It wasn't as if anything was really different about it, but there was just a feeling that the house itself was missing the family that had lived in it. It would have been a completely ridiculous notion for him about two months ago.

But things had changed. He had changed. And so Saber no longer found those kinds of phenomena as far-fetched as Cain would have. Looking at all the familiar things in the living room, Saber felt again that something was off. It was that same nagging sense that there was someone in here that shouldn't have been.

The feeling was coming from one of the rooms above him, and so Saber headed for the stairs. Grabbing onto the railing, Saber took one last look around at the place that had once been his home, it was strange not to be able to see it in color, but such was the downside of being invisible. I guess it's true when they say that you can't go home again, Saber thought to himself.

The feeling was getting stronger the closer he got to his father's old room, and for a minute Saber had the faint hope that his dad might still be alive. But that was stupid, his dad had been rejected by the Radam. Saber had been a Teknoman long enough to know what that meant. Dad might have been able to survive long enough to get out of the teknopod, but I hope for his sake that he passed out before the end.

After going through the tekno-process himself, Saber had a very good appreciation of the kind of agony that was inflicted on any sapient with the extreme misfortune to end up in the Radam's sights. Those that died were the lucky ones, as far as he was concerned. Reaching the top of the stairs, Saber looked at the closed door to what had been his father's room, wondering what he would find inside.

Drawing a deep breath to fortify himself, Saber walked up and pressed his right ear against the door. There were two voices talking, and both of them sounded more than a little familiar to Saber.

"So, there's been another one hatched," said a weary-sounding voice, one that Saber would have been willing to swear he recognized.

"Yeah, Cain this time."

Wait, that's Gunnar's voice! What's going on here?! Saber wondered, trying to keep a lid on both his curiosity and his telepathic powers. Then he heard footfalls coming toward the door, and Saber was torn between the urge to run and his strong desire to find out just what was going on in his old house. The door whipped open on him before Saber could make up his mind.

Gunnar stood there, but the look on the other Teknoman's face was not one that Saber had ever seen before. Instead of Gunnar's usual bored or unemotional expression, the blond Teknoman actually looked afraid. Saber wondered for a moment just what could make Gunnar look like that.

"All right," Gunnar said, trying to sound tough and unworried, and failing completely. "I know someone's out there, so why don't you just show yourself?"

Saber let himself fade slowly back into visibility, wanting to see how Gunnar would react. Whatever Saber had been expecting, seeing Gunnar go pale as a bowl of powdered sugar and then frantically work to cover his reaction hadn't been it. Saber could feel the nervousness and outright fear that was coming off the blond Teknoman in waves.

"S-Saber, it's good to see you're getting out of the base. But what brings you out to this neck of the woods?"

"Cut the crap, Gunnar," Saber said, folding his arms over his chest in a pose that made it obvious that he wanted answers right now.

"What crap?" Gunnar was obviously getting frantic by now, but making an admirable attempt to hide that fact.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" Saber was oh so tempted to snap 'What are you hiding from me, you blond bonehead?!' but that would have been out of character. Well, in character for Cain, but completely out of the norm for the new persona he had constructed for himself as Saber.

"Um, why would you want to come in here?"

Great, he's stalling. "Gunnar?"

"What?"

(Move.)