After Lucy was captured and Team Zodiac departed, Pedro and some golems left on an expedition. He blamed himself for Lucy leaving and needed some time away. A few weeks went by Pedro and company returned.
Leo was cultivating yin and yang around him when he received a mana message from Mallqui.
"Leo, Pedro came back."
Leo knew Mallqui was not contacting him to tell him Pedro returned. "Did something happen?"
"No, but they found a large metal boat ashore down south. I'd like it if you and Shadow can take a look. You two are the best with this new technology stuff."
Leo agreed with that. Since Zero and Jira died, Leo often visited their old lab. Since Lucy and Pedro left, Leo had more time on his hands to focus on fixing Sprite.
"Alright. Notify Shadow that we will leave tomorrow morning for me. I'm going to pack and get Pedro settled back in."
With the two of them in agreement, Leo started to pack him a go bag. Eventually, Pedro knocked on the door letting Leo know he finally arrived home.
Leo turned around and smiled at the little brother becoming a man right before his eyes. "Welcome home." Leo hugged him, and Pedro was silent.
He stared at the floor and then looked up at Leo. "I take responsibility for Lucy being taken from us. Punish me however you see fit." Pedro said with his most serious face.
Leo remembered having this same feeling before too. Regret is a powerful emotion. He reached his hand back to smack the boy, and when the hand came towards Pedro, he flinched. Then Leo's palm landed on top of Pedro's head, and Leo just messed it up a bit.
"Alright. Punishment is over." Leo said as Pedro looked at him.
Pedro hugged Leo and cried into his chest. Leo just rubbed his back as the boy let out all of his frustration.
When he finally calmed down, Leo pulled out some fruits for them to eat and sit down.
"Pedro, I know you did all you could." Leo paused and stared at the boy. He knew in this world the weak died, and the strong lived, but he wanted something better for Pedro. Leo sighed and then said, "use this feeling. Use this feeling to motivate you. Make this feeling your strength."
Pedro looked up and saw himself in Leo. This is what Leo had to do time after time. Loss, regret, and sadness were forged into him, and he turned those into his motivation to become stronger.
"I'm going to go cultivate right now." Pedro will his new resolve ran outside and began absorbing the mana around him.
Leo finished packing. He then left a note for Pedro that he was going to Zero's lab to grab a few things. Heading towards the lab, Leo ran into Goblin on the way and asked him to tag along. Leo got along with Goblin a lot. Since Goblin decided to focus on metal cultivation, he talked to Leo a lot after sparring.
"So, you started to incorporate Canine techniques into your fighting style since they suit the metal arts more," Leo said making a statement.
"Yeah, I'm not cut out to use yin arts like Shadow or even wind arts like Mouse."
This was something Leo never truly understood. Most of the other races forced their techniques on their people. If you weren't good at them, then they considered you, garbage. Everyone has an affinity towards specific mana and to fight against that is stupid.
Leo was lucky his affinity for earth was the highest. It also made sense why he picked it up so fast and when he was so young.
The two of them loaded up a few instruments and tools. Goblin and Leo gathered stuff until the sun started to set then they headed home.
Leo went back to the house and saw Pedro still meditating and absorbing mana into his body. Leo went inside the house and went into a basement he created. Down there, he built a training room and a forging station. In the forging area, Leo picked up a hammer he had been working on. It was a solid heavy silver and steel hybrid hammer.
This hammer was the accumulation of his hard work for the past couple of weeks. The gemstone on the end of hammer pommel was a combination gem. It was the only stone Leo was able to store earth and metal mana into. This was Leo's greatest creation yet.
The night came and went, and that next morning, Leo, Shadow, Mouse, and Goblin hopped into an airship with a golem named Shui. She was one of the ones that went on the expedition and was acting as their guide back to the location of this vessel that was beached.
Flying up to the massive ship, Leo stood up and looked out the window. "That is Hope. What happened here?"
-------------------------
"Hiro, the Angel Corps are asking you to help with repairing the two vessels at the docks." A human sailor mentioned to the former Thunder Knight.
"Hmmm." Hiro scratched his chin. "We abandoned a ship down south. We could use it for repair parts."
"That is a good idea. Can we leave soon? The Corps wants the ships operational by the end of the week."
"Sure. Let me notify the Sect, and I will get my stuff ready."
Hiro notified the Sect and gathered his stuff. He then looked at the building next to his where Lucy was staying. He wanted to tell Lucy but knew if he did then she would escape to where ever Leo was staying.
"Leo..." he whispered to himself.
Anytime it came to the topic of Leo, Hiro was always frustrated. He was weak, he stayed in the company of the enemy races, and he was naive to the world. He hated Leo the most for his unloyalty to the Renegades.
"Pray I never see you again, Leo."