Slowly, Zia opens her eyes as she wakes up back in HQ. "So she wakes..." Demetri says as he looks over his shoulder at her, while sorting through files and documents on the table across the room.
"How long have I been out?" Zia asks.
"About 12 hours." Demetri says. "At least, this time. You have woken up about nine times, once per day, and asked same question."
"Same... question?" Zia asks as she sits up.
"So you are awake awake this time?" Demetri asks, surprised as he walks over to the bed where Zia lays down. "You have been waking up and passing out again and again."
"W-... what?" Zia asks as she rubs her eyes.
"Your head hurts, I'm sure." Demetri says. Suddenly, Zia panics and quickly places her right hand on the back of her head and checks for blood and sees no blood but finds her right hand tightly covered in wraps. "Settle down. You are fine. There is no bleeding. Luckily, you had only caused a minor reopening on the surface of your skin, but it already closed up. Your intense headaches would likely be from sleeping so much. Oversleep is harmful. Lucky for you, no major damage was found... on your head. Your hand, however, will have scar. Big scar. But it will be fine... eventually."
"Why have I been... out for so long?" Zia asks.
"Likely residual side effects from coma." Demetri explains. "You exerted yourself a little. Some of your body hasn't gotten used to moving again since the time you went missing. As such, it assumed it was under attack and did the best thing it could to heal. Emergency shut down, and focus all energy on recovery. It will be some time before you get back into full swing, if ever. Stop going out of way to pick fights."
"But I-" Zia says and is then interrupted.
"I heard." Demetri says sternly. "From Robin. I understand. But there are things more important than just what is in front of you. You need to recognize that. I can't take care of crew forever." Zia looks down, feeling guilty as she thinks about what he said. "I'm not in prime, Zia..." Demetri says as he walks back over to the table on the other side of the room. "I am not long for world. If you don't learn to take care of yourself, you'll be putting yourself in more trouble than you can handle."
"Y-yeah... thanks, Doc." Zia replies.
Suddenly, the door opens slowly as Silas peeks his head around the corner. "Mom?"
"Da, she is awake." Demetri says as he sits down.
Silas takes a sigh of relief, then says "I was worried you might get sick or fall into a coma again!"
"Like I said." Demetri says, not taking his eyes off of the papers in front of him. "Don't get into more trouble than you can handle. You do not live just for you. Not anymore."
"So, what's the situation?" Zia asks as she meets with Ryan, Benjie, the three kids and Robin.
"Well, the American forces have been on the retreat. This war is seemingly coming to a close." Ryan replies.
"But we can't get ahold of anyone for calls of ceasefires, treaties, or anything." Robin adds. "Not that there's many options, what with most key players taken off of the field for both sides... but you would've figured Freeman would want to put an end to the war efforts in Omnia after losing McNamara."
"More than that, we've found a way to resolve the Black Skies Incident." Silas says. "America knows that. Once we get a few more streams handled and go public with this, I don't think there'd be anymore reason for them to chase us or fight back. They've taken too many losses, they can't gain any favors here... unless they think they can take any of us alive."
"I'm not so sure that's their only set of goals." Zia says. "From the sounds of it, McNamara really made it seem like America were desperate this entire time. So, if they're really that badly off, they're rather damned if they do and damned if they don't. So it doesn't make sense that gaining credit for solving the black skies, taking us down or gaining additional land would be their only goals. There has to be something else to it, but what?"
"I'm... not sure I follow." Ryan says.
"Well... if they needed land..." Zia says as she thinks. "Why Omnia?"
"Because we... don't have a government?" Robin replies.
"But how many places are around just like that?" Zia asks.
"Then... because..." Silas says as he thinks.
"It can't be just any old land." Zia says. "They have many, weaker and much more susceptible countries nearer. So, why Omnia?"
"There... must be something they're working on here?" Silas says. "Some sort of investment they can't afford to lose. But what does Omnia have that other countries don't?"
"Economic ties worldwide?" Ryan asks.
"Naris?" Robin asks.
"The... Ly'Lum?" Silas asks.
"But... the Ly'Lum was disbanded along with the government." Ryan says.
"Yes, but no!" Zia says. "That must be it! Silas, you're a genius!"
"I am?" Silas asks.
"Wait, wait, wait..." Dana says. "What is it the Ly'Lum was developed for? Aside from the restoration period, that is."
"That's the key." Zia says. "The Ly'Lum is an asylum and library of the documents taken worldwide from the Naris Catastrophe and restoration afterwards. They had the sole responsibility of holding it safe and nurturing healthier human development after the crisis. With the world so imbalanced and humanity's primary forms of energy all rendered useless, many shifts had to happen!"
"But where can we find that information before the Americans?" Ryan asks.
"We don't need to." Robin says. "We already have it."
"And they don't know!" Zia says. "Siran had those collected long ago! He's been using it to form them into books that can be mass produced later. Some sort of... warning to the world to not make the same mistakes twice. But nobody outside of us know about it!"
"Oh, right!" Benjie says. "I've read most of it too! I'm helping compile it."
"You've what!?" Ryan asks. "How did you all get your hands on those sorts of documents!?"
"Mostly with the help of Wolfpack, before Don retired." Zia says.
"W-... Wolfpack!?" Ryan asks. "The actual gang of thugs? That Wolfpack?"
"I guess it's for the best that Ali isn't in this meeting right now..." Benjie mentions.
"So... why would they want it?" Ryan asks. "What kind of information is in there?"
"I can easily think of a few reasons to get your hands on the only copies of the files that documented humanity's recovery and early development of magi-tech." Dana says. "Propaganda, weaponization, appropriation, to name a few."
"It can give insight on what was, what came to be and how." Zia says.
"So they want those documents..." Ryan says. "Releasing any little tidbit of information without context and sway the flow of historical texts any direction they want. Then, land wouldn't be an issue. They'd have everyone under their thumb."
"Just like the Ly'Lum..." Robin says.
"They already attempted this once." Zia says. "Unfortunately for them, the pawns they sent into the Mages Guild back then turned to lust for power and lost control. As sad as that is to think about, it's thanks to Naris's endo that America hasn't already achieved that goal."
"Crazy bastards..." Ryan says. "Then their end goal-"
"To get their hands on those documents at any cost." Carl says.
"But they can't possibly be willing to throw away all of their men for this one goal." Ryan says.
"Desperation does terrible things to the psyche, Ryan." Zia replies.
"Speaking from experience?" Ryan jokes.
"More than you know..." Zia replies.
"Well... where are the documents now?" Ryan asks.
"I don't think we've been working on it since before the Black Skies Incident." Benjie says. "After that, too much has been happening for any of us to work on it. I'm positive some of the stuff I was working on is here... but where is the rest again?"
"Oh no..." Zia says.
"You don't mean?" Robin asks in disappointment.
"Oh shit, it's in Seeira!" Benjie exclaims.
"We have to get it before someone else finds it." Zia says.
"You remember where, at least?" Ryan asks.
"Valentine Shoppe." Benjie says. "At Vivi's house. It's a big enough place to store some of the stuff there, when we had it moved out of Siran and Zia's house."
"We must've left it and forgotten about it when Siran went into his coma!" Zia says as she visibly gets more stressed.
"Well, relax!" Robin argues. "Not like you can sprint there. Whatever the case may be, we'll get transport ready. Just... don't do anything stupid like I told you before you went and did something stupid... fighting McNamara..."
"I'll have shuttle immediately arranged." Ryan says as he walks away.
"Let's hope we don't catch trouble during this outing." Benjie adds.
After a while of traveling together, Zia and the others arrive in Seeira with Ryan. When they get there, they noticed a large system near the middle of town that acts as this town's climate preservation system during the black skies. They looked around, but the town seemed so different after all of this time. When they finally reached the eastern edge of town, they found Vivi's shop mostly in ruin. "Oh no..." Zia says as she approaches the rubble. "No. No no no no no no no no no!" Zia starts picking up large rubble and throwing it to the side to look underneath.
"Vivi is gonna be so pissed..." Robin jokes, then looks over at the kids next to him and notices Dana and Silas trying to hold Carl back and consoling him. "Oh..." Robin says to himself, feeling guilty.
"My home..." Carl says, behind tears.
"H-hey, it's okay!" Benjie says as he thinks. "At least nobody got hurt!"
"No no no no no!" Zia stresses out. "We can't lose it! It's gotta be around here!"
"Zia!" Robin yells as suddenly, the air around them shifts.
Zia looks up slowly, and sees a tall drone with a familiar helmet covering his head. He stood still and calm. The air around him felt lifeless and cold, but he seemed motionless and not very hostile. They stood very still and were so silent you couldn't even hear them breathe. "Something interesting indeed." Dolos says as he comes out of hiding from a nearby building, looking down at a book in his hands. "Not only have we found out how the humans survived Naris, but I even got to see how Ishmael got that irritably stupid name 'Siran'. It's rather silly, in all honesty." Dolos then closed the book in his hands and they saw it was the book Siran was working on writing which had all of the rest of the information that they were missing.
"Where are the documents?" Ryan asks.
"Those old things?" Dolos asks. "I burned them. They seemed important, so it felt great. Now, what kind of silly plan does Siran have with this little number?"
"Return the book, or else." Zia growls.
Suddenly, the drone shifts at near instantaneous speed to stand between her and Dolos. "I wouldn't try anything so suddenly with Foxhound here." Dolos replies. "You see, this drone in particular was made specially just for you and Siran. But there's no need to rush to your deaths just yet. I'd rather have Ishmael here to watch the light leave your eyes. After all, with Gaia dead, this is the last time the two of you ever stand in our way again. No more reincarnating, no more chances. In due time, we'll make an example out of you yet."
"Give me the damn book." Zia growls.
"Hm..." Dolos says as he thinks. "No." Suddenly, Zia moves in a flash and appears in Dolos's face with one of her guns pointed at Dolos and her other gun aimed behind her at the Foxhound drone who moved at a faster speed. Dolos was completely unflinching as Foxhound had his right palm raised and pointed at the back of Zia's head, who now stood still in this standoff. In Foxhound's palm was intense and bright glowing reactive endo, ready to be fired the moment Zia moved. "Why the rush?" Dolos asks. "I told you, we already have a time and place for this. We still have a few more things for you to witness. Maybe next time, bring your little pet gods out to play. We have something especially set aside for them." Dolos begins to laugh, but suddenly feels something slip right out of his hands. Dolos looks down and see the book being pulled away from him by an invisible force towards Silas, as Silas, Carl and Dana all put their focus together on a digital and debuff field and Silas used his practice of moving rocks within his digital field during his training with Athena to swipe the book out of Dolos's hands. "Well... that certainly is new..." Dolos says in unenthused surprise. Dolos looks up at Foxhound and says with a nod "Kill the kid."