"Congratulations." Demetri says after Carl wakes up in a medical room the next day, back in HQ. "I am not sure if shooting for high score, but if you did you certainly hit it. Three broken ribs, second degree burns across all of upper back, lower neck and four heavily strained tendons in the right wrist..." Demetri disappointedly throws the diagnostic folder on Carl's lap as he lays down. "Do you know how many tendon in wrist?"
"Uhh?" Carl begins to say.
"Six." Demetri interrupts. "You have strained four out of six. Of course, you didn't break anything. Just going to be in lots of pain for four to six weeks. I don't recommend doing anything-" Suddenly, Demetri stops talking and lightly slaps Carl's leg. "Look at me." Carl stiffens up and looks right into Demetri's eyes as he says "don't do anything with that wrist for at least two months. Got it?"
"Got it." Carl replies.
"What did I say?" Demetri asks.
"Don't do anythin-"
"Anything!" Demetri interrupts. "Nothing! Whatever plans you had, cancel them. And just before you open mouth and ask, I want you to ask yourself. Does it breach the word anything?"
"R-right..." Carl replies.
"You all have knack of not taking doctor seriously." Demetri says. "I need you- all of you to understand how to look after own health."
Suddenly, the door slides open as Silas and Dana rush into the room. "We heard voices, so we let ourselves in." Dana says as the two of them walk up to Carl's bedside.
"It has been a long time since we haven't seen one of us in one of these beds..." Silas says.
"I try not to think about that." Dana says.
"Da. I know you don't think about it." Demetri scoffs. "That is why I drink."
Silas lets out a short sigh and says "You had us worry! Especially Dana."
"Whuh- hey!" Dana says as she looks at Silas.
"W-um..." Silas says as he takes a step backwards. Silas then slaps Dana on the back as if he were about to say good luck, but then just makes finger gun gestures with both of his hands and walks out of the room.
"... Glad to see you're awake." Dana nervously says. "I thought the injuries would've ended up worse."
"Da, she would not leave doctor alone." Demetri adds.
"It would be really nice if we could have some alone time here!?" Dana says as she slowly turns her head towards Demetri who is now sitting down and opening a bottle of vodka. Demetri swats his left hand towards her as if to tell her to ignore he's here as he drinks with his right.
"You look like you had a hell of a sleep last night." Carl jokes.
Dana sighs, then says "I couldn't sleep last night, thanks to you!"
"Hey, it's not that bad!" Carl says. "It's only... three broken ribs?"
"I'm being serious, asshole." Dana says with a short laugh, then buries her face down on the bed from the fatigue. "First we trained so hard to learn to fight and we were so confident, but then that... that... monster shows up, and reality slaps me hard. Not only are we not strong enough... but I almost lost my best friend!"
"I-I'm sorry! I'll make it up to you!" Carl pleads.
"How am I supposed to sleep at night with all that's going on?" Dana asks. "My best friend was dying in my arms! On top of having nothing to do but wait and pray that you wake up, I had to sort out my head. I have too much going on right now in my mind. On top of all the things that scare me, like the feds trying to track down our friend, him being this.. laibah thing... you almost dying, then you go and throw in another curveball at me like confessing to me, on top of all things!"
"W-wait! I forgot I did that!" Carl says. "I thought that was a dream! Hold on, just forget about that part!"
"My best friend confessed to me and was dying in the medical ward!" Dana continues as she ignores Carl. When Dana lifts her head back up, Carl could see that she was crying. "Between losing you to that monster and the thought of losing you as my best friend, I felt like there was nothing I could do but wait and watch my world fall down around me!"
"I-I'm sorry!" Carl says. "Just forget I said anything! Seriously!"
"You better heal fast so you can make this up to me." Dana pouts.
"Sure, anything!" Carl says in a rush.
"Then, when you get out of this bed..." Dana says as she stands up and wipes her face. "You owe me dinner."
"Dinner?" Carl asks.
"Dinner... just the two of us." Dana says, still covering her face.
"Y-yeah... of course!" Carl says, surprised.
Dana keeps her face covered, her face growing red as she walks out of the room. A smile slowly spreads across Carl's face as he was about to get really excited, until he noticed Demetri staring at him. "I do mean anything, Carl." He says.
"I'll keep my arm in the sling and won't move it for anything! Promise!" Carl pleads. Demetri simply replies by shaking his head and taking another drink straight out of the bottle.
"Is Dana not coming after all?" Zia asks in the meeting room.
"I'd leave her out of it for now." Silas replies. "I'll fill her in later, with Carl."
"Let's get down to what we know then." Ryan says. "So, Dolos is dead and there's a new drone made for hunting Siran and Zia known as Foxhound? We recovered the last of the details in Siran's personal book, as well as Vivi's house has ben destroyed as well as everything else inside with it."
"We're not sure yet, but it may be safe to assume that the rest of our houses were also demolished." Zia adds. "If nothing else, at least mine and Siran's home. Dolos did steal that book from our house."
"It's a good thing we still got to recover what we were missing..." Benjie says.
"I'll say." Robin adds. "But that brings us to the inevitable questions. Like, why did they seek out the documents? Why did they burn them down? Why take an interest in Siran's book? Why did Foxhound also give it up so easily? Why make a new god slayer? Who is Foxhound, really? Why and how was Foxhound able to betray Dolos? Finally, we have fought some of those Greeks before... so why was Dolos able to be taken down so much more easily than the others before?"
"God slayer?" Ryan asks in confusion.
"Long story." Zia says. "We'll get into that when Siran gets home."
"I think it'll be best to deduce they didn't have an interest in those documents to begin with." Ali suggests. "If nothing else, they wanted a reason to provoke you. Based on the situation, it could've been to test- or rather to gauge you or could've been to stir you up in hopes to get under your skin."
"Well... I don't know anything about trying to just piss me off." Zia replies. "But what little I do know of Dolos, I think gauging would be a likely scenario. Especially since they apparently never planned to kill us at first, but suddenly changed plans when things weren't going in his favor."
"If they gave up the book so easily after that, it would make sense too." Benjie adds. "Foxhound successfully gauged you and got what he needed."
"As for the god slayer thing... you can think of them as a really elite kind of hunter." Zia adds. "At least, for now. I know they'd likely want one if the one in charge of Dolos and Ares, which we now know is Chronos, were getting ready to dispose of Dolos and Ares like we witnessed."
"Chronos?" Ryan asks.
"But that also leaves us with Foxhound's true identity, and why he was able to betray Dolos to begin with." Robin says.
"We can never find his true identity until we can unmask him." Zia says. "Until then, we can assume the betrayal wasn't Foxhound's choice, but rather was Chronos's command. I don't think Dolos nor Ares have any actual control over them."
"But Dolos went down so easily!" Robin interjects. "Something isn't adding up!"
"If I may..." Silas says nervously. "Maybe it's just because I have... experience in constantly absorbing endo from sources around me... but during that battle, I could've sworn I had... seen Foxhound using the same technique."
"What do you mean by that?" Benjie asks.
"Well..." Silas says as he thinks. "I know even with buff magic, debuff magic, digital magic, clairvoyance... the many different ways people use to scan for endo, it's usually only possible to be able to see when there is endo, how much in general and when it's being used. But I don't think anybody but me could see the endo from Dolos going into Foxhound..."
"You mean... Foxhound was stealing Dolos's endo the whole time?" Zia asks.
"Yeah." Silas replies.
"It's not just like... some misinterpretation?" Robin asks.
"I'm sure of it." Silas replies. "I'm absolutely positive of it. I was stealing endo from Dolos and Foxhound... but Foxhound was also stealing it from Dolos. It's like Chronos sent them both there together and planned to dispose Dolos from the beginning."
"That's twisted." Benjie says.
"So this whole time, Dolos couldn't land a finger on us because he was being sapped by two people..." Zia says. "I guess it's nothing short of a miracle then, considering I was not prepared for a fight in my current condition. But that begs the question... Who is Foxhound?"
"Whoever it is, they're capable of as much, if not more than Siran and Zia." Robin adds. "Either that, or they've been misleading us about who- or what it is. For all we know, it could be another frantic robot, like those predator bots the Ly'Lum used."
"But it did react to pain." Zia says.
"Yeah." Robin remarks. "Right in front of Dolos... I don't think it would be safe to accept anything having to deal with Dolos and literally anything else at face value! For all we know, it could be a trick."
"Well, what about the civil war?" Ryan asks. "Does this document recovery aide us in any immediate way?"
"Immediate? No." Zia replies. "However, it seems America has been entirely on the defensive lately. We may not need to fight any long. If they remain as they are without any more attacks or assaults, then we may be able to proceed peacefully until we can get this... Library of Siran's out there publicly. Some way to dampen their efforts until they finally realize they've lost on all fronts and retreat fully."
"I like the sound of that." Ryan says. "As for now, toughen defenses and focus more manpower on R&D, plus HQ expansions. Meeting adjourned."
Almost another week passes as Silas was sitting in the medical room that Carl was sitting in. He was with Dana, but Demetri was in another room helping someone else at the moment. "He said in about 5 more weeks, I can move around more freely. Though, I gotta keep using these pain in the ass ice packs every couple hours. The painkillers are also anti-inflammatory. As for my back, it's already doing most of the healing. It itches like freakin' crazy though."
"Yeah, well..." Dana says with a giggle, "that's what happens when you play hero. Bet you won't be doing that again."
"You kidding?" Carl asks. "If I get to go on a date with you every time-"
"Hey!" Dana angrily shouts as she suddenly gets embarrassed, and her face turns red.
"Chillax, I already know." Silas says. "You had it written all over your face anyways when you came back from Carl's room."
"Ugh!" Dana angrily pouts. "You two are seriously the worst!"
"Speaking of the worst..." Silas says as he thinks. "I wonder what our parents are doing right now. They're off facing other actual wars right now. Stuff here in Omnia died down, aside from a couple... freaks."
"You're one to talk..." Carl jokes as he looks straight at Silas.
"I came to terms like what I am." Silas replies. "But they gotta be handling a lot out there, right?"
"If you miss your dad that much, can't you call him?" Dana asks.
"Nope." Silas replies. "It might put him in danger."
"He doesn't know how to turn off a phone when doing a mission?" Dana asks skeptically. Silas replies by simply looking at Dana and tilting his head as if expecting her to answer for him. "Yeah, right. Forgot, your dad is a little socially wacko."
"We're all a little socially wacko..." Carl adds.
"What about you two?" Silas asks. "Why not call your parents?"
"I can't call my mom or dad." Carl says. "At first I did have contact with them, but they told me they have a strict order on outside communication and had to 'go dark' or whatever."
"And my parents are silly." Dana adds, almost seemingly proud. "They don't seem to fully understand how to use a cellphone without bricking the damn thing."
The three of them laugh a little bit, then suddenly the door opens. As they turn to look, they expected to see Demetri, but saw Zia instead. "Silas, I got a call from your father. He said they'll be home by the end of the week."
"They're coming back!?" Silas asks.
"Oh, thank God." Carl says as he leans his head back. "I thought they'd never come back at this rate." Suddenly, Carl remembers something. "Oh crap, we gotta tell mom what happened to our house..."
"I think... it's best not to spoil a good moment with bad news just yet." Zia replies. "
"Good Lord, I think I can already feel her rage..." Silas says nervously.
"We'll have to have a big meeting when they all get here to catch everyone up to speed." Zia says. "Carl, you need to rest. So don't stress about it. As for the rest of us, there's a lot that needs to be discussed. Be ready for that."
"Got it." Silas says, then looks down and lets out a sigh of relief. "I really hope this can all be over soon."
"You said it." Carl says.
"Seriously though." Dana says as she slaps Carl's leg really hard. "Pull another stunt like that, and I'll be the one to knock you out. Got it?"
"Y-yes ma'am." Carl replies nervously.