"We all have our goals. And we're all slowly moving towards them," Lyra muttered, lying on her bed. What exactly were those goals, though?
It seemed like a lot of time had passed since she'd last slept in that room. They didn't know how long it was going to take Een, Dante and Annie to make the poison, but they could very well use that time to rest a little. Lyra's eyelids fell shut. What was Frederick planning to do once all that was over? She knew him better than anyone. Commander Frederick had spent his life wanting fighting. At last, he could finally make his dream come true. That world was about to change... But what was going to happen once they got rid of the creatures? Perhaps it was too soon for her to be worrying about it.
Karabell suddenly entered the room and loudly dropped a bunch of items onto one of the empty beds. He leaned against the bed frame, panting. Stunned, Alice asked him what had happened. Evidently, Fredrick had bailed out on him, saying that he wanted to train a bit more. So he'd had been forced to carry the weapons by himself.
"He's way too annoying, if you ask me," the Captain complained. "Wait, where're Kei and Shono?"
"Training," Alice and Lyra said at the same time, rolling their eyes.
Well, at least those guys weren't wasting their time. Karabell sat down, admiring the weapons. He wondered if Gull had really killed those Aberrations. For all they knew, that acid was the only thing that could hurt them. He hadn't even thought whether or not it was possible for the creatures to kill each other. Not that it mattered. They would be the ones doing all the killing anyway. Even so, he couldn't afford to die. After all, he wanted to hear Alice's answer. The Captain's shoulders slumped. They didn't know what kind of battle they were about to fight. They'd lost against the furred Superior, too. How were they supposed to beat an even stronger foe? He wished he could just go back to sleep and wake up after another two thousand years or so... The worst part was that he still couldn't tell what was going on inside Frederick's mind. Sure, he wanted to eliminate the creatures. But was his thirst for revenge really that strong?
"Frederick's the kind of person who does whatever is necessary to achieve what he wants. That's what Dante told me a while ago. This time, however, we share a common goal. What do you make of this, Lyra, Alice?" Karabell asked, casting caution aside. "What will he do?"
"Why're you asking us?" Lyra let out a sigh. "These days, even I'm not sure what he's thinking. He seems to be getting along better with everyone, though. Which is strange enough. All I know is that he wants this madness to come to an end as much as we do."
Karabell smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. Frederick was probably the least of their worries. So why was he feeling so uneasiness whenever he thought about the Commander?
*
Een stared at the glass flask in disbelief. Dante mustered a faint smile, meeting his gaze. It'd taken them almost five hours, but they'd manage to successfully merge the Lower and Upper District's recipes. Naturally, they needed to test it to see if it was actually better, but that was a different story. Een's temples were pulsing. Dante wiped away the tear tracks on his cheeks. Those five hours had been hell for the both of them. As for Annie... Well, she'd helped them a lot in the beginning, but she'd fallen asleep soon enough, almost falling off her chair. Een checked his watch. It was almost eight in the evening. Dante put the flask on a table as he drew in a deep breath.
"I'm never doing something like that again!" he yelled, waking Annie up.
"You won't have to, thankfully. That was exhausting, but at least we got what we came here for," Een said, glancing at the purple liquid. He needed to give Karabell a call.
The Captain dropped to his knees, begging Alice to give him a hand. They needed to take the weapons to Dante's laboratory. Shono, Kei and Frederick hadn't returned either. Just how much were they planning to train? At least Een's experiment had been a success. Their gamble had paid off.
After arriving at the laboratory, they coated the weapons with poison as best as they could. It was sure to work against the lesser creatures, but they had no idea if it could actually kill the Ringleader. For all they knew, it could very well be just another kind of Aberration. Karabell examined his new spear once again. He'd definitely liked his old one better.
"I'd ask you if it was hard, but you did spend a good five hours trying to make this thing," He joked, pointing at the almost empty flask.
"Hard? You think it was hard?" Dante let out a crazed laugh. "I'm a scientist, I love challenges. But this... This wasn't a challenge. We fought Mother Nature herself, and we almost lost. I said it wasn't impossible. It wasn't. I don't know how, but we did it. At this point, I don't even care. Burn those documents, feed them to the Aberrations, I don't care. It's not worth it. It just isn't," he whined, grabbing Karabell's shoulders.
Annie got up from her seat and stretched her arms. Her stomach rumbled, making Karabell realize how hungry he was. Well, he didn't see any harm in having dinner there before returning to Base Tau. Lyra had gone to sleep after they'd left for the laboratory, which meant that they only had to find the other three rascals.
"Honestly, sometimes I feel like I'm babysitting a bunch of kids," the Captain sighed. "Though I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Yeah, a bunch of kids who will save the world. Though I wouldn't have it any other way," Alice remarked, teasing him. "That's right... We'll save the world. Won't we?" she whispered.