Another Day.

Alex had begun teaching the boys the basics of feeling lifeforce energy in their bodies. He only taught them what they needed to be able to feel it and then sent them back to their bodies.

After which he sat down with his back on the tree and couldn't help but smile at the whole situation.

"I believe those boys will grow up to be troublesome for others, that is good. Life could use a bit of drama in it," he said while turning his head to look upwards at the tree leaves.

"Life already has enough drama, my existence as well as every living creature with me is in danger because a dumb black hole decided to do all this. I hope he gets eaten by another black hole," a sweet voice replied from the tree.

"Wouldn't it be bad for us if the big threat gets killed by a bigger threat? It doesn't sound like a solution to our problem, only a change of management," Alex replied.

The tree shook its leaves in anger that Alex was making a good point. Then it suddenly stopped and remained completely in its place.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked curiously. He knew that the tree would only act this way if there was something it wanted to say.

"Speaking of trouble, it seems as though..... Dawn has found the basement under the aquarium.

Alex felt his whole body tense up, his body froze, his heart skipped a beat, his eyes widened and his legs uncomfortably shifted a little, his throat instantly dried up as he took a small gulp.

He didn't even realize it but a part of himself was shaking a little after he heard that. All he could do was hope that nothing bad went on.

"Did you feel anything happen?" he asked hurriedly.

There was a reason why he phrased it like that, the earth could not monitor the representatives but could only tell what state they were in and protect them or enhance their emotions. It could not take control over their bodies or see what they see because it was not them.

"Nothing serious has happened, he is out of harm's way, but he is curious. He has been there twice now."

"I wanted to tell you this after you had finished your meeting, seeing as how you have your hands more than full already, but I felt like it would be unfair to keep this from you with how close we are. I only knew he went there because I felt his lifeforce being sucked away twice."

Alex was now deep in thought, he wanted to go back and maybe change the location of the basement or at least move the kids to a safer place to prevent them from going down there but that was the safest place he had and he could not leave his post right now because there would be consequences to such a decision.

He was wondering, "What was he doing for him to end up there!?"

After thinking about it for a while, Alex hated what he had to say next.

"I know you already agreed to stop messing with them and I know that what I am about to say will make me a hypocrite, but I need you to make him lose interest in that place to the point where he forgets it even exists."

There was no banter, there were no arguments, the tree nodded and said to him, "As you wish."

"Thank you for telling me this. I-, We can't afford to have another incident. Not now of all times."

****

When Terra and Vito woke up, it was time for the two to have breakfast, after which they would go on to have a training session with John.

The two of them sat next to each other and Cyrus was surprised to see how close they were acting.

"Did I sleep on the wrong side of the bed or am I seeing things? You guys seem closer than you were before," he said as he rubbed his eyes.

Terra and Vito didn't tell anyone about the whole training under the tree thing, Vito had convinced Terra to keep it as a brotherly secret. It was something along the lines of, "If Alex wanted everyone to know then he would have told everybody."

Terra took this to heart and blindly listened to him, so when questioned by Cyrus he said as confidently as he could.

"Whhhaaat? That's absurd. Everything's normal" as he leaned on a chair and it fell down.

Cyrus looked at them and could easily see that they were hiding something and it was made even more obvious by the facepalm Vito did after Terra failed to act natural.

"It's too early in the morning for this, I need some coffee," Cyrus said as he walked past them.

Terra winked at Vito who couldn't believe they had made it 15 seconds without Cyrus figuring they went out somewhere.

In walked Edith still wearing a tower around her neck as she walked up to the Kitchen table to get something to eat.

"You two seem oddly close so early in the morning," she said looking at Terra and Vito.

Cyrus had closed the fridge after grabbing something and commented from the distance, "Gee, I wonder why?"

But Edith didn't mind seeing this at all, first, she walked up to Terra and gave him a side hug, which he accepted without really questioning it.

He just went with it.

Then she walked up to Cyrus to hug him too and he stopped her midway.

"What do you think you are doing?"

"I am giving you a hug," she smiled.

"I can see that," he rolled up his glasses, "but why?"

"I'm in a good mood, so why not?" she replied.

"So you hug people when you are in a good mood?" he tilted his eyebrow.

"Just accept the damn hug," she said as she latched on to him. She was surprisingly stronger than him and overpowered him when he tried pushing her back.

He was never proud of his physique but he was at least in really good shape and yet she overpowered him easily. He felt, like a twig after that hug.

Edith skipped away happily after breaking his pride as a man.

"And lastly to the one who carried me and brought me to my room, you get a back hug," she said as she pressed her chest against his back and put her arm around his neck. He could smell her cologne perfectly and felt a soft sensation behind him.

And then she whispered in his ear, "You remember that restaurant that we went to yesterday?"

"Y-yeah," he said with his face slightly blushing.

"Good." Edith then took an apple from the table and sat down.

Vito was left surprised and asked himself, 'What did she mean by, remember that restaurant? am I missing something?' It had not been long and Vito already forgot that he made a promise to take her out to eat.

As Edith was greedily enjoying her apple, in walked Dawn who seemed to have a worn-out demeanor. He wasn't as energetic as anyone here and he felt a little tired. It almost felt like he was bored with something. Something so boring that he couldn't even remember what it was.

After trying to for the entirety of him getting out of bed, he gave up and decided to have breakfast.

'If I can't remember it then it must not have been important. Perhaps it was a dream?' he thought.

As he walked in he saw Edith sitting in his favorite seat by the table and she was eating an apple. He liked apples and disliked the fact that she had one while in his chair. 

Instead of causing problems he decided to ignore everybody and sit somewhere else. And out of everyone, the first to speak to him was Edith.

"Good morning there Dawn, do you want a hug? I already gave one to everyone else so it's only fair if you get one too," she smiled.

"No. Keep to yourself," he replied as he sat down and grabbed an apple.

"That kind of attitude is exactly why people don't like you. You should try to be a bit more, expressive maybe?" she asked.

"If you are asking me to change then the answer is no, I enjoy the way I am and do not care about what others think of me so can you please leave me alone?" he asked annoyed at her.

"Yesh, I would think that you would be better after yesterday but I guess you are still the same. Shame."

When Dawn heard those words he remembered how she and the others had tried to get him to eat with everyone else and how they continued to laugh with him despite him doing nothing to appease them at all. They were surprisingly, good people.

Remembering that made him feel a bit like a jerk. Right now he needed to try and compromise for his team in the same way they would compromise to make him happy when he needed it. Otherwise, he would be unfair to them.

He gritted his teeth as he pounded his fist hard against the kitchen table. It was so hard that it shook the whole thing and everyone was left wondering what got into him.

"Sorry, I was being rude," he said looking down and away from her. He didn't want to meet her eyes.

Edith was taken aback by the change in attitude. 'Is he trying to make a difference?' she wondered.

"Does that mean you will accept my hug?" she asked.

In the back of Dawn's mind, his subconscious was yelling at him, 'Look at you! You fool! You've gone and embarrassed us and now she's offering you another hug!?? This isn't what we wanted! This is what we wanted Dawn!!" it cried.

"Y-yes. I. Would. Like. That Edith," he said behind crushed teeth.

Edith liked the respect and reciprocated it with a hug towards Dawn to congratulate him for taking his first step to being a better person.

She was completely blind to him being uncomfortable with it and the three boys watching were beginning to feel bad for Dawn.

Cyrus thought to himself, 'how do I have glasses, and yet I see better than everyone else in this building?'

Finally, John walked in to greet everyone and give them a heads-up on today's mission.

"Today will simply be about you learning more about your animal. You will spend the day with it and learn just how much it is willing to listen to you if you treat it well and this training will be very important to you when it is time for your last."

"Now who is ready for an adventure!?"