Welcome to Gaia! ::

Than waved to his little brother happily as he went. Letting out a gratified 'hnn' he turned and headed back to his room to. From there he would look up any information he could find that would help him. Mastema's computers would have more recent information about what had happened in the region during his absence. Oh, the things Thanatos would discover that had come to past.

As Eecheb was put down, he would be given the usual confirmations and procedures from Zio, before finding himself free to roam about his gigantic home.

With Micha now gone, Slayer turned his attention to the creature, which was nearly free from Tyr's icy grip. Assuming he could 'woe' the creature with his capes unusual appearance, he could probably use it to return the creature to an outside point.

As the cape eyed the suspicious creature, a small sound would be heard from the direction of the cape. It was like a low whistle coupled with simply blowing air, almost a 'whoosh'ing sound. The cape rippled slowly, but the eyes never seemed to move, as if they were looking from 'inside' the cape itself. This would be Slayer's attempt to lull the creature and use the cape to port it outside. It would be unnoticable that the sound was actually coming from Slayer, using a ventriloquist technique.

Whether the creature was paying attention or not didn't matter terribly much as long as it was all contained in a localized area. Slowly, the cape would begin to advance on the creature's foggy form. If it could get close enough, then the cape could engulf the entire form and put it outside.

The cape would spend another minute or so, lulling the creature into being used to its presence. In a sudden moment, the cape expanded with lightning speed to encase that entire portion of the hall and close around the creature. From there, the casing made by the cape would rapidly shrink around the creature, telporting it to an outside building on the outskirts of the citadel. Slayer, having given the command, was able to avoid being taken with the creature.

::Tyrsais would still be lingering through the Towers Ventalation system. As he would moved up the floors he would slowly seep out into the Cafe after Trilla and Than had left for some reason he had chosen to avoid that situation. Now he was left in here what would he find to get into. For now he would begin to look around for a staircase or one of Zio's access panels to look at the building schematic or what it would allow him to see::

Well... might as well have a look see. Things seem under control... but where did that thing go?

Break my back and bleed me dry, anything and everything is swept away without a thought.

They just didn't know it yet.

Soon was the promise whispered over and over, the dark voice lulling to sleep he who listened with undertones of lust.

Boring, when was stuff going to blow up?

The time-travelling troupe sure were taking their sweet-a** time, as ironic as that was. The elemental stood poised as always, patiently waiting on the voice.

A saltshaker from five different houses still tells you something about what they eat.

A million images of a million rooms pulled of Than's mind would at least show him something, no matter how small. It was the small things that would come together, so that imagination might map different possibilities.

Walls or open sky? Metal or plaster? Tablesor chairs? Dark or light? Alone or with others. Tell me the truth of he who has nothing.

Thanatos was a tool, and KB wanted to know what purpose it might serve.

*Somewhere in the back of herd mind, Nana had wondered if the intruder Cole was all right. It was likely that he had been affected too right? Well one would think so anyways. Nana was unaware that the motes, and pain were infact caused by Cole. He was lying on his back muttering to someone, while droids worked on repairing the walls that were blown out. There was a laundry room right above Cole. If there was any damage to the machines then water might have been dripping and running about causing water damage until it too was fixed. By now it had been quite some time since all of that had taken place, perhaps a day or more; Nana was currently using Mastema as a pillow, her head rested partially on the left upper part of his chest*

--.--
z Z z Z z Z z...

An entire week had come and gone since the conference ended. In the course of that week, the citadel had seen a nearly unprecedented level of reconstruction.

The side of the building destroyed by Cole was close to being nearly completely restored andeverything was back in order; Cole would probably be able to hear the 1Bs working. All around the citadel, it could have been seen how many droids were at work. Construction outside the barrier for the magnetic field barrier was now under consctruction as well, as was quickly nearing completion. In the end, instead of the simple pillar design, Mastema had opted for a more pyramidal design to increase the stability of the tall structures. The production of very high power machines to produce the magnetic fields had begun, and would be installed after the pyramidal structures were properly insulated. There were also places left for where Nana's node idea might later be implemented. Many 2B model droids now stood guard outside the barrier around the clock, with the barrier's weakened state.

The vanguard project had been moving along without any problems. The only real changes were some design changes to the RCG-01L, the new model having more weapons mounted on the shoulders. All that really remained was the programming for the yet elusive fifth unit. Mastema, for some reason, seems to be paying much more attention to this part of the vanguard design than anything else. Very little info had been given on the fifth unit at the conference.

Of course, not all of Mastema's time was spent on work. His children would see him occasionally around the tower, and possibly out with the droids when they were out and about. Half the time, at least, was spent helping Nana rehabilitate, and her recovery was only accelerating. By now, after a week of solid rahabilitation, Nana could probably walk stairs and around the tower on her own with relative ease. It would probably not be more than another week before she was at long last back to herself, after being bed-ridden for nearly a year. Now that she was strong, perhaps she could finally go outside the barrier to do whatever it was that had made her want to leave during the conference.

Of course, with the increased activity in the citadel had come more activity from the generals. Omega regularly patrolled outside with the droids. Likely, Demir had left and would return later and had gone unnoticed. Sho spent his time running around the citadel and making sure there were no obvious problems. Slayer was often consulting with Mastema; whether these meetings were about citadel matters or more personal matters couldn't be certain. Zeno was more or less simply loitering in the citadel. He intended to leave, still, and what kept him from simply going was uncertain. As per his nature, Proto often made sure his brethren droids were unharmed in the process of their duties, sometimes lending his own hand in repairs and construction.

Of course, there was still a dark cloud in the citadel: Thanatos. The past week, though productive to the citadel and partly through his own helping hand, had brought him almost nothing but heartache and questioning of his own worth, which in itself was no too unusual. In hopes of not foolishly attempting to come to Kai's rescue only to fail, Than had spent his time making sure he could help. All he had been able to do was read from Zio's satellite reports what had been going on in the region: none of it was pleasant. The dojo had been destroyed, the black company members were routed, some unknown figures had been making appearances in the region, and Kaiori had borne two children in the time which he had spent in the citadel. In truth, it wasn't this which shocked Than the most, nor was it the fact that both children were now evidently fully grown and heading their own city. It was their father: Apollo Rocker, the man Thanatos had watched die and killed with his own hand. Obviously his belief that Apollo had met his end was premature.

Still, for all of his effort and heartache at the things which had been allowed to happen in his absence, his search was fruitless. He could recover nothing which related to where Kaiori had been taken. The golden haired woman, Lily, had only been recorded twice by the satellites; the first time was when she confronted and tormented Kaiori in the forest, and the more recent sighting was in the deserted Hathus. Because he had no other leads, Than now worked under the assumption that Dom was behind this mysterious woman. It made sense, as he didn't really believe Dom had finished project Eve, which Than had also uncovered only very little about, and simply wanted to end it by sacrificing Kai to some zombie-esque feline. Of course, Dom was elusive. Nothing definitive had been found that pertained to the man's present whereabouts. Therefore, Than had formulated a plan to hunt down information on Dom from the only place he knew to look which might have something, but he would have to wait until he left the citadel.

His failure to find a way to help Kai was no the only unfortunate news Than came across in the past week. By now, Mastema had reviewed the medical report that Trilla 'ordered' Than to take and confronted Thanatos with the truth which had begun to make itself obvious already: Thanatos was going blind. Because of the sympathic relationship of his eyes, and possibly aggravated conditions, Thanatos's optic nerves were slowly dying, and it was estimated that his sight would last no more than a few more weeks before there was nothing. Whether or not Tyr's virus, which had now been cured, was a cause of the decay was unknown. Because of his nature, Than did not regret the idea of losing his sight in itself; what he despised was that this condition would keep him from helping his loved ones, presently Kai, it would keep him from being able to do anything for his mother or his siblings, and it would rob him of his independence to be able to do the most basic things that he enjoyed. However, Than found it useless rather quickly to mope over his diminishing eyesight. So far, none of his friends or family had been told.

But even the idea that he was going blind was nothing compared to what else Than had discovered. He'd finally read the rest of Mastema's disc. The final files had been on none other than his own birth. He now knew all of the events which had surrounded his immediate birth, though Mastema's true reasons for having willed his existence was still not said; nothing of Mastema's history before the time of the BC had been on the disc, as expected. Still there was one horrible truth which had broken Than's heart about his birth, and this revelation left him a quiet and reclusive boy for the past couple of days. What this truth was that had made him become so different was never spoken or even hinted at beyond the confines of his own room. The only other person who might have known what ailed the boy was the man who gave him the disc. For now, Than simply sat on his bed, holding his knees to his chest.

While Nana slept against him, Mastema continued to think silently on matters of any importance. He knew well enough that he could not allow Thanatos to leave in the condition which now ailed him, both physically and emotionally.