I Beg Your Pardon? ll

"Well, "we" is me and Tyvetta — and I needed to prove myself worthy to be her successor."

"...What?"

Norton heard the name of someone, well something, that everyone knew.

An infamous name throughout the many collectives.

She said that it was her and Tyvetta. Why did she speak of Tyvetta like it was the norm? She uttered the name so casually that he didn't know whether to believe her or not.

He contemplated on whether or not to believe her, that is until he looked her in the eyes; while also noting the lack of movement from her pointy ears.

Lulu's body acted the same when she lied as it did when she was nervous or scared — her ears would twitch.

They weren't twitching as he looked at them so he knew that she was in fact, not lying.

Now that he believed that she was in contact with a great character such as Tyvetta, Norten calmed himself and spoke in a low tone.

"You and Tyvetta... What were you doing with her in there, no, what happened after she made you fight that beast and prove yourself?"

"Well, she gave me a tour of this amazing city that was filled with all sorts of technology.

The machines there breathed alive as machines that I've never seen in my life littered every corner of the place. The technology here could never compare."

She described where she was in a tone layered with amazement. Lulu held her prosthetic arm with her right hand as she did so.

Her gaze glazed over as she spoke, the girl had felt strange as she spoke, she didn't know why, but she didn't feel like it would be right to speak about what happened.

"Due to my arm being a mess Tyvetta decided it would be better for us to replace it because it wasn't in a state that could completely heal."

"So you removed it, shoulder and all?"

"Yes"

Answering Karma's question, Lulu spoke in an indifferent tone.

Even though she was still debating on whether or not to share that information, she had ignored her hesitance and spoke clearly; only leaving out the fact that there would be a way for her to return there herself.

It's not that she didn't trust them, it's that she didn't trust herself. Lulu didn't trust the fact that she wouldn't divulge such information to any random person.

The fact that there was a chance for her to return there herself might not seem like such a big piece of information, but Lulu didn't know whether or not she could take other people there.

What if some outsider found out this information and followed her? What if they took her hostage and used her to make their way into Tyvetta's city?

The city was protected by many automatons and many other types of machinery, but there was no way of knowing whether they could with the intruder — she didn't know how efficient they were.

So she kept it to herself.

"So Tyvetta gave you this arm, Lulu?"

Tilting her head to the side, Karma made notice of her curiosity while her gaze lingered on the arm, a gaze that held a hint of amazement.

"Yes."

Once more giving a simple reply, Lulu kept a blank stare on the two adults who seemed to be complementing something.

"This arm... is so cool! It looks pretty steady and strong. It seems to be pulling Flauna into it passively — you'd probably be able to punch harder than me with it!"

Karma started gushing over Lulu's prosthetic arm and moved it around, trying to get a look at every part of it.

She continued to comment on the minor parts of the arm to the scale like metal plating covering it.

Even though she was worried about the sudden change to Lulu's body, Karma still saw the arm as it was — a remarkable addition.

"Hmmm, I'll call Latia."

"Mother? Why?"

"Seeing as how that arm was given to you by Tyvetta herself, it would do well for us to know exactly what it is made of."

"Right, mom is quite the mechanic. I haven't seen her in a while as well, it'd be nice to see her again..."

Lulu smiled bitterly. She had only seen her mother a handful of times ever since she was taken up north.

Every time her mother visited she had the time of her life.

She certainly enjoyed her time spent with Nizael, Norten, Karma, and... somewhat with Nino; she enjoyed her time with the, but being with them and being with her mother were two different things.

The first person she met in this world, the first mother figure she ever remembered having. She loved her with every fiber of her being — and she didn't want her to see her in a lower state than before.

Her mother already freaks out over the slightest of injuries. Lulu could remember a time when she lightly scraped her knee and her mother practically panicked.

That was only one of the instances where her mother overreacted to the most minor of wounds; due to that, she didn't want to show how she was missing an entire arm — along with the new claw scars she gained.

It was something that brought a frown to her face.

Understanding that her mother would see them and that it was inevitable — she nodded to herself and tried thinking of ways to calm her mother down when it happened.

"Alright. Let's get mom to look at it."

Nodding her head, Nizael stood and gave Lulu one more look before leaving the room.

Her grandmother had only been here for a short few moments but she didn't bother batting an eye over it; after all, she was a busy woman.

No matter what could be said about Nizael, you could never say she stayed in one place for too long.

As she was the strongest Transcendental, in the highest position of command in the military, and head of one of the most influential houses in all the collectives.

Much like her grandfather, she was always busy; whether that meant dealing with internal threats, or external threats, such as the Kritol.

So, knowing that, Lulu bobbed her head and watched Nizael leave. Leaving her alone in the room with Karma and Norten.

Norton was watching the two girls with his arms crossed. They were practically ignoring his entire presence, chatting about random things — dismissing the serious matter they were on about earlier.

"Lulia!"

"Y-yes, what is it, Norten?"

Flinching at the sudden shout, she faltered on her words.

She looked at him even with her eyes still blurry, she thought it was perhaps a good thing though — he wasn't the easiest on the eyes.

Lulu flinched once more, he was starting her down, she didn't know how she knew, but she knew; did he somehow hear her thoughts?

Letting out a sigh, Norten uncrossed his arms.

"Do you remember what we talked about before you went to the Spectral Forest, Lulu?"

"Umm..."

Pausing, trying to recall his words, she laid back in her bed.

"Ah, yes. I remember now, what about."

Before everything that had just happened, Norten was training her and he was trying to lecture Lulu on how she shouldn't try and be like Karma, or anyone else for that matter.

But at that time, before he could even attempt to say any more, he was interrupted by Karma.

Norten glanced at Karma before sighing once more, turning towards the door.

"When you're healed and feeling better, we'll talk further on that matter, got it?"

"...Ok"

With that, Norten left the room while Lulu and Karma watched the large man's back as he ducked out of the room.

The room was silent for a moment until Karma returned to looking at Lulu.

"What was he talking about, Lulu? What did the two of you talk about?"

"Nothing."

"...Ok."

Karma raised her eyebrows, she knew that Lulu was lying, but she decided not to press further.

After all, if Lulu was replying with only one word it usually meant that it was something dhe didn't want to talk about.

The last time that she pressed for an answer when she was like this, Lulu was quite annoyed for around a week. She wouldn't talk to Karma at all.

The whirring of an engine soon sounded out as the ears of both girls perked up.

Hearing the engine, the girls turned to look out the window. They could see a small ship fly out of the village — It was Nizael's ship departing.

"Well there she goes, we won't be seeing her for a while again. So..."

Stopping her sentence in its tracks, Karma could see Lulu's gaze still staring out the window watching the ship as it disappeared from their sight.

Once it was gone, past the horizon, Lulu returned her gaze to her bed.

Even though she looked outside, she surely couldn't see. No, it wasn't that she couldn't see, and her eyes were no longer blurry; instead, her eyes were obscured by red.

It was frustrating that this was happening, when she woke up her eyes were merely blurred; but now they were being blocked by red. Thankfully it seemed to be going away now.

"What's going on Lulu? You've been looking around weirdly ever since you woke up."

"I can't see."

"What! What do you mean you can't see!? How come you— no, are you feeling okay? Do you want me to call a doctor?"

"No, no. You don't need to do that, I think it's getting better now. Just give me a moment."

"Ok..."

Saying this, Lulu closed her eyes while Karma stared at her.

Giving her exactly what she wanted, Karma gave her a nod and sat there in silence.

Due to Lulu's presence being one of calm for Karma, she was able to just sit there with her in silence, not speaking a word — simply relaxing.

Huuuu — Letting out a breath Lulu opened up her eyes once more before gazing around her room, as she was doing this Karma also stared at her.

"How are you, are you able to see now?"

"Erm, yes. My vision has returned to normal, for the most part."

"That's great! What do you mean by "for the most part"?"

"Meh, it's nothing to worry about, I'll figure it out. By the way, Karma."

"Yeah?"

"When did you start doing this?"

"Huh?"

Following her line of sight, she found her looking at her prosthetic arm, her hand that was held tightly in Karma's hand.

"Oh... heh."

Realizing that she had unconsciously held onto Lulu's hand, Karma's face grew red.

Pfft — "Whatever."

Giggling at Karma's behavior, Lulu squeezed her hand in turn.

They didn't utter another word, instead, they stared at one another — there was a cozy feeling hung in the air.

***

Landed on a nearly empty planet was a large ship kitted out with the latest pieces of equipment. It had just landed and decloaked itself.

Though the ship seemed highly advanced it seemed to have recently gone through a battle, smoke was coming out of it and parts of its hull were missing.

There was a decently sized building next to its landing spot, standing on the porch of said building was a muscular figure wearing protective gear, with a gas tank on their back.

The figure's arms were crossed and feet were tapping. There was a group of four people, in similar gear, coming up the hill after exiting the ship.

"You brats surely took your time coming back, huh?"

Calling out to the four, an aged voice escaped from the figure, he uncrossed his arms as he welcomed one of them in with a strong handshake.

"Yeah, sorry about that, uncle. We encountered some... issues."

The man leading the four spoke to the elderly man in a tone of respect as he reluctantly signaled to their wrecked ship.

"I see... So you wrecked my ship. Come inside."

Speaking in a commanding tone, the man turned around and led them into the building.

Hearing the way he spoke, the group of four all made audible gulps before following him in.

Going through the decontamination area they stepped into the main hall, and promptly they were led into the main room.

The room had several couches sitting around a large square table, on the table were maps, documents, and papers of wanted persons, with their rewards on them.

Two large monitors were hanging above the table that had the information of the wanted individuals that were transitioning through each of them.

There were their names, their species, their relatives and connections, along with their location; all this information was going through the monitors.

"Take a seat."

The elder man motioned with his hands toward the couches.

The elderly man had reddish skin with black pink spots littered across his body, he had a full head of slicked back white hair, with a rather decent white beard going for him.

His ears were large and quite bat-like in appearance as they pointed upwards.

His upper arms were covered in scars and there was a part of his ear that had been bitten off. A deep scar ran across his face, going over his eye that had been replaced with a prosthetic mechanical one.

"Tarkis, explain to me, in detail, what happened to my ship."

There was a younger man that led the group of younger people, Tarkus, who looked similar to the old man, sat on one of the couches. He didn't have as many scars as him, but his jaw was also a prosthetic.

The remaining three people were of different species as well. One of them was blue and had digitigrade legs with a slim figure and long black hair with braids littered in it.

"It was a mess. Thankfully, our little sniper here took care of things before then."

She fell onto the couch across from Tarkus.

"You're welcome, you couldn't have done this mission without me."

"That might be going a bit too far, Gena. Without me, we wouldn't have gotten the information our client wanted."

"You're right. But I think it only happened as... smoothly as it did because I popped a few of their heads off, Dillon."

A human man with two prosthetic hands started speaking with Gena, sitting down next to her.

"Hmm, perhaps you're right. What do you think, Vell?"

"We all did our part, but that's not important right now."

A large and gruff man who was covered in fur with a long tail sticking out of his lower back leaned on a wall as he spoke before turning back to the elderly man.

"Right, uncle Ergo, they were waiting for us."

Ergo slammed his fist into the table while raising his voice.

"They were what!"

"Right, I don't know what it was, maybe an information leak?"

Quickly lowering his voice, Ergo gritted his teeth while listening to Tarkus.

"Right, right. We'll have to talk to the client about that, we need reimbursements for this. It's a blunder on their part."

Haaaa — Letting out a deep sigh, he messaged his forehead.

"Alright, we'll discuss more of this later. We've accepted a new contract."

"Oh really, that quick?"

"It's not like he doesn't usually do this, Gena."

"Oh, right. You're right again, Dillon."

"Can you two please?"

Haha — "Sorry."

"Who is it, uncle?"

Ergo pressed a remote causing the four of them to turn their heads upwards.

The monitors showed a page of information along with a photo, name, and what they wanted the target as.

the image was of a child with messy and bloody blue hair.

Their name: Lulia Bavel

Wanted: Alive