Reports

Alex was sitting in his office, with a cup half full by his side. He was reading through some documents that contained the list of all the people who would attend the upcoming world meeting he prepared.

*Knock, knock*

"Come in," Alex responded as he placed down the documents to greet his visitor.

"Hello Alex, Sasha is reporting in for duty," Sasha cheered joyfully as she jumped into the room.

"Good Morning Sasha. How are you today?" Alex asked with his hands holding each other as he greeted her with a smile.

"Morning?" Sasha asked befuddled as she tilted her head sideways. "Alex, it's 6 pm."

"Is it now? I could have sworn that it was 6 am by now. I just had my morning cup of tea not too long ago."

Sasha breathed in the scent of the tea that filled the room and then gasped as she pointed at his cup and yelled, "Alex, that's coffee!"

Alex looked at his cup for a brief moment and then shook his head as he replied, "Oh, I believe you are correct. It is coffee." He then proceeded to drink some more of it.

"Alex!" Sasha yelled worriedly. "Have you gotten any sleep in the past 24 hours?"

"Why yes I did," Alex replied. "Right here on this chair. See, there is a pillow lying right beside my desk as proof of it."

"I mean in a real bedroom and on a real mattress," Sasha complained. "You are so tired right now that you haven't even noticed that I changed my hair color. And honestly, you look like you might just fall over and die from a heart attack at any moment."

Alex blinked his eyes slowly upon hearing the comment that Sasha had just made. At first, he felt fine, but after having it pointed out to him, Alex was now starting to feel the fatigue hit him as though it had come out of nowhere.

He found this situation slightly amusing.

Alex then looked at Sasha properly with his eyes wide open and smiled at her as he said, "I like what you've done with your hair. Black looks good on you and it's a very nice color to style with."

"Oh, why, thank you," Sasha replied with a giggle as she put her hands on her face.

"Now moving on to other matters," Alex interrupted. "I Believe you have a report for me?"

"Oh, that's right. My report!" Sasha gasped as she smacked her fist into her hand. "I came here to report to you that the building we were constructing to house the world meeting has officially been completed."

"Everything has been finalized as per your requests, and now all that is needed is for you to come and see if any adjustments need to be made." She leaned back and forth with her hands behind her back as she said those words.

"That is wonderful. I will come and look around it with you in just a moment," Alex said. Allow me first to organize these documents so that I can continue reviewing them later."

"No problem, I can wait," Sasha replied.

"While, standing?" Alex asked.

"I can sit if you want me to," Sasha insisted.

Alex chuckled and motioned to a chair near the door. He proceeded to go through the documents he had placed down earlier and started to organize them properly.

Not long after but not too soon either, there was a single bang at the door from the outside.

*Knock*

Alex was intrigued. He wasn't expecting another visitor to be at his doorstep so soon after another one. He quickly placed down the documents again and said through the door, "Come in."

The door was opened gently as Minty walked into the room. She carried herself in a calm and composed manner, but the way in which she walked in and the expression she had on her face was an indicator to let Alex know that she had something very serious to say to him.

And this was only emphasized more by the fact that she avoided eye contact upon entering the room.

"A-"

Minty had looked at Alex for less than a second after entering the room when she was suddenly attacked by an unidentified combatant who had managed to sneak around her blind spot.

She felt careless and regretted letting her guard down at that moment. That was until she noticed who it was that was tackling her.

It was only then that she realized that this wasn't an attack, it was in fact, a hug.

"Minty!! Sister!! It's so nice to see you again, and I am so sorry for calling you boring the last time that we saw each other. I didn't technically mean it like that, and you can be fun in your own... quirky, little, minty way. I was so worried that I would never get to see you again. It's been soo long~!!" Sasha cried out with tears falling down her face."

"Oh, it's you. Hey Sasha," Minty replied as she was being hugged and shaken about. "And it hasn't been that long since you last saw me. It's barely been 2 days."

"Still," Sasha cried as she continued scuffling with her sister.

"Ahem," Alex signaled to get their attention. Sasha immediately backed off and stood beside Minty as she wiped away her tears and began to smile.

"Minty, you wanted to see me correct?" Alex asked as he reached his hand out for his cup only to find that there was nothing left in it.

He was thoroughly disappointed.

"Yes Alex, there is something I would like to discuss with you," Minty replied.

"Oh, is it about your mission?" Sasha asked in the background as she flapped her arms about. "I heard word that you took it upon yourself to change your plans so you could do something a little more exciting for the kids," Sasha giggled from behind Minty's shoulders.

"What? Who told you that?" Who snitched on me?" Minty asked frantically as she turned and placed her hands on Sasha's cheeks as she mushed them together.

"Alex," Sasha responded nonchalantly with a shrug as her face was bubbled up.

Minty turned to look at Alex who was pretending to be drinking from the empty cup he had with him. She sighed as she recomposed herself.

"I was saving that to be a surprise, but I guess it can't be helped. Yes, I did change my mission to do something for the kids," Minty said as she rolled her eyes.

*gasp*

"Tell me all about it!" Sasha interjected.

"Later," Minty answered.

This felt like a rejection in Sasha's heart, and it cracked a little after she heard that.

"For now that's not why I'm here. Alex, something serious has happened at our main base of operations. All the fish in the aquarium, are dead," Minty explained in a serious tone.

There was a loud silence in the room as tension began to overtake the sense of joy that had once surrounded them.

Sasha remained particularly quiet after hearing this. She knew that this was a sensitive topic to talk about, it was why they tried not to talk about it.

"That THING down there somehow managed to drain them of all their life energy, killing them in the process. It looks like it got desperate for a sense of freedom after making an assault on Dawn."

"An assault on Dawn?" Sasha asked in deep concern.

"Yes, but he is fine, thankfully. I wouldn't expect anything less from a candidate to be this planet's representative. Despite his awkward standing in the beginning," Minty said as she closed her eyes and folded her arms together.

"And the sugar on top of this," Minty said as she opened one eye to look at Alex, "Is that his memories of this event have been suppressed."

"He has no recollection of what even happened to him the last time he went down there. However, I wouldn't know whether to call this a good thing or a bad thing. Yes, suppressing bad memories can indeed help people deal with their traumas better, but amnesia can be detrimental to a person's mind. Even if only partially."

"And it can lead to people doing some drastic things if left unattended for."

Alex had his hands interlocked with each other as he listened attentively to every word that Minty had to say to him. After she finished speaking, he closed his eyes to think about this before making his decision.

"Alright," Alex said. "I will bury it further down an extra 2 km underneath the building and then after the world meeting I will relocate to somewhere far away from civilization."

When Minty heard him say this, she became upset. "Bury? Relocate? Alex, we need to KILL that thing before it hurts somebody else!"

Alex flinched at the mention of it and this scenario started to scare Sasha even more. She hadn't seen the two of them argue like this before in a long long while.

This only meant how serious Minty was taking this situation.

"Please," Alex begged. "Please don't ask me to do, what it is that you are asking me to do when you know that I don't have the strength to do it. At least not yet."

"Then I will do it for you. Alex, we can't keep avoiding our only option if avoidance is only going to continue to hurt you. Let me ease your pain," Minty pleaded.

"Let me do for you what you've done for me but yet fail to do for yourself. Let me take away this burden you have."

Minty got on her knees as she pleaded to reason with Alex.

Alex looked forward with a bleak expression, but yet despite his sadness, there was still a bit of warmth in the smile that he showed on his face.

"There has to be another way, another way that I am betting on," Alex replied.

"And what other way is that?" Minty asked.

"Terra," Alex said without any room for doubt in his voice. "I'm betting it all on him. Better yet, I am betting it all on the knowledge he will gain after coming back from the tournament. There will be other representatives. Other people who may have gone through something similar or have some clue on how to deal with this, THING."

"No, I'm sure there is," Alex said as he grasped the ring that he wore on his hand.

"When Terra goes and comes back, he might gain some new knowledge on how to solve this issue we are facing. And if he doesn't come back, then the world will blow up anyway, meaning everyone and everything will die. It included."

"So all I ask of you is that you let me bet on this until the time comes," Alex said.

"And if he doesn't come back with the knowledge that you seek?" Minty asked.

"Then you will have my full permission to do whatever needs to be done," Alex answered.

*sigh*

"Your plan isn't terrible," Minty said as she got up. "But it's reckless. Even for you, Alex."

"Being a tad reckless but working things out has always been my specialty," Alex chuckled.

Minty stood there speechless for a moment, unsure of what to make of all of this. She rubbed her eyes as she shook her head about.

"And what would you do if that thing was to escape whilst Terra was gone? You would be at your weakest seeing as how you would have to transfer everything you have to him."

"Most of what I have," Alex corrected. "I only have to give him the aspects that come with being the representative of our planet, nothing more, nothing less. And besides, even if it did I have you and the others I can rely on in that hypothetical situation."

"You give me too much credit," Minty scoffed lightly. "And what about Dawn?"

"With Dawn, it's a different case," Alex explained. "As much as I want to help him, I cannot right now. He would push me away if I tried to help him confront the things that have been haunting him in his life. That is why I am leaving that task up to the Earth to take care of."

"After all, beside me right now, she's been watching over him the most lately. So I believe he is in good hands."

 Minty kept quiet. It was as though she was thinking of something else to say to Alex. But before she could say anything, Alex spoke first.

"Minty. Thank you."

This confused Minty as she didn't feel like she did anything praiseworthy today. In fact, all she did was argue with Alex about his decisions. So Alex went on to explain his reasons for thanking her.

"You came to me because you were concerned about the well-being of those kids and my own. That is why you were so passionate to argue with me on this because you couldn't bear the thought of someone getting hurt when you have the power to prevent that."

"You are kinder than you let others know and perhaps even you yourself didn't realize that until now. So I wanted to let you know that you are appreciated for what you do."

"Thank you, Minty."

With these words said to her, Minty was left speechless with nothing to say. She didn't know whether to be angry that Alex didn't listen to her advice or be happy that he at least thought things through enough to at least quench her worries at the moment.

So she stood silently in her position as she stared at the floor.

'If only the world meeting can go this smoothly,' Alex thought to himself.

"Now, if that is all that you had to say to me, then I would very much like to finish organizing these documents here on my desk-"

*Knock* *knock* *knock*

"Haa, guess not," Alex said loudly in his mind. "Come in," he uttered.

Through the door came John with a surprised look on his face as he wasn't expecting the room to be already filled with guests speaking with Alex.

"John," Sasha cheered with applause.

"Hello John," Minty said in a less enthusiastic voice than Sasha. "And what brings you here?"

"I could ask the same of the two of you, but I won't. Not right now," John replied. "Alex," he quickly uttered in a firm voice. "Ariel would like to see you, she says it's important."