“I don’t know! It just happened; we were trying to figure out how to make his mana spirit manifest, and I connected with some of my powers, which I barely understand, and then we were connected,” Bug started to cry as she explained, the words tumbling out of her mouth.


    “Bug, it’s alright. I’m not mad at all. In fact pretty sure you’re only alive because of that bond. It’s just new,” Cal said, trying to reassure his sister that everything was alright.


    “Sorry, sorry, I’ve just been trying so hard. I don’t want to make things harder for you, Cal,” Bug said. Cal''s stomach dropped. He hadn’t ever wanted her to think she had to do that. She didn’t need to try to hold it all alone, no matter how it affected him.


    “It’s okay. I promise. You don’t need to do this alone. You can always tell us about anything that happens. Hell, now we even have your real favorite person back, and soon you’re going back to school,” Cal said, forcing a smile in an attempt to calm her down.


    “Damn right, you are. If we have this many new people enrolling, you’re officially my teaching assistant, Bug!” Ethel said, her voice in a matter-of-fact tone.


    “Wait, really? Oh my god. Can I teach a class about cooperative storytelling?” Bug asked, her tail suddenly springing to life.


    “Yes, Frank, you will be taking Bug’s class it’s something you need to learn,” Ethel said, smiling at her giant of a son. To Frank’s credit, he said nothing, seemingly just happy they had Ethel back.


    “There you are,” Andrew said, appearing from behind one of the makeshift partitions of the room.


    “You actually came to check on me? Didn’t expect that,” Andy said jokingly.


    “I’ve been checking on everyone, but no, this is a different matter. Another wing of the Under Library has been opened. I did not wish to risk any sort of exploration until we had everything under control otherwise, not to mention getting you and Bill back in order to better facilitate such exploration. As you know, the automated system there only somewhat likes my presence,” Andrew explained. Cal had decided whether the library liked it or not. He was going on their next exploration trip.


    “This time, we are going to plan any expedition out a little more. We know a lot more about the place than when I first visited, but for now, we can put it on the back burner I think,” Andy replied.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    “Agreed, there are many things we need to resolve here first, which brings me to my next question. We now have a level of force that we absolutely can bring the Agency to its knees. I assume that is the new plan?” Andrew asked, surprising Cal with how angry the man sounded about the Agency. Then again, after the loop Andrew and the others in the voidhouse had spent totally cut off here, he wasn’t entirely surprised. Andrew wasn’t the same shutoff person he had been so long ago, trapped in the maddening few moments of lucidity. He, like everyone else, had had decades to grow and change.


    “The new plan is everyone gets healed up and healthy. Right now, we have all our people back, plus several of theirs and many new recruits. So what we are going to do is spend some time getting all of this working together again, figure out the ogres we have and how to deprogram them, and then we are going to free every last one they have, as well as any other prisoner they may hold. Then, at the start of every loop, we take them down immediately. I want to be clear here, guys, just because we are taking some downtime to heal up doesn’t mean we aren’t going to make them pay for the shit they put us through,” Cal said, impressing himself slightly at managing to sound serious for the whole speech.


    “For once, and let me stress, I really do only mean for once here, I agree with Cal. I feel like someone tried to break every bone in my body, which I think they did, so I need some time to lay around and catch up on everything I missed, but I want to be in the next meeting about the building plans. Who has been taking care of the new kids? I’m going to need to meet all of them too,” Ethel said, some of her crankiness vanishing as she mentioned the kids. Cal knew she had trouble holding her old angry act up when kids or animals needed her.


    “Sarah, she’s also new but has been a teacher herself. Do you want me to have her come and meet you, or do you want to wait until you’re back in your own room?” Cal asked, honestly unsure of how quickly Ethel wanted to get back into the swing of things.


    “Hm, Frank, find me a wheelchair. Tomorrow, you and I are going to meet everyone, well I suppose more that I will go meet everyone, you are going to introduce me. I hope they all have good things to say about you, Franklin,” Ethel said, using a full name I had never heard her say before.


    “Frank was an excellent host!” Frank said, looking slightly embarrassed.


    “He really was. He helped so much with the kids,” Bug joined in.


    “Frank was critical to our success,” Alfred added as he and Gretel walked up to join the crowd. Cal spotted a smile cross Ethel’s lips for a second before she put her scowl back on.


    “Oh, and there are my two dogs, and here I thought you’d both abandoned me too,” Ethel said. Neither of the newcomers seemed to believe a word of it.


    “We allowed a cat to join the pedigree paladins just to save you. I think you should be more grateful,” Gretel said as she laid her head on Ethel’s lap. Ethel began scratching behind her ear.


    “You all did great. Ignore my crankiness. I’m proud of everything you managed to do without me,” Ethel said, smiling.