Anand awoke to a cool wind brushing past his face. The bridge of his nose had a distinct lack of weight from his glasses. It felt weird. He looked around and found them sitting on the table next to him. After putting them on, it took him a couple of seconds to realize where he was. It was one of the sickbeds in the medical wing of the GDF Midwest Base. The room was empty except for a small pile of clothes sitting nearby. Anand slowly got up and saw bandages wrapped around his leg. With caution, he stepped down and held onto the bed for balance.

A small note on his clothes read, “Get dressed and call us.”

Anand turned on his phone while carefully getting dressed so as to not shift his bandages. He checked his phone and saw that a few days had passed since he entered the rift. He couldn’t have been on the ship for more than a few hours so he must’ve been unconscious for the rest of the time. Panic struck him as his missed calls flashed on the screen; almost a dozen from his mom. Though even more surprising was the missed call from Arjun. Hesitantly, Anand called back.

“Beta, tum kahaan ho?” Priya yelled so loud it felt like she was in the same room. “We’ve been worried sick. When I said you could go on the mission, I thought you would call when possible. Dad got home before you! What happened? Where-”

“Mom!” Anand barked to stop the lecture. His heart swelled from hearing his mom’s voice but he had too many questions to bask in the moment. He quickly tried to assess what had happened and continued. “I’m sorry I haven’t called. We were really busy wrapping up every part of the mission and I got completely bogged down. How are you and Dad? How’s Sonia?”

Priya sighed. “Sonia is doing good. She’s finishing homework.”

“I’m boooorrred,” Sonia said.

“She’s bored,” Priya relayed, “Dad is doing well. He rested for a full day when he got back.”

Anand scoffed. “That’s more than he’s rested his entire life.”

Priya stifled a laugh and calmly said, “Don’t tell him you said that. He’s coming to talk with you.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Anand? How are you? Why haven’t you called?” Arjun asked. He sounded calmer than he had on the spaceship.

“I’m good. We had a lot of work to take care of after you and the other kidnapped humans were brought back,” Anand replied. “I ended up forgetting to call. Sorry.”

“Hm. That’s fine. I didn’t see you at the base we were taken to,” Arjun said. “I believe it was in Washburn. Have you ever used the transportation rooms on your base? They’re very interesting. I was back in Madison in seconds.”

“Yes, Dad,” Anand said dryly. “That’s normally how I get to work.”

Arjun hummed. “I see. When will you be coming home? You shouldn’t just stay at the office.”

“I know, I know. I have to do my homework when I get back,” Anand replied. “I’ve got a few things I need to finish up here. I should be home by tonight.”

“Right. Good,” Arjun said absentmindedly. “Can you also do me a favor while you’re there?”

Anand scoffed. “I never thought you’d ask me for a favor. What do you need?”

“Do you know Volt?” Arjun asked.

Anand hesitated before answering. “Yeah. He works at our base. I’m not sure he’s around though.”

Arjun sighed. “I see. If you do see him, please thank him for me.”

“Yeah, I can do that. Anything else?”

“Um… ” Arjun sighed and didn’t say anything for a second. “Well.. you know…” He cleared his throat and slowly said, “Good job.”

Anand was taken aback by those last words. He’d never heard Arjun say them. Anand had been sure those kinds of words weren’t in his father’s vocabulary.

Without thinking he said, “Say that again?”

“What?” Arjun asked.

“The, uh… nevermind.” Anand stuttered, “I’ll, um, I’ll see you later.”

“Okay.”

Anand felt an excitement that he didn’t recognize. His hard work had finally been acknowledged by his father. Maybe not the actual work he was doing but his efforts were still noticed. Within seconds Anand remembered how many times he had wished to hear the words and it felt surreal to actually have them uttered. He started to wonder what could’ve pushed Arjun to say something so kind. But the reluctance in his voice gnawed at the back of Anand’s mind. Was it really so difficult to compliment him? Or did Arjun know he had never been kind in the past? Maybe there was a change in all the humans who came back. Anand realized it would be better to hear about it from someone who hadn’t been sleeping for a few days. He called Ray and got an immediate answer.

“Hey, I’m awake,” Anand said.

Ray let out a relieved sigh. “Stay right there! We’re on our way.”

Anand sat back down and took a deep breath. Even the stale air of the base felt fresh compared to the spaceship. He felt a twinge of pain in his head but paid it no mind as the door to his room burst open. Eve rushed in and hugged him with Ray in tow.

“We were so worried,” Eve said.

“I couldn’t have been out for more than a few days,” Anand replied nonchalantly.

“That’s still a lot, genius!” Ray replied. He raised his fist but thought better than to punch Anand. “You’ve been sleeping for nearly four days. You’ve almost got a beard.”

“It’s only a little fuzzy.” Anand rubbed a hand on his face and frowned. “Anyway, what happened to everyone who escaped? Did they get here safely?”

“Safer than you, at least,” Eve said. “They had to go through some checks from the medical team and Tori but everything came up normal.”

“Huh,” Anand said absentmindedly.

“You don’t sound very happy about it.”

“No, no. That’s not it. I just… thought something may have happened to them.” Anand admitted. “Dad said ‘good job’ to me.”

“What?” Ray asked. “And you’re sure you weren’t dreaming like last time?”

Anand’s eyes went wide and he checked his call records. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the call he had made to his mother.

“I’m sure,” he said, holding up the phone for his friends to see.

“It’s finally happened!” Ray cheered. “It took over two decades and you almost died, but it happened!”

“Now you’re unbeatable. There’s nothing that can stop you.” Eve said. “You’ve evolved.”

Ray gasped and pointed at Eve.

“Literally,” he uttered.

Eve’s eyes went wide and she responded. “But that’s not why Arjun complimented him.”

“Wait, what? Evolved? Am I okay?” Anand asked with an onset of panic in his voice.

“Uh, yes?” Eve replied.

Anand found no comfort in Eve’s answer.

“Really, you’re fine,” she said assuredly. “Tori can explain it a lot better. Come on.”

Anand nodded and followed his friends out of the room.

“How’ve you guys been? Did you head back to CahlU?” Anand turned to Ray and asked. “How’s Veronica?”

Ray grumbled and replied, “I wouldn’t know.”

“What? Why?” Anand asked.

Ray inhaled sharply and Eve patted his back.

She gave him a knowing look before replying to Anand. “When we got back and you were unconscious, Team Lucky suggested that we tell our families and CahlU that all agents had to stay at the base to debrief. Since this mission was of a much larger scale than other ones, most people understood that the debrief could take longer.”

“They probably didn’t question it since they were happy about most of the kidnapped people being brought home,” Ray added. “Anyway, in reality only Eve and I were required to stay on the base for the last few days so we wouldn’t draw suspicion or have to answer any questions about you.”

“So your mom thinks we’ve been working this whole time? Did she call?” Anand asked.

Ray nodded. “Yeah, I lied and said that I couldn’t talk for a while because of a rule from our bosses. I had her relay it to your parents but I guess it didn’t matter. I mean you had so many missed calls. It was ridiculous.”

“Professor. Jacobson called, too. We’re behind on assignments but she said she’ll let us skip some of them,” Eve said.

“See all the trouble we go to for you?” Ray asked.

Anand smiled. “Thank you. You guys are the best.”

Eve smirked. “Trust us, we know.”

Ray opened the door to the team lounge and waved Eve and Anand inside. Upon seeing him, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It was as though a weight had been lifted off their shoulders.

“It’s good that you’re up and walking,” JP said and patted Anand’s back.

Seeing only a few of Team Lucky’s members, he asked. “Where are the others?”

“They’re off for the day. They’ll be happy to know you’re okay. How do you feel?”

“A little groggy but overall I feel fine,” Anand answered.

“How’s your leg?” Boss asked.

“It feels alright. A little uncomfortable but I figure that’s not a problem.”

Boss nodded. “And your head?”

Anand furrowed his brow and remembered the constant pain he had been dealing with on the spaceship. He tilted his head and felt some pressure.

“It feels normal. A little pain but it lessens every minute,” Anand said. “Why?”

“I see. Looks like you were right, Gale,” Boss said while turning to the medic.

Gale silently nodded from the couch. Tori was sitting next to them, rapidly typing on a tablet.

Anand looked between everyone. “What are you talking about?”

Boss got up and gestured to Anand. “Please come to the meeting room. We have important information regarding you.”

“Specifically, what happened to you when you were on the Oghrodi spaceship,” Tori added as she walked to the room.

Anand gave his friends a confused look.. “Did something happen to you guys?”

“No, this is about the thing Ezra did to your Glaive. The ‘upgrade,’” Ray answered.

“Oh.”

Anand sat at one side of the table with his friends on either side of him. Gale sat across from them with the rest of Team Lucky. Tori synced her tablet to the monitor and pulled up a program.

“This program runs the diagnostics of Collars and can tell me a myriad of things. For now, we’ll look at the information from a standard Collar. Specifically, your three’s prior to the mission,” Tori said and pointed to three massive columns of text that appeared on screen. “I doubt you can understand what it says at a glance so let me explain. Though some of the basic stuff was different, your Collars each held the same functionalities and information. Whether it was translation, voice communication, or Cahlium reserves; your basic functions were equal.”

Anand eyed over the monitor and said, “Something tells me that’s not the case anymore.”

“You would be correct,” Tori replied and loaded a new diagnostic. “Here’s what I saw when I ran diagnostics on your Collars after you all came back.”

Ray and Eve’s diagnostics got a little longer while Anand’s stretched much further. Tori scrolled and scrolled until she gave up and let the screen automatically move down. It took a few seconds before the block of text stopped moving. From a cursory glance, it was almost six times longer than the other Collars’ diagnostics.

“Anand, your Collar has a ridiculous amount of information on it,” Tori explained. “Not only that, it has information we have no knowledge of. I can’t even translate some of it. Especially intriguing is the fact that the upgrade didn’t overwrite any information your Collar already had. Rather, it was added on.”

“Kind of like a modified save file,” Ray chimed in.

“Exactly. We’d always known that Cahlium could learn as it was used.” Tori started to talk faster, unable to contain her excitement. “It wasn’t very fast but Cahlium learned more as agents utilized their Collars. We figured that would speed up with the use of Glaives and that ended up being correct. We always avoided giving people pre-upgraded Collars. Everytime we tried it before, the Collars didn’t learn as quickly.” Tori threw her hands in the air and exclaimed. “But the Oghrodi did it no problem! I’m guessing because they upgraded a Collar that was already attuned to someone. But it probably hurt more due to how much information was loaded in and then utilized almost immediately. The Oghrodi must’ve been using Cahlium long before they came to Earth.”

Tori took a moment to catch her breath. “The team is currently working on translating the rest of the new information but you’re the only ones who have this highly educated Cahlium.”

“All of us?” Anand asked and looked at Ray and Eve.

“We already had some new info in our Collars due to interacting with the aliens who were escaping,” Eve explained. “It seemed like we were the best option to test the upgrade.”

Anand frowned. “Doesn’t it hurt?”

Eve shook her head. “Not as much as it did when we first got the upgrade. Everytime I try to decipher any alien stuff, I get a slight headache but mostly I’m fine.”

“I’m shocked you were able to fight after getting your upgrade,” Ray said.

“I had other things on my mind,” Anand replied. He turned to Boss. “But, why do they have to go through the upgrade? The Oghrodi are gone for now.”

Boss shook his head. “They’re gone for now. As the person who interacted with them the most, you tell me. Will the Oghrodi return?”

Anand nodded hesitantly.

Boss sighed and continued, “We can’t simply relax and wait for the Oghrodi to return. And it would be foolish to hold off on the Cahlium upgrade. We don’t have the luxury of knowing when the Oghrodi will return but we do know they will.” Boss took a deep breath and made sure he had everyone’s attention.

He explained, “Our best option now is to continue to bolster ourselves. Humanity is ill-prepared to deal with the Oghrodi threat. The last couple years have proven that BEARs are not enough. They can deal with Riftwalkers but that is clearly not the only threat. Your battle against — Ezra, was it? It proved that even Glaives aren’t strong enough. Not yet, at least.”

“He caught me by surprise…” Anand said defensively.

“That’s another thing! You all need more training!” Boss lost his composure and yelled. “Don’t think I forgot what you did! Rushing into a rift on your own like some sort of lunatic.”

Ray joined in and berated Anand. “Yeah, I’m still irked about that. What were you thinking?!”

“I wanted to save Dad!” Anand replied.

Ray shook his head and huffed. “He doesn’t even know it was you.”

“No one knows it was any of us,” Eve added. “That’s one of the points of the Glaives. Remember?”

“No, yeah. As much as it sucks, your identities remaining secret is a good thing,” Tori said. “It’s nice to know your helmet didn’t break even when you flew through a rift at top speed. I’m working on some more upgrades to make sure the Glaive can withstand more damage. But I can’t make you all any better, that’s what training is for.”

Anand patted his wounded leg and winced at the pain. “That’s alright. We can keep training. But are simulations enough? Isn’t there something more we can do?”

“We aren’t sure yet,” Boss admitted. “A lot of things happened in the last few days. We captured Harpy and Beast. Events took place that should have aggravated the Oghrodi. But, we’ve faced no retaliation.” He hesitated. “At least for now. We’re taking a gamble and guessing that we won’t see the Oghrodi for a while; we’re estimating a year. The GDF has a lot of work to do in that time. But for the next few days, you need to get some rest. Let us figure out the next steps.”

“But, we can help with that,” Anand complained.

“You just woke up,” Gale said. “You were already running yourself ragged prior to the mission. You’ve been off the planet and just came back. There is nothing for you to do but rest.”

“Treat it like homework!” Anand argued. “Let me think of some ideas while I’m home.”

Ray rested a hand on Anand’s shoulder. “You know we have actual homework, right?”

“Enough!” Boss interjected. “I understand how you feel. But if you keep going at full speed, you’ll burn out. Think of this as repercussions for what you did. We’re not asking much. Go home and relax. I better not see you here for the next week.”

Anand sighed heavily. “Fine. I’ll try to relax.”

“Thank you.”

Anand remembered the empty halls and said, “But we can’t teleport directly home and it seems like there’s not many agents around.”

“Do you mind taking the bus home?” Boss asked.

Anand rose from his chair and walked away. “I guess not.”

Ray and Eve followed him closely. They whispered loudly to each other, as if Anand wasn’t there.

“I can hear you, you know?” he groaned.

“Sorry,” Eve replied. “How are you feeling? About the plan right now, I mean?”

Anand contemplated his answer. “It makes sense. The three of us went through a lot and need to catch our breath.”

“But…”

“The fight’s not over!” Anand said and threw up his hands. “There’s so much left to do and I don’t feel like resting! I’ve been sleeping for the last few days and I don’t want to anymore!”

Eve scoffed. “Even if you actually tried to take a break you’d spend all your time researching rifts. Or trying to figure out what makes Riftwalkers tick.”

“I want to be prepared. Is that so wrong?” Anand asked.

“What good is being prepared if you do it alone?” Ray grumbled.

“I assumed we’d be doing it together,” Anand replied. “Seeing as you won’t let me go it alone.”

Ray smiled and relaxed. It was as though all the stress he’d built up to fight Anand instantly disappeared. “I’m glad you understand. For now, let’s go home.”

“You seriously need to turn off your brain for a bit,” Eve added. “Something tells me it was still worrying while you were asleep. Relax. Take a breath.”

Anand sighed. He took an exaggerated breath and felt a calm wash over him. As he stepped into the teleporter his mind was blank and entering the underground garage felt odd. Anand had forgotten what the cold fresh air felt like against his skin. Even the faint heat from the autumn sun was unable to provide sufficient warmth. The lack of a metal sensation against his skin had become unfamiliar. He crossed his arms to try and conserve heat.

He muttered, “Should’ve worn a hoodie.”