Halfway across the world, in a small cottage on the edge of a rural community another guardian host was coming-to from a trying ordeal of his own. Laying in an uncomfortably soft bed in the upstairs bedroom of the rather rustic domicile, Jayce rolled over to avoid the thin sliver of light slipping through the space between the room’s drapes. Morning had come once again, just as it did for almost a week now, bringing an end to yet another sleepless night. Jayce sighed heavily at the development, rolling over and pressing himself up into a sitting position, before he let his feet rest lightly on the ground.

It had been six days since the incident at Titan Academy, and yet the effects of his forceful reversion at the hand of Xell’s order disruptor could still be felt. Had it not been for Nikolai’s intervention, he would by now have been waking up to a clear mind and the return of his channelling abilities. He scoffed at the thought, noting that he would likely have been doing so with these abilities heavily suppressed inside of either a Rogue Special Forces or Merricent Police Force prison cell. Either way however, the effects of his reversion would no longer be affecting his body. Both fortunately and unfortunately, neither was currently the case. Nikolai’s assistance had saved him from reversion, allowing him to flee imprisonment; but for some reason the forced healing seemed to have only prolonged the effects of his reversion sickness.

A sigh escaped his lips as he drew zeta into his hand, congealing a globule of his reaper energy to confirm that he could still summon the unique zeta type. But as he did this, and as had been happening for almost a week since the ordeal, the action brought with it a searing pain in his head. A loud growl preceded the dissipation of the energy, which caused the pain to subside, slowly fading from a searing pain to the dull throb that had kept him awake all night.

In the distance, he sensed what he understood to be light footsteps approaching his room, but in his current state the perpetrator might as well have been stomping through the house. The light taps of flesh on the antique hardwood floors sounded like a titan crashing his way up the stairs that led to Jayce’s bedroom. Even these subtle noises exacerbated his headache, heightening the dull throb into a much more notable flashing pain. Unfortunately for the Dias host, his discomfort only seemed to amuse his visitor.

“Another day of head-splitting migraines, brother?” An all too familiar voice filled Jayce’s ears, dripping with enthusiasm as the source camed to torment his older brother.

The young, red-haired channeler smirked as he made his way through the door, before dropping onto the hard sofa at the other side of the room. Jayce winced as he sat, before Rule settled down and got comfortable in his chair, reclining as he did before turning his attention back towards his brother.

“Could you possibly be any louder?” Jayce snarled, his crimson energies flaring in tandem with his rage, only to further amplify the pain that was shooting through his head. All Rule could do was chuckle at his older brother’s response, taking a sick pleasure in Jayce’s mounting discomfort as he made himself at home.

“I’m sure I could.” He replied with a devious grin.

“In situations like this, your enhanced senses as a Morpher only work to your disadvantage Jayce.” Another voice sounded, as yet another set of foot steps slowly neared his room.

“Honestly, everything about you seems to be working to your disadvantage at this point.” Rule’s grin broke into a light chuckle. “I’m starting to think that your saviour may have taken some sick pleasure in not properly healing you when he prevented your reversion.”

“That’s unlikely.” The mature, feminine voice once again sounded, this time as its source entered the room. “Physical reconstitution is one thing, but there’s no real way to heal the neurological impacts of a hard-reversion, Rule.” The woman’s voice drew Rule’s attention towards the archway at the top of the stairway that connected the bottom floor to the rest of the house.

“There has to be some way.” Rule’s gaze narrowed as he contested the idea, trying to figure out how something like that would work as the woman who acted as caregiver for him and his older brother entered the room.

“Well, if there is, no one has figured it out or shared how it would work with us.” She countered. “It’s the reason you don’t see many channelers who specialise in healing. Channeling is a largely psychological exercise; the toll on your mind is infinitely higher than the stress on your body.” She explained. “That’s why damage to your powered-up state is reflected much more heavily in damage to the psyche than lasting physical wounds.” She continued.

“Thanks for the meta-physics lesson, but at this point that’s more than obvious.” Jayce growled, much to Pamela’s amusement.

“Reversion sickness is simply the neurological manifestation of the psychic backlash dealt to the mind as damage to your braver form accumulates; and it lasts as long as the mind needs to heal itself.” She concluded. “That said, it’s been a week… even the worse sicknesses seldom last more than five days.”

Jayce just nodded in agreement as Pamela scratched her cheek, a habit that she tended to exhibit when she was thinking.

“Normally, you usually sleep through the first few days of a hard reversion… I suspect that helps to speed the process along.” Jayce groaned. “But if I’ve managed to sleep six hours in the past seven days, I’d say that’s a lot.”

“Most channelers are also completely unable to use their abilities during the recovery period.” Rule chimed in. “Your abilities on the other hand, have been working fine.” He paused. “In fact, if anything, I’d say they’ve been a bit hyperactive this past week.”

“Indeed.” Pamela nodded in concession. “I’d love for you to be able to sleep this off but nothing I’ve given you seems to even come close to putting you down.” She shrugged. “Even in your unpowered-up state your residual reaper energy just breaks sedatives down before they can have any real effect on you; and with it perpetually supplementing your energy levels—even outside of your braver form—falling asleep from fatigue is also pretty much out of the question.”

“The Order sure as hell wasn’t messing around when they built you, were they?” Rule chuckled at his brother’s predicament.

“Well he was the original R.E.D. prototype.” Pamela chimed in. “His program was where they worked out the kinks that informed the less… problematic lines; like the one that spawned you Rule.”

Rule just nodded.

“So my only option is to endure this ridiculous ‘sickness’ until my frail mind can mend itself?” Jayce scoffed.

“Unless you’d like me to have Rule forcefully revert you.” Pamela shrugged nonchalantly. “At least with your abilities fully suppressed I could knock you out for a couple days and see if that speeds things up.”

“I’d rather suffer than give this little shit the satisfaction of ever being able to say that he’s reverted me.” Jayce scoffed.

Rule just laughed at the sentiment.

“Seriously though, grinning and bearing it seems to be your only real option.” Pamela conceded. “—and honestly, it might be for the best. Merricent’s been quite the mess since your stunt and the Master General is still in negotiations to dissuade the government from escalating this situation any further.” She explained, drawing an annoyed growl from Jayce.

“I don’t know why Rayad would even bother to negotiate anything with these recreants.” He snarled.

Pamela just giggled.

“Because while we may not be as strong as you channelers, we control the vast majority of the world’s governments – and therefore it’s power.” Pamela retorted. “Channelers can’t just run around doing whatever they please and ignoring who it might upset – doing that is what got the Order in this annoying predicament to begin with.”

“I really don’t see what this has to do with ‘the Order’ specifically.” Rule interjected now. “Worst case scenario, we throw Jayce under the bus – the rest of us had nothing to do with this situation.”

“Don’t be so naïve Rule.” Pamela admonished the younger of the two R.E.D. soldiers. “The Demai’s ‘reciprocal energetic de-coupling’ program is a heavily regulated military-technology. Under international law, it’s to be reserved for wartime scenarios only. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to interpret Jayce’s actions not just as criminal activity but as a legitimate act of war.”

Rule’s eyebrow tipped upwards at the seemingly ridiculous assertion.

“That’d be quite the stretch wouldn’t it?” He scoffed.

“Logically, it would.” Pamela conceded. “But politically, that’s an entirely different story. When I said that channelers doing whatever they pleased without caring who it might upset is what got us into this situation, I wasn’t just referring to Jayce. The Order’s never been on particularly friendly terms with the Merricent government, their royal family nor their Rogue lackies.” She explained further.

“Well to be fair, we’re not really on friendly terms with many people.” Rule shrugged.

“That’s a symptom of the larger problem, and in this case it’s that the apple just doesn’t fall too far from the tree.” Pamela explained. “You see, it wasn’t very long ago that the Master General was strong-arming the Merricent royal family into handing over a number of their important imperial relics. Let’s just say that that’s never really sat well with local goverments… or the empire as a whole for that matter.” Pamela explained.

“I assume that was before Kyasho and his Rogues set up shop in the archipelago?” Rule inquired.

Pamela just nodded.

“Some time before that, yes. In fact, I’m almost certain that the old man establishing the Garrison in this country was a direct response those incidents.” She explained.

“Okay, makes sense.” Rule smirked. “So I suppose spinning this into a legitimate war wouldn’t be a bad way for Merricent to attempt to retake some of that ‘stolen’ merch that we’re holding onto?”

“Indeed.” Pamela nodded once more. “It’s also a good opportunity for the Rogues solidify their partnership with the empire… and the Xelots hardly even need a reason to oppose us – so a war with Merricent of all countries is a fight best to avoid.”

“Yeah, the hard-on that the Xelots have for the Order is almost creepy at times.” Rule scoffed audibly, drawing an affirmative grunt from Jayce.

“Again, those are the sins of your father.” Pamela interjected. “Do you know what the first thing the Master General did after securing rulership of Aviv was?” She inquired, causing both of the young Demai operatives to shake their head. “He went to war with his nearest non-allied neighbour, and killed their soverign leader.”

Jayce and Rule just shrugged at the statement. “Par for the course.” They replied in unison.

“Well, that queen had the sworn fealty of one Marshack Almed.” Pamela expounded, causing Jayce and Rule to chuckle lightly.

“So father pretty much created his own nemesis.” Rule mused.

“Indeed.” Pamela affirmed once more. “Honestly, there are very few of the Order’s problems that I can think of that weren’t caused by the direct actions of men with Demar blood flowing through their veins.” She admonished, drawing a deep growl from Jayce and a light chuckle from Rule.

“So is this father’s idea of a punishment then?” Rule inquired, motioning to the old cottage that they found themselves hiding out in. “Or was this your idea?” He continued, turning his attention towards Pamela

“The Master General made the call, but I have to admit it was a good one.” Pamela smiled. “Amridad is the closest thing to an autonomous region that Merricent has. So despite being a part of the larger empire, we can at least operate here with some degree of freedom, while staying out of the limelight.”

“No shit.” Rule retorted. “The most interesting thing that seems to happen here is cow tipping.” He folded his arms and reclined even deeper into the sofa.

“You say that this region gives us freedom, but I’m not seeing the benefits.” Jayce interjected now, drawing both Rule’s and Pamela’s attention to him. “I asked you to send a message to Xavier Stryke three days ago and still no success.” Jayce scoffed now.

“Well I did say some degree of freedom, not freedom in its totality.” Pamela countered. “Your message has been sent, the problem is that we haven’t received anything in the way of a reply. My best guess is that your friend Xavier is laying low.” Pamela shrugged. “Lehomik activity near the capital has also dropped to almost zero.”

“That’s not much of a surprise I guess.” Rule chimed in at this point. “Wouldn’t they also be under heavy scrutiny by the authorities in Geraheim?”

Pamela shook her head.

“Well, not officially at least.” She rethought her answer. “But I guess given their reputation, I doubt that they’re ever truly above suspicion after any major disaster.”

“Indeed.” Jayce nodded. “It’d make sense for going dark to be standard operating procedure for them in these kinds of situations.”

“That would make sense.” Pamela affirmed. “That said, we do still have a handful of agents in the area and they’ve been asked to stay on the lookout for him. If he shows up you’ll be the first to know, but in the mean time you need to get some rest.”

Jayce just growled lightly at the advice. He’d had quite enough rest over the past week, and was ready to return to his duties as a Demai operative and a guardian of Gaea.