Sitting at a large table at an outdoor french restaurant, Jian and Konichi are waiting for Boz and Lera to return with their orders. They both are sitting in an emotionless silence. Konichi, after a while passes, states “My father is... he was considered to be the leader of the cult. They practically confirmed it already, but... he basically is a vegetable now. They-They're afraid there's no way to bring him back to normal. I lost my dad and... now I'll always be known as the girl who's dad is a cult leader.... I... I don't know what's going to happen to me....”

As Konichi begins to break down, Jian doesn't move a muscle, he simply stares down at the table. “Quib...” He mutters, his mind still overwhelmed at the thought of her possible death.

Boz and Lera return with the group's food. “I hope we didn't leave you too waiting! Two dishes, one for each!” Boz states as he puts the plates down in front of them.

“I'm... I”m not hungry... sorry....” Konichi says, pushing the plate away. Jian, meanwhile, barely recognizes the food is even there.

Boz looks at the two of them. He sighs and rubs the back of his head “Damn, you both are really down in the dumps.... All I wanna do is try to make ya feel better, alright?”

“Listen, I understand that, but with what happened with my father, I don't need food right now. All I'm interested in doing is talking to Carie, who should have been here already....”

Stepping out of the crowded city streets is Carie and Sin, both in their street clothes. “Sorry about the wait, it took everything in me to get Sin to come along....”

“I'm only here because of Carie, make no mistake about that. I still want nothing to do with the rest of you. However, she insisted.” Sin states before taking a seat.

“I... I don't want him ending his terms with you so poorly. I at least want neutral ground between him and my friends, that is all.” Carie states before sitting down next to him.

“So... what is everyone going to do now? Ya know, since they said Unimori is closing down?” Boz says, with a tinge of sadness in his eyes.

Carie clears her throat after a long period of silence from the group “My parents want me to come home. They said the only reason I was in Japan was for my education, and with that gone... I'm sure you can get the picture. Oni's asked to come with me, but I have yet to ask my parents.”

Konichi mutters “I... don't really have anything left here. My father was a goddamn cult leader! You don't really recover from that, so the best thing I can do is move as far away as possible, hoping the notoriety doesn't catch up with me.”

The table goes silent for a while once more, before Hoshi walks in from the crowd. He has a sad mood in his step. “Naoto....” he mutters to himself, depressed at his friend that he hasn't seen for so long.

“Hoshi... are you okay?” Lera says, noticing him step into view from the crowd.

Seeing her moving towards him, Hoshi mutters out the words “I was wondering if you've seen-” but he is cut off by a scream in the crowd behind him.

The entire group rises to their feet, aside from Jian, as they see what the scream is in reference to. Suspended in the space above their world, directly above, them, is a fractured brown and gray world. From inside of the fracture, a light begins to glow, and in that moment, it becomes clear the planet is aligned in some kind of cannon-like structure....

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“Oh god, this is their backup plan....” Carie mutters, fear now enveloping her.

“Carie, what the fuck is going on!” Boz yells back to her.

“The soldiers I was with, they said something about the Demu having a backup plan.... Oh fuck, oh god no!” Carie screams, backing up in fear and tripping over a chair.

“What the hell do we do, Boz!?” Lera yells to him past the screams of the crowd.

“I don't fucking now! How do you stop a goddamn planet from shooting you! Cause I'd like ta fucking know!” Boz screams back.

As all of this is happening, unbeknownst to the group, a portal opens a few tables away from them near the restaurant itself. Raphael leaps out of the portal, followed by the rest of his squad and multiple UMA soldiers. Using kinetic blasts, he launches every table in-between him and the Investigation Group away.

Boz and Sin hear this, and turn to the noise “The fuck? Raphael!?” Boz yells as he sees him. The rest of the group hears Boz, and notices Raphael and his team as well.

Raphael, with panic in his eyes, yells “If you value your life, get in the portal, now!”

“Do you know what the fuck is going on right now!?” Sin yells, terror in his voice.

Looking towards the planet, Raphael realizes the Reaper world will fire at any moment. “I'll explain after you're safe! Now get through the fucking portal before I have to drag you!”

Boz and Sin look towards each other for but a moment before nodding their heads. “Everyone into the fucking portal!” Boz yells before grabbing Jian out of his seat and sprinting towards the portal. Sin does the same with Carie, and the remaining three follow suite right after.

Once all seven of them are through, Raphael looks towards the crowds, of which are panicking, and yells as loud as he can.”If you want to live, get through the portal! We'll keep it up as long as we can!”

Despite the chaos, there are some citizens who are able to hear Raphael or see the portal, and they are able to make their way in, most of them shoving Raphael aside as they run in. A total of twenty-three are able to get through before Raphael sees that the Reaper world is about to fire. The blast strikes the planet, and it begins to envelope the world at a breakneck speed.

Raphael orders Marinth to shut the portal, as well as his squad to get inside. They have done all they can, and they know it. The portal shuts moments later.

Examining the group in front of him, many of them confused and frightened, Raphael, stuttering to figure out how to address the crowd, says a few moments later “I... I'm sorry that I didn't see this coming. Some of you know me, most of you don't. My name is Raphael Danteo, and I was the one who stopped the eldritch-rune cult, but... I knew there was another plan, and I was too late in finding it out-”

“I would goddamn say that you were!” Boz says moving up to Raphael, grabbing him by his shirt collar, and lifting him off the floor. He looks him directly in the eyes, fury and confusion evident in his every word “What the fuck just happened Raphael!?”

Raphael looks back into Boz's eyes, and with sorrow in every syllable, says “I'm sorry, Boz, but your planet... your home... after everything, I still couldn't protect it. I'm so sorry....”

Boz, still so very confused, says to him “So... my brother... my dad... every damn friend I had at my school... they're...?”

Unable to look Boz in the eyes any longer, Raphael turns his gaze to the ground and mutters “... yes....”

Boz, upon hearing this, slams Raphael against the wall, and reels back his fist to strike him, when he feels someone grapple him around his abdomen from behind. It is Lera. She says to him, with a crack in her voice “Please Boz, I know we're all angry and confused, but Raphael still came for us. We've lost everything now, everyone's gone, but there's still something. All of us, everyone from our group of friends is still alive, and we'd all be dead along with our planet if it wasn't for Raphael. Don't take it out on him, please....”

With his fury slowly abating, Boz lowers Raphael, and releases his grasp on him. While still glaring daggers at Raphael, Boz backs away, and moves to his group, who are currently breaking down in some way, shape or form caused by the stress of losing their home planet and almost dying with it.

Raphael looks around the room, seeing the confused and scared expressions on all of the refugees' faces, and mutters to himself “I saved the group of people I loved so much... but at what cost?”