Andrew and Cathryn returned to Earth, sneaking out of the basement to avoid being seen by Jack's friends. Unfortunately, they quickly ran into the problem of how to actually get Cathryn home. Neither of them had a car, and she lived across town. Andrew considered it for a bit, before deciding to borrow Arose's car. Arose always left an extra key by his front door, so after a quick trip next door, Andrew and Cathryn got into the car and he started it up.

"Do- do you know how to drive?" Cathryn asked nervously as she noticed Andrew looking down under the steering wheel, as if he was trying to figure out where the pedals were.

"Uh… well, it can't be that hard to figure out, right?" Andrew replied, shifting the car into drive, before stepping on the pedal. Cathryn screamed as the car peeled out of the driveway at full speed, swerving into the road before belting away.

"Slow down, SLOW DOWN!!!" Cathryn screeched, scrambling in her seat to find some measure of stability to secure herself, the slim seatbelt not feeling very reassuring at the speeds they were going.

"Would you calm down? This isn't even that fast." Andrew scoffed as he went over sixty through a residential district. "I can run faster than this." He commented as he skidded onto a main road, his speed immediately increasing to over a hundred.

"That was a stop sign!" Cathryn yelled.

"Oh, right, signs…" Andrew muttered, looking at the signs along the side of the road. "What?!? Forty?!? That's like a minimum, right?"

"It's the speed limit! As in, limit your speed to a reasonable, safe level!" Cathryn exclaimed, debating whether she should start praying.

"We'd be crawling! It's completely unreasonable!" Andrew argued back.

"That was a stop light!" Cathryn screeched again.

Andrew clicked his tongue. "Ah, crap. Stop distracting me, will you?"

"You-!" Cathryn seethed in frustration, before falling silent, focusing on making sure she had all her safety points secured.

Grumbling slightly, Andrew began to control his speed, going down to the speed limit, obeying the traffic rules, at least, the ones he knew. He was beginning to think he should have just carried her over in one of his Beast forms. Cathryn breathed a sigh of relief as his driving calmed down, and began actually giving him directions to her house. It only took a few minutes before they finally swerved into her driveway. "Alright, home sweet home!" Andrew announced, throwing the car into park and turning to Cathryn.

Cathryn breathed out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank god." She paused, before turning to Andrew. "Um, I- I guess I'll see you around? Should- should we meet up tomorrow, or…"

Andrew paused. "Well, I wouldn't be against it, but I don't think we need to meet up until next week, when it's time to go hunting. Until then, well-" He tapped his temple. "We're still in each other's heads, remember? I don't think meeting up will make any difference in how easily we can talk to each other."

"I- I guess…" Cathryn paused. "Should- should I go to work tomorrow?"

Andrew froze. "Aw, crap, we forgot to talk to Elder Barry about your cover story! Stupid kid talk made me forget everything else!"

Cathryn flushed. "Yeah, that- I didn't expect anything like that to happen… not that I expected anything that happened today."

"Today was pretty wild…" Andrew agreed with a slow nod. "But- well, it isn't the worst thing that could have happened, right? I mean, as much as you got attacked by some strange robot thing and Bonded to the class psycho… well, you do get to be immortal."

"You're not- well, you are, but I never thought you deserved to be the class psycho." Cathryn retorted. "Eric- Eric had been pushing you for years. I'm not saying what happened was right, or that he somehow deserved it, but… I never thought you should be blamed for finally doing something to push back. People have a right to defend themselves. I know people brush bullying off as just kid stuff, but… it's literally torture, both psychologically and physically. It's what abusers do. Why can we recognize how horrible it is in adults, but when it comes to kids, who are literally in the most formative time of their lives where it can do the most harm, we basically ignore it?!?"

Andrew grunted, he agreed that bullying was horrible, and her arguments as to why made a whole lot of sense, but… he wouldn't absolve himself of the blame just because he was pushed. With the power he had, he couldn't be pushable. He couldn't be allowed a moment of weakness, even if it would be understandable for someone else. The consequences were just too great.

"Andrew, you can't- no one is that unshakable. No one should even be expected to be! Everyone needs to be able to be weak sometimes, even someone as strong as you." Cathryn reached out to grab his arm with a concerned look.

"But I can't!" Andrew growled, clutching the wheel, his knuckles whitening. "I'm too- too-" He paused, glancing at the wheel he should have destroyed by now. "Oh, right… I can make myself weaker now."

"You what?" Cathryn's eyebrows shot up.

"Didn't I say something about that? I recently learned I can adjust my aura to control my strength. It- well, I guess I get a bit more wiggle room now." Andrew explained with a shrug.

Cathryn frowned. "I- I don't think that's the point…"

Andrew waved his hand. "Feh, it's a moot point now."

"But-" Cathryn's expression twisted, before she let out a sigh. "Okay, fine, whatever. Let's just- what am I supposed to do about work?"

"Go?" Andrew shrugged. "Might as well, right? At least until we figure out what we're going to do. People might get suspicious if you suddenly drop off the face of the earth. Keep doing your normal routine, and we'll deal with things from there."

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Cathryn nodded. "Right. No sudden big changes. Just go back to normal…" She grimaced. "I'm- that might be a little difficult."

"Just do your best. Even if you make some small mistakes, the Clans will handle it. We've gotten pretty good at this, you know?" Andrew replied.

"If you say so…" Cathryn muttered, before sighing and getting out of the car. "I'll see you later. I really should get inside."

"I'll see you." Andrew waved, waiting for her to close the door, before starting the car and pulling away.

Cathryn watched him drive off with a slight frown. *He could have at least offered to walk me to the door.* She complained internally, before sighing and heading inside.

"You're late." A grumpy voice came from the living room as she walked through the door.

Instantly, Cathryn's expression turned cold. "I don't have a schedule. I can't be late when there's nowhere I'm supposed to be." The man sitting in the recliner snorted, not even looking away from the TV, ignoring her. Cathryn glared at him for a moment, before heading towards her own room. As she walked, she paused by the door of another room, peeking in to see her mother sleeping, still in her work clothes.

Cathryn let out a sigh, creeping in to at least take off her shoes and jewelry, before tucking her in. She'd need to wake up and go to her second job soon, but Cathryn wanted her to get at least a little bit of comfortable rest. Cathryn then paced over to her own room, closing the door and sitting at her desk, pulling out a small notebook. She absently took a pen and wrote the date and the words 'Today I' before stopping, not even sure what to write. Should she talk about the attack? Her journey to the Outside? Her strange new bond with Andrew? Would that be alright? She knew she should keep the Bonded secret, but… this was her diary. It didn't feel right to write it down, but it also didn't feel right to just ignore everything that happened either.

Cathryn bit her lip, considering what to do. Finally, she put the pen to paper and wrote. 'Today I spent the day with Andrew…'

*

Andrew sat in the forest, in his territory, deep in thought. Something about his Bond with Cathryn had given him an idea. The connection between them was a small thread of aura that connected their cores. If that could happen, could he use his aura to do anything else? He released his aura back to full strength, before attempting to push it out. Wisps of aura began to whip out of him uncontrollably, lashing out around him! Andrew flinched as he felt them hit something, before snapping back to him as he stopped pushing. "What was that?" He asked incredulously as he looked around where he felt his aura hit something. He suddenly froze as he saw what had happened. At the moment, nothing looked any different, visibly, but as he looked around, entire swaths of aura were gone, lines of grass that looked no different from rocks according to his aura sense. "What- what did I just do?" He muttered in disbelief. His aura had somehow torn the aura from the grass…

He quickly focused on his own aura, looking for any differences, but thankfully, he hadn't somehow acquired a ton of grass cores. He breathed out a sigh of relief, before frowning. What had he done then? Hesitantly he tried to send his aura out again, much more carefully, only sending out a small tentacle of aura this time. He looked at an untouched section of grass, before whipping it out, watching what happened this time. As his aura passed through, he saw the cores being pushed out of the grass, and then they winked out of existence. Andrew blinked a few times. "Huh… that's- that could be…" He paused, before frowning. "Is that- could this be how I got the Lizard core?" If he could steal cores… he'd have to test it.

Andrew glanced at the tree, considering it, before shaking his head. He didn't want a giant dead tree in the middle of his territory, plus… what would a tree core even do for him? Instead, his attention turned to the anthill nearby, delving into the depths, searching for one of the ones with wings. If he was going to get a new form, he wanted to at least get something potentially useful. It didn't take long before he found one, and he carefully snaked a thread of his aura towards it. He hesitated for a moment, before wrapping his aura around the ant, and then pulling. The ant, which had been busily going about its business, suddenly stopped as its life was torn from it. Within Andrew, a fifth core now clumped together with the others. Andrew blinked a few times, before his form shifted, and sitting in his place was a tiny, winged ant. Cautiously, the ant flapped its wings, and it suddenly shot into the air, zooming away at lightning speeds. "Ahhhh!!!" Andrew's tiny voice yelled as he literally shot through a nearby tree.

He changed back to his human form, tumbling for a bit, before getting up and staring wide eyed at the hole that he had burst through the tree. "Now that's what I call a bullet ant." He muttered in disbelief. He then paused as another idea occurred to him. He strode back to the clearing as slowly a pair of insect wings began to emerge from his back. He flapped them carefully a few times, feeling the amount of power he could put into them, before they began to buzz and he shot into the air! "Wooooohahahahaha!" He cackled in delight as he soared over the forest, completely forgetting he was buck naked for a moment.

*A-Andrew?!?* Cathryn suddenly sent him a mental message, interrupting his flight.

He came to a stop, hovering as his expression suddenly turned serious. *What? Did something happen? Do you need help?* He began to question her seriously, getting ready to answer her call.

*N-no, I just… I felt a weird burst of excitement from you…* She replied, a bit embarrassed. She probably shouldn't have bothered him. The sudden emotion had just startled her.

*Oh… yeah, uh, I- I kinda just learned how to fly… got a little excited.* Andrew explained sheepishly.

*Oh, oka-* Cathryn paused, eyes widening. *Y-you can fly?!? Is- is that a Beast thing?*

*Only if you have wings.* Andrew replied with a smirk.

Cathryn paused. *But… you don't have wings?*

*I didn't have wings.* Andrew corrected her.

Cathryn paused for a longer period of time, her mind struggling to process that statement, before finally giving up. *I-I'm going to get back to work…*

Andrew chuckled as he flew back towards his territory. *Have fun. Let me know if you need anything.* He quickly returned to the clearing, letting the wings disappear as he put his clothes back on, considering what he'd learned.

At this point it was clear that what had happened back in the tunnels was that somehow his ability had moved on its own, reaching out to steal the Lizard's core. The next question was… what would happen if he pushed a core out of himself? Would it disappear like the grass cores? What would that mean for him? He could already feel himself merging with the ant core, turning it into him, just like he had the Lizard core. If he just got rid of it… wouldn't that be like ripping out a piece of himself? Andrew shuddered. He wasn't going to touch that any time soon.

Instead, he turned his attention to the new core within himself, mushed against the others as it tried to fit in. The first thing he noticed was how weak it was. Even at full power, it was weaker than the level he usually withdrew his other cores to. Not that this was particularly surprising. It did come from an ant. He didn't really expect anything particularly powerful. Still, the form itself was more useful than he'd expected. Even in ant form, he still had his other auras empowering him, plus, well, the wings. He could already see the usefulness of this new form. All that power in a practically invisible form, the ability to fly… he was looking forward to his next hunt. Particularly since, with the realization of this new ability… he was going to need to think about what other cores he wanted to steal.

Andrew cocked his head. How would that work actually? How did it work now? When he absorbed crystals, how was the energy distributed? Theoretically, his Human core absorbed all the extra energy, but what about the others? Did they get the energy first, then the extra went to the Human core? Andrew paused. Wait, that wasn't the issue. If he had too many cores, would any of his abilities really grow? Sure, his physical strength would increase, but that was only half of what made Beasts truly powerful. As abilities grew, they became truly ridiculous. If he never had access to that kind of power simply because he had too many cores… Andrew sighed. It just wasn't worth it. Unless an ability was truly special, he wouldn't steal a core. What he had right now was more than enough.

There was one other idea Andrew thought he could test before he was done for the day, but… it was risky. Using his aura, he could attempt to connect another core to his own, like the connection between him and Cathryn, but… maybe it wasn't the best idea to do something that might get him Bonded to a piece of grass. Andrew debated back and forth for a moment, before letting out a sigh and getting to his feet. He was done for today.