Zan slept soundly. He guessed ten hours as a nice portion of the day had gone when he woke.

Groggily waking, Zan found under his door a piece of paper with a mark on it. It only said one word, the one word which Zan could read: 'meet.'

Right away, Zan knew it was from Jiehong. Flicking his earpiece, he spoke into it and said, "Confirmed. We will chat later, 'kay?" Moments later, Jie gave a confirmation. He remained resting in his room and said he didn't want to be disturbed. Fair enough, Zan thought. We all had been through a lot.

"Hey, chef," Zan called out as he sat upon a basement kitchen stool. The stool was cold and sent a shiver up Zan's spine, waking him up.

Chef Paul-Paul called to him and said, "Oh, hello, Zan! My, how long has it been! You look... well? No missing limbs, by the look. Maybe a missing emotion? One torn off by a monster? Oh! Tee-hee."

Smiling, Zan told the chef, "I have my emotions in check. Heaven knows I feel them. Thank the gods! I am mostly hungry, though."

"Which is why I made for you a huge stack of pancakes! It is so good knowing you are back for a little while. No one knew when you were coming back but because I wanted to make sure you had a meal whenever you wanted, I still cooked. Heavens. I wasted so much food while you were gone. I started giving it away to the others," the chef said.

"That's fine," Zan said, residual sleepiness creeping back into him now that the stool had warmed some with his butt.

"Of course it's fine, boo! Food should never be wasted. If you're not around but still have a meal, then, yeah, others are going to eat! Get used to it, hun," the chef said but Zan did not care.

"Yup, yeah!" Zan said, feeling only hunger.

Before long, Paul-Paul set before him a large stack of pancakes. He slid over a pouring vessel filled with watered down syrup. Zan did not care if the syrup was watery. He was hungry and poured it over with abandon.

Munching, swallowing, the syrup and bits coming from his mouth if he didn't properly chew, Zan said, "Thanks -- so good!"

"You're welcome, boo," Paul-Paul said, continuing to cook up eggs and bacon. Chef removed from the icebox a container of fresh milk. Zan chugged the beverage with stereotypical teenage enthusiasm.

Zan did not hear Chef Paul-Paul leave the room once his cooking was done. Though he had said, silently, "You remind me so much of my son, Zan. I hope the gods light the way."

Wiping down his face after his meal, Zan placed his dishes into the sink. Normally, he would clean them himself, but he had more pressing concerns.

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Luxley, Zan thought. It is time I go and get that location list.

"Are you guys going to be fine if I head over and spend time with Luxley?" Zan asked the Wardens.

Sigma-Prime chirped up. After not seeing Zan for so long, and because she had been charging for part of his return, she was not able to interact with him much, and so was eager to speak to him now. "We will be fine. Go and do what you need to do, Zan."

"Neat. I wanted to check in just to be sure. I didn't know if there was anything you needed help with before I left."

"Thank you for your offer to help. As servants of the Order, we do not ever need help with tasks. However, if you want to take a more direct control over research and development, you can inform of us research priorities. Depending on your own skills and knowledge, you could hasten development by assisting us in resource acquisition," Sigma said.

Zan chatted with the Wardens about resource acquisition. There was not much he could do to help research, however, as many of the components the Wardens required could only be obtained through barter or mining. Zan was no miner. Jiehong? Maybe, but Zan doubted even one as physically fit as Jie wouldn't want to spend hours upon hours mining. Not unless they truly had need for it...

"I need to get to Luxley," Zan said after settling for 'keeping his eyes open' as his main means of contributing to Order trade networking.

As ever, the Wardens did not fret Zan for being his age and position. "You will grow into your role," the Screen Master had said. This wasn't a lie; Zan understood how he would grow into his role. Right now, with him doing nothing but playing defensive, 'growth' seemed very far away.

"Activating energy concentration," the Screen Master said once Zan entered the White Chamber.

One, two, three... Zan counted down.

White light filled the room. When Zan adjusted, he was in the Backroads.

Same as ever, Zan thought of the ashen environment.

'Stay along the path,' Zan heard the words of the Wardens. And he did. He kept along the path, not daring a glance, let alone a venture, outside of the pathway. Zan brought himself to Luxley's pathway. Ahead, was the light cadence which he knew led to Luxley's bedroom. He did not walk the path, though. Not yet.

Instead, Zan spent a moment lingering on the path.

He breathed in, then out. He breathed in deep. Then slowly released. Zan practiced. In and out. Many times, until calm stretched over him.

Zan couldn't explain it. Normally, hiking a trench in the Backroads put him off his game.

This time, he was different. Zan was calm. Relaxed. He felt safe here. Away from the command center; out of sight of the Wardens; not even Luxley nor Jiehong could find him here. Not when the command center needed hours of time between energy transfers. For the time being, Zan rested, away from it all, away from everybody and the concerns of the world.

"What is it?" Zan asked himself.

"Is it the peace?" Other He replied. "Or maybe the fact no one can reach me?"

Feeling like he could stay here forever as he pondered these and other questions, Zan lifted himself up and onto his feet. Peaceful though it might be, Zan had people to fight for, himself to protect. Zan could protect no one as long as he dawdled his time within interdimensional passages.

Feeling refreshed in spirit, Zan strode his steps. As always, stopping short of crossing into the light, he stopped and listened. It is always on the threshold, Zan thought.

Silence. What was he waiting for? He needed to see Luxley, he--

Then he heard it.

The voice. It called out to him: "You... are... me..."

Zan stepped through the portal.