Porter, with all of his might swinged the sword directly toward the rock.

It wasn’t until the sword hit the rock, creating a crack in its surface and a loud noise.

He realized, along with everyone else around him.

“It didn’t even light up, let alone break the rock.” Hayes hesitantly spoke. It was a soft voice of someone who had dread.

“That...can’t be good.” Lapine replied.

‘Shit.’

Porter lowered the legendary weapon. He sat down with his legs curved up. All he felt like doing was staring into the sky. His dead look was something he was used to, just not in this body.

‘For a moment, I thought things might change’

Porter recalled a voice he heard. It’d been when he slept. There was something deeply nostalgic about it, as if he recognized who said it.

“There’s no need… to be a xx--x--x-x”

… 

“Arlo--” Ezra stepped up.

“--Leave him be, at least for now.” Hayes interrupted. 

‘For a moment… It’s not like I expected much of being here. But the change in my life, it’d be so different with only a single day.’

“We need a plan for this.” Salem said. She spoke softly, though with resolve in her voice. Her eyes looked angered, especially when she looked toward Porter.

Hayes cast his gaze toward her in shock. Salem hadn’t seemed like the type to let her emotions out so quickly from what Porter had seen. 

Her quiet, timid surface from the earlier morning shifted into someone actually a part of the conversation.

“The possibility we discussed earlier is that Aether’s retaliation for losing Clearwick is beginning. We’d been getting signs of it since months ago, though Arlo going directly over to Bliss was a bit unprecedented for them.” Hayes replied.

“--And what’s all that mean?” Salem asked.

“Aether had to unexpectedly deal with an immediate issue. It might’ve caused them to accidentally leak that they’re planning an attack.”

“--That’s gotta be it.” Lapine added.

“Eh?” Ezra asked.

“Arlo had to have gone to Bliss to see this for himself.”

“Nobody in this house or the Capitol even brought it up as strategy.”

“You know how Arlo is. He probably didn’t think something like a soul reset would even work on him.”

“--That shithead. Leaving the problems for our incompetent asses.” Ezra stammered.

“Don’t get like that, Ezra.”

“Arlo was the only fucking one there for us! You know that? Cause I’m beginning to think you forgot that Arlo secured Clearwick for us.”

Ezra had an emotion of anger on his face. His brows twitched and he looked unstable. Had it not been for Hayes’s attempts to calm him down, he might’ve kept on ranting.

“And now… he can’t even swing it right.” 

Ezra spoke up as if it was what was most important to him. He spoke with a firm voice that took a complete sense of confidence to muster.

“You’re the only family I got left, Hayes.” Ezra quietly spoke as his voice shook and stuttered. “Why should I deserve to live when I couldn’t keep the ones that did everything for me alive?”

“--You deserve to live regardless, Ezra. You’ve saved me many times and you know that. I’ll never live up to the other two that cared for you, but I’ll live honored to know you feel that way.”

“To hell with that…”

“Hm.”

Ezra looked down to his shoes. A small tear dripped from his eyes.

“I’ll be inside. Run the plan by Salem and Arlo.”

“--Will do.”

‘I’m sorry.’ Porter thought to himself. 

‘I didn’t ask for this.’

Despite this, he wasn’t able to muster the courage to speak.

--

“Right then. My apologies for what Ezra said.”

“It’s fine.” Porter replied. “I don’t understand anything. I don’t get why I’m here.”

“We don’t either, but we might be able to find out.”

Porter looked up toward Hayes. Shockingly, he hadn’t been crying. It’d just been a cold, dead face.

“--How?”

“Well, if we believe Aether is going to retaliate against us soon, we need to find out in what way they will. I’m willing to believe that if we head to the Machine Testing Grounds, we might have a good idea of how.”

“What’s that place?”

“Something south of here, close to my hometown, and pretty close to the Aether: Perspective Domain. It was used by their leader to test out machine concepts. Some that went better than others. It’s abandoned now, but activity has been recently reported.”

“--I see.”

“Seeing as you were there, their chance to take out the key driving force of our domains was making itself available. You’re not at fault for that though, Porter. Arlo is.”

Hearing that, for a moment made Porter’s eyes glow.

“Right.”

“--You’re...not very talkative” Hayes talked toward Porter.

“Well, I don’t have much to say, and I’m nervous.”

“Nervous, huh.”

“This whole new world. It freaks me out. Aether looked like some kind of horror show, and I haven’t even seen the other places.”

“--Well, what was your home like?”

“...” Porter paused for a moment. Hayes sat down next to Porter. Salem walked over and sat in front of him. Porter’s head dripped from sweat in the early morning heat.

“I’m interested, too.” Salem spoke up. She sounded less softer than usual, as if she spoke exactly what she wanted. Her vacant look turned into a light smile for the first time.

For a moment, Porter hadn’t noticed Lapine’s bright blue eyes toward his own. She tried hiding her interest, though she gave it away easily.

“Lapine, you coming over here?”

“...Sure.”

Lapine swiftly sat near Salem, right in front of Porter.

“--It was nice.” Porter said. “Similar to how you guys work. It wasn’t as advanced technologically, but we had incredible advancements in culture.”

“--Culture, hm?” Salem added. 

“Despite our machinery. War and political drama involving the entire population of Acren have prevented cultural life from forming.” Lapine added. “It’s a shame. Many domains have separate cultures, as small as they might be, but Acren as a whole isn’t known for any.”

“It’s cause Aether is so dead. Deadwood, too.” Hayes

“--Really?” Porter asked.

“I mean, you saw it. Everyone was the same, doing the same thing. They didn’t even feel like people. You can’t call that culture. It’s the same damn reason why other world powers don’t feel the need to associate with us.”

“--I see.”

Political issues weren’t exactly Porter’s forte, but they seemed to be something Arlo knew all about.

“I’m ranting on, though…” Hayes added. “Continue.” He said, holding his head down and refusing to make eye contact with Porter.

If anything, it felt like only Salem was able to.

“I mean, where exactly do I start? My family and I lived easily, at least I did. I wasn’t ever really sure how they were. I never put in an effort to know, either.” 

Porter's eyes gleamed for a moment when talking about his past. He didn’t look happy, but his eyes had a sign of life.

“I never really knew what I could do. I had friends, though they were more like acquaintances that treated me annoyingly nice. My parents tried talking to me, but I never knew how to express to them what I wanted to say.”

“Were you...okay?” Salem asked.

“I doubt it. I told myself I couldn’t be helped. Every day I sat in my room and rotted as I let stress from my life eat me alive like bacteria.”

Tears formed in Porter's eyes. Not enough to look like he was crying, but enough to make him look up into the sky to prevent the others from seeing.

“Was I wanted? Was I a mistake they didn’t want anymore? I always felt like one, atleast. Everything I do was meant to make them happy, but I always came up short and blamed myself before anyone else could.”

“...”

“I wonder when I look where I am now. Did I even mark my turf on Earth? I sat there acting like I had big plans, but I asked anyone what they thought of me, they wouldn’t be able to say much.”

“...”

“And now, that time is over.”

Porter looked down in embarrassment. Everyone around him was clearly confused at him blurting out everything inside his mind, though despite how he portrayed it himself, nobody felt as though it was wrong. 

Both Salem, and Lapine looked at Porter with a comforting gaze of appreciation, despite barely knowing anything about him.

“I’m rambling. I’m sorry.”

“I-it’s.. Fine.” Hayes replied. “I’m glad you actually opened up.”

“Where I’m from, everyone’s individuality is their prime weapon.” Porter spoke up once more.

“Doesn’t sound efficient in combat.” Salem replied. She looked genuinely confused for a minute, looking directly into Porter's slightly wet eyes.

“Not a fight against an enemy, but maybe a fight against the world as a whole.”

“Too many moving parts to manage to find an advantage.”

“Well if you were confident, you were already winning. I lacked that, though. Seeing everything here, especially Aether dropping all forms of individuality, it’s scary.”

“It’s scary here, too.” Salem openly replied. “I mean, I’m supposed to be making a difference here, but I don’t even know what I can do for Deadwood.”

Porter chuckled for a moment. “I feel you, I really do.”

Salem gave a warm smile and teared up slightly. 

“--I’ll be headed inside, too.” Hayes spoke up. “Salem, before the ordeal, we’ll need to talk if you don’t mind.”

“Sure.”

As Hayes began walking out, Lapine had her eye on Porter.

“Do you know what his problem is?” Porter asked.

“It’s probably just shocking. I can’t lie, I look in shock, maybe even fear to hear the voice of Arlo, of all people, to be talking about himself so openly. It wasn’t really like him. Even to the people he trusted, he clearly had things that he just didn’t like to talk about.” Lapine replied.

“I see.”

“I gotta be honest, it pisses me off to see our ‘leader’ Hayes acting like this instead of getting us together for a plan, but I kinda feel him, too.”

“You do?”

“Yeah.”

Porter paused for a moment. He wasn’t exactly sure how to talk to Lapine, but he wanted to try.

“Who was I? Arlo I mean, who was he to you?”

Lapine looked flustered for a moment. She gave a small gasp of shock as if Porter asked something he wasn’t supposed to.

“Does it matter…?”

“To me, it does.”

“Well, to be honest, Arlo’s a dickhead, through and through, and that made him a lot of enemies. But, he’s the one we all knew best, and we all had a lot of trust in his dumb ass regardless of that.” Lapine retorted.

“I’m sorry that I can’t hold up to that trust.”

“The fuck--?” Lapine replied.

“Eh?”

“There’s more important things to care about right now. You and I have discussed things nobody else has or will even hear. Maybe you can’t remember them, but I do.”

“What’re you saying?”

“I feel a connection with you, but you don’t with me. It hurts me. We’re going to make up for that, everyone here probably agrees. Don’t apologize. You didn’t ask to be moved here, or whatever it was.”

“I--” Porter said. He was speechless for a moment.

“I’m sick of sitting here, just hiding that I can’t stand you acting different. It might be a better look on you, but what the hell are we gonna do?”

“We’ll figure it out, Lapine.” Salem added.

Lapine’s tone shifted from chilled to visibly angered. She stood up, pacing around for a moment.

“Why the hell did you do this to us, Arlo?”

“--I” Porter said, tears forming in his eyes.

Lapine’s eyes widened with concern, looking over to see Porter distressed.

“I-I’m sorry. I just got done saying it’s not your fault then I go on my own little rant.”

“No. I’m glad you’re able to say that.” Porter replied.

“We have a lot to work through.” Lapine said. “I don’t know how to get through this, but we will. What’s most important right now is preparing for the ride over to the testing grounds.”

“What about this sword?” 

--

“As far as I know, the sword’s power is based entirely on your connection to the Array gods.”

“—Oh?” 

“We’d have to ask Hayes.” 

“Right.”

“Before I go…” Lapine said. She smiled genuinely for a moment. “I’m sorry for all this, and I want to work with you to build our friendship to get rid of this feeling. Everyone here wants to know you, and know what you’re feeling. So be prepared to know a lot of things about a lot of people.”

Porter stood up along with Lapine and smiled as well. He extended his hand toward hers.

“I’ll let you all talk my ear off.” Porter replied as they shook hands.