In the bustling, busy lab, two people stood in one of the smaller labs, conversing quietly while people passed by hurriedly on the other side of the door.

“Well, is it fine to talk now, milord?” Zero asked.

“ Ya, but might I ask to pipe it down a bit more. Mind you; there are people outside.” Exor spoke.

“ It’s fine, Milord. You disabled the CCTVs anyways. What’s there to be scared of? Plus, not just anyone can get through the defense of this highly protected HQ, you know?” Zero glibly replied, mildly complimenting Exor as he sat down comfortably on the cold metal countertop.

“ Mhmm, but still. Better safe than sorry, right?”

“ Noted, milord.”

“ Ok, so in reply to the question asked earlier, it is a firm yes. We are in the last stages of approving the project.”

“ Milord, I have a question,” Zero said, raising both of his hands above his head like an excited child.

“ Go ahead.”

“ Milord, is that the reason why you came here?”

“ Yes.”

“ WOOHOO! It looks like I will no longer be bored!”

“ Yes, you won’t. Look forward to an exciting year, Dr. Zero.”

******

“ Hey, what do you think they did to us just now?” Ice quipped, putting his hands inside his pockets as he walked.

“ Well, I don’t know either. We’re not supposed to remember.” Anne answered, sending a warning glare to Ice, emphasizing that they were not supposed to be talking about this in broad daylight, neither were they supposed to ask what happened in the labs. What happened in there strictly stays there.

Ice made an oops face, sticking out his tongue, and proceeded to hide behind Ruby’s back.

“ Save me, Ruby!” Ice pleaded, pretending to put on a helpless face.

“ It was your fault in the first place,” Ruby replied, a stern smile on her face. The upturned ends of her mouth turned stiff as she saw the patrol guards approaching them.

“ You know, I was sooo sure that I heard something that night.” One of the patrol guards whined.

“ Shut up, Anxius. Do you really want to get punished again by the higher-ups?” the guard asked, putting a discontented expression on his face. “We’re already lucky enough that we didn’t get expelled from the labs! Usually, we would’ve already been disposed of! We were lucky that Sir Exor was in a good mood that day!”

“ Okay, okay, calm down. I’ll stop whining.” Anxius grumbled. “ It’s just that our friends were laughing at us so much that I….” He continued in a quiet voice.

“ Shush, and focus on the task!” the other guard yelled, punching his colleague’s head, his face flushed a bright red.

As the two guards conversed and passed by, the three bowing got stiffer by the second.

“ We’ll talk about this later… meet at the same place at the same time tonight.” Anne's mouthed bowed down and headed to the direction of Lisa, the supervisor.

Ice and Ruby exchanged anxious glances and headed in the same direction.

*****

For the rest of the day, the three had a lot of free time for some reason. However, Anne didn’t visit Twilight today, nor did she restock on pyla. As for why you should’ve already guessed why. As Anne watched the setting sun, she thought to herself, “ I should cancel today's meeting.”

*****

“.... And that’s the reason why we shouldn’t meet,” Anne said, mouthing her words as she chewed her dinner, rations.

“Mhmm, okay, understood. “ Ruby and Ice mouthed who were also eating their dinner.

“ Remember to tell Marie, okay?” Anne said.

“ Okay,” Ruby replied when they parted ways.