Rururin was looking at Omega as he sat before the Major General at the opposite side of his table. She was ordered to leave, but she hesitated. She only gave in when Parthen's eyes looked at her, demanding his subordinate with his gaze alone. Taking a deep breath, she bowed and left, standing ready at the other side of the sliding door.

"Who are you?" Parthen asked, breaking the silence, looking into his eyes, trying to get a read on him.

"Alfonse," Omega answered calmly.

"Yet your saviors call you Omega."

"A nickname that stuck to me as I was the last survivor of my… people," Omega replied, slowly closing his eyes and letting out a soft sigh.

"He is not… lying…." Parthen thought to himself, all of his senses honed in on him, ignoring everything else. "If so, why are you letting them call you that? Isn't that rude? Hurtful?"

"It is a reminder," Omega answered, reopening his eyes.

"For what?"

"To who I am. What I am."

"And what are you?" Parthen pushed on, grasping onto the crux of the problem that also bothered his subconsciousness.

"A survivor," Omega said, not breaking eye contact.

"There are a lot of those amongst us! They arrive daily at our borders!" He sighed, letting out his breath that was stuck in his chest while waiting for Omega's answer.

"I do not doubt that."

"For a survivor, you seem to know many things." Parthen leaned back in his chair while speaking, displaying a more relaxed look, but underneath it, he was gauging Omega's body language. "Maybe even more than us?"

"I do not dare to make that assumption, Major General," he answered, shaking his head. "It is just… My mind is like a server, filled to the brim with information. Things that I don't even know that I know about!" he sighed with honest frustration. "Everything is in here." he tapped the side of his head. "I just can't search it manually… My eyes are the scanners; when I see something, they pull up the information for me, even if I don't want it. It is annoying! I can't remember where I come from, what I was doing, and whether I even have a family somewhere? Yet as soon as I realized why I couldn't see your ship but clearly felt it, I knew why."

"..." Parthen was also frustrated, but for a different reason. Omega was not lying. Or he was such an expert in bullshitting that even his senses were led on by him. That… never happened before. "You were not just an explorer, as your file says, were you?" he asked while tapping on his table. He was taking deep breaths, trying to get more information from his scent, but it was also natural. There was no trace of anxiety in it at all. "I almost feel like it is nothing but a fake profile."

"It may very well be." Omega nodded, not even trying to deny it, making Parthen groan a little inside. "I may have been a spy. A soldier. A scientist. Or just an explorer. Given a fake past by the government. I don't remember."

"At least lie for once! Damn you!" Parthen cursed in his head as Omega gave him nothing that he could go for and dig deeper or corner him. Parthen, on the outside, did not show any of his inner thoughts and remained calm, continuing the conversation. "Your knowledge. I want you to tell me everything about this… Suit of Ares!" He said, with an authoritative voice, stopping his finger's tapping and leaning forward.

"Sure." Omega agreed, telling him the same things he said to Sylen. When finished, Parthen was visibly excited; thanks to his gently wagging tail, he could not hide it.

"If we can obtain it, this mission was more than worth it!" he murmured, his eyes darting left and right, going through the plans he and the Admiral finalized.

"It is going to be there." Omega nodded, his voice confident in it. That confidence quickly spread over to Parthen too. "If you let me, I will help you recover it."

"Sorry, but no! You are going to remain next to me on the bridge!" Parthen said. His voice was strict, and he was clearly not taking 'no' for an answer. "As a technical advisor. If the suit is there, my crew, led by Rururin, will be the ones to recover the machine. I do not trust you yet to let you even near it!"

"The feeling is mutual, Major General," Omega replied, finally breaking Parthen's mask, making him twitch his eyelids. "I made a promise to keep my comrades safe. That is going to be my top priority!" Omega said, standing up, surprising Parthen but did not order him to sit back. "For now, you, your crew, and this ship mean nothing to me. I am slightly disappointed in how you dragged us along, placing the two innocent bystanders in danger. I can protect myself, but they can't." He was speaking in a tone and in a way that Parthen suddenly found himself in a reversed role than when they first met. Now he was sitting there, Omega standing, looking down at him while speaking. He was towering over him in both figure and aura. As he said, his eyes were calm, resolute, and unflinching, piercing into Parthen's mind. "I will let you do what you want, play out your plans, reap the rewards of your actions. Whatever they may be! I will only focus on protecting Sylen and Miyon. I hope you have good plans and a great crew, Major General. You are going to need it." Omega finished, smiling a little before simply walking out.

Rururin almost fell into the cabin when the sliding door opened, and Omega walked past her without glancing.

"H-hey!" she yelped, but then she saw the somewhat pale, shaking Parthen in his office. "What happened?" she walked in hurriedly, ready to ring the alarms.

"Huh?" Parthen flinched, regaining his self-control and sitting up straight, fixing his clothes. He had to wipe the perspiration from his forehead before stopping the shaking of his voice. Omega's influence on him with his eyes alone was something, until now, only he forced onto others. Parthen felt his own genes were involuntarily bowing, asking for forgiveness from their father. "I'm fine!" he said, stopping Rururin from initiating a red alert on the ship.

"What did he do?!" The bunny-girl asked, ready to storm after him. Parthen had to mutter the first half of his order, and she would catch up to Omega in a blink of an eye.

"Nothing, I just realized the true power of what we are after!" he said, scratching his throat, not willing to expose he was overwhelmed by something he did not understand.

*BEEP* echoed a sharp signal, drawing their attention to the communication panel built into Parthen's desk.

"Speak." the Major General said, opening the channel.

"We received a report." his communication officer reported. "Our guest's ship, the Dawn… it is gone."

"Gone?" Rururin asked, her body stiffening. "What do they mean, gone?"

"It is as the report says." he continued, "When the workers came to place the tracking device into its systems, the ship was no longer there. It left the docks by itself and… escaped."

"What?" Parthen also asked, looking at Rururin, and both of them were flabbergasted. "A ship does not go missing just like that!" the Major General said, his voice a bit weird and unfiltered as it seemed unexplainable things had started happening since his first meeting with Omega. Not to mention the communication officer or the people back at Mors Caminus. "They may have others… helping them out…" he leaned back, scratching his face. "I suspect our 'Alfonse,' if it is his real name at all, has to support from a high level," Parthen whispered. "Inform me if there is any news on that ship! Send out search parties, sweep all the Astropaths, leading out from there!" He ordered his subordinates, closing the communication.

"Higher than us? The military?" Rururin asked when the line went dead, not really believing his words.

"The admiralty board is only one entity!" Parthen replied, "There are other powers in our Hegemony that share the reins and lead our people! Admiral Jankho is one of those, being part of the Council of Hegemony. Only he could uncover who this Alfonse really is and which faction puppeteers him from behind!"

The Neo-Hegemony was led by a council of four called the Council of Hegemony. They were the representatives of the four main branches of their politics. The military was led by Admiral Jankho. The science department is led by Professor Keshnar. The Merchants' Guild's representative, Olfa, and finally, the leading figure of the most influential family in the Hegemony, the family head of Kaltazar's preserved bloodline. Her name was Mirian, and she was currently the youngest member of the Council of Hegemony, only 30 years old. She only inherited the family head position 6 years ago, after her father's death. Now, she became the last living member of Kaltazar's line. Their family always played the spiritual role in the Hegemony, leading the people and their fate, giving them strength in the darkest times.

The different parts of the Neo-Hegemony worked independently but cooperated wherever possible. What kept them in line was that all of them worked for the betterment of the Hegemony, as any risky plays for power could result in their own annihilation. Meaning the possible death of all their people. It was a system left behind by Kaltazar, improved upon by his descendants. As the years passed, his bloodline, even if people looked at them as their leaders, was only that in a spiritual sense by now. The true decisions were made by the other three branches as they held the most important things in running an empire; strength, knowledge, and money.

"We can't abort the mission," Parthen whispered, leaning backward, nibbling on his lips, thinking. "Rururin!"

"Yes!" the bunny girl saluted, standing straight.

"Start preparing your team for the recovery of our target! Send a squad to monitor our guests' room and when we deploy from the Astropath, let them escort this… Alfonse to the bridge!"

"In cuffs, Sir?" Rururin asked.

"No. But keep two guards locked onto him at all times!"

"Will do, Sir!"

"Mm…" he nodded, taking off the bracelet from his wrist and giving it to her. "Everything is expendable, but that armor suit must be recovered. Do you understand?" Parthen asked as Rururin stretched her hand out, touching it, flinching for a brief moment.

"Yes, Sir. I do!" she answered with an even voice.

“Good… and… Good Luck!" he whispered, looking into her eyes.