The wall was cool under his hand as he used it to support himself while he walked out of the cavern, he'd managed to get his clothes on before exhaustion caught up with him. Once he'd put his ring back on, the energy and armour that covered him disappeared leaving huge bruises for him to see. He thanked his good luck that they were only bruises. Instinct was sending unpleasant emotions at him, however, it was suppressed to a mere whisper.

But even a whisper can grate on a person’s nerves, and he has only been listening for a few minutes. His own feet felt like lead, causing him to stumble as he walked. The only relief came from the walls and the light breeze that came from the end of the tunnel, where he was pleased to see Bethany and the ever stoic Gie. Before he spoke Neo sat down beside cave entrance.

Bethany smiled and spoke, "Hey, seems like you passed and gained control."

Neo warily returned the smile, "I guess I passed, but I don't think I have total control." He said as sent emotions of attachment, lust and wonder. Taking a breath, he ignored it and asked, "So how long was I in there?"

Bethany looked towards one of the towers and answered to Neo surprise, "About six hours or so."

"Nice I can go to bed then?" He asked. "Or did we have something else to do?"

Neo had a vague feeling that he'd forgotten something but, honestly, he didn't care if there was anything he had to do at the moment. Sadly for Neo, Bethany also didn't care that he didn't, "No you've got to go see Bryn. Up you get, it's rude to keep someone waiting you know."

'I think I've had enough excitement for one day. I'm sure this will be another exciting development while causing me pain.'

Neo saw Bethany put her hands on her hips, 'uh ho, I should suffer through. Come on, up before she starts speaking.' Stopping Bethany from a with a hand, "help me up and we’ll get going. We have someone to see and we shouldn't keep them waiting, it'll be rude."

Bethany took his hand, pulling Neo to his feet while he smiled through the pain as she agitated his bruises, "Also do you think we could get some tea before getting into more trouble?"

"Sure. What do mean more trouble?"

"Ow nothing too important." Neo said while clenching his fist.

Neo hadn't a clue about what is was that he saw in the dust that Elfin had left. He had a vague idea of what he'd turned into but Neo couldn’t put his finger on it. With the glance that he got, it wasn't enough to figure out what Elfin was. He had fur, scales, and horns before he disappeared and reverted back to his old and weak body. He had slowly walked towards Neo, but with entirely different aura that showed who was boss and it shook Neo and Instinct.

Once Elfin was standing in front of them, instead of the lashing Neo was expecting he merely talked about what Neo had to do to improve his control and then allowed him to leave.

With him wondering what Elfin was he hadn't realised that they had already reached the warehouse. Now that his mind was in the present his body complained. He kept the smile on his face as Bryn greeted them with exuberance before getting rushed through the door. He explained what he'd done and his contingency plans he'd made just in case something happened.

They were guided into a separate room with a pressure tank in the middle of it that had pipes coming out of it and then through a hatch into an antechamber.

They were shown to a type of control area that also had a glass window into the pressure tank. There, in the middle of the tank in large bowl, was a silver liquid, "So, is that living metal?"

Bryn nodded and then spoke in his deep voice, "Yep, it's not very interesting when it's in a relaxed state, but I'm very interested in seeing it's reaction to your precious stone. That being said, shall we get on with it?"

Bryn, with his large form, used two fingers to pull up a small tube and indicated to Neo to place the gold diamond into it. Bryn then placed the tube back, "Alright, I'll be adding the diamond in five, four, three, two, one…"Twisting the tube, he caused the diamond to drop into the silver liquid.

The pressure tank lit up like a lightning storm instantly as the two touched, almost blinding everyone. Then the sound of booms came from inside of the pressure tank. With a quick scan Neo could see bugles forming on the tank. After a few more crashing and booming sounds Neo could see a few more dents. He started a to get a little worried when the bashing continued again, in the same place, causing obvious cracks in the tank that let air begin to leak out.

It was only Bryn’s confident stance that stopped Neo from retreating from pressure tank. Bryn must have seen Neo's worried face, "Neo you don't need to worry about that tank, it would take a higher being to escape it. So, relax and take a seat. You look as if you're about to collapse where you stand." Bryn's deep blue eye shined with excitement and intelligence

Even though no matter how much Neo liked the idea of sitting, he knew that the likelihood of him getting back up was slim to none. Smiling to Bryn he replied, "Thanks for your concern, but I'll be okay standing here as long as you’re confident the thing in there can't get out here to ruin my day."

Bryn with a knowing smile, Bryn nodded and spoke simply, "I'm very confident in it, but I don't think you need to worry about it." He pointed at the glass window in the tank.

Whatever was happening in the tank had stopped its vicious reaction and Neo saw silvery ooze lying at the bottom of the tank with the golden diamond floating around in it without a purpose. Neo looked at Bryn questioningly, however Bryn shrugged in response to his stare. "I’ll do some scans of the object, if there was a reaction hopefully we'll find something."

Getting up from his seat he went to a display that had many buttons and levers. He pushed a few and took some notes that ended up in the small black notebook with ‘living metal’ written on the front. after pottering about and muttering to himself he walked over to the pressure tank and opened the containment and attached a smaller container to the inner door that opened into the section with the living metal.

Then, returning to the control panel, he pressed a button which opened the inner door. To everyone's surprise the movement of the door swinging open had an effect on the living metal as the diamond shifted towards it the instant it opened.

A few minutes passed as they watched the living metal but Neo asked, "So,Bryn is anything happening?"

Bryn was enthralled in what he was doing but still managed to reply, a bit of awe in his voice as he took off his goggles, "It's amazing, it’s moving a nanometre a second and it's only increasing as time goes on. I also see electrodes running through it which are originating from the gold diamond. I believe we have a symbiosis, the diamond is proving energy while the living metal does as commanded, haha!"

Bethany spoke with a huge smile and excitement in her eyes as she wondered at the possibilities, "So it's worked, the gold diamond combined with the living metal. That's awesome! It must take quite a while to get used to its new body."

Neo was quite happy just sitting in his seat staring at the silver liquid and his golden diamond. He was transfixed. As time moved forward the living metal steadily sped up until Neo could observe it with his naked eye. After that it took no time at all as the silver liquid moved into the canister.

Once it had entered Bryn quickly moved over to it, twisting the top of it and closing the entrance. He then indicated to them to follow, which they did, through a large storage room where there were a huge amount of boxes with whoever knew what in them. Asking Bryn, Neo found that they contained failed experiments, in progress ideas, and relics for analysis.

"Are you sure we can be in here? You know, anybody could steal from here. Why would you leave it all lying around? And you might not know if one item could react with another."

Bryn glanced over his shoulder, "How many people do you thing I bring down here? Even if some tried to steal something, they would find it very hard as each box is heavily enchanted. And don't ask me what enchantment we use because that would be dangerous."

'Okay,' Neo thought, 'Silly question."

It wasn't too long before they came across a large steely blue door which Bryn, placing the canister onto the floor, heaved the door open and then turned around towards them and gave some orders out. "Bethany and Gie, could you close the door behind us? And only open it if you see this sign." Signalling towards an engraved symbol above the door, he placed his hand on another symbol that that was connected with a line that glowed, which then caused the symbol above the door to glow too. "Neo… make sure I don't die, otherwise you will be trapped in there. This is a one for one enchantment, it allows me to light the symbol from inside."

After finishing his explanation, he walked inside. Neo was about to follow behind but paused when he heard Bethany whisper, "Good luck." Looking behind him, he smiled his thanks and continued to into the vault.

The room was a pretty large room, about 10 metres squared in size, and in the middle was a large blob of bronze that Bryn had placed his hands on. Before Neo could ask some questions, Bryn got there first, "This chamber is made for experiments that might be dangerous items, explosives, diseases, and anything else that might come up. The walls are stronger than the pressure tank, but they also disrupt measurement instruments. But sometimes you need to get hands on, or observe something with protection."

As Bryn finished speaking the bronze blob changed into a bowl shape which then formed a see-through film over the top of it. Bryn then picked up the canister and poured it into the bowl.

Once the living metal settled, it soon stirred and moved towards Neo. Bryn, moved to the side, taking out his notebook, "Neo just do whatever feels natural?"

The living metal still pushed itself towards him, and Neo saw the diamond seemingly looking at him.

He waved, not really knowing what to do. To his surprise the living metal formed a gloppy, not complete, clawed hand, and waved back. "Aha!" Neo spoke in surprise, but asked it, "Can you understand me, while I speak?"

The hand changed shape into a thumbs up sign, "I think that’s a yes." Neo's said to Bryn.

The thumb then closed and opened again after Neo spoke. Seeing this Neo and Bryn had a huge grin on their faces. Neo came up with some questions, "So, what are you?"

The blob slowly built up four stumps, which then formed into a body, which progressed into a tail, a head, and finally two stumps bloomed from its back and into a pair of wings. It wasn't a perfect model, as it all drooped and you could tell where it was concentrating as one part would reform and the other limb would suffer in a vicious cycle.

"So, you are the dragon that attacked? The one I killed?"

The dragons form fell back into puddle that grew a thumbs up, and then an okay sign. Neo’s eyebrows knitted together, "How do you know how to do those signs you’re using to communicate? As a dragon I wouldn't of thought that you had similar signs as humans."

The blob then started a few actions in a row with two fingers being held up, which flowed into a small humanoid and growing in front of it was a dragon, to which the humanoid started bowing and scraping, before it started doing work shown by lifting a small rock and then placing them over to the side. It then poked a single finger up before pointing at Neo, then itself and then made a rope hanging between two bodies.

"Right, so… you had human slaves and learnt from them and the connection between us also helps?" Neo said in a questioning tone as that was what he got from that act.

The blob took a while to answer with a thumbs up, Neo looked over toward Bryn wondering what he should do, but Bryn was buried in his notebook, scribbling notes.

Looking back toward the blob, Neo said, "Sorry about killing you. You know it was kind of in self-, what made you go on your killing spree?"

The blob did nothing for a while before another complex series of action was shown. First was two humanoid-like figures with arms hugging each other, and then one of them separated and started tapping the other on the back. As the form flopped back a smaller dragon came forward, it looked as if it was doing everyday things, before the dragon sneezed.

Neo wondered if dragons actually sneezed. It was however the next thing that confused him and the was a screen like object formed in front of the dragon. But then everything rewound with the only thing staying in place being the screen. As the rest of the scene played out, the screen filled out with scribbles, but once the dragon sneezed again the screen went blank. Finally, Neo understood what it was saying.

Neo spoke, "You don't know why do you? Then how did you end up in me?"

The blob changed the scene with screen staying blank, before the scribbles came back with avengeance and a spike was formed on the head of the dragon before calming down, after that the scene played until a humanoid that was half in and half out of its mouth stabbed it. After that many hands reached out gripping on to the humanoid and not letting go and Neo thought, 'hey presto ... That's how we got here, interesting. Wonder what made her go mad? I should tell Jane, it might help her in her investigations.'

Neo looked towards Bryn, "So now what, it seems responsive and conscious, with logic and memories."

Bryn looked at Neo with a shrug, "Would you like to take the kid gloves off to see how it reacts when it hasn't got a shield to stop it?"

Neo nodded, Bryn placed his hands on the bronze bowl and the film that covered the top faded away. Nothing happened, the blob didn't move, Neo didn't move, and Bryn didn't move, and neither of them took their eyes off the blob. The room grew an awkward atmosphere before Neo decided to change that, "So, now what?"

"Try touching it?" Bryn suggested.

Neo shrugged, having no better ideas and trusting in the blob, he slowly reached out his hand to place a finger. He found it cold and smooth under his hand. With no reaction from the blob he looked back to Bryn for guidance. Bryn was scribbling in his note book and Neo had to wait until his head popped up over it.

"Mm, well as we can't separate the two of you, you should take it with you and see what it does. I would recommend you find out its name later though."

Neo asked, "How will I take it?"

But as he said those words the blob seemed to use its own novel way and slowly climbed up his arm, sending shivers up and down his body as the sensation was like a light suction cup. It continued up to his neck when he started questioning his trust. But there was nothing for him to worry about as it spread across his body.

Once all of the living metal had left the bowl, Neo had a half silver chest, arm, and hand. He couldn't feel anything through the metal, so Neo spoke aloud asking, "Can you leave my hand so that I can feel through it?" There was a moment of pause before another wave of shivers went through his body and he could feel the air on his skin again, however when he looked over, it was still the slivery colour of living metal and Neo couldn't help but awe at it.

Bryn was again intensely scribbling in his book again, "I can feel through it!" After saying that, there was even more sounds of scribbling. Neo smiled, finding Bryn 's dedication to his research quite endearing, however his lack of bed side manner was a little annoying. Neo would like to know what to do instead of just standing there waiting for Bryn.

Neo got a little fed up, with his sore muscles and tiredness, "Bryn, do you think it would be a good idea to take it out and maybe go to bed?"

There was a slight pause in the scribbling while Bryn thought, "Ow! Right sorry got engrossed there, sorry again." He walked over, placing his hands onto the panel and lighting it up along with the sign above the door. A few moments later the door opened and there, with a large grin and a smear of grease on her face, was Bethany. Gie soon poked his head out from behind the door once it had fully opened. Neo wondered at what Bethany had been up to so he asked. "You have some grease smeared on your face, right there."

Placing his silver finger on her cheek, Bethany went red as Neo delicately rubbed the grease off, she was so engrossed in the feeling that she hadn't even notice the change in his hand, even while it was touching her skin, which the entire point of him getting that close was to show off his new glove. But she had that accepting reaction and he couldn't back down now, so he had to go through with rubbing the grease off. Making him feel embarrassed in front of Bryn and Gie. Not that either cared as one was faceless and didn't have an opinion, the other after observing the interaction had gone straight into scribbling in his book.

Neo smiled at the cute face that Bethany was making, while his Instincts shouted “Mine” in the loudest voice it could. Withdrawing his silver hand, he scratched the side of his face while looking embarrassed, 'please notice or this is going to get awkward."

To his disappointment she didn't even blink as she stared straight at him, before looking a Bryn and asked, "So how'd it go?"

This shocked and confused Bryn and Neo, as they both pointed toward Neo's right arm, "It's right there, can't you see it?" Bryn asked.

Bethany looked a Neo right arm and shook her head, "I can't see it. Does it have an ability to turn invisible?"

Neo and Bryn both shook their heads. Neo took a closer look at her, he could see her eyes had the slight glow of when she uses her truth seeker eyes. Neo asked Bethany to stop using her ability. As soon as she did she gasped, "Wow, guys I couldn't see it with my truth-seeking ability, there was nothing different in the energy and emotional patterns, it must of blended in."

Bryn started scribbling again and Neo couldn't think of the consequences. Neo

Bethany looked toward him when he spoke, "Don't you want to inspect the inventions and artefacts?"

Neo unintentional yawned, noticing Bethany eagerness, "I think I really need some rest, but we can come back tomorrow, as a school club if that's a thing?"

Bryn and Bethany both had huge grin and Bryn spoke, "Of course we have after school clubs. As head inventor and researcher, I lead the club, and we'll be glad to have you join, and have Bethany back in the fold. We have some projects from Beacon's council that could do with a fresh pair of eyes. I'll have you sign up tomorrow once you return."

With that Neo thankfully went back to his room before again collapsing in bed, without noticing the silver being slip away from his body.