The Yard was the Titan Ranger's eastern base of operations. Located far down the shore of Titan Gate, it laid between a long plateau and the eastern shorelines of Eltar. As the Twins sets in the far east, the town's silhouette stretched along the beach. The sand sparkled with hues of blue and yellow from the different coloured stones that were grounded by the waves of years.

Having returned from their disastrous test, the group of testers and testees had left the boats behind at the small shipyard. They were walking across a wooden path along the sandy beaches towards the town. Their clothes and self having long since dried in the hot sear Twins, though many walked with a chafe at the unneeded stickiness of salt and sweat between their thighs.

Josh was walking beside Adelle when she asked, "Where's Luce?"

"She headed back first," the man replied, striding along. Though he was a human and she an elf, he was surprisingly tall, even matching her in height.

"And left us with all the dirty work?"

"Technically she doesn't have to work," he answered. "She's retired."

"In that case, so are you."

"And you are technically a prisoner. What's your point?"

"My point is, retired people should either leave us healthy young ones to our thing instead of trying to micromanage everything."

His voice raised a confused octave. "You're older than both of us. Combined."

She tapped her chest sarcastically. "It's about the heart, old man. Besides, I think it takes some level of youth to do all these hero stuff. Old bones aren't going to cut it."

He stopped in his tracks and she slowed down to match him. As the rest of their group passed by them, starring quizzically at their actions, Josh raised a brow to Adelle questioningly.

"Do you think we're heroes?"

"Nads always said that as long as you're only trying to save lives and not take any, you're a hero."

He scoffed. "Your brother's an idiot."

She shrugged. "I honestly wouldn't know. I've never tried just saving lives before."

"Misti's not dying, you know?"

"She's not alive either."

He nodded solemnly. They continued their way back to town.

But 'town' was perhaps too strong a word. The Yard was more akin to a village. While the grassy plateau behind had been converted into farm land, the homes themselves were still mostly large leather tents. A few of the stone storehouses were in the midst of being upgraded to the more modern brick buildings like the one that served as the main headquarters. It was to be expected, as the Titan Rangers as an organisation was no older than five years old. The Holdings, their first base in the far south west, was the first to be built and had most of their manpower. It was a much more advanced place, with steam powered machineries set-up to run the more complex constructions. Though the parts for those same machines had arrived in The Yard, they mostly sat half built, slowly being worked on by the limited population as more members trickled in to reinforce the settlement. Mostly The Yard was used to house trainee Titan Ragers as they worked, studied, and practised their skills.

As the group began splitting up and heading back to their homes, Josh and Adelle headed for one of the few brick houses that stood at the edge close to the beaches. Smoke rose out of the kitchen's copper smoke stack, but the stone chimney next to it stayed clear. After all, there had to be some perks in Josh and Luce being founders of the Titan Rangers. A rugged leather tent was set up outside next to the house, complete with a campfire and clothes rack.

Taking off their shoes so as to not track sand in, they entered the building, both dropping their gears unceremoniously at the door's side one after the other.

Luce was in the kitchen, watching the fire over a pot of soup, stirring the concoction occasionally and tasting it with a wooden spoon.

Josh noted, "You haven't changed clothes?"

"Later," Luce replied. "I'm cooking."

Adelle snidely remarked, "We can see that. But I thought we agreed not being clean was my thing?"

Josh continued, "We agreed not being clean was nobody's thing. Adelle, you smell like seawater. Go get changed."

She clicked her tongue. "You're not my father, you know?"

"No, I'm not. But since you don't know who your father is and you're still acting like a child, I'm going to pretend like I am. Now go get changed."

The elf clicked her tongue again, mumbling under her breath about being older than them combined. Though annoyed, she did not protest and left the house. Unlike Luce and Josh, Adelle lived in the tent outside. Even after nearly a year of living away from her forest, she was uncomfortable with sleeping indoors, a feeling Josh and Luce was familiar with. It took them two years before they could get comfortable with the lack of explosions in the world.

He shook his head. "Kind of hard to believe she's over two hundreds years old."

Luce took the pot off the stove and slipped a metal panel over the fire, depriving the flames of oxygen and snuffing it out. "That's just how elves are. More so, given the kind of elf Adelle is. If someone doesn't shoot her first, she's going to outlive everyone we know."

"Have you told her yet?"

Luce silently scooped out some of the soup into a wooden bowl. Once filled, she put down the ladle and finally said, "Not yet."

"She's no longer isolated from the world now. Eventually, people are going to find out about her. People who aren't Titan Rangers. Or maybe she's going to go to the library and read about it."

"Adelle? Library? Reading?"

"I said maybe."

He crossed the hall towards a half-opened door. He knocks, even though he knew there was no need to. Josh entered the room of his youngest daughter. Lying on the bed was a hume girl of long brown hair and sharp elven ears. Her skin was paler than those of her kin and was only getting paler despite them trying to get her as much twinlight as possible. She had started sweating as the hotter season blew around, so they had changed her into a white gown and took away her blanket for the days. Eyes closed with her chest rising and falling peacefully was Misti Stalewaver. Seven seasons ago, there was a battle. A fight with the future of the world on the line. They all fought, but Misti was injured. Her brain was concussed in a way no doctors on most of Tearha could fix. The girl had been in a coma ever since.

Josh pulled up two chairs and sat down closest to his daughter's head, combing her hair aside her face. Luce entered from behind with the bowl of soup and sat down next to him.

"Don't worry," she said for the umpteenth time. "We'll go into Katoki, find ourselves a neurosurgeon, and come back. We have Adelle this time. She'll teleport us in and teleport us out. Easy."

"Are things ever easy?"

Luce breathed her unease. "No."

He shifted his chair so that he could lift Misti's head off the bed. Slowly, Luce cooled each spoon of soup with careful blows of wind before gently dipping the contents pass her lips.

He asked, "Do you think Adelle is ready?"

"For the Titan War? Shouldn't you be able to gauge that, mister Guide?"

It had been a while since anyone had called him a Guide. It was his profession back when he was trapped on the continent of Katoki. He had ferried people back and forth the lands, circumventing battle and wars, both as a means of earning money to survive and to gather information and experience about crossing the hostile landscape.

"I'm asking because you're the only one on this side of the world that has ever fought in it."

"You make it sound like we will definitely get into a fight."

"It's been years, Luce. Things might have changed for the worse, maybe. And this time, we're heading back into Citi, not away. The road won't be as easy as last time, even with Adelle helping us."

"You mean it's harder for us to get back to Citi then it is to get out? How does that work? Nobody has ever said breaking into prison was easier than breaking out."

"There aren't any gliders this time. And we don't exactly have any money left for the trip either. Since we never thought we'd be going back, there was never any need for reserves. We'll have to stop by Ampyre and gather information and supplies. If my safehouse there isn't, well, safe any more, we'll have to find other ways to scrounge. Beg, steal, if we must."

Luce laughed. "Adelle is going to love that. We promised Nadier to reform her and we're throwing her back to a life of crime."

"She's doing what she does best. Survival. Besides..." he looked to her confidently. "This time, we'll be there to make sure she doesn't go off road."

"Well... regardless, we'll be leaving tomorrow. It'll be a few days of walking before we get to the Helm."

Quietly, they continued to feed Misti. It was a slow process, but it was bonding for Josh. It was one of the few times he and his two daughters had been able to spend together over the past few years. Even if one of them was unconscious, they were still a family he had fought tooth and nail to get. They were his greatest treasure. Though he would be remiss to say that he does not yearn with every ounce of his heart to have Misti awake with them again.

As Luce put the empty bowl down on her lap, she began, "I don't think she's ready."

Josh looked at her quizzically. "Who?"

"Adelle. She might have survived Leviathan and passed all our tests so far, but to be honest, I don't think she's ready for the war. I don't see how anybody can be. The training for being rangers are different for being a hunter." The pensiveness of her face was apparent. Throughout their years together, she had never talked about her battle in the war. "Dozens of Titans and people, charging across fields on fire. Giants killing giants. Mortals killing mortals. The trenches running red with blood. The fields littered with colossal bodies and screams. How do you prepare for that? I was trained for it and when it came down to the actual thing, I was not prepared."

"We don't have to kill anything now. We're not soldiers this time."

"It's a war, Josh," Luce said, standing up. She leaned over and wiped a dribble of soup off her sister's lips. "Everybody kills."