"What else would you like to know, Ronan?" Elias asked quietly after the group had dissolved from their hugs.

My uncle was chatting wildly with my friends, casting the occasional look in my direction before looking away. It didn't take a genius to realize he wanted to get something off his chest, but it was the mayor who'd approached me first.

"I know enough of what you have been keeping from us for now, I think. I've enough on my plate as is, and I know you haven't mistreated any of us since as early as I can remember.” I regarded the man who hadn’t actually been appointed major, yet had still filled the role regardless. Filled the role well, if the Bunker’s support of his decisions were any indication. "I've never been one for secrets. Not that many survive the snoopiness of Danny, as you well know. I would like to ask a question. One regarding the future."

"Yes of course. You three will have the full support of the Bunker as long as we can maintain equilibrium," Elias rushed to say, his hands moving in wide circles as if to indicate the floors below him.

"Very well. Then... how many and how soon can you make more implants."

The older man did a double take as he processed what I'd said. Instead of answering right away, he took a moment to think through his answer. I could see the gears turning in his head as the logistics and costs of the implants factored into play. Or at least that's what I thought he was doing, because if not the man had blanked out on me.

"I believe we can make seven more with our current resources. It will exhaust our entire stock of printing titanium. Six if there needs to be any adjustments. As for the timeframe, Alan and I should be able to get one operational a week. The success of your own only redoubled our efforts to perfect the design."

"What about the Entity Cluster, the smaller crystal."

"The original Metier Crystal splintered into fragments the size of your implant the moment we tried to cut it, so we have quite a handful of those remaining. Considering everyone's advanced age, we felt it was a worthy experiment to see how we could affect the crystal. No one from the bunker is at the age to have kids anymore, strange magical radiation complications aside."

The implants will definitely be a bottleneck. If the effects of Mana Dregs were as bad as they had been in the story with his father, then I couldn't risk asking the other members of the Bunker to return to the surface without them.

"We'll figure it out from there. Please get started on those as soon as you can."

"You plan to return as soon as possible don't you." It was more of a statement than a question, especially coming from Elias.

When I nodded and looked over at my friend's I felt a pang of guilt. They looked worn out, dirty beyond anything we'd ever achieved here in the Bunker, and yet completely content. I didn't want to take them away from that, so I'd chosen not to.

"I will go back tomorrow. After getting enough supplies for a few days. Not that the trip down is very long, but I want to spend most of my time up there."

"You are just like your parents. Quite the fearless duo they made. Dale has always been more of the... Sensitive type. Considering the bombshell we just dropped on you three... He was probably one of the best to do that." The mayor wrung his hands, lost for words. I gave him a weak smile, trying my best to be forgiving.

I watched my friends for a few more seconds, the mayor moving to join them. Quietly, I slipped out of the room and started walking down to the Housing Floor. Before I managed to make it to the stairwell, Ben slipped out of one of the rooms in front of me. I hadn't even realized when he'd escaped out of the meeting room. Instead of his usual rush to shut the door, he left it wide open. Dozens of small screens showed all of the Bunker in its post-apocalyptic glory. One showed my friends in the meeting room and another showed a party going on downstairs on the Greenhouse Floor.

"I told them you three ought to know," he said by way of greeting.

"Figured. You wouldn't have gone through the trouble to give us guns otherwise. Thank you, by the way," I said.

He waved me off and scoffed. "Not like I was using them down here. Not since... well, your father. Those military guys kept a pretty tight leash on all of us for a long time, but not him. I opened the door for him, you know. Out." The weight of the stone around me suddenly pressed down on me. "He could still be alive, but I doubt it." I didn’t want to hear this because I'd already thought about it. "I suppose becoming the biggest presence on the surface might let him know you are alive."

My gaze turned to Ben, who was holding three small blobs in hand. One for fire, water and a pale white glass with a green hue which must be a life blob. The attunements of those who'd died. "Are those..."

"Yes. I saw what happened to your mother and grandmother. This is all that remained. This one is Agatha's." His voice sounded smaller than I'd ever remembered it. "Sam deserves his mothers, but I think Ingrid and Carla might want to watch over you for a while longer. And please... Come see me in the morning before you go? I'll get you sorted best I can."

Without saying anything else, he handed me the coal and water bead before returning to the monitoring room. The two small blobs weighed heavily in my hands. When I managed to peel my eyes away from what remained of my family, I realized I was in my room. The lights within flared thanks to its motion detection feature and I blinked the spots out of my eyes. Many more spots than I expected, but they cleared within a few blinks.

With quiet thunks, I placed the two remains amidst my meager collection of minerals. They were many times more beautiful than any of the other rocks, and it had nothing to do with their actual appearance. I collapsed into my bed while keeping my eyes on them. The world winked out before I'd even made it all the way to the pillow.

---+---

"Ronan! Get your lazy rock loving behind in gear," a familiar voice called from down the hall. My eyes flew open and I jumped to attention so fast I tripped. My body had sent me much further than I'd anticipated. "Ha! See, I told you he would do the same thing."

"Daniela!" I growled as I spotted her and Samuel standing in front of me. Both of them had the most devious of smiles.

"I suppose it's a good thing we all have magic instincts, but we are going to need some practice with the whole 'levels make us stronger' thing," Samuel added.

"What are you two talking about?" I asked as I picked myself up.

Without saying anything, they both pointed at my wrist where the pattern was dissipating. "Great. I definitely don't think using our Skills indoors will be a good idea."

"Didn't work for me. Well, sorta. My potted plant exploded into tiny vines," Sam said.

"Good to know then. What time is it?" I tried to look behind my friends at my alarm clock, but they answered for me.

"Just before six in the morning," Samuel grinned. "We wanted to make sure you didn't sneak away without us."

Groaning echoed around the space around us. "See, what did I tell you? There was no chance rock boy was going to be up this early."

"Fine, but I was just going to work on my Skill for the next few days," I grumbled as I nudged my way past my friends.

"No chance you are going to get ahead of us, Ronan. We are in this together, regardless of what happened in the past," Danny said, yanking on my sleeve. Her nose crinkled in my direction. "Plus, you are not going anywhere smelling and looking like that. Did you even shower yesterday?"

"Uhhh..."

"We'll get supplies situated, Ron. Just shower and meet us in Ben's office," Sam said.

"Wait, he has an office?" I definitely didn't remember the man having an office.

"The Storage Floor. Come on, keep up! I'll get Papa to get some decent breakfast for us," Danny explained, taking the opportunity to punch me in the shoulder and walking away with a grimace. "The cleaning rotation crew is not going to be happy with you. Get on with it!"

A bit stunned by my friends' initiative, I found myself in the shower. The steaming water removed caked on layers of dirt and ash I had forgotten clung to my skin. Just a few minutes under the shower head left me feeling like a new man. There was definitely a point in time where I would have wanted to remain there just a bit longer, but when I thought about all that needed to be done on the surface my adrenaline would not let me stand still. There's a whole new world waiting!

---+---

Once more dressed in as utilitarian a set of clothing as I owned, jeans and a worn cotton polo, I stepped onto the Storage Floor. Huddled around a table were Ben and my two friends. A similar duffle bag to the one that had burned up in the fire was set aside at their feet and I could hear their argument the moment I exited the stairwell.

"You should take something with more firepower," Ben said, motioning to the table.

"We have m.a.g.i.c, Mr. Burks! I think just the handguns will do for now. Besides, the stuff we fought out there shrugged off getting shot, so we don't want to rely on them too much," Danny responded exasperated.

"Interesting arrangement you all have here," I said from over Danny's shoulder. The three people had been so absorbed in their discussion that they'd completely missed my arrival. Daniela's own magic flared on her wrist for a second while Ben held a knife in hand. A huge grin split my face as my friends realized it was just me. "Turnabout is fair play!"

"Sure sure, can you convince Teach that he should keep most of this stuff for the Bunker?" Danny said as she waved off my comment. I noted the red in her cheeks at the surprise and let the matter drop.

"If I overheard Danny's argument correctly, then she is right. It took a whole clip just to damage the underside of the tortoise we fought. I don't think it will get much harder than that, but we would be eating through bullets like crazy," I said. Arrayed on the table were two types of automatic rifles, what I could only describe as a sniper rifle, several knives of various sizes, a shovel, an axe and a hatchet.

"You three are out of your minds, but I haven't been to the surface so I'll default to your judgement. If you need them, then you know where I am," Ben said, lifting his arms in a gesture for surrender.

"We will. Because I want you to be the first to come to the surface when the next implant is ready."

"Come again?" our old teacher blinked at my words.

"I spoke with the mayor. He's going to crank out as many implants as he can. It's not enough to get everyone to the surface, but we'll figure out what we can do about that. I want you to be next. I don't think I need to elaborate as to why."

My friends' eyes widened at what I said and Ben turned pensive. Without much delay he nodded and his face split into an excited smile. "If that's what you want. Only so much people watching and stuff stacking I can do. Can't say I don't miss the scorching mugginess of Florida."

We spent a few more minutes planning out what we were going to take. Breakfast had already made its way to the group and I was passed a plate of tofu-imitation eggs with hashbrowns. While I shoved my mouth full of delicious protein and starch we decided on taking all the tools we could. The lobby would serve as a good temporary set up, but it was worthwhile to think about setting up some other structures. A potato filled grin came to my face causing Sam and Danny to groan.

"He's got a plan. Again," Danny said.

"At least the last one turned out pretty good," Sam admitted.

"Thank you! My plans are good, Danny. You can only complain about them if they don't turn out!" I said. "And I'm keeping this one to myself until we get to the surface."

After a round of chuckles from Ben we were ready to depart. With enough food for three days, water for two, and a wide arrangement of tools we trudged up to Engineering. Quietly waiting beside the entrance was my uncle. For the first time since I could recall, he looked frazzled. Which shouldn't have been the case considering he worked with the water and disposal systems of the Bunker, but he liked to be presentable.

"Give me a minute guys, would you?" My friends didn't say anything and instead moved to stand by the meeting room door, looking over our gear. Not that it needed any more looking over, but I appreciated their discretion.

"Hello, Ronan," my uncle said quietly. I watched his fingers lift, then twitch back down. Surely restraining himself from hugging me.

"Please don't say anything. I don't want you to apologize, because I understand why you did it. You didn't want to hurt me and I know you love me. Just... give me time."

"Of course. I wanted you to know that I'm here. You may not be my son, but I raised you like I would have my own. I promised Marcus as much..." the words died in his throat and he bit back something else. "Just take care of yourself, okay?"

Managing a weak smile, I gripped my uncle's shoulder and walked past him. My friends were at my side a moment later. Nothing was said as we crossed the concrete doors to the surface. Thin rays of light flickered through the frame of the lobby's door as we all took a deep breath. Then coughed all at the same time.

"Forgot about the smoke," Sam coughed out.

"Don't know that there will be much we will be able to do for now. Let's get the inside cleaned out before we start on my plan," I said, retrieving a broom from the second rucksack we'd acquired. With slow strokes I started to pile up the dust and ash in the room towards the doorway.

"Now that we are here, are you going to tell us what your 'plan' is?" Danny complained as she swept one of the counters clean and started to lay out our other tools.

"Patience, young one," I ribbed, sweeping my dust pile out of the door in a cloud. "A better question is what Sam is doing with a potted plant. Where did you even stash that, I didn't see it."

"I may have... figured out a side effect of my Skill," he said, looking abashed as Danny and I paused to look at him. The man was sheepishly holding the pot behind his back.

"Well, out with it man! When did you even get to try your Skill?" I demanded, resuming my sweeping, but deliberately moving closer to his plant.

"I wanted to bring a little something from home. My dad gave me a tomato sprout. Just like Daniela, when you gave us a fright I summoned my magic. When I did, the plant grew. This one had been just a little sprout, and while my other potted friend exploded into vines, this one didn’t. On the walk up I kept the Skill just at the edge of triggering and well..." Samuel pointed at the foot tall plant growing up out of the thin plastic pot. Green leaves, shimmering like they were polished, adorned the plant.

"Holy crap!" I shouted, unable to contain my excitement. "That means that just calling forth the magic has a tangible effect on the world! Did it use up your mana?"

"Eh, I didn't think to check. I did feel the lightheadedness." Sam looked off in the distance as he pulled up his status. "Yeah. Quite a bit too. I'm at less than half."

"That doesn't matter, that's amazing. Quick, let's get this place cleaned. I'm even more excited about my plan now!"

I didn't keep an eye on my friends as I started sweeping like a madman. Of course, they came in the form of slow strokes again, but I tried to will the dirt around us to collect faster so we could get out. Within minutes, the place looked as pristine as it was going to get and I rushed out.

Pistol in my right hand and magic on the left I scanned the surroundings and the sky for anything that might attack us. Once that was done, I gave our surroundings a good look. We were on a mounded hill compared to the surrounding forest and I could only imagine it was due to the layers between the surface and the Bunker. There was a portion of the trees to the east that looked like a game trail or maybe where there had once been a road heading north. That's the next target of exploration after we find a closer water source.

Thankfully, when I climbed over the top of the lobby, I spotted a large pond some distance to the west. That was easy. The small concrete block that made up the lobby seemed to grow partly out of the hill and if I wanted I could have climbed over the grassy hill to the south. Something else to really explore.

While I stood and surveyed the space around us, my friends exited the Bunker. It took them a moment to spot me.

"Ron, what are you doing up there," Sam asked, shielding his eyes from the rising sun.

"I'm planning the little fort we are going to be building here!" I shouted down at them.

"How are we going to do that numb nuts?" Daniela asked skeptically, crossing her arms and arching an eyebrow at me. "We are just three people."

"Ah, but you see, we have magic!" On cue, I pushed the mental button for while focusing on a spot near the edge of the treeline. Roughly three feet of soil rose up and compacted in the space I'd targeted, leaning forward slightly. It wasn't the thickness or direction that I wanted, but it was a start. When I jumped down to my friends they were still very much confused. "The spikes don't disappear. And if I had to guess from Sam's experiments, his vines won't either unless something destroys them."

The lightbulb went off in both of my friends, as evidenced by the jaw drops which immediately turned into excited smiles. Samuel practically rubbed his hands together at the prospect and I was right on that boat with him. "Plus we get to really figure out our skills, it's a win-win, I think."

"Sign me up!" Danny flared her own Skill, lighting up her wrist.