Leave The Monster Alone

Somehow the base felt nostalgic when Mark came back to it. They had not even been gone for that long but the relief of coming back overpowered everything else.

"We'll go and report to the boss, you'll be delivering the equipment?" Fidi sounded normal when he asked it, a rare occurrence and his eyes were unusually clear of any teasing.

"Please. I don't want to see him if possible" if the other two thought anything of his words they did not show it openly. They just waved at him and then went their separate ways.

Once they were out of his vision, Mark made his way deeper inside the base and back to the workshop. Kuro made sure her presence was not felt through the somewhat crowded corridor they were passing through.

Despite a small number of available people in this base, somehow it always felt crowded.

"Professor, I'm back with your equipment" Mark kicked the door open, his hands busy with getting small tinkers out of his storage. He felt several pairs of eyes on him once he crossed the threshold of the room but he had no time to look up.

"Good. Put it in the corner and I'll get to it" Finally Mark looked up to see the professor gesturing toward the side corner. Then Mark saw a big problem and he paused taking out the material.

"What's wrong? Do you need help?" Alan finally bounced over, his expression eager. Mark could tell he wanted to ask about the journey and other things that had happened but were trying to contain himself.

Rika on the other hand looked far too busy. She had not even looked up when he had kicked open the door. She just kept on working with a serious expression, her eyes not leaving the screen in front of her.

"The energy source would not fit in this room. The corner does not have enough space for it" between the resort of the equipment and the bed, the room had virtually no space left. 

The professor finally came overhearing those words. There was a tightness around his eyes that Mark had not seen before and his face had wrinkled due to stress. How had Mark missed this before?

"How big is the power source?" he sounded worried now and justifiable so. After all, he only had so much space to work with without compromising the rest of the base. They could also not shift all this equipment anywhere else because it would require time and labour.

Also, the ventilation system could not be disturbed without an expert - something they lacked currently.

"We need at least as much space as your bed" Mark's reply sparked something in those eyes and before anyone knew it, the other was pushing his bed outside. However, everyone could see the struggle happening.

The bed was far too heavy for the processor to be able to push alone.

"Alan, let's give him a hand" this was a solution Mark had thought up as well but he could not actually ask someone to give up their bed. However, since the other was offering out of his own goodness, Mark did not mind taking this liberty. 

"Can you keep the noise down? I'm trying to finish this sequence today" the female complained at the dragging noise. Her words were drowned out by the excessive noise that the dragging was producing.

"Pick it up and tilt it to the side. We need to get it out right now" Mark instructed and the others followed, picking up the bed by the side and dragging it outside. Finally, the room had enough space.

"I'll take the setup out but I don't know how to assemble it" Once Mark came back inside, he poured all the equipment he had collected from the base. 

Now that he looked at it again, it did not look to be too much. The time it took to separate it all and then reassemble it all was much larger than one would have expected and that was because of all the small parts it had.

"Don't worry I can arrange it. Did you find an instruction manual inside the base?" Mark shook his head as a negative. It was not that they had not found one, but they had not checked for one. At that time, their mind was only half paying attention so they must have missed it.

"Ah, don't worry then. I'll make do with what I have and figure it out. You must be tired so have a little rest" Mark was tired and he took the invitation.

That did mean laying down on the bed in the middle of a corridor. It was a weird experience to sleep out in such a vulnerable place where anyone could spot you but there was no other choice. 

It was either this or the cold stone of the corridor. The room just did not have enough space after the material had been dumped in.

Mark almost went to sleep before he felt hands on his face. Reflexes kicked in and the other person was almost knocked back and shot before Mark reeled his instincts back. This base was safe and people here should not be harmed.

"Now that was a violent reaction. See Vodi I told you I was a mild person in comparison" the divine pair was back, their report likely down.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have work to do?" Mark groaned, now having been woken up by the other two who just looked amused at him. Why were they back here? The snake also had a weird smile on his face.

"It's nothing. We were just leaving and thought to see you before we actually made that move. You can go back to sleep now" the female gave Fidi a weird look. Even Mark gave him a searching look not believing that reason at all.

If they wanted to leave then they could. There was no need to tell anything to Mark since they had no formal relationship at all.

"Cool. Hopefully, we won't meet again. Every time we meet trouble follows" to be honest, that was not fair for Mark to say. The other two had done nothing but help him throughout the way.

The snake had even saved his life on multiple occasions and now he felt a little guilty.

"I apologise. That was not what I wanted to say at all. I want to thank you for saving my life so many times till now but hopefully, there will be no need to in the future" that sounded much better than the first accusation.

Even the forced expression on the snake's face calmed down once those words made their way out in the open. The female just stayed back, her expression much harder than before.

"I hope that's the case too. Well, bye now" the snake left in hurried steps, the female following behind him. She did give Mark a harsh glare but that soon melted into indifference.

Somehow he had a feeling his impression of the female just got worse.

"It was a weird meeting" Kuro did not reply, her eyes shut and relaxed. Mark closed his eyes to relax too, his thoughts losing all coherence and dreams leading him astray.

"You should have asked him. The worst that could have happened was him saying no" Vodi followed the snake outside, her eyes seeking the weird human's sleeping form before she could no longer see.

As for her companion? He never looked back even once. There was a weird and twisted expression on his face she had never seen before and it was a worrisome sign for her.

"I wanted to but I just could not. Even though he belongs on our side he doesn't want to actually commit. I can't force this one on him, not like it was forced on us so long ago. He should have a choice" the words were spoken in a hurried voice.

"You really think he will have a choice? The process has already begun and even you can feel it changing him. Sooner or later he will be forced on this side too once his companions reject him." The female sounded confident.

Whatever that male was going through was similar enough to a divine beast but he did not have the qualifications for it. It was an enigmatic change that the world was likely not ready for.

Her companion's worry did astonish her though. Fidi was hardly ever worried for anyone who was not herself and himself. His attitude was even indifferent to the other divine beasts, both of the present and the past.

For him to be worried like this for a human was a serious thing.

"The changes are coming to our world. First that human who was chosen to be the next dragon and now this. Do you think we should be worried?" the snake asked, his tone serious.

"Even if we could, we cannot change things anyway. It is worthless to try to go against our higher-ups" the other looked a little lost at her words and she understood.

They did not have a choice in matters at all.