Dr Levine had asked us to all gather in the broad living area outside the dining hall after we had refreshed ourselves and gathered our thoughts.

Although that period was set for everyone, including Melissa and the other staff, it felt like that breaking time was just for me. Everyone knew this was a lot for me to take in so soon. Melissa guided me through the hallways once again, but I was starting to finally find the way for I used the different oil paintings on the walls as a point of reference.

Okay, the mean-looking moustache man means I'm close to my bedroom, the posh lady with the doggo means I'm near the bathroom, and the old woman in the fur coat is close to the living area and dining room...rich people are weird.

We entered the spacious expanse, a comfortable dark toned area with warm red lamps adorning the walls. A freshly bandaged up Kina and well-rested Stanley were engaged in a silent battle of chess upon the desk at the windows, whilst an inpatient Asher voiced her obtuse opinions.

"Why can't you go there?" She pointed across the board.

"Knights only move in 'L shapes'" Stanley answered, taking his knight to knock a white pawn out of the game, only for Kina to retaliate with her black bishop. Asher chuckled.

"How fitting, as you are taking the L in this game, Stanley Stan."

"It's not my fault your friend just happened to be some kind of a genius!"

My friends welcomed me warmly, overtly going out of their way to avoid talking about the situation at hand while we conversed over the classic board game. Stanley took glances to me from his side, and I could tell Kina was using her peripheral vision to check up on me to avoid moving her healing head.

"So ah... did Dr Levine say anything else as I was gone?" I ask unconfidently, but it was more than enough to get the attention of the three. I look up from the board to see them being attentive to my words.

Kina smiled thinly and held a steady gaze towards Asher hovering over Stanley's shoulder. "...Asher told me to shut up about LE-001 in front of you." I looked to Asher as she reeled back in refusal, it seemed Kina's honesty had opened up yet another can of worms between us three.

"What?! No! I didn't tell you to shut up!" Asher refused, waving her hands about frantically. She looked to me and anxiously, unnecessarily feeling the heat of the pressure she put on herself to answer. 

"I just said we didn't know how you felt about talking about it yet seeing as you are his... 'you know'...compatibility?" Kina's voice trailed off on an awkward high pitch. When everyone's eyes fell on me, I heard Dr Levine's earlier words at breakfast roll through my mind again...

"You are what we call a Genetically Compatible Member Of the Public, or GCMOP."

"I know, it's strange... I can barely wrap my head around it either. But I shouldn't shy away from what Dr Levine has told me just because it's hard to talk about."

As much as the idea of this whole GCMOP thing nerved me with an unstable future ahead, I couldn't exactly avoid this connection I had to LE-001... with every thought of him, I felt it grow in strength. And even though I didn't know what I would expect out of him as I barely knew his character. But there was a deeply invested feeling I couldn't free myself from, the feeling of security knowing how he saved us from the NSA... the same association that's after him.

"Thank you for thinking of (Y/N), you are caring Asher," Stanley says.

Asher held quiet for some time, and her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Asher knew she was always the more emotionally perceptive out of the three of us. Although she built up a witty and sharp exterior, it was all a deflection from the true soft little Asher only Kina and I got to see. But I guess Stanley was now getting a glimpse of it too.

Asher pursed her lips into a tight circle, her arms were tucked in close to her chest and her eyes slinked away from all of us.

Suddenly, a masculine groan caught our attention. I turned back to see that Dr Levine was at the top of the staircase, slowly letting himself down while straining to carry a considerable pile of folders with stray papers floating away. "Ah, pardon me, my guests. My memory proceeds to evade me with this old age."

"Master, what are you doing?!" Melissa exclaims, she rushes up to meet Dr Levine halfway and promptly takes the heavy pile from him. "If you needed help, sir, you just needed to ask." 

I was scared she wouldn't be able to handle the weight either as her thin limbed body didn't seem to have much muscle on it, but surprisingly, she took the pile of folders from him with no strain at all.

Dr Levine chuffs while rubbing on his hipbone. "I now realise that I'm not as young as I used to be..." Melissa set down the pile of folders in front of my place on the sofa and upon a smooth oak coffee table, the look on her face was one of worry as she turned back to Dr Levine, visibly very concerned about his well-being.

"Be a dear and fetch us some refreshments, would you?" Dr Levine says parking himself in the opposing seat across from the coffee table, Melissa hovers in place for a short period, before presently bowing and advancing towards those imposing double doors of the dining hall.

I sat across from Dr Levine and felt a weight sink into the sofa's cushioning and saw Asher had seated herself close to me. Kina and Stanley stayed in their respective seats.

Dr Levine looks down and places his aged hand on the top of the piled folders. "Just wanted to quickly get a few materials relating to LE-001's study during the time I was with him at the NSA. Although I despise the association with a passion, their reports will be of unfortunate use to us."

"Use to us in what way?..." Kina asks bluntly, she was never really one to hold back from asking the pressing questions on her mind. She sets herself forward and holds her hands on her crossed-over knee. 

"I mean, where do we exactly go from here? It's not like the NSA stop looking for them anytime soon with what we know and with LE-001 out there somewhere." Stanley said. "I mean, is there a chance I can return to the parklands? I have to let everyone there know where I've been."

Stanley seemed to press the urgency of his worries, Dr Levine shook his head. "Stanley, You've done well to inform me of LE-001's movements in the parklands, it was a very precarious mission for you and you will be compensated for it. But I can't let you go just yet. The NSA are all over the parklands as we speak, and they will soon discover your involvement with me as they have the means to. This is for your safety."

Stanley's mouth was agape and his eyes were wide, He seemed... pretty upset. Anxious even that he was not able to return to his normal life being a ranger at the parklands. Dr Levine sighed and looked down, I sensed his guilt.

A long sigh released from Dr Levine's thin lips. "You are exactly right though Stanley, the NSA won't stop until they get what they want." He says, using his left thumb and forefinger to massage his wrinkled chin. 

"With you four knowing what they have tried so hard to keep secret, they will do lord-knows-what to keep you silent..." his small hazel eyes bounce over to me. 

"I fear a far worse outcome may come for you (Y/N). LE-001 is regarded as a highly valuable specimen, and your compatible link to him is also of interest to the NSA." I bite down on my dry lips with his last statement. 

"I've given this a lot of thought." Dr Levine rests his elbows upon his chair and clasps his hands together, gathering an air of confidence for what he is about to announce next... 

"As long as you four are here, you are under my full protection. But if we want you to go back to your normal lives, at least, a more normal version of what once was; essentially, we have to find a way to put an end to the NSA."

The air grew stagnant amongst us.

An end to the NSA, one of the most prolific and nationally recognised associations on biological scientific breakthroughs and study of Hybrids... It didn't seem real.

"Ever since leaving the association I've built, I've been working on criminally convicting the NSA. Unfortunately, doing so is difficult. We need piles upon piles of evidence, more than what I can already provide."

 Kina leans forward a little from her chair, her dark-coloured eyes observing the man as her mind starts working in that analytical fashion I have come to identify. 

"And even then, if you chose to do that against the NSA, we still might be in danger. Dangerous people don't let the law get in the way," She says. Dr Levine smiles grimly with her understanding.

"Now, I plan to do things an alternative way. Luckily, I think I may have an idea that will keep the NSA at bay for the rest of our lives if we play our cards right."

"What will that be exactly?" Asher asks, taking an interest in voicing her opinion.

"When we go ahead with our lawsuit, will have to prepare to have a testimony...from LE-001."

I peer to my friends to see their lips had parted and their eyes widened with the intensity of Dr Levine's proposal. Melissa had silently come between us during all of this and placed a silver stray with small cakes, an array of teabags and a steaming teapot. "Thank you, my dear." Dr Levine says blissfully before casually going to retrieve himself some tea. 

That's when I knew he was... indeed... being completely serious.

"You want LE-001 to testify in court? at a hearing?" Stanley asks with a noticeable squeak in his voice that caught the room's attention. He clears his voice. "That thing wouldn't even let me enter the damn caves without threatening to rip my head off!"

"I understand your worries, Stanley." Dr Levine pours his mug half full of water, then places a red tea bag within whilst looking between Stanley and me. "Although, If he can testify in court about the corruption and abuse he's been through at the NSA facilities, it may fast track us to put an end to the NSA's operations."

Taking a sugar cube from a small but posh silver holder and a floral patterned teaspoon from the tea tray, Dr Levine plops it into his pink tea and stirs into a concoction mindlessly, leaving the rest of us to silently process the plan.

"It will be an uphill battle," He says tapping the spoon on the round corner of the mug. "This may take years of being in hiding to fully prepare us for what will be a very lengthy trial. But we all have the skills to make sure we can get LE-001 to testify against the NSA."

"That's not a crazy idea..." Kina pipes up, her thin black eyebrows relaxing from coming out of her deep state of evaluation. "If we can get him accustomed to learning human ways, he could be able to communicate the truth behind the NSA."

"Of course, we will all provide testimony, but LE-001's ability to communicate will be pivotal to the case. We will need to find him, but it will be difficult to do so." Dr Levine says, shifting his weight to focus on me.

"I have analysed LE-001's recent pattern of behaviour, it seems as if he has been purposely trying to avoid as much interaction with (Y/N) as possible, while also trying to find her. He's very conscious to stay out of her sight while keeping her in his..."

The scene on the Spike-hole caverns comes back to me. There was an aura, a disturbance within the air that surrounded Stanley and I. LE-001 looked after me in that cavern, but he was nowhere to be seen when I woke up and when Stanley arrived to get me. I have barely seen what he has looked like clearly enough to notice him... I could only recognise his anxiety-inducing tremors. 

"Why does he do that?" I ask.

The corners of Dr Levines pull into a brief and warm-hearted grin. "I believe it's to protect you, my dear."

"I... hope you aren't afraid of LE-001... Although we don't know where he is, I'm confident he's doing everything he can to keep you safe as we are."

I instinctively pull my eyes to Melissa who's standing by, idle, attentive to Dr Levine's words and set in her proper posture. Her doe-like blues catch my stare and she takes in a deep breath before looking back to Dr Levine. 

"He seems to be controlling the animal instinct that drives him towards you. He's still wild at heart... but human enough to recognise the danger he can put you in." 

My muscles tensed, I could ascertain the underlying implication Dr Levine was attempting to make out as discreetly as possible. He itched at the back of his grey-haired neck and shifted his eyes in a way where genuine awkwardness shone through in the otherwise confident older man. 

"I think I know where LE-001 could be," I spoke loosely, although confident with my deductive reasoning. It was unsettling to think that the escaped Hybrid had been in front of me the whole time but that's where this was leading to. "When Stanley found me in the caverns at Wagani-may, there only thing with us was a torn first-aid journal from my workplace; Lelita's cafe and restaurant... My workplace. Miss Lelita only lets regulars borrow the books."

Dr Levine's eyes lit up. Then he laughed. "Miss (Y/N), I don't think you realise how important of a discovery you have just made."

Kina and Asher grimaced with the new reveal. "Miss Lelita... knows The Hybrid?!" Asher exclaims

"Possibly," I say quietly, a drilling air of silence yielded me from further realising my thoughts. I knew deep down that it was somehow the truth, it was an inkling of bare foreknowledge that lived energetically shouting that this was the right answer, and with that feeling came another clue that confirmed my suspicions.

"Make sure she gets home safe... I have a feeling I know what's making her unwell..."

"The NSA will not be too far behind on investigating (Y/N)'s whereabouts, If Lelita has housed LE-001 and the NSA confronts her whilst LE-001 is present... there will only be a catastrophic outcome." Dr Levine nodded to Melissa who took off somewhere with a quickened pace. The rest of us slowly rose to our feet, a buzz of adrenaline warming my blood.

"This may be our only chance of reaching LE-001... before he is either recaptured... or killed."