The next morning Arce was awoken early. so she thought at least the strange lady named Clara guided her to the medical bay by hopping from screen to screen. upon entering she saw a screen separator. She heard voices behind and took a look. “Relax. Bob already mentioned the similarities to the collar gems.”

“My body feels like it’s paralyzed.” Fae's head stuck out of a strange device and a beautiful woman in a white coat was reading a plate attached to it. 

“Fae? Is everything ok?” 

Arce's voice made doctor Yoshiko's head turn “Excuse me. Do you mind waiting behind the screen? You can get undressed there too. Down to your underwear is fine until the scans.” She said that while smiling gently. 

Arce complied and waited. she noticed Fae's outfit cleanly placed on one of the chairs. Soon she heard a noise that indicated Fae was done. she heard the doctor say “i'm curious to see if your DNA contains something similar or different from our life boosting methods.”

“what's going to happen if it’s one or the other?”

“If it's similar we can maybe find a way to have it made naturally in our body. who knows maybe we'll all become elves? if it's something different we can see if it can be supplemented with our current procedures making it possible to add another number to our life expectancy... In simple terms one makes it so we don't have to go through the procedure every 50 years and the other makes it so we can become well over 1000 years old.”

“Is that possible?” 

Fae was skeptical but she had seen many things here she'd never thought possible. She just felt them too. She passed the divider, picked up her clothes and started dressing. Meanwhile the doctor asked Arce to come. Arce went through a simple medical examination when they got to the scans she wondered “why do i need to go through this?”

“We kind of consider this a mandatory insurance for everyone. every citizen you might say.”

“so i'm one of you starpeople now?”

“Maybe when you have your first procedure… we’ll have to figure out time later and we'll need to adjust the parameters of the dna-scanners.” She tapped a few places on a tablet and the machine Fae had been in sank into the wall being replaced by a shorter version. “Please step in.”

Arce wasn't too sure but stepped in as the device closed around her leaving her head outside. Yoshiko activated it and it started buzzing lightly

“Any more questions?”

Arce didn't feel anything yet “What did you mean with insurance?”

“I guess you locals understand it better if I say this thing makes it so we can make a copy of any of your body parts. in case something happens you know.”

“can you make a full copy of meEEEEEEE!” Arce was surprised by what felt like millions of tiny needles entering her body. it didn't hurt but she felt tingly all over. 

Yoshiko was used to this reaction though “Just stay calm for a minute and, to answer your question. we technically can but it's mind wouldn't be you and ethically there's loads of issues with mind copying through the mindscape.”

“mindscape?” 

“It's a program we sometimes use for entertainment and business. you'll come across it later. In regards to cloning many factions back in settled space agreed it's only useful if we faced extinction. so it's an emergency backup plan.”

Arce felt her body return to normal. she got dressed when she looked back at the device she came out of and asked the doctor “Is there going to be one that fits bruce?”

Yoshiko laughed a bit “We have a condition coincidently called dwarfism. so we do have his size.” She pulled up a tablet showing some results “I do have to ask. Is it normal for mages to look younger?”

Arce nodded “some people turn to magic specifically for that but few can keep up with the studies.”

“I guess regularly practicing using mana could positively affect your body. kind of like regular exercise.”

 Arce thanked her, got dressed and headed for the door. She headed to the main Hangar. There were so many things she wanted to see once her sisters were safe. She had been given a cheap tablet yesterday so she could check what the citadel had to offer. Clara was really helpful with any question she had. When she would return here she'd want to try using a microscope to take a closer look at her own mana. While arriving at the hangar she saw more of the mechs. They were ordered in box shaped frames. There were 4 spaces occupied with mechs that looked in use, an empty one and the others had what looked like its skeleton with an oval shaped pod attached to it. She noticed Fae next to one that looked like it was keeping a rectangular construction on its back like a small tower. The mech itself looked thinner than the others as she approached she heard Fae say “I'm supposed to follow that around when it moves?”

She was talking to Sniper, the man with the strange black helmet. He was spraying a coloured substance that looked to be paint. “Once we’re back you'll be learning how to maneuver around it and how some of our weapons and other equipment work. It won't be long till we have to make our move anyway. after that it should take the nobletalon kingdom off your home country's back as they focus on us. ah i see the mage has arrived.”

Arce greeted him with a nod “I was told by Clara to look for you.”

“Right. you're coming along on this mission.” the man jumped down from the platform he was standing on. 

Paula approached them shouting “You finally got around to fixing it huh?”

Sniper looked to his mech “While I hope we don't need Watchtower. Just in case we do, I'd have him look his best.”

Fae had a happy thought “you expect to drop it in the middle of kings island?”

“I hope not. too much collateral damage and extraction is going to be annoying.” Bruce arrived as well, Sniper noticed and began announcing the following “ok, now you all will join a dropship to guide them to each capitol kingdom. Paula and I will be dropped off at kings island. we'll make our way to the little mage's sisters. she'll guide us from the dropship. any questions?”

Paula waved them to the dropship “let's hurry. not even Clara will tell me how we'll set up communications.”

“We decided to make it a surprise. trust me it's going to be great.”

The mech with boxes on its shoulders and an explosion painted on its front opened up. Bertha jumped out  shouting “hey sniper can i sidetrack the elf on this mission?it was fae right?”

Sniper’s helmet obscured his face but you could feel his questioning look. ultimately he had to ask “Why? what are you planning?”

“Well you heard the story of how she was caught. I'd at least want to... drop something off there too.”

“Bertha!”

“ok ok i want to sabotage and blow up a criminal slaver ring.” she turned to fae “you said they had a port hidden in a cave. maybe we can at least save some elves and cave the damn thing in.”

Fae loved that idea. Bruce had to look for his explanation “what do i do then?”

Sniper pulled out his phone “well you'll be returning here quicker to help out paula's mother.”

“what ails her?”

“the doc suspects a curse.she'll be observing while you do your thing.”

 Bertha kneeled next to Bruce and swung her arm around his shoulders “don't let her drool when you show how to heal and cure curses.”

Bruce looked at her confused. 

They soon split up to their assigned dropships. Bruce went in one dropship where Rainor was waiting. Bertha brought a box along with fae on the other ship. As for Arce, Paula and Sniper , they entered the last one. entering the side of the dropships they noticed a big device taking up a lot of space in the back. It was separated from them by a panel of thick glass with a door in similar materials. The dropships took off once they were seated. 

“Get ready to strap in.”

“Don't we usually only need to brace ourselves?” Paula asked. 

The dropship pilot responded “Not for what we're going to do”

“Oh hey adam. didn't know you were going to be our pilot.”

“What can I say? the captain worries about her speedy partner.”

Adam was the regular pilot for the dropships of Natlee's team. Paula had met him occasionally when going out on patrol. 

He looked at Arce “Greetings miss. Adam point. nice to meet you.”

Arce just nodded politely and looked at the device in the back “where are you going to place that device?”

“Just look outside in a few minutes, miss. Now strap in”

Sniper helped Arce buckle her seatbelt before strapping in himself. Arce could still see through the window behind her. she noticed they were getting quite high. So high it slowly got darker outside revealing stars. Once the dropship settled a bit, Adam gave them the ok to get up. Sniper went through the glass door separating them from the machine. Before closing the door he said “keep em safe adam.”

“yeah yeah. I won't let them land on their head once I reactivate the grav plates.”

The girls were confused but soon learned about zero gravity. The other dropships experienced the same thing. Everyone loved every second floating around the dropship. Sniper and several other people unbuckled the satellites and slowly pushed them into space. shortly after they heard Clara's voice from the pilot's cabin “starting initial scans. connection is running well all ships please direct scans.”

When gravity returned, Sniper also returned to their side of the glass. He approached a movable screen in the middle of the ship. it showed a picture of the continent below “Arce can you tell where kings island is just about?”

Once they pointed out St Baalz, the forest and the ship’s crash site it wasn't hard to find for her. “that one. the biggest island near the continent.”

“Clara you copy?”

“directing scans”

Sniper did a little celebratory fistpump “Right we have some time to kill. Once closer images of the streets are in you can point out where your sisters are and we'll go get them.”

“Can't I come?”

“for your safety it's better you stay on the ship. someone might recognise you.”

Clara came on the screen again “attention designations for the planetside missions will be dropship bow, hammer and staff. Dropship bow will head to the elven forest. By Bertha’s request they’ll diverge for a hostage rescue mission from the area where Fae was caught. dropship hammer will head to the dwarven capitol and drop a care package for their kingdom and return to the citadel. short and simple. dropship staff will be heading to kings island. Once it's night there they'll drop sniper and Paula off on a quiet dock. The ship will hide in the stratosphere with Arce to guide the team. when the team is ready for extraction it'll come back to for pickup.”

Everyone was ready for their mission.