#wyldstyle

Cary snorted. “Good luck with that.”

“Did I say it was going to be an easy thing to do?”

Keelan smiled a bit at their bickering, and pressed himself close to Alastar’s side, relaxing slightly as his brother wrapped an arm around him. He grabbed his backpack and let himself be escorted to the elevator.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay, being so far away from us?” Keelan blinked and glanced back up at them, then nodded.

“I- I think so. You’re here.” He put a hand over his heart.

“Damn right we are,” Cary grumbled, even as Alastar smiled at him. They piled into the car shortly after that, Cary sliding into the driver’s seat and Alastar nudging Keelan to take shotgun before crawling into the back himself. He dug their phone out of his pocket (and they’d have to remember to get another one for the duration of their separation), bringing up their parents’ number and hitting ‘call’.

“Hi Mum! We’re, uh. We’re back in Bricksburg now, actually. That’s- yeah, that’s actually what I was calling you about. There was a bit of an incident last night, you might want to be sitting down for this…”

The moment the Callaghan triplets started back to their apartment, Benny set out for Cape Space. Their three hours huddled in the back of The Coffee Chain weren’t spent merely making idle chatter- some important things had also been discussed.

Like some of the thoughts Keelan had managed to pluck from the Ringmaster’s head. Plans and plots Benny had thought long since dealt with, but now he wasn’t so sure. He needed to bring it to Director Kenning’s attention as soon as possible- he hadn’t spent twenty years in stasis and another five dealing with a form of forced amnesia just to let all his hard work fall apart now. If the Duplos were still a threat, their best source of protection from space-related threats needed to know as soon as possible.

His crew met him with their usual enthusiasm, but it was quick to die down when they realized just how serious he was. “Benny, what’s going on?” Jenny asked, clasping her hands together with worry.

“You remember a couple months back, when I had that really bad nightmare and B and I came looking for answers?”

A sigh. “Benny, how many times do we have to tell you-”

“I remember what happened.”

“Wh- …Benny, nothing happened. It was an accident, nothing more.”

“Does the name ‘Torrence Greene’ ring any bells?”

Now they were paying attention. “It… does,” Penn agreed. “Vaguely, but it does. Who…”

“I dated him for a while. He was a fellow astronaut. Or so we thought. Turned out he was a plant, sent to study us and stir up dissent, to divide us so that when his people finally arrived, we wouldn’t be able to stand together and fight them off.”

“So the whole thing with the Master Builders…”

“He didn’t start it, but he definitely kicked the hornets’ nest. That was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. Remember how Graison used to complain that someone was sneaking into the comms, but never had any proof?”

“I do actually kind of remember that,” Ken said. “There was actually someone there though, wasn’t there?”

Benny nodded. “It was ‘Torrence’. We caught him at it one time, and he… he wasn’t human. He ran off, we grabbed the Kragle and chased him-”

“Wait, we had the Kragle??” Lenny’s jaw dropped.

“Yeah, I guess another team had found it in space, and brought it back to study it. Anyway, we used it on him, trapped him in his human disguise, but not before he did some serious damage to our ship. He got into our heads, buried our memories of him, and escaped.”

“And that’s when you discovered your Master Builder abilities,” Ken murmured, the memories starting to come back to him. “You helped us into stasis, then fixed the ship- not completely, she definitely burned up, but enough to get us all safely back.”

“Yeah,” Benny said. “But I don’t think it ended there. He was still alive, after all, and continued stirring up trouble until Cary shot him ten years ago.”

“And you think that’s why something might happen? Despite it being a decade ago?”

“No, I think something might happen because of what Keelan found out last night.”

“Wait, wait…” Penn said, starting to put things together. “Does this have anything to do with the realm that doesn’t actually exist?”

“It has everything to do with it,” Benny confirmed.

“I think you need to back up and tell us the whole story,” Ken told him. Benny nodded and began with the invitation Sirius had received a week ago. They listened with horrified attention as he explained everything that had happened the night before.

“I think you’re right,” Lenny quietly spoke. “Director Kenning does need to know. Even if it turns out to be nothing… At least we’ll be able to keep an eye out.”

Lucy hadn’t let go of his hand since their group had split up to return home. Normally he would be thrilled to death at the show of affection, but after the events of the previous night… He couldn’t blame her for needing something to keep her grounded in reality.

And, well, maybe he needed something to help keep him awake on the walk home, even after all the caffeine he’d consumed. Thankfully their apartment wasn’t too far.

“How’s your face, babe?” she murmured, turning to look at him. She flinched every time her gaze fell on the row of stitches; the cut had swollen and turned a nasty purple color since they had first arrived at the hospital.

“I think I’m ready for some more painkillers,” Emmet admitted. “It’s starting to hurt again. Also I think I’m going to sleep for the next twenty four hours…” Lucy smiled and hugged his arm.

“Mind if I join you?” At Emmet’s surprised look, she bit her lip. “I really don’t want to be alone…”

“Okay,” he agreed. “I could use a cuddle buddy too.”

They walked the rest of the way in silence, opting to take the elevator instead of the stairs for once. Lucy unlocked the door when, between his exhaustion and his affected vision, Emmet couldn’t quite seem to get the key in the lock. Without a word, Emmet went straight for the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Lucy took the time to walk back to her own bedroom and change out of her rumpled clothes into the most comfortable pair of pajamas she owned. Ten minutes later, she nudged open the door to Emmet’s bedroom to see the curtains drawn and her boyfriend already out like a light, snoring softly. Smiling softly to herself, she quietly closed the door behind her and silently padded across the room to slip under the covers and snuggle close to him.