When Andie and Bane came to the living room, Robert, Isabelle, Zarias, Jessica (sitting as far away from him as possible) and Emily were already there. Robert was just bringing in warm drinks. The atmosphere was tense, to say the least. Isabelle gave them a small smile, and Emily was readjusting her jacket. But Jessica gave Bane a cold look Andie didn't like.

"Jess, cut that out," she said sharply.

Jessica rolled her eyes, but looked away.

"Okay..." Bane said as they sat down. "So, I know you're probably not that happy with me after yesterday..."

"You think?" Jessica muttered with a snort.

"Jess," Andie chided. "If you're just here to be judgmental, maybe it's best you leave."

They looked at each other.

"Fine," Jessica conceded. "Let's hear what brilliant reason Bane had for playing Mission Impossible in the Demon Realm, with Zarias of all people!"

"Jessica, for the last time, calm down," Andie told her shortly. "Getting angry is not going to solve anything. Bane did have a reason."

She glanced at Bane, who began explaining what Zarias and he had discovered about the pictures, Bane's dream...

"... Mom's alive, uncle Rob," Bane said, his voice clearly showing he almost couldn't believe it himself. "I saw her."

Robert stared at his nephew, his face pale.

"That's why I went. I wanted to know for sure if she was alive or not," Bane went on, looking briefly in Jessica's direction.

"So why isn't she here with us, right now?" Jessica asked.

"Jess!" Emily gasped.

"What? It's a reasonable question!" Jessica defended herself.

"Because with just Bane and me, it would have been impossible," Zarias intervened calmly. "We were lucky to even get out of there."

"It was thanks to Balon..." Bane said, looking down. "He's trapped there because of us..."

There was a silence.

"How come he was able to cross with you when Adena couldn't when they took Andie?" Emily asked. "I don't get it."

Because I wasn't in you when it happened, Adena answered. Whereas Balon was in Bane. He probably stayed precisely to try and help in any way he could. He knows we can only cross the barrier within our vessel, which is you in my case.

"So you can't reach out to him at all?"

I only wish I could... Adena sighed, her eyes bright with worry.

Andie told the others what Adena had told her.

"That makes sense..." Bane sighed. "Still, the sooner we get him and Mom back, the better."

"How was she?" Robert asked.

It was clear from his expression he'd been dying to ask that question from the moment Bane had told him his sister was alive.

"She looked all right," Bane assured him. "She seemed to be in kinder holding facilities than Andie was..."

Andie couldn't help a shudder at the mention of her brief stay in the demon world. It had scarred her forever. Robert heaved a sigh of relief.

"Are you positive it's her?" Emily asked cautiously. "Couldn't it have been a copy created by Zorak to lure you into a trap?"

"If that was the case, Bane wouldn't have gotten out of there," Isabelle reminded her. "But it doesn't look like Zorak knew they were going."

"Or they pretended that was the case to throw us off," Jessica put in, glancing at Zarias.

"Who did what doesn't matter right now," Andie intervened coolly.

"She's right. My mother and Balon are trapped in the Demon Realm and that's all we need to know at this point. We have to go back and bring them home," Bane said.

Andie squeezed his hand silently. He tried not to show it, but she knew he felt responsible for Balon having to sacrifice himself for him. A moment later, however, Bane squeezed back and looked up.

"So. What's our plan?"

Before they could begin to discuss any plans, however, Andie's phone went off.

"Uh oh... that'll be my parents..." she sighed. "Just give me a minute..."

She got up and went into Bane's room. Glancing at the screen, she saw her father's number.

Here we go... she told herself.

"Hello?"

As she'd expected, her father immediately launched into a sermon.

"Andie! Finally! I've been trying to reach you for hours! Do you have any idea how worried your mother and I have been? Are you okay?"

"... I know, sorry Dad..." Andie told him when he'd finally paused long enough for her to answer. "I'm fine, don't worry. I just had some... stuff to deal with."

"Okay, fine, you have, now you can come home."

"Dad-"

"No! You are coming home right now."

"I'll come home when I'm done!" Andie retorted. "Look, I'm fine, okay? And I'm eighteen, I can take care of myself."

"Andie-"

"Dad, listen to me. I promise you I'll be fine. I have to go. I love you."

She hung up and switched her phone off before returning to the others.

"Sorry about that," she said.

"No problem," Bane told her, holding out his hand to her as she sat down. "We were just starting. Everything all right?"

"Yeah," Andie said. "Fine."

She didn't feel like elaborating. Bane seemed to sense that, because he quickly moved on.

"Now that Zorak knows I've found out my mother's alive, we have no idea what he might do. So we have to act fast. But this also means he'll most likely be expecting us to go back for them."

"That's the most plausible scenario," Isabelle agreed. "But there's only one way there, and that's through portals..."

"So we have to be prepared for anything." Bane said.

No one argued there.

"The way I see it, we can't exactly just bust in there like we did before." Bane went on. "If we do, it's almost certain to end badly."

"Agreed," Andie and Robert said, nodding.

"Yeah, about that, I still don't know how we did that twice, honestly." Emily said.

"Because he wanted us to go," Isabelle reminded her. "He used Andie and Hannah as bait."

"Don't remind me..." Andie said, shuddering. "So, we need to think of another way to do this. But unless someone has an invisibility cloak stashed up their sleeves..."

"Hey, hold on a minute, I want to clarify one thing."

Andie rolled her eyes and looked at Jessica.

"What's that?" she asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

"When you're all talking about going to bust Bane's mother out, you're not thinking about letting Zarias tag along, are you?"

"Jess, don't start..."

"No!" Jessica interrupted. "I want to know. Are you or not?"

"We have to," Bane said. "I don't know the way to Mom's cell on my own."

"And you expect me to trust this guy with my life? Not happening."

Andie was about to reply sharply, but Bane beat her to it.

"You think this is about Zarias?" he asked hotly. "It's my mother, damn it! I thought she was dead for the past ten years!"

"I know that, but-"

"But nothing! I get you don't like Zarias, but I wouldn't be here if he hadn't been with me!"

"You wouldn't have gone at all if not for him!" Jessica shot back.

"Bane, Jessica, calm down-" Robert began, but no one heard him.

"I couldn't not go! Are you telling me you would have just left your mother there?!"

"I would have called for help!"

"Guys, stop!" Andie tried to intervene, but she too was ignored.

"I was trying to protect you! If I was wrong, I didn't want you girls to be involved."

"Since when is that your decision to make?"

"Fine!" Bane snapped. "I screwed up. I get it. Now I'm trying to fix things, okay? So you're welcome to help if you want. If you don't, the door's right over there."

He pointed to the right where the entrance was. He and Jessica stared angrily at each other. There was a tense moment where Andie thought Jessica would actually get up and leave. But she didn't. Bane, seeming to realize it as well, sat back down.

"Now, maybe we can start getting creative," Bane said.

"Is something wrong, Izzie?" Andie asked suddenly.

Isabelle hadn't spoken in several minutes, and was touching her chin.

"... I think I have an idea..."