3rd Person POV

"Astra!" Zaiavira exclaimed in relief and the liquids that were suspended in midair came splashing down to the ground before she rushed over and caught JJ in a tight hug leaving everyone confused, evidenced by Dylan's questioning in an unsure tone,

"Is she cool then?"

As soon as JJ returned the hug and even tried to lift the girl up in a twirl, Ash sighed in relief and answered,

"I think so..."

Before JJ pulled away and Zaruk got a good look at her face, even with the reflective visor still on, and explained to the others,

"Zaiavira Jekcir, she was one of Lorinia's 'students' before she was set to go to the training camps. You were going to head to the secondary camp right before the invasion."

Directing the last part of their statement to Zaiavira who finally pulled her sight off JJ to look in the others' direction as she smiled ruefully,

"Yeah... our camp managed to get to the ships in time to escape Thanos but then we got hijacked by Kryjer once we made it out of our galaxy."

"And you've been here this whole time?" Ash questioned in a concerned voice but her eyes were squinted just a bit in suspicion as she gestured to the ship.

"Yeah I'm the only one from my ship they didn't sell to Sakaar."

"N-not to sound insensitive but why spare you?" Bruce questioned echoing his daughter's slight wariness.

"They needed someone to watch over this one, they saw my records of being exceptional in healing, so go figure." Zaiavira hooked a thumb behind her to the body on the table revealing it to be another Chrysinthean with grayish-cyan skin with light gray hair in an unkempt style and wearing a traditional Chrysinthean jumpsuit similar to Zaruk's but in more blues and grays.

"Jabazi?" Zaruk stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder but he remained motionless as the monitor beeped monotonously.

"OK who's he now?" JJ asked a bit over all the new faces and info dumps.

"Your uncle."

"WHAT?!" Ash and JJ hiss-exclaimed in unison before Zaiavira explained while leaning against the table lightly knocking her fist against the surface,

"He's your mum's brother and it was his research in Alculan metal history Kryjer used for everything these past couple of years since Chrysinthea was wiped out." Seeing the hesitant looks on their faces, she told Ash and JJ, "He didn't have a choice, they forced him to make the Core extractor before using it on him so he couldn't fight back, the body and mind can still operate and be read without our soul but it requires constant upkeep.. which is where I came in..."

"If it's his research, wouldn't he know how to stop whatever it is Kryjer's planning to do to the Orinix?" Dylan questioned and Zaiavira tilted her head as she asked,

"You all don't know the plan? He's been going on about how 'everything is falling into place' and 'soon they will be turned to the truth' so I woulda thought..."

She trailed off when she saw the mixture of blank and slightly terrified faces from hearing familiar words and she exhaled through her nose while putting a hand to her forehead as she muttered,

"Way ta freak'em out Z..."

"Can you please just tell us what it is?" JJ asked her impatiently, getting seriously tired of all the riddles.

"OK long version short; he plans to use all the Cores he's managed to collect from Earth and other planets Chrysintheans were found on, use them along with the gravitational pulls of all the moons timed to pull away the protective 'veil' around the planet before exposing the Orinix before using a ray to destroy it."

Everyone looked at her with incredulous looks making her a tad bit nervous.

"That was the short version?" Rocket managed to pipe up from where he was slung over Groot's shoulder and Gora was starting to stir awake enough to make an agreeing meow.

"That leads to so many more questions but we don't have time for them, we really gotta get outta here." JJ tried to rush them but Zaiavira held up a hand to assure her,

"Don't worry even if he had gotten you two on his side, the ray still won't be able to aim and fire properly without the main code chip and I made sure to send that away before being punished."

"'Punished?'" JJ repeated carefully as she walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Zaiavira looked down with a sad smile before reaching up to pull off the visor and revealing her gray, slightly clouded eyes making everyone gasp quietly before JJ growled in annoyance while slapping her forehead,

"'An old friend can't wait to see you again' now I get it..."

Making Zaiavira raised an eyebrow at that before she slid her visor back up to say,

"I'll explain later but Astra's right, we have to leave now. The guards will be shifting posts soon so we can get to the transport chambers without too much trouble if we time it right."

"Alright let's go!"

"Wait!" Ash stopped them, pointing back to Jabai's body, protesting, "We can't just leave him here!"

"Right..." JJ realized before asking Groot, "Bro can ya grab'im?"

"I Am Grooooot?!" (Do I haaaaaave to?!) He whined making JJ smirk with her arms crossed as she told him,

"Now's yer chance to prove ya 'got the gains.'"

The last part was spoken like she was quoting him and Groot gave her a 'really?' look before he tried to shift Gora and Rocket over to Xay's side so he could grab him but Gora wrapped her spines around Rocket's torso so they could get off of Groot's shoulder to make space for their new travel companion.

"We all ready?" JJ pressed her ear close to the door and heard the rhythmic marching of feet past the door before continuing on and looked behind her to see everyone ready to move out just before she opened the door and gestured for everyone to hurry out while hissing, "Go go go!"

"Oh wait!" Zaiavira was the last to come out but she rushed back into the lab and was heard rummaging around and whistling as JJ kept her eyes and ears out for the next group of guards.

When she came back out, she took JJ's hand and pushed something into it and when she looked down to see what it was, her eyes widened; it was a flowering umbrella made of Zephamore wood, her mom's Tool.

When she looked up at Zaiavira with her eyes welling up a bit, she told her,

"Kryjer was gonna get rid of it right before you got here, but I managed to save it... I think she would've wanted you to have it."

Just before JJ could get out the words 'thank you,' Zaiavira grabbed her wrist and ran with her in tow down the halls to catch up with the others as they had made it to the transport chambers where the guard that had been standing sentry looked to have been knocked out and was on the floor and a large circle in the floor and ceiling that took up a third of the room's space to create a light cylinder lit up to indicate it was on.

"OK how do you work this thing?" Bruce questioned as he surveyed the alien writing on the screens and console with no clue how to decipher how to use it.

"There should be this console here to operate it..." Zaiavira felt around and found the console Bruce was looking over, placing her hands at two points on the keypad before she started rapidly typing, images of Centriva's icon like back at the beam platform pulled up.

As she did that, JJ heard metallic clanging coming through the wall and narrowed her eyes thinking that it meant they were about to be caught so she rummaged through her satchel and found the aerogel capsules she managed to stuff in it back on Knowhere along with one of the prototype icosahedrons, quickly combining the two together, giving it a small charge, and setting a timer for 5 seconds before the light in the cylinder changed from white to light blue as Zaiavira declared,

"OK coordinates have been set, everyone in the circle."

Hitting a glowing red button on the console and a mechanical voice announced,

*Preparing transmission in 10. 9. 8-*

Everyone hurried into the circle but Zaiavira stayed at the console for a second making JJ rush her,

"Let's go!"

"I just need to erase-" She tried to explain but JJ took her hand from the console and protested,

"No time!"

Before she pulled her along as the count was at 6 and she planted the icosahedron on the console before it started to expel the aerogel's contents as a gas that started flooding off the console, to the ground, and started toward the chamber.

*5*

Just as the two of them were about to reach the cylinder, JJ was jerked back when she felt a grab on her leg and she looked down to see the guard coming to and trying to stop them.

*4*

"Hey!" JJ yelled as another hand reached up to grab at her belt.

*3*

"Get off!" She kicked the guard in the face before she tore away from his grip.

*2*

Letting JJ surge forward and practically tackle Zaiavira into the circle a split second before-

*1*

A blinding light swallowed the group up and, right before they were sent zooming through the tunnel of light, they heard the click of an ignition that was released from the icosahedron JJ left behind and it ignited the combustible gas to destroy the transport chamber behind them.

After a few seconds of traveling through the starry tunnel, everyone was deposited onto solid, slightly sludgy ground, with oof's and grunts in a cavern area that was lit up with the same barely-living bioluminescent vines and flowers as back in the old Haven on Earth with the beam platform they landed on being the only technological thing in there and numerous tunnels all around them leading who knows where.

"Everyone here?!" Ash asked a bit panicked after witnessing her sister almost getting held behind before doing a headcount; herself, JJ, Bruce, Rocket, Gora, Groot with Xay, Wickity, and Jabazi, Zaruk, Dylan, and their newest member Zaiavira.

"Our group's gettin' big..." Dylan commented mildly as he got up and brushed his pants off before helping Bruce up by his good arm as he commented,

"Not really the best for stealth and-"

*GRAWK!*

Before everyone froze when they heard the shrill roar/shriek echoing around them as Groot questioned,

"I am Groot?" (What was that?)

Ash made her staff come out as she twirled it above her head making the crystal light up bright yellow, revealing the culprits behind the shriek,

"Orckev..." Zaruk muttered as a couple of Orckev were seen stalking around them with their fangs bared and growling lowly and Rocket griped,

"I remember these creeps..."

"Don't get scratched by them and don't waste the ammo, their hides are incredibly thick and resistant." Zaruk warned everyone, directing the last part to Rocket as he was reaching for his gun.

An Orckev snapped its jaws in Gora's direction and she hissed back with her fur and antennae puffed up.

*MROWRRRR...!* (Get out of the way!) Gora meowled at the one in front of them and it snapped back too incoherently for the Chrysintheans to understand them but Rocket seemed to understand their intentions as he commented to Gora,

"Seems like they got a score to settle with ya."

With another snap, the other Orckev started to close in on them, herding them all together even as Ash and Zaruk tried to prod them away with their staffs and JJ used the closed umbrella to swing at them, but it seemed to only be making them madder as they stood their ground around them.

*GRAH!* One leaped up about to chomp down on Ash's Tool when Zaiavira slashed a hand through the air and an arc of water rose up from the ground to hit it back and it stumbled away with a pained whine.

"That's right..." Zaruk remembered with an awed tone, "They hate the water."

"Don't worry we've got them!" Zaiavira declared as she drew more water from the sludgy ground to strike down another Orckev that tried to jump on Groot

"'We?'" Ash questioned with a raised brow.

Zaiavira put her index fingers to her mouth to give a high-pitched whistle and there was a rustling in her hair before a small head poked out to reveal another Josich, but this one was bonded with her making them a blue and cyan-scaled Water Josich, evidenced by how they flew out and squirted water out of their mouth at the approaching Orckev.

While they sprayed out water streams, Zaiavira drew more moisture from around them to slash at them with mini waves, making them retreat back into the darkness with hisses and growls of pain.

After a few more attacks, and dodges from the others as they were clawed at, the last of the Orckevs dispersed back into the darkness of the cave tunnels and they were all left alone again.

"Phew that was intense..." Zaiavira wiped her brow before her Josich flew back onto her shoulder and nuzzled her cheek with their head.

"That was awesome, what's their name?" Ash awed as she came up to her with Wickity since he had come out from Xay's satchel after hearing the screeches of a fellow Josich and rested on her shoulder.

*HSSSS!* Zaiavira's Josich hissed and raised their wings defensively in front of her face before baring their fangs at them.

"Woah..." Ash backed away a little with widened eyes and a hand partially covering Wickity.

"Sorry about Marin, she's just a little territorial..." Zaiavira spoke slightly embarrassed, rubbing the gem on her forehead so she could calm down with some trilling purrs before Rocket questioned,

"Speakin' o' territorial, what was up with those creeps, Gora?"

"Yeah and what did Kryjer mean when he said you 'failed our mother' and 'were left for dead on a perishing planet'?" Ash questioned with a tilted head as she made her staff go back to armband mode as she remembered what they'd been told back on the ship but didn't have a chance to ask her about it since she had been knocked out by JJ.

Gora's antennae drooped down a bit in guilt along with her tail as it dropped to the ground and she tried to redirect the conversation with,

*Mrow...* (We should keep moving...)

"Well we don' 'xactly know where we're supposed to go now and I made sure they wouln't be able to follow us through that transport chamber so we got some time." JJ argued as she sheathed the umbrella on her back between her and her satchel strap with the point facing down, leaving her arms free to be crossed so she could assert, "So spill."

Making Gora wilt down a little more before giving off an equivalent to a sigh and extending her six spines out to everyone, still not fully facing them all but sitting so she could wrap her tail around herself.

Everyone kneeled around in a semicircle around Gora, some pairing up to share a hold on one of her spines as her antennae began to glow and, in everyone's mind's eyes, they were watching her memory play as if they were there in the background.

"Woah..." Dylan looked around in awe before realizing the memory was from the day of Chrysinthea's destruction as a second Gora appeared but was their Gora and not the memory Gora they were watching as she started to recall,

"Lorinia had entrusted me with taking her Tool far away from the battle before she went to fight Thanos."

The memory progressed in front of them all as she described,

"Gora." Lorinia looked down at the Granaphora before kneeling in front of her to instruct, "Take my Tool and hide it."

Holding it out to her and she looked at it before pushing it away with a spine to argue,

*You need it.*

"No, they need it and I need to keep it out of their hands until my daughters return after the Alignment..."

"'The Alignment' being when the moons are in position to weaken and expose the Orinix..." Ash pieced together as the memory continued,

*I don't understand...*

"I don't expect you to right now..." Lorinia smiled ruefully as she admitted, "Even I don't fully understand but I do know this; Lumna and Astra will return here because of what Nekry is planning and they will need this to stop him."

Ash and JJ looked at each other at that with Ash putting a hand to her armband and JJ touching the tip of the umbrella on her back.

Lorinia placed her Tool into her spines again, this time Gora took it before placing a paw on Lorinia's hand to ask sorrowfully,

*You're not coming back are you?*

Lorinia hesitated before telling her,

"I need you to find the girls and make sure they're safe but also make sure they don't become angry for what happened here..."

*You didn't answer my question...*

"Please... just.. please promise me Gora..." Lorinia was pleading at this point as she cupped her hands around her paw and a few seconds of tense silence passed before Gora answered solemnly,

*I promise...*

Before she unraveled her spine from Lorinia's wrist and ran off without looking back to disappear through a cloud of smoke with the Tool in her grasp.

"Right after I left her side, I was planning to hide in the forest when..."

Gora was seen running through the dense forest, leaping gracefully over large roots and avoiding fires that were being ignited and spread by the Leviathans in the air before a shot hit the ground in front of her and sent her flying through the air before getting slammed into a tree and passing out in a fairly deep root gap with Lorinia's Tool still clutched in her spines.

"I don't know how long I was out for, only that it was dark when I awoke.."

The memory jumped to when Gora awoke in a setting dark enough to where even with her night vision she couldn't discern where she was.

When the lights came on, Kryjer was standing in front of Gora and two guards behind him with a blasters in their hands

"I see he takes 'dramatic entrance' very seriously..." JJ grumbled seeing the familiar reveal style.

"Kryjer had returned only after Thanos was done pulverizing the planet to a lifeless rock, he'd hoped to 'recover' Lorinia and you girls, only later managing to catch you JJ, but I was told to not let him take her Tool so I tried to fight back,"

Gora hissed and her fur and antennae puffed up defensively, her spines raised and slashed to take out the two guards beside Kryjer before she leaped up at him, other spines still clutching her Tool, and claws unsheathing-

"But he was looking to test his newly-created prototype Core Extractor."

-right before Kryjer smoothly pulled out a small device from behind him and fired it at Gora, a continuous stream of energy as he smoothly stepped out of the way to where she landed, writhing, on the ground and her grip on the Tool was seen loosening as the beam continued to pull out her lifeforce from her body.

Seeing his opportunity, Kryjer reached down to tug the Tool out of her spines before holding it up to open it up and reveal that, within the small bump on its shaft, rested an Ori crystal just like on Ash's staff.

Just as it seemed like Gora was about to bite the dust, Kryjer stopped using the Extractor and left her panting on the ground with her spines splayed out around her and her antennae lying limply on the sides of her face.

Kneeling down to her, Kryjer used a hand to roughly grab the side of her head as he smirked up at Lorinia's Tool in his other hand as he seemed to take pleasure in Gora's desperation to take it back even in her weakened state as she looked to be trying to force her spines to move but she didn't have enough strength to muster to do so.

"A shame Lorinia met her end this way..." Kryjer started to feign sadness as he monologues, "I told everyone that our 'deity' was nothing more than our captor and... for their sakes I hope her daughters will be more open to the truth than you or she."

*Mrowrrr grrrr...* (You'll never get them... I'll make sure of it...) Gora growled at him, a defiant look in her eyes, making Kryjer smirk and pull out an ornate knife from the sheath at his hip, holding it up to her chin as it preparing to slit her before hissing to her,

"You don't deserve an honorable death..."

He dropped her head before commanding the two guards, "Prepare her for deportation."

The two guards roughly grabbed her one by the scruff of her nek and the other by her spines to keep her from using them if she managed to regain her strength anytime before the deportation.

As they dragged her away, the last thing she saw of Kryjer before the doors closed behind was him looking at the Ori crystal in the Tool's shaft and it glowing a haunting reddish gray as if responding to his intentions.

Another short skip happened and, this time, Gora found herself waking up back in the smoldering tree root gaps in the middle of the burned forest but Lorinia's Tool was no longer in her spines and she looked around to see that she was the only living thing around...

Everything...

Everyone...

Gone...

"I was left back on our dying planet to live out the rest of my days knowing I had failed Lorinia and you two girls but I still held hope that one day you'd return and I'd be able to fulfill my commitment of protecting you when the time came for Kryjer's return to the planet so I did my best to survive until then..."

Past Gora was seen wandering the lifeless plains...

Fighting off the Orckev that approached her, getting scratched on her side at one point, the scars later healing enough for her fur to grow back and her constantly preening to keep them hidden...

Sleeping in ruined Growths that were barely left standing in desolate ghost villages...

Passing the bodies of Thanos' victims in search for Lorinia's so she could give her a proper burial like she had done with the others she found...

Eventually resorting to hunting the Orckev to eat since the plants weren't returning...

The memories ended when Gora saw a bright light streak through the sky and crash in the distance and she ran to it to find the Orckev surrounding four figures and running toward them as a bright light flashed making everyone cover their eyes.

Back in the present, everyone released Gora's spines so she could retract them back to herself and there was a moment of silence as everyone processed what they just witnessed and she finally turned enough to face them all.

After a few moments, JJ was the one to break the silence with,

"You've known..."

Making Gora and everyone else look at her as she jumped up and stood over her with her fists balled at her sides and popping sparks every few seconds as her hurt eyes zoomed in on Gora and yelled,

"All this time you knew what really happened to our mom and you just let it happen?!"

"Kid take it easy..." Rocket bolted up to try to calm her down seeing how Gora was flinching at JJ's yells and wilting down even further.

"Oh you would take her side..." JJ snapped making Rocket furrow his brows and glower, looking like he was about snap back when Ash got between them with a hand to each group trying to diffuse the tensions,

"Easy you two!" Before turning to her sister, "JJ-"

But she was cut off by JJ's shouting,

"You'da thought my twin would be on my side! I mean she w's your mom too! Why aren't ya more mad about this?! Or are ya too high and mighty ta get mad?!"

She got up close to Ash to poke her harshly in the chest but she barely flinched as she tried to keep her voice level while saying,

"I just don't think she'd want us to be mad."

Before pointing back to Gora as she recalled,

"She even said so herself back then."

"So you're not even a little mad you heartless robot?!" JJ retorted trying to get some kind of reaction out of Ash and she was doing her best to stay stoic faced but it was clear that her controlled mask was starting to slip as she clenched her fists at her sides and some flames started to lick at them similar to JJ's sparking ones.

"I am but-!" Ash started to retort while she got heated up, both figuratively and literally, from the heat everyone started to feel coming off of her in mini waves as tensions between her and her sister were starting to rise when she cut her off with,

"So what we're just s'posed to be OK with her givin' herself up just cause we're 'destiny's children' or some crap like that?! Pft!" She made a spitting sound of disgust before waving her hand at the group as she stormed away.

"Where are you going?!" Ash called out to her.

"Just leave me alone!" She went to sit on a group of rocks that were far away from the main hub area with her back to the group but still within sight.

"Haaaah..." Ash loudly sighed in visible exhaustion while waving her hands at her sides to cool them down before clawing at her hair and head in distress making Bruce walked up to her and put his good hand on her shoulder to suggest,

"Why don't we just stay here and get some rest for a little bit? It's been a rough day and we still don't know where to go from here but we won't find the answer if we run ourselves ragged..."

Ash looked through her clenched fingers before giving out another long exhale as Bruce led her back to the others as they all were sitting on the ground, taking note of their injuries and checking in on each other, Gora getting up to lie on the ground near Groot as he gently pet her head comfortingly and Rocket held one of her spines while Ash was checking on Xay and Jabazi since they were still unconscious.

Meanwhile, JJ was still stewing over how Gora had been holding back the fact that she had been with their mom and just left her when she knew she was going off to her death without trying to stop her.

Her train of thought was interrupted when she heard footsteps approaching her from behind.

"Thought I said ta leave me alone..." JJ droned impatiently while wiping her face in exhaustion before she heard Zaiavira's voice,

"I would but I kinda need your help with something."

"What?" She turned to face her as she explained,

"I know we're underground right now but I need you to check my visor to make sure there's no tracking chip in it." She took said visor off to hand it to JJ.

"Kryjer give it to ya?" She questioned as she took it and looked it over.

"Yep."

"Do ya even need this thing?" JJ looked it over and saw some bulky parts on the frame end pieces that could hide a tracking device but nothing else that would make it functional like her goggles.

"Not really but I figured this is the one thing they gave me that I can make mine."

"Weird way o' thinkin' but a'ight..." JJ shrugged before she dug through the thigh satchel on her right for her mini electronic repair kit to start taking it apart, silence thick between the two of them before Zaiavira mildly remarked,

"Soooo... it's JJ now?"

"Short for Joules but yeah..." JJ replied flatly like she didn't want to keep talking but Zaiavira continued anyway,

"And the tree's your brother, the raccoon's your dad, he's got some kinda 'will they, won't they' thing going on with.. Gora," JJ gave her a sharp 'don't' face that screamed for her not to push the subject before adding, "and your sister's your twin now?"

"Summed up 'bout right."

"Man..." Zaiavira whispered in disbelief as she sat down next to JJ as she continued working on the visor and she spoke forlornly, "I knew you were still out there but Kryjer told me you were still in the lab, said he'd.. get rid of you if I didn't cooperate, use the Core extractor or...-" She clenched a fist as the last part was seethed but JJ put a hand on her fist and it loosened just a bit for her to tell her,

"Well we're both out now.."

And Zaiavira unclenched her fist to gently take hold of JJ's hand smiling up at her and, when JJ caught her gaze, she finally noticed how the gray of her blinded eyes didn't really obscure the natural sparkling aquamarine color of her eyes, just made it a little faded and harder for the average eye to see...

"I can feel you staring at me y'know..." Zaiavira smirked.

Making JJ's cheeks burst out in a violet blush on her grayish skin before she cleared her throat and gently took her hand back before she found something,

"Oh hello..." She muttered as she found a small device that was humming a bit and had a small light flickering inside of it.

"And goodbye..." She fried the device between her fingers before crushing the smoldering remains.

"Nice." Zaiavira commented in an impressed tone as JJ started to put the panels and components back together now that the tracking chip had been removed from her visor before picking the conversation back up with a somewhat awkward,

"Hey... is it.. rude to ask what it's like to not be able to see?"

"Not at all." Zaiavira waved her hand as though to wave away JJ's hesitations before answering truthfully, "It was hard at first, getting used to it, and before you ask, no my other senses didn't get super stronger."

JJ smirked as she twisted her screwdriver to place a panel back into place as she mildly jokes,

"Darn..."

"But, thanks to my powers, I can still 'see' everything by feeling how much water's in it and how close it is to me."

"So how'd you know I was lookin' at ya before?"

"The eyes are 98% water, I just feel these two orbs of it a few inches from my face so go figure..."

JJ's cheeks heated up again and burst out in another blush before a question she'd been dying to ask since seeing her new condition came up and she asked,

"How.. did you get like this...?"

Zaiavira looked down mournfully and Marin seemed to sense her mood drop as she crawled down from her hair to her lap where her hands were and curled up in them so she could stroke her as she recounted,

"It was a few months after I'd been taken prisoner and the others that were on the escape ship with me had been sold to Sakaar, I was sneaking around trying to figure out what everyone was up to, overheard some of the tech guys talking about the main source of the weapon's directory, figured I could steal it and stop them but when they tried to take it back I managed to get away to the hanger where some garbage refuse containers were about to be taken away and tossed it in right before Kryjer showed up and used a souped up Alculan flashbang to knock me out. When I woke up, couldn't see a thing, and Kryjer was warning me that another 'transgression' would cost a life, either mine or yours, and to consider my new.. 'condition' as punishment for losing their most valuable part."

Some gears started to turn in JJ's head as she handed the debugged visor back to Zaiavira before asking her,

"Is it a chip about this big," She held her hands apart to be mid-sized before adding, "Little gold plated pins, multiple silicon chips on the front...?"

"Yeah... how'd ya know...?"

"Well ya don't hafta worry 'bout that, I got it right here in my pouch-" JJ went to pat the mini satchel on the left side of her belt but her hand landed on her hip instead and her head snapped to look down before realizing it wasn't there and there were some frayed threads where it had been attached.

"Shit!" JJ cursed in frustrated realization as she bolted up and hurried over to the group Zaiavira following her in worry sensing JJ's agitation as she declared to the others,

"Kryjer's got the part to make his death ray work!"

"What?!"

"Whas goin' on?"

"How?!"

Everyone got up around JJ as she questioned,

"Dad, remember that chip I got off'a Knowhere a while back?"

"Yeah...?"

"That chip was what they were missin' from their ray but that guard back there took it so now they got a way to use that thing."

"And we still don't have any idea as to how we're supposed to find the Orinix before Kryjer enacts his plan." Zaruk pointed out.

"Argh!" JJ unsheathed the umbrella from her back and swung it around madly, trying to get her frustrations out but only succeeding in spraying everyone with little droplets of water, one landing on the crystal in Ash's armband.

Ash's eyes widened when she noticed the glow from her crystal was making the water droplet light up to project a tiny rainbow on the ceiling and the vines growing around seemed to be responding to it as their flowers started to bloom.

"JJ! Look!" Ash rapidly caught the swinging umbrella with a hand, wincing at the impact, before pointing up at the ceiling making JJ follow where she was pointing before snapping,

"It's a rainbow, so what?"

"No, remember when Strange said the Orinix is hidden where 'only the Perceiver and the Accessor can find and access it'-"

"-bein' me'n you."

"And if everything here responds to us and these Tools help us focus previous wielders and our powers-" Ash made her staff morph and JJ held up the umbrella as they started to devise,

"-then maybe we use'em combined for ya to reveal the way and f'r me to see it-"

"-and lead us to the Orinix before it's too late!"

"Let's give it a shot then..." JJ started to hold up the umbrella but then stopped to tell the others, "You all might wanna stand back for this."

And everyone did so before JJ held up the umbrella, making it open and spray out a cloud of mist before she focused on connecting to it and some sparks traveled from her Core down her arm, making her Marks light up, to the Ori crystal and the mist that hung in the air seemed to halt before gathering into large water drops the size of tennis balls.

"Woah..." Bruce lightly tapped one of the water droplets and it gave him a sharp static shock as it burst into a million little droplets before reforming and Zaiavira sighed as she felt the water all around her,

"They're combining their powers.. amazing..."

"Please work..." Ash whispered as she came up and spun her staff in front of her before planting it in the ground, her Marks lighting up as well as a small shockwave where it hit the ground made a circle spread out beneath their feet before some embers rose to the air to light up the air around as a beam of light flashed form the Ori crystal in it to the one in the umbrella before it split up into countless little beams that shone through the droplets in midair and made more little rainbows in various color schemes shine around the cavern in little waves, hitting the plants and making them burst to life so some of their glowing seed puffs could be released.

"See anything?" Ash asked JJ as the beam stopped lighting from her staff but there was still light from the seed puffs floating down to the ground and the ashes that were still hanging in the air before extinguishing as they made contact with the water droplets and they evaporated as they did leaving the air clear as it was before.

"Ummm..." JJ looked around for anything that wasn't there before when she saw a halo-light path of light blue leading down one of the many tunnels.

"I see it; a path to the Orinix..."

"Then let's get moving..." Ash gestured for her to lead and she did so as they all began walking into the darkened tunnel.

...

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Back on the Daietian

...

...

"Status of the transport chamber?" Kryjer ordered as one of his scientists was surveying the damage before them; the control console completely blown up, a guard was unconscious and slightly charred being looked over, and another guard reported that Lorinia's Tool had somehow disappeared from the boiler room where it was scheduled to be destroyed.

"I'm afraid they all escaped the cells before the Subject managed to detonate an explosive to render the chamber nonfunctional and the tracker we had on Zaiavira is unresponsive."

"HAAAHH!" The guard suddenly gasped from the floor before breaking out in a coughing fit that drew their attention to him.

"I-I- *cough* *cough*!" The guard tried to reach up to Kryjer with one hand as the other was clutched tight to his chest.

"What is it?" Kryjer kneeled down and grabbed the guard's hand with one hand as the other when to his shoulder as he gasped out between coughs,

"*cough* s-subject J-*cough*"

Reaching out his hand to reveal a leather pouch that Kryjer took and opened to look down at the chip before smirking sinisterly,

"Then prepare the ray, the time for the Exposition is close..."

...

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6650 Words

AN- Ooooh... Extra long and getting intense now!

This last week being Spring Break may not have been as eventful as I thought it would be but I did get plenty of time to work on this chapter (and binge-watch a whole bunch of shows and movies ^^; )

With the end of the school year getting dangerously close and with a lot of stuff I need to figure out for the summer and next school year, I might be a little pressed for free time and focused, creative mental space to write the next chapter well but I'll do my best to work on it when I can.

Also, as far as the new cover for this story, I've already got the layout planned but there are some components I'm going to draw and then scan to put them into a digital layout since I barely discovered a few weeks ago that my school account can access premium features on Adobe Express which is actually slightly better than Canva ^^;

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter of angst, some implied sapphic love, and surprises and see you in the next one, Bye!