"Brrrr, is it me, or is it getting colder?" Taeyang asked while shivering as he hugged his body.

"It's the North Pole, Taeyang. Trust me, when I first visited the place, it was COLD," Pilseung replied while using a green parka handed to him by Layla, stretching as everyone got out of the Patroller a few days later, finally arriving at the North Pole.

"So true," Jake adjusted his hat as he said this. "Like, the temp has to be in the negative tens!"

"We're glad you could join us either way, Jake," Everest smiled.

"Hey, Ryder's my surrogate brother! Of course I'm in!" He answered swiftly.

Everest's caretaker had joined them halfway, and Steven was finally getting to know him and Carlos better. They were both very determined people, and they were ready to fight for Ryder. It was endearing, to say the least. He was glad that they had more allies, because Rosie had given them information on Demonseu, and he didn't like their odds.

He adjusted the jacket and grumbled about the cold. He never actually got stuck in a place this cold before, so this was definitely not normal.

Actually, only Pilseung and Everest were the ones used to it. The rest were either shivering or even clinging to others to find warmth.

When they asked how Pilseung was okay, he answered, "Gigant V gave me immunity to the cold when we came here last time. I guess it hasn't worn off yet."

"Brrr, can he do that for us?" Steven asked him.

"I think so..." he looked around before his eyes landed on something and he waved, careful not to make any noise since they were close to the place Demonseu's henchmen had set up their base.

Two big robots who Steven had a feeling had to be the Tobots Pilseung had sent ahead of time to scout out the horizons waved them over, so they walked, making sure to keep themselves from making too much noise.

Once the distance between them had been closed, Pilseung said, "Thanks for doing this, Gigant Saver, Twin Blade."

"Hmph, I can work with this buffoon for a while," the robot with red as the main color scoffed quietly.

"I could say the same to you," the blue one hissed back.

"Can we please not fight?" He cut in, irritation clear in his tone. "We talked about this already you two. Plus, we need to focus on taking down Demonseu."

"R-Right..." they immediately quieted down, and Steven marveled quietly at this scene. He was really young, and yet he commanded these two powerful warriors well.

Was it trust? He was sure it was. They seemed really close.

That was really nice...

He was snapped back to reality by a poke, and he turned to see Wild Cat gently pointing his paw to the scene in front of him.

There Ryder was, wearing the suit and dress pants he had been using before everything dissolved into chaos no thanks to his male birth giver,

His stomach did flips, though. He was so handsome...

Wait, no, that was the wrong thing to even have thought about right now. He was still being controlled by Demonseu or whoever had used Ryder's trauma against him. And he was very very angry.

They were speaking in Korean again. Ryder seemed to have gained the ability to speak it too because he was conversing with them.

"Lightning, we need a close-up. Can you get closer?" Pilseung whispered to his watch.

"I think I can," another voice answered.

After a while, they could finally hear it, and Pilseung adjusted his watch so everyone could understand them.

"The time is ripe. We already have Galaxy Weapon 2, 5 and 6 in our hands. Now we just need 1, 3, and 4," a gravelly voice, laced with a crazy amount of malice, spoke.

"Yes, Octonaus-hwejangnim," a male voice answered.

"How do we do that?" Ryder asked, an accent clear in his Korean. "I doubt they would come to you so blatantly."

Taeyang, Pilseung and Rosie shared uneasy glances.

"Oh they will," the gravelly voice was probably smirking, Steven thought with disdain. "Bubble Cat noticed them as he was looking around Adventure Bay. They will have known our plan, and will come running here."

"For the sake of one human child?" A deep voice asked. "That's stupid."

"Humans will always help each other, which is hypocritical if you ask me," drawled another person. "Bubble Cat is much more beautiful than any of them."

"Ah, stop it!" He could hear the blush from the conversation, so that was saying something about the honey in their talk.

"Can we please focus on the problem at hand?" Ryder sounded uncomfortable about the flirting too.

Steven was definitely angry now, not for himself but for Ryder. He was so uncomfortable and yet they were flirting!

"Can I knock them out?"

"You are so whipped for Ryder it's not funny," Carlos joked.

"E-Excuse me," he felt his cheeks flush upon hearing that.

"However, rest assured everyone. They WILL come, and when they do... They will fall here. The Galaxy Weapons WILL be Demonseu-nim's, and he will rise once more."

"How long will it take them to arrive, though?" Chase asked.

"I predict... they will have arrived by now."

Steven felt chills go down his spine, and dread was pooling in his stomach.

They KNEW. They had known that they would come for Ryder, even the other three.

"We shouldn't have come here..." Rosie whispered. "We need to retreat now!"

"But we can't! We need to stop them!" Steven protested almost immediately. He couldn't let Ryder make decisions he would regret!

He... he had made enough to know that the consequences were horrible.

"Steven it's unsafe!"

"It doesn't mean a thing!" He hissed. "Ryder is hurting and I won't let him hurt anymore."

"Steven!" Layla grabbed his wrist before he could charge in. "This is the worst idea!"

"But-"

"This isn't the Ryder you know! If you want to save him, we need to form a plan! One that won't get anyone killed!"

He stopped, and slowly turned to the others as something clicked for him.

They weren't hybrids or Gems. They wouldn't be able to handle it if it were them. They were kids, teenagers, people who weren't used to this.

He was pushing too much.

He bit his lip, before he nodded slightly, "Let's go."

Layla gave him a soft smile that proved that she was grateful, "Great."

Thus, the group backed away, leaving as quietly as they could to regroup and figure out another way to stop Demonseu.