Youri was locked in the most fortified cell aboard the Millia, given nothing beyond the barest means of survival as the long journey back to Terria finally drew to a close. Standing shackled in that dark, empty room, he became aware of a strange sensation settling into him, something he couldn't quite name at first — a pull, low and insistent, like a hand closing slowly around something buried in his chest, patient in a way that felt almost deliberate, as though it had been waiting this whole time for him to notice it again. It had been more than seven years since he'd last set foot on Terria, and somehow — despite the immobility suit leaving him blind to everything around him — he could feel it building deeper with every passing hour regardless, growing sharper the closer the ship came to its destination. It wasn't the empire's sacred home world calling to him, whatever gravity that name still carried for the soldiers standing guard outside his cell. If anything, it was the exact opposite of that. What he felt, unmistakably, was Altopereh.
As the Millia drew closer to the vast continent of Batuzane, he understood exactly where they were taking him, the pieces settling into place with a certainty that needed no eyes to confirm it. There was only one place on all of Terria capable of housing a God Unit: Batuzane's Prime Lab, the empire's central hub for orbiton production, and the only research facility anywhere with technology advanced enough to keep a machine like that functioning at all. Every other lab in the empire had tried and failed at some point to replicate even a fraction of what the Prime Lab managed as a matter of routine, throwing resources and careers alike at problems the Prime Lab's engineers solved almost as an afterthought. If Altopereh was anywhere on Terria, it would be there, and nowhere else.
The Millia touched down on Batuzane's sprawling metallic port, and soldiers poured out to surround the ship the instant it landed — countless of them, ranks stretching out in every direction, all gathered for a single purpose: to witness the arrival of an SS-grade threat on the sacred ground of the Terrian Empire itself. When the ship's doors finally parted, they revealed Alan waiting just beyond them, hands folded behind his back, patient as ever. He stepped forward first, a handful of officers falling into step behind him, and behind them came ten soldiers in tight formation, weapons raised and trained without wavering on the single man walking between their ranks.
Youri moved forward one blind step at a time, and his mere presence was enough to send a visible shiver through the newer recruits stationed outside — young soldiers straightening their spines a little too quickly, gripping their weapons a little too tightly — men and women who knew him only by reputation, by rumor passed down from older officers over drinks they probably weren't supposed to be having, by the one thing that had truly come to define him over the years: his title. Walking toward them, unable to see any of it, was the man known across the breadth of the universe as the Reaper. Worse still, in more recent years, people had settled on a second title for him — one that, if he was honest with himself in the privacy of his own head, fit him rather better than the first ever had.
The Fallen Duke.
As Youri advanced, step by measured step, another face came into view behind him. Leonora walked a short distance back, her expression set hard as stone as she crossed onto the cold metal plain of Batuzane, every step of it clearly costing her more than she let show. Waiting among the assembled soldiers was another face that hadn't seen Youri in years — Adin Roe, recently promoted to head of Research and Development at the Prime Lab. He watched Youri approach, and something passed briefly across his face at the sight of him: the man who had once stood as an obstacle Adin could never quite manage to surpass, no matter how many years he'd poured into trying, now walking in shackles, branded nothing more than a traitor to the empire they'd both once served.
The moment didn't last long. Alan crossed to him first, smiling in that carefully calibrated way he seemed to reserve for subordinates he wanted to keep comfortable. "Director Roe. It's been a while. I trust the preparations I requested in advance are all in order?"
Adin gave a slight bow, straightening quickly. "Yes, sir. We've been waiting only on your arrival — everything is exactly as you specified."
Alan rested a hand on his shoulder, the gesture warm on its surface and somehow cold underneath it. "Very well, then — no reason to wait any longer." He gestured toward the looming shape of the lab ahead of them, its towers rising up out of the metal plain like something grown rather than built. "Let's get on our way."
Behind them, the soldiers fell into step, and the small procession began its march toward the Prime Lab's outer gates — Alan leading, Adin at his side, and Youri walking blind between his guards with Leonora trailing just close enough behind him that she could have reached out and touched his shoulder, if either of them had allowed themselves that. No one spoke again for the rest of the walk. The only sound was the steady rhythm of boots against metal, and somewhere far beneath all of it, growing louder with every step Youri took toward the lab's doors, that same pull he'd felt since the moment they'd entered Batuzane's airspace — patient, familiar, and entirely his to answer, whether or not anyone marching him forward understood exactly what was waiting for them once they arrived.