(continuing from Mitten's last response)

The next morning MA was the one to be awake first, he had papers spread across the dining table and was typing away at his computer, a pair of glasses were defying the laws of physics by resting on his noseless face partly concealing the faint bags under his eyes.

N: After an hour or so, Helena wandered in, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes before noticing MA. Having slept for a long while, she was able to wake up before Johann and snuck out of their room and made her way to the few rooms she knew in the mansion.

Seeing MA, she immediately rushed over to the dining table and got onto the seat opposite him, kneeling down on the seat so that she was tall enough to comfortably rest her elbows on the table.

"What are you doing," she asked.

M: MA jumped a little at Helena's interjection, being so engrossed in his work that he had tuned out the outer world.

"Hey sweetie, I'm just doing some work," he said, patting her head, "I'm the leader of the military in this country, so I'm responsible for training the soldiers, making sure that they're in top health, and paying off their student loans, lots of financial stuff when we're not in war."

He picked up his coffee mug to take a drink, but when he brought it to his mouth he realized it was empty. Needing a break anyway, he shut his laptop and stood from his seat, taking a much needed stretch too.

"You want some breakfast, we have a box of Frosted Flakes that no one has been eating," he offered, "I can't actually remember if you guys have had cereal before."

N: "What is cereal," Helena asked, which essentially confirmed MA's suspicions. She wordlessly followed him into the kitchen, watching him retrieve a box of cereal and prepare a bowl of cereal for her.

Now holding the bowl in her hand, she cautiously set the bowl down on a table and poked at a flake. "Is this soup," she asked.

M: MA opened his mouth to answer, but once again was rendered speechless by the thought-provoking question.

"Uh ... maybe ..." he answered, "I guess it kind of is like cold soup. I guess you could say it's like little pieces of sugar bread floating in milk, except frosted flakes are made from corn ... just try it, you kids always ask these really deep questions that mess with my brain."

N: Helena hummed as they walked back to the dining room once MA got himself his coffee. Weary of her breakfast, she took a spoonful and tried the cereal, and after a moment she didn't say anything as she just stared at the bowl.

Eventually she took another spoonful, and another, not leaving a single drop of milk and a frosted flake behind. Right when her spoon couldn't get the last bits of cereal, she raised the bowl to her lips and slurped up the rest.

"That was really nice," she smiled goofily as she rested the bowl back down on the dining table.

M: MA smiled and ruffled her hair again, sitting back down with his fresh cup of coffee and continued to work, letting her watch him from time to time.

N: After a couple hours, Johann appeared with a mug of coffee in hand, and he smiled at the sight of Helena watching MA work. "So this is where you've been camping out," he spoke.

"Yeah," Helena nodded, then she eyed her father's drink as he set it down on the table, "what is that? Can I try it?"

"You can't trick me, you little rascal," Johann smirked, moving his coffee away from his daughter, "I know you were fully aware of what coffee can do."

The young girl just pouted and crossed her arms in defeat, causing her father to chuckle.

M: "I mean technically speaking, she is an adult in a child's mind and body," MA pointed out, "If it weren't for the fact that she used to just get grumpy when she had coffee, you could argue that she could have some, just saying."

He was actually glad that Johann was here, there was something he wanted to talk to him about, and Wolfie but he figured that Jo would be better to tell first. He had Helena leave the room for a couple of minutes before showing Johann his computer.

"I'll explain what this thing is later, right now we got something more important at hand," he stated, "So you remember the other night at dinner we were talking about going to the UK, and I mentioned that Russia needed my and Poldara's help with raiding someplace. Well, that place is similar to the place that created Adira, only instead of creating hybrids we believe they had brought back at least two deceased countryhumans. We have no info on the first one, but the second one is supposedly of Germanic decent, I've been thinking, a formally dead countryhuman from the German region in Russian territory ... what if it's him?"

N: Johann almost choked on his coffee at the question, and it took him a moment to recover before he finally spoke.

"Surely it can't be...him," he stated, "I mean, how on earth could they even bring Saxon back? I mean sure, I'm here, but still- I thought the rift at the ruins was the only one."

M: "No, you're just the first one from the rift, how do you think Corbin came back after his son killed him," MA stated, "he wasn't even the first, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was killed in WWI and yet he is alive and well in his grandson's country, though we don't exactly know how he came back, Poland found him wandering in the woods in a hospital gown claiming that he escaped from a facility."

He then pulled up his email list and clicked on one from UK, "UK sent me this before you guys came back, he said that Anglo was actually going to be there for our next visit, but that's where the problem is. If Saxon is alive then his husband has every right to know, but I don't want to get his hopes up if he isn't, so I don't really know what to do."

N: Johann hummed as he thought over the dilemma. "I know it sounds bad, but don't tell him until you're 100% sure that Saxon is alive," he responded, "he's supposed to be dead for what, 180 ish years? You won't only get his hopes up if you tell Anglo that his husband's alive, it would go all the way to the moon, and no one wants to see what would happen on the off chance that it isn't Saxon."

After a moment, the Mandorian asked, "do you think Saxon would have changed? I mean, if it is him, we don't know how long he has been in the facility."

M: "Being dead always changes people, it changed Corbin, it changed Trigger-" He shut his mouth fast, not wanting to go down that road again, he hoped to god that his brother forgot Mandara's nickname.

"What are you two up to," Poldara's voice asked as he walked into the dining room with a half-asleep Adira, "Are you teaching Uncle Johann about computers, you should have waited for me to help, you can barely figure out how to save anything to the Cloud," MA grumbled at this.

N: Johann just glanced at MA at his slip up but didn't say anything, although at the moment he was more confused about what Poldara said.

"What does 'save to the Cloud' even mean," he asked with genuine confusion, "clouds are so far away, how can you even save someone or something with it. Heck, you'll pass right through a cloud."

M: "Oh dear lord, this is going to be brutal," MA laughed, "Alright, Blue-Jay, go get Adira her milk and you some coffee, this is going to be very interesting."

Poldara nodded and did as told, coming back with extra coffee for the adults and set Adira in her chair so she could have her breakfast. They showed Johann the ropes as slowly and as easy to understand as possible, it was frustrating at some points but they knew better than to show it, it was all very complicated for Johann, and after a while, Helena, to understand.

N: "So the letters here," Johann spoke after they had done their best to explain how the computer worked, "write letters onto this display, and you can send it to anyone, like a letter." Staring at the screen like it was some alien artefact, which in all honesty to him it was, he slowly typed out his name.

"But why aren't the letters in alphabetical order," Helena asked as she peered at the keyboard, "do we have to learn a new order?"

M: "No, the alphabet is still in the same order, the keys are just situated in a certain style to make it easier to type," Poldara explained, "and depending on how much a letter is used when writing a sentence or paragraph they are closer to other keys that are used with it, it sounds complicated but it's fairly easy to learn."

The country pulled up YouTube to look up a couple videos, which was another thing they had to go over before he could play it, but they were interrupted by Rowen coming into the room with Mandara.

"There you guys are, I was looking for you," Mandara said, "I guess Thunder forgot too, but he and I need to head back to work, so you and Wolfie and Niko will be here with Poldara and MC, if you need help with something you can ask them or any of the house workers, but try not to leave the property just yet, I don't want anyone getting hurt."

N: "Don't worry about that," Johann said, raising a thumb to his brother, "I think I'm gonna be stuck here for a while."

"Where is Niko," Helena asked, seeing how the Schwartz were not accompanying them, "is he ok?"

"Have neither Niko and Wolfe not left their room yet," the Mandorian asked Rowen, and when he learnt they hadn't, he stood up and held his daughter's hand, "let's go check on them then."

M: "I mean, it's 5:00 in the morning, we're all up pretty early, they're probably just sleeping until the normal time you wake up," Rowen suggested, "MC isn't here either."

"Yeah, because he's trying to play dead to get out of teacher duty," Poldara laughed, "that man hates school in any form, whether he be learning or teaching, so he pretends to sleep till noon to get out of it."

N: "Sounds like Uncle Neflen," Helena spoke, "he would wake up late on the days that he would have to teach us when our parents were working."

"And also, I'll understand if Niko is still sleeping, but not Wolfgang. That man wakes up early whether he likes it or not," Johann explained, "and I'll just like to check on the both of them, especially after yesterday."

Although he wasn't aware about the conversation between the Schwartzs and Mandara, he sensed that they weren't their usual selves when they were at the park, so the pair walked with purpose out of the dining room towards the guest wing.

M: The Mandarians just shrugged and went about their business, but Rowen decided to tag along with his son just in case. Mandara and MA got ready for work and left for the day, Poldara was a little nervous about him and MC being left in charge, especially after his father told him how handsy Johann was in the mall, he just hopped that there would be a house left standing by the time they came home.

N: Helena followed Johann as they made their way back to the guest wing and knocked on his friend's door.

"Wolfe, are you awake," he asked, and when he got no response, he carefully opened their door and peered inside. Immediately he saw Nikolaus, sleeping peacefully in his bed, and smiled at the sight, but then frowned when he didn't see Wolfgang.

"Ella, just...just stay out here, ok," he asked, to which the young girl nodded and stood guard while her father ventured in.

When he had double checked that his friend wasn't in bed, he jumped a bit when he heard a groan further in. Curious by it, he walked towards a door that was in the room, and opened it a bit, and his eyes widened in surprise.

The room had its own en-suite bathroom, and right there in the bathtub was Wolfgang, his head resting between the faucet and the wall of the tub while his legs hung outside of it. In his hand was a bottle of wine, although his grip on it was loose as he was barely awake.

"Wolfe, what are you doing," Johann mumbled to himself before calling his daughter, although he did order her to stay out of the bathroom. "Go tell Poldara that we have a problem here," he spoke.

"Not Poldara," Wolfgang mumbled, his eyes opened a smidge, "don't bring Poldara."

Confused by this, Johann eventually did ask Helena to see if MC could come and help them out, so the young girl ran in search of the militant.

M: Unfortunately, MC was still sleeping in his and Poldara's room, and since the girl didn't know where that was she had no choice but to get Poldara. When he was told about it he had Helena stay with Adira in the dining room, this wasn't something a child should be a part of.

He made it to the room and saw the scene in the bathroom, it brought back a few memories but he pushed them down for the task at hand.

"Hey Wolfgang, what's wrong, did something happen last night," he asked softly, leaning down to the Saxon's level.

N: Wolfgang just glanced lazily at Poldara, and it took him a while to actually answer as he forced himself to stay awake.

"I couldn't get to sleep," he finally mumbled, tightening his grip on the bottle, "and I...I needed a distraction."

"Well I'll be taking this away from you," Johann frowned, grabbing the bottle and setting it aside, "and I'm making sure you're nowhere near any alcohol."

"I don't care," the Saxon mumbled, sinking further into the tub until his entire back was on the bottom.

M: Poldara shook his head and sighed, "Wolf, you might not care now, but you will care once this spirals out of control, no one knows this better than I do."

He sat down and unstrapped his prosthetic to show Wolfgang his missing leg, then leaned against the wall and sighed again, "when I was a boy, my one dream was to become a militant just like my uncle, I worked hard and put my blood, sweat, and tears in my training. It took me years to get to the point of almost graduating from cadet camp, and it took only minutes for a hanger fire to rip that dream away from me. After that, I also looked to alcohol for a distraction, as well as the occasional joint, and I didn't care about it at the time, even as I began to abuse those around me."

Getting the feeling that Wolfie was probably not listening, he hopped onto the rim of the tub and firmly looked down at the Saxon, "you want to know what finally got me to care, it was when I almost killed my uncle! I was on a drinking binge and I attacked him in front of my parents, he didn't want to hurt me and I was armed with a knife, you can probably guess what happened next but I'll tell you anyway. I slit his throat, I drunkenly cut open his neck and sliced open his chest, and I would have killed him if my father didn't grab MA's tazer and shoot me with it, but it was still a miracle that he survived."

"So what's it going to be, are you going to start caring, or are you going to wait to mutilate someone before you start to care?"

N: "I don't want to hurt anyone," Wolfgang mumbled.

"That's sorted then," Johann huffed as he grabbed onto the Saxon's arm, "now let's get you out of here."

When the Saxon was hoisted up, he suddenly became lightheaded from the sudden movement and threw up in the bath tub, causing the other to sigh as he helped his friend out.

However, the commotion had woken Niko up, and seeing the bathroom door open, he asked about the noise.

"We need to get Wolfgang into bed," Johann muttered then he turned to Poldara, "could you possibly help Niko out of bed so he doesn't see his father in this state?"

M: Poldara nodded, he put back on his leg and walked out to Niko, "hey buddy, you're Dad got a little bug last night and is sick this morning. Uncle Johann and Rowen are taking care of him now, how about we go see what the girls are up to, maybe you and Helena can join Adira for school, you two have a lot to learn about nowadays anyway."

N: Glancing at the bathroom door, he turned back to Poldara and nodded, hopping off the bed. He didn't have to change since he fell asleep on the roof and didn't change, so he left the room with the Mandarian and followed him to where Adira and Helena were.

"What is school like here," he asked, "would they let Ella learn?"

M: Poldara was confused by the question at first, but then he remembered that Niko and Helena lived a very long time ago, "She will, Women now can learn the same things as men can, in fact, it's not uncommon for women to be teaching at the schools."

He was going to say that they wouldn't be going to an actual school since Adira was homeschooled, but the local school was just walking distance from their house, it was open to families randomly coming in to tour the place to see if they wanted to enroll their children there, why not go take a look.

"Hey guys, I'm gonna take the kids to check out the school, We won't be gone long," he called back to the others since they didn't get far from the room, "we'll be back in about an hour and a half."

With that taken care of, he led Niko to the girls and told them they would be taking a trip, Adira was excited, this would be her first time seeing the school too. The adult whistled for his dog, harnessed her up to help him walk, and also helped Adira into her special walker so she could walk upright.

"Alright, is everyone ready to go, remember to not cross the street without me, and to look both ways before we do, ok."

N: "We're ready," both Helena and Nikolaus said in unison, so the group followed Poldara out, walking close to him.

Now that they were walking beside the road and not in the car, the two children felt overwhelmed by the size of the road, especially since the roads they were used to didn't have cars using them.

When they were about to cross a road, a nearby car honked its horn at them, causing Ella to jump. "What was that," she yelped, "I didn't know they made that noise?"

M: "Cars can make lots of noises, that particular one lets you know to be careful and not cross in front of them," Poldara explained, "Because cars move so much faster than horse-drawn carts, it also means that it is harder for it to stop when something walks in front of it, and it can crash and really hurt them, that's why we look both ways, to make sure there are no cars and it is safe to cross."

A police car came up to them while they were talking, Adira waved at it and made a hand movement for it to honk its siren, so it did and it ended up scaring everyone.

"That was an emergency siren," Poldara stated once he calmed down, "when it's on those black and white cars it means 'stop, you are in trouble, I will arrest you' or it could mean 'get out of the way there is trouble somewhere else and I need to hurry there to help'."

N: "Huh," Nikolaus hummed in interest, "the constables back home would just shout at us to move."

"Not us, you," Helena corrected as they crossed the street, so the pair went silent for the rest of the journey until they reached the school.

M: Poldara chuckled at that, it sounded like Niko was a bit of a troublemaker back in the day, that would make this trip quite interesting.

The school was one of those that had several buildings for each of the levels of education from pre- to elementary, middle, and high school. Poldara wasn't sure what level Niko and Ella would be at, so they went into the high school building where the main administrative office was.

"Hello there ma'am, I have two foreign exchange students that I'm trying to find a school for," the adult stated, "They came from a third-world country that couldn't provide them with the education and care they needed, could we have a look around to see if this place is good for them?"

"Sure thing, take a seat and I will have someone come down to give you a tour in a moment," the front desk lady said.

N: When they had sat down in the waiting area, Helena just swung her legs as she looked at everything around her, watching the students passing by.

"I can't wait to make new friends here," she spoke excitedly, to which Nikolaus sighed.

"They have to accept us first," he told her.

M: "You can still make friends, most of these kids live in the neighborhood," Poldara stated, "but that's true, there is a lengthy process to get you enrolled here, not to mention permission from your parents. My husband and I never felt comfortable having Adira go to public or private school. She can never learn the same way as other kids, and I'm worried that the teachers won't be able to teach her properly."

They waited a few more minutes until two students came up to them, they were a little bit older than Niko and had name tags that said they were the tour guides. There was a boy named Zack and a girl named Sara, they smiled and politely greeted the group.

"We will be your guides, it's better to have students give people tours since we know better what it's like to learn here," the girl said as her partner handed them visitor name tags, "just write your names on this and stick them to your shirts, then we can get started. I guess your parents couldn't come, that's ok, we can take lots of pictures to show them when you go home."

N: "Yeah, they couldn't come," Nikolaus mumbled as he wrote his name down on the nametag, meanwhile Helena was just gazing at Sara.

"My middle name is Sara," she smiled, and when she wrote down her name, although it looked quite the mess, she went to Sara's side and was doing her best to contain her energy.

Niko on the other hand just walked up to Zack and gave him a once over before sticking the nametag to his top. "Adira, are you ready," he asked.

M: "I'm here too, you know, don't think I'm gonna leave you three alone here," Poldara joked. Adira bounced in her walker to convey her excitement, and soon they were off on their tour.

Because school had barely started there were still children walking through the halls to get to class, as well as the occasional teacher. They went through the grades one by one, starting with the high school since they were already there, and working their way down to the lower grades, once they reached the grades the students assumed Niko and Helena would be in, they went through the individual classrooms.

Sara was doing most of the talking, Zack seemed to be on the shy side so mostly just nodded along with what his companion said, but did give Niko a bit of distance since he was intimidated by him.

N: Niko just minded his own business as they wandered around, and when they entered different classrooms, he would look at what was left on the board from the day before.

When they had entered a mathematics class for his grade, he looked at the calculations around him and frowned. "This is easy," he mumbled, "do I have to relearn this?"

M: "Well, that depends on if your parents are going let you come here," Sara pointed out, "I don't really know how much you guys already know, I suppose school can get kind of repetitive sometimes."

"This place so huge," Adira declared, "Daddy, I want come here, look like fun."

"Sorry sweetheart, but we just can't do that, the teachers won't be able to teach you like we do at home," Poldara stated, ruffling her ears, "maybe you can come here when you've moved up a few grades, but for now homeschooling is what's best for you."

Adira whined a little bit but didn't comment further, so the group moved on to see the rest of the school, and maybe meet some students and teachers.

N: As they walked, Helena noticed that Zack didn't talk much, so she asked him, "do you like the school?"

"He doesn't talk," Niko interrupted bluntly.

"I just want to talk to him," the young girl tilted her head, curious as to what he will say.

M: "I can talk, I just don't want to," Zack murmured quietly, "the school is fine, I guess."

"Zack is a little shy around new people," Sara explained, "the principal thought that assigning him to give tours could help him come out of his shell."

"I do think you're very pretty, Helena," the young boy stated, "I like your hair a lot."

N: "Diol- thank you," Helena smiled as she held up one of her braids, "my Papa did this today and I really like it. You are nice, Zack."

Niko just glanced between the two and couldn't help but feel a bit jealous at their interaction, but all he did was just stand there.

"Can we continue the tour," he asked, clearly annoyed.

M: Sara and Zack nodded and continued the tour, they looked through the rest of the classrooms and then went through the miscellaneous areas, such as the library, gym, music, and computer rooms. They ended up in the cafeteria next and decided to stop for a snack.

It was one of those cafeterias that had an open snack bar for those passing through on their way to class, or those who were studying for tests and needed something to chew on. Zack got some yogurt with granola in it and Sara grabbed a fruit salad bowl, then waited for the others to grab their own snacks before leading them to a table to eat.

N: Niko and Helena just stared in awe at the options, to which even Helena said out loud, "there are so many choices."

"Ja," Niko nodded in agreement as he reached for a crisp packet and read the packaging, "salt and vinegar?"

"Sounds...interesting," the young girl commented as she got herself a banana and also a couple of cookies, something to satisfy her sweet tooth, "do we have to pay for these?"

M: "Maybe in America," Poldara whispered to the two students, who giggled in turn, then he said, "No, the education system falls under Dad's jurisdiction and he has made sure to do what he could so that students don't have to pay for food, because depending on their family's financial situation it may be one of their only proper meals."

His phone dinged just then and he took it out to check what went off, smiling at what he saw, "I think I underestimated how long we've been out, it's been two hours and Helena's dad is getting nervous, he sure is over protective, isn't he."

"Well, I don't think we have anywhere else to show you guys, just the little kids building but that's not really necessary to show," Sara stated, "it was really fun getting to know you guys, and even if you don't end up coming here, I hope we can see you around the neighborhood."

N: "Me too," Helena nodded as she smacked on her cookie, "but I really hope we can get in."

"Onkel Johann would make sure you get in, for sure," Niko reassured her, much to the other's relief, "and I'll like to be here too. It's nice."

M: "I'll make sure to let Dad know, he'll help them with the application process," Poldara said.

"You guys are really close with the Mandarian family, huh," Sara noted, "where did you guys come from, and how did you and your parents get so close with countryhumans, it's pretty odd for them to actually interact with humans, normally they keep to themselves."

"Well, that's because we live longer than humans, so it's hard for us to make meaningful connections with them," Poldara answered, "it's like having a pet, they are your family and you love them very much, but they don't live as long as you do."

Sara and Zack nodded in understanding, that made sense to them, but they still waited to hear Helena and Niko's answer to the question.

N: Both Helena and Nikolaus hesitated, not sure on whether they're supposed to tell the truth, or what about themselves they can even say. When the Welsh girl was about to say something, the Saxon boy poked her and shook his head.

"Our families have been close for centuries," he answered, "Ella's family centuries ago moved from the Kingdom of Mandoria after Prussia invaded and ended up in Britain, moving with the rest of the Mandorian survivors, and my family centuries ago moved from Saxony to Britain, also because of Prussia. When Mandara and his family met our ancestors, they bonded over their experiences and became close, and since then, the Mandarian family have been looking out for us, and now that we've moved, they're helping us live here."

Helena, although not understanding fully as to why Niko had to lie, she at least understood that they couldn't say that they were from the past. Niko, on the other hand, knew about how serious MA was when it came to people impersonating his friends, so he didn't want to seem like he was the son of Wolfgang Schwartz.

M: "Wow, that's really cool, so you guys are descended from Sir Johann Kress and the Saxon Knights," Zack said in awe, his shyness dissipating for the moment, "that's so cool, those guys are legendary around here, there isn't a person in Mandara who hasn't heard of them."

"Zach has the Saxon Knight Action figure set," Sara told them, he never goes anywhere without them, show 'em Zack."

The boy grumbled at being sold out, but he opened up his book bag that he had been carrying and set the surprisingly accurate figures of Wolfgang, Erna, Heinrich, and Johann.

"Wolfgang is my favorite," he admitted, "He's the bravest of them all, he should have been the leader instead of Johann in the tv series, just because Johann had the dragon doesn't mean he was a good leader."

N: Niko just squinted at the figurines, scrutinising them as he was weirded out by how accurate they are, and he found it strange that the people he knew are now shrunk down to the size of a toy.

"Hey, don't say that about Pa- Johann," Helena frowned, "just because he isn't a leader like Wolfgang, doesn't mean he would be a bad one."

"But we wouldn't know that, because we haven't met them, right Ella," the Saxon quickly jumped in, studying the figurine before saying, "where did you get the Wolfgang toy? My...ancestor was Wolfgang and I'd like to get a toy for my Vater to see."

M: "There's a collection toy store in the mall, and if you're lucky the voice actors for everyone might visit and sign the toys and stuff, I got Wolfgang's voice actor to sign a poster I have in my room," Zack said, "if Sara and I didn't have to go back to class we wouldn't mind taking you guys."

"That would be fun, but unfortunately, I got to get these two home before Helena's dad pitches a fit," Poldara said, "but maybe we can take you up on that offer sometime, here-" he took out his wallet and handed Sara a business card, "that has my number, you can call if you guys want to hang out."

"That would be great, thank you," the girl beamed, "it was so nice to meet you all, we can't wait to see you again."

With that said, the two older kids finished up their snacks and waved goodbye to their new friends, heading back to class while Poldara usured Adria, Niko, and Helena out of the school and on their way home.