One cycle before the time limit, the once embryo had successfully reached adulthood, and after double-checking that the vital signs were optimal, Five Pebbles emptied the capsule of liquid and released the Slugcat.

Once out of his incubation pod, the resemblance to his Citizen only became more noticeable. While Pebbles had always thought that Scugs were all the same with a few exceptions, this was ridiculous. If he weren't so sure that the Cycle didn't exist in this world, he would have wondered if this was the same Scug he had used the last of his resources to build a transport to throw her into the Void.

...Maybe this Slugcat was bigger than his Citizen now that he saw her outside of her pod. Where his Saint reached his waist on all fours, this scug looked like it could reach his shoulder without any problems. He doubted that would limit her mobility too much. The round one was even bigger and could clearly deal with enemies despite its lack of agility, not to mention its ability to enter tunnels without getting stuck.

"I guess I'll have to name you, won't I? I can't just call you 'slugcat' in my head if you're going to stay here." And if that name is going to stay, she'll need a name worthy of a God like him, he could take the name that other Iterator-made slugcats had but that wouldn't be fair when he actually put effort into Saint's name.

If this Slugcat was the same as his Citizen in almost every aspect..., could he use the name he once thought for her? Would it be like he was replacing her, or would it be a way to honor her memory?

Not caring about the size difference or Pebbles' internal conflict, Saint was already licking the fake amniotic fluid of the other scug's skin, which was starting to wake up. Hence, Pebbles had to decide quickly on a name.

...So much time in the tundra with only his memories had softened him, hadn't it?

Standing before the now awake scug, who kept her eyes on him, he began speaking. "Your purpose is already inscribed in your being, so I will skip that formality. I do not doubt that you will not fail, so you will need a name after your mission is accomplished so hear me closely."

Silence greeted him, but it had been understood when the Scug stood up, showing how much bigger she actually was, interrupting Saint's cleaning, she was staring at him, all her attention on Five Pebbles as it should be.

"You belong to the Ignis Limax Canalis group, you are the same type of Limax Canalis as my last citizen and as such, I will grant you the honor of sharing her name, your type can create explosions and dozens of items related to it to defeat their enemies, you will be the head of my defenses, you will be my Artificer, understood?"

He didn't dare say "new", that was too close to a replacement than he was willing to acknowledge, his Citizen deserved better than to be replaced just to satisfy Pebbles' longing to have brought her to this new world even though there was no logical way to know about Saint or possible way to have kept her alive for as many cycles or to help her survive the frozen tundra.

The newly appointed Artificer again didn't respond and for a moment Five Pebbles began to fear that her vocal cords hadn't developed properly when Artificer approached at an all too familiar movement. The body was much larger, but a part of his systems recognized what was happening while his consciousness was too overwhelmed to do so.

A... hug.

A damn hug.

Was this normal for adults of this type of slugcat? The Citizen also started doing that once the Scavengers' nest had been removed from his Citadel and every hunt she returned from afterward, staining his can with blood, at the time he classified it as a way of acknowledging him and his generosity in letting her come and go as she pleased from there, he called it "hug" because it was the closest word to that action, but what reason would there be for this one to do it?

This behavior perhaps came from having sped up the slugcat's growth, he never looked too much into what Seven Red Suns or No Significant Harassment had done when creating or modifying slugcats, there were too many "maybes" and theories, and too little time to look into them before the ink creature came along.

For now, he needed to be let go.

With his Citizen, he had learned that she liked it when Pebbles "returned" the hug, some sign of acceptance in whatever a "hug" meant to her kind. The purr he received in return when he made a frankly poor attempt to wrap his arms around the massive creature's neck confirmed his theory.

But before being released, a second weight 'hugged' him from the side.

"Saint, let go! That wasn't an invitation to imitate this behavior! I'm not hugging you!"

But like every slugcat before them, Saint ignored him and continued his hug, Artificer being even less helpful, only increasing her purring.

...Pebbles just resigned himself to being there a while longer and began preparing everything for tomorrow through his other systems. That ink creature better appears or he will find a way to hunt it down to make him experience this.

-------------------------------------

If he were honest with himself, Ink would have wanted to be back with the little God before the week was up. He was tempted several times to open a portal to at least check on the little guy, especially when something seemed to upset the Dark Saints and the Destroyers a few days after their first encounter.

Their chaos level drastically increased from normal, and it stopped as quickly as it happened. There have been no sightings since, which wouldn't be so worrying as it wasn't the first time something like that happened if it weren't for the current circumstances.

But he really didn't want to screw up any further and delay bringing the little guy to safety even further, and if giving him a week to prepare was what he needed as some way to build trust, Ink would deal with whatever was on the other side of the portal in due time.

(He wasn't naive enough to not expect at least another attack to the head like in their first encounter.)

"No Blue, I doubt the little one needs milk, he seemed to be past that stage and was more than capable of talking, and where did you even get that from? Is it even baby-friendly?" He didn't even know the other Sanses left food in the Council room, because Ink wasn't one of them, he didn't eat and Dream was too polite to leave leftovers of what he ate.

...Was there even a fridge around here? Or even a kitchen? He didn't remember creating one.

"Oh! I saw Mob leave a few of these in the kitchen—" So there was a kitchen! Where did it come from? "—You know, for our bones; I thought maybe the little one might need it."

"Blue, that milk is probably more alcohol than calcium, I'm not giving that to the little one, Dream already gave me cookies to give him to eat anyway." And now that he said it out loud, it almost felt like feeding a stray to bring it into his house...

If Blue said anything in response to that, Ink no longer heard it, a portal opened beside him, and as if summoned, Dream emerged from there, his normally relaxed appearance nowhere to be seen, probably the Star Sans most affected by the discovery of the Godling and everything it entailed.

(Ink may or may not have made matters worse for Dream's nerves by mentioning in passing what he still believes was a memorial for two other children who didn't survive whatever it was that caused this one to end up alone in Leviathantale.)

Perhaps Dream was seeing more of Nightmare than Error in this child, and the Creator didn't know how to calm his doubts and fears except to succeed in his self-imposed mission.

"Are you sure you have everything?" At this point, Ink was beginning to wonder if no one had faith in his memory, which wasn't the best, but he had written everything he needed on his scarf and had already checked it seven times since yesterday! He didn't need a reminder every half hour!

(...Maybe this was also stressing him out more than he realized, he normally had more patience than this with his friends' shenanigans.)

"Yup, your cookies, the PowerPoint Sci made, some stuff for him to break if needed, medical kit... which I hope we don't have to use, and cat food." Although he doubted he would have to use even half of those things, better safe than sorry.

After a short conversation with his friends, Ink once again found himself in front of a portal heading to Leviathantale, with growing hope that this second meeting would end better than the first one.

The other side of the portal took him back to the room with the memorials, there was no sign of the Godling yet, so he had a moment to look at them more closely this time, noting for the first time the plaques under them.

Big Sis Moon

T̴h̴e̵ ̷k̴i̵n̵d̴e̶r̴ ̷o̵f̸ ̵u̷s̸ ̴a̸l̴l̸.̷

̵Y̶o̸u̵ ̸w̷o̶u̸l̸d̷ ̴h̸a̸v̶e̵ ̷l̶o̶v̶e̶d̸ ̴t̴h̷e̶ ̵o̷c̷e̷a̴n̶ ̴a̸r̵o̵u̸n̶d̸ ̸u̴s̸.̶

̵I̴'̷m̸ ̶s̸o̷r̸r̸y̴.̴

Did you Ascend or did you shut off in the frozen lands?

Red Suns

M̸o̶r̷e̸ ̸t̷h̶a̸n̸ ̴a̴ ̴b̷u̷g̷.̶.̴.̷

̷Y̵o̸u̵ ̸s̵h̸o̴u̵l̴d̸ ̶b̵e̴ ̴h̴e̶r̷e̸.̵

̴I̵ ̵s̸h̷o̷u̵l̴d̴'̴v̵e̶ ̵l̵i̵s̵t̴e̶n̷e̵d̶.̷

Did you Ascend or did you shut off in the frozen lands?

The first 3 lines were hard to read, the original message under huge tears in the metal where it was written, but the little he could understand was already enough to confirm his suspicions and create many more.

Ascension? Frozen lands? The fate of these two children sounded worse by the second and a large part of Ink wanted to refuse to point out the possible culprits of this.

Moon and Suns seemed to be their names, if the little pink one was Error and Reaper, were these two Nightmare's with either of them? Or with one of the Dark Sanses? Those names sounded more like something he would choose, even if it was to provoke Dream; That however gave an even more tragic meaning to the mention of 'Ascension'...

He forced himself to turn away from the plaques, instead looking at the glass windows and vowing to remember their faces and names, if he was right then Dream deserved to at least know the names of his possible niblings, and even if they weren't, the names themselves already had the mark of Nightmare's involvement all over them.

(Oh Fate, he prayed and hoped he was wrong in the possibilities his mind provided.)

Looking away, he begins to take note of the rest of the room, clearly a bedroom, blankets, pillows, and what looked like the bed neatly arranged on one side, and in the other, plans, notes, and for some reason pearls, that he wasn't even going to try to decipher seeing as there were a combination of English and a language he had never seen before all over them.

Opposite the glass windows of Moon and Suns, another memorial, this time showing a being that looked like the green cat from before, with a skull of what looked like a deer over its face.

Another plaque greeted him when he got close enough, where the lines written there were perfectly legible.

Artificer.

My last and most beloved Citizen.

Slayer of Scavengers.

May your soul rest in the Void with your kin.

...Ink wasn't sure how to take this plaque, unless 'Void' meant something completely different, 'may your soul rest in the Void' wasn't something you wished on someone you also called 'beloved'.

"Are you done invading my privacy?" Came a voice from behind and Ink refuses to acknowledge the scream he let out upon suddenly hearing it.

Behind him, in the same spot as last time, was the little Godling, this time the bones in his back weren't holding him up and instead he was standing on the ground, the green cat was already inside the room but didn't seem to have any intention of attacking him.

Ink's brief confusion at the green cat's lack of visible animosity was quickly dispelled as he noticed the immense bulk growing behind the Godling.

No, not growing, it was standing up.

A creature resembling the green cat appeared, at least twice as tall as the little one and probably taller than Ink, black eyes staring at him as it circled the little one and stood in front of him as if expecting Ink to attack the child.

The smell of gunpowder began to emanate from the red panther-cat and Ink knew he had to de-escalate the situation soon if he didn't want to find out what that thing did related to gunpowder and having to use the medical kit in his inventory.

"Hey! Sorry about that, I didn't mean to, I didn't know it was your room, I wouldn't have stuck around snooping around if I had known, but how about we put that aside and talk a bit? I brought you the answers I promised you last week, huh, how about that, bud?"

The response to that was the Godling pulling out a jar with a small bone from his sleeve. "You forgot this last time, I already got the answers I wanted from your material composition, try something else or face Artificer."

Resisting the urge to look at the glass window behind him at that familiar name or the scolding he desperately wanted to give at the theft of one of his bones, Ink pulled out of his inventory the small memory stick Sci had given him a few days ago. "I have information about the world outside of this universe? You probably already know a little about it, but this might give you a more complete picture than what your... parents have told you about it."

At the mention of his "parents," the little boy broke his façade of indifference, giving way to anger. "You possess no knowledge of what my creators did or did not tell me, and I will not tolerate such fallacies about them, Saint! Artificer!"

In less than a second Ink felt the USB leave his hand, stolen by the now recognized as 'Saint', who had approached in his distraction talking to the other one.

But all that mattered little when a moment later, a strong explosion threw him into a hallway that he could swear hadn't been there a second ago, along with all the weight of the gigantic Artificer.

Somehow the second meeting had started even worse than the first.

.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.

Happy Christmas Eve!

This should have come out in November but between final projects and the need to get a job, time and inspiration just didn't come together, sorry for the delay.

And I don't think I'll have time during these holidays either, since now I have to prepare for my last semester of University, along with the dreaded Thesis, I'll try to bring at least shorter chapters, but I can't promise anything.

Me rambling about life aside, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! See you later.