When Travid came to, a small box filled to the brim with sweets sat in front of him. It was night now, the golden sun now hidden by a solemn blanket of clouds. Of course, the Moorcroft province was always eerily cold, but the rays of the sun gave it a simple wintery chill. At night, the very land itself evoked a sense of insecurity.

A perfect place for students to hang out and kick back. This feeling of being watched weighed down more heavily on adults, and so the child predators, gang-members, and the like would be spooked out of the town. Even delinquents were scarce around here; it was said that their memories were being read by the security staff, so any troublemakers would be escorted by a Grimalkin back to an elevator. Of course, if a person did try to attack another in Moorcroft, the Grimalkins would want to join the feeding frenzy, and so both victim and suspect would die horribly.

Which was why every household had their lights on 24/7 in Moorcroft.

So Travid, like many people, didn't feel exactly safe in the province right now. He pulled out one of the pastries, a Forbidden Fruit bun, and wolfed it down greedily. Indeed, the fruits were forbidden to most because of its effects : making one feel a pang of gluttony, as well as a sweet satisfaction, and a feeling of knowledge. Students and workers would eat these fruits often to motivate their work, which was surprisingly effective. Thanks to the Devilites, even Gremlins' work habits increased exponentially.

Travid's motivation, of course, was to eat more and more. He took his favorite : a Royal Core and Frost Gel eclair, and whittled away at it as a beaver does to a tree. He swallowed the Ecto Drop Pie with two bites, and he was done.

He climbed onto the platform with a sense of content, and so he travelled upwards, back towards Haven.

His sister, brother, and mom would be waiting for him.

Travid's footsteps on the ever-shining cobblestone streets of Haven felt satisfying. Euphoria, for the lack of a better word, was what walking brought to him.

Him walking home with a box of his family's favorite pastries, knowing that he'd have a mother and a sister to delight with Vin's latest batch. On the house, no less.

However, a feeling of anxiety crawled up his head, and soon, his leisurely ramble was plagued by worry. He didn't know what would happen to them while he was away, even if his sister had been training to enter the Order, as he had done. After all, he had the guts to protect them, and his sister never touched combat. His mother was an aging woman who had only recently left her prime. If there were going to be intruders at the home, they would be unprotected. And there was also the baby to worry over...

Soon, his pace became a trot, a lope, and then a full on sprint. Through boulevards, streets, bypassing cul-de-sacs, and other roads, he only stopped when he flung the door open, panting.

His sister, a beautiful sixteen year old girl that was his pride and joy, and his mother, the wiser, seasoned version of the former...

...they were both safe. Mom, clad in her usual one-piece dress and apron, was making another soup, this one probably filled with chunks of snipe meat and Chromalisk ribs. She smiled warmly at him, and went back to work.

Lil' Sis, her name was Claire, she was in the middle of tinkering with her own gun, a refurbished Catalyzer. She also gave a heart-melting smile to her eldest sibling, but her face soon turned into worry. For a second, Travid thought his very being at home was the cause, but she turned his face, and inspected his wounds.

"You're hurt! My god, what happened..? Was it someone from the mob bosses?"

He shook his head, and giggled a bit. "No, just a bunch of street thugs. Tried to mug me on the way home..."

He then held up the box, and giggled a bit more. "Brought home some of the buns Vin made. Our favorites! By the way, can Leon eat solid foods yet?"

Claire shook her head.

"No, he's still on baby food," she replied, and took a deep breath. Suddenly, she slapped him straight across the face with her hand, leaving a bright red mark on his cheek. Her eyes were glittering with part-relief, part-anger, part-unknown. She gave him a bear-hug, and began to sniffle and cry on his shoulder. "You worried the heck out of me..."

Of course, his sister, over time, had gone through mood swings and changes, left and right. The next day, she'd probably return to her usual calm and collected self.

But for now...

"Claire, you're crushing me."

[Author's Note : I am so evil for making families out of characters.]

---

At the end of the day, when "night" came, Travid closed the curtains, and shut off the lights. The crumbs of the buns were swept off, and the floor was mopped. The blue carpet had been vacuumed by the cleaning sprite, the one that made roundabouts every day in the complex, and all was fashionably dapper. Travid shared the sofa with Claire, and Mom cuddled with the baby, Leon. The amber rays still penetrated through the thick cloth, but it served more as a night-light in the otherwise shadowy room.

His family's silent, dark warmth was all that he needed to sleep. And he slept.

And for once, he dreamed. A rare occurrence for soldiers like him, who usually relived nightmarish battles.

"I was...a drug addict," Vin explained hesitantly. Several glass shards were on the bed, staining the snow-white linen with hemoglobin. He was in the middle of wrapping Elizabeth's hand with a thin length of Miracloth, making sure the wrap was tight.

"I had a girlfriend and a two-month son. Our family was falling apart, and she tried to get me off the drugs. When I went into withdrawal, the hospital was too far away when it happened, I...yeah."

Elizabeth only froze in shock.

Vin finished the wrap.

"Anyhow, sentenced for manslaughter, thanks to my lawyer, and I was gonna be carted off to some other planet for lifelong labor. I snuck off, and ended up here, on Cradle."

Elizabeth still froze.

"And the only ship to get here was the Skylark, 45 years ago. I was 19 at the time."

He then noticed something on Elizabeth's arm. A small, brown, clean mark. It seemed awfully familiar to a scar...

Without warning, he pulled up her left sleeve, which revealed 47 cuts. Vin looked up to her face, alarmed, but Elizabeth only remained still. She didn't know how to react to this situation. Was Vin still sane? Could he hurt her in the future? How was she going to explain the sca-

Next thing she knew, Vin was pouring a bit of alcohol on hand, causing pain to spasm up and down her arm. Impulsively, she recoiled, but Vin held on firmly.

"Thank you for saving me, because every time I think about it, I feel like a sack of maggots. I'm disgusted by my own self for that.

Now, you can quit right now, I'll pay you 100k for thanks, and we can say this never ha-"

"No," Elizabeth replied.

Vin looked up, a bit surprised.

The woman shook her head. "I'm not going to leave you wanting to kill yourself."

The baker nodded, and released his grip.

"Go back to sleep. You can tell me about those scars later, if you want to."

I really lost my juice when I looked at everyone else's writing works.

All the same hack-n-slash Cradle adventurin' that suddenly hits a hiatus, leaving everyone disappointed. Which are SOMEHOW still popular

Did I mention the same tropes are used again and again?

No matter, I MUST SURVIVE THE MAELSTROM OF CLONES. I'VE DONE IT IN THE GAME [Carver + Valiance.], SO I CAN DO IT HERE. YOWZA!

And so, after Elizabeth's hand had recovered, she went back to working at the bakery as usual. She said nothing about her scars, and Vin needn't ask about it. After all, he didn't want to make her feel any more awkward than their current situation was, and so life continued without any abruptions.

Nai, after eating the pastry, joined Travid in his lab rat adventures by tasting and eating any and every new concept Vin had plated out. No matter how scrumptious or unsavory it was, the two managed to wolf down everything Vin threw at them, and always came back for more.

Nai's learning continued, and although his body didn't change much, he gained a lot more fighting skills.

Uni was pretty busy, as she usually was, helping the Order bolster its defenses against cyber-attacks. She wasn't able to visit the bakery much, but she trid to take breaks as often as possible. Well, more like secretly escaping the Arcade while waiting for the anti-virus to update...

Claire finally entered into the Order, and was a Recruit. She learned about teamwork, but not much else was new to her, considering she was born right on Cradle. Mother, unfortunately, pulled a couple of muscles, and also strained a few tendons. The two kids take care of Leon, who started to wake up more often.

Gwen and Xindao still get into arguments now and then. While her brother had been worrying about her, she was busy cleaning up the streets of Haven of any "uncouth delinquents", which included drug lords, crime bosses, gangsters, and so forth.

It wasn't a bad couple of weeks, really. Life was pretty normal, save for the few changes with Nai, Elizabeth, and Vin. Otherwise, everyone continued their daily routines.

But then again, it was only the beginning of Autumn when this happened.

And there was still the Dark Harvest Festival to be celebrated. There would be the difficult process of conjuring up Black Kats and Margrel again; pumpkins were to be harvested, measured in contests, and then eaten; and plenty of tricks from the Punkin King himself would be going about Cradle again.

It was going to be a busy time for everyone.

[End of Introduction]