The moment the realm gate closed, Carl started sprinting towards Klaire and Squidge. "Klaire! Klaire! Klaire!" His voice was hoarse and desperate, the idea of her being gone, maddening, impossible and yet despite the lies he knew his mind was telling him they were completely unharmed.
Carl knelt down, slowly, carefully, as though moving recklessly would shatter this fragile reality where they're still alive. "Klaire, wake up, please wake up. You too Squidge, I can't lose you buddy, you've been by my side through it all."
Klaire began to stir, her eyes half-opened before closing again. "One must wake a maiden with a kiss." She joked weakly, taken completely by surprise when he kissed her with neither a word nor hesitation. "I must have died... Carl never makes the first move, never thought death would be this nice, would have done it so-" Tears fell on her face and her eyes opened faster than the flames had burnt them away.
"Don't... Not even as a joke... I-I can't... Lose you." Carl sobbed, holding either side of her face. Carl had always been a bit of a crier, his emotions ran deep and strong, but this was the first time she had seen him cry for her.
"I'm sorry Carl, come here." She pulled him down to her chest with the softest touch she could manage, but to her surprise she had to use most of her strength to move him. "How strong did you get when you levelled up? You can definitely do the protecting now. I can't believe you managed to kill that thing and how did you heal us?"
Carl stopped sobbing instantly, breaking away he turned toward where the man disappeared, confusing Klaire as he took a defensive stance.
"Wait a minute... Where is the wyvern?" She asked as she sat up. "Don't tell me it only retreated. We can't lay around, we have to get back and warn everybody. Come on Squidge, come to Mummy, you can sleep while we run." She finished as she scooped up the gelatinous blob.
'Tell Mummy I need five more minutes Dad." He yawned telepathically.
"He said he needs five more minutes... Don't worry about the wyvern either... He killed it."
"It's great you can talk to him now, but don't expect me to believe he killed it."
"Not him. Him." Carl replied nodding towards the realm gate scar centred around a large crater where his spear was stood.
Klaire calmed him down, then led them back to the mouth of the cave where Carl could collect the blood. If it was really dead, then they didn't need to rush, which was good since they were both mentally exhausted still. They would still need to alert everyone else to the presence of the wyvern though in case there were more.
Then they headed back to the camp.
"Klaire! Carl! Thank god you two are okay!" Gillian shouted as he ran up and tackled them both to the ground, then stood up embarrassed. "Sorry, the scanners picked up a realm gate incursion almost right where we left you. Thought you two might have been kissing there still when it happened." He joked, until he saw them blush and smirked as he helped Carl up and patted him on the back.
"Actually we were fighting a wyvern exactly where it opened, all three of us died, so yes I was so happy to see the girl I love again alive and well that I kissed her." Carl said bluntly. "Now we need to go find Professor Kon immediately to tell him about the wyvern.
"Hey! No need for the sarcasm, I'm proud of you man and you Klaire, finally got him to see sense." Gillian scoffed, before Carl held up the vial of wyvern blood and showed him the spear still caked in it and the few scales he retrieved. "Shit, best come with me, they're getting ready to mobilise in preparation."
Gillian patted them both on the shoulders then turned and dashed off toward a side building, just off from the main structure, where several transports were being prepped for deployment. The SATS wasn't a military organisation, but it took defence of their charges very seriously.
As they came to a stop a short-ways from a middle-aged man that could have been a world renowned body builder, they bowed. "Proffesor Kon, we have intel and recommend scout formation rather than defence." Klaire declared on their behalf.
"Intel first, tactical decisions second."
"Realm gate closed, Klaire and I were present at scene engaged with a wyvern. Here's a blood sample and a scale as proof, one intruder from the realm gate, danger level Omina. Do not approach, or engage, brought us back from the dead, literally."
"HALT! REORGANISE FOR SCOUT FORMATION!... You three come with me... Not you Gillian, I meant these two and Squidge." Kon said, ordering the change, before deciding it might be best to keep further details quiet.
Kon led them to the primary comms room and called Leanna, meanwhile Klaire and Carl prepared to have a conversation they were not looking forward to.
"Prof-..." As the display changed to show Madam Director Leanna, she started speaking before stopping at the sight of her son and niece. "Professor Kon, might I remind you I am Madam director first in tests like this, if they have misbe-"
"Apologies, Madam Director. They have not... In fact, they may have just saved many lives." Despite her earlier statement, she couldn't completely hide the pride she felt at those words, but stayed quite whilst we relayed events. "...Awaiting further instruction."
"Professor Kon, if you had to grade them right now, what mark would they get?"
"They would get top mar-"
"Good. That wasn't hypothetical. Get those two back here, now. Proceed with scout and reassess planetary danger level as needed, contact at the slightest trouble. Full evacuation at any incursion, even if it is probably an equipment failure. I haven't lost a student yet, I won't start now."
"Madam director." Kon bowed to the screen, it wasn't a common gesture at large, it was a tradition of Kon's homeland that everyone respected in his presence. "You heard your mot- I mean Madam Director Leanna, head to the bunks, collect your things then get back to the SAT-Station. I want you earth world in five minutes. STRAIGHT HOME!"
The emphasis wasn't necessary, when they arrived Lydia was waiting for them at the other side of the gate. Almost tackling them back through it when they appeared. "Oh no you don't. I just got him back, you aren't luring him away." Klaire said as she positioned herself between Lydia and I and claimed the hug for herself.
"Come with me, unfortunately Klaire Auntie Leanna has ordered full health checks on both of you. We need to make sure whatever it was that brought you back is permanent, or at least try to. Want me to make sure he's still in good working order while I'm at it? You might want a second baby one day." Lydia was talking to both of them for the most part, but quickly became incredibly quiet as Klaire turned a never-before-seen shade of red.
Despite the levity, they could both see the worry and sadness in her eyes. The thought that she could have easily been receiving their corpses felt in the uncontrolled strength of the grip she held Klaire's hand with.
When they got back to the suite, it was still the same as that first day, except for the woman accompanying them, who was holding out a plastic cup to each of them. "I'm sure you are relieved, but now I need you to relieve yourselves further." She joked. "One at a time, I only need urine Carl. Whoever goes potty first avoids the blood sample for a few moments longer."
That was essentially the starting bell in martial arts class, they both hated needles, unfortunately for Carl he neither held the power to howl like a banshee or actually hit his opponent. "Lydia, why do you do that to me every time we have a check-up?"
"Two reasons! It helps me estimate how energetic you both are and secondly it's fun." She declared before pulling him over to the couch to take his blood. "Don't ever scare me like that again you idiots."
As the vial slowly filled with liquid, Lydia gasped, it wasn't red but a dull gold. "Lydia, has my blo-"
"No, no it hasn't, what the hell happened to you two?"
When Klaire finally came out of hiding, doing the usual shuffle over to put her pee in the bag without Carl seeing, Lydia surprised her by snapping in an unusually aggressive tone. Shocked she sat down and let Lydia take the sample with no resistance, then grew confused when they both gave a relieved sigh.
"What? It's blood. Why the interest?" She asked before Lydia held up the golden vial. "Is this because you levelled up or what happened?" She continued as she took the tube and held it up to the light.
"You levelled up?" Lydia asked with a raised eyebrow, then continued as she put both the samples in a chilled bag section and took their wrists in hand. "Did you figure something out then about your "useless build" or was it just luck?"
"A bit of both, I actually levelled up five times at once, all this time I was supposed to be using materials that I mix together with my synthesising skill and my own blood, which infuses it with that DIV stat we could never figure out." Carl explained, Lydia congratulated him as she jotted down their heart rates and, which never ceased to amaze them how she could accurately measure two at once when they struggled to do their own without a watch.
"I'll let Leanna know to bring cake. I'll tell your mum to send over your things, you're staying here for now. I'm keeping both of you under observation. Hear that Squidge? Back on bed-border duty!"
'Tell Great auntie Lydia, I'm on the job, I should be ready by then.' Squidge yawned again.
"He said he's on the job, he should be wide awake by then." Carl said, already accustomed to the voice in his head and unsure why Lydia looked concerned and began checking him for signs of concussion.
"He's fine Auntie, he got the ability to hear his pet's thoughts with one of the levels. Not sure where he got the spear from though... Is that what you did when you ran back into the cave?"
"Yeah, took all my DIV to make though, it's a wyvern-killer, I got a few skills when I made it as well, but unfortunately the one I used to damage it so badly was a single-use skill."
"Kids, stop. Auntie's brain is hurting, Carl, go get that portable system display you made. I don't trust you to be focused enough, you always smell like lust and depravity after you two kiss." Lydia grinned devilishly, reminding Carl that Squidge was for his mum's peace of mind, since Lydia's succubus senses would be onto them if they did anything.