You couldn’t protect him forever, Elizabet. Like I said, he was bound to put it together. I know you had a soft spot for him. What? You think I didn’t see you pulling punches with him and his friends? I know it’s not the first time. Little moments when your better self comes up for air. With those new Keeper recruits, what, forty years ago? More recently with that whole apartment complex thing you and the elf helped out with. You’ve been using kids gloves with him, but remember, it’s all just ephemeral. It will all go away soon enough, and you will have the peace you’ve wanted for so long. Now, be quick. This will burn up quicker than you think it will.

This week ties are severed as some members of the group turn in their proverbial pink slips. Some other forces are waiting in the wings though, waiting to see the fallout.

I’m torn, Dawn Father. I didn’t know my connection to Tessa would be like this. Her feelings are bleeding over onto my mine. It’s almost like I never died. I keep thinking back to before. Before the world started falling apart. Before we all had to give up so much of ourselves. Before Ioun... Well, just before the war in general. I know that bad things are coming, but I can’t help but want her to not have to deal with it all. All of the loss and the pain that we had to endure. It just makes me want to go back to before we put up the veil I just wish we could go back before the bad. Back when we were happy.

The team recovers from their grueling time at the Keeper’s HQ. While some of the team does their best to relax, others decide they need a conversation with their boss.

The scene fades in. Ai, Otto, and Wyatt all stand in front of the interns and those that had been rescued. They have just been informed that the team did not come back with those rescued, and you can see the information washing over the trio in their faces. “What do you mean they ain’t coming back?” Ai’s eyes bore into Enna. “Y’all just left them there?” Her expression quickly softens, turning to panic. “What…What am I gonna do, if she doesn’t come back?” Ai’s eyes are wise, darting around as though she is looking for an answer. “I ain't… I ain’t got nobody else but my momma and... I can’t deal with losin’ someone again. Not like this. What am I gonna do, Otto? What am I gonna do?” Otto moves around her, looking her dead in the eyes with a stony expression. “We’re not losing anyone. I promise you, we will get them back. Corra, Tessa, all of them. I don’t care what we have to do, or who we have to kill.” They glance up and over toward River, who is standing, looking just as shocked. “River, get all hands on deck. Tell them we’re going to war.”

The battle at the Keeper’s HQ rages on. Things begin to spiral out of control as combat heats up. In the middle of the fray, someone comes to make a request.

I had a long talk with Newton yesterday. He and I framed it like a visit to the storage facility. It’s pretty much the only place we can get away from her and Lincoln. I wanted to see if he felt the same way I did. Newton and I usually can see the same writing on the wall. She’s getting desperate and sloppy. She’s narrowing her focus and losing sight of the big picture. I’ve told her before, these are all feints trying to get her to make a mistake and she has. Newton agrees with me. While if the choice is between her and nothing, she wins out, but maybe it is time to find a different solution. Maybe extend an olive branch.

The team comes face to face with a foe from their past, but a new, more dangerous foe makes their presence known.

All available units, I repeat, all available units, disturbance reported at the indeliophan. Multiple casualties reported. Students being evacuated. We have reports that Tessa Blackmoore is on the scene. Proceed with caution. Unknown number casualties at scene, conflict still in progress. I repeat, proceed with caution. Establish a perimeter and mobilize all available automated security units. Stay sharp and stay safe. We don’t know what this group is capable of or if they are injured. Do not engage alone. They’ll be desperate for escape. They’ll be more dangerous than ever.

The team makes their way into the belly of Keepers HQ. While they are searching from their friend they find something that may tempt them like never before.

R&D Memo to Glittering Oath Board of Directors. Highly confidential. Burn after reading.

Our efforts to continue reverse engineering the main sample have been less than fruitful. While our initial results were promising, we cannot crack the secret behind this independence displayed in the sample. Our newest line can perform more detailed tasks, but still require both supervision and a handler in the vicinity. With their current limitations, we will not be able to fulfill the goals of both the keepers and the city guard to restore order to the east end of the city. We cannot push the sample any harder, as of right now. It is at its limit, and we may lose it altogether. There is a gap here, between the schematics and the sample. We may have to bring Vancroft in for the automated personnel units to progress how we want.

This week the team prepares to infiltrate the Keeper’s headquarters to rescue Kravitz. They gather information, scope out the joint, and maybe, just maybe, mend some fences.

Observation notes on the Glittering Oath Automatons by Wyatt Vancroft. It feels so weird to see these things walking around. They’ve overbuilt the frame, which makes sense because their new use. It also seems they aren’t as independent as I was planning on making them. They always seems to have a handler not too far away. I wonder if that is by design, or if they hit the same hurdles I did? They move terribly. I mean, really they only seem one step removed from my prototype. I wonder if they have it? I thought Stanton took it that night, but he never mentioned it. It was never recovered with his assets, and it seems to me, they got these to market way faster than they should have.

The team rushes back to the club after their fight with Ash to Ash. Everyone is shaken, and while some fall back on relationships, others lose themselves trying to relax.

I can't say that I will miss having this boy in my service but it does put me out a bit of a disadvantage. I now can only observe what is on my side of this tear. It seems like a wound that pierces through every plane of existence in this reality and I know that those elves brought the implement that made the cut but I am beginning to think they are not the virus that caused the infection. It's something darker. I can see it killing the forest where the city stands. Red streaks pouring from it, hot to the touch. It seems like the infection is done festering and is now ready to spread.

The Ash to Ash group has has come to rumble, but while the team engages in the fight, are they taking their eyes off the real prize?

Heard you’re on prisoner transport next week. That’s a weird shift. You done it before? I’ve been on it a few times. They don’t tell you the spot until you get to the depot, and if you have to take them to campus, that’s a whole other can of worms. You only ever make it to the gate. Then, they come and trade transports with you. Don’t talk to the prisoners, either. That priest, the demon one, he’s a chatterbox, but whoever it is they have running this op is a real hard ass. Oh, also… Did you hear that? Hey, hey, you kids get back here!

As the team recovers from their last mission, relationships are strengthened and tested. Some have meetings with their boss, some get crafty, and some try to chill things out.

This needs to be perfect, people, so we’re reviewing again. I don’t want to hear it. Okay, so we do this hard and we do it fast and we do it clean. June needs this to be perfect, and if we’re made, we’re coming home, you got that? So no faces, no names, no talking. It needs to look like a hit; that we’re there for both of them. I know some of you have personal feelings about this. I’m not a huge fan, either. We all love Corra, but Otto hasn’t been the same since she joined. Their goals changed, and if we’re to bring June’s vision, our vision, of the world into reality, we need the old Otto. Be fast. Be clean. No reason for it to be any worse than it has to be. Ok, suit up, we roll in five.

A bell tolls for Otto and Corra on a very special night, but forces conspire against them. It’s gonna be a night to remember, but will the memories be worth remembering or a sad reminder of what could have been?