Kipo and the world beyond

The truth

Soon after Apex and his harbingers left, Rook lead everyone to one of his safe houses. Mid and rook had built them across danger island in case they needed to make a quick get away, or needed to find a place to rest, using certain landmarks and hidden signs to lead them to any of them. After settling Song and takes a deep breath and confronts Rook.

Rook stared at Song with a mixture of confusion and trepidation. He looked uncomfortable Song, placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Rook," she began, her voice soft and soothing, "what I'm about to tell you is a lot to take in. But it's the truth, and you deserve to know." Kipo, who had been silently watching the exchange, stepped closer to Rook, heavy concern in her eyes. Her father stops her advance, the look on his face telling her to let things play out.

"Your father," Song began, her voice steady, "was a brilliant scientist named Ford. He was a brilliant mind with crazy dream." Rook looks at her confused. "I wouldn't be telling you this, if I wasn't sure, but the fact that you look exactly like him. Ford had the vision of creating winged soldiers to fight for humans. Rook's eyes widened as he absorbed this information. "My father... created those things?" Rook's throat tightened as he tried to process what he had just learned. "And I'm one of them, aren't I?" Song hesitated before answering. "Yes, Rook. You're a harbinger, but you're different from the ones we saw. You have emotions, free will, and the capacity for empathy. You're not like them." 

He steps back and looks petrified. "I was... made?" Rook clenches his fists. "A-a-and what, this Ford, just didn't want to take care of me, like an actual parent!? Why am I different from those things? Why is Apex leading them, what does he have to do with all this!?" The starts look angry and kept asking questions. Kipo seeing her partner is such a state tries to comfort him. "Rook it's alright." Rook quickly turns around and glares at her. "NO IT'S NOT ALRIGHT KIPO! UGH!" He walks out of their hiding spot. "Wait Rook! Hey wait a second!" 

Rook had made his way down the path, Kipo and the others right behind him. "Rook, please wait a sec!" "For what Kipo!?" She doesn't respond and just pulls him into a hug. "We've had too many emotional episodes the past few days, this much negativity isn't healthy. So don't bottle it and just walk away!" Rook takes a deep and pulls away from the hug. "I know... I know... I just... need a moment to clear my head, I just need to be alone right now." Kipo is reluctant but understands. Rook can see she doesn't want to be away from him. "Hey, I'll be back, I just need to clear my head, and I'll be back before you know it." Kipo looks at him with pleading eyes. "Promise?" "I promise, here!" He take his cloak and wraps it around Kipo. "Mid made me this cloak, it means a lot to me, I'll be back for it." He pulls Kipo into a quick kiss. Kipo blushes, and smiles. "Thank you, Rook. Be careful, please."

He nods and quickly runs off and jumps into flight, taking off and flying out of sight. Kipo clutches the cloak and takes a deep breath. Benson walks up behind and puts his hand on her shoulder. "Hey don't worry. Me and Troy have times where we need some time apart. But we always come back to each other. He'll be back, he's just got a lot to process. Kipo nods and sniffs the cloak, feeling comforted by it's scent. "Thanks Benson, you're right, couples don't need to be together all the time, we all need our space." 

Lio sighs and rubs his face in frustration. "Well I can understand his frustrations. We've been here for almost a week, and we've made little to no progress in finding Emilia, and now she's at the edge of perfecting Ford's harbingers, while we've been sight seeing." The realization hits everyone hard. "Oh man he's right, we've done nothing! UGH! OK we need to focus!" Song exclaims. "OK, lets think do we have anything we can work with?" Everyone gives a disappointing shrug. "No, and now with Rook gone we've got little intel now." Wolf says. Suddenly the giant light bolt appears again in the distance, scaring Dave into molting through a whole life, and back to his adult phase. "OH MAN I HATE THAT! It scares me to death!"