8 - [Video]
[Video clicks on to show off Ironhide, sitting out under the stars, an arm draped loosely around Egg the Lairon.]
... Heard a lot about people disappearing, recently. Someone told me they go back home again.
[He pauses, and looks up.]
Does this happen often?
... Heard a lot about people disappearing, recently. Someone told me they go back home again.
[He pauses, and looks up.]
Does this happen often?
No one... really knows how. Or why.
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... For the longest, I thought the people who disappeared were DYING.
But then they started showing up again... sometimes even remembering when they were here the first time. So...
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Some people are really, really good at making other people disappear.
[The cult had been particularly adept in making folks they didn't like discretely and conveniently vanish.]
... But even if it wasn't on purpose... there's a lotta wilderness out there. If someone died out there by accident... nobody'd ever find 'em, probably.
Anyway. That's what I thought at first. Turns out I was wrong... at least for SOME of 'em. [Some people never did come back, after all... maybe they'd gone home or maybe they were rotting in a ditch somewhere. YOU NEVER KNOW. ALSO HEATHER IS KIND OF PESSIMISTIC SOMETIMES.]
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[Because even giant robot corpses can disappear if the enemy tries hard enough.]
Hmnf. If necessary, I would find them.
[There's a lot of confidence in that statement. He honestly believes he could.]
Ever get any real information on what happens to those that vanish?
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[Heather shakes her head with a shrug.]
Rumors, hearsay... nobody ever seems to have quite the same story.
But some of the people who come back say they went home, others just show up in New Bark like three months later and don't even seem to realize that they were missing to begin with, some don't remember a thing about coming here before at all...
No idea what's the truth and what isn't... except that some people do go home.
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[He falls silent, turning this over in his head.]
Then we need to figure out what is happening here. By any means necessary.
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... Do you think that because you want to stop it from happening, or because you think everyone should get sent home?
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... Both.
I need to return. I must. The war is not over, and I am needed there.
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[She'd sort of figured that people wanted an all-or-nothing deal... but ...]
... I understand.
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[That's not what he expected to hear. Not from the kid whose rusted amusement park dream he wandered around in.]
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[As she speaks, it's ... somewhat obvious that she doesn't LIKE that fact... no, she doesn't like it at all, actually... but she can't deny it.]
Some people have to go home.
... But I guess I kinda hope that not everybody has to.
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[Ironhide is a big fan of facing what you don't like... and punching it. Hard. It's always worked for him.]
... If you wish to stay, then we need to make certain we know how others are sent home. Then, we can stop it. For you.
[And anyone else, but that goes without saying.]
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[That's... actually the very first time anyone has ever addressed both options like that... most people Heather's discussed this with have either been all about everyone getting to go home... or, like her, somewhat reluctantly admitting that they didn't WANT to leave.]
[No one's ever actually said that finding out what this was all about could involve helping some people to stay before.]
... Awhile ago, people were convinced that the local criminal gang were the ones behind us being brought here.
They might be a good place to start.
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Who are they?
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