"....hm." Illias muttered.

"All right, see you in a bit." he told her as she left.

Sure enough, about 5 minutes later, Illias made his way to the lab where Kiah was, and sighed.

"Right then." he said.

"I know you're going to need my help as a gorgon." he commented.

"Do you want me to go straight to milking one of my snakes of its venom?" he asked her.

"...we do?" Illias asked.

"....oh, right! Yeah, we do!" he remembered.

He then sighed as he reached into his hair and roused his snakes, the serpents emerging and looking groggy and tired.

"Sorry." he apologized to them. "We need you guys." he said.

One of them, a temperamental and sassy female, looked around, before yawning widely, and looking like she was ready to just go back to bed.

"Ohhhhh no." Illias said.

"YOU'RE first." he told her, gently grabbing her by the base of her head.

"I'll be down there in a few minutes." Sharp replied, before hanging up.

Sure enough, he did. It was only a few minutes later, before he entered her office.

"Kiah." he said.

"PLEASE tell me you have good news." he told her.

"Please tell me you found the way to destroy these things."

"........." Hal was silent for a moment, before sighing.

"Well, at least it's progress." he said.

"This is still extremely helpful." he commented.

"That is odd... I thought for sure that info would have it." he said further with another sigh.

"Also, you didn't find a way to stop them?" he asked.

Hal nodded in response.

"I understand." he said.

"Hmmm..." he then mumbled, thinking about it.

"I'll do some digging, myself." he told her. "See if I can't find any info on how to destroy them." he said further.

"But this is already amazingly helpful." he continued.

"Thank you for your hard work on this."

"Casey?" Hal asked.

"Oh, Casey Kiczys." he said.

Kiah just nodded in response.

"...predicament?" he then asked after a thought.

"What do you mean?" he asked her.

"Oh, and no, nothing else right now." he then assured her further.

".....oh, yes." Hal responded, remembering that.

"Yes, she's mentioned that to me." he said.

"From what I recall, the suspicion on her is unfounded, and circumstantial at best." he went on.

"She's been here a couple of time since." he then told her. "But, on the record, she hasn't been." he added.

"Regardless, we need to deal with this, and then perhaps try and help her." he continued.

"She does not deserve the scrutiny she's under."

"That is always handy." Hal responded.

"Good for her." he said further.

He then sighed, and placed a hand on Kiah's shoulder.

"...how long have you been working?" he asked.

"I don't see Illias around, meaning you probably ordered him to take some time to sleep, at least. But what about you?" he asked further.

"You're really starting to not look good." he commented, concern in his tone.

Hal just sighed in response to that.

"Right." he said.

"Well, then when all this is over, I'M ordering YOU to take some time off." he told her.

"Because you look haggard and burned out." he said.

"Which... to be honest, is putting it lightly." he then muttered.

"You're really been burning the candle at both ends."

Hal just sighed.

"Hopefully." he said.

"I mean, I'll do what I can to try and find something that can work." he told her.

He then paused, and thought for a moment.

".....hm." he mumbled.

"I wonder..." he said.

"Wait, we might already have a possible solution to this." he told her.