Zeke just chuckled.

"True." he said.

"And... a bit stressed." he mumbled.

"Aunt Lilim's missing." he told her bluntly.

"And we need to find her." he went on.

"Uncle Lex is... well, he's not doing so well because of it."

Zeke just sighed.

"I don't know." he said.

"But she's not been heard from for a while." he told her.

"A long while." he went on.

"Won't even answer her phone." he continued.

"She... she's just... gone and disappeared."

Zeke smiled weakly.

"Heh, I'll keep that in mind." he replied.

"But right now? We're just completely stuck." he sighed.

"It's just good to know that YOU'RE doing well." he then added as they got nearer the R&D lab.

"Odds are they were called ahead and are expecting you." he told her.

"You're welcome." Zeke replied.

"Talk to you later." he finished, before heading off. As soon as he did, Ilias opened the door.

"Oh, hello." he greeted her, a few of his snakes writhing about out of his hair.

"Come on in." he told her.

"Leo's waiting."

"Hey." Ilias replied.

"And for me? Nah, had them all my life." he told her.

"For others? Depends on the person." he shrugged.

"Regardless, come on." he went on, opening the door even further.

"I assume you're Desiree, and you're here to see Leo." he continued.

"I'm Ilias." he introduced himself.

Ilias blushed as Desiree made her comment about Kiah, and cleared his throat.

"Hm. Yes." he said.

"Right, head right." he told her.

"6th door on your left." he went on.

"Just be sure to knock before entering." he finished.

"Got it?" he asked.

Unsurprisingly, it seemed that Leo had been engulfed in a project he was working on, and when she spoke his name, he jumped a little.

"Ah!" he exclaimed, before whirling around.

"...oh!" he said.

"Oh, geez, right!" he remembered.

"Hey, Desiree." he greeted her with a wave.

"Come on over!" he called, waving to her.

He knew the speaking was pointless, but it was just habit. He knew she couldn't hear him due to her headset being busted, but... he couldn't help it.

"Sorry." he then said when she was close enough.

"Guess I got into another 'project-trance'..." he admitted sheepishly.

Leo accepted the box and opened it. After examining it for about 5 minutes, he identified the problem.

"Ah!" he said.

"...well, the problem is, the part that got damaged is... REALLY hard to get ahold of, even for me." he told her.

"And I can't abuse my position in The Order to get it." he sighed, shaking his head... before pausing.

"Wait..." he mumbled, taking out his cell phone.

Can you come see me right now? he texted to Kiah.

Got a question for you. he added in another text.

"We're at The Unit." Leo told her.

"They have resources and connections that not even MY company has, in terms of tech parts and such." he said. "If they happen to have the part in stock, then I will buy it from them right here and now." he continued.

"If I can get it here, I can fix this is under a half-hour." he told her further.

"All the other damage is easily fixable, and if they have the part, then... well... this will be one HELL of an easy fix." he reported with a smile.

"So yeah. You might not be without for a while." he said.

"Best case scenario, you've been momentarily inconvenienced." he chuckled.

Leo just sighed, shaking his head.

"I know, I know." he said.

"And I know I won't be able to stop you." he went on.

"So I won't argue." he finished.

"Anyway..." he mumbled.

"That's assuming that they HAVE the part." he reminded her.

"It's kind of specialised, but there's a decent chance, as I think they might use it in some of their equipment here." he reasoned.

"But that might be a double-edged sword, as the ones they have might already be in use, or they might not want to part with them."