"Huh?" Was Marcus' first reaction and after a deep breath he added, "That is insane! I have never attacked the USA and how could I even…. Have they lost their minds?" Marcus was suddenly standing as he aired his frustration about that idiotic idea. Kim nodded and motioned Marcus to sit down again. "Have you heard about the attack of the USA on the ginghi two years ago?" Ye-jun asked. Marcus nodded, "I know, the ginghi fucked them up and that is why I am on a terror list. But that does not-"

"AFTER that, the USA started to take the ginghi very seriously and looked into all the claims they had dismissed before," Kim said and stopped Marcus right in the middle of his rant. Marcus furrowed his brows and thought for a moment. It still did not make any sense to go after him in this extreme way, he thought.

Cherry continued the tale, proving she was aware of the whole situation, "Once they took the claims about Shen seriously, they also looked into you and what you were doing. Even for the notoriously unimaginative people of the intelligence services it became clear that Shen was suffering from some kind of serious effect and you played an important role in healing him." Marcus put one and one together.

"But Shen is already healed, even if they take me out it will not change anything!" Marcus said and Kim added the last piece of the puzzle. "They do not know that he is healed or maybe they do not believe it. After you healed him, we actually let it slip that Shen is fully back in action. They did not buy it," Kim said, and Marcus felt the world had turned silly.

"How can they not believe it?" Marcus asked with a high pitched voice, showing his growing agitation. "Why would they?" Janette countered and Marcus wanted to laugh it away, but realized this was a good question. "Anything we say will be treated as deception. The fact is, you are still traveling to the ginghi, more often than before. You are still meeting Azaa and also Shen," Cherry said, and Kim nodded to show his support of the argument.

"But somebody must have seen the change in Shen, how the ginghi reacted. They surely have some spies over there." Marcus was still upset about the whole thing. "Of course, the spy made a field report that went back to a giant machine called the NSA. Somebody, somewhere knows about the report, but the people who gave the order to take you out have evidently not yet seen this report or do not trust it. You can understand that given the danger Shen represents to the USA, they would rather make sure and take you out anyway." Kim finished the discussion and Marcus felt hopeless. "Then, I am fucked," he whispered.

"It is not that bad. All we need to do is convince the USA that Shen is healed and they will back off. We are working on a solution," Kim said with a brave smile. "Enough depressing talk. It is time for Marcus to eat something." Achara stood in the door and used her special ability 'being a mom' to make them all obey and come into the kitchen to eat. A warm soup and a friendly smile can change your world, or at least your outlook on it, Marcus thought while he enjoyed the home cooked meal from Achara. With something warm in the belly, they started to concentrate on more productive things. Discussions about increased security for the clan, cooperation with Sleeping Sky and Cerberus, how Marcus would travel in the future and the reaction of the world to the horrible attack.

Marcus quickly learned that this was now no longer his own problem. The attack had elevated the situation to global politics level. "Soon the EU and the Chinese Block will take action. Even though there are no direct evidence that the killers were NSA Black Ops, nobody doubts who is behind this. The whole thing will have major consequences, here on Earth and on other planets," Kim said after he had finished eating. "I hope so. The people responsible should suffer for what they have done. They killed everybody on that plane…," Marcus' voice was heavy and Cherry nodded.

"Don't worry about that. We got all of the kill squads, and by now their base of operation should burn brightly," she said with a smile. Apparently these killer commandos used camouflaged ships as their base, but they had been able to trace them back. Marcus imagined that a part of Cerberus was right now tearing apart the remnants of those fanatics. He did not feel pity for those deranged killers, who would kill a child without a moment of hesitation. Even the three crests Marcus had earned from their deaths felt tainted. Still, he had transformed them into vitality and would use them well in the future. The future… Marcus had a lot of thoughts about that topic.

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Soon after, Marcus was back in the common room and he could tell Kim was gearing up to tell him something important. "More revelations?" Marcus asked with a smile. Kim grinned back, "I fear so. It is time you learn the truth about the state of the world." And it was a good thing Marcus was sitting, because the picture Kim painted was bleak.

"Many believe we live in a golden age of peace and prosperity. The UN has grown in power and even the USA and the Chinese Block have to bend to its rule. But it is all a facade. The UN is allowed to look strong, because it does not matter anymore and it makes people feel good. The truth is, since the portals opened and it became clear that there were Earth-like planets on the other side, the super powers of Earth have secretly started to settle other worlds." Was what Kim said to start things out.

"There is a full on rush to take as much land, territory and resources as possible. States are annexing whole planets and call them their own. The USA and the Block have already three colonies each and the EU is building up their second right now. Not to talk about smaller operations from countries all around the world. It will take a few more years for the effects of this expansion to show up, but eventually the economy of Earth will collapse. Too many resources can be gained for nearly nothing, products can be produced without any environmental laws and so on," Kim explained with a sad smile, and Marcus had no problems believing his words.

"This unrestricted power grab has of course caused friction and conflict between the major powers. They pretend to play ball on Earth, but by now they are in open conflict off world. Today most class holders die by the hand of other humans. For the USA and the Block close to 80% of their losses are coming from encounters with each other. They are at war at this very moment. A war waged with class holders and no rules." Kim's word lingered in the room and Marcus could see that Cherry was aware of this.

Marcus aired his frustration, "There are an untold amount of Earth-like planets out there. Trying to grow as fast as possible is insane, this can not be controlled. How do they expect to keep a stable government? Have they not learned from the colonies of the past?" Kim gave him a cynical smile, "You are correct. This is insane and it will lead to endless problems in the future, but they can't change their way of thinking. Instead of understanding how the world has changed, they still follow the same old doctrines and ideas. Grab as much as you can, grow at maximum speed, overpower your competitors. There is no stopping this, all we can do is try to navigate the consequences and try to save as many people as possible."

A few moments later Marcus said, "Is this what you wanted to tell me after London?" He looked up to see Kim squirm, "You already had so much going on…." Marcus understood and nodded. "This puts the whole ginghi situation in another perspective. The USA is seeing them as competitors. What a brain dead idea. If anything, the ginghi are too smart to expand unrestricted. This reckless expansion will draw a dragon even faster to us," Marcus mused, and Kim's eyes agreed with him. "A group of people I trust and some specific politicians are actually working on an emergency plan for that case. We hope to save at least a hundred million people," Kim said and Marcus was once more surprised at what that man was doing besides being the Grand Paladin.

"Did you all know about this?" Marcus asked into the room that had gained a lot of new ears in the last minutes. The core of his clan was here now and most of them shook their heads. Janette knew thanks to Cherry and Kou looked like he had some ideas about the situation, but not all the facts. Marcus laughed bitterly, "So in short, humanity is running straight into a catastrophe, Earth is going to become a graveyard and what is left of us is going to turn into lawless kingdoms ruled by who knows who." Marcus put it into simple words.

As he said the words he realized that Shen and Xeen had foreseen this. Maybe this was what happened to many civilizations at this point and the outcome was generally the same. Extinction over a few hundred years. Once the main civilization is destroyed and technology and order is lost, the remnants of the species decline in this harsh universe until they vanish. Marcus could see it in front of his eyes, tribes of humans wandering monster infested worlds, scrounging to survive… Wildlings.

Oddly enough, Marcus felt better now. Having the whole situation in front of him helped him to understand what was going on. Now he could make decisions and choose a path. "Thank you for telling us, Ye-jun. I guess we do not need to jump right now, but in the long term we need to make the right moves," Marcus said, and his friend smiled.

"For how long have you been aware of this?" Grace asked with a thoughtful look on her face. Kim gathered his thoughts for a second, "For most of you this is new, but I saw this happening over the last twenty years. Being high up in the food chain means you see and hear a lot more than most. But that does not mean you can do a damn thing about it. I have tried, believe me. First with the Block and later with the EU, but there is too much money and too much power involved. Nobody cares about the consequences in a few decades." Kim lamented and Janette suddenly laughed and said, "Climate Change all over again. Funny thing is, we actually do not have to worry about that anymore. The dragon will fuck up Earth worse than we ever could. How is that for a twist?"

"Is it really certain that one of those world destroying monsters will come to Earth?" Achara asked and her voice was trembling. Sophon sat on her lap sucking on his thumb, unaware of the grim future. Marcus swallowed something bitter and said, "Yes. Xeen told me there is no hope to avoid it. It is only a matter of time and based on how humanity is behaving, it will happen sooner rather than later." Marcus looked at little Sophon and felt a strong determination grow inside of him.

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