Chapter 25: The Second Book of Revelations
"It did what?"
From inside the clinic came a frustrated feminine voice, somewhat muffled, "Could someone please let me out of this damn machine?"
Having spent several hours coming to grips with the fact that my mother Lee had died several weeks ago, hearing the cyberframe speaking in her voice was rather unsettling. Demi and I were on our hooves in record time and we were through the door to the clinic, passing Red Tape before he reached the auto-clinic chamber. The foul stench of death was gone, and the whole room had a shiny, wet appearance. When we ran from the room, the clinic must have sterilized itself as soon as we had closed the door behind us. Through the viewing panel in the auto-clinic chamber I could see Lee's cyberframe, still held firmly in position by the clinic's manipulators. The rear casing of her head was still detached.
"Nice of you to drop in," the cyberframe said sarcastically. It was most unnerving to see the hairless silver robot pony speaking.
"Oh, be quiet," I hushed it.
"Boo!" it responded, miffed.
I turned to the panel, looking for the control that would release the machine that had been Lee from the manipulators of auto-clinic. Why, I didn't know. After all, Lee was gone, and this was just a crazy cyberframe with delusions of being alive. A message was flashing on the monitor, so I focused on that, calling Red Tape over to see it too. It read, "Subject deceased. Cyberframe sterilized. Error. Sapience detected. Unable to proceed."
Red Tape looked over the screen, hit a couple keys, and read the resultant page of information. "There goes my chance to ever apologize to Teresa. Maybe it is fitting that I am punished this way," he lamented. "At least I still have some hope with you."
"There is no way I'm forgiving the pony you were," I responded. Red Tape visibly drooped. "Nonetheless, I will forgive the pony you now are. Mind you, I still don't completely trust you. Time alone will tell if that ever changes." I could see a mixture of relief and delight show on Red Tape's face. He really did show his emotions. I didn't recall him being like this before. Knowing his former life, he probably put a lot of effort into suppressing the expression of them.
"Thank you, Anne. Thank you so much!" he enthused, suddenly hugging me. I remained still, neither returning the gesture, or rejecting his.
"Oh, give me a break!" the cyberframe interrupted. "I'm getting cramps strung up in here! Hurry up and let me out!"
So much for the mood. The cyberframe had our attention firmly back on the problem to hoof. "Clearly the auto-clinic thinks the cyberframe is still alive, as does the frame itself," I said to Red Tape. "I didn't realize these cyberframes had minds of their own."
"They do," Red Tape admitted. "Even yours does, but none of them had one as complex as the one installed in Teresa, er, Lee. Tell me, Anne, have you ever had your emergency life support mode activate?"
Emergency life support mode? I thought back to the time I had drained Rosemary's blood. My body seemed to have a will of its own. I could recall moving from corpse to corpse, looking for a suitable blood donor. I could remember biting into Rosemary's neck. "Yes, I think I have. I assume you mean my vampire mode."
Red Tape raised an eyebrow. "Vampire mode? Oh, the automated transfusion part of the system? I guess that is one way to put it. Another part of the system is the emergency blast to throw off any enemies, although that seems to have failed in most conversions. Controlling it is a simple secondary intelligence integrated into your cyberframe. It helps interpret the signals from your brain into the signals required to drive the cyberframe. If you are in danger of dying, it may take control. In some cases, these intelligences were also programmed to return the dead cyborg to their base of operations to avoid the enemy capturing the technology."
"Great," I muttered. "The emergency blast, as you put it, seems to work just fine. I keep blowing up my allies. So what's the chance of me going the same way as Lee?"
"Zero," Red Tape stated. "Teresa was the exception. She was shot through the brain. There was extensive damage with no chance of recovery until we integrated a piece of ancient technology into the remains of her brain. The Doc had been waiting for just such a patient to test it on. The piece in question appeared to have been made for exactly the purpose of connecting a body to an extremely damaged brain."
"And how would you know that?" I asked.
"Because of its position in the skull we removed it from," Red Tape answered, waving a hoof in the direction of the auto-clinic chamber. "Look in her head now."
"I can hear you, you know," the cyberframe commented. "Just hurry up and let me out of here. Oh, and I am not dead, clearly."
We ignored its complaints. It seemed incapable of understanding just what it was. As I approached the chamber door, the servos swung it open. Glancing across at Red Tape, I could see he was working the controls of the machine. Within moments, the manipulators that held Lee activated, moving the cyberframe around to give me a good view into its open skull. Mostly the brain casing was empty. Down at the bottom, where the brain stem would be was a small box-shaped item. From it thousands of silver, hair-like fibres had grown. Most were damaged and tangled, having been blasted by the auto-clinic's high pressure steam, however a significant number of them had twisted around each other, forming a strong cord that ran up to and penetrated Lee's horn, which was still attached to the metal skull. So that was how the thing had been able to use Lee's magic. It had merely interfaced to it, and coded itself an emulator to generate magical fingers. The conscious part of the construct wasn't even aware of this lower level functionality.
"That is a very alien looking device," I observed. "When we had her head x-rayed, the doc said something alien was in her brain. That thing is a lot more alien than I imagined it would be."
"It is indeed very alien," Red Tape agreed, "as in 'not of this world'. That thing is some sort of starmetal."
"Starmetal? As in the stuff that helped trigger wars?" I gasped.
"The zebras certainly thought so," Red Tape replied, "but it is matter, just like any other matter. I don't think it makes any difference where the stuff comes from. It is how it has been arranged that makes the difference. Magic was used in our power armor so that it could eat metal to repair itself. Yes, the same suits you are wearing a leg from. This alien thing doesn't use any form of magic we know of, but all the same, it eats, and grows. All of those fibers grew while it was inside Teresa's brain, many of them within moments of the doctor putting it in there. It ate the tools he was trying to use at the time, positioning itself in the optimal position, and wiring itself in."
"Freaky!" Demi stated.
"You should have seen it happening! I watched a memory orb Doc made of it occurring. It was weird enough for me to forget that it was my wife on whom the experiment was being performed," Red Tape admitted a little glumly.
"Do you mind?" the cyberframe asked. "Yes, I was shot in the head, and my grandfather installed a device to deal with the damage. As for what you are saying about empty skulls, I don't know what you are on about, because clearly I still have a brain. How else would I be able to think?"
The doctor was her grandfather? No, no. This was Loopy Lee the hewman I was talking to, not Lee the pony.
"Your grandfather?" I asked. "Grandpa just popped down to the corner store for a brain repair module?"
"Are you nuts?" the frame reprimanded me. "My grandfather was very respected scientist and inventor!"
"Red Tape, I think this is an argument we aren't going to win," I said.
"What shall we do with it?" he asked.
I thought back to the time I had shared with this identity. She wasn't a bad sort. Helpful, if deluded. Certainly she wasn't dangerous to us. "Can you get the machine to put her back together?" I asked.
"I can put her brain casing back together, but that is all," Red Tape replied. "Hang on a moment."
After a few minutes of Red tapping away at the controls, the manipulators activated, whirled the cyberframe back into the correct position, then reattached the rear of Lee's metal skull. Cyberframe, metal skeleton, Lee, whatever, I decided to keep on calling this thing Lee, for the sake of simplicity, if nothing else. Moments later the manipulators released her, tipping her out of the operating chamber.
"Finally! Thank you," Lee said, her metal hooves again on the floor, "though I have a mind to clip you around the ear for your cheek!" she said, lifting a hoof to shake at me. "Oh, shit. What happened to my leg?"
It occurred to me the whole time Lee had been held by the machine, she could not see any part of herself. Perhaps that was feeding her denial.
"Well, Lee dear, it seems my mother died. You remember that you are living in her body, right?" I said.
"And..." Lee said.
"Well, with her being dead and all, the machine kind of removed all of the flesh parts of her body. My mother is completely gone, except for her horn, which you somehow managed to maintain a grip on. All her tissue, flesh, blood, hair, whatever is all gone. You are just her cyberframe."
"Okay... so somehow my brain is trapped in this pony shaped cyberframe. My condolences for your loss, but at least now there are not two of us supposedly sharing this body," she said. "What would be really nice is if you could put my brain back in my own body."
I shook my head. This thing, as clever as it was, seemed incapable of grasping its true situation. Ultimately, shutting it down could be our only course of action. Would that be putting it out of its misery, or putting it out of ours? Would it even let us? If it wanted to stay functional, I was sure it would fight if we tried to deactivate it.
"We may be able to get you to your original body, "Red Tape interjected, "although, I don't think it will help any."
"What?" I almost shouted.
"It's in the lower section of this stable," Red Tape stated. "It is part of the secret of Stable Lab Four."
"I am so sorry," Saffron emphasized for the third time. He, Demi and I were sitting together on the floor of the lowest accessible level of the stable. I had been working on cutting through the plate that capped the wiring shaft to the hidden levels below, but was currently taking a break to eat and rest.
"I believe you. I really do," I responded. "Just accept it as something that happened in the past. Irrespective of who started the fight, Lee had just killed your friend. Then I nearly killed you. It's the wasteland. You were a Steel Ranger. Yes, it's sad. No, I'm not happy about it, but towards you, the new Saffron, I hold no grudge. It's time for us to move on."
"Oh, all right," Saffron quietly agreed. "Forgiveness is something I am not used to receiving."
"Remember the feeling. Keep it in mind if you ever find yourself in the position where you could forgive. Then maybe that pony will learn something about it, and be able to spread it further," I suggested.
"Conquer the wasteland with forgiveness? I like the concept," Saffron said. "Yes, I'll keep it in mind. So what's next?"
I shrugged. "Stable Four? We help the mares make a trading town?"
"I could live with that. It would certainly be easier if we don't have to move them to another location. What about getting some help for those who are crippled?"
"Either we convince a doctor from Friendship City to come to Stable Four, or we run excursions to Friendship City, taking a couple of mares with us each trip. The latter would probably be more successful, as it gives us access to a range of doctors with different skills, and to any equipment they may have."
"Could we bring any of the mares here?" Saffron asked, waving a hoof in the general direction of the auto-clinic.
"What? Convert them to 'borgs? I'd rather not, but I guess in the worst cases, we could get some prosthetics made, or at least build them better exoskeletons. What does Lana think of these ideas?"
"She loves her chair, and the speeds she can get to in it, but she would like to be able to walk again as well," Saffron replied. "Maybe we can head out to Friendship City with her first, as she is already travelling with us. That would allow us to evaluate the practicality of our idea."
"True, true," I agreed. I could see that working.
"How long before we are finished here?" Saffron asked, suddenly eager to get started.
"I've almost managed to cut through the panel that is covering the wiring shaft. Another session with my horn and we should be through. Then we can take Lee down into the lower levels, and see what the great secret of Stable Lab Four is," I replied. "Do you want to come down too?"
"My curiosity has been piqued!" Saffron said. "Yes, I'd like to see what the Ministry thought was so important. There is a murderous pod-pony down there that we should deal with in one way or another too."
"Yeah, I know. Let him out? Throw him out to fend for himself? Shoot him here and now?" I pondered.
"And each of those options have their own problems. I'm in favor of starting our campaign of forgiveness after we deal with this one," Saffron commented darkly.
"Weld his pod shut, and cut off his interface?" I suggested. "Solitary confinement for the rest of his life, which could be rather long. Yes, that is awfully sadistic of me."
"He did that to you," Demi interjected.
"What? When?" I asked, wondering what Demi could mean.
"His mandate led to you being taken from your own body and welded into a cybernetic prison," she stated. "Yes, it would be nasty to return the favor, but he does deserve it! All the same, I would not suggest you do it, because it would eat away at your conscience until you eventually came back here to free him. Something more permanent is in order here. Forgive me for saying so, but you can be quite ruthless when you are protecting others, but when it comes to sins that have been committed against you, you start moralizing!"
"It is hard to be impartial about yourself," I admitted. "Some days I know I am upholding what is right. Some days, I wonder if I'm a raider with delusions of righteousness."
"If you were a raider, I would have shot you myself," Saffron stated.
"Can't argue with that, can you Anne?" Demi stated. And that was that. The conversation stopped, and after a few moments of silence, I rose, and walked back to the panel to continue cutting through it with my magic.
In theory, I could use my magic to make an infinitely narrow cut in the material for a minimal expenditure of my energy. Unfortunately, it didn't work that way, because such a fine cut would have to be perfect so that the cut section could slide out from the piece from which it was cut. In reality I had to make a cut that was several millimeters wide to compensate for any irregularities. That the covering plate was a couple of hooves thick, and was a composite of metal and magically enhanced fibers didn't help, but eventually the last of the fibers gave up their protective spell and let me sever them. With the pony sized section finally free, I levitated it out, and placed it behind me, out of the way. Seeing all the layers of it with my eyes for the first time, I wondered if it would have been quicker to cut through the solid rock.
A little more energy was spent on casting a light ball spell, which I lowered into the darkness. The shaft was quite deep, perhaps four storeys, and three of its walls were lined with the various cables that connected the lower areas of the stable with the upper. The fourth had a ladder. Ugg. I wondered if I could get Red Tape to levitate me down to the secret level, saving me the awkward climb. It struck me that all this secrecy was really a joke. The stable had been sealed, yet they had areas that were kept secret from some of the inhabitants. The secondary reactors were down there, which practically announced the existence of the lower levels to anyone involved with servicing the power system. Other inconsistencies bugged me too. Perhaps it was only meant to keep the lower areas secret from outsiders, and since then an attempt had been maintained to keep it from those most likely to talk, the young, as a contingency for if the stable opened. Whatever the case, I was going to be finding out for myself soon. Red Tape could have told me, but he was having a little fun, telling me to find out for myself.
"Time to fetch the others," I announced.
"Down there, huh?" Lee asked. The robot that had formerly been my mother still sounded the same, even if she looked nothing like my mother, perhaps apart from general proportions.
"Indeed," Red Tape replied. "That's where you originated, or more correctly, where you were discovered."
"Yay," she chimed, then jumped.
We let out a collective gasp, thinking of the drop to the bottom, but when we looked, we saw she was descending the ladder with amazing ease, her hooves sticking to the rungs with magic. So even without any other part of the original pony unicorn remaining, the starmetal thing inside the cyberframe's head had maintained control over Lee's horn, and was still using it to generate her virtual fingers.
When it was safe to do so, I climbed through the opening and onto the ladder. These things were not really designed for hooves, and were only ever installed in places where they would be seldom used, and then only in exceptional circumstances. I guess this counted as such a circumstance. Before we had begun climbing, Red Tape had lowered a string of lamps into the shaft, so that was making our descent easier; the rungs were visible! Lee was making better progress than I, and I heard her step onto the floor below. Judging from the sound, it was steel, and relatively thin. Thank Celestia for that! I didn't fancy having to cut through another plate like the last one. Above I heard first Demi, and then Red Tape join us on the ladder.
I stepped off the ladder onto the steel floor, finding the area not as cramped as I had expected. Lee was waiting to one side, clear of the shaft. Bringing up my light spell, I shone the light behind Lee, and was delighted to see the outline of a service door at the end of a short corridor. Perhaps getting out of the shaft would be as simple as turning a handle! Walking around Lee, I approached the door, and gave the handle a tug. It didn't budge. Oh, of course. Why would my life suddenly get easier! Pressing my horn against the door, I let my magic poke around inside it until I found the locking bar. It was a standard lock, not a high security one, so it was easy enough to bend out of the way. The door unlocked with a satisfying clunk, and I pushed it open, letting in light from the room beyond.
Demi floated down, gently landing at the foot of the ladder, courtesy of Red Tape's magic. She stepped clear to allow Red Tape to step off the bottom rung. Above we could hear Saffron begin his descent. He had left his armor on the surface, as he would not have fit through the gaps to get down here while wearing it. Demi and Red Tape joined us at the door. Beyond we could hear the sounds usually associated with a living stable: the hums, vibrations and occasional clunks.
Without waiting for Saffron, we stepped out into a scene of chaos. In the dim light we could see numerous bones and other garbage scattered about, including many half eaten ration pack wrappers; yes, the wrappers were half eaten. I recognized some of the garbage as books with chewed covers and missing pages. There were even pieces of old barding that appeared to have been snacked upon.
"Sweet Celestia!" I exclaimed. "There were ponies down here that survived the explosion!"
I took a step closer to the first of the bones, levitating it up for closer examination. As damaged as it was, it was recognizable as bone from a pony's leg. It was cracked and had been gnawed, any bone marrow sucked from within.
"This is bad," Red Tape stated in a hushed voice, observing what I had just realized. This was Stable Four level horror, or worse!
As we stood there contemplating our next step, a scruffy, emaciated unicorn mare stepped into view. Her blue-grey mane and tail hung in greasy strands, frequently tangled and knotted. Her coat, a patchy combination of grey, brown and rust red, clung to her frame as if there was no flesh behind it. The rust red most certainly was dried blood. Her pale eyes, wider than they should have been naturally, stared at us. Before we could offer any assistance, she spoke.
"Look, baby, food!" she announced, staring at us with a hunger that went beyond lust. Her horn flashed, and a wrapped bundle was levitated from her back, and so carefully placed on one of the many nearby pieces of stable equipment. The bundle began to move and cry the moment it was set down. Good grief, the mad mare had a foal!
Immediately, the mare launched herself at us, or more specifically, Demi. My horn flared, as I levitated Demi up and out of the way of the charging mare. The youngster had the presence of mind to kick the horn of the mad mare as she passed between myself and Red Tape. Stunned, the mare crashed through the doorway behind us and into the far wall of the shaft as we scattered, running into the room. That must have surprised Saffron, who was still up the shaft on the ladder. I lowered Demi onto one of the higher pieces of equipment, then swung around, readying my pushing spell. Of course my weapons were all up on the surface, their bulk having prevented me carrying them down here. The mare regained her footing quickly, and burst through the doorway, this time aiming for Red Tape. I struck with my spell, throwing her hard against the wall, trying to pin her there, to no avail, as she fired the same spell back at me, knocking me hoof over head.
A small voice screamed, "Waaaaaaah!" Damn, that foal was noisy! It was preventing me from taking audio cues from my adversary.
Two gunshots rang out as I slid to a stop on my back. I sprang to my hooves in time to see the mad mare lunging at Demi, who was again aiming her pistol. Demi fired two more shots, at point blank range, the sprays of blood indicating her aim had been good. The mad mare shook her head and lunged again, unphased by her wounds.
"Shit! She's a 'borg!" Red Tape yelled, throwing some nondescript piece of techno-garbage at her. It bounced off her with no effect. I had already realized she was a cyborg. The mare was all skin and cyberframe. Cyberframes did not look like skeletons.
I blasted her with my spell again, this time not bothering to try and pin her, as I knew what the result would be. Instead, I charged my horn so I would be ready to throw her again the moment she was up. This time she ran straight at me. Perhaps she recognized me as the greatest threat, perhaps I merely looked as tasty as the other two. I let loose with the full strength of my spell, throwing her backwards with such force that cabinets of the machinery she hit buckled. Shaking her head, she stood, and stared at me again, then across at her screaming infant.
"Waaaaaaah!"
"Do not worry, baby. Mother will have milk for you soon," she called. She didn't have milk now? I dreaded what the foal looked like.
That was when the silver missile struck. It struck with such force that the mad mare split in two, her rear driven back into the damaged machinery, while her front spun towards me, throwing out a combination of blood, oil, and sparks. I pushed with my magic again, deflecting her to one side, where she slid to a stop. She weakly struggled then lay there coughing and gasping. I approached her, remaining ready to flee or strike as needed. With her lying still, my brain was able to imagine what she must have once looked like when she was healthy, her mane blue and her coat an even pale grey... I knew this mare. She had been one of my childhood playmates.
"Sea Mist," I said.
"Waaaaaaah! Waaaaaaah!"
Sea Mist looked at me, a little clarity showing in her mad eyes. "A..." She coughed again. "Anne..." she managed, "please look after my child."
Her eyes went dull, and her form relaxed, the rate of fluid loss dropping as her systems shut down. I glanced across at where she had placed the foal. It was further along the same bank of equipment on which Demi was standing.
"Waaaaaaah! Waaaaaaah!"
"Demi, could you deal with the foal please?" I asked over its crying.
"Okay, Anne," Demi answered, walking along the top of the equipment towards the foal. I looked back at the half of the mare lying before me, then across at the other part of her embedded in the mangled equipment. The silver missile was embedded there too, and was struggling to free itself. Lee. The missile had been Lee. How the hell had she managed to move that fast?
"Waaaaaaah! "WaaaSNAP." The foal was instantly silent. All eyes turned to Demi, who was standing there with one of her hooves on it.
"Holy Luna, you didn't kill it did you?" Red Tape almost choked. Demi just flicked the bundle aside with her hoof, and it thumped onto the floor.
"Sweet Celestia, what have you done?" Red Tape gasped.
I can't say what was going though my mind. I don't think anything was going through my mind I was too shocked to think. All the same, I did not think Demi was capable of such a horrid action. I thought I knew her, but then again, I had not known her long. She had been an angsty ball of concealed fury and barely hidden hate when I had found her only weeks ago. I had risked my life to save hers, and now she had casually killed a foal. Sweet Celestia, what had I done in rescuing her? I started towards the fallen bundle.
"What do you take me for?" Demi snapped back. "All I did was turn the bloody noisy thing off," she said.
"You don't turn foals off, you stupid filly," Red Tape spat.
"That thing wasn't a foal," Demi spat back, "It was a fucking doll!"
My heart skipped. A doll? Please be a doll. Demi isn't stupid. It must be a doll. I quickly used my magic to unwrap the tiny bundle, and levitated the limp form from within. Drawing it to me, I could see that it was in rough condition, and missing a lot of its coat. Its eyes were crazed and cracked, and there were tears in its skin. Demi was quite right. This thing was a doll used to give youngsters their first taste of parenthood. As I tossed it over towards Red Tape, the bloody obvious occurred to me.
"Training doll," I stated. "Female cyborgs are sterile. The poor mare must have anthropomorphized the thing."
Red Tape stared at the battered doll for almost a minute before looking up at Demi. "Sorry love. I so didn't want to lose any more lives to this cursed place." He levitated it across to the remains of the mad mare, and placed it against her chest, wrapping it within her forelegs. "Well, that's a bummer. It really puts a damper on any enthusiasm I had."
Some thumps and bangs drew our attention to where Lee had hit the mare. Her rear hooves were failing to find purchase on anything as she struggled to free herself. Eventually she fell still, and from the mangled equipment came her frustrated voice, "Could someone please help me out of this damn machine?"
We stood around the small mound of soil, wondering what exactly to do next. Below we had buried Sea Mist. She was lying next to others from the stable in the graveyard Red Tape had established when he had pulled the first corpses of the stable explosion from the collapsed structure. The graveyard also had several empty graves waiting for others yet to be freed from under the rubble. One we had filled with the damaged bones of the victims of Sea Mist's hunger. Who they belonged to, we would never know. Had she killed them? Quite probably. That is why we had chosen a grave site away from where we laid Sea Mist. We had cleaned her up, reattached her rear to her front, and dressed her to disguise the great tear in her flesh that would never heal. When we had laid her in the grave, we had placed her beloved "foal" next to her chest, and wrapped it in her loving embrace. Satisfied that she was as comfortable as we could make her, we had slowly covered her with soil. Atop we placed a simple grave stone on which I had etched her name, and a likeness of her and her foal, had each been healthy, and... well... alive. A few words were said in her memory.
And I felt like a charlatan.
Maybe we had helped her. Maybe we hadn't. How could we have brought a crazy cannibal back to sanity and some degree of normalcy? I didn't know. Even if we had, her guilt would most likely have destroyed her. Now we were going through these actions of making her corpse feel loved. She was gone, dead, beyond caring. In reality, all of this ceremony was for us, the ones who had killed her. It was to make Red Tape feel better for being involved in the whole horrid program in the first place. It was for Demi and I, for our parts in killing her. Was it for Lee? I didn't think so. The soulless robot that she had become needed no justification for her actions. Lee, or perhaps it was Teresa, had died weeks ago. Her soul had already gone to wherever pony souls went. The thing we had left still believed it was alive, that it had its own soul, but I can't say I shared the sentiment. If it wasn't for that starmetal in her head, it could have been her we had buried instead.
Finally it was Lee that broke the silence. "I can see the irony," she stated, as if she had been reading my thoughts. She was standing upright again. She had donned an old buttonless blue lab-coat she had found somewhere, as well as a scraggly black wig that had been salvaged from the ruins of the stable years before, and had laid unwanted in Red Tape’s shop since. She looked a little less freaky like that.
"Time to call it a day," Red Tape said.
"Yeah. Clean up. Food. Sleep," I agreed.
And so ended the day. I was none the wiser as to the official secret of Stable Lab Four, even if it was offering up secrets we would rather not know. The doors that separated the place the mare had lived from the big secret were closed, and locked, probably by the pod pony. As for the pod pony himself, he was in that grave with the other damaged bones. We had found his pod, smashed open, and splattered with dried blood. At least I didn't have to worry about what to do with him.
Footnote: Keep working at it, another level isn't far away. Perk: None.