Chapter 198 - Cooking

"Here we are," Heize said and stopped inside the red circle that she marked on this giant map earlier.

"What level?" Gem asked the moment she saw the stairs, even tried actualizing it but her control was just not that well inside Solitude yet.

"Lowest level. Oh God, I hope she's okay. I left her in the cold so I didn't have to decide whether she should die or not!" Heize said and then cleared her throat after realizing that her emotions were getting the best of her again.

"Are you sure she's here?" Gem asked which made Heize's heart beat faster.

"I left her here, but I don't know where she is now," Heize said while feeling the bunch of cropped cords behind her spine. She was able to locate each and every one of her subordinates in the outside world because of it, and although her cords were not just simple wire threads that could be cut by a scissor, it seemed like teleporting to another dimension were its limits that were yet to be studied.

"Well, you better make sure she's there or I won't come back here to bring you outside. Have fun spending our time here as my prisoner. Oh, and while you're at it, you can also take this time to reflect on your past actions, especially to us. You deserve a time alone. See you soon," Gem said and started dissolving into the air without warning. 

But just as she was about to completely disappear, Heize started to panic and overthink the situation about being left in this place where she had zero control of.

"Wait!! I may be able to look for Petunia if you let me come with you! And besides, isn't this enough security for you already?" Heize emphasized the collar on her neck and jumped closer to Gem to grab her legs.

"I don't want to be left in here alone," she said with teary eyes.

"F-Fine. Bring her outside with me, Mr. Gemini," Gem said while thinking about what might have happened if she left Heize in here alone.

Will she still be here when she comes back or will she be gone and never to be found again? And although Gem was sure that Solitude was just an empty representation of the real world, she was still unsure about leaving things inside as it was proven by her several times that the things she left inside just suddenly disappeared and was never to be found again.

As if there was an automatic cleaner inside Solitude that cleanses the place every time she'd go back to the real world.

"God, you and your pleading eyes, it's just like Petunia's…" Gem whispered to herself before they completely disperse from Solitude and into the real world.

"Hey!" 

"Ahhh!" Gem and Heize subsequently screamed after realizing that they were in the air and were about to land on a spiral staircase.

"Ouch! That hurt!" Heize complained after bouncing her back on the rails and landing on the stairs, thank goodness she landed on the stairs instead of the open space that leads directly to the lowest level that would most likely crack her skull open.

"Let's go," Gem said after landing in a superhero pose inside a single tile.

And without even waiting for Heize's response, she immediately took the cat in her arms and ran downwards as fast as she could.

"I can't believe we landed in the middle of this spiral staircase, I thought I already made it clear that we needed to be in the basement immediately?" Gem thought to herself while running.

[It is in my deepest apologies that such inconvenience happened master, that is why in your next lesson, I will prioritize the use of levels and how you could practice your precision in disappearing and appearing from one place to another, master,] Mr. Gemini said even though Gem was not thinking of him in particular with her complaint.

"Nevermind, let's just get this over with," Gem said and prepared herself for a full stop after seeing the end of the staircase.

"Watch out!" Karizze shouted after noticing the unfolding speedy event in front of her eyes, with Lizzie still trying to hug Poker, a.k.a. Mr. Teddy bear and Gem almost ran into them, Karizze could not do anything else than shout.

But thanks to that, Mr. Poker was able to push little Lizzie away and catch Gem with his soft stomach which Gem did not expect to happen at all. She was planning to run around the thick brown pole in the first place to decrease her speed instead of forcing herself for a full stop, but thanks to what Mr. Poker the bear did, Gem and Heize were able to stop from that speed ride safely and Lizzie too.

"Petunia!" Gem said after noticing a cat inside the brown pole's arms.

"Wait, arms?" Gem thought to herself and noticed the brown bear huffing at her for bumping with its tummy.

"Oh, a bear," Gem said in realization and stepped back, hiding her hands behind her to try and form an energy slime ball that she could use as a defense and even squinted at the bear while trying to observe it.

But the moment she realized that the bear was not harmful to Petunia at all, Gem let her guard down and was shocked when Heize just suddenly grabbed the energy slime ball from her hand while seemingly trying to do something behind her.

"Hey! I thought you're hurt?!" Gem said and was immediately shushed by Heize who was actually brewing a potion on the spot for Petunia with her tools that just came out of nowhere. 

"Wait, why are there two Petunias?!" Karizze said while dragging Lizzie away from them.

"Are you Petunia's friend?" Miss Nabi said after spectating the commotion with a dark look at the other cat who was busy in her own world.

"Uhuh? And you are?" Gem said while looking directly at Miss Nabi's eyes.

"As expected, Petunia's members must really be on another level to exactly pinpoint where my voice was coming from, no matter how bizarre it was to encounter a talking butterfly for the first time," Miss Nabi thought to herself before going back to her conversation with Gem.

"I'm Miss Nabi-"

"Our boss," the bear suddenly said, which turned everyone's head towards him.

"He can also talk?" Gem asked but Miss Nabi shook her head. 

"He just likes saying that human phrase whenever he can," Miss Nabi said and glanced at Poker who was just sporting a poker face the whole time.

"And I'm Shelby, can you introduce me to her?" Shelby the squirrel said to Miss Nabi, ecstatic to see a celebrity for the first time in her life but Miss Nabi slightly shook her head with an apologetic look.

"Maybe next time," Miss Nabi said in animal language with a small smile to Shelby before going back to Gem.

"What's happening to her? Is she sick?" Gem asked with a worried look at Petunia who was seemingly suffering from something on the inside.

"We don't know what happened, but she was suffering from loss of memories ever since she came to our village. We tried helping her but she would always forget who we were, even bringing her back here where we thought she would finally be able to reconnect with her friends but who thought that fake one was causing chaos around here as well after all?" Miss Nabi said while shooting daggers at Heize with her eyes.

"Don't worry, she's here to help Petunia," Gem said even though she could not believe the phrase on a hundred percent scale herself.

"Is she the one who took our father? Where did you bring the commander you fake furry!?" Karizze said and stood up aggressively, even pulling Lizzie to hide behind her back while she tried to intimidate the fake Petunia.

But instead of explaining herself, Heize only kept silent and continued on with her work.

"I'm trying to help Petunia here, okay? So if you have any issues with me let's just talk about it later, I need to focus here," Heize said with a stern adult voice which made Karizze shut her mouth and follow her instructions.

"I can't believe we still haven't found our father and even taking orders from the same person who took him," Karizze said while helping Heize cook the potion.

[Is she doing something helpful or not?] Gem sent to her team a clip of the ingredients that Heize was using with her potion which Fily confirmed was the same ingredients that Petunia was collecting and lost just to help Monica.

[Okay then, she still hasn't said anything about where the commander is but he's not here, only his kids are, the same people who tried to hurt me.]

[Okay, we'll be on our way now,] Fily sent silently which made Gem focus back on watching Heize do her thing to help Petunia voluntarily, which was very suspicious to Gem, thus her lack of trust with what she was doing.