Lich's consciousness rose like a bubble from the black and murky deeps of sleep. He turned onto his right side and decided to close his eyes once more until aroused by one of the others. There was an unusually strong sense of Mana in the area - that which he picked up immediately, and also, his head was throbbing. Not just a small pulse, but as if his brain was beating like his heart against the inside of his skull.
"What, by Undine…" he muttered, "It can't be…"
It was the twin stab of pain on his stomach and thigh and a voice in his head saying "45 degrees, 4 inches" that concluded that theory - like a small, beaming child saying, "Hello, Daddy! I had a bi-i-i-g adventure!"
He ripped it from his belt and, with a flash of pulsating sky blue and a metallic clatter, he threw it onto the floor and saw it skid and hit the nearby wall of the damaged Sanctuary: silver with a faded gold inner edge from cutting the air particles, six golden "boxes" in a pattern of two-one-one-two and the bend housing a multifaceted red jewel. It was none other than the Xol'Arago, the Boomerang of Light, the Cyan Arc.
Or was it?
"Lich, what are you doing?" Vector asked, reluctantly awoken from his sleep.
Lich decided not to take any chances - he'd taken too many too much in his time on Zolott. He was not sure whether or not that was the real, genuine article. However, on cue, a screen projected itself from the jewel - the friction from sliding across the floor had been enough to rub the jewel facet for recent pictures and video clips. And on the screen was none other than his good friend Multex, somehow covered in metal.
He had shown Multex the Cyan Arc's many features - it was no wonder that the Agent considered it a hyperspeed Swiss-army-knife - and Lich, being his friend, gave him the ability to record pictures and clips. And one of them was now saying: "Hello, Lich. Gee, this thing packs a mighty shock. You may be wondering why this has suddenly returned to you. I put it into your belt last night while you were asleep after Havering basically gave it to me. Never mind the how or the why, just that it's happened."
Multex appeared to have a look of being in momentary pain, and by its looks it wasn't the Boomerang's protection system, but mental pain.
"Havering's grown more powerful, Lich. Don't take him alone. I also advise you to tell Smokey that as well - knowing him, he'll let it all rush to his head and just take him on. The way to defeat him is to get everyone to attack him at once. His weakness is - ARGH!"
The message suddenly cut out - either the mental pain had got too much, or the energy to ignore the voltage had died out.
Lich walked over and picked up the Cyan Arc. Instantly, the known feeling of Lich's and the Boomerang's power fusing together occurred, and it felt right - had there been some flaw, that was where it would be picked up.
"What's going on?" Tripper asked as a cyan streak flashed over his head. Instinctively he grabbed his blaster (by this time, Lich had caught the Boomerang again) and attempted to fire - his blaster gave a fizzle and a pop-like noise, and nothing came out of the end.
"Everything's back in order - I am once more the Guardian of the Cyan Arc," Lich answered, smiling, putting the Boomerang back in his belt.
"Well, that's good to see," Vector said. "Perhaps you could use it to find Ark?"
Suddenly, the smile was wiped from his face. He turned his head away from them, covered it in his right hand and held his left palm up to them, then shuffled away and sat in a corner, burying his head in his knees.

Lich's sadness was not brought about by Ark's sudden return…though that was not fully proven. It was the fact that Ark had changed. He could sense it - Ark was not coming up to him and greeting him, as would be expected. Lich had played the scene through his head many, many times: he would be doing something menial, and there would be a knock on the door, and he'd open it to find Ark leap into his arms, fall over backwards on the floor and Ark say, "I've found you."
Now they were on a different planet, and something else would have to happen instead. However, it wouldn't happen. It was not like the Ark he knew to hide from his own brother. Lich would be a huge neon sign to Ark: the signs were all present of his being in the locality.
Maybe it wasn't Ark? Maybe it was some new threat Havering had put on him?
Don't be stupid, a voice in his mind said. That bandanna of his is proof.
"Mana Spirit?" He whispered.
He has returned. You must find him before Havering does.

Lich looked up and found Tripper dismantling his shotgun. He didn't know how much time had passed - maybe he'd even fallen asleep - and received a small fright as he found Vector beside him.
"So Ark's alive then, after all these years, eh, Lich?"
"Yes…" Lich replied in no more than a mutter.
"So how about I go find him. I could cover the entire planet in two days."
If anyone was going to find Ark, it would be him, Lich decided, and replied, "Vector, I don't think…"
But Vector was nowhere around except for a sonic boom that shook more plaster dust down from the ceiling.
"He has a habit of doing that," Tripper said after the shockwaves had receded.
"So I noticed," Lich muttered.
"Hey, lighten up. You remind me of someone I met in my time smuggling."
Lich shrugged. He didn't feel like asking about Tripper's past, he didn't want anything except to be by himself, very much alone - and for the Ark he had expected to appear at the door.
Tripper gave a reminiscent sigh, and started, "That was when I was on Yoshin, great place…"
Lich turned himself off immediately, and only replied with the odd nod or "Yes," "Uh huh," "Right," or "OK". Would he have to put up with two whole days of this boring mutant?
It must have been half an hour before he released a sigh, and another sonic boom announced Vector's return - a chunk of plaster bounced off Lich's nose, causing him to wince as Vector screeched to a halt.
"Hey Lich!" Vector yelled. "I know where Ark is!"
Before Lich had even realised it, he was grabbing on to Vector's shirt and asking imploringly and hurriedly, "Where is he? Tell me now!"
"Heyyy! Take it easy on the threads! This is the only shirt I have," Vector said, pushing Lich away. "Ark’s at the Protoss base. I could give you a lift."
Lich looked at Vector incredulously. He judged by the speed which Vector considered "normal", and the enormous G-force that it entailed, Lich replied, "I think I’ll go myself. I don’t feel like getting speed sick."
With that, Lich got on his feet, brushed some plaster off his arms, and walked determinedly out the door.

The smouldering leaves on the forest floor were a good indication of where Vector had gone. Fortunately, the air was too cold and a morning mist filled the forest, not giving the leaves a chance to set the forest ablaze. He sniffed the air and his nostrils were filled with the smell of the wet forest, mixed in with the leaves on the ground. As he walked, his arm brushed against the Boomerang, giving Lich a re-assurance of protection if trouble were to cross his path.
And, sure enough, trouble came.
He did not know what was standing before him - more, should he say, hovering before him. It was four small flames about head height above the ground, rotating around a single eye in the middle. It blinked at him before it became very agitated, and shot out a flame from his eye, which floated towards him at a very quick pace. In one deft move he pulled his Boomerang out from the loop, and was spinning it before him, creating a cyan "shield", as he liked to call it. The flame disintegrated as it hit the Boomerang, and as Lich stopped, the four flames came together over the creature's eye, and disappeared.
Lich looked around him quickly, trying to see where the flame-thing would appear. A sort of gurgling noise happened behind his back, and Lich turned to see the
creature re-appear, and spin its flames.
"Ah, there you are," Lich smirked, and threw the Boomerang, cleaving the creature into two pieces, which subsequently gave a small explosion. Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and a ball - or what looked like a ball within a ball of light appeared. Lich was surprised to see this happen, and was even more so when a voice echoed inside his head, "Havering is stealing the souls of all dead beings from the planet! Help us, or the planet will be destroyed!"
The ball of light then seemed to implode with an upward rain of what seemed to be light crystals, disappearing at head height.
"What scheme is Havering up to now," Lich muttered, then re-adjusted his belt. "Ark first, Havering later."
Lich continued his walk along the burn marks of Vector's recent travel. Little did he realise that about twenty feet behind him, there was a movement of air as a cloaked robot followed his every move.

Soon enough, he was standing beside the river he had swum down from the caves beneath the Aurorium. He could see a golden spire of some building of the Protoss base down the path on the other side of the stream, and saw that Vector's tracks had doubled back on themselves. How could Vector be so convinced that Ark went there? If so, Markior would have surely sent a telepathic message to him announcing his arrival. Lich decided whether or not he would prefer a swim across the river or hitch a ride on Leviathan. He settled on the swim, as it was something he liked to do, and jumped down onto the bank immediately beside the river - and sank up to his knees in mud. He sighed before he bent over, stuck his arms in the mud and grabbed his thongs. He wrenched them off his feet so as not to lose them - he was rather attached to that pair as they had taken him to many places - and held them in his hands as he stared face to face with a periscope that had emerged from the river. He gave a jump in surprise and slipped, landing on his backside so that he was now covered up to his stomach in the brown goo.
"Why must I always make a fool of myself in front of a camera…" he muttered, before he scooped some mud with his left hand and threw it at the lens.
The periscope lowered itself into the water, and a patch of brown floated downstream out of a ripple, before the periscope re-emerged, clean.
"I'm sick of this," he said to the periscope as he pulled the Boomerang out of the mud, shook it and threw. The Boomerang cleaved through the stem of the camera, before it hit the water and disappeared under with a small cloud of steam and a "paff!" sound - the mud had blocked its censor that guaranteed its return.
Lich looked at his empty right hand, and after putting the thongs into his Mana Storage, he was about to dive under the water before he saw that the exposed wires of the periscope were definitely live and were arcing into the water before him. He threw some mud at the stem, covering the wires and sufficiently grounding them. Satisfied, he waded out as quickly as he could - the mud on the bottom provided no means for easy walking - took a deep breath and dived under the water.
The morning light illuminated the water around him, and a shiny blob fading into the murkier depths of the river was below him. He swam down towards it, but his lungs were trying to explode, and he had no choice but to surface and gasp for air. He was about to try again when he remembered what he had in his Storage: his diving gear, with which he explored the haunting ruin of Dinokan.
He swam across the river to the other bank, which was fortunately not muddy, and got all the equipment out of the storage. He struggled with his flippers on his now reasonably clean feet, donned the weight belt, strapped the oxygen tanks around his shoulders and attached the goggles. He flopped his way out to waist depth, before he pulled the nostril piece over his nose and placed the mouthpiece accordingly, and let himself sink into the depths of the river.
Lich's goggles provided a much clearer picture of all around him, and the sound of his movement through the water made a sound pleasant enough to make him forget about Ark for the time being. He went deeper and deeper, before he discovered the river formed a deep basin in this particular area, and saw the Boomerang waggle from side to side as it sank. He increased his speed and reached out for the Cyan Arc, wedging one of its points between his inside and middle fingers. He slid his hand down it as he sank, and rubbed a few muddy patches off it, sending particles of dirt upward onto his goggles. He put the Boomerang back in the belt, and sent the back of his hand over his goggles, and saw what was, undoubtedly, an entrance to an underwater cave at the very bottom.
He made sure of it by rubbing his goggles one more time, and set off towards it, his curiosity getting the better of him. He saw the encased wire of the periscope going down the wall of the basin and into the hole, which fueled his curiosity even further. As Lich got to the bottom of the basin, he turned about face, as the hole led backwards, and swum down it. Pretty soon the water got dark, so the Boomerang was, again, pulled from his belt and the facet on the jewel for illumination was rubbed.
The wire continued along the floor of this hole, which twisted and turned, rose and fell, contracted and expanded. There were a few narrower parts where Lich had to practically scrape his stomach along the rock at the bottom for him to get under an overhang.
Soon enough, a light was visible in the tunnel in front of him, where the tunnel would form a small pool. He could see the near vertical edge in front of him, and as he approached it, he turned the illumination off, and set his feet on the bottom.
It was another cave tunnel, and he appeared to be in the middle of a curve in it. Flourescent light tubing was in regular intervals along its ceiling, and a stream flowed along the floor into the pool. Lich loved to follow things, so he took off all the diving equipment and returned it to Mana Storage.
He is here, Mana Spirit told him.
Lich nodded, and clambered out of the pool. He retrieved his thongs, washed them in the water, then put them on his feet. He started to walk along the cave, in the stream itself, which twisted and turned. Lich decided to be like a child: where it meandered, instead of cutting across the cave floor, he followed the stream's bends.
If he was in some cave system that obviously looked occupied, how come no warning sirens had started to announce his intrusion? He thought about it as he walked along the narrow stream, steadily going uphill, clutching his Boomerang for protection and self-assurance.
He decided to stop for a moment and sense any presences around him. He closed his eyes and "felt" the Mana Field around him, seeking any hills or mountains on the otherwise flat plain of the Field.
There was something fifty feet behind him. He turned and ran back, ready to throw the Boomerang if needed.
He sensed the presence again, and it was right next to him - he could not see it, an obvious sign of cloaking. He reached out and touched something metallic - it was small, and he could hear the slight whistle of its propulsion systems as it hovered. The object was trying to free itself from his grip, and Lich grabbed it with his other hand, forced it onto the floor and knelt on it. It was rather disconcerting seeing himself kneel five inches above the ground, but Lich decided to continue feeling the object with his hands.
It was round, flat on top, and at one end found what exactly what he thought he would - a camera lens. He kept his fingers surrounding the outside of the camera piece so he knew where it was as he brought the Boomerang around and rammed one of its points into the glass. A satisfying tinkle and electrical buzz occurred, and Lich could see the fragments on the ground. He continued feeling around the flying camera, and found what appeared to be buttons. He pressed one, and was suddenly shocked by a few thousand volts of electricity, passing out.

"Open your eyes," a commanding voice told him, and instantly he did.
Lich was strapped into a chair, with metal cuffs around his neck, wrists, chest, thighs and ankles. He noticed he was minus his belt with his Pokémon, and instantly he thought where his Boomerang was.
Then he looked up and was staring into two eyes - Yoshi eyes - with jade-green pupils. The top of one was slightly covered by a pointy, thick dread lock of blond hair. As his eyes traveled further, he saw that the Yoshi had magenta skin, and where it was white it was pallor from the lack of sun. His vision was blurred as tears welled and overflowed, and Lich cried,
"Ark! Ubarano to opa gete, re iolo to tasan."
"But you have found me," Ark Beruga Yoshi von Kippo replied in their childhood tongue, Pandoran. "Parano, Dyluck. Sorry that it all has to be this way. I suppose you're looking for this?"
Ark held up Lich's belt with his Pokéballs on, and Lich's mouth gaped.
"They're useful, aren't they? Perhaps a bit too useful for you, so we'd better separate them. And I suppose you're worried about this?"
Ark clicked his fingers and a robot with heavy rubber padding came forward. It held a claw out with the Boomerang of Light in its grasp, which then bent downwards and deposited the Boomerang in Lich's lap, where he could not possibly reach it. Lich's eyes followed the robot as it returned to where it came, and as he looked around some more he found robots pointing shocking devices at him.
"You always loved your robotics, didn't you, Ark?"
"Certainly have," Ark smiled nastily. "I have learnt much from my masters."
"Your masters?!" Lich asked, shocked.
"Oh yes. The Dark Lich himself, and, of course, Sir Pseudo Havering."
"You're working for them?!!"
"Don't be so surprised, brother. They've given me what I want. A robotics laboratory, which you're now sitting in the middle of, Mana powers, and my vengeance."
"Your…vengeance?"
"Lich, what are the three rules of robotics?"
Lich closed his eyes briefly and concentrated on what his younger brother had told him once, in their youth.
"Robots…must not harm any person…"
"Good…" Ark encouraged.
"…They must protect people…and when all that is fulfilled, they must protect themselves."
"Very good," Ark clapped sarcastically. "But my robots have one more rule governing their behaviour. Anything called Dyluck Thanatos Yoshi von Kippo is a threat to my person and must be terminated now."
Lich was in a state of shock as to what his brother had uttered.
"What?! You are denying me as a person? You…you want to kill me?"
Suddenly, Ark was holding a metal spear, its point directed at his throat. Lich gulped. He saw that it was made of a black metal, as opposed to the lightness of his Boomerang.
"That's right, Dy. Or should I call you Lich?"
"I told you to never call me that, Ark."
A bead of sweat trickled down the right side of his skull.
"Does it look as if I care? After all, you're not a person."
"Why?!" Lich shouted.
"If you were a person," Ark said, his voice starting to quaver, "you would have jumped back in the river and swum after me."
Lich looked at his brother and saw a tear flow down his white cheek.
"A person shows compassion to others, and a person protects those who share his blood."
"Ark," Lich said calmly, though undertones of anger were still there, "you said, and I remember because it haunts my dreams, 'No, Lich, I can help myself! I don't need yours!' And you called me Lich, damn you! Then, a sudden gush of water separated us. Do you know how much pain I went through?"
"Do you know how much pain I went through?" Ark replied. "See this?"
Ark held his right arm out at full length, and a hideous scar traveled down it from shoulder to wrist.
"That was from scraping myself on the rock that covers the hole. But not only that, I had to go through the pain that my brother, the dear brother that I loved to pieces, had betrayed me. This here reminds me all the time."
"I…I never thought of it that way…"
"Of course not. You were more concerned about your own suffering and eventually that," he pointed at the Boomerang. "Remember these?"
Ark retrieved from his Mana Storage a collection of a wad of paper.
"The letters you put in pods and sent down the river to me. All of them about you, and how you miss me. No apology for abandoning me. And then all of them talk about the Boomerang, and your Pokémon, and how good they are."
"Do you know why I obtained them?"
"To get your mind off me, no doubt," Ark replied and turned his head away.
"No, Ark. I found the Boomerang in the Spirit Temple of Hyrule, and it told me a story of all those who had held it. I took it, and I sensed the great potential of power it had. I went to Gold City."
"You always liked mother's orders from Gold City, didn't you?"
"Yes, I did."
"What stopped you from selling it?"
"The fact that the first thing I did was to take it to the Light Palace. And there, I spent a time that I will never forget, every day in pain.
"I underwent what I call Refinement, Ark. Lumina herself sensed the great potential it held, and we were to be merged as one. I had to have implants. I had to have operations. My skin has a special chemical in it that nullifies the Boomerang's protection system. And all that had to be put in me, and I had to be able to get the Boomerang up to speed. My arm has got bone reinforcements. And then I wanted to give it more functions, and I'd have to have more operations and training - painful training - to get it to work. Right now, I'm working on something that will transfer the Boomerang's speed into me so I can run at its pace for five seconds or so - and I hope to run longer at a less cost of my Mana Energy than now. I'm scheduled to return to Gold City to work on it more in a few months."
"You still haven't answered why, Dyluck."
"It was so it would help me find you."
Ark appeared to be flabbergasted for a second, before he regained his composure and said, "But you never did find me, did you? You didn't explore the cave system fully enough."
"I found your shoes. I found your fishing rod. I found a lantern. I found a piece of paper which was sodden, I presumed it was my writing, but it was yours, and all it said was, 'If', the rest was a blur."
"'If you find this, Dyluck, be assured that I am alive, and I am angry. You have betrayed me.'"
"Oh…"
"Yes, that is what it said. Well, I guess it's time to say goodbye."
With that, Ark pressed a button on a remote control, and the robots advanced, their electrified weapons crackling.
"Ark! What are you doing!"
"Getting my revenge."
"Ark…" Lich cried, the tears running down his cheeks. "Do you know how long I have waited to see you again? Do I have one final wish?"
Ark pressed a button and the robots stopped.
"Yes, I suppose I'd better give you one. After all, I am a person."
"Ark…put your hand in mine."
"And how can I trust you?"
"Ark…before I die, I want to know I have felt your living hand. Then I can die in peace."
"Fine, then…"
Ark thrust his hand into Lich's, and clenched it. A smile broadened across Lich's face as he shut his eyes
"I am fulfilled. Do what you must. But before you do…"
Lich opened his eyes once more and looked deep into Ark's.
"I'm…sorry, Ark. And…I love you, brother."
Ark pressed a button on the control, and Lich's bonds receded back into the chair. He was pulled up and was embraced.
"I love you, brother," Ark replied, tears coming out of his eyes. "Please forgive me, Big Brother Dyluck."
"And forgive me, Little Brother Ark."