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Reed sat opposite Elder once more, this time without Sue by his side. At least, not in a physical capacity. In truth she was monitoring the situation through HERBIE who was hovering quietly next to the two as they spoke. Elder's face looked the same as before - calm, almost too calm for a man in his condition. He had the manner of someone who had lived through too much and learned long ago to keep most of his emotions inside.

"You've been busy." Harvey said, his tone as dry as the dust under their boots. "The first time we met, I wasn't sure if you'd crawl back down here or keep to your glass towers."

Reed gave a tired smile. "Not much glass left in the towers these days." He leaned forward, hands clasped. "But I didn't come here to talk about me. I have an update on who was tracking you."

Elder allowed a surprised expression to pass over his face, he too readjusted in his seat, leaning forward slightly as he braced against the armrest. "You don't say? Well then out with it Reed, I'm anxious to find out who would threaten myself and my children."

Reed paused for a moment, glancing down at Herbie and then back up at Harvey. They had decided to hold back the full story from Elder. Sue had instilled a good sense of caution within her fiance, and even he saw the potential danger in Harvey's reaction to the capabilities of the person tracking him. Nevertheless, they needed help, and they had very few places to turn to. "I can't say it's much of an update, only a small one. We never actually saw the culprit in the flesh he communicated with us through text on a screen. He hooked me up to a chair and forced me to make a decision - delete the safeguard I had in place to protect our identities, or delete our memories from before the Fantastic Four split up."

Elder wasted no time in replying after a short chuckle. "And of course, men as rational as us have no need for mementos, you kept the safeguard, no?" Reed didn't reply vocally, just catching the man in front's gaze with a pleading expression. "Ah, I see. A man must always look forward, Reed, never back. You have painted a target on your hide now, even bigger than the one this....mad thinker has painted on you." Elder sat back in his chair, relaxed a bit more. "Still, as selfish as it sounds this is good news for me. It seems our tracker was using me to get to you rather than vice versa."

Reed opted not to detail their battle with the android. It could stir Elder into a frenzy, there was no need to risk any disturbances. "Good news for you and the moloids." He said glancing up at Belo, who was stood at attention near the makeshift sink at the corner of the room, cleaning dishes no doubt with an ear open for any news.

"Hm. Quite." Spoke Elder "Nevertheless, you've done a service for me here Reed, it gives me a great deal of peace of mind to know that we are under no immediate threat. I would offer to do a favour in return Reed, I will not take no for an answer. The next time your 'Mad Thinker' gets in contact please radio me, I will assist in tracking him. No doubt with our combined efforts we will make short work of this fiend." Reed nodded, glad to have not had to ask for what Elder had so readily offered. "Belo, please show our esteemed friend back to the surface." He clapped his hands and Belo turned, leading Reed out of the room and up through the tunnels.

For a while the two said very little. Reed asked Belo a few personal questions but it was difficult for him to make small talk with 'normal' people - let alone moloids who had lived underground their whole life. The shoddy lantern that hung from Belo's belt made a small clinking noise as they walked, purely for Reed's benefit than Belo who could see clearly in pitch dark. Eventually Belo intercut the idle chatter with a more concerned tone of voice.

"Mr. Richards, I - uh I have something to tell you. Something worrisome that I'm not 100% sure how to communicate to you."

Reed raised an inquisitive eyebrow stopping and turning to face the Moloid. "Yes, Belo?"

"Mr. Richards, things down here are not all as they seem. I'm not sure how to explain it but I feel different from the other Moloids-"

Reed naturally interrupted, a bad habit he'd had since a boy that he'd struggled to fight against. "Well, of course, Belo, you're more evolved. I suspect, Harvey refined his process when managed to revive you and your sisters. No doubt there will be more sentient Moloids to come."

Belo looked uncomfortable, looking down at his feet and fidgeting with his hands. "No, Mr. Richards you don't understand. My sisters and I are not the newest Moloids, we were the first." Reed looked shocked. A million thoughts whizzed around his brain like wasps. He didn't reply. "Please, Mr. Richards, I need to know why I am the way I am." He took a strangely shaped rock from a pouch on his belt and pressed it into Reed's hand. He looked down at it and realised it was a small fossil, unlike any he had seen before. "I stole this from father, please tell me why I am different."

[hr]

Reed burst through the door of the Baxter annex with all of the excitement of a kid in a toy store. He almost ran to the computer and placed the fossil in front of Sue.
"Sue! You will not believe what Belo gave me down in the tunnels!"

Sue sat quietly at the console. She looked up at him, not with her usual amused indulgence at his bursts of enthusiasm, but with a stillness that immediately froze him mid-step. He faltered, his words catching as he saw the way her lips pressed together, the faint redness around her eyes.

"Sue...?" His voice softened. "What is it?" She didn't answer at first, instead reaching out to rest her hand over his, gently drawing his excitement down to the desk. He kneeled and met her gaze at eye level. Her touch was soft against his hands, but there was something in her gaze that made his chest tighten before she even spoke.

"Reed..." she began, and her voice almost broke on his name. She steadied herself with a slow breath. "Tony Stark is dead."

The words hit him like a blow. For a long moment, Reed just stared, as though he hadn't heard her correctly. Then he drew back slightly, blinking, standing up to his full height with a hand covering his mouth and another on his hip as he stared at the ground. HERBIE gave a soft electronic whirr, almost apologetic, filling the silence neither of them seemed able to break.

"When?" he finally managed, looking back at her.

"Today. At a press conference at Stark Industries. There was an attack." Sue looked down, shaking her head. "The newsfeeds have confirmed it. President Lord already made a statement."

Reed lowered himself into the chair opposite her, his long fingers tightening against the fossil Belo had pressed into his palm until the edges bit into his skin. His mind, usually alight with possibilities and patterns, was blank. 

"I haven't spoken to him in years." Reed murmured, almost to himself. Sorrow grasping at every word. "Not since before the Reach. We always said we'd compare notes, share ideas, but-" He cut himself off, his voice trailing off into silence.

Sue's lips curved into a small, trembling smile. "Do you remember the first time we met him?"

Reed blinked, and despite himself, a choked laugh escaped. "How could I forget? He walked right up to you and-"

"-and asked me to dinner." Sue finished for him, laughing through the tears welling at the corners of her eyes.

"And the moment he realized you were with me, he made a show of swooning like he was heartbroken and then sent over a bottle of the most expensive bottle of champagne they had." Reed continued, shaking his head. "But every time after that, every single time, he'd rib me about it. 'Richards, how'd a nerd like you end up with her?'"

Sue smiled, wiping tears away from her cheeks. "You know since I found out the news I can't help but think what could have happened if we'd become public earlier. We could have reached out to him and made a real difference. He might've been an arrogant playboy, but he had a good heart. Who knows what we could've achieved as a team."

Reed leaned forward, pressing his forehead briefly into his clasped hands. "The world is down one more altruistic genius. Seems the stores running short on the good guys these days. And Lord will no doubt be already picking through his belongings for anything he can use to get rid of Metas."

The silence stretched between them, filled only by the soft hum of HERBIE's processors.

Sue finally spoke. "This is going to change everything, Reed. The world loved him, hated him, needed him. His death, it's more than just a tragedy. It feels like everything's about to change - about to get worse.

Reed nodded slowly, staring down at the fossil still clenched in his hand. The weight of it felt suddenly symbolic, the past pressing into his palm even as the future shifted beneath his feet.

"Yes." He said quietly. "The balance of everything is about to change." He never realised how true that statement would prove to be.