The Innkeeper

Lex had not noticed because of how distracted he was, but Alexander had reacted strongly to the message he had received. He couldn't help it, the person contacting him was so high up in the command chain that someone at his level should never have had the opportunity to contact him.

Earthlings had heard directly of general Ragnar. But realistically, it was literally a thousand years too early for Alexander to come into his purview. Although Alexander was technically stationed somewhere on the command carrier that the general controlled, the chain of command it contained was more complex than anything Lex had encountered.

He quickly hailed a golf cart and made his way to the small village the empire was using as their base. Without wasting any time, he directly went to a familiar looking building where he was directly led to a meeting room.

In front of him was a man wearing Clark Kent glasses. Despite the fact that Alexander was taking a mission from him, he was not even allowed to know the identity of the man giving him the mission.

"Captain Alexander, on your profile it claims that you have a very prominent background on the planet called Earth, is that correct?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Would you say that you are extremely familiar with the conditions on said planet?"

"I've traveled to every nook and cranny of earth, sir!"

"Alright, captain. You are about to receive a classified mission. Present yourself."

Alexander immediately stood at attention, and began using one of the mandatory techniques he had been required to learn. This technique was a single part of a greater technique that could only be complete when another person used a corresponding technique.

In this case, the man giving him the mission used the corresponding technique. A stream of data rushed into his mind, allowing him to receive the mission. Moreover, due to the effects of the technique, Alexander could never reveal the contents of the mission and mission objective to anyone, even if he wanted to.

When he absorbed the information, Alexander's eyes widened, finding the situation too coincidental. Lex had, only a few minutes ago, told him that earth was actually a part of the empire. Now, that information had been revealed to him officially as well.

Moreover, he had to go back to the command carrier immediately. He would be sent through a cross-galactic teleportation formation, sending him to the Milky way. There, he would be under the command of a superior officer of an undisclosed rank by the name of Belle. Under her command, he would return to earth! The remaining mission objectives would be revealed by Belle as and when it was needed.

"Dismissed, captain," the man said, allowing Alexander to leave. It seemed, even without waiting 10 years to use the Inns ability again, he would be going back to earth. He wondered if he'd run into Lex there.

*****

As soon as Lex left the cabin, he teleported away. As of late, he had kept a firm control over his emotions, even in the most dire of situations. The fact that he had become anxious without even realizing it was not a good sign. It was his intuition's way of warning him to prepare for some bad news.

Still, that did not mean Lex lost control of himself. He took a few moments to calm his mood down and make sure he was in the best state of mind.

He changed into Leo, taking a moment to look at himself in the mirror. Between juggling Leo, the Innkeeper and his own identity, he was always too busy. He should look into making a spiritual clone. Now that he was in the Golden Core realm, such a thing became a possibility. In fact, he had already looked at some options available in the library. But all of them required some preparation and would take time. The main issue for him, though, was that the types of cloning techniques, while incredible for the norm, seemed too mundane for him. He had become too spoiled. He wanted a clone that could also grow stronger with him, instead of forever existing in the realm it was produced in.

Whatever the case, all of that was for later. For now, Lex finally teleported to Miranda. She did not look much better than when he last saw her. Deep eye bags were developing, and she had become increasingly pale. Her hair was frizzled despite the obvious yet poor attempt to prepare it.

"You alright?" he asked with some wariness in his voice.

"My niece and nephew were captured as slaves," she said slightly hoarsely, explaining her condition. But her affected mental state, he did not swell on that matter for long. She looked, instead, at Leo with unusually scrutinizing eyes.

"What?" he couldn't help but ask.

Instead of answering, she took out a laptop from her bag and turned it on. It took a few moments for her to open up what she was looking for, then turned the laptop towards Lex.

"When we searched for the people you wanted to find… we discovered a hidden encrypted file in our database instead of the information that should have been there. Based on our current circumstances, we don't have the resources to decrypt it. But, if you know the password, you can open the file directly."

Somewhat surprised by the turn of events, he looked at the computer. The open window had only a certain question on it, as well as a space to type in the answer.

The question… was unusually irritating, and explained why Miranda gave him such a strange look.

It was 'Lex is short for what?' Of course, the question was not written in English, and had been written in a language his younger sister Liz had made. However, the universal translator had worked against him for once, revealing the question to the council.

"I'll take it from here," he said as he grabbed the laptop and teleported back to his office.

With an indignant look, he typed, in all caps, the only answer it could ever be: suplex. The answer was immediately accepted, and the screen turned from black instead to a video.

Rather than his annoying older sister, who he was expecting to see, the video revealed his mother.