"Yes, but stating my objections for the record is important, here."

"Establishing a paper trail?"

"It'll be really important if I ever sue for damages."

"Where would you find a court that would hear your case?" El wonders.

"Maybe there's a government for omnipotent beings! Weirder things have happened."

"Name one."

She hums. "...Okay, most of my examples are plausibly the intervention of an omnipotent being..."

Kiss. "You're going to have to have better arguments if you want them to stand up in god court."

Kiss! "I'm not sure doctors are meant for the courtroom... Though maybe one of us is a lawyer, and can take up our case."

"That'd be convenient."

"Though perhaps we can save our legal motions for later, when there's less going on."

"Probably a good idea."

Nuzzle. "Next I guess is getting everyone all on the same page... And waiting for the Elrics to do their math."

Which she should get back to helping with, now that their guests are more or less settled.

Bellona works hard on it - but does take a sensible number of breaks. (Some of them when dragged into it by El.) And, of course, she has her myriad obligations - vaccine research, classes she's teaching, talks she has scheduled, being a good older sister for September... But the Elric sisters have always been greater together than apart, and September and Akira-sensei can help on some of the minor calculations - it takes long enough for everyone to get more or less acquainted with each other's stories and natures, and enough for them to settle a bit around each other. Not too long, though.

Soon enough - Bellona thinks she can target a message to a known template currently located in Elesse's homeworld. It won't fire if there's no one fitting the description, but, well, they have pantheras, and lightnings, and Luka and Leya to play off of - one of those four should be resident. (If there's multiple template members present, it'll select one at random.)

It's up to Elesse, of course, who they try first, and what the message says.

Elesse has been spending the time working on the message, explaining how Ashes' world abducted her, who Ashes is, a brief summary of their efforts in escaping, and short introductions for everyone else she's met so far.

It's addressed to Anakin to start with.

The letter goes through on the first try.

It lands in front of Ani.

Elesse has been gone over a year. They've stopped scanning as actively by now. Ani has - tried, and mostly succeeded, at actually doing things with her life other than getting in an obsessive spiral -

She opens the letter immediately.

She's shaking, by the time she finishes, schools herself - the mess in her head can be straightened out later -

Naraka's been around a decent amount. She can trace the letter's origin, and she likes Elesse -

(Ani does actually pause long enough to inform Leia where she's going.)

And then, within an hour of Bellona's array activating, she and Naraka land in the new world.

"Anakin."

Ani steps forward to hug her.

Big hug.

Tight hug, Ani isn't letting go anytime soon.

"...You worried me," she mumbles.

"I know. I am sorry."

Deep breath.

"I'm - glad you're back."

Soft smile. "It is good to see you again."