Byleth simply told Ashe to stay behind and take out anyone that wasn't them from a distance. She stuck by the stranger to both use her knowledge of attacker positions and to prevent any of her students from blindly attacking the man. She surprised herself with her decision to spare the man and was going to stick with it. She knew that she didn't have any more divine pulses, but her mind mapped out every future course of actions that the bandits would do.

As expected from the sweater wearing stranger, he was sloppy with his strikes. The way he moved showed he had experience killing, her students somewhat hesitated taking lives, but the stranger was literally charging into the fray of death. Now wasn't the time to criticize one's fighting style however. At least out loud of course.

She cut down the foes she knew was going to get in the way at blinding came upon an enemy cleric with a unique looking weapon and the stranger got to him first.

"Hal-"

The cleric froze in place, quite literally, and the stranger was quick to rush up to him and literally shatter him into pieces. It was perplexing to say the least, but she didn't voice her immediate opinion on it as they were still in the middle of combat. The sweater wearing stranger dropped the blade that he previously held and quickly picked up the unique weapon from shattered remains of the cleric. He held it out in front of him and took a swing. Judging from his movements that weapon belonged to him.

The stranger looked towards Byleth and nodded. She couldn't help, but nod in return. No words were needed to be exchanged between them as Byleth once again led the way.

….

The bandit leader was dealt with. She used her knowledge to simply charge ahead of time and deal the first and final strike with a swift slice to his neck. She was about to turn to the stranger and thank him for his assistance, even if she took it upon herself to help him; however, she was interrupted by some of her students running up to her.

The blonde Dimitri was the first to speak up, the stoic and large Dedue was right behind him, and she could barely see Mercedes trying to catch up, "We cleared out the brigands on our side. I believe we've cleared them out from this canyon."

He explained how there were no casualties on their end, just like before.

"There's also something else, Professor. We found a girl being held hostage by them. However, she seems out of it."

"Only a single girl?"

The stranger voiced her thoughts for her. Weren't there three of them?

Dimitri looked at the stranger quizzically, "Who might you be?"

"I believe this man was fighting alongside the Professor. Where he came from- I can only assume he was also a prisoner here." Dedue answered for Dimitri.

"Are you sure it was only one girl?"

"We're positive. I got her right here." Mercedes with her soft and soothing voice had a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl cradled in her arms. The girl in her arms seemed off. She was speaking slowly and her speech was a bit slurred.

The stranger slowly walked up to Mercedes and stared at the girl in her arms. He gently placed a hand atop her head and gently massaged her temples, "Sally. Are you alright?"

The stranger shook his head as he got an incoherent response from the girl.

Mercedes spoke up once again, "She seems really out of it. I don't know what could've caused something like this. Are you her father?"

The man shook his head, "She's an orphan."

Mercedes looked down at the orphan, "I see. You really care about her wellbeing despite the fact don't you?"

The man nodded, earning a smile from Mercedes.

"Professor," Mercedes shifted her attention towards Byleth, "Would it be alright if we brought this girl back to the Monastery with us? It's better to know that she's safe than dropping her off at the nearest town."

Byleth took a second, but she nodded nonetheless.

"I knew I could count on you, Professor Eisner. I'll go place her in the wagon with enough room for her to rest in."

Byleth nodded and Mercedes smiled and nodded back. She looked towards the stranger and they both nodded towards each other as well.

"I'm curious. You expressed concern that there was only one girl found. Am I correct in assuming there were more?" Dimitri turned to the stranger

"Three in total."

"I'm afraid none of us found any other girls besides Sally. So that means they either escaped or… I don't even want to think about it." Dimitri looked down to the ground, a smidge of anger seemed to seeth through his facial expressions, "What were their names?"

"Anna and Lia."

Dimitri gained a look of composure once again, "Professor. I suggest we task the knights to find these girls while we head back to the Monastery. The sooner we give the command and then report back to the Monastery the better. I'm sure our new friend here wou-"

Before Dimitri could finish, the man collapsed.

…..

Jack woke up, the cold hard ground feeling awfully wet. He jolted up as he checked his surroundings. Things were in disarray, water leaked everywhere, signs were blown up or disfunctional. The broken rafters above hung to the sides and doors were broken off their hinges or simply stuck in place.

Jack swallowed as he was back in this hellhole. The place simply known as Rapture. He appeared to be in one of the areas that didn't have the many glass that showed off the underwater city. He wasn't sure where he was at the moment as the area was uncharacteristically quiet and there were no maps nearby to help him with it. A part of his mind puzzled at what the hell was going on.

There was no way the events he just experienced was just the result of a dream. If it was then he'd be dead for sleeping too long in an unsecure place in Rapture. Could this place itself be a ghostly memory? He shook his head as he got up.

Had he finally succumbed to an Adam overdose so many citizens of Rapture had experienced? No. Last thing he remembered was becoming overwhelmed with an intense amount of exhaustion. He supposed with all that happened and finding out that two out of three girls were missing; his exhaustion and mental capacity would reach its peak. Funny and strange, he could take all that Rapture could throw at him, but he's mentally spent when he's missing two girls. He shook his head at his own self reasoning.

Jack moved forward to a door that was slightly illuminated from the inside. Whether this was a dream or not he needed to collect his own thoughts. The illumination that was supposed to be inside the room wasn't there and a mere black void was in front of him. To further confirm he was in a strange dream he tried to use his fire based Incinerate Plasmid, but nothing surged to his arms. Not even a whiff of fire stung his veins.

He swore he heard faint whispers that were there and weren't there at the same time. That was it. He wasn't sure if they were real or a figment of his imagination. The darkened room had some type of ground as Jack stepped into it. However, no matter how much he moved the voices were still faint whispers or not there at all. Hearing the thoughts of the dead wasn't unusual in a place like Rapture, due to the terrible residual side-effects of Adam and Plasmids and whatnot. However, even the lingering thoughts and conversations got louder when he got close to them. Here it felt like he was moving in an endless hall, no end in sight.

Jack shook his head, now wasn't the time to be residing in a trance. He blinked a couple of times and felt exhaustion. His body was beginning to wake up and he was going to force himself out of this dream. He shook his entire being as the exhaustion quickly piled up.

Jack rolled off the bed and subsequently caused some contents of a nearby cart to crash down on him. Three small containers hit parts on his body and two glass liquid containers smashed right on to his back. He could feel the liquids being soaked up in his sweater.

"Oh no. I should've been paying more attention." A woman said in worry as he felt his body being rolled over.

"I will admit, I will take some blame for this one."

"Not, now Hanneman! Good to see you're awake. Whether it was due to the glass breaking over you, or you being awake the whole time doesn't matter at the moment. This should soothe the pain a bit."

The woman holding his head up a bit wore a very revealing dress. The slits of her dress to reveal her legs were cut immediately after the hips to reveal the entirety of her legs, her chest bulging the dress out. A white coat hung from her back only attached by virtue of her arms going through the holes. A young woman showing off basically.

The man beside her was definitely older with his grey hairs. A monocle was placed on his left eye and he dressed more conservatively than the young woman a grey-black suit and overcoat. A green tie of some sort went inside the suit. A black scarf of sorts went all the way around his neck.

The woman put some herbs in front of Jack's mouth, to which he complied by swallowing them whole. The small pains he felt earlier faded away and a sense of refinement dwelled within him not long after eating the small herbs.

He tried to get up by himself, but the woman forced him to try and do it slowly, "Slow down, you just woke up."

"I'm fine."

Jack balanced his hand on the ground and propped his body up. He had no trouble getting back up. He looked around the room to note that it was some kind of medical ward. A small one at that. His mind briefly flashed to show the cold, dark, and hostile medical wards of Rapture. His head snapped to the only other bed in the small ward and found no one to be occupying it.

The woman coughed into her hand, "I assume it's safe to call you, Mr. Bubbles?"

Jack's eyes widened a bit, "Y-yeah. Who told you?"

"That girl, Sally. She managed to recover a few days ago. She called you Mr. Bubbles, the sweet little thing."

"Few days?"

The woman nodded, "She stayed in for four whole days, while you were out for ten. Honestly, if it wasn't for me checking up on you now and then I would've presumed you , that's ten whole days of preventing Hanneman from stealing your blood."

The older man in the room shot a glare at the woman, "I had no intention of stealing anything. My mind was only just curious about the type of Crest he could possess." Jack could safely presume he was Hanneman.

"You say that, but who knows what could've happened to him if I left him alone with you."

"As I recall, Manuela, four out of those ten nights you were out and about. You were up to your usual fruitless nights and I took the responsibility to watch over our unconscious visitor. I promise you I have not done anything as unsavory as stealing his blood."

"Fruitless? I'll have you know last night I-" The woman, Manuela's, eyes widened as she looked at Jack once again. A large look of confusion on his face as the two argued,"-you know what, Hanneman? Now's not the time."

Hanneman seemed to agree, "Please excuse us. Now, just in case Manuela has forgotten, one of us is to bring you to Lady Rhea." The remark had Manuela shoot daggers at Hanneman and had Jack shake his head a bit in confusion.

"Lady Rhea?" Jack's memories were somewhat fuzzy about the previous ordeal. Sally was found, but...where's Lia and Anna?...They were...missing right? Why did he collapse?

"Yes, Lady Rhea." Hanneman took Jack's confusion as of one that needed confirmation that they were hearing things right.

"Where's Sally?"

Manuela somewhat chuckled, "The little darling is having fun with the other children around the Monastery. She can't recall what happened, bandits probably traumatized her, the poor thing."

"Just me and Sally?"

Manuela's lips frowned and her brows furrowed, "I know what you're talking about and well here's the thing…" Manuela's eyes shifted downward, "The knights discovered two bodies not far from the Red Canyon. A survivor of the bandits who took you and the girls hostage… he confirmed the bodies to be them. I'm...I'm sorry."

Jack backed away slowly and sat on the bed. He put his palm on his forehead and covered his eyes. Silence lingered in the room as Jack took a deep breath. His mouth trembled, "How can you be sure."

Hanneman placed a hand on Manuela's shoulders and stopped her from speaking. Hanneman spoke in her stead, "The survivor was the one who did the deed. Before he could explain a knight struck him down before anyone could stop him. It's maddening. Two young lives were snuffed out before they could even have a chance to live them."

Someone like Fontaine would've said they never had that chance in the first place, someone like Ryan would scoff and say they hadn't earned it yet. Right now with people like Hanneman and Jack, it was a right that they were born with. Trading a hellish life from Rapture to dying not long after because of someone else's greed.

Jack didn't realize he was angry until the cloth on the bed combusted into flame. He snapped out of his thoughts long enough to work in tandem with Manuela and Hanneman to douse the flames before it could spread anywhere else.

"I don't intend to come off as insensitive, but please don't burn down the office because you're grieving." Manuela frowned as she reprimanded the man.

"Sorry."

"Come Manuela, we'll give him a few moments to grieve."

"Before that, would you like me to clean your sweater for you? It is partially my fault that I kept those containers too close to the bed."

Manuela didn't wait for a nod, but the man didn't resist as she pulled the drenched sweater. The white on the back covered in brown and purple substances. The two quickly filed out of the medical ward and left Jack alone with his thoughts.

….

Byleth ascended the stairs with the intention of making her way to the nurse's office. She's been checking back everyday to see if her...choice was truly in vain. Her mind rerunning the words that Sothis told her days ago.

"I supposed it would've happened sooner or later, but this is one of many consequences for messing with the flow of time. For saving the life of one man, the lives of two little girls were exchanged for it. That's why you must use this power wisely. Of course you had no idea that this course of action would've taken place, but -and I don't mean to sound cruel- let this be a crucial lesson to you. Weigh every decision like it'll be your last and care not to use my power as a crutch for irresponsibility. However, what you do is your choice and your choice alone. I will make suggestions, but in the end it's entirely up to you."

Truly it was unprecedented that saving the man would cause the unfortunate end of two girls, even when by any possible means it would be impossible for such a drastic change to occur. Her students did everything like last time, with the exception of her saving the man and striking down the bandits faster than last time. Byleth shook her head as her choice had already been made and she couldn't change that now.

She made it up the stairs and rounded the corner to head towards the office. She wasn't surprised to see Hanneman simply lurking by the door, but she did wonder what prevented him from walking in.

"Ah, Professor Eisner. You're here to check up on the patient aren't you?"

She gave a nod of affirmation.

"Well he's awake, but right now he's taking a moment to himself. He's been..informed of the details."

Byleth's gaze shifted towards the wall as Hanneman sighed.

"Manuela is cleaning his sweater in the meantime. When he woke up, he rolled out of bed and caused a cart near his bedside to come down with him. Needless to say it got messy."

"He's not hurt is he?"

"Depends on what you mean, but physically he's fine. He even got up to show he was alright, despite the long period of unconsciousness he experienced."

Byleth scratched her head a bit and placed a hand on her chin.

"I may be looking too much into things, but with the few moments I interacted with him… he reminds me of you, Professor."

"Me?"

"I said I am probably looking too much into things. He didn't speak much and mostly used his body language to interact with us. It might be a bit early to say this, but you two might share a lot of things in common."

She tilted her head a bit and moved her palm to the side of her head so she could lean on it.

Before Hanneman could continue the door opened.

Hanneman looked towards the opened door and spoke to the man inside, "I take it you're alright for now? I was going to bring you to Lady Rhea, but I'm going to let Professor Eisner lead you to her. Professor, if you will?"

Byleth nodded as Hanneman stepped into his own office across the way. The man she only knew so far as Mr. Bubbles stepped out of the nurse's office. His brown eyes had small streaks of red in them and his eye sockets exposed the pink around them. His expression tried to come off as neutral, but the slight twitch at the end of his mouth showed the fragility in them. Now that he didn't have his sweater on, Byleth could see two interesting tattoos on both of his wrists. Both of them were three linked chains, simple as that. Strange, yet simple tattoos to put on your wrists. Perhaps there was a story behind them, but right now there were other matters to attend to.

The man nodded.

Byleth nodded back as she beckoned him to follow her. No words were needed to be exchanged as they simply went a bit further down the hall and stopped at a set of closed doors. She put her hand up and told him to wait for a moment while she walked in. It was a short exchange between her and Rhea before she peeked her head out and allowed him to walk in. Rhea thought it would be integral for Byleth to stick around while they spoke with one another to ease any tension he might have. Seteth would be right beside Rhea as per usual.

"Greetings. I am the Archbishop, or as what many people would call me, Rhea. I hope it wouldn't trouble you if you told me yours."

"Jack, just Jack." The man revealed his name without a problem. His voice sounded composed.

Rhea smiled in response, "There's is nothing to be embarrassed of here. Your last name, if you would please.."

Jack tilted his head. It seemed like to him it was a strange way to word it.

Seteth stepped in to help Jack get over his initial confusion, "She's referring to your last name being Bubbles. We know it because of that little girl, Sally, referring to you as Mr. Bubbles. Rhea is just trying to let you know that you're safe here within these halls." He took a short breath, "I am Seteth by the way."

"Thank you Seteth. Professor Eisner has informed me that you are up to date on matters. The best I can offer is compensation and an apology. I know neither will bring back the lives of the two young girls, but if we didn't slack on keeping the peace, then none of these terrible events would come to pass.

Seteth was about to speak up for a second, but shut his mouth soon after. Seems he's saving his words.

"To compensate, first we'll bring the girl in to live with us here at the Monastery's own orphanage, we harbor many orphans and take care of them until they have the strength to fly on their own. I'm certain keeping Sally here in a safe shelter is what you would want, correct? She said you've saved her from a horrible place and that you'd been trying to provide her a family she could call her own."

Jack closed his eyes, "To give them something that they were robbed of, a chance. To learn, to live, to love."

Rhea smiled a bit solemnly, "I see you understand the full value of life. Especially the ones of the young."

Jack frowned, "I don't think I do."

Seteth raised a brow and so did Byleth.

Rhea continued to smile, "I understand. You're still relatively young and at times the young doubt themselves. You might know many things people will take years to understand, but don't realize it yet. Cherish yourself and the Goddess will bless you."

If only Rhea knew how terrifyingly accurate her statement about Jack is.

"Thank you."

"Secondly for your compensation: We will provide you two months worths of provisions and substantial money to allow you to recover from your grief and get you back out into the world."

Jack's eyes widened a bit, "That sounds a bit too much."

Rhea shook her head, "There is no need to worry. Seteth had been the one to negotiate the compensation to reasonable levels."

Jack looked towards the green haired man as he nodded, "If you believe that's too much, then I wonder what you would think of the original compensation plan?"

"Was it larger?"

"Yes. Let's leave it at that."

Rhea once again continued, "I believe that is all we've really wished to discuss with you. If you have anything else to discuss or you hold any objections, please make them apparent now. Otherwise we'll escort you out of the Monastery. Professor Eisner here should be able to do it, if she would be so kind to do it. "

Byleth nodded as Rhea looked at her.

"I do. Have an objection."

Byleth looked at Jack quizzically and Rhea simply nodded, "You're unsure about the compensation with the second condition, I assume. There is no need to be humble at the moment. Consider it a gift, instead of an offer."

Jack shook his head, "You said that the church has an orphanage, correct?"

Seteth spoke up once again, "Indeed. The priests and priestesses usually watch over the children when they're fulfilling their duties and occasionally teach them the basics. Of course the children worship the Goddess while they're under us, usually of their own volition. They're well fed and completely safe within our walls due to the nature of the Monastery and the Officer's academy surrounding it. Rest assured, Sally is in a safe place with us."

Jack then said something that took the three of them by surprise, "I wish to become a caregiver to the children."

Seteth stepped back a bit, "You mean you wish to become a priest? Usually it takes years of devotion-"

"I do not wish to become a priest. I wish to simply take care of the children in the orphanage, a caretaker. If possible I won't take the gift and you can save the supplies for yourself."

Seteth looked towards Rhea and she simply smiled towards him, "Seteth, I leave this matter in your hands. I feel as though you're slightly frustrated with personal matters that I won't get into right now.

"Lady Rhea, I will follow every decision you make, even if it's questionable to me. However, Mr. Bubbles, what makes you worthy enough to take care of the children in the priests and priestesses steads?"

Jack placed a hand on his chin and stared at Seteth as he stared back.

Byelth almost jumped as Sothis once again.

Perhaps you should speak up? You and I both know that your opinion could sway the decision one way or another. You are the reason he's even here right now, so one more choice shouldn't hurt, right?

Byleth swallowed and spoke up before Jack could speak his own mind.

"Seteth, would you kindly consider it? Even just a little?"

"Your consideration is noted Professor, but in the end it'll be Seteth's choice on the matter."

"I'll take your opinion into consideration Professor. Especially since you've asked so nicely. Come Mr. Bubbles, we can discuss things further in my office. I want to know a little more before making my decision."

Seteth and Jack made their pardons as Seteth beckoned him to follow him to his office not far from the chambers.

It wasn't exactly a no, but let's hope your input changes some things.