It had taken almost the whole day until Mao Mao finally decided he was done. The wait turned out to be much more exhausting than Badgerclops wanted it to be. When he was sure Mao Mao was going to be doing nothing in HQ, Badgerclops seized the chance to sneak out and head back to town.

As much as he trusted Mao Mao, he had to talk with Bao Bao again. He just had to know what was really up between them.

"The Sweetypies around here…you really put up with this every day?"

That question was the first one Bao Bao directed to Badgerclops once they managed to find a quaint and effective enough hiding spot on the rooftop of the hotel the dog stayed in the night before.

"Yeah, that's the life," Badgerclops sighed, leaning back a little on a stray ventilator. "And don't look at me for living here. I have your brother to thank for that."

"That?"

Badgerclops pointed above and ahead to the gigantic heart-shaped gem in the distance, sitting above the spire- like mountain in the center of the valley. Concentrating his directing at the x-shaped crack on the leftmost side, he waited until Bao Bao saw it too. "See that? Before me and Mao came here, that wasn't there. That ruby's what protected the valley from monsters. But then we came along and Mao crashed into it, making that crack. Now the valley's a monster-magnet and we're living here as the friendly neighborhood Sheriff's Department."

Bao Bao paused, unable to stop thinking about that truth swirling around in his head telling him that his brother landed in this valley because of a mistake he made. But that wasn't what he got together with this…Badgerclops fellow for. He was a friend of his brother, perhaps more dear than how Bao Bao himself was now. He knew that Mao Mao would never let him near his deputies as long as he was around, so today was an opportunity to get to know about how Mao Mao was doing through these people.

"So…Badgerclops…you've been with my bro for a long while, I take it? Are you his partner?"

"Partner and co-hero, to be exact," Badgerclops clarified.

The dog raised an eyebrow at how the badger boasted of this supposed fact. "And that's been your calling your whole life?"

Badgerclops didn't seem to notice the tone Bao Bao took with him. "Eh, well maybe not a calling but it definitely pays off better in the long-run. I just felt like sticking with Mao was the right choice after all."

That made Bao Bao feel even more suspicious. "Pays off better? Right choice? What were you doing before that?"

That was when Badgerclops noticed the dog's tonal shift. Sitting up straighter, he turned to face Bao Bao and leaned forward at him a little, using his right eye to try and stare into Bao Bao's soul by means of the dog's own pair of eyes. "Why do you wanna know?" he quietly demanded of Bao Bao.

Bao Bao felt the sting of Badgerclops's question, making him tighten his face into a defensive expression. "I'm just trying to look out for my brother. It's not wrong to have your family's best interests at heart, is it?"

"Yeah, and I'm sure cutting off your own brother's tail is your greatest act of true love."

Everything suddenly became dead silent after that. Badgerclops started wondering if Bao Bao might have been caught off guard and stunned by his retort. To his own surprise however, he found himself with a finger pointed at him right between his eyes, connected to a horizontally raised arm connected to a dog whose face depicted a snarling expression of bared teeth and extremely darkened eyes.

"Don't you dare talk about what happened like that," he whispered threateningly with a timbre that was a half-hiss and half-growl. "I don't know what Mao Mao told you, but you don't know anything at all about me! How could you possibly get it?"

Badgerclops could only stare at Bao Bao's accusingly pointed finger. He wanted to say something back, but one momentary glance at the dog's face told him that he'd only dig himself deeper, even wondering how he'd fare in a fight against this Mao-trained dog warrior. He would never have second thoughts about defending Mao Mao's honor; after all, he was his friend and known him longer and better than this supposed brother of his whom he had only just gotten around to learning of his relations to the black cat. But maybe that bit of snark might have been a shot too far.

"Um, sorry dude." Badgerclops began warily, putting both hands up to better help himself along. "It's just…that's just the biggest thing Mao Mao said about you that I remember."

Bao Bao kept up the silent glare for a moment, but then relaxed his arm, lowering it. He looked away to glance at the cracked Ruby Pure Heart in the distance. "Okay then," he sighed, "Didn't actually think bro would be so quick to share something like that. Normally, it'd be more private…But who am I to tell him what secrets to keep?"

Badgerclops didn't consider himself a psychiatrist or a counsellor, but from what he could examine from the faintly conflicted look on the dog's face, he didn't look as malicious as Mao Mao implied him to be. Did he look sorry? He did look somewhat regretful. But really, what brother would so willingly, even really, resort to something like amputation on someone who called him family. Good intentions or not, the consequences of such an action just don't go away. Badgerclops himself wasn't so sure if he could ever relax his guard towards someone if they were responsible for him losing his eye, his arm, or both. Then again, if it were possible that his stepbrother Gerald did that, he wouldn't put it past him.

"You know," Badgerclops spoke up again, getting Bao Bao's attention, "I have a brother too." That made Bao Bao's ear twitch, leading to him leaning toward the badger to hear what to he had to say.

The further into the conversation Bao Bao went, the more he was enthralled with what he was hearing from the badger. He couldn't believe how unpleasant Badgerclops's home life had been, with a mother who belittled him and a stepbrother who exploited him as a child. Hearing that made him feel thankful he lived with the Mao family, at least as Mao Mao's influence was concerned. Not that he disliked his only brother, but he had to admit that even he could be a bit much…even if the dog himself was the reason why that was.

But it was when Badgerclops answered Bao Bao's question of how he meet Mao Mao that the conversation slightly became unsteady once again. "So you were a thief?"

"Hey, it's not what it sounds like. I was just the muscle."

"But the muscle is there to make the thieves' job easier," Bao Bao pointed out. "Did Mao Mao pay you more for your muscles?"

Badgerclops huffed, putting his hands on his sides. "Well excuse me! It's not like you got a family who thinks you're uncool to the point you'd try to find validation with anyone else!" He turned away with a shuffle and crossed his arms over his chest, determined to make the dog feel bad for his words just as the former did earlier.

Bao Bao paused, feeling like the shoe really was on the other foot this time. Badgerclops's situation seemed to remind him of what his early childhood was like before his and Mao Mao's father took him in, with how he had a less than pleasant life before being offered a hand and olive branch by someone of the Mao clan. While his early life wasn't shady by any means, it was still quite dirty and ragged.

It was Bao Bao's turn to apologize. "Well, I'm sorry too," he said more quietly, "I just didn't want to believe bro would have an adventuring partner again after me, much less get one who wasn't a hero like him, but…you just wanted to find somewhere you'd belong."

Badgerclops looked him over briefly, but then nodded his head in his direction. "Yup, that's how it really is with me, and don't you forget it." He then looked away to lean back a little, stretching his regular arm over his head. "Well, enough about me. You, on the other hand, are quite the mystery," he sighed. "So what's your story? How'd you get into a family of cats?"

Bao Bao silently hesitated due to the first thing that popped into his mind when he heard the badger's question. He could remember the circumstances that led to his adoption, though he couldn't quite pinpoint why exactly that was. Nevertheless, the badger asked for a story and the dog already knew enough of what to say.

"Well," the dog took a breath, "let's just say that I wasn't really a stray…"

Bao Bao, before he became a Mao, didn't even have a name.

Stuck in a tiny hamlet in a forest several miles from other larger neighboring villages and towns, no one who lived there really lived. The hamlet was so small that it was composed of only a few houses, covering an amount of ground comparable to a single suburban block. As for where Bao Bao lived, it was a miniature shack the size of 8 garden sheds, a square spanning 4 sheds with the other 4 stacked on top. It had the appearance of a ramshackle house. But the dog-then-puppy wasn't the only one living in that house – he lived alongside 11 other orphans in the same space, meaning that the nights were often crammed, but thankfully during the day, none of them stayed inside except for when it rained.

With only an adolescent-size t-shirt on his back (too big for him), Bao Bao himself didn't have much to do. He spent much of his days sitting on the shallow single-step porch of the house, watching the adults and the other 11 orphans going about on their daily routine. The other kids weren't much better either. The hamlet was so poor with very few adults who were all stretched thin chopping wood and panning for minerals at the nearby river, not to mention traveling to the surrounding villages and towns by foot to sell their wares and then come back, that there was no time for any of them to play with the kids. There weren't even any toys for the kids to play with either, so they were left with nothing to do but wander around the grassless yard, not once going past the fences surrounding the house.

Despite the adults trying to procure as much wood and minerals to sell at available markets, those wares didn't sell well, and however much money was earned was spent on trying to buy enough food for everyone, both children and adults, back home. As a result, everyone tended to eat in rations, comprised of either rice balls, soy wafers, or both. The kids would clamber near the fence whenever a grownup would arrive with their share, receiving at least one rice ball and soy wafer, 2 of each if they were lucky. Aside from that event being the only time of day when they'd get their next meal, it was the only thing they could do after a listless day of nothing.

Then one day, in a shocking strike of bad luck for everyone living there, a monster attack occurred at a neighboring village which was so intense that the damage spread to the hamlet as collateral. Homes were damaged, even destroyed, and both adults and children were forcefully scattered in the chaos. The orphans' shack was among the buildings destroyed and the kids were nearly forced into the river.

Despite being tired and hungry just beyond what he could barely handle, Bao Bao tried to rescue a couple fellow orphans when he saw them about to be swept away in the water. Despite his best efforts, he was too weak to do it, and he would have gotten swept away along with the two he tried to save.

That was when a hero flew into the scene, coming to the rescue: a tall and strong black cat in golden armor, a red cape fluttering behind his back. In an astonishingly short time, he had swooped in and scooped up every child who was in danger, Bao Bao included, bringing them to safety beyond the reach of the river and the damage caused by the attacking monster. After fighting and defeating the monster, the imposing cat hero managed to convince the hamlet's neighbors to lend their aid to the impoverished and homeless residents.

As for the kids, they were relocated to a makeshift shelter where they were cared for until they could be adopted by families who wanted them. It took a while, but after a few weeks, the kids were one-by-one adopted by a number of families, every one of them generously given the chance to have a better life. The 12 orphans' numbers shrank until eventually, only one was left.

Bao Bao felt hopeful, counting on the good luck his other 11 fellows had when being adopted in short order to soon be accepted by a family as well. A week passed, then two, then three, until it had been over a month. Seeing that he was waiting for that long while the other kids got adopted in a few days, Bao Bao began to wonder when exactly a family would come. Those thoughts then evolved into a question of whether or not there were any families who wanted to adopt him at all. In a short while, the hope he once had turned to discouragement, and then despondency. The other kids had been adopted so quickly and his turn for adoption took too long. He thought he could escape the futureless life of sitting on a porch staring out into the harsh and unforgiving world, but it seemed that it wasn't to be. He was never going to be adopted, to have a family. The little fire of happiness he once had from the first weeks living in the shelter went out.

Bao Bao had not expected it, but the time had come for the shelter to be dismantled, as the hamlet was deemed beyond recovery – the trees were gone and so was the river. Everyone had already taken all their belongings and left the place to be deserted. From what the puppy understood of that, he had nowhere left to go. There wasn't anything left for him to think about. But then along came another element he didn't expect:

In a brand new stroke of luck, he caught a glimpse of the same golden-armored cat who rescued him and the other kids from the river during the monster attack all those weeks ago. He was surprised that the feline hero would return when his business with the puppy's community was effectively already finished. He was too young to understand or make out what the cat was discussing with the adults and elders, but only became interested once he saw the giant warrior spot him and turn to look at him, their eyes meeting each other's. It then led to the warrior walking right up to him and kneeling down on one knee to look at him eye-to-eye. It wasn't quite equal eye-level as he still towered over the puppy, but the question that was asked of the child was clear – "You want to come home with me?"

"Wait, golden-armored cat?" Badgerclops finally spoke up after thinking Bao Bao finished his story. "That's Mao Mao's dad, right?"

"And my dad too," Bao Bao clarified, not once averting his gaze from the Ruby Pure Heart to look at the badger sitting next to him.

"So then what'd you say to him? Did you want to go home with him?"

"Of course, I went home with him!" Bao Bao said as though he was asked a most ridiculous question. "When he asked me if I wanted to, I just jumped at him and grabbed him by the leg and didn't stop hugging it. It was my way of saying yes in the most dramatic way I could think of."

Badgerclops snickered to himself, "Yup, you're Mao Mao's brother alright…"

Bao Bao then leaned forward, turning to Badgerclops as though he was ready to giving a close probe or examination. The impression was not lost on Badgerclops either.

"So what do you think? Am I still a bad guy like bro says?"

"Well, maybe if you were lying…" Badgerclops tried to ease in a suitable answer, but then forced out another sentence to avoid falling into another proverbial pit, "…but I'm actually really surprised I never heard this before. I didn't think that'd be your story, but ever since Mao started talking about you, I hadn't heard a single good thing."

Bao Bao sighed. "Yeah, I don't blame you…the things between my bro and me…it's complicated." He then turned to look at the badger again, waiting for him to return eye contact. "So none of it's your fault. You didn't do this…"

He looked away again to try and distract his mind from the conversation for a bit, as it felt that at this point, it was truly getting harder to keep talking. He didn't notice Badgerclops getting back onto his feet, but he did feel a hand lightly touching his shoulder, prompting him to look up at the badger who appeared ready to leave; Bao Bao didn't judge, considering that he too noticed how late it was getting.

"Hey man, I'm just getting to know you. I didn't have to, but I actually snuck out behind Mao's back earlier so we could talk."

Bao Bao's eyes widened, then laughed nervously. "For real? Well, you better hope he doesn't find out what you did now! I'm sure you already know how he is!"

Badgerclops returned the gentle mirth in kind, shrugging his shoulders. "What I've seen, what I haven't seen…it's just half after half!"

They both shared a little chuckle, though they briefly looked at the Ruby Pure Heart and the moon above in the night sky for a last change in scenery before Badgerclops left.