Obstacle after obstacle. They were all passed with effort and hard work after days and days. The three just kept getting back up until they were officially rookies. They still had months and possibly years of training, but they didn't care. They were getting good.

Po never felt so alive or so strong in her life. She still needed to work on getting used to the sound of the gunshot, but she would get past it. She felt like she was still avenging her friends, her family at some point. But it confused her when she laid awake at night. Noo Noo killed her friends, and yet she felt like Noo Noo wasn't to blame. But rather...Shadow was. The moment she thought that, she gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. But then, took a deep breath and calmed down.

One day, it was onto moving targets.

"Okay, Walten. You first." Miles said before Walten grabbed a pistol and fired at all of the targets, shooting them all down. "Huh. That was fast."

Walten chuckled. "I've shot a gun before. Heh."

Miles nodded before seeing Ron go. He missed a couple of times, but a few more shots later, the targets were down. The sergeant then faced Po. "Okay, Po. You ready?"

Po saluted, like she saw the other soldiers do and like she had been taught to do. "Uhh, sir yes sir!" She then stopped. "That's how you do it, right?"

Miles nodded. "Simple at that. Give it a go."

Po nodded, and readied her brain for the noise of the gun firing and clenched the gun tightly so it wouldn't fall out of her hands. She then fired, and while the gun nearly did jump, it did not leave her hands and she hit the targets. She gasped and then smiled wide. "HAHA! I did it!"

"Good job, Po!!!" Walten exclaimed.

"Ha! You did way better than me! I missed 5 times, and you only missed 3 times!" Ron laughed.

Miles chuckled before lightly punching Po's arm. "Nice job, kid. We'll move on tomorrow."

Po giggled. "Thanks, sir."

Walten nodded. "Yeah, Miles. And thanks for letting us stay here."

"Well, you're vital to this war and one of us now." Miles said before lighting a cigarette and putting in his mouth.

Po tilted her head. "What's that?"

"Oh, whoops." Miles chuckled a bit and put it out. "Old habits die hard. Welp, cya rookies." He then walked off, but something was on his mind as he walked back inside. He was just proud of himself that he was keeping a cool head. There had been a few missions over the days, usually fighting and saving survivors while The New Borns began to take over the world. They called more and more armies to defend their cities and homes, which they did.

But The New Borns seemed to be multiplying. Every bunch they killed, they would spawn again and again with even larger numbers and even more terrifying creatures. They needed to take out the source. And there would be a day where the rookies would need to be soldiers even if they weren't yet. Capturing one wasn't that easy as it sounded. Turns out, in order to track them, they needed samples of each kind. And it took weeks to make a sample into a scanner for Wes.

Then, he turned around and saw Wes run over. "What is it?"

"Sir. I found something important! It's about the machines. The teletubby creation machines." Wes said.

Miles tilted his head. "What about them?"

"They're the reason New Borns keep spawning."

Miles shook his head, incredibly confused by what Wes just told him. "Whaddya mean?"

"The machines are infected by the custard too and are now creating New Borns instead of tubbies. If we want a better chance at destroying the New Borns and winning this war,"

"We destroy the machines." Miles said with a sigh. "Alright. We can do that. Do you still need those samples?"

Wes nodded. "Yes, and not only to help track them, but to make a cure." He then clutched his clipboard. "I'm not letting other people and Pyro stay like that forever..."

Miles gave him a look of sympathy and nodded. "Alright."

"Oh! And you can take that bandage off your eye by the way! You may be a little blind in that eye though." Wes said.

"Fuckin' finally." He said with a sigh before watching Wes leave and taking the bandage off and then revealing the now dried up scar over his eye. He could hardly see out of it, but he could at least see a little. He then walked off, grabbed a new helmet since Richard smashed his old one and put it over his head.

He walked out onto the top of the base and observed everything. He knew that they would need to destroy every single machine in order to save the tubbies that were still alive. They could rebuild the machines, but not lives.

Ron looked out the window of their room for a second before facing his friends. "I think I might try to be a pilot."

"A pilot?" Walten asked, taking off his hat and watching Po steal it and put it on her head instead.

"Yeah! Cause I wanna do that helicopter trick again. That was the best idea I ever had." Ron said with a smirk.

Walten laughed. "It WAS pretty awesome."

"Wasn't it?" Ron asked as he sat down. "But that would be the only reason. I'm a better engineer than I am with anything else."

"You are really good at it!" Po said with a smile.

Ron smiled. "Thanks, Po."

Walten smiled at both. He began to think about what things would be like if both Ron and Po died. He probably wouldn't have been able to smile. He would've felt like more of a failure. More than ever.

Soon enough, Ron fell asleep, Walten was half asleep, but Po was still wide awake. The Guardian noticed and turned his head. "You ok, Po?"

"Hmmm? Oh! I'm ok. I was just thinking." She said as she laid her head back onto her pillow. "About something you told me."

The Guardian tilted his head. "Whaddya mean?"

"You said once...that you were afraid that if you fell asleep, you would fail me. What do you mean by that? Do you think you failed me in some way?" She asked.

Walten was silent for a moment before he nodded. "Not just you. I think I failed everyone. Tink, Dip, Laa, and you. I could've just showed my stupid face to you all and maybe, just maybe, I could've seen it all coming. I could've saved you all. I just...feel like that if there was a small chance I could've saved you all...that I could've taken it and none of this would've happened. Noo Noo might have done this, Shadow Tubby may have. I generally want to kill whoever did...But that won't ever make me feel better about how I failed to do the one job. The one thing that defined me. The one purpose I have. What kind of Guardian am I if I can only fail?"

Po's heart clenched and she walked over to The Guardian and hugged him. "It wasn't your fault."

"Huh...? Po, I just-"

"You couldn't have done anything to predict that this happened. If there was a way, I know you would've done it. But not even you could have saved Tink from becoming that giant monster. It isn't your fault for what happened, because if it was, then I would've never cared for you the way I do now. You're my friend and you are a great Guardian. You saved me, didn't you?"

Walten's heart melted and he hugged back. "Thanks, Po." He then blushed slightly. "So, I have a question for you."

"Hmm?"

"Do you think you could ever feel something about someone? Like, more than friendship?"

"Best friends! It's what me and Tinky Winky were back in the mainland." Po said, not getting what he meant.

"No, no. More than that."

"Ultra best friends?"

"Way more than that."

"How is that even possible?" She then gasped. "You wanna be my super duper ultra best friend?!"

"Uhh..." He then sighed. "Yeah! Yeah, I do! That's totally what I meant!"

Po squealed before hugging him again. "Of course!!"

Walten smiled and patted her back. 'This isn't gonna be easy to say out loud, is it?'