Taiga's bushy eyebrows furrowed. "Well, our friend here is apparently a dimensional traveller." Knowing Renais, she probably wouldn't buy this one bit.

"A dimensional traveller?" Liger repeated. "Does he move between this universe and ours, then?"

"I've seen dimensions you've probably never heard of," Matt said. "It sounds like bull but I'm not lying."

Renais raised an eyebrow on the explanation, but said nothing. While was indeed skeptical, it wasn't entirely implausible--according to J and Tomoro-0117, Escape Space and possibly even this galaxy were alternate dimensions.

"So you fell through a dimensional gateway." Liger turned a knob, and the electrodes became all the more noticable against Matt's skin. "Which dropped you here, on Repli-Earth."

"Pretty much."

"Hmmm." Liger examined the data coming in before him on the screen. "Well, judging by these scans, your bio-signs seem to be pretty normal...at least, as normal as we can detect with this equipment."

"What about the armor?"

A concentrated frown from the Doctor. "It's nothing like I've ever seen. Guy told me that it had a unique energy pattern of its own."

"How did Guy find that out?" Matt asked.

"Ah." Liger swiveled about on his stool. "You see, Guy is a special kind of human. He's what we call an Evoulder."

"Evoulder?"

"Yes, an Evoulder is a combination of man and machine. In many ways, he's superhuman. One of his abilities allows him to detect forms of energy in the atmosphere." Liger slapped his hands on his knees and looked toward Taiga. "But that's hardly the point. Right now...we need to decide what to do with you."

"...what to do with me?" Matt never liked the sound of that.

"Indeed," Taiga replied. "You don't claim to be hostile, and so far you've been very cooperative with us. I thank you for that. Still, since we don't know everything about you yet, we can't take unneccesary risks."

Matt bowed his head. "I understand."

"Still, I'd hate to try and lock you up, especially since you're a newcomer to this world." Taiga folded his arms. "Hmmm. Any ideas?"

"I'm pretty sure that between Guy, J, and myself, we shouldn't have too much of a problem keeping an eye on him," Renais said coolly. "Watching over him shouldn't be difficult."

"All right." Taiga looked back upon Matt. "Then it's settled. You can stay with us, and hopefully, we can help you out of that armor."

I doubt it. "Okay."

"We might as well introduce him to the crew early," Liger added. "Make sure everyone knows he's not a threat."

Taiga nodded. "That's true. Papillon, I want you to show Matt around the ship. Renais will accompany you."

"Yes," Papillon said, standing up once more. Turning to Matt, she said, "Please, follow me." Renais had already left the room, waiting outside in the hall. Her hands were once again in the pockets of her cooling coat.

And now came the challenge of walking. Now that he knew the armor was heavy as hell, he could work around it. "Let's try this again..." he muttered. With a bit of effort, he pushed himself off the table, landing a bit awkwardly on his feet. Okay. Now, we walk...

With a careful step, and then another, Matt successfully made it out into the hallway. His body felt heavier than normal and he had to exert a bit more effort to move his limbs, but he could pretty much walk normally. "All right," he said. "Let's go."

Papillon guided Matt through the various hallways of the Kushinada, introducing him to the more important members of the Gutsy Galaxy Guard, and explaining what they were doing with the escape shuttle, now that the battles with the 11 Sol Masters were over.

"And that about covers it for the Kushinada," Renais said, stopping in a large room, most of its floor lowered into a ramp. The red-haired woman made her way down the ramp.

"The crew does not live onboard the Kushinada," Papillon explained as she led Matt down the ramp after Renais, "Instead, in an effort to save space onboard the ship, Taiga has had the crew use the J-Ark for living space during our stay here."

Matt had felt rather conspicious during the tour, and with good reason. He tried to take his mind off the stares he had recieved. "The J-Ark?"

"Yes," Papillon said, "The J-Ark is one of a series of battleships constructed by the Red Planet, and is mostly self-sustaining due to its computer, Tomoro-0117. It is much larger than the Kushinada, making it the obvious choice for crew quarters."

As they proceeded down the ramp, the blue-haired woman pointed a hand towards the massive warship resting in the grass, many meters off from the Kushinada.

Matt's eyes widened at the size of the thing-long and majestic, angled and silver all over the place, fronted by the massive crest of a steel falcon. "...that's one big ship." He jabbed a clawed thumb at it. "I get to stay on that?"

"Yes," Papillon confirmed with a nod, "There is more than enough room on board, so you'll be able to find a room to yourself, if that is what you prefer."

Papillon, with her empathic nature, had easily picked up Matt's discomfort from the numerous stares he had gotten from the crew members that had seen him. She figured he would like a room to himself. Chances are it would be rather difficult to get him to open up to the rest of GGG.

"What Trolls have you seen, then? We're a mighty warrior race y'know. Question I got for you is this: Which world you from?"

---

"All right. Since you don't know how to fix an elder sword, you probably don't know the name."

"It has a what now?"

"..Are you serious? How could you not know that? Every spiritual Sword has a name! They're created when beings with immense power are sealed into a sword!"

"Oh."

Fass sighed. "All right, first things first. You're going to go inside your own head and figure it out."

"Oh hell no. I just got back from that dump."

Matt nodded. "Yeah, that'd be good." He needed to be alone, anyway. He thought better that way. Still...he was staying inside a gigantic warship. That should've been awesome. At least, he wanted to think it was awesome.

He took in more of the dead city in the distance-from what Taiga told him, he and his crew were the only humans on Repli-Earth. It would be pretty lonely and miserable to live like this, he thought. At least, for him-the other crew members still maintained a sense of positiveness about their situation. They had each other, though. Right now, Matt felt more alone than ever before.

"Can we go see the J-Ark, then?" he asked.

Nodding, Papillon led Matt towards the J-Ark, with Renais following them both from behind. They were forced to weave in and out of milling GGG crew as they went about their daily tasks. Due to the destruction of the Regeneration Machine, the world was cast in a perpetual night, the only sources of light were various lamps set up, and lights coming from window ports in the massive J-Ark itself. A relatively small ramp in its side allowed for people to enter and exit the battleship, and it didn't take long for Papillon to guide Matt and Renais over to it.

===In NationStates General===

"I believe it was called Earth," the warrior told the man. The concept was still something he had trouble grasping. For someone born in medieval times, the possibility of different worlds was something utterly alien to him.

Matt peered up at the massive J-Ark as he set armored foot on the ramp. Somehow, he didn't think it was...appropriate? Maybe he was looking for a more majestic entrance. Then again, he was grateful enough. He half expected something akin to "burn the witch!" from the other crew members, so recieving such hospitality was all right in his book.

He walked up the ramp, into the heart of the J-Ark itself.

Papillon was giving a brief explanation of the J-Ark's layout as they entered the ship. "Most of the base level hallways are easy to navigate, and most of the makeshift quarters are based off it. The upper halls, however," she continued, "Are oddly shaped, and make walking along them difficult. They weren't meant for beings who normally walk, but for those who fly."

"What're they made out of, triangles or something?" Matt quipped, always one to make a comment.

"Yes, actually," Papillon said, causing Renais to snort. "Inverted triangles, so the flat part is actually the ceiling."

"...oh." Well, that got knocked down. "Good thing I'm not staying in the triangle part, then. So the guys who ran this ship could, like, fly super-straight then."

"More or less," Renais said, "J usually stays in the bridge, in the J-Bird. He doesn't have much reason to wander about the rest of the ship."

"J, huh? I'm not sure if I'd like to be called a letter, but what can you do."

It did not take the three of them long to find an empty room for Matt to stay in aboard the J-Ark. It was relatively close to the entrance, as well as close to other GGG crewmember quarters in case Matt would need anything.

"The bare necessities are already in your room. If you need anything else, just ask any of the crew to help you," Papillon said, "While radio and television will be impossible, movies, video games, and the like can still be enjoyed during your free time here."

"Video games?" Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. Matt rubbed his armored chin-a habit. Wonder if they have America's favorite ultraviolent fantasy RPG, Death Sunder...

No, he couldn't think of that now. It wouldn't be right. "Thanks for the room," he said. "If you need me to do anything around here, I'll do it."

Papillon nodded. "We have to get back to our duties. If there's anything you need. Just call. You can also contact Tomoro-0117 if you need something... just call out to him. He should respond."

The two soon left, with Renais waving back with a simple, "Ja." Matt was left alone to his own devices.

Matt now looked at the room proper. It was simple, but solitary-just how Matt liked it. Had a nice bed, too. He sat on it and it yielded nicely.

Still, it wasn't too bad camping out under the stars with the others.

...he wondered what R.D. and Hugo were doing now. Did they get home all right? He hoped so. Better they not have to suffer because of him. It was bad enough that he had to live with it.

He looked at his gauntlet now. Even with the modest light in the room, it still seemed dull and lifeless to him. He reached down to it and pulled.

Unsurprisingly, it wouldn't budge. "Damn it." He tried harder. Still nothing.

"...fuck you, stupid armor."

You had to rub it in his face.

Might as well see what games they had...

"Earth? Eh, must be a new server. Heh, good time to start one too. Be glad you didn't start it during the War. Hoo-boy, that would have been a terrible time. Anyway, Trolls are people. We're a people. We like fightings, you could call us a culture of mercs... I guess. We're made of all sorts. The Fighters and their training, Barbarians and their rage, Swordsages and their arsenal of techniques, and guys like me. I'm a Warblade, which means that when I enter battle, it's for the beauty of the fight. It's like a painting to some people."

----

"All right, dumbass. We're going to get started."

"Could you lay off the insults?"

"Do what now?"

"..."

X sat down and laid the broken sword in his lap. His eyes closed, he listened to the arcane incantations of Fass.

".dnim rouy fo yrautcnas eht otni retne woN"

"...The hell? Are... are you fucking serious? Are you just gonna chant backwards? I could do this myself, you know!" X then felt a punch to his head."

"Shaddup."

As Fass continued to chant... backwards, X felt the world disappear, replaced shortly by the melancholy and grayscale world of his mind.

"I hate this place" he said, looking at the tower where the Queen had once kept him captive. Looking around, he saw a tranquil garden full of greenery that seemed entirely out of place. Intrigued, he walked toward it.

Sleep didn't come all too well, and even then it was short. Matt woke up at what he assumed was his typical early time-no clock, he mumbled in thought as he glanced around for a time-based device.

Ah, well. Might as well get up.

Momentarily distracted by the weight of the armor in his normal routine, Matt left the confines of his room to find himself within the silver halls. All right...if he recalled correctly, the exit was this way...

...or was it this way?

The next day still looked like night, an inevitable result. Life went on for the crew of the Gutsy Galaxy Guard, however, and a number of crewmembers weaved their way in and out of the J-Ark as they set about their daily tasks. One group headed outside passed by Matt, each one talking about the tasks planned for the day.