"What's this big hooplah you need to talk about anyway?" Matt asked.

"Something's watching us," R.D. said flatly, finally pulling out a soda from the satchel. "I don't know how, but we're being watched."

Matt sat up. "What're you talking about? I didn't notice anything."

"He said something that indicated that Lumiya lost its power," R.D. said. "Taunted me about it, really. He said that my 'little toy's gotten weaker.'"

He almost growled. "That happened back on my world, and yet Geese knew about it," he muttered. "That means something's watching us."

"Hmmm. Think Magister's keeping an eye on us?"

"Probably," R.D. said. "That's why I wanted to get as far from here as possible. We don't know what else is after the Essence in this city. Geese may have killed himself and Billy Kane, but there's still that Oswald guy."

"I say we peel on out of here tomorrow morning," Matt said. "...but then again, we'll just be leaving Mr. Hiroshi and Helena without protection..."

"We'll need to talk to them in the morning," R.D. said, downing his soda. "There's more we need to talk about, but they need to hear it too."

(I can't believe this is still going on.)

"Right. In the meantime, sleep. You go to whatever room you're in and I'll do the same, I don't even remember anymore."

"Yeah, alright," R.D. said, exiting the room. Sighing, he finished the last of his soda and got rid of the can, then went back to his room before slipping into bed.

"Great moons of Neptune served with a side of suffering succotash!" the giant trenchcoat-wearing dog named Sam declared. "It's our evil robotic clones, who are completely opposite to us in every way!"

"I can't stand those greasy clones homing in on my turf!" Max, the toothy-grinned rabbit said. "I'm supposed to be the one that homes in around here!"

Hugo's robotic clone pirouetted over to the Mettaur. "Hello! My name is Oguh! I hope we get along just WONDERFULLY!"

Hugo blew a hole in Oguh's head with his pickaxe. "I'll be waiting in the car."

"I am Xam!" Max's evil clone said.

Max blew a hole in Xam's head with his Luger. "Whoops! I accidentally cut that too short."

"Your eagerness to murder the manifestation of your hidden personality traits disturbs me at length, little buddy," Sam said.

"Shattering expectations is just one of my many features," Max said. He pointed a gun at Matt's evil clone. "Can I kill that one too?"

Sam pushed away Max's gun. "Hold it, chum! To interfere in this metaphorical battle between man and his reflection would betray the foundations that keep our world together."

"They could use a good loosening."

"While destroying the fabric of reality is a natural and healthy universal detox method, I think we should see what Matt does first," Sam said.

Matt placed his hands on his hips, eyeing his evil, stoic clone. "So, you're my evil robot us-ses. Excellent."

"I am Ttam," Matt's evil clone said, his brow furrowing. "And I hate references."

"Then you must DIE!" Screaming a tribal yell, Matt leapt at his evil clone.

***

Before he could discover the results of that attack, Matt's eyes flashed open, and he was still in his hotel bed.

"...well, that was a strange dream to start the day with."

As morning light filtered into the room through the slits of the blinds, R.D. slowly roused himself, looking like absolute hell. Grumbling, R.D. pulled himself out of bed and wandered off to the bathroom for the hotel room, finding it empty, closing and locking the door and getting ready to shower.

Once under the water, R.D. leaned himself against the wall, eyes closed. His night was yet another one plagued with dreams of that red-haired girl, another one full of half-formed, shapeless nightmares. As he pondered the identity of the girl, of this mysterious Mesia, his hand slowly curled into a fist without him realizing it.

With a list of Helena's measurements that Mr. Hiroshi would not allow Matt to see, they bought Helena some clothes at a nearby outlet, and fast, because Matt felt extra wary and prepared in case of enemy attack. Fortunately, nothing drastic occured. Maybe they should count their blessings while they still had them.

"Finally, some actual clothes," Helena said, coming out of the bathroom in her new outfit.

"They are pretty important," Matt said.

Once he had showered and gotten dressed, R.D. exited the bathroom and collapsed back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. He wasn't sure how long he laid there, but after a while, he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," R.D. said, and the door opened up, revealing Ileyna.

"Hey," he said, sitting up. "Where're the others?"

"They went to go get some clothes for Helena," she said, pushing herself up onto the other bed and sitting down on it. "They just got back."

===NationStates General===

As the blade-like fingers plunged into Dearg-due's body, the Bone Spirit shrieked angrily in his face, lashing its makeshift tail--really, an incredibly-lengthened spine that lacked a pelvis and legs--about before swinging it around the warrior's legs to bind him in place.

"You shouldn't worry about learning it," Aram growled, taking up his King's Sword of the Heavens again. "You're about to die anyway."

With a roar, Aram ran forward and leaped up, bringing his sword overhead, and swung down with it at Dearg-due and the Bone Spirit, the sharp blade of the sword ready to cleave the man in half. Behind him, he heard and felt the building explode.

When Matt entered the room, with Helena and Hugo in tow, he brandished two white paper sacks. "Who wants greasy breakfast food substitutes?"

"Did you get any egg biscuits?" Mr. Hiroshi asked.

"Dad, didn't you say you were going to ease off on the fast food?" Helena asked.

"I deserve it." Matt handed Mr. Hiroshi a biscuit and he eagerly dug in.

R.D. quickly dug through one of the bags, taking out an egg sandwich to feast on before handing the bag to Ileyna. Before he started eating, though, he looked up at Matt.

"Any problems when you were shopping?" he asked.

"Not really," Matt said. "Though I imagine the hounds of hell could descend soon if Geese survived."

"You killed Geese?" Mr. Hiroshi asked. "How?"

Matt explained. "So that's why you could still be in trouble."

"Leave it to you to destroy more than you need to destroy," Hugo said.

"Hey, he was the one who brought the entire building down on himself, not us," R.D. said. "His own fault for getting himself killed."

"All the same, this could bring some unwanted attention," Matt said. "When we leave, will you be able to protect yourself?"

"You're leaving?" Helena asked.

"We gotta go find the next piece of Omega Essence soon," Matt said. "Can't be helped."

"I can hire guards," Mr. Hiroshi said. "We'll have to be careful for a while. Maybe even move. But I think we'll be okay. Geese was my only major problem. If he's really dead, then there's going to be a power vaccum that'll distract the other little crime lords of Southtown for a while."

"Will that be enough?" R.D. asked. "The crime lords might not be your problem. Helena's still got that piece of Omega Essence, and if Magister comes looking for it... well, guards aren't gonna stop him, I think."

"You want me to remove it?" Ileyna asked, cocking her head to the side after swallowing a bit of her breakfast.

R.D. shook his head as he saw her beret slip on her head, only for her to absentmindedly push it back up. "No, I don't think we should do that," he replied. "Geese said something that caught my attention last night. Normally, it wouldn't bother me, but considering what he said about me, well..."

"Why can't you remove it?" Mr. Hiroshi pressed. "If you took it out, then Helena would be back to normal, right?"

"Geese said that she might not be able to survive if the Omega Essence was removed... normally, I'd say that's a lie, because Ileyna removed Omega Essence from both Matt and Geese without any problems," R.D. said, crossing his arms. Ileyna nodded in confirmation, remembering the times she extracted the Omega Essence.

R.D. looked over at Matt; his expression conveyed that he was about to reveal something he wasn't going to like. He turned his gaze back to Mr. Hiroshi and Helena. "Geese, unfortunately, indicated last night that he knew about things he shouldn't have known at all."

He sighed. "Matt didn't tell you exactly what happened at the Eternal Sanctuary, why everything went to Hell that day," he said.

"The truth is, Helena died."

"I...died?" Helena repeated.

"It wasn't pretty," Hugo said. "That's why Matt didn't want to tell you. Telling you that you had a past life was hard enough. You didn't need to hear that."

"What happened to me?" Helena asked R.D..

R.D. sighed and closed his eyes, leaning back against the headboard of the bed. It was only little over a week that it happened, so it was vividly fresh in his mind.

"Core Genesis was overpowering us. Matt was still trapped inside of it, you and Hugo weren't able to do anything to it, and my strongest attacks could barely crack its armor," R.D. recounted. "After my Shell Bullet Burst attack failed, and Core Genesis was readying itself for a fatal attack, you, in your dragon form, tackled me out of the way and tried to make a run for it. I tried to help by channeling wind under your wings... but it wasn't enough. The beam it fired disintegrated the lower half of your body. Death was instantaneous."

He stopped at that, after hearing Ileyna gasp. He didn't want to continue... Matt could take up the tale, next. He could inform her of what happened after that.

"Your death freed me from Core Genesis," Matt said. "It gave me a new kind of power, one that could hurt Core Genesis. After R.D. and I finally destroyed it, the Eternal Sanctuary began to come apart, so we fled."

"Did you take my body with you?" Helena asked, quietly.

"I don't know what happened to it." Hugo glanced up at Matt but Matt just ignored it. He knew what he said.

R.D. kept silent on the matter. He didn't know how Helena would react if he revealed just what Dragon Drive FINAL's sleek armor had been made from.

"It makes sense, I think," Mr. Hiroshi suddenly said. "Until now I never figured out what led me to adopt you, Helena." He looked at her. "There always was something about you I couldn't determine. But now that I've seen this and heard about it...maybe it was meant to be this way after all."

"Do you regret it?" Helena asked.

Mr. Hiroshi smiled. "You've made me happier that I ever could have been."

Helena took him in a slow embrace. "Thank you."

R.D. didn't want to, but it was time to interrupt the moment. "We still need to figure out what to do with your piece of Omega Essence," he said after a moment. "If removing yours will kill you, that means there's two people here that we can't safely remove the Essence from: you, and Ileyna."

"Me?" the little girl asked, cocking her head to the side.

"I don't think you can extract the Essence you have from yourself, can you?" R.D. asked, looking at her.

"... I don't think so," she said, after a moment. She didn't even realize she had a piece of Omega Essence in her. Is that where I got my powers from? she wondered.

"The problem is, all of the Omega Essence is going to make it back to one spot so it can rebuild into the Omega Core," R.D. said, "So your piece is gonna go there regardless of what happens. And then there's Magister and his goons to consider."

He thought about it for a moment, and didn't like to suggest it, but what choice did they have? Besides, the Chronomancer seemed to know this would happen--he said Matt would be picking up his old allies.

"I think the only safe course of action you have now is to come with us."