"You can do that?" Holly asked. "Do you have a special power like my Jotaro?"

"Sort of. Its not a Stand," Alasea explained. "Back in my home dimension, I'm connected to a totem called the Pillar of Dawn. I still hold some of its power within me, but I'm not as strong here as I am there."

Kyoka's head rolled across the ground. X watched for a moment, his golden eyes slowly fading to their natural color.

"Well, now that that's...taken care o--"

He hit the ground with a loud thud. Suddenly the wound in his back from Kyoka began to heal.

~~~~~

[I]The small child looked up at the man. He was clad from head to toe in bulky, ebony, and demonic-looking armor. The child was terrified at the demon before him. The man knelt down next to him and raised his hand. The child cringed, expecting the blow. He was surprised when he only received a pat on the head.

He looked up at the man. Or rather, his helmet.

"So child, Kyoka I believe? I hear you are a very special child with special gifts. I can help you learn how to use these gifts. I can even help augment them."

The boy stammered nervously, "But what about my--"

"Your slave masters? We reached a... 'compromise'. They won't be able to hurt you ever again."

No, he thought to himself as he left with the boy, picturing their bloody remains in the room next door. They wouldn't be bothering either of them ever again.

"X! X!" Aram shouted, dropping his weapon and rushing to his companion's side. He knelt down next to him, sitting him up. "Are you all right?"

"Guh..." X moaned as he regained consciousness. "What happened? I was in Kyoka's illusion and then it's all just a blur." He suddenly jumped to his feet. "Kyoka! Where's that guy? We have to stop hi--Oh. Good job on that."

"Oh...I see." Holly stood up as Jotaro entered the house again, followed by Joseph, with the others in their arms. Hugo took up the flank. "Welcome back, Papa!"

Joseph smiled with a quick nod. "Sorry we were out for so long. We had a lot of trouble finding them. But everything turned out okay."

"No one got hurt?" Holly was looking at Jotaro when she said this, who just kept moving on without a look. "Well, that's good. Anyway, there's still some leftovers if you're interested, Papa."

Joseph tilted his head towards Holly, who removed his brown cowboy hat for him. "That sounds great, Holly. I'll have some as soon as I'm done with this."

Alasea visibly stilled as he saw the interaction between father and daughter, her face going rather pale.

"Father!" the seven-year-old girl shouted gleefully, her short brown hair bobbing wildly as she charged from the living room and to the entrance of the house, where her father closed the front door. She laughed as she was scooped up into the returning General's arms. "Welcome back, father!"

"Ah, there you are, Alasea!" he greeted the girl with a smile as she hugged him. "You've been a good girl for your mother, have you?"

"Yep! She said dinner will be ready in a few minutes!" Alasea said excitedly. "I'm glad you were able to come back tonight!"

She shook her head a bit to try clear the sudden onset of memories.

"I'll go set up the wards now," she said, perhaps a tad quieter than she'd normally have spoken.

===NationStates General===

Aram blinked as he stood up. "You don't remember what happened?" he asked as he picked up his sword.

"No, sir. No I do no--Oh hey my wound's gone!"

As Joseph walked off to lay R.D. down, Hugo glanced around, studying the neat and clean design. "I think I've seen a house like this before."

Holly jumped. "Oh!"

Hugo lifted his pickaxe in recognition. "Calm down," he said. "I'm a talking robot."

Alasea slid the front door closed behind her, then turned her back on it. She breathed in the fresh air for a bit, trying to calm her nerves.

The chain of her mother's locket was wrapped around her hand tightly, the locket itself hanging just outside of her hand as she held it up to her chest.

"Dammit," she whispered, closing her eyes tightly and trying not to let the tears fall. "Dammit!"

===NationStates General===

Aram remained quiet for a moment, thinking back to what had happened. Now, with the threat Kyoka had represented being taken care of, he was able to recall the difference. Like the change of color in X's eyes, and the violet flames he had used.

"We escaped his illusions and you incapacitated him, but he kept struggling against us," he said. "Since he refused to lead us to Remnant, you burned him using the Queen's power. That didn't kill him, so I took off his head. That's when you collapsed and your wound healed."

"Hahahaha," X laughed, not believing most of the tale. "Whatever, I'm sure you probably just got him when I was unconscious, but thanks for trying to share the credit. Anyway, no leads? Damn. And we don't even know if or when Remnant's guys will be returning."

The expression on Aram's face did not change. "I have no reason to distort the truth about what happened," he said. "You can ask your other self if you think I'm lying. He was there in the illusion."

He turned and went to retrieve his discarded shield and helmet. As he did so, he spoke a little more. "As for leads, all he said was that we had less than a year before Remnant returned to... finish the job."

"Not much we can do but wait then, huh?" Suddenly X seemed to remember something. "Oh yeah, weren't you on some sort of quest before you ran into me?"

The black finally gave way as something nudged him. Over and over and over.

"Gehouahere," Matt rambled, shooing the air with his hand.

"Matt, wake up," came Helena's familiar voice.

He opened his eyes and saw Helena looking over him. The room was pretty damn dark, expect for the rays of moonlight passing through the window at the other wall. "...huh?" he said. "What's going on?" He craned his neck up, took a quick survey of the room. "Where are we?"

Helena stood back up in full. "I don't know. But R.D. and Ileyna's here, too. How are you feeling?"

"Like wet cardboard." Okay, had to sit up now. He managed it with a mighty groan and a force of will. "Oh, fuck. My head." He cradled it with one hand. What the hell happened?

There was a groan coming from another bed, and R.D. pushed himself up, clutching his head. He immediately went back down when the pain in his skull struck, his arm draping itself over his eyes. "What happened?" he muttered, loud enough for the others to hear.

"Are you okay?" Ileyna asked, her voice quiet. Having had the least amount of spiked coke, she had been the least affected by the poison.

===NationStates General===

"Yes," Aram replied, once his weapon was placed back in its scabbard and the rest of his armor recollected. "I needed to find the Island of Holy Darkness."

Now he remembered. "That damn Coke," Matt said. "That fucker is gonna die."

Helena shushed him with a finger over her lips. "We don't even know where we are yet, Matt. We need to think of a plan."

Matt just glanced up at her. "Helena, my head hurts like hell and I'm in a bad mood. We're gonna torch this place if we have to, all right?"

"Well, we've got a while. Why don't I help you look for it? Give us a chance to get stronger, keep us on the move away from Remnant... how about it?"

"Quiet!" R.D. suddenly whispered harshly, his body going still. He could hear footsteps outside of the room.

===NationStates General===

Aram nodded again. "We could do that," he said. "But first we should report to Fass about what we've accomplished."

Turning, the warrior cast his magic again with a short chant. In the air, a slash of light tore down in the middle of nothing, and widened into a deep, blue portal. "This will take us back to the city."

Matt rolled over and landed on the side of the bed, drawing his energy blade with a flourish. Come on, you bastard...

The footsteps stopped outside of the door, and after a moment, it slid open.

"Guys?" Alasea's voice floated through the doorway.

R.D. relaxed at the sound of her voice. It wasn't an enemy, then. The girl entered the room and looked at them, then smiled in relief. "Good. You've finally woken up."

"So," Fass asked once they'd returned to the city, "what'd our conquering heroes accomplish?"

"Oh," replied X, "nothing much. We killed the black-haired one, found out Remnant's men are coming back within the year. That sorta thing."

Fass grinned. "Good, I've been getting this place ready. We'll be ready. So... what are the two of you planning to do in that time?"

"Alasea!" Helena cried out, seizing the girl by the shoulders. "Are you okay? What happened?"

Matt dismissed his blade, waggling his fingers to restore the feeling to them. So things weren't so bad after all.

Alasea looked a bit startled when Helena grabbed her, but smiled reassuringly at the other girl. "I'm fine. We were rescued and that waiter guy was killed."

"So we're not in any danger anymore?" R.D. asked, slowly sitting up, with Ileyna's help.

"No, we're safe. The people here... they use Stands, Matt. Really powerful ones, too. And I've got some wards set up."

===NationStates General===

"We'll return to my world," Aram said. "I still have a task to complete, and if we're lucky, Remnant's soldiers won't be able to find X there."

Matt twisted his head a bit in surprise. "Really?"

"What are Stands?" Helena asked Alasea, but Matt cut in.

"They're manifestations of energy that have special powers," he said. "Only Stand Users can see Stands. Back when I had the power of the Omega Core, I used a few of them during fights."

"Only Stand Users can see Stands?" R.D. asked, raising an eyebrow. "So, what? I have a Stand now as well?"

"Well, the ones I used were obviously different because of the circumstances," Matt said.

"I suppose so," R.D. said, looking back down for a moment. Then he nodded. "Yeah, because the one true Stand you had, we couldn't see right away."

Alasea looked at them strangely for a moment before realizing what R.D. was talking about.

Then Helena's previous question clicked in her mind. "Wait, guys," she spoke up. "You mean you didn't tell her?"

"Tell who what?" R.D. asked, looking over at the girl.

"Tell Helena about what Stands were," she said. "You guys did say you told her about her past life. And you know what the Chronomancer had told her what she was going to be."

Ileyna looked at R.D. curiously, who was suddenly looking extremely uncomfortable.

Helena looked at Matt. Even in the darkness, he could tell she wasn't very happy.

"Oh, hey, thanks, Alasea!" Matt said. "I really wanted to tell her that, because, you know, I wanted to make her worry EVEN MORE."

"What's with all the noise?" Hugo called to them from outside the room. "Come out here already."

R.D. sighed, then pushed himself off the bed--carefully, so as not to aggravate his headache even more. He stepped past Alasea, who was looking a bit confused at Helena's reaction, and placed a hand on Helena's shoulder.

He shook his head. "Its not as bad as it sounds. Just hear me and Matt out first."

He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. Ileyna spared glances to the rest of them, then followed R.D. out.

Matt stepped foward. "Helena-" But Helena just turned and stormed out of the room.

"Oh, don't pull that shit with me," Matt muttered to himself. In the back of his mind, he knew he said that because he wasn't feeling good right now, but...eh, fuck it. Sliding his hands in his pockets, he slunk out-his posture was lazy and bent, because he sure didn't feel like straightening up right now.

They were led to the living room. Nice place, with a lamp or two on. The TV was left flickering on some old western-the other two people in the room were asleep. One was a young man in a long blue coat laid flat along the couch, his hat tipped over his face. The other, older man leaned back in his recliner with his arms folded, head tipped back and snoring.

"Who's that?" Matt whispered, jabbing at the two with his thumb.