"Those are the guys who saved us," Alasea whispered back. She pointed to each one. "That's one Jotaro Kujo, and that one's his grandfather, Joseph. Jotaro's mother Holly lives here as well."

Edited by RisingDragon on December 3, 2009 at 10:04:55.

"Does she have anything good to drink?" Matt asked.

"She's got a lot of beer," Hugo said. "But that's for Jotaro."

"I don't even care. Painkillers and water'll be fine."

Alasea pointed to Matt's bag in the room. "Go get the meds, I'll get the water."

She trotted off to the kitchen, then returned with four glasses of water for Matt, R.D., Helena, and Ileyna. Ileyna didn't seem to have a headache at all, but accepted the water anyway.

"Guys? We need to talk tomorrow," Alasea said. "There's... something about the quest that we learned."

Michael gave Zhatsuroth a side-long glance, slightly surprised and a bit amused by his observation. Honestly, for most of the time since their confrontation at North America's Pillar of Dawn, the Nightmare Realm creation had mostly brooded on the fact someone managed to take advantage of his curse before he could kill them.

He'd have to give Power Incarnate a bit more credit.

"Take a closer look at the link and you'll see it only runs between the two of us," he said. "Your curse only works on the most powerful native of the dimension you're in, and currently that's me. Normally it'd be the former Dark Balance, Kuro, but he hasn't quite been alive since the God of Fire shot him in the head."

The boy pulled out his pack of cigarettes and took one of the cancer sticks out, putting it between his lips before lighting the tip of it.

"As for my power, I got it after I was trampled by Lee. Some eyeless demon with white skin appeared and forced some black crap down my throat. Next thing I know I've got all this power, a new eye color, and I'm in desperate need of a tan," he continued after puffing on the cigarette a little. He stowed the pack away in his pants pocket. "Far as I can tell, the power's copied from that new entity, the one who destroyed Australia to make that floating fortress. Ziatoch, I think His name is. I've checked and that guy is by far stronger than me, but my power's a copy of His, not linked to it. And since Ziatoch's not a native to this dimension, He can't take advantage of the curse anyway."

"You probably got that curse stuck on you because you let that power go to your head," Michael commented, looking at the portal. "And if this leads to where I think it does, we should probably stay out. Most genocidal super-monsters from other dimensions typically react poorly when people as strong as us invade their inner sanctum."

He reached out with his own power and redirected the flows of energy, altering the destination of the portal. "I hear there's some sort of army stationed in an island of the Pacific. Place called Aube, I think. Maybe we can see if they have enemies you can kill."

... and into a picture of devastation.

The air was thick with smoke, billowing up from what was left of the former military island base. The landmass had been utterly shattered by the devastating explosion caused by the facility's self destruct mechanism. Lava poured freely from the sides of the ruined volcano, and steam hissed as that lava met the churning ocean water. Large chunks of broken metal were strewn about on the remaining landmasses.

Michael let out a low, drawn-out whistle once he stepped through the portal and closed it behind him.

"Well, this is unexpected," he said, taking the cigarette out from between his lips, holding it between two fingers instead. "Looks like someone beat us here."

"What is it?" Matt asked, as Helena tossed her water down before he could even give her a pill.

"Jotaro and Joseph are searching for the Essence too," Hugo said. "Apparently we're not the only ones on the trail."

"Oh." Was that all?

"They'll explain it in detail," Alasea said. "They know more about it and I didn't press the issue since you guys weren't awake yet."

Hell, he still wasn't awake all the way. "I'll hear it later," Matt said, shuffling back towards the bedroom. "I'm goin' back to bed."

Helena just kept her arms folded, one hand perched along the edge of the glass, as Matt left. When he did, she passed the glass to Alasea. "Thank you."

"Bed sounds good right now," Hugo said, laying his pickaxe across his helmet lazily. "It's been a long day."

Alasea nodded as they departed back to the guest bedrooms. "Good night, guys."

Matt slept like shit. One, two hours tops. After a frustrated period of time where he tried to will unconciousness over his body-preferably without spiked soda-he finally got up and prowled the kitchen. There he sat for a bit, drinking some water, leaning back and just letting time pass.

"Can't sleep?" asked Alasea's voice, as she slipped into the kitchen behind Matt.

"No. What about you?"

The girl offered him a suffering smile. "You really think I can sleep after what happened the other day?"

Fingers clasped around the edge of his glass, Matt waved it towards the other chair at the small table. "Then sit down and get fake-smashed with me."

Alasea smiled a bit, and poured herself some water before sitting down with Matt. "So why'd Helena get so upset with you tonight?" she asked.

===Ruins of Aube===

"No, I wouldn't say that just yet," Michael said. "I'm sensing some lifeforms still lingering around here."

Looking around, he frowned imperceptibly. "Though from the feel of it, there's been a lot of violence here. A lot of it."

"Cause I didn't tell her about the Stand thing." He held flat hands up like he was grasping an invisible shoebox. "Look, I didn't tell her about a lot of that stuff because I didn't want to make her worry. Now it's all getting out and she thinks I've holding a thousand secrets from her or something."

"Girls don't like it when you hold stuff back from them," Alasea said wisely after a moment. "Even if its something minor like how she was supposed to be your Stand until the Core changed her."

She sighed, looking off to the side a bit as she propped her head up on her arm. She slowly swirled the liquid in the glass in her other hand, contemplating. "I'm guessing that you're holding back something serious from her and she can tell," she said after a bit. She didn't sound accusing. "Am I right?"

Matt gave her a narrowed look. "Well, obviously." He leaned back, clasped a hand over his fist and laid them on the table. "Did, uh...did R.D. tell you about what went down at the end?"

Alasea nodded. "About how Core Genesis killed her, and how you became Dragon Drive FINAL," she said, a bit quietly. "And how he had to try and stop you. But R.D. told me she already knows about that."

===Ruins of Aube===

"Sure," Michael said, taking another drag of his cigarette. "None of the lifesigns feel human, at any rate. Might even find a challenge."

"She doesn't know about all of it." Now he could notice the humor dropped cold from his voice. "She doesn't know what happened to her body. And I'm gonna keep it that way as long as I can."

"What... did happen to her body, anyway?" Alasea asked. "R.D. never told me that. Just that you got mad and started a fire, and when it died out, Dragon Drive FINAL was in your place."

===Ruins of Aube===

"Oh yeah. I'll bet you do."

Michael was looking straight up into the sky as the gigantic Cyraeth vessel began to overshadow them.

He shifted his weight to a hip, leaned to the side so he was facing the fridge. "Her body disentigrated and became the armor," he said, and took another drink.

Alasea went pale at that. She lifted the glass up to her lips and took a large swig of it, swallowing it hard. "Okay, yeah, I can see why you wouldn't want to tell her that," she remarked.

After a moment of peering into her glass, she spoke up again. "But she does have the right to know."