Helena leaned over and pointed at Matt's forehead. "Look, Alasea! All the marks are gone!"

Matt made a wavering gesture at Helena. "Same to you. I guess almost being killed by a plane crash will do that to you."

"But why did the plane even drop to begin with?"

"I guess Hell and Heaven must've fucked with the systems," Matt said. "Pfft. I dunno."

"Think about it later, we need to get your car and get out of here," Alasea said, standing up. "I don't want to have to fight our way out of here against cops."

Matt sat up with a grunt, checked his spine to make sure it was all in one place. "Right. Let's go."

***

Hugo landed on a rooptop with an impressive swing, scanning around for Ileyna. Damn it, she was moving way too fast. Where'd she go now?

"I don't..." X trailed off. "You're going to have to trust me." X fiddled around for a few more minutes before closing everything up and relaxing.

"There... I've given the ship an autopilot. Maybe."

A short distance away, Ileyna angled her flight upwards, flying along the wall of a tall building, then halted at its roof, alighting down and letting her powers fade.

She looked about, holding a hand over her beret to keep the strong wind from claiming it.

"He's moving," she muttered, mostly to herself. "Are the others keeping him on the move?"

She closed her eyes and opened up her senses, and her hair flashed blue with a chime, and she once again knew her target's position. Opening her eyes, she rushed to the edge of the building and opened herself to the Essence once more, taking to the air and flying off, headed back beneath the roof levels.

===Off England's Coast===

Aram wasn't sure what autopilot meant, but he nodded anyway. "Let's hope the crossing is uneventful. I'd rather not run into a Sea Serpent."

"Autopilot... it means the ship'll keep going where we want it to without me watching it. At least I hope that's what I did."

====NationStates General===

"Come in," Fass declared, motioning to the door.

A tall dark-skinned man entered, brushing aside the tarp that served as Fass's door. He was casually dressed, wearing a tanktop, jeans, and dark sunglasses that obscured his eyes yet he still gave off an aura of professionalism and confidence.

"You asked," Fass began, "that if I ever were to come across these particular markings... I should bring them to you..." he trailed off, passing the notepad in which X had sketched the Queen's runes.

"I did." The man nodded, grabbing the parchment.

"So what is your plan then, now that you have..." Fass inquired.

The man smiled and left the tent.

"Really? That would be useful," Aram said, stowing his armor into a large bag, keeping only his sword and shield out in case he needed them. "Well, we're still close to the port, so we'd better try it out now, so we don't have to swim very far."

X engaged the autopilot. It was a little stubborn at first, but soon it decided to play along. Within minutes, the boat was speeding along at a comfortable pace under it's own power and guidance.

X breathed a sigh of relief and sat down. Picking up Sylvontis, he tried feeling out for the sword in his mind

"Was that you that guided me with that knowledge?" X asked.

"It was not," came the stoic reply.

"But the-"

"I do not know anything for certain. Perhaps you hold secrets that even I am unaware of. I would caution you to be careful with this power. It is... incomplete, and it's mastery would come at great risk to you as you are."

Then the link dropped. It was almost as though the signal had been lost, but X knew better than that. Things like that didn't apply to spiritually attuned swords. It was clear that Sylvontis had dropped him. Sylvontis was hiding something he knew, or at least something he suspected. He clutched his stomach. Whatever power that was welling up within him, first with Kyoka and now on the boat, was surely a terrible thing. Especially more so on account of the fact that whenever that... that ability reared its head... it felt so... pure and right.

"Great," he muttered to himself. "Now I have a dark side, a demon-queen, and a mysteriously seductive power in my soul. God, my life sucks."

"We heroes never have it easy," Aram commented, having heard X's mutter. They were in a relatively close space, and Aram had trained--forced to, really--his senses to be better than normal, better than human.

"Eh?" X perked up, realizing that Aram had heard everything. "Uh... yeah." He let out a nervous laugh. "You're probably a little concerned about the fact that I'm pretty much a ticking time bomb of volatile powers, huh?"

There was a momentary pause.

"I... I don't know how I figured out the controls... or built the auto-pilot. I... have a friend who was real good with all sorts of technology... like an innate sense. Everything was so confusing, but when I thought of him, I... I could see every part so clearly. Everything; working, repairing, modifying. It was like second-nature. Almost the same as when we fought Kyoka... I talked to Sylvontis about it, but he was... evasive. He said it was a mystery to him, but also that it was unstable and... dangerous."

X hugged his knees.

"Why does this keep happening to me? First I have a literal inner demon, then I get the soul of a demon-queen sealed inside me, now I'm host to a potentially dangerous power that does who-knows-what? I didn't ask for this. I never wanted to be a hero. I just wanted to be an ordinary guy with an ordinary life."

There was another awkward pause as X quietly composed himself. When he lifted his head to look at Aram, his eyes were filled with unshakable resolve. More than he'd ever had.

"If something goes wrong and the Queen... or this mysterious power starts to go wild... Don't hesitate to kill me."

Aram could understand how X felt. After all, he had been in the same position: he had once possessed the soul of Diablo, the Lord of Terror, the original ruler of the Burning Hells, inside of his own body. He had fought against the monster from the moment he had plunged the Soulstone through his own skull. A fight which, ultimately, he had lost.

At X's request, Aram clapped a hand on X's shoulder and nodded. "You have my word." If it came down to it, he would grant X this mercy-kill. X shouldn't have to suffer like he had.

Hugo turned on his heat vision, glancing around. He saw a bright flicker swoop ahead of him in the distance. His grapple and he swung towards him. Hopefully Ileyna would notice him - he wasn't sure if he could keep up. The G-Stone could help, but he wanted to save that when the fight began.

Hugo was in luck, as Ileyna caught the sudden movement from the corner of her eye as she flew past. Without stopping, she spun around and aimed her right hand at the origin of the movement, ready to attack in case it was the Stand user.

She halted her moment upon seeing who it was. "Hugo?" she asked, lowering her hand. "What are you doing here, I thought you were with R.D.!"

Hugo released his grapple. He landed with a painful clatter on the steel grating of a zig-zag staircase crawling up the side of a building. "They wanted me to stop you from running off into trouble. You got a lock on it yet?"

"Yeah," she replied, floating over to the fire escape Hugo was on. "He knows he's being followed; he keeps moving."

"Pick me up and let's go."

In the distance, the signal abruptly stops moving, back near the park where the truck was located.

X smiled a bittersweetly. It wasn't so much that he wanted to end his own suffering, but he couldn't bear the thought of losing control and hurting those he cared about.

Turmoil consumed X's inner being. eX was not happy at his other half's decision.

"What!? What do you mean kill me? No. Way. You think some ancient evil's gonna swallow us up and take my body? Well you can shove it all where the sun don't shine 'cuz this is my body and I'm gonna be the only one in charge of it!"

X heard those words echo in his soul. They were comforting, in their own way.

Land appeared on the distant horizon.

(OOC: Now we need to wait for Zane, Mega X.)

Ileyna took Hugo into her arms and rotated him around so he was facing the same direction as her.

"He just stopped moving," she said. "I'll have to set down before we get there, so he won't see me coming."

"Do it," Hugo said, his voice dropping to a lower volume. "Take it slow."

Ileyna nodded and began her slow descent to the ground, this time trying her best to keep out of sight of people. She finally landed some distance away from the park where their search had started.

She put Hugo down on the ground and released her power. "He's at the park," she muttered quietly, peeking out behind a building to observe said park. "But I can't see him from here."

Remnant waved his arm, generating a chessboard in front of him. He idly moved a few pieces around and smirked to himself. True, he had lost... what was his name? The bald swordsman...? Not important, really. He was expendable. Frankly, Remnant was pleasantly surprised that he had demonstrated any viral abilities at all.

And as for Tracer... well, that was certainly more unfortunate. Tracer had been uniquely designed. If he killed X, he'd absorb the needed fragment. If anyone else killed him, it would simply be destroyed. This left Remnant's plans in a bit of disarray. There was another way, of course, but it was more complicated and took longer.

Of course the loss of Kyoka bothered him as well. One of his twin guardians... and with Dearg-due and Wedo showing Kyoka up...

It didn't matter, he reminded himself. He could always deal with those two later. It was more important at the moment to recapture the Queen.

Now Hugo switched on his X-ray vision and glanced around the corner, staring intently for a few moments.

"Can't see anyone except two kids," he said after a small bit. "And their bike."

Ileyna let out a breath and tore her gaze away from the park, and took another deep breath to steady herself.

"So he's either one of the kids, or he can hide from your X-ray," she mused. "What about your other vision modes? I'd try and get a lock on him myself but I don't want to risk him hearing me."

"Let me check." He flipped to his heat vision, his bio sensors. "Nope. Nothing." A sling of his pickaxe chambered it. "Let's just go up there. I'll protect you if things get dangerous."

"Alright," Ileyna said, nodding once to reassure herself. Her beret slipped with the action, and she absentmindedly pushed back up into place.

They carefully moved towards the bike, taking advantage of any nearby trees to sneak to. The kids had ran off to play, and with no one else paying attention, Hugo and Ileyna approached the bike.

Now the signal was very strong...and it was coming from a keychain dangling off of the seat of the bike. It shimmered with a faint blue light.

"That's weird," Ileyna muttered, edging towards the bike and getting more and more nervous as she did so. "Its... coming from the keychain..."

X wasn't entirely sure of what to make of it. His inner companions on the other hand...

ABSORB IT. FEED ITS POWER INTO MINE.

"What the f- Kill it! Kill it quick!"

"Be cautious, child. We do not know if we can trust this being."

"Uh... guys?" X asked in his mind. "Can you all chill the fuck out for a bit?"

By the time the boat had hit land, Aram had donned his enchanted armor once more, and had both his helmet on his head and the King's Sword of the Heavens held tightly in his right hand. When Sin spoke to him, he held that blade up cautiously, studying the entity as he slowly approached.

"You are... you are Sin," he said slowly, as the knowledge entered his mind. "And what do you mean I will be whole? Diablo is no longer within me, purged by those two boys. I already am whole. All that I need to do is destroy Akumu and end Gaia's rampage."