“What do you mean by that?” Alpha asked, bewildered. Since Alpha had arranged for the transport, the train staff didn’t even bat an eye when they witnessed the violence that took place, and instead decided that it would be a nice time for them to make refreshments for us.

“I mean that Christian has no real leverage over the fate of the world. The Gemini Project clones can affect cities and communities, but they can’t end the world.” Vanessa interjected. “Especially at the mental level that they’re limited to under his control.”

“Exactly.” I said. “He must have spent a lot of money to cover up the deaths, or it was just a recent thing. Given the logistics of having to cover up a world-wide secret for ten years, I’d have to guess it was the latter.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” He said. “Sooner or later people from the resistance would take notice, would they not? I can’t imagine them staying quiet about something like this.”

“It’s all a matter of perspective.” I said as we walked through the train, eventually settling between being behind the Minamis, and before the Valkyrie unit. “Instead of asking why he would just unleash that on the world with no provocation, ask what specific threats could have caused him to do so instead.”

“Honestly, I can’t even fathom what could cause the most powerful man in the world to unleash this upon us.” Vanessa looked out the window and up into the sky.

“Whatever it is,” Alpha said, “It’s something we’ll have to worry about once Christian is out of the picture. We should try to gather as much data as we can from Christian after he is subdued.

“If we even get that far.” Hazeel muttered as she leaned back in her seat. “I, for one, don’t see the harm in just going on a warpath to kill your enemy, making sure all who stand in your way are eliminated.”

“Hazeel, I get that you want to solve this problem as quickly as possible, but if we take the same avenues as criminals, then that will paint us as hypocrites, liars, and villains ourselves.” Vanessa sighed.

“Hah! I don’t think I’ll get used to your world’s way of thinking. Actions themselves aren’t inherently evil. It is the intention behind them that allows us to paint any action in a specific light.”

“I don’t disagree.” I smirked. “Unfortunately, the reason people think in terms of black and white is because they don’t want to have to think about the grey, and by extension, challenge their own morals.”

Hazeel frowned and rested her head on mine. “Yeah. I’ll never get used to your world’s way of thinking.”

---

Lare Minami sighed as she looked out the train window. Some of the passengers behind her were making a fuss about a recent discovery, and their subsequent plan to cope with the new wrinkle.

Not that it concerned the Minami Princess, of course. This sucks so much more than I thought it would. I want to go home. She thought, looking out the window.

Zare sighed, looking over at her brother, Rexir. Nothing good had happened since he had met the otherworlder, Leo Jones.

First, it was his voice that went. Despite the fact that Zare thought that it had a silver lining (as she would have less sluts to chase off of her brother’s throne), she would dearly miss hearing Rexir’s charismatic timbre.

Rexir seemed to have caught her gaze, and flashed her a smile while waving. Zare returned the small gesture, and felt the heat of jealousy rear its ugly head as Rexir turned back to look at Leresa.

Ugh. His fiance. No one should ever get Zare started on how much she disapproved of the Silver Princess. Unfortunately, no one ever did get Zare started, and she was in no position to approve or deny any suitors to Rexir.

Her parents, charmed by Rexir’s childhood friend, approved, while the surrounding nobility hadn’t. At that moment, the legend of Rexir the Harem King was born, with women waiting on him hand and feet, and taking care of all his problems for him.

Zare hated that version of her brother. Not because of anything that he did himself, but because he constantly had other political agents around him, that he bottled up his real feelings inside and never visited his family.

Which brought Zare to her conclusion: Rexir meeting with Leo was ultimately a good thing. While it had led him down some… strange (for lack of a better term) directions, and forced him to make sacrifices, it ultimately returned him to the man he used to be, and Zare was happy for him.

That being said, Zare was done with being on Earth. The culinary arts here had placed her recent meals at the pinnacle of foods that she had tasted, and that was nice, but that was it.

Earth being in the middle of a world-wide dictatorship kind of put a damper on the things that she could experience, and that just made her want to go home sooner.

After all, if she couldn’t have fun in this world, why was she even here? She had originally wanted to stay under some professor’s supervision back at Alpha’s base, and spend her days eating the local specialties, but Rexir would have none of it.

As her current ‘legal guardian' (what a pain in the ass this world’s laws were), Rexir had complete control in any say over Zare’s decisions.

Rexir had instantly vetoed her decision to stay out of the warpath, since he felt indebted to Leo, and wanted Zare where he could physically keep an eye on her.

Zare had been so close to opening the portal back to her world again as well, until she was told by the staff that the portal doesn’t open to any dimension in particular on its own, and had as much chance of sending her to hell as sending her to her own homeworld.

Leresa sighed when she remembered how upset Rexir had been when he walked in on her with her hand on the button to access the portal stabilizer in an empty room. Yeah, that hadn’t been a good look.

He had been beside himself with anger. Well, at least Zare thought he was. He didn’t have Leresa to translate at the time.

She looked over once more and saw Rexir flash a devilish smile at a laughing Leresa. Mentally, Zare made a concession and sighed once more. Maybe she isn't so bad. She is the only one who can still talk with Rexir, after all.