"Please, Sandra, I swear, it's still me, it's always been me!"

"Just get out of here! I don't want to see your lying ass ever again!"

*

"You bitch! How dare you lie to me like this!"

"Touch me or the children again and I'll gut you where you stand!"

*

"Alfred, I just- I don't know. This- this is all too much."

"Please, Abby, I'm still me. The same man who's been there with you through everything. No matter what I am, that will never change."

"I- I know, I just- I need some time."

*

"Please, please don't leave!"

"I'm sorry, I just- I can't stand to look at you anymore!"

"What about the kids!?!"

"I'll- I'll still send money, I just- I can't."

"Please, I know this is hard, but I love you!"

"Then why didn't you tell me!?! Why did you lie to me for years?!? I- I understand why you couldn't tell everyone, but why couldn't you tell me!?! I just- I thought we trusted each other!"

"I do, I did, I just- I couldn't! This is bigger than you and me! If it was just me, I would have told you in an instant, but- I couldn't risk the others just because I trusted you."

"... I- damn it, I just can't right now. I need- I just need some space to think, okay? I'll- I'll see you later."

*

Variations of these conversations played out all over the City as humanity learned the truth of the Doppelgangers. Human partners felt understandably betrayed that their Doppelganger partners had hid such a significant portion of their lives from them, some reacting violently, others simply running away, and a rare few sitting down to try and figure out why. A lot of Doppelgangers lost friends and family that night, and some might have even lost their lives if not for the fact that there actually wasn't much the average human could do to a Doppelganger, at least not a suitably prepared one. A not insignificant number of gangs had attempted to 'make an example' of certain Doppelgangers and… it had not gone well for them. The Doppelgangers were well prepared for them, since one of the only things they felt they could depend on was random violence from humans. None of them traveled alone that night.

"Honestly, this is still better than I thought things would go." Dichonius commented as he looked over the reports of the various incidents that had occurred as he, Jo, and Chris continued to make their way to the surface. "I expected at least a few riots. Possibly even some lynch mobs…"

"I told you humanity is better than that." Jo grinned. "Though… not that much better." She added, her expression twisting as she glanced at the list of incidents.

Dichonius sighed. "I just hope it stays that way. It's still a question of whether things get better or worse. Whether humanity can forgive us for our deception."

"Oh, that reminds me, Belinda wants to talk to you." Chris interjected. "Pretty sure it's about Isabel."

Dichonius frowned. "Well… I can't say I'm excited for that conversation."

"Should I be there too?" Jo muttered.

"Probably?" Chris shrugged. "I mean, I get why we aren't telling everyone about the Elves right now, since it'd be pretty confusing to say these Elves are good, but these ones aren't, but… that's for the public, you know? Why not tell Belinda the whole truth? Hiding it would only frustrate her because she knows you're hiding something."

Jo sighed. "You're right. I suppose I do owe it to her… we were sisters for a bit."

Chris paused. "I don't think she'd take being reminded that you stole her dead sister's identity very well… and that's coming from me."

"No, she probably wouldn't…" Jo shook her head. "We'll have to have that talk at some point though. Ignoring the issue won't fix anything."

"I'm not sure fixing anything is particularly necessary." Dichonius commented. "We're looking to maintain a peaceful relationship with Belinda, not necessarily a personal one. All we need to do is make sure she won't hold our actions against us, or at least understand why we did what we did."

Jo's expression twisted. "We should at least try to fix things. Just because something works doesn't mean it couldn't be better."

"But in trying to make something that already works better, you could break it completely." Dichonius retorted. "Our position is too tenuous to risk getting into a feud with the head of the Vanguard."

Jo grimaced at him. "I suppose you have a point… it still doesn't sit right with me though."

"I- should still set up a meeting though, right?" Chris asked.

"Yes, of course." Dichonius nodded. "We have to at least maintain what's there."

"Alright, so, tomorrow? At the headquarters restaurant?" Chris offered.

"That should be fine." Dichonius agreed.

"Alright, I'll let Belinda know." Chris replied.

"Is there anything else we should be aware of at the moment?" Jo asked.

Chris cocked his head. "Not particularly… apparently the other three picked up an Elf weaponsmith yesterday? I'm supposed to connect her to my world once I get up there and help her become a cultivator."

Jo frowned. "Is that so? And what has this weaponsmith done to deserve such a boon?"

"Figured out Greg and Andrew weren't Elves in a few hours? According to them they weren't even being obvious about it, she's just that good. Kinda doubt that, but apparently she's like this close to being a cultivator anyway, so it shouldn't be that much of an issue." Chris explained.

Jo blinked. "They- they recruited an omega-tier Elf?!?"

"Yeah, but non-combat." Chris replied. "Her ability just slows down her perception so she has all the time she needs to think things through."

"Don't you mean 'speeds up' her perception?" Jo retorted. "If she's experiencing everything at a slower rate, then that means her perception is occurring at a faster rate. Or at least, a higher frequency… if you consider perception like frames in a video-"

"Dear, you're being technical again." Dichonius sighed.

"Also, I'm aware of that, but in a colloquial sense, slowing your perception is more accurate since you perceive the world at a slower speed. Like, if it takes you five minutes to run a mile, but it takes me ten, then I'm slower, right? So if it takes you one second to perceive an event and it takes me two, then wouldn't my perception be slower?" Chris replied.

"Except it doesn't take you less time to perceive it, you simply perceive more in the same amount of time, so it feels longer." Jo countered.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Time is relative anyway. Who's to say that a person who slows down their perception isn't actually experiencing more time?" Chris raised an eyebrow. "Maybe that's how their perception is slowed down."

Jo cocked her head thoughtfully. "An interesting hypothesis… how would we test it?"

"Well, for starters, we'll need to grab that weaponsmith." Chris commented. "Then… I don't know, I can't put a timer in someone's mind. Maybe Victoria could?"

Jo grimaced. "Hopefully. I hate untestable hypotheses."

"Eh? If I can't make a rule out of it, it doesn't particularly matter to me." Chris shrugged. "Knowledge for knowledge's sake is fine and all, but I prefer it to be practical."

"Ah, there's my son." Dichonius chuckled. "I was beginning to believe we'd had a clone of Jo."

Jo rolled her eyes. "Knowledge is practical. Knowledge is the bedrock upon which we build the tools of our survival! The more we know, the more we can accomplish!"

"What use is there in knowing that five nonlinear dots is the lowest amount necessary to always create a convex quadrilateral?" Chris retorted.

Jo blinked. "What?"

"It's called the happy ending theorem on Earth… me and Gaia talk about some weird stuff." Chris explained.

Jo frowned for a moment. "Okay… maybe not all knowledge is useful." She grumbled. "But the pursuit of knowledge is! Even if what you discover isn't fully practical, the skills you develop in pursuit of that knowledge are! Besides, you can't know how useful a piece of knowledge might be until you actually discover it."

"Pretty sure I could figure out knowing the minimum amount of dots necessary for a convex quadrilateral wouldn't be very useful before I figured it out." Chris commented.

"Are we just going to ignore that a theorem about dots is called 'happy ending'?" Dichonius muttered.

"It's called that because two people got married because of it." Chris explained.

"Because of a theorem about dots?" Dichonius raised an eyebrow.

"Apparently." Chris shrugged.

Dichonius scratched his head. "Was it some kind of bet?"

"I don't think so?" Chris frowned. "I don't know the details, it was just something interesting Gaia mentioned in passing."

Dichonius grimaced. "This bothers me on a fundamental level. I need to know how dots got two people to get married!"

"That doesn't sound very practical." Jo poked him with a smirk.

Dichonius snorted. "Sating my curiosity is practical enough for me."

Jo rolled her eyes, turning back to Chris. "So, back to this weaponsmith. What else has she done to merit elevation to cultivator status?"

"She's going to help us find people we can use to help us run the Elven Kingdom after we depose Uncle Jer-Jer?" Chris offered. "I've helped people get stronger for less."

"This is different." Jo shook her head. "Your subordinates are loyal. This weaponsmith… What guarantee do we have that she won't accept your help and then run away the moment she has what she wants? She wouldn't be the first one to break away from your world."

"That's fair… but the others say we can trust her, and I trust them. Besides, sometimes you have to take risks on people." Chris shrugged. "If they haven't given you a reason not to trust them, then automatically assuming they aren't trustworthy is a bit rude, isn't it?"

Jo frowned. "If they haven't given you any reason to trust them, then not trusting them is simply practical."

"Ah, but trust is built on history, and if you never give someone a chance to build history with you, then how can they show they're trustworthy?" Chris retorted.

Jo shook her head. "That's fair, but you still shouldn't just jump into the deep end! Build a history with small things first!"

Chris cocked his head. "But… making her a cultivator is a small thing? It costs me almost nothing, and even if she breaks away from my world, what can she really do to me?"

Jo blinked. "Huh… wow, I think I just got mental whiplash." She muttered, rubbing her temple. For her entire life, a cultivator was the peak of existence, a position everyone aspired to! And now… her son considered it a minor favor? Something to just casually grant someone with little to no thought?

"Actually, on that topic, since you guys are connected to my world now, we should probably see about making you cultivators too, shouldn't we?" Chris commented.

Dichonius shook his head. "I've already reached the limits of my mutation. I have no more room to grow, so I can't absorb any more ability energy."

"I was born at the physical peak." Jo sighed.

Chris raised an eyebrow. "So? I've reset and remutated my body dozens of times. Pretty sure I could do it for you too… though I suppose that isn't a guarantee. I've never tried to manipulate any of my subordinates' bodies to that extent… but even if that doesn't work, I can probably get you one of those enhancement potions at some point."

"If you can do that it might work, but the enhancement potions won't." Jo explained. "Once you reach the physical peak, you're done. No more improvement is possible."

"Huh…" Chris frowned. "Interesting. Though I do have to ask why your ability doesn't simply let you revert to a lower physique."

"Living beings have a sort of 'true form' that even my ability can't alter and taking an enhancement potion immediately reverts a being to this true form." Jo replied.

"It's a similar situation with Doppelgangers." Dichonius nodded. "I can transform into a weaker form, but my true form will always be the strongest form I can take."

"Huh…" Chris grunted. "Must be a core thing. Not sure if I can mess with that… in fact, I'm pretty confident I can't. More of an Andrew thing." He grimaced. "Damn."

Dichonius patted him on the shoulder. "It's okay. We made peace with never being cultivators a long time ago."

"Well, I wouldn't say never. You can still use the system." Chris shrugged. "It'll just take a while."

Dichonius blinked. "Right… has anyone ever told you that you and your friends are utterly ridiculous?"

Chris chuckled. "They never stop."

*

Chris opened a portal for Beth, letting her into his world. "So, no more classes for the week?"

"Nope. Apparently someone decided to drop the biggest revelation since ever, and no one's feeling very studious at the moment." Beth rolled her eyes, dropping onto the couch next to him. "A lot of people are at least vaguely related to a Doppelganger, so they gave us the rest of the week to sort things out."

"Well, that's nice of them." Chris shrugged. "Anything you want to do with your new free time?"

Beth sighed. "I'm not sure there's much we can do… your announcement pretty much shut down the City."

"We still have Earth." Chris pointed out. "I've been to a ton of different cities in the last few days, so we have a lot of options.

Beth frowned. "Why are you visiting a bunch of different cities all of the sudden?"

"I'm setting up transportation beacons for the anti-Abductor people." Chris replied. "Which, by the way, we figured out the Abductors are vampires. Well, Damir, but same thing."

Beth glared at him for a moment. "You've been busy again, haven't you?"

Chris cocked his head. "A little? It's mostly just the beacon thing… though I am making my way to the surface with my parents."

Beth sighed. "Of course you are."

"Speaking of, it kinda came up, but… you know how we decided to put off connecting you to my world until we got married?" Chris asked.

"Yeah?" Beth cocked her head.

"Well, since it turns out that my influence is a lot less intense than we thought, do we still want to do that?" Chris asked. "Not that I think we particularly need to, since you're staying in the City, but if you wanted to mutate and get stronger… it wouldn't be a terrible idea. And since you have this big break, now would be a good time to do it, right?"

Beth blinked. "I suppose… though I do think it'd be a bit more romantic to wait. The idea of binding myself to your world on the same day we bind ourselves in marriage… it sounds sweet, doesn't it?"

"I'm the wrong person to ask about something like that." Chris shook his head.

Beth grimaced. "Right… but practically, I suppose binding myself to your world now would be smart. Particularly with the recent upheaval in the City. I don't think anything would happen, but the risk has definitely risen."

Chris frowned. "I didn't even think about that… particularly with my position as a spokesman for the Doppelgangers, you could be a target."

"No more than I was before." Beth waved dismissively. "I am the daughter of the head of the Scouts."

"That doesn't make it better." Chris grimaced. "I think I need to actually insist you connect to my world now."

Beth hesitated. "I guess… but… what if we just got married? As soon as possible?"

Chris blinked. "What?"

"Think about it! We're already planning on using your world, so the set up isn't a problem, and we weren't planning on inviting too many people, so it shouldn't be too hard to gather them all! What else are we waiting for? To love each other more?" Beth explained excitedly. She'd already worked out all the plans for the wedding with Penny, T'ka, Ka'lypso, and her mom ages ago. When Chris let them make whatever they wanted, it wasn't all that hard. All they needed to do was actually set a date and… it just seemed so arbitrary to her. They could wait until after she finished with her classes, or after her first tour in the Maze, but… why? She loved Chris, and she loved him now. Why should she wait any longer to be with him?

Chris just stared at her for a moment, before slowly a grin began to spread across his face. "You know, that sounds like a good idea. I can't think of any reason why I wouldn't want to be married to you as soon as possible."

"I can't either." Beth smiled, leaning into him.

"Though I suppose that leads to the next question: when do you want to start having kids." Chris muttered, cocking his head.

Beth froze, before sighing and shaking her head. "Let's just focus on getting married first."