Gretchen was brooding in her room, going over her talk with Greg in her mind, trying to figure out how to convince them that the monsters needed to be destroyed. The problem was that they wouldn't accept the basic fact that the monsters were evil! By their very nature, their existence couldn't be tolerated! Why could they not just see that?!? She growled to herself, rubbing her temples as she struggled to figure out an argument that would prove the monsters needed to be taken care of. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and thinking, trying to boil everything down into basic facts.

First, the monstrous races needed to prey on the noble races to survive. This was a basic fact. If they didn't do anything about them, the monstrous races would continue to prey on them. But was that the monstrous races' fault? They didn't choose to be born monsters… but they did choose to hurt people! Gretchen paused. Some of them… Some of them chose to hurt people. A lot of them just lived their lives… arguably they would hurt people if given the chance, but… she couldn't be sure of that. And if that was the case, then to slate them all for destruction would be to condemn most of them for crimes they only might commit, which… wasn't fair? Gretchen scowled. Were the others actually right? Was it wrong to want to destroy the monsters?

Gretchen's thoughts were interrupted by a knock. "Annie?" Gretchen frowned as she opened the door.

"Hey, Gretch…" Annie smiled awkwardly. "Uh, can- can we talk?"

Gretchen blinked. She didn't think she'd ever seen Annie so… hesitant before. "Uh, sure, come on in." She stepped aside, letting Annie in. "Are you okay?" She looked over the somewhat rumpled state of her clothing. "You- did- did Thomas- did he… rape you?" She asked, a horrified note creeping into her tone as she put Annie's mental and physical state together.

"Wha- no! No no no, no." Annie shook her head as Gretchen breathed out a sigh of relief. "No, he-" She snorted. "He barely even touched me. That's- that's actually why I wanted to talk to you."

Gretchen paused. "Because you got rejected?"

"No, that's the thing!" Annie exclaimed. "He didn't reject me! He- he wants an actual relationship! Like- well, not boyfriend girlfriend, but- I mean, it's on the table, but that's a bit- he- we're trying to be friends who fuck? And I just- I have no idea how to actually do this! Like, we just sat there, watching TV! It- well, it was actually kinda nice… and he made some very good points for why Zentapor might not actually be evil. But we didn't even fuck! I just- I'm so confused!"

Gretchen frowned. "You- huh?"

Annie sighed. "I don't know how to handle a relationship that's more than just sex. How do you do it?"

"You mean like an actual relationship?" Gretchen raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, just because a relationship is different doesn't mean it isn't real!" Annie protested. "It may not work for you, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work for anyone else!"

Gretchen rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Do you want relationship advice or not?"

Annie scowled at her, before letting out a sigh. "Fine. Yes. Please, I would like some relationship advice."

"Okay, then… I guess the first question is what you're actually looking to do. I don't think you need my help with sex-" Annie snorted at that and Gretchen shot her a quick glare. "-so, you're looking for help getting to know him or something?"

Annie frowned slightly. "Not- exactly. I know how to talk to him, I just- I don't know how to make that transition from hanging out and having fun to having sex."

Gretchen cocked her head. "How do you usually initiate sex?"

Annie gave her a weird look. "I've never really had to initiate sex… I just make myself available and things go from there. But I've never been with anyone who was interested in anything but sex, so whenever we got together, it was pretty clear where things were going. But Thomas actually wants to be friends with me! Which means sex isn't a given whenever we hang out! So… how do I let him know it's on the table without just throwing myself at him?"

Gretchen considered that for a moment. "I suppose… you just sort of slowly ease into it? Lean into him a bit more, hold his hand, a bit of cuddling, some light kissing, and just go from there? At some point he'll pick up on things and that's pretty much that, right?"

"Maybe…" Annie muttered noncommittally. She'd spent the last few hours sitting in bed next to him in her underwear, and he hadn't done a thing, so she wasn't sure. She sighed, shaking her head. "Alright, I'll try it." She paused. "So, what's up with you?"

Gretchen groaned, covering her face with her hands. "I'm beginning to think the Eternals are right and nuking the monsters would be a bad idea."

"Of course they're right." Annie smirked, before pausing. "What's nuking mean?"

"The weapon." Gretchen replied. "The Eternals want to stop the Empire from using it on the monsters and… I'm running out of reasons why they shouldn't."

Annie frowned. "They want to save the monsters?" She asked hesitantly. "That- doesn't seem right."

"Why not? After all, ninety percent of them are completely innocent! Just living their lives and the only crime they've ever committed is being born a monster! Why should they deserve to die?!?" Gretchen threw up her hands in exasperation, before fixing Annie with a serious look. "I'm serious. Why should they deserve to die? I've been thinking all day and I can't figure it out!"

"They- huh." Annie blinked, cocking her head. "I suppose monsters are just people… and you don't judge people for what they might do, but for what they do do. Otherwise no one would ever talk to a therapist about anything."

Gretchen collapsed onto her bed. "Great. They're fucking right, and I'm the bitch whose been yelling at them for it!" She groaned, covering her face again. "Damn it, I'm a doctor! When did I become some kind of bloodthirsty maniac?"

"Hey, no, you're not-" Annie sat down next to her, placing a hand on her knee as she looked for the words to comfort her. "Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, don't they? And at least you didn't actually do anything yet, right? I don't think anyone here would care that you disagreed with them… they're pretty laid back, all things considered. They'll probably just be glad you agree with them now."

Gretchen sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right." She snorted. "Greg told me that this morning, even. I just- ugh, I'm going to have to apologize."

*

"What have you been up to?" Greg asked Thomas, shooting him a smirk as he walked into the training room much later than usual.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Oh, I was hanging out with Annie." Thomas shrugged as he grabbed a pair of daggers.

"Oh really~" Greg snickered. "Who's Annie~?"

"One of the people we grabbed from the base." Thomas replied, giving him a weird look. "Why do you care?"

"What, I can't be interested when my bro gets himself into a little relationship?" Greg chuckled, throwing an arm over his shoulder. "Unless this is just a fling?"

Thomas shook his head. "No, I'm done with flings." He paused. "Not that I ever really had one, but- well, my attempt at one has soured the idea." He grimaced. "No, we're going for a more 'friends who fuck' kind of relationship."

Greg blinked. "Fuck buddies? Really?"

Thomas nodded. "Yup. It was her decision. I get the feeling she's a bit commitment averse."

Greg frowned. "That seems like kind of a red flag to me."

"Maybe it is, we'll see. At least if this one doesn't work out, I'm not obligated to support her or anything." Thomas sighed. "I made sure I was infertile and everything."

Greg cocked his head. "Well, I suppose that's fair… just try not to waste her time- wait, she's already connected to Chris's world?" Thomas nodded. "Well, do what you want then." Greg chuckled. "Though I still say you owe Beatrice a good, long talk at some point."

Thomas groaned. "I know, I know. And I will, I just- ugh, it never feels like the right time."

Greg shook his head. "That girl's a keeper, dude. Don't fuck it up by being an idiot."

*

"Monroe." Chris nodded as he walked into the Lord Commander's office.

"Chris." Monroe nodded back, leaning back in his chair. "What brings you to Nobilis this time? Another attempt at extricating the fourth prince from your world? His father has begun to ask questions."

"He's free to come grab him whenever he wants." Chris shrugged. "Though… I suppose his father would be the Emperor, right?"

Monroe cocked his head. "Yes?"

"Well, I actually need to talk to him anyway." Chris muttered. "Some of your people are developing nukes, which isn't a problem in and of itself, but if you plan on using them… Well, there's some debate on that issue, but we're pretty sure it'd be a problem and we definitely want to be involved in the discussion."

Monroe blinked. "Nukes?"

"Big explosion, mushroom cloud, organs melting… basically a big bomb that leaves an unnecessary amount of problems behind." Chris explained.

"I see… and you have a problem with them?" Monroe raised an eyebrow.

"Well, the nukes themselves are problematic, yeah, but the bigger issue is that they're capable of destruction on a massive scale, and while I'm not certain they're fully capable of wiping out the monstrous races they're definitely capable of causing a lot of suffering for a lot of innocent people, and we'd prefer that didn't happen." Chris sighed.

"And… you want to talk to the Emperor about it?" Monroe asked hesitantly, wondering whether he should find an alternative or grab himself a bag of popcorn, because any meeting between Chris and the Emperor would be… eventful. It was also probably inevitable, so they should just get it over with while Chris was still just potentially terrifying, rather than wait for him to become a fully realized apocalypse in waiting. Then again, it would probably make things go a bit smoother if the nobles and politicians actually saw some power to be wary of, rather than just the vague potential of power… the Emperor wouldn't be bad, but some of those in power would only recognize a threat the moment it was ready to crush them.

"If I could, though that's really up to you." Chris replied. "I came here to ask what to do if I have a problem with nukes. If that's to talk with the Emperor, then that's what I'll do. If it's something else, then I'll do that instead."

Monroe chuckled a bit at the idea of Chris walking around the city trying to get signatures for a petition to stop nukes. "No, bringing your proposal before the Emperor would be the place to start. You may also have to speak before the Senate, but that would only come after you've gotten the support of the Emperor. Or not gotten it, I suppose… If he denies you, then your only recourse would be to oppose him through the Senate."

Chris nodded. "Good to know. So… how do I go about doing that?"

Monroe sighed. "I'll set something up. Maybe he can convince his son to leave your world as well."

"Hopefully." Chris shook his head. "How are things going with the Ruin?"

"Mixed." Monroe grimaced. "It's stopped expanding, thankfully, but it seems to be solidifying its domain. The creatures it births are becoming stronger and stronger, while the area it controls becomes more and more twisted."

"Is that going to be a problem?" Chris asked.

Monroe rolled his eyes. "It will absolutely be a problem. All Ruins are a problem and the fact that we can't destroy this one only makes this problem worse. But it isn't anything we're incapable of handling yet. The Ruin will have to grow far stronger before it is capable of truly threatening Nobilis."

"Good." Chris nodded. "Andrew's working on getting stronger, but he still has a way to go before he can handle the Ruin."

Monroe frowned. "It's unfortunate there's nothing we can do to help."

"Yeah." Chris agreed. "Greg thinks it'd make things too easy. Though honestly I don't see how anything we have been doing is all that difficult… except trying to figure out the morality of nuking the monstrous races. That one has been a pain. Though as I said, we're still pretty sure it's wrong."

"You may want a more solid argument before you take this to the Emperor." Monroe commented.

"Yeah, I know." Chris sighed. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll have figured something out by the time you set up a meeting."

*

Annie pushed Gretchen towards Chris. "Go on, do it."

Chris blinked, lowering his bow as he looked between her and a flushing Gretchen. "Yes?" Gretchen's flush deepened as she muttered something under her breath. "Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"I said I'm sorry!" Gretchen snapped.

"Oh." Chris paused. "About what?"

Gretchen groaned. "About all the crap I've been giving you guys… you were right, killing all the monster- the monstrous races would be wrong."

"Oh really? Why?" Chris cocked his head.

Gretchen blinked. "Be-because most of them don't actually hurt anyone and punishing them for something they haven't actually done would be wrong?"

Chris nodded slowly. "Yes, that would be wrong… good job. That will make the meeting with the Emperor go a lot smoother." He'd been worried he'd have to resort to using Gaia's machinery to figure something out, and that would have been… annoying.

"The- the Emperor?!? You- how- how did you get a meeting with the Emperor!?!" Gretchen asked incredulously.

"Oh, I just asked Monroe." Chris shrugged. "Plus his son won't leave my world and it's starting to get annoying."

Gretchen sputtered. "You- you have a prince in your world?!?"

"Yeah. The fourth one." Chris nodded.

"Wait, do you mean Lord Commander Monroe?" Annie interjected.

"Yeah?" Chris cocked his head.

"How do you know the Lord Commander?!?" Annie exclaimed.

"How did you get a prince into your world!?!" Gretchen added.

Chris looked between the two of them with a frown. "It sort of just happened during the whole Ruin thing."

Both women's eyes went wide. ""What Ruin thing?!?"" They asked in unison.

Chris sighed. "Andrew and Quinn made a Ruin and it turned into this whole thing where we got chased by a bunch of cops and the prince who managed to find a way into my world. After that, Monroe tracked us down, but there wasn't much he could do about us, so he decided to work with us instead."

"You made a Ruin!?!" Gretchen asked incredulously.

"Yeah, Andrew can make dungeons." Chris waved dismissively.

"Wait, hold on. Where did you make this Ruin?" Annie frowned.

"Right outside of Nobilis." Chris replied. "They weren't happy."

"You don't say." Annie muttered sarcastically.

Gretchen buried her face in her hands. "You people are the worst." She groaned.

"Yeah, probably." Chris chuckled.

Annie poked Gretchen in the side. "That's not a productive attitude."

Gretchen shot her a glare, before turning back to Chris with a sigh. "I- wanted to know how I could help."

Chris paused. "I have no idea. What can you do?"

"Well, I'm a doctor, but…" Gretchen waved vaguely at him with a twisted expression. There wasn't much point in being a doctor with Chris and the others around.

"Yeah, not much we can do with that." Chris nodded. "Anything else?"

"I- I'm good at working with biology?" Gretchen shrugged helplessly.

Chris frowned. "I don't have anything biology related I need help with… unless you want to help us figure out how to change the monstrous races so that they don't need to prey on the noble races anymore? I mean, we could just turn them into noble races, but that seems… I mean, even if being… whatever you are was problematic, you still wouldn't exactly be eager to change into something else to fix it, right? I mean, you probably would if you had to, but if you could stay the same, that's probably what you'd prefer. So we need to figure out how to change the monstrous races so they can breed like nobles without losing what makes them… them."

Annie blinked. "You can't just do that?"

Chris shook his head. "No, we need templates to work off of. If we don't have at least an idea for what it should look like, we can't do it."

Gretchen frowned. "So I'd be studying the biology of the monstrous races and figuring out what needs to change for them to breed like the noble races?" She paused, considering it for a moment, before starting to nod slowly. "I think I could do that."

Chris grinned. "Great. You can start with Muppet."

Gretchen blinked. "Muppet?"

Chris chuckled. "Greg's son. He's a Troll."

Gretchen just frowned at him for a moment. "Why do I even ask?" She sighed, shaking her head.