Chris glanced over at Gretchen as she followed them. "You know you don't have to follow us, right?"

Gretchen froze, stumbling mid-step. "You- I'm- aren't I your- prisoner?" She asked hesitantly.

"No? Why would we take you prisoner?" Chris frowned.

"But- you- you were just talking about possibly opposing the Empire!" Gretchen exclaimed. "Why wouldn't you take me prisoner!?! I could tell the Empire everything!"

Chris cocked his head at her. "So?"

"I mean, we're going to tell them we don't want them fucking with nukes ourselves, so it doesn't particularly matter if you tell them first." Thomas agreed.

"I can give you a pamphlet that'll make things easier." Chris added.

"Dude, enough with the pamphlets!" Andrew groaned.

"There will never be enough pamphlets." Chris retorted.

Gretchen looked between them, confused. "Then… you're just going to leave me here?"

"Why not?" Chris shrugged. "Alternatively we could send you to Nobilis, or you could join the Eternal Army. Honestly, you can do whatever you want, we just may or may not be able to help you with it."

Gretchen paused. "Could- could you take me to see my patients?"

"Sure." Chris nodded, opening a portal to the base by Nobilis for her, his other self waving for her to follow him. Gretchen blinked, looking between the two of them, until Chris let out an impatient cough, nodding his head insistently towards the portal. She flushed before rushing through, following the other Chris to where the patients were gathered, still considering their options. Chris closed the portal, turning back to the others. "So… what are we going to do?" There wouldn't be much point in them going to the base by Nobilis… they were already there.

"Well… we didn't manage to reach that Ruin." Andrew offered. "We could head that way again."

Thomas groaned. "Couldn't we just take a portal there? If we walk, we're just going to get sidetracked again."

"Isn't that the point?" Chris frowned.

Thomas sighed. "I guess… I just hate walking in the dark."

"I have a night vision trait." Andrew offered. "Maybe that would help?"

Thomas paused. "I- forgot I could do that." He frowned. "Not sure I want to waste the points on a disposable body though."

"Well then suck it up, I guess." Andrew shrugged.

Thomas sighed. "Fuck it. Should we wait for Greg?"

"I'd rather not." Chris shook his head. "He's talking with Gloria, so who knows how long that's going to take. Plus, I can always open a portal for him."

"So he gets a portal, but we have to walk?" Thomas raised an eyebrow.

Chris shrugged. "It isn't like we all need to be there. As long as the walking happens, who cares who does it?"

Thomas sputtered. "So when I want to hang out in your world while it's dark, it's all 'we all have to be here or we might miss something' but when Greg wants to hang out with some chick, it's all 'we don't all have to walk'?!?"

"You were the one who fell down a hole." Andrew pointed out.

"Also, Greg is actually doing something." Chris pointed out. "If you had something else to occupy yourself, then yeah, go for it, but if you just want to ditch because you find walking annoying, then we might as well all skip walking, because it is annoying, and that makes this entire endeavor pointless."

Thomas huffed. "Fine. Let's just go."

*

Gretchen followed Chris, struggling with the fact that the people she'd just left were still here! She'd passed another Thomas who nodded at her, saw an Andrew meditating in a corner, and there was a veritable swarm of Greg's around! She also saw four races she'd never even heard of and she was pretty sure that was a baby Troll! "What- what is this place?" She asked Chris nervously, moving a bit closer to him as they walked, as if he could protect her from all the weirdness going on.

Chris cocked his head. "What do you mean? It's a base. An underground one. Kinda like the one we grabbed you from, except more… homey?"

"But what's it a base for?!?" Gretchen asked insistently.

"Us?" Chris frowned, giving her a weird look.

"But who are you!?!" Gretchen asked, starting to get frustrated. These people had been talking around her the entire day, but she still had no real clue who they were or why they thought they had any right to judge the actions of the Empire! Sure, they threw around terms like Eternals or Eternal Army, but she still had no idea what that actually meant!

"We're the Eternals? We told you that." Chris continued, his frown deepening as he continued to look at her like she was either dumb or crazy.

"But what does that mean?!?" Gretchen scowled. "You're apparently ridiculously powerful, gods somehow, but that doesn't tell me anything! What is it you actually do!?!"

"Ah, that." Chris nodded, pulling a pamphlet out of his world and handing it to her. "We do that."

Gretchen raised an eyebrow at him, before taking the pamphlet and starting to read it as they continued making their way through the base. Her eyes widened. "This- this is too much." She muttered incredulously.

"Eh?" Chris shrugged. "It seems like more than it is. Mostly we just can't die and the rest is less power and more utility. Though that utility does help us get power…" He trailed off for a moment, before shaking his head. "Anyway, to anyone who has actual power, we're more of an annoyance than anything. Which is annoying for us, because we have just enough power to make minor issues irrelevant, but anything that is significant we can't really do anything about. I suppose we'll get there eventually, because we can grow, but that growth goes away when we die, so we can't rely on our usual advantages at that point. Of course, we're still pretty new at this, so maybe we're missing better ways to leverage our abilities, but for now this is where we're at."

Gretchen blinked. "I- but you're immortal!"

"Yes, it's very nice. Can't complain." Chris nodded. "However, as much as I enjoy being alive, I also… Well, I'd probably be happy just being with Beth, maybe with a small job making something… you know, something that allows me a bit of creative freedom, but doesn't keep me too busy. I like to be productive, but I don't like pressure. Or I suppose you could say I'm jealous of my own time… the idea that others can determine what I do with my time just rubs me the wrong way. I mean, obviously I have to put up with it, cause that's life, but I don't really enjoy it and I'd like to minimize it as much as possible. But that quiet life isn't really an option for me, so if I am going to be required to deal with all this shit, I'd prefer to be effective."

Gretchen frowned. "Why can't you have a quiet life? You have your own world! If you wanted to ignore everyone and everything, who could stop you!?!"

"Well, I'm sure the World would find a way, but besides that, it's more about the fact that while I would love to just ignore everyone, the people I value would be very disappointed in me if I just sat back and let people get hurt, and since events conspire to ensure that there are always people in danger of getting hurt around me, I end up quite busy." Chris sighed.

Gretchen blinked. "I- see."

"Yeah, it's a bitch." Chris nodded. "Anyway, we're here." He gestured, as they arrived at the room he'd stashed the people from the base in.

"Gretchen!" One of the assistants exclaimed excitedly as they saw her, rushing over before freezing as she noticed Chris. "Uh, Mr. Eternal, sir." She bowed slightly.

"Just call me Chris." Chris waved dismissively. He wasn't exactly comfortable with people being all respectful of him. Unless they were connected to his world. Then it felt more natural.

The assistant shifted awkwardly. "Yes, sir- uh, Chris." She glanced at Gretchen. "Are you joining the Eternal Army, too?"

Gretchen's eyes widened. "You- you're actually thinking of joining these people?!?" She asked incredulously.

The assistant blinked. "Are you not? You know we'll be immortal, right!?! How could you not be interested!"

"Because we work for the Empire!" Gretchen retorted. "If we join this Eternal Army, we'll be traitors!"

The assistant frowned at her. "I'm pretty sure we stopped working for the Empire when they left us to die in an abandoned base. I remember how much you had to fight just to stay behind to take care of us! How did you think you were going to get out of there?!? You can't make portals, and if you tried to walk out through that deathfield, you'd have been lucky if some creature killed you before the disease did!"

Gretchen hesitated. "I- they would have checked in eventually…" She muttered.

The assistant snorted. "Face it, we're just tools to them. And if I'm going to be someone's tool, I might as well be an immortal tool, rather than an expendable one."

"I wouldn't say you're a tool." Chris muttered. "I see myself more as a… patron, I suppose. I give you support, and you're free to do what you want with it. Within reason, of course. If you turn into an asshole, I'm going to have to do something about it. Not sure what, since I can't exactly disconnect you from my world… maybe imprison you at the center of the planet? Turn you into some kind of ooze? Subject you to eternal agony? Eh, I'll figure something out."

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Gretchen turned to the assistant. "This is who you're tying yourself to. This."

"If he's making people immortal and turning them loose, I should hope he'd take some responsibility for them!" The assistant retorted. "Or would you prefer he just leave these immortals to cause havoc willy-nilly?!?"

Gretchen hesitated. "I- I suppose not… but how can you be okay with someone who talks about subjecting people to eternal agony so casually!"

"That- well, he has to do something, and… it- it was just an idea." The assistant muttered.

"I mean, I'd do it." Chris shrugged. "I've already accepted that I'm not a good person. I can do horrible things without blinking an eye, because I just don't care. I do try not to though. For one, it's unnecessary, and secondly, Beth would be disappointed in me. I try not to do things that would disappoint Beth."

Gretchen frowned at him. "Who is Beth?!?"

"My fiancé." Chris replied.

Gretchen blinked. "You have a fiancé?!?" She asked incredulously.

"You get married?!?" The assistant asked, equally incredulously.

Chris frowned at the assistant. "Why wouldn't I get married?"

The assistant flushed. "I- well, you're- uh, you're kind of a- why would you limit yourself to one person?"

"Well, that's actually a point of contention." Chris sighed. "I think it's perfectly reasonable to just want to be with one person, no matter how expansive my being may be, though I do admit that functionally it becomes a bit impractical. However, she thinks that I couldn't possibly be satisfied with a single person, and that I need to find other people to be with. Frankly, we're both right. I want to just be with her, but every self other than the one in the same World as her simply remembers being with her, and it just isn't the same."

"Wait… you don't want to sleep around?" The assistant asked hesitantly.

"Not really. I mean, I imagine I'd enjoy it, but I wouldn't want to deal with all the complications that come with it unless I was truly dedicated to the person." Chris shrugged.

The assistant went bug-eyed. "You ima- you- you're a virgin!?!"

"I am, yes." Chris nodded.

The assistant just stared at him for a moment. "That just seems wrong." She muttered, shaking her head.

"I'm not even a virgin." Gretchen added, looking at Chris in shock.

The assistant paused, turning to frown at Gretchen. "Gretch… that is not the surprise you think it is."

Gretchen flushed. "I- I could be a virgin!"

"But you aren't." The assistant pointed out.

"But I could be!" Gretchen retorted.

"But you aren't." The assistant reiterated.

"Is this actually important?" Chris cocked his head. "I mean, who cares if you're a virgin or not? Doesn't really change anything, does it?"

The two women shared a look. "Maybe not for a man." Gretchen sighed.

"I'm perfectly comfortable not being a virgin." The assistant retorted, crossing her arms.

"Of course you would be." Gretchen snorted.

"What is that supposed to mean?!?" The assistant snapped.

"Okay, I'm just going to go now…" Chris muttered, not wanting to get involved in what was clearly about to turn into some kind of emotional argument. Maybe he'd see if any of the others were willing to connect to his world.

*

Gretchen glared at Chris as her patients walked in and out of his portal, connecting themselves to his world. How could they just abandon the Empire like that?!? How could they turn their backs on everything they knew for- for him!?! After everything the Empire had done for them! Gretchen's mood got darker and darker as she continued to glare at the hateful man turning people against the land that had done everything for them! She hadn't been sure what to make of these Eternals, but as she watched her people, her friends, willingly give themselves over to them, it became clear that they were dangerous.

Chris glanced over at her. "So… Do you want to go to Nobilis?"

"Oh, I bet you'd love to get rid of me." Gretchen snorted.

"Okay… feel free to stay then?" Chris offered.

"Oh, so you can convince me to join your little cult?!?" Gretchen retorted.

Chris blinked. "That- those are literally the only two options."

"I'm staying, but I'm not staying because of you!" Gretchen snapped. "I'm staying to make sure you don't take advantage of them!"

"I thought you and Annie were fighting?" Chris cocked his head. Annie was the name of the assistant from earlier.

Gretchen flushed. "Just because she's wrong, doesn't mean she doesn't need to be protected!"

Chris stared at her for a moment. "I feel like you and Quinn would get along."

"What?" Gretchen blinked.

"Nothing." Chris shook his head, closing the portal as the last of them finished connecting to his world. "Alright, you're all free to do as you wish. Let me know if you want to go anywhere, but we have plenty of space for you to train your skills here, and if you need any equipment, just ask Greg. Oh, and you'll need to get the system from someone. Pretty much anyone but me." He announced, before leaving to do some training of his own.

Once he'd learned he could level on his own when his world was out, he'd begun working on an archer Class, because obviously. The only problem was that his interaction with skills was… weird. His skills kept trying to get him to act unconsciously, but… Chris didn't do that, so if anything, the help of the system actually made it harder for him to train his skills, distracting him as he refined his control. It was annoying, but if he didn't make it a Class skill, he wouldn't level. Thankfully he could still use his other selves to actually practice his skills, while his Classed self did his best to gain experience.

"I'm pretty sure if you want to protect the others, you should stick with them." Chris commented, glancing at Gretchen as she followed him towards his training area.

"Why? So you can go off and plot and plan in secret?" Gretchen sneered.

"No, because I can be in multiple places at once, so being with one of me doesn't stop me from doing anything." Chris turned to frown at her. "Have I done anything to actually make you this suspicious of me? I mean, literally all I've done is heal your patients for you. Then they decided to join the Eternal Army. I've also discussed the ethics of using nukes, but can you really judge me for that?"

"You're turning people against the Empire!" Gretchen retorted. "If we turn against the Empire, if we become divided, then we become vulnerable! Unity is what gives us strength, what allows us to resist the monsters! And now you come along, questioning the Empire, questioning whether we even have the right to defend ourselves against the monsters, and you wonder why I'm suspicious of you!?!"

Chris paused. "That's fair, actually. If you consider the Empire as the only thing keeping the noble races safe, then we seem… problematic. But I think you're missing something. See, we aren't trying to sow division between people and the Empire, and we aren't even trying to work against the Empire. If anything, we want to work with the Empire to resist the monstrous races. We just don't want to see the Empire become monsters themselves in the process."

"And nukes would make the Empire a monster?" Gretchen asked skeptically.

"Maybe. Maybe not. We're still debating that." Chris shrugged. "But if it does, would we be wrong to try and prevent it? Do you want to see the Empire become a monster?"

Gretchen frowned. "I- no, but-"

"So what's the problem?" Chris asked.

"The problem is that there's a system for opposing the actions of the Empire, and you think you're above it!" Gretchen exclaimed. "If you want to resist nukes legally, that's fine, but conning people into joining an army to resist the government is absolutely not the way to do it!"

Chris blinked. "Wait, that's your problem? You know we aren't actually an army, right?" He paused. "Well, we could be an army, but that isn't the point. Our purpose isn't exactly to fight anyone, it's just to provide an organization through which we pursue our goals. Maybe that might result in fighting, but that would be an absolute last resort, and only if people were actually in danger of getting hurt. The only reason we even call it the Eternal Army is because Greg thought it'd be… I don't know, something. I didn't particularly care so I didn't ask. He probably thought it was funny, if I had to guess."

"You- you call yourselves an army as a joke?!?" Gretchen asked incredulously. "Why?!?"

Chris cocked his head. "Because taking things seriously is hard when you know ultimately nothing happening will really affect you? I've found I care very little for every World other than my own, because there's no one here I actually care about." Chris paused. "I suppose that speaks more to Beth's point… having a relationship in this World would help me care about it more." He glanced at Gretchen. "You wouldn't happen to be available, would you?"

Gretchen took a step back, eyes widening in shock. "Wh-what?!?"

Chris grinned slightly. "Kidding. I don't jump into relationships like that. Though…" He narrowed his eyes at her. "You do seem to have an appropriate level of morality and concern for others… though honestly, you could say that about a lot of people." Chris frowned. "Hm, I'd need to get to know you better, but I suppose it is possible."

"You- you- you- you want to date me?!?" Gretchen stammered.

"I literally just said I'd need to get to know you better." Chris replied, giving her a weird look. "Plus, if you're going to insist on treating me like an enemy, I don't think a date would go very well. I'm just saying that I don't see anything fundamental that would take dating off the table."

Gretchen blinked at him, before letting out a groan and pinching the bridge of her nose. "I hate talking to you people."

"Now that would make dating difficult." Chris commented.

"I don't want to date you!" Gretchen exclaimed.

"I don't want to date you either." Chris replied.

"Then why are you bringing it up?!?" Gretchen retorted.

"Well, you asked why I considered the name of our organization a joke, and I said it was because I didn't care, and that it was hard to care, but if I had relationships here, it'd be easier, and then I made a joke about being in a relationship with you, because you're here and right in front of me, which would solve the issue, but then I actually considered if a relationship with you would be feasible, and I see nothing that says it wouldn't, so I said that." Chris explained. "It isn't that complicated."

"If that isn't complicated then nothing is complicated!" Gretchen muttered.

Chris paused. "I have found that most things aren't all that complicated, even though people try to make them so."

"That is not my point!" Gretchen snapped.

"I know. It's mine. That's why I said it." Chris replied.

"I am going to strangle you!" Gretchen growled.

Chris shrugged. "If it makes you feel better."

"Gah!" Gretchen exclaimed in frustration, turning and stomping away. She was done dealing with these people!