In an empty field in the middle of nowhere, a table sat, two parties on either side, watching each other carefully as the sun inched closer to the horizon. On one side, Greg sat in the middle seat, Thomas to his right, then Chris, and Andrew then Quinn on his left. Across from them sat Monroe and his team, along with the policewoman sitting awkwardly off to the side, wavering between questioning her very presence there and wondering if Greg could make her a bed like he'd made the table and chairs.

"So…" Thomas began, breaking the awkward silence. Everyone turned to look at him as he searched for his next words, only to come up blank. "I got nothing." He sighed, shaking his head.

"I believe our first order of business should be an explanation on who, exactly, you people are." Monroe stated in a severe tone, fixing a heavy glare on them.

"We're- oof!" Chris began, before getting cut off as Thomas elbowed him in the side.

"Is who we are really that important?" Greg asked, shooting Monroe a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, before pausing, ruining his calm demeanor as he answered his own question. "Actually, it kinda is… at least for Andrew."

"What? Why?!?" Andrew protested.

"Cause the whole Ruin thing could only happen because of your whole deal." Greg pointed out. "If we want to explain why we're the only ones who can fix this, then we need to talk about who you are. And if we're talking about who you are, we might as well talk about the rest of us too."

"I don't know why you guys are so obsessed with hiding this crap." Chris grumbled. "So what if people know? What are they going to do about it?"

"Hunt us down, try to use us, turn people against us, and otherwise make our lives as difficult as possible?" Thomas offered. "Case in point, what these people have been doing for the past few hours."

Chris cocked his head. "I suppose… but the process of hiding who we are and what we can do seems just as annoying, if not more so. Plus, anything they could do to us would only be temporary, while hiding could go on indefinitely."

"He has a point." Greg agreed. "Though I still think it's smart to keep things quiet as much as possible. Particularly when we're just starting out. No need to make things difficult for ourselves unnecessarily, right?"

Chris considered it for a moment. "Fair enough." He accepted with a short shrug.

"Are you done?" Monroe asked, raising an eyebrow at them.

"Oh, right, you guys." Greg muttered, frowning slightly before shaking his head. "Okay, so, you want to know who we are, right? Well… okay, basically, all of reality is made up of four things. You got the physical side, matter and what not, then there's the magical side, experience, Energy, what have you, then there's the space it all exists in, and the glue holding it all together. So substance, magic, reality, and connection, and… well, we each embody one of them. I'm a smoke person, pure substance in my most basic form, capable of breaking it down and reforming it at will, like the table." He knocked on it twice. "Thomas is a magic person, Chris is his own reality, and Andrew is made of whatever connects everything together. He calls it Aura, others call it Spirit, and you probably call it Essence, but it isn't exactly something people interact with on a regular basis, so there's no solid term for it, which is annoying."

"Maybe life force?" Andrew offered hesitantly. "It's at least close, and it gives people a decent idea of what I can do."

Greg paused. "Sure, why not?" He shrugged, before turning back to Monroe. "Now, this matters because Andrew here gained the ability to create dungeons, which means he makes dungeons that are connected to him. Through some fuckery, which may or may not have been the result of a mishmash of different dungeon types cobbled together under the influence of a Dungeon Streamer's skill, one of his dungeons turned into a Ruin. Big oof, I know. We then tried to fix this by taking the core of the Ruin, the metaphysical one not the dungeon core that is, out of the dungeon using Chris's portals and Andrew's ability to actually interact with said cores, the metaphysical ones. Unfortunately, this just let the Ruin out without the dungeon actually breaking, so now the Ruin is still connected to the dungeon, which is in turn connected to Andrew, and he's immortal, so it's not going anywhere until Andrew is actually strong enough to destroy the Ruin's core. The metaphysical one." Greg paused again as he finished, turning to the others. "Did I miss anything?"

"Nope, that covered pretty much everything." Thomas replied. "At least, everything relevant."

Monroe rested his elbows on the table, pressing his fingers against his lips as he considered Greg's explanation. "So you're telling me that the only solution to this growing threat is to help him grow powerful enough to defeat it?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's a bit convenient, isn't it?"

"Not really?" Greg shrugged. "There's not much you can really do to help. As we established, Andrew can create his own dungeons, and you can't really train his skills for him, now can you? Unless you have a secret Essence Master hiding somewhere to help teach him or something, which I doubt, cause at that point you could probably destroy the Ruin yourself."

"Then… what do you want?" Monroe asked, frowning slightly.

"Like, for what?" Greg asked, giving him a weird look. "We're not taking payment for solving a problem we caused. As long as you stop getting in our way, we'll be happy."

"That's it!?! You have Nobilis by the balls, holding the key to this impending crisis, and all you want us to do is leave you alone?!?" Percival asked incredulously.

"Well, we're pretty self sufficient." Thomas commented. "With Chris and Greg around, we don't really have any needs we can't cover ourselves, and for anything else… Well, we can earn it ourselves. Not much fun in having things just handed to us."

"Well, I wouldn't mind if you wanted to hand over a few rare materials." Greg shrugged. "I can always use more material to work with."

"I need more subordinates if I want to expand the skills I have access to." Chris added. "Though I don't suppose I could expect you to simply give people to me…"

"I just need a safe place to focus on developing my skills." Andrew shook his head.

"But again, we don't need anything just handed to us." Greg reiterated. "We can earn whatever we want."

"Though being my subordinate is its own reward." Chris commented.

"So that's it. We stop chasing you and simply trust that eventually you'll handle the Ruin?" Monroe asked skeptically.

"Not much else you can do, really." Greg replied. "Andrew just needs to grow, there's nothing you can do to help, so… yeah, you just gotta wait and stop wasting our time. Maybe try to keep that Ruin contained? That'd probably help a bit. Or at least prevent more collateral damage."

Monroe's expression twisted. "That's bullshit!" He growled, pounding the table with his fist. "How can we be so helpless that we need to rely on strangers to face this threat?!? The very strangers that caused the threat in the first place!"

"World fuckery." Chris shrugged. "The whole thing becomes rather pointless if someone else takes care of the problem for us."

Monroe froze, struggling to process that statement as something threatened to break inside him, the urge to simply destroy everything in the immediate vicinity building as he rubbed at his temple. "The destruction, the sheer loss of life, pointless unless you take care of the problem?" He muttered in a cold tone that barely contained the frustration and anger swirling inside him. "Are you doing this for glory!?! Causing problems only you can solve so you can come in as the big heroes!?!"

"No, he didn't-" Thomas began, before letting out a sigh. "Damn it, Chris, why do you open your mouth." He groaned, covering his face with his hands.

"As much as it might not seem like it to you, we're the ones being fucked with here." Greg explained, his expression twisting. "We're just trying to live our lives, using what advantages we have to grow and thrive like any other person, but because we have those advantages, everything we touch has a chance to go catastrophically wrong. The more we're involved, the worse things can get. Shit, even if you could help us, I wouldn't recommend it. Best to keep your involvement with us as minimal as possible, so you don't get caught up in our troubles."

Monroe narrowed his eyes at them, before shaking his head. "We cannot simply ignore you! You caused this disaster! And now you claim that it's inevitable that more disasters will crop up around you?!? You think that is something we can simply dismiss!?!"

"Dismiss? No. Do anything about? Also no." Greg replied with a shrug. "I don't think you should ignore us, but you should recognize that we, and the events that surround us, are beyond your control, and any attempt to change that will only cause problems."

Monroe clenched fists, the tension in his arms almost audible as he resisted the urge to lash out in helpless frustration. He knew there was nothing he could do, he'd known that since the moment he failed to kill Chris, and it'd become even clearer when he'd failed to destroy the dungeon, but he couldn't accept it! He refused to believe he was helpless! That there was nothing he could do! There had to be something! Some way to control his own destiny! To be a part of the solution! There- Monroe froze, focusing on Chris. "You. You said you need subordinates? How does that work? What does it do for you?"

"I am my own reality, but that reality starts out blank. I need to take things from the World around me in order to build on it. Matter is simple, I just throw crap in my world, and it's mine. Same with energy, though it's more difficult to just throw in. But in order to have access to a power system, such as the system you use, I need to get it from my subordinates, analyzing them to learn how to use the energy I've collected. The more subordinates I have, the more of the power system I get access to." Chris explained.

"So… the more powerful your subordinates, the more powerful you can be?" Monroe asked, his tone turning from frustrated to thoughtful.

"I don't like the direction this is going." Andrew muttered.

"Me neither." Quinn agreed, narrowing her eyes at Monroe.

"Then what if I became your subordinate?" Monroe asked after a moment of consideration, confirming their suspicions.

"Ha!" Greg let out a laugh, drawing everyone's gaze. "Sorry, sorry! Just-" Greg snickered. "Okay, look, in theory that's a great idea, but… you're like endgame content. If we get you now, then the rest of the game will be too easy, making things boring. The- uh, our issue doesn't like boring, so to compensate, it'd probably start throwing even worse things at us, things that only you would be able to handle. And without the rest of us to run interference, because we aren't at that level yet, they'd cause more damage than necessary, ultimately making it more of a curse than a blessing. So while you becoming Chris's subordinate seems like a good idea, ultimately, it won't actually help us."

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"Unless we kill him right away." Chris pointed out. "I'd still get his potential, but his actual power would be reset, meaning he won't throw off our power balance."

Greg blinked. "That could work. Hell, the- issue would probably kill him off anyway, like Quinn." He nodded, before turning back to Monroe. "What do you think of that? You willing to turn back into a level one scrub to help us out?"

"What do you- you would kill me?!?" Monroe asked incredulously.

"Yeah, but don't worry you'll come back." Chris explained. "Being my subordinate makes you immortal. The only consequence of death is that you're returned to your base state, which in this case would be level one."

Monroe's entire team froze at that announcement. This man could make people immortal?!? The policewoman frowned, pinching her arm. Had she fallen asleep. Monroe hesitated for a moment. "That is- a tempting proposition, but… I cannot give up my power at this point in time. Not in the middle of a crisis such as this." He sighed, shaking his head. Weirdly, much of his frustration faded away at the admission that Nobilis needed him. Maybe he couldn't stop this crisis, but he could do his best to contain it. The various members of his team had twisted expressions of their own as they nodded in agreement. They were some of the strongest individuals in Nobilis, and they couldn't afford to be weakened in a selfish pursuit of immortality.

"I could be immortal." The policewoman muttered absently. She wasn't some important figure in Nobilis or anything, just a random police officer with a slight talent for spatial magic, just enough to let her teleport. Of course, she was still half convinced she was dreaming. She wouldn't even consider speaking up in front of the Lord Commander otherwise.

Monroe turned to consider the young woman who'd taken it upon herself to pursue the man she believed to be a terrorist into the wilderness, ignoring her own exhaustion and safety to keep tabs on him. Not exactly the most intelligent decision, but definitely a brave one. If nothing else, it'd be a good idea to place someone so clearly loyal and duty-bound by these people's side. "If you wish to become this man's subordinate, I will not stop you." Monroe nodded at her.

"Hang on." Andrew interjected. "Being his subordinate isn't just an immortality thing. He also gets a level of influence over you, making you more inclined to do what he says. It isn't on the level of mind control or anything, but it does mess with you."

"True. There's a reason I use the term 'subordinate' instead of just saying I could connect you to my world." Chris nodded.

The policewoman frowned. "I'm not gonna be nobody's slave." She mumbled, barely conscious at this point.

"I'm thinking we should probably let her make this decision after getting her some rest." Thomas commented.

"Hold on." Chris nodded, getting up, opening a portal, and gesturing to the policewoman. "Could you step inside for a moment?"

The police woman eyed the portal suspiciously. "Why? What're you gonna do?"

"Heal you." Chris replied simply. "I just need you to be inside."

She cocked her head. "I'm not injured though?"

"It'll heal your exhaustion as well." Chris explained.

She blinked. "How?"

"You will be returned to your ideal state." Chris sighed, rapidly losing interest in this conversation.

"But-" She began again.

"Fuck it." Chris grumbled, opening a portal below her chair, causing her to drop inside with yelp, healing her as she fell, before opening another portal for her so she landed back in the same place, clutching her chair and very much awake. "Why do people have to make things so difficult?" Chris shook his head as he returned to his own chair.

"You asshole!" The policewoman cursed, jumping to her feet, her heart still pounding from her sudden trip. "Why the-" She froze as she became fully cognizant of where she was and who she was talking to. "L-lord Commander, sir!" She saluted, before going pale as she processed how unbelievably stupid she was for following Chris all the way out here, especially in a near delirious state! What could possibly have convinced her that was a good idea?!? "I-I-"

"At ease, officer." Monroe waved her down, grinning slightly. "You must have been more exhausted than I thought."

The policewoman flushed. "I- I believe I was experiencing Energy drain as well… I've been running on empty for a few hours now."

Monroe's expression switched from amused to serious in an instant. "That's a dangerous line to walk, officer. I understand the desire to push yourself for duty, but you must be alive to fulfill that duty."

"Yes, sir." The policewoman muttered in embarrassment. She felt so stupid! What could have possessed her to take such an insane risk against an opponent she clearly couldn't do anything about?!?

"But that's a matter for later." Monroe continued, tapping the table. "The question at hand is whether you are willing to become this man's subordinate." He gestured to Chris.

"The- the terrorist?!?" She asked incredulously, before frowning as flashes of the previous conversation came back to her, though it was still hazy. "Uh… I don't- could you explain the details again, please?" She asked, turning to Chris.

"Basically, you'll be immortal, but you'll also be subject to my influence, not enough to force you to do anything you don't want to do, but… well, we're still working out the details, but suffice to say my words will have a weight that others don't." Chris replied.

"It isn't terrible, but it isn't exactly comfortable either." Quinn added with a sigh. "I can't say it isn't worth it though. Immortality is hard to argue with."

The policewoman blinked, before turning back to Monroe. "And you want me to accept this, sir?" She asked hesitantly.

"You've proven to be a loyal and dutiful officer. I don't necessarily want you to do it, but… I believe you would be a valuable addition to their group." Monroe replied, giving her a significant look, hoping she'd get the idea that he wanted someone trustworthy to keep an eye on these people.

The policewoman hesitated, getting that Monroe seemed to be pushing her towards doing it, but not understanding why. Admittedly, it didn't sound terrible… but this was a terrorist they were talking about! Why was Monroe even talking to them instead of simply wiping them off the face of the earth?!? She vaguely remembered that things were more complicated than that, but she still didn't quite recall the details. However… if Monroe was willing to put her with these people, then it couldn't be that bad, right? And if she'd actually be immortal… it sounded ridiculous, but everyone was taking it so seriously and she couldn't help but accept it. "I-" She began hesitantly, before straightening and saluting again with a serious expression. "Sir, I am willing to become this man's subordinate."

Chris opened another portal. "Are you going to get in yourself this time, or do you need help again?"

The policewoman flushed, glaring at him and gritting her teeth. "I'm fine." She growled, stepping through the portal. A moment later, a prompt appeared in front of her, and she accepted. She paused, waiting to feel the change, expecting to suddenly feel a chain or something around her soul, but… nothing. "Huh."

"You good?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, just- uh, never mind." She flushed, shaking her head and stepping back out of the portal.

"How do you feel?" Monroe asked, leaning forward to study her.

"Fine, sir." She replied. "It- I don't feel like anything has changed."

"Just wait." Quinn snorted, before giving Chris a look. "You want to show her?"

Chris sighed, before glancing at the policewoman. "You should sit down."

"Right." She nodded, quickly taking her seat. "What are you going to do? Another portal trick?"

Chris shook his head. "That was it."

She frowned. "What was?"

"You sat down." Chris replied.

"So? Why would I not sit down?" Her frown deepened, cocking her head at him.

"Exactly." Chris nodded.

"But- huh?!?" The policewoman's head started to hurt. The fuck was going on!?!

Chris chuckled. "Don't worry about it."

"Fine." The policewoman huffed grumpily.

"See? It's insidious." Quinn commented, gesturing towards the policewoman, who only gave her a confused look. "You don't even think about what you're doing, because it just makes sense. Why wouldn't you sit down? Why would you worry about why you sat down? But you're doing it because of him."

The policewoman blinked. Was- was that true? But- no her actions hadn't just seemed to make sense, they had made sense! Chris had suggested it, but she'd still been the one to make the decision! If it hadn't made sense, she wouldn't have done it! Maybe- maybe it was simply that he forced her to consider the option? "I don't think that's how it works." She shook her head. "The decision was mine. The fact that he pointed it out doesn't change that."

"Of course it does!" Quinn retorted. "You wouldn't have made that decision if he hadn't told you to!"

"Not at that moment, maybe, but eventually I would have! He simply sped up the process!" The policewoman countered.

"That- that's only because he was telling you to do something obvious!" Quinn protested.

"Okay, then how about this." The policewoman began. "Right now, I don't want coffee." She turned to Chris. "Tell me I want coffee."

"You want coffee." Chris told her, raising an eyebrow.

The policewoman paused, seriously considering her desire for coffee, before shaking her head. "No I don't."

Greg smacked Thomas in the arm. "Why didn't any of us think to try that?"

Thomas shrugged. "Maybe we just aren't that smart?"

The policewoman turned back to Quinn. "See he isn't changing anything, he's just pointing things out for us to focus on!" Quinn opened and closed her mouth a few times, before slumping back into her chair with a hmmph.

"Have you noticed that you're defending Chris now, after calling him a terrorist a few moments ago?" Andrew pointed out.

The policewoman froze. "That- he- obviously- uh… huh." She frowned. She knew Chris wasn't a bad person now, but… she definitely hadn't known that before. "I just know he isn't now? He'd never do something like that on purpose. I'm sure of it."

"True." Chris nodded.

"Okay, I think I've seen all I need to." Monroe announced, standing to his feet. "It's getting late, and I have a Ruin to contain. I wish you all luck, and I hope you gain the power necessary to handle this crisis as quickly as possible. Good luck." He gave them one last nod as the rest of the team stood to go as well.

"Want a portal back?" Chris asked, opening a portal to Nobilis.

Monroe froze, staring at the portal for a moment. "You can open portals from this distance?" He asked slowly.

"I-" Chris began, before frowning as a card appeared and his hand and he flicked it at him. "That's what I can do."

Monroe caught the card, giving it a quick look over, before looking up and raising an eyebrow at him. "I see. Well, I look forward to your assistance in the future." He nodded, before stepping through, followed by the rest.

Chris closed the portal and turned to the rest. "So, we still heading north?"

"I don't see why not." Greg nodded, turning all the tables and chairs back to smoke as he got up.

"Let's go then." Chris nodded as he opened a portal for them, and everyone began to walk in.

"So, we never actually got your name." Thomas commented as he stepped up next to the policewoman.

"Oh, uh, it's- it's Allison." She replied, a little taken aback by the fact she was suddenly on her own in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of strangers. How had she ended up in this position again? "And you?"

"I'm Thomas." Thomas introduced himself with a smile, holding out his hand.

"Hey, flirt later." Greg gave him a light shove towards the portal. "We gotta go!"

"I'm not-" Thomas protested, flushing as he jumped into the portal, shooting Greg a glare. "I was just being polite!"

"Yeah, yeah, let's go!" Greg repeated, waving everyone inside, leaving Chris alone as he pulled out his bow and nocked an arrow. It was a long way to the Northern Wastes.