SOF's words made the Doce's pause as they pondered the paradox. Eggy's face was calm as she finally answered.<br/><br/>"No, you're wrong. Even though we are from the future, this isn't the past. Since we're living it, it's the present. Thus, the past that I remember has already happened and will not change. It simply exists somewhere that the people of this present cannot access. In my past, the ambush happened with only the original group to defend against it. However, in this present, my friends and I are joining in. If we had also existed in the past I remember, I would not have allowed myself to accelerate the collision of the worlds by destroying this place."<br/><br/>"My, such a simple question, but it's caused me to think just a bit deeper," Rain smiled, resting her cheek on her hand as she crossed her arms delicately. "To think I was genuinely worried about a paradox when we're operating under multiverse theory. I should have known from the beginning, since that's how there ended up being two of me in the first place." She paused then turned to her counterpart. "I'd like to be certain we're on the same page, though. Since we're assuming multiverse theory, did we actually abandon our previous reality to die?"<br/><br/>"Yes and no." Eggy smirked. "The reality we abandoned is facing a collision of real and fiction. It will be left in a state of nothingness, and something can't not exist. Something either exists indefinitely, or it was nothing from the start. Every reality that is erased with fuse into another compatible reality that survived."<br/><br/>"We have the same mind after all," Rain smiled gently. "That was exactly what I was thinking. Really, what we're doing is only a matter of semantics; some drive to keep our current selves alive. We wouldn't even notice if we fused with another reality."<br/><br/>"The matter about meeting our other selves causing problems is particularly embarrassing. As in, I can't believe I was worried about such a thing! Something goes wrong with the same soul in multiple places at once? But there's already two of me! The fact is every moment lived effects slight changes on a person. Even if we had met our third self, there would be no great collapse. You and I have experienced more than her. We are not so identical as to cause some time rift." Eggy seemed happy to continue ranting back and forth with her clone.<br/><br/>"Indeed," Rain picked up. "But we would have left her on her own regardless. Allowing history to play out as similarly to how it did in our memory gives us the best chance of success preventing the collision of the worlds. Not to mention, it was pretty fun back then, and it's not nice to rob #3 of that. It's not wrong to avoid our other self for the time being, but we really were a bit too worried about effects that simply won't occur."<br/><br/>"You should be the expert, right?" Eggy teased. "This is your second time crossing the boundaries of space and time into another universe."<br/><br/>Rain covered her lips and chuckled. "Oh, so I'm an expert on something for once? I thought I was doomed to be a jack of all trades forever."<br/><br/>Eggy laughed. "But seriously, rather than simple things like time travel, shouldn't we start planning how to not doom all life this time around?"<br/><br/>"Hm..." Rain muttered. "It might not be so simple after all. The collision of fiction and reality seems more like a singularity that would tie together most potential universes. They are two great realms, after all. Especially since you can consider fiction as also including all other universes of reality which you aren't currently experiencing."<br/><br/>"Yeah, but there's no need to dampen everybody else's mood over it," Rain gave a low chuckle. "They're already taking this seriously, so isn't it enough if us two are the only ones brooding?"<br/><br/>Rain sighed. "Of course you had already thought of it. So our first step. Let's do it on the count of three, just to check if we're still in sync. One... Two..."<br/><br/>""Stop myself from destroying the machine.""<br/><br/>Rain nodded. "I seem to remember someone mentioning that it can be used as a key to prevent the collision."<br/><br/>Eggy rubbed the back of her head apologetically. "There was a lot of pressure back then since we were fighting the Overseer while dealing with the machine. We just picked the easiest answer in haste. This time should we actually see the battle through and defeat him? He could explain things to us that way."<br/><br/>"If it takes too long, everyone else in the Fortress will come running in to join. But we can't fight through from the entrance. The Overseer's power to transmute matter will be even more deadly if he has time to prepare."<br/><br/>"So we're really not going to do much different?"<br/><br/>Eggy crossed her arms and smirked in a devilishly cute way. "Of course not. I may have screwed up royally, but that doesn't make me any less of a genius. I had the right idea the first time, I just ripushed into it too quickly. We'll send a small elite group directly to the machine like last time; however, we won't go directly to the machine. The machine is behind the throne room, so we take advantage of our position to ambush the Overseer. At the same time, a larger force will attack from outside, sending most of the guards outside and preventing reinforcements."<br/><br/>Rain nodded. "For now, that's plenty to work with. We can plan the smaller details once our relationship with the Resistance has improved. We will need them to storm the outside of the Fortress, after all."<br/><br/>"I'm hungry, and I'm tired of standing," Eggy transitioned out of her more admirable state without warning. Rain blushed slightly. Her new body compelled her to be a bit more quiet about it, but she felt the same.<br/><br/>"Oi!" Eggy called to the nearest soldier, putting her delicate hands on her seductive hips in an adorably upset pose. But no matter how cute her appearance was, her aura, especially deep in her eyes, seemed to rise up out of the freezing hell. "Explain to this Queen why we have been abandoned in the middle of the hall like this? Hm? You have ten minutes to provide us with food and a place to rest, or send me someone who can. This Queen's time is not to be wasted, do you understand?" A dark aura rose up from the girl, intimidating beyond belief. It was an aura that seemed to disregard factors of strength and attack the spirit directly. The soldier immediately broke out into a cold sweat and started shivering. Then he quickly ran off to find one of his superiors.<br/><br/>Rain looked over at Eggy with an awkward expression.<span style="font-style: italic">At a time like this, she manages to sync up with her host and utilize her powers. Yet I had to carry her the whole way here because she couldn't figure out how to fly...</span>