Okay, so the space-time warps are pretty crap for your head. Fortunately my head's as quick as me, so I recovered very gracefully. Blinking away the unfamiliar dizziness, I took a good look at my surroundings. Some... village, totally ordinary, nothing of interest happening except for the small crowd grouped up by the fountain. "Sup folks what's going on over- oh," I cut off as, upon investigation, I found Mithril and Rune. Mithril's uh... seen better days. There's a very ugly series of black cracks spread all over her, which is weird caused I'd been under the impression she was more of a liquidy metal like when I'd fought her... although maybe that was just because she'd been molten when I'd kicked her. Rune was projecting some kind of barrier over her, perhaps in an attempt to heal her? "Hah, look at that, we... came to before Quicksilver did," Mithril laughed, then grunted. "Shit, what happened to you?" I questioned, kneeling next to her and rifling through my leg holsters to see if I had anything that might help. "Fought one of the Warbosses... solo, he pulled out some pretty nasty magic," she replied haltingly. I poked one of the black cracks and withdrew my hand; they were screaming hot to the touch. "I got some metal on the way back and... utilized the warp from the... shard to fix myself up a bit, and at least made sure I wasn't... alone this time. Getting kinda tired of that shit." "... Ark'thugal halted my shard warp to say something to me and then... let me warp out," she noted, then glanced in my direction. "Does the phrase "Reach heaven by violence" mean anything to you?" "Uh, nothing specific. Some philosophical bit about violence ending in death? Seems an odd thing for a Black Pikmin to say," I commented, pulling out some gauze and then shoving it back in the holster. "Come to think of it, Ark sparing Adaptrix back at Ludibrium was really odd as well," Mithril mentioned. "What the hell was his deal?" "I'm not exactly a healer, Mithril, especially not for your physiology," Rune noted. "I don't think Hero Squad even has someone suited to healing you... never really thought we'd need to." "Yeah uh, I've got medical stuff in here but that's for fleshy folks, not... oh, wait, I got an idea!" I said excitedly, sticking my arm further into the holster than its apparent depth should allow, and drawing out a glass vial half full of a silvery liquid, clearly labeled "repair nanites". "Snagged this from the Colony last time we were there," I noted proudly. Mithril and Rune gave it a suspicious look. "Why... did you take those?" Rune asked slowly. I wiggled the fingers on my empty hand. "Sticky fingers! Besides, it's not like Omicron's gonna miss- well okay dude has millions of eyes, he totally knows I took them, but he has more nanites, and I figured hey, maybe they'll be useful somewhere along the line," I explained. Both wore a look of combined skepticism and... something else. "I mean... I know neither of you are Omicron's biggest fans, but I doubt there's anything malicious in some random set of nanites I pilfered-" "I'm sorry," Mithril interrupted. My train of thought derailed completely. I blinked owlishly at her. "Huh?" "I'd like to offer my apologies as well," Rune piped up, doubling my confusion. I pointed at myself. "To me? What uh... what for?" "Oh come off it, you know damn well neither of us has... exactly treated you nicely," Mithril replied, "You felt the need to defend yourself when... you were just trying to help. Speaking of which, hand those over, I'll... think about it. Not exactly full of options, here." "As for me," Rune piped up as I handed over the nanites, "For now, let's say I was... familiar with someone like you once, and they made awful decisions, so I was automatically a bit wary. I've... changed my mind, after what I've seen during this ordeal." "Llllike what?" I asked, which, as cosmic comedy decreed, was when the ripple effect hit me like a sack of bricks. I stumbled backward, clutching my head as two versions of the same event played out in my mind. I locked eyes with Rune. "You were... you were there. But you weren't... oh shit, have you guys actually been changing the past?" Rune's eyebrows raised. "You remember that?" "If I'm correct, these shards we've been picking up are... probably pieces of Chi," Mithril explained, "Who'd normally be fixing discrepancies like that. So yes, we just might actually be changing the past." "Okay but I didn't remember that change until just now. So... shit, how is this gonna work?" I looked off to the side while wracking my brain and abruptly noticed the crowd we'd drawn. "Oi, whatcha staring at?" I asked pointedly, causing much of the crowd to shrug and disperse. "Actually, where are we anyway?" Someone in the crowd snorted. "What, you live under a rock? How have you not heard of Sunrise Village?" My expression froze on my face. "Sunrise?" "Yeah, are ya hard of hearing too?" "No no, I heard you pretty clearly. Just that if we're here uh... you should probably start running. Like now," I suggested, which is when cosmic comedy decided to loudly introduce The Problem in the form of a large building sailing across the plaza, spearing itself into another structure, and the screaming started. "Oh hell, who's attacking?" Rune demanded, shifting her staff into combat form. Mithril dragged herself to her feet, turning to the face the direction the building came from. "I recognize the village name," I explained quickly, "cause this is the one Zeta flattened." Both turned to me with wild expressions as a cruel laugh echoed over the plaza. "Zeta with a shard?" Mithril groaned. "Ohhh, this is gonna suck."