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Jonathan Joestar	LAST TIME: A grand journey reaches its conclusion. From battling vampires, zombies, various kinds of freakish monsters, a litney of Stand Users, and even sentient super-animals and a cyborg supervillain, the Elites have managed to overcome every single trial thrown their way. Ramone and Pet Shop have been r e t i r e d for good, and the Golden Arrows or, rather, the arrowheads are now all within their custody. The fanfare is vivid, but short lived, as they all remember that the work here isn't done -- there are still some matters to sort out before they can kick their feet up, after all. And so, reticently, Jonathan and Speedwagon guide everyone back into the main chamber to confront Itsuki and Charlie, when they wake up, and finally lay everything to rest. Which brings us to -- NOW: Brushing a pretty, green nail through her bubblegum pink hair, Charlie blows out a huffy breath, " ... seriously? You're letting us go after we tried to claim your head for a bounty?" Jonathan nods, "I've removed the flesh bud laying within your heads. So long as you steer clear of him, you'll find no more trouble from DIO, I assure you."     "That's not -- " Itsuki cuts her off with a disarming motion, standing approximately at her shoulder. He's actually kind of short, huh?     "It's fine, right? Isn't there a saying about gift horses?" Jonathan chuckles, "Perhaps there is. Of course, there's no guarantee that you two will turn over new leaves ... but at the very least, I trust you'll take this experience to heart and not get involved with individuals too shady, right?" Placing a palm against her forehead, she sucks in a breath and carefully avoids dragging her hand down her face, so as to not smear the sunscreen on her nose. "Whatever. A million per head sounded too good to be true, anyway." Speedwagon, from the side, smiles lightly. Faith is puffing on a cigarette -- a normal one -- as he interjects, "Ramone had some nice bling on him. It's not a million bucks, but it'll at least get us a decent bit of scratch if we go to the right places," he says, completely non-plussed about having robbed the dead man's corpse for cash and valuables after it was all said and done. "Eh? Really? .. No, now that I think of it, weren't those gaudy pins made out of real gold and jewels? He was supposedly from a super rich family too, right? Then his credit card -- " Faith waves it with a grim grin, and Itsuki's jaw hit the floor. Charlie had an utterly greedy gleam in her eyes as she reached out and swiped it before anyone could so much as mutter 'yahtzee', "Hey!" Faith says, only having the energy to sound slightly indignant, "Oh? And you know how to get the funds out of this joker? Don't make me laugh. Someone who looks like they don't even want to get out of bed should just leave this to the professional! If you apologize for giving me that stink-eye, I might even give you a fair cut."     "Ha ha .. " Jonathan laughs gently at the continued antics of the three who, seemed to be just a little bit closer now that they were free from the chains that bound them. That Faith had managed to put forth the effort to be even marginally outgoing was an improvement too, for sure. "Although, JoJo, that does leave the matter of the arrows themselves, doesn't it?" "Ah .. yeah. That's right." Jonathan says, rubbing the back of his neck. In the time since they'd come back here, he'd moved the arrows out of the briefcase that Ramone had them placed in, and had returned them to their original wooden container. " ... I guess there's no use in beating around the bush. There is a slight problem." Opening the box once again, just to make sure that he had not miscounted, Jonathan continues, "There's one missing, actually. I was hoping someone here could confirm for me, did you happen to know how many arrows were to be delivered?"
Jonathan Joestar	Faith blinks slightly, and Itsuki -- who had been doing his best to butter up to Charlie -- cocks his head to the side. The bug=print girl taps her chin, "Ah. ... No, sorry. We weren't allowed to know. I guess that gloomy girl would have known, since she's the one who packed them up. It's not impossible that one got snatched, but it is pretty unlikely, right?" Jonathan nods, "I thought as much. I had been led to believe there would be six ... however, there are only five arrows, in fact." "This may not seem to be so problematic, however, we were supposed to turn custody of the lion's share of these over to the Paladins, per an arrangement with Gilgamesh of Uruk. Four were to be returned, in exchange, this one -- marked with a Rhinoceros Beetle -- and another standard arrow were to remain with myself. That there is a discrepency in number does throw a wrench into things." he admits. "As well, there is the possibility that an untoward party has come into possession of one of the arrows. Such an event is worrying, but unlikely. If it were the case, why that arrow? Why not take them all? ... so for now, without further information saying otherwise, we'll just have to assume that unlike in Josuke's world, for whatever reason, mine only possess five arrows..." "That reminds me, Itsuki, you're feeling okay .. right? I seriously don't need to be dragging you across the desert otherwise. I'll leave you behind." Charlie turns from the subject, poking the teenager in the head. "Ah? Don't worry about me! I'm great! Right as rain! No, wait I think I am coming down with something. .. I've got it. I'm lovesick, for sure, so we have to treat it pronto." The poke quickly turned into a small shove that sends him onto his back, "Why do I bother." she sighs with a heavier huff than before, "Those arrows, of the people Ramone tried to stick with them, you're the only one who didn't die. But you're still as lively and brain dead as ever, so there doesn't seem to be any reason to worry." Jonathan nods his head, "Right. It's a fairly binary deal with them as far as I'm aware, being jabbed by the arrow will either end your life then and there, or produce Stand Power. The statistics, as you saw, greatly lean on the former rather than the latter .. while not precisely exact, consider it a nine in ten cases of death, at best."     "Wow, so I came that close to giving up the ghost?"     "That's what I was trying to tell you!" Wanting no part in the spat to come, Faith give them a considering glance. "In that case, why on earth did DIO think they were so important? He already has at least one of those arrows, I know, but .. from what I've gathered from you and Speedwagon, he isn't from this world, but rather, an alternate world's future. Right?" Speedwagon chimes in again, "As well, why did he have them brought here? Rather than to this Temple, wouldn't it have been better to continue fleeing towards Cairo? That's where he's supposed to have been holed up, according to the informaiton we got .. but even if not, to pick a place like this is ... " "Especially with the pecularities of Ben's recent discoveries concerning this place. Let's review everything we know, then." Jonathan finishes for him, as Speedwagon had trailed off.
Ben d'Tarkanan	Ben tiredly smiles and claps Speedwagon on the shoulder, after the latter's remark about Ramone's personal effects. He's quiet, for most of the conversation, simply catching his breath after the exertion earlier. He looks rough, but happy, though his fine shirt and leather chestpiece are pierced through and stained red at the abdomen. A giant hunk of ice will do that.      His smile fades, when Jonathan reveals the matter of the missing arrow. oO0I know a way to solve that. But I hope it shan't be necessary... He begins covertly scrawling something with the toe of his leather boot. A disc of deepest darkness swells over the spot as his boot scrapes across the ground. "When we're prepared, we can make use of this to divine the location of the missing arrow," he says, pointing to the occluded spot.      For now, he contemplates Jojo's request for an analysis.      "Well, Faith's Stand appears to work on both living and dead things, which explains some of the specimens we encountered. But not all," he says, lifting a finger as he leans against the wall. "There were zombies--not mummies, zombies, at the exterior of the temple. And in Luxor. That the zombies, and my camel, were able to wander the complex means that the protections in place are either lacking or fading."
Yuuki Kuran	"Oh, there's the other problem. I *hate* to disparage Priscilla's romance partner, but he made such a grand agreement to help, and then... broadly did not. That Rook woman helped some, and if she requests some form of payment it's certainly due, as is some compensation for your time..." Yuuki largely favors Faith with that, since the other two got compensated by being freed with their superpowers intact from the control of DIO. "But I don't see why we're remanding your world's artifacts to some other world's Gilgamesh? If he forwarded some preparatory resources I'm willing on reimbursing him..." First Yuuki, short haired and action-romance heroine styled sighs, shaking her head. Second Yuuki, long of hair like a romance-action hime-sama uses her right hand to clap the backs of her fingers into her left palm like a sheaf of papers. "... but contracts expect performance!" Yuuki points at the case. "He can have *one*. As an understanding for the First's favor. That's my final offer on the matter." First Yuuki there-there hands. "It's not our final offer. Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Second Yuuki scoffs and looks away to find the right side of the area awfully drawing, tisking heavily. First Yuuki nods. "The matter isn't settled, so we'll be holding onto all five. The King can end this maruading DIO for stealing and harming Jonathan's archaeology, and then he can talk of earning payments."
Zero Kiryu	"It was. You can't kill us," Zero's statement is coldly matter-of-fact. At the beginning of this venture it might have been taken for hollow bragging; but all across it he has been like a stone statue that replaces all its chips and cracks as time passes. He rifles through his coat pockets, taking out two objects. One is a flask with the same emblem on his neck etched into its surface. He tosses it towards whichever Yuuki is closer, and moves on to working with the other object in his hands. It's a packet of some sort. Zero pops a couple of tablets from within into is mouth. "Which isn't to say... that you lot were an easily solved problem." The shenanigans between Faith and the others earns a snort. A tilt of his head follows soon after, as the problem of the arrows is addressed. "Payment is given for services rendered, but Gilgamesh's services were limited. Had he been present, he might have prevented certain complications. But he wasn't, and he didn't. Pay him proportionate to what he did. Or don't. I'm only here in accordance with the Concord's vision," he says. Which is to say, he's not demanding the Arrows himself. Yuuki fills in for the feelings behind the Concord's vision. Turning to look properly at Faith, he adds, "By the way. You should keep the power that I gave you. You'll become more ofa vampire over time, but it shouldn't be a problem. My species isn't undead. That guy..." Dio, he means. "His infosec methods are pretty good because they're harsh." Although he makes no offers to the others, it doesn't seem unsafe for them to ask if they want to.
Crys Gattz	Crys doesn't seem intent to add to the body county as she looks to Charlie for a moment. "The kill switch is gone and I'd suggest you start gate hoping for a bit maybe head a few sectors out." She seems serious on that, but she won't press it, just given what their old boss would do? Given those buds? It might be an idea to get some distance in the end. "The items go where they need to go right ... wait... hmm we should keep the other parties informed. I don't want a deal going raw with the King of Uruk." That is a man she does not want to be on the bad side of at all if she can help it. She'll turn her head to Ben to listen to what the man has to say. She pauses at Zero's comment but does not attempt to say anthing else on it. She's muscle for the concord really, and with Yuuki's own thoughts that rather settles the matter as far as she's concerned.
Hibiki Tachibana	All is said and done, at last...or at least on its way. Even though she hasn't quite ended her transformation yet, held since they first reached the Temple of Kom Ombo, until they're positive everything has been put paid to despite it being rather torn and beaten up by this point - there's an expression that's halfway between 'tired' and 'content' as she watches their three former enemies go back and forth with each other.     "The professional, huh...?" There's an equally soft smile under the cover of her scarf, not that it's hard to take notice of anyway - especially seeing Faith like this is like all the assurance she needs that things'll be fine...and the path they took today wasn't wrong. It feels...good. Warm.     The subject of the missing Arrows though, gets her to blink and straighten up where she's standing. "Only one arrow? There was plenty of time for someone to..." She trails off. If one of DIO's minions was responsible, they would have just taken /all/ of them for their master, right? But they've been chasing the set the entire time, and as far as it's seemed, they've never been outside of their hands either...     "Everything we know..." Neatly avoiding the conversation of who actually gets the remaining of the objects because that's None Of Her Business when she trusts everyone here and isn't really sure what she'd say on that front anyway, Hibiki's focus goes back to what she's seen, folding her arms as she briefly looks to Ben.     "...Oh, yeah. And I remember when we were first trying to find a way inside, it looked like you tried to do your thing and couldn't. That has to be kinda weird, right? Is that because of the place itself, or..." Not sure how to finish that thought, she furrows her brow a bit. "Do you think there was anything at the very top of the elevator shaft we missed? We did stop it from reaching the top of the temple..."
Jonathan Joestar	Sheepishly, Jonathan considers how to broach the subject further -- Yuuki is, ultimately, of a far more authorative position within the Concord than himself. He was merely an affiliate, after all. "He /did/ provide a great amount of assistance in the original excavation, recall, and even supplied an ambrosia to save my life in that first encounter with ... Blackmore, I believe his name was, Blackmore and Mariner, that strange, empty man who could summon a storm." Yet, Zero did have a point. Gilgamesh's contributions ended at that juncture of their journey, more or less. In fact, things would most likely have not spiralled out of control had he stuck around, as he highly doubted that even getting the drop on him with her hammer and Inkpot, would allow Eve to incapacitate Gilgamesh the way she had done to Speedwagon. No, their troubles would have ended with her and Axl R.O. and then they would have all went home. Faith puffs on his cigarette, casting a look at Zero, "So you mean to say, I'd be closer to you than to him, huh ... I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it." he admits, honestly. It was nice being so durable, being so .. strong. He would have been slaughtered cruelly by Ramone without that power. "You should keep it, Faith! Actually, I think I'd have a huge problem with you if you didn't! No, wait, could I get a piece of that too?"     "Nuh uh. You're already reckless and stupid enough as it is. That Stand already went to your fat little head, you'll just be an even bigger pain to have to keep an eye on."     "B..but...I could help out way more, right?" Faith smiles crookedly, "Actually, I agree with her. .... This strength, I don't know what'd be involved in rejecting it, but, if it's between having it or not, I'd rather put it to good use. Hopefully, that won't bite me in the neck later." There's a short bit of silence, before Charlie, shocked, finally asks him, " ... did you just crack a joke? Are you sure you're the same super-stony guy who looked like he was ready to climb into one of these old graves and lay there? Were you so depressed because your jokes were all so awful nobody laughed? That's terrible." "Sorry, big bro, she just speaks her mind like that," Itsuki grins, "Big bro?" Faith parrots. "Or would you prefer me sticking to 'senior'? Or maybe 'gramps'?"     "Shut up." Speedwagon turns to Hibiki, holding a hand forward in lecturing position, "This ever helpful Speedwagon can answer that! I'm rather tenacious, you know! ... while everyone was getting settled back here, I took a trip to the top, it was by no means easy considering the lift had been stopped dead, but .. it seemed that there had been something, or someone entombed at the center of this place. That lift was meant to take it to this Temple's peak, though whatever it was seems to be long gone." Jonathan puts a finger to his chin, "Is that so ... ?" "Ah, though, I do appreciate your help, Baron d'Tarknan. Even if it doesn't turn up anything useful, it would still put my mind at ease." "For the matter of the arrows, at least at this juncture, I have great amounts of trust in both the Paladins as an organization, and some parties within the Concord. Which is to say, that of the allies I've gathered here, I would not mind custody of the lion's share falling that way, so long as this one remains in my own care." "Although it does bring to question, why /did/ DIO want these so badly? ... it's only conjecture, but, Faith, would you say that the arrow looked very particular to you?" Faith stops to think, "Well ... no. I only saw it the one time, though, so I can't say for sure, but it seems to look like pretty much all the others." "If that's so, then, his real goal as far as these arrows went were most likely..." The one, colored a richer gold than the rest, and possessing an ornament on the arrowhead in the shape of a rhinoceros beetle. That arrow, more than the others, was particular.
Yuuki Kuran	'Won't bite me in the neck later.' First Yuuki, who caught the tossed flask, begins slugging back the contents right as Faith drops his bombshell deadpan, and coughs once, doubling over. Second Yuuki's cheeks puff out as she holds a hand before her lips, hime-power holding in the burst of laughter. Swallowing down the cheek-puffing amusement as First Yuuki gasps for breath lightly, bent down slightly with her hand braced against her knee. "Hilarious." Second Yuuki smiles lightly. "Warn me next time!" rises First Yuuki, recovered enough to keep drinking. The matter of 'why' draws the sobering up of the pair comedy duo Yuuki puts on as a solo act. "It may be that this DIO, from another world, is using his 'world knowledge' to recruit power users from your world, and pursue artifacts he broadly knows exist in certain locations." Second Yuuki reasons. First Yuuki drops flask-holding fist into cupped palm. "That's why he knew where to look! Otherwise, how could he know before the brilliant Jonathan Joestar, an archaeologist by trade, had any idea." Yuuki(s) really does think the world of JoJo, but she's like that.
Zero Kiryu	"I'm not interested in that sort of domination, and there's only one thing I want. So if you want to think of it that way, it's fine. But I probably won't be looking in all that often." Zero says to Faith, shrugging. He turns, slightly, to regard Charlie and Itsuki. He spends a long, long time just considering them-- long enough that it might be taken as offense, easily. But he just shakes his head, "Giving it to one of you only, would only bring you misery. I won't do it. If, one day, you can both come to me, then..." He turns away, moving to First Yuuki's side but doing absolutely nothing about her coughing fit because he knows that it's completely inconsequential. "Yeah... by the way, doing it that way is pretty charged. Stick with the wrist unless you're very friendly." //Why would Dio want the arrows if he's ahead of us on the timeline?// "I doubt it's this simple, but we already know that 'that' Dio has stolen a body, and utilizes its Stand power -- not his own, such as it is. Since we know that, we can extrapolate the possibility that he could utilize the arrows to attempt to obtain additional, possibly more powerful bodies and Stands," Zero speculates.
Hibiki Tachibana	Honestly, Hibiki has a hard time believing these three won't be just fine when they're already like this. Even the subject of the Zero-strain vampirism doesn't really bother her - if it wasn't for him and Yuuki, Faith might not even be alive period right now, so she's feeling pretty good nothing bad will come out of taking that power. DIO is an asshole because he's an asshole, not because he's a vampire, after all.     To Speedwagon, her furrowed eyebrows go up as she tilts her head and folds her arms. "You did? Way to go, Speedwagon." He really did get on that before anyone else even thought of it! The news gets her thinking for several long moments. "So whatever was here, it's not anymore...so it shouldn't have anything to do with why the Arrows were brought here. If they give 'Stand Power', I would have guessed he wanted to try using them on an ancient pharaoh or something to see what happened, but..." The tone of her voice makes it actually hard to tell if that was a joke or something that seriously crossed her mind.     Yuuki and Zero both make sense, and the fact they do gets her frowning that much more deeply. Something about that inherently puts her off, and her hands clench a bit. "...So then maybe that one Arrow, different from the others, could give him a more powerful Stand than any of the rest...?"
Yuuki Kuran	First Yuuki elbows Zero in the thigh. Second Yuuki nods along with Hibiki's thought on the ancient tomb-lord's arrow-ing. "That's right. This place was special for some reason. Special enough even Ben's magical insights couldn't pierce it - and he's quite the master! I think further inspection is in order, Jonathan, Robert! Perhaps something interesting lays at the bottom of the elevator shaft? We haven't seen where the arrows were originally, did we?" First Yuuki rises, apologetic. "Unless we had. Sorry, I was running out of steam at the end. Feeling better now!" She explains, her eyes glowing a mild red. She corks Zero's flask and wipes off her mouth with a handkerchief -- though she almost does it with the side of her hand and catches herself awkwardly midway through. "Maybe DIO was after allies powerful enough to stop Jonathan with his new help? The Undead, as Ben points out, went unexplained."
Crys Gattz	She seems amused for a moment at some of the banter but does not but into it however she looks over to Speedwagon for a moment. "That you have proven to be in this whole mess Mr. Speedwagon." She seems pleased with the backup he did give them. As for the arrows being sorted it out seem to be handled one way or another. "That's the big question what did he want them for. What could he do with them? I doubt it would be just raw money. You'd not put the sort of effort he has into personal and infosec just for cash. There has to be something else to it..." "That could be it Zero..."
Ben d'Tarkanan	Ben smiles at Hibiki, wiping a spot of blood from his lip with the back of his wrist. "'Where the negative energy suppression field comes from' could have any number of answers," he admits. "But I think 'why it was put here' may be exactly what the ever-helpful Speedwagon described." He pauses, to take a sip from his canteen. "...Such a placement implies the temple was built for the very purpose of venerating that person, and such a field... well, if I were a temple venerating a corpse, it'd be rather detrimental to the authenticity of my beliefs if someone could simply stroll out with it."      There *are* many possible explanations as to where this field might come from. It could be faith-based magic, of course, which is common in temples like this. But... "I suppose it is also possible that for whatever reason, the corpse or object itself radiated positive energy, or something similarly disruptive to necromancy. It's not totally unheard of for such forces to accumulate in the bodies of those with strong connections there-to."      Tilting his head at Yuuki and Zero, he points affably, with his right index, before running the opposite hand through his hair. "Is that so?" His attention darting to Hibiki excitedly, "Perhaps! Perhaps he intended to place himself in the body above and use the arrows upon it."
Jonathan Joestar	Flushing mildly with embarssment at the praise, Jonathan takes it in stride, "I do certainly appreciate the vote of confidence. Yet, I do believe you perhaps think too highly of me." Speedwagon, however, agrees with Yuuki(s) fullheartedly, "No, she's certainly right. DIO only knows these exist in the first place because of his circumstance. You've mentioned it to me briefly before, your supposition, that is ... but perhaps it's better to clear the air on that bit, JoJo." Jonathan glances down at the arrows, gleaming, and sighs. "Right. I've mentioned it briefly before, but I've been reticent to share my thoughts on the matter, since I have no way of truly confirming them. Some of you who have been with me from the beginning of this journey to now may even recall some of what I'm about to say." Jonathan breathes in, "I came to know about the original excavation site, loosely, because of what a boy named Josuke Higashikata told me. He is my great grandson, from another world. The point at which his world and mine ceased to be the same, seemed to be the point that mine apparated in the multiverse. In his world, DIO obtained Stand Power from a witch named Enya, who had possession of one of the arrows ... once I'd gained what information I could regarding the arrows in his world, I used it as a reference to locate them in mine." "This is all to say that I believe that DIO does not come from my world, or Josuke's ... but most likely, another one. In his world, DIO had been killed by the rest of the Joestar family in 1989 ... at this juncture, I feel there is no doubt that DIO is, if nothing else, from a world that takes place in this time period. That there has been no correspondance from them, and that DIO has acted with such impunity for his machinations ... I've begun to suspect that the world DIO comes from, is one in which he has somehow wiped out his enemies, my descendants." With Zero's speculation in hand, Jonathan stares down at the arrows they had obtained. With certainty, I believe that the answer lays within this arrow. It and this temple. Speedwagon mentioned that it seemed to have entombed something particular ... it must have been a corpse. It would have been odd if it were an artifact. Furthermore, hadn't Ben mentioned that his powers had waned in this place? If it were a corpse of some kind stored here, then ... no, how would they prevent such a thing? Unless ...     Was it the corpse itself that prevented his necromancy, and that this place is still under the effect even after it has left? What use would DIO have for such a thing, and how would it interact with this arrow? Speedwagon steadies his hat with a hand, "Maybe that's why the arrows were still here? Maybe that Bird took whatever it was first, and made a return trip for the Arrows?" Itsuki suddenly slams his fist into his open hand, "OH! I JUST REMEMBERED!"     "Huh?!"     "Don't yell! Idiot!"     "You're yelling now too!" "Uhm .. ehehe ... sorry," he says, "well, actually, it's more a case of me not wanting to tattle on myself, but actually, remember how none of us were supposed to enter the inner chamber?" " ... Itsuki." Charlie groans, with narrowed eyes. "Well, I guess that means we're all really lucky I'm so nosy! Well, I still didn't know he was meeting a bird, or whatever. But I did catch Ramone butchering up some ancient corpse with a bonesaw while I was hiding in one of those burial jars. It's why I was late to fighting those guys!" he says, motioning to Hibiki and Crys; cue a flashback to his late entrance to fight them, Lilian, and Tina.     "So it was a corpse after all," Jonathan says. "Yep! It was .. offputting though. I d'unno. Like it was still alive, somehow? But .. not really ... I can't say much about it, but, from where I was, there was one important feature I thought was really cool and gross!" "Cool /and/ gross?" Charlie says, rhetorically, "Boys will be boys, I guess .."     "Yup!"     "It had a giant hole in each hand and foot!"
Zero Kiryu	"Maybe," Zero replies to Hibiki, shrugging. He sways in place from Yuuki's elbowing. He takes the flask back from Yuuki. "There's another possibility, though. What happens if an Arrow is used on one who is already a Stand user? Is it 'nothing'?" He asks. Regarding the unusual undead that Itsuki had witnessed, he speculates, "A mummified corpse can appear quite well-preserved on first contact. But it may be we're thinking about this in too complex a configuration. Is it possible that these aren't interlocking issues, but that this happens to be a convenient intersection point of independent goals that were previously only parallel?" Out of sheer curiosity he opens the flask and looks inside it before re-sealing it and putting it away. Zero lifts his eyebrows at First Yuuki.
Hibiki Tachibana	"You think so?" Hibiki curiously questions Second Yuuki with a deadpan blink, right before Ben elaborates on his situation. She didn't consider that before, but from her expression, it's clearly beginning to settle in some. "The corpse itself..." She taps her chin beneath her scarf, only to look back up with an even higher lift of her eyebrows than before at his thought. "Put himself /in/ it? If that thing did give off positive energy, I don't know if a scumbag like DIO would be the best fit for it. But if he did..."     That's kind of a scary thought.     Fortunately(?), that's proven to not quite be the case when Itsuki pipes up to drop that, and her attention goes right to him. A corpse that was still alive...? What did that even mean? She only outright doesn't question that out loud because of what he adds after, only leading to her looking even more confused. "Giant holes...? Like something had been put through them? Do mummies usually have that?" She looks to Jonathan, archaeologist and historian extraordinaire, because she genuinely doesn't know. "But if they're giant...it couldn't have been Arrows...and why would he be cutting it up?"
Yuuki Kuran	"Transport?" Second Yuuki shrugs to Hibiki, sagging sleeves pooling at her elbows as her arms sweep wide. First Yuuki shoos Zero's curious eyes with a repeated flick of her fingers. "That scum that we helped Faith defeat made me quite mad, so I showed off a bit. So, you see, he drove me to drink. It's terrible, I agree." The short-haired clone jokes lightly. Second Yuuki considers. "Where's the corpse now, Itsuki? If it was chopped on the premises, but 'none of DIO's servants got away', then it should still be here, too? Since the arrows are. They didn't get away with them."
Jonathan Joestar	Itsuki shrugs in response to Hibiki while Jonathan looks thoughtful, pondering both her and Zero's inquiries and musings on the matter. "Well ... " Could he have been planning to eat it? DIO typically absorbs blood in order to nourish himself, but it shouldn't be impossible for him to completely absorb bio-matter...I think. Goals that were parallel but now intersect .. maybe. No, let me break this down. First, I will assume that DIO's goal as far as the arrows were concerned were this Rhinoceros Arrow. I do not know much about it other than that it is supposedly different than the others, even beyond its appearance. DIO ... judging from the image Zero was shown when he scanned Mystery Tree's memory, his neck wound is still bad. In other words, his head hasn't completely synchronized to the body he stole. For some reason he was either unable to obtain the blood of Joseph or Jotaro, my direct descendants, or he suffered some injury in fighting them that left him weakened despite having the blood to give him succor. If this were so, then ... the corpse may have some ability to revitalize him, somehow. Maybe. And then the Arrow would have another purpose. Or, they are connected in some way, and I just don't have the information to make that connection apparent.     "Hm."     "I'm sorry to say that I do not yet know, Zero." Speedwagon speaks for Itsuki, in this case, "I looked all around, but while I certainly found signs of something being entombed there, like I said before .. it's long gone now. Somehow." Itsuki folds his arms behind his head, "Well, I think it's really simple! I can't prove it, but, I think that giant bird thing you guys mentioned probably was working its tailfeathers to get the parts Ramone cut up away from here. He was probably cutting them up to make it easier for it to transport, yeah?"
Crys Gattz	The idea of this Dio getting more power is not a happy one to Crys, memories of old adventures come to mind briefly and she grimaces. She did not know Dio directly but he was skilled, he was driven and utterly ruthless. "A word where Dio won over your family...that's ... a thing." Crys never really knew her parents or any relative but she's had teammates who are pretty much family. So she has her frame of reference for that but she seems lost in thought for a moment. Which is disrupted as Itsuki recalls something. "Wait big enough for the arrowheads? I don't like the sound of this. This may not ... be over yet."
Ben d'Tarkanan	"Alive, you say?" asks Ben with interest, glancing towards Itsuki. He begins pacing, slowly, now that he's got a measure of his strength back. "Hah! To be proven right so soon after my guess. My, what a feeling. Based on Itsuki and Goodman Robert's descriptions, the temple's construction and my own expertise, I believe we certainly have a rare type of undead on our hands." <J-IC-Scene> Jonathan Joestar says, "Undead..I think that might be jumping the gun. What an eery description, though.." <J-IC-Scene> Yuuki Kuran says, "I'd call them Pale but I think that's a place or a thing. It'd be too insensitive to call them 'monsters', wouldn't it?"      Ben waves his hand, still pacing, still thinking it through. "Perhaps 'corpse' is a more appropriate appellation," he concedes with a nod of his head, "Given that it doesn't seem ambulatory, merely remarkably well preserved."     "That being said," he then admits with a furrow of his brow and a slight smile, "I must admit to some academic interest--there are a few 'power sources' from whence this preservation comes, and in the field of embalming, they're quite rare in my experience." Stopping his pacing, he submits an idea.      "This corpse was preserved either by some sort of positive, creative energy of growth, or... by the will of a god," he says, glancing upwards with a frown. "Either way, both tend to interfere with the energies of entropy and decay which necromancy employs to sympathetically animate corpses."
Zero Kiryu	The inquiring look turns flat and annoyed. Zero steps a little farther into First Yuuki's space, raising his hands and pushing Yuuki's to her sides. This might be more easily interpreted as some sort of romantic cutesy gesture, and indeed it may be somewhere underneath the surface. But on the surface, he's PUSHING hands, not TAKING them. While he's doing this he converses with Jonathan, "Well... it's fine not to know everything that's at hand. Three timeframes of the same world are involved, so things are bound to get complicated." Ben's speculation draws a thoughtful noise out of Zero. Looking between Ben and Jonathan, he asks, "Is there any evidence of deities tending this world? With the sorts of things we know exist, it's feasible. But 'just having vampires' doesn't mean Gods must be present."
Jonathan Joestar	Jonathan considers how to answer momentarily, before shaking his head, "Truthfully, no. Myself ... I suppose I am a man of God. My family's matriarch is said to have been a Saint, so it is only so that it's the case, isn't it? But if you're asking for empirical evidence that there is a being who could will such a protection on the world, to exist is ... I do not believe it is impossible. However, I have no evidence to support a definitive claim."
Yuuki Kuran	First Yuuki is shoved. Shoved! She, indignant and glowing-eyed, harrumphs at Zero. It manages to sound about 10% threatening. Second Yuuki retains both braincells as Hibiki gets on the wavelength. <J-IC-Scene> Hibiki Tachibana says, "Then this just got even more confusing. So that bird...it had already delivered the corpse carvings before we got here, and the Arrows were the last thing on the checklist? And who knows what the deal with this thing is...I don't like it." "I think that's right, Hibiki. So, perhaps it would be best, Ben, if you used your divinations on the path of the bird-familiar and not the lost Arrow. If it was close enough to fly there and back, then DIO's base must not be far away from here... Maybe." First Yuuki, offended, chips in: "It was a *very large* bird."
Zero Kiryu	Zero decides to mollify First Yuuki with headpats. Either that, he's just trying to mess up her hair. It's hard to tell which. This doesn't stop him from weighing in at all, though. "Faith... can you still produce the body of the bird? If I understand the broader workings of magic, that would probably be helpful for those purposes," he inquires, glancing towards Ben for confirmation or denial.
Jonathan Joestar	Faith looks regretful and shakes his head, "Sorry, but, I can't. Once Firefly is done, it's done. Both Ramone and that bird are dust in the wind."
Tina Natsumi	"Eating a mummy? Euch..." Tina's grimaces as she arrives late to the party, running a hand through her hair before slipping her trademark(?) cowboy hat back on. "Well, wouldn't be the first time I've heard people wanting to eat ancient junk. Reminds me of the time people joked about wantin' to make ancient grilled cheese with millenia-old bread and cheese and some weird sarcophagus juice..." She laughs, then she goes deadpan. "... Pretty sure some of 'em weren't jokin'. Anyway." She sighs, then steps over to clap a hand on Ben's back firmly. "You got this, bud. Just keep your eyes on the prize, and we'll figure out the rest of this DIO business from there. Although if he's from another world entirely from Jonny's and his great grandkid's, then..." Tina furrows her brow again. "He might not even be looking at the arrows for power, just to keep 'em away from the folks here. Maybe even looking for another source that might not kill him."
Zero Kiryu	"Can you identify the dust?" Zero follows up instantly. He is completely serious.
Crys Gattz	Crys Gattz looks to Zero for a moment "So we need some part of them even the dust would help I take it?"
Ben d'Tarkanan	"Truly?" asks Ben, a thoughtful frown on his face when Jonathan gives his answer.      "That's... not the answer I expected. But that's a good thing," he adds with a wan smile.      "Ah, but of course," he says to Zero, with a smile. "For coherence of thought, a ghost cant' be beat--yet they're often the hardest to procure. With the body, however, I'd have a significant advantage in pulling any lingering shade into this realm. Khyber knows the bird certainly had strong feelings."
Jonathan Joestar	Faith, puffing on his cigarette, " ... no, I can't do that either." Itsuki and Charlie are just giving him looks, as if to say, 'then what is your Stand even good for, again?' "I'll add that, things that were possessed and burned out by Firefly can't be recovered. Even Enya's Stand, "Justice", which is similar to mine could not take control of bodies that Firefly had previously inhabited. Which reminds me .. that if you ever have to fight her, to watch out. I don't know all the ins and outs of it, but it uses fog to kill and possess its victims. She's also the one who hires most of us, contacting us through her son, a killer named J.Geil." Charlie nods her head, "Right. That burly Mr. Joestar mentioned her earlier, too -- she's this pretty arabian lady with fair skin and luscious hair."     "...huh?" Faith balks. "No, you've got it all wrong. She's this hunched over old crone."     Itsuki cocks his head, "Eh?"
Ben d'Tarkanan	"Thank you, Goodlady," he says, taking Tina's hand and squeezing it gratefully. "It's good that you're with us."      He then turns to Yuuki, glancing down towards the 'divining method.' "About that..." he makes eye contact with her. "By 'divine,' I meant..." 'force whoever took it to produce it.'      "It wouldn't work on the bird."
Zero Kiryu	"You don't need to worry about me in that regard, but the information is useful overall," Zero replies, shrugging helplessly towards Ben when it comes out that there's really no way to get bits of the bird for tracking purposes. The confused talk of Enya's appearance elicits raised eyebrows from him. "Could it be both?"
Jonathan Joestar	Both? .... no one here had considered it yet, but now that Zero brought it up ... "It's possible. Technically speaking, Enya would still be alive in /this/ world as well. There could be the Enya who exists in this time period, who maintains her youth ... and the one from 1989, who has been rendered an old woman." Jonathan concludes. Itsuki clasps his head, "This is too goddamn confusing! What's with this timey wimey stuff?! Be more concise!"
Tina Natsumi	The confusion about Enya's age and appearance has Tina more confused. "Like a g-" Thankfully, Ben grasps her hand just in time to stop that thought, and she gives him a hearty shake in response. "Heh. O' course!  I mean, I ain't a big help in the trackin' department, but I can at least throw my weight around some next time we run into more of his..." She pauses, then sighs. "... That flesh bud thing's gonna pop up again, ain't it? That could be a mess and a half right there all over again. Especially if this DIO gets his hands on your DIO and puts a flesh bud on him...? Would he even need to do that if they both hate your guts already?" Another pause. "What if he's grabbin' the arrows and eating mummies to make your DIO even stronger so they can go back in time /again/ to power up DIO number three?"
Yuuki Kuran	First Yuuki looks around quickly. "Perhaps a bit fell off during the fight?" Second Yuuki scents the air like one might test the aroma of a baked good, schniff-schnoff-ing. A remnant of the bird was all that was required. First Yuuki rises to the occasion. "A very angry sort has a guidebook of important parts of time and is using it to gain an advantage to commit villianry." She explains to Itsuki. That's right. It's ME, DIO, TO THE FUTURE.
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki pipes up rather unhelpfully to Itsuki's suffering, "Don't think about it too hard. It's just as simple of there being two of them; if that's how it is, you might as well consider them different people. Makes things easier to get down. And that's how I see it when it comes to other worlds' versions of people I know."     "/That/ makes my head hurt though," she comments to Tina with a frown. "I dunno, is DIO even the kind of guy who'd go that far out of his way for other 'hims'?" Jonathan kind of answers that question swiftly, at least. "If he was, then we'd probably be in some real trouble."
Jonathan Joestar	Closing the wooden case containing the arrows, Jonathan breathes in through his nose. "Well .. " Yuuki, with her impeccable sense of smell can detect .. cigarette ash. Of course, not just from Faith's actual cigarette, but her incredibly conductive set of brain cells rub themselves together and may recall that Firefly was a cigarette based Stand; combined with what he'd said earlier, that Firefly completely consumed its targets and left them unable to be recalled in any fashion. Faith's answers to Kiryu's questions, along with this, left only one implication: that even if they could go back inside and somehow discern which ashes were Ramone's, and which were Pet Shop's, they were very likely unuseable now. " ... there's just not information to go off of. Before we head back, the only other suggestion I can think of, if you're alright with it .." he motions to Itsuki,"Zero can read minds, to an extent. If you could try and remember what you saw of the corpse, you'd be able to share it with Zero, and it may help us in determining the nature of the corpse." More so than Itsuki's rather poor description, went unsaid. Itsuki actually looked, for once, concerned over it. As did Charlie, who was already starting to decline for him, before he looks up. There's a determined glint there, "I'll do it. But just that, okay? I'm a growing boy. Don't look too closely at anything else!"
Zero Kiryu	Looking rather exasperated, Zero creates a plant-- a tree, rather. It's an odd-looking tree, with a single branch at the top. A vine wraps itself around it, 'writing' the current year above it. The second branch grows, labeled 1989. A third branch grows, with a questionmark. He gestures towards them, "Although they all come from the same source, each of these branches is a distinct cutting. Some of them are more grown than the others..." The third branch grows much, much longer than the rest. The branch they're currently on is the shortest, with small budding leaves. "Each of these worlds has its independent iterations of all individuals. If, for instance, Zero Kiryu was a person from your world then there would be one in each of these branches, similar but differentiated based on what has come to pass and what hasn't. Because of unification, these separate branches that would otherwise not have contact..." He causes vines to grow from one branch to the other, looping about one another. "Can interact. The people in the third branch are aware, roughly, of what will happen in the other two. So although there are multiple distinct entities, all derived from the same source, the 'final temporal state' can exploit the other two because it's seen major possible outcomes already. There's no active time travel involved."
Yuuki Kuran	"He said simpler, Zero." First Yuuki sidemouths. Second Yuuki waves in broad 'thank you!'. "See? It's very clear and simple - I explained it earlier! DIO is using their future knowledge to attack the similarities." Second Braincell Haver Yuuki chuffs proudly.
Tina Natsumi	"Wait wait wait. So now we got a THIRD one to worry about?" Tina groans, having gotten the wrong idea entirely and latching onto Hibiki with a dramatic sigh. "Now /my/ head's hurtin' from all this! Aah... Wait." She taps her hand to her chin, then shakes her head. "Wait, no. One's from your world, two's from the grandkid, and three is the... Probably this one we're dealin' with?" She's pretty sure she has the right idea, at least, as she looks over Zero's tree. "Yeah, 1989's probably dead by now if your grandsomethin' was around. Still leaves the other two MIA, but... " Another groan, and then she laughs. "Yeah, what Yuuki said! Or... Right, what Yuuki said." Tina's retained that much, it seems!
Jonathan Joestar	With Zero providing a more in-depth explanation, Jonathan nods, "The one from Josuke's world is dead, certainly. So as far as we know, the only one currently in play is the one from the unknown world ... " And, besides the suggestion he'd already made a moment ago, he couldn't think of anything else productive to add to the conversation. It was also getting late, now, as the group had been inside this complex for over a day. Everyone was tired to varying degrees, he was sure.     Many of them looked it. "Perhaps we should see about retiring. As for the arrows .. considering the complication of the situation, as well as ... the input of others on the matter, for the moment, I shall hold onto them and negotiate dispersal of them otherwise, at a later date." In other words, for the moment, go with Yuuki's suggestion of holding all the chips, and then doling them out as necessary or warranted. It was the only truly reasonable solution at this juncture. "We should be able to rest in the town, and then arrange for transport in the morning." Speedwagon, helpfully, chimes in.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Eeeeeehhhhhhh..." Hibiki does the straight man end of the routine by standing tall as Tina falls onto her, though her hand comes up to ruffle at her own hair with a groan. Not because of the timeline stuff, which is pretty helpfully diagram'd out now, but because, "Unification sure messed things up there for the first two...well, no." She shakes her head. "It's because of people like DIO who try to take advantage of it for their own purposes."     There's a brief exhale between her teeth. But with Jonathan offering up the chance to retire, she de-tenses some and nods. "...Right. That sounds good. And at least we won't have to worry about the trip back being as rough as the one to get here. Maybe we'll even be able to enjoy the sights for once..."
Crys Gattz	Crys Gattz will let Zero do his thing as this is way out of her wheelhouse, as he talks though she muses. "This can happen in the multiverse but I have never seen something quite like this." She admits and she looks to Yuuki for a moment. "Well, that's a small mercy if one is confirmed to be dead." "I got some spare cash I'll cover some food if they have a restaurant or a tavern of some sort!" She seems keen on a little R&R after all has been said and done.
Ben d'Tarkanan	"Perhaps so," says Ben in agreement with Jonathan. "I could certainly use some time to kick my feet up... perhaps a glass of brandy. I suppose I can also take the opportunity to write the Bank of Kundarak," he muses, "About that little restoration effort you mentioned." At the very least, to have some more spending money sent ahead of them. It felt good to give so generously to Charlie, but there may be a need for coin again soon.      "One thing, before we leave... if we might have at least a measure of closure on the matter of the arrows... I would pray that everyone take a look there." The shadowed spot is shadowed no longer. It's a glyph, designed to compel whoever sees and is unable to resist it. In this case, to PROCURE THE ARROW. It will do no good, naturally, but it might give the aforementioned peace of mind, to know that no one here has it.
Zero Kiryu	Zero looks towards Itsuki. He shakes his head, "I'm not going to explain how it works, but looking through minds isn't as simple for me as thumbing through your whole existence. If you're trying to remember something, that's what I'll see. We'll deal with it later, though." He takes First Yuuki by the hand, "If I'm not mistaken, this 'rest' period is at least one of the things you were waiting for... though I don't recall why. Maybe it was just the last place we slowed down at?"
Yuuki Kuran	"That's right! We should all get a big meal to celebrate our victory. I'll pay!" First Yuuki brandishes her black-with-a-gold-strip charge card meaningfully. "Let's splurge and get whatever sounds good!" Second Yuuki gingerly takes the case from Jonathan, smiling gently. "And I'll take this back to the Apex for safekeeping for you in a secure locker. You can pick it up after dinner." First Yuuki pumps her fist as her other hand is clasped. "I wonder if we can get curry?" She smiles softly to Zero. "We've just had no time to relax, that's right. At least now, the matter mostly resolved, we can take some time off and enjoy a victory."
Jonathan Joestar	And so, they depart, intent to rest their weary selves and recover their spirit for the trials that, undoubtably, lay ahead of them.     MEANWHILE: Reclined, draped over a fanciful red chair, a man shifts his crystal ball between his fingers. He was untidy, as if he had not cared for himself in a long while, and yet despite that, he retained a sense of elegance and beauty. Eyes, red like rubies, and silky blonde hair that falls to his shoulders like a trousseled mane. " . . . . " Pushing his fingers gently, the crystal ball, reflecting Jonathan's fading visage shifts, and tumbles from his grasp. With a loud, ear ringing sound, it shatters into thousnads of fragments against the hard, wooden floor of his home. His eyesight was so immaculate that even in this pitch darkness, he could witness the hairline fractures forming on its surface. He witnessed it break, piece by piece, and fall apart, scattering itself across the ground. His gaze lingers on those fragments a moment longer, before a small grin adorns his face, fangs peeking just past his lips as he folds that arm over his shoulder, to tenderly stroke the star-shaped birthmark at the base of his scarred, worn neck.         r h i n o c e r o s b e e t l e     r h i n o c e r o s b e e t l e             TO BE CONTINUED . . .