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Luckily, I decided to stand against the far wall when Momo attempted to... whatever her newest experiment is. Creating artificial chrysm, I think. So I had enough warning when the containment unit shattered to run out the door with Honey. I dove to the right as I cleared the door, just in time to avoid the explosion from within the room. I pushed myself up into a sitting position and rubbed my elbow where I had landed on it wrong.

"Um..."

I looked toward the source of the voice and smiled, "Princess Nina! And Prince Ryu!" ...actually, now that I think of it, is Ryu a prince? Or just the last... Whatever, too late to take it back now. I stood up. "I'm honored you've come. Come in, come in, you'll want to talk to Momo, this is her home after all." Nina opened her mouth to say something, but as I spoke, I had moved around behind them and started to guide them through the door into Momo's lab. "No, no, I'm just an assistant, talk to Momo."

When we entered the room, it was to Momo still muttering to herself about what could have gone wrong, looking completely unaffected by the explosion. Honey pulled the back on Momo's robes to bring her attention to us.

"WHAT? YOU'RE FRIENDS OF NICK? NICE TO MEET YOU! I'M MOMO!" Ok, maybe not completely unaffected.

Nina bowed politely, "Ah, um... yes, it's nice to meet you too... Um, but you see..."

Momo turned her head slightly and put a hand to her ear, "WHAT?"

"I was trying to say..." Nina started, but I interrupted her.

"Don't bother, your Highness...es, she can't hear a word you're saying right now. It's best to just wait 'till she gets her hearing back."

"Oh," Nina nodded, "alright. Um... you don't have to call me 'your Highness', just Nina is fine."

"Excuse me..." Ryu spoke softly, raising his hand, "I don't know why you think I'm a prince, but I'm just a thief. I'm not royalty or anything..."

I nodded, "Ok then."

Walking over to the workbench, I grabbed my DS off the table. A month or so after I got here, Momo had modified it and my cell phone to run off chrysm. She kept the DS, using it as a data pad. My cell obviously couldn't really be used to call anyone here, but it still functioned as a calculator. I quickly tapped out a message on the screen, and showed it to Momo.

-this is nina and ryu. they want to go to wyndia. we ll wait for your hearing-

-

"Sorry about that. So Nick says you want to go to Wyndia?"

Nina and Ryu both gave me odd looks at this, and I flinched slightly. Ok, maybe I should be a bit more subtle. Nina quickly turned her attention back to Momo, but Ryu continued to give me a look that said he knew I knew more than I was saying.

Yeah, definitely need to be more careful.

I turned away from Ryu and tuned into Nina and Momo's conversation just in time to hear Momo promise to escorte them to Wyndia herself.

Nina bowed again, "Thank you. I'll be sure to make it up to you when we get tot he castle..."

Momo adopted a confused expression. "...Castle?"

Nina nodded, and I swear, you could see the exact moment realization hit Momo.

"Wait a minute! When you say Nina... Do you mean... Princess Nina!?" She backed up and started bowing repeatedly, "Y-y-y-your Highness! Please forgive me! I had no idea..."

Nina shook her head an took a step forward. "I... it's alright... You're helping us, after all... Please, call me Nina. Although..." she cocked her head to the side and looked at me, "your... assistant?" I nodded, "Um... Nick, right?" another nod, and Nina turned back to Momo, "He knew who I was when he first saw me. Why didn't you know?"

Momo gave me a look before answering, "I don't know. He does that some times; knowing things that he shouldn't know."

I was barely able to hide the flinch this time. Oh come on! Its barely been half an hour since these two showed up, and already they all suspect me of something! Even Momo!

Luckily, they dropped the topic – for now. Momo walked to the door, stopping just before it and turning around. "I have a few things to gather before we leave, so feel free to rest here."

With that she left, leaving me alone in the room with Nina and Ryu, who was still staring at me strangely.

TBC

Well, it's a little longer this time. I think...

So, while I was washing dishes at work the day after I posted the first chapter, I realized that you don't actually fight TankBots until... The Container Yard, I think. Oops. Lets just say that that's why Momo decided to get rid of them as fast a she could.

If some of the conversation between Momo and Nina seems weird and different from the rest of my writing, it's because I saw no need to change it and just copied it right out of the game.

Does anyone know if Ryu identifies himself as a thief? Or if he actually is a prince? 'Cause I can't remember if that's part of canon or a fanfic I read...

Oh, I thought I should put this in here too. For those of you who have a Cold Stone in your area, for the love of all that is holy, if you have to get Chocolate or Sweet Cream ice cream (especially Sinless Sweet Cream), don't get any mix-ins. We're not supposed to take more than 5 seconds doing the mixing thing, and those ones are really hard to work with. Thank you.

Anyway, please review and tell me how I'm doing.

Alu al.