"So then you're the friend Rock mentioned?" Ren asked.

"Friend?" Strength shifted her vision downwards. "I don't know if that's the right word…I mean I'm sure Rock's told you about what's happened in our own world that lead up to all of this. But, I don't think she told you the whole story… if she still considers me a friend, then that really means a lot."

Ren tilted his head, curious. "There's more?"

"Oh, sorry!" Strength scratched the back of her head and grinned sheepishly. "I'm getting ahead of myself! I'll tell you all about it soon. May I come in?"

Ren stepped away from the front of the door and motioned inside. As they both walked in together, Strength's eyes fell upon Stella. "Oh…so that's her over there? The other BRS?"

Ren was a bit irked that she had called Stella "The other BRS", but he decided against voicing up about it. Instead he nodded.

The unfamiliar voice in the room caused Stella to turn around. "Hm? Who're you?" She got up and went over to the two of them.

"Stella, this is Strength." Ren began. "She's here to talk with us."

"What about?" Stella asked as she tilted her head. She found it kind of odd that someone would name their daughter Strength of all things.

"It's about something Rock is asking the both of you to do for her." Strength explained. "It involves her Otherself, and my personal best friend, Mato Kuroi."

"Rock? You mean…?"

"Black Rock Shooter, yes. We should probably sit down. It's a long story."

"Wait, Strength!" Ren interrupted quickly. "I thought that Rock only asked me to do this."

"Well originally, yes. But after your conversation with her she began thinking this would be a good way to maybe train Stella a bit more."

"Wait…Ren? You already KNOW something about all this?" Stella asked him with her normal voice raised up a little and from what Ren saw was her eye flame beginning to spark.

"Please let me explain Stella." He replied while guarding like she pulled the Rock Cannon on him. "Yes, I know about these things Strength is about to tell you but first of all, I only figured these things out just last night and a lot of it is new to me. So if I'm still trying to understand it, how can I help you understand it?"

Stella eased up significantly. "Good point."

"And…" Ren looked away. "…I didn't want to drag you into this. I mean, we're supposed to be taking it easy and enjoying life here on the island and in this world, and just as soon as we get home, ANOTHER crisis happens that I get dragged into and you could possibly be involved in? That's not fair Stella. It's not fair to you and Nana. We just left a world full of crap like that. I just want for you both to be happy and safe here. " He hung his head low. "I'm sorry…"

He felt her hand on his shoulder and he looked up to find her looking into his eyes with her eye flame softly blazing.

"Do you remember what you said to me on that fateful day in the snow? You said that no matter what happened, no matter how hopeless, we would work through it together." She smiled at him. "I haven't forgotten. Me and you, we're a team. We help each other, and our bond will never be severed. And besides, I happiest when I'm with you. So, your battles are my battles. Your worries are my worries. No matter what happens…" She took his hand in hers and leaned in close. "We're together until the end…"

Ren smiled like a goof. She was completely right. He was trying to do the old lone wolf routine while trying to protect her and her sister. That was then. He doesn't have to do these things on his own now. They were a team. Inseparable to the end.

"But…" She spoke again. "Try not to go too fast okay? I want to be by your side…"

"Well then," He grinned with a miraculous return to character. "Think you can keep up with me?"

She leaned in closer. "If you'll let me."

He leaned forward and the two of them locked lips for a few seconds and held each other close before they broke away with Ren saying with a wink, "Yeah, I can slow down for you."

"K-kawaii…" Strength swooned with sparkles in her eyes.

The two of them sweatdropped. 'Forgot she was still in here…" Ren thought while he blushed, his significant other also turning red as a tomato.

"W-Well anyways, let's hear what Strength has to say." Stella said.

"Uh? Oh right!" Strength shook the warm fuzziness out. "So, you two may want to have a seat. This is a pretty long story."

"Ok. Go ahead and have a seat anywhere you like Strength." Ren said. He took up a relaxed position on the couch with Stella right beside him. Strength herself merely sat on the floor legs crossed.

"Alright, here goes…"

Rock gazed out the window of the classroom as the teacher lectured everyone on how to solve a specific equation.

'Nice day today…' She thought to herself. She still remembered the first time she came to the real world. She had only known black, white, blue, and the color of whomever's domain she was in at the time, and she had only known isolation and the feelings of battle. But here there was an abundance of color and life. She felt at peace here. It only troubled her even more to know that Otherselves out there in the real world were looking for her, and they could potentially use Mato or Miku to get to her. Or worse, both. She dismissed the thought. She decided a long time ago that she would fight as she always has done, and that nothing would stand in her way…

"Snnoooooreee…." Her train of thought was interrupted by the person sleeping on the desk next to her's. They were taller than her for sure, at least two heads more. They also had black hair with a teal stripe going down one strand near her forehead tied into twin pigtails.

'She's going to get called out again…' Rock thought. Acting quickly, she firmly poked the person's shoulder. Slowly, her eyes opened just enough to show her blue right eye and red left, but quickly fell shut again.

"Ruko! Why don't you help with this problem since you're so interested in this class?" The teacher jested, making boys and girls start to chuckle and giggle. Rock just facepalmed and leaned back in her seat. 'Well, I tried.'

Ruko slowly got up and walked up to the board and studied the problem for a few seconds. Then she began to solve the problem at an astonishing rate. The students bulged their eyes while the teacher stood there with his mouth open, not expecting her to actually solve the problem. A few more seconds later, Ruko yawned and faced the teach. "Next time you want to wake me up, give me something a little more challenging eh?" With that she sleepily went back to her seat and promptly face-desked back to sweet blissful sleep. Rock, who rarely laughed, always got a kick out of this as she held her hand to her mouth to hide her smile. 'I needed that today.'

Later, when the lunch bell rang, she and Ruko walked to the cafeteria.

"Why'd you try to wake me Rock?" Ruko asked while rubbing her eyes. "You know how much I hate being woken up."

"Even though you're very intelligent Ruko, you still need to at least attempt to pay attention. You've been sent to the principal for three times just for that."

"But I need my beauty rest…and my coffee."

Rock sighed. "How that stuff can't keep you awake is a mystery."

Ruko grinned. "As much as I love a good mystery, it's not really hard to figure out. It's just who I am."

As they walked towards the lunch line, Miku and another girl with long blonde hair noticed the two of them coming. "Rock! Ruko! Over here!"

As they joined them, Miku hugged tight onto Rock while the other girl held tight to Ruko's arm.

"How are you doing today Rock?" The blond asked.

"Good Lily, thanks." That was a lie. She was still concerned about Mato plus Ren and Stella's ability to protect her, but at least with Miku around her, she did feel a lot better. So maybe it wasn't completely false…?

Lily smiled. "I'm glad. Let's get lunch and eat together."

As the four of them stood in line, Rock couldn't help but think back to her and Ren's discussion. From what she was able to gather from him, he was a world traveler like herself with a knack of getting himself into things that don't concern him and making it better than it was. The people of the island talked about him every so often, enough to get her attention. Was he everything they said he was? He better be if he valued his life.

"Rock?" Miku had a shocked look on her face. "Y-your eye…"

"Hm?" Sure enough Rock's signature blue flame was blazing freely through her left eye. Ruko and Lily noticed too, for they were standing in a way that shielded her so that nobody could see her. She quickly put the flame out and said a quiet curse.

"That was close." Ruko breathed a sigh of relief. "What's got you so worked up?"

"…"

"Rock…we're your friends." Miku whispered. "You can trust me and Ruko and Lily. What's the matter?"

Rock sighed. They weren't going to let up huh?

"It's…about Mato."

For the next half hour, Strength re-capped everything that Rock had told Ren in his dream to Stella, with some new info thrown into the mix. The connection between her, Yuu and Saya, The Otherworld and its laws, The IBRS incident, and even her own supposed "death" were some of the things she told her of. Then she told her of Rock leaving Mato and coming to the real world, the Otherselves like her that went to live in the real world, Mato giving chase after her, and finally the Otherselves that were combing the United States looking for Mato.

"So, we're supposed to keep this girl safe from these Otherselves?" Stella reconfirmed.

"That's right."

"…While also making sure she doesn't find Rock?"

"Correct."

Stella thought for a second. "It shouldn't be too hard then. Ren, you did say there were three cities on South Island right?"

"Yup." Ren nodded. "Although there are a couple of smaller towns around the island too, the cities are where most of the points of interest are. Plus there's lots of people around the island anyway. As long as Mato doesn't do anything to call attention to herself this should be easy." Then his expression changed. "Although… Rock seemed really worried about this whole thing. I mean, I know Mato is special to her and all, but do we really need to get involved? Are these rouge Others really powerful?"

Strength shook her head. "I don't know. In fact, I doubt anybody knows much about them, not even what they are called. All we know is that they don't seem to be acting together, so they aren't organized. However, this means they could be just as dangerous if they're acting independently, or they ARE actually a group but decided to split up. That's about all we know about them."

"Do you have any estimates on when they might arrive?" Stella asked.

"That really depends on who gets here first. If I had to guess from what we've seen in their movement patterns, the first one will come in about six days. A week tops."

"Hmm, that doesn't give us much time." Ren thought out loud. "We need to first find Mato. Then we need to keep track of where she is and where she goes. We'll also need a watch person from the Otherworld to let us know when one of them arrives, so we can herd her to safety while you guys deal with them."

"Then it's a plan." Strength said.

Suddenly, a small mewling noise came from behind the couch. As Ren looked over the back, he saw a flash of forest colored fur and his vision went dark.

"Dagger." He said while being muffled by the feline's belly. "Let go of my face please."

The mackerel tabby cat let go of his master and started to lick his face, his sandpaper like tongue making him wince.

"A cat?" Stella asked.

"Friend of yours?" Strength giggled.

"He's my little buddy. His name's Dagger. He must have really missed me… oh! I know!" He pulled Dagger off of him and faced him towards Stella. "Dagger, this is Stella. She's moving in with us. Go and say hello!"

He let go of the 2 month old cat as he cautiously inched closer to the raven haired girl. He sniffed her for a couple seconds and began to purr and rub against her.

"Aw! He likes you Stella!"

Stella blushed as the feline began purring non-stop. She petted him and scratched behind his ears until he curled up inside her warm lap.

"He's cute…" She cooed softly.

Ren grinned from ear to ear at the sight, then turned to Strength. "All right, we need to find Mato. Any idea where to start, Strength?"

Strength looked back at him. "Actually, we know someone who'll be able to let us know when Mato arrives here. She's taking a ship here so it'll be a while before we really need to worry about it. She should definitely be here within two days though."

"Ok. And what about that person who can find her? Where's she?"

Strength sighed. "My best guess? At school, with Rock."

"You shouldn't worry so much about it Rock!" Ruko reassured as she sipped more of her sixth cup of coffee. "I'm sure she'll be fine!"

The four of them had gotten their lunch and were eating it on the school's rooftop.

"Yeah!" Lily agreed as she dipped a small chicken nugget into some golden honey. "I'm sure if she knew something was wrong, she'd hightail it out of here! There's absolutely nothing to worry about!"

"Easy for you to say." Rock replied, sipping an energy drink.

Miku ate a little of her bread roll before speaking up. "It's okay Rock. I'm sure you put her in very capable hands. You and I both saw that yesterday."

"We'll see."

"We might just get to." A voice came from the exit door.

Rock knew that voice and knew it well. She turned to face it's owner with everyone else following suit It belonged to one of her fiercest longtime enemies and rivals, and to the one who gave her the scars on her body.

"Black Gold Saw."

Gold grinned. "Black Rock Shooter."

Rock held her lifeless stare. "To what do I owe the displeasure?"

"Oh come now Rocky, I thought we were past all that." Gold teased. "I actually have news about Mato."

"Hm. What did you find out?"

Gold walked over slowly to the group. "Word reached me that she's already here on the island. She's staying in a small hotel over in Greenflower."

"Anything else?"

"Other than the fact that she misses you like a lovesick puppy, that's all."

"One last question."

"Hmm?"

"Is your real self listening right now?"

Gold's smile faded. Rock raised her voice slightly.

"Leave. Now."

Gold scoffed and walked away. As she did, everyone gathered around Rock.

"Are you okay Rock?" Miku asked her other.

"…Yes. I'm fine now, don't worry." She tossed her empty can towards the litter bin which did a perfect loop around the rim before falling inside. "Class is starting again soon. Let's go."