I walk back into my hotel room and wait until the door is fully closed before closing the blinds. "It's funny. It took me only an hour or two to walk back, but it felt like weeks have gone by." I say to myself. I turn on the lights in my room and place both the metallic sphere and the journal on the table.

I decided to grab the metallic sphere first and examined it. "If I'm right in thinking what it is, then a switch should be around… here." I find a small blue button on the sphere and push it inwards. I placed the sphere back on the table and watched as a holographic screen started to appear.

It was full of static at first, but it eventually cleared up and everything became clearer. On the screen was a single person sitting in a chair with their back facing me. It is a male somewhere in his mid-twenties with black hair that was obviously dyed because streaks of orange were still noticeable. He was also wearing a dark green jacket with a crest representing a sword and a spear on his right shoulder.

"Hello?" I said in a questioning tone, hoping to get the person's attention. The person jumped out of the chair in surprise and landed on the ground face first. He slowly got back in the chair and turned around to face me. Upon seeing his face, I could see that he had brown eyes that were half closed. This was either due to exhaustion, or he was annoyed.

"W-who the… w-wait…" His eyes suddenly shot open in surprise once he took some time to register that it was me. "K-Kevin?" He asked.

"The one and only." I answer in a half joking manner with a smile. "So, how have things been going after your brother fucked up?"

"Well, after Josh realized he fucked up, we got someone else to take the controls." He answered. He gave a little sigh before continuing. "I guess you also realized that Diego of all people volunteered for a rescue mission."

"Wait, he volunteered? He wasn't hired?" I asked with a surprised look.

"Yeah, he said he was going to do a rescue mission alone. Despite all the protests your brother, your children, and I made." He answered. I could see that he was annoyed, but he seemed to accept the truth.

"I still say he should have at least brought me along James." A new voice said. Another male walked into visual with an annoyed look himself. He is currently wearing a blue jacket with a metal guard on his right shoulder, and small golden stripes coming from the wrists. He was also wearing dark brown pants with white stripes along the sides, and black boots. A bow and a quiver full of arrows are strapped onto his back and he's wearing a brown fingerless glove on his left hand. His hair is a midnight black colour and his eyes are dark green.

"It was either stay behind, or have Diego kick the shit out of you Brandon, and I'd prefer to have both of my in-laws alive." The man known as James said, now putting his arms behind his head. I should probably elaborate more on who these two people actually are. The first person that I talked to is Jameson Williamson, my brother in-law. He's a laid back guy who rarely resents anyone, but mess with anyone who he deems family, and you're on a one way trip to hell.

The other person is my brother, Brandon Howards. Correction, he's my half-brother. He was born when I was four years old and my father apparently got re-married at the time. I don't know the circumstances behind that, hell I didn't know dad got re-married until I turned twenty-one and I found a mysterious note at one of his old hideouts.

"Are you done with mental explanation to the readers yet?" Brandon asked, deciding to just say fuck it to the fourth wall. I could tell he was a little bit pissed, his arms are crossed and his left eye is slightly twitching.

"Yeah, I'm done now." I say in a slightly bored tone.

"So, what's been going on while you're there?" James decided to ask, just getting the horse out of the bag.

"Excluding you're meeting with Diego of course. By the way, he contacted us by radio a while ago and told us about your fight, nice victory bro." Brandon said in congratulations with a thumbs up.

"Thanks." I say before clearing my throat to tell them everything about my little adventure up to this point.

"Wait a sec, Maratso is still alive!?" James asked in total shock.

"The Necromancer…" Brandon just clenched his right hand in pure anger. He wasn't around when sis and Sarah were killed because he ran away after dad suddenly vanished and mom committed suicide. However, he's well aware of what Maratso has done, and he told me he witnessed what he deems to be Maratso's worst crime.

"Calm down, we both know he's a murderous bastard, but we can't let that get to us anymore." I say in an attempt to get him to calm down. He never told me what it is he witnessed but it definitely hurt him a lot.

"You're right, rage is a poison that leads to fatal mistakes. I just need to keep a calm head." He said, starting to calm down slightly. I can tell he hasn't completely calmed down, but he's trying as hard as he can.

"So, do you think Maratso might somehow have a way of making it impossible for you to return?" James asked.

"No, I feel like a higher power is behind it. However, I have a feeling that once it's disposed of, Diego and I can enter and leave this world whenever we want." I say in my own opinion.

"Unfortunately, we actually have no plans at the moment to come back to this exact version of that world." Brandon stated.

"It will be good to keep it as an option, just in case." James stated.

"Only for emergencies then." Brandon said.

*Beep Beep* *Beep Beep*

A sudden beeping noise cut us off partway through our conversation. "The hell was that?" Brandon asked, hearing it on his end as well. I quickly looked around the holographic screen and I noticed a little something on the top right.

"DAMN YOU CLICHES!" I shouted out. The battery on the communicator was nearly dead, and seems like James and Brandon figured it out after my comment.

"Damn it, I thought we would have more time to talk." James muttered in an annoyed tone.

"All right Kevin, make sure both you and Diego get back here in one piece. Everyone here is worried about you, and they would have loved at least being able to talk with you." Brandon said, obviously disappointed.

"Well, until you return, it's so long for now." James said.

"I'll make sure to keep looking after the kids until you return, and you better make sure to spend some quality time with them before you head off again." Brandon said, giving off a stare signifying that he is serious about that second part.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure to spend time with them. I can't really call myself a father if I don't spend some time with my kids when the opportunity arrives." I say with a quick wave goodbye. The screen starts to become fuzzy before it breaks into nothing but static. In a few seconds it just disappears.

I lounge back in the chair I'm sitting in and sigh. "I think I should retire my sword at some point. Things are only to get more difficult in the future, but I need to fight so they can live in a better future." I say to myself.

I get back into a normal sitting position and look at the journal Diego gave me. What could be written in it that it actually concerns me? I decided to just pick it up and examine the cover for a quick second. Once I was finished my investigation, I opened up the journal to the first page.

'Day 1

I have finally managed to figure out how to travel between multiple worlds whenever I feel like it, and I decided to do a test run that sent me here. At this point, I'm currently in a forest that I believe to be just east of Planeptune, but it's been nearly ten years since I've last been here so I'm afraid my sense of direction could be failing me. All I can do for now is press forward and see what could have changed while I was gone.'

The handwriting in this journal looks awfully familiar. Where have I seen it before? I'll read more and see if there are any other clues in there.

'Day 2

I have arrived in the Planeptune capital and I feel like I'm a total stranger again. It seems like the layout is slightly different from what I remember, but I think it's just a result of time passing. I decided to take up residence in a hotel using the credits I obtained from defeating a Crimson Dragon on my way here. Good my levels are kept the exact same from the first time I came to this world, it made things a lot easier.'

So it seems like whoever wrote this journal has been in Gamindustri before. It definitely seems like he or she is also well aware of its layout as well. I read a few more of the log entries, but they were mainly focused on quests or fighting at the coliseum so I decided to just skimp over them. I stopped when something else of interest popped up and decided to fully read what was there.

'Day 5

It seems like my fears were right on the dot. I had suspicions over the possibility that this was not the same Gamindustri I've been to, and it was just confirmed today. I decided to make a visit to the Basilicom to see what could have changed and to get a detailed map of all the landmasses. During my search, I ran into Histoire and she had no recollection of who I was. I'm just happy it was Histoire I ran into because she is the least likely to try and kick my ass, and I didn't have to suffer the embarrassment of an over the top reunion scene or anything like that.

I decided that with this knowledge in mind, that I'll leave tomorrow and try to find the correct version of Gamindustri. There's someone I want to meet, and I'll be damned if I can't find her.'

Her? Could it be possible that the person who wrote this was just the test of travelling between worlds as an excuse to find someone he was in a relationship with? It's likely an invasion of privacy to continue any farther, but if Diego did go out of his way to find this journal, then it has to be connected to me in some way.

'Day 6

This can't be happening! The signal is somehow being jammed and I can't transport to another world. Some power that is higher than the goddesses must be behind this, unfortunately trying to get help from them is something I can't do. I'm just afraid that I'll be too emotional at seeing them again, and I might enter too many situations where I'll endanger them. So I'll go solo on this one, and start investigating. If I can either destroy the source or at least find a fluke in their jamming signal, I can try again.'

It seems like this person has gone through the same situation I did. Maybe he found a way to bypass the jamming signal and I can use that once I meet up with Diego again. Wait a second, how did he even know about this journal? I'll need to ask him later at our next meeting.

The next few entries were on nothing more than his investigation status, and to sum it all up, he could not find anything at all. Either this person has awful detective skills, or the mastermind was good at covering their tracks. Either way, it seems like something of interest just popped up.

'Day 23

I don't know how it happened, but somehow a temporal rift somehow appeared in the southern regions of Lastation. I decided to investigate it as fast as I could and see if I could use it to my advantage. I decided to do a test run by throwing a little rock through it.

…

…

It seems like I got a reaction of some kind. I could faintly hear an ow at the other end, it likely means someone more powerful than the mastermind was capable of opening one and had plans for it. This also seems to be my ticket out of here, so I think I'll take advantage of it, but I need to hide the journal first. I just hope this portal will last long enough for me to find a decent hiding spot, but I should notify Corrida about it if this actually takes me back home.'

Wait, did he just mention Diego? That means whoever wrote it knew him, which means he's originally from my world. This raises another question, why would the owner hide it, instead of taking it with him? Could it be possible that there was someone he knew back home that he didn't want to risk getting a hold of it, but due to his investigation notes, there was also a risk of leaving it in the open? Unfortunately that seems to be all that was written, it looked like there was more earlier on, but the pages were torn out.

I decided to just close the journal and put it away for now, but something caught my eye at the last second. It seems like a piece of paper is now sticking out of the bottom of the book, somewhere close to halfway through it. I took the paper out and noticed that it was folded up, so I decided to unfold it. "A letter?" I decided to look over what it said.

'Dear Corrida

As you of all people know, I can't get 'her' out of my mind. I know it's been nearly ten years, since I last spoke to her, but that was because we had no idea how to contact between worlds at the time. I have finally discovered not only how to do that, but I also discovered how to travel between them at will as well, so I decided to finally return 'there' and see her again. I don't know if she'll remember me, but it's why I'm bringing the photo with me, it will be my proof. Anyways, while I'm gone, I want you watch over Eliza and the kids. Well, this is goodbye then, I don't know how long I'll be gone, or if I'll ever return. So long, good friend.

Signed, William Howards.'

I quickly slammed my left hand on the table in anger after reading the note. "Damn it, damn it, damn it, we all thought you died and mom committed suicide because of it." I'm definitely going to get on Diego's case on this one. He knew dad didn't die, and he even hid this note in this journal sometime before dad left, making it so we didn't have any evidence that he was still alive at the time.

After calming down for a second, I took my hand off of the table and sighed. "Despite the fact he hid the note, and I never recalled meeting him until something happened four years ago, there was a reason he gave me this journal. If I put the pieces together, then I'll understand what he wanted me to know." I slowly closed my eyes so I could think over all of the facts and see if I could reach a conclusion.

'So, first of all, from what I obtained. My father, William Howards, has been to Gamindustri a total of two times. This Journal is from his second time, and it clearly states that this is a version different from the one he's used to. It's likely Diego tagged along for the first trip since the first sentence in the note speaks in a manner that Diego knew who dad was talking about. It also mentioned that dad was going to meet a specific woman, or at least try to, and from what I know now, Eliza is my step mother, but she's Brandon's blood mother. This leads to the possibility that dad actually got married to someone in Gamindusrti before he got married to Eliza which means…' I opened my eyes in realization to what this could mean.

"Samantha and I, were born in Gamindustri." I slowly say. Even if I don't like what I just discovered, it's the truth as far as I know, and if I happen to witness the version my dad came from, there should be records of my birth in either a hospital or Basilicom that can prove this. That means nothing right now though, for now I need answers from Diego, and I can't afford to let him hide anything from me.

I decided to just go to bed for now and call it a day. I have an arranged meeting with him soon enough, but if I happen to catch a hint on his location, I'll take it. "This is not something I can let go that easily, and I'll do everything I can to get info out of him." I say with resolve before slowly closing my eyes for the night.

A/N: Now this is quite the discovery Kevin made, he was actually born in Gamindustri, and the only person who holds the key to the truth now is Diego. Why did Diego go so far to hide that letter from everyone eleven years ago, and what answers did the photo he have last chapter hold. Lastly, who the hell was Kevin's blood mother? The only way to find out is to keep pressing forward.