Dio hissed. Wherever he had been placed, the sun was brightly shining. His umbrella appeared, clattered to the ground, and then popped open. He snatched it up and ducked beneath it; the discomfort lessened. He squinted out at his surroundings and frowned.

A group of men with oddly similar builds and faces stared at him. They each wore matching jackets with a tattoo-like pattern. They did not look friendly.

One held up a gun. "Is that…?"

"Could he have already obtained the diamonds?" another asked.

A third pulled their revolver from their holster very slowly. "I thought he was shorter. Aren't professional jockeys short?"

A fourth appeared out of another man's back and slowly crept to the side. "Don't forget the dynamic vision. Keep your movements slow."

Dio grinned. "Oh? For once, I've given myself something fun to do? What a pleasant surprise."

One man fired. Dio grunted from the impact of the bullet and some blood swelled from the hole, but the wound sealed itself shut. He took a step forward; two more men fired. Dio's grin only grew.

"How wonderful. Dinner and a show." Dio spun his umbrella over his shoulder as a few of the men backed away. Others reloaded while yet more began to fire at him as he approached. "You're the dinner," he said, and his smile revealed sharp incisors. "I'm the show."


Jolyne pressed onwards, wary of the barn drawing the attention of any other thieves, and looked for a suitable place to stop for the night. She couldn't see too well in the dark and once the day broke, perhaps she could follow Diego's tracks to wherever he was headed. In the meantime, she could clamber up a tree and rest upon the branches; she could leave a snare as she slept and hope that food would arrive; she could lattice more strings along the grass to catch the dew for drinking water. She would find a way to survive. She was used to doing so, but to press on alone, with no Hermes to crack jokes with, no Anasui or Weather Report for support, no Emporio to protect… well, it sucked.

She found a tree with broad, easily-climbable branches close to the edge of the forest; a few meters past it, the trees opened up to a grassy plain. She was more tired than she expected herself to be, but she supposed she had unraveled herself to her limit within the pit. The night slid by and she dozed until she heard an approaching horse. She snapped back to awareness and crouched upon the branch as she watched carefully.

Whoever it was was several meters away and moving at a decent pace. Jolyne didn't want to let them pass by; they might know where the closest town was. However, there was still the possibility that they were a threat.

Well, when in doubt, throw something. The tree beside her had a few branches laden with crabapples. She grabbed one and hurled it. "Hey!"

The apple bounced harmlessly off the man's side, but he jumped with surprise and looked around. He tugged at the reins and his horse slowed. His hand hovered over a holster; Jolyne noted that he didn't have a gun, but instead a heavy-looking steel ball. Gyro spotted her in the tree and gave her a careful look. "Hey?"

"Listen, I won't attack you if you won't attack me," Jolyne said simply. "I just want to know where the closest town is."

"Well, that's refreshing," Gyro replied. "There's one just ahead of the quarry. Just go due east. That's all you need to know?"

Jolyne dropped down from the tree and approached him. She winced at the pain from the bite on her leg but pushed through it. Gyro watched her with an openly suspicious expression, but he didn't make any threatening moves. "I can't take you there," he said preemptively. "One, I'm in the middle of a race and I need to get going. Two, no ladies on Valkyrie. No offense. It's just bad luck. Three, the quarry isn't the safest thing. I'm going through it, but you should go around it."

"Will going through it get me to town faster?" she asked.

"...Yeah, by a few hours," he admitted.

"Then that's the way I'll go," she replied.

He glanced down. "What happened to your leg?"

She flexed her ankle and frowned at the soreness in her muscle. "Raccoonasaurus bite."

Gyro let out a long sigh that turned into a growl of frustration. He hopped off his horse and started sorting through his supplies. "You ran into Brando, huh? I figured he came through here first. Good on you for staying in one piece." He pulled out a small pot of salve and a strip of cloth. "Listen. You need to get to town and get that properly taken care of before you get dino rabies or something. I'll guide you through the quarry but you'll need to keep up. After that, you're on your own." He scooped some salve out of the pot and gestured towards her; Jolyne held out her hand. She wrinkled her nose at the harsh scent when he smeared the glob onto her palm. "Here. You stitched it well, but that should keep it from getting worse. Wrap it in this." He handed her the cloth. Jolyne leaned over and slapped the salve onto the bite, then wrapped the cloth tightly around it.

When he noticed that she was looking closely at the horse he frowned and went to say something, but Jolyne interrupted. "No chicks on the horse, I got it," she stated. "I was thinking of something." She held up a hand and pointed a finger in the air; the breeze was cool against the wet remnants of the salve. She glanced out at the edge of the forest; once the grassland began there would be few obstacles to run into. "Walking or running is gonna suck. But maybe…"

She set out some string and it latticed together in a loose shape. She frowned at it. "Needs more air resistance." She glanced down at the ground, the strings zipped apart, and then they spread out and weaved through the fallen leaves. Once they were done, she hoisted the contraption up triumphantly. The strings and leaves had weaved together to create something akin to a large paper airplane. "I can glide along on this," she exclaimed.

Gyro laughed. "Alright, what the hell. Let's go."

While on the grassy plain, Gyro kept a steady pace with Valkyrie; Jolyne kept up easily by leaping forward, kicking off the ground, and allowing the breeze to push her and the strung-together leaves along. The next time she jumped up, she caught sight of the quarry and went wide-eyed.

It was so expansive that it was almost hard to fathom. The ground had been gouged out and at the bottom was sickly-looking mud and sludge. A few piles of rock and debris interrupted a winding path through the canyon-like gap, but she could see the trail Gyro would be taking. He had been right; going around would be safer but would also take much more time.

She landed back on the ground and bounded along beside Gyro. "Holy shit. That's a big quarry."

He chuckled. "Yeah, it is. I have a good friend from Kentucky that would've been here with me but he got separated at the last checkpoint. You should hear about how bad it got there." He frowned. "I don't think your president cares much for this part of the country. They brought up so many miners to these places and took everything they could, but then nobody saw a cent for what they did and now the ground is just rotted and dead. Hell, nobody even really knew where the oil and coal went after they took it out. It was like it disappeared."

"He prefers another world," Jolyne replied thoughtfully. Gyro quirked an eyebrow. "The Dio here knows about it," she explained. "The president can go between universes. He likes another one better. He must have taken the resources from here and moved them over there with the diamonds to keep them from exploding or whatever."

Gyro tilted his head back. "Ohhh. So that's what he was going on about." He shrugged. "Glad I'm not caught up in that. I'm just here to win the race and take the prize money back home."

They began the descent into the quarry; Valkyrie slowed down and picked through the path carefully. Jolyne held back for a moment and stared out into the empty space.

Gyro glanced back at her. "Hey, hey. You look like you're gonna try something. Don't get yourself hurt."

"I can glide ahead pretty far," she replied. "As long as I'm careful about where I land, I can get a good look at the path and tell you if there's like, snakes or anything."

He considered her for a long moment, but then nodded and continued down the path. "You know what you're capable of. Do what you want."

She took a few long paces back, then dashed forward and kicked off against the ground. The makeshift glider caught the air and she swooped up and over the quarry. She felt her gut instinctively drop with fear at the sudden change in height; the bottom of the quarry was very far away. The glider wobbled. The air patterns over the quarry were different. She grit her teeth and adjusted the string as needed, keeping it from dropping too quickly. Jolyne stared down at the path far below and saw—

"Bodies," she called out. Gyro looked up at her. "There's bodies. Be careful."

He pulled out a steel ball and it spun in his hand. Gyro scanned his surroundings for any threats. The starkly cut stone and gravel slopes didn't offer many places to hide. He looked down towards the path at where Jolyne had pointed out; he could see the slumped-over corpses to the side of the path.

As Jolyne approached the ground her velocity veered too quickly; she pulled at the strings and the glider tilted up, resisting the air as she fell. She landed on the path and converted her momentum into a roll, flinging the strung-together leaves ahead of her to soften the impact against the rocky ground. Once she came to a stop she staggered to her feet and glanced around warily; she caught sight of Gyro, who had brought Valkyrie to a stop right beside the bodies.

"Miners," he called out. "Back from when this was still being worked. Long dead." He re-holstered the steel ball and peered down at the corpses. "Must be from the strike."

She rolled the glider up and carried it with her. "Strike?"

"It was big in the news, but it took a while for the story to reach Italy," he explained. "Lots of the mines went on strike once the pay went bad. Valentine broke them up with the military. It got brutal."

Jolyne frowned down at the corpses thoughtfully. Gyro let out his odd chuckle. "Hey. You're not gonna catch any wind with that down here. Just tie that thing to the saddle and I can drag you up the path like a sled." He tapped a finger to his nose. "Technically, you won't be riding the horse. So you'll be fine."

She grinned and looped some string around the saddle. Gyro spurred the horse forward and she was easily pulled along, the interwoven leaves protecting her from the rocky ground. "I figured I gotta give you some help somehow," he explained. "On a real windy day you wouldn't've even needed me to get you through the quarry."

"You gave me a history lesson," she replied. "That was helpful. I think I now have a pretty good handle on what kind of person Valentine is."

He quirked an eyebrow. "Oh yeah?"

"He's someone who could learn a lot from getting beat up," she replied.

Gyro laughed. "I bet you're right." He glanced back at her, his expression more thoughtful. "You remind me of somebody."

"Johnny Joestar, by any chance?" she asked flatly.

"How'd you know?" he replied with surprise.

She put her hands against her face and squished her cheeks. "I've been told we look alike."

"I mean, maybe," Gyro said with a chuckle. "It's more like…" He trailed off and shrugged. "You both get a look in your eyes. You know exactly what you want to do and everyone better be damn sure that you're gonna do it."

Jolyne let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a huff. "Huh. Sounds about right."

They continued up the path. The makeshift sled veered along the switchbacks but Jolyne held it steady. Valkyrie crested the top of the quarry and Gyro let out a sigh of relief. "Damn. Maybe you are good luck. Not a Stand user in sight. I'm not gonna jinx it by saying any more."

Jolyne glanced back at the quarry and nodded. "I get what you mean."

"But I've got Lady Luck with my horse," he said as he clapped a hand against his saddle. "And I'm not going to town. All you need to do is go straight that way. You're capable. I think you'll make it there just fine on your own." Gyro pointed off towards the horizon; Jolyne looked over and let out a sigh.

"Yeah, yeah. Nice to meet you and see you later at the same time." She stood from the makeshift sled and rescinded her string from the saddle.

Gyro briefly doffed his hat. "Sure. See you later, uh…" He grinned. "You gonna share your name?"

"Jolyne Cujoh," she answered.

"Gyro Zeppeli," he replied. He lifted a hand to his head in mock salute. "I hope you find a way to beat up the president, Jolyne." With one last wave, he spurred Valkyrie to a gallop and left.

Jolyne watched him leave. Once he was just a speck on the horizon, she began to walk, alone once more.


Josuke watched with interest as Gyro and Johnny took care of their horses and set up camp. Johnny set a fingernail to spinning and sliced the lid off of a can. He set it on a metal grate over the bonfire to cook the contents. Gyro whistled and sang an odd little song as he took care of Valkyrie; Josuke caught scraps of what sounded like a recipe as he belted out the tune.

"So…" Josuke said as he frowned and trailed off. Johnny gave him a curious glance. Josuke shrugged and tried to come up with something to talk about. "I'm just really curious about what else is different between our worlds," he explained. "I mean, I'm a couple of generations down from you, so I don't know much about what you were like in my world. And I guess you wouldn't know about…" he trailed off again and frowned. "About my dad, I guess."

"Well," Johnny replied, his tone making it clear that he wasn't comfortable talking about this sort of thing; not alternate universes, Josuke figured, but about his family, or even himself in general. "Like I said. I don't talk to my family anymore. So there's not much for me to tell you."

"In my world, you and Dio were brothers, so that's kind of wild," Josuke said with a shrug.

Gyro laughed so hard he nearly choked. Johnny looked both confused and disgusted. "You're kidding, right?"

"Nope! It's a whole big thing," Josuke replied. "I don't know too much about it, but it had, uh… pretty far-reaching consequences."

"I can't see you two living in the same town, let alone the same house," Gyro said with a laugh. "It'd be a bloodbath."

Josuke winced but nodded. "I mean, that's pretty much how it was, as far as I know."

"You got any world-famous, successful, and incredibly handsome Zeppelis in your world?" Gyro asked.

Josuke laughed and shrugged. "Probably! I don't know. It's like…" He sighed and shook his head. "I mean, I don't wanna dump all my woes on you guys. We might be kind of not really related but we just met."

"Go ahead and talk it out," Johnny said flatly as he pulled the can away from the fire and stirred the contents. "It's something to pass the time. Unless you want Gyro to tell you a story or something."

"I've got some good ones," Gyro replied. "But I think Johnny's heard them all already. So it's your turn to keep us entertained."

"Well, it's like… back home, I haven't talked to my friends about this because one already has a really messy dad situation and I don't know if my other friend has ever had a problem with his family. So I don't want to bum either of them out with it. And then I have a nephew who is older than me and he's all business and 'here's what you must do in a Stand battle, Josuke'," he said, and he made his voice dramatically lower-pitched and stoic. "So I can't talk to him about it, either."

Gyro tilted his head. "Your nephew is older than you?"

Josuke sighed. "Yeah. My birth dad cheated on his wife with my mom when he was like… sixty? Sixty-one? Somewhere around there. And he didn't raise me or anything but he did put me in his will. He's not dead," he said quickly when Gyro's expression grew more concerned. "He's a stubborn old man. I think he still has a few decades in him. But the reason we met was that his actual family was doing all his legal stuff and they found my name in it so that really threw them for a loop." He crossed his arms. "It's like… I want to get to know him more, but I was still figuring out how to go about it. I know he's been on a lot of wild adventures. But I don't really know anything about them except for what Jotaro has told me. That's my nephew," he clarified when Johnny raised an eyebrow. "So it's weird to be here in this world before he even exists. Meeting some alternate version of his grandfather."

"Is he at least a friendly guy?" Gyro asked. "My father's a real hardass. Most of what I know of him didn't come out easily. But he's proven himself to me, and I have to prove myself to him. So there is a respect there."

"That's surprisingly open and direct of you to say, Gyro," Johnny stated as he scooped up steaming-hot food from the can.

"What can I say, I like this kid," Gyro replied with a wide grin. "I'll adopt him if his old man won't have him. Especially if he keeps us nice and healed up during the rest of the race."

"I mean, I do have a mom to get back to in my original world. And my dad is nice," Josuke admitted. "And kind. I know that. Talking to him was something I was going to try to work on more, but…" He threw up his hands and shrugged. "Here I am."

The group fell silent. The fire crackled. Johnny stirred the contents of the can. "Your dad reached out to you first because of the will situation?" he finally asked.

"Yeah," Josuke answered. "Well, he had a couple of reasons. His Stand can show him pictures of dangerous things sometimes. It kept telling him about a serial killer in town. So he came to help with that but also to talk to me." He leaned back on his elbows and sighed. "Of course, we have a second serial killer on the loose now, and I was helping with tracking him down but…" He rested his cheeks on his palms and his voice grew sarcastically sing-song. "Here I am," he repeated.

"So he's nice, he's helpful, and he wants to talk to you," Johnny replied flatly.

Something in Johnny's tone had gone sharp, almost acidic; Josuke frowned at him. "Yeah."

"Then don't be an idiot by wasting the opportunity," Johnny stated. "And don't give him the chance to change his mind. When you get back home, talk to him."

At first, Josuke looked hurt, but as he thought it over his expression grew more serious and he nodded. "You're right."

Johnny didn't really respond. He returned his attention to the can of food.


Dio looked at the bloody carnage around him and huffed. He sat down on the back of a corpse, rested his chin on one hand, and held the umbrella with the other.

"Not as fun as I thought it would be," he said to himself. "Didn't even need to stop time."

He tapped his nail against his chin. Stopping time was something else that had been bothering him. He knew that the last few times he had done so, he had pushed the ability to its limit by using it in rapid succession; he also didn't know if bringing more people into it via the stickers made it more difficult to use.

But for whatever reason, the strain was there, and he could feel it sorely.

Had the food and rest prescribed by Giorno really been the solution to his general malaise? He supposed it had helped, but not quite enough. Of course, the main source of his stress was his double, and that wasn't going to be solved any time soon.

The most significant thing that was different about him now was something he had been avoiding thinking about, but the experience in Florida and the history lesson demanded by his offspring had rubbed it in. He was back in his original body. There was no familiar star upon his shoulder.

When he had taken Joseph's blood to fully heal his stolen body in Cairo, he had reached the prime of his power. Of course, that still hadn't ended well, but…

Well, he certainly wasn't here to steal the conveniently beheaded body of another Jonathan Joestar. That would just be silly. His own body was in perfect shape. He was just out of practice with it.

But would fate be with him or against him?

He sighed and stood. He felt fairly energized after having drained ten men of their blood. Now he could steal whatever he felt he needed of their supplies and set off for whatever it was fate or his double or both wanted him to find.

As he stood, he heard an odd shifting behind him. An eleventh man formed into being out of the tattoo-like pattern on the jacket of the dead man. He plunged a knife deeply into Dio's back.

Dio turned and grinned at him. "Oh, that's cute. You really thought that would work? Were you not paying any attention? Or could you not see anything while hiding inside the coat?"

"You can't be Diego," the man stated. "Who are you?"

Well, if there was another Jonathan Joestar, there must be another Dio Brando. Or Diego. Close enough. If he was being hunted down for stealing something, then perhaps Dio had been right before; he really would be the same even if raised beneath a different roof.

Dio rolled his eyes. "I'm sure I am Diego, just not quite the one you were looking for." He waved dismissively. "I'm feeling generous. You can live. But give me your coat. The other ones are all filthy, now." He held out his hand and twitched his fingers in a give-me-that gesture. The man stared at him in stark incomprehension as he slid off the patterned jacket and handed it over. Dio snatched it from him and shrugged it on, careful to keep the umbrella over his head as he did.

"Is that your only horse?" Dio asked as he gestured towards it. "You all could ride it at once by hiding within the jackets? How fun." The man watched with wary confusion as Dio approached the horse. It shied away from him at first but eventually it calmed and allowed him to place a hand upon its flank. He had minimal experience in riding a horse, but he couldn't stay in the sun comfortably for long. He needed to find a town or a cave or some other form of shelter and wait for nightfall before making his next move.

"Um," the man stated uncertainly.

"I'll be taking this," Dio said as he clambered up onto the saddle. "And the supplies. Tell me, how afraid are you? How far away is the closest town? Can you still reach it if I take all of this?"

The man stared at him. Dio grinned. "You don't look too worried. That's good. I won't have far to travel. Which way should I go? North, south, east, west? Don't lie to me. I'll know."

"...East," the man stated. "Follow the river upstream."

"Now, this Diego you're looking for," Dio continued. "Is he also traveling towards town?"

The man had a decent poker face, but his eyes shifted uneasily. Dio nodded. "I see. Thank you," he replied lightly as he spurred the horse to a trot. "Do try to not get eaten by a bear or something while you're stuck hiking out here. At least I'm quick about it. Wildlife, not so much. I'm sure that what's left of the rest of your companions will attract some hungry scavengers, so you better get to walking." He raised a hand to his temple in a mock salute. "Bye."

The man stared blankly as Dio galloped away.


Josuke offered to keep watch while Johnny and Gyro slept. While it was nighttime here, he had left Morioh around noon, so he wasn't all too tired just yet. Thankfully, the night passed without incident.

"Well, we'll make it to Philadelphia with a good time," Gyro said as he started packing up the campsite. "I'd say we have two more days of riding."

"We'll have to be careful with food now that there's three of us," Johnny said with a glance towards Josuke. "There hasn't been much wildlife through here for us to stock up on."

"I can hunt," Josuke said quickly.

Johnny quirked an eyebrow. Josuke brought forth Crazy Diamond and looked around for a suitable rock. "Jotaro showed me how to do this," he explained. "Since my Stand has pretty high-speed movements I can flick a rock and it kind of works like a bullet over a short range."

Crazy Diamond picked up a pebble, positioned it carefully against its fingers, and then flicked it. The rock shot off into the distance. Gyro whistled. "Damn, now we have two sharpshooters in the group."

Josuke glanced at Johnny, who was looking out towards the trajectory of the pebble with an unreadable expression. Josuke felt a small flash of nervousness and he sent Crazy Diamond away.

"Don't tell me you're getting jealous, Johnny," Gyro stated, teasing in tone. Josuke winced.

"I'm not," Johnny stated flatly. "I'm just thinking. A lot of the people we've run into use their Stands like…" He trailed off and frowned. "Like a can opener. They use it for one thing and one thing only. It makes them easy to beat in a fight. It's people that can push their Stands to their limits in new ways that are really dangerous."

"Oh, you're callin' Josuke dangerous?" Gyro said with a laugh.

"I'd say Jotaro is dangerous," Johnny replied. "Since he's the one that taught him how to do it."

Josuke frowned, but Johnny's expression was still hard to read. Gyro's customary lightheartedness shifted towards something more serious as he watched them closely.

"I've come up with new ways to use my Stand on my own, too," Josuke stated carefully.

Johnny was silent for a few long moments. Eventually, his stony expression broke into a strained, wan smile. "I'm not trying to insult you. It's just something I've been thinking about a lot when it comes to evolving my own Stand. And it's good that you've had a mentor like your Jotaro." He rolled his eyes and jabbed a thumb towards Gyro. "So, maybe I am a little jealous of that. Trying to learn things from this guy is almost more effort than it's worth."

"Hey, I never signed up to be your teacher. He just latched onto me like a spider monkey and refused to let go," Gyro explained to Josuke. "He'll regret it once I send him the tuition bill for Gyro Zeppeli's Pan-American Spin Academy."

"It'll be easy to pay you when I win the race," Johnny replied.

"When you win the race?" Gyro exclaimed with mocking incredulity. "You mean when you eat my dust in New York?"

Johnny hummed thoughtfully. "Getting first place and getting the rest of the corpse is a tall order. I suppose I can settle for second."

"Yeah, right," Gyro said with a laugh.

They returned to packing up the campsite; Josuke helped as much as he could but as they tended to the horses he was left with little to do. He fussed over the dirt on his shoes, tried to flatten the creases in his pants, and poked at the edges of his pompadour as much as he dared.

"You want a comb or something?" Johnny asked as he finished adjusting Slow Dancer's saddle.

"No," Josuke replied quickly.

"You're not gonna pick up a hot date out here, if that's what you're worried about," Gyro said with a chuckle.

Josuke pressed his lips into a firm line. "I'm not… hrm." He shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged.

"Hey, hey. We'll be hitting one of the pop-up settlements soon so you'll have a better chance to freshen up. But in the meantime, do you wanna ride with me or do you wanna ride with your not-quite-great-grandpa?" Gyro asked.

"I'm lighter than you, Gyro. Slow Dancer can take the extra weight," Johnny stated before Josuke could respond. "He can ride with me. We'll switch off when she gets tired."

Gyro pulled a face at him. "You callin' me fat?"

"Nah, I'm callin' you dense," Johnny replied.

Gyro gave one of his customary chuckles and climbed up onto Valkyrie. "I think you've got me there. I might as well be full of lead."


Jolyne trudged along, the glider slowly losing effectiveness as the leaves crumbled. The pain in her leg was low but insistent. The grassland gradually became dotted with a few more sparse trees. She looked down at the grassy ground; in a few patches of mud she could see the tracks of a horse. She idly wondered who it was. If Gyro was in the race and wasn't headed to town, then Diego probably didn't go that way, either.

It took an hour, perhaps two, to reach the outskirts of the town. Her stomach growled and she frowned. She didn't want to, but she supposed she could pickpocket someone or just steal food if she really needed to. She also needed to start asking around about where she could find President Valentine. Right now, either he or the diamonds were her only path back to Morioh.

The town was large yet empty; she figured it was another effect of the abandoned quarry. People had probably lived there in order to work and once the quarry closed, they would have left in search of other jobs. Many of the buildings seemed abandoned.

Jolyne smelled something delicious cooking. Her stomach growled again. She sighed and crossed her arms over her belly. She followed the scent until she found what looked like a campsite set up in the middle of a road, close to the broken-down remains of a large building. There had been food cooking over a fire, but it looked like something had gone on a rampage through the middle of it. Jolyne cautiously approached it. There were big tracks pressed into the dirt and whatever had been in the pot over the fire was strewn across the ground.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when someone spoke. "You're not a thief, are you?"

Jolyne looked back and locked eyes with a person wearing a furred cap over choppy hair and an intensely serious expression. They held their horse's reins in one hand and something that looked like a cross between a lighter and a spray can in the other. They looked prepared to use it; Jolyne did not want to find out what it would do to her.

Jolyne held up her hands with her palms out. "Not a thief. Sorry your soup got spilled, but I didn't do it."

"Then you need to leave," Hot Pants stated, "so that I can find who did."

"These look like dino tracks, don't they?" Jolyne quickly said as she pointed at the ground. "Looks like yet another Dio problem."

Hot Pants blinked at her. "You know Brando?"

"Unfortunately," she replied.

Hot Pants considered her for a long while before speaking. "I didn't see his horse tracks come this way. But he may have created a dinosaur to fight for him. He's being hunted." Hot Pants looked up the street; the ground was packed in and the footprints were hard to follow. "I only left the bonfire for a few minutes. It must be close by. I will kill it before it attacks me or my horse."

"I can help," Jolyne insisted. Hot Pants gave her an unreadable look. "It has to be a pretty big dino based on these tracks, right? Do you have a glass of water I can use or something? I'm not gonna drink it," she clarified when Hot Pants shot her a dubious glance. "I think I can use it to track the dinosaur."

"...I have a bottle of communion wine," Hot Pants answered.

Jolyne grinned. "There's a bit in a movie where they have a glass of water and they can see the footsteps put ripples in it so they know that the big dino is coming for them—ah, shit. You don't even know what a movie is, huh. But this might work. Just pour it into a mug or a glass or something."

Hot Pants removed the wine bottle from a sturdy leather saddlebag and poured it into a ceramic mug before handing it to Jolyne.

Jolyne set the mug on the ground. Once the wine settled, she pulled some string out of her finger and she let it drift in looped circles around the surface of the liquid. She stared at it closely. "Now, if we stay as still as possible, this could catch the vibrations of its movement and tell us how far away it is and maybe where it's headed."

Jolyne felt the faint vibrations through the strings; she pointed in the general direction they seemed to be coming from and then picked up the mug. "That way. Let's get closer."

"Don't spill that wine," Hot Pants stated. "I'll be wanting it back."

"Yeah, yeah," Jolyne replied. "I promise not to lose a single drop. Man, is everyone out here so stingy?"

Hot Pants made a noncommittal grunt in response.

Jolyne took a few long strides up the road and set the mug down again. "Up and to the left. Maybe inside of that building over there," she whispered.

"You were bitten by one already," Hot Pants stated with a glance at Jolyne's leg.

"Uh, well, yeah," Jolyne admitted. "But I got some goop on it. So it should be fine."

Hot Pants crouched, tugged at the bandaging, and then sprayed Cream Starter on the bite. Jolyne grit her teeth and pulled away instinctively, but the meatlike spray only filled in the wound and healed it.

"You owe it to me now to not get bitten again. Stay here," Hot Pants stated. "I will go check."

"Seriously, I can help you," Jolyne replied. "Let's go together."

Hot Pants gave her another hard-to-read look, but this time there was something surprisingly soft about it. "You aren't involved in the race. I haven't seen you on the roster."

"No, I'm not in the race," Jolyne replied. "Are you?"

"Not anymore," Hot Pants answered. "But if you are not in the race, you do not need to get involved. Or get hurt. Stay here."

Jolyne frowned. "See, now you're reminding me of someone."

"Stay here," Hot Pants repeated. "I prefer to fight alone. I will be fine."

Before Jolyne could say anything, Hot Pants dashed off. They ducked inside the building. After a long moment, Jolyne heard a sound like shaving cream foaming out of a canister, a booming roar, strange muffled noises, and then a loud thud. Hot Pants emerged from the building and holstered Cream Starter.

"So, uh… how'd the dino fight go?" Jolyne asked.

"Good," Hot Pants replied.

"The dino's dead, then?" she added.

"Yes," Hot Pants replied.

Jolyne smiled wanly and held up the mug. "Ha. Do you want your wine radar back now?"

"Yes," Hot Pants answered. When Jolyne pulled away the string and handed the mug over, they took a deep gulp and passed the mug back.

"A toast," Hot Pants stated. "To the defeat of a dead dinobear."

Jolyne grinned and took a small sip before passing the mug back. "Cheers."

Back to business; Hot Pants strode back to the mess of a campsite and began to load up the horse. "I will be gathering up my supplies and leaving," Hot Pants stated. "This town was abandoned. You will not find food here. There is a pop-up settlement nearby made by those watching the race. Go north and follow the river upstream. You will reach it within an hour on foot. There will be food and shelter for you."

"Is that where you're going?" Jolyne asked.

"No," Hot Pants replied.

Jolyne sighed. "Well, thanks for the heads up. You don't happen to know where the president is, do you?"

Hot Pants frowned. "No. I do not."

Jolyne watched with an odd tightness in her throat as Hot Pants finished packing up and clambered onto the horse. "Well, it was nice to meet you," Jolyne said with a smile. "Stay safe, be careful, make good choices. See you later."

"This is not see you later," Hot Pants stated. "For your own safety, I pray that this is goodbye."

Jolyne stared as Hot Pants spurred the horse onwards. Almost as if on instinct, Jolyne began to run after them, but she knew that she would be unable to follow. Hot Pants and the horse rapidly receded from sight. Jolyne slowed to a staggering jog and then a walk. She took a few deep breaths, stared at the ground, and then steeled herself and reoriented herself north. She pressed on, alone once more.