The night was peaceful. While Brady, Boomer, and Boz slept in their respective bed (and on the couch), their plant copies gathered on the balcony. They looked out over the courtyard, the jungle slowly encroaching on it, the lights of the village in the distance, the waves crashing into the rocks. There wasn't much else to do for plants who never slept, except discuss their plans.

"Why are we standing here?" Plant Brady wondered in a quiet tone. "Isn't it better to strangle them in their sleep? Nobody would notice."

"Yeah!" Plant Boomer said. "We could dump their bodies in the ocean. Nobody would find them."

Adam turned his head to the copies. While they were smarter than the humans they were based on, they were not necessarily a ton smarter. Though they were all one day old and Adam was the youngest, he still was firmly in control; the third plant copy, based on the triplet that had come back in time and had eight years' worth of experience more than these two.

Besides, their plans did not align. Adam did not necessarily want the human kings to be gone – his plans were about something else.

"We need them to trust us fully," Adam explained calmly. "My human is naturally suspicious of us. He's the one we need to keep on our good side. If you strangle them now, he'll stop you before you can even push the pillow down on their faces."

Plant Brady pouted. "You're no fun."

"We can have more fun when they live," Adam said. "After the Peace Summit is done, of course. You could torture them, let them beg for mercy. They can do the boring stuff for you, like they think you'll do for them."

Plant Brady and Plant Boomer folded their arms in unison, clearly more interested in what Adam was trying to tell them.

"I smell a plan," Plant Boomer said and Adam nodded modestly.

"Of course I've got a plan." It might still be a concept, but he was certain he was going to succeed when he located the one item that he needed. "Can you search through your memories? I'm looking for a small, golden watch that Boz carries around. It's important for the plan to work."

The plant copies racked their brains. After a couple of seconds of silence, Adam knew they weren't going to know where it is located. Adam shook his head – it frustrated him that he didn't know where it was, though he should know because Boz should know.

"No, I don't think we've seen one in Boz's vicinity," Plant Boomer said. "Maybe you can just as Boz."

"I can't just ask him," Adam said. "It'll jeopardize our plans."

"It's just a watch," Plant Brady said, unsure what important part a watch would play in their way to domination.

"It's really not," Adam said. "Your humans are stupid and Boz is keeping a lot of things from them for their own safety. This is a Do-Over watch, a special watch that at least can reset the day and at best enables you to travel back in time. Do you see where this is going?"

"We're gonna travel back in time and kill the kings," Plant Boomer said enthusiastically.

"Yes and no," Adam said. "I'm not sure how this works exactly, but if we kill them, we might never be created, so we should be careful about that. But let's focus on the first part: traveling back. Are you in?"

Plant Brady glanced briefly at Plant Boomer; even as plants, they still seemed to share a mind. Just the glance was enough to know they were on the same page. Adam wanted that, too.

"We're in," he said. "What do you need us to do?"

The next day, Adam stayed with the Kings whereas Boz would stay close to the plant doubles. Adam was going to escort the kings to the beach safely and Boz would make sure everyone else was distracted with the plant doubles. Nobody was going to notice anything, if either trio did not come near one another.

In the meantime, Boz was in the throne room, waiting for the plant doubles to arrive, swinging around his machete. Controlled movements, practice for the next training. Nobody else was around, so it was safe enough for him to practice a little. The final test was coming ever closer, after all, and Boz wanted to utilize every piece of dead time to practice.

The doors to the courtyard swung open and Mikayla entered the castle, piece of paper in hand. She immediately spotted the guard in training.

"Boz, there you are," she said as she approached. "We need to talk about the Summit."

"I know," Boz nodded. He put away the machete, a common courtesy toward her. "I am required to be there, right?"

Mikayla nodded. "You are a guard in training. It would be nice for you to be present, especially with the kings running around. I hate to say it, but you're one of the few who can control them."

"You're pretty good at it yourself," Boz said. When he wasn't around, in a previous timeline, it was just Mason and Mikayla. Now, however, Boz was also present and stood even closer to the Kings than Mason or Mikayla could ever dream of.

His eyes fell on the paper in her hand.

"Is that the guest list?" Boz wondered.

"It is." She handed the paper to him. "See any names you recognize?"

Boz took the paper and glanced over it. The guest list, names written in an elegant font, names ordered by the island these dignitaries hailed from. Boz quickly scanned the list and found no names that were completely unfamiliar to him.

"I recognize them all," he said. He had gotten to know every one of these people better over the six years he was King of Kinkow, and he did have his opinions on these people. He finally reached the section of the Mindan delegation, and one name stood out to him. "Ah, crap."

Mikayla frowned. "What is it?"

Boz looked at the name.

"Darren Mirol." He sighed. "Of course he's coming."

Darren Mirol. Boz hadn't thought about him in years. Of course, there were other things that demanded his attention as a king, but that didn't mean he ever wanted to forget about a beloved advisor of his, a good friend even, until Mindu sank and Darren did not make it off the island. Boz had promised to keep his memory alive – only to be reminded of him because he was on the guest list of a peace summit.

"And that's a problem?" Mikayla wondered.

"He'll recognize me," Boz told her. She deserved to know about him. "He just needs to look at me to know who I am. Doesn't matter that I look older, that I'm on Kinkow or that it may logically make no sense. He'll see me and he'll know it's me." He could already picture it – Darren, spotting him in the crowd. Darren, walking to him and greeting him. Darren, who won't know what's going on but wanting to greet this older-looking man nonetheless. Boz already told Mikayla; she was on Kinkow, in close proximity at all times, and she'd confronted him. He couldn't control what Darren would do with the information at hand, but Boz feared it might lead to consequences.

"That man was always so kind to me, and now he's coming and…" And he's going to look straight through my disguise and I'm not ready to let my guard down around him.

"So we need to make sure he doesn't see you," Mikayla suggested.

Boz nodded. Luckily Mikayla was there; sweet Mikayla, who recognized that telling Darren the secret wasn't an option, who thought ahead and tried to help him. Still, there might be a flaw in her plan.

"On a peace summit where a maximum of a hundred people walk around?" Boz said. "I'll stay out of his sight, but I'm not sure how effective it will be. But I'll stay in one sector and if you make sure Darren stays out of sight, things might work out."

"I'll keep an eye on him, make sure you know if he moves around," Mikayla said, agreeing with the plan. Then, there's a short period of silence. "What happens to him? After the summit."

"He continues to live on Mindu. Stays a good advisor and friend," Boz said, and he handed the guest list back to Mikayla. "He's dead now."

Mikayla looks at him with compassion.

"I'm sorry. What happened?"

"He drowned." Boz didn't want to waste any more words on it; because any more words might result in Mikayla learning of Mindu's sinking, and she was better off not knowing. "When will the delegation arrive?"

"Within the next hour," Mikayla said.

One more hour to get ready. One more hour before he was going to have to be extremely careful not to let Darren find him, and to make sure the plant copies aren't doing anything evil or something like that.

"Okay," Boz said. "I still have time to prepare."

"And the Kings?" The guard-girl wondered. "The first guests are going to arrive any minute now."

"They're just about ready, don't worry," Boz told her. They were soon going to walk down the stairs, in their royal attires, and they were going to wow the other island nations of the Kalooki Isles and hopefully not make a giant mess.

Mikayla nodded, possibly to try and reassure herself. She knew the kings just as well as Boz did and was worried.

"Okay," she said. "Let me know when they're here."

"Will do."

The Peace Summit was in full swing; downstairs, the Kings' plant copies were wowing the other nations' leaders with their polite behavior and flattery. And because these copies were so out in the open, it demanded that Brady and Boomer stay as far away from them as possible, so they wouldn't be found out.

So far, everything worked out in Adam's favor. Boz stayed with the plant kings to keep an eye on them, and Adam had one-on-two time with the kings that were going to help him with his plans. They seemed to be a little bored to be locked up in their room. For the sake of his plant brothers, Adam was going to try and keep them in the bedroom for a while – until he needed the alone time, anyway.

Adam was looking through some magazines when he felt someone's gaze burning in his back. He turned his head – Boomer was staring at him uncomfortably while Brady played some guitar on the bed. Adam stared back at Boomer, making him even more uncomfortable.

"Is there a problem?" Adam asked.

"No, it's just…" Boomer squinted. "You look really weird with the black hair."

Adam nodded. "I suppose I do. I'm not sure what you want me to say."

Boomer didn't know what to respond either, so he just walked to the bathroom. Adam turned his head to the magazines again and flicked through them. all menial things about Kinkow and its residents; a five-page-long interview with Lanny about the diarchy and his place in this structure; a recipe for a Flaji specialty dish; the horoscope. Apparently, everyone was going to be in some sort of distress next week. This was the first time every single one of them said the exact same thing.

Was that going to be his doing?

Boomer returned from the bathroom, and Adam saw an opportunity to strike.

"Say, has either of you seen a small, golden watch?" Adam asked them. "You know Boz. He puts something away and the next moment, he's looking for that same thing. Sometimes, we really have bad object permanence with the items we carry."

Brady and Boomer glanced at each other. They probably decided that the request was fair, as they had seen Boz displace things that literally was a couple of feet before him. Now, they thought about where they'd last seen a golden watch.

"I've seen it around," Brady said.

"Where?"

"Around," Brady responded. "Like you said, you're really bad at finding things you've put down minutes ago. I do think he last put it in his bag, but I can't be sure. Maybe he's moved it since then."

Adam nodded. That was more than possible.

"Thanks for the help," Adam said, and he took Boz's bag and quickly glanced in it. He didn't see the watch immediately, and didn't continue looking for it even further. He was going to start looking properly once the kings were bored enough to leave this room and sneak around the castle.

Until then, he was just going to continue flicking through the pages of the magazines on their shelves, wasting time until he had the bedroom to his own.