Last time Caleb and co. raced to save Cornelia before she was to be impregnated by The Dadga Khan. Thanks to some well-timed stunning grenades from Leon, Caleb rescued Cornelia. Fay and Garra faced off against the upper-level demon and disabled him. Meanwhile Chouji sacrificed himself so the others could get Caleb and Cornelia to safety. Realizing that they were cornered with no way out, Caleb and Cornelia did it, thereby preventing The Dadga Khan from having his way with her. But that didn't matter, since Fay had her way with The Dadga Khan, if you know what I mean. Garra then killed the demon, ending that part of the nightmare. On with the show!

Chapter 23: The Philosopher's Stone

While Caleb, Fay, Garra and those who went with them ran to save Cornelia, Will, Naruto, Luffy, Ed, Al and everyone else continued to locate the source of the time/space distortions. "We're getting really close now," said Violet as she scanned the area with her PDA, "The source is less than a mile from our location."

"I hope Caleb got to Cornelia in time," said Hay Lin, "I don't know what I'd do if that monster had its way with her and I didn't do anything to stop it." "Have faith in Caleb," said Rock Lee, "He is a strong and proud warrior, he'll save his damsel in distress. I know, I'd do the same for you." He smiled and is teeth 'pinged' in the red light.

"There it is!" exclaimed Violet, "It's right ahead of us in that building!" "How do you know?" asked Luffy. "It's the only one in front of us," said Nami. "Oh," said Luffy, "I knew that." "Sure you did," said Sanji."

"So what's the plan?" asked Steve as they reached the building. "First," said Max, "We see just how many demons are guarding the place." "I'll do that," said Neji as she made his hand signs, "Byakugan!" using his family's special jutsu, Neji scanned the building. "There are several demons in the building," he said, "But only three in the central room."

"I'll bet that's where the device that's generating the time/space distortions is," said Jill. "There's only a handful of demons guarding the place," said Shawn, "But only one is needed to call for backup." "Leave that to us," said Saske, "Us ninjas will go in first. The rest of you, wait one minute before coming in after us." He said it in a tone that wouldn't tolerate any arguments from anyone.

With that Naruto, Sakura, Saske, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Neji, Tenten and Rock Lee entered the building. After sixty seconds Will and he others went in after them. They found every demon that was guarding the place dead. "They're good," said Tyler, "Silent and deadly."

They met up with the ninjas outside the control room. "The device is on the other side of this door," said Sakura, "So, we'll go in, destroy it, get out, find the others, destroy the Krell gateway on this world and we'll go home with Will's Folding."

"What about The God Hand?" asked Luffy, "Weren't we supposed to fight and destroy them?" "I'm not sure they're here," said Will, "I think this world is just a staging point for the demons. It isn't were The God Hand resides." "Well wherever they are," said Guts, "If they're not here, I'll just keep looking for them." "We'll worry about that later," said Max, "Let's just keep reality form falling apart for now."

Meanwhile in the control room, the two demons Jerry and Mr. Styx were enjoying a rare break while their master was out, "So the wife told me to move my skull collection to the basement," said Jerry, "Because she's got company coming. I'm like 'Honey this is work, I'm not putting my skull collection in the f#ck$ng basement!'" "That's your skull collection man," said Mr. Styx in a sympathetic tone.

"I know," said Jerry, "So I finally cave in just so she'll stop nagging me. So there I am, moving my skulls to the basement. I'm moving them one at a time, just to hear what she'll say next. I'm moving the last one and she asks me if I could put a tarp over them. I'm like 'No damn it! No!'"

"That's f#ck#d up man," said Mr. Styx. "I told her that if I can't display my skulls up here," said Jerry, "I'll display them in the basement. I'm not putting a tarp over them. I mean what's the point of displaying them if you're going to put a tarp over them. Yesterday, this is the other thing that gets my goat, yesterday I finally get around to taking care of the mold that's been growing on the living room ceiling because it has gotten really nasty in there. I offered to cover the mold in my own blood."

"That's a good idea," said Mr. Styx. "It is," said Jerry, "But the wife goes ballistic, she keeps nagging that we should have hired a contractor to get rid of the mold. Yeah right, like I'm gonna spend a fortune on some slouch when I can deal with it my way."

"I know how you feel," said Mr. Styx, "My wife doesn't think I can fix anything that's wrong with our house, I've got the same troubles at home, and I got a kid now." "Oh," said Jerry, "That's a whole other set of bull sh$t I'm sure."

"So my wife wants me to move my preserve brain collection away from where the baby sleeps, because she thinks it's unhygienic. I offer to have the baby sleep elsewhere in the room, she says no, because one side of the room gets more light than the other side. That's why I want my brain collection on that side of the room, because it gets more light."

"I don't understand how there is such a lack of appreciation for that backlight on your brain collection," said Jerry, "Because it just looks cool from that angle." "You've seen it?" asked Mr. Styx. "Why move it from that part of the room?" asked Jerry, "Because that's the whole point of having them in that part of the room, because it looks cool from that perspective."

"I've told the wife that," said Mr. Styx, "I've told her, but there's just no point arguing with women, it's impossible." "It's f#ck$ng ridicules if you ask me," said Jerry. Just then the door to the control room burst opened as Max, Will Naruto, Luffy, Ed, Al, Guts and the others rushed inside. "Hand's up!" shouted Max as she aimed his revolvers at the two demon technicians.

"Mercy!" shouted Mr. Styx, "We're just technicians! We don't fight or anything like that!" "What he said!" said Jerry. "If you help us stop the distortions your master is creating," said Jill, "We might be in the mood to show mercy."

Just then Will and Hay Lin got this strange, distant look on their faces. They were smiling like something good had just happened. "You okay?" asked Matt. "I'm fine," said Will in a calm and content voice, "I've just got this feeling that Cornelia and Caleb are safe." "Me too," said Hay Lin, "And that wherever they are, both of them are really happy."

"So this is it," said Violet as she walked around the device built by The Dadga Khan, "It's both crude and intricate at the same time. It's genius; in it's own sick, twisted way. It really makes me mad when science is used to make others suffer. There are at least a dozen components in this device that could have been used for good. That demon used them for evil. It's sickening."

"Al," said Ed as he and Al looked up at the top of the device. "Yes brother," said Al. "Is that what I think it is?" asked Ed. "I think so," said Al as he removed the glowing red object from the top of the device, "Brother, I think we've finally found a real Philosopher's Stone." "The Dadga Kahn must have been using it as a power source," said Eric, "How did he get it?"

"He didn't just get it," said Ed as he held the stone in his hands, "He made it by slaughtering innocent people. This stone was created in evil and used for evil. It's no use to me or Al." He dropped the stone to the ground and crushed it with his metal foot.

"You could have used that to restore Al's body," said Will, "Or your arm and leg." "We won't restore our bodies through shortcuts," said Al, "If my brother and I can't find a means to make a Philosopher's Stone without the need for human sacrifice, then we'll just have to do without."

"So now what?" asked Hay Lin. "Now we destroy this thing," said Guts as he raised his huge sword to smash the device. "Wait," said Violet, "If you try breaking it like that, who know what will happen. Sometimes it takes more than to smash a machine to destroy it."

Jill then pointed her cutlass at Jerry, "How do we destroy this thing?" she asked the demon. "I might as well tell you," said Jerry, "When the master finds out that his inner sanctum has been defiled by humans, I'm as good as dead."

"It is your master who is dead," said Fay as she, Garra, Leon, Caleb, Cornelia, Taranee, Irma and the others entered the room. "I knew you were alright!" exclaimed Will as she hugged Cornelia, "I think a change of attire is needed." She held out The Heart of Candracar, it flashed, and Cornelia was transformed into her Guardian self. "Much better," said Cornelia.

"So," said Hay Lin, "Anything you want to tell the us?" "About what?" asked Cornelia. "On how you got away from The Dadga Khan," said Will, "How did you and Caleb do it?" "We did it," said Cornelia, "If you know what I mean." "Oh I know what you mean," said Hay Lin, "It looks like only Irma is the only one left who hasn't been deflowered." "And I'll stay that way until marriage," said Irma, "Oh Martin, whatever happened to good old fashion American values?" "They went out the window with the introduction of phone sex and online pornography," said Martin.

"Wait a minute here," said Mr. Styx, "Did you say that the master is dead?" "Oh he's dead alright," said Garra, "Fay had her way with him, it was beautiful. I then deprived the demon of air until it died." "Then there's nothing holding you back," said Jill, "So how do we destroy the machine?"

"You'll never be able to take it apart in time," said Jerry, "Reinforcements will be here before you get even one tenth dismantled. There are two sure ways to destroy the device. First, you can let the pressure in the EPS turbines get above 2,600 PSI. That will cause the device to explode. Second, you can shut off the coolant to the inner core, it'll melt when it reaches 5,500 degrees. Either way will totally destroy the device."

"Which panel controls the pressure?" asked Violet, "And which regulates the coolant?" Jerry then showed Violet which panels controlled what. "I'm gonna do both," said Violet as she increased the pressure for the device, then deactivated the coolant flow, "I'd say we have about seven minutes to get out of here before this thing blows, let's go!"

Seven minutes later everyone stood outside in a large square of the city and watched as the building that housed the device exploded. "That takes care of that," said Max. He then triggered the detonator for the Krell gateway they came in through, "And that takes care of that."

"That did more than destroy the gateway in this world," said Martin, "I examined the tablets around that gateway; it's the master control gateway. When you destroyed that one, you destroyed all the remaining ones. Never again will reality be disrupted by the one fatal mistake of the Krell."

"And I'll destroy the dimensional transporter I invented when we get back home," said Violet. "But first I'll Fold us back to Ed and Al's world," said Will, "Sorry Guts, I guess The God Hand isn't here."

"Well you know what the song says," said D.P., "'you can't always get what you want.'" Just there Just then D.P. sensed something and stretched his metal arm out in front of Will. Something metal clanged into it, something that turned out to be a needle. "I'll bet this is poisoned," said D.P. as he pulled the needle out from his metal hand.

"And I would have hit Will!" exclaimed Pai-Mey as she leapt down form her perch on a leaning sign post, "If you hadn't blocked it!" "You are so dead!" shouted Tyler as he activated his armor, which unfolded from his vest. Once fully deployed, Tyler shot hundreds of bullets from his built-in machineguns, as well as several rockets and missiles. None of them found their target, for Pai-Mey had vanished into the ruined city.

"That bitch!" exclaimed Luffy, "I forgot about her!" "We're not leaving this place until we kill her," said Naruto, "Believe it!"

The end of chapter 23. Next chapter, it's the end for Pai-Mey. But who kills her? Is it Naruto? Or Luffy? Or Max? Or Jill? Or Steve? Or perhaps Guts? You'll have to wait to find out. Until then, please review, and I'll see you next time!