Matt and Carthus finally found their way into a building that housed their objective, both sopping wet from the monsoon. Carthus led the way through the building and down some stairs, a single bulb illuminating the staircase, while Matt followed close behind. Down the stairs was pitch black though, almost as if they were descending into the void itself. As they stepped down into the darkness, Carthus sighed and felt around the wall beside him for a few seconds before flicking on a switch and lighting up the whole room. It was a fairly large room, probably a little bigger than a barn, but a large machine took up over a quarter of the space. The machine had four pods, two on each side, each empty and connected to a large computer in between them by tubes. Beside the machine sat Jaloon on an old ruined sofa, his head buried in his book and wearing his usual polyester button up shirt with the long sleeves rolled up and worn jeans. He looked up at the two as the lights flickered on.

"Damn it Jaloon, keep the god damn lightssssss on when I'm gone." Carthus groaned, "Did you really get up and turn them off while I left?"

"Yup," Jaloon confirmed, "prefer to read in the darkness."

"What's it even like?" Matthew asked.

"Like seeing normally." Jaloon closed his book, and sat up cross legged on the sofa. "But with this greenish tint to it. I mainly use it for the novelty."

"That's pretty sick." Matt reached into his baseball jacket and pulled out a small carton of cigarettes, flipping open the lid and sliding out a cigarette and lighter. He placed the butt of the cigarette in his mouth and lit the other end, the flick of the lighter prompting Carthus to face him. He took a drag and placed his lighter back in his pocket while he used his other hand to take the cigarette from his mouth so he could blow out the smoke.

"What the hell are you doing?" Carthus demanded, crossing his arms.

"Smoking." Matt glanced at Carthus. "Don't tell Hysees. She'd kill me if she found out."

"I may jusssssst do that mysssssself. But why the fuck are you doing it?"

Matt shrugged as he took another drag. "I dunno. Just kinda got into it after the FLARPing session when I found a massive pile that my grandma owned. Guess she was a heavy smoker, not that you could tell. Woman kept herself looking good for a sixty-five year old."

"Your what? What'ssssss a 'grandma?'"

"What do you mean 'what's a grandma?' It's like a mom, but her mom as well. They're family. My grandma was the one that took care of me all the time because my parents were never around." Matt lent up against the machine, while Carthus listened curiously and Jaloon went back to his book. "She was awesome. This one time, like a week before the game was released, I got suspended from school for beating up a couple of bullies that insulted Tara. Instead of yelling at me, she pat me on the back and congratulated me for standing up to them. And she was a legend, dating men and women less than half her age. God, she was a major inspiration for me to be the quarterback for our school team and school captain, before I was suspended of course."

Matt sighed, a large smile on his face, "Man I miss her. She full on disappeared when the game started. And now that I think about it, she seemed to know an awful lot about the game. She gave me and Tara a copy the day it came out, and really insisted we play it. Like, really insisted. And she was always there for me, like coming out of nowhere and shit. It always kinda weirded me out how she always seemed to know stuff before it happened, like she was omnipotent or something. Huh." Matt crossed his arms and tilted his head downwards so he looked at the concrete floor. "Maybe she was. With this game, I don't know how far it goes back." He looked back up at Carthus. "Can you give me anything about this?"

"Well," Carthus began, "I wouldn't know about omnipotence. But what we are doing here may relate to her knowledge of the game." Carthus pushed Matt out of the way, accessing the computer and booting it up. "We are creating oursssssselvessssss, including Gertrand and the other dead people from our ssssssessssssion."

"Wait, our session? I thought Jaloon and the others came from another session."

"Nope. Get with the timessssss Matt. We've been in the ssssssame ssssssessssssion all along."

"Wait," Jaloon looked up at the two from his cross legged position on the sofa, "Can't we just not create Gertrand? Keep him from destroying our session?"

"Doesn't work like that, brah," Matt answered. "As the guy man of time, it is my professional opinion that we not doom our session by doing that. It's basic paradox knowledge dude."

Carthus pressed another button, which made the machine emit a couple of beeps, and the camera zoomed into a handsome looking adult troll, a burgundy blood by the look of it. After zooming in on him, a pad located near the machine copied the troll and made a replicate using green slime, but it dissolved and filled up one of the ten tubes.

"What the hell was that?" Matt asked, scratching his head.

"My ancesssssstor, I think. Hissssss genessssss, at leasssssst."

Carthus pressed another button, and this time the computer zoomed in on an elegant looking woman troll in a fancy suit. Her lipstick and eyeliner was of a Jade colour, to match her eyes. Just as the machine had done with the other man, it copied her and sent her to the same tube that Carthus's ancestor had gone to. Then the next troll, one which Matt could tell was Tarlia's due to the torn dress and overcoat that she wore, as well as her certain physical features, was given the same treatment and sent to a different tube. As was the guardian for Tanya, her dad, Matt's own dad, and the ancestors of everyone else in the game.

Eventually, Carthus sighed and rubbed his forehead, as his finger hovered over the button to complete the Ectobiology process. As his finger pressed the button, the tubes were all drained in succession, and the pad near the machine began to glow intensely. Matt stepped away cautiously, while Carthus braced himself for the arrival, and with a flash the pad was filled with the result of the machine, the Paradox Clones. Two babies of Matt and Tara and eight different coloured caterpillar looking representing the trolls.

Matt initially rubbed his eyes in disbelief, but he soon gasped at the sight in front of him. "Oh my god it's us as babies!" he squealed, rushing towards them. He scooped the male baby up and held it by the armpits. "Holy shit look how fucking adorable I look! Hey baby, this handsome mug is what you're gonna look like in sixteen years." The baby coughed as it smelt the smoke from his cigarette, and Matt giggled a little bit. "What the fuck how are these guys so adorable?"

He looked down and picked up the burgundy coloured wriggler with his free hand, cradling both. "Dude, dude, dude dude! Carthus, look how fucking adorable you are!"

Carthus paced over to Matt and crossed his arms in a huff. "Fuck no, thesssssse thingssssss are sssssstupid and I don't want them touching me."

While Carthus said that, the purple wriggler decided to climb up his leg and back and rest itself on his shoulder, a small high pitched squeal coming from its mouth. "I think they like me!" he laughed.

"Jusssssst assssss long assssss they sssssstay away from me I'll be-" Carthus was interrupted by the machine behind him displayed the same sound as when Carthus had created the Paradox Clones. As the two turned around, they noticed the tubes had filled up once again, and the machine processed them into ten more Paradox Clones similar to the groups own, but with slight differences, and teleported them to the pad.

Carthus recoiled back and screamed, "WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL TARLIA DIDN'T MENTION MORE OF THEM?!"

Matt gasped and let out a muffled squeak, rushing forward to the newly created clones, which had begun mingling with the first group. "Holy shit this is the greatest day of my life!"

As Matt fell into the group, playing around with the clones as they crawled around him, Carthus looked on in terror. "Oh my God, why the hell did I agree to do thissssss?"

Jaloon came up beside him, cradling a Cerulean coloured wriggler in his large arms. "Lighten up, Carthus. This is kind of adorable." Jaloon smiled at Carthus, nudging him in the shoulder.

"Sssssshut up, it'ssssss fucking sssssstupid. I would have thought you'd be above thissssss."

Jaloon shrugged. "I can have emotions."

"I know that," Carthus attempted to shake off one of the Purple wrigglers off his foot, "we all realize that. I jusssssst thought you were ssssssmarter than that."

"Nope, sorry to disappoint."

Carthus groaned as he felt the wriggler attempt to climb up his leg. He continued to shake his leg until he noticed another one crawling its way to him. He shook more vigorously, but the thing already grabbed onto his other leg, causing him to trip backwards and land hard on his back. This allowed the two wrigglers to climb up his body, while another one clung onto his side.

"No, God damn it, get off of me!"

Jaloon looked over him, gently rocking his arms that had the wriggler in them. "Oh come on, they like you!"

"I'd rather they didn't." Carthus reached up to Jaloon. "Go! Ssssssave yoursssssself!"

"What exactly do you want me to do?"

"I don't know! Wassssssn't there ssssssomething you had to deal with on this planet with Hysees to sssssstop thesssssse sssssstupid monssssssoonssssss?"

"You sure you're okay here with Matt?"

"Yessssss, jusssssst go."

Jaloon rolled his eyes, and placed his wriggler on Carthus' stomach, then pulling out his tablet to contact Hysees.

NotoriousCaptain (NC) began Trolling ElixirTrickster (ET)

NC: Hys[-[-s
NC: You r[-ady for your m[-[-ting with your d[-niz[-n?
ET: what FUCKING already
ET: what the SHIT
ET: but what the FUCK ever
ET: i'll be at my house in a few GOD DAMN minutes
NC: I'll b[- waiting

NotoriousCaptain (NC) ceased Trolling ElixirTrickster (ET)