Who would have thought making replicas (or clones, as the term might be) was so common? Guy personally thought it was pretty disturbing, but according to Luke some people found it normal. Would Auldrant have been like that if Van had succeeded? Everyone and everything would have been a copy -- would Van have even told them?

"That's hard to believe, but maybe not. I... I'm not sure how to feel about it, either," he admitted. Everything in him insisted that it was wrong, but maybe in certain worlds it had been necessary for one reason or another. Guy had just been telling Luke that he needed to have an open mind, but now he was coming up against something he couldn't really swallow.

"It would be good to have Jade around, yeah," Guy agreed. Jade was good at putting things like this into perspective -- plus he would have actually been interested by it. Unfortunately, it looked like they were going to have to get through this without him.

Soon after that, the intercom sounded. Guy didn't really want to go yet -- he still had things he needed to talk to Luke about -- but it wasn't his choice to make. He sent his friend a smile as he stood from the bench. "Be careful tonight."