They all continued to talk, getting a few group pictures in the process, as well as pictures of the three graduates on their own. Eventually though, everything wound down and everyone began to head home, until it was just Beth and Chris, wandering back to the barracks. "So." Beth began.

"So?" Chris raised an eyebrow at her.

"You said a thing today." She replied, giving him a significant look.

Chris frowned. "I said a lot of things today?"

"You said something significant today." Beth continued insistently.

Chris blinked. "I did?"

Beth let out a frustrated sigh. "You said we should get married!"

Chris nodded in realization. "Oh, yeah… what about it?"

Beth glared at him. "Chris, you cannot be so socially dense that you don't realize the significance of telling someone you should get married!"

"I- but you already know I want to marry you? I told you like two weeks ago." Chris replied, confused. They'd had a moment and everything!

"That's different! Then you said you wanted to marry me 'someday'! This time you just said we should get married! As in, we should start planning to get married!" Beth exclaimed.

"Oh, well, yeah, but I still have to propose first." Chris shrugged.

Beth pinched the bridge of her nose. "Chris, that is the proposal!"

Chris gave her a skeptical look. "Beth, I would not propose in the middle of a graduation ceremony. Too public. Too boring. Not romantic at all, even by my standards."

"But you did!" Beth retorted.

"No no no, I was just informing you that we're in the right position to get married. It is a legitimate option for us now, since ensuring our shared survival, and the survival of our kids, would frankly be a trivial process at the moment. And since we've already agreed that we want to get married, then since we are in a position to, we should. But that doesn't mean we should skip the proposal." Chris countered.

"Then when are you going to propose?" Beth growled, glaring at him.

Chris paused to consider it for a moment. "I'm not sure… soon, but I still have to plan it out."

Beth continued to glare at him for a moment, before letting out a frustrated sigh. "You're ridiculous. But…" She leaned in to plant a kiss on his cheek. "I still love you." She paused. "Just don't take too long to plan, okay?"

"I won't. I already have ideas, I just need to talk them through with Derek to make sure they're good ones." Chris replied. His current idea was to propose under the willow tree in the Emerald Pavillion's gardens, since it was a special place for her, but the only time they'd been there together, Daniel had shown up to fight him… He wasn't sure whether that would ruin it or not. He could also try to reenact their first date, but that seemed a bit too cliché. Other than that… Chris wasn't exactly the most romantic guy. At least, he wasn't eventfully romantic. He didn't turn his love into spectacle. There were dozens of places where the two of them had had sweet moments, but not a lot that turned the place itself into something romantic.

Beth smiled. "I know you'll figure something out." She grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. "You always do."

Chris smiled back, giving her hand a squeeze as well. The two of them walked in silence for a moment, just enjoying each other's company, when Chris thought of something else. "Oh, there is something I wanted to talk to you about in more detail."

Beth cocked her head at him. "Yeah?"

"The whole thing with the squads and making people feel… irrelevant." Chris grimaced. "I was doing that to you?"

"It- you weren't doing it." Beth immediately protested, shaking her head. "It's just… okay, I joined the Scouts to be a Scout, you know?" Chris nodded. "But with you around… it isn't your fault, because it's just who you are, but it- it didn't feel like there was any room for me to actually be a Scout. Or at least, the only room I would get would be the room you allowed me to have… I just- I felt like an afterthought. Not to you, never to you, I know, but… to the world. I know I'm never going to be as powerful as you, and that's okay, but… I need the space to exercise the power I do have without it feeling pointless."

Chris nodded slowly, taking it all in. "That makes sense…" He hesitated. "Does- does this mean you wouldn't want a way to contact me while you're in the Maze?"

"Huh? Of course not! If you think for one second I'm spending half the year sleeping on the ground- no, I still want you… not around, but at least available all the time. It isn't about you being there, it's about us having literally the same job and you doing it so well that my contribution feels meaningless. It- I guess it kinda feels like a dumb distinction, but- it isn't really that you could do my job that bothers me, it's that you're supposed to be doing my job… I think… I may not be explaining this very well, but- if you aren't there as a Scout, I think it'll be fine." Beth finished with a sigh and a shrug.

Chris gave her a look, before nodding. "Okay." If taking a step back would make Beth happy, then that's what he'd do. He just hoped she'd be careful. The Maze was dangerous, and without him… Chris sighed internally. He just hoped she'd be alright.

Chris considered his position for the moment. The Scouts were holding him in reserve, so there was nothing to do there. He should probably still take some lessons to learn how to build and maintain equipment, but… the more he thought about that, the less important it seemed. In fact, what it seemed like he should do was have one of his subordinates focus on learning those skills in the game, instead of doing it himself. In fact, a lot of things he had considered doing should be handled that way. He didn't need to be a one man multi-tool of skills and try to do everything himself. Giving his subordinates the space to do things for themselves would take care of the problem just as well and allow them to feel valuable, which was apparently something important.

Speaking of the game, it was still shaping up to be a long-term project. Thanks to Heidi, he was slowly creating more and more connections with various individuals in the Monteith Family, but he was still stuck as Fernando's bodyguard. It didn't help that more than a few of them were elitist pricks and Chris had a hard time hiding how much their attitudes irked him. No, he was not getting anywhere fast in the game. He hoped adding in a few of his subordinates would help with that, but that was a different logistical issue, which led to his other headache on Earth.

He was still dealing with the Anti-Abductor Agency, and they were eager for results, but unfortunately their society wasn't set up to make results feasible. How the hell were you supposed to stop people who could teleport when you couldn't even effectively stop people who couldn't from crossing your borders?!? The teleporter would probably help, but even that process was becoming a hassle. The City didn't exactly leave the things lying around, so he needed to talk to someone who had access to them, which meant David, Dichonius, or Jo. Dichonius and Jo could get their hands on one, but they'd need to talk to their people, who would wonder why they needed to get their hands on one, and there was really no good explanation for that. Their positions being what they were, they were already in a tentative spot, so making waves wasn't a good idea. As for David, getting one from him would involve telling him about Earth, which… Chris was fairly certain it wouldn't be a problem, but he wasn't sure. David was still a military leader, and a potential source of resources might not be something he could ignore. Even if he was cool, he'd still run into the same issue as Dichonius and Jo. Chris supposed it made sense. He was essentially trying to steal a controlled military asset. If it was too easy, he'd be very concerned. However, it sure did seem to suck at the moment.

All this meant that the Anti-Abductor Agency was getting frustrated, or more actually had been frustrated for a long time now, and they were getting… insistent. Chris couldn't blame them, since if there was something out there kidnapping his people, he'd be pretty eager to see something done about it too, but there wasn't anything he could do at the moment, so their insistence was beginning to frustrate him. It didn't help that they still didn't seem to completely trust him either. Plus, it meant that his request for a space with a good internet connection his subordinates could use to play the game probably wouldn't go over well. Thankfully, that wasn't an immediate concern at the moment, since all his subordinates could focus on the Maze.

Chris let out a frustrated sigh as his thoughts turned to the Maze. Yet another part of his life that seemed to be going nowhere fast. The problem was that the Maze was… well, a maze. Navigating the tunnels was a chore, and getting between levels was even worse. But that was to be expected. Chris's real issue was the issue of power. He knew that as long as he kept grabbing more and more subordinates, he'd keep getting more and more powerful, simply because quantity was a quality of its own. If nothing else he could exhaust things to death. However… he didn't want more subordinates! He missed the days when it was just him, Dyrdek, Sidulpek, Ka, T'ka, and Jello roaming through the tunnels. Once he got the imps, and especially after he got the kobolds, he'd begun to feel… disconnected. Distanced. The things he wanted done were still getting done, and done well, but… he didn't feel like he had anything to do with it.

Ironically, it seemed similar to the way he made others feel. Feeling like you had no place to do what you wanted to do… yeah, it was not a comfortable feeling. He could understand why it might send Beth into a funk. His version wasn't even all that bad, since he still knew it was his ability that made all of it possible. But it wouldn't get better if he just kept grabbing stronger and stronger subordinates. No, what he needed to do was find a way to make his current subordinates, and by extension himself, stronger. And to do that, he needed to solve two problems: speeding up the mutation process so that they could mutate sooner and finding a way for them to mutate outside the Immortal World.

The second problem was all on him, but the first… Chris summoned Jello. "Hey, big brother!" She greeted him excitedly. "What's up? Can we go back to the mall!?!"

"It's too late for the mall." Chris replied, shaking his head, causing Jello to let out a disappointed 'awww'. "No, I wanted to see what you knew about mutation and how to speed up the process."

Jello frowned. "Rushing your mutation isn't a good idea, unless you really need to. You want to wait until you have a whole mess of changes to make before finding a spot with a lot of stuff, so you can absorb as much as you can! That way you'll be as strong as possible once you reach your limit!"

"Limit?" Chris asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Jello nodded. "Yeah. See, every time you mutate, you weaken your core, until at some point it breaks, merging with the rest of your body. That's when you officially become a Doppelganger, because you can transform freely based on the genetics of everything you've absorbed up to that point."

Chris frowned. "Can't you already do that?"

Jello shook her head. "No, I'm just manipulating my form using my ability. I'm not actually changing, I'm just shifting things around so I appear to be different. True Doppelgangers can become the thing they change into to the point where no one could tell the difference between them."

"Then what about when I transform? Or any of the others?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Jello blinked. "That… huh. That is weird. Though, the fact that any of you even can mutate without a core is weird. Maybe it has something to do with that?"

"Maybe…" Chris muttered, considering the question for a moment, before shaking his head. "Okay, weirdness aside for the moment, because if I start questioning why I can do any of the things I do, it just starts to give me a headache, let's get back to my original question. How can I make sure people are ready to mutate sooner, rather than later?"

Jello cocked her head. "Don't you already know? You gotta fight! Well, that and eating, but I don't think that helps you since you don't have cores…"

"Eating?" Chris asked.

"Yeah! How else would you get new genetic information?" Jello replied. "Oh, plus if you can eat the ability core, before the essence leaves, that'll really help!"

Chris frowned. "What do you mean by essence?"

Jello paused to consider the question, her expression twisting in consternation as she tried to find the best words to explain. "It's this… it's like- it's essence! It's like everything a being is, condensed down to its most basic form, and when you eat it, you learn their life and add it to your experiences, which helps you mutate!"

Chris blinked. That… sounded remarkably close to what he experienced when he delved into his connection with his subordinates. "So this essence helps you skip the process of gaining your own experience by taking the experience of others?"

"Well, you still have to adjust it to yourself, because what's good for them may not necessarily be good for you, but essentially, yeah." Jello nodded. "Plus, if you can get the essence of something stronger than you, it can really help!"

Chris paused to consider the possibilities for a moment. If he took all his subordinates' experience and made it his own… as Jello said, he'd have to adjust it a bit for himself, but it'd definitely get him ready to mutate faster. The problem was how would that help the rest of his subordinates? It wasn't like he could share experience with them, right? Or could he? Chris narrowed his eyes at Jello. It was a fact that after they mutated, all his subordinates could speak, or at least understand, Human. How was that possible unless somehow he was giving them that knowledge? Subconsciously making them easier to be around… did he do anything else subconsciously? His mind drifted towards T'ka and the other kobold women, before abruptly shutting that train of thought down. Even if it was true, it didn't mean anything, because he was with Beth.

Quickly shifting tracks, he refocused on Jello. *If I can do this, then…* Chris took all his memories of fighting, from growing up preparing for the Trial to his training with the Scouts to his experiences in the game and bundled them all up. He focused on Jello and gave the bundle a push, trying to send it though their connection and…

Jello's eyes widened as her mind was suddenly flooded with memories of fighting and training! She turned to Chris with an incredulous stare. "Did- did you just give me your essence?!?"

"Oh good, it worked." Chris nodded. Proof of concept successful. Now he just needed to go through all his subordinates' memories, pick out the valuable stuff and spread it around… Chris let out a sigh. There went privacy, he guessed. Unless… was there a way for his subordinates to choose what they sent to him? "Try to do the same thing." He gestured to Jello. "Take all the knowledge you have of fighting, bundle it up, and send it to me through our connection."

Jello blinked a few times, trying to wrap her mind around what was happening here, before nodding hesitantly and doing as he said. She wasn't quite sure what he meant by 'bundle it up' so she just focused on sending what she knew about fighting over, and as she did, it suddenly began to flow, things she didn't even remember flashing through her mind as they streamed through her connection with Chris!

Chris took a moment to take it all in, before nodding. "Good job. I think this will be very helpful. Once we have everyone sharing their experience, we'll all mutate much faster."

Jello nodded dumbly, not even sure how to respond. What she'd just experienced went beyond essence! What you learned from essence was… blurry, like it wasn't meant for you, which… Well, it wasn't. You were stealing it from someone else before it disappeared, of course it wouldn't be completely suitable for you. But what Chris had just done… That was crystal clear! She could remember all his fights and training as if she'd been there herself! She paused for a moment. He swore a lot when he fought… She shook her head. That wasn't the point! If all of them could share experience this well… over a hundred people training round the clock… they could hit a minor mutation in a week and a major mutation in a month! Just a few months and they could reach physical perfection! The only issue would be… Jello frowned. Where would they get enough stuff to make it all worth it?