Gate of Memoirs/Back to the Pit

An unlikely alliance with the doppelganger of a world-destroying madman was probably last on your bucket list.
Portrait 	Dialogue
Music: "Hazama"	Music: "Hazama"
 	
*The final exchange between Elaina and Evie has haunted your dreams for the better part of the week.
*It seemed as though even the Time-Weaver herself was unable to change the outcome in the end.
*Was she aware of the "other" Elysia?And if so, would the others?
*Might there even be a time where you may very well run into yourself?
*Each time you head to the lab after your break, you hope for the same thing...
 	
*...but judging by the looks on Giselle's and Noel's faces, there probably isn't any satisfactory answer.
*Giselle: Cheer up, darling. You did fantastic out there.
*Giselle: You might be here with us strapped to a chair, but you still had to use your brain for all that surveying.
 	
*Giselle: Don't think too hard about *how* it works. That's Noel's job.
 	
*Are the restraints really necessary?...
 	
*Noel: I went through all the data with Giselle during the week, and while we can't determine how Kranus got there...
*Noel: ...We do, at least, have solid evidence that it's capable of affecting events in an Echo.
 	
*Noel: But that brings me to another, more distressing theory...
*Noel: How can we be sure this is all happening in the same timeframe as we know it?
*Noel: Everything you've seen so far could have happened in the past, since we can't influence the Echo of Elysia directly.
*Noel: And given the sheer amount of time-bending you've experienced, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume—
 	
*Giselle: Noel, the point, please?
 	
*Noel: Sorry.
 	
*Noel: The point is, remember that first time you were wrangled into the other timeline?
*Noel: Where you were physically IN that other Athensphere?
*Noel: The good news is that I've managed to anchor its signal to our map.
 	
*Noel: I don't like to assume things, but there is a ninety-two-point-four percent chance Azius thought the same.
 	
*Giselle: Showoff.
 	
*Noel: Anyway, since you've already been in that Echo once, I don't anticipate any lasting problems in your physical presence there...
*Noel: ...But you may just want to be careful of suddenly..."blinking out" again.
*Noel: I don't currently have a solution for that...Yet.
*Noel: That's my job, so you leave that to me. You just concentrate on helping my fellow genius out.
 	
*Giselle: Hey, you're being a bit too friendly with a man whose current-timeline-self blew up his own world.
 	
*Looks like your next objective is to check in on Azius...
*With your last meeting so abruptly cut off, you wonder what's in store for you.
*Hopefully, you're not late again this time...
Athensphere: Liberation Episode 1—Into the Fray—
Portrait 	Dialogue
Music: "Dark Pursuit"	Music: "Dark Pursuit"
 	
—Abandoned Underground Facility
 	
*Azius: ...Any time now. Fairly certain those were the exact coordinates I used.
*Azius: If there ever was a person who could figure it out...
*Azius: And if that person isn't me, it's more than likely will come out in little pieces.
Portrait	Dialogue
 	
*Azius: That Veil—that invisible blanket separating every world from each other—it's not going to remain impassable for much longer.
*Azius: Your appearance has more than assured me that I should follow up with this.
*Azius: Well done indeed. So, what say we—
 	
*Azius: ...?
 	
*And just like that, my otherworldly visitor vanished with little more than a loud pop,
*as if their very body was made only of stardust and smoke.
 	
*Azius: This better be just a momentary glitch, or all my work in these few years would have been for naught...
 	
*Without my tools or any means of communication, there was little recourse but to return to my abandoned facilities.
*There, at least, I would be able to cobble something together, even if I would have to return to the lion's maw.
Portrait	Dialogue
 	
*Beep. Beep.
*Was that your alarm?
*No... Did you fall asleep in your chair at the laboratory?
*You sit up groggily, and realize you've been on the cold, hard floor of a very run-down facility.
*What once appeared to be experimental capsules are now dull, cracked displays.
*?: Ah. You're here! And on time, too.
 	
*You look up to see a familiar—maybe *too* familiar—face.
*Azius: That was rather rude leaving mid-conversation, but I suppose that can't be helped when you're an interdimensional traveler.
 	
*Azius: ...Oh. You don't look so good. Maybe a breather, then.
 	
*Azius: Better?
 	
*That was two minutes.
 	
*Azius: I know, I know. We don't really have the luxury of time.
*Azius: At the very least, you could thank me for managing to secure a docking area for your arrival.
*Azius: I don't need my guest suffering their second concussion of the week.
 	
*So Noel WAS right. Madcaps do tend to think the same way.
*You start to protest, but remember that you're here on a mission.
 	
*Azius: Right. Perhaps a little jogging of your memory?
*Azius: You should know that the red giant from before, the Praetor, is the head henchman of our great and glorious Archon.
*Azius: He was the one who proposed greater military might—security, he calls it—for the low, low price of citizen freedom.
*Azius: Each and every able-bodied citizen was to prove their prowess and undergo military training to equip themselves against future threats...
 	
*Azius: ...of which most were the Archon's own doing, thanks to his grand vision of expansion and all that piffle.
*Azius: I was the one in charge of developing augmentations for our nation. I even believed in his vision, for a while.
*Azius: Until that cost one of our brothers his life.
 	
*Yes—Draegar. You remember.
 	
*Even in your timeline, it seemed that he was always rather zealous.
 	
*Azius: Disgusted with that turn of events, I left on self-imposed exile...
*Azius: But with things as they are now, they'll catch up with me sooner rather than later.
 	
*Azius: Might as well get the jump on them, yes?
 	
*Not much of a jump if Ultor—sorry, the Praetor—has already been alerted to your presence, but that was partially your fault.
 	
*Azius: Come. I'll need your help.
*Azius: This is a subterranean sector built to withstand shocks above ground, but it also doubles as a shortcut to the main building.
*Azius: I cannot change stubbornness by force, but I can deprive them of their means.
*Azius: Shutting down every project I have running should suffice.
*Azius: We'll head upstairs and do a sweep. That should tell me all I need to know about what they've been up to in these two years.
*Azius: There's bound to be guards, but that's nothing to worry about...
 	
*You trail after the inventor, but shake your head inwardly at your predicament.
*There has to be some sort of irony in this...