Seth stared up as someone emerged from a Corridor. A Nobody, he was sure of it. Nobodies often had a certain... talent for identifying one of their own, and this was no exception. Of course, that also meant that Philippa - or so she called herself - likely already identified Seth as a Nobody as well. At the very least, this meant they could skip the boring formalities and go straight to the meat and potatoes.

And these meat and potatoes weren't pleasant to swallow, that was for sure. Philippa brought two others with her, a man and his wife and both looked like they came from a completely different world. Nate and Nora, their names were, and the woman was one of the supposed Princesses of Heart. That wasn't the worst of it, no that would be the news that their baby was being held hostage as a bargaining chip to get them to serve Leo, "Well if that don't beat all..." Seth muttered to himself with a quiet chuckle.

[i]"So, here's the riddle," Philippa was gloating, "how can you succeed in a fight where you're not supposed to kill or overly harm two-thirds of the enemy?"[/i]

Seth opened his mouth as if to respond, but bit his tongue. There was a surprisingly easy answer to this riddle, but he knew the others wouldn't want to hear it. He even considered implementing the solution himself, which would require that he disobey orders and act on his own, exactly the kind of thing Hakim would want him to do to prove the old bastard right. Still, if preventing the Princess of Heart from falling into enemy hands meant keeping the Multiverse safe, then maybe Seth would just have to swallow his pride and do the logical thing.

[i]It wouldn't be hard.[/i] He mused to himself mentally. If the Princess refused to act against them to protect her son, then she could easily be made to remain a neutral party, since the [i]other[/i] most important person of her life is standing right there next to her. Sure, it was easy to do what you knew was wrong when you stood united with the person you love. But what if the safety of [i]both[/i] people you care most about were hanging in the balance? Help Philippa, and the baby's life is forfeit, but what if continuing to serve her endangered the life of her husband? An impossible decision, but one that would at least guarantee Nora's neutrality if nothing else.

With one motion, Seth made his choice. He reached out a gloved hand, willing sand to scoop up the man named Nate, to entrap him in a tomb of ever-squeezing sand. [i]They're going to hate me for this.[/i] That thought didn't leave the Nobody's mind, and as true as it was they needed a way out of this dilemma. If their resident Nobody had to briefly play the villain, then that's what he would do. Assuming Seth's trap was successful, he had only one response for Philippa.

"[i]This[/i] is my answer!" he called up to her, eye flashing bright blue and his usual joking tone completely gone. This was the dead serious Seth that was previously confronting Hakim, even [i]he[/i] couldn't crack a joke in a time like this, "Sorry Princess, but its either your son or your husband now... if you want my advice... just stay out of this and let my compatriots do their thing... you really don't want me to go any further with this!"