"But you wouldn't," Naomi pointed out. "Because they gave me a lighter." She waggled the lighter a bit before slipping it into her pocket. "Now. What the hell's the matter with you?"

I don't have infinite sources of energy, you know, the Book said, ruffling its pages a little. You've been treating me like a machine, like I can do whatever I want whenever I want. Which I can. But I do have limits to my power, and this world takes quite a bit more energy to get to than the others.

"You mean the fact that we spend a week almost everywhere isn't enough?" Naomi snarked back. "What happened to the high and mighty, all-powerful Book?"

Clearly you know nothing of interdimensional traveling, so I'll spell it out for you: Going between dimensions takes energy. A lot of energy. More energy than you could possible hope of every harnessing. Traveling between worlds like the alchemy world and this world is worse, because the energy here is different, and I cannot recover as quickly. And jumping multiple people takes more energy. So your various little vacations use a lot of energy. You're stuck here until I recuperate sufficiently. Clearly in a snit, the Book snapped itself closed again.

"Damn thing," Naomi grumbled, cramming the book back into her bag again. "Didn't have any problem with it when Niobe had it, nope, only with me..." She sighed in frustration, but didn't take the book out again.

"At least you got it to talk," Duo said helpfully. "And now we know why it's not flinging you all over."

"It's being a snot," Naomi said. "It never liked me, which I still partially blame on Niobe." She shook her head, and looked at the others. "Satisfied now?"

Trowa nodded slowly, and Heero still looked speculative. But he nodded as well after a moment.

"Told ya," Duo said with a smirk. Because he had no pity for his fellow pilots now.

Quatre nodded as well, but Wufei didn't seem to react much.

"Niobe?" he asked.

"My stepmother," Naomi deadpanned. "We... disagree."

Duo snorted but didn't say anything more on that topic.

"Alright, you all satisfied that she's telling the truth? Good. Is there a reason other than bugging me you all decided to come visit?" Not that he cared overmuch, but still.

"Maxwell, it was your idea to schedule these little meetings," Wufei retorted. "Don't tell me you forgot. Something about 'keeping us together' or some such."

"Yeah, scheduling! That implies advanced warning!" Duo almost pouted at him. "Not dropping in! Although really I should know better with you."

"You're the one who picked the time and place for this one, Duo," Quatre reminded gently.

Duo grumped wordlessly. Clearly he'd forgotten in between going to another world and finding out he was part demon. So sue him.

Naomi watched the exchange, and got up.

"Well, I'm going to go and marvel for a while at how close the moon is," she said, gesturing to the door. It was a lame excuse at best, but it would get her out of the room so they could talk without her there.

Duo nodded, watching her go before he turned back to the others. And now they could get back to catching up.

And bickering. Because they did a lot of that.

"What, exactly, is she?" Wufei asked as soon as the door closed again. Oh yes, he was going to get right to the point. He looked at Duo.

"She told you. Part-human. Basically she works with ice, kind of like... umm... elementals! Like from the old stories." Duo grinned, looking proud of himself for remembering that, since he wasn't exactly big about stories in general.

Wufei raised an eyebrow. Even after the book, he was a bit skeptical.

Duo shrugged. "Believe it or not, that's what she is. Once the book is working again, she can prove it to you more decisively."

"And you believed her initially?" Quatre asked. "She was telling the truth, certainly, but..." But Duo wouldn't have had a way to really tell, not like Quatre did.

"Between the two of them, they convinced me. Besides, I did wait to have a decisive opinion until I went with them to some other place." Duo shrugged.

"What kind of other place?" Quatre leaned forward, interested.

"Two of them?" Wufei asked at the same time.

"Two of them," Duo answered Wufei first. "She has a friend who was here last time, another part-human. And the other place we went was... interesting. They were way behind in technology, but... Really, you just have to see it."

Wufei went quiet at that. He still hadn't forgotten about the girl calling him a dragon. There was no possible way for her to have known about his clan from L5, and now hearing that there were more like her... Something didn't seem right.