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Neville asks Jean for a lift from Amber to Chaos, but Jean's whale refuses to go anywhere near Chaos at the moment. Jean asks Ilk, but all of the Ilks are busy at the moment. Neville finally gives up and trumps Flora, who pulls him through. Neville tries to talk to Benedict, but is intercepted by Misunderstood Benedict. Neville grabs Goliath, the only magic-eating soul-eating sword around, and heads towards Jean's grey zone shadow. The terrain avoids him en-route. Upon arrival in Jean's area, Mandor and the terrain both avoid him. Mandor spouts incomprehensible math indicating that it won't be safe to re-enter Pride's Folly any time soon.
Neville places Goliath into a rock provided by Jean with "Goliath: He who draws this sword from this stone is well and truly fucked."
After some time, Mandor goes through the gate and returns a few minutes later. "Jean - there are some troops outside the lab that aren't you." The mind-wipe field has apparently gone away. Jean sends a detachment of himself over; they kill the ones outside the door.
Jean, Mandor, Goliath, Gil, Janus, Calla, and Johnny go through the gate. They enter the room and Johnny sits down in front of the terminal.
Jean starts looking for the new source of troops. He is at another intersection when someone that isn't one of his folks appears out of thin air. He spots Jean and runs. Jeans give chase, but the guy keeps teleporting away. The guy is also running away from non-Jean soldiers, though.
Jean imports throwing fish and uses the power of loaves and fishes to duplicate them.
Jean starts trying to pummel the guy with fish. After the second fish, a tree-frog green field surrounds the guy and eats the incoming fish.
Jean seeks advice from Calla. She suggests trying to negotiate when there aren't any others around. He's Marvin the Munificent, and these guys took over his home, so he is enacting his revenge. Jean tries to explain that the non-fish bearing clones are bad; the fish-bearing clones are good.
Jean brings Mandor to Marvin. They look very similar. They signal to each other in a fashion that Jean cannot understand, and Mandor tells Jean that Marvin is okay. They go off to talk in an empty room. There are a few explosions and giggles, and then they emerge. Mandor tells Jean that they may have figured out where the primal clone is stored, and invites him to come along with them.
Mandor, Marvin, and Jean head off through a strange irising gate and arrive in a secluded basement. There is the sound of troops moving upstairs. Mandor gestures Jean over to the side, points through a half-boarded open window, sets his balls to spinning, and they hear a thudding noise upstairs. Jean buds into the fallen troops. They know that they're about to march into their final destiny.
There are other people around who don't look like the clones; only the troops look like that. Jean sends the troops through the gate. They find themselves in a large massing of troops Somewhere Else. They line up and wait. Jean looks at the painting behind him. It doesn't look like all of the others; it's newer, and it's trumpish. He lets people know.
Mandor and Marvin pat Jean and indicate to him, via gestures, that he should stay here. They sneak off and return shortly dragging a feral-looking dog. Mandor mind-wipes the dog, and Jean buds into it. It's not actually a dog; it's a cybernetic mechanism with a dog's brain inside it and a dog's flesh around it. They open the door to let Jean out. Jean wags his tail and heads outside. There are lots of dogs wandering around that everyone seems to be ignoring. Jean takes notes and fails to play with any of the special knobs and dials in the bodies. Mandor and Marvin gradually wipe dogs and Jean buds into them, until almost all of the dogs in the area are Jean.
They head to a particular building with two doggie-sized doors. Jean enters the first door. It's a comfortable dog-sized rest and plug-in-to-recharge area. Jean enters the second door and finds a control area with levers and viewscreens. He exits, wags his tail at Mandor and Martin, and re-enters the room. Martin crawls in after Jean, grins, and starts playing with levers. The viewscreens display a wide variety of views, many of which are from some of Jean's eyes. Marvin does something else, then the Jean-dogs feel less burdened. One of the non-Jean dogs comes up to Jean and whines, looking confused. Jean tries to make friends.
Jean relays information from Martin to Mandor, then asks for Johnny's assistance with the machines in this place. Johnny finishes up what he was doing and goes through the irising gate with Mandor. Mandor creates a cloak over Johnny and his floating chair. They head into the security center, and Martin starts explaining the system to Johnny. Johnny is impressed - this place controls the security for the entire shadow.
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