The Grand Crossover RP - Pathway to Origin [IC/PG-13/Moved to NCM for Finale]

[Dad]

Killua

 

He was being tightly held by the adorable Yachiru, but he could only see her as a pet.  Still in disbelief at the tall man, Kenpachi's, claim of god hood, Killua could swear he was hearing things.  He had no idea Gon was aboard the And with Strange Aeons.  He turned quickly, his heart skipping a beat.  Could it be true?  How was it possible?  Gon was bed ridden.  Gon was dying!  Gon was--right. . . here.

 

"Kiiillluuuuaaaa!!!!"

 

"G--Gon?  Gon!  Gon!!" Killua cried as he turned around.  He was in total belief, as tears streamed down his face.  He broke free of Yachiru's deathly grasp, and darted at Gon.  He tackled his friend to the ground, and they rolled, as a ball, into a wall, where Killua landed back first, upside down, staring at Gon's face, right-side up, crying into his own forehead.  "Gon!  You're okay!  You're okay!" he bawled.  Flipping over, he hugged Gon tightly, still shocked.  "But how?  Is it this place?  What's going on?"  He stood himself and Gon up, apologizing profusely for tackling his friend.  Killua went to such a length to be sure Gon was standing before him, that he purposely lowered his natural Nen, and asked Gon, "Can you hit me with a Paper or Rock?  Please!?  I have to be sure I'm not dreaming!"  Of course, at this point, Killua was so elated, he would have accepted any rationale of Gon's.  It was perhaps, the most exciting time in Killua's life since they had met.

 

Kratos and Kenpachi

 

Returning once more from the observation deck, Kenpachi and Kratos interrupted the reunion of Killua and Gon, with Yachiru looking on in jealousy.  Meanwhile, Revy was still pacing in anger, trying not to explode due to lack of low alcohol levels.

 

"You said he had given you a photo."

 

"Yes, but it escaped me during our heated battle with a creature called, 'the Madara'."

 

"Damn it.  I think I know what picture it was too," Kenpachi said with a sigh.

 

"I am truly sorry.  I didn't mean to cause you such anguish.  Especially unknowingly."

 

"It's fine.  It hurts, but moving forward is the most powerful thing you can do, I suppose.  Wallowing in the memories of the dead is disrespectful, because they have to keep coming back to remind you that they're resting.  You don't owe me an apology.  We simply owe our fallen comrades a deed of vengeance."

 

"Well said," Kratos replied.  "And how do you know the little one?"

 

----------

 

Kenpachi and Kratos went on to discuss their respective backstories, how they met enemies and allies, the battles they over came, and the ones they lost.  Different paths were taken by the two, but ultimately, sharing the same goal, they found a common ground in which they could agree.

 

----------

 

"I do wish there were more Soul Reapers here, but that's more of a comfort thing.  Last I recall, it was just Yachiru, Byakuya, and myself.  How long have we actually been dead?" Kenpachi pondered aloud.  They both sat silently, watching Yachiru chase Killua around the room like two children, nearly bumping into Revy and setting her off again.  The plum haired vixen finally decide she would cool off more easily if she sat down.  She decided she may as well confront her "savior" from just moments ago.

 

"Baldy."

 

Kratos raised his head, a deathly stare in his eyes.

 

"Don't go trying to save me, alright?  I don't need you, or anyone else for that matter, to fight my battles for me."

 

"You're welcome."

 

"Grr.  You arrogant son of a--"

 

"For the record, I wasn't fighting your battle.  I simply found you tolerable, and at the time, didn't think Kenpachi's words fair.  As far as I'm concerned, you're on your own."

 

"Tch.  You men always talk huge when your egos are inflated.  You've got your balls swinging free, and suddenly you're Mr. Chivalry when you hear something you don't like, directed at me.  Keep it in your pants, and stop acting like you're a Goddamn knight in shining armor.  You didn't do me any favors.  And you undermine me on the battlefield, and I'll run rings around your ass.  You'll be blinking so fast your scrotum will shoot up into your throat and you'll choke to death on your own nuts."

 

"Hmph.  You remind me of my late wife."

"Yeah?  Bet I've got a better ass," she taunted, getting up from her seat again.  She went back to pacing the floor, trying to keep down her murderous lust.  She was right about that last bit.

[Maeriberii Haan]

[spoiler=A Fleeting Dream]

First Dream: Wedding

Tenshi walked along the hallway, her future husband was on her side. She wore a quite extravagant white wedding dress, while her husband wore a quite classy black suit.

Her people cheered for her along the hallway as she and her fiancé walked on the red carpet, into the throne room.
Sitting on the throne was her best friend Iku, who wore a kingly red fur robe and a crown was perched comfortably atop her short, purple hair.

“You have my blessing, Hinanawi Tenshi and………”

As Iku said the name of her husband, her voice was drowned by the cheering crowd.

“And now, I declare the both of you as husband and wife.
You two shall be together, forever from now on.”
 

---

 

Second Dream: Reunion

Kazuya viewed the metropolis that he had built with his own hand from the window of his room. Demon attacks were merely a history now, and with both YHVH and Lucifer not being able to interfere with his people, the world finally knew the meaning of “peace”.

The Messian Church had completely changed, from religious zealots that mindlessly worships the power that be, into a sanctuary for the one that needed them. Meanwhile, the Cult of Gaian had completely vanished from the face of earth.
It all felt like a dream.

“Kaz, stop being all melancholic like that, will ya?”

A rugged man wearing glasses and military longcoat approached him from behind. Along with him was a brown-haired man wearing a red jumpsuit.

“Contemplating things are never a bad thing, Takeshi.

But anyway, Kaz.
Yuka said that she wanted to see you at Arcadia. You probably need to pack up soon.”

“Heh, alright. I’ll be there soon.”

---

 

Third Dream: Return

“Tenshi, wake up, will you?”

“Ugh, where am I?”

“You’re inside your room, Tenshi.

Please, wake up.
Everyone’s waiting for you.”

“…Huh?”

Tenshi opened her eye, and found out that she was surrounded by a lot of people, all either looking worried about her, or looking completely happy to see her awake. Iku, Yukari, Gengetsu, heck, even the two Lunarian princesses were present there.

“Thank you. I really mean it this time.

Thank you for becoming the hero. Our hero.”

“..Hero?”

“Of course! You saved all of us, and that needs some celebration.

We’ve prepared a welcome party just for you, and your deeds shall be recorded in history with a golden ink.
You need to change your clothing first though. It’d be a shame if our hero goes into her party only wearing a nightgown.”

After saying that, Yukari and the others left, leaving only her inside the room.

“A hero, huh?
That sounds really nice.”

A smile formed on her face. The feeling when finally everyone viewed her as a hero, when everyone praised her, all felt wonderful for her.

[spoiler=A Light of the Past]

Rejected World

 

“Uh…what the hell had just happened?”

Tenco found herself lying on one of the floating platforms, with her in charge of her body again. She didn’t exactly remember about what really happened moments before she became conscious again, but somehow whatever happened before felt…pleasant. Did she fall, hit her head on a rock, and dreamed about something? Probably. She tried to look around for Tenshi, but it seemed like she’s not around there. The Madara thing was seemingly gone too.

“So..what are we going to do now, Amato?”

No response.

“Huh, that’s weird. The talkative you are now gone, huh?”

Still no answer. Tenco had expected Amato to reply with her usual snark, but nope. No answers.

“Are you mad at me or something? Did I do something?”

Still no answer.

She then heard some sort of commotion happening somewhere near. Intrigued by that, Tenco tried to see about what actually happened there.

Safe to say she was not ready to see it.

“Not enough.
Not enough.
Not enough!

I need more!”

The girl that she saw, Hinanawi Tenshi looked completely different, if the girl there was even her. Cheerful color was mostly absent from her almost completely dark gray hair (which oddly, was still blue on the lower part of it) and clothing, except for the scarlet marking and traces on the clothing and on her body. Her skirt was now blood-red, and her red eyes were now dull, seemingly had lost its light. Ashes , ember. That was the best word to describe her now.

“Tenshi, what has happened to you?”

Tenshi didn’t seem to listen to her. She was cornering a blonde woman on one of the platform, her sword pointed straight at the demon.

“Gather.”

The sword started to glow a bit, and then it began absorbing the qi from the woman at a rapid rate, while she could only look at her attacker weakly.

“Tenshi, why?”

“Please, don’t hate me for this, Gengetsu.
I shall use this power granted by you as the foundation for the bright future I shall create. Don’t be sad like that. This way, you can still help me as a friend even when your body perished.”

“You’re insane!”

“I’m not insane. I’m a visionary.
But non-enlightened people usually get confused between the two, so it’s understandable when you say that.”

As her life was sucked away from her, Gengetsu tried to fire several bullets at the celestial, but she was too weak to create anything that could actually harm her.

“Your resistance is futile.
Now, die in peace. For the fate of our beautiful future.
I shall honor your sacrifice.”

Tenshi drove her sword straight into Gengetsu’s heart as it drained the rest of her life energy. When she was sure the demon was dead, she pulled out her sword, and threw the lifeless husk into the void below.
When she turned around, she noticed that people were starting to leave the place.

And then, she noticed Tenco.

“So, there you are. One last fragment of me that I needed to end.
Let’s end this, Tenco.”

“...Tenshi! What the hell is wrong with you?”

“There is nothing wrong with me, really.
But please. I need your energy to fulfill my vision. So, let me kill you.”

“…You’re a monster…”

“How rude of you to say that.
I am a visionary. I fight for a great future for all of us.
I am the hero. And ones that stand in my way are all the villains.
And the hero’s job is to defeat the villains and reach their goal, no?”

“…Who are you? I don't believe you are the Tenshi that I believed to know.

Or probably I was right all along.
You are indeed a monster.”

“Tch, haven’t I said otherwise?
But enough talk, have at you!”

---

 

Boundary Realm

 

Managing to take control of herself from her grief, Yukari connected herself with the Rejected World once again just as The Madara perished, and a being that named Protheus Maximus appeared and grabbed the so-called “Key of Origin”. Meanwhile, a interdimensional spaceship had seemed to appear on the world.

“It is time.
There’s still hope to fix all this mess up.”

 

---

 

For reasons unknown to her yet, Reimu felt an ominous omen looming ahead of her as she wander around in her room. Her feeling was somewhat proven when Yukari went inside the room, her face looking all grim and serious.

“Reimu, listen to me.
I have something for you to do, something really important if we want to recover our world.

I’ll explain more as you prepare yourself.”

 

---

 

“That’s it, huh?
I guess I probably can try to do that.”

Now in her formal shrine maiden attire, with her purification rod in her hand, Reimu was doing some warm-up as Yukari told her about the current situation.

“More or less, yes.

You shall go with that spaceship, and when you reached the destination, you shall work your way out to reach the Door of Origin and attempt to open it.

While you technically going with a faction, please note that you are not allied with them, and if they tried to stand in your way, eliminate them. Do you understand?

And note that I won’t be able to contact you at all during this entire ordeal.”

“Sounds reasonable enough, but really, why can’t you be bothered enough to just go by yourself and make things easier for both of us? You damn lazy hag.”

“What did you say?

...Well, I’d love to but I can’t. There’s something I need to finish doing first here.”

“Yeah, whatever. Still sound like a petty excuse to be a lazy bum.”

“...Just go now.”

Yukari created a portal that connected the room and the Rejected World, and before Reimu could move into it, Yukari threw her immediately inside.

 

---

 

Rejected World

 

“Ugh, that hag…”

Thankfully, the portal’s another end was right on one platform, so Reimu didn’t hit into anything when Yukari threw her in. When she realized that she was up in the open air, she immediately focused her mind enough to begin floating. When she looked around for the spaceship Yukari referred, she instead found something quite intriguing.

“…Why there are two Tenshi here?”

But one of them took her attention the most. Her aura was quite a mess, a chaotic mixture of many different auras. And she did look really different than the garden-variety of usual Tenshi. What’s more odd for Reimu though, was despite of the jumbled aura, despite the oddly menacing look, and despite that her sword was dripping with fresh blood, she couldn’t sense actual evil from her.

“What the hell is going on here?”

When the dark-looking Tenshi started to attack the other one, Reimu instinctively dived in, and formed a barrier to repel the attacker.

“Who are you?”

Odd. The short-haired Tenshi didn’t seem to know about her. Reimu chalked it to dimensional shenanigans or whatever.

“Reimu…? Oh, so that hag is definitely near.

But aren’t you kinda dead or something?

Eh, nevermind. You probably came from a different world than mine.”

Without saying anything, Reimu pushed the barrier in front of her to knock the dark-looking Tenshi back.

"Cut this crap out, Tenshi.

Or whoever you actually are."

“Tch, I have no time for this…”

The dark looking Tenshi summoned a keystone, and flew away from there.

“The others are leaving. It won’t be nice for me if they left me here.
So bye. A hero should not loiter around anyway. Especially since I have a world to recreate.”

“...Coming for the Door too, huh?”

Reimu looked at the Tenshi behind her, seemingly still shocked about what’s just happened.

“Ten…shi

What had happened to her?”

“I’m not sure myself, but I am sure that she’s not fully her.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll tell you more later about what I think, but now, we must leave this place.
Can you fly?”

“I can’t.”

“Well then, I’ll carry you on my back. Please don’t make unnecessary moves or I’ll drop you midway.”

After it was all said and done, Reimu flew around while carrying the short-hair Tenshi on her back, and thanks to her intuition, she stumbled to the ship a while later.

---

 

 

“My time…it’s up, huh?”

Kazuya watched from afar as both the Divine and the Counter Corps regrouped and starting to leave the plane one by one. He was lying weakly near the edge of a platform, but a weary smile was on his face.

“We have defeated that thing, finally.

Ah, this felt wonderful.
This silence felt wonderful.”

What was left from Beelzebub, Michael, and Shiva’s soul was gone from him when the Madara absorbed him into his ideal, and in the end, leaving only his transfigured body behind.

“My resistance to this corruption inside…I think I can’t hold on for longer.
It’ll be soon, the time when I’ll probably be a threat to my allies.

I guess I’ll just hope from here that in the end, the multiverse would head for the better.”

The fabricated sky, the floating mass of land, the void below, all was silent. Even the commotion on the group of Divine and Counter Corps couldn’t be heard from his position. He then noticed Arturia was still alive and seemingly still leading the group.

“...So I am right all along, huh?

Arturia really is a woman.
…Heh, I probably need to apologize to her. Maybe not now. Tomorrow perhaps?

As if.”

Kazuya used the last ounce of his strength to stand up, to see the place becoming more and more empty.

“This is the end.

But I’m not sad. I have no regrets.

At least I had done my best.

And at least, I will die knowing that I fought for the right thing in the end.

Yeah, I will now die as myself.”

On the edge of the floating mass of land, Kazuya stared into the endless abyss under him. He contemplated for a bit, but then he immediately cast all the doubts he had, his eye was full with determination.

“I am not afraid.
I have no reason to.
…
I shall be free.”

Closing his eye, Kazuya jumped down from the platform, and fell into the seemingly endless abyss of nothingness.

[spoiler= A Light for the Future]

 

And with Strange Aeons

 

The inside of the spaceship was actually smaller than what Reimu thought, but with her being accustomed to places where the insides were far more spacious than what it seemed from the outside, she might just overreacting by a bit.

“So…Reimu?”

The short-hair sat right across her, seemingly had recovered from her earlier shock. The two had talked for several hours, about a lot of things, like how they ended up there, and how was their life before the entire mess. The two also talked about their respective worlds, but it seemed that they intentionally skipped about what happened earlier, until the short hair asked Reimu about it.

“That girl…
She’s not really Tenshi, huh?

Do you know about what she actually is?”

Reimu shrugged.

“Beat me. But I am sure that ‘Tenshi’ is still Tenshi, somewhat. She’s, I mean, the Tenshi that you and I know is still there.

Probably.”

An awkward silence. Reimu realized that she should stop referring to the two with the same name to make things less confusing.

“Hey, Reimu.
What do you think about Tenshi? I mean, the one from your universe.”

The short-hair’s question broke the short silence.

“Well, to be honest, I’m feeling indifferent to her, really. She’s a major pain in the ass, yeah. But she’s actually really nice at times. It’s just…her selfish tendencies often made it hard to like her.

I wonder…
Nah, nevermind.”

“I see.”

The short-hair stood up, and after checking her belongings, bowed to Reimu.

“Once again, thank you.
I think I’ll look around the spaceship now.”

“Well, go ahead. I’ll sleep here in the meantime.”
 

---

 

Hours has passed since Tenco started to walk around the spaceship, pondering about what she remembered from the Madara’s Infinite Tsukuyomi.

“Wedding, huh?”

To be honest, while she was indeed searching for love, she hadn’t had any idea about what kind of person that she liked the most. She couldn’t even remember how the Madara created her “husband” back then, how he looked, and others.

“Shouldn’t think much about it. It was just merely a dream.”

Then her mind returned to Tenshi, and what happened to her. Despite what she did, and how she acted back then, for some reasons Tenco couldn’t even bring herself to hate her, even if her trust on her had already been betrayed.
No, it had not. Tenco still trusted Tenshi. That was why she believed that she was merely being possessed, and did not act on her own volition. But speaking of Tenshi, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she looked eerily similar to Amato that time. Maybe her disappearance had some connection with Tenshi’s current condition?

Thinking about Amato then reminded her about her words, about how she never actually helped in the battle. While her words hurt her, Tenco knew that it was true. She was too weak to be of any help during the battle.

Her train of thought was disturbed when she noticed that freak from earlier was onboard on the ship, doing some questionable movement and being questionable in general. She decided to back off slowly, and hoping that the freak did not notice her presence.
 

---

 

Reimu couldn’t sleep for long, so she decided to look around the spaceship too. It was then she sensed that the Hakurei Yin Yang Orb was stored somewhere on the ship. Her intuition led her to somewhere, presumably the place where the Yin Yang Orb was stored.

“Why is the orb here?
One more chalk for questions that I need to ask to the leader then.”

Focusing her mind, Reimu ordered the Orb to come to her side. It was successful, but much to Reimu’s surprise, there were two orbs instead of one. Yet another thing Reimu chalked for Alternate Universe shenanigans.

“No one will miss it anyway, unless for some absurd reason there’s another version of me here.”

With two Hakurei Yin Yang Orbs floating around her, Reimu continued her walk around the ship.

“Now I’m hungry. I wonder where the kitchen is is…?”
 

---

Hollow Asteroid

Tenshi moved around her arm a bit while she tried to relax on the hot spring that suddenly appeared inside the Hollow Asteroid. Channeling too much ki from unknown sources always had this risk of actually contaminating her own spirit, but she believed that aside from changing her appearance by a bit, her earlier stunts hadn’t done anything detrimental to her.

She started to observe her skin, and the scarlet marks that appeared on it. It was the first time that this happened for her. The marks were seemingly created from all the foreign spirit flowing inside her, but she was still unsure about that.
Her sword was behind her atop her clothes, still glowing brightly.

Why did she kill Gengetsu and try to do the same to Tenco again?

She had no idea. Probably because they were in her way.

“What has been done is done. I can’t undo it.
I need to keep looking forward, facing the future and leaving the past.”

Future.

That reminded her about the illusion that the Madara constructed for her before. Being a hero for everyone was not the end goal of her. She wanted to create a world of equal opportunities, a world without boredom, a world where people could be happy when they actually try. But why did the Madara projected her ideal world as a world where everyone praised her as a hero was beyond her.

The battle had left her weary and tired, but she didn’t really trust the other individuals there enough to let her guard down by sleeping. She somewhat wondered whether the one that created the hot spring there had any malicious intents, but she dismissed that thought, and decided that even if he did, she would just break through it.

Breakthrough…

That word somehow reminded her about Reimu, who suddenly appeared inside the Rejected World out of nowhere.

“Reimu…
She finally joined this race, huh? But the absence of Yukari is somewhat intriguing.
Why she didn’t even bother to enter this race directly? Is she really that lazy or…
Ah, that’s a possibility. I need to watch out for that then.”

But as time passed, her fatigue finally got to her, and she fell asleep while still inside the hot spring.
 

---

 

“Oooh, spaaaace~”

Koishi noticed that she was inside an asteroid of some sort, floating in the outer space, but every time she tried to create an opening outside, she was stopped by a barrier she could not pass.

“Stupid Mr.Barrier!
Why won’t you let me see spaace?”

Koishi’s frustration had her brandish some of her tentacles, aiming to physically create a hole on the asteroid.

Uh…Koishi. Calm down, will you?
Why don’t you just stay here and be a nice girl?

Koishi withdrew her tentacles when she heard Yukari's complaint. She wasn't very amused.

“But why, Yukari?
Mr.Barrier had been preventing me to go outside and see spaaace! Isn’t he mean?”

Please show some manners. I can't do much for you here if you mess things up.

"You're no fun,Yukari."

Just sit down there and be a good girl, ok?

“Naah, I think I’ll just-”

Wait, where do you think you are going Koishi?

Ignoring Yukari, Koishi opened a gap in front of her, which teleported her into what seemingly looked like a hot spring and a bath house.

“Yay, hot spring~!”

Ugh, this is going to be really awkward, isn't it...?

---

 

 

[Reinforce]

Darcy

 

The Rejected World

 

 

The moment the Madara started talking about taking them all into a perfect world, Darcy was locking down her mental shields, trying desperately to escape the telepathic bindings the being was exerting over everyone in the Rejected World. Unfortunately for her, it was for naught, as she was caught up in the pure light as easily as everyone else, unable to even manifest a shroud of darkness in the wake of the presence locking down her body.

 

 

Infinite Tsukuyomi

 

 

It was paradise for the dark witch, all the worlds across the magic dimension conquered and she ruling them all, her sisters beside her. However, even as she enjoyed the world they had managed to take over, the servants ruling her and the damned Winx finally brought down, something still wasn't right. How had they beaten the Winx, every previous time they'd faced off the Winx had managed to beat them, obtaining new powers every time the Trix gained new powers of their own. With a simple raise of her hand, a ball of pure fire appeared, just floating there, perfectly under her control. She'd obtained the Dragon's Flame, that's how it happened, without the Winx's precious leader Bloom able to fight, her Dragon's Flame in Darcy's possession, the rest of the Winx had fallen easily, and Bloom herself had been able to be captured along with them. 

 

 

Darcy's thoughts stuttered to a halt, how could she have obtained the Dragon's Flame without capturing the fire fairy that had previously held it. It was at that point that something had tried to fog up her thoughts, to convince her that it didn't matter how she had accomplished it, just that she had. For once, it seemed those mental shields in the fight against LERNA were actually coming in handy though, holding back the numb feeling of ecstasy that was wanting to flow through her, washing away all her worries. Thoughts stuttering to a halt once more, she tried to figure that one out. How did she know a LERNA, it certainly wasn't an enemy she had fought in this world, was it? As she glanced back down at the flame still burning perfectly above her hand, for the first time noticing the minute crack running through the centre, larger cracks began to spread around it, the world falling apart as they did and dumping her back into reality.

 

 

The Rejected World

 

Back in reality Darcy quickly shook off the fog still leaving her mind as she looked around to see where the being that had caused the illusory world had gone. The Madara seemed to be dead at last, finished off by the light-haired warrior who'd left the Divine after the jaunt into the Shadow Realm. In any case, the Madara was finally dead, and it seemed that Viligance had the key, or rather Protheus Maximus as he was now calling himself. He was offering the Divine a chance to join him too, for access to the Origin. With a shrug, Darcy got up and levitated up and through the portal, having to grudgingly admit she didn't have any other way out.

 

 

Hollow Asteroid

 

 

Once she'd arrived on the Asteroid, Darcy moved off the side a bit, before sitting down and falling into her familiar meditation trance. Once settled in it, keeping a mental eye out just in case anything happened, she could examine her energy levels in detail, satisfied to find them mostly full this time, something she could attribute to not having done as much work this arc. Coming out of the trance, she could see Butler engulf the meteor in his black blood, curious to see what he was doing with it and glad once the scene resolved to show a bath house and hot spring. Walking over, a quick moment of concentration changed her clothes, allowing her to enter the hot spring in her Dark Sirenix form, and avoid getting her normal clothes wet. With a slight sigh, she could finally relax at least a bit, able to unwind finally from the fairly stressful series of missions they'd been on.

 

 

 

-----

 

Chandra

 

Infinite Tsukuyomi

 

 

Chandra’s dream world was odd, to put it simply. It couldn’t seem to decide what it wanted to be, jumping from images of her returning to her home plane, to fierce and exciting battles across various planes pulled straight from her imagination. It was weird and seemed to be somehow unreal, penetrating through the fog trying to smooth over the abnormality. As she looked closer at the shifting worlds around her, she could start to see cracks appearing over the place, and when she tried to touch one, the whole illusion broke, letting her out as the Madara was killed.

 

 

The Rejected World

 

 

Back in reality, the whole world quickly started to rain, and the man who seemed to be the new leader of the Divine appeared above them all, offering access to the Origin for all who wished to enter it. Annoyingly enough, it seems several took his offer, including the dark witch Chandra had temporarily worked with to get through some of the layers of the Periphery Sphere. Looking around the place, Chandra was surprised to notice that the knight who had been leading them had reappeared, as a female.

 

 

That shock was quickly brushed off though, as a bigger surprise occurred. Somehow a second spaceship appeared, floating down from the hole in the top of this world and as it approached it was easy to see it practically dwarfed the other grounded spaceship as it broadcast its message over the world. As she calmly watched on, one of the people with jetpacks came over and gave her a tag, teleporting her straight into the ship.

 

 

And With Strange Aeons

 

 

Once on the spaceship, Chandra could finally lie down and relax for a bit, having been on edge for nearly the whole long battle, and the confusion from the illusory dream hadn’t helped either. Rather than socialise with everyone in the wake of the battle, Chandra chose to actually sleep, resting to recover from the sheer quantity of spells she’d needed to use during the whole long affair. Summoning spells weren’t exactly easy at the best of times, and though she was good enough to be called a master of her magic, doing so many summons alongside all the other magic she used had used a lot of her reserves.

 

 

 

-----

 

Ayame

 

Infinite Tsukuyomi

 

 

Standing in front of a crowd, Ayame and Naomi next to her were part of the latest set of graduates from the Blind Eyes Academy. In the front row sat their family and friends, Li and Anapa Kaguya sitting next to Naomi’s whole clan of dragons, all in human form come to celebrate her graduation. Next to them, Jin and Lien Akatsuki were sitting, celebrating the graduation of their sempai. For a moment, all seemed right with the world, before cracks started to form, ripping the world apart just as Ayame moved to hug her parents.

 

 

The Rejected World

 

 

Spat out of the lovely dream, back in the cold, devastated world everyone had been fighting in, Ayame just collapsed to her knees, tears freely flowing at the cruelness of the world. For a moment, just a brief moment in time she’d been granted her family and friends, only for it all to be taken away from her again as the cracks appeared. She was unresponsive to everything around her, not even noticing the gigantic spaceship that appeared even as rain soaked her through. Even in the despair though, Ayame’s trained senses noticed the arrival of someone flying down with a jetpack, and managed to gather her senses for long enough to accept one of the tags being handed out before the person moved on, finally taking notice of the giant spaceship hovering in the air as she did so before the tag took her away.

 

 

And With Strange Aeons

 

 

Lying on one of the beds, Ayame was waking up from the sleep she’d eventually managed to fall into. Even with the tears long since dried up, her eyes were still rather red, as she got up and grabbed the weapons she’d ended up bringing along with her. The metal staff was once again strapped to her back, its familiar weight comforting her much more than the large sword sheathed on her hip. Stolen from the original owner – now dead, she reminded herself – by the remnants that had possessed her body for a while, the heavy blade was now hanging by her side.

 

 

Moving quickly through the halls, she found her way across to the ship’s gymnasium, where she could use the open space to one side to better familiarize herself with the sword. Thankfully she’d trained to use swords before, so it shouldn’t take too long to get used to the blade, but it was unlikely she’d use it if she didn’t have to for a while at least. About an hour later, she stopped swinging the blade around, instead pushing a small amount of energy into it to try and activate the fancy dragons inked into the blade. With a burst, the black flames alit, dancing over the blade as she kept a steady flow of mana to it, before lowering and dying as she retrieved the mana out from it. There was still one more test she wanted to do before engaging in open combat, but attempting to see if the reality marble the remnants had somehow created remained would have to wait till she was off the ship. After all, Ayame didn’t exactly think it would be a good idea to attempt to unleash it now, particularly given her innate connection to lightning.

 

 

Sighing, the tall girl started to wander through the halls, walking keeping moving in an attempt to outrun the sadness lingering deep in her soul. She couldn’t afford to dwell on it yet, too much resided on the Counter Corps beating the Divine for her to break down yet. In her mind, a small and treacherous part of her doubted that choice though. Was she really alright with the CC winning, wasn’t there some part of her that wanted to access the Origin as well. For now, she ignored it though. For now, she had to be ready to get going.

[Final Fantasy Revolution]

Matthew Supplex/Odin<And With Strange Aeons>

 

Odin and company had been teleported onto the huge spaceship, relishing in their victory and celebrating the fact that Xansvita was finally no more. They exchanged handshakes and other signs of overwhelming appreciation of one another, but then the room was quiet once more.

 

A Solemn Depart

The Last Sentiment

"Well that's it then, it's finished." A voice not heard during the battle with Ivero had now sounded off, it was the original voice of Matthew Supplex. Some who were closer to Matthew, or have at least seen him before, would note that he was now wearing his original outfit; Matthew was no longer playing the role of Odin. He gave them a smirk before turning his back to them, he started speaking before anyone could say anything about his appearance. "My name is Matthew Supplex, and I sided with Isamy and the Divine when this quest toward the Door of Origin had started. It was a mistake to take her side and I have come to regret it and only hope that you all might forgive me." Matthew took a brief moment to pause for breath and then kept going, thankfully no one had said a word, sensing that he had not been done talking just yet.

 

"I've hurt some of the Counter Corps, and I had attacked others in the beginning; I never did apologize to that Mackgogameon for attacking him in the Shadow Realm." He smirked to himself, intentionally mispronouncing the name. "And I've knocked heads with more than a few of you, and some of those few much more than others." He rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke of Eria. "I had never expected this journey to have gone the way it did, and at the same the time, this is exactly how I thought it would end." The spirit of Odin had appeared next to Matthew, riding Slepnir who had given off a distorted neighing sound to signify that it was time to go. "Summons usually only last a few minutes, but together we managed an eternity." Matthew spoke highly of Odin and brushed Slepnir's mane with his hand. "It's been a long fight for me, but it's time for me to go. Best of luck to the rest of you, Orevwa!" And at that last word he tossed his hat at the feet of the teammates he had proudly fought along side, but soon that too faded along with Odin, Slepnir, and then Matthew himself; always sporting that grin full of snark.

 

 

???<And With Strange Aeons>

 

As the last few shreds of presence that their comrade had once carried faded away into the metallic walls of the spaceship, they were left with feelings of sorrow and loss hanging in the air. However, they were almost  immediately replaced with an air of concern and perhaps even danger; as a huge and powerful demonic presence was slowly making its way down the bridge toward the area where the group was residing. Light footsteps carried the man's outfit; a kimono that was mostly white with a red and white cherry blossom flower crest at the collar and sleeves and a pair of sashinuki hakama which are gathered at the ankles. The left shoulder wore a spiked pauldron attached to a cuirass that he wore about his mid-section; on the right was a flowing amount of white fur, or what appeared to be fur. His waist-length white hair settled as his golden eyes scanned the group he was now facing, possibly deciding on whether or not he would vanquish them.

 

"Uh, hello everyone..." The voice of Arthuria came from behind the demonic figure, as she stepped to the side of him to make herself none to the group. Her presence would hopefully calm the group, knowing that he wouldn't be there if Arthuria didn't allow such a thing. "This man is one of our newest additions to the Counter Corps, in spite of his...um...presence, that he emits, he has agreed to join our side and our journey towards the Door." The man stepped forward now, but hadn't said anything for another moment or two. "You may address me as...Sesshomaru...." The light in the room slowly faded to black and the Grand Crossover Role Play had then cut to a commercial.

[Love of Ghibli]

The Hollow Asteroid

What a strange place this was. One moment there was nothing but dank emptiness not really fit for the life she had grown accustomed to in her own. Then the next thing you know, everything was overtaken with a strange black liquid. Since neither her nor Judai's Borg triggered it couldn't have been a threat. Gyouken noticed that inside this black liquid the power of creation was being used to make...a bath house/a place where everyone who looks like they just came from a hectic battle could sit back and relax. 

Oh what a treat this is! She said out loud talking to mostly herself but since Judai was in the vicinity he could here it too. As she looked around though she noticed that there was one other disturbingly awesome quality of this place. There were black rukh everywhere. Her and Judai started to watch as the supposed fake sky was covered with them. They were flowing ever peacefully as if this was there natural homeland. As if Black Rukh had some secret origin point. In other words she had found Nirvana. The place with literally no impurities. A place where souls have fallen into despair to escape this awful thing know as fate. She had to learn more though she had to find where was the epicenter of this...elation. Where exactly do they all go from here?

 

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Butlerok was pleased that mostly everyone had taken kindly to the whole bath house scene he had made. After all they had just came from a massive battle gone through the a planet's core and everything. Surely they must be dirty, smelly, and tired. Clothes and everything should be cleaned, which is all taken care of in the awesome spa like treatment the Butlerok had created for them. The Ars Magna is a really awesome piece of magic. Pity he can no longer use it outside of the Black Blood. Having said that Butlerok left to another place inside of the Black Blood just to check on his resident fuel source for the time being. It appeared that the group was going to be in this make shift paradise of his for quite some time. Though he probably should've explained to everyone that if they ever need anything all they have to do is ask and like "magic" it shall appear.

[Kingdom Xathers]

[On board the Aeon....]

"Alright everyone, out of the fu*kin' way!!" Kokonoe shouted out as she and Iron Tager traversed through the halls of the Aeon, followed by Ratchet and Clank, with Raphael Valentine leading them to the ship's Medical Bay.

"Get them onto the examination table," the Audino Pokemorph said urgently to the red-skinned cyborg. Tager complied, with difficulty; after almost a full minute, the 7'10, 1212-pound behemoth eventually managed to fit his way through the smaller door frame. He then gently placed the Lombax ice block onto the exam table.

"Meanwhile," Raphael continued, directing his attention to the group of Duel Monsters that had yet to be dispelled, which included Russell Oxford, Farkas, Dark Magician Girl, and Harpie Carla(?!), "we need to find anybody who can break these two out of the ice with as little damage done to them as possible. Anyone at all, whether they can produce heat or undo the formation of ice, whatever. Find them and bring them here immediately. Understood?"

"Aye!" Russell and Farkas replied as the girls gave a nod. The four of them exited the MedBay, with Russell and Carla going together in one direction while Farkas and DMG each took their own paths.

Ratchet, however, remained in the MedBay, unable to take his eyes off of the frozen lombaxes before him. He could feel a small, metallic hand gently close around his own.

"They will be alright, Ratchet," Clank said in as reassuring a voice a robot could manage.

The young lombax, try as he might, couldn't bring himself to say any words without breaking down. He could only muster a small, sobbing hiccup as he turned and knelt down to hug Clank close to him....







[Alexander's Soul Room]

"GYAHH!!"

*Thud!*

As Alister landed within Alexander's Soul Room, his feet slipped on the frozen, slippery surface of the staircase's highest landing, his face smacking into the icy floor.

"Well, that was less than graceful," Umbris uttered as he simply floated on his cape-turned-wings down to Alister's side. "You all right?"

"Umbris...," Alister growled through his teeth as he gingerly picked himself up from the floor, calmly dusting himself off and inspecting his nose to see if it had broken, "... lemme put it to you this way...." Without warning, the General grabbed Umbris by the collar and threw a fist into the face of the humanoid panther, practically collapsing the muzzle of the Neo-Spacian like an accordion. "How does THAT feel?!"

With an annoyed glare at the lombax, Umbris grabbed at the tip of his compressed schnoz and yanked it outward before letting it snap back into place. "... that hurt."

"Good. Now you understand how I feel," Alister replied with a satisfied smirk on his face. It was immediately dropped as Alister began to get a better look at their surroundings; the tower-like interior of the Soul Room was completely covered in frost and ice, books had fallen from their shelves, many of the picture frames had become uneven and devoid of any photographs inside... the silence and emptiness of the scene was as chilling as the temperature at that moment.

"... I don't see Alex in here," Umbris' voice broke the silence. "He must be hiding in one of these rooms," he figured, pointing to the doors appearing at regular intervals along the staircase.

"Can't we just sense him?" Alister asked. "That could make this a whole lot easier."

"I wish I could agree with you in certainty," Umbris admitted. "Right now, I can't feel his presence anywhere in here...."

"... he really must've buried himself deep," Alister said as he slowly and carefully made his way down the staircase, with Umbris following close behind....


[Meanwhile, back on the Aeon....]

"Finally...," Rodin heaved a genuine sigh of relief after finally coming across the Aeon's Crew Lounge. It didn't really matter to him that its feng shui was rather bland; he had found a place to reinstall the entrance to The Gates of Hell bar. Held underneath his arm was a whole 4'-by-4' section of the floor from the Inch of Will on which he had previously placed the entrance glyph to the Bar. Rodin placed this piece of floor next to the Lounge's own bar.

"... now, I just gotta prepare for any yahoos looking for some liquor...."

[Alex's Soul Room]

"Wait, this door...!"

"You sure?!"

"Positive! It's faint, but I can feel his presence behind it!"

"Well, what're we waiting for?!" Alister blurted out as he grabbed at the doorknob and pulled as hard as he could.

"Um, Alister--?"

"Wow, this door must be frozen shut or something!"

"Or maybe, oh, I dunno," Umbris replied in a deadpan manner, "you are perhaps trying to pull open a door that needs to be pushed open."

"... ... right," Alister uttered humbly as he ceased his attempts to yank the door open... ... ... before suddenly charging at it in a shoulder-ram seconds later.

"Alister, wait! We don't if that room's--!"

*CRASH!!*

"Ah, S H I T!!" Alister tried his best to keep his footing on what little ground there was behind the door, as the rest of the room... ... well, actually, there was no "room" at all, merely an endless void. Alister flailed his arms around, trying not to lose his balance and fall off the edge into the abyss.

Before his balance could fail him, however, Umbris grabbed hold of Alister's tail, he himself anchored to the door frame. "As I was saying," Umbris continued as he pulled Alister back onto safe ground, "we can't be sure what's behind any of these doors, Alister. You can't just go barging through like a madman. You have to be prepared for anything."

"Right... you're right, Umbris. Thanks," Alister sighed in relief. "... but that still doesn't explain how Alexander could be in here... unless...." The General trailed off as he took a glance over the edge of the ground, into the void below them. "... nononono-NO. He wouldn't do that... would he?" Alister stammered as he turned his head toward Umbris.

The Neo-Spacian couldn't come up with an answer right away. What should he tell him? Fortunately, something in the distance caught his eye and distracted him from having to answer: a set of wooden double-doors floating ahead in the distance....

[Dad]

Killua

 

There was a sudden ruckus, and another female voicing echoed through the Aeon.  It peaked Killua's interest, and he dragged Gon along to, "check out all the commotion".  A rather large brute was wielding a large block of ice.  Inside of it, two furry creatures the likes of which Killua had never seen.  Poking his head around the nearest door frame a bit more, a similar, also furry creature, followed behind the larger gentleman, with a tiny robot in tow.  The un-thawed furry had a look of urgency in his face, his eyes watery.

 

"Get them onto the examination table," said another strange one.  There were so many to behold, that Killua felt like he was surrounded by Ants again.

 

". .  .we need to find anybody who can break these two out of the ice with as little damage done to them as possible. Anyone at all, whether they can produce heat or undo the formation of ice, whatever. Find them and bring them here immediately. Understood?"

 

Killua turned to Gon, and back to the room that the Iron Tager brought the ice block into, wondering if he should step in to help, though uncertain for fear of being scolded for interfering.  He decided to take a chance, and as two more odd beings left the MedBay, he sneaked up to it's doors, silently as trained.  Without letting his presence be felt, he finally spoke up.  "I think I can help," he offered.

 

Revy

 

Finally unnerved, Revy decided to explore the ship, seeing as how she couldn't get any more agitated.  She swooped past the MedBay, spotting a bunch of oddballs, weirdos, Frankensteins, and lightning people, through the Observation Deck, and stumbled upon a room she seemed to have missed.  She heard a clambering, and got curious.  Poking her head inside, she spotted the most beautiful thing she had seen in what felt like a life time.  There was a bar, though it appeared someone was already present.   She knocked twice, but slipped inside before a response was given.  Her eyes glistened for the first time, like ever.  But she quickly recomposed herself, as she approached Rodin.  "You the barkeep?  'Cause I need something strong." she asked patiently.

 

Kratos & Kenpachi

 

They sat, talking still.  Kratos finally brought up Kenpachi's resurrection, and this caught Yachiru's ears.  She sneaked over and sat quietly at the two titan's feet, folding her legs over as if she was listening to a bed time story.

 

". . . an odd, old man.   He appeared to be a spirit, belonging to the dead.  I had given him the souls of my fallen ally, and the soul of one of my Universe's gods, Hades.  In exchange, I would be able to see an ally brought back to life.  But he did not say who, which is where I faltered."

 

"You assumed--"

  

"He would bring back Byakuya," Kratos said at last.  "Obviously I was wrong, but I suppose it wasn't for naught."  They paid no mind to the noise behind them in the MedBay, as Killua and company darted past them.  "I will say, however, he was strong.  Though his power was in his final words, not in his fight.  I suppose after being caught on the other side, you tend to lose fighting prowess once you've been apart of the Counter Corps," Kratos said taunting no one.

 

"Heh.  The short time I was here, I know what we can do.  Take Sora--" Kenpachi caught himself.  "Sora!  Did he make it?"

 

"Sora?"

 

"Er. . .he's--"

 

"Feet-san!" Yachiru spoke up suddenly, and the duo finally noticed her.

 

"Yeah, he uh--EHEM.  He carries around a Keyblade.  Spiky hair, somewhat baggy clothing.  Ring any bells?"

 

"Perhaps. . . " Kratos thought for a moment.  "Yes.  Yes I recall him.  He is alive.  You know him then?"

 

"Of course!  Hah!  Sora and I--we go back, though, it's a strange story."

 

Kenpachi went on to recall their adventures with Roxas and his crew a long time ago, with Yachiru chiming in occasionally.

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

The Rejected World

 

After seeing nothing but red for a few seconds, Jecht found himself standing where he had landed from being knocked over during the grand scale battle with The Madara. His experience inside the Infinite Tsukonomi was hazy at best, but that didn't matter; what mattered to Jecht right now was that Sarah was OK. He walked over to her, only to see that she was struggling to stand because of the side effects of the diffusion from Kriemhild Gretchen.

 

"Sarah!" Jecht called as he ran towards her, catching her in his arms just as she was fainting, "...are you gonna be alright."

 

"I... all I wanted... was a normal life..." Sarah groaned weakly, "...none of this bullshit..."

 

"What do you mean?" Jecht asked just for clarification, although he could've guessed regardless.

 

"Oh I don't know... I'd want Ifrit... out of my body... for once in my life... for starters..." said a weary Sarah, "Also..."

 

Before she could say anything more, Sarah lost all the strength she had, and her body began to slide downwards, although Jecht managed to catch her in time. Still, Jecht could tell all along why Sarah continued on with this battle; it was all because she just wanted to get The Book of Demons back and give it back to Terry. But instead of actually giving her the chance to breach the castle in which the book was held, both Counter Guardians had sent Sarah in completely different directions. The Shadow Realm. The Desert Seth. And now The Sphere Forest of the Periphery. The entire journey had crushed Sarah's mental defenses, and allowed Ifrit to draw closer to actually possessing Sarah than he ever managed to accomplish. Hence why she just wanted to get on with trying to seize the book; she just didn't know how much more of this absurd chaos she could take. It was driving her insane. This whole journey with the Counter Corps was driving her insane.

 

During his time with Sarah, Jecht had completely failed to notice that Protheus Maximus had arrived, and by the time he caught vision with him, the latter had gone and taken most of the other Divine members with him. Jecht was too late to rejoin with the Divine, but he didn't care; he'd already decided that he wasn't going to stay on the Divine's side ever since his confrontation with Cerebrum. Though he did wonder how he was going to get out of the Rejected World with Sarah.

 

However, that would soon be answered for. A spherical white rift opened up in the sky, out of which came a familiar mechanized unit. Well... almost familiar. The Jaws of Hell had a major difference in appearance since its participation in the war between the Counter Corps and the Divine, having been heavily modified and made considerably larger since then and now coming with a whole new paint job and set of warning stickers all over its neo-steel body.

 

"Well damn it," The Jaws of Hell cursed in a robotic voice, though something about this specific voice seemed different from its normal one, "If only we arrived just 7,826,893,467 nanoseconds earlier, I would've been able to murder this Protheus Maximus already..."

 

"Just open the damn cockpit already," said a familiar voice, and with that, the cockpit opened up to reveal that Riley was inside, along with a third person, or robot rather, that had been travelling with him and Azumi, "Yo Jecht, get in here. There's something we need to show you."

 

Jecht hopped inside the newly improved Jaws of Hell cockpit, which appeared more lounge-like and bridge-like than before, and rested Sarah on one of the couches that were installed so she could rest, while Jecht saw to what it was that Riley wanted to show him. But first...

 

"Bender, Jecht. Jecht, Bender," Riley said quickly, and then the two quickly waved to each other.

 

"So who's that other chick?" asked Bender.

 

"Her name's Sarah," Jecht answered briefly, "She won't be staying around for too long. As soon as we get that Book of Demons back, I'll want us to drop her off..."

 

"Yeah, that's the thing we wanted to show you," Riley intervened, "We're just waiting on Azumi to actually be done with it, for once in her...!"

 

"You managed to get it back? How?"

 

"Same way we snagged all the other valuable crap that was there."

 

"We'll tell you on the way, but for now, everyone to buckle up. We leave for Sarah's home universe in 9,753,971,095 nanoseconds."

 

With that, everyone rushed to their seats and whipped on some seat-belts, including Azumi who'd just arrived onto the scene from her cabin. A small beam was emitted from The Jaws of Hell's eyes, which soon expanded into another white rift for it to enter. And so they travelled to Thorndale through the rift.

 

Flashback: Isamy's Castle

 

'So what's this about a book of demons?'

 

'I wanted to know how you guys got it.'

 

'Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah, we couldn't afford to side with Isamy any more cause the Protoss told us all about the damage she caused to the multiverse, so we decided to raid her castle. To be honest, we were just thinking of blowing it up, but then we noticed this other ship there. What was it called again?'

 

'And With Strange Aeons. Weird name if you ask me.'

 

'Yeah, that is a weird name. Probably why it's so forgettable. But anyway, we saw this Strange Aeon ship, and then we decided... no, we weren't gonna blow the castle up. So we just decided to hang back and check out the vault... and that's when we saw the three guys break the force-fields that were holding the other artifacts in place. Wait. There was only one guy; the other two were chicks. And one of them was very hot. And sooooooooooooo...'

 

'Azumi, you're drooling again. And that thing better not be sticking out like a sore thumb like it was last time...'

 

'Hey, I... she... I... she was funking naked! Course I was gonna be hard down there...'

 

'Whoa, too much information, lady. Still... you two could've been a bit more productive, like I was when I stole that one guy's wallet.'

 

'You were lucky they were too busy dealing with that force-field. Your approach wasn't stealthy enough.'

 

'It was 40% stealthy enough!'

 

'Guys, please. In any case, we just waited for those three to do their thing, and then we just grabbed what we could. Oh, and I blow that satellite too.'

 

'OK, so it was those others that killed the force-field. I see.'

 

'That reminds me; what happened to that Juubey?'

 

'Who?'

 

'White cat thing. Probably inside that Strange Aeon Ship now.'

 

'I can actually confirm that. I saw it enter And Within Strange Aeons as a glimpse from where I was stationed, soon after the other three persons. Also, we'll be inside Sarah's home universe right about... now.'

 

Thorndale: Nearby the Graveyard

 

Finally, The Jaws of Hell made it to the realm of Thorndale, where Sarah originally came from. It was at this time that Sarah finally awoke, only to wonder what she was doing inside the cockpit with everyone else. She barely remembered Riley and didn't know who Azumi and Bender were. But in any case, Sarah was still drowsy.

 

"Where... am I? Who are you people?" Sarah frisked herself as she asked these two questions, only to find out that she was missing a certain something that she would rarely be without, "And who the funk stole my booze while I was funking sleeping?!"

 

"You're here in your home universe and we're the guys that got you your Book of Demons back," Riley answered, "As for your booze, Bender stole it."

 

"What?! That's it; you're gonna get it." Bender rolled up his sleeves as he said this and was then intending to punch Riley in the face, only to get tackled by Sarah instead. Jecht was already onto separating the two, although it certainly took a while.

 

"Alright, break it up, break it up," said Jecht, before addressing Sarah personally, "Let's get going."

 

...

 

With that, Sarah and Jecht stepped outside The Jaws of Hell and were both at the landscape of Thorndale.

 

"So this is what you envisioned in that Infinite Tsukoyomi, huh?" asked Jecht, "A normal life?"

 

"Well, close; we probably still have to deal with demons at night, and there's no funking way that Ifrit's gonna get out of me any time soon," Sarah shed a few tears as she answered, "But... this is probably as close as I'll ever get. Thanks Jecht, for giving me back a life I can actually handle for once."

 

"Not a problem. Oh, and um, before you go..." Jecht handed Sarah the book, "...here. It'd be shame to forget it after you fought so hard for it."

 

Sarah gave Jecht a big hug, before taking the book and heading towards the horizon. Jecht smiled as Sarah went about her way and started to turn back himself, only to see that The Jaws of Hell, impatient to get going, had already set up another white rift and was lifting off to go for it.

 

"Oh, sheet!!" Jecht had to break for it in order to catch up, only just having managed to grab onto its tail before it went through.

 

Just Outside the Hollow Asteroid

 

And so the crew found themselves out in space, where Jecht would have to plot the next move.

 

"Yep, this is definitely the place," The Jaws of Hell announced, "I can detect Protheus and co. in that asteroid just ahead."

 

"So... what do we do now?" asked Azumi.

 

"We wait," Jecht replied, "There's no doubt in my mind that Protheus'll head straight for The Door of Origin, but in order to find it, we'll have to follow him and perhaps keep him alive until then. Once he leads us to the door though, we give him hell..."

[Kōsuke Ueki]

There are no words that can describe what has happened to the two warriors.

Now, you're probably wondering what happened to Maxwell and Kurai? Probably not. But to make it known, while on the Aeon, Maxwell and Kurai had asked Arturia to bring them back to their universe. At that point, they felt like they had no reason to be there. They had barely done anything and feel they are needed more where they belong.

So, until the day they are needed again, they'll fight for their world for as long as possible.

Richard

The Guardian of the Estrelas has went through a lot. He stared at Tsunugai's amulet, knowing that the majority of his powers were unusable, locked deep within his amulet. Being on the Aeon for a while has calmed his nerves. Enough where he should just get up and talk with somebody.

But the first person he saw shocked him beyond belief. "K-Kenpachi! You're alive!?"

Tsunugai

Unlike Richard, the last remaining Paladin, or rather, the last remaining human from his destroyed universe cannot even consider what he was feeling. The pain was far too real. Especially when he lost a lot of his power and one of his main abilities, the Perception, after being from the "Perfect" World. Everything he tried to win back was already gone. He couldn't grasp it, as much as he wished he could. But it was the truth. Now there was only one option left that he has in order to keep fighting: the Door. When the Multiverse returns to normal, so will his world return as if nothing happened.

But the pain only hurt more, when he couldn't even reconcile with those he hurt, those that he himself wanted forgiveness from. In particular, Matthew Supplex. When he heard his voice, there was no doubt in his mind it was him. But before he could do anything, Matthew faded away, asking only for those he had hurt would forgive him. In Tsunugai's mind, it was already done when he came to his senses in the Desert Seth. However, in his mind, he felt more like he was to blame for what he did to him during that time, the time when he was not himself...

 

I should be the one asking for forgiveness. I never want to be that way again. I've done more damage then you think. Matthew, I'm sorry. Please, wherever you are, I hope you can forgive me for the things I have done to you.

And all Tsunugai could do was weep silently, hoping that someone can come to his aid with the pain he's facing.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

Thankfully, the thing that Yukari feared didn’t happen. Instead of running around completely naked and creating a ruckus, Koishi instead immediately went inside the hot spring. While it was apparent that there’s something a bit off from the entire place, Yukari couldn’t care about it much.

 

“Hum, hum~

Hot spring is still as good as ever~”

 

Surprisingly for Yukari, it didn’t take long before Koishi fell asleep. The silence provided by her sleeping gave an opportunity for Yukari to think more about her current situation.

 

Not exactly the best day that had ever happened to her, really. She lost a huge portion of her power, trapped inside the body of a madwoman, her world that she created with care was annihilated for a reason that she still deemed as silly and nonsensical, and now, she’s on an unknown, distant place, slowly going into a place that might or might not be able to fix things up.

 

Not to mention that the madwoman in question, Komeiji Koishi, was one of the main reason why her world was annihilated. While she couldn’t really bring herself to hate this girl, saying that she liked her was really a stretch. She’s annoying, too childish for her own good, and well, insane. Not to mention being a coldblooded, apathetic killer.

 

Still, for some reasons, Yukari couldn’t help but pity her.

 

She had tried to reach out to her heart, to try making her open up more to her. But so far, she failed thanks to a powerful barrier inside her mind. That barrier was also one of the reasons that Yukari couldn’t try to take over the control of the body from her, even when she tried.

With Koishi still asleep, Yukari decided that she need some time to relax too, to clear up her mind for things to come.

 

---

 

“Don’t touch me!”

 

“Get away from me, you monster!”

 

“I regret every single second when I trusted you. Now, go to hell!”

 

“I wish for you to die alone in the middle of nowhere.”

 

---

 

“…A bad dream, huh?”

 

Tenshi had woken up from her short sleep thanks to one of her bad dreams, and now realized that the hot spring had been filled with more and more people.  Like the witch-looking woman over there and…Yukari?

 

“..Wait, what?”

 

While she was still unsure about it, she noticed a girl that looked suspiciously similar to Yukari for the most part was inside the hot spring. Well, she did look far younger than she should ever be, body wise, and…oh, now she somewhat got it.

 

There’s something ridiculously off about her. Mainly, the fact that her limbs and head were barely attached to her body. And also, the blue eye-like construct attached to her by two vein-like strings. Still felt ridiculously close to Yukari, yet now Tenshi started to have doubts about the girl being the same person as the woman that she despised.

 

Though, her concern about that girl being Yukari was immediately replaced with her noticing that the girl, while still having a little girl-like body, still had bigger..racks than her.

 

“…Dammit. Now it’s not the time to be envious!

Only damsels that needs to be worried about that! Not a hero!”

 

To keep her mind distracted from the girl and the fact that she was vastly outclassed by everyone, Tenshi decided to grab her sword to test something. While channeling qi into herself to create some sort of armor was already proven to be possible, Tenshi decided to try taking things further by a bit.

Taking a small portion of energy from everyone around into her sword, Tenshi created a crimson orb, not unlike the projectiles that she usually used. Picturing an image of herself on her mind, Tenshi then tried to shape the orb into the image. And until that point, she was successful.

 

“And now, the hard part.”

 

The crimson miniature of her stood still there, motionless. Tenshi tried to move her sword around to see if she could somehow make it move, but it didn’t work. She tried to use her mind to move it, but that still didn’t work.

 

“Ugh.

 

…Well then, I guess at least I know how I will spend the rest my time in this place now.”

 

---

 

And With Strange Aeons

 

“Thank you for the explanation, Lady Arturia.”

 

Kazuya smiled politely to the legendary king as soon as he properly arrived to the spaceship and after she gave the information about what was going on and what they would do.

 

“I guess for now I’ll just take some rest then, if you don’t mind.

And once again, thank you.”

 

---

 

Once he was outside of Arturia’s quarter, Kazuya immediately searched out for and went inside one of the many bedrooms inside the ship. Knowing more about his allies should usually be a priority for him, but not this time. He needed to check several important things first.

 

On his bed, he booted his COMP on, which looked awfully similar to a game system (it’s technically was a game system), and started to fiddle around with it. An observer would assume that he was just playing games, but actually, it was far more serious than that.

 

His COMP had this certain feature that ensured normal humans could stand up against demon on a somewhat even ground (note that ‘demons’ here was a very broad term that encompassed a lot of things), one of the ways it did that was by enabling the holder to use demon’s magic and skills (again, a very broad term). But really, to be short, Kazuya was assigning proper skills to himself before the upcoming battle.
 

 

Kazuya Minegishi

Level 90 Human

STR: 15

MAG: 40

VIT: 25

AGI: 26

Drain, Holy Dance, Maziodyne, Repel Fire, Victory Cry, Dual Shadow. Auto-Skill: Battle Aura

 

 

Satisfied enough with the skill arrangement, Kazuya proceeded to shift his focus to his demons. Realizing that he still had enough macca (a demonic currency) to spare and that he was able to access the demon auction feature from the spaceship, Kazuya then spent quite the amount of time to optimize his demons to cover things that he thought would be necessary for the upcoming battle.

 

He was still very thankful to his cousin that the interface for the entire thing was really user-friendly, making the entire thing just felt like a game, suspiciously so.

 

But really, having the ability to summon and strengthen ancient gods, angels, and demons on your game console was still quite ridiculous. Kazuya still thought about it that way even after everything that he had gone through.

 

---

 

After eating enough food to last for days, Reimu left the kitchen happily, now deciding to see whether the place had some high quality sake somewhere or not. The thought that she might be a bit too…overboard for someone that was not even really on their side didn’t cross her mind by a bit.

 

When she reached the room that probably was the bar, she noticed that there was only two people inside. A tough-looking woman and someone that Reimu thought to be the barkeep.

 

“Hey, do you have some sake here?” Reimu asked the bartender. While waiting for him to respond properly, Reimu decided to try talking to the woman besides her.

 

“Oh hai there. Do you want to talk?”

 

---

 

Tenco, who managed to avoid getting the attention of that freak, ran the hell away from him and in exhaustion, decided to take some rest at the corridor of the spaceship.

 

“…That was close. “

 

It was just then that she realized that she had no idea about where this ship was going, or about what she would do next. Technically speaking, she was an illegal passenger there, really.

 

Still confused as of what she should do now, she decided to try asking around. Though, the fact that no-one was nearby proved to be a pain.

She then decided to just try to go to the nearest place with people inside, and once there, she noticed a woman with a kingly aura was there, probably the “Arturia” that Reimu referred to back then.

 

“…Pardon me, milady.

I ended up on this ship by accident, and noticed that many people here were seemingly preparing for combat. May I ask about what is going on here?”

 

---

[Dad]

Revy

 

Before the barkeep could respond, Revy got some sudden company.  Though she preferred to drink alone, perhaps a drinking buddy could prove fun.  Some competition maybe?  She snapped around to face a dainty appearing, younger looking girl dressed in a kimono.  She, with a bouncy, spirited voice, asked Revy, "Do you want to talk?"  Revy, who was curious at the girl's presence, played along.  "Talk?  Sure, we can talk.  Over a couple rounds of Sake.  You can tell me what you know about this place, and I can get  drunk.  Eventually I'll reveal my past, you'll look at me like I'm insane, we'll both realize it's true, and become best friends.  Then, when we finally meet in some dramatic setting a couple thousand miles from here, we can reminisce."  Revy pulled up a table, two bar stools, and turned back to Reimu.  "So, what'd ya think?"

 

Wesker

 

Patience was key.  Success was inevitable.   But resistance was undeniable.  Judging by some of the looks on these faces, there was quite a bit of resistance.  Obviously, such ridiculously ludicrous resistance was not easily prevented, Wesker would not be swayed.  If he couldn't be killed by a rocket to the face, he wouldn't hesitate to take on new victims.  He had one goal, thinking out loud, "Complete.  Universal.  Saturation."  He recalled Leon's escapade in the east with Las Plagas, and Chris Redfield's interference in Africa.  He would start with those two.  A swift stab here, a shotgun to the throat there, a bit of injection and some forced cooperation.  He had decided then, and there, he would make Chris watch as he peeled back Sheva's skin from her feet, up.  He would have Leon suffer at the hands of a Las Plagas' larvae, as it grows inside his body over days until it explodes in his abdomen.  "Ah yes.  The joys of harmonious slaughter."

[Gαr]

Gon

 

Killua came running towards Gon faster than Gon was coming towards Killua. They collided and ended up in a heap against a wall. While Killua was crying and having the emotional crisis of a life time, Gon was smiling ear to ear. After Killua patted Gon down to make sure that it was actually Gon in front him and asked him to hit him with his Hatsu, Gon placed his hand on Killua's shoulder, calming him briefly. "I'm not going to hit you with Nen just so you can be sure that I am here. And besides, I'm not entirely sure if I can still use Nen and I'd rather not find out by using it on my best friend."

 

Killua introduced Gon to Yachiru, the young friend of one of the two large men sitting and talking together. They eventually chased each other around the room when Killua heard something that peaked his interest. He dragged Gon down the hallway towards the MedBay. Stopping just before the corner, they both peeked around it to see what was going on. They saw a wide assortment of different creatures it was like all the Chimera Ants were having a party in a spaceship. Killua announced his presence and offered his help. Gon hopped around the corner and next to his friend. "I think I can help, too."

 

Ed and Elsa

 

They walked around the ship, talking about themselves, but it was mostly Ed catching Elsa up on all that has happened so far. "Wow, you've all really been through a lot." That made Elsa feel a little insecure. Everyone had been through something tragic and came out of it alright, but when she came up against a little hardship, she panicked and ran away from the problem. She crossed her arms, hugging herself, and rubbed her arms with her hands, trying to calm down. Ed saw the way Elsa was reacting and tried to comfort her. He placed his on her shoulder, but she pulled. "Elsa, it's alright. There's no need to compare yourself to others, especially here and now."

 

This managed to calm her down a bit. Ed was right. She was new to this. She was just starting anew, at the beginning. Everyone else was already in the middle of their story and her's was just starting. Change doesn't occur as soon as something new happens. "Thanks, Ed."

 

"My pleasure." They continued walking along the the ship, only this time in silence. They neared the room where Kratos and Kenpachi were talking and Ed stopped and exhaled loudly. "Ed?"

 

"You know those two extremely large, extremely powerful guys and the pink haired girl I told you about?"

 

"Yes. What about them?"

 

"Well, they're up ahead and as I told you a few minutes ago, two of them were dead and are now alive and I don't know how to deal with that."

 

Elsa stepped a little closer to Ed. "How about we make a deal. Whenever one of us is distraught, the other has to comfort them by saying some kind words or just being there for them." Elsa took Ed's hands in her own, lightly squeezing them. "Okay?"

 

Ed squeezed back. "Okay."

 

They let go of each other’s hands and walked in. They stopped as soon as they passed the threshold. Ed was taken aback, seeing two of his friends whom he thought were long dead in front of him once again.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

The Rejected World:

 

"This is a lot to take in, ma'am." Roosevelt replied to Arthuria's story, sitting on a chair on the bridge as Trixie coordinated the rescue efforts. "According to you, your gang is out here fighting for the very existence of the multiverse, trying to stop this Divine group from rewriting all of existence. It's pretty heavy." He sighed as he looked into Arthuria's eyes. "However, we have our own issues. We were initially out on a shakedown run, a simple trip to try out a theoretical form of spacetime drive for the first time, but we encountered some problems. We ended up much farther than we thought, and every attempt to correct the jumps ended in failure, getting us more and more lost. We have been out here for almost a month, until this Isamy put us into her Vault like some sort of collectible. You all are the first friendlies we've encountered since we lost contact with Neighborhood Watch. But while we can transport and house you all until you reach you catch up with your adversaries, we need you to understand our situation. We are running on the barest minimum amount of crew needed to run this vessel, and any injuries to our crew, a crew operating on low morale as it is, will be just as damaging to our efficiency. While we can make a good amount of repairs by ourselves, there are simply some pieces of equipment that cannot be fixed out here. And until we find a port that can help us, we have very few options open to us, especially when any one of your people can cripple this vessel singlehandedly." He gave her a bit more of a stern look, but Arthuria could feel the gravity of the ship's dire predicament. "We will help you, heal you, feed you, give you a place to rest, and equip you with what we can within our ability to do so, as long as you all promise to treat us, this crew, and this ship with respect." Having spoken softly and used a big stick, Roosevelt turned to Trixie. "Lieutenant, any word from the Inch of Will?"

 

Foster slowly stirred from the impact, finding the ship to be in total darkness as a faint voice crackled over the comms, and he pulled himself up from the floor to get back into the pilot's seat, putting in the headphones as he opened up the blast shield of the cockpit. "HASV-Zero-Zero-One Inch of Will, this is NWTDNS-NNC-Zero-Zero-Zero-Zero And With Strange Aeons, please respond, over." A female voice repeated over and over, until Foster pressed the button to reply. "Ugh...And With Strange Aeons, this is the Inch of Will. I am Commander Cincinnatus Foster, Recovery Division, Neighborhood Watch, ID Number Six-W-Eight-Three-Five-H."

"Just call us the Aeon, Commander." The voice finally spoke back, cutting into the repeating message with a relieved tone. "I am Lieutenant Trixie Trudge, Acting XO of the Aeon, though I doubt you can verify my ID Number like I can yours. Speaking of which, you seem to check out. Wow. Your service record is...you were in the Archetype Earth incident?"

"Before I came to the Watch, ma'am, but let's actually get down to business first. What the hell is are you all doing all the way out here?"

"I could ask the same of you. Our computer has this ship registered through Lend-Lease to the Divine Sovereignty of Houseidou on Hearth."

"We were sent on a mission with the Counter Corps. Have you met them yet?"

"My CO is talking to Arthuria, your leader, and we are transporting you all aboard. You had quite some fight out here."

"Tell me about it. What's my bird look like?"

"Remarkably intact, save for a few hull breaches. Our scans show that you can get her flying again easily."

"Good. We might need some help. Our AI's not talking yet."

"I'll send our away team to your location and begin a more thorough scan. Just open your cargo bay doors and we'll get on that." She paused for a bit before adding. "And Commander, you have no idea how good it feels to have finally have some friendlies."

"The feeling is mutual, Lieutenant, Foster out." As he closed the channel and got up to go down a deck, he chuckled to himself that he had finally completed the mission given to him. He only hoped that he wouldn't have to leave behind the Counter Corps to fulfill his obligation to bring the Aeon home.

 

Atsuko took the turbolift down to the cargo bay, the last place she hadn't looked in her search to find her mother. Upon hearing that the Inch of Will was in the area, she knew that her mother wouldn't be too far, so she wheeled herself through the various artifacts until she finally saw it. Being lifted by a cargo drone onto the open deck of the cargo bay was a huge crimson organic mass, appearing to be a cross between a rose and the Zerg Creep, only, in the center, were two figures made one, both bearing a face that was very similar to the one gazing upon it.

"Mom..."

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

“Heh, that sounds like one of my typical Thursdays back there in my world. So sure, why not?

Though I’m afraid I don’t have much knowledge about this place either. But eh, I’ll tell you what I know.

 

Long story short, you and many others here are…uh..what’s the word..ah, ‘chosen’ by the leader of this group when you all almost died or something to help fighting some thugs and save the multiverse, or something.

 

That’s the short version, and probably the only one that I know.”

 

Reimu took several seconds to see the woman in front of her more clearly. Attitude wise, her rashness and..well, everything else about her really reminds her of Marisa, her close friend.

 

“Hey, wanna see which one from the two of us is the better drunkard?

This should be in the ‘Get drunk, start a bar fight, wreck things, get sober, be friends’ programme, no?

And trust me; I can hold my liquor damn well.”

 

Why not, Reimu thought. Several rounds of good-quality sake should ease her heart enough to face the upcoming battle.

Though, she kind of hoped that there were more people there, so it could actually count as a party.

 

“Here I come, Mister Bartender! Do you have enough sake in stock?"

 

---

[Dad]

Kenpachi & Kratos

 

Kenpachi was suddenly surrounded by two faces he hardly recognized.  The first, was Richard.  The last of which he recalled being a rather sneaky deviant, but aiding the Counter Corps cause to the end.  "Eh?"  Kenpachi got to his feet as Richard questioned him, taking one slow, giant step towards him, as he replied.  With a malicious grin, Kenpachi leaned in close to Richard, placing a heavy hand on his left shoulder.  "Of course I'm alive," he said squeezing Richard's shoulder.  "Nothing can kill me!" he joked, putting Richard in a headlock, matting his comrade's hair, while he laughed.  But Kenpachi's laugh quickly turned into a stunned, almost pained look as he heard footsteps behind him.  Kratos and Yachiru looked up to see Ed, and another new face of a bright, beautiful young lady standing side by side, holding hands.  Kenpachi free'd Richard from the headlock / noogie combination of death, and almost took off his eye patch to be sure he wasn't seeing things.  "E-Ed?" he finally questioned.  Yachiru, who's memory wasn't as strong, completely forgot about Ed, but became mesmerized by Elsa's beauty instead.  Kratos however, didn't hesitate to stand and shake Ed's hand.

 

"It's good to see you again, Ed," Kratos said with a firm grip.

 

In the process, Kratos managed to save Elsa from the terrifying analysis of Yachiru, who had just hopped to her feet, with an excited, "Pretty!" squeal, and was about to run in circles and possibly frighten Elsa.  Kratos tripped her as she stood, and Yachiru gave him a dirty look.  Kenpachi approached next, getting a good look at Ed.  "Something's off here, Ed," he said examining his friend.  Kenpachi was completely unaware that Ed had become-- "a Soul Reaper!?   I can smell it on ya!" he said with an excited, but crazed grin on his face.  That's when Kenpachi saw it.  In Ed's face.  His stance.  His presence.  Ed reminded Kenpachi a lot of Ichigo, but with the composure of Byakuya.  His crazy grin turned into a softer, almost invisible smile, as he quickly snatched a tear from his eye.  Kenpachi leaned down and gave Ed a bear hug, careful not to harm Elsa.  "You're gonna have to explain that to me some time.  But I take it you know Kratos then?" he asked as Yachiru hopped onto his shoulder.  "And who is this enchanting lady?" he added, looking down at Elsa.

 

"I'm curious as well," Kratos chimed.

 

"Can I hug her Kenny?"

 

"You wanna die?"

 

"Do you?"

 

"I already did!"

 

"Well me too.  Doesn't mean I won't beat you to death."

 

"Is that a challenge?"

 

"Nope.  It's a promise," she said hugging Kenpachi's neck tightly as they joked.

 

Revy

 

"Finally, a real fight!" Revy said excitedly, after Reimu had explained a tad bit about the ship and how Revy got here.  "Well, that aside, I'd like to enjoy this."  She said sticking out her hand.  "Revy," she announced.

[Super Chaos Sonic]

Nero ~ And With Strange Aeons

It wasn't but a few moments before that Nero was released from the being known as Xansvita and that he and his allies reunited on the ship: And With Strange Aeons. However, because of the fight as Xansvita...his memory was lost. He couldn't remember too much of anything, only that he was part of the Counter Corps and the events of his world past...though a part of him wouldn't ever understand the pain the others would've felt when it happened...

 

Before the group's eyes, Odin, Slepnir, and Matthew Supplex said their goodbyes and vanished before their eyes. The entire group that was gathered held back their tears and sadness as well as they could...but Nero could only look at the vanishing trio. He lifted his hand to his face and noticed that he was in fact tearing up. But why...he never remembered the three before...

 

"That man...seemed familiar." he could only muster to say, as he wiped the tear from his eye. "I wish...I had gotten to know him..."

 

The Keyblade War hero just looked at the group as Arthuria arrived, with their new Counter Corps member....

 

"You may address me as...Sesshomaru...."

 

Tsukasa/Decade ~ And With Strange Aeons

Tsukasa kept taking more and more pictures of the interior of the And With Strange Aeons before he finally noticed a small group gathering, especially with Arthuria bringing forth a new member.

 

"You may address me as...Sesshomaru...."

 

Being the kind of person he was, Tsukasa slowly approached the group, as he casually took a few more pictures, making sure to capture everyone's face and the group as a whole. "A perfect group photo there..." he said as he looked up from the camera, as he stood up straight and looked at the group. "Finally get to see other members of the Corps..." Tsukasa paused at this sentence, looking hard at Sora for some reason. "Tsukasa Kayoda..."

 

Takuto/Ginga Bishounen ~ And With Strange Aeons

"Man...this place is like a maze...don't know if I'll be able to find Wako in this place...especially when I'm lost!" Takuto sighed, as he shook his head. "This is definitely a pinch..." He placed his hands in his pockets until he saw a small group nearby.

 

"You may address me as...Sesshomaru...."

 

"Tsukasa Kayoda..."

 

Takuto simply strolled on over to the group and just stood there, not saying anything as he just looked at the group some. "Pardon me! But has anyone happened to see a young girl, short blond hair and a green school uniform on? Her name is Wako Agemaki..."

[Love of Ghibli]

Asteroid Resort and Spa

While some of the Divine did were enjoying the accommodations that Butlerok had provided Gyouken and Judai were trying to walk around in the world of the Black Blood. They were following the flow of the Black Rukh and trying to find the source. As they left the hot springs they noticed that there seemed to be an other worldly portal that lead them to the some odd choosing ground of worlds. It seemed as if the world inside Black Blood was pretty elaborate. The two tourist were always mesmerized. There was one world that seemed to be reminiscent of feudal era Japan, another that looked like the pits of Hell themselves. The second one even had some floating zombies. Finally, there was a door. It was weird though, the door didn't do anything, but excruciating pain roars where had on the other side. 

Nevertheless they continued their search for the source of this Black Rukh. Eventually they found their way into the feudal era looking place and they noticed two bald men and an obviously younger male. As they met this group of strangers in the middle of some kind of tea celebration they Gyouken Ren and Judai both immediately noticed that bald man with the black suit. The black Rukh were dancing around him and spawning from him as if they were genuinely happy. Gyouken did everything in her power to hide her elation. She still didn't know what kind of monster she was dealing with. Eventually she could only bring herself to say one simply phrase. 

"Hello."

[The Warden]

|_)Magical Girl Lydia(_|

 

Lydia had no idea where she was on this titanic battleship, or who was running it, as she stopped to let a Dark Magician Girl run past her. As tempting as it was to follow her, Lydia's own idling path lead her to the medical area, where, oh god, he's here she thought as she locked eyes with Raphael. She wrenched her eyes back to the frozen block on the operating table. "Did an ice user chuck a tantrum?" she inquired.

 

"Something like that" Raphael replied as Lydia was filled in on the situation.

 

"Hmm, then, you should probably not damage the ice too much" she replied, her arms crossed across her chest. 

 

"I have a cousin who is deeply depressed. He was on suicide watch all the time. At one point, the pain and stress he was feeling became so great that he, just collapsed. The doctors called it a self-induced coma. His mind knocked itself out just so it didn't have to deal with anything anymore. The doctors didn't have a means to pull him out, and trying to force him to wake up would have had some severe psychological effects. This block of ice here" she said gently tapping on the block, "is this Alexander's coma. Trying to force him out via removing the ice would probably harm him pretty badly. But if you say there are people in his head, then, just leave them to it. While my cousin was in his coma, his sister and myself would talk to him occasionally. He seemed to respond sometimes, until, he just woke up suddenly. He was still depressed sure, but, he still had little bit of hope left in him. All we can do now, is give our hopes to whoever is inside his head. Then, I figure the ice will melt on its own."

 

------------------------------------------------------

 

|_)Red, the Arisen(_|

 

Red was sitting in his little heavenly circle as the black blood churned and curdled around him. And, as he did so, one question was always prodding at his mind. Why? Why did Protheus want the Door? Perhaps, it would be worth asking. His wings spread out gradually, each stiff bone cracking and repositioning with each inch of span gained. Moving his neck like a snake, each portion cracked individually, sending a wave of endorphins to his mind as the rest of his body joined in on the stretching. 

 

His morning stretch over, his wings flexed and flapped, launching him off the ground. He snatched his staff as he lifted, allowing the black blood to clamour around the open space. Red kept each beat lazy and with slow timing, allowing him to gradually gain height until he reached up to where Protheus floated. "I think it rather interesting, to see how two Maximus would clamour for this Key. I had no idea what your progeny desired with the Door, though I can already assume it was something incredibly petulant. So, what about you? Like the rest of us Divine, you are just as desperate it seems. So what are you so desperate to seek?"

[Maeriberii Haan]

“Revy, huh?
I’m Reimu. Nice to meet you.”
 
Reimu responded to Revy’s offer for a handshake immediately. 
 
“While we wait for the sake to come, why don’t you tell us more about yourself?
I’m just an ordinary shrine maiden from a weird place, if you ask about me.
 
Nothing quite special.”
 

---

 

For someone who had just lost everything that she had, Koishi didn’t look like she cared about it at all. Her cheerfulness after what had already happened was really jarring for Yukari.
 
“Oi, oldie, may I ask about something?”
 
…You’re not asleep?
 
“Probably.
But that asiiide….
Uf, nevermiind~ I think I’ll keep my question to myself now~”
 
…Okay. It’s not l wanted to answer that or anything.
 
A momentary silence between the two followed. But oddly for her, Yukari couldn’t contain her curiosity about Koishi this time, and decided to start trying to know about her more.
 
Oh Koishi, may I ask about something?
Why do you seem to be quite attached to your hat, I wonder?
 
Not a very good question to ask her, Yukari admitted. It was mainly just plain chitchat to break the awkwardness between the two of them.
 
“Why..?
Because mister hat is awesome, Yukari~
He’s my friend, he’s always there for me, and he helped me relax~
Just like my sister!”
 
I see.
 
Not surprised, Yukari was. Of course it was schizophrenia. But then, much to her surprise, Koishi sighed.
 
“Hey, Yukari..
Sister’s not here, right?
I wonder how she’s doing now…”
 
Yukari didn’t dare to answer her with anything. She knew well enough about Satori’s fate, and she didn’t want to provoke Koishi into a rampage, especially here of all places.
 
….
 
But much to Yukari’s relief, Koishi soon had seemingly ignored the topic, and now she was playing merrily on the water.
 
This shall do for now, I guess.
 

---

 

Kazuya made one last overview of his COMP to see whether the results of this round of fusions were good enough for him.
 
 

Level 73 Megami Amaterasu (Prayer, Samarecarm, Maragidyne, Mana Surge, Null Mystic, Victory Cry, Affection)
Level 78 Jashin Nyarlathotep (Deathbound, Megidolaon, Judgment, Life Surge, Life Aid, Phys Jump, Chaos Wave)
Level 85 Ryuou Yurlungur (Dreamfest, Hassohappa, Holy Dance, Repel Phys, Pierce, Dual Shadow, Constrict)
Level 71 Reichou Garuda (Multistrike, Megidolaon, Pierce Hit, Pierce, Phys Jump, Victory Cry, Flight)

It didn’t look half bad, in Kazuya’s opinion. While indeed, he had an overabundance of physical demons, but with himself being magic based, and his demons being able to bypass physical resistances using either almighty attacks or Pierce, blessed be that skill, he shouldn’t have that much problem against most of things, judging from what he usually faced before. Amaterasu being his only healer could prove to be problematic though. But eh, that shouldn’t matter much. The others should be able to fill that hole.
 
In the end, Kazuya was pleased with the result, but then, he noticed that the COMP’s battery was somewhat low. Somewhat annoyed that he was still have to deal with that, Kazuya ended up deciding that he would need the rest of the time before the battle started to charge his COMP’s battery using the hand crank dynamo.
 
“Even with the power of the Bel demons inside me, I still stuck with doing this, huh?”
 
Snickering after saying that to himself, Kazuya then started to put his effort on the manual charger. Shame, he would’ve explored the ship and knowing more about his allies if not for this boring but pretty vital routine
.

---

[Dad]

Revy

 

Revy leaned back in her chair, raising her legs and plopping her boots onto the table in front of her.  "Sure, sure.  I don't get a lot of inquiries about my life, but I'll tell ya anyway."  She began to tell Reimu about her recent adventures.  How she was enjoying a bit of free time before an instantaneous storm developed in the sea, taking her overboard.  "But that's where I've been most of the time.  In between two knuckle heads, and a hard headed moron who can't keep out of trouble.  But, I mean, I had to go through hell to become who I am," she began to think to herself.  When she was barely a teen, Revy was, on a regular basis, beaten and raped by her father.  It wasn't until her 18th birthday she decided she had had enough.  Without hesitating, she put one into his skull and ran off.  It was that day she developed the cold heart she has now.  "I couldn't even turn to the fucking cops," she blurted out.  "They were as dirty as my old man.  These pigs figure, 'oh, she's a lonely dame in the middle of the rain, and she's trying to ease her pain.  Let me take advantage, play a little game.'  He reached for my ass and I shot him in his nuts.  This is why I hate men.  And most people for that matter.  I'm actually pretty surprised I'm talkin' to you," she said chuckling.  "Then again, the drink usually helps.  A couple kills numbs the hurt, too."

 

Revy sat up, taking her feet down suddenly.  "But that's really it.  I'm crazy, I like killing shit, and I despise men.  So where's this weird place you're from?" she asked curiously.  

[Maeriberii Haan]

Reimu listened closely as Revy started to tell her about her story. An adventurous, action girl from what she heard, really reminding Reimu of her friend.

 

But then, Revy started to talk about her past, about how bad her younger years was, and how she ended up as the person she was now. Reimu was going to show her some sympathy, but at the last second, decided that doing that would only makes things worse. Someone like her would not want to be pitied.

 

“But that’s really it. I’m crazy, I like killing sheet, and I despise men.So where’s this weird place you’re from?”

 

“Hm…how should I say it..”

 

Reimu was silent for a couple seconds, thinking about the best way to describe Gensokyo.

 

“Ah.

 

My homeworld..the name is Gensokyo, the land of illusion. A world of things forgotten by many humans, filled with strange, powerful creatures of myths from ages ago that took the form of girls, for some reason.

 

Yeah. While dudes, human or demons, do exist in not a quite small amount there, but the majority of people that do matter are girls and women.

 

Or at least what looked like them, the world was weird like that.

 

These human-like demons, they do prey on us humans and sometimes creates some huge mess in the world, and that is my job to beat the crap outta them and keep the land in relative peace. When you’re powerful enough though, the world is a fun place. At daytime we shower each other with bullets and other projectiles, while at night, we party like there’s no tomorrow. For some, it was indeed paradise.

 

Sad it got blown up though.”

 

Even while she looked like she didn’t care or have let the event go, Reimu still felt guilty about what happened back then. But before Revy could start to notice her true feeling about the matter and asked about what happened, Reimu immediately changed the topic of the conversation.

 

“But anyway, I’ll tell about myself to make things fair.”

 

But before Reimu was able to start talking, the sake mugs had arrived first. And with her not exactly in the mood to tell stories about herself, this proved to be a nice way to change the topic of the conversation.

 

“Ah, nevermind. Let’s just start to get all drunk and merry now.”

[Love of Ghibli]

"Hello"

Well that was a lame introduction Ragnarok thought as he was simply enjoying the omnipresence of everyone being inside of him. He got to be a perverted peeping Tom whenever he wanted. But it didn't matter though while this woman and her man child were definitely weird they were allies in the Grand fight for the Door of Origin! Well maybe not the grand fight anymore. One side has the key and the other is just trying to stop the key from being used. Serious this "war" as it was has just turned into a massive game of keep away. Though in the back of his mind Ragnarok was kind itching for a chance to fight against the Counter Corp. They didn't get to engage the enemy on that front at all on the decayed planet. There are so many more tricks that he wants to show off now. Nevertheless back to these to strangers who left the comfort of the hottub and were able to find Butler in this world.

Genryuusai did not bother to lift his gaze from his drink. While the woman was clearly older than she had let on the impetuous youth that she had chosen to accompany herself stunk of impatience. Thanks to being permanently imprisoned bonded to a Kishin and the madness, it takes an outstanding amount of focus to actually sit still and not set fire to random people. The madness was slowly eating away at him, though to be quite honest, Butler respected him for that. After the old Captain Commander took a sip of tea, without looking he coldly demanded that the two intruders introduce themselves. "Now what brings you two infidels to my quarters." 

Butler quickly interrupted before the captain could further interrogate these two. Well their eyes show they are clearly looking for me, but what is more interesting is how did you find me in this world? There shouldn't be anyone could navigate here. And even less ways one could find my core. It was at this moment that the two bald members started to throw deadly glares at Gyouken and Judai. Clearly they did not like this kind of surprise. 

 

Upon hearing Butler's words Gyouken and Judai just looked at each other with shock. How could he not know about the Rukh, they were coming out of him for Heaven's sake. While Gyouken understood that this had something to do with him being part of some other world Judai did the stupid thing and took his lack of knowledge as a sign of weakness. Which led to his impetuous outburst. Hold up, you don't even know why you're powerful. HAHA I guess you're all brute strength then. As he finished the air got dense and Judai felt a sudden force bring him down to his knees. Butler and Dorian both looked at the old man who had just stood up. The was about to get messy real quick. I normally do not even allow children in my quarters unless they have been properly house trained. Nor do I dare teach them how to walk. However you are new to this world and I am not my normal self. Judai could only grit his teeth at the old man. Sure the young magi knew the CC was strong but nothing prepared him for this amount of power. Well it wasn't like he was going to back down now.

"HAHA Le..." Judai couldn't even get the full phrase Let's go! out before Genryuusai's fist was already at his face. Luckily before the veteran shinigami could make contact a bright yellow barrier appeared around Judai and blocked the sheer impact of the punch, but did nothing when it came to the force behind it. This literally sent Judai flying. Butler and Dorian both raised an eyebrow because it was clearly evident that Judai did not see that punch coming. Meaning that the barrier that defended him was somehow automatic. Both of them changed their eyes to gain further clarity as to what just happened. Hopefully Genryuusai won't go too far with punishing this child.

[Kōsuke Ueki]

Richard

 

The warrior chuckled at the playfulness of Kenpachi, feeling a lot more human than he used to be. Gaining ancient elven powers and achieving the title of Guardian from a Star God really made him feel like he isn't even himself anymore. But when given such power, you are responsible for it. Along with responsibilities that he was given, since there can only be one Guardian of the Estrelas at a time. Regardless, the feeling of being human was reassuring that he can have these moments.

 

Next thing he knew, he saw Ed and...Elsa? Never would have expected her to join the Counter Corps. Either way, this time, Ed was Ed. Not Sliske in disguise. Hopefully

there's no need to worry about him anymore.

 

Richard, however, wished to ask something from Kenpachi. "Do you mind if I talk to you and Yachiru privately? I wish to clear some things up with you two."

[Dad]

Kenpachi & Kratos

 

"Eh?"  Kenpachi raised an eyebrow at Richard's request, but conceded.  "Sounds alright.  I'll be back, you lot," he waved as he ushered Richard towards the Observation deck.  Yachiru only heard mention of her name, and her ears perked up as she hopped onto Kenny's shoulder, and commanded, "March!"  Kratos could only chuckle as the trio excused themselves.  While he waited, he took another seat not too far away, as he admired the way Elsa and Ed held hands.  "My wife and I. . . well, that was a long, long time ago," he remarked.  "I wish I wasn't confined to this place at this moment," he said finally.  "I do crave a battle, a journey.  I feel as though now, I'm waiting in line for a chance at a prize that I really have no desire for.  After all of this is over, I'm not sure what I'm going to do."  Kratos sat back a bit, spreading his arms to the two seats next to him, as he daydreamed.  He silently wondered what it would be like to have a family again--to have a home again.  

 

Revy

 

Revy knocked 'em back, two at a time.  "Ahhhhhhh, I'm startin' to feel a little bit tolerable now," she said not phased by the sake at all.  Two mugs, four mugs, six mugs.  Eight mugs, twelve mugs, sixteen mugs.  Twenty mugs, twenty-five mugs, thirty mugs, later, Revy was feeling as "merry" as ever.  

 

"Oi, oi!" she said as she stood to her drunken feet.  "Wheresh the party!?  It'sh shoooooooooooooo quiet and--*HICCUP*--schtuff!  Let'shhh liven up da place!" she said loudly.  She began to dance around, two more mugs in hand.  She circled and swirled, twisted and turned, until she stumbled into Rodin, breasts first, knocking him over and landing with her chest in his face.  "I bet chu' like it down there, huh?  Ya little perv!" she taunted drunkenly, cackling like a hyena.  She attempted to drink more, but the mug bumped her in the head, causing her to stumble backwards and into the table where Reimu sat.  "Wha!?  Whozzat!?" she said turning around lightning fast, as she dropped her mug in favor of her revolver, and fired at the table legs.  The table crashed onto her head, and she shot up, laughing at her own stupidity.  "Did juu see--*HICCUP*--did ju see dat!?" she said still cackling, until she found herself with one arm wrapped around Reimu and another toting a gun.  "Come on Reimu," she slurred.  "Let'shhh sing a song.  Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~" she began.  "Who liveshh in a Pineapple under da sheaaaaa!?  Nobody!  Because of the oil!  You shtupid Americansh." she began laughing heartily once more.

 

"Reimu.  Reimu!" she said loudly now.  "What do you want out of thish whole thing, huh?  'Cause I'll tell you what I want, what I really really--pffft!" Revy couldn't finish the line because she began cracking up again, stumbling out of the bar and then swaying back in, before landing perfectly in her chair, spinning her revolver around skillfully in her fingers, and putting it away.  "It's okay.  I'm fine.  Really."

[Kingdom Xathers]

[Alexander's Soul Room/Entering ???]

 

"Remember, Alister: this time we pull, not push--"

 

"Omygawd, Umbris, that was one time!"

"Sure, whatever.  Just be sure that you're prepared for what's in there."

 

"... I think I already have a good idea of what's in there."

 

"Then, by all means, Al.  Press on."

 

With a nod, Alister grabbed hold of the brass handles of the heavy wooden doors before them and pulled them open, a light from within flooding out, drowning out the dark void....

 

 

"... so, I was half-right."

 

Alister and Umbris set foot inside the entry hall of a elegant, old-style mansion, the crimson walls and hardwood floors bathed in the glow of candlelit brass sconces lining the walls.  There was a large staircase before them leading to the upper floors, and numerous arched entryways leading to the other rooms in the mansion. 

 

Speaking of which, there were also various people traversing to and from these rooms all over the mansion, all in formal evening wear and half-moon masks.  Must be some sort of festivity going on, what with their clamoring and laughing.  Many of these people Alister recognized as those who had sided with the Counter Corps, though many more didn't ring any bells with him.

 

"... so, did Alexander serious throw himself into a coma just to have a party in here?" Umbris uttered aloud.  "And he didn't invite me?  What a punk...."  Of course, Umbris wasn't (completely) serious, but he felt the need to crack a joke, nonetheless.

 

"Regardless," said Alister, "he has to be here, somewhere.  We should both split."

 

"Alright, but you're not going anywhere else looking like that," Umbris replied as he motioned toward Alister's uniform.

 

"And what's wrong with the way I look?!"

 

"Well, nothing.  Just thought we need to adhere to the dress code here."  With a flash in his eye and a swoosh of his cape, Umbris enclosed himself and Alister within a makeshift curtain.  3 seconds later, the "curtain" parted, revealing that Alister's uniform now had a sharp-looking military coat and matching hat added to it, while Umbris was now sporting a full white tuxedo underneath his cape along with a matching fedora.  "Now that we look the part, we can--"

 

"You forgot the masks," Alister quickly pointed out.

 

"... ... fine...."  Umbris unenthusiastically conjured two half-moon masks identical to the ones worn by the other guests, handing one of them to Alister.  "As I was saying," Umbris continued once they both had put on their masks, "now that we look the part, we can go play "Where's Alejandro?" in this mansion.  Just don't get lost in here; who knows what might happen if Alex has a sudden mood swing."

 

"Umbris, I'll be fine," Alister reassured in a hurried tone before disappearing into the crowd....

 

 

[And With Strange Aeons/Crew Lounge]

 

"Yep.  Just as I figured," Rodin thought to himself as he was approached by his first two customers: one a mature young woman in a ponytail, tanktop and Daisy Dukes who was giving off a slightly unhinged vibe, and the other a young shrine maiden who may or may not be over the age of 18.  ... eh, what the hell, Rodin thought.  Not much point in trying to card anyone at this point.  As the two girls chatted it up, Rodin ducked into The Gates of Hell through the portal on the floor.  A few minutes later, Rodin returned with a bottle in each hand: sake in the right, tequila in the left....

 

[Meanwhile....]

 

"Sheesh, this is a bit harder than I thought," Russell uttered out loud as he and Carla stopped momentarily to catch their breath, having been scrambling all over the ship trying to look for individuals to help Alex and Alister out of the ice block.

 

"Tell me about it.  I wouldn't even know where to begin; I just got here," Carla bemoaned, resting her head against a clawed hand as she leaned against the wall.  "I can't even remember what's happened before I got here... it's all a blur...."

 

Russell strode over toward Carla, a calm smile on his face as he reached a hand out to her, gently caressing her shoulder.  "It's alright, Carla.  You're safe now.  That's all that matters."

 

"... I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize...."

 

"No, Russell, I do.  I have to apologize, about everything...," Carla croaked, turning her anguished face away, tears welling in her eyes.

 

"It's good that you wish to repent, Carla.  A good start, indeed." 

 

Confused, both Russell and Carla began to look around for the source of the voice that spoke out.  "Down here," the voice spoke again, drawing their attention closer to the floor, where they saw a lion plushy looking back at them, an oddly warm smile crossing its stitched mouth.

 

"... that voice...!" Carla uttered in shock, the realization beginning to dawn on her.

 

Russell, too, was left speechless, the voice coming from the plushy being one that he knew all too well.  Slowly, he knelt down before the lion toy, trying to fight off the tears welling in his eyes as a knot formed in his throat.  "... G... Gabby...?"

 

The lion plushie nodded slowly, his button eyes appearing a bit misty as he looked back at the taller human.  "Yeah... it's me...."

 

 

[back in Alex's Soul Room/Lunar Mansion]

 

*BUMP!* "OOF!!"  As Alister calmly pushed his way through the crowd, he himself was bumped into from behind by a dancing MachGaogamon, which in turn sent him crashing into yet another one of the Mansion's partons, knocking him over.  "AACK!  Oh, pardon me, I'm really sorry about... that...," Alister began to profusely apologize as he went to help the attendee back to their feet, trailing off as he noticed who, and what, they were: A white-furred lombax with crimson stripes, also dressed in a military dress uniform of a darker shade of red. His war-weary, pale green eyes peered at Alister from beneath the heavy brows of a rugged face which expressed a confused, ruffled look from having been knocked over so suddenly.  After he had gotten to his feet--thus showing him to be the same height as Alister, give-or-take a few centimeters--he replaced his cap after readjusting his long ponytail.  The name of this individual?

 

"General Artorius Zenith?!"

 

"That would be me, yes," Artorius replied as he dusted himself off.  "... oh, I seem to have lost my mask--"

 

"Oh, wait, it's over here--"

 

*BONK!!* "OW!!"  Both lombaxes had knelt down at the same time to pick up the half-moon mask, only for their heads to abruptly meet with each other.

 

"Ugh... now, what is the meaning of this anyway?!" Artorius snapped as he swiped the mask out of Alister's hand.

 

"My apologies, General Zenith.  I was, err, knocked over, myself," Alister responded as he rubbed his forehead, shooting a glance toward MachGaogamon who was too absorbed in his dance with Dianamon to have even noticed bumping into Azimuth.

 

Artorius's furrowed brow softened as he seemed to recognize whom he was conversing with.  "Oh!  My own apologies, General Azimuth, I didn't recognize you for a moment there.  I had thought you just another hoodlum who had simply waltz into this event."

 

"Hah! Yeah, imagine that," Azimuth gave an embarrassed chuckle.  "To be honest, I didn't think you would be here, either.  After all, I had heard you had--"

 

"--Retired, Azimuth," Zenith interrupted.  "Yes, I decided that being a father to my own son was more important than being a father to my Guardsmen.  It was the least I could do...."

 

"Oh?  And how is your son doing?"

 

"He's doing much better now, actually.  Made a full recovery from the concussion he had suffered, he has.  Speaking of whom, I haven't seen him around here, yet.  Have you, by any chance...?"

 

Alister shook his head.  "Sorry, 'fraid I can't help with that.  I'm in the middle of looking for someone, myself."

 

"Ah.  I won't hold you, then," Artorius replied, nodding in acknowledgement.  "Perhaps we can meet again, after this gathering has concluded."  Without another word, Artorius disappeared into the crowd.

 

Alister, meanwhile, was left rather puzzled.  "... Artorius Zenith?  But, why would he be here, inside Alexander's mind, of all places?"

 

"Didn't you connect the dots?"  Azimuth turned to find Umbris approaching him.  "I mean, the similar physical traits should've been a dead-enough giveaway.  Or would you feel better buying a clue?"

 

"What are you talking about?  That could just be a coincide--"  It was then that a sudden realization dawned on Azimuth.

 

"... hmm?" Umbris hummed as he raised an eyebrow, sensing that the General had figured it out.

 

"... wait... he and I... ... we're searching for the same person, aren't we...?"

 

"That's right.  Artorius Zenith is Alexander's father."

 

"Which would make Alex--"

 

"--"Alexander Zenith"," Umbris finished.

 

Questions.  Questions upon questions began to flood into Alister's mind, all of which he wanted to ask and have answered.  Just as he opened his mouth to ask one of these questions, however, a tingling sensation sparked through Azimuth's head.  Immediately, his head snapped toward one of the upstairs walkways, directing his sights toward an open door leading onto a balcony.  "Umbris--!"

 

"I sense him, too!"  The Neo-Spacian jolted over toward the staircase with Azimuth close behind, both of them climbing upwards two steps at a time as they made a mad dash toward where Alexander was presumed to be.

 

Standing at the banister, gazing down at the ocean which reflected the eerily bright glow of the moon above, was Alexander.  Or, at least, someone/something that resembled him.  It couldn't be distinguished right away, but they still turned their attention toward the door at the sound of Alexander's name being called.

 

"... Alister?!" Alexander gasped out, shocked to find that the General was there before him.  "Wh-what are you doing here?!" he blurted out as he backed up against the banister.

 

"What do you mean, "What am I doing here?"?  We're here to help you out of this, Alex!" Alister spoke, becoming extra cautious as he noticed that Alex was getting a bit too close to falling over the banister.  "Alex, please, just come over here.  We wanna talk--"

 

"--I'm sorry, Al...," Alexander uttered sadly, still pressing himself against the banister.  "You... you shouldn't have come here.  You have to leave.  Leave this place while you still have a chance...."
 

"What for?" Alister asked, slowly inching his way forward.  "What's going to happen if I stay here?"

 

"You don't get it, Alister!  I have to stay here.  It's... ... it's the only place I can be.  At least here... no one else can get hurt...."

 

"Oh, come off it, Alex."  Without further warning, Alexander's shadow shot up off the ground, grabbing him by the hand and yanking him away from the banister.  A brief second later, the shadow changed its form to that of Umbris.  "Alex, really?  What's the whole point of locking yourself inside this mansion?  What are you trying to accomplish?"

 

"Umbris...?!  I... ... no, this isn't right, you guys need to leave.  You're not safe here...."

 

"Alex, please, just here us out a sec," Alister spoke as he took a few steps closer to Alexander.  "Whatever's gotten you so distressed, we can help.  Just... please, let us in, Alex!"  Alister said as he held out a hand toward Alex.

 

Alexander stared down at the hand Alister was offering, though he made no attempt to reach for it.  "I can't, Al.  I'm sorry... but I came here for a reason... ... ... and that's to disappear."

 

"What are you, high?!" Umbris blurted out.  "Alex, this whole thing makes absolutely no sense.  I mean, why would you fill this mansion with people you love and care about if you're trying to get rid of yourself?"

 

"... it's so I can say my goodbyes," Alex explained, his voice low and almost quiet.  "... once that's done, and everyone has left... I can have this place collapse upon itself... taking me with it."

 

"Alex, that is the most--!"

 

"That's why you guys have to leave," Alex added, his voice becoming more firm and absolute.  "If this mansion collapses with you in it, you'll be trapped here along with me.  Just... just abandon me here.  Free yourselves... and forget about me."

 

Alister couldn't believe what he was hearing.  His body was practically trembling with fury; it took the majority of his willpower just to keep himself from tackling Alex to the ground and physically knock some sense into him.  "Well, you're just going to have to collapse this place with us inside, 'cuz we're not going to be leaving anytime soon!"

 

"That's right, Alex," Umbris agreed.  "We're your friends.  We would never leave you like this, and we're sure as hell not leaving without you--"

 

"Yes, you will," Alex snapped back coldly.  "And if you won't leave on your own, I'll just force you to leave--"

 

"Y'know," Alister interrupted, "maybe I was a bit vague a few seconds ago, Alex.  So, let me reiterate: Sure, Umbris is capable of leaving by himself, but I can't."

 

"What do you mean, you "can't"?" Alex asked, becoming confused.

 

Sternly staring Alexander straight in the face, Alister replied simply: "Because you and I are frozen."

 

"... what...?!" gasped out a stunned Alexander.