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

[The Warden]

|_)Red, the Arisen(_|

|_)The White Room(_|

 

There was no sound in the White Room, save for the rhythmic sobbing that emanated it. Red was huddled on the ground, clutching at his arm as it burned intensely, even through the ice. Though it was making do keeping changes to his body at bay, Red could still feel the dreadful poison circulating through his mind. He couldn’t even keep a single thought before something else pushed it out. He was shaking like it was absolute zero as his pupils flickered from red, to purple, back to black. He was staring intently at his left claw, watching it twitch like a spider. “Damn it!” he screamed pitifully, thumping his hand on the ethereal white surface.

 

He choked loudly on a sob as he collapsed on his side, staring off into the white emptiness as the Door to Truth stood stalwart over him. “Why me?” he sobbed miserably. “Why is it always me? I… I can’t do anything right” he wept as his eyes turned red. “I’m nothing… but a jinx” he said quietly to himself as he curled up into a miserable little ball.

 

He looked so dead inside as he uncoiled, lying like a corpse as he could feel his arm pulsate. His red eyes stared at the door intently. “Alister will be on the other side. Must… get… Alister” he droned as he rose like the living dead, a hand around the doorknob as he pulled it open.

 

 

|_)Pathway of Truth: A1(_|

 

In the somewhat darkened corridor, Red’s red eyes glew in the darkness. He took a single step forward, and seethed loudly from the weight forcing itself on his broken leg. The sharp pain cast away the red glow as he grimaced, holding his leg up. Casting a quiet look around, he didn’t see anyone nearby. Placing his staff into his jaws, Red lurched forward, slamming on to his arms, now a pair of front legs. He crawled on all fours down the corridor, limping on his right leg as he travelled in forced silence.

 

His red eyes pierced the darkness as he lumbered like a wild beast, his mind focused intently in his poisoned insanity. “Must find…. Must get…. Alister, must get…. Destroy…. Embrace…. Must… must…. What? Must what? What must I do? I don’t remember…. Do I… what? I don’t… understand. My world… needs… something? I don’t recall. It’s too dark here.”

 

Red blinked warily as he reached the end of the long corridor, rising up into the sunlight. He blinked irritably as his eyes resettled back on black, his eyes averted from the dreadful light. His arm throbbed painfully beneath the ice, and he ignored it as best as he could while his eyes tried to adjust. As things became less bright, Red could finally appreciate the beauty that surrounded him. The falling cherry blossom petals reminded him of the Forgotten Realms’ Bamboo Terrace, and Avalar’s Autumn Plains. The way those petals and leaves would fall… it was rather like himself. One of the many, yet the one destined to fall. That was a grim thought he realized as he scratched at his ice cast, his flesh burning beneath it.

 

As beautiful as it was, Red couldn’t help feel a sense of dread, though, you couldn’t blame the Pathway for that. What Sayer had done… he couldn’t fight it forever. Sure, he was just trying to defy the bastard, but, Red was too weak now to fight it off after just barely recovering from near-death. That Orichalcos Shard was constantly clawing at the back of his mind, and it was only a matter of time before it broke loose. After removing his staff from his mouth, Red grunted in annoyance, snorting a small jet of flame. “Damn you Sayer” he grumbled. “Why did you have to ruin this? I can’t even afford to maybe see Alister for one last time. If I am to become a monster…. No, if you bring out the monster in me…. Damn it all” he hissed to himself.

 

As much as he wanted to just stand still, he had to keep moving; his body was telling him to keep moving. And so he did, continuing again on all fours he made his silent journey; to bad it wasn’t silent for long. There were loud explosions ahead, piquing Red’s interest as he neared. One as old as him should know that curiosity had killed the cat, after all. Ducking behind a tree, Red’s head craned around to catch a clear view of what was ahead. He immediately regretted it as he ducked back around, his heart racing. “How?” he croaked weakly, trying to process what he saw.

 

How was Alister and his friends ahead of him? They had never met up before, and these Pathways were enormous. Was this…? Was this all just some cruel joke at his expense? Was reality just taunting him now? To avoid being heard he screamed internally as he huddled behind that tree, to avoid his wings sticking out. “Why?!” he demanded.

 

“You don’t look so good” a small voice pointed out.

 

Red grunted hard, trying to suppress his surprise at already being found out. To his relief though, it was only a fairy in a green leaf dress and blonde hair. “Ah, a fairy” he grinned, having been on good terms with the ones of his world.

 

“Yes, a fairy” the fairy retorted sarcastically, her little arms folded.

 

“Is there something you require?” Red questioned, the sarcasm going over his head.

 

“Yeah, actually. I was wondering if you’d answer a few questions is all” she said innocently.

 

“Okay…?” Red said hesitantly.

 

“Super, so, what are you doing?” the fairy questioned.

 

“I’m spying on that group ahead” Red replied candidly.

 

“Why?” the fairy asked.

 

“Because as of right now I am an incredibly complicated relationship with two members of that group, and would rather not be seen by them right now” Red snapped, wondering why he as being so earnest with his answers. The answer came quickly, as a bit of a durr moment for himself. “Oh for the love of the Ancestors. This Pathway forces the truth out of you, doesn’t it?” he groaned.

 

“Yeppers” the fairy confirmed chipperly, dancing in the air.

 

“You are just here as an irritation then, aren’t you?” Red questioned.

 

“Hey, who’s asking the questions here?” the fairy snapped. “But yeah, we fairies ask questions of people. But if you think I’m a pest, why don’t I go to that group ahead and bother them because the mean dragon spying on them won’t give a little fairy the time of day?”

 

“I’d rather you didn’t” Red said in a strained voice, knowing full well that that fairy would go and do that out of spite. “Ask away.”

 

“Okay then, you say you have two complicated relationships, talk” the fairy commanded.

 

“The first one is with Ratchet. I possess a great deal of affection for the boy, as I can see his immense potential as a fighter, and as an inventor. With proper training he could be an especially skilled warrior, and his creativity is rather refreshing. Honestly, I saw him as one of my own pupils, to be honest. I probably won’t have any left if I fail, maybe that’s why my affection clung so tightly to him. And it’s also why I couldn’t kill him when I had the chance. It would have been a senseless waste of life and potential” Red answered glumly.

 

“And the other?” the fairy pressed.

 

“I’m getting to that” Red snapped irritably, his eyes flashing red. “Alister, with him, I don’t think I even know what I want. It’s… peculiar to see into the life of someone and see your own reflected back at you. It is a rare treat to meet someone who can sympathize with your past because they’ve been there as well. Even though it was for a brief few hours in my life, I feel like I have an unbreakable bond with Alister. A true friendship. If not for the destruction of my world being a pressing issue, I would have happily joined the Counter Corps when he did. But, sadly, fate just isn’t that kind” Red sighed as he pressed his back into the tree, his wings folding around him.

 

“”Unbreakable bond” huh?” the fairy smirked, drifting down by Red’s side. “Isn’t it more than that?” she whispered knowingly.

 

“I have no idea what you’re alluding to” Red answered sincerely.

 

“So innocent. You love him, don’t you?” the fairy gleefully accused.

 

“Be quiet!” Red snapped angrily, smoke flaring from his nostrils.

 

“You do, that’s why you’re stalking him, ain’tcha? Do you wanna kiss his sweet lips and tell him you want to be his forever?” she smirked.

 

“Shup up!” Red snapped again, growing further incensed by those obnoxious accusations.

 

“Do you wanna bend him over and split that fuzzy butthole of his in two with your big dragon dong?” the fairy gleefully sniggered.

 

“I said,” Red began, his eyes glowing red as he inhaled deeply, “SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!” he screamed, incinerating the fairy in a cone of flame.

 

The fairy had been destroyed, but at the cost of somehow being louder than Mister Zurkon, and also telegraphing his location like a smoke signal. “Oh… crap” Red gasped, horrified of his actions as the ash that was once the fairy blew away.

[Dad]

Killua

 

He couldn't help but stop, as his eyes grew wide.  This dragon had moved so fast that instead of passing through an upcoming mirrored world, she reflected off of the world's surface, and bounced backwards.  She could've been critically injured in the process, and so Killua dashed over.  Observing the Dragon on her belly, he sighed.  Thinking to himself, he knew nothing of dragonic anatomy, and there was probably nothing he could do to help.  But if this dragon was as adept as she behaved, a few thousand volts of electricity should have her up and running again without an issue.  Opening a palm above her, Killua's hands freely loosed lightning down into the body of the dragon, slowly, but at a steady pace.

 

"Come on, get up," he whispered to himself.  Why he was helping a dragon that was likely part of the Divine, he had no idea.  But she sure didn't act like it.  Dragons were highly intelligent creatures, and more often than not fought for justice.  But why would this one side with the enemy?  Perhaps she was trapped?  Was she confused, with only one side of the story?  That was irrelevant, ultimately.  In the end, he would help this dragon get up, and he would vanish.  Killua had a disgusting feeling in the pit of his stomach, and something told him he needed to complete this pathway with dire urgency.

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

Kratos & Revy, Prologous, B2

 

After what felt like many long hours, they turned over from a long deserved tussle and slumbering.  Revy smiled at Kratos, sitting up and tying her torn blouse together.  "It's gonna be hard to keep this piece of a shirt together for the rest of this mess," she remarked, now tying back her hair.  Kratos chuckled to himself, stretching and standing to his feet.  "I don't see the problem," he said under his breath.  "Hmm?"  "Nothing," he said dismissing the Spartans surrounding him.  Helping Revy up, she slid her shorts back on, and tied her combat boots.  Holstering her guns again, she sighed as she looked down the next length of the pathway.  "Well?" she said aloud.

 

Kratos huffed.  "Let us be done with this," he said now focusing on the matter at hand.  They marched side by side down the length of the B corridor, only their footsteps making a sound.  Finally, Revy broke the silence.  "What do you think he's like?" she asked randomly.

 

This question struck Kratos as odd, but he bit.  "He?  You mean Protheus?"  Revy nodded.  "I mean, he's probably a really pompous, douchebag huh?" she said laughing now.  Kratos could not share in her laughter, as this was the first time he had heard the phrase 'douchebag'.  "I do not understand," he said with a confused look on his face.

 

"Oh, right, sorry, it's uh--I forget you're from like, the 600's or something.  Okay, so, what I meant was, he's probably really funking big headed and stuck up.  I bet---heh.  I bet he looks down on us all, 'you stupid mortals', like in comic books and bad movies, you know?" she said stifling laughter.  Kratos understood this.  He was very familiar with it.  "He sounds like my father," Kratos remarked, taking Revy too seriously.  "Whoa big guy, calm down.  This is just an idea.  I have no idea who this Protheus funker is, let alone who your old man was.  No need to get caught up in it."

 

Kratos huffed again.  "My apologies," he said quickly.  "Nah, nah, no need to apologize.  I was just making fun of the freak.  Protheus I mean.  What I'm sayin' is, if he went through all this trouble to put us through hell, I'm labeling him as an jabroni," she said laughing again.  Kratos nodded, joining in the laughter as well now.  "Yes, yes.  I have reason to believe someone who would cripple the multiverse is just that.  An jabroni."  Revy nodded, laughing at Kratos' mannerisms.  "Now you're gettin' it.  Hey, I wonder if he has an accent?  What if he's funking Irish?  How funny would that be!?  'Ya blimey Counter Corps are ruinin' me plans, ya are!' "  Their conversation was cut short, as something new came into view.  A tall pillar caught the eyes of Revy and Kratos, and they approached it cautiously.  "What is that?" Revy questioned aloud.  Kratos stepped out in front, inching towards the tower first.  "Be careful," he said slowly.

 

Ending Location:  C3

[The Warden]

[[Another Time, Another Place: Prologuous]]

 

 

 

The Clock struck Twelve, for it always strikes Twelve. There is no time before or after Twelve, there is only Twelve. It is the Twelfth hour, of the only hour. And time is up with the last strike.

 

 

Who dares invade this place?

 

It wasn't speech by any stretch of the word. It was as if the words had been implanted into everyone's head, as if, they had dreamed it up themselves. But where the words had come from, no one could honestly tell. It was if they had come from everywhere, and nowhere at the same time.

 

Kratos, the God of War of Ancient Greece. Rebecca "Revy" Two-Hands, of the Lagoon Company. Zaraki Kenpachi, and Yachiru Kusajishi, of Soul Society. And Reimu Hakurei, the "Eternal" Shrine Maiden. You have entered this domain at the cost of your own existences. It cannot be said whether it is foolish or arrogant to have done so; but it will most likely be concluded that you are both. This land is far beyond your reckoning, this domain not of your creation. Your presence here cannot be tolerated further. 

 

The dark miasma curling around the branches of the clock thickened and churned as more blackness joined them, coalescing into an enormous dark cloud around the branches. A silent hiss echoed through everyone's minds as the head of an enormous shadow serpent broke through from the cloud. It's silent hisses implanted themselves into everyone's minds as it tore from the cloud, the miasma feeding it as its length escaped from the darkness. It curled around in the air above the clock, a shadow serpent of forty meters in length. Darkness dripped from its enormous fangs as its empty eyes glared everywhere. With a loud hiss it curled further, sliding around itself into two loops; piercing through its own length the snake snapped its jaw closed on its tail, forming an enormous mobius strip from its own body. Flesh burbled and churned in the center of the two loops as disgusting whiteness clustered together. A pair of enormous circular white eyes formed in each loop, their surfaces coated in numerous irises and pupils, all staring and all-seeing... and all they saw were intruders, in dire need of eradication.

 

Say farewell to those you care for most, as you will not be seeing them in the next life.

 

 

He who guards the Beginning of the End

 

 

[spoiler=Avatar Conflictous]

HP: ????/????

SP: ∞/∞

Attack: ?

Defence: ?

Speed: ?

[Reinforce]

Ayame

Pathway of Death: B6->A7

 

As they walked on, the voices continued even with the attacks stopped, tormenting Ayame as she walked ever forwards through the path. Next to her, something had seemed to have startled her companion, as he dropped his headphones for a moment, before brushing it off and picking them back up. His face showed that truth easily enough, though as it was there was nothing for it but to continue walking, blocking out the ever present voices of this section of the pathway. Ahead, looming tall was a huge building, large enough that in the darkness they couldn't see it's full size, and with thick enough darkness over the entrance that they couldn't see through it.

 

"Looks like this is the next obstacle then. Nowhere to go but inside."

 

---

 

Chandra

Pathway of Death: A1

 

As Jace cried out for her to help in her mind again, Chandra cringed once more, fully aware of her uselessness in such an endeavour. What's more, she couldn't do much for the physical situation either, stuck in Hapshiel's embrace as he somehow enjoyed feeling the heat and flames she was producing. With her temper rising even more, the heat continued to rise around them. What jolted her out of the ever building loop of her increased heat was the other familiar voice that rang out through her mind, that of the Soul of Ravnica from the last pathway. How it had managed to follow them even to here she didn't know, but hopefully it would be able to snap Jace out of whatever it was that had happened to her. While not calm by any means, she was at least thinking logically again, so instead of turning the heat even higher, she focussed it closer in, drawing away the excess heat that had been heating most of the area, and instead focussing it into scorching the angel's arms, hoping to force him into letting her go at last.

[Tesability Black]

~Counter Corps - Inside Hapshiel's Mind - Jace's POV~

 

Jace took several steps back as the large rose bloomed, not sure what to expect as it grew before it revealed yet another one of the strange angels, though thankfully the lower half was consumed by the plant itself, or at least appeared so.

 

He already wound up being way too close to him once for comfort, and did not look forward to a repeat of being on his back with this...giant...on top of him. He still couldn't wrap his brain around why two beings of the same gender would put themselves into such a position to begin with, either.

 

It was...unusual.

 

"Why are you in this place?"

 

At first, Jace could have easily answered that, to get the big brute off of him. But now that he couldn't even reach out and sense his own body, which officially had him spooked out of his own mind, he didn't know how to answer that anymore.

 

"I...I was trying to get you off me..." he started to say as he tried to focus on returning back, but every attempt felt like he was impacting against a barrier, even though he didn't look like he had moved.

 

Hostility can create a powerful barrier at moments. The thought randomly echoed in his head for a moment as he tried to figure out what was keeping him here.

 

For a moment, after the words repeated in his head from before, he found himself thinking about just how such an emotion could create a barrier. Hostility seemed to be a kinetic emotion, always on the move. It made it possible bypass, but also painful to deal with when you time your attempt to get through wrong.

 

However, here, he was experiencing a solid wall, an immovable fortress of emotion...of...

 

The amount of annoyance he felt momentarily moved him into an almost zen-like state, the only sign of reaction he showed being the closing of his eyes and the tapping of a finger on the side of his leg. He was...quite literally...trapped behind a wall of happiness, which he was having a hard time believing. He tried to focus on the emotion itself, trying to temporarily erase just enough to get back out, but every attempt was thwarted by the happiness refilling itself faster than instantly.

 

"Just...how can one be so...happy all the time, especially with all our...homes...being gone..." Jace managed to say as he tried to reign in himself. "It's almost...foolish."

 

(While Transgenderism is a canonical thing in MTG, I haven't really seen anything solid in the game regarding homosexuality, unless I've flat missed it...so yeah. I'm guessing Jace is about to get a hell of a lesson in regards to 'loving' someone the same gender as yourself. And psychically, he's in the perfect location for no unwilling witnesses. :P)

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

~Counter Corps - Path of Death - ???'s POV~

 

"...so be it." Appearing to completely ignore the change of outfit, Jace's hands began to make certain indiscernible gestures before placing the two pointer fingers together then suddenly separating them, forcing Chandra and Hapshiel to separate from each other with invisible force, one that was more gentle with the lady than the man.

 

With the blue-gloved right hand did the body now make motion of a sphere in the air before pointing towards the angel, triggering the sudden appearance of a sphere of light surrounding him, a supposedly-unbreakable sphere large enough to hold him while standing. "I'd suggest you release the Guildpact then leave when we let you go," the voice sounded from Jace's throat. "Otherwise, you will be detained again and this time not released. We wonder how long you can last without air."

 

With the warning did the bubble of light suddenly pop, allowing him to return his feet to the ground. The whole way through, Jace's eyes were illuminated not with the normal light-blue but with a much-paler shade of blue.

 

Thankfully, something else was happening in all of this, the slowing down and thankfully halting for now the strange thoughts that in no way was Jace's, despite some of it depicting him...

[The Warden]

|_)The Evangelist Hapshiel(_|

|_)Pathway of Death: A1(_|

 

Hapshiel howled in ecstasy as the flames seared his flesh, his nipples burning as Chandra's heat scorched him. Sweet lord how he wished he could take her home to keep him warm at night. Until the other gent decided to be a tease by trapping him in the bubble, his face writhing with pleasure as it popped. Hapshiel chuckled good-naturedly as he smiled at "Jace". "I am holding no one prisoner, my friend. Though, please do. The idea of the breath being pulled from my body, gasping for air, why it'd make me... make me... OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~!" Hapshiel howled, rubbing his body all over, twisting and contorting at the sheer pleasure of the idea being in a solo play as he choked for breath.

 

 

|_)Inside Hapshiel's Mind(_|

 

The blooming Hapshiel frowned at Jace, the steam forming into a pair of muscular legs. Thankfully he wore a white loincloth and a breech cloth, though that was probably for Jace's benefit. "You poor, troubled being" he sighed, shaking his head in pity.

 

This Hapshiel seemed unlike the others. He was much more... composed, would be the better word. "Of course you wouldn't recognize something you so rarely feel. You think it is joy that keeps you here, but you would be very wrong my friend" he explained, placing his hands tenderly on the Mind Mage's shoulders.

 

He gave a content little smile as he pulled Jace in for a hug, but, unlike before, it was a warm and tender hug. One you give to someone in need. "You can't see it, can you? No, I suppose you wouldn't," he whispered into Jace's ear, "what bars you is not joy, but what I, and the rest of these mental Hapshiels are. Love, my friend. You are bound in the embrace of someone who loves everyone, and everything. I would know, as I am his love, my friend. Not lust, not desire, not that strange love-hate. I am pure love, one given freely without wishing or desiring for something in return, except that same love to be reciprocated. And, I sense little love in you, my friend. It is why you cannot see the hill for the trees, as it were. And it is why you are trapped here" he explained, slowly releasing Jace from his embrace.

 

"It is my duty to know love, and I see a troubled heart who knows he cannot love, can he?" Hapshiel questioned, placing a finger at Jace's chest. "The mind is a wonderful, and terrible thing Jace. To be able to invade and manipulate it..., even more so. You resisted love offered in its own... "special", way. And now you are a prisoner of it. What begs the question is: How does one escape from the prison that is love?"

[Love of Ghibli]

Butlerok and Rhadamanthys: Path of Remembrance

By using her bankai Madame was able to subdue these mysterious deformed soldiers but that wasn't the easiest task. In addition to the "clowns" Butlerok was unleashing a torrent of bullets at his mentor. Madame blitzed passed the soldiers and the bullets and made her closer to the Kishin. Hmmm one on one then. Butlerok put away his pistols and he summoned Ragnarok in his broadsword shape. Madame quickly appeared next to her opponent and with a zanpaktou and engaged in direct sword combat. Butlerok wasn't surprised that Madame was a brilliant swordswoman. Even Genryuusai was complementing the woman's skill. We only have one real option it seems. Butlerok gave a slight feint to the woman's side, knowing that she wouldn't fall for that kind of trick. Madame, true to form, took advantage of this moment and went for the Kishin's neck. However she was dismayed as her blade bounced off the Kishin's neck. Butlerok didn't even break form as he tried to skewer Madame with the black blood. Using Zues' lightning blitz abilities Madame was able to dodge all of the attacks and recover. Hmph she said as that was the first time she realized that she was in real danger. She clapped her hands and called forth the Blade of Olympus and lightly swung it allowing the discharge to fry some nearby clowns. She's going to go for complete overkill now. Was that the last edge we had on her. No we have one last trump card to play. 

Elsewhere it was obvious that Rhadamanthys was gaining the upperhand against Regulus. The lion cub was not ready to unleash his final trump card against the specter but even then he knew that was what this would come down to. I guess there is no point in actually trying to use any of my signature moves. You can try, I am sure they will yield no effort. Well to think that you took such a long trip and you're going to die the same way you died before. Did you at least learn anything? That is a good question. To be honest I didn't have an answer until just now. Go on unleash your move. I am ready to accept my fate whatever it may be. I'm glad you're going to make this easy on me. Regulus proceeded to glow with an amazing golden light and behind him the twelve clusters of the zodiac appeared behind him. ZODIAC CLAMATION!! The golden light started to overtake Rhadamanthys, but the specter stuck his hand out and unleashed his mighty cosmos. While it looked like he was being pushed back his cosmos quickly over took the blast and with that it seemed that the easy part was over. He then looked back at his opponent and saw Regulus appear in his ghostly form. Tch, becoming one with nature and life itself that has to be cheating. Ghost Regulus smirked as he launched himself at Rhadamanthys. Within in milliseconds he appeared from behind Rhadamanthys with a heart in hand. However ghost Regulus looked down as he noted the heart in his hand was pitch black. What? He turned around and noticed that it was actually Butlerok with a massive hole in his chest. What the...

I've lived my entire life alone. Thinking that I am best to execute my duties. Even with all these souls, weapons and abilities, their only purpose was to help me do my abilities by myself. The heart dissolves into a bunch of black Rukh and they fly into the hole that is his heart and Butlerok filled in the whole as if nothing had happened. Butlerok turned around to look at the shocked Regulus. However, it is in this path that we realize we are not alone anymore. Regulus smirked as he soon faded out of existence. 

Meanwhile Madame had just unleashed her massive combination of the Blade of Olympus and Bankai watched as the smoke cleared and Rhadamanthys was left standing in its wake. Well that wasn't that threatening at all. What the... As Lord Hades' most loyal servant I always took it upon my self to do everything. I was his most faith and I was the one who truly understood his will. Madame quickly pulled out her Desert Eagle but just as quickly as she pointed it at the specter it shattered! But I see now. This journey is a team effort and where I may fall. Someone else can pick up the slack. Madame shot Rhadamanthys a stern glare and he simply raised his eyebrow. His hand began to glow purple and he flicked his wrist. Madame was obliterated that very second.

Seconds later Butlerok walked out of the forest and saw that the plan worked. Well I didn't need for you to kill her, but it looks like that wasn't too much work for you anyway. Well surely if I was going to use some minuscule attack like you to seem to use she would have dodged it. I simply hit her with a move who's gap was too wide to dodge and too fast to react to. It's simple really. Very. Now with this in mind I guess we should move our final stage. Agreed. I have confidence that we will be meeting master on the other side.

The two men left the battlefield and jetted over to the staircase as they took their final climb they both took a second to think about the long journey they had while traversing the three paths. It was weird to think that these two solitary men actually developed some form of companionship. As they made their way to the top of the steps they looked at the oasis and stepped in. Within seconds they heard the seemingly omnipresent voice in their heads.

'Are you satisfied with your past’?

 

Everyone nodded and as their answers were all accepted they were swirled down into the vortex. As they opened their eyes they saw themselves back in their white room.

Ending Location: White Room

[Kingdom Xathers]

Team Lombax

Pathway of Truth - A2/3

“I said, SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!”

Team Lombax nearly jumped out of their skins (or metal frame in Clank’s case, or felt in Gabriel’s case) at the near-thunderous scream that boomed at that moment.  Even Mr. Zurkon abandoned his pursuit of the fairies for a brief moment to see what was going on.  Staring off in the direction they believed the scream had come from, the group could see a smoke signal slowly rise over the top of a cherry tree close by and the lingering traces of flame.

"... hmph.  See what I mean?" Alister quietly told Bayonetta as the Umbra Witch quickly discarded her popcorn.  "It's like I could almost set my watch to it,” he smirked, bringing out his watch.

“Oh no, nonono,” Red gibbered as he realized he gave his position away.  Panicking for a way out, his only recourse was for the glowing green column to surround him, shining its light a short distance as it steadily reduced itself and him.

Ratchet caught sight of this brief flash of green, and he knew what was going on.  “Guys,” he called in a hushed voice as he motioned for the group to huddle around him, “I think I know what Red’s up to.  Now, here’s what we’re gonna do….”

Red was now tiny again, lying as flat as he could do hide himself in the grass.  Hopefully, they wouldn’t be able to see him as he hid, hoping they wouldn’t find him.  He could feel the tremors in the ground as his scarred belly pressed against it. They were coming….

“Umbris, you check over by that tree,” Alister ordered as the group rounded the tree Red was hiding behind, “Bayonetta, try that spot over there, and Ratchet, you and Alex try that other random spot I’m pointing towards.”  Having been given their “orders”, the group dispersed, their footfalls barely missed the miniature Red as they wandered off in seemingly random directions.

The Umbra Witch was getting too close, her heels would surely crush him.  Red scuffled along the grass, his staff in his jaw as he combat crawled, avoiding the giant woman as she strode by, depositing a plush toy in the grass.  Warily looking about for the others, they were still far too close to him as he kept going, paused only by a loud squeak.  Going as stiff as a board, Red looked up grimly to find, to his relief, that he had just run into the stuffed toy.  “Thank goodness,” he sighed thankfully to the “inanimate” doll.

Said “inanimate doll” decided to have a bit of fun with the dragon; still remaining perfectly still, Gabriel let out a high-pitched, childlike “I WUV YOU~!” (at that point also realizing, for the first time ever, that he could speak without having to move his mouth).  Red’s tail went bolt upright as he shrieked loudly from just the shock of Gabriel’s childlike cry.  “Tee-hee-hee!  Wet’s be fwiends!” Gabriel continued, beginning to enjoy his little act as he blankly stared at the tiny dragon.  “We wiwl be fwiends foever-foever-foever-fo-fo-fo-fo-fo-fo-fo-fo-fo-fo-fo-ever!” Gabriel droned as he menacingly leaned forward, his mouth now actually moving as he stared down at the distressed dragon.  “Yeeeeessssss,” he continued in a much deeper tone, “you shall be mine for all eternity--fo-fo-fo-fo-fo-ever!--

--BZZZZT!!” The doll’s seemingly demonic broadcast was cut short as a small

began to play, all while a light shone in Gabriel’s eyes, flickering in time with the tinkling notes.

Never to this day, or ever (except from one instance) has Red ever been so scared as he was facing off with that demonic stuffed animal. His entire body seized up as he gripped his chest, right above where his heart was, before falling flat on his back with a pathetic squeak, a look of terror frozen on his face as his eyes blankly stared up at the sky.

“Think you overdid that, Gabe,” Alex mused as the group piled around the toy.  “We were trying to capture him, not scare him to death.”

Gabriel squee’d as he stuck his tongue out embarrassedly.  “Sorry, I just went with the typical Haunted Toy cliches.  Still, it was pretty effective,” he added as he looked down at the stiff-as-a-board dragon.

“Yeah, but, if we’re going to talk to him, we kinda need him mentally functional.  And maybe not scared out of his wits,” Alister chided as he grabbed Red.  Holding the still frozen dragon in his hand, his mind suddenly went back to the Pathway of Death.  He had seen himself holding Red in his hand, he was struggling mind, but that was yet to happen.  “Yo, Red… you alright?” Alister quietly asked as he gently poked and tickled at the dragon’s belly with his free hand.

Red’s good eye twitched momentarily before he briefed loudly, his entire body loosening as he came too.  “What was…,” he paused, realizing he was in someone’s hand.  Staring up into Alister’s face, Red started panicking as he struggled to free himself from Alister’s grip.

“There it is,” Alister thought in relation to his vision.  Now he also knew why he had felt concerned and worried about the dragon, considering what Ratchet had told him before.

“Let! Me! Go!” Red snapped indignantly, his tiny fangs chewing desperately on Alister’s glove to no avail.

“Red, we need you to relax right now,” Ratchet said gently, sidling by Alister.

“You know very well WHY I cannot do that,” Red squeaked loudly as he wrestled with Alister’s thumb. (“Is it because of me?” Gabby asked off-screen, “‘cuz if so, I am VERY sorry about that little performance.”)

“They do too, Red.  They… they all know now,” Ratchet admitted guiltily.

Red’s pupils shrunk as he looked so betrayed at Ratchet.  His entire body went limp as he fell back in Alister’s hand, his wings hanging over the crest of his fingers.  “You promised me Ratchet, you PROMISED me.  How could you?” he sobbed.

“In Ratchet’s defense,” Alexander joined in, “it was the effects of this Pathway that made him speak the truth.  And we did force it out of him.”

“Red, why didn’t you tell me this sooner?” Alister begged of the dragon.

“It wasn’t your problem Alister….  Please put me down now,” Red said, his voice ringing hollow.

“I’m sorry, Red,” Umbris spoke hoarsely as he drew out a card from his cloak, using it to conjure a giant stone jar, “but we can’t have you hurting yourself over this anymore.  Until you agree to let us help you, we’re gonna…,” Umbris trailed off as he gulped hard, “... we’re gonna have to place you in this Dragon Capture Jar for safekeeping.  It may not be the most pleasant experience, but it’s for your own good.  I… I apologize in advance for this.”  Umbris carefully tipped the mouth of the Jar forward, the eyes of the dragon carving flashing a brilliant orange.

“I am your enemy, the alternative is death,” Red answered in his same, empty tone.

“We’re not going to stain our hands with the blood of an innocent,” Alexander replied in a concerned-yet-firm tone, glancing over toward the Dragon Capture Jar, the artifact beginning to make an almost hungry-sounding growling sound.  “We’d rather take you prisoner than to kill you outright.”

Red’s eye twitched as he could feel another headache coming on.  He seethed loudly as he closed his eyes, gripping his head his temples throbbed like a thousand Satyrs were line dancing on it.  Beneath his lids his eyes repeatedly flashed from purple, to red, to normal, and back to red.  Snapping open, he glared angrily at Alister.  “You’re just going to let them do this?” he snapped furiously.  “You’re just going to let them bottle me up like that?!  I lived in a jar for over a year, I AM NOT GOING BACK INTO ONE!” he shrieked, pointing his staff at the jar.  Despite his size, Red unleashed a glowing crescent with the flick of his wrist, aiming right at the DCJ.  It passed right through the jar, and Umbris.  The Neo-Specian was okay, if only slightly hurt; but the jar wasn’t as it was cleaved in two, the upper portion sliding away from the lower on the diagonal axis it was cut, falling to the ground and smashing as the lower half blew apart into particles.  “Now, I won’t ask politely this time… PUT ME DOWN!” he shrieked.

“Or what?” Bayonetta chimed in.  “You’re going to return to your original size and fight back?  You do realize that against the four of us at once, you would be severely outmatched even at a hundred percent,” she reasoned.

“Don’t be pathetic woman,” Red snapped as the red lights in his eyes slowly faded away.  “It’s a matter of decency, there’s very little reason to fight.  If we’re going to talk, I’d rather not be at the size of a hamster,” he finished a lot more reasonably.

“Before we do that, Red,” Alister spoke up, looking a bit misty-eyed, “I just… I want to apologi--”

“Stop right there,” Red cut in rudely.  “I know what you’re going to say, so you can save it Alister.  There is nothing for you to be sorry about.  You chose what you felt was right, I cannot fault you for making the decision I helped you reach,” he explained.

“It’s not about my decision to join the Counter Corps, Red.  It… I’m apologizing for the way I acted towards you afterwards,” Alister explained as he gently placed Red down on the grass..

Red skittered on all fours to a more open area, so he could return to his former size, with his back turned to the group.  “You have nothing to apologize for, again.  I was the one trying to make us enemies, you were only reacting accordingly to how I was acting,” he sighed.  (“Wow, Ratchet was right.  This is like Blame Tennis, they just keep going back and forth,” Umbris mumbled as an aside.  “Actually, it’s more like Blame Football, as they just keep tackling each other for the blame ball,” Alex remarked back.)

“It’s because by joining the Counter Corps I chose to be your enemy,” Alister contended.

“You chose to be with your friends and family.  Our relationship is moot compared to you being with the people who care for you the most,” Red deflected, claiming the blame ball.

“But you’re one of those people, Red,” Alister countered.  “That’s why I’ve been so hellbent on trying to get through to you, because you are one of the spare few people I have ever met that I could relate to on a personal level.  And I don’t want you to suffer like this, by yourself.  You don’t have to continue this alone, Red; I, Ratchet, every one of us will be here for you.”

“I didn’t ask for you to care about me.  It’s not as if you even know what suffering is.  I’ve gone through decades of humiliation, shame, and pain.  What is one more day compared to a life time Alister?  What is one friendship compared to millions of innocent lives?” he questioned, a bitter tear rolling down his face as he irritably scratched at his ice cast.

“Why does he keep doing that?” Umbris whispered to Alex.

“What, you mean constantly rebuff Alister’s advances?” Alex whispered back.

“No, that band of ice around his arm.  He keeps scratching at it for some reason,” Umbris noted.

Ratchet, too, took notice of this, focusing his attention on the ice band as well as the area of scale around it.  “That’s where he first got hit.  He took it right there on his arm.  Actually, that’s the only part of him that didn’t heal, even though the nanotech was supposed to do that,” Ratchet realized, trying to remember back to what Red mentioned about Dark Gems.  “Ugh, what did he say?  Something about them eating away the wounds.  And, it does something to your head.  Damn it why didn’t I pay attention when he was babbling on about them?”

“You didn’t ask Red, but I’m still going to do it anyways.  Why do you constantly need to resist things when people are just trying to be COMPASSIONATE towards you?  Or what, you don’t think someone can be compassionate unless they’re also being violent?” Alister snapped.

“I didn’t intend to go that far!” Red retorted angrily.  “I didn’t intend to escalate things too far until you chose to electrocute me.  I have some bad memories in regards to lightning, and that only served to aggravate me.  You could have just walked off, but you didn’t.  You brought it on yourself!” he spat as he kept scratching at the ice.

“Oh, dear lord, ladies,” Bayonetta called out, “with the way you two argue, it’s no wonder everyone thinks you two are--”

“--Don’t! even say that “m” word,” Red snapped, shuddering at being reminded of that unfortunate memory. “He’s just too stubborn to give up even though he’s been given ample opportunity to do so.”

“You’re too stubborn to admit you could ever be wrong!” Alister countered.

“Red, what the hell is up with your arm?” Ratchet interjected, blowing apart their little spat.

“What?” Red answered, giving Ratchet a funny look.  “There’s nothing wrong with my arm,” he denied as his claws dug into the ice.

“Then why am I seeing these faint, glowing veins on either side of that band of ice on your arm?” Ratchet persisted, pointing out the dark, purple coloured vein lines showing through Red’s scales.

Red grimaced as he looked at his arm, the cast must’ve melted enough for the infection to become visible.  Those veins of his were throbbing painfully as his scales were starting to loosen. “It’s nothing,” he denied again as his pupils turned purple.  “Just a mild infection I’m freezing until I can treat it properly.  It’s nothing to concern yourselves with.”

A pulse reverberated through Alexander’s head as he sensed something very wrong happening to Red.  Thinking quickly, Alexander decided to get some more information: “Red,” he asked the dragon, “could you tell me exactly what Dark Gems could do to a person’s body?”

“They rot away living tissue as they destroy living things, that’s what they do,” Red answered shortly.

“That’s not enough,” Alex thought to himself, “Ratchet’s already told us that part.”  “And what else?” he pressed on.

“What else?  Well, they…. They….” Red’s cut himself off, his eyes twitching violently.  His eyes flickered erratically from purple to black as he screamed loudly, his head flailing around as every ounce of pain his body could muster was beating down on his head.

“They screw with your head,” Ratchet recalled, snapping his fingers.  “They poison your blood and mess with your way of thinking, making you deny you’re infected.  If you’re poisoned for too long, you turn violent until the toxin kills you.  He can’t say what’s causing it because the toxin makes him deny it.  And you can’t lie here, so he’s forced into a mental stalemate.”

“But I thought you said the blessed nanotech destroyed the splinters,” Alister said, going between the screaming dragon and Ratchet.

“An actual chunk of the stuff must be in his arm, back when he destroyed the evil Spyro’s staff.  Pieces flew everywhere, so one could’ve gotten stuck in his arm.  That’s why it didn’t heal properly.  But the thing is, he said the madness takes a while.  Why is the infection working so fast already?” Ratchet questioned.

“... wait, this can’t be right,” Gabriel gasped out, sensing something that the others could not.  “Why am I sensing the Orichalcos close by…?!”

“Sayer,” Alex and Umbris hissed, looking around to see if they could spot the bastard or his R.O.D.s.  “Trust him to fuck around with his own teammates,” Alex sneered.

Red was still screaming as he stumbled out of the treeline and into the opening.  Without warning he just stopped, with his head pointing to the sky, and his pupils shining red.  His arms hung limply at his sides.  “Must… go.  Must… leave,” he said with no emotion.

A green column surrounded him, but this time, it was different as he started getting bigger.  And as he did, his body sporadically changed in a cluster of purple particles, becoming a twenty foot tall giant robot with his Light Gem mounted into his forehead.  His left optic was flickering erratically, and the servos around his right leg were emitting a series of sparks.  The ice cast had shattered from the sudden change in arm structure, revealing a large gash in his armour.  Purple and green sparks danced inside the damaged metal.  His damaged wing now looked like a series of blades as he flexed the two. Giving a forlorn glance to the others, Mecha-Red launched into the air, cartwheeling about and rocketing down the Pathway.  His right booster was only working at minimal capacity, so the other one reduced power to match it.

The entire group just stood there, stone-faced at what they just saw.  “Since when the fuck could he turn into a giant robot?” Umbris uttered out of shock.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that.  Red once got turned into a giant robot,” Ratchet commented with a visible sweatdrop. Umbris shot him a “why didn’t you tell us that?” look.  “He got better,” Ratchet added.

“Umm,” Bayonetta ummed, looking down the Pathway.  “Boys, he's getting away,” she pointed out. "We might want to do something about that.  Like, right now."

“On it,” Alister called as he activated his hoverboots, racing after Mecha-Red.  Ratchet quickly followed suit on his own hoverboots, Clank securely strapped to his back.  Not to be left behind, Alexander, Umbris and Bayonetta all assumed their four-legged feline forms, Gabriel riding on Bayonetta's back as the cats all sped off, joining the two lombaxes in their pursuit of Mecha Red.

With Mecha-Red’s forced reduced speed they had very little trouble catching up to him, the enormous robot only fifty meters ahead of them.  His scanners picking up the chasers, Mecha-Red flipped around, his back parallel to the ground as he looked back at them.  Opening his maw wide he unleashed a cloud of hopping mines.  They flew through the air, exploding altogether into a thick wall of ice to block their path.

The flying lombaxes easily got over the wall in time, while the felines got around it while only losing a few meters in ground. Mecha-Red unleashed another salvo; this time the mines landed on the ground, exploding and creating an obstacle course of sharp icy structures for them to dodge as Red unleashed two missiles from his chest, one each for Alister and Ratchet.  

“Ew, is he shooting his nipples at us?” Ratchet blurted out as he hopped over his missile, zooming along the length of it before leaping off, sending the missile crashing into a nearby tree, freezing its branches and a large area of its trunk.

“Not now Ratchet!” Alister called out disapprovingly as he instead ducked underneath his missile, the thing spiraling down until it crashed into the grass, leaving an enormous ice cluster behind.

An ice cluster that had formed a mere few yards away from the “Panther Pack” as they pounded the grass to keep up.  They tried to skid to a halt before they could smash into the glacial structure, though it seemed that they could not slow down fast enough to avoid getting skewered by the protruding icicles… that was until a giant white-and-pink fist flew by and smashed the ice to smithereens.  The Panther Pack’s confusion at this sudden turn of events was almost immediately resolved and compounded at the same time as the sound of a roaring motor quickly approached them from behind.  The source of this sound zoomed by right next to them: a sleek, high-performance motorcycle, driven by a familiar white-haired woman wearing a red, form-fitting bodysuit.  Time seemed to stop as the Panthers glanced at the woman, who took the moment to stare back at them.

“Is that…?” Umbris thought.

“But, that can’t be…!” Alexander’s mentally gasped.

“... Jeanne?!” Bayonetta mentally yelped in awe and disbelief.

Jeanne merely smiled as she winked at the group of panthers.  “Did you miss me?”  As she said this, time resumed as normal, the panthers running alongside Jeanne’s motorcycle as they continued to pursue Mecha-Red.

Mecha-Red was starting to get desperate now, especially as he didn’t want to defer to his laser beams lest he hurt any of them.  However, at that very moment, his right thruster burst into life, his left catching back up as he picked up speed.  Somehow, the servos inside his leg had been repaired, with his left optic now back at full capacity.  “That stuff Ratchet gave me.  It could not repair the damaged materials of an organic, but it could repair the systems of a machine,” Mecha-Red realized as he zoomed ahead.

“OH COME ON!” Ratchet cried as he and Alister pushed their hoverboots to the max.

Mecha-Red had a tunnel of cherry blossom’s following him as he raced past the trees, the followers behind him doing their best as they reached the end.  The mirror up ahead was waiting for him, and Mecha-Red took it as he broke through to the other side.  The sudden force of swapping dimensions went against him as he lost control of his flight pattern escaping the other side, crashing against the ground and churning piles of dirt as he ground against it as his boosters deactivated.  He groaned mechanically as he shook dirt from his servos, giving Team Lombax enough time to enter the next area.  

As he tried to run, Mecha-Red was blocked off by an enormous demon with butterfly wings. Bayonetta had summoned Madama Butterfly to block his path as she, Alexander and Umbris returned to their original form while Jeanne applied the brakes to her motorcycle.  Ratchet and Alister landed alongside them, now standing 5 ½ against 1--oh, wait, seems another had joined them, make that 6 ½ against 1.  As they approached him, Mecha-Red stumbled backwards, inevitably running up against the demon.  With his escape blocked, Mecha-Red threw his hands into the air as the column of light surrounded him, returning himself to normal.  He stood before them, two yellow eyes as he held his hands up.  “You got me,” he conceded, “I surrender.  To fight you all would be an exercise in futility.” Without the ice covering it, his wound was now on full display.  A thick coating of flesh covered the wound like a tumour, purple and green veins growing from it as his scales fell off like autumn leaves.  The tumour-like growth pulsed like a heart as the infection ran through his body unchecked, purple veins lining his eyes.

“Hold that thought,” Bayonetta spoke up suddenly as she turned to look Jeanne square in the face.  (“Take your time,” Red sighed)  “It is you, right?” she asked of the woman before her.  “You really are Jeanne?”

“Of course I am, Cereza.  Who else could I be?” Jeanne replied sincerely.

“I-I know, it’s just… last I heard, you were--”

[spoiler=“--and I was,” Jeanne confirmed.  “Trust me, it’s a long story, so I may want to put this in a Spoiler Tab….”]

“Thing is, I didn’t get dragged off to Inferno like I had thought I would.  Guess that’s because Inferno went bye-bye with the rest of our world.  I was stuck floating around as an astral spirit until Rodin managed to bind my soul temporarily to my watch.  Sure, I was safe, for the most part, but after having Madama Styx use my body via Umbran Non-Stop Climax, I was not going to be able to go back to it until it had recovered.  So, Rodin basically put my body “on ice” and held on to my watch until it was time for me to be put back.  Of course,” Jeanne added with an exasperated sigh, “there’s always something that goes and mucks up plans like that.”

“Such as…?” Alexander asked as he pried into the conversation.

“Such as a little shit named “Terumi Yuuki” possessing my body while no one was looking,” Jeanne answered with an air of disgust.  “Apparently, our “dear friend” Sayer had sent Terumi off to cause a bit of havoc for everyone onboard the Aeon, and the bastard decided to take my body for a test drive to do so.  Ugh… honestly, it’s like my body will NEVER feel clean again.

“... in any event,” Jeanne continued after clearing her throat, “Terumi went about pretending to be me (and apparently was doing a not-half-bad job of it), though he hadn’t taken into account that some of the Aeon’s passengers knew better.  Eventually, some of those passengers took action: a quartet of young girls collectively calling themselves “Team RWBY”, a red-haired young man with an affinity for fire, and another young girl with blonde hair drills who fought with ribbons and various firearms, to name a few off the top of my head.  Terumi was proving to be quite the challenge for them, but they all managed to keep him occupied long enough for Rodin and Professor Kokonoe to play Damage Control, forcing that snakey bastard out of my body before stuffing him inside a thermos-shaped container and firing that off into the deepest reaches of the multidimensional aether.”

“... and that’s my story,” Jeanne finished with a relieved sigh.  “After I had regained control of my body (and taken about fifty baths to try to get that Terumi-Stench off me), I proceeded to enter the Pathways.  Truth Path just so happens to be my first, all because I had this feeling that it should be.  And seeing as you’re here, Cereza, I’d say that feeling was right on the money.”

Bayonetta couldn’t help but chuckle a bit (or was it a small sobbing hiccup?  Hard to tell) as she calmly embraced her Umbran Sister.  “Well, I’m glad you’re here...,” Bayonetta said warmly.  She held her hug for a few seconds before quickly releasing Jeanne.  “Honestly, though, you really need to stop being so reckless,” she chastised with hands on her hips, all while assuming her usual jovial, haughty tone.  “I mean, I do worry about you when you do stuff like that.  I swear, I've almost lost count of how many times you've died or almost-died just to pop up out of nowhere later.”

“Oh, give me a break, Cereza,” Jeanne blurted defensively, “it’s not as if I was the one being held hostage.”

“Actually, it wasn’t so bad,” Bayonetta shrugged.  “I managed to get some room service, meet a new friend,” she said as she held up Gabriel for Jeanne to see, “and help to devise an escape route for the other hostages.  Sure, I had to deal with almost getting devoured by some amorphous black creature, and Sayer being a peeping tom, but otherwise… wait, where’s Little King Zero?  I thought he had gone to send my message to Rodin?”

“Actually, I don’t think he ever managed to leave the Pathways,” Alexander blurted out as he pointed towards a spot further away from them, bringing the group’s attention toward said Little Demon faffing about, much to Bayonetta’s chagrin.

“Still, kinda sucks that you’re just now joining this marathon, Jeanne,” Umbris spoke up.  “That means you’ll be stuck going through two more Pathways while we get to reach the Endgame before you.”

“Eh, I’m not too concerned with that.  I’ll just speedrun the rest of the Paths off-screen,” Jeanne shrugged.  “Although, I wouldn’t mind being your Guest Star Party Member for the time being.”

“Good, and now that that’s over and done with,” Alister sighed as he signaled to Red that the game clock was now back on, “now will you let us help you?” he addressed the dragon.

“No,” Red answered bluntly, lowering his arms.

“Gah, we--why not?!” Alister growled frustratedly.  “Red, why are you such a stubborn… UGH!!”

“I told you,” Red grunted gruffly, “it’s not your problem.”

“If it’s a question of you dying by your own stubbornness, then yes, it is my problem Red, just look at your arm,” Alister gasped in exasperation.

Red cast a wavering look at his arm; his scales had all fallen off, revealing the flesh underneath, as well as the pulsating growth that hid a dangerous secret.  “I will survive, and then my fellow Elders and I will treat it when I get back to my world,” Red explained sullenly.  “I’ve survived electrocution, laser, missiles, more electrocution, being electrocuted again, missiles and bullets, electrocution, being sliced up, and have now almost died.  I think I can survive a minor infection.”

“But, Red--” Alister struggled internally with what to say next, though it seemed a sentence was already forming at the tip of his tongue.  He knew exactly what it was, yet feared what would come upon its utterance.  There just… was no other way around it, was there…?  “Red, there won’t be any Elders to go back too,” he uttered, wishing he didn’t have to say that.

“Come again?”

“Al, what’re you doing…?!” Ratchet gasped out.

“I’m sorry, Red, but you need to know the truth,” Alister quavered, “and that truth is… that our worlds are already gone!”

*SMASH!*  That incredibly violent sound just now?  That was Red’s world, crashing down around him.  He wheezed loudly, his legs going weak as they refused to support him.  He staggered around, crashing onto his backside as he cupped his head in his hands.  His pupils were tiny black pinpricks as he just shook it.  “No! Nononononononono,” he kept repeating, his fragile sanity slipping away from him.

“It’s because we all left our worlds after Isamy was done screwing with them.  Losing us destabilized our worlds, and they all were destroyed because of it.  You’re not the only one who’s lost a world or people they care about,” Ratchet explained somberly.

“Nonononononononono,” Red kept repeating as all hope in his eyes died.

“Red, we’re sorry,” Umbris said sincerely, “but it’s better that you know the truth sooner rather than later.”

“But… the damage has already been done,” Gabriel uttered as he stared pityingly at the utterly broken dragon.

“I… need a moment to myself,” Red uttered, still looking so devastated as he walked off along the empty plane.

“Red, wait…!” Alister called out as he hurried after the dragon.

Red paused, and slowly, he turned his head around.  The look he gave Alister froze the lombax in place, as it was one he had given himself a long time ago.  The look, of knowing you personally just killed everyone you knew and loved.  The dragon then continued walking off, leaving Alister and the others behind.  He kept going until he was a safe distance away, so he could scream loudly in peace.  His anguish shook the land as he fell to his knees, sobbing into his claws as he screamed loudly again as he pounded at the dirt.  Every feeling he had forced itself to the surface as he howled like a wounded animal, he screamed ever louder as he collapsed onto the ground, huddled in his good wing.  “I… I did this,” he uttered pitifully.  “I killed them all!” he screamed, smashing a crater into the ground with his fist.

He laughed ironically, to hear himself say that.  He chuckled madly as he thought over the words again.  “I killed them all,” he repeated hysterically, laughing loudly.  “I killed them all.  Me.  I did that!  Ha ha!”

He laughed again, before his grin completely sank.  “They’re all dead.  All of them are….  Well, they aren’t dead, they’re just, gone.  Erased.  All this time I’ve been killing myself for something that doesn’t even exist anymore.  Ha ha!  Fancy that!  I’ve punished myself day and night for an empty reality.  A cruel illusion.  Ha ha!  I was right, wasn’t I?  I CAN’T do anything right?  Can I?  Even when I try, it just makes things worse.  I came here with the hope of the Door saving my world, but by sealing the deal I destroyed it early, didn’t I?” Red laughed as he looked at his staff.  He chuckled as he raised it up, and pointed the gem right at his chest.  “I’m nothing…, but a jinx..., aren’t I?” he mused as he plunged his staff at his heart.

“Red, NO!!” Alister screamed out, his voice seemingly echoing as he made a mad dash toward the suicidal dragon, time stopping around him as he activated his hoverboots, forcing them on full blast.  He rocketed forward, praying against hope that Time would not resume before he could reach Red.  Making a leap of faith, Alister reached his hand out, his fingers wrapping around the remaining wood of the magical staff, his inertia doing the rest of the work as he slipped the staff out of Red’s hands.

The General landed roughly on the ground, rolling for a bit as Time finally resumed, Red slamming his own hands into his chest.  The dragon appeared stunned for the moment, looking around for where his staff went.  Finally catching Alister rolling away, he glared furiously at the insolent lombax.  “Why did you do that?!” he demanded angrily, his pupils slowly turning red.

Alister gingerly got back to his feet, Red’s staff clutched tightly in his hands.  He grit his teeth as fury and concern shook his body.  “Have you ANY idea what you were about to do you FUCKING ASSHOLE??!!” Alister roared out angrily, causing Red to briefly recoil.  “You think killing yourself is going to make anything BETTER?!  HUH?!?!  You wanna get rid of the only other thing left of your universe?!  You kill yourself, and that’s EXACTLY what will happen!!”

“GOOD!!!” Red screamed as he got up, towering over Alister.  “THAT WOULD BE FANTASTIC ACTUALLY!!  At least the world would be a far better place with one less monster around to torment it!”

“YOU ARE NOT A MONSTER, RED!!” Alister retorted.  “Right now, though, the only thing I’m seeing before me is a COMPLETE and UTTER FOOL--”

“I AM A MONSTER!” Red countered, tears running down his face. “WHAT GOOD HAVE I EVEN ACHIEVED?  WHAT?!?!  TELL ME WHAT I’VE DONE THAT WOULD MAKE YOU THINK OTHERWISE?!  I am responsible for the death of my entire universe.  I may as well have destroyed each and every single life personally, because that’s what it feels like.  I’ve done nothing but tear you and your family apart over me.  I’ve done nothing but hurt the bonds between you all by my mere existence.  I boasted I helped you join the right side, but I did NOTHING!  You would have found that conclusion on your own and be all the more happier for it.  I’ve done nothing but hurt EVERYTHING around me.  I’m no Elder.  I don’t deserve to wield a Light Gem.  I’m… I’m just a monster…. Nothing but a jinx to everyone around me,” Red sobbed, exhaustion taking his body as a six-pointed star burned itself into the flesh on his left arm.

“Red, please,” Alister uttered as he futilely reached a hand out to the dragon.

“Alister, step away from him!” Gabriel cried out urgently.  “HE’S BEEN AFFECTED BY THE ORICHALCOS!!”

“Wha…?” Alister stammered, backing off as Red hopelessly looked to the dead sky.

“It would be best… if I just… went away,” he droned as he sketched a circle. Red was encased in a large white egg, marked with long purple crystals, all of them with a green six-pointed star traced over them.  Everything went quiet as the soundproof egg sat on the spot, Red now denying everything surrounding him.

“Red…?  Red!” Alister called out as he stumbled over to the egg, pounding a hand against the surprisingly sturdy shell.  “Red, please… don’t shut us out like this… not like this….”

Alister’s attention, along with everyone else’s, was drawn away by the sound of a slow, sarcastic clapping heard in the distance.  “Oooooooh,” a voice orgasmed off-screen, “isn’t this just beautiful? I knew this would be quality entertainment, but goddamn was that exquisite!”  The owner of the voice and the clapping made himself known as Sayer entered the frame, flocked by a small handful of R.O.D.s.

Alexander’s face twitched as he shot Sayer his angriest scowl yet.  “What have you done to Red, Sayer…?” he slowly demanded seethingly.

“Oh, nothing,” Sayer began.  “Nothing that anybody else hadn’t done before, that is--”

“ANSWER!  MY GODSDAMNED!  QUESTION!!!” Alexander hollered, having gotten dangerously close to his boiling point in record time.

Sayer merely scoffed, the smirk on his face evolving into a grin as he relished in the display Alexander was putting on.  “Now, why would I go and do that?” the Schemer asked rhetorically.  “If I went and told you exactly what I did to Alister’s boyfriend, you’d just turn around and try to ruin my fun before I can put it into motion.  And believe me, my dear lombax, I have every intention to keep you from doing that.  Of course, he’s a little bit hung up at the moment, but I guess you could just call that one a lovers’ spat.  And as they say my sweet little lombax, never get between a lovers’ spat.”

“And what, pray tell, do you know of lovers’ spats, Sayer?” Jeanne questioned indignantly.

“... hmm?  Oh my.  Jeanne?  I honestly wasn’t expecting you to be up and moving after the battle with LERNA!  Well! you certainly look spritely today,” Sayer said in a bemused tone.

“Thank you,” Jeanne replied dryly.  “I can guarantee, though, that you’ll be looking far worse within this next moment.”

“Really?  Well, I’d very much love to see--” Sayer began to say, but found himself cut off as a barrage of bullets and energy rounds tore through his body in rapid succession, capped off by a giant sawblade flying by, cutting vertically through his skull.  And that was the state in which Sayer stood after Team Lombax’s assault on him: filled with more holes than swiss cheese and the two halves of his head each resting on a shoulder of his.  Despite all of this, Sayer (somehow) let off an almost-annoyed-sounding sigh.  “Honestly, I should have seen this coming,” he said as he pushed the two halves of his head back together.  “Everytime I try to have a civilized chat with you people, I always end up with such a splitting headache afterwards.  I mean, HOLE-Y SHIT, you guys.”

“Yes, well,” Alexander muttered as he pulled a photo out of the Polaroid Camera in his hands, tossing it at Sayer like a shuriken, “it’s never really a fun time for anyone whenever you’re around.”

“Oooh, this is actually quite nice,” Sayer mused gleefully as he admired the photo of his mutilated self.  For a few seconds, anyway, before becoming bored and tossing it away.  “But yes, I actually must agree with you, Alexander; I’m here to make your lives oh-so miserable right now.  I think I’ll first start with… … … ah, how about our Honorary Ryu-Ran over there?  I dare say it’s about time for him to come out of his shell, as it were….”

“Don’t you DARE touch him!” Alister threatened through grit teeth.

“Bit late there diddums.  I’ve already marked him as mine… terribly sorry to steal your lover by the way.  He just has that lovely touch of darkness I find ever so attractive in a servant,” Sayer grinned spitefully.  Without warning, the R.O.D.s surrounding him hurtled their way toward the group, who all quickly dispatched of the eyeballs before the blasted things could wreak havoc on them.  They realized a bit too later, however, that the R.O.D.s were merely a distraction, as Sayer appeared to have vanished from his original spot.  Wheeling around, Alister and the others gasped as they saw Sayer standing before Red's egg, one hand placed against the shell.  "Oops!  Looks like I went and touched him after all," Sayer taunted with his other hand up to his lips.

Whatever his touch was doing, the egg was rattling around violently as its passenger was violently thrashing about.  Cracks were forming in the egg as whatever was now inside it…, was desperately trying to get out.  “I wish I could have met Adrastos, so we could share notes.  I honestly have no idea what he did to your boyfriend, Alister, but he certainly left a magnificent amount of groundwork for me to build on,” Sayer smiled serenely as the egg continued to rattle violently, sickly green and purple crystals forming around the base of the shell.  “I mean, I am, for once, truly amazed.  This dragon has an obnoxious amount of willpower when thinking straight, so it baffles me what Adrastos could have done to break him and turn him to darkness.  Maybe he got him young?  Hmm, questions for another time.”

“SAYER YOU BASTARD!!” Alister shrieked, both furious at Sayer and horrified for whatever was happening to Red in that egg.

“”SAYER YOU BASTARD”!” Sayer repeated in a smug falsetto, grinning as long cracks ran along the egg.  “You might wanna save your breath for what comes ahead General.  You thought your friend was a hard fight before, wait till you see what happens when he stops holding back!” Sayer jeered as he pulled away from the egg.

It was rattling violently on the spot, cracks running all around it as the shell exploded, an enormous cluster of purple crystals with green tips forming in its place.  A dark shape flickered like fire from within them, glowing red eyes peering out from their dark depths. Alexander swallowed hard, a sense of deja vu hitting him like a runaway truck.  “This is what I saw,” he gasped loudly.  “I thought it was a new Orichalcos monster, but, I was only half right!” he realized.

“Actually, you’re pretty much right there Alex my sweet.  It is a new Orichalcos monster, one that I’ll have a lot of enjoyment using on you and all the others,” Sayer grinned as the crystals grew taller, the dark shape restlessly moving about in its confines.  “He’s almost ready.  Can you feel the darkness Gabriel?  It’s nice, isn’t it?  Like feeling your soul being ripped from your chest and devoured.”

“I always thought of you as a sick fuck,” Gabriel sneered venomously, “but this is truly a new low for you…!”

“I dunno, I thought killing you was pretty low,” Sayer countered dismissively, "even if it was one of my more enjoyable moments.  Well, before this one, of course."

“Sayer…!” Alister growled through his teeth, his stare apparently trying to eviscerate the Asshole Schemer.  “I swear to every god I can think of, I am going to make you pay for this!”

Sayer was laughing too hard to even pretend to be scared of Alister.  “Ah ha ha!  Oh, oh my, heh.  That’s a good one General.  But you’re in no position to say that, cause you better gather round, dinner’s ready children!” he cheered, drifting away from the crystals as the darkness within the crystals took shape.

The crystals shook and shudder, thick cracks running along them.  An inhuman scream pierced the air as the crystals broke away, revealing the prize underneath, with a few new… changes.  Thick purple crystals ran along his left arm, jutting out into sharp crystalline spikes as his fingers were all foot long, sharp claws.  His entire belly had been coated with the purple crystal, reaching around to create a thick crystal brace as his spines had lengthened with more crystal.  His left wing had been repaired, a thin membrane of crystal repairing what had been lost.  The tops of his wings had been fortified by, you guessed it, more crystal.  He now possessed a pair of crystal spats, running over the top of his foot, his nails lengthening to half a foot long.  The mashed side of his face had a mask of crystal, the only hole being for his glowing red eye as it replaced his ruined horn.  A thick jagged piece of crystal jutted from his chin.  Aside from his crystal coating, Red’s body had become much more angular, his face and body sharper as he grinned sinisterly, his underbite’s two fangs also grown with crystal.  “Alisteeeeerrrrrr,” Dark Red droned sweetly, his left arm held up, fingers curling around themselves.  “Did ya miss me?” he hissed menacingly as he took a step towards the General.

Alister backed away cautiously, his ears drooping as he gazed upon what had become of Red.  “Red… no…,” the General quietly gasped in horror.

“Red yes!” Sayer laughed loudly.

“Awww, you didn’t miss me Alister?  Well, I’ve missed you.  So much so.  I must apologize, I haven’t been thinking straight as of recent.  But I feel so much better now,” Dark  Red grinned, airily waving his large claw about.

“Red, you gotta snap out of it!” Ratchet called out to the dragon.  “You can’t let Sayer control you like Adrastos did!”

“Ha!  Ha ha ha ha!  How touching Ratchet, but, have no fear.  This piece of filth here has no control over me.  Hell, I’m going to kill him after I’ve destroyed you all.  No offence, Sayer,” Dark Red grinned maniacally.

“... hmph.  Seems your will truly is stronger than I had anticipated, despite the darkness infecting your being,” Sayer mused, for once visibly taken aback by Dark Red’s show of rebellion despite how calmly he spoke.  “But no matter; I can always rewire you properly.  After all, I still have use for you after--”

“Sure you will,” Dark Red said dismissively, rolling his eyes.  “I don’t really care, Sayer.  I have better things to be doing.  Speaking of….” Dark Red drifted off, staring at Alister.

Raising his clawed hand, the fingers extended, bending like fluid as they snagged Alister, pulling him into his claw. “We have SO MUCH catching up to do, Alister,” Dark Red grinned, casting a mad glance at the rest of the group.  “Sadly, the lot of you won’t be around for that,” he began, casting a spiral shape.  “Tempest!” Dark Red roared, blasting everyone (including Sayer) back with thick blasts of purple tinged wind.  The only one who avoided getting blown too far away was Alex, who Red took little notice of.  “Some private time, I should think… Alister.”

Hunching over, all of Dark Red’s spines launched into the air, landing in a large circle around him, cutting everyone off as a black barrier formed between all of the prongs.  With a mad laugh he hurled Alister away, the General grinding on the ground and smashing against said barrier.  “I think we need some alone time, you and I, Alister,” Dark Red smiled, his pupils shrunk to the size of specks.

“Got room for one more?!”  An orb of ice collided against the right side of Dark Red’s head, finally earning Alexander the dragon’s attention, if just for shouting.

“Ha ha!” he laughed, completely unfazed.  “I have no idea who you are, must be why I didn’t see you when I sealed ourselves in. Huh, well, that was gutsy trying to actually hurt me.  Bright idea, trying to hit fortified scales with ice.  I’ll be sure to recommend you for when someone like Gnasty Gnorc attacks.  You can assault him with sticks and paper airplanes.”

“Y’know, you’re right about one thing, Red,” Alexander spoke coolly, “because I only went with ice just to distract you for a moment.  I mean, if I really wanted to inflict some damage to you, I would’ve chosen a different element like, ohh I dunno… THUNDAGA!!” he shouted as he thrust a pointer finger towards the sky, calling down a massive lightning bolt that struck Dark Red head-on.  “AL!  Hurry over here, quick!” Alexander called out to the General while Dark Red spasmed from the literal shock.

Staggering to his feet, Alister stumbled as fast as he could away from Dark Red.  “Thanks for that anyway, Alex.”

“Oooooooooooooohh, you will pay for that, Lombax-Whose-Name-I-Still-Don’t-Feel-The-Need-To-Care-About,” Dark Red grinned, still unfazed by being attacked.

“... y’know what?” Sayer huffed in annoyance at being “betrayed” and upstaged by his own plaything.  “You can have them, Red.  I have better things to do than to deal with pets who won’t obey their masters.  Deuces, fuckface,” he hissed as he flipped the bird before flying off on one of his R.O.D.s, leaving the rest of Team Lombax perplexed by this development.

(♫♪

♪♫)

“Bye bye,” Dark Red waved flippantly as he slammed the ground with his claw, smashing it through the surface.  Thick cracks ran along the ground as enormous spiked crystals ran in a wave right at Alexander and Alister.  And, as for the outside, thick sentient spiked vines popped from the ground, flailing at anything that drew near.

“WABOKU!” Alex called out as a trio of priestesses surrounded himself and Alister, the three holy women forming a barrier around themselves and the lombaxes, their holy shield shattering any crystal that struck at it.

“Ha ha ha!” Dark Red giggled as he raised his left hand to the sky, veins of power running through the Dark Gem coating it, coalescing above his palm as his free hand sketched an equal sign with a lightning bolt striking through it.

Even from beyond the barrier and with so much distance, that was one shape Ratchet wouldn’t have forgotten any time soon.  “Guys, look out!!  He’s gonna try and use that spell that almost killed hi--!!”

“DISINTEGRATE!” Dark Red shrieked, unleashing a storm of dark purple lightning that hammered against the barrier, striking at the will of the maidens as cracks started to visibly form on the barrier.

Knowing that the barrier would not hold for much longer, Alexander drew out another card, calling forth the object within just as the maidens’ barrier shattered.  The purple electricity was quickly drawn to a skeletal lightning rod which began to absorb the energy of Red’s spell, and for a brief while it did, but as Dark Red pressed the assault, the Anti-Raigeki slowly began to overflow, spastically firing off stray lightning bolts every which way, some of which struck and vaporized the crystals that had grown all over the battlefield.  Of course, we can’t have some good without a little bad, as the stray bolts of electricity also fried the Emissaries of Reconciliation, and one bolt even grazed against Alexander’s left arm.  Dark Red cackled loudly as he terminated the spell, a dark look in his eyes as he gazed at Alexander.  “You’re pretty funny, to be perfectly honest.  I like you, you little White Fuzzbag.  I think you’ll be quite useful serving me,” he remarked.

“I’m sorry Red, but I have ZERO interest in working for you,” Alexander spat as he gripped at the singed portion of his left bicep.

“Ha ha!  Oh, that’s cute.  You think I meant willingly,” Dark Red laughed as he traced a six-pointed star in the air.  “COMMAND!” he called, slapping the star onto Alex’s forehead.

Gabriel gasped as he recognized the symbol.  "General, you have to get away from Alex!" The lion plushie cried out in warning, watching Alexander shake his head in confusion.

“Alex, be a lamb and bring Alister to me,” Dark Red requested politely.

"Wha- why would I do tha- huh...?!" Alexander blurted out, gasping out as he realized that he now had Alister's arms in a vice grip.  "Wh-HEY, wait a sec--!!"

"Alex, what are you doing?!" Alister demanded as he struggled to free himself.

"You're gonna have to ask my body that question, 'cuz it's moving on its own!" Alex freaked out as he dragged Alister over toward Dark Red.

“Then it’s your body that I’m going to have to teach a lesson!!” Alister snapped as he swung his head back, the back of his skull smacking into Alexander’s nose.

“AH-OW!!  Al~!” Alexander whined as one of his hands reached up to cover his nose, his other hand still tightly gripping one of Alister’s wrist.

“I’m really, REALLY sorry about that, Alex,” Alister apologized as he drew back his now-freed hand, “but I’m not about to be the hostage here, and I’d rather you not continue to be forced to act against your will!”  Forcing his own hesitance aside, Alister swung his free fist at Alexander, aiming for the other lombax’s face.  The fist came to a complete stop as Alexander’s hand quickly sprang forward and caught the punch with his palm.  “Oh, of course--OW!!” Alister grunted as Alexander’s body pushed back his punching hand, smacking it against Alister’s right eye.

“SORRY!” Alexander gasped out in apology as his out-of-his-control body began struggling with Alister, quickly exchanging and deflecting blows and armlocks.  This was a huge surprise to the General, who had been formally trained extensively in hand-to-hand combat for over half of his life, yet found himself struggling to keep up with Alexander’s equally-fast reflexes and wondering if this was Alexander’s own capabilities or just an effect of having his body under Dark Red’s control.

“I’m getting impatient, Fuzzbag,” Red called in a bored tone, idly beckoning with his left index finger.  “Just trip him up and bring him to me already!”

“I don’t wanna--!”  And yet, despite Alexander’s mouth basically saying “No”, his body… (pause)... his BODY complied with a “Yes~!” as he proceeded to pick up and German Suplex Alister down onto the ground, the General gasping out as he felt like the wind was knocked right out of his body.  “I’m sorry, Al…,” Alexander whimpered sadly as he looked upon what he had been forced to do.  Alister was left in a daze as Alexander grabbed him by the back of his collar, also picking up the Zurkon-Wrench as he dragged the General over towards Dark Red.  He dropped Alister in front of Dark Red, who grinned deviously.

“Thank you dear,” Dark Red smiled, patting Alex roughly on his head as he grabbed Alister, clenching him tightly in his claw just so he wouldn’t try any more CryoMine tricks.  “Now, just stand over there for now,” he added, brushing Alex off as he grinned at Alister.  “Are you okay Alister?  Not feeling well?  You’re not looking too good,” he said in faux sympathy, his left eye glaring at Alister, while his right eye looked… sad.  No, not just sad, but also guilty.

“Red…,” Alister groggily wheezed, the dragon’s tight grip restricting his air flow, “... wh-what are… you gonna do to…?”

Dark Red chuckled deviously, drawing Alister closer to his face.  “I have a few… “ideas”,” he purred into Alister’s ear.  “Heh heh.  We don’t really need to fight, you know?” he remarked.  “No, not at all.  Why should I kill you when you could join me?  Imagine it, Alister.  Giving your heart, mind, and soul over to the shadows.  Wouldn’t that be fantastic?  You and I, destroying everything standing in our way in the name of our own conquest.  Who cares about the Divine or the Counter Corps?  We should let them destroy each other, and then mop up the remains.  Then on, the multiverse is ours to take.  With our combined might we could bend entire universes to our will.  Wouldn’t that be amazing, Alister?” he grinned, his lips an inch away from Alister’s.  He chuckled again, rubbing the side of Alister’s face in a loving way, his left eye staring into Alister’s so tenderly, as the right eye forcefully shut itself.

“Wha… I… …,” Alister stammered weakly, his head throbbing too much to let him think straight.

Meanwhile, Alexander struggled to regain control of his body, which was currently standing stiffly and upright, much like a typical Queen’s Guard.  Whatever that Control spell was, it was a lot stronger than anything he had encountered.  Dark Red laughed at the strained expression Alexander had.  “I’ll give you time to think things over Alister, I’m actually rather hungry right now,” he mused, losing interest in Alister as he threw him away.

Stomping over to Alex, he picked the frozen lombax up, forcing him to uncomfortably lock eyes with the dragon.  Red’s long tongue licked his lips hungrily as he stared straight through Alex.  “You have a lot of magic.  It looks rather tantalizing Fuzzbag, and I’m sure you won’t mind if I bleed you dry,” Dark Red smirked.  Hissing loudly, Dark Red opened his jaws, willing Alex’s opened at the same time.  Alex’s eyes lit up blue as streams of mana were being ripped from his body, greedily being consumed by the dragon.  The process was rather painful on the lombax, feeling himself growing weaker by the second as he was unable to vocalize the torment of his essence being ripped out of him.  His grip on the Zurkon-Wrench weakened, letting the weapon slip from his fingers as it bounced off the ground, landing just a couple of yards away from the slowly-recovering Alister, who had been staring on his horror at what Red was doing to Alexander.

“Red… no!  Let him go!” the General cried out, conjuring up some reserve willpower as he hastened to his feet.

“GENERAL FUZZY!  THROW MISTER ZURKON!” Mister Zurkon commanded urgently, the piece of Red’s staff held in one of its mouths.  “GEM PLUS ANTI-POLARITY OF THE PRAETORIAN WRENCH.  IT SHOULD SAVE HIM.”

It was a stretch, Alister knew this, and yet with Alexander’s strength dwindling, the General saw it as his only option.  Diving down, Alister grabbed hold of the Z-Wrench before quickly flinging it upward, right between Red and Alex.  The gem intersected into the stream of mana, the stream flickering erratically like static as the Light Gem repelled the dark influence.  Dark Red retched loudly as the mana flow reversed, pulling back in Alex’s direction as the blue mana returned to its master.  And then, a fire-like stream joined it, tied to the blue mana as it was pulled out of Red and into Alex.  Flailing wildly, Dark Red finally broke the link once the red mana had joined Alexander.  The dragon stumbled backwards, clinging to his throat as he was coughing violently.  Hacking up horribly, he spat out a thick pool of blood.  His throat was badly damaged, the corruption only slowly repairing it as he hissed loudly at Alister, his right eye appearing way too happy for the situation.

Alister caught Alexander as he was released from Red’s grip.  “Alex, are you alright?!” Alister fretted frantically.

Alex placed a hand on Alister’s shoulders, his eyes wide as he felt… different.  It was hard to describe, but, it felt as if he was at oneness with the magic of the universe.  He could feel the tides of magic ebbing and flowing through him.  He felt like a focal point for magic, and he was alive.  “I feel… better?” Alex blurted out, a very confused look on his face.  “Is this how he feels all the time?” he questioned aloud, glancing over at Red, the dragon still hacking up blood. Alex looked at his hand, clenching it tightly.  “I have his mana, and it feels... fantastic, Alister,” he told the General, a very faint smile of his lips.  A good enough answer for Alister, who sighed in relief.

“Well, I’m glad you’re not a shriveled up husk.  But, what do you mean by “how he feels all the time”? I don’t quite get magic, so you might wanna explain that,” Alister frowned.

“I’ve never actually had anyone else’s mana before.  It’s just, his is different.  It makes you feel like you’re a focal point for mana, as if, you are the source of all of it,” Alexander explained misty eyed.

“That’s because we are,” Dark Red gagged, finally able to speak again.  “Dragons are focal points of magic.  Where we are, magic will also be there.  That was a dirty trick to steal my magic, but I will make sure to take it back,” he glowered, his right eye shaking.  (“HEEEEEELLP!!”)

Alexander couldn’t quite understand it, but he felt as if he could hear a plea for help ring inside his head just then.  He shook it away, snatching the ruined staff from the Z-Wrench as he focused on the situation at hand.  “Don’t think so!” he cried, firing a blast from the Light Gem.  Dark Red’s eyes went wide as he was struck in the chest, flying backwards as the beam blasted at his chest, sending him flying into his own barrier.  His eyes were bugging out of his head as it kept blasting him in the chest, the crystal armour cracking. He was pinned to that barrier until the beam subsided, his body thudding hard on the ground.  He groaned loudly, pathetically trying to pick himself up.  (“Destroy me!”)

“Whoa,” Alister uttered, wide eyed at the smoking staff.  “Did you know that was even going to happen?”

“HA!  Knew that staff was awesome!” Ratchet cheered from the sidelines.

“Well, the Gem is, anyway,” Bayonetta mused aloud, Jeanne nodding in agreement.  “Little one, didn’t you mention something about Light Gems counteracting Dark Gems?”

“Yeah, but… there’s a lot more Dark Gem than Light Gem now.  But, if Alex can actually use his magic…!!!! ALISTER!  WHAT WAS THAT SPELL HE USED WHEN FIGHTING XANSVITA!?!” Ratchet cried.

“”Spell”...?” Alister repeated, racking his memory banks as he searched for the answer--

“OH, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, ALISTER, THE SPELL’S NAME IS “BANISH”,” a familiar monotone rang through Alister’s head.  “YOU HONESTLY COULDN’T QUICKLY RECALL WHEN RED WAS CASTING THE SPELL ROUGHLY TEN TIMES IN A ROW--?”

“Oh, so you’re awake,” Alister nonchalantly replied mentally to I.T..  “I was wondering when you and the others would pop up again.”

“Yeah, and we’ve learned our lesson, Al,” Left-Eye added humbly.  “We don’t want to be the reason for you hitting a Bad End again, so we’re letting Zayon and Kaden call the shots from now on.”

“And Moony?”

“You won’t have to worry about him,” Vortex Al replied, a somewhat pleased tone in his voice.  “At least not after we gouged that coward’s eyes out and amputated his limbs.  It’s lovely to know about Recovery-Mode, honestly.  Telling us about it was the only good thing that fucking ass Alpha did.”

“Remember, guys,” Zayon chimed in, “we only did that to Moony so that he wouldn’t try and take advantage of Recovery-Mode to restore himself.  He’s pretty much used to taking the coward’s way out, so it wouldn’t surprise us if he tries to do it again.  Probably by swallowing his tongue (We may need to shatter his jaw next…).  Also, we should let Alister focus.  The spell is “Banish”, Alister.  The spell that destroys darkness and shadows.  It won’t free him, but… it will give you the opening you need.  Oh, and the motion for the Spell is an X-shape.  That’s very important.  And, one last thing, we’ll be here to help you for the next step.  Now go already and save my husband!”

“Ugh, please don’t remind me,” Alister gagged at the thought.  The entire conversation took a total of three seconds on the outside.  “Alex!” Alister gasped as he refocused on the physical world.  He quickly relayed the information into Alexander’s ear, the other lombax nodding at each point made.

“Right.  Got it,” Alexander nodded with affirmation.

Red scoffed derisively, his hearing a little too good.  “Please?  You think using Banish will destroy what I am?  You don’t have the power, rat!  Plus, I will counter it anyways.  So please, gimme your best shot.  Just try to destroy the darkness!” he gloated, not realizing his feet were frozen to the ground, pinning him against the barrier.  “What?” he said flatly, realizing he was frozen to the ground.

“Yeah, you might wanna work on that motormouth of yours, Red,” Alister taunted, playfully tossing a spare CryoMine up into the air repeatedly.  “It goes about a mile a minute, but it drains so much precious resources in the process.  Your attention span, for instance,” Alister pointed out, punctuating his point by lobbing the CryoMine into Dark Red’s face.  The dragon incinerated it irritably, or, was he?  It was hard to tell as his left side was frowning, but, his right side was slowly, and rather forcefully being forced into a grin.  The right side of his face bouncing itself as if he was laughing.  “... what’s going on with your face…?” Alister uttered confusedly.

“Huh?” Red grunted, not even realizing his face had been doing that.  Going silent and introspective for a moment, his right eye started twitching violently, throbbing and straining until it joined the left side in frowning.  “Tch, he still had some control.  And I didn’t even realize it as clear as my own face,” he sighed in annoyance. “Well, not anymore now.”

Alexander gasped, suddenly realizing where those voices had been coming from.  “Oh my god, Red was trying to reach out for help!” Alex realized loudly.  “He’s been struggling from the inside!”

“Then we have to go save hi--  Oh gods, are we really doing this again?  Ugh, these fantastic voyages are getting to be the norm for us now,” Alister groaned.

“You'll get used to it,” Alex replied with a smirk.  He quickly dropped the smirk as he focused on the Dragon before them, taking a deep breath as if to steady his nerves… until he opened his mouth again:

“Nagaku~... tsuzuku~... kono michi no mukou~ ni...♫”  Holding the Light Gem up towards the bleak sky, Alexander’s eyes flashed as he shot an orb of light out of the Gem, the sphere soaring skywards before bursting into a shower of light particles.  A thunderous rumbling shook the skies as a few traces of sunlight seemed to break through the clouds above, a downpour of rain soon following.

Dark Red grunted uncomfortably as he shielded himself with his wings, the water rolling down the membrane.  “And this helps how?” he demanded.

“Yeah, how does this help us, Alex?!” Alister snapped at Alexander over the sound of the heavy rainfall.

Alexander merely chuckled as he looked over at Dark Red, seeing the crystals that covered the dragon start to hiss and crack.  And the dragon was nonethewiser as he continued to shield himself from the downpour.  “The Light Gem truly is a miraculous thing,” Alex said calmly, a faint smile on his face.  “Especially when combined with the healing power of the Great Gospel.”

“Healing…?” Alister was confused by what Alexander meant, so focused on trying to decypher his fellow lombax’s logic that he nearly jumped out of his skin upon seeing the faint image of a woman in a pink dress, a basket of yellow flowers in his arms.  The woman seemed to be staring back at Alister with her brilliant green eyes.  “You… again…?” Alister said breathlessly, once more finding himself viewing a memory in his mind, a memory that he had thought was a dream.  “... Aer… ith…?”

“Mixed with the power of the Light Gem…?” Dark Red mumbled, mulling it over.  He hissed loudly once he realized what it had meant, his wings scattering the water as the crystal that had repaired his wing had now burnt off, returning it to its damaged self.  He shrieked in pain as the other crystals melted away.  That was, until a dark dome formed above him, shielding him from the rain.  “Now that’s just irritating,” Dark Red grumbled as he started struggling with the ice freezing his legs. He was growing very distracted as he was double-timing with shielding himself from the rain, and clawing at the ice on his feet.  So distracted was he that Dark Red didn’t anticipate yet another CryoMine being thrown at him, the bomb’s detonation freezing the dragon’s hands to the rest of the ice.  Now he was completely stuck.

“ALEX!  Hit him now!” Alister shrieked.

Alexander didn’t need to be told twice; in what looked like a single, seamless motion, Alex scrawled an “X” in the space before him, swiping his index finger right through it.  “BANISH!”

Dark Red’s eyes went wide as the purple particles blasted all of the crystal off of him, his original form dazed as the ice also went with it.  He stumbled about in a daze, and revealed a nasty little secret.  There was a large Dark Gem shard growing out of his left arm, and it had survived due to the Seal of Orichalcos shielding it from harm.  The crystal pulsated as Dark Red’s armour quickly regrew, coating the dragon in crystal again.  “Ha ha!  Nice try fools!” the dragon cackled as he traced a spiral into the air. “TEMPEST!”  The violent storm was aimed to the sky, breaking apart Alex’s healing rain.

“It didn’t work…?!” Alex gasped in horror as the rain subsided.

Alister, meanwhile, had an equally horrified look on his face, but for an entirely different reason; remembering what Ratchet had mentioned earlier about those infected by Dark Gems, Alister realized that the solution was more than just skin-deep.  And in order for Red to be rid of the infection completely….  The General glanced over at the Light Gem in Alexander’s hands, then over towards Red, then back to the Gem once more.  “... we have to cure him from the inside, Alex,” Alister uttered hoarsely to his fellow lombax.

“But… how?” Alexander blinked.

“... … I fear there’s only one way.”

Alexander took a second or two to mull over what Alister could mean, his eyes widening as he quickly understood, and disliked the implications.  “But if we do that--”

“--We’ll be seeing something we probably shouldn’t be seeing.  But, we gotta save him.  Somehow, I know he’d do it for me.  He’d take a bullet for ya, every time,” Alister smiled wistfully.

Pushing his own hesitance aside, Alexander nodded with the General as they both prepared for their next stunt.  “I don’t like those looks you’re giving me,” Dark Red hissed, his eyes twitching.  “What are you planning now- OH COME ON!” Dark Red roared as a Cryo Mine froze his feet again.  “Seriously, Alister, you are becoming such a one-trick pon--HEY!!” the dragon yelped as as black chains snagged at his arms, the metallic links bursting from the ground and pulling him down, his legs shaking as they forced against the ground to keep himself up.  Dark Red attempted to use his fire breath to melt the chain, but his throat was hesitant in opening up.  In fact, he felt as though his magical powers were somehow shut off, as well.  “Now this…,” he seethed, “this is just irritating.”

“Now’s our chance!”  Alister and Alexander dashed towards the bound dragon, Alex tossing the Light Gem over to Alister who proceeded to catch it in one of the Z-Wrench’s heads.

Dark Red was struggling as the two lombaxes were dashing towards him, but, realizing what they were attempting to do, a sinister grin crept up on his mug.  “Heh heh heh,” he laughed to himself as they leapt at him, tossing the Light Gem-tipped Z-Wrench like a javelin.

He didn’t even grunt as the Light Gem shattered his armour, piercing right into his chest.  Alister and Alex backflipped in synchronization, landing across from each other, carving a glowing X in the air.  “BANISH!” they both shouted, bursting through the glowing X and placing their hands on the Z-Wrench. All three of them were consumed in an enormous flash of light, Dark Red’s laughter echoing in the air.

[Tesability Black]

~The Divine - Path of Truth - Tesability's POV~

"...owie..."

Her snout flat to the rest of her head, the black cartoonish dragon picked herself up off the ground as her body absorbed the electricity that flowed into her solidified form. Shaking her head slightly to knock away the dizzy that tried to fill it as she lifted it up, her black eyes were blinked closed a few times before she caught sight of a shadow next to her. Her gaze trace the darkened area to the being she wound up in an impromptu race against just now, though she was surprised to have seen him hang back like this, despite the fact that her snout was still accordioned the way it was.

"...wha...wha' deed Ai meesh...?"¹

In all honesty, the last thing she remembered was a sudden impact against...something...

¹ "...wha...what did I miss...?"

 

Ending location: C5

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

Kazuya Minegishi

Pathway of Death, A7->A8

 

"Looks like this is the next obstacle then. Nowhere to go but inside."

 

Ayame managed to say it calmly like that, but Kazuya believed that both of them knew that things would soon go for the worse as soon as they arrive inside of the building. It was...odd. Something felt completely odd about the place. But what was it? What was clear was how it's definitely not a place that should be treated without care, as from a brief look to the place, it's clear that something very wrong was going on in it. But once again, just what exactly was the cause of that odd and wrong feeling was not clear. It might be the unnaturally thick darkness that permeated the place, but Kazuya felt that there's still something else that they should be concerned about with the building. Whatever it was, however, there's no choice but to face it sooner or later.

 

The bluehead then looked at Amaterasu for a bit. Her light was oddly only barely able to pierce the darkness beyond them right now, and Kazuya wanted to see if she sensed something amiss there too. Her expression said that she did feel the same thing, but it seemed that she had roughly the same idea as the rest of the group regarding what awaited them beyond the building. Nevertheless, they continued to walk, as there's no other way they could go aside from moving forward, further and further.

 

Entering the corridor of the building, the darkness had become so impenetrable that even with Amaterasu's help, Kazuya could barely see her or Ayame as the group continued their way.

 

"Let's hope that the obstacle waiting for us wouldn't be too problematic now."

 

---

 

Tenco/Tenshi Hinanai

Pathway of Death, B7

 

"Lady Gyokuen, may I ask about something now that you're still here?" The group had been waiting there for quite a while, which the bluehead assumed to be a brief rest before continuing their way, and she was reminded about something that she's been interested in asking to the creepy woman. Not that she warmed up to her now, which she hadn't, but Tenco just thought that the knowledge would be useful down the line, seeing the similarities between them. "I wonder...earlier you said you could see things you call Rukh in black and white all around us. If this wouldn't bother you, may I ask on how do you see them and distinguish the black from the white?"

 

---

 

Reimu Hakurei

Prologuous, D1-D3

 

The place she arrived in beyond the corridor was,,,otherworldly, in a lack of other way to actually describe it properly. The layout to it was simple enough, with what looked to be twelve corridors total leading towards the largely empty room, aside from the several things standing at the center of the place. She could make out four objects there, but she was too far to see what they actually were. She could also see several other people that had arrived at the room too, and while she couldn't see her clearly yet, Reimu knew that Revy was somewhere here. Though...right now she's a bit at loss on where she should go next, but after a bit of decision making, she decided to go towards the center of the room to investigate, following her intuition once more. However, not two steps in, something happened. A voice spoke.

 

No, that was inaccurate.

 

It appeared all of the sudden inside of Reimu's mind. The words. Words filled with things that were not meant to be. It was not a voice as it was not spoken. It was as if it got directly projected to her mind somehow.

 

Kratos, the God of War of Ancient Greece. Rebecca "Revy" Two-Hands, of the Lagoon Company. Zaraki Kenpachi, and Yachiru Kusajishi, of Soul Society. And Reimu Hakurei, the "Eternal" Shrine Maiden. You have entered this domain at the cost of your own existences. It cannot be said whether it is foolish or arrogant to have done so; but it will most likely be concluded that you are both. This land is far beyond your reckoning, this domain not of your creation. Your presence here cannot be tolerated further.

 

Even if the voice addressed her and others in the place, most of which she now realized that she's familiar with, Reimu didn't think she could actually respond to it in any way aside from preparing herself for the upcoming inevitable combat. She had been fully rejuvenated after her bout with Yukari earlier, and the sphere of Gensokyo provided her with a lot of support to strengthen her. While those were not any reasons for her to be cocky, Reimu felt that she'd be up to the challenge this time. Readying her stance, she watched silently as an abomination formed at the center of the room. What was it? She had no idea. All that she knew was that she needed to exterminate it.

 

Say farewell to those you care for most, as you will not be seeing them in the next life.

 

As soon as the creature fully formed, Reimu didn't waste her time to setup several layers of binding barriers around it, encasing the abomination with layers upon layers of evil-slaying borders. With a flick from her hand, she had the barrier came collapsing towards the creature, with the intent of crushing it to a paste with the force of the shrinking cubes, and then, she set up for the barriers to explode at the abomination as she started to move around the place.

 

This time, it's not just a game. Wondering why the others didn't attack the creature immediately, she watched closely at the explosion caused by her barriers, all the while she prepared her next round of barrages.

 

---

[Kingdom Xathers]

Mind Wanderers

The Dark City - Outskirts

“This really needs to stop being a thing for us.”

“Like I said, Al, you’ll get used to it once you’ve done it a few more times.”

“Gods, I hope not.”

“Besides, there is a sunny side to this, if you’d care to hear it.”

“And that is?”

“You finally get to see what’s “going on inside Red’s head”.”

“Yeah, but, not like this.”

The skies were blood red, filled with angry grey clouds that are the spiteful combination of denying the rain, and just waiting to unleash a torrential hell on everything below.  They twisted with the howling wind, blowing dirt everywhere.  The land around was covered with red dirt to match the sky.  The two lombaxes were standing outside a fifty-foot high gate, the only opening in an enormous monochrome grey wall that stretched as far as the eye could see.  Guarding either side of the gate was a statue of Red that was far taller than the walls themselves.  The image they represented were twisted, and evil.  They were a far monstrous representation of the mind they were guarding, their faces twisted into evil expressions as they stood like conquerors, their Dark Gem staves pointed out on the endless plains of red dirt.  “This brings a new meaning to the term "mental barrier",” Alex mused, nodding to the enormous gate.

“Walls that reach the sky, and a gate too heavy to be lifted by any sort of kindness.  This is Red’s mind alright.  I just wish I knew what happened to him that makes him so desperate to keep people out all the time,” Alister sighed, his heart sinking a little.

“It’s kinda like with me, I guess.  The pain of the past makes us hide in our own shells when it becomes too much for us to handle.  Of course, I don’t have a history of darkness and being a tool of evil, so some of us are a little more reticent in sharing our feelings.  The worst part is, after the way he was acting, he’s not even in control of his own mind anymore, which explains the far grimmer surroundings and his erratic behaviour.  Red’s a prisoner, and whatever Sayer did to him is probably his keeper, tormenting him with his own emotions.  This won’t be easy, knowing Sayer’s level of sadism,” Alexander exhaled deeply.

“Well, if it’s abusing his emotions, then that explains the strange feeling I had that Red was going to kiss me while he was suffocating me,” Alister grimaced.

“Mmm.  This won’t be easy.  Think we should call those Altisters?  This is a mindscape, so they could manifest here,” Alex suggested.

“No, I don’t want them interfering with Red’s head.  They promised not to fool around with me, but I don’t want to risk them mentally harming Red,” Alister seethed.

“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence,” Vortex Al spat, his arms folded as he stood glaring at Alister ten feet behind him.

Alister sighed as he pivoted on his heel, facing off with an indignant Vortex Al, and a few others bar Moony and Zayon.  “Why are you guys here?” Alister questioned, a brow raised at them.

“We can care about Red too, alright?” Left-Eye snapped.  “Most of us might have screwed up with him in our runs, but we might as well try and help give you two a happy ending like what Zayon managed to get.  We owe the two of you that much.”

“I’m glad.  No, thank you, actually.  I’m glad you guys want to help out, but…,” Alister said as he turned at the gate, “I think he’s expecting us.  And it’d probably be best if a small army isn’t marching through his mind.  We’ll call you when we need you, okay?” Alister offered.

The Altisters shrugged as each of them vanishing, I.T. being the only one left standing.  He straightened up his glasses as he gave Alister a sharp stare.  “I ADVISE YOU TO BE CAREFUL.  DO NOT LET YOUR EMOTIONS GET IN THE WAY OF THE MISSION.  WHOEVER IS IN CONTROL HERE WILL MOST LIKELY USE YOUR EMPATHY AGAINST YOU, AND THEY WILL NOT BE KIND ABOUT IT.  THIS PLACE IS UNKNOWN TERRITORY, AND WHO KNOWS WHAT WILL APPEAR HERE,” he warned as he vanished. (“Well that’s fucking ominous!”)

“Well, that’s unsettling,” Alexander shivered as they turned to the enormous gate.  “Now, how do we get in?”

Yeah, how the hell were they going to open it?  The doors were far too big for either of them to open it and- Oh, yeah, that works.  The two statues had been observing the two the entire time, their eyes glowing purple as their enormous arms swung forward, hands on the gates.  Exerting minimal effort they opened the gates open a scooch, enough for the two to walk through.  “Five hundred bolts says this is a trap,” Alister commented.

“Gee, y’think?” Alex snarked as they walked through the gates.  The two statues stared at each other for a brief moment, before grinning as the gates closed behind the Lombaxes with a thunderous thud.

The Dark City was a melee of what appeared to be buildings from an undefined era, though they had a lot in common with those from the Victorian era.  If they had any beauty, it was gone now as practically all of them were in ruins, either completely smashed, or covered with enough damage and graffiti that the tiniest shock to the building would have brought it down.  Evil chatterings could be heard all over the city, and the lombaxes could feel a constant presence, as if they were always being watched.  They tread lightly on the cracked streets, glass cracking beneath their boots as the sky seemed darker in the city.  “What do you make of this mindscape, Alex?” Alister questioned, avoiding a large pot hole.

“A damaged mind, by the looks of it.  Time moves faster in the mind than it does outside, who knows how long Red has been mentally fighting the infection.  It’s a miracle the city is even standing,” Alex remarked. “Or, should I say, that his mind is still relatively intact.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Alister sighed as he kicked aside a burnt something.  “I wonder if this is what the Dragon Realms look like.”

“Possibly, though, this city-like mind seems to be a representation of Red keeping everything in order mentally, while trying to keep everything else out,” Alex surmised.  “Focus on the prize, block out all the rest.”

Alister suddenly put his arm out, blocking Alex.  His ears were twitching as he picked up the faintest sound of rubble shifting.  “Did you hear that?” he whispered sharply to Alex.

“Yeah, sounds like our welcoming committee,” Alex agreed, scanning the ruined streets and buildings for signs of movement.  The two lombaxes slowly paced themselves as they walked down the street, practically back to back for signs of trouble.

Without warning an arrow whizzed through the air, striking the ground where Alister’s foot had been a split second ago.  Following the path, they both caught sight of a hooded being on one of the more composed buildings, a bow in his hand as he steadily reloaded a new arrow.  Transforming the Z-Wrench into the Spiral of Doom variant, Alister's attempted attack was blocked as a sphere of energy zoomed through the air, striking the ground with a fierce explosion.  The two were scattered as the shockwaves sent them flying along the ground.  Alister wheezed loudly as he landed hard on his back, whilst Alex had the misfortune of landing on his chest.  Coughing loudly, Alister staggered to his feet as another being in a red cloak walked towards him.  Magical energy was crackling in the hooded figure’s yellow hands as she stood against Alister, ready to strike.  Holding the Z-Wrench up defensively, Alister waited for the being to make its move.  He was waiting a long time however, as the hooded person seemed to lose interest in fighting.  Rather, they were leaning forward, as if they were trying to get a good look at him.  Their hands went to normal as they lowered their guard, the hooded being letting out a rather feminine gasp as they held their hand to where Alister figured their mouth was.  “How can this be?” the figure questioned, now presenting itself as female.  The hood was shaking left to right as the woman couldn’t seem to wrap her head around something.  “You, you can’t be…?  Weren’t you…?  Wait… are you… the real Alister?” she questioned curiously.

“As real as I can be,” Alister answered wearily, now wondering who the hell this person was.

“I see, this is… new,” the woman remarked, putting her hands on what appeared to be rather slender hips.  Glancing over to Alex, the other lombax was facing off with what appeared to be her friend, who was currently pointing an arrow at him.  “Hunter, arrow down.  They’re not from Him,” the hooded figure called to her ally.

The figure called “Hunter” cocked his head as he stared at his female ally, before nodding and undocking his arrow.  Ripping his hood off, it was revealed that this Hunter was a six foot tall rather cartoony looking cheetah, with a large scar over his right eye.  It had been stitched together clumsily, and would most likely never open again.  “They’re real Bianca?” he questioned.

The female nodded as she removed her hood, revealing a rather attractive yet still cartoony yellow rabbit, her floppy ears cascading behind her head.  There was a long scar running across her left cheek.  “It’s the real Alister,” Bianca reported, nodding to Alister.

Hunter’s face screwed up in shock, literally leaping over to Alister’s side.  Wrenching his head about Hunter got a good look at Alister, his good eye looking his face up and down as he clamped the General’s cheeks in his claws, getting uncomfortably close.  “Well I’ll be, it is.  Actual flesh and blood, he’s real.  This is big, isn’t it?” he questioned, releasing Alister.

“Yeah, we need to bring them to the Leader,” Bianca nodded thoughtfully.

“Amazing, you two are memory constructs, aren’t you?” Alexander remarked, now back on his feet.  “How do you have this much sentience?  Shouldn’t you be following Red’s memories?”

“Not right now.  But, we’ll explain later.  We need to get off the streets, as that is where the shadows gather,” Bianca explained, taking Alister by the hand and pretty much dragging him through an alleyway.  Hunter followed suit, yanking Alex by his collar as he followed the rabbit.

They stuck close to the shadow of the buildings, as Bianca peered out of the dark alley they were hiding in.  She was cautiously looking out into the next street, sensing for danger.  “What are you looking for?” Alister whispered, peering around the corner with her.

“SHH!” Bianca hissed, shoving Alister back into the alleyway.

Hunted caught the flailing lombax, his claws digging into Alister’s shoulders to keep him from moving without a fight.  “We have to make sure we’re not seen,” he whispered.

“By?” Alister questioned.

“The Shadows,” Hunter whispered all mystical like.

Bianca put her thumb up as she retreated back into cover, pulling her hood up in the process.  “I felt no activity, but we have to be careful.  Avoid noise as much as possible,” she explained at the barest whisper as she nodded to Hunter.

The cheetah pulled on his hood, releasing Alister as he got into running position.  “On my mark, we run across the street.  Do you understand?” Bianca whispered.

"Roger," Alister whispered back, Alexander nodding in agreement.

“Good,” Bianca nodded, also crouching down.  “No rocket boots, just silent running, okay?  Ready?  1… 2… 3…!” she called, Hunter and herself making use of their species’ natural abilities as they bolted out of the alley like yellow blurs.  They crossed the vacant street in five seconds flat.  The lombaxes only barely kept up, having to rely on their own leg power as they melted into the shadows of the next alley.

“Bad news,” Hunter whispered, now on look-out of their current alleyway.

“Shadow creatures?” Bianca questioned, following his gaze.

The cheetah nodded grimly as they peered out of the alleyway, where a bunch of small goblin-like creatures made from Dark Gems were sniffing about, patrolling the area with beast-like efficiency.  “Typical that they’re snooping around Shoutfire’s place,” Hunter grumbled.

“Blast, we’ll have to wait for them to leave,” Bianca whispered, leaning against the brick wall as the dark creatures continued sniffing around on the street.

“I take it those things can’t be beaten easily?” Alister questioned as he leaned alongside Bianca.

“They’re easy to kill,” Hunter bragged as he snuck into the darkness.  “It’s just that they’re louder than Ripto having a fit.  One starts screaming, every single one of their friends come running.  We’ve lost a fair few memories to a Shadow Creep swarm, and I have no intention of losing anymore,” he added defensively, his hand sliding down the wall to clasp Bianca’s hand.

“So we just wait?” Alexander questioned.

“Pretty much.  We need to get you guys to the Leader, and we have no intention of dying while doing so,” Hunted grunted, his good eye narrowed as he glared at the Shadow Creeps.

And wait they did, silently and patiently as the critters continued their patrol for ten agonizing mind-minutes, until the little bastards finally buggered off down the street.  Watching them go, Bianca continued to monitor the street, despite it being so empty.  After another five minutes, she gave the all clear.  “They’re out of range.  But we shouldn’t talk until we’re inside that building over there, come on,” Bianca whispered, walking out into the street carefully, before jogging over to the most kept-together building on the street.

Hunter nodded for the other two to go first, so he could guard the rear with his arrows as he swept the area as Bianca undid the lock, shepherding the lombaxes in.  Hunter crept in silently as Bianca redid the lock, sealing it tight.  The house they were in was in complete shambles, with the furniture, if not broken, was covered in thick layers of dust.  Silently the group marched into a living space, were an elderly looking pink dragon was silently knitting in a comfortable looking armchair.  Her eyes were completely milky-white, signifying that she was blind.  “Welcome home dears,” she greeted pleasantly.

“Hello Mrs. Shoutfire.  Light Gem, Ampersand, Ridiculous,” Bianca declared.

“I understand dear,” Mrs. Shoutfire smiled, pressing a button hidden underneath the armrest of her chair.  A trap door popped open in front of the burnt out fireplace, a cylindrical tunnel running down into the darkness.  

“Alister, and… friend, jump down.  We’ll be right behind you,” Bianca commanded.

“Jump down?” Alister questioned dubiously.

“We don’t have time for this,” Hunter sighed as he shoved Alister forward.  The lombax’s boots slid in the dust on the floor, finding it impossible to grip it as he was thrown headfirst down the hole.  Alexander quickly followed suit with a quick grab and shove.  “See ya Mrs. S,” Hunter waved as he jumped down the hole, Bianca following after him with her own polite wave.

“Ta ta dears,” Mrs. Shoutfire smiled as she hit the button again, the trapdoor sealing itself behind them as she returned to her knitting.

The ride down was pretty rough, as the slide bumped this way and that in total darkness. The lombaxes jostled about until light filled the end of the tunnel, the pipe depositing them into a pile in a large open-pit room.  The sealing was about twenty meters high, and the entire cavern was lit by torches on the wall.  Hunter and Bianca landed a little more gracefully than the lombaxes did, circumventing their tangled pile as they stood on either side of the writhing critters.  “Well, this is interesting,” a familiar voice remarked casually to the writhing lombaxes.  They both stopped struggling once they heard that voice, and both their jaws dropped as they saw who it came from.

On the far end of the room was a group of people, all staring with certain levels of interest at their new guests.  But none showed more interest than Ratchet, who was casually sitting sideways on a large throne, grinning at the two in amusement as he rested his chin on his fist and his feet hung over the armrest.  “Hey guys,” he greeted pleasantly, giving them a short wave.

“Ratchet?!” Alister and Alexander gasped out at the same time.  “You’re the Leader they’ve been talking about?!” they added, still in unison.

“Yep.  How you guys doing?” Ratchet(?) questioned curiously.

“We’re… fine…?” Alexander babbled slowly.  

“So, wait a second,” Alister cut in, “there’s a memory construct of Ratchet in Red’s mind?  How is that possible?”

“Speaking from experience?” Alexander replied.  “Memory constructs can appear in one’s mind if the person it represents has a strong enough connection to the individual.  I guess Red’s interaction with Ratchet left a strong-enough impression on him to allow this Ratchet to be formed here.  Right, Ratch?” Alexander asked of the Memory Ratchet.

“You’d be surprised at what helping someone dealing with their own loneliness can do for a person, and, their opinions of other people,” Ratchet smiled.  “Even if it’s just for a short while, actually reaching someone can leave a lasting impression.  I exist because Ratchet could reach Red when he was in an incredibly vulnerable state.”

“I see,” Alexander nodded, a small smile on his face.  “Atta boy, Ratchet,” he added in a whispered aside.

“Indeed,” Alister nodded in agreement.  “I guess the same would apply for me, as well.  I mean, both in regards to Red and you, Alex.”

“You’d be right,” Alexander confirmed.  “But, wait.  Shouldn’t there be an Alister Construct in here, too?  I figured he’d be in Red’s mind, but… is he even here?”

“Oooooh,” Ratchet grimaced, his jaw stretched out in an uncomfortable way.  He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, as did the group of people in red hoods that the group just realized were there.  “Y’see, he…. Ghrk,” he gagged while trying to force the words out.  “You’ll see him, later…,” he decided as he exhaled.

The two travellers glanced at each other, confused by Memory!Ratchet’s cryptic rhetoric.  “So, now what?” Alister asked the construct version of his godson.

“Well, first thing’s first, introductions for our motley little resistance.  You’ve already met Bianca and Hunter.  Bianca is a skilled sorceress from the Forgotten Realms, and Hunter is… Hunter, from Avalar,” Ratchet introduced.

“You could have said “totally awesome dude”” Hunter protested.

“I didn’t want to,” Ratchet said coldly as he rolled his eyes.  “Next, we have Elder Astor, our spiritual guide as the other Elders are… no longer with us,” he explained awkwardly as one of the figures removed his hood, revealing a teal coloured dragon, the same one they saw in the family photo back in Death.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you two,” Astor greeted pleasantly, though he appeared strained while saying it.

“Next we have the Professor and his nephew Blink,” Ratchet nodded to two of the shorter figures, who removed their hoods to revealed creatures only barely resembling moles.

“It’s great to meet ya,” Blink waved.

“Delightful to actually meet the real Alister,” the Professor greeted.

“And, then we have people we practically had to gag and bind to join us,” Ratchet sneered at two figures on his left.  “This is Gnasty Gnorc, and Ripto.”

The tallest figure removed his hood to reveal a large green troll-like creature, and the smaller one next to him a dinosaur like being with a very suggestive horn.  They both grunted at the lombaxes.  “Oh, and of course, Gnorc number four-hundred thirty-seven” Ratchet finished, nodding to a blue troll-like creature who had already taken his hood off, and was waving enthusiastically.

“And, that’s everyone, welcome to La Resistance you two,” Ratchet said to the elder lombaxes.  “You’ll be a great help to us.  Maybe this time we’ll finally win....”

“”Finally”?” Alister blurted out.  “H-How many times have you fought against--?”

“--Too many times.  I’m sure you’ve noticed there ought to be a fair few more memories than just us.  Well, they weren’t as lucky.  It’s why I’m leading things instead of….  That’s not important.  I’m sure you have a lot of questions.  Bianca, fill them in,” Ratchet commanded, rubbing his temples thoroughly.

Bianca nodded, a small sparkle forming in her hand that flew up into the air, creating an aerial view of the city.  “This is Red’s general mind.  Normally this place is a lot more cheerful, but ever since Sayer infected Red with an Orichalcos Stone, things have quite literally gone to hell.  As he was losing control of his mind, Red granted us a certain level of sentience as he lost his freedom.  It was so we could continue the fight he could not.  However, in mental time, we’ve been fighting for several years now.  Almost all of the memory constructs have been destroyed, save for us.  We’re all that’s left that stands between Adrastos, and full control over Red’s memories,” Bianca explained.

Alexander was left with a dreading knot in his stomach after hearing Bianca’s explanation.  Somehow, he felt he knew what had become of the Memory Alister.  “So,” Alister spoke up, snapping Alex out of his own train of thought, “I’m going to take a wild and say that, in order to get Red out of this mess, we’ll have to access his memories, do some potentially death-defying stunts along the way, and eventually defeat this Adrastos.  Sounds simple.”

“On paper,” Alexander blurted out.  “Alister, I can already tell that this is going to be a much more difficult ordeal than when you travelled through my Mindscape.  And considering who caused this mess, there’s not going to be anything “simple” about it.”

“Never said it was,” Alister shrugged.

“Yeah, it won’t be that simple.  We already have his memories, the issue is being able to access the good ones.  We’ve all tried, and none of us have been able to break the six-pointed Seal that has locked down every single one of Red’s good memories.  That’s why we haven’t been able to recruit more constructs, and why Adrastos has all the power here.  All of Red’s bad memories are wide open, and they’re constantly giving that rat bastard more power,” Ratchet explained.  “Thing is, I don’t think either of you can break the Seal either.”

As if on cue to prove the construct wrong, a red symbol in the shape of a dragon’s hind claw began to glow on Alexander’s right forearm.  Alex glanced down at it as a soundless voice rang through his head.  “... well then,” Alexander spoke up, giving Ratchet a look of certainty, “I’d say there’s always a time and a place for a miracle to happen.”

“If you think you can, then... Bianca, mind showing these two to the Memory Vaults?” Ratchet requested.

“Okay,” Bianca nodded, pointing over at one of the few tunnels the group were guarding.  “This way,” she said, leading the two down one of those tunnels.

It was a long stone cave, filled with a large volume of dungeon-like doors.  So many of them were covered by the Seal of the Orichalcos.  “This is Red’s early life.  A lot of happy memories here, as you can see. Bar one, of course,” Bianca explained, nodding to the only unsealed door.  Above the door was a sign that read: Blu’s Death.

“Who’s Blu?” Alexander inquired curiously.

“Do you want to see?” Bianca questioned.

Alex and Alister glanced at each other, neither one being too enthusiastic to see what could very well be--and indeed, it is--a heartbreaking memory.  “I… suppose if it could help shed some light on anything…,” Alister hesitantly answered.

“The door’s open,” Bianca remarked, holding her hand out to the door.  “Just, go in.”

And they did, the two entering the blackness that lay beyond the open door….

[spoiler=Memories of the First Loss]
Alister and Alexander had been transported to a large open area of sweeping emerald green hills. The sun was steadily rising from the east as a gentle breeze blew the grass in sweeping waves.  Close nearby was what appeared to be a large temple with an extensively long stone staircase rising up to meet it.  And, right in front of the two, was a small red dragon with a still large underbite.  He was sleeping peacefully next to a blue tinted dragonfly with cartoonishly oversized eyes.  They both looked so peaceful, until Young!Red snorted himself awake.  Yawning loudly as he stretched, the young whelp looked around drowsily, a grin on his face when he looked to the dragonfly, his eyes white, not yellow.  “Mornin’ Blu,” Young!Red greeted, failing to notice the insect wasn’t breathing.

The whelp was nonplussed as he stared at the bug.  “Blu?  I said good morning,” he said a little more forcefully, to no answer.

“Blu?” Young!Red questioned as his front claws gently poked at the unresponsive dragonfly, its limp body rocking from his touch.  “Blu?  Hey, come on now!  Stop playing around!”

The young dragon was shaking now as his apparent friend wasn’t waking up.  “Blu...?” Young!Red repeated again, his tone wavering as he placed his claw on the dragonfly’s back.  “Hey, come on now.  I’ve got my hand on your back, you know you hate that!” Young!Red teased, and no response.

“Ancestors,” he gasped, realizing how serious the situation was.  “Blu, what’s wrong?  Blu…,” Young!Red whimpered.  “Something’s wrong.  H-hang on Blu, Elder Titan can help you,” he cried as he grabbed the dragonfly in his mouth, racing across the hills to the temple.

The ground moved beneath the lombax’s feet as the memory played out, tears running down Young!Red’s face as he charged up the stairs as fast as his four legs could take him.  Bursting into the temple, the three of them were greeted by a powerful looking orange-yellow dragon sitting on some stone steps, reading from a scroll.  His excellent hearing had already alerted him of Red’s presence, looking up from his scroll to smile at the dragon.  “Red, it’s a bit early, even for you isn’t it?” he questioned pleasantly as Red charged towards him.  “Red?! What’s the mat--”

Red spat out the dragonfly by Titan’s side.  “There’s something wrong with Blu!” Red shrieked, panicking intensely.

The Elder’s brow furrowed as he looked into Red’s worried eyes.  A gentle claw prodded itself against the dragonfly’s body.  “I see, it was his time,” Elder Titan revealed sadly.

“What’s wrong with him?!” Red demanded.

Elder Titan bite his jaw as he picked up his young ward, placing him by his side.  A kind hand was placed on the young dragon’s back as Titan cupped the dead dragonfly in his hand.  “I’m afraid that Blu’s life has expired Red, and he is no longer with us” he explained as he gently as he could.

“What?!” Young!Red shrieked.  “B-but…,” he stammered, tears rolling down his face.

“I know it is hard to accept Red, but it is the sad truth.  Blu has officially passed on from this world,” Titan repeated, keeping his hand firmly on Red’s back.

“But… Blu is my friend!  He can’t be dead!  HE JUST CAN’T!” Red wailed miserably as he pressed himself into Titan’s side.

“It is a tragedy Red, but, that is the way things are, I’m afraid.  We dragons are gifted with a long life, and through it we are granted the opportunity to experience so much in our world.  But every gift has a cost, I’m afraid.  Because we live so long, we outlive every other race in our world.  It is without subtlety that our lives are cursed with the knowledge that we will outlive those we care about, and our dragonflies are the same,” he explained sagely as the young dragon sobbed into his leg.

“But why?!” Red demanded through his sobbing.  “Why does anyone have to die?”

“It is the way of things.  We cannot live forever Red, and even a dragon must die in the end.  It is the cycle of life and death that all things follow.  That is simply how they are, and, as unfair as it is, these are rules we simply cannot change,” Titan sighed as he felt Red go weak at the knees.

“B-but… but Blu…,” the young dragon quavered.

“It was his time.  We should thank the Ancestors it was a peaceful death, bereft of pain.  He will be missed, as all dragonflies are.  And, we will ensure he has a proper burial amongst his kin,” Titan smiled gently.

“Thank you,” Red sobbed as he lay weeping by Titan’s side.  And sobbed he did long into the morning as the area around Alister and Alexander rippled, booting them from the memory….

“How was it?” Bianca questioned as the two lombaxes were ejected from the door, which slammed shut behind them.

After having viewed the memory, Alister was fighting back his tears, while Alexander fared a bit worse, muffled sobs being heard from behind the hand he was cupping over his muzzle.  “I… it was….”  Try as Alister could, he couldn’t quite find the words to describe how he felt.

“Soul crushing?  Heart rending?” Bianca offered.

“... sounds about right,” Alister croaked feebly, a lone tear managing to break through as it ran down his left cheek.  Alexander sniffled loudly in agreement.

“I figured those would be the best words to describe watching a ten-year old child dealing with the death of their best friend,” Bianca explained grimly.  “Shortly after a dragon is born, they are partnered with a dragonfly.  They share a special bond, as the dragonfly absorbs half of a dragon’s flame, so the young whelps don’t… hurt themselves, or other people with their powerful flame.  However, this friendship is also a trial for the young dragons.”

“Such as dealing with eventual loss…?” Alister guessed.

Bianca nodded, swallowing a shallow sob.  “Yes.  A dragonfly lives for roughly ten years, and many of them tend to die in the night.  The loss of a dragonfly is what teaches a young dragon the concept of death, and what it means to lose someone you care about.  It is so they are ready for when they are older, and start outliving their non-dragon friends.  No whelp has ever taken it well, and it is the duty of an Elder to help guide a dragon with their first loss.  It is such a cruel thing to do, especially to ones so young.  But it is tradition, and, the best way to show them death.  This was Red’s first truly terrible memory, and one he has never forgotten.”

Alexander was slowly beginning to calm down, though he still had to deal with his tear-stained face and, err… rather attractive string of mucus hanging out of his right nostril.  A slight tap on his shoulder directed his attention to a handkerchief being offered to him.  “Oh.. thank you,” he said to the offering individual as he gratefully accepted the handkerchief to wipe away his tears and be rid of the rope of snot… it was after which that Alexander did a double-take at the one who had given him the handkerchief: it was Alexander himself, except… flatter.  Very much flatter.  In fact, the Alexander before them resembled little more than a crudely-drawn caricature of Alex done on a cardboard cutout.  “... you have got to be kidding me…,” Alexander blurted out flatly.

“It’s like you’ve got your own Too-Dee, Alex,” Alister uttered in bemusement as he caught sight of this, just as said Altister came running up to the cardboard Alexander as if to make friends with it.

“Okay, I have no idea how he got off the wall, but… what on earth is with the other one?  I don’t recall that mental image before,” Bianca whispered to Alister.

“That one’s from my own Mindscape, if you will,” Alister replied to Bianca.  “I dunno how he got here, either, nor why he’s here and not WITH THE OTHER ALTISTERS!” he forcefully shouted at the drawing-like Too-Dee.  “Seriously, Too-Dee, what are you doing running around in here?  You could get yourself hurt.”

Too-Dee simply stared back at Alister with cartoonishly large sad eyes, his simple line of a mouth curved in a frown.

“Not for nothing,” Alexander cut in, a hint of irritation in his voice, “but can someone explain to me why Red’s mental image of me resembles a citizen of PaRappa Town?”

“Have you done anything to make a lasting impression on Red?” Bianca questioned, a smug smile on her face as she folded her arms.

“Well, no, not really,” Alexander admitted, “but I didn’t think a mental image of me would even be here at all, in that case.”

“Probably while you were fighting him, things got a little chilly while he was devouring your magic,” Bianca explained.  “But, what is an “Altister”?” Bianca questioned Alister.  “I thought there was only one of you.”

“Like I said,” Alister explained, “Too-Dee comes from, for lack of a better term, a “save file” of a timeline where I ended up dying.  Same for any of the other Alternate Alisters that were recorded in my pocket watch, with one exception.  Long story short, because I, well, died in so many timelines, there’s roughly forty-two thousand of them residing in my watch.  They’ve only just now decided to cooperate with me… or at least, remain focused on the bigger picture,” he added as he glanced back at Too-Dee, who had apparently replicated himself as he and his copies played “Ring Around the Rosie”, with Cutout!Alex in the center.

“Well, I won’t ask about that one, though, they seem happy enough for the moment.  But, forty-two thousand, that, will be quite useful.  That’s already been passed on to Ratchet, and will be useful for the siege.  But, we’re getting distracted now.  We should move on now,” Bianca reminded them as the area beneath them moved on its own.

The hurtled down the tunnel, doors whizzing past them until they stopped abruptly, in an area with a fair few less sealed doors.  The one they had paused in front of had a sign that read: “Atlas’ Death”.

“Ohhh, not again,” Alexander moaned as he facepalmed, his cardboard construct copying his action.  “I’m not so sure how many more tragedies my heart can take here….”

“You don’t see anything, so, it’s a little less visual.  This is during Red’s adolescence, during his study to become an Elder,” Bianca explained.

“No visuals?  Great, that could make it even worse,” Alister sighed, sharing Alexander’s sentiment.

“If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.  Ratchet just felt this would be a good way for you both to learn why Red is the way he is,” Bianca explained.

“... she has a point, Al,” Alexander admitted, swallowing back his hesitance.  “Whether we like it or not, we came here to help Red however we can.  Viewing his memories--or listening to them, in this case--could help us lift a bit of his burden.”

“You’re right,” Alister nodded.  “Alright, Bianca, we’ll listen in on this one.”

“Yeah, listen,” Bianca muttered to herself as the two lomabxes entered the memory.


[spoiler=The Last Flight of Atlas]
The memory had deposited them into a large open hut of some sort.  Books were scattered about everywhere as a familiar dragon was sitting in a chair by his desk, a large open window in front of him.  The window overlooked a large village, and seemed to suggest that Red’s home was stop a hill or mountain.  Red was a lot scrawnier than what he was normally presented as, and, like his younger self, his eyes were also white.  He still had his ridiculous underbite, and his horns were a lot trimmer than before.  He yawned loudly as he was flipping through an enormous pet-killing tome, reading each page word for word as his eyes whizzed across each page.  “This is so boring,” he moaned as he stifled a yawn.

His boredom was alleviated by a knock at his door.  Grateful to be distracted from his studies, Red found a tall blue dragon with a satchel around him.  “Yes?” Red questioned, a minor squeak in his voice.

“Letter for you Red,” the dragon answered, handing a sealed yellow envelope to him.

“Thank you,” Red said brusquely, the mail dragon taking off.

Opening the envelope in the doorway, Red quickly started to read over it, the lombaxes’ position now in front of the dragon.  They watched his eyes move from left to right, until they paused, going wide.  Reading it over again, Red’s hand started to shake as his other supported himself on the doorframe.  He shuddered loudly, stumbling back into his home as he reached for his chair, lying in it for support as the letter fell to the floor.  Red sobbed loudly into his hands as the letter floated right in front of the lombaxes, the text in plain view.  Alister knelt down to read it.  “Dear Red, I am writing to inform you that during that fierce storm two weeks ago, our friend Atlas was lost.  The lightning clipped his wings as he flew through the storm, and his neck… broke on impact with the ground.  His funeral was… a week ago.  I apologize for this coming so late, and that you were not invited to attend, but as you have new responsibilities I didn’t want to disturb your studies.  Know that we gave your sentiments at the funeral, and hope this does not disturb your work.  Kind regards, Cynder,” Alister read aloud, his own hand going to his mouth.

He looked up to Red, who was sobbing quietly into his hands as the memory booted them out….

Like before, they flew out of the door, Bianca appearing grim as they landed.  “Terrible, isn’t it?  To know your friend died and to be the last person to know about it,” she remarked sadly.  “And not even getting the chance to say goodbye before they were buried in the boneyard.  He was devastated for an entire week.”

This time, Alister didn’t bother to hold back his tears.  “That’s… just wrong,” he quavered.  “He had every right to be told, it shouldn’t have mattered whether it would distract him from his studies or not.  He had the right to say goodbye, why didn’t they give him that?!” he roared fiercely as he slammed his fist against the frame of the door that had closed itself shut behind them.

“He and Cynder had a falling out after he accepted the offer to become an Elder.  That was her own personal passive-aggressive revenge against him for “abandoning” her and Atlas,” Bianca explained.  “She felt like Red didn’t care for the two anymore, considering he was “oh so special” in being considered gifted enough to become an Elder.  She sent him the letter just to rub salt in the wounds.”

“That wasn’t just rubbing salt into the wounds,” Alexander said scathingly, “that was like personally tearing off the flesh beforehand!  How could she--” Alexander cut himself off as he paced away briefly, feeling too upset to even finish the thought, at least without throwing in enough expletives to give the Angry Video Game Nerd pause.

“If it was any consolation, it taught Red not to place much value in friendships, considering how often they break and fracture over the tiniest of things.  He became more dedicated to his goals, completely isolating himself for so many years, hiding behind a mountain of textbooks with his only company being the Elders,” Bianca continued.  “He gave up on trying to make friends until he was finally an Elder, after being scorned by a friendship he had had for nine years.”

“I guess even then, he still had some trouble trusting others?” Alister asked Bianca while Alexander was calming down, his cutout helping as best it could.

“Of course, that being dragons his own age, naturally.  He trusted the Elders without question, especially Elder Titan.  As you saw he’s known the Elder for his entire life, and they became quite good friends.  Titan was Red’s main supporter during his training,” Bianca explained.

Alister gave a small sigh of relief.  “Well, that’s reassuring.”

“Yeah,” Bianca winced as the tunnel moved again, running far ahead until it stopped jarringly before a different door.  This one was covered in daedric script, and a constant sense of evil was lurking behind it.  This door had no sign, as Red had no need to be reminded of what was behind this door.  “You don’t have to see this one, unless, you feel you are very prepared,” Bianca uttered, quite terrified of the door.  “This… this is a two week long memory.  And, it will explain the most about Red.  But, I’m not sure if you can handle its… contents.”

Once again, the lombaxes glanced at each other, each seeing the uncertainty in the other’s eyes.  As if holding a silent conversation, the two appeared to have reached an agreement, both nodding at the other with a bit more determination in their faces. “Do it,” Alister said simply to Bianca.

“Good luck,” Bianca swallowed as they entered that door, her silent prayers following after them.


[spoiler=The Worst Memory]
They were back in Red’s hut, and it was night time as the room was lit by an unnecessary amount of candles.  Red was still at his chair, and he was a lot bulkier since last time, as it had been decades since the last memory.  All his books were gone, and a Dark Gem was mounted in a stand on his desk, a large volume of stands with magnifying glasses stacked on them.  Red was quietly muttering to himself as he wrote in a journal on the desk.  “Observation Twenty-Seven:  Dark Gems appear to have minute offshoots on them.  These Dark Splinters are evidence of the Dark Gem’s capacity to grow indefinitely, and explains why Dark Shards are often found in the same area as Dark Gems.  They must break off from the main cluster, and grow through the terrain, becoming their own cluster.  This also explains Dark Gem Madness, as these splinters must be lodged in the wound, which is what makes them fester.  Ahhh, memo to self:  Report this fact to the Elders, so that they know wounds can simply be cleaned with Holy Water,” he mumbled as he dictated his thoughts into the journal.

As Red was mumbling to himself, the Dark Gem crackled loudly.  This was ignored by Red, a fatal mistake as multiple dark portals silently formed in his room.  Strange, shadowy creatures crept out of the portals, all of them creeping towards Red, who was still lost in his study.  Merging together, the shadow creatures became one large monster, a thick club in his hand.  As it lurched towards Red, a loud creak alerted the dragon to an intruder. Swivelling around in his chair, Red’s jaw dropped at the shadowy creature, just before it bludgeoned him.  The entire memory went black….

….and then it came back.  The two lombaxes found themselves and Red inside a dank dungeon.  The dragon was sporting an enormous lump on his head as he was chained to a wall by his arms and legs, with metal rings binding his wings to the stone wall.  Red came to with a groan, his vision going hazy as the memory did as well.  Looking around, Red gasped at his predicament.  He struggled against his chains, but all they did was rattle loudly as he was pinned to the wall.  “Ahhh, you’re awake ~keff,” a cruel voice uttered.

Forming from the shadows on the ground was a strange being in a purple robe, a metal visor covering his face.  “Wh-where am I?” Red quivered.

“You are in my domain, and you are my prisoner.  That is all you need to know, ~keff,” the figure answered bluntly, a golden staff with a gem floating between the prongs floating in the middle.  “Your world was exceptionally tacky, lizard.  And you are no prize either, but, you accepted my gift.  So I suppose you will have to do,” the figure added rudely.

“I will have to do for what?” Red demanded angrily, still trying to break free from his shackles.

“Help me with a little project, that is all,” the figure answered.

“What makes you think I will help you after you KIDNAPPED ME?!” Red roared furiously.

“Time, time should do, ~keff.  I do not expect a positive result right away, which helps.  It would make things dull if you said yes right away,” the figure remarked casually.

“What are you talking about?” Red questioned as the figure sauntered over to a rack of tools on the wall.  Idly drifting through him, the figure removed a set of pliers.

“If you said yes right away, I wouldn’t feel inclined to believe you.  You are very stubborn, so very stubborn, ~keff.  I’m going to need to change that,” the figure remarked as he walked over to Red.

“What are you…?” Red questioned, but was answered as the figure placed the pliers to one of Red’s toenails.

Without warning he wrenched at it violently, Red screaming loudly as the figure twisted and pulled at the purple nail, slowly edging it out.  With a pained scream the toenail was ripped clean out of its socket, blood dripping from the hole as the figure grasped at the nail, laughing cruelly.  Red sobbed from the pain as the figure went to work, wrenching at another nail, ripping it clean out as well.  Red continued screaming until all six of his toenails had been ripped clean from his body, and discarded.  He hung limply in his chains as he bled on the floor in a red river as the pool drained into a well-placed drainhole.  “Wh-hy-hy-hy,” Red sobbed as he hung in his shackles.

“For my amusement, and so the scars won’t be visible,” the figure answered cruelly as a pair of purple crystal golems appeared by the being’s side.  He slapped the pliers into the golem’s hand, while the second handed the being a pot of green liquid, and a brush.  He daubed at Red’s open toe holes, the Dragon wincing from the burning pain of the strange liquid.  Satisfied, the figure returned the pot to the second golem.  The golems left, and as the figure did, he gave Red one last aside.  “I will be back in an hour, ~keff,” he warned, slamming the heavy door behind him.

Red sobbed loudly as his toes continued to bleed, his discarded nails being collected by small shadow monsters that skittered away.

“Okay, totally hate that guy,” Alexander blurted out in disgust as soon as the figure was presumably out of earshot (a moot point as the lombaxes were merely visitors to the memory, and thus couldn't be seen or heard anyway).  “And I get the feeling we’ll be hating him even more in an hour.”

“I think that was Adrastos,” Alister commented.  “Strange, I sorta imagined him as looking… a lot more menacing, to be honest.”

“Well, did you think Sayer was menacing when you first saw him?” Alex asked.

“No, just… creepy,” Alister shuddered as he remembered his first run-in with Sayer.  Strange, in that it was only four days ago, and yet it felt like it had happened two years ago.

“The same seems to apply to Adrastos,” Alexander mused, pityingly glancing over at the sobbing Memory!Red.  “He may seem feeble, but I can tell just from looking at him that there’s a lot more to his character.”

As he said that, the memory fluctuated, the scene sporadically changing.  Red was hanging limply from his chains, but he had stopped bleeding as the areas on his toes had grown over.  The dragon was unsettled by the sound of the door opening, with Adrastos and his two golems returning into the dungeon room.  The evil being inspected Red’s feet, and was quite pleased with the result.  From the sleeve of his robe, he drew a small dark crystal baton.  Tapping both of Red’s feet, Adrastos took a few steps back as Red started screaming again.  Large bumps ran along the flesh of his toes, pressing hard against it.  His pitch only increased as a new set of nails burst through the skin, scattering flesh and blood as his nails bloodily regrew to their original length.  Adrastos chuckled evilly as he nodded to his two golems.  “Remove his toenails, then apply the salve, ~keff.  One hour later, regrow the nails, and repeat the process,” he commanded to his golems, leaving Red to the fiends as the golem placed the pliers to his first toe, and started pulling again.

The lombaxes had to suffer through every hour of that, and they weren’t looking too good for it as they had to keep watching.  “Uuuuuuuuurgh… how many more times do we have to watch this…?” Alexander cringed as they watched Nail-Yanking Moment #20, the golems apparently getting a little bit creative this time as they proceeded to twist the nail around about ten rotations as it was being pulled out.

“Thisiswrongthisiswrongthisiswrongthisiswrongthisiswrongthisiswrongthisiswrong…,” Alister droned on, pulling his ears downwards as he was forced to watch Red’s continued suffering.

“Al, snap out of it!” Alex snapped as he smacked Alister on the back of his head.  “C’mon, Al, you gotta hang in there!  You’re tougher than this!”

“I know that!” Alister hissed back.  “I’m just pissed that I can’t do anything about it!!”  To prove his point, Alister drew out his Z-Wrench and proceeded to furiously swing his weapon at the golems, only for his swings to pass through the creatures harmlessly.  And yet Alister kept swinging wildly, unable to alleviate his own rage and impotence as each swing became more frantic until, eventually, he slipped after a particularly strong swing caused him to lose his balance.  “Dammit… DAMMIT…!” Alister sobbed furiously as he slammed a fist against the cold stone floor.

“This marks number twenty-three,” Alex remarked.

“What?”

“He’s had his nails pulled twenty-three times now,” Alex revealed, paying attention to the scenery around them.  “If it’s done every hour, that means…, he was tortured for an entire day.  Assuming the regrowth of skin is painful, he wouldn’t have been allowed to rest once.”

Alisted gasped, staring at Red.  Though the dragon was screaming by his nails being pulled, his cries were a lot more exhausted now.  His body was sagging from exhaustion and sleep-deprivation, and his eyelids were drooping unevenly.  “And this goes on, for two entire weeks,” Alister echoed as the scene fluctuated again.

Red was still hanging from his shackles, however, this time Adrastos was with the golems again, staring up at the tired dragon.  With a tap of the baton, Red shrieked as his nails regrew, but, this time, the golems did not move.  “You have been tortured for a day Red, did you know that?” Adrastos questioned.

“...yes…,” Red croaked.

“Are you ready to serve me?” Adrastos queried.

“Yes,” Red whispered.

Adrastos sighed in annoyance, shaking his head.  “Tch, I thought after a day of nail pulling you would know better.  It appears I’ll have to become a bit more rough with you now, ~keff,” Adrastos scoffed as he tapped the wall opposite to Red.  (“That wasn’t rough enough?!” Alister spat.)

The wall opened up to reveal a strange array of crystals, all attached to some kind of amplifier.  “Beautiful, isn’t it Red?” Adrastos remarked, not exactly expecting an answer.  “Like that healing salve, this is another one of my inventions.  A lovely little device, ~keff.  It does not strike you physically in any way.  Rather, by harmonizing with the Dark Gems, it harms you spiritually.  It is a most terribly pain to have your very being tortured, how fortuitous that you get to know that exquisite pain as well,” Adrastos declared gleefully as he activated the device.

Each amplifier activated in sequence, shining a red beam through the Dark Gems, turning them purple as fifty of the needle thick beams were shone at Red’s body, piercing through him.  Red’s eyes went wide as he started screaming loudly anew, his anguished howls overshadowing Adrastos’ cruel laughter as the foul Sorcerer and his golems left, leaving Red to his torture.

The two lombaxes had to suffer through another twenty-four hours of Red screaming, the dragon somehow having enough breath to keep going when he should have suffocated after an hour straight of screaming.  Alister had covered his ears by this point just to block the horrible noise out.  It didn’t work.  “This is just painful!” Alister called over Red’s screaming.  To the General’s chagrin, though, Alexander could not hear him over his own semi-empathetic screaming alongside Red.

That was, until Adrastos re-entered the room, and turned the device off.  Red’s body sagged in his restraints as Adrastos stood before the dragon.  “Are you ready to serve me?” he questioned.

“Yes,” Red begged, tears rolling down his face.

Adrastos sighed again.  “You are still too stubborn it seems, ~keff.  This is going to take a while,” he sighed.

And a while it took, as for the next eleven days, Alister and Alex had to bear witness to torture after torture after torture as the evil Sorcerer constantly found new and inventive ways to inflict pain upon his captive without even leaving a mark.  And the dragon endured that pain the entire time, screaming during the moments when he wasn’t gagged, and writhing during the moments he was.  Until the fifteenth day….

Red was hanging from his shackles, and he looked terrible.  His cheeks were sallow and sunken, his entire body atrophied from not eating, and never being removed from the rack.  His now-yellow eyes were hanging open, a haunted look on his face as he stared off into nothingness.  He had no strength to do anything but hang in those shackles, a horrible empty feeling suckering in his chest.  And once more, Adrastos returned.  But unlike before, the Sorcerer said nothing, except raise a hand to Red.  The dragon whimpered timidly, retreating as far away as he could from Adrastos.  The fiendish sorcerer laughed cruelly.  “Good, you know to fear me, ~keff.  You are ready Red, ready to help me conquer your miserable world,” the sorcerer declared as his golems entered the room, removing Red from the wall.

He hung limply in their arms as he was finally removed from the room, the scenery moving with them as Red was taken through many winding hallways, until they entered a chamber filled with Dark Gems.  There were hundreds of clusters filling the enormous room, the hum a haunting symphony as Red was taken to the center of a room, where two poles were set up.  He was tied to them, standing on his knees as Adrastos stood in front of the largest Dark Gem ever.  “I’ve been waiting for this for a while, Red.  You are now mine, and will always remain mine, ~keff.  No matter how far you will run, I will find you, and make you mine once more.  You are my eternal servant Red, and I will always find you,” Adrastos declared as he raised his staff high.

The Dark Gems screeched loudly as the sorcerer drew in their power into his staff, the gem turning jet black as he pointed it at Red’s head.  “Welcome to my servitude, Red,” he spat as the black beam struck Red’s head.

Alister and Alexander covered their ears as Red’s ear-splitting scream filled the room.  The dragon screamed even louder than he had been tortured.  It was a scream of pure anguish and pain that would never end until Adrastos was done.  Smoke curled around Red’s temples as he barely stirred.  “Will you help me conquer your world?” Adrastos inquired.

“Yes… my master,” Red answered coldly, his eyes filled with anger and hatred that burned as fiercely as his flame.

Before the lombaxes could say anymore, the memory booted them out….

Bianca couldn’t even look at the lombaxes as they finally rejoined her.  She was as sick to her stomach as the lombaxes were.  “Do you understand now?” she wretched.

“Red… my god…,” Alister uttered hoarsely as he breathed heavily, the scenes he had witnessed and endured burned deeply into his mind.

Alexander, meanwhile, was trembling all over, feeling within himself sadness, disgust... and white-hot anger.  An almost inhuman growl escaped his throat as he proceeded to stomp away.  “I’ve had enough of this…!”

“Alex, where are you going?!” Alister called out as he and Bianca hurried after the absolutely livid lombax, ending up back further down in Red’s life, near where the memory of Atlas’ Death was.  “Alex, could you please calm down for a sec--?”

“Sayer has truly outdone himself this time!” Alexander snapped at the General.  “He thought he could pull his typical bullshit to try and make Red one of his puppets, but he knew NOTHING about what he was dealing with!!  Adrastos had long since made his mark on Red, so much that the fiend has practically been living within Red’s heart this whole time!  And Sayer just HAD to go and awaken him; now Adrastos is the one running the show!  This is why Sayer needs to MIND HIS OWN GODSDAMNED BUSINESS!!!” Alexander howled out, slamming his right fist against one of the Sealed doors in his fit of anger.

“Alex, please, you really do need to calm down,” Bianca pleaded with Alexander.  “Acting like this is not going to solve… anything?” she trailed off as she heard a slight cracking sound coming from the door Alexander had just assailed.  The Seal that was covering the door was beginning to break apart, the circle slowly cracking at first but then gaining in speed.  “Impossible,” she gasped, covering her mouth as the Seal was fighting to keep itself together.

A hideous cackle filled the air, and the Seal forced itself together again.  Bianca squeaked loudly, looking around wildly.  “He’s interfering,” she gasped.

“Adrastos,” Alister cursed under his breath.  “Alex, try and do whatever it was you did, but put some more into it!”

“You got his attention, he won’t let you,” Bianca sighed, leaning against a door with a different kind of seal.  It was chained up with golden chains, a large lock with a strange symbol on it.

Alexander glanced at the door Bianca was leaning against, his eyes scanning it to discern any hint of what lay beyond it.  There was no sign at all, unlike the other doors in the hallway.  Somehow, Alexander had a strange feeling about it.  “That’s a repressed memory,” he remarked, his own personal experience telling him such.  “Whatever is in there, Red sealed it away himself.”

“After what we just saw, what the HELL does he even have to repress?” Alister sighed.

“I honestly don’t know.  I can access any of his memories, but I don’t know this one,” Bianca mused, moving away from the door.  “I couldn’t tell you what’s beyond there, or why Red would want to repress it.”

“... I have a very bad feeling about this,” Alexander uttered cautiously as he glanced about.  “If Adrastos was able to interfere with the breaking of this Seal, who’s to say he’s not spying on us right now?”

“Well, he has access to the memories, and the seals.  But he can’t know where we are.  All he can do is draw the memories out to use on Red, other than that, we’re safe.  If we weren’t, he would’ve killed us off years ago,” Bianca sighed.

Alister sighed as well as he looked towards the chained-up door.  “Well, we won’t know until we try.  It’s not as if there could be anything worse than what we’ve already seen, right Alex?”

“Can’t exactly argue with that logic, I suppose,” Alexander shrugged as he strode over towards the giant padlock.  Taking it into his hands, Alexander ran his fingers along the strange symbol etched into it. “... how exactly are we supposed to open this, though?” he thought aloud.

“It’s a simple mental barrier, so enough force could do it,” Bianca theorized.

“Good enough for me,” Alister chimed in nonchalantly as he gently pushed Alexander aside and, before anyone could possibly protest, the General smashed the padlock apart with one swing of the Z-Wrench.

The chains broke apart, opening the memory door wide open, drawing the two lombaxes in.


[spoiler=Repressed Memory?]
Back again they were to Red’s hut, and he was still somewhat lanky, but not as much as when Atlas had died.  Red was looking over a few spellbooks, and his mouth was silently mouthing the text as he looked at it.  “Blood of the Ancestry,” he muttered to himself.

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, thinking over the text.  “The ability to call upon the power of the Ancestors.  Curious, but…, vague.  Perhaps Titan can elucidate,” Red muttered to himself, grabbing his satchel for a quick journey.

The scene flickered to the Dragon Dojo, where a much older looking Titan was tending to the potted plants as Red landed with a light thud, small piles of dust being kicked up as his wings folded behind his back.  Titan smiled wearily as he straightened himself up, his back cricking slightly as he hobbled over, hugging Red tightly.  “Hello Elder Titan,” Red smiled as they released each other.

“Red my lad, what brings you here?” Titan questioned pleasantly as he watered a nearby plant.

“Well Elder, y’see… I uh, may have borrowed one of the more, err, advanced spellbooks from the library,” Red admitted sheepishly.

“Red,” Titan chided sternly, though still with a playful edge.  “I know you wish to advance your training as quickly as possible, but you just aren’t ready for some of those spells yet.”

“I know Elder, I was just curious about seeing what high level magic looked like.  And I’ve come across one spell I have never seen before, nor have I heard you or the other Elders mention it.  What do you know about “Blood of the Ancestry”?” Red questioned.

*CLANK* came the sound as Titan dropped his watering can, a worried look on his face.  “You didn’t try to cast it, did you?” he questioned seriously.

“What?  No, I didn’t even understand it.  I came to you to learn about what it does,” Red explained.

Titan sighed in relief, retrieving his watering can with a few painful winces.  “Ahh.  That’s good Red, I panicked a little, but then, if you had used it, you wouldn’t be standing here asking me what it did,” Titan frowned.

“Elder?”

“Red, that was the highest level spell any Elder could ever use, and we never want too.  Its power is far too great, and the cost very high,” Titan explained cautiously.

“But what does it do?” Red pressed.

“It calls upon the power of our great Ancestors through space and time, and it infuses your being with their spirit.  In your case, you would call upon Tyndarion’s spirit,” Titan explained.

“The Red Destroyer?  The Fireborn?  The second greatest of all Ancestors?” Red said excitedly.  “Why is that even a bad thing?  To have that much power would be truly remarkable.  You could protect anyone if you could scorch evil with Tyndarion’s flames.”

“You think such power has no cost, Red?  Surely we have trained you better than that.  To use that spell is to allow yourself to be the vessel for something your body was never meant to contain.  Your average dragon would be annihilated the moment they even began to channel the Ancestor’s spirit.  Only we Elders or an exceptionally powerful and strong-willed dragon could even hope to contain that kind of power.  If you were to use it, your very soul would be incinerated by Tyndarion’s wrath, Red.  Even we Elders shudder to use such a spell, even in times of strife.  We would rather die than use it, Red,” Titan confessed seriously.

Red bit at his claws nervously.  “So, what should I do, now that I know the spell?” he begged.

“Forget it Red.  Lock it up and forget it.  You’d be better off not knowing that sort of magic,” Titan said as the world grew faint, and the memory was done….

“What did you see?” Bianca demanded as soon as the lombaxes left the memory.

“Well, from what we gathered,” Alister replied, “there was a very good reason why Red locked up that memory.”

“Apparently, Red learned of a Spell that was far too dangerous for anyone to use, even for Dragon Elders” Alexander explained.  “He had it locked away so as not to remember and use it.  Umm, Adrastos can see any active memories, can’t he?”

“Yeah,” Bianca exhaled.

“... FUCK,” the lombaxes blurted out in unison, realizing the consequences of unlocking that door.

“Okay, we should go back now.  We’ve all seen enough, and, we need to discuss the plan.  With so many Altisters, we now have an edge against Adrastos with your own personal and highly trained army,” Bianca smiled as the tunnel moved beneath them back towards the Resistance’s cavern.

“... we’re using the term “highly trained” very loosely, I hope…?”

[Tesability Black]

~Counter Corps - Path of Truth (Mirror World) - Neos' POV~

Grey.

Flat.

Empty.

There was nothing around in any direction within his sight...and it worried him. "...where is everything," Neos dared to ask of himself, since there was no one around to ask.

At first, he sat down cross-legged and waited, hoping for something, anything, to show up, even if it was an enemy. He had no way of knowing how long he waited, but after what he could guess was an hour, he stood back up and began to walk in the direction he had been facing, even though he had no idea if he was even walking a straight line or not.

There was literally nothing among the grey landscape, even the 'sky' was the same color as the ground, but one shade lighter.

The only indicator that time was actually passing was that his legs were starting to actually hurt from all the walking he was doing, enough to cause him to start gritting his teeth from the pain. He just wanted to find something...anything in this eternal grey, something to give him direction on where to go.

"Why is there nothing here?!"

Neos finally collapsed to his hands and knees after the outburst, legs feeling like they were literally about to melt off of him. His luck, just that would happen if he tried to demorph, they felt that hot to the touch against the ground. "There's just..." With a groan did he get back up onto his feet to look ahead at the flat grey landscape ahead of him. "...there's just got to be something here...I can't be alone here..." Raising his head up towards the featureless sky, Neos allowed his shoulders to drop upon seeing nothing to shine upon him with comforting light. "...can I?"

Almost as if an answer to a prayer, the faint sound of flapping suddenly entered his hearing, prompting him to turn his head in all directions while keeping one foot pointed towards the direction he had been walking all this time so far. In the far distance to his left, he spotted a splotch of aquamarine, green and orange that seemed to grow larger and larger as it appeared to head towards his general direction. As it appeared to come closer, it was then that he noticed that the splotch of color was from something that was flying, flapping four leaf-shaped wings of a greenish with the two closer ones much longer than the the ones further back.

Hoping to get more information from the strange being approaching, Neos dared to stand and watch as it came closer, neon-green eyes never leaving the being that stood out as much as he did in this eerie-grey place. His patience was finally rewarded as the aquamarine serpentine bird fly over his head from a great height, allowing him the view of its pinkish-purple belly that stretched from just under the would-be chin all the way to where the leaf-tipped tail was swishing around in the air. He allowed it to fly a fair bit of distance ahead before daring to dash afterwards, following it for what felt like a great amount of time.

Finally, after who knows how long he ran, a large tree entered his view. At first, he was just glad there was actually something here, even if it was in the same dreary color as everything thing else in sight, but as he continued to approach without still reaching even the roots, he began to realize the monstrous size of the unusual tree that seemed to literally reach into eternity.

The bird landed behind the large grey trunk of the tree before Neos hit the metaphorical brakes on his running, his legs feeling like they wanted to collapse from underneath him when he finally stopped. "A tree?"

To his surprise, the same creature that he saw poked its head out from behind the large trunk, staring dead at him with large oval monochrome eyes over an orange beak. It tilted its head at him in response to his stepping back upon its semi-random appearance and gave out a small chirp at him.

 

"Welcome home, Neos."

Though he heard another voice in addition to the chirp, a higher more feminine one alongside it.

"Welcome...home?" Blinking in confusion about the whole thing, Neos could help but shake his head, though he remained in a guarded pose he had entered upon its arrival. "How am I 'home'? This isn't the Tree of Beginning!"

"This...has been your home for a long time now." Seeing the incredulous look on his face, it managed a smirk with its beak, to which Neos was somewhat impressed with. "My name is Celevoir, and I am the guardian of this unique Hive Mind."

"You, bird, are completely off your rocker," Neos flatly-stated in response. "I have never seen this place in my life, so there's no way this can be any home of mine."

Out of apparently nowhere, Neos' ears picked up on the sound of a door's hinges squeaking as they creaked open, prompting him to turn around...

...though his eyes meeting red ones wasn't what he expected, especially when they narrowed back at him.

"F*ck, no."

The hostility he saw in the purple-suited newcomer's eyes began to emerge upon his own face.

"F*ck, no, Celevoir, why is the bastard here?"

"Bastard," Neos asked in hostile tone. "I can ask you the same dam---"

"CALM YOURSELVES!"

Both of the hostile shapeshifters turned their heads towards the source of the shriek, towards the strange bird of this place. And before either could say anything, it pushed them both forward, through what looked like an open door frame into a blinding-bright white...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"...get the f*ck up, Antonio."

"...I said. WAKE! UP!"

The sudden burst of volume forced Neos awake and sitting up, breathing heavy as his sense of touch and awareness started to return to him for the moment. He found his eyes unfocused and blinked them a few times to clear them.

"...ugh...wha..."

"Get up before I make you." He recognized the voice and let off a growl before trying to get up onto his feet, his hands feeling as if they...

...were on sand?

"Welcome to but a tiny part of this strange mind," he heard spoke towards him with a large amount of contempt in the voice. "You should be able to recognize it without problem."

He didn't know why, but he could tell that Gemini did not want him here, like his double had been trying to hide something here up until now. The question now was 'What?'. The shapeshifter took longer than he meant to upon getting up onto his feet, turning away from the large splash of blue that had once been in front of him before looking up, his eyes widening from the sight.

He recognized the vine-covered cavern entrance, but he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

He couldn't be in front of the Starseeker Cavern...could he? There was only one way he knew to answer that particular question, which brought him to one of the edges of the entrance, the right edge in specific, before brushing away the vines that fell over the sight of a peculiar emblem.

The emblem of a shooting star engraved into the rock.

"...I haven't bee---"

"Oh, for f*ck's sake," Neos suddenly heard behind him before being pushed through the vines, almost tearing a couple off in the process. "GET GOING!"

Gemini's eagerness to get this over and done with was out of character for the dark double, making him really wonder what was really here. And so, with a gulp did he move forward through the winding tunnels, which were strangely lit with electrical human-made lamps that were connected to a black cord that seemed to lead deeper down. They were the only ones in the entire humanless region with such a light source so long ago, which sealed the knowledge of his location firmly in his head.

"Well, look who has finally shown up again?"

Neos froze. He hadn't heard that slightly-squeaky voice in over a decade now. Slowly did he dare to turn towards the source, his eyes laying upon a rather-unusual Pikachu, slightly taller than normal with ears that curved backwards behind her and a pair of wire-framed glasses over blue eyes. There was no sight of the typical thunderbolt tail one would expect to see, but he knew why that was.

Neos remembered when she told him about when it had been sliced off in battle against a Grovyle.

"..T...Tal," Neos dared to ask in shock upon seeing her. The strange Pikachu, whom he thought was dead at this point, nodded at this before turning about and motioning for him to follow, spotting the familiar shortened tail with only a sliver of yellow above the brown base when she did.

"There's only one Starseeker leader, after all." A small giggle left her throat before she walked deeper, which prompted Neos to run after her, stopping only upon seeing a familiar huge area with what looked like a huge flat device upon one of the walls hooked up to a box that reminded him of a cable receiver he had seen in many human homes within his home realm.

A smirk fell upon his face as he remembered that, unlike the other Rescue Teams of the region, the one he had been part of had a way to keep track of the human-filled regions. "Surprised to see me after so long?"

The voice recapturing his attention, Neos allowed his eyes to land back upon the vaguely-humanoid Pikachu, whom was sitting upon one of two large greenish couches within the vast area. With a single paw did she motion towards the other couch, upon which he dared to sit down upon.

"But...how...how are you here," Neos finally dared to asked of the familiar being in front of him. "Last time I saw you, Talim, you were on your death bed." To this, the Pikachu acknowledged with a simple nod, glancing momentarily at the currently-blank flat-screen in the room before returning her bluish gaze upon the false human.

"And indeed I am dead," the Pikachu known as Talim confirmed to the shock of the Ditto. "Now, here's a question for you. Where do you think you really are? Because you're no longer on the Path of Truth right now, believe it or not."

Neos just stared at her with a look of disbelief, his hands on his knees as he slightly leaned forward. He wasn't even sure he had even heard that correctly.

If he wasn't on the Path of Truth...or even in the Pathway to Origin...then where in the Distortion and the Blind Eternities was he?

"I...do not know," he finally said after several silent and uncomfortable minutes, though the Pikachu across from him was showing a great amount of patience. Odd, considering the Talim Rave he knew wasn't exactly the most-patient...

Before he could finish his thought, the Pikachu released a sharp whistle, which was promptly responded to by another familiar sight, a small round ball of brown and tan fuzz that alternated in a zigzaggish pattern, the smallest Zigzagoon he would ever lay eyes upon. "Yoyo," Talim started. "Could you fetch Jace and Faye for me?"

Wait a second, Jace Beleren was here?

"Yup yup," the hyper ball of fuzz barked at them before zipping back out of the cavern faster than he could even trace a motion path for the critter with his eyes. Neos raised his eyes back towards the Pikachu girl that was still looking out the way the Zigzagoon went, a stunned look on his face.

"Beleren's here?" A confused look fell upon her muzzle before she looked at him, her eyes narrowed in thought.

"...do you not remember whom Jace Cort and Faye Xandros are?" Upon seeing Neos shake his head in denial, Talim lowered her shoulders and sighed in disbelief. "Welp, that certainly simplifies things if that stubborn girl decides they shouldn't show up, then."

"Tal-tal!" The Pikachu winced upon hearing the annoying nickname before looking towards the source, seeing the little Zigzagoon already back from wherever he went. Just as Neos remembered would often happen. "Dey no go! Not time!" Another sigh was released before Talim waved off the furball, somewhat disappointed by the news.

"Oh, well. You can go, Yoyo." Without another word had the brown ball of fuzz zipped off again, Neos trying and failing once again to trace the little creature's path before moving his gaze towards the disappointed Pikachu. "Welp," she started to say before hopping off the couch and back onto the stone ground below her feet. "I guess it's time you were shown something...despite what Gemini would like."

"Wait a blasted second," Neos said in stunned shock as he got up onto his feet. When he last saw the original, Gemini Rivetter wasn't even a thought in his own head, let alone known by the whole of Rescue Team Starseeker.

So how did Talim know?

He certainly wasn't expecting to see the comforting smile on her face as she now stood in front of him, offering a paw to him. "Come with me."

Unsure of what to expect, he stood up onto his feet then leaned forward and cautiously took the Pikachu's paw...

What happened next made him think he had somehow dipped into the Blind Eternities once more, even though not a Planeswalker was in sight...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Michele has lost her mind for bringing him here."

"Welp, times have changed and things become nessecary over time."

"...even verbally, you keep typoing that word."

"And you driving me up a tree about it will not stop that from continuing to happen, Gemini."

A groan escaped his throat as he regained awareness of his surroundings, Neos blinking several times to realize that he was in some sort of hallway, one of varying shades of teal and grey. "...wh...where...am I?"

"Welcome to the Hall of Souls," he heard before looking towards the source, the Pikachu he had been talking to up until now. Her paws were crossed in front of herself, as if expecting to lead him through a foreign area. "Where the knowledge of various crafted souls and paths are stored for future use."

"...crafted souls?" He saw Talim nod in response to this question with a flat look on her face.

"Yes, crafted." With this did she turn her back towards the false human before glancing back towards him briefly. "Follow."

He had to run to keep up with her, running past a large collection of statues featuring various beings he had never heard of before, only finally slowing down when he started to see ones of increasingly-familiar faces.

However, he ground to a halt upon seeing a specific pair of statues.

His own and Gemini's, side-by-side and poised for combat, though neither touched the other.

"Yeah, one annoying human girl made us both for her entertainment. How f*cked is that?" Neos quickly turned about at the voice, finding himself looking directly into an angered Gemini, whom just shoved him aside to get past. "First, I was supposed to look up to you as an idol, then we were brothers, then twins, and now we're practically two halves of the same scarred coin. B*tch can't make up her mind about us, nor will she."

Neos was having a hard time believing Gemini's sudden outburst about such things, though the sight of the darker double did anger him, something that caused an annoyed huff to emerge from the suited twin. "Predictable, you can't even look at me without acting upon how she programmed you. Can't you think for your-f*cking-self for once?" A sad sigh emerged from Gemini's mouth before he turned to face Neos once more, whom had put himself on a guarded stance. He opened his mouth, as if to say something to his lighter half, then shook his head. "Argh, it's pointless, you won't listen to a word I say. You're pretty much hard-wired at this point."

Gemini made a quick motion with his hands before a blast of wind from them launched Neos backwards, through a spiraling black portal that wasn't there a few moments before. He glanced towards one side, towards a simple human female wearing a black turtleneck sweater and white denim pants leaning against the nearby stone wall. "I hope you know what you're doing with this craziness, Ms. Lusterino," he added at the end with a lot of acid in his tone, not liking what he just had to deal with.

"Trust me, Gemini," the brown-haired woman started to say as she studied him from behind wire-framed glasses with brownish-silver eyes. "So do I..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Neos re-emerged beyond the mirror's other side, for the moment out-cold from his head hitting the solid ground below him upon his sudden exit.

[Dad]

Kratos & Revy, Approaching D3, Prologous

 

 

They had been approaching the column at D3 when they heard--no, sensed this voice.  It taunted them, talks of never seeing their loved ones in the next life.  Kratos frowned, suddenly angry at these accusations of arrogance and foolishness.  Revy placed a hand on his shoulder, as she cocked back her guns.  "Guess we're about to find out what our team work looks like," she joked.  Kratos nodded, as a strange creature began to form high above them in the center of the pathway.  "What the f--" But Revy was interrupted as magical barriers suddenly surrounded the creature.  A girl buzzed rapidly around the creature, and Revy recognized her immediately.  "Reimu?" she said to herself.  She darted forwards after Reimu, and Kratos followed in toe.  Whipping her revolvers around, Revy took aim at the Avatar from afar, but held back on firing.  For for whatever reasons, she holstered her guns, as she approached Reimu.

 

"Hey, shorty!" she called, running up to Reimu.  "What do ya make of this thing?"  Kratos soon appeared on the opposite side of Reimu, his blades drawn.  "It knows our names.  It knows from where we hail.  What else does it know?" he asked aloud.  "And by the sound of it, your pals are here," Revy said to Kratos.  He nodded in reply.  "It is good to know they made it.  But how does this . . .creature, know us?"  Revy shrugged.  "Some kind of mind reading?  After the sheet I've seen, I wouldn't put it past anything."

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

Kenpachi and Yachiru, B3, Prologous

 

"Did you get that?" Kenpachi said still charging forward.  Yachiru nodded, bobbing up and down on Kenpachi's shoulder.  "Kratos is here.  Let's go join 'em.  See if we can't make heads or tails of whatever that thing is shaping up over there," he said quickly.  Yachiru ducked into Kenpachi's shoulder, grabbing tightly onto his robe.  Kenpachi paused in his running, and stooped down slightly.  He exploded from the ground, and leaped ahead, making a crash landing just feet from Kratos and his friends.

 

Kratos didn't even bother to turn around, as that thud could have only been Kenpachi.  Yachiru hopped down, running up and hugging Kratos at the legs.  "Welcome back," he said patting Yachiru on the head.  She grinned, turning her head to the Avatar.  "Hmm.  It's really weird looking," Yachiru commented.  Kenpachi dusted himself off, standing now behind the others.  "Reminds me of Hyourinmaru," he said thinking of Hitsugaya.  "Since it knows my name and what not, you think it knows what I'm thinkin'?" Kenpachi joked aloud.

 

"We just discussed that actually," Revy said with her eyes on the Avatar as well.  "We're wondering the same thing."  Kenpachi sighed, moving Revy and Reimu left, and Kratos and Yachiru to the right.  "Only one way to find out," he said stepping forwards.  He drew back Nozarashi, and unleashed a powerful reiatsu slash at the Avatar from a distance.

 

"And if that comes back at us?" Revy said sarcastically.

 

"Your boyfriend will handle it," Kenpachi replied in an equally sarcastic tone.

 

Kratos gave Kenpachi a dirty look, and Revy only laughed.  They surprised themselves, to remain calm as this being threatened them.  One would think, after what they've seen, that these people would come to expect horrible, horrible things and be frightened into a sense of terror and frustration.  But truth be told, Kratos, Revy, Yachiru, and Kenpachi were having a hell of a time.

 

 

Ending Location:  D3

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

Killua C5, Pathway to Truth

 

As the dragon awoke, Killua sighed.  "You missed a lot," he said in reply to her dizzy question.  "You ran head first into a mirror, and shot yourself backwards until you landed here.  So I juiced you up, hoping it would help," he said helping the creature to its feet.  She appeared to be okay, but he wasn't sure.  "You gonna be able to fly in your condition?" he asked out of concern.  There was a good chance she had a concussion, so Killua forced himself to stick around until he was sure she would be fine on her own.  "Come on, let's get moving," he said as if he and the dragon were companions on an adventure.  It was weird, but it had not registered with Killua just yet.

[The Warden]

[[Another Time, Another Place: Prologuous]]

 

The Avatar was unreactive as as the slowly shrinking cubes surrounding it. Every pupil it had constricted to fine pinpricks as it observed the barrier, a subtle mental process overtaking the existence. Data Entry: Steadily shrinking barrier class enchantment. Origin: Touhou universe. Point of Action: Offence. Retort? Desperate Space.

 

As the barrier shrank around the Avatar, darkness began leaking from its body as the explosions went off around it. But their time in the world was short lived as all the energy was drawn into several black vortexes that surrounded the strange thing. The explosion was consumed by them, the Avatar's eyes swivelled about in place, focusing intently on Reimu. 

 

 

Pathetic brat! You think such a weak assault is enough to even scratch my very surface. You will be punishe- What are you doing Kenpachi?

 

 

The Avatar attention had been diverted by the Shinigami's Reiastu slash heading towards him. The eyes focused intently on it as time seemed to slow down compared to the Avatar's mental processing. Data Entry: Soul-based cutting attack. Origin: Bleach universe. Point of Action: Offence. Retort? Spiritual pressure.

 

The Avatar's body twisted about, the original mobius loop becoming a circle, spinning in place as the eyes spun around in the opposite direction. An intense field of spiritual energy formed around the Avatar's body as Kenpachi's attack came towards it. The powerful slash exploded on the dense barrier the Avatar had created, but it wasn't enough to break through. The Avatar returned to its original shape, its many eyes focused directly on its opponents.

 

 

Predictable. Utterly predictable. Mere insects like yourselves always try to achieve different results with the same tricks. There is no limits to your foolishness, it appears. To think you could even harm something like myself is laughable. But such arrogance demands punishment for the crimes of even believing you can compare.

 

 

Five pupils of the Avatar's fifty lit up, capturing each the combatants in a psychic(?) field. Hoisted twenty feet into the air, small bulbs formed along the Avatar's long body. The eyes that weren't binding between tightened again, as if the thing was glaring at the five.

 

 

VANITY'S EMPTINESS!

 

 

Five red arrows launched from the bulbs, finding their way through the air and impaling everyone right through their bodies. At this point in time, it would be prudent to explain this attack. Vanity's Emptiness is not a physical assault by any means, though it requires physical contact with the body as it goes through it. Once even one tiny fragment of the Vanity's Emptiness makes contact with a nerve cell, it sends an intense pain through the body. The only way to describe the level of pain is ascribing that it feels like every single cell in your entire body is receiving its own personal torture. Though it only lasts for ten seconds, the memory will last a lifetime without a single physical mark to show for it.

 

 

Feel the pain of your miserable existences, and LANGUISH IN THEM!

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

Hakurei Reimu

Prologuous

 

"Hey, shorty!" As Reimu was still looking worriedly at the direction of the abomination, she was approached by Revy and her partner that she had seen several times before. Of course, Reimu was very delighted to see them being there and healthy, but her mind was a bit too distraught to actually reply to her at the moment, mainly caused by her worries regarding the creature they're facing at the moment.

 

I'm not that short.

 

"What do ya make of this thing?" Revy immediately asked, but Reimu was still silent, keeping her stare at the dustcloud caused by her explosion earlier.

 

It's ugly.

 

"It knows our names.  It knows from where we hail.  What else does it know?" Revy's boyfriend followed with this question. Reimu probably had the same amount of ideas about this creature as him, so she assumed that his question was a rhetoric.

 

He knows that he'll get exterminated soon maybe?

 

"And by the sound of it, your pals are here," This time, Revy said it to her boyfriend.

 

"It is good to know they made it.  But how does this . . .creature, know us?" 

 

"Some kind of mind reading?  After the sheet I've seen, I wouldn't put it past anything."

 

"I really hope it's not the case. Glad to see you two again here. And really, I don't think I can conclude anything about the ugly thing yet." Reimu finally said something properly. Not long after, the old geezer swordsman Kenpachi and Yachiru approached them three, both of them looking quite spirited right now. As the four of them talked to each other passionately as if it was a reunion after ages of being separated, Reimu couldn't help but to smile a bit at the display of camaraderie in front of her. Those talks however, ended up with Kenpachi sending up what looked like an attack of sort from his sword towards the abomination's direction, probably just to test whether it worked or not. Seeing them like they're having the time of their life was nice, to say the least.

 

Pathetic brat! You think such a weak assault is enough to even scratch my very surface. You will be punishe- What are you doing Kenpachi?

 

But then, the fun and games were over almost soon afterwards. The dust cloud around the ugly creature had dissipated, revealing the creature completely unharmed behind it, with all of its eyes staring at Reimu. The attack from Kenpachi earlier caused it to contort bizarrely, before returning to its normal form and having its eyes staring at everyone present at the room at that moment.

 

Predictable. Utterly predictable. Mere insects like yourselves always try to achieve different results with the same tricks. There is no limits to your foolishness, it appears. To think you could even harm something like myself is laughable. But such arrogance demands punishment for the crimes of even believing you can compare.

 

Reimu honestly almost laughed at the creature's hypocrisy, but it was cut short when she realized that some sort of odd field was forming around her. She was not really sure about what it actually was, but it seemed that it was created with the intent on trapping the five of them in preparation for an upcoming attack. When bulbs formed all around the ugly multi-eyed creature, Reimu realized that she needed to act fast. She immediately prepared to cast barriers all around her, but sadly, she was too slow.

 

Feel the pain of your miserable existences, and LANGUISH IN THEM!

 

Before the barriers could fully form, arrows were fired from the bulbs, and without the barrier protecting her from it, the arrow pierced her straight on her neck. What followed was the most ridiculously painful feeling that she ever felt in her life...

 

...as "Reimu" dissolved into a pile of amulets not long after the arrow hit her, before exploding, taking out the arrow with it. The real Reimu was now standing several meters from her dummy's location, looking very irritated. She legitimately didn't get the time to form barriers to protect herself or the others, so they would be forced to handle the arrow by themselves. While she was not sure about how, hopefully they'd be able to handle it just fine, Reimu trusted them to be able to take it well, since at that point she couldn't do anything to the arrows on them. Still, for her to reveal her dummy tactics, the so-called "Instant Dimensional Rift" technique this early, it was a pain since the creature could potentially adapt to it to the point of making it be completely ineffective.

 

"Alright, since you think we're being arrogant before, I guess it's time for us to say sorry and be more humble. So now, can I humbly ask you to just die like the ugly abomination you are?" If it was not clear already, it was a mocking rhetoric, said by Reimu as she summoned her "persuasion" needles, spiritually enhanced oversized needles that were closer to a stake than a needle, several dozens of them. All aimed at the creature's way too abundant eyes. Not saying anything else, the shrine maiden then bombarded the abomination with a literal rain of needles.

 

There's a lot of things that needed to be answered regarding the creature, but Reimu just couldn't care enough to wait for all those questions be answered. After she finished her barrage, she ran towards the others' location, getting worried about their condition as the needles she fired exploded in a blast of pure spiritual energy around the creature.

 

---

 

Yakumo Yukari

Pathway of Truth->Mirror World->Pathway of Truth

 

“…The outside world, eh?”

 

Finding herself amidst a sea of concrete that felt uncomfortably familiar than it supposed to be to her, Yukari couldn’t help but to be slightly surprised that the mirror led her to this place. It was the last kind of place she expected herself to be after going through the mirror earlier. However, even if she’s still wondering regarding about why she was transported there, the youkai decided to try walking around to see whether she’s supposed to do something or meet someone there. It was pretty much expected of the pathway to put up some sort of trial of character here before she could pass, so if she could figure her purpose here in this world as soon as she could, she wouldn't have too much problem passing this and proceeding to clear the pathway afterwards. With that in her mind, the youkai wearing a green dress walked through the streetsides as she took her time for sightseeing right now.

 

Not really long after she arrived on the place, Yukari then realized that the city she was in was unmistakably Kyoto. To be more exact, the Kyoto she remembered as Maribel. Even without seeing any of its signature landmarks yet, Yukari was definitely feeling the air of familiarity from the entirety of everything around her. As she was lookng at the commuters passing by on the streets not far from her, Yukari then decided to try remembering important locations for her and Renko in that city. Naturally, the first thing she remembered was her old apartment room. After figuring out its exact location, Yukari gapped herself away to that place, right into the center of the room itself.

 

The room was really messy, and from the look of it, no one had lived there for a while. Notes were still scattered all over the place, her dirty clothing were sloppily thrown around, and there’s some bottles of beers and other things. It was as if it got abandoned after a decidedly messy sleepover session. Speaking of that, she did notice Renko’s clothing and belongings were also around, at times being placed on the same messy pile with the rest of her stuffs. Looking around and seeing nothing else that’d be of interest to her, Yukari then tried to get outside the room using the door, but it was locked. Of course it was locked. Would be strange if it’s not. Shaking her head at her apparent failure of an action, she then opened a gap connecting herself to the corridor in front of her room. As she get outside of her gap and turned around, she noticed something.

 

She noticed that the room was crossed with police lines. That’s odd. What kind of thing did she, or to be more exact, Maribel do in this place to warrant her apartment room to be locked up by the police? Right now, it’s not really something that she could figure out yet. Before anyone noticed her, she gapped herself away to a nearby park. There were not much people in the park when she arrived there, and the ones that were there didn’t seem to actually notice or care about the fact that someone just suddenly appeared near them out of nowhere. They were all busy with their own thoughts and businesses, something that were pretty much common about modern human. Quite a pity, but Yukari weren’t really here to ponder about the nature of the human race. Finding an empty seat on the park, Yukari then sat there as she thought about the place more carefully to find the actual purpose of her existence there.

 

The police lines she saw. That was the first clue. This entire place should be a construct of the pathway, and of course, there must be an actual purpose behind the existence of it for her. A hidden meaning, a message to sought out. Yukari would have started to figure out about the different possibilities of what kind of meaning was stored here, but she did realize that she’s deeply lacking in clues to actually figure out something that could be close to the truth. The youkai then sighed in slight frustration before tried to look around, this time just to enjoy the sight for a bit to take her mind off her frustrations and other concerns. But then, something caught her attention as he looked around. It was a small poster placed on an announcement board. While the content of it was indiscernible from her current position, something about it managed to pique her interest, and the youkai ended up deciding to check it out.

 

To her surprise, it was actually a missing person poster. Specifically however, it was a poster about her, well, more exactly Maribel. Clearly from what she could read there, she or Maribel had been missing for a while, and the poster was apparently put up there by Renko. Well, that would be another clue on why Yukari was here. It also explained the police lines she saw outside of her old apartment room. She then assumed that this all would be related to her spiriting away to Gensokyo during her trip to the outside world side of the Hakurei Shrine with Renko. These all would probably be the aftermath of the incident, from the perspective of the outside world.

 

Maybe she had to meet up with Renko to explain everything to her to prevent her tracing her back to Gensokyo and subsequently get accidentally murdered there by her? That would be fitting enough for the Pathway of Truth, and thus, Yukari was pretty sure it’d be the thing the Pathway intended for her to do right now. In that case…she would need to find Renko first. Not wasting any further time, she then gapped herself away to the university that she and Renko attended, and immediately rushed to the club room for their Sealing Club.

 

The door was locked.

 

That would certainly mean that Renko was not inside. She never really close the door to the club room in hope of new applicant to the club, even if the chance of other people of this age to be interested in the topic that the club seek out would be almost non-existent. Not that the brunette ever minded, really. Yukari knew that Renko always felt that as long as she had Maribel on her side, it’d be fine to only have 2 people on the club. Just as she said, the Sealing Club is one by the two. It’ll always be fine sailing for it if it had its two members around, even if no one else joined.

 

Though now, the club had lost one of that two. Without Maribel, the club room had seemingly become deserted. It was a bit painful to see the room being that way now, but without being able to do anything about it, Yukari decided to leave and walk around the complex to see whether Renko was around. Well, less actually walking around and more like peeking on each of Renko’s classes one by one to find out whether she’s around or not.

 

Her search didn’t result in anything, as she couldn’t still locate Renko. Slightly miffed, Yukari then decided to move to a cafeteria not far away from the complex, just to rest this time. With how the last time she tried to take a rest led her to a lead, she decided to try the approach once again. Sitting down on a chair there, she then looked around to see whether there’s something that could pique her interest or not. Well, there weren’t really much. Only two other girls and the employees of the cafeteria itself. Though, she could hear the girls were talking to each other, and she was close enough to listen to discern about the thing they’re saying.

 

“You know…maybe we should visit Renko one of these days.”

 

“Yeah, I wonder why she’s not attending classes anymore as of late. Stress or something else?”

“I don’t really know myself. Maybe she’s finally too frustrated that her odd club didn’t get any other members aside from herself.”

 

“Poor girl. I kind of wish she could pick something better as a topic of interest but oh well. Might be just her fault to isolate herself as a weirdo without a friend.”

 

Hearing it, as much as it actually gave her the hint of what actually happened, Yukari couldn’t help but to get angry at the two with their seemingly nonchalant talk about Renko. It took her a lot of willpower to stop herself from yelling at the two, and in the end, to avoid causing ruckus, she gapped herself away from the place.

 

Now standing at the top of the building, Yukari’s mind had cleared enough for her to start thinking about what the two girls were saying. The hints placed on those words, for the most part, were pretty clear. Renko had been skipping classes ever since she disappeared, and right now, she’s probably at her own home in Tokyo. Although, something else still manage to bug her about it so far. The girls mentioned about how Renko being completely alone in the Sealing Club, seemingly not even acknowledging her, or to be more exact, Maribel’s existence. It was jarring, to say the least.

 

Still, right now with the confirmation of sort that Renko’s at her own place in Tokyo, and without thinking about it further, Yukari immediately used her gap to reach her room in a flash, being unable to wait any longer to meet her friend. However though, once again the place was completely empty, and not even her parents were there as she walked around her house. Not long after however, she stumbled upon pieces of paper on the table in the living room. Seeing it as a potential further hint, Yukari didn’t waste any time to go to them and read what’s written there.

 

“…This can't be true...right?” It was a voice filled with denial. The youkai said it softly as she crumbled those papers immediately after reading them. A hint for the next place she must visit was there, but that hint was not something that she’d ever wanted to read as someone who knew about her close friend. Tossing those crumbled paper into a gap, Yukari then silently disappeared from the room, finally knowing the location of where her friend was.

 

 

At the room decorated in white, Yukari stared at her friend, who was now lying unconscious on the bed. To think that she fell into a coma without her presence, it somewhat made Yukari regret the fact that she couldn’t return to her side, even if the fact was it’s not really her fault that she’s stuck in Gensokyo. At that point, she couldn’t even seem to talk to the comatose Renko at all. In that case, she was now at loss at what she’s supposed to do here now-

 

And then, out of nowhere, someone punched Yukari’s face as hard as possible, crashing the youkai to the nearby wall as she was caught by surprise by it. As the youkai groggily stood up after the crash, she now could see the person that punched her.

 

Maribel Hearn stood there with a furious look on her face, her fists clenched on her side.

 

“…Ah...of course. So you’re the true point of this place, me?”

 

“You are not me, Yukari. Stop pretending that you’re me, and get away from my Renko!” Saying that in complete anger, Maribel then lunged at the youkai, ready to beat her up further in rage, but Yukari managed to disappear using her gap, and appear behind the girl.

 

“What are you saying? Am I not you originally?” Yukari earnestly asked. She wondered what actually triggered this much anger from the usually meek girl that she was, but whatever it was, it definitely something that she’s really concerned about. The girl turned around to face her, and with the two of them being this close, Yukari could see the expression of pure contempt coming out of her past self. It was jarring.

 

“You’re no longer me.

 

Stop trying to regain what you’ve long lost.

 

Stop it, Yukari!” As Maribel said that last line in a voice that was almost a scream, everything around them, the room they were in, the constructed world itself crumble to pieces, including the comatose Renko and everything else. In the end, only the two of them was standing there in the middle of an infinitely expanding field of whiteness.

 

“You…you already have your friends, your family, and your own world that you created, but you still desired more! Can you just leave my life alone?”

 

“W-what are you saying?” Yukari was still puzzled as of why Maribel kept on attacking her again and again. She knew that it was a mere futile gesture from the young woman, but Yukari still dodged her attacks while not attacking back herself, seeing no point in doing so.

 

“Just..stop...stop living someone else’s life! Stop living MY life after you've taken away Renko from me!” This time, the punch from Maribel managed to hit Yukari straight in the face. But, the youkai decided to tank it instead, not moving or reacting at all as the fist landed right on her face. It was not a strong punch, and Yukari almost couldn’t feel anything from the punch. However, it was what the girl said that concerned Yukari more.

 

“…Am I really doing that right now?” An earnest question by the youkai, who didn’t budge from her position as she looked at her younger self. Maribel, seemingly still livid and on the verge of bursting out in tears of frustration, withdrew her arm from Yukari’s face slowly.

 

“Of course you are, dammit. It’s a question you should have asked yourself, not to me. Just look at how you’ve been feeling and thinking recently, that’ll be your proof.”

 

Silence followed Maribel's words, as the two continued to stare to each others' eyes. Five, ten, fifteen minutes, none of them really moved from their position. It took twenty minutes for the silence to be broken with a sound of almost manic laughter.

“…Pfft, I’m hopeless, am I?” Finally getting what Maribel said, the youkai of boundaries continued to laugh and laugh. She laughed and laughed, laughing at the fact that the girl was right, laughing at how messed up she actually was right now, laughing at the fact that she had to be told off this way by her younger self for her to realize that fact. The question that the cloaked figure asked near the bridge now finally made perfect sense too, with Maribel confirming on what it actually meant. The truth was indeed, ugly, but facing it is necessary.

 

Right now, she hadn’t been Yukari. She had embraced her long gone identity as Maribel once more after the pathway of Remembrance. All the time, she felt that it was right for her to do it, that it was the right thing to do. To honor her long-lost friend, being Maribel once more was once the answer Yukari chose to remove a part of her guilt from being the one responsible for her friend’s death. Even if she still referred to herself as Yukari, she had been Maribel all along, the meek, curious young girl that she once was.

 

But it’s not what she supposed to be right now. It’s just…stupid of her if she thought that she could return to who she used to be. She’s now Yukari, and that’s all there was to her. In retrospect, her clinging this much to Renko was disturbing. It just showed how aimless and worthless she had been feeling to cling to her. Honoring her and atoning for her mistakes to her friend was one thing, but being obsessed this much about her was definitely wrong. Losing herself in the sea of nostalgia, Yukari ended up being stuck on her past.

 

She had to finish this pathway. She had to stop Arturia and Protheus from achieving their goals. She had to save the world she and Renko built. Not for herself, not for her old friend, but for everyone that lived in the land, all the people she had met and befriended as Yukari Yakumo. Being this obsessed with her old, long gone friend to the point of shrugging off the friends, the acquaintances she now had. To think that she had been disrespecting the ones that were actually important, the true reasons she had been fighting here so far due to a long lost love really was worthy of an expression of exasperation. It’s just stupid, once again.

 

And, worst of all, her being like this, acting odd and uncharacteristically unlike how she actually was due to being Maribel had taken a victim. There was no reason for her to keep on pressuring Neos and Gemini like that just for a small shred of information. It’s not something worth the risk, and she could’ve gathered the information from another way. But even after Koishi complained and being tortured by the mere presence of Gemini and the pathway trying to mess her up, Yukari didn’t budge back then, blindly following her curiosity. Maribel’s curiosity.

 

This is not what the pathway wanted; for this meant that she couldn’t still accept her past and let Renko go. This is not what Renko wanted, for no matter how much she loved her, Yukari had been way too overboard with this. And most importantly, this is not what she, as Yukari wanted. She’s fighting for the sake of Gensokyo, and all the other worlds that could be saved along the way right now. She’s fighting for the sake of her friends that had been the victim of the Moonlight Descent Ceremony and this conflict. For Gensokyo, the world she and Renko mothered, the world she created from Renko’s ashes. The world that they dreamed together.

 

Wiping out a single tear from her eyes after laughing too much, Yukari finished her laugh as she looked back at the now-confused Maribel in front of her, recomposing herself and returning the air of dignity around her. Smiling at her younger self, Yukari then walked forward, passing through the girl without seemingly turning around to look at her again, towards a portal that suddenly had formed not far behind the girl.

 

“This is it between us.

 

Thank you for reminding me about this, Maribel. Yes, you are right. I’m no longer you, and you’re not me. I am Yukari Yakumo, the youkai of boundaries. There is no reason for me to relive my life in the past. I am the people of the present time, the ones that are warmly waiting for the forever close tomorrow to come.

 

I need to fix parts of my attitude, that much is certain. But becoming you is not the answer that I should seek.

 

With that said, I must go. I cannot afford to lose more time here. There’s someone I need to apologize to.”

 

Closing her eyes, Yukari passed through the portal, not even looking back once more. The time to reflect on the past is over. The time to be worried about the future has not arrived yet. Right now, it’s time to finish the businesses of the present. With those thoughts in her mind, Yukari emerged at the other side of the mirror. Looking around, she noticed a passed out Neos not far away from the mirror. Thinking that he might just have his head hit by something, Yukari shook her head in exasperation before she picked up the yellow-clad man before continuing her way. Koishi didn't seem to be around still that time, but Yukari was hopeful that she would meet the girl sooner or later, before both of them cleared this pathway. Turning around a bit to check Neos's condition, a small smile formed on the gap youkai's face not long afterwards.

 

"Hopefully you're not someone with airsickness, Neos."

 

---

[Tesability Black]

[spoiler=Neos' segment]~Counter Corps - Path of Truth - Neos' POV~

...where is everything...

Welcome...home? How am I 'home'? This isn't the Tree of Beginning...

Last time I saw you, Talim, you were on your death bed...

Wait a blasted second...

Yeah, one annoying human girl made us both for her entertainment. How f*cked is that?

First, I was supposed to look up to you as an idol, then we were brothers, then twins, and now we're practically two halves of the same scarred coin. B*tch can't make up her mind about us, nor will she...

"Hopefully you're not someone with airsickness, Neos."

A groan left his throat as his eyes began to reopen his luminous eyes to the various shades of orange and yellow around him, looking around himself and catching sight of his surroundings. Realizing that he wasn't wasn't beyond the strange mirror anymore, but instead being carried by another, Neos managed to get up onto his own feet before placing a palm over his forehead, closing his eyes for a moment to try and reign his disorientation in.

Argh, it's pointless, you won't listen to a word I say. You're pretty much hard-wired at this point...

Welcome to the Hall of Souls, where the knowledge of various crafted souls and paths are stored for future use...

...crafted souls and paths...

"...I am not just someone else's creation..." Lowering his palm back to his side, he glanced forward, back towards the mirror he was forcibly ejected through. "Sorry, Yukari," he started to say with a more-normal volume before glancing back towards the youkai. "But I still have answers I need to get...and I think I was ejected extremely early by Gemini."

While he didn't bolt forward with the massive use of Agility from earlier, he still ran back, into the mirror he had been launched out of against his will.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Counter Corps - Path of Truth (Mirror World) - Neos' POV~

He landed within the teal and grey of the strange 'Hall of Souls' that he had supposedly left earlier against his will, taking a look around in all directions before daring to stand straight up onto his feet. Popping a shoulder really quick, he began to walk through the many hallways with care in his steps to make sure they were silent.

 

There was a strange variety of statues here, and not all of them were human in appearance. In fact, most of them actually didn't look humanoid at all.

 

He spotted a red-tinted vulpine the size of a horse amongst the statues. The strange thing about this creature was the extra appendage sourced from the center of its back that seemed to function like a tentacle, but minus the suction cups of such. The name below listed it as "Armagnis/Taikyu Zephyr".

 

Another was a horse, yellow in color with brown mane and tail. It wore glasses over its brownish-silver eyes and had...what the hell was that on its flank? Was that seriously a symbol that looked like a glowing quill pen? "Concept Planning" was the name mentioned on the plaque below that.

 

The next two were almost twins. They were a pair of black dragons, both of them having golden underwings, though only one of them had golden paws and belly as well. The one with the extra gold had eyes...that were strangely the same color as his own. The other instead had silver leaf-like ears and solid-black eyes. The leaf-eared one had "Tesability 'Tricky Dragon' Black" as its listed name while the other had "Lunari Empyrea" as its name.

 

The next one he spotted, however, he stopped dead in front of.

 

"Why is there a statue of Jace here?"

 

Glancing down, Neos noticed something that wasn't on the other statues before. Kneeling down, he wiped off the plaque before beginning to read. "Jace Beleren. Origin Reality: Magic - the Gathering. Home Plane - Vryn. Current known variation: Acting as the Living Guildpact with Neos Rivetter as his primary guardian." He dared to read ahead, though his eyes widened at what he saw.

 

Upcoming Future: Falling into and Being Drowned within the Waters of the Path of Remembrance

 

"Oh...f*ck, no." Standing back up, his breathing becoming heavied from panic. "Whomever this b*tch in charge of here is, she's planning on killing Jace!" He turned around and ran back along the path he came down, hoping to get out before someone found him.

 

"It's hard to change what's already set in stone to happen, dear boy."

 

Neos had made the mistake of running forward with his head down before he heard the voice that made him stop with a grinding halt. Once still, he looked up ahead of him and began to growl. He almost ran right through Gemini and now regretted stopping his dash. "Get out of my way before I make you."

 

"You're better off letting him die, honestly." Pulling something out of an internal pocket from his purple suit jacket, Gemini brought it close to his face before snapping, creating a flick of flame as he puffed against the mysterious object just before pulling it away. A marijuana joint. "Right now, there's two Jace Belerens in existence, the one you know and the original one. If you let the one on the Paths die, his storyline disappears and that reality returns back to normal and remains unaffected by the consequences of this realm."

 

"Like I'm going to do that, you---"

 

Without warning, Neos found himself pinned against a blank area of wall, held in place by a myriad of incredibly-thick and sturdy vines. As per usual, he tried to pull against them and wiggle free, but it seemed like even trying to dislocate his joints wasn't gonna get him freed this time. And we wasn't sure what would happen here if he tried to demorph.

 

"Are you even capable of acting outside of your given programming?" Neos looked up in both anger and confusion, a growl in his throat.

 

"How about you start making sense, you prized---" Because of how he was held by the vines, Neos couldn't move out of the way of the hand that covered his mouth and forced it to close without biting it, which allowed Gemini a fanged grin upon his own face.

 

"Michele was a fool to bring you into her mind. She was a fool to try to weave you into the planeswalker's life, into the lives of many within the realm of Hydaelyn. She was a fool to favor you the way she has so far, to make it so that the Goddess of that world somehow knowing of Arceus actually makes any form of sense when it shouldn't." As he spoke, Gemini began to squeeze his lighter double's face tighter and tighter, an increasing amount of acid entering his tone. "Oh, how she favored you much more than a being that quite literally saved her life before. Can you make such a claim? NO!" With a sudden jerk that could have snapped Neos' neck in two did Gemini forcibly throw his head to one side, his voice almost in a roar. "She favors you so much, and you haven't done a damned thing to deserve it."

 

He brought the joint to his face once more, taking in a few deep puffs into his lungs before leaning forward into Neos' face, noses touching for a few more seconds than the light Ditto was comfortable with. "You never should have existed," Gemini practically roared into Neos' face, releasing the clouds of nicotine directly into his face and causing him to cough.

 

"I..." A cough escaped his throat as Neos tried to talk. "I don't...know what...you're talking about." His words were mixed with coughs from the smoke still in his face, unable to move away from them.

 

"...heh. I wouldn't expect someone with a literal diamond for a heart to understand." Gemini leaned back and began to laugh, the smoke from the joint wafting around him without care. "What a pathetic attempt to make you more like a special snowflake that was on her part, couldn't she have come up with better? Literally, a diamond carved into the shape and structure of a human heart and enchanted with an always-functional time-moving spell to keep the blood within you flowing and the body to still be fed the oxygen it needs? She puts too much effort in keeping you unique, way too much."

 

"You know, you really shouldn't be interfering, Gemini."

 

The yellow in the Dark Ditto's face left him as he turned around before suddenly falling backwards and partially onto Neos, catching him in the gut with his head. A pained grunt leaving him, Neos looked up towards what looked like a girl that was soon approaching 30 years of age, dressed in a simple turtleneck sweater and white denim jeans. "You need to get going."

 

The woman simply placed a palm on his forehead and his vision suddenly was filled with white...

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Counter Corps - Path of Truth - Neos' POV~

To anyone on this side of the mirror, only a few seconds passed between when Neos ran back through and when he was thrown back out of the mirror, the smell of a peculiar smoke surrounding him. Unlike the first time, however, he was thrown out onto his stomach, allowing him to peel himself off the ground.

 

"Ow...what happened just then..."

 

He dusted himself off once fully standing onto his feet, brushing off tiny strings of vines from himself as he did, silence filling him as he tried to get his head together about what all happened beyond the mirror.

 

Was that all in someone's head? And was he really a figment of someone's imagination? But how?! He could feel pain, sorrow, joy, love...he wasn't just something to be put away when done with, he was alive, dammit!

 

Looking ahead towards the floorless part of the path ahead, he looked over towards Yukari with a straight look on his face. "Need a ride or can you get yourself across?"

[spoiler=Tesability's segment]~The Divine - Path of Truth - Tesability's POV~

"Wai awe yu hewe?"¹

It was a strange question she asked of him, especially in such a random manner. "Awe yu hewe tu bween' baksh yu' 'owm, t'hu?"²

Grabbing her own snout with a claw, she pulled it forward before letting it go with a snap. Miraculously, it straightened itself out upon doing so, as if this was not the first time her nose became smashed into itself in such a way.

Standing gingerly upon her four paws, she gave herself a vigorous, full-body shake, much like a dog would. Even her wings were stretched out in the shake for a few brief moments before she flatted them against her sides once more.

"I nu new 'bowt yu, bu' Ai hash a wowd tu bween' baks tu wife."³

With that did she fly forward, this time managing to go through the strange mirror but at a more 'normal' flight speed. She stopped beyond the mirror however when she saw the lifeless world beyond it, stunned shock at her place once she realized that the only difference between where she was trying to save and where she was now...

...was the lack of green colorations.

¹ "Why are you here?"
² "Are you here to bring back your home, too?
³ "I don't know about you, but I have a world to bring back to life."

[spoiler=Jace's segment]~Counter Corps - Path of Death (Inside Hapshiel's Mind) - Jace's POV~

Jace couldn't help but tense up once pulled in for a hug, unusued to being on the recieving or giving end of such a thing.

"You resisted love offered in its own... "special", way." He heard spoken into his ear during the hug, still trying to shake out of it as he could. Unfortunately, despite the hug being what others would consider warm and tender, it was still a firm hug from a being that was quite-clearly stronger than him, which prevented his escape. "And now you are a prisoner of it. What begs the question is: How does one escape from the prison that is love?"

...And now you are a prisoner of it. What begs the question is: How does one escape from the prison that is love...

...How does one escape from the prison that is love...

...prison that is love...

...love...

He fell still with this question in his head...and began to laugh. At first, it was a quiet snicker, then it increased in volume and speed before finally throwing back his head and reaching the kind of laugh someone would release as if they had lost their minds to insanity.

"All...all love seems to do..." Jace managed to say through his laughing, not quite realizing that his words were being projected out of the mind he was in. "...is just...shred me apart..." Mid-way in his laughing, it turned part-way into tears, partway due to sorrow. "Someone I viewed as a brother on Ravnica is dead because I loved him enough to try and take him with me through the Eternities. Instead, I accidentally swapped places with him, with only his death returning me back to normal. A woman I fell in love with toyed with my emotions and tried to use me to as a mere tool to get what she needed to break free of the literal demons she's made deals with. And a particular elf I fell for I wound up physically hurting on an almost-daily basis with her knowing one of my secrets until she asked me to erase it from her mind..."

He lowered his head, tears still falling from his now-puffy eyes. "I doubt I would ever be able to give or receive love without someone being severely-wounded by it somehow in my life..."

“You’re a telepath. My son the quick learner, the boy who always knew when his mother needed a hug, needed his love. My son the telepath.”

“You don’t think I’m a freak?”

“I think you are perfect and I love you, no matter what.”

He didn't know where those echoed voices came from, but the suddenness of them was enough to have stop his psychic tears for the moment, lifting his head for the time as well. All he knew was that one of them sounded like a much-younger version of himself, though he wasn't sure of such a thought, with the other sounding like a feminine voice that claimed him as her son. His mother? However, he couldn't place a face upon the female's voice no matter how hard he tried...and it hurt.

Jace felt like he should know the voice, but didn't. Instead, he just lowered his head once more, a feeling of unexplainable sorrow overwhelming him. "Whomever that was, I've probably really hurt her as well somehow... Especially if that was somehow my mother..."

(Taking full advantage of the fact that the mind moves much faster than the body.)

 

[Phantom Roxas]

[Death B6] - Arthur, Eria, MirageGaogamon, & Gagagigo

 

”We need to find some real footing soon,” MirageGaogamon said, his feet pushing off from one of Eria’s ice trails.

 

”Why?” Gagagigo was still being carried by MirageGaogamon by his hand, his feet dangling over in the air. ”Am I getting too heavy for you?”

 

”That, and-”

 

Gagagigo laughed. ”Well screw you, too.”

 

”Quiet, you guys.” Arthur began to glow, but only for a second. ”I think I see some people up ahead.” At first, all he could see was that there three people, but none of them were easy to recognize at first in the darkness. For a moment he considered using his light, but since any, if not all of them could be Divine, he decided against it. Two of the figures stood at about the same height, but the third stood a few inches above them. As he tried to lean forward to get a clearer view of them, MirageGaogamon stopped advancing. Instead, he began to hover back.

 

”We have to be careful.” MirageGaogamon lower his hand, bring Eria and Arthur down. ”You stay here. That goes for you, too, Gagagigo.”

 

”What’s going on?” Eria weaved an ice platform, jumping onto it with Arthur. After creating a separate one beneath Gagagigo, Eria brought him up slowly.

 

”I can hear the people ahead.” MirageGaogamon’s voice was getting softer as he readied his flail-scythe. ”One of them fought Protheus. I don’t know about one of them, but… Dorian is among them.”

 

”Dorian?” Arthur stood near the edge of the platform, a fence forming from it at Eria’s command to stop him for falling off. ”You’re sure it’s him?”

 

”Positive. And whoever is with him, it sounds like they’re expecting company.”

 

Arthur began to smile, laughing as light formed within his eyes. ”Then let’s not keep them waiting. I’ve got to repay that jabroni for everything he’s done.”

 

”Wait.” Eria tugged on Arthur’s arm, forcing him to face her. ”Let’s think about this. He’s… changed.”

 

”I know he has. When we all got stuck fighting the Madara, he conveniently couldn’t remember me.”

 

”But he did help us. Maybe… maybe we can get him to help us fight Protheus. He and Protheus may be on the same side, but they don’t have to be.”

 

"He almost killed us back in the Desert Seth!"

 

“But we survived!

 

”Yeah, only because he got bored of fighting with us.”

 

”Exactly, we fought. We could hold him off back then, and we’re both stronger now.”

 

“I owe a lot of that to having a tough-as-nails girlfriend.”

 

“…Girlfriend?”

 

“Besides, we’ve got MirageGaogamon and Gagagigo on our side. It’s three against four, so we’ve got a good chance of-”

 

“That’s the first time you’ve called me that,” Eria laughed. ”I mean, back on the ship, you said we were dating, and last night…”

 

”What about last night?” If lizards would have eyebrows, Gagagigo would have been raising his very highly.

 

”Nothing,” Arthur answered with a blush. ”We just slept together, so-”

 

MirageGaogamon raised his hand, only to turn it into a fist. ”Arthur, I would, you know, facepalm at how deeply you’re going to dig this hole for yourself, but let’s get back to the issue at hand.”

 

”Right.” Eria held up her hands to extend an ice trail further towards the people up ahead. ”MirageGaogamon, they’re going to notice your first. Tell them we want to nothing more than to make a deal with them.”

 

Arthur posed his Keyblade into a defensive position. ”And if he doesn’t agree, then we can finish him off?”

 

”Assuming his friends don’t prove to be too much trouble, correct. But let’s not antagonize him. We’re going to need as many people as possible to take down Protheus. We need him to at least think that working with us would be the better option.”

 

 

Once they drew closer, MirageGaogamon stepped forward. Even in the shadows of the Pathway to Death, MirageGaogamon stood tall enough for Dorian to see him clearly. MirageGaogamon looked between Tenco, Gyokuen, and Dorian, before lowering his weapon. ”Dorian. Fancy meeting you here.”

 

 

 

Ending Location: B6

[Love of Ghibli]

Gyokuen & Dorian: Path of Death

Dorian calmed down as it looked like he would have been able to make out of this portion of the path without any true problems. He looked as he was about to get the group to keep on moving until he saw...him! There he was stepping out of the shadows. The giant mech wolf creature MirageGaogamon. Oh crap he's in his mega form...but wait he's not coming out kicking and swinging. Interesting. That's right! I still got the whole memory thing going for me. Salvation! Uh yeah, fancy meeting you here Mrrrrrr. Right you're the friend of the guy that hates me? I'm sorry I think I forgot his name again what was it?

 

It was at this moment he could feel the malevolent grin oozing from that foul beast known as Gyokuen. While she didn't grin physically, her eyes were wide as she was watching Dorian putting on this act. Though she was a little confused to see the mammoth dog warrior in the vicinity. Hmm, Dorian why doesn't he have Rukh? What kind of creature is this? I can clearly see the Rukh flowing from the others behind this creature, but I can't see any from this one. Very very strange. Is it some kind of illusion? She was resisting the urge to touch the dogs nose but still this was definitely something to behold. Sooo dog creature why don't you tell your friends to come out. I would like to gaze upon their faces. 

Dorian looked at Gyokuen as he was keeping on his best acting face. This should be something that didn't matter to her. Do not ruin this for me you malevolent waste of space! Then Dorian suddenly had the revelation that Tenco was unwittingly also apart of his web of lies. Dorian could only hope that she wasn't paying to much attention to his ramblings so maybe she won't be that much of a problem.

Ending Location B6

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

Yukari Yakumo

Pathway of Truth, A11-12

 

"Hm...an unfinished business, huh?" Yukari responded amusedly as she saw Neos got back up and returned back to the mirror almost immediately. She's not entirely sure about why would he want to return there, and for what reason, but since she's not exactly in too much of a hurry right now, she decided to just wait there until the shapeshifter returned. Around five minutes past, and the man in yellow had returned, this time seemingly getting ejected out of the mirror world forcefully. He looked pretty miserable, and true to Yukari's fashion, she found it to actually be pretty hilarious, albeit not much. 

 

"Ow...what happened just then..."

 

"Don't ask me, I was not there." Yukari responded flatly as the shapeshifter got up on his feet. He still looked pretty disoriented, and from the looks of it, he might even be suffering with an acute case of existential crisis of sort right now, which was honestly slightly amusing. Yukari had noticed that the guy's life was pretty damn screwed up in a ridiculous way for some reasons, as if he was a cosmic buttmonkey or something. Still waiting for him at the end of the cliff towards the skyscape before the end of the pathway, Yukari then noticed that Neos was now looking at her straight.

 

"Need a ride or can you get yourself across?"

 

"...Is that a joke?" Half insulted and half amused by Neos' random prompt, with a single flick from her finger, Yukari tore a hole in space-time right before her, creating a gap that connected their current position and the ending stairway of the pathway. And then, Yukari turned around and looked back at Neos, a playful smirk etched on her face.

 

"Need a ride or can you get yourself across?"

 

 

"Tenco"

Pathway of Death, B6

 

Tenco slightly pouted due to the fact that her request was missed by Gyokuen, but it seemed that it's just due to the fact that the woman was busy thinking about something else. Though, honestly it wasn't that big of a deal. After the woman pointed it out to her earlier, she did manage to start noticing the floating qi all around them, and she believed that just a slight practice would be enough for her to start distinguishing the reading she got by it. It did still bug her that the three of them had not started to continue on their way forward for a while, as even if assuming that they're just resting right now, it had been quite a while since they started. Though, Dorian right now had seemingly decided to get the group to move forward...only to stop midway as he noticed the presence of something, or maybe someone.

 

"Uh yeah, fancy meeting you here Mrrrrrr. Right you're the friend of the guy that hates me? I'm sorry I think I forgot his name again what was it?"

 

Okay, that was not really the reply Tenco expected Dorian to give to the...mecha-wolf-blue-jet-knight-whatever something before them. Though, it seemed that he's aware about who the mecha-wolf-thing was, and maybe the part when he referred to the guy that hated him was referring to the guy that he told Tenco about earlier. This might end up quite ugly for everyone involved.

 

"Sooo dog creature why don't you tell your friends to come out. I would like to gaze upon their faces."

 

Aand, Gyokuen's response to the mecha-wolf-thing didn't seem like it'd help the situation at hand. If it's true that the friend of the mecha-wolf-thing was Dorian's archnemesis, that'd mean Tenco might or might not end up getting dragged into this mess...which would be awkward since unless the mecha-wolf-thing and its friends were just constructs of the pathway, she'd be facing fellow member of the Counter Corps...while she helped members of the Divine. She really couldn't imagine how Arturia would react to that if she somehow managed to be aware of it. Still, she really couldn't just stand aside in this case. Even with the awkward situation at hand, Tenco knew about Dorian slightly more than his nemesis...and she believed that if she participated there, things would be fairer somehow, as she noticed the presence of more people a bit further away from the wolf-mecha-something, probably the friends Dorian and Gyokuen were referring to. The bluehead sighed.

 

"Uh...hello there, wolfy. Yeah, it's better if everyone's present here, not shrouded in darkness like what happened right now. And...is it just me or we're getting a bit too tense here?"

 

---

[Reinforce]

Chandra

Pathway of Death: A1

 

She'd finally been released from that angel's clutches, as the Soul of Ravnica, still using Jace's body pulled the angel off her and trapped him inside a bubble long enough to give him a warning. As the angel denied the claims of him trapping Jace, and seemingly got even more excited over the thought of being sealed inside the spell again, Chandra stepped back a few steps further, and shut off the flames burning around her. While all that was happening, it seemed the constant stream of strange images was shutting off at last, leaving her own mind in peace once more, even as she watched the situation continue, unable to do anything to help Jace or stop the angel. Fire, it seemed, wasn't a very useful tool against someone who enjoyed getting burnt.

 

---

 

Ayame

Pathway of Death: A8

 

"Let's hope that the obstacle waiting for us wouldn't be too problematic now."

 

Ayame didn't say anything to respond to that, but her expression grew serious, peering ahead into the thick darkness to try and see what was coming. Walking inside the building, the opressive darkness that was shrouding everything gave way to a large hallway, lit in blue candles that cast the whole place in a dim blue light. Walking forward into sight from the corridor, was the fully demonic version of herself, cloaked in shadows and with dark lightning sparking over it's body. 

 

"Fuck, I thought I'd already gotten rid of you."

 

"Indeed, you won over us in your mind, and burnt us out of your body. But the pathway found another use for us, and saved what was left to be brought out again here, as your ultimate enemy."

 

"Ultimate enemy huh, so that's what this obstacle is. I've beaten you before though, and I can do it again."

 

The challenge given, she walked forward, confidence back as she flicked the staff off her back around to guard her. Down the corridor, the remnants drew the sword sitting on the hilt, settling into a guard position as they watched each other.

[Tesability Black]

~Counter Corps - Path of Truth - Neos' POV~

"Need a ride or can you get yourself across?"

"Oh, I can cross," Neos remarked just loudly enough to be heard from the other side, raising his arms above his head as if he was raising a pair of wings in preparation of flight. I just need a minute or two to think.

As he raised his arms, his body began to glow once more, internally hoping he'd be able to take a particular form in order to cross this groundless area ahead of him. Just like with his other transformations, his body became surrounded with a glow of blue light, blocking him from anyone's sight, before the shape of his body changed and became smaller, more round. After a second or two, the globe began to take on a new shape, a more-avian one with wings rose to either side of it.

When the light faded, where there was once a human, there was now a cream-colored bird adorned with areas of brown and a long crown of red and yellow feathers, the familiar Pidgeot form.

"Pidg," it chirped once with no real volume before flapping down its wings a few times, forcing itself to fly forward after a quick hop into the air.

It didn't bother with Agility.

It didn't bother with flying fast.

It just flew...and thought.

And as it thought, one question echoed in its head more than once. If he was a figment of someone's imagination...just whom else on this journey was the same...?

Ending Point: A12-13

[Phantom Roxas]

[Death B6] - Arthur, Eria, MirageGaogamon, & Gagagigo

 

Once the woman accompanying Dorian asked to “see their faces”, Arthur and Eria nodded in agreement. Not only was that women was definitely one of the Divine, but she was no doubt ready to toy with them. Gagagigo approached first, stepping onto the bridge and keeping an eye on Eria as she followed, with Arthur arriving last.

 

”His name is MirageGaogamon, not ‘wolfy’,” Arthur corrected to the young girl. ”As for the tension, you can blame that on-”

 

”What my boyfriend is trying to say,” Eria cut in, stressing the word “boyfriend” so that Arthur would take a step back to let her talk. ”Is that we’re not here that to fight Dorian, or any of you.” Extending her hand to Tenco, despite Gagagigo snarling at Dorian’s group, Eria composed herself with a smile. ”My name is Eria.”

 

”Guys, step back.” Arthur turned his back towards Dorian, but he could practically feel MirageGaogamon and Gagagigo staring down on him. ”You heard her. This isn’t going to work if we try to start something.” The woman and girl he knew nothing about, but the thought of working Dorian was almost laughable. And yet, there was no guarantee that they’d survive as they did in the Desert Seth, so this plan might be their best bet.

 

Eria continued, waiting for Tenco to respond. ”The four us are with the Counter Corps. Even if you’re with the Divine, I don’t want to fight. Instead, I - no, we, all of us want to work together.”

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"Tenco"

Pathway of Death, B6

 

"Ah, nice to meet you, Eria." Tenco responded to the fellow blue-haired girl's offer for a handshake immediately, really just so the tension around them can be killed. She was a bit shameful about the fact that even if the people before her were supposed to be fellow members of the Counter Corps, she had barely any idea on who they were, and they didn't even seem to be at least familiar enough to know that she's also from the Corps, which pretty much was a solid proof that Tenco really should have at least gotten herself to know others in the Corps back then. Oh well.

 

Still, even if Eria was definitely trying to keep things civil and under control, it's pretty obvious that the mecha-wolf...uh, MirageGaogamon as the boy said, and the other green-ish person there were still a bit hostile-ish, maybe. And Tenco's still unsure about whether the young man also share the same sentiment with his friends, but it's pretty likely. It's really making her feel a bit uneasy.

 

”The four us are with the Counter Corps. Even if you’re with the Divine, I don’t want to fight. Instead, I - no, we, all of us want to work together."

 

"That would definitely be nice...yeah. I guess there's not much reasoning for us to fight here...riiight?" Tenco awkwardly smiled at the group before her, still pretty unsure about Eria's claim that they're all agreeing on working together in peace. She was half-tempted to just drop there and say that she's also from the Corps to clear up her position there, but decided not to since it'd make her situation even more awkward than necessary. She decided to add something to her sentence to at least keep the group in one page of thought for now. "And well...Protheus is definitely an issue whether it's for the Corps or for the Divines in the end, so..."

 

Turning around to see Gyokuen and Dorian now, Tenco hoped that their relative ambivalence or even contempt to Protheus earlier stayed. It'd be bad otherwise.

 

 

Yakumo Yukari

Pathway of Truth, A11-13

 

"Preferring to be flashy, eh? Well then." A smirk formed on the old youkai's face as she watched the shapeshifter turn into a large bird of prey that proceeded to take off and fly away freely. Yukari had to admit that whatever the giant bird of prey Neos was turning into, it definitely had one hell of a fabulous mane, for some reasons. Maybe it's just how birds were in Neos' homeworld. Still, Yukari couldn't just stand there and watch. Petty as it might be, she definitely didn't want to be upstaged by an alien shapeshifter that she barely knew. And thus, she closed off the gap before her, only to immediately created another one, which she entered soon after. Not a second later, just as Neos was flying around in his bird form, Yukari suddenly appeared before her, floating around lazily. Seeing that the bird before her still looking a bit flighty and a bit disoriented for some reasons, the ancient youkai viewed it as an opportunity to be a smartass.

 

"You know, having an existential crisis is fine and all, but let's not have it mess with your head too much. Resolving it is fine and all, but you might end up like Koishi if you overthinked it.

 

How do I know? Well, one look at you right now is enough. I mean, you're flying like a drunk bird right now."

 

A wide grin formed on the dusty youkai as she continued to float along with the shapeshifter bird. While her using Koishi's name like that might be a bit demeaning, at least the girl in question was not around. And hey, it's been a while since she could get away with messing around and teasing others like this. Maybe the timing was not appropriate, but she needed to blow off some steam and having a little fun at the slight expense of others might be just what she needed to not be overly stressed out by the current crusade she's been into.

 

---

[Kōsuke Ueki]

The Pathway To Death, Richard Mason

 

Richard didn't know what to expect at first, but he would soon realize what it is he was to face. He could hear all-too-familiar snarls from amidst the darkness. But he also heard other things as well. It sounded like...the clanging of armor, which was odd. Why would he be hearing that? What could possibly be making that sound. Unless...

 

No...no, it can't be. What he was about to face...were they...who he thinks they are...?

 

Given little time to react, lycans charged at Richard, all having different sorts of clothing and armor on each of them. He couldn't believe his eyes. They all had appearances similar to the allies he made on Nuevida. Unless...they were his allies. But how could that be? He had no time to think about it. He either needed to react, or he'll just be food for them. He had no choice but to fight. He knew that they weren't really his allies. But the idea of losing those he cared about...somehow seeped into his mind, giving the werewolves the needed strength to go up against him without much effort.

 

Being careful as to where Richard stood, he proceeded to dodge as many attacks from the lycans as possible. But they were fast. Much faster than any werewolf he had faced before. To the point where they were able to get scratches and dents into his armor. Nearly falling off the edge, Richard realized he had to get on the offensive, or he'll just be in an endless loop of evasion. However, before he could do so, one of the lycans, who resembled the gunslinger he knew, was able to punch Richard off the cliff, only just barely able to grab onto it with one hand.

 

The lycans all chuckled, looking down at the warrior as he was about to face his ultimate doom. However, Richard wasn't about to back out just yet. Taking advantage of them lycans being distracted, he released a flash if lightning from his hands, knocking them all back via chain reaction. Now given the opportunity to fight back, he pulled himself back up to solid ground with ease. Before he could unsheathe his sword however, he just barely noticed a small group coming this way. As they got closer, he immediately recognized who it was: It was one of his Counter Corps. allies.

 

"Sora...?" he asked out loud, not expecting him to hear it.

 

(Location: C6)

[The Warden]

|_)The Evangelist Hapshiel(_|

|_)Inside His Mind(_|

 

Hapshiel chuckled softly as he gently wiped away Jace's tears. His chest pulse with his quiet little chortles as he rested his hands on Jace's shoulders. "You don't really get it, do you? Love is about pain as it is about caring and happiness. Even in death, love is a resplendent thing. You shed tears for your lost friend, because you care enough to remember him and his sacrifice. You loved someone back, and they used it. Love can be used, that is indeed true. There are people who will abuse your emotions to get what they want. But as much as it hurts, you need to have the strength to overcome such pain. And for the last one, it was her decision, and she wasn't able to take it. You see Jace, love, true love, means you will quite happily deal with any pain for the person you care about that cares for you just as much. People can take any amount of pain, so long as they can be happy with someone else. You have spent so long being afraid of being hurt, and hurting others that you've forgotten what elements love itself: Acceptance. To love someone, is to accept them in their entirety. Not by trying to change them, or making them something else, but to be happy with everything that makes a person themselves. And..., I dare say that your own mother knew that that fact quite well" Hapshiel grinned.