Yu took notice of the floorboards beginning to creak. At first, he figured it was a pack of rodents scurrying around. Unfortunately, and surprisingly, he was wrong. Suddenly, black, menacing, creatures appeared literally out of thin air. Some of them seemed to inhabit the pots scattered about the room. If they were inhabiting them this entire time, waiting to strike, it was remarkable how easily they were able to conceal themselves. The other type were wearing turbans and wielding scimitars, and the way they were dancing around with them gave off the vibe that they knew how to use them. These things certainly were menacing, but now wasn't a time to run away. He couldn't even make it to the door. After standing still for several seconds, one of the creatures began its assault. It leaped into the air, spinning at a fast speed right towards Yu. A quick burst of light flashed in his right hand, and a white katana was visible once the light dispersed. He parried the creatures attack, causing it to helplessly fall to the ground. In a swift movement Yu's katana was brought down on the creature, slicing it in two and causing it to explode into a purplish smoke. Without warning, another creature charged him from behind. Quickly reacting, Yu spun his body around, calling forth a pitch black katana is his left hand, and effortlessly cleaving the creature in two. Another was closely behind, meeting its end when both of the blades were brought down upon it in unison. The creatures were everywhere around the room, attacking all of the occupants. Yu's bladework and movements seemed to reenact a dance of sorts, as he defended himself against multiple attacks all while vanquishing the creatures. These things needed to go quickly, and one thing came to mind. "Wind!" The black blade was thrust upward, and quickly brought down, slicing at nothing but the air. A powerful wind soon engulfed the entire room, flinging around the creatures. Promptly, the wind began to tear them to shreds. Once every single creature was gone, the black blade in Yu's hand disappeared, and the powerful wind along with it. The white katana de-materialized as well, and Yu turned his gaze to his surroundings. Things were scattered across the room, and any remaining pots that weren't a part of the creatures from ten seconds ago were now shattered into bits and pieces. Yu picked up one of the chairs and placed it back at the table in its correct position. He scratched his head while looking to the others to make sure they came out unscathed. "Well, I suppose I should start cleaning up then." With those words, Yu set about trying to put the room back together. Better to scatter things here there, instead of torching the entire room on a whim.

-------------------------------------------------------------- ~~~~~~Agrabah (Desert)-Empire/Trident-Class Warship~~~~~~ The hallway became deathly silent after Dominic’s little outburst and threat, his arm still clutching Caleb in his grip while the floating Birugs ticked and clicked with their gears within their cases, and simply watched and waited with their weapons still out and ready to attack if ordered. The machines bright lenses were tightly focused on the three figures, that was before they suddenly whirled in unison into a more relaxed gaze and slowly began to part and retreat a little further back along the hallway. While the faint ticking of the machines began to grow a little more silent, the new singular but much more constant rhythm of tapping that came afterwards to fill the gap, was definitely a lot more foreboding. The sight of Nomis appearing into view, as he walked rather slowly but still with a slight speed in his step, the rage filled scowl frozen on his face as his eyes immediately caught those of Dominic and Shinto’s, even the faint sound of what could only be described as the faintest of quakes in the surrounding walls with every one of the man’s steps, it was like watching a violent storm that was just about to let loose all at once. “Very surprising to see you here, Sogeki. Though remembering back then, you always were joined to the hip with Crimson here.” Said Nomis, coming to a stop when he was no more than a few feet away from the two men, his eyes glancing towards Caleb for a moment before angrily glaring back towards Dominic. “I will kill you, both of you, if you don’t return my nephew to me. Do, and I might consider allowing you the chance to leave. Better a chance, than what you’ll find if you try to cross me further.” At the sound of the veiled threat, the floating Birugs began to once more hover into position behind Nomis, their large eyes flaring open as their yet again focused on Dominic and Shinto while their creator looked towards Caleb once more, the grip on his cane growing tighter in response to the anger he had towards the two men.

Right as the machines were poised to take their shots at the three opposite of them, a voice came through the halls to completely halt their actions dead in their tracks. It was Nomis in the flesh, to the surprise of Dominic and Shinto. As he would approach by advancing a few paces, it would become clear that Nomis’ level of anger was at an all-time high. If not evident by the tone of his voice, then by the way he commanded that Dominic let go Caleb or fear his wrath. “Wait what?” Dominic’s eye twitched. “What did you say?” He said. “I believe he said let me go or die.” Caleb would add, despite his current situation of most likely becoming among the dead. Dominic completely ignored Caleb — or at least what he said(the way he said it). “No, not that.” Dominic said as he gave a rather annoyed and intense glare to Nomis.“Did you just refer to me as Crimson?” “Oh, don’t do this now.” “HUSH SHIN!" Dominic shouted and Shinto just shook his head, hand placed on his forehead. He knew what Dominic was going to say next. “I am not Crimson. That is not my name.” DOminic said as if pride was wounded. “I AM GRANDMASTER D MOTHERFUCKER!” Dominic shouted and the room was now silent. Caleb couldn’t help but force his head to look back at Dominic and see the utmost serious look on his face. The youth didn’t know if he was actually serious, but that expression explained it all. What came next was to be expected. Caleb exploded in laughter. “You have to be fucking kidding me!” Caleb could barely control himself. He couldn’t believe that someone would actually call themselves that, let alone a guy almost in his middle-age years. “You little cunt…” Dominic said as he was about induce a jolt of electricity into Caleb’s brain, but that little distraction that the youth caused was enough to allow him to get free as he would slip to the left. “Finally.” “Damn it!” Shinto shouted. As he was to the left of them, Caleb used his powers of darkness to slip out of sight only for a moment as he was now beside his uncle. Meanwhile, Dominic and Shinto now faced Nomis and Caleb slightly worried; or at least, Dominic was. Shinto stayed as calm as he usually was, but he did have some nerves russling about in his body. “Now what, Domi? Our plan was to take that runt to Flora and Cerden, but now that ship has sailed.” Shinto said as he gripped his rifle. Shinto was right. Their plan failed and now they were in a bad way. Dominic didn’t want to admit it out loud, but they were fucked badly. If there was ever a saving grace, Dominic and Shinto needed it desperately. “I don’t know man. We haven’t been this pinned down since Land of Dragons.” Shinto laughed.“You really bring that up now?” “Similar circumstances.” “Oh yeah, like an entire legion of soldiers mad at you for trying to cop a feel on the princess equals this.” “I guess it was different for me.” Shinto shook his head. “So, the usual I’m guessing?” “I don’t know what else we can do.” “Well, hopefully this doesn’t end up with us begging for our miserable lives.” Dominic smiled and he took a running stance. His right leg was extended back and his left knee to his chest. His hands were touching the cold, metal ground. He then began to charge his lightning around his body up until the point the entirety of it was surrounded by a crimson lightning aura, static crackling all around him. As Dominic prepared his offense, Shinto did something similar, but not as flashy. He held his rifle in one hand and used his telekinetic powers to levitate his body. Due to his near master control over said powers, he would be able to move at a pretty fast speed in the air. Definitely not as fast as Dominic, but not that far off. “Ready?” “Let’s do this!” On that very instant, Dominic took off in a dash, and Shinto was beside him in a burst of speed unlike anything that anyone in the room has ever seen before. Those puny machines in front of them would have some severe trouble tracking even a fraction of their movements due to the high speeds they were traveling at. Actually, by the time that the machines would even catch wind of them, Dominic and Shinto would have done away with them. Dominic took care of half of them with a lightning fast series of punches to them, causing them to explode on impact. Meanwhile, Shinto would shoot over twenty bullets of telekinetic bullets that would completely rip through the other machines as if they were paper. After everything was said and done, Dominic and Shinto were right in front of Nomis and Caleb and they prepared to attack both of them, with Dominic preparing a bolt of lightning at Nomis and Shinto had seven bullets of telekinetic force at Caleb, which the youth would fend off with tendrils of darkness, but both would keep the pressure on and that could only go so far.

Gavin// ------- He rolled on the floor until he had his back up to a wall, clutching his broken arm in the sling there wasn't anything more frustrating. Gavin had limited mobility, pain that interfered with his current mobility and ability to concentrate, but worst of all he was no better than an innocent bystander that cowered. It was a low-hit for him, and it connected sharp as the retaliation would basically be non-existent. Enraged, he would only spark the thought of his sibling he sought to end and coupled with help from unexpected places. There was a powerful gust that threw the room into complete shambles. Gavin threw his unbroken arm to safeguard against, the pots, furnishings, and flying cloth that covered his head in the corner. Batting it away, now a tripod, he managed to stand and yet he got a terrible sensation that emanated from the heartless. The longer he stood idle, the numbers increased...he released a chill from his body, it was slow and close to him. 'No, what am I doing. I need to calculate the repercussions of doing something rash. Rela-' His thoughts again scattered as a moving pot crashed into the wall just above his head, with the resilience of a turtle's shell it amazingly didn't splinter into pieces. The youth bolted towards the nearest door, and as if there was a beacon, most of the creature's focus did not deter from him (agro) and treaded behind into the streets. "You can't be serious??" he said in a panic looking over his shoulder. "Is this your idea of a game of cat and mouse?!" He'd began to feel like he'd made enemies, but the only observation or instance he could recall was with...and thats when it hit him. The empire had to be here as well, clever guesswork is what it had to be. It didn't explain how they found the rebels, how they found him, these creatures were monsters he'd never seen before up until now. What could he do? What the hell were his options at this point. At this point he eventually hit a wall, both in his head, and on the street and turned around. They started to spawn in a straight line, eventually turning into a mob. "A little help would be nice..." the locals that huddled around, quickly retreated into their homes. ".....wow, outsiders...I don't blame you." The large round ones began to funnel flames at the back of their throat and into their hands, the smaller turban creatures with scimitars were sharpening their blades, and there were others that possessed and starting hot white glow. This was bad, Gavin still couldn't fight this much was explored by how quickly and far he chose to run. "Ace! Lin! Shizuka! Somebody!" There was an act of desperation exhibited, as the large fist crashed down, Gavin jumped and hurdled over the head of the creatures. He tucked his arm in for a safe parkour roll. He stumbled and fell backward, spreading his legs apart as a blade stabbed down, nothing but swears were going through his head as he fumbled backwards into another one. It picked him up by the collar and slammed him into the dirt. "Why does my life...have to be this-" On is side, he used his left arm to sprawl and crawl forward. As much as he didn't want to be in this situation, it was happening right now. ----- Salforge\\ ----- The mercenary lowered his arm and adjusted his hearing. He looked down at the envelope and proceeded to open it back up. As he pulled out a white piece of paper riddled with a brief. "Good day old friend. It is within my best interest that General Ryoko is showing you the mercy that Ciel and I have. Enclosed within this envelop is the back of your salary for serving under Division I of the imperial forces. The Commander wanted to pass on his gratitude but has become currently engrossed in our operations that will focus on Arcadia, Cul-De-Sac, and The Pridelands. I choose to end this note with a word of warning, as I am a clairvoyant, what we spoke of prior to your re-assignment, the boy. I insist you snuff him out, a monstrous darkness will be upon the empire if this is none done so with the utmost haste. He will not be reasoned with or convinced otherwise, this I can assure you. At ease, General Levi "Envi" "And there you have it." As ordered he performed what was issued. "As we saw on hollow bastion first hand, this letter makes mention of Gavin as a threat. If the general believes in the interest of the empire, then I will employ all the resources and knowledge as a mercenary to see that he's killed. Nothing more." Neatly tucking the envelop away, there were screams that pierced the walls of the library, from the street. "I'm pretty sure thats one of two things. A common thief making his rounds, or that kid is fleeing because of his broken arm, if I couldn't defend myself thats exactly what I would do. Lets clean up after those mindless savages before we can torture him to death ourselves." With a turn, pivot, and step he left a cold eminence of his presence about the library and made his way towards the open street. This chasing game wasn't something he was fond of, no more.

----------------------------------------------------- ~~~~~~Agrabah (Desert)/Empire-Trident Warship (Interior)~~~~~~ “I am Grandmaster D motherfucker!” Said Dominic, the swell of pride he had for his obviously self-chosen title came through loud and clear as it left his mouth. The seriousness present across his face made the situation even more ludicrous, especially with the now uncontrollable laughter coming from the still clutched Caleb, as well as the embarrassment that Shinto must have had on behalf of his friend. It only took the small tug from Caleb to free himself from Dominic’s grasp, and as he did so, Nomis’ cane tapped loudly against the cold metal floor of the hallway. As Caleb returned to Nomis’ side, the young man’s use of darkness growing more natural every time he used it, the two older men across from the Uncle and Nephew were already on the attack. Though the floating Birugs were quick to focus their sights on the two men, their speed causing them both to come up as two blurring figures for the machines, it didn’t take much to destroy the hovering metal eyes, thanks to the combined effort of Dominic and Shinto. The wild display of lightning passed through the Birugs instantly, with such intensity that the swirling dark gears within the floating cases exploded in a violent shower of red-hot metal chunks. This, along with Shinto’s bullets as they ripped through the remaining Birugs like paper, meant the machines had no chance against the two high-speed men, their metal remains falling into bigger piles by the second. As Dominic and Shinto seemed to slow down for a moment, the two men appearing on opposite sides of Nomis and Caleb, and now being the ones to have the Uncle and Nephew caught between two sides, it was clear this was their one and only chance to strike against them both, if they wanted any way to leave the ship alive. The electricity that built up in Dominic’s hand appeared to grow redder with intensity, as if the Grandmaster knew this one shot needed to be enough to take the older man out, while Shinto’s wild and relentless display of telekinetic shots would be enough to keep Caleb busy but not to kill or even severely wound the boy. It was rare for things to slow down for Nomis. It had been a very long time when the man had a chance to even push his thoughts into something more complicated than his usual calculations, but when he had to, that was when things started to get dangerous. Watching the two as they acted and attacked, the logical path of events ran through Nomis’ mind as fast as the two men moved, perhaps even faster. The idea of trying to pin the Uncle and Nephew was both the most logical, safest, and easiest path the two men could take, and so it was also the one predictable. With cane still resting against the hallway’s metal floor, the sudden and swift arcing motion Nomis made around himself with the item caused the substance of the floor to shoot up as if it was liquid. As fast as the molten metal appeared, the speed at which it immediately re-hardened was even more impressive, the now severely inches thick metal wall had become more than enough to hold off both attacks, the red lightning repelling itself wildly along the smooth reflective surface of the metal as it struck, while the bullets which young Caleb was preparing himself to block were soon buried deeply in Shinto’s own side of the metal dome. Though the creation of the dome had come with a slight screeching sound, a rather eerie silence now filled the hallway, that was until the wave of metal and gears suddenly rose up and struck against Dominic’s back. While the machines had been reduced to nothing bigger than pebbles, the sheer number of them all was like trying to fight against crashing waves, the sudden surprise of it sending Dominic along with the pieces of metal before breaking against the smooth metal dome, like rocks in the ocean. The dark metal hand that tightly clutched Dominic’s shirt and chest came shooting out from the smooth surface of metal the man now found himself against, the striking waves of metal rolling back in on itself to continue the constant motion while the metal dome began to melt back into the floor. Glaring angrily at Dominic now in his tightly clawed grasp, Nomis took a moment to look towards Shinto just as the dome revealed everything that was going on, from both sides. Just as Shinto had the first chance to see the state Dominic was in, already another series of events played through Nomis’ mind. Already the high-powered rifle was rising up to strike him down...the sight of Shinto beginning to levitate himself once more, along with the gathering display of telekinetically floating bullets was a dangerous image to see...something like that was clearly a last-ditch attempt to fight back, yet it took just another swing of Nomis’ cane to bring the whole plan crashing down before it even got far. The slightly crushed bullets, those stopped by the initial appearance of the metal dome, laid now on the ground once the barrier disappeared and also now completely harmless, that was until the flat end of the cane struck one such metal bullet. The metal that once made up the casings of the bullets, now just beginning to float thanks to Shinto, soon began to rip themselves apart into a shower of raining shards, the tough material tearing through Shinto’s clothes with every new exploding bullet. The longer the cane remained touching the spent bullet on the floor, the more violently the shards of metal struck Shinto, swirling around the man with every pass causing a new slash through his clothes or a deeper tear through to his skin. The once ocean of metal that battered against Dominic as this went on, eventually stopped, yet not in any relaxing way. Clumping together first along his arms and legs, the grain like metal soon began to harden and incase around Dominic, the substance travelling up along his body slowly yet always clinging tightly to his body like a tough metal shell. For Shinto, the many lacerations on his body meant not only had he grown weak from the constant razor-like cuts, but the wild tearing from the shards had meant more and more of the pieces of shrapnel stuck through into his body, though by luck the weak feeling his body must have been racked with would have meant he wouldn’t have the strength to feel any of them. If it turned out Nomis was finished with them, of course. Though his cane finally removed itself from the bullet, the sight of Nomis picking it up before turning towards the wall was quickly followed by his arms swinging forward, causing both the now badly wounded Dominic and Shinto to hurl their bodies forcibly right into the hallways wall, thanks to the metal both men had uniquely attached to them. “So both abandoners are here too, I heard you say? Correct? I guess that settles things then. We’ll just have to tear this useless city apart until we find them.” Said Nomis as he flung his arms, and in immediate response also Dominic and Shinto, straight back down the hallway and into another wall, yet again with enough force to cause pain. ~~~~~~Agrabah (Desert)/Empire-Trident Warship (Exterior)~~~~~~ The first feral howl seemed to drown itself out thanks to the wild rushing of sand being swept along by the rough winds of the desert, though with every new accompanying howl their growing sound grew louder and louder. Soon the large pack of abominations clung to the top of the settled warship, their claws allowing those who were eager to get going to slowly pace down the side of the ship with ease. The city of Agrabah off in the distance still had a grand sense about it, even from so far away, yet for the prowling monsters it was a different feeling they had but one they all shared. Their hunger was growing with every passing second, and at the sound of a newer, louder howl, the massive gathering of creatures sounded in unison before charging down the colossal side of the ship and soon towards Agrabah itself, where they would feast on anything they could get their large claws on.

When the duo launched themselves, Caleb was able to hold his own against the first wave of Shinto’s telekinetically-pushed bullets. It did seem that Caleb would be able to hold his ground the entire time right up until Dominic’s power would reach Nomis. However, things did not go that far. Nomis had decided to take things to an entirely severe degree.

There was one slam of Nomis’ cane onto the ground and in the moment that it had done so, Nomis made an arcing motion with his body, but there was more to it. Shinto didn’t spot it, but the Crimson Flash knew instantly was what happening and it was too late. He saw some of Nomis’ little toys being used. That one moment produced a dome-like wall of the old man’s Taint Metal. Dominic’s Crimson Lightning reflected off of the clear surface and instantly disapted into little sparks and was gone from view, much to the displeasure of Dominic. Shinto’s bullets merely dug into the surface of the dome. It made a small indentation to the dome’s defense, but nowhere nearly enough to do any real damage to it.

For a few moments -- probably a little over one minute -- there was a silence in the hallway. It was a certain silence that the longer it went on, the more Dominic and Shinto would worry. Even the allotted time that the silence lingered, they were on guard. They didn’t know what would happen. Dominic had his Crimson Lightning ready for discharge and Shinto stood beside his friend with his finger on his rifle’s trigger, ready to fire whenever needed.

Meanwhile, inside the dome, Caleb would be lying if he wasn’t relieved. He probably could have deflected most of the bullets that Shinto had fired at him, but eventually some would get him, so he was very thankful for his uncle providing aid when he did. He didn’t say anything to Nomis, but just a look of gratitude was on his face.

As Dominic and Shinto stood ready for whatever was to come their way, Dominic had no idea was about to hit him, nor did Shinto for that matter.

Dominic, as fast as his reflexes and speed are, couldn’t have been any slower when an attack at him and it was in the form of the very machines that Dominic had done away with -- or so he thought. They were reformatted and recreated into many, many pebbles of black metal. They came at the Crimson Flash so fast that by the time they had dug their way onto Dominic’s attire and chest, they had bound him. The male was then pulled to the dome itself in a magnetic-like pull. The speed at which he was pulled was almost as fast as he could run using his super speed. It was at that speed that the force of impact not only caused serious damage to his front side, but due to the way his head rocked back, Dominic was dealt with a serious concussion and he had cuts on his forehead as well as a good amount of blood pouring out.

As the dome began to melt into the ground, Nomis had Dominic in his grasp and Caleb watched in shock and much amusement, while Shinto just stood in disbelief, as he couldn’t believe that his friend was manhandled like that. Shinto was about to rush to his friend’s aid, but in the same moment that Dominic had been dealt a shitty hand, Shinto would also get his own as the metal casings from his bullets would surround him in a swirl of terror. Each individual casing would rip a part of Shinto’s clothing and flesh all around his body. To make up a tornado of metal casings, there had to have been over one thousand metal casings slicing up Shinto’s flesh and the blonde male felt every single cut. The pain that he was in increased as the casings would continuously cut the same part on his arms and legs and head and torso over and over and over again.

Even as the tornado of the metal casings continued to attack him, Shinto still kept standing. The amount of willpower that it took for him to remain conscious should amount to something and Caleb just watched in surrpise as the blonde male was still standing, despite the large amount of blood that he had lost due to the several cuts that he had been given. The tornado was nearly done and some of the cuts on Shinto’s body, specifically on his right chest, both wrists, and where his ACL are were so deep and so continuously attack that Caleb noticed the bone of those specific body parts of Shinto’s body.

When Nomis had forced both Dominic and Shinto against a wall, Shinto was still conscious whereas Dominic wasn’t, but the blonde was starting to see blurry images. To Caleb and Nomis, he would appear out like a light, but the blonde male was very much awake, which meant that he could do something to alert Cerden and Flora.

Caleb took his attention away from Dominic and Shinto and heard his uncle speak. “That is what those three agrabaians said, but I highly doubt that they’re in the same inn, especially after Tyra paid them a visit.” Caleb said to his uncle.

---

[/hr]

A few hours have passed and Cerden and Flora roam the streets of Agrabah. They are trying to scout out the palace to at least see if they could possibly get a good handle on how secure it is and if it isn’t all that secure, then maybe they could sneak in to get some dirt about what The Empire is planning in Agrabah.

Scoping it out from a building nearby, Flora looks through her binoculars. She has her eyes dead-set focused on the castle and sadly, she sees that the gate is heavily enforced by The Empire Soldiers. “Well, there goes that plan.” She said disappointed.

Cerden, who was sitting on a chair just looking down at the citizens walking and doing their afternoon chores. “You expected anything different?” Cerden said smirking and laughing slightly.

Flora punched him lightly. He grunted, but smiled. “Are you going to help me or not?”

“Help you with what? Staring at a big-ass gate? No thanks.” Cerden said as his view never left that of the streets below them.

Flora sighed and removed the binoculars from her face. She leaned back into her chair and sighed once more. “What are we even doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve been here two days and the closest we have gotten to anything remotely related to The Empire is your crazy-ass former student nearly killing us, and I wouldn’t really consider that something in the right direction.”

Cerden had to admit she was right. Over twenty four hours and they have slightly less than they had before coming to this desert-infested world. “So, what are you saying? You want to just give up?” Cerden asked her.

“No dumbass. I didn’t say that at all. I’m just saying we came here for nothing, and what’s even worse, I don’t even know where my stupid-ass brother is.”

Cerden hadn’t even thought of Dominic or Shinto since this morning. He remembered that Flora said that the two of them had something to do and it’s been over six hours since Flora mentioned it, so Cerden was starting to get a little worried. “I hope they’re okay. I mean, they should have at least told you what they were doing.”

Flora looked out at the sky. “I got a bad feeling. What if they did something stupid and they somehow got themselves into trouble.”

Cerden hated to admit it, but maybe she was right. “Then, let’s go look for them.”

“Where genius? Last I remember, I don’t know where the fuck they are.”

“You’re a good tracker, so…well, you know, track them.”

“Oh yeah, let me just do that.”

“The sarcasm hurts, you know.” Cerden said laughing, “but seriously. You have the means to track them.”

“You’re right.” Flora said.

Flora was just about to see if she could dig into her plant powers that could at least sense the natural energy in the world. Just as she was about to dip into that power, she got a weird feeling. Not only her, but Cerden also felt it. As a few seconds passed, both of them had their minds connected, which was weird for them. They soon found their minds being transported to a weird world. There was several amounts of buildings, all tall, and all in a sleek, midnight-colored theme. On the tallest building, Cerden and Flora saw a man with blonde hair smoking a single cigarette. This man looked a lot like their friend Shinto. They leapt into the air and both flew to that building.

“Shinto what’s all of this?” FLora asked.

Shinto took one puff of the cig and blew it away from Cerden and Flora. “Listen, I don’t have much time, but Domi and I sort of went to Nomis’ warship outside of Agrabah.”

“WHAT!?” Cerden and Flora said in unison.

“I said listen. “

“Why did you do that!?” Flora yelled.

Shinto sighed, “It wasn’t my idea. I wanted to sleep in, but Domi had a noble intention.” Shinto said as he paused, leaving Cerden and Flora in suspense. “He wanted to bring Caleb to you both.”

It was in that very moment that waves of emotions went through Flora’s heart. She couldn’t believe that Dominic would do such a dangerous thing to ensure that she would be able to see her son again. Flora was so taken back by what Shinto said, she couldn’t really form words into a sentence. So, Cerden would speak for the both of them. “Okay, so what happened?” He asked Shinto.

“We had him. We hit Nomis’ lab, and we were in and out in less than one minute. All was going well until Nomis’ robots found us and well, it all went straight to hell from then on. Caleb got free after Dominic became insulted by being called by the wrong name. We ended up doing battle with them. I had the pleasure of fighting your son.” Shinto smirked, “I have to admit, he really is something. I know he’s totally warped in the mind, but his ability to handle the powers of darkness are something else. Say what you will about Nomis, he has taught your son how to fight well, Cerden.”

Hearing Shinto say all of that, his mind instantly went to when Caleb nearly killed him. “Oh yes, I know that too well, but he’s not learning the right things.” Cerden’s fight showed signs of anger towards Nomis and sadness towards his son. “Okay, what happened next?”

“Nomis kicked our ass. Hell, right now in the physical world, our bodies are being dragged to Nomis’ lab, but listen Cerden. You mustn’t try to rescue us.”

“Why the hell not!?”

“Truth is, this was MY plan. Domi doesn’t know this and I want to keep it that way. I have a plan in trying to sway your son to our side. For that to happen, we must remain as his hostages.”

“But you know he’s going to experiment on you -- that’s what he does.”

“Yeah, yeah I know. I can take it. He won’t kill us though. We’re too valuable to him and that’s where we’ll get him in the form of recruiting your son.”

Cerden thought the plan was absurd and if found out, Shinto would pay with his life, but this posed them with an opportunity to get inside The Empire. “Okay, so what do you need us to do?”

“Lay low. Nomis is going to be looking for you two.” Shinto said. “One more thing.”

“Yeah?”

“Switch inns. I’m pretty sure the Basilisk is the first place he’ll be looking.”

“Okay.”

Shinto looked to the moonlit sky. “That’s it for now. I’ll contact you two soon when I can. In the meantime, don’t do anything stupid.” Shinto said as the telepathic connection between the three of them was cut and Cerden and Flora found themselves consciously aware of their state in the physical world.

Flora was silent the entire time Shinto had told Cerden about what happened to them, but she heard it all. She just wasn’t in the state-of-mind to respond…like, at all. Cerden looked at Flora and saw that look in her eyes. “Hey.” Cerden said as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

Flora snapped out of it and looked at Cerden. “I’m fine, don’t worry.”

“You heard all of that, right?”

“Yeah..”

“And what do you think of it?”

Flora didn’t really know what to think about it. She feared that Shinto would be found out and that he might get killed. However, on the flipside of things, she knew that this plan might just work and could be the only chance that her and Cerden have of seeing their son and hopefully it wouldn’t be like last time where he almost killed Cerden. “I just pray to the gods that Shinto is careful and he and Dominic make it out alive.”

This talk of the ‘Keyblade’ was making little sense to only one man in the room. Unlocking one of the most vital organs in the body, and from there separating darkness from the light within itself. A man of information was what Okal was, and pride was not allowing him to immediately concede his confusion. With Asahina’s explanation, his sharp eyes looked from Rika to Alem. The former appeared content by the explanation, the latter’s expression unchanging. It would not surprise him if they both were able to put this together before him. Clearing his throat quietly to acquire a little attention, Okal’s body tightened instinctively once Asahina’s eyes had moved to him. Rika was quite clearly experienced in the odd and unnatural, Alem too was special like her. He was beginning to grow more discomforted by the fact two young people knew more than he was, even more so than the eerie eyes of Asahina just ahead of him. “All right, so let us pretend that not everyone understood what it is you are saying. You mean to say that this ‘Keyblade’ you speak of has the ability to remove darkness out of light?” Okal’s brow was narrowed inquisitively, his concern with Asahina’s appearance turning into one of curiosity. This information was new to him; what he knew of the outside world was unfortunately little, and if information was to be one of his strongest trades then of course he would be interested in knowing what exactly Asahina was trying to explain. “Light and Darkness are one and the same,” Alem moved to kneel beside Asahina once more,“You are ‘pure’, which means that you do not contain both. What the Empire did was force darkness into you, causing you to undergo this change unwillingly. So, if we had a Keyblade here, we could free you of this form and you’d return to normal?” Alem’s conclusion formed quickly, but one mystery remained. Asahina was of value because she did not harbor darkness, but if what she was saying was true then that would also imply that she might be incomplete herself. This brought him back to her identity: Princess. The Arabian native’s attention turned to Okal as the wheels in his head begun to turn with realization. “They stole Asahina away and she was only recently freed, it is no coincidence that the day the Empire came that Jasmine also vanished. Asahina is a Princess, just like her.” Okal’s jaw abruptly dropped at this new line of information. He was still unsettled by Asahina’s appearance, but was growing accustomed to being in her presence bit by bit. To discover that she was of noble blood brought a mix of shock and awe. “P-P-Princess?” Okal sputtered, awkwardly clasping his hands together and bowing his head low out of respect. Okal was no dog who sucked up to royal figures, but he was able to respect the blood and title one carried. Asahina had done him no wrong, her only crime thus far was appearing as she did. If she was correct, then they needed a weapon to make her normal once again, but he had never heard about such a thing until today! “I-I know nothing of a ‘Keyblade’ or how to locate one, but I’ll quickly gather some men together and see what I can do for you.” “That won’t be necessary.” Rika brought her right hand forward and tilted her head, as if reaching out for something invisible to the naked eye. With the attention of both Okal and Alem brought to her hand, Rika resisted the insatiable urge to gush, or perhaps even say something amazing given what she was about to do. Within moments of the eyes all laid upon her hand, within her grasp came the weapon she had not utilized since her encounter with the dark messenger and her quiet maid. Okal had took a quick step backwards out of impulse, while Alem was left unsurprised but curious nonetheless. Her lips spread to a smile as she too admired the weapon. “I could go into a little detail about how this thing came to me, but I don’t think we have time for any of that. So if I somehow use this to connect with your darkness or light and split the two, you won’t be that way anymore?” Rika nodded her head upward, signaling for Asahina to get herself up. “Okay, let’s give it a shot.” “What about two?” Alem asked, standing back up. He took a step backwards and allowed Asahina room to step off of the bed and come alongside Rika. “I only have one, unfortunately. A shame, too. This thing could use a partn—“A sudden appearance of a weapon similar to hers in mystery and legend had come alongside her Oathkeeper. Alem’s outstretched left arm was just a few inches from her right, his hand gripping the handle of a weapon – a Keyblade – tightly. Rika was momentarily speechless, while Okal was busy getting his jaw off the floor. It was simple in appearance: A brown handle with a golden guard, with the very base of it sky blue and curled into the shape of a heart. With the rest of the blade itself being gold, the plainness of the weapon was a good representation of what Alem preferred. No need for a dazzling display, only the ability to achieve the task at hand. Its name rang in his head: Three Wishes. “Y-You had one of those the entire time? And I thought the sand summoning your khopesh was strange, this is just getting ridiculous!” Okal threw his hands up in disbelief at how the world could suddenly change like this in one simple flourish. Sighing and shaking his head merely twice, Okal looked to Asahina and offered a genuine smile. “It pays to have friends, no?” Rika and Alem were both mute when it came to these discoveries, but the stares they gave one another had simultaneously ended. Gorgeous emerald and sharp, hardened gold returned to Asahina now. Neither understood how this worked by explanation, yet the purpose they shared was the same. United by a common goal, Rika and Alem both had decided at that moment to relax their guards and allow their weapons to glow and emit two beats that would pierce through Asahina’s chest painlessly, searching for the foreign elements that invaded her being. Seeking to either rid her body of the cancer or weaken it to the point it could be in Asahina’s control, the weapons worked in unison leaving the masters of said weapons to look upon the target with hidden hope.

Asahina looked at the short man as he spoke up, though it was only a glance. She had been as clear as she possibly could with her explanation, she wasn't sure how else to put it beyond using layman's terms laden with metaphors. He didn't appear frightened of her anymore, instead he was looking at her as if she were a specimen in a lab, she wasn't sure which was worse. Alem seemed to understand at the very least, apparently he knew how to put two and two together. She winced when he refereed to her as a princess, that was a title she could never see herself getting used to. There was nothing prestigious about her as far as she knew. Asahina's parents were unknown, the only thing they had left her with was her name. She glared at Okal, who had decided to start praising her. That had to be the most annoying reaction to her thus far. Ignoring the short man, Asahina looked to the blond woman and tilted her head in curiosity as she raised her hand. She recognized the gesture, it was a common occurrence in the keyblade academy, but surely this random stranger wasn't a wielder? Asahina's eyes widened as there was a flash of light, and a blade appeared in the woman's hand. She was shocked, but more so confused. She had been led to believe that every wielder of the key was killed. She thought perhaps a few might have escaped, but to meet one was unexpected. Rika motioned for her to stand up, she was already doing so. She was about to say something, but then Alem had to make this even more ridiculous. "Excuse me, two?" Alem summoned a keyblade of his own, at this point she was rather done. He had an answer for everything, didn't he? She needed a moment to digest this all, but the two of them weren't going to give it to her. They pointed their keyblades at her, and simultaneously fired a beam of light into her. Her vision turned black as her body went limp, causing her to fall backwards onto the bed. The darkness covering her body began to sizzle like water poured on a hot skillet. Starting from the tips of her limbs the blanket of dark evaporated from her, revealing her natural skin until there was no sign of it. She laid still on the bed, her chest moving up and down slowly as she breathed. Fingers tightened and her legs twitched as if she were experiencing a nightmare and her face winced as if she were in pain. This went on for five minutes before she finally opened her eyes. She lurched upwards with a screech, and a keyblade materialized in her right hand. She calmed down at the sight of the blade, and couldn't help but stare at it for a moment. The blade was of simplistic design, with a silver sheen, an ornate guard, and a subtly curved tip. She sent the blade away, and took a lock of her hair in her fingers, it was blue. A small smile formed on her lips. "Thank you." She said. She was earnest in her gratitude, however, one thing bothered her. Her eyes were a pale yellow, not as intense as before, but not her natural eye color. The people here wouldn't know that, for all they knew every bit of darkness inside of her had been driven out. But she could still feel it inside of her, pushed back, not gone. As Gavin called for help, a figure leaped over him, knocking the Heartless that dared attack him straight into a wall. The creature dissipated, and Gavin's savior reached out a hand to help him up. "You really shouldn't be moving so much in that condition, don't go anywhere without your physician's permission again, alright?" Osa said with a smile. Shizuka and Ace arrived behind her, and made quick work of the other Heartless preparing to attack Gavin. "Ya know, we can't exactly help you if you run off like that..." Ace said, sheathing his katana. "Yeah, when that many Heartless show up you can't single yourself out, especially if you're injured." Shizuka chimed in, worried. "Though I wonder what caused that, they shouldn't have been able to find us so easily, right?" Ace sighed and checked the streets for anymore surprises. "That's what I'm thinking about." He glanced back to Gavin. "Those Heartless seemed intent on getting to you specifically, why is that?" Ryoko let out a snide huff of air and stood from her seat. "Levi, huh? Why do I get the feeling she knows more than she is letting on?" Ryoko said, but before she could inquire further a scream from the streets caught her and Salforge's attention. "Well, that was quick." She said, following after the mercenary. They swiftly made their way into the streets, and soon converged onto the source of the scream. "Cage them, Sal." She said, just before she turned the corner to see a group of rebels. "My my, we check the line, and lo and behold, a bundle of fish on the hook." She had been expecting Gavin, however, the katana wielding boy was also here. "Yo, long time no see." Ace said. gripping his blade. "Ace, do you know this woman?" Shizuka asked calmly. "She's with the empire, she was in the factory, torturing Gavin." "Correction, I was interrogating him, he'd have more than just a broken arm if I had actually gotten the chance to do anything..." Ryoko shot back in annoyance. Her nails dug into her palms, drawing blood. "Do you even know how we found you? That crippled boy with you is seething with so much darkness that the Heartless flocked to him like dogs to a raw steak." She looked to Gavin with a sinister grin. "You should be proud, a General them self said that you were such a threat that you had to be killed."

"Honored...is that what it means..." Gavin spoke with hostility lingering from his tongue. "Thats right. General Envi asked for you to be terminated immediately, needless to say while you rebels are a means of concern. Continuing to harbor him, is a mistake. No more mistakes." The mercenary snapped his finger and just like that, the block containing a human heart spun in the middle of the two groups. "Know this rebels, run all you want. Survive with all earnest effort, but remember in the end, when it's done. We will win, regardless of what you do. That is a promise." Gavin's anger seemed to fester, as he was boiling. Feeling a mixture of hesitation and growing rage, a shroud of cold began to emit from his body and he took a step forward, followed by another. "Sorry Ace, Osa, Shizuka..." and with a swift motion of his left arm, he sliced through the sling, freeing his right arm. The darkness traced the outline of the fracture and his right arm began to turn a pale blue, before it became encased in ice matching an outline of his arm. The mercenary raised his brow, what was the youth thinking at this point. Running? Their position put their backs to the edge of Agrabah's wall thanks to Gavin fleeing to the dead end. Ryoko and Salforge were positioned properly at the way the rebels came, if they scattered that would be the best probable solution for them. Though now they were gambling, unless they had another readied teleport. "Wait." Gavin raised his left hand. "Me and Ace will fight you both, if we win, we call truce for our activities in Agra-" "Whoa there, slow down. You don't get to make deals, I've had just about enough abrasion from you Gavin." Salforge clutched his hand and balled it into a fist, his blocks encased the youth's feet, moving forward just and inch to cause him toe fall forward, before encasing both of his hands in blocks, and stringing him in a crucified position. The darkness was flowing overzealously out of Gavin at this point, and the mercenary proceeded to take caution, encasing him in another block about the size of a small cubicle. "I tried to reason...I tried...like you said mercenary. No more mistakes!" He took a deep breath and blew a chilly wind that fogged the inside of the block and it was soon quickly replaced by black with a thin colorization of blue. The sound of the walls cracking, then splintering into a shattering sound. Splintering shards of ice were sent in the direction of Ryoko and Salforge. Naturally the mercenary brandished a wall with haste to parry the shards. Gavin sprang forward with a strong lunge producing a lance-like construct of ice, with it's properties it smashed through and was clasped by the mercenary's bare hands pushing the two of them backwards. "RUN!" Gavin shouted, pushing both feet off the lance, and doing a vault aimed upward. A hand reached out and grabbed his foot, the two were suspended, ascending upward. It was only one time, but Salforge remembered the kind of physicality Gavin could produce in just a confined space, out in the open he had less of an advantage. He began to coat his entire body with his immovable block. Gavin doubled around and kicked at his hand, his foot covered in ice, slamming through a block that spawned and disconnecting them at the mercenary's wrist. "Your weakest blocks seem to break easy against magic. That works fine for me." "Do you ever shut up?" The mercenary said jabbing into a grab under Gavin's chin. This was to briefly stun the youth, as he proceeded to pull him by both legs and violently swing him as they fell and tossed him like a spinning projectile into the band of Rebels. "Heads up." Gavin spun uncontrollably aimed directly at ace. As Salforge landed next to Ryoko, he brushed off his wrist, and his body whistled replacing the blocks that asserted minimal damage. "Show them fear General. Heartless, come." He snapped his fingers as the captive heart still left in tow, the heartless quickly gathered yet again. A mob, much larger than before flocking towards the fodder he'd given to the rebels. "Harboring that boy means those beast will come hunt you relentlessly. If you surrender him, we may even allow you to witness his public execution after we've broken him."

Ace slid his right foot backwards, and evaded Gavin as he flew towards him. His eyes still on Salforge and Ryoko, he reached out and grabbed Gavin by the collar, stopping his momentum. He let him go, and placed a hand on the hilt of his sword. "Gavin." He said, looking ahead. "I don't care about how much darkness you have inside of you right now, I'll deal with it later. At the moment, I need you to work with us. If you don't, then I have little reason to keep putting the others at risk on your behalf. Got it?" Ace drew an inch of his katana from it's sheath and took a step forward, but stopped as the Empire mercenary summoned Heartless. Shizuka and Osa quickly ran to his side.

"Ace, we need to do something these Heartless, as long as that man has that heart he will never run out of soldiers." Osa said. Ace knew this, and been glaring at the heart in the man's hand.

"Maybe we could get it out of his hands?" Shizuka said. "He shouldn't be able to use it then, right?" Ryoko let out a laugh.

"Good luck with that, it will be damn near impossible as long as his immovable blocks surround it. You're only hope is to deal with the both of us fair. And. Square." She said. A Heartless lunged for Shizuka, she hardened her arm into steel and bashed it into the alley wall. Their numbers were growing exponentially, and they were quickly running out of space.

"Osa, Shizuka, handle these Heartless, Gavin, distract that guy with the heart, but don't do anything too risky. I'll try to take care of the woman. Leaving Shizuka and Osa to pummel Shadows, Ace dashed forward to engage Ryoko. Blades of blood formed from the wounds in her palms, each in the shape of a machete. Ace swung his sword at her side, but the blow was blocked by one of her black blades. "Huh?" He tried to pull his blade back, but it was stuck inside of her machete. She yanked on the katana, pulling Ace towards her. Her knee slammed into his gut, and as he tried to free his katana she swung at his free arm; she barley missed cutting his arm off, only leaving him with a shallow gash.

Ace let go of his blade and jumped back, he stumbled as a wave of pain shoot through his arm. "Feeling it already huh? My own brand of venom, homemade just for you." Ryoko said with pleasure. Her blood seeped back into her palms, and she took hold of Ace's katana. "Funny looking thing, never seen a katana with a chain attached to it. Oh well, I think I'll keep it anyway. I'm going to need that sheath, though, aren't I?"

The Heartless that surrounded the rebels had frozen for an instant, and then resumed their inhuman twitches. Their attention had turned from the small group, instead looking around to the end of the alley closest to the rebels. A young Chinese girl had sharply turned the corner, olive eyes burning brightly with her precious staff in hand. Accelerating towards the group, the Heartless that flanked them had begun to hastily charge at her. As the two opposing forces closed in, Lin had brought her staff forward and spun it briskly. The speed of it had already been impressive enough to knock smaller heartless back, but with flames emerging from the two sides it was dissuading more capable Heartless from taking a risk. With a several shadows making contact, they were defeated quickly with one strike. Once Lin was close enough to get to where she intended, she released her flames and brought her staff behind her just before she crouched and leaped into the air.

From the time she was suspended in the air, she was able to ascertain more of the situation. Knowing very little, two things stood out most to her in spite of seeing three. A heart -- not a real beating one but a heart nonetheless -- in the hand of someone. The most important thing to her now was that Ace was injured, and that a woman was in possession of his blade. Throwing her staff behind Ryoko, the force of her throw had allowed it to lodge itself into the sand just behind her. Emanating intense heat and creating a momentary wall of flame between Ryoko and a route to retreat, Lin had landed back down in front of her, crouched, just in time to catch the blade being swung overhead. Catching it with both hands, Lin’s stare met Ryoko’s.

“This doesn’t belong to you,” She whispered, muscles showing no signs of stress in spite of Ryoko’s efforts, “I’ll return it to the rightful owner now.”

Extreme heat had begun to emit from her palms and travel through Ace’s blade, making it difficult to hold without an incredible resilience to intense, constant pain and heat. Ryoko couldn’t maintain her grasp for long, and recoiled with a bitter swear as she examined her hands. The flesh would be tender for a while, and would have made grasping anything a painful endeavor for quite some time without healing balms or other means. Taking Ace’s blade by the hilt now, Lin absorbed the heat she had channeled through the weapon and quickly cooled it back down. Cocking her head towards Ace, she would toss the blade back towards him. Not a moment after doing so, her staff had returned to her right hand to take the place of Ace’s weapon.

“Sorry guys, I slept in a little.”

The heartless that Shizuka and Osa delt with were now effectively cut in half, leaving the rest to begin creeping up behind Lin once again. Although aware of this, she didn’t appear fearful – Lin had changed, somehow.

"Well that's one worth mention." The mercenary clapped, the danced as if attending a Gala. Metaphorically speaking of course, he grew inspired to no end, but these were merely perishable, if not unnecessary efforts of them. From the time they first encountered the boy, it was clear he was enticed in personal motive, fitting into the rebels seemed largely unrealistic as they had a much larger goal to accomplish. In hindsight, perhaps the mercenary could've done more. The number of heartless were steadily spawning from behind the mercenary, he folded his arms and kept it real. He was a hand to hand combatant, capable of using other weapons, but switching from abjuration skills to aggressive ones was only in case of a dire emergency.

Gavin was still putting his head together, when he came around everyone had erupted into a well-oiled machine. He remembered the last time, when he chose to submit...forced into a position to decide the end. Yet how he spoke of that woman, how she was already aware he was after her, how he was as good as dead. The thought alone, only thus served to press his nerves to the brink, the empire wasn't important, not priority to him, a stake of honor was burdened on the youngest son.

"No more mistakes..."

Brimming with darkness, the air was gripped with cold, even for Agrabah's climate. The heartless, abound and still spawning, pulling from Osa and Shizuka and attentions turned to Gavin now. He emitted a black mesh and shroud, lined with a faint blue mixed in somewhere. The area around him within six feet was especially cold, the heartless that approached that weren't of ice stopped in their tracks.

"Oh? A proximity effect, interesting." The mercenary said, as his right eye flickered "CI". Locked onto the prime target, Gavin proceeded to run faster than normal, and approach him, bait and trap. Entering mid range, barriers rose from the ground and completed an otagon-like shape.

"Ah ah ah, you might want to rethink taking another step here."

Gavin stopped, almost instinctively, paying close attention to the mercenary's hands. They were yellow, quite potentially the first time he'd seen something like this. His hands were point directly towards Gavin, who could dodge on reflex and yet...they were boxed in, he would either destroy his own perimeter or be unable to damage it.

"It's funny, my immovable blocks are normally used to absorb massive intervals of damage, or brief parries of equal force. But with 'light' specifically, it can be reflected off of it's surfaces. How's your geometry?"

"Are you insane?? Your going to hit yourself if you do that!"

"Thats the point."

"What!?"

As the mercenary expunged a blast in a straight 90 degree angle, Gavin jumped straight up. The light bounced off of the corner, traveling along the next, before aiming for it's point of origin. The mercenary free flowing and fluid, spun punched at the blast straight up, arc'd for Gavin. He watched as the youth frantically spawned a pillar of ice under his feet that was devoured by the light of his decay.

As the ice shattered, what wasn't disintegrated by the decay, fell upon the merc like hail. A fast swipe from Gavin insured the quick trail of ice would give chase quicker than normal. He dropped fast, implementing a strong leg drop downward. The mercenary moved his right leg back and turn while raising his right hand to swat the momentum just to the right. This failed as his reflexes were starting to slow with prolonging holding Gavin inside of a fixed area, with no immediate escape for the cold.

"Right." a crushing thud struck his right arm, and he froze to an encasement of ice.

As gavin leaped back, the walls were still up but the mercenary was subdued. He turned to the wall, and focused on his right hand to forge yet another lance like last time. The ice cracked around the mound, before finally collapse, as blocks formed in between, and dismantling all areas taken, the mercenary pulled it apart. This was no different from the last time, albeit a tad slower than the last time.

"You still lack the experience to deal with an enemy that has a high pain-resistance and a massive damage-threshold."

Gavin clutched his right hand, and turned raising the lance in his left hand, bolting for the mercenary in an overt and reckless manner. With a swift lunge, he leaped and to his surprised, met the end of a blade. Just before the were a flash of light as he tapped on his breast, and held a hooked broad sword. The mercenary was strong enough to cast Gavin into the wall of the barrier as he moved quickly to him, forcing his foot into his right arm and holding the concave hook of his weapon to Gavin's neck.

The area that was closed off, dropped and Gavin was caught by his collar. With the pain surging through his right arm, the mercenary didn't fret about unwarranted attacks. He propped him up and locked this arm behind his back and pushed firmly at the base of his neck, there was no end to this torment.

"You...where is Levi?"

The mercenary was silent, he pondered if answering that question would cast some share of regret. "Beyond your reach now, had only you of listened to me in the beginning."

"Hah...and join you scum like she did...I have some pride. A story I'm ready to burn like you wouldn't believe. Whats with you anyway...I can't figure it out, it's like have no..."

"No heart? Well, I guess thats partially true, for you see it's just made of steel."

"Heart of steel huh...maybe we're not so different..."

The mercenary raised his brow in caution, from what he could infer it was likely something was there in place of Gavin's heart but, to him, he was able to feel, emit warmth, all the usual signs of a human. Yet there was something else, that darkness was abhorrent, unlike the typical used by the machinations pure-blood and manufactured. Specifically cold, treacherous, and it could afflict the area and even be spun as ice. The thought soon perished as a hand sprung from his back and he walked out of his shell, leaving it's fixed position intact.

"Ryoko, come now...must I do everything..." the mercenary sighed, he snapped his finger. Weaponless again, the blocks fluttered in multiple numbers, and surfed similar to mines buried on the battlefield. The blocks were obstructions, decreasing active motion towards anyone else, they were by no means 'stationary' and unmoving, they were making 3mph rotations, both clockwise and counterclockwise (this is easier to picture from a birds eye view of the battlefield). The mercenary was walking towards the remaining group, the heart that floated in between them, vanishing from sight and the spawns which had stopped, not replenishing fallen brothers at this time. The blocks were the size of a basketball, in constant motion. As he touched one, his hand passed straight through it, encasing his fist around it, and then another on the other hand. Smashing his fist together a loud ping circulated, and he moved slowly stopping as he filled the inside of the blocks with light before removing his hands from both of them and circulated them back into the rotation, this process repeated as he was closing the distance in between himself and the remaining rebels.

(I'm basically creating NITRO crates like in crash bandicoot, only they're moving and in both rotations, creating a floating minefield.)

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

~~~~~~Agrabah - Multiple Locations (Outer Walls - Moving Inward)~~~~~~

Though the sight of floating metal eyes were all but common back at Radiant Garden, the machines fitting in so well with the slow rebuilding process which was undergoing on that world, the appearance of the Birugs as they floated through the streets of Agrabah were very odd to see, and also completely out of place with the rather simple surroundings.

As one of the machines seemed to lead a solo charge, the mechanised voice that sounded out from its casing repeatedly told any and all that could hear it, to stay indoors until told otherwise. While the appearance of these weird metal eyes were enough to frighten some of the general population to do as they commanded, it was the odd few who either didn’t hear or didn’t care what the “Little Eyes” of the Empire wanted them to do. It was when this would happen, that the Birugs revealed what they were truly doing.

Floating high above the area the Birugs would always and suddenly, once in position, release a horrible and echoing howl from their speakers, the sound clearly having come from something much more organic and feral than the machines themselves. While the noise was painful to hear on its own, the reasoning behind it soon became obvious, with the sight of the monstrous creatures quickly swarming into the area from any way possible.

The screams and panic as the people would immediately scatter, trying to get inside now, didn’t seem to bother the abominations, the monsters releasing a small threatening growl to most, while the odd one would suddenly snatch up one of the people in their claws before disappearing back out of sight, though that seemed more random than anything the person or monster did. Once solely occupied by the creatures, the lone Birug’s howling siren soon ends with the now silent metal eye floating off down another planned street or alley, leaving behind the monsters until they were called for. The sounds of these recorded howls at first were faint, coming from the outer walls of the city, but slowly and thoroughly the kidnapping of people and buildings constantly being torn apart by the Birugs and abomination group, clearly worked very well as they made their way deeper through the city.

~~~~~~Agrabah (Desert)/Empire-Trident Warship (Interior)~~~~~~

“Percentage of repairs currently underway within sections damaged by lethal levels of electrical discharge now at 56%...57%...”

“...Modifications now complete…”

“Sectors C3 to D6 of local population hub cleared by Birugs. Re-Configuring standby units for broadcasting network now in operation…”

The mechanical voice was back again. Continually listing off the number of calculations or data constantly being sent to it, the voice just seemed to mindlessly say what it was given, all while Nomis was busy working with the two unmoving figures on the table before him.

The metal shards that had once made up Shinto’s bullets had all, but a few, been removed from his body by the older man, who seemed to enjoy removing them as painfully as possible, all without actually causing any more damage to Shinto’s wounds. Dominic appeared to remain unconscious since the blow to his head occurred, his own wounds which were a pretty last gash along his forehead as well as numerous cuts and bruising from the tight hold Nomis had with his metal, meant that he had the least amount of injuries.

Still, both men soon were latched onto the tables once Nomis dragged their wounded bodies in from the hallway, the large lab which they had damaged was still being repaired even as the older man placed and bound them on the cold metal tables. Scans were made of the two men, as well as small tests which appeared to try and provoke some kind of reflex or just any kind of reaction from them, but it wasn’t long until Nomis soon began the slow task of fixing the damage he had caused.

The scars and stitches that covered Shinto’s body meant the man would need quite some time to feel fully back on his feet, though when it would happen, he would find only faint scars from the once devastated wounds that had blotted all over his skin. Dominic’s own wounds had been seen to by Nomis soon afterwards, as shown by the tightly wrapped braces covering his arms and legs, while a smear of a dark and very familiar metallic paste was quickly applied to the gash along his head, the substance setting and hardening into its even more recognizable form within seconds.

“All this bothersome annoyance you two caused just by coming here...and for what?” Said Nomis, the man watching as the dark paste left on his metal covered hand soon faded from sight, no doubt running deeper into the hardened surface of his skin and not at all caring if the two men were conscious or not.

“I could have done much worse if I didn’t want you two alive. But I do, and thanks to your timely arrival, at least one of you will be very useful for the time being.” It was the gentle sweeping motion of Nomis’ hand that caused the long metal tables to suddenly pull free from their fastened legs, floating along behind the older man silently as he left the lab, leaving the now single minded hooded figures to continue their given tasks.

The first room that came next must have been the barest on board the ship. Though rather spacious, this was down to the simple square room having no furnishings or items of any kind within its walls, the room being nothing more than an empty box. Though Shinto and the table he was still latched to were sent hurtling into the opened room by Nomis, it seemed the older man had no intention of causing any more harm, for now at least. Another sharp swipe from his fingers caused the table and body attached to spin around and face the still open door, before the large hunk of dark metal slammed loudly against the equally tough steel wall, and soon both metals seemed to meld together to hold the bound Shinto.

No words were said, no look of smugness or disgust, the door shut itself just as quickly as it had opened once Nomis was sure the metal bonds were still firmly holding Shinto in place against the wall. Only Dominic remained now, and it wasn’t long until both found themselves in a large room, more spacious than the one Shinto was now in, and possibly just as big as the actual lab Nomis and Caleb were in before both were interrupted. The room’s floor were covered with wires and cables of numerous sizes, many of which were criss-crossing over one another and forming small tangled bundles around a machine that clearly wasn’t a part of the environment until recently.

It took just a few more swipes of Nomis’ hand for Dominic to be moved effortlessly from the floating hunk of Taint and into the bonds of the machine itself, the older man causing the once moving table to move aside as he made his way up towards the ‘unconscious’ body of Dominic.

“Time for you to wake now. We need to get started.” Said Nomis as he raised his hand, before placing one of his dark fingers against the ‘patch’ the Tainted smear had become on Dominic’s forehead.

"Don't sweat it," Rika dismissed her weapon, as did Alem, "Now, since you're all dolled up, how about we get you to meet the rest of the team?"

Alem was less than casual about Asahina's change, and was still processing the power of the weapon that had called to him many nights ago. She appeared less menacing, almost childlike in her innocent smile, and moving her around would be much easier now. His stare had moved off towards the doorway, and not a moment later Rika's stare followed his. They felt something coming towards them with different means.

"Were you followed?" Alem would ask Rika and Okal both, "Someone's coming."

"Impossible, I am notoriously difficult to tail, and I know when I'm being tailed!" Okal argued with pride. His skills in information acquiring and survival were of legend ...well, to him.

"It's not one of ours, I'd have recognized them." Rika placed her hands on her hips, head tilted, "They knew to come here, but they couldn't have tracked us by any common means. We were safe the entire way here, I made sure of it."

Regardless of whom or how, Alem would move to the door and begin drawing stray traces of sand and grit within the barren home. Coming alongside the door, he pressed his ear to the door to try and get a better sense of who was outside. While his detection skills were great, he couldn't identify them without looking at them closely. He could hear ragged breathing on the opposite side. Very few people would know where he made his home within Agrabah, but one casual look over at Okal told him all he needed to know. "One man. He's one of yours," Alem opened the door and beckoned the runner inside, "Okal, that's sloppy of you."

Before Okal could fume and struggle to admit his own slight error, a worn man with even more worn robes had stepped inside and quietly muttered a word of greeting to all inside. His reason for being here - due to a certain honest merchant - would approach him and pat at his side.

"Deep breaths, deep breaths," Okal would tell his man as he patted him, "You must have run a long way."

Rika cleared her throat to get Okal to start his explanation. Being tailed was an insult to a Masaki, and she wasn't particularly fond of not knowing that this might occur.

"Right," Okal muttered, "I instructed this man to inform me of any new pieces of information. Enemy movements, happenings within the city, whether my wife is still mad at me for forgetting our anniversary..." he shrugged. "Anyway, what news did you bring? A man running around in Agrabah attracts attention, and should you have brought anyone dangerous with you..."


"No, not at all, I took great care in reaching you here." The runner said, voice hoarse. Looking to Alem, the man brought his hands together, similar to a praying man. "This is big: The palace has lost most of its dogs guarding it, they're attacking our new allies in the city."

"Allies?" Alem asked quietly. The man gestured to the strangers of the world, them being Rika and Asahina, who Okal must have gotten him familiar with at some point while Alem was not present.

"Shit. When a safe house isn't safe..." Rika headed for the door and stepped outside with Okal in tow, hoping Asahina would do the same. The runner followed, with Alem being the last to move outside. Whistling for Aseela, she had emerged out of a hidden alleyway nearby and hustled up to Alem, being greeted with a gentle rub to her neck.

"Were they holding their own?" Rika asked the runner, who had nodded feverishly. "Okay, then me and handsome aren't going. If I can get inside and complete our main objective, any battling becomes meaningless. I assume you know your way around?"

"I've been inside enough times, I can guide us to a certain point but if their layout and security has changed, we'll need Okal's informant inside." Alem mounted Aseela while Okal would move to mount his camel. He gestured to Aseela, but she shook her head.

"I'll free-run, I could use a little exercise after the bust in Hollow Bastion. Okal, let them know we're making our move and they can figure out a plan from there."

"What if they need help?" Okal asked,

"They won't, and they'll thank us later for moving ahead." Rika looked to Alem, "I'll follow your lead up top." she moved to ascend up the nearest building with cat-like precision and swiftness. She turned around and crouched, waiting for anything more. "You in?" she asked Asahina.

All eyes moved to Asahina. Alem extended a hand for her to join him atop Aseela, who was much calmer beside her now than ever before given her physical change. "It is your decision." Alem reminded her.

Ace reached out and caught his katana, cringing as his wounded arm pulsed with pain. The venom was spreading upwards, slowly crawling to his forearm and into his shoulder. "I'm just glad you showed up." He said between clenched teeth. His arm was starting to feel numb, which was bound to affect the speed of his attacks. He looked around, the Heartless were behaving strangely, going after Gavin one moment, and the rest of them the next. It was as if they were fighting their gluttonous instincts. Slicing his way through a few Shadows he ran to Lin's side. "We may need to kill these two... but you already know that, don't you?" There was something different about Lin, he wasn't sure what had caused it, but there was a look in her eyes that told him he could rely on her.

Ryoko frowned at her reddening hands, and glared at the pyromaniac with the stick. She couldn't decide if her heat or Gavin's ice was more of a nuisance. There was also something odd about the boy's blade, for some reason she felt resistance when she swung it. He didn't appear to have any control over the blade like the girl did her staff, otherwise he would have simply summoned it back to his hands when she took it from him. Ryoko scoffed and focused on the bigger issue at hand. She was outnumbered, the Heartless that were meant to give her an advantage weren't doing their job. Two of the girls had focused on crowd control, making sure minimal Heartless made it through to interfere.

Her eyes looked to Salforge in her peripheral vision, He had been fighting with the boy marked marked for death, and making quite a bit of noise while he was at it. "Just unplug the ice box would you?" She said, brushing flecks of ice from her shoulder.

Salforge created a minefield in the alley, a fairly surreal scene to the rebels. Ace picked up a stone and tossed it at one of the boxes, it did just what he thought it would and exploded.

"Whoa whoa!" Shizuka screamed as she was in the middle of suplexing a Neoshadow. "What the heck are we supposed to do about that!?" They backed away from the hazards, and in doing so surrounded themselves with more Heartless.

"Lin, can you ignite these mines?" Ace asked. "If you can get them out of the way, the rest of us could rush him and take the heart from him."

In Cerden’s room, which is the highest room, in the Viper Inn, approximately seven miles away from where the Basilisk inn was at, he and Flora sit at a table overlooking the city. The heat is hot as always, but for some reason Cerden finds comfort in that. It’s almost as if he welcomes the hotness of Agrabah. He does so while sipping some ice-cold lemonade. Across from him also sipping some ice-cold lemonade is his ex-wife and current traveling partner, Flora. She too just looks out at the window and she too welcomes the heat just like Cerden does.

“So, Shinto told us to stay hidden, right?” Cerden asked, sipping his lemonade.

“Uh-huh.” Flora responded, doing the same as Cerden.

“Then, I guess we can keep doing what we’re doing.”

It was as if some kind of sedative was injected into their bodies. Flora and Cerden seemed more relaxed than some drugged out junkie. They were just admiring the view that they had of the city and sipping some refreshing lemonade. It may be true that they’re trying to relax as much as they could, but the truth of the matter is that they’re more terrified than they ever have been. The two of them knew that if they were to go outside and make themselves public, then Nomis would no find them and what Shinto and Dominic did for them would all be in vain. They hated it, but they had to stay hidden until they knew it was safe for them to be outside again.

As they tried to swallow any kind of pride that they may or may not have had left, Cerden heard something. He instantly jumped from his seat and took a look around the city. He heard the sound of metal and any time he heard that sound, it never was a good sign. He knew that it always meant that Nomis was up to no good.

“What’s wrong?” Flora asked.

Cerden waved his hand as if hushing her. Flora huffed silently. He was trying to concentrate on where exactly in the city. His eyes came to the east of the city where he saw little specs that he could have sworn looked a lot like the floating eye machines of Nomis’. It was just then that he heard the wolf-like machines howl a very threatening and often scary howl. It was with that it confirmed Cerden’s fear. Nomis had sent his machines.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Cerden repeated.

“What is it?” Concerned, Flora asked.

“Nomis sent his machines.” Cerden responded.

A brief gasp of fright escaped Flora’s lips. “Are you sure?”

“Oh I’m sure. Nomis and I share a strong bond and I just know when his toys are involved.”

Flora tightened her fists, and proceeded to slam them into the brown wooden table, breaking it in the process. Cerden looked at her. He said nothing. Flora stood up and looked out the window as she stood next to Cerden. She couldn’t get a good handle on where they were. “We need to see what they’re doing.” Flora said.

Cerden looked at her. “But Shinto said…”

“Fuck what Shinto said! Those machines are going to tear this city apart if we don’t do something. They’ll find us either way. Wouldn’t you rather we just go to them than them coming to us?”

"I do, but…” Cerden hesitated.

“But what? You’re not scared are you?” Flora asked Cerden as she looked at him. She could tell that there was something going on inside his mind.

“No, I’m not scared.” Cerden said firmly. “I just…I just don’t want you to get hurt again.” He said.

Flora was speechless…again. This time, however, she was speechless that Cerden actually said something nice and not in a sarcastic manner. Her face started to get red from the hotness that was this moment. She shook her head. “Me get hurt? Last time we got into trouble, you were the one who was unconscious. “ She said, referring to the time that Caleb beat the holy hell out of Cerden.

Cerden laughed. “Fine, I’ll give you that one, but seriously, Flora.” Cerden grabbed her left hand with his right. “You’re too precious to me now. I don’t want to see you get hurt, even if I know that you can take it.”

If Flora’s face wasn’t red before, it sure as hell was now. “Don’t be silly.” She said looking at Cerden, “I’ll be long gone before anyone tries to hurt me.” She said, killing the mood.

Cerden sighed. “Fine, let’s go already.”

Even though her words killed the mood, Flora’s heart was beating faster than it had ever been. She truly felt his love right then and there. He was precious to her too.

---

The sounds from the outside were nearly muted as Shinto tried to gather a sense of self. Taking the time to warn Flora and Cerden took most of the strength that he had left. Even though he felt much pain from the multiple lacerations on his body, Shinto felt the most pain from Nomis when he tried to get some kind of reaction from the blonde male by poking his body.

Shinto was conscious enough to see what was going on around him and he also saw Nomis, Caleb, and hooded figures around the lab. He also saw, right next to him, Dominic was still unconscious, as that was to be expected. He remembered seeing that Domi had taken quite the amount of damage from Nomis’ attack, specifically on his head. Shinto saw Nomis approach Dominic and he smeared some black stuff on the gash that was on his friend’s forehead. Shinto didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what it was. Nomis had smeared some of the taint on his friend’s body. As to what that was for, Shinto couldn’t say for certain. It couldn’t be a good thing, though.

Nomis started talking, first about how much of an annoyance that their arrival was. Shinto tried to laugh, but it hurt when he did. He could feel the pain from his feet all the way to his mouth. He ended up coughing up a little blood cause of it. Nomis then went on to say that one of them would actually be able to help them. Shinto didn’t know what Nomis meant by that, but before he would even get a chance to ask, the tables in which Shinto and Dominic were bound to came free from their legs and they were being controlled by Nomis as they traveled behind him as he would walk.

As Nomis proceeded around his lab, he would actually then leave his precious lab only to go a level down into a room that was as empty as the heart the pumped Nomis’ wicked blood. It wasn’t long after Nomis entered the room that he forced the table that Shinto was on into what seemed like a very small jail cell. Shinto felt some pain as he was forced into the small cell. However, just as he was going to get used to the idea of being strapped to the table, it would reformat itself into chain-like bindings. Shinto was facing the open door to which Nomis had just left, but Caleb stayed behind to stand watch in case Shinto tried anything.

As he at least would try to get used to his current position, Shinto looked at Caleb who was just looking directly at him with the dirtiest of looks. “Stuck with guard duty huh?” Shinto said trying to smile.

Caleb just stayed silent, not wanting to give Shinto any sort of satisfaction.

“Not going to talk? That’s fine. I can go all day like this, granted my injuries don’t kill me beforehand.” Shinto said, adding in some kind of humor into his situation. “You must really have it in for your pops and moms, huh? I mean, to actually trust Nomis this much, that must be the reason huh?” Shinto kept on talking. He wanted to get some kind of reaction out Caleb, but by the looks of it, the boy wasn’t budging. “You’re really not going to respond to any of that? Come on, kid! You must have some kind of opinion or something or does your crazy uncle decide everything for you?”

On the mention of his uncle, Caleb quickly approached Shinto’s cell with an angry look on his face. By the time he had gotten to it, his hands were on the bars and he just smiled. “Thought I was that easy to anger? Nice try, but better luck next time.” Caleb said smiling at Shinto. “I have to admit, for a while there you and the idiot had me. I thought you two would somehow get out of this ship with me in your possession, but that plan failed, now didn’t it? You two are now our prisoners and what you were feeling isn’t even going to come close to what we have planned for you.” Caleb said as he turned his back on Shinto.

“And what makes you think getting caught wasn’t the plan?"

“Cause only a fool would intentionally get caught.”

“A fool? Perhaps, but maybe — just maybe — you’re uncle is the fool.”

Caleb looked back with curious eyes. “Care to elaborate?”

Shinto laughed as he now had Caleb’s attention at least. “I could, but maybe you could answer some things for me.” Shinto said.

“I see how this is going to go: I answer your questions, you evade mine, and somehow I feel for you and I let you out. Is that what’ you’re planning?” Caleb asked him.

“Whoa there Mr. Paranoid. I’m just wanting to know a few things, nothing about you letting me out…unless you’re offering?”

“Oh fuck you.”
Shinto smiled and chuckled. “So, about my questions…”

“Fine, what do you want to know?”

“It’s really just one question. What has he told you about your mother?” Shinto had to tread carefully. One mishap, and he just might find himself in a worst position than he is currently.

“My mother? I don’t have one, or at least not anymore. She died when I was born.”
“Is that what he told you? Figures. Nomis wants to erase any doubt in the hold he has on you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Caleb, do I really need to spell it out for you?” Shinto said as he sighed, “your mother is alive and well.”

“You’re lying -- you have to be. My uncle would never keep something like that from me.” Caleb said in an elevated voice.

“Oh really? What could I possibly lose if I were lying to you? I’m bound to this cell and you’re my only company, while you’re dear, and sweet uncle has everything to lose. If he sensed that you had any doubt about what he said was the truth, he would panic and act rashly — perhaps even violently — towards his servants and even you.”

Caleb then froze. Shinto, for a reason unknown to young Caleb, knew exactly how Nomis acted when asked certain questions. Caleb instantly flashbacked to when he brought up the subject of his mother and father. He remembered how defensive and angry that Nomis got when Caleb asked him about his mother. The look on young Caleb’s face was, if nothing else, slight doubt in what his uncle has told him over the years of training him and grooming him into the man that he grew up to be.

Shinto saw Caleb’s face, but the boy didn’t stay long after that. He rushed out of the room and would head towards where Shinto saw Nomis head with Dominic. “And the seed has been planted..”

---

It’s so cold. I can’t see anything.

Darkness all around, he couldn’t see anything. He could feel the cold walls as he would touch them with his fingers, but he couldn’t tell whether or not he was facing the exit or entrance. Everything to him was blinding. He yelled and yelled, but no one came to him, no one answered his cries. He even pounded on the walls -- the very walls that he couldn’t make heads or tails from. He tried anything to get out this small space he was in, but he couldn’t. The darkness concealed him in more ways than one.

As he was about to give up on all hope, the boy within the cage saw, for the first time in months, light. It came from behind him as what he thought was apart of the wall opened up and there, a woman with long, crimson-red hair stood in the way of the light. Her green eyes brought such comfort to him. It was a warm feeling he got from her. However, the look upon her face was anything but. She had high disgust on her face, and hand was raised. The boy looked confused. He didn’t understand why this woman was so cruel to him and yet he felt nothing but love for her. He just didn’t understand.

“Look at you. You’re pathetic. Crying, screaming, pounding. You make me sick.” The woman said as she literally pulled the boy’s arm, causing him to levitate in the air. Well, maybe it was more like dangle in the air like a doll. The boy was surprisingly light for his age. A boy with as red as hair as the woman who he feels love for, as if she were his mother.

Taking the boy, she almost threw him onto a steel chair that was set around a table. She sat down on the couch next to a rather good-looking man with hair as white as the snow in the winter time. His eyes were of a darkish blue shade. His face was a welcoming face. “Listen here you little shit, beha--”

“Now, now Nicole, no need for such hostility.” The man spoke.

“Oh yes, I’m sorry sir..”

“It’s fine, but you may leave us.”

“But sir..”

“You may leave us…now.”

That last word struck fear into Nicole’s heart. She knew that to question him would also be questioning The Organization.

“Now, let’s chat.” The man said.

“Um, okay. What about, mister?” The kid asked.

“About you of course. You’re very special, you know that right?” He said with the most welcoming smile.

“Me special?”

“That’s right.” He responded, smiling sill. “You may not know this, but your father comes from — well, how should I put this? — a line of special people, and I believe you get that from him."

“My father? He’s not with us anymore. Mommy says he went to join the angels up in heaven.”

“Ah, that he is” The man in front of him looked almost sad at that statement.

“What’s wrong mister?” The kid asked.

“It’s nothing. Just remembering an old friend.” He said as he shook it off and then he stood up. “So, Dominic, do you want to come with me so you can find out how special you really are?” The man stood up and extended his hand.

“What about mommy?” Dominic asked as he looked back at his mom who was in the kitchen.

“Don’t worry about her. She has given you permission to go on an adventure.” He said.

“Well, if mommy said it’s okay.” Dominic said as he took the man’s hand, but he hesitated.

“What’s wrong?”

“Mommy told me not to go with strangers, even if I do have her permission."

“Of course. You can call me Razor.”

Suddenly, Dominic found himself with his eyes open, feeling what could only be described as a raw, immeasurable pain. He saw that it was Nomis hovering over him and he couldn’t place it, but there was definitely something up with Nomis, more than usual. There was also the fact that Dominic couldn’t move his body. It wasn’t that there was something controlling him or anything like that. He was bound to a table and he suspected this had to do with Nomis’ taint metal.

Struggling to get free, Dominic wasn’t having any luck. He spent a good minute or two trying to bust free, but just wasn’t having it. Dominic then remembered something. It was pretty important and the fact that it had slipped his mind made him mentally-slap himself. He remembered having a rather large gash on his head, and he should be dead cause of it, but for some reason he isn’t. On the contrary, it’s as if he’s on the way to full-recovery.

“What did you do to me? Why am I not dead?” Dominic demandingly asked Nomis. He knew that creepy asshole did something to him.

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

~~~~~~(30+ Years Ago)~~~~~~

The sight of the colossal chamber was simply breathtaking. Every piece, from the pillars that shot up to hold the curved ceiling, to the windows which towered over everyone that seemed to pass through the massive hall, even the checkerboard tiled marble that covered the floor, everything about the grand entrance hall of the Trident palace, Basileia, was perfectly crafted, and clearly just the beginning of what lay further on through the giant doors.

The sight of this colossal room, as well as the hundreds of people that sped in and out from all sides and directions would have most likely been very confusing and even scary to the little Dominic, who stood by the immensely tall Razor since the moment they arrived. Everyone seemed to be busy to Dominic, passing by the man and child as if they didn’t exist, the rare person managing to stop for a split-second to say a brief greeting or bowed head to Razor before quickly going off to wherever they were heading.

The immensely busy place easily felt lonely to Dominic, so uncomfortably out of place he was, that when Razor took a few steps forward and away from the little boy, the child didn’t even notice until he heard the man actually speak to someone kindly that wasn’t him.

“They’ve called another meeting. Knowing that man, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was thanks to General Servius wanting more answers to more mundane questions again.” Spoke Razor, the tall man easily blocking out the person he was speaking to, leaving Dominic to run wild with his imagination instead.

“Will I take the young boy to his room while you attend the meeting, fath...s-sir?” The voice that answered Razor was clearly younger than the man, much younger in fact, though it had an almost quiet kindness to its tone behind the brief nervous stutter..

“Please do. When he’s settled, then you can make your way to the laboratory and I’ll meet you there when finished with the meeting. Yes?”

“Yes Sir.”

With that said, Razor turned away from the younger man before kneeling down to Dominic with the same smile he had back at his old home.

“I have to leave for a short while, Dominic. But it won’t take long, and then we can talk all about your big adventure and all the other special people in it...In fact this young man here is special too, just like you. Whenever I’m not around, he’ll be there for whatever you need.” Though more probably could have been said, the little talk suddenly ended there with Razor soon another figure in the crowds as he walked away, leaving little Dominic with the kneeling black haired teenager before him.

“Um...h-hello there, Dominic was it? I know this place must seem a little scary...I used to feel like that too…” The young teenager said, trailing off a little into his thoughts as he remembered being in Dominic’s place long ago, before his mind snapped back to the little boy himself, clearly uncomfortable with being passed onto someone other than Razor after just arriving.

“M-Maybe you’ll like a little trick…? Yeah?” Said the young man as he quickly began to fish around inside his coat pockets, before happily smiling as he showed Dominic the random collection of metal screws, bolts, gears, and just tiny pieces of useless scrap.

Cupping his hands together, the teenager continued to smile kindly towards Dominic as he made rather silly motions with his cupped hands, exaggerating it with random acts of shaking and wiggling. After a minute though, the teenager stopped with a little fake bell ring, before opening his hands to reveal the tiny, but clearly detailed, little metal Dominic model.

“You’re in a great place, Dominic. We’re all here together. You ever need anything, just come ask for me, Nomis.” Said the young Nomis, handing little Dominic the even tinier model of himself before standing and offering his hand to take the little boy inside.

~~~~~~Agrabah (Desert)/Empire-Trident Warship (Interior)~~~~~~

“What did you do to me? Why am I not dead?” Dominic demanded as he remained strapped within the large machine, while Nomis was busy walking around the device as if double-checking everything had been done correctly.

“What I did, was make sure that wound you sustained didn’t cause any permanent cranial damage. So I had no other course of action, but to have a slim layer of Taint over said wound. But do not worry, I believe it is quite harmless.” Said Nomis as he made his way behind the machine and now was completely out of sight from Dominic, the only sound that the older man was still there, coming in the form of rummaging cables.

“As for your second enquiry, ‘Why am I not dead?’, I would have thought the answer was obvious. The reason you are not dead, is because I have a need for your gift, just as I will find such a need with your partner’s skill. If I don’t, then I would have no reasoning to keep two subjects alive for long.”

Stepping out from behind the device, Nomis once again was in Dominic’s sight with the older man finally stopping as he faced towards both the machine and Dominic.

“Now, we will begin things simply at first. While I am interested in your electrical ability, I want to have more specific details. Strength, longevity, its speed of charge, tests you are definitely not unfamiliar with, though it has been quite some time, I am sure things are quite different from before. So, we will begin right away.” Stepping away once more from the man held in the machine, Nomis took to the large monitor and console just a few feet away from Dominic and the door, the older man setting up the screen to show the faint outline of the test subject and device.

“Also I am sure you know, but if you try to sabotage this experiment in any way, it will be your partner who will get punished in your stead. So, it is most definitely in your best interest to go along with this.”

~~~~~~Agrabah - Multiple Locations (Palace Gates / Outer Walls > Central Hub)~~~~~~

The remains of the large device from the other day, complete with now empty tube and dark residual, laid to the side of the palace gates, having been dismantled after the appearance of the large abomination and now most likely just waited to be collected. Though many of the hunched and cloaked figures retreated inside the palace when not needed, the handful that remained outside were always busy with something.

The large pylon seemed very similar to the smaller versions that were slowly sprouting up on the outskirts of the massive city, though they both shared the same form of assembly, with the cloaked figures guiding the handful of Birugs in the large aerial’s construction.

As the device continued to be built, the once large mass of smaller abominations slowly divided the farther they got through the city, their Birug guides splitting the group up with every new crossroads they came across. While each had at least two of the creatures of darkness along with their own personal floating metal eye, the sight of them were usually more than enough to scare the people of Agrabah back indoors. Though in most cases this was all that happened, it seemed without the comfort of the larger pack around, the abominations had grown twitchy, immediately attacking anything close by when given the chance.

Levi//
-----------

"Now now, settle down children."

"Like hell we will! How did a massive conglomerate like you find--"

A man hovered in, larger than anyone in the group. He was of the empire, though the dreadnought appearance he had, lead the children to believe he was something of an abomination. These children, they were likely the last concentration of a lost breed, lost as the land of departure was lost. He lowered his arms, and cast an arm to a fist pump.

"You children are why we're here. We captured one of you that fled here months ago, I don't seek to make this violent, but I cannot leave such important vessels such as yourself alone."

"Shut up! You can't have our home!"

They were roughly broken up into what seemed to be three groups, each heading a faction and stepping forward, brandishing magnificent blades unlike anyone in the imperial forces had yet witnessed. "Svether wasn't difficult to subdue, neither will any of you."

"Brother, Coraleye, lets show them why we lead the top 3 gangs in all of the cul-de-sac!"

"Pinacle star."
"Loviembre."
"Fortainbras!"

The three invoked what appeared to be super-esque skillets. On this world, the children called them "heart-ignitions"

"Sir look out!"
"Relax Levi-pan. They're just rough housing."

Three blasts piled upon the commander one after the next, small explosions erupted creating a fissure in the mast of his position. Yet, nothing managed to pass him and endanger the other other imperials. A flowing sphere, spiraling in black and white contour circled around him and soon dissipated.

"I really do abhor violence, if you're this uncompromising maybe this will change your mind. Svether, come here."

The small and timid boy meandered near the large height of their front man. He spread his arms, as if he were acting as a human shield to fend off the others from attacking. Svether was bubbling, and shaken by being turned against his comrades.

"I'm sorry Garforge, sorry Ref, Coraleye."

"Garforge? Hey, thats my name, you wouldn't happen to be--" The was a fired short round, "Dead?"

His concealed handgun, shooting the one child, he collapsed and his brother lost it. He brandished a second weapon, and turned to Svether and the much larger Garforge, running at full speed. The children behind them in shock, but quickly being seized by the circling imperials, spilling blood all at the same time. Garforge brandished a dagger to fend against the young Ref's attack, Svether moved in front, and in a split second of hesitation, the child was pierced with a swift motion, and he billowed blood, but purging a heart from his body. The alleyway soon became nothing but a display of released hearts, leading to several simultaneous deaths.

"Keyblade genocide, if you were taught anything in school svether, it means your home was meant to safeguard you from histories tyrants. The imperials were responsible, Garforge Temblin and Clement Capricious among the heads of a complete manslaughter." A lone woman spoke, simply from what came from the horses mouth.

The imperials proceeded to push the remaining refugees to extinction, leaving Svether alone to watch as he would be the last of his peers to survive. The towering giant, the commander leaned down bracing both hands over his shoulders and whispering in his ears. "We truly value your investment in our cause, it's a shame it had to come to this, the town will be seized and the remaining straggler wielders are to be dealt with shortly. Levi-pan, see to the status of the factory."

"Sir!"

With a turn the general retreated, greeted with the sounds of shrieks abound.

---------
Salforge\\
---------

"You won't get the chance."

Salforge snapped his finger, and his duplicate twisted the young Gavin's broken arm in an arm bar. Gavin's earsplitting scream would was painfully loud and equally agonizing. The mercenary handpicked several of the yellow blocks, and asserted them through the others, to surround the rebels. Ryoko would've known better than to be anywhere in harms way, unless erasure was a certain way she wanted go out.

"Last chance to surrender. You've got 2 seconds, the remaining heartless surrounding you can die with you for all I care." Salforge raised his blocks, and spun them around the group faster than normal.

"One."

"FUCKING RUN AWAY ALREADY!!!" Gavin's eyes were wide as he stared blatantly at the group with amber eyes.

"Nope. Two."

He crushed his fist inward, and an intense amount of light emitted, as he crashed his blocks into one another, an explosion revolved around the area, developing them in a monsoon of bright light. In the dust, and to even the surprise of mercenary, there was a shroud of darkness that swam beneath the spot localized on the rebels. He looked with trepidation back at Gavin, with is free arm he'd extended his shadow along the surface to create an escape for the rebels, potentially dropping them off further away.

"Hmph. Well I'll be damned, why didn't you just teleport yourself, you saved a group of complete strangers just now. I'll never understand how you humans operate...Thats half of the objective Ryoko, It's my neck for this partial-failure. We can waste him whenever, bind to him duplicate."

Salforge sighed, his doppleganger seemed to assimilate itself onto Gavin's skin, and coating him in the same material as what his blocks were made of. This effectively meant he'd constantly be aware of the boys movements, and with speed he could move near him in an instant. It would also limit his outward hostility, but not completely suppress it because magic operated differently and his immovable blocks, though durable, could not completely subdue it. He was cuffed and bound at the legs, ball and chain.

---

Walking through the tall and shiny hallways of Basileia Palace, Dominic couldn’t believe just how big this place really was. The only place he had ever seen was the closet that his mother Nicole would leave him in. Only once in a blue mood would she let him see daylight only because it was absolutely necessary for him to live. Aside that, Dominic didn’t really get to see much of anything. However, walking through the hallways with the older male that was escorting him, Dominic was completely in awe.

“This place is biiiiig!” Dominic's awe came through in his voice as he kept on looking up.

“Yes quite. It’s the headquarters of the organization the man that brought you here works for.” Said the tall male with pale skin.

Dominic looked at the male next to him. “That nice man works here!?” Dominic’s eyes lit up with such glee, as if jealous of Razor.

Nomis smiled, “Yes, he works here..” Nomis said as if almost sad about Razor.

“Are you alright mister?” Dominic asked.

Nomis put on a fake smile, “yeah, I am.” He said as he led Dominic on a left turn into the elevator.

As the doors closed and Nomis pushed a button to go to the lower levels, Dominic looked through the glass windows the elevator had. Off in the view, he saw the glorious city of Polis. It was just as beautiful as the palace that he was in. As the elevator stopped, the doors opened. To their view, Nomis and Dominic would see a rather extravagant hallway that had shades of blue and white throughout, and there werethree ways to go. The central hallway led straight to what said Lab. The right way said, in neon-like lighting, read Teenage Housing to which Dominic would see individual rooms. To the left, in similar lighting, said “12 and Under Housing”. This was much different as there were indeed individual rooms, but as Dominic would find out was vastly different than the Teenage Housing.

Nomis led young Dominic into one of the rooms -- most likely the one that he would be staying at -- and Dominic saw that two children shared a room. “Here you are, Dominic. This is where you’ll be staying.” Nomis said as he gestured the young boy into the room.

Dominic walked in and the room was well-sized with all things considering. It was about forty-by-thirty-six feet in total space. Dominic saw there were two separate beds, an entertainment area, a shared bathroom, and even space to move around in. It looked so spacious, but it was just the way everything was positioned. Still, Dominic’s face lit up with excitement. It sure beat a fucking closet. “This is awesome!” Dominic shouted as he ran around.

Nomis smiled at the young boy’s excitement. “I wonder where--” Before Nomis could finish, in came Dominic’s roommate. “Ah, there you are.”

“Yeah.” Said a young blonde male who was of limited words.

“Shinto, show some manners. You have a new roommate.”

“What happened to the other one?"

“You really don’t remember? Young Jaakuna took your toys, so you broke his nose with that very toy with your telekinetic powers.”

“Oh yeah. “ Shinto said smiling slightly, then he stopped as Nomis gave him a look. “I’m…sorry..?”

Nomis shook his head.

Dominic didn’t hear any of what Nomis and Shinto were talking about. He didn’t even hear Nomis introduce him. He was too busy checking out everything in the room from the bathroom all the way to the walls.

Shinto saw Dominic run all around the room, touching every bit of the place in under a minute. “So, this one -- I take it he’s like me?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out.”

“He’s fast. Doesn’t seem like he has much of an attention span, either.”

“It seems like it.”

Shinto kept on looking at Dominic run around, but eventually the young boy was out of breath and he parked it right next to Shinto. He bent over his knees, breathing so heavily that it was as if he was wheezing. Shinto raised his eyebrow. “So, I’m Shinto.” He said, holding his hand out.

Dominic smiled and instead of shaking his hand like a normal person, he tackled him with a surprisingly great amount of force. “Dominic!”

Nomis smiled. He knew those two would get along just fine.

---

The look on Dominic‘s face went from confused to angry in seconds. “So, am I supposed to thank you or something?” Dominic said sarcastically.

To find himself in this kind of situation wasn’t ideal for The Crimson Flash. He would rather not have his forehead healed by that black mess that Nomis calls Taint. It’s fitting that Dominic feels like he himself is tainted by the taint. A short chuckle escaped Dominic’s mouth as he found the entire situation so pathetic that he found himself pathetic and thus the light laugh.

When Nomis answered Dominic’s second question about not being dead, Dominic released a sound from his mouth. “Of course. “Dominic laughed again. “You want to go there, don’t you?” Dominic couldn’t believe that Nomis would really want to go back to Basileia. After all that had happened to them there —after everything Razor put them through — he wanted to go back. The question was why? What could Nomis benefit from it ?

Nomis kept on continuing talking, but this time about exactly what he was going to do. He first was going to just test Dominic’s electrical ability and how long it would take him to recharge. Dominic expected this and he welcomed it. He knew his limits and while the first round of tests would hurt like a bitch, he could take it. “Bring it on skelly!” Dominic roared as he felt the machine that he was attached to doing its job. He felt a sharp pain around his body. First it was silence — the calm before the tests. Then, with a burst of pain rushing through his entire body, Dominic’s Crimson lightning let loose like a heard of antelope. It was beautiful, and it hurt like a bitch. Every ounce of electrical power that Dominic had both on hand and in reserves were starting to be drained bit by bit.

“Is that all you got!?” Dominic said loudly, squinting in pain, but also laughing. “Come on! I know you got more than that, you pasty bastard!”

As Dominic was literally inviting Nomis to up the pain, Caleb came in. His mind not exactly sound at the moment, Caleb would slam the door, and that alerted Dominic who just smiled. “UNCLE NOMIS!” After hearing what Shinto said, Caleb’s mind was solely focused on that. "I KNOW YOU LIED TO ME! TIME FOR THE TRUTH!" That seed of doubt was planted into his mind. As Caleb stood across from his uncle, the time has finally come. Caleb wanted to know the truth from his uncle, and he wanted no bullshit this time.

Asahina looked at the hand held out for her. She felt nervous. All the time spent training in the academy could only do so much to prepare her for this, for real combat. She took a deep breath and took Alem's hand. His horse was far less anxious with her near, she could at the very least take solace in no longer appearing a monster to even base animals. Seated behind Alem, she lightly took hold of him to keep balance. "I'm ready to do this. Let's go."

Once the blond woman had vanished across the sun-bleached rooftops Asahina spoke up in a quiet whisper. "She seemed to really... like you." She said, not quite sure how to express the rather lustful tone that she heard. She always envied those that could express themselves so easily, finding the right words and having the courage to speak them...

"Alem, are you um, married?" She asked suddenly. It was hard to believe that someone as capable as him could be single. Though perhaps now wasn't the right time to bring it up. Asahina's cheeks flushed red. "N-nevermind, that's irrelevant, isn't it?" She remained silent, and listened to the rhythmic stomping of his horse.

Soon they arrived to the palace. She wished she could have seen the building under better circumstances, because it was beautifully built. As they had been told, there was a severe lack of security at the moment that left the structure vulnerable. They used a secret entrance in the west to get in, though she had to wonder if they even needed to use it. Their contact was in place as planned, and he led them further inside. Multiple times they stopped to avoid patrols, she bet the blond woman found their clumsy stealth amusing.

Turning a corner she found herself walking down into the depths of the palace. The walls became claustrophobic, and light from the sun no longer lit up the surroundings. It reminded her of the tank she had been trapped in. "We are looking for the Princess, right? Please tell me she's here." She said, her voice uneasy as her breathing became heavier. She wanted to spend as little time here as possible.